A New Beginning - Chpt. 4

Sometimes starting over is not enough.  And trying harder doesn't always get us to the goal.   Sometimes the problem is so deep that it is just repeated at every new start and the goal is too far to reach with the resources that we have.  That's one of the lessons from the story of Noah.

Consider Noah as a "start over" project that demonstrates beyond the shadow of a doubt that humanity's problem is something that can't be overcome by one more fresh start or by more effort with the same resources.  The story makes clear that in the end, we'll need rescue from the outside.

Noah was singular in his generation as a "righteous man, blameless among the people of his time, and he walked with God."  (Genesis 6:9)  With the destruction of the flood then, civilization "starts over" with one righteous man and his family.  Gone are all the corrupting influences of the social environment.  It sort of neutralizes the "nature or nurture" debate by removing social influence beyond this one family.  Somehow, even with just this one family - forget peer pressure, social structures and the like - sin finds it's way back into the fabric of human relationships. (Genesis 9:19 ff)

The point: humanity's problem is more than just negative influence from the outside.  It is a germ of destruction carried within even the righteous.  We carry it inside us, even when we enter the "sterile field" of a new start.  Our best efforts may hide it or forestall it's flourishing, but they do not eradicate it.

It is indeed a good thing to pursue justice, resist oppression and establish social structures of fairness and compassion.  Education has many benefits.  Socialization into habits of grace and humility do in fact make for a more livable world.  The story of Noah reminds us though that these things can only reach so far.  We each carry the infection of sin within us, and it will find it's way out over time.

One might say that the "start over experiment" has been tried and failed.  Better: it was demonstrated to us as the failure that it was known to be.   Never again will the God of creation submit the world around us to the blame and consequences for the problem of human sin.  He will never again destroy His creation and "start over" because the problem does not lie with His creation.  It hides within each of us.  And that will require an intervention from the outside to perform a transformation of our inside.

That is why David is so right when, after his failure to lead, his adultery with Bathsheeba and his murder of a faithful friend, he prayed "create in me a pure heart, O God" (Psalm 51:10)  A new start or more effort would never deal with David's real problem.  He needed outside intervention - "O God create" - to make him different at the deepest level - "a pure heart."  That is how the gospel of grace works.  That is the work of God on our behalf.

"God's strong anger against hate and sadness and death would come down once more - but not on His people, or His world.  No God's war bow was not pointing down at His people.  It was pointing up, into the heart of Heaven."

The heart of Heaven was God Himself.  That one time was the cross of Jesus.