Genesis Day 17: Getting ashore on solid footing
I sailed in the Merchant Marines. When I first went to sea, I had to “get my sea legs” which is a polite way of saying that I did not get sea sick.
It takes some getting used to, being at sea. I remember my first time on dry land after a 20-day crossing—it was a weird sensation, walking around and not having a ship move under my feet.
Today we read about Noah and his crew coming ashore, on solid ground—and what’s the first thing they do? Thank God!
Today I want to put squarely in front of you the way I have been offering you my thoughts about God’s Word.
As we read the Bible, as we immerse ourselves in a way of thinking about how God is telling us about Himself, about ourselves, about His hopes and dreams for us, and His world—it all takes some getting used to. It is like you need to get, not sea legs, but “Bible legs”—Okay, I thought phrase would work, but now I think not so much—Let’s just stick with the idea of getting yourself on “solid footing”.
There are profound Biblical Points of View that I believe give us this solid footing.
I have been inviting you in the last few posts to think about them. Consider:
God cares. We saw it with Him clothing Adam & Eve, we see it in His deep regret for the evil in His world.
God does not tolerate evil (even when what He must do causes Him pain).
God is in charge. He is God, above and beyond us. He is right to “put things right”.
Humanity apart from God careens headfirst into evil. We do not have the power to save ourselves or “put the world right”.
God’s Word is True—to reduce it to myth is to remove the gravity of what God has for you in its pages, and in His Person.
Not everyone would agree with these ideas. You may not. It is how people through the centuries have read the Bible. As human reason advanced, as human understanding of literature and cultures advanced, and as human understanding of science advanced—this way of reading the Bible has been challenged again and again.
Please understand, I am a child of the modern world. I love science. I have an engineering degree and did the “nuclear thing” for 25 years. Yet, when I read the Bible I must decide how I will “see God”. Or maybe better said – I must decide how God wants me to see Him.
Which brings me back to the text today… to the solid dry ground Noah is standing on.
As the waters subside, as the offering goes up to God, we see God bonding Himself to humanity—in Covenant.
There is some beautiful language in this text, v. 21, “…the Lord said in his heart…” And then God tells Noah what He told Adam… "be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth…”
And none of it makes any sense, unless you pick a specific point of view to either believe in the God of the Bible, and His Word, or not.