|
This week's
parsha is entitled Noach. It could have
been entitled The Flood, since it chronicles
the great Flood with which God destroyed all life
on earth, save Noah, his family and ancestral
pairs of all animals. But the Flood is not the
central theme. The theme is that of a righteous
individual in the midst of a godless world, his
unique relationship to the God who created the
world, and how he and his family are shielded
from the just judgment sent upon that world. It
really is about a righteous man. Again, three
key words open this parsha:
These
are the generations of Noah.
It picks
up in chapter six of Genesis with the first mention
of Noah - a man singled out by God as blameless
in the midst of an utterly wicked generation on
the earth. We're told that Noah walked with God.
He had integrity. Contrast that with God's verdict
concerning the rest of mankind at that time: And
God looked on the earth, and behold, it was corrupt;
for all flesh had corrupted their way upon the
earth. Then God said to Noah, "The end of
all flesh has come before Me; for the earth is
filled with violence because of them."
The murder of Abel by Cain seems to have just
been the beginning. Sin spread through mankind
like a rapacious virus, and the whole world was
filled with bloodshed. God instructs Noah to build
an ark of gopher wood, 450' x 75' x 45', three
decks high, lined with pitch, in which he and
his family and representative ancestral pairs
of animals would be sheltered from the coming
Deluge. From these remnant pairs the earth would
eventually be repopulated.
There
are ancient stories of a great world-wide Flood
that have come down to us from numerous people
groups on every continent of the earth. The Chaldeans
told of Xisuthrus, the Sumerians of Ziusudra,
the Assyrians of Utnapishtim, the Babylonians
of Atrahasis, the Masai in East Africa
of Tumbainot, and the list goes on. Many
of these Flood stories have common elements: pervasive
wickedness in mankind, one man of good and godly
qualities, instructions to build an ark or ship,
the amassing of animals to go with him on the
ship, and a flood which wipes out the rest of
mankind. Why so many common flood stories? Some
regard this as evidence that the early chapters
of Genesis are purely mythological. I believe,
quite to the contrary, it is because there was
a very real, catastrophic world-wide flood in
the days of Noah. I believe the variations in
the stories arose over time after the nations
were separated by language, as recorded in Genesis
11. I also believe where they differ from the
Genesis account, they are in error, as the Torah
was given to Moses by revelation from Adonai at
Sinai. Men will tend to corrupt a message, but
God has no problem remembering the details, nor
of preserving an authentic and reliable text.
That flood
covered the earth, rising 222 feet above even
the highest mountain peak, and all life perished.
Only Noah and those with him on the ark were saved.
A year and ten days later (7:11 cf. 8:13-14),
Noah and his family and the animals emerged from
the ark. Noah built an altar to Adonai and offered
sacrifices of all clean animals to Him, and God
promised at that time never to destroy all life
by a flood again, giving as a covenant sign the
rainbow in the cloud.
God also
made a covenant with Noah (ch. 9), the principles
of which carry through all the Scriptures, including
into the Brit HaChadashah (New Testament). Mankind
was now permitted to eat animals as well as vegetation,
but prohibited from eating blood. In particular,
human life is to be regarded as so sacred that
in chapter nine God mandates capital punishment
as the judgment due anyone who willingly takes
another human life, affirming once again that
we were made in His image: Whoever sheds man's
blood, by man his blood shall be shed, for in
the image of God He made man (9:6).
From these
four families, Noah, his wife, his sons and their
wives, the earth was repopulated. God told them
upon exiting the ark, ABe fruitful and multiply
and fill the earth, just as He had commanded Adam
and his wife. Now, however, things would be different.
Animals would now be in fear of man, and mankind
would have dominion over them. Sadly, some things
would remain the same. In chapter 11 we find that
mankind is bent on rebellion against God, intent
on making a name for themselves, and so they decide
to build a ziggurat - a great tower - to show
their disdain for authority. God took notice and
turned our common tongue into babbling, and scattered
mankind over the face of the earth, eventually
to build separate nations.
The parsha
ends with a genealogy - Shem's. We see the beginnings
here of a chosen lineage. It was not through Cham
or through Yafet that Israel would emerge, it
was through Shem. And Shem's genealogy leads us,
at the end of chapter 11, to Terah and his sons,
and we are introduced in particular to one of
Terah's sons, Avram - Abram. This Abram would
have a unique relationship to God, much as Noah
did, and the history which is of particular interest
to us as Yeshua's followers will begin here, with
this man.
There
is a sobering message for us in the account of
Noah, for there is a great Final Judgment coming
upon the earth, and you have just two options:
get in the boat or perish. AGetting in the boat
may mean enduring ridicule, since Noah was surely
mocked by his neighbors as he built a big boat
on dry land, and no one had ever seen rain, let
alone a flood. Yeshua warned us that His return
would be comparable to the days of Noah. People
went on about their business, little time to be
bothered about God or about judgment. They were
eating and drinking and marrying, and Yeshua tells
us they did not understand until the flood
came and took them all away. May we be people
of understanding. May we recognize that His return
is near, and we need to be ready, and we need
to warn others. Yeshua will be our Ark of Salvation
in the coming judgment. But as in the days of
Noah, when the door closes on that ark, you're
either safely inside, or dead outside.
Shalom,
Rabbi Glenn
|
