In Hebrews 11:7 it says, "By faith Noah, being warned by God concerning events as yet unseen, in reverent fear constructed an ark for the saving of his household. By this he condemned the world and became an heir of the righteousness that comes by faith."I mentioned today how funny (or sad?) it is at how often children’s books and movies get the point of Noah and the ark wrong. In the movie Evan Almighty, the God character (Morgan Freeman) has a short exchange towards the end of the movie with Evan’s wife that reveals “God’s perspective” on the matter, as they see it:
God: I love that story, Noah and the Ark. You know, a lot of people miss the point of that story. They think it’s about God’s wrath and anger. They love it when God gets angry.
Joan: What is the story about, then? The ark?
God: Well, I think it’s a love story about believing in each other. You know, the animals showed up in pairs. They stood by each other, side by side, just like Noah and his family. Everybody entered the ark side by side.
That "interpretation" might make it a little easier to swallow and a little less offensive, but nothing could be further from the biblical truth. God (not the Morgan Freeman “God”) shows us what the story is really about in Genesis 6:17-18, “Everything that is on the earth shall die. But I will establish my covenant with you, and you shall come into the ark." Clearly, avoiding wrath and death is the point.
Furthermore, from a New Testament perspective, the story is a picture of judgment and salvation that typify things that surround New Testament realities, namely Christ and his gospel. Jesus says in Luke 17:26-27, “Just as it was in the days of Noah, so will it be in the days of the Son of Man. They were eating and drinking and marrying and being given in marriage, until the day when Noah entered the ark, and the flood came and destroyed them all.” This helps us make the connection between “the days of Noah” and “the days of Jesus” and, again, we see that wrath is in fact part of both stories after all. But not just wrath—salvation from wrath too. Jesus’ point? The gospel is the new eschatological "Ark" in which we must take refuge if we hope to survive the coming judgment, which will, by the way, be much worse that a worldwide flood, because it will have eternal and spiritual implications. (see also 2 Peter 3:1-7)
In this sense, love is also a part of the Noah story, but not in the overly-simplistic, interpersonal way Evan Almighty portrays it. Rather, "Noah and the flood" shows us that God’s love doesn’t leave us to destruction. Like he offered a way out to Noah and his family, he offers a way out—through his Son’s death and resurrection which atones for sins—to all who believe.
This is the faith we are supposed to emulate according to Hebrews 11:7: Noah’s faith in God’s salvation from his own wrath (not a faith in the “love of human beings” or something as sappy, and misguided, as that).
One of the challenges that I look forward to navigating, but don’t have all the answers for, is how to begin to teach this story to my kids in a right biblical way, and encourage faith in Jesus Christ through it. At this point I’m just trying to make connections between God saving Noah and his family and Jesus saving us, hoping that starts to stick, then we can work on more details later. But in the end, my prayer is that my children see the story for what it really is: a foretaste of the hope we have in Jesus Christ through the gospel.
Chris
