Genesis and Matthew XVI

I will call to mind my covenant that is between me and you and all living things - all flesh: never again shall the waters become a Deluge, to bring all flesh to ruin!


He heard that and said, "It's not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick."

In a way, God now has a problem. Humanity had already decayed into total corruption in the days before the Flood. Only Noah and his family were spared. God favored Noah, because he was a just and fair man. He honored God, prayed to Him, fellowshipped with Him. Noah did what was right in God's eyes. Now notice - Noah and his family were spared.

God's problem is this: what is He going to do if humanity declines once again? He can't destroy them with a flood, because of His promise. He even has rainbows as a constant reminder of this promise (the reminder is probably more for our benefit!)

But there's something about keeping one man, and his family, around. Noah's righteousness covered his entire family. It is important to belong to a family.

But if humanity is to be spared, then God needs a new plan, a new approach. He had known all along that we were born with a sickness. Mortality itself is the worse kind of illness. What, really, does it matter whether we go by cancer, heart disease, murder, accidental death, or old age? Indeed, what if a direct act of God's judgment is what kills us in the end? We still die. We die because we are sick, and the illness itself is mortality. We need to be saved from Death! Sin is just a cause - but Death is the problem!

The Flood had the effect of teaching us the seriousness of sin and of death. But it must have pained God to have to go to such lengths. His new approach, now that we have seen how awful sin and death are (and every catastrophe should always remind us of this!), is to heal us.

The Scribes and Pharisees died. Tax-collectors and godless people die. We all die. Judas died, and Jesus died. We all are sick, and we all need a physician.