The New Life in the Flood

The second lesson for the Easter Vigil is selected verses from Genesis 7-9.

The LORD then said to Noah, "Go into the ark, you and your whole family, because I have found you righteous in this generation. 2 Take with you seven of every kind of clean animal, a male and its mate, and two of every kind of unclean animal, a male and its mate, 3 and also seven of every kind of bird, male and female, to keep their various kinds alive throughout the earth. 4 Seven days from now I will send rain on the earth for forty days and forty nights, and I will wipe from the face of the earth every living creature I have made." 5 And Noah did all that the LORD commanded him.

In the six hundredth year of Noah's life, on the seventeenth day of the second month-- on that day all the springs of the great deep burst forth, and the floodgates of the heavens were opened. 12 And rain fell on the earth forty days and forty nights. 13 On that very day Noah and his sons, Shem, Ham and Japheth, together with his wife and the wives of his three sons, entered the ark. 14 They had with them every wild animal according to its kind, all livestock according to their kinds, every creature that moves along the ground according to its kind and every bird according to its kind, everything with wings. 15 Pairs of all creatures that have the breath of life in them came to Noah and entered the ark. 16 The animals going in were male and female of every living thing, as God had commanded Noah. Then the LORD shut him in. 17 For forty days the flood kept coming on the earth, and as the waters increased they lifted the ark high above the earth. 18 The waters rose and increased greatly on the earth, and the ark floated on the surface of the water.

After forty days Noah opened the window he had made in the ark 7 and sent out a raven, and it kept flying back and forth until the water had dried up from the earth. 8 Then he sent out a dove to see if the water had receded from the surface of the ground. 9 But the dove could find no place to set its feet because there was water over all the surface of the earth; so it returned to Noah in the ark. He reached out his hand and took the dove and brought it back to himself in the ark. 10 He waited seven more days and again sent out the dove from the ark. 11 When the dove returned to him in the evening, there in its beak was a freshly plucked olive leaf! Then Noah knew that the water had receded from the earth. 12 He waited seven more days and sent the dove out again, but this time it did not return to him. 13 By the first day of the first month of Noah's six hundred and first year, the water had dried up from the earth. Noah then removed the covering from the ark and saw that the surface of the ground was dry. 14 By the twenty-seventh day of the second month the earth was completely dry. 15 Then God said to Noah, 16 "Come out of the ark, you and your wife and your sons and their wives. 17 Bring out every kind of living creature that is with you-- the birds, the animals, and all the creatures that move along the ground-- so they can multiply on the earth and be fruitful and increase in number upon it." 18 So Noah came out, together with his sons and his wife and his sons' wives.

Then God said to Noah and to his sons with him: 9 "I now establish my covenant with you and with your descendants after you 10 and with every living creature that was with you-- the birds, the livestock and all the wild animals, all those that came out of the ark with you-- every living creature on earth. 11 I establish my covenant with you: Never again will all life be cut off by the waters of a flood; never again will there be a flood to destroy the earth." 12 And God said, "This is the sign of the covenant I am making between me and you and every living creature with you, a covenant for all generations to come: 13 I have set my rainbow in the clouds, and it will be the sign of the covenant between me and the earth.

The Flood was an awesome act of destruction. It was an act of divine judgment! But it was also more than that. It was also a marvelous and mighty act of deliverance. The same water which drowned billions of screaming, blaspheming unbelievers also lifted the ark with its precious cargo high above all the death and destruction.

Jesus uses the account of the Flood as a type of the end of the world. “As it was in the days of Noah, so it will be at the coming of the Son of Man. 38 For in the days before the flood, people were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, up to the day Noah entered the ark; 39 and they knew nothing about what would happen until the flood came and took them all away. That is how it will be at the coming of the Son of Man.” (Matthew 24:37-39) The days leading up to Judgment Day will be deceptively normal (though growing more wicked – can’t you see that happening today?). And God’s great judgment will come unexpectedly, just as the judgment of the Flood.

The Bible also uses the Flood as a type of Baptism. St. Peter makes a comparison between the waters of the Flood and the waters of Baptism. “In [the ark] only a few people, eight in all, were saved through water, 21 and this water symbolizes baptism that now saves you also-- not the removal of dirt from the body but the pledge of a good conscience toward God. It saves you by the resurrection of Jesus Christ.” (1 Peter 3:20-21)

The very same water of Noah’s flood, which destroyed the sinful world, was the vehicle of salvation for Noah and his family. There were billions of sinful people who were crushed under the weight of the water, so Baptism drowns our Old Adam, our sinful nature. Though the Flood dealt death it also gave life to those in the ark. This is a foreshadowing of the death-dealing and yet life-giving waters of the flood of Baptism.

St. Peter reminds us that in our Baptisms, you and I were linked to both death and life – the death and life of Christ. In Holy Baptism there is a death and resurrection for every believer. That is why Baptism saves you. Not because water was poured on you, but because by the sheer power of the Word of God, you were put to death and raised to life again. Holy Baptism is our new beginning in the new creation. As God put His rainbow over the world to remind us of His promise, so the pastor has placed the sign of the cross over our heads and hearts at our Baptism to remind us of God’s promise.

Through God’s stern judgment, the unbelieving world was destroyed by the flood, but according to His great mercy He saved Noah and his family. By this sign He foreshadowed the precious, cleansing bath which gives us new life in Holy Baptism.

"See the Judge in Glory Seated"

1. See the Judge, in glory seated On His rainbow circled throne,
He whose voice of perfect justice Thunders forth with threat’ning tone;
From His mouth a sword proceeding Kyrie eleison!

2. Blessed ark that carried Noah And his family on the waves;
Only eight of all the people God had rescued from their graves
Saved through water; now this water Says to us that baptism saves.

3. Up, prepare, and be not callous Toward this coming Son of Man!
Live by faith, like faithful Noah Built the ark by God’s own plan,
While the wicked lived and married, Till the time the flood began.

4. “Oh, what wondrous, saving promise God has placed here for your good;
In this washing of renewal, You are cleansed by Jesus’ blood!”
Born again through Word and water, Borne by Christ across the flood.

5. Christ our Judge, in glory seated, King of kings, no more abhorred,
Jesus, Shepherd, servant Savior, Lord of life, to life restored,
Reigning high above all rainbows Worthy is the Lamb, our Lord!