Genesis 9 — Thoughts

The story of Noah's ark is for children. The story of Noah's bender is not. But I wonder if maybe it should be.

We often try to make Bible stories more appropriate for children by leaving out the "adult" details. We'll say that Noah saved the animals, but we'll leave out his drinking problem. We'll say that Moses led the Israelites to freedom, but we'll leave out his anger issues. We'll say that David fought Goliath, but we'll leave out his murderous affair.

When we overlook these flaws, we change who these people were. Suddenly, they're the heroes of the story. They're the examples for us to follow. The intrinsic message becomes: "If you do all the right things like these guys, God will be happy with you." But that message is the opposite of the Gospel.

It's important to remember that there is only one hero in the story in the Bible, and that's Jesus. The fact that all the other characters were deeply flawed individuals highlights that there is nothing we can do to earn God's favor — we're just as hopeless as all these losers in the Bible.

But that's okay because our hope is not in the things we do anyway — it's in what Jesus already did for us on the Cross. It's by trusting in Him that we are made right with God. As Hebrews 11 shows us, all these deeply flawed characters were saved despite their sins — because of their faith.

However deeply flawed you feel, whatever sins are standing between you and God, you can still come to Him in faith and be made right with Him — because of Jesus. Noah shows us that this is true as well as almost everyone else in the Bible.⁠

Is your faith in your self, with all of your flaws? Or is it in the perfect and saving work of Jesus?

(Originally written May 23, 2020)