BIAY Day 3 - Creation Reboot
Genesis 6-9, Psalm 3
Welcome to the Bible in a Year for 2025. Intro to this series and resource links available here, plus here’s how I’m approaching this year.
Scriptures for Today:
Reflection:
That we decorate church nurseries on the theme of Noah and the ark is both humorous in one sense and hopeful in another. Sanitizing it for a children’s mural looks past the wickedness and destruction in the story, but also embraces the beautiful vision of God’s promise at the end of this episode.
Here’s what I’m noticing. I’d love to hearing what you see in the comments.
God is the Creator and Judge of the world. In other words, we don’t have a detached, clockmaker deity, but an engaged Almighty God who is good and is opposed to evil and wickedness. Part of the promise of this story is that God will not judge the earth again in this particular way. But He will hold people to account.
God offers redemption in the midst of judgment. Even with the world so completely corrupt (6:11-12), God preserved a family through Noah.
This passage points to God’s work of new creation. I can’t help but think of the New Testament theme of new creation (2 Corinthians 5:17), that the old creation that is marred by sin and evil will pass and that God will make all things new in Christ. OT scholars have referred to the flood story as a “de-creation event.” Then, we see a theme of “re-creation” as Noah and his family, along with the animals, depart the ark. The commands are to “multiply on the earth and be fruitful and increase in number on it (8:16-17). And again, “God blessed Noah and his sons, saying to them, ‘Be fruitful and increase in number and fill the earth.’” (9:1)
The sign of the covenant is outward and visible to humanity. In 9:13, God says, “I have set my rainbow in the clouds, and it will be the sign of the covenant between me and the earth.” A visible reminder is a gift to people. This is a theme that we continue to see—the cross, the sacraments, etc—and it begins here in the flood story.
Finally, I appreciate Noah’s simple obedience. I count twice where the scripture notes this. In 6:22: “Noah did everything just as God commanded him.” In 7:5: “And Noah did all that the Lord commanded him.” What a great testament to faithfulness.
Questions:
Where do you see God bringing “renewed creation” in the midst of destruction or broken creation today?
When have you sensed a call to practice simple obedience God’s call for you to walk in faith?
What else might the Holy Spirit be speaking with you about in the text today?
Prayer: Lord, let it be said of me that I did just as God commanded him. Amen.
“But the seed falling on good soil refers to someone who hears the word and understands it. This is the one who produces a crop, yielding a hundred, sixty or thirty times what was sown.” (Matthew 13:23)
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Once again I see God's provision 9:3 "I now give you everything" Before He sets them free off the Ark God makes sure they have all they will need.