#14: A New Beginning

Genesis 8:16-22

Then God said to Noah, “Come out of the ark, you and your wife and your sons and their wives. 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 on it.”

So Noah came out, together with his sons and his wife and his sons’ wives. All the animals and all the creatures that move along the ground and all the birds—everything that moves on land—came out of the ark, one kind after another.

Then Noah built an altar to the Lord and, taking some of all the clean animals and clean birds, he sacrificed burnt offerings on it. The Lord smelled the pleasing aroma and said in his heart: “Never again will I curse the ground because of humans, even though every inclination of the human heart is evil from childhood. And never again will I destroy all living creatures, as I have done.

          “As long as the earth endures,

         seedtime and harvest, cold and heat,

         summer and winter, day and night

         will never cease.”

Comments

After the destruction of the flood, the world was given a new beginning. God’s command that all living creatures “multiply on the earth and be fruitful and increase in number” parallels much of the language of creation.

There was, however, one big difference: this new beginning had none of the innocence of the Garden of Eden. God was starting over with full recognition that “every inclination of the human heart is evil from childhood.”

Reflections

God’s promise to Noah was that “never again will I destroy all living creatures.” God did not, however, promise to prevent life on earth from being destroyed through nuclear war, pollution, biological weapons, global warming or something else of human origin. Do you think such things are preventable?

According to Genesis 6:9, Noah was righteous and blameless even though his heart, like all humans, was inclined to evil as described in Genesis 8:21. Do you ever try to excuse your actions by thinking, “I couldn’t help myself; I’m only human” when you’ve done wrong?

Prayer

Blessed are you, O Lord our God, King of the Universe, who blesses us with the possibility of a new beginning even though our hearts are inclined to evil from childhood.