Jesse Tree: Day Three - The Flood (Noah and the Ark)

Noah's Ark and Rainbow from The Craft's Nest

Genesis 6:11-22; 8:6-12; 9:11-17
Gen 6:11-22

 ¹¹ Now the earth was corrupt in God’s sight, and the earth was filled with violence. ¹² And God saw the earth, and behold, it was corrupt; for all flesh had corrupted their way upon the earth. ¹³ And God said to Noah, “I have determined to make an end of all flesh; for the earth is filled with violence through them; behold, I will destroy them with the earth. ¹⁴ Make yourself an ark of gopher wood; make rooms in the ark, and cover it inside and out with pitch. ¹⁵ This is how you are to make it: the length of the ark three hundred cubits, its breadth fifty cubits, and its height thirty cubits. ¹⁶ Make a roof for the ark, and finish it to a cubit above; and set the door of the ark in its side; make it with lower, second, and third decks. ¹⁷ For behold, I will bring a flood of waters upon the earth, to destroy all flesh in which is the breath of life from under heaven; everything that is on the earth shall die. ¹⁸ But I will establish my covenant with you; and you shall come into the ark, you, your sons, your wife, and your sons’ wives with you. ¹⁹ And of every living thing of all flesh, you shall bring two of every sort into the ark, to keep them alive with you; they shall be male and female. ²⁰ Of the birds according to their kinds, and of the animals according to their kinds, of every creeping thing of the ground according to its kind, two of every sort shall come in to you, to keep them alive. ²¹ Also take with you every sort of food that is eaten, and store it up; and it shall serve as food for you and for them.” ²² Noah did this; he did all that God commanded him.

Gen 8:6-12

 ⁶ At the end of forty days Noah opened the window of the ark which he had made, ⁷ and sent forth a raven; and it went to and fro until the waters were dried up from the earth. ⁸ Then he sent forth a dove from him, to see if the waters had subsided from the face of the ground; ⁹ but the dove found no place to set her foot, and she returned to him to the ark, for the waters were still on the face of the whole earth. So he put forth his hand and took her and brought her into the ark with him. ¹⁰ He waited another seven days, and again he sent forth the dove out of the ark; ¹¹ and the dove came back to him in the evening, and lo, in her mouth a freshly plucked olive leaf; so Noah knew that the waters had subsided from the earth. ¹² Then he waited another seven days, and sent forth the dove; and she did not return to him any more.

Gen 9:11-17

¹¹ I establish my covenant with you, that never again shall all flesh be cut off by the waters of a flood, and never again shall there be a flood to destroy the earth.” ¹² And God said, “This is the sign of the covenant which I make between me and you and every living creature that is with you, for all future generations: ¹³ I set my bow in the cloud, and it shall be a sign of the covenant between me and the earth. ¹⁴ When I bring clouds over the earth and the bow is seen in the clouds, ¹⁵ I will remember my covenant which is between me and you and every living creature of all flesh; and the waters shall never again become a flood to destroy all flesh. ¹⁶ When the bow is in the clouds, I will look upon it and remember the everlasting covenant between God and every living creature of all flesh that is upon the earth.” ¹⁷ God said to Noah, “This is the sign of the covenant which I have established between me and all flesh that is upon the earth.” 

Commentary:

6:9–8:22. The flood happens because man rejected the law of God (this process began with Adam and Eve). God punishes man’s disobedience by undoing the order of nature that he himself had established for man’s benefit. Thus, the waters above and below, which God had wisely separated from the earth (cf. 1:7), now invade the land in full force (cf. 7:11). The result is a return to chaos, and mankind is on the point of disappearing. The situation calls for a new beginning following on a severe purification. The Bible is offering us here an impressive lesson about the destiny of mankind when it turns its back on God and rejects the laws that are stamped on creation itself.

In many religions, not only those of the Near East, we can find stories to do with the destruction of mankind (or a large part of it) in pre-history—be it by water or fire or some cataclysm. Most of these stories tie in with belief in malevolent gods and man’s fear of them, or with his sense of a need for purification. For example, certain Sumerian and Babylonian legends had features very like those in the Bible account of the flood. But there is a fundamental difference: the Bible depicts the flood as a consequence of mankind’s sin, and as a new starting-point from which the true God, the Creator of the world and of man, can advance his plans of salvation through a remnant; from that remnant will later emerge Abraham, the father of the chosen people.

The announcement of the flood

6:19. The fate of the animal world is closely linked to that of man, in terms of both punishment and salvation. This verse is a way of reminding us that all creation is designed for man’s benefit and has a share in man’s destiny. In the light of Christ’s redemption, St Paul expresses the same truth when he says that “for the creation was subjected to futility, not of its own will but by the will of him who subjected it in hope; because the creation itself will be set free from its bondage to decay and obtain the glorious liberty of the children of God” (Rom 8:20–21).

The flood subsides

8:6–12. The sending of the raven and the dove shows how anxious and how hopeful of salvation those in the Ark are; it also shows Noah’s wisdom and, yet again, the harmony there should be between man and the animal world for things to go well. This episode has led to the dove and the olive-branch becoming symbols of peace and co-operation.

In Christian tradition the dove became a symbol of the Holy Spirit. On the basis of this image Rupert of Deutz offers a spiritual application of this entire passage: “The dove that Noah sent out from the ark means the Holy Spirit, and he sent it three times because every faithful soul draws from the sacraments of Christ or of the Church a triple grace of the Holy Spirit. The first grace is remission of sins; the second, distribution of the various gifts; the third, re-compense in the resurrection of the dead […]. Therefore, the first sending of the dove means the remission of sins which Christ, the true Noah, sent immediately after his resurrection when he said: ‘Receive the Holy Spirit. If you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven; if you retain the sins of any, they are retained’ (Jn 20:23) […]. After it was sent the second time, the dove came back in the evening bearing in its beak a small olive leaf, because the apostles were given the Holy Spirit a second time on the day of the Pentecost, and at the end of the life of each of them he called them to the rest enjoyed by the heavenly Church with the eternal reward of perfect peace. After the dove was sent the third time it did not return, because after the resurrection of the dead (which will be the third outpouring of the Holy Spirit) they will not be sent out to return once more, for they will go out not to work but to reign for ever. So too as regards the elect: this same dove comes to them three times: first when they are baptized, for the remission of sins: second, to receive the imposition of hands from the bishops; third (as I have said) in the resurrection of the dead” (Commentarium in Genesim, 4:23).

9:8–17. To show that he was pleased by Noah’s sacrifice, God promised that he would never again flood the earth (cf. 8:20–22); now he renews that promise in the context of a covenant that covers all creation and which is ratified by a sign—the rainbow.

This marks the start of a series of covenants which God will freely establish with men. The first covenant (with Noah) takes in all creation, now purified and renewed by the flood. Later there will be the covenant with Abraham, which will affect only himself and his descendants (cf. chap. 17). Finally, under Moses, he will establish the covenant of Sinai (cf. Ex 19), also confined to the people of Israel. But because man proved unable to keep these successive covenants, God promised, through the prophets, to establish a new covenant in the messianic age: “I will put my law within them and I will write it upon their hearts; and I will be their God, and they shall be my people” (Jer 31:33). This promise found its fulfilment in Christ, as he himself said when he instituted the eucharistic sacrifice of his body and blood: “This cup which is poured out for you is the new covenant in my blood” (Lk 22:20).

The Fathers and ecclesiastical writers saw this rainbow as the first proclamation of this new covenant. Rupert of Deutz, for example, writes: “In it God established a covenant with men through his son Jesus Christ; by the death (of Christ) on the cross God reconciled us to himself, cleansing us of our sins in his blood, and he gave us through (Christ) the Holy Spirit of his love, instituting the baptism of water and the Holy Spirit by which we are reborn. Therefore, that rainbow which appears in the clouds is a sign of the Son of God. […] It is the sign that God will never again destroy all flesh by the waters of the flood; the Son of God himself, who was taken out of sight by a cloud, and who is lifted up beyond the clouds, above all the heavens, is forever a sign which reminds God the Father; he is an eternal memorial of our peace: now that he in his flesh has destroyed the old enmity, friendship between God and men is secure: men are no longer servants but friends and children of God” (Commentarium in Genesim, 4, 36).