Noah’s Ark: Cute Story or Horror Flick
written by: Rev. Dr. Scott Paczkowski
“Then the Lord said to Noah, “Go into the ark, you and all your household, for I have seen that you alone are righteous before me in this generation.”
My mother had a Noah’s Ark set that rivaled the most extraordinary Nativity scenes ever created. Go into most churches, and the children’s area will have Noah’s Ark books; many even have Noah’s Ark painted on a Sunday School room wall. If you are fortunate enough to live in Des Moines, you can get great food at Noah’s Ark Restaurant. But have we ever really considered the story?
There is nothing warm and fuzzy about the story of Noah and the Ark. Noah has to build an ark because God is going to resort to global genocide. That is the story in a nutshell. The only hope from God’s covenant with Noah is never to do it again. The animals are cute, but the story is devastatingly horrific.
The Sumerian Epic of Gilgamesh has a Flood account that is suspiciously similar to the later Biblical account. The Babylonians and Assyrians had their accounts. These ancient stories show that the ark is probably not on a Turkish mountaintop, no matter what the 1976 movie claimed, that my great aunt Louise forced my brother I to sit through.
Before you guffaw, we should all hope the Noah’s Ark story is not a historical fact. Contemplate what this says about our Almighty God. God would be one who was more than willing to wipe out almost every man, woman, and child and simply start over. The story also affirms that God made a mistake that would deny God’s all-perfect existence.
There are several confusing and ethically painful stories in the book of Genesis. Several of these stories create an understanding of God that is more like a Greek god on Mount Olympus than the Creator of the ends of the earth. The ancient writers of Genesis did their best to address the world’s challenges and the motivations they thought God used to take action.
Today, rather than trying to defend God for the world’s sins and imperfections, just offer a prayer sharing your trust in God’s divine plan. When we attempt to defend the mind of God, we fall flat and make God look worse. Instead, faith is trusting God when we fail to understand. Rather than trying and failing to comprehend the incomprehensible, hand the mystery back to God and say, “Thank you, God!” Otherwise, we end up making God look like a genocidal maniac. Then, everyone ends up losing. Trust rather than defend.
