Noah's Ark


I had a quick theological question I'd like your ideas on if you wouldn't mind. Those of you who have read it and decided to remain Christians.

So today I thought I best get on with teaching Elias some bible stories. I thought I'd start with Noah's Ark because after learning the story Elias could paint a rainbow, listen to a song, think about all the animals etc.  It'd be nice, I thought.  I was misguided.  

Choosing Noah's Ark as the starting point for bible stories is a bit like choosing A Midsummer Night's Dream for a primary school production; it doesn't take long before you realise that what you thought was a kids' play is actually choc-a-bloc with sex, drugs and fairy-styled rock and roll.

So back to the Ark - the story of the flood is actually entirely not child-friendly: God decides to wipe out all of the humans by drowning them to death; he floods the earth and then he sends a rainbow as a promise that he won't do it again.  

Did he regret his decision or was this part of the plan?
Did he think the next bunch of humans would be any better?  Because we're not.  With this in mind, does God really want to flood us all out again but isn't doing so (on the same scale) because of the rainbow? 

I think I'm missing something here...how is the rainbow a symbol of hope when it is so mixed in with this terrible story which is so difficult to reconcile with a notion of an all-loving God?

And how good is this promise that God will never flood the earth again? Does this give us joy and peace when we know that a huge number of people have and will continue to lose their lives to flood related disasters.  If we think about it from the perspective of these communities, does the promise of the rainbow really carry any weight?

Please Friends - help me out here.  I want to raise my kids to love God but I have started with the fluffiest story I could find and it turned out to be a landmine.

Comments

  1. huxley...a fish1 April 2020 at 15:26

    This shows God keeps his promises, which is significant considering he promised us salvation and eternal life through Jesus - arguably everything in the OT is pointing towards Jesus, at which point the rainbow suddenly becomes so much better than just promising not to annihilate us all (not that we don't deserve to be annihilated).
    Also, by not treating us as we deserve and instead promising not to flood the whole world, that gives those of us who aren't being flooded (or exposed to other disasters) the opportunity to help those who are. How much less horrendous would these disasters be if we all took those opportunities! They and other tragedies still occur because we live in a fallen world, but that doesn't mean God is writing us off - we're doing that by not implementing the many things we could to help others.
    I hope that helps :/

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