One of the first Bible stories I remember learning in childhood was the story of Noah\u2019s ark. You couldn\u2019t quite escape it, really. It\u2019s easy to work up a cute picture of animals parading into a boat, two by two, while a kindly bearded man watches for rain. It\u2019s a lot less cute when you grow up and recognize the drama and horror of this apocalyptic tale.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
We know the beats. God saw the evil that had corrupted creation. He \u201cregretted that he had made man on the earth, and he was deeply grieved.\u201d (Genesis 6:6) So He decided to wipe it clean\u2014all of it. Every bird and beast, every creature that breathed, every human that committed violence in the world. Other ancient stories tell us of gods who grew angry and rained down destruction. Could the loving God we know really get angry enough to destroy the whole world?<\/p>\n\n\n\n
But look again. Isn\u2019t it striking that God grieves? In other translations, we see this phrase written as \u201cit grieved him to his heart\u201d (ESV), \u201chis heart was deeply troubled\u201d (NIV), and \u201cit broke his heart\u201d (MSG). If we look at the stories of chaos and despair in our world, if we struggle with hopelessness and wish we could start over, how much more grief might God feel when His very good creation goes horribly wrong?<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In a poetic sense, I imagine the flood waters now as an outpouring of sorrow. Yet despite the destruction and despair woven in this story, God chose to continue His plan for humanity through a man named Noah.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
God warned Noah of the oncoming disaster and gave him a plan to survive it, and Noah set to work on a massive floating fortress to protect his family and a sample of all the earth\u2019s creatures. The story doesn\u2019t say how others might have reacted to this apparently foolish project. It doesn\u2019t say anything about Noah\u2019s internal struggles or how his family reacted. But we\u2019re told he acted \u201cby faith…after he was warned about what was not yet seen\u201d (Hebrews 11:7). We\u2019re told that God delivered them all safely through the storm. And in the end, God\u2019s hope endured enough to make a promise to \u201cnever again strike down every living thing\u201d (Genesis 8:21).<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The world is still a heartbreaking place. But we can take comfort in knowing that God grieves alongside us, and even now God can find hope in unexpected places. May we go forward with faith and be part of the healing, in whatever way He is calling us.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
One of the first Bible stories I remember learning in childhood was the story of Noah\u2019s ark. You couldn\u2019t quite escape it, really. It\u2019s easy to work up a cute picture of animals parading into a boat, two by two, while a kindly bearded man watches for rain. It\u2019s a lot less cute when you […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":70,"featured_media":71765,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[294],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-71961","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-genesis25"],"acf":{"hero_background_image":false,"related_plans":[71878],"weekly_truth":false,"grace_day":false,"share_text":"She Reads Truth","devotional_text":"THE FLOOD<\/b>
\r\nby Jen Yokel<\/i>
\r\n
One of the first Bible stories I remember learning in childhood was the story of Noah\u2019s ark. You couldn\u2019t quite escape it, really. It\u2019s easy to work up a cute picture of animals parading into a boat, two by two, while a kindly bearded man watches for rain. It\u2019s a lot less cute when you grow up and recognize the drama and horror of this apocalyptic tale.<\/p>
\r\n
We know the beats. God saw the evil that had corrupted creation. He \u201cregretted that he had made man on the earth, and he was deeply grieved.\u201d (Genesis 6:6) So He decided to wipe it clean\u2014all of it. Every bird and beast, every creature that breathed, every human that committed violence in the world. Other ancient stories tell us of gods who grew angry and rained down destruction. Could the loving God we know really get angry enough to destroy the whole world?<\/p>
\r\n
But look again. Isn\u2019t it striking that God grieves? In other translations, we see this phrase written as \u201cit grieved him to his heart\u201d (ESV), \u201chis heart was deeply troubled\u201d (NIV), and \u201cit broke his heart\u201d (MSG). If we look at the stories of chaos and despair in our world, if we struggle with hopelessness and wish we could start over, how much more grief might God feel when His very good creation goes horribly wrong?<\/p>
\r\n
In a poetic sense, I imagine the flood waters now as an outpouring of sorrow. Yet despite the destruction and despair woven in this story, God chose to continue His plan for humanity through a man named Noah.<\/p>
\r\n
God warned Noah of the oncoming disaster and gave him a plan to survive it, and Noah set to work on a massive floating fortress to protect his family and a sample of all the earth\u2019s creatures. The story doesn\u2019t say how others might have reacted to this apparently foolish project. It doesn\u2019t say anything about Noah\u2019s internal struggles or how his family reacted. But we\u2019re told he acted \u201cby faith...after he was warned about what was not yet seen\u201d (Hebrews 11:7). We\u2019re told that God delivered them all safely through the storm. And in the end, God\u2019s hope endured enough to make a promise to \u201cnever again strike down every living thing\u201d (Genesis 8:21).<\/p>
\r\n
The world is still a heartbreaking place. But we can take comfort in knowing that God grieves alongside us, and even now God can find hope in unexpected places. May we go forward with faith and be part of the healing, in whatever way He is calling us.<\/p>","share_image_height":"640","day_number":"4","scripture":"Genesis 6:1-22, Genesis 7:1-24, Genesis 8:1-22, Hebrews 11:7","available":true,"ad_banner_name":"","ad_banner_image":false,"ad_banner_url":"","songs":"","key_verse":"","key_verse_reference":"","background_image":false,"background_color":"#FBF7F3","scripture_references":false,"share_image":false,"author_name":"","author_bio":"","guest_social_media":false,"show_ad":true,"ad_override":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/shereadstruth.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/71961","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/shereadstruth.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/shereadstruth.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shereadstruth.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/70"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shereadstruth.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=71961"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/shereadstruth.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/71961\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shereadstruth.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/71765"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/shereadstruth.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=71961"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shereadstruth.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=71961"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shereadstruth.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=71961"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}