The Great Flood

The Great Flood

Nature or Something else?

The Story of Noah's Ark and the catastrophic flood is perhaps one best know stories of the bible. The flood story is known to both non believers as well as believers of religion. The story is not exclusive to one culture or religion but has been found all around the world. The stories may be different but the theme is just as apparent. Did this great flood happen and more importantly could it happen again? The answers to these questions are just as mysterious as to what caused the great flood. The great forces of nature or the wrath of a scorned God.  

The God of the Flood story seems to be very wrathful but at the same time compassionate, loving, and caring. God understood that there were those still naturally good and loyal to him so he convinced Noah to build his ark which would house the purely loyal creations of God. The God in this story is angry because the people of the world have become violent, deceitful, and worst of all have turned there backs on their God and refuted him. It would seem that all of this would be enough to make any mere man or great God destroy everything and be done with the hell hole the Earth had become. The wrathful side of God comes from the obvious theme of the story that he is going to destroy the world and everything on it. However, the caring, loving, and compassionate side of God is shown when god understands that not every creature on Earth is evil and that there are still some that worship, serve, and adore the creator.

What has Man done that was so bad!!!?

The God in this story seems to be a kind and caring God and is entitled to flood the world for many reasons. It is commonsense that a creation should appreciate the one that created them and show some respect. Not only did the people pre-Flood world distance themselves and eventually disown themselves away from God but they become corrupt, violent, deceitful, and as the text worded Evil or verging on evil.

God seems to be vengeful and wrathful at the beginning of the story for understandable reasons. To avenge this wrong God states "I will destroy man, whom I have created , from the face of the earth: both man and beast, and the creeping thing, and the fowls of the air: for it repenteth me that I have made them".  The understanding, mercy and wisdom of God comes out when the text states, "These are the generations of Noah:  Noah was a just man, and perfect in his generations, and Noah walked with God". God was understanding and wise and realized that there was still good to be found among man and beast and instead of damning mankind he gave them a second chance. God telling Noah of the flood and urging him to build the ark was the proof of mercy of God.

It's confusing because it is clearly apparent that this god is all powerful as well as wise but the lines become blurred on whether he is all knowing or not. It seems as if God has learned something when he states, "I will not again curse the ground any more for man's sake; for the imagination of man's heart is evil from his youth: neither will I again smite any more every living thing, as I have done. An idea that I had was that God is all powerful, all wise, and maybe even all knowing. Since God gave man free will maybe he chooses not to be all knowing for the fact to see what humans might do.