Reflections:
“Can you see anything?”
The story in Genesis of Noah and his ark signifies, among other things, the importance of the holy remnant. Noah did not “walk with God” for himself alone. The call to righteousness carries with it a responsibility for the entire globe and its inhabitants. Thus, Noah represents an ethic and spirituality concerned with the preservation of the earth and the survival of endangered species and cultures; he might well serve as a patron of ecological stewardship. Through Noah’s faithfulness God makes an unconditional covenant with all creation: “Never again will I strike down every living creature as I have done.” This is a universal covenant that precedes the specific covenants with Abraham and Moses. But the fact that God has vowed never to destroy the earth by means of a flood offers no grounds for complacency. Today the earth is threatened, as never before, by human wickedness, greed, and carelessness. The challenge for Noah’s descendants is not “survivalism” but defense of our common planet and its delicate ecology. If the earth becomes uninhabitable there will be no other lifeboats.
© Copyright Bible Diary 2019