July 24th, 2021

The Old Testament reading for this Sunday is directed toward part of the Flood account [Genesis 9:8-17], and much could be said about this. People have focused on the Flood for MANY years (although it has not been MILLIONS of years), especially since a worldwide flood left the earth, in some ways, as if it had evolved over millions of years.

The nice thing from a literary perspective is that what is given is not just accurate, both historically and theologically, but this account also an emphasis on God’s remembering (see Genesis 8:1). That is what is in the center of a concentric structure which is the account of the Flood, but actually it is the account of Noah’s ‘account’ (or ‘lineage’ or ‘generation’). This is an important word throughout the Pentateuch.

There are ‘accounts’ from Genesis 2:4 to Numbers 3:1. And at the middle of this account of Noah, there is the phrase that ‘God remembered Noah.’ That’s an important factor, and it makes a difference to the rest of the account.

What is interesting is that, after the text for this Sunday, within this account of Noah something happens that is somewhat negative. Noah drinks too much wine. It’s a dangerous thing, and other writers have brought that point up elsewhere.

That ‘situation’ about Noah is started with this interesting phrase (9:20a): ‘Noah began to be a man of the soil.’ For one thing, the word ‘began’ is related to the idea of profanity, and that is certainly not a good thing. The word is used before this at Genesis 6:1 when the so-called ‘sons of God’ do not begin to do a good job with the daughters of men, and, at this very point, God gives his first mention of the punishment of the Flood. Another point that could be made is that the word ‘soil’ is like the name ‘Adam’, and that also takes us back to a bad thing. Because of sin of the first two people, the LORD God curses the soil.
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These negative points on the end of certain sections may be found elsewhere in the Old Testament. Sometimes things are left in a very bad situation. This happens at the end of Genesis, at the end of the Pentateuch, and at the end of the entire Old Testament. Comparisons can be made to the present. When something bad happens, that may actually turn into a very good thing. For both the ancient and the modern groups of people, it is a nice thing to remember that ‘God remembers’. A bigger perspective is usually much more helpful.