The earth was filled with violence (6:11). That doesn’t sound so different from today’s headlines, does it? Iraqi protesters storming the gates of the American embassy. A sheriff’s deputy in Texas shot and killed in the line of duty. And the same sort of jealousy and anger that prompted Cain to kill his brother is poisoning our national politics, gumming up the gears of Congress and filling our media with vitriol.

Well, if the story of the flood tells us nothing else, it reminds us that God doesn’t put up with this sort of violence, this kind of corruption forever. In the days of Noah, things got so bad that God decided to push the reset button, wiping out almost all the people and animals and birds that He had made, cleansing the Earth with water, in much the same way that we wash our breakfast dishes.

But this story of God’s judgment is also a story of salvation. God told Noah to build a watertight wooden box, and to take his immediate family into it, along with breeding pairs of animals and birds, and a year’s worth of food. And why did God give Noah a chance to survive? Genesis 6:8 tells us that God was gracious to Noah because Noah found favor in God’s sight. In the same way, God calls all of us to leave the sin and corruption of the world and to receive the grace and salvation of Christ (Acts 2:40).

But why was God so angry with human sin? And why did God show grace to Noah? We find a hint in Genesis 6:6 – “The Lord was grieved in His heart.” The amazing truth is that our sin, our rebellion against God breaks His heart because He loves us so much. But it was because of this same love that God saved those in the Ark.

So, yes, the flood story is a warning for us to repent. But it’s also the image of a broken-hearted God, picking through the rubble our sin has made of His creation to rescue just a few of His treasures, and then entrusting those precious things to a faithful friend to keep them safe. It is thus a foreshadowing of the cross of Christ which shows us the punishment that we deserve as well as the Savior Who took that punishment because of His great love for His people.

Will we heed His warning and receive His grace today?

Genesis 6:5-14 (ESV)

5 The LORD saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every intention of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually.
6 And the LORD regretted that he had made man on the earth, and it grieved him to his heart.
7 So the LORD said, “I will blot out man whom I have created from the face of the land, man and animals and creeping things and birds of the heavens, for I am sorry that I have made them.”
8 But Noah found favor in the eyes of the LORD.
9 These are the generations of Noah. Noah was a righteous man, blameless in his generation. Noah walked with God.
10 And Noah had three sons, Shem, Ham, and Japheth.
11 Now the earth was corrupt in God’s sight, and the earth was filled with violence.
12 And God saw the earth, and behold, it was corrupt, for all flesh had corrupted their way on the earth.
13 And God said to Noah, “I have determined to make an end of all flesh, for the earth is filled with violence through them. Behold, I will destroy them with the earth.
14 Make yourself an ark of gopher wood. Make rooms in the ark, and cover it inside and out with pitch.