Troublesome Topic: SPIRITUAL TAKE-AWAYS FROM THE PROGRESSION OF THE FLOOD

HERE ARE A FEW POINTS OF APPLICATION BEFORE WE GET TO THE BIG ONE

It takes guts to live for God, but it’s worth it!

Be willing to go against the flow in order to do what is right. You don’t want to get caught up in the punishment of the wicked because you hesitated.

Wickedness never looks very bad to the wicked, only to the holy.

God never over-punishes. His judgement always fits the offense, even when it seems like it is too much.

God does not damn to eternal punishment those who are unable to understand moral responsibility.

No one can survive God’s punishment except those who accept God’s offer of salvation.

God offers the opportunity for repentance and forgiveness up until the moment judgment has begun. After the judgement had begun, there was no recourse, no opportunity to be saved.

If God doesn’t want us to find something, He will destroy it in such a way that we will never find it. That is why we will never know for sure how technologically advanced the pre-flood people really were.

THE BIGGEST TAKE-AWAY FROM THE WAY THE FLOOD PUNISHED SIN IS THIS:

THE FLOOD WAS AN ACCURATE DEMONSTRATION OF GOD’S CHARACTER

God is holy and therefore He must punish sin; it would be a violation of His character to ignore it forever. Yet He is merciful and kind. He knows how to balance His holiness and His mercy perfectly. And His perfect balance of the two is a slightly off-set balance;  it slightly favors mercy over punishment for sin (see James 2:13 and Ezekiel 33:11).

I am assuming that those who died quickly, with very little suffering, had it better than those who suffered much anxiety, pain, and fear. Those who had it worst were the ones who lived the longest during the flood event. (Of course, those outside of the ark will suffer eternally in the after-life, but my point is that some suffered less during the physical judgment on this earth because they died early in it.)

As the intensity of the flood increased, the number of people alive to experience it decreased sharply.

The first moments of the flood event were a literal fulfillment of the phrases “The sky is falling” and “all hell broke lose.”

I estimate that three quarters of the human population was killed during the first few moments of the flood event when several natural catastrophes happened all at once, including the quakes that broke apart the ocean floor.

The people who were killed instantly had it the best because they suffered the least.

But the opening salvo was followed by the least deadly phases of the flood event.

During the first three Megasequences, most of the tsunamis were not very destructive.

The most destructive and harshest Megasequences of the flood event, those with the most earthquakes caused by runaway subduction, the greatest movement of continents, and the most lifting of high mountains, were the Zuni (to black screen)  and the Tejas. A few humans were alive outside of the ark during part of the Zuni, but none of them were alive during the Tejas, which was the longest Megasequence.

The quakes and volcanoes that would have been closest to the people, (i.e. during the uplifting of the high mountains), happened after everyone on land was dead.

Thus you see that the level of anxiety, pain, hardship and suffering by humans could have been much greater and could have engulfed a much larger number of people. Even in the worst punishment of mankind recorded in human history, God’s mercy and grace were evident on a level beyond words. While judging them for offenses to His Holiness, He did not forget mercy.

WHY DID THE OCEAN FLOOR NEED TO BE ENTIRELY MADE NEW? 

The earth got a whole new ocean floor from the flood event. The continents were covered by layers of sediment, and new mountains were pushed up, but the continents were not entirely replaced; only the ocean floor was entirely replaced. Why?  I’m glad you asked.

Remember that it was the “eyes or springs” of the dark and foreboding abyss, thought of in ancient times as the place of death, that opened to start the judgment of God on man’s extreme sin. God used the dangerous and sometimes deadly seas to mete out punishment. It became the physical “source” of judgment, (“source” is another meaning of the word “eye or spring”).

We now know that God replaced the entire ocean floor so that it would not be the same one that meted out judgment on the entire earth at that time. The ocean floor has been renewed just as many things in God’s economy have been, or will be, made new. For instance, for the believer in Jesus, “death has been swallowed up in victory.”

What’s more, another flood event involving runaway subduction, the creation of a new ocean floor, and the moving of continents, is physically impossible. The density contrast that fueled such activity during the flood event continued until all the “fuel” was used up, then it stopped rather abruptly, leaving us with the after-effect of a few centimeters of movement per year (Clarey p. 159). When God promised Noah that He would never destroy the earth again with a world-wide flood (Gen 9:11), He had already made it physically impossible for it to happen again due to natural causes. We, like Noah, need not fear that event repeating itself.

WHAT DOES IT MEAN THAT MOST HUMANS WERE ALREADY DEAD DURING THE WORST OF THIS CATASTROPHE?  

Since a limited number of human beings were alive for only a limited part of the harshest portions of the flood, what or who bore the brunt of God’s judgment?

His creation bore the brunt of it.

God spared sinful man from bearing the worst part of the flood event, and instead, He spent His wrath on the innocent parts of His creation.

The Hebrew concept of words and speech are centered around the speaker taking something from inside of himself and bringing it outside of himself to reveal it to the world. Thus, a person’s words are the revelation of the inner qualities, priorities, and desires of the speaker.

When He spoke the world into being, God took part of who He is and revealed it outside of Himself, so we can understand Him better. Thus His creation is an expression of who He is and what He is like. It is a visible representation of His character. Therefore, by causing His innocent creation to take the brunt of the punishment we call the flood, God took the worst part of this judgment on Himself.

  Does this sound familiar? Did God take the brunt of our punishment again at a different time in history?

OUR RESPONSE SHOULD INCLUDE:

• Gratitude that God never over-punishes
• Gratitude that He always balances His holiness and mercy
• Gratitude that His balance slightly favors mercy
• Amazement that He is so willing to take the brunt of the punishment that we deserve.

This has been the last lesson in this study series. Thank you for joining me in it.