A Word from Genesis 8

Every now and then, I find myself looking at the world and thinking, “Good grief! There’s so much evil and sin. I don’t see how the Lord is going to put up with it much longer.” And naturally, we can look in the scriptures and read a story about how God decided not to put up with it much longer. In Genesis Chapter 6, the Bible says that “The Lord saw how great the wickedness of the human race had become on the earth, and that every inclination of the thoughts of the human heart was only evil all the time” (Gen. 6:1). And so, He told Noah to build a boat and started over.

So, do we anticipate that God is going to get so angry that He’ll do something like that again?

Well, it’s worth noting, I think, that when Noah got off the ark, the Bible tells us that the Lord “said in His heart: ‘Never again will I curse the ground became of humans, even though every inclination of the human heart is evil from childhood’” (Gen. 8:21; emphasis added). You see, God knew that evil wasn’t gone.

And then, of course, God told Noah, “I’ve set my rainbow in the clouds, and it will be the sign of the covenant between me and the earth” (Gen. 9:13). And according to some scholars, the word used for “rainbow” is better translated “bow”—as in “bow and arrow”—which suggests, at least, that God decided to lay aside violence as a way of dealing with evil.

Of course, you might wonder: “Preacher, are you saying that God isn’t going to do away with evil?” And the answer to that question is, “No, that’s not what I’m saying.” But if the cross is any indication, I’d like to think that God’s ultimate triumph over evil won’t come because He overpowered it with superior violence, but because he overwhelmed it with superior love.

So today, let’s acknowledge all the evil in the world. And let’s make sure that we’re not contributing to it! But then, let’s find hope in the promise of Jesus that “in this world you will have trouble. But take heart! For I have overcome the world” (Jn. 16:33). Amen.