But God remembered Noah

The story of Noah's flood is far more than a tale of judgment and an ark—it is one of the most carefully crafted narratives in all of Scripture. In this episode, we explore the remarkable literary design of the Flood as a chiasm, revealing that its turning point is not Noah's faithfulness but God's faithful remembrance. Along the way, we discover Noah as a new Adam, a priestly figure who points beyond himself to the One humanity truly needed. Ultimately, the Flood is not simply about surviving judgment but about God's plan to bring a renewed creation through Jesus Christ, the faithful and final Adam.

Transcript

Jon 0:39

Hello, my friends, and welcome to the Two Trees Podcast. I'm John Dillon, and I'm here with Mima Moller.

Rose 0:45

That is not my name.

Jon 0:46

And Martin Listener. Hey all. We're excited that you're here. Martin, take us in with our sponsor for the day.

Martin 0:52

Sure, I'd be happy to. Sponsorship brought to you by Mary's Perfume. Ooh. Mary's Perfume. It's a heavenly scent that's worth the wait.

Jon 1:02

Heavenly scent. I like it. Well, Mary's Perfume, thank you for almost donating to our show.

Martin 1:09

One of our many sponsors. I mean, technically you could say that all these sponsors did donate because we utilize the information that comes from these stories.

Jon 1:16

Yes, the Holy Spirit has gifted us many, many wonderful stories that we can do. But as far as like, you know, real donations, you're gonna have to go to our website and uh leave a donation of the buy us of coffee because I love coffee. But it's exciting. It is super, super warm here. And so Martin has been swimming, uh, which is apropos for a flood discussion today.

Martin 1:39

Also been swimming in water that's warmer than the air temperature.

Jon 1:43

Yeah, well, it was worth a try.

Martin 1:44

It's hard to you know get the refreshment out of a pool that's warmer than my bath.

Jon 1:49

Well, you know, it's uh it's a it's a large hot tub, but it is blazing hot here in Ohio. We anticipate that staying for an incredibly long time.

Martin 1:57

I think the heat's coming from all the fires up north of us.

Jon 2:00

Yeah, if Canada, if you guys would quit being on fire, we would appreciate it.

Rose 2:04

Is that what's really causing it, or is that just like an urban legend?

Jon 2:08

Canada's an urban legend. I'm pretty sure it's real.

Rose 2:12

Yeah.

Jon 2:12

People have been there. I've been there. Yeah. So have I.

Rose 2:15

I have been there too. Wow. Canada, I believe in you. I believe in heat more than anything because it is hotter than baked owl around here. It is like our pool too. Baked owl.

Martin 2:30

Owl?

Rose 2:31

I don't know. It's what my in-laws always say. Like, whoo-hoo. Yeah, that one. I I guess I don't maybe it's somebody named Owl. I don't know.

Jon 2:37

I think they're making fun of you.

Rose 2:39

I will ask them. How does that sound and get back with you? Yeah.

Jon 2:42

I'm heavily invested in this right now.

Rose 2:44

But I I'm serious. Like, we also have been swimming around almost around the clock. It is so hot in the water today. I stuck my hand in and I was like, no, I'm putting cold water in this. This feels like unrefreshing. But I said. Yeah, we did it anyway.

Martin 2:57

Also, it's hard to take John seriously.

Rose 2:59

Why? Right this moment?

Martin 3:00

With the sheer beard. My word.

Jon 3:03

She beard. I did trim my beard because it was it was hot. It's been a long time since you've done it. Like a long time. Well, it'll grow back tomorrow. So then you'll look old again. I will look old again. Because I am old again.

Rose 3:17

I'm older than both of you guys, so I wonder what I could do to shear ten years off my face. I don't know. Hmm. I'll get back with you on that too.

Jon 3:25

I mean, you've already shaved your beard. I know, right?

Rose 3:27

It's like what else you've done.

Jon 3:30

Anyhow, we are moving on. We're into the Genesis 6 story. And in particular, we're going to be uh dipping into the flood story.

Martin 3:38

I see what you did.

Jon 3:39

Ah, and one of the one of the honestly the difficult parts of teaching the flood story is most people who have been in church, or even people who haven't been in church, they're pretty confident they know this story cold. You know, there's nothing really for me here. I'm on to it. I I'm aware of what's going on two by two, all that stuff. Noah, uh, and the big, big boats. The problem is, is that even though we were exposed to this book as children, this is not a children's story. As a matter of fact, it's a piece of incredibly beautifully and intricately designed ancient literature. And one of the ways that uh we're going to look through this is just by not just looking at the story, like what does it say? That's pretty self-explanatory. It rains a lot and everything dies except for what's on the flood on the on the ark. But why does the Holy Spirit record for us the flood story in the way that he did? And so before focusing in on Noah, we're going to take a look at the story itself and the structure of the flood narrative helps us to understand its meanings. One of the best ways to see this is in the form of a mountain. Right? If you've read the story, you know in the floods come up, the boat floats, and it comes back down, and the flood finds itself gone in the arc on top of a mountain. The story itself does the exact same thing. You have rising tension that builds up to the centerpiece of the story, and then the waters and the tension recede and go back down the other side. We call this uh a chiasm. And so a chiasm moves towards the center and then back out in reverse. And so the pattern is ABC and then your big point in the middle, and then it goes C B A. And so you get this echo on the other side of it. Many people reading this would think, Man, didn't I just read this? Why is the Bible saying the same thing again? And we do this in our culture as well. Like, we listen to music, and you're like, didn't he just sing this part? Yeah, it's called the chorus. It keeps popping up. It's there so that you can remember the song. It drives forward the meaning of the song. And so in reading scripture, a chiasm has its important part in the middle, like an Oreo cookie, right? That's where the cream is at. And so a chiasm doesn't put the important part at the beginning in the end, it flows to a central point and then flows back away from the central point. So the story doesn't simply move from beginning to end, it moves to the center and then back out again.

Rose 6:24

Not to be a total nerd, but how is a chiasm different from any other story arc? Like most stories, you have like uh an exposition, a rising action, a climax, a denouement, and a uh resolution, you know. So how would this be different from that?

Jon 6:38

So those things are going to move towards the climax, right? But they're not going to echo their way back out. A chiasm does. And so you'll have a repeated line at the beginning and at the end, and a second repeated line that comes second and then second to last. And so it isn't just that there's forward progress with an important middle, it's that the entire thing is built to frame a central idea.

Rose 7:05

But sometimes this is common in literature outside of a chiasm. I mean, I'm not arguing with you, I'm just following a train of thought. Like you'll also have bookends in literature where it's the same idea on either end, but it wouldn't be a chiasm. Like you might begin and end with like the same structure, or also like in a poem or even in the psalms, a lot of times there's a turning point in the middle. And that doesn't necessarily like you don't need a chiasm to draw your attention to it, but it is where it hinges. The whole thing will hinge, or like act three of a Shakespeare play, same thing. So this is common in literature to focus the middle where I don't want to say where it's important, but I think in a chiasm that would be true.

Jon 7:39

Well, in a chiasm, the center is what everything is moving towards and then back from. It stands alone. Everything else is repeated. And so, yeah, you kind of find like the idea of parallelism and chiastic structure, all those things exist in a bazillion different styles and in different countries and in different time periods. They did things like this. But in particular, when you're reading Hebrew poetry or Hebrewisms, they made a lot with this. Sometimes it's called a prophetic structure because the Hebrew prophets in particular did a whole lot with this. I think chiasms are interesting because it used to really bother me that it's repeating itself. I felt like, you know, if this is supposed to be the word of God, why didn't it say it right the first time? Why is it going back and doing it again? Uh and I had uh categories for this in regular literature, but I didn't allow for it to exist in the Bible itself. And so thinking of the Bible as literature was uh a giant light bulb moment for me. And I realized that this is the art form that God chose to communicate to us. And I think this is important now because in a world, and especially in the church world where you have young earth creationists and old earth creationists and straight-up evolutionists and people who are making stuff up as they go and have no name for it yet, we like to focus on the how. How much water, where did it come from, what did the boat look like, how many animals, where how did they get the food moving around? And we can get fascinated in the engineering aspects of this, but the story itself is not trying to do that. By looking at it and saying, Okay, this is a chiasm, I can see the flow. If you trace it to its center, it will tell you what the purpose of this piece of writing is. And we're gonna get to it here in just a moment. And did that answer your question?

Rose 9:39

I believe so. It was more like a I don't know if it was even a great question. It was more of a how is this similar to other ways literature is put together, and how is it different? And I think that answered the question.

Jon 9:49

Yeah, it's it's storytelling. And so, in a lot of ways, any kind of storytelling is gonna have a lot of similarities with with other ones. But at the beginning of it, right? Genesis chapter six, verses 10 through oh 22, you've got you're introduced to your characters, right? Here's Noah, he's a nice guy, he's got good boys, and they're all married to some ladies, and the world is going to end. There's gonna be a flood. But God speaks to Noah and he says, Listen, Noah, you're okay. I'm gonna take care of you, it's gonna be fine, and this is how it's gonna be fine. You have this command to build the ark. And we can really dig into okay, you want it out of gopher wood, it gives the dimensions, all kinds of interesting factoids here. But you'll notice it's missing a lot of the things we would want to know. For instance, where does this happen? Where is he getting all the wood from? Was he a car? What did Noah do for a living? Is Lamak still around? What happened to all the other characters that we were just introduced to in the last chapter? None of that information is given to you. And that's not because the Bible forgot, it's because it doesn't further the point that the text is trying to make. And so then in verse in chapter seven, Noah gets on the ark. Seven days, the flood is coming, and then God shuts the doors, and Noah's on the inside. Then it rains for 40 days, the waters go up, and the mountains disappear under the water. Everything outside dies, and for 150 days, it's nasty out there. And if you're reading the story, at this point you're like, wow, that stinks. Like, that's as bad as it can get. Everything else has drowned, even the mountains have drowned. And the only thing that's left is Noah in this ark with the creatures on it. And I want to pause here because it ought to remind you of the beginning of the book of Genesis, where the world is covered in water, it's wild and waste, and God is the one who brings about creation. What you're about to see is the center of the chiasm, and it's gonna flow backwards through the character of God, not through the engineering of the ark, not even through the awesomeness of Noah's character or the depravity of the Nephilim. What you're about to see is the center. So we're gonna read the middle, which you're gonna find in chapter eight, verses one through five. So if one of you guys could take it away.

Rose 12:24

I would love to, but I am having trouble with my connection. Go ahead, Martin. Oh, never mind, gotcha. Okay, tell me again, what is it?

Jon 12:31

Chapter 8, verses 1 through 5. It's in your outline.

Rose 12:34

I know, but I couldn't get it to access, so moving on. But God remembered Noah and all the beasts and all the livestock that were with him in the ark, and God made a wind blow over the earth, and the waters subsided, the fountains of the deep and the windows of the heavens were closed, and the rain from heavens was restrained, and the waters receded from the earth continually. At the end of a hundred and fifty days the waters had abated, and in the seventh month, on the seventeenth day of the month, the ark came to rest on the mountains of Ararat. And the waters continued to abate until the tenth month, and in the tenth month, on the first day of the month, the tops of the mountains were seen.

Jon 13:11

All right, so already you should have noticed there's already some repeating. Here there's 150, there's some important numbers that are given here, but they seem to be already numbers that are important to the biblical framework that's been established. You've got sevens and you've got tens. This is interesting to me because it flows out of this verse here that says, But God remembered Noah and all the beasts that were with him in the ark. God remembered Noah doesn't mean God was up in heaven like I was supposed to do something 150 days ago. I can't recall what it was. It's the idea that God was with him the whole time. It's that established faithfulness. This is the moment where God acts to bring about salvation for Noah. And so, in order to do that, excuse me, my my voice is being weird, he sends a wind onto the earth and the waters begin to recede. Remember back in Genesis chapter one and in two, when it says the Spirit of God hovered over the face of the waters, that word spirit is ruach, it's the same word as wind. What you're seeing here is a recreation, a symbolic recreation of the world. God has brought judgment, but he also hasn't cast it aside. God is still with his creation, with the man and the animals as they float upon the seas of chaos. We saw the mountains slowly disappear under the waters, and now they're peeking back out. You can tell, like we hit a bottom, and now there's rising action, kind of back into the world of hope.

Rose 15:00

So this verse, but God remembered Noah and all the beasts and all the livestock that were with him in the ark is the center of the chiasm. Yep. That's what's being drawn to.

Jon 15:10

And and because you can tell, okay, he's telling me there's winds, he's telling me there's mountains, he's telling me there's 150 days. He just said all those things just before this. And so I hit this line that God remembers Noah and the critters, and all of a sudden he begins restating things backwards, back to where the original intent was. And if you think about it through the lens of what is it that humanity has been wanting since the day they were exiled out of Eden, we want it to go back to how it was. We want to be back in the trees with the Lord, with the creatures of the of the garden and humanity in a good standing with the Lord. This is, in many ways, hope.

Rose 15:56

Isn't this the same uh phrase that's used when they are in the under in bondage and slavery in Egypt? It says the Lord remembered his people and heard their cries. Why did why do you think such a confusing word is translated here? Because it does sound kind of like he went off to do some other stuff. I mean, we know this isn't true. And then he remembers, oh, that's right, there were these people that I left doing this one thing.

Jon 16:20

Uh yeah, I think it's a cultural difference because in my world, when I say I remember something, it typically means I have forgotten and now it's drawn back to my mind.

Martin 16:31

What word would you put in there, Rose?

Rose 16:33

I don't know, Martin. That's a great question. I was thinking more of the ways that you that we use remember. Like like take like Memorial Day, you know, you you use it to set aside and remember somebody or something that has happened, and but that doesn't mean that you forgot about it. It's just this is the time that it becomes honored. So that's one way to remember something. Or like the ancient, you know, memento mori, like remember you are mortal or remember you will die. Like it's something that you keep before you as a memory, but it doesn't mean that you kind of forget that you're human, it's more of a a stance that you take.

Jon 17:08

I'm going to have a view on this that may be a little bit different than some other people because I think memory and remembering things is one of the most beautiful gifts that God has given to humanity. Even with the the taking of communion or the celebrating of baptism, there is a very real power in drawing my mind and being in that moment and holding it precious to me and saying, I will not forget the table. I will not forget what you have done. And I'm standing here in memory of what you have done.

Rose 17:50

Be mindful of it.

Jon 17:52

Yeah, it's a sign, it is a proclaiming of the thing. And so if you're thinking of the word remembering here just to mean, okay, I ha wrote it down, now I'm going to get around to it. It's instead showing the faithfulness of God. That God is not a God who forgets his people, that here they are floating on the chaos. How do they make it out of here? Because God is with them.

Martin 18:15

But I think it's so funny that you guys are saying this. I think it's the perfect word for what they're trying to say. Like you write down a list when you go to the grocery store so you will remember what you want. If you just remembered it, you wouldn't have to be reminded of it. Like, so that's kind of what it means to me is like God never forgets Noah. He's always thinking constantly of him to where he doesn't need a reminder of who Noah is and what Noah is. So like remembering something, to your point, Rose, makes a lot of sense because it's like, ah, I forgot, now I'm going to remember it later. I I remembered something that I've forgotten. But the idea is that like the opposite of forgetting is remembering. And so like if you never forget something, you're always remembering it. And I think that's more along the lines of what he said.

Jon 18:57

And it is, it's just a difference in the way we use the word. So in Exodus, it definitely does use this word. Like God allowed chaos to rule over Israel until Moses. And then it says the Lord remembered. He heard them and he's coming. It's the same phrase that's used here. And so it isn't just about, you know, God is forgetful. This is trying to show you the faithfulness of God. And I think you're right, Martin, that this is not something that should stop us, but we should be celebrating the ongoing love and compassion of the God that is over the flood, that he has brought about the destruction, but he also is the one who is bringing about the restoration of creation.

Martin 19:40

But I think it's also the idea of like the inability for humans to remember things. Like it doesn't say that Noah remembered God, because Noah probably forgets God just as much as you and I do forget.

Jon 19:51

Well, he's definitely going to forget him as soon as he gets off the boat. Yeah.

Martin 19:54

But that's the idea. When we think of the word remember, it's because we have forgotten something. But when God thinks of the word remember, it's because he never forgets something. And that's the difference in the perspective of the word where it's like we have to constantly remind ourselves to remember something, but God can't forget.

Jon 20:10

Yeah, we write it down on notes or on our hand or move a rubber band or something like that. And so there's a million memory tools. But what the what the author of the flood seems to be doing is to show, I I have not forgotten. This is what happened on this side of the flood, and this is what happened on the other side of the flood, and they mirror each other. So in chapter 8, 16 through 14, you've got 40 days again. Instead of God closing the door, the ark is opened. You've got another set of 70 days, and the waters keep going down. Then it says, you know, they leave the ark, Noah's going to offer a sacrifice, God promises he's not going to flood the earth again. And it just keeps going this way. It's like it's rising water that hits this point of God's faithfulness, and then it comes back down. And so you can visualize it in the story, but you can also see that when the author was writing this, he was building a literary mountain. It's the decreation and then the re-establishing of creation. Because remember, things had got really nasty. They had gotten really, really bad. And God said, mankind's desire is only evil continually. I'm not going to let this go on. And so when you see Noah in the Ark, it's interesting to me how it describes him. He is there surrounded by trees. That's what the Ark is made out of, Aids, that's the same word for trees. And it's the animals. He is a floating Eden up there, and it's protected by the hand of God.

Martin 21:42

But when you're talking about that, the the decre deconstruction of creation, it it reminds me of like what Jesus asked you to do with repentance.

SPEAKER_02 21:50

Mm-hmm.

Martin 21:50

You know, deconstructing yourself until you get down to the faithfulness of God and then re-establishing your life on built upon Him. Yeah, exactly. I think that's that's just. What really resonates with me ever since we talked about this four or five six years ago on my podcast was this idea of like the flood isn't just this cool story as to how God was able to get rid of bad guys and only keep the good, but more a uh an idea of how your life can be lived as well in a relationship with Him. When you get down to the top of the chiasm, it's this idea that God's faithfulness is what you can establish your new life on. And I mean that's that's as poetic as it gets.

Jon 22:29

I like that line that what you can establish your new life on, because that really is what's happening here. You see the mountains come back, the waters are divided from the land, just like in the creation story. The thing that makes it okay isn't the science behind it. It's not, and this is where fossils come from. It's about the faithfulness of God. And so we have this renewed creation that is given another chance. Noah's gonna get off the boat, he's on the mountain again, he's even gonna plant a garden. You're thinking to yourself, oh man, now things are gonna get good because all of the negative influences have been taken care of and removed from the equation.

Rose 23:12

Before you move into that, I have a question in the text that I do not believe you have in your massive outline for our talk. So, can you just give me a minute here to ask a question? All right. So in Genesis 8, it says uh in verse 13, in the 600 and first year, in the first month, the first day of the month, the waters were dried from off the earth. And Noah removed the covering of the ark and looked, and behold, the face of the ground was dry. What was the covering that was on the ark? Why was it there, and why did it need removed?

Jon 23:43

I would imagine that this is some sort of way to see out. That they did their absolute best to waterproof the boat. And so when you're looking at this and you think of an arc, it's not really built like a cruise liner. It's not got, you know, lock we're gonna have this really big bay window so we can just enjoy the sea views that's out there. They're not sure what's happening out there. They know that there you were screams and yells, and the waters were going crazy, things have calmed down. This is him peeking out. Whatever this would have looked like, a lot of times they would use like waterproofed leathers to cover uh viewing ports, but it's not like they were glass windows. He's removing something so that he can see out.

Martin 24:28

There's a cover because Genesis 6, 16 says, make a roof for the ark and finish it a cubit above, cubit above, and set the door of the ark on its side. That's why there's a covering.

Rose 24:40

I was wondering if it's because I was listening to this entire situation while I was floating in my warm pool, and when that jumped out at me, I was thinking about it, and it's the same words that's used in the Old Testament for all the coverings that are made in the tabernacle and in the temple. And the ark is covered in the tabernacle or the temple tabernacle, probably both, too, as well. So is this any kind of spiritual connection to covering the ark and removing it as they move into their own?

Jon 25:09

There is a connection in the sense that it is it is there to protect the interior. It is sacred space. And so if you think you can look at the Garden of Eden and be like, okay, this seems to be separated by some kind of walls with gates because they are driven out of the gate. And then they can't come back in. Apparently, there was just the one way in. And so you're looking at this, you're like, okay, sacred space isn't just everywhere. The whole world is not the Garden of Eden. In the same way, not everywhere is the Ark. God has put them in a position where He gives them very practical steps. Build it this way, and I will make sure it's okay. God could have just said, you know, just hold your breath and you're gonna be fine. I'll take care of it. He didn't have to give Noah a way to do this. He gives Noah a way to participate in building a thing. He doesn't say, I'm going to raise up one of the mountains really high and I'm not gonna let anyone else on it. He lets Noah be part of this. He doesn't have to do that. And so what you're looking at here is again, Noah longing for what's happening. He's lifting up the veil so that he can see beyond into what's happening out there. And I think there is a lot of connections there, but none that are implicit in the text. And so this is where I start doing the speculating as opposed to the study.

Rose 26:34

I'm sure that one reason it jumped out to me was because I've been doing a study on glory and coverings and glory and all of those things. And so the word was already at the front of my mind, and so that's probably why I was thinking, oh, here's the thing.

Jon 26:48

Well, even the flood itself does proclaim the glory of God. It is a manifestation of the power and the judgment of the Lord. Uh the seraphim in Isaiah 6 are crying out constantly that the heavens and the earth are filled with his glory. Uh, and so there is a very definite connection to this. Uh, Moses is going to wear a veil, a covering over his face because he's shining. And so there is a sense in which Noah is unlike anything that's happened before, because he is drawing back into the presence of God. Uh, not just in the sense that Enoch walked with God and then he wasn't anymore. Noah is guarding the animals. He is caring for the self, but he is separated from the earth. It's taken away, it's drowned beneath the waters of judgment, and the curse of God is brought on all of this stuff. And so when he gets out of the boat, you would assume he's thinking to himself, Wow, the Lord was very good to us. Let me pass this on to my kids. But he doesn't. He begins almost immediately to slip into uh selfish patterns of behavior, and they're going to get noticed and talked about here in the text. And so Noah does the things that God commands. Uh Noah didn't, right? Noah does. He says, build an ark, Noah does it. He that you don't get an idea before this that Noah is dropping the ball somewhere. Noah receives God's command, then he obeys. So before Noah ever stops or steps into the ark, he is reminding me of the person of Adam. And in the story of Adam, it's the trees, right, that are giving the fruit, and they become the means by which damnation comes upon humanity. This is reversed in the Noah story. He says, I want you to build an ark out of AIS, out of tree. And this is going to be the means by which I'm going to protect and defend uh life on the world again. And so God is commanding Noah, the tree that Adam used for disobedience. Uh, suddenly we don't find God as like, boy, trees were a really bad idea. I'm just gonna outlaw trees. Instead, he says, No, I'm going to bring a redemptive ark here. I mean, it would have been nice. Couldn't the angels have whipped up something and been like, you're really gonna like this? And drop it down.

Rose 29:19

A redemptive ark. Was that a pun? No, but I like it. Nice one.

Jon 29:23

I didn't intend that. No. And so Adam takes from the tree and it's disobedience. Noah works with the trees and it is obedience. Adam's action brings death onto critters. Noah's actions bring life to them. And so for Adam, the tree's a place of rebellion. In Noah's story, the trees become a means of obedience. Uh, it's a it's a way of deliverance. And so the creatures of the earth are finding refuge by being around Noah. That's because we were made to image God. That's what we were made to be. Humanity is given dominion over the creatures of the earth, and dominion is a calling to care for creation. It's not permission to dominate it. The creatures enter into the Ark with Noah and they're better off because they're around Noah. That is not the case for most of humanity. We don't make the places that we go better, they are blessed simply by the presence of Noah.

Martin 30:25

I think the thing that's missing about that point, because I I think that's a huge point in the story, that Noah is caring for everybody else that's on the ship. But it doesn't tell you what he takes onto the ship. Like I've been on a cruise ship before, and we watched them load that sucker up, and you're talking about pallets upon pallets of just stuff. So you have enough food, you have enough water, you have enough whatever. Noah's getting onto the boat without a skid loader full of who knows what kind of food and whatever, and it's not that he can just go pick it because you know the the earth is completely covered with water, and yet he is still acting out of abundance, even when he has nary a thing to his name. He is acting in a way that is taking care of those around him without the idea that he has so much that he has to get rid of it.

Jon 31:10

Yeah, I think that's a huge part of the thing. I think it's one of the things that you're supposed to notice in Noah's story. It doesn't tell you because it's not important. How did Noah make it through? The Lord remembered him. How did he make it so that the animals were okay? Through obedience. When he this is a guy who is acting again in the way that God intended humanity to act. And he does it at a time where apparently there was slim pickens out there. There wasn't anybody else who was willing to act like this.

Martin 31:41

I just think there's so many people today that would be like, yeah, I would definitely build a boat and then I would stock it with everything I need for 150 days, and then we could get on the boat and before.

Jon 31:49

Well, and I often so we went uh a couple years ago, we went to see the Ark Museum in Kentucky. And I remember just thinking, like, as far as like, if I knew I was never again going to go to a bookstore, I'm never again going to buy coffee beans someplace. What would I bring on the ark with me? Would I have a stash of Highlander grog somewhere on the from from Bosco's Coffee House or from uh Glacier View Coffee? Uh yeah, I would have those things, but the Bible doesn't emphasize that. It doesn't tell us what kind of animals he took, except clean and unclean, and all of the details that really fascinate a culture who's really into engineering. It doesn't tell you about because this is a theological point, and the point is God is greater than the flood.

Martin 32:37

But it almost reminds you a little bit of the Abraham story where God comes to Abraham and just says, It's time to walk, like it's time to get moving.

Jon 32:44

Yeah.

Martin 32:44

Doesn't say when, doesn't say how long, doesn't say whatever. And Abraham's obedience to go, I think it ends in abundance, right? I'm sure Abraham had a little more resources than Noah had on the boat, but it's still the same idea that it's not like, well, how long am I going? If you go to your wife and say, Hey, pack your bags, we're going on a trip. Last thing you're gonna get is your wife at the door with her bags packed. You're gonna get 20,000 questions for where are we going? How long are we going? What do I wear? What do I do?

Jon 33:07

This is a sidebar. I used to go camping a lot, and it involved a backpack and a fishing pole. Now I have my wife and my children and the dog, and I can barely fit in a minivan.

SPEAKER_03 33:19

Yeah, exactly.

Jon 33:20

All of the things that are needed. And so no, you're totally right. But you when you're reading through this, you don't get the idea that Noah's on the ark and he's about to starve to death.

SPEAKER_03 33:30

Right.

Jon 33:31

There just wasn't enough. The Lord was providing for them, and either in the planning stages or even while they were on the Lord remembered Noah. He's not outside of the will of God. And I think this is so encouraging for me because there are so many times where I can't see past the covering of what's going on around me. I can tell the world is spinning out of control, and I don't really know what to do except hold fast and be faithful. And I think the Noah story gives me that courage to be like, you know what? If I acknowledge the Lord in all my ways, he will direct my steps. It doesn't say he will tell me where to go. It says if that's what my heart is pursuing, he's going to direct my steps. And I can see that in action in Noah's life.

Martin 34:17

So a lot of the times I say on the podcast, some people or certain people, and what I really mean to say is myself. And John Dylan. That's what I'm saying. But you know, some people, wink wink, look at Noah's story and say, Man, if I just got such directions that Noah did, I would definitely build the Ark. No, you wouldn't. Like, you know, me. I'm talking to myself, not you. I'm talking to me.

Jon 34:37

Well, did you catch how long they were in the Ark before it started raining?

Rose 34:41

Is that a week?

Jon 34:42

Yeah, they're in there a week. You don't think after like day five, Noah's wife was like, You totally jumped the gun. I'm going back out there to grab the lawn chairs or whatever it is we forgot.

Martin 34:52

The idea is that like we're scared to do what God wants us to do, even though we probably know what it is, because we don't have you know precise instructions on how to do it. And we say, well, Noah got like such good instructions. How many qubits, how much wood, what to make it out of all this. So God's never told me all that stuff, so that's why I'm not building my ark. But it's like No, what we're talking about right now is Noah getting into an ark completely unprepared. Like completely working himself to the physical bone, building the dang thing, and then he steps into it with nothing to his name, basically, is what the text says. There's no indication how much food or how long or a knowledge of this or that or whatever. But he decides to get onto it even through the ridicule and waiting seven days. We can't even wait seven minutes without a few.

Jon 35:32

Yeah, and and I would I would encourage you not to read too much into the silence of it, because the text isn't trying to draw our attention to the preparation that Noah's family makes for what's going on. There definitely seems to be um civilization on the other side of the ark pretty quickly. And so I, you know, Jeremy has these great books about like how the anarch is I forget what it is, but like it's how to build cool things.

Rose 35:55

It's how to build everything, including a self-composting toilet, which he really, really wants to put on our property. Noah would have loved that book. He probably had a self-composting toilet.

Martin 36:06

But the whole point I'm trying to make, sorry, so I can finish my thought before I go into it.

Rose 36:09

You don't want to talk about toilets at all.

Martin 36:11

The whole point I'm trying to make is that this idea that Noah just had so much information that it was easy for him to be faithful to God, or that so there was somehow uh he had an ease of being faithful to God. I would argue that he did a lot of stuff that was extremely more difficult than I have to face every day in being faithful to God. That's why he's in Hebrews 11 and I'm currently not.

Jon 36:31

Yeah, even if you look at like what it would have taken, like how does he get all of the trees that are needed to build this thing? Because it's not small. How does he go like and he's living in a time where there are Nephilim running around, it doesn't appear to be a safe neighborhood. There's a lot of things that I would really like answers to. The text doesn't draw your attention to them because it has drawn it to the idea the Lord remembered Noah.

Martin 36:54

And the main point that I always fall back on is that, like, if God really spoke to me face to face, how much easier it would be. And Noah seems to somehow get basically face-to-face instructions from God telling him this specific details. Yeah. But there are so many times that Noah had to sit in the silence of God, like the seven days on the ark before it starts raining. I don't think God was like, just give it another day, just give it another day. I think Noah was sitting there contemplating, am I an idiot or am I being faithful to Yahweh?

Jon 37:20

But for us looking back at it, we can see, okay, the fact that God waits seven days, again, that number seven should go off like a firecracker. And you're thinking, you know what? It would have been real uncomfortable for Noah to do that. Why does God wait seven days? And be like, well, in the end, I don't know, but I can tell you that because you waited seven days, this emphasizes Jesus as King, as God the ruler over all of creation, that he on the seventh day rested. Now, on the seventh day, he's acting. And so there's this ongoing story that's taking place. Uh, and let's let's push into that a little bit because Noah is going to fall into the same category. Right after humanity uh finds itself in the Garden of Eden, they're acting as priests in the garden. When Noah gets off the boat, he also is acting as a priest. So let's go to Genesis 8, verses 15 through 22.

Martin 38:17

Then God said to Noah, Go out from the ark, you and your wife, and your sons and your sons' wives, with you. Bring out with you every living thing that is with you of all flesh, birds and animals, and every creeping thing that creeps on the earth, that they may swarm on the earth and be fruitful and multiply on the earth. So Noah went out, and his sons and his wife, and his sons' wives with him. Every beast, every creeping thing, and every bird, everything that moves on the earth, went out by families from the ark.

Jon 38:45

Oh, by families. And so there's this idea again of what's going to happen to the world now. The Lord is saying, Go be fruitful and multiply. This is creation two point oh. You have messed it up real bad, but I'm going to give you grace, not because you're owed it, but because of my nature. He is abundantly loving and slow to anger and merciful and compassionate. Keep going to verse 20.

Martin 39:13

Then Noah built an altar to the Lord and took some of every clean animal and some of every clean bird, and offered burnt offerings on the altar. And when the Lord smelled the pleasing aroma, the Lord said in his heart, I will never again curse the ground because of man, for the intentions of man's heart is evil from his youth. Neither will I ever again strike down every living creature as I have done. While the earth remains, seed time and harvest, cold and heat, summer and winter, day and night shall not cease.

Jon 39:42

So Noah emerges from the ark into this renewed world. Little soggy, but God is still on the throne. And the creatures of the earth they come out with him. And what does Noah do? He builds an altar. This is priestly work. This was once again humanity on the mountain, in the presence of the Lord. There's covenant language going on, and there's worship happening. Humanity is given another opportunity to be in the presence of God. Humanity is once again fulfilling this priestly role. And so Noah doesn't step into this new world like a conqueror, like the Nephilim would have tried to do. He steps in as the servant of the Lord. This is humanity bearing the image. Now, there is a weird line there that says God smelled the sweet savor of the sacrifice. And I don't know exactly how this works, but I do know that ancient Mesopotamian peoples used to talk about the gods being nourished by the smells of sacrifices. I don't think this is saying God was like, oh, thank goodness I saved somebody because I just love that smell. It's a cultural expression of God saying, this is pleasing to me. And even in the building of the temple, the importance of incense and the even if you were blind, you could have experienced the temple through smell and through your hearing. It's one of the senses that's given to us. And so it isn't saying all that's physical is bad and spiritual stuff is good. It's not Gnosticism. This is the Lord saying, This is good. And it makes me think of the creation story. Remember, he would make things and then say, This is good. When he makes Adam, he says, It's not good for the man to be alone. And here, Noah's not alone. He doesn't just have his wife, he has his children, he has his uh his daughters-in-law. There is fellowship and community. That's all here.

Rose 41:44

What do you think is the connection between I will never again curse the ground because of man, for the intention of man's heart is evil from his youth. That doesn't seem like a if this then this.

Jon 41:56

It's not. This is not a conditional uh covenant. This is God stating a fact. I have given you the reset. I will not do this again. I will not curse the earth, the idea of this flood. And so if we're out there thinking, you know, we're gonna mess it up really, really bad again. But God's probably gonna give us another get out of jail free card. And so shall we sin that grace may abound? And Paul's answer to that is God forbid. And so what the Lord does is he hangs his bow in the sky. The idea is that of the warrior. I am not going to do this again in this way, and so don't expect it. Humanity needs to pay attention to what it's doing and why it's doing these things. And so, once again, go be fruitful, multiply, spread over the earth, and God blesses them. This sounds like, man, what could possibly go wrong? And then it goes wrong. Look at chapter 9, verses 18 through 27.

Rose 43:00

The sons of Noah who went forth from the ark were Shem, Ham, and Japheth. Ham was the father of Canaan. These three were the sons of Noah, and from these people of the whole earth were dispersed. Noah began to be a man of the soil, and he planted a vineyard.

Jon 43:15

Okay, we're going to pause there because that's the same line that's used about Cain. A man belonging to the soil. So once again we find humanity is doing again what it was made to do, to serve the soil. That's what we're made for. That's what we're to do. Keep going.

Rose 43:35

He drank of the wine and became drunk, and lay uncovered in his tent. And Ham, the father of Canaan, saw the nakedness of his father and told his two brothers outside. Then Shem and Japheth took a garment, laid it on both their shoulders, and walked backward and covered the nakedness of their father. Their faces were turned backward, and they did not see their father's nakedness. When Noah awoke from his wine and knew what was. His youngest son had done to him, he said, Cursed be Canaan, a servant of servants he shall be to his brothers. He also said, Blessed be the Lord, the God of Shem, and let Canaan be his servant. May God enlarge Japheth, and let him dwell in the tents of Shem, and let Canaan be his servant.

Jon 44:17

So Noah is a servant of the ground, but then we find he's drunk. That doesn't sound like he's serving the ground. It sounds like he has now twisted the ground to serve him. This isn't about how can I improve the plant life here. This is about an abundance and an abuse of something good. So he takes the fruit of the tree, of the vine, and abuses it. Noah consumes the fruit of the garden. And what happens? He's naked, and there's shame and a curse. If that doesn't sound to you like Genesis 3, I don't know what you're missing, because that's all the major pieces of Genesis 3. It's just this is on a mountain after the flood, and that was in the mountain before the flood. It's the same story because humanity is doing the exact same thing. We are attempting to define good and evil for ourselves. He takes the fruit. Nakedness is exposed. There's a shame and some sort of disgusting display that takes place and it ends in a curse. This isn't an accident. This is to show us this is what happens when humanity rebels against God as King. The same thing happens to us. We rebel, we abuse the world, we reap the product of our sins. We realize we don't have what we need to be successful and to overcome the problems that are there, and we reap what we sow. And so just like the world had been washed in the flood, humanity realizes the problem wasn't the world. It wasn't the ground that was really the problem. The problem is us. Even though God has given humanity this start again, unless there is a new heart in humanity, we are going to perpetually return to the failures of our soul. I tell my congregation this all the time. When I take communion, I encourage my family, my people, to confess their sins before they partake of the table. And I almost always am confessing the same sins as last time. Very rarely is a new thing added to the list. I'm 40-something years old. I have well-established paths of bitterness and anger. The ones that really get me, I know what they're going to be even before they get there. But if I then say, well, it doesn't matter, I'm just going to define right and wrong myself, I'm going to end up in the ditch again. That's where Noah goes. And so we don't just need a new beginning. We need a deliverer. We need new hearts. We need a serpent crusher. This is the prophecy that God gave to Eve in the very beginning.

Martin 47:07

So my son has asked me this question before, and he, you know, in blaming fashion, blames Adam and Eve for basically ruining the world because, you know, they may did that when they partook of the fruit. But with this story, it's so interesting because it's like, okay, God's saying, humanity, I'll give you a second chance. And not only that, I'm going to pick the most faithful person on earth. Yeah. Maybe the old champion. Faithful person on earth. And we're going to redo this. And then you see how quickly it turns back to that. So if you're sitting there saying, Man, I just wish Eve would have never taken that fruit, or I wish Adam would have never listened to Eve, or whoever you're going to blame in that story of Genesis 3, here is the champion of champions when it comes to faithfulness. And it only took him a solid one paragraph, and here we are, back to where we're going to be able to do it.

Jon 47:49

It's not as though he was out there like, I wonder if God's real. You just went through the flood. Like God's been talking to you. There's no doubts here. It says the demons believe and they tremble. Like the problem with humanity, we don't even do that. Like it isn't the idea, like, well, if I just had a little more evidence, then I would believe. Like he just doesn't care. He's going to do what. And why is it that you and I sin? It's for the same reason.

SPEAKER_03 48:14

Right.

Jon 48:14

It's because we know to do good. We don't want to do it, so we don't. You can try to blame other things, but the problem is the heart of man is desperately wicked. That's what it comes down to.

Martin 48:26

The desire that we have for the end result is solely based upon ourselves and not somebody else. I think that's what you say when we know what to do and don't want to do it. The reason we don't want to do it isn't because it's not fun, isn't because it's whatever, because it doesn't benefit me.

SPEAKER_02 48:40

Yeah.

Martin 48:41

And when there's no benefit to me, I'm not going to do it, and not from a sense of whatever. You can fake that long enough. You can go an hour and talk with your mother-in-law and be cheery, but left to your own devices, you don't want to do that. Or put whatever it is in there. Just an example, but put whatever it is. Eventually you're going to fall into your natural state and re resort, rev revert back to only doing stuff that benefits.

Jon 49:04

And I and I think this is where you can see like this this really isn't a children's story. Like this is heavy. This is the death of all life. And this is that even when we are given exactly what we need, we don't have it unless the Lord builds the house. They labor in vain that build it. Noah seems to be able to do. I mean, this is the opposite of you can achieve whatever you want so long as you set your mind to it.

unknown 49:28

Yeah.

Jon 49:28

This is kind of the opposite of that. It's saying, without the Lord, what hope does humanity have? If we do not honor the Lord as King, and you look at what Ham does, and you recognize, man, there's an evil twisted into the heart of even a world that only has a couple people in it. It's it's the problem is me, and it's inside of me. It's this desire that's twisting around. And so the flood reveals the problem. And the problem isn't the earth, the problem isn't the Nephilim, the problem isn't the demons. The problem is that humanity does not accept God as king. We want to rule ourselves. And so if Noah's not the guy, and Adam wasn't the guy, and this is gonna be hopefully not a surprise to anybody, who is the guy? That would be Jesus. No, no, not Abraham. Yeah, we're gonna get to him too. But it's it's Jesus. That's what's going on here. And so you the Bible actually identifies Jesus as the the new Adam, the last Adam in 1 Corinthians 15. And so Noah is going to enter this new creation. Jesus is gonna come and make all things new. So let's take a minute and let's um pum-pum-bum. Let me look at a couple of these. Uh, for instance, the Bible, no, go ahead, Mark.

Martin 50:47

I got a question before. Do you think that like this event had to happen? Just what you just said right there is that Jesus is gonna come and make human or give humanity a chance to be renewed the same way that the earth was renewed. Do you think that that had to happen, or is this just basically a big symbolic event that it's like, okay, now this is what's going to happen to humanity at some point?

Jon 51:08

When you say it has to happen, do you mean like God had no choice except to do this?

Martin 51:13

I understand that God can do whatever he wants, and I get that aspect. But you know, the the ground was cursed. This removes the curse from the ground. Is that you see, it's a hard question to ask.

Jon 51:23

Well, I'm not even really sure it removes the curse from the ground. And so we can jer Jacob and I go rounds about this. What I'm definitely seeing, though, is that the problem isn't out there. The problem is me and my desires. Like mankind has the ability to go out into the world and leave it better than we found it.

Martin 51:43

Sure.

Jon 51:43

We don't.

Martin 51:44

But if I know this is not what's happening, but if God's doing like a scientific experiment, you change one variable at a time, and the first thing that happens is okay, let's take the earth and let's cleanse it and see if that fixes the problem. Ah, it didn't. So now we know what the problem is. It's not the earth. So now let's create a way that will cleanse the actual problem, which is the hearts of humanity. Here comes Jesus. And I'm not I'm not saying that God did that because he needed to figure it out. Like he's like, ah, what's the problem? I don't know which one of these is doing. But it it really reveals it to us, it shows it to us. And so that's where the necessity of the flood comes in, where it's like you would have this idea of like, well, it's because of this cursed ground, God, that's why I'm sinful nature.

Jon 52:24

It removes our uh our excuses.

Martin 52:27

Yeah.

Jon 52:27

And really what you're left with is what you said earlier. Noah is the best of us. And he's laying drunk on top of the mountain, unable to defend his wife. Uh Dr. Heiser has a whole thing on this. My my views of you can we can get into that later, but it will distract from our point. And my point is that Jesus is going to show us this. So Adam, right, he takes from the tree in disobedience. Noah obeys God, and the trees become the ark. What you find with Jesus is once again, the tree, the eights, the tree of the cross becomes the means by which deliverance is brought to humanity. Why wasn't Jesus stoned to death? Why wasn't Jesus ex There's a thousand ways it could have gone. When I see the repeated pattern, I see in that the sovereign hand of God who is directing and drawing events to the points that he needs and wants them to be. First Peter chapter 2, 24 talks about Jesus bearing our sins on the tree. And so Adam takes from the tree and death goes all over the place. Jesus gives himself upon the tree and death itself is conquered. Jesus doesn't just fix an immediate problem. It's gonna rain a lot. How do we make the animal safe? Jesus is going to bring about a redeemed world. He's going to bring about the newness of everything. Even humanity itself is swept up in the resurrection of Jesus. And so we find that Adam brings the curse on the ground. When you read the end of Revelation, Jesus has brought creation to a shining new level that no one expected would ever come again. Well, let's actually just take a look at this. Let's go to 1 Corinthians 15, 20 through 26.

Rose 54:16

But in fact, Christ has been raised from the dead, the first fruits of those who have fallen asleep. For as by a man came death, by a man has come also the resurrection of the dead. For as in Adam all die, so also in Christ shall all be made alive. But each in his own order, Christ the first fruits, then at his coming those who belong to Christ. Then comes the end, when he delivers the kingdom to God the Father, after destroying every rule and every authority and power. For he must reign until he has put all his enemies under his feet, and the last enemy to be destroyed is death.

Jon 54:53

And so when Paul is talking about this, he doesn't just see Jesus as this unique character all floating around on his own. He is the culmination of everything that has happened in human history to that point. He is what Adam failed to be. The cross of Christ, even though an instrument of death is a symbol of everlasting life. By drawing near to the cross, death itself is destroyed. These powers, the rulers of the darkness, it says, He must reign until he has put all enemies under his feet. And this isn't just good news for him, it's good news for us because when we draw near to him, we also rise from the from the power of sin, from death itself. The resurrection flows into us as well, just like the animals are blessed because they're around Noah. But you look at that and you're like, they didn't know what was coming or how it would happen, but God brought it about. And so, for just as by a man came death, by a man came also the resurrection of the dead. For in Adam all die, but in Christ all shall be made alive. Let me show you another verse. This is 2 Corinthians chapter 5 and verse 17.

Martin 56:11

Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away, behold, the new has come. All this is from God, who through Christ reconciled us to himself and gave us the ministry of reconciliation. That is, in Christ, God was reconciling the world to himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and entrusting to us the message of reconciliation. Therefore, we are ambassadors for Christ, God making his appeal through us. We implore you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God for our sake.

Jon 56:50

So there it is. This is what we're trying to do. Did you catch that it uses the phrase ambassador? An ambassador is a representative of a country to another country. This is another way of saying image. This is what we're supposed to be. How do we regain that image of God? By acting like Christ, by entering into what he has done and seeing the faithfulness of God and giving him the glory to be reconciled to God means to stop fighting against him. How do we bring about creation back into the way it's supposed to be? Because I'll be honest, you look around and it looks a little broken. Humanity could use an improvement or two. This world is not as God left it in the end of Genesis 2. We have left behind us a mess. And so you can start looking around and being like, yeah, the plants, they're just really the problem. There's a curse on the dirt, and that's why we the it's not it's not that humanity doesn't have enough food. There's enough food on the planet to feed everybody. We just don't. It's not that there isn't enough wealth to care for everybody, we just don't. You can find reasons to blame, but you don't have to look very far because a big part of the problem is you and and me.

Rose 58:08

Quick question. Um, in this flood judgment that came through, the judgment was not on the people because they were not imaging God the way they were told. Am I right or am I wrong there?

Jon 58:21

I I would say that's incorrect. They are not imaging God the way that they're supposed to.

Rose 58:26

So, but this is before the Abrahamic covenant where and then the law that's given that's more specific about how to image him. So I sorry, I I feel like there's such a big jump between the flood and Christ because you also have, you know, Abraham and the called out and the um the bondage in Egypt and then the deliverance, and then all the way up to the exile, you know, like that that this is not the it's not like the punishment or judgment stop between the flood and then Christ came to save it. And I know that I I can't say, hey, let's talk about the entire Old Testament, but there is a moment also in in the exile where like Ezekiel comes and the Lord says, You have profaned my holy name, you know. And so because of that, you know, this has to be set right. And and there's so there's this there is a jump from the flood to Christ that I feel like happens during the exile where they are not bearing his image. So that's my question all the way back to the pre-flood. Was that also the problem?

Jon 59:22

Well, yes, but you're you there have made a jump in that you have said that now this is about the descendants of Abraham. Before the flood, we're not talking about Israel, it doesn't exist.

Rose 59:34

Sure.

Jon 59:35

You're talking about global humanity.

Rose 59:37

So if everybody is the playing field is level, then who's imaging God to who?

Jon 59:41

Like the answer is no one was imaging God at all. The closest thing you had to it is Noah. He has never been without a faithful witness on the earth. Sometimes he calls it a remnant, sometimes it's not very many. Sometimes it's more than you think. Elijah has this real crybaby moment where he goes to God, I'm the only one left. And God's like, actually, I have a couple hundred of you. Maybe you could meet some of them. They're around out there. Uh, but we feel like things have got worse. And so the stories that you're discussing there, Rose, are part of this. But when the Apostle Paul is writing this, he sees them connected, flowing from Adam through to Jesus. And so we talk about this in terms of there being two trees. There is the trees of Adam, but the tree of Calvary changed things in a far deeper way. This isn't just a sad thing that happened to Jesus. This is the death of the powers of the world. It is the nails in their coffin, even though they don't realize it. This is humanity coming back into being what we were made to be. It is resurrection. There is uh a lot that happens for sure, but the calling is always there. And we don't know, Rose, what the ancient world knew. Because the Bible isn't trying to tell us. Were there other prophets? Did Methuselah ever drop in on a king of the ancient world and be like, you guys stink, and here's the reasons God wants you to stop? Like, we don't know. You are given an incredibly narrow window into their world. But there are hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of years that this is taking place. In the end, I would like to know more, but I don't think each of those is necessary. Instead, they just happened. The Lord said, This is what you did, and you're going to reap it. God gave humanity free will, and he holds us accountable for our free will. So they do go into exile. The temple is destroyed. All of those things happened. The whole Saul and David cycle, all of that is part of what God decrees. But you don't see it referenced in this story because those are specific moments along the way. But here you're seeing the trajectory that Jesus is not some new thing, he is the fulfillment of the old. That even the story of the flood, and something you can be like, and that's where, I don't know, the how's how they all the animals were safe. Hooray for God saving the animals. That's fantastic. Except for you've now turned it into almost something silly. The creation itself is rescued by the hand of God, and humanity is permitted to be part of it. God has done the same thing. He has brought about salvation to the world, but he still permits us to be part of it. One of the most convicting verses in the Bible for me is where it says that God has ordained and permitted that through the foolishness of preaching. Like if God decided to just send a random angel to still water, people would take better notes. I've no doubt that their behavior would improve. So why doesn't God? Apparently, he wants his creation to be part of this story. And that goes back to what Martin said earlier. What did Noah bring on the boat? I don't know, but it doesn't matter. Because whatever happened, God would have provided for him. Jesus does this with his disciples a couple times. He says, Don't worry about how long your shoes are going to last or how much money's in your bag. Trust in me that I will take care of you. So go out there and do your best and give it a go. I had this moment with so Martin coaches uh little kid baseball. Patrick, my son, played baseball for the first time this year, and he cracked the code. This is the first year the kids pitch to him, and most of them cannot throw strikes. And so he recognized if I just hold real still, I'm probably gonna get on base because they're gonna walk me more often than they're gonna strike me out. But I, as his dad, like I'm bribing the daylights out of this kid. Just swing the bat. To me, it doesn't matter how hard you hit it. I want you to strive to hit the ball. I think so many Christians are so focused on worrying about how qualified we are to swing that we never even try. I don't know what Noah's boat building experience was, but I'll tell you right now, he didn't have the necessary portfolio to rebuild human civilization.

Martin 1:04:24

Taking the illustration of the the at-bat, Patrick's idea of success is getting on base, but your idea of success is participating in the game. Right. It's the same thing with us. We our participation only comes when we know that the outcome will be a success. But God's saying all I wanted you to do was try or to do it. Like do it, do something, be an active participant.

Jon 1:04:50

And you can see that in the story. So the Bible's got this really elaborate setup about the flood, but we can focus in on the wrong parts. But what we should never forget is that God remembered Noah because he is the God of gods, the Lord of Lords, mighty and awesome.