Genesis 6-7

What’s Happening?

Only a few chapters after God created the world good, humanity’s evil had covered the earth instead of God’s image (Genesis 6:5). The picture is bleak: every thought of the human heart was bent toward violence. And the rebellion was not just earthly. The story of the Nephilim shows that spiritual beings joined in humanity’s corruption, spreading deformity instead of God’s life (Genesis 6:2, 4). Both heaven and earth had united in rebellion, unraveling creation itself.

The result is a world that looks more like Genesis 1:1 before God’s creative word spoke light and order into being: “darkness over the surface of the deep, and the Spirit of God hovering over the waters.” God allows the chaotic waters of evil to surge back over creation. The flood is not only judgment, it is a cleansing—a de-creation meant to wash away corruption and violence so that God can re-create his world.

And even here, God keeps his promise from Genesis 3:15. He will not let the line of life end. In Noah, who finds favor with God, God preserves the seed of life. Noah and his family enter the ark, carried above the waters of death. Through Noah, God saves humanity and the image of God from vanishing under the corruption of a violent generation (1 Peter 3:20). After the flood, God’s Spirit will once again hover over the waters of a cleansed world, and creation will begin anew.

Where is the Gospel?

Peter tells us the flood story points to Jesus (1 Peter 3:21). Just as Noah entered the ark to be saved from a corrupt world, so we enter into Jesus to be rescued from the corruption around and within us. In him, we are saved—not only from destruction, but for new life.

Jesus is the true Noah who carries us safely through the waters of death. As Noah was lifted above the flood, Jesus was lifted from the grave. As Noah brought his family into a cleansed world, Jesus brings us into a new creation where we can bear God’s image in flourishing and life instead of deformity and violence.

In Jesus we are not just preserved—we are cleansed. He washes away what deforms us and makes us like himself, re-created in the image of God. He makes us a people who can cultivate the new garden of God’s presence and spread his life to the world.

See for Yourself

I pray that the Holy Spirit will open your eyes to see the God who will never let his world unravel into chaos. And may you see Jesus as the true Noah who carries you through death, cleanses you, and makes you part of his new creation.