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Glory · In the Beginning
The flood shows us a God who is anything but indifferent: He saw the violence and evil filling the earth, and it grieved Him in His heart. His judgment really fell, yet Noah found favor before he had built a single plank, and after the waters receded God bound Himself by a covenant never again to destroy all flesh by flood. The same water that buried the old world carried the ark, and Peter says that water points to baptism.
https://glorystudy.com/questions/what-does-the-flood-show-us-about-god · Scripture quoted from the World English Bible
Genesis 6:5-22
As you read: Why God's heart was grieved rather than merely angry, how Noah found favor, and what God commanded him to build.
5Yahweh saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every imagination of the thoughts of man’s heart was continually only evil.
6Yahweh was sorry that he had made man on the earth, and it grieved him in his heart.
7Yahweh said, “I will destroy man whom I have created from the surface of the ground—man, along with animals, creeping things, and birds of the sky—for I am sorry that I have made them.”
8But Noah found favor in Yahweh’s eyes.
9This is the history of the generations of Noah: Noah was a righteous man, blameless among the people of his time. Noah walked with God.
10Noah became the father of three sons: Shem, Ham, and Japheth.
11The earth was corrupt before God, and the earth was filled with violence.
12God saw the earth, and saw that it was corrupt, for all flesh had corrupted their way on the earth.
13God said to Noah, “I will bring an end to all flesh, for the earth is filled with violence through them. Behold, I will destroy them and the earth.
14Make a ship of gopher wood. You shall make rooms in the ship, and shall seal it inside and outside with pitch.
15This is how you shall make it. The length of the ship shall be three hundred cubits, its breadth fifty cubits, and its height thirty cubits.
16You shall make a roof in the ship, and you shall finish it to a cubit upward. You shall set the door of the ship in its side. You shall make it with lower, second, and third levels.
17I, even I, do bring the flood of waters on this earth, to destroy all flesh having the breath of life from under the sky. Everything that is in the earth will die.
18But I will establish my covenant with you. You shall come into the ship, you, your sons, your wife, and your sons’ wives with you.
19Of every living thing of all flesh, you shall bring two of every sort into the ship, to keep them alive with you. They shall be male and female.
20Of the birds after their kind, of the livestock after their kind, of every creeping thing of the ground after its kind, two of every sort will come to you, to keep them alive.
21Take with you of all food that is eaten, and gather it to yourself; and it will be for food for you, and for them.”
22Thus Noah did. He did all that God commanded him.
Genesis 7:17-24
As you read: How completely judgment fell on everything outside the ark, and how completely God preserved what He had shut inside.
17The flood was forty days on the earth. The waters increased, and lifted up the ship, and it was lifted up above the earth.
18The waters rose, and increased greatly on the earth; and the ship floated on the surface of the waters.
19The waters rose very high on the earth. All the high mountains that were under the whole sky were covered.
20The waters rose fifteen cubits higher, and the mountains were covered.
21All flesh died that moved on the earth, including birds, livestock, animals, every creeping thing that creeps on the earth, and every man.
22All on the dry land, in whose nostrils was the breath of the spirit of life, died.
23Every living thing was destroyed that was on the surface of the ground, including man, livestock, creeping things, and birds of the sky. They were destroyed from the earth. Only Noah was left, and those who were with him in the ship.
24The waters flooded the earth one hundred fifty days.
Genesis 8:20-22
As you read: The wind passing over the waters, Noah's altar of thanksgiving, and God's promise spoken to Himself about the human heart.
20Noah built an altar to Yahweh, and took of every clean animal, and of every clean bird, and offered burnt offerings on the altar.
21Yahweh smelled the pleasant aroma. Yahweh said in his heart, “I will not again curse the ground any more for man’s sake because the imagination of man’s heart is evil from his youth; neither will I ever again strike every living thing, as I have done.
22While the earth remains, seed time and harvest, and cold and heat, and summer and winter, and day and night will not cease.”
Genesis 9:8-17
As you read: A covenant made not only with Noah but with every living creature, sealed by a sign God set in the sky as His own reminder.
8God spoke to Noah and to his sons with him, saying,
9“As for me, behold, I establish my covenant with you, and with your offspring after you,
10and with every living creature that is with you: the birds, the livestock, and every animal of the earth with you, of all that go out of the ship, even every animal of the earth.
11I will establish my covenant with you: All flesh will not be cut off any more by the waters of the flood, neither will there ever again be a flood to destroy the earth.”
12God said, “This is the token of the covenant which I make between me and you and every living creature that is with you, for perpetual generations:
13I set my rainbow in the cloud, and it will be a sign of a covenant between me and the earth.
14When I bring a cloud over the earth, that the rainbow will be seen in the cloud,
15and I will remember my covenant, which is between me and you and every living creature of all flesh, and the waters will no more become a flood to destroy all flesh.
16The rainbow will be in the cloud. I will look at it, that I may remember the everlasting covenant between God and every living creature of all flesh that is on the earth.”
17God said to Noah, “This is the token of the covenant which I have established between me and all flesh that is on the earth.”
The flood does not open with a distant deity losing patience. It opens with a heartbroken one: 'Yahweh saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth', and 'it grieved him in his heart.' Sin is not a technicality God waves off; corruption so wounded the Maker that judgment itself cost Him. If you have ever pictured God as coldly dropping the hammer, Genesis 6 corrects the picture.
“Yahweh saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every imagination of the thoughts of man’s heart was continually only evil.”Genesis 6:5
“Yahweh was sorry that he had made man on the earth, and it grieved him in his heart.”Genesis 6:6
Whatever the flood means, it cannot mean less than this: 'Only Noah was left, and those who were with him in the ship.' Peter calls it the flood brought 'on the world of the ungodly', a real verdict on real evil. Jesus treats it the same way, saying 'As the days of Noah were, so will be the coming of the Son of Man.' The story stands as history's standing warning that God will one day judge the world.
“Every living thing was destroyed that was on the surface of the ground, including man, livestock, creeping things, and birds of the sky. They were destroyed from the earth. Only Noah was left, and those who were with him in the ship.”Genesis 7:23
“and didn’t spare the ancient world, but preserved Noah with seven others, a preacher of righteousness, when he brought a flood on the world of the ungodly;”2 Peter 2:5
““As the days of Noah were, so will be the coming of the Son of Man.”Matthew 24:37
'But Noah found favor in Yahweh's eyes' comes before the ark, before the obedience, before any record of righteousness. Grace is the cause; the boat is the fruit. Even Noah's righteousness is God's assessment: 'I have seen your righteousness before me in this generation.' Then comes the simplest sentence about him: 'Thus Noah did. He did all that God commanded him.' Saved by favor, saved through trusting obedience; that order has never changed.
“But Noah found favor in Yahweh’s eyes.”Genesis 6:8
“Yahweh said to Noah, “Come with all of your household into the ship, for I have seen your righteousness before me in this generation.”Genesis 7:1
“Thus Noah did. He did all that God commanded him.”Genesis 6:22
Months of water could feel like abandonment, until the narrator says, 'God remembered Noah'. Remember, in Scripture, is never recalling something forgotten; it is God moving in covenant faithfulness. He remembered Noah at the ark and Israel groaning in Egypt. And then God remembers what humanity is: 'the imagination of man's heart is evil from his youth', and promises to restrain the curse anyway. Mercy acts with full knowledge of us, not naive hope about us.
“God remembered Noah, all the animals, and all the livestock that were with him in the ship; and God made a wind to pass over the earth. The waters subsided.”Genesis 8:1
“God heard their groaning, and God remembered his covenant with Abraham, with Isaac, and with Jacob.”Exodus 2:24
“Yahweh smelled the pleasant aroma. Yahweh said in his heart, “I will not again curse the ground any more for man’s sake because the imagination of man’s heart is evil from his youth; neither will I ever again strike every living thing, as I have done.”Genesis 8:21
God set 'my rainbow in the cloud' as a sign of a covenant with every living creature, swearing the waters 'will no more become a flood to destroy all flesh'. Isaiah swears salvation on that very pledge. Peter then reads the flood as a pattern: eight souls 'were saved through water', which he calls 'a symbol of baptism', saving 'through the resurrection of Jesus Christ'. Judgment fell on Christ so that the waters that should drown us now carry us.
“I set my rainbow in the cloud, and it will be a sign of a covenant between me and the earth.”Genesis 9:13
“and I will remember my covenant, which is between me and you and every living creature of all flesh, and the waters will no more become a flood to destroy all flesh.”Genesis 9:15
““For this is like the waters of Noah to me; for as I have sworn that the waters of Noah shall no more go over the earth, so have I sworn that I will not be angry with you, nor rebuke you.”Isaiah 54:9
“who before were disobedient, when God waited patiently in the days of Noah, while the ship was being built. In it, few, that is, eight souls, were saved through water.”1 Peter 3:20
“This is a symbol of baptism, which now saves you—not the putting away of the filth of the flesh, but the answer of a good conscience toward God, through the resurrection of Jesus Christ,”1 Peter 3:21