The earth was filled with violence (6:11). That doesn’t sound so different from today’s headlines, does it? College students slaughtered in Idaho. Policemen attacked with a machete in Times Square on New Year’s Eve. 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 makes it clear 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. For 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 (NASB)

5 Then the LORD saw that the wickedness of man was great on the earth, and that every intent of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually.
6 And the LORD was sorry that He had made man on the earth, and He was grieved in His heart.
7 And the LORD said, “I will blot out man whom I have created from the face of the land, from man to animals to creeping things and to birds of the sky; for I am sorry that I have made them.”
8 But Noah found favor in the eyes of the LORD.
9 These are the records of the generations of Noah. Noah was a righteous man, blameless in his time; Noah walked with God.
10 And Noah became the father of three sons: Shem, Ham, and Japheth.
11 Now the earth was corrupt in the sight of God, and the earth was filled with violence.
12 And God looked on the earth, and behold, it was corrupt; for all flesh had corrupted their way upon the earth.
13 Then God said to Noah, “The end of all flesh has come before Me; for the earth is filled with violence because of them; and behold, I am about to destroy them with the earth.
14 “Make for yourself an ark of gopher wood; you shall make the ark with rooms, and shall cover it inside and out with pitch.