God Hates Sin
Genesis 8: 13 And it came to pass in the six hundred and first year, in the first month, the first day of the month, that the waters were dried up from the earth; and Noah removed the covering of the ark and looked, and indeed the surface of the ground was dry.
15 Then God spoke to Noah, saying, 16 “Go out of the ark, you and your wife, and your sons and your sons’ wives with you.
It struck me in this passage: on the first day of the first month after Noah had completed six centuries of life, God ended the cleansing of His creation. Creation took six days, and the cleansing of the flood ended with Noah’s sixth century. God rested on the seventh day, just as He (and Noah) began their rest on the first day of Noah’s seventh century.
I don’t know if these parallels mean anything, but they struck me.
What we do see in the story of the flood is God who deals seriously with sin. We see this same God in the driving out of irredeemable nations from the Promised Land (as if such can exist in the land of promise, being our home in heaven with the Father).
We somehow find that the God of the New Testament is different from this God of the Old Testament. We focus on the parable of the Good Samaritan and the father of the Prodigal Son, but forget many other things said about the Son of God in the New Testament.
Many point to the episode of driving out the money-changers from the temple as some sort of sign of continuity. But this really is nothing.
The scene is John the Baptist at the Jordan, baptizing all who come to him and confess their sins.
Matthew 3: 7 But when he saw many of the Pharisees and Sadducees coming to his baptism, he said to them, “Brood of vipers! Who warned you to flee from the wrath to come?
Wrath to come? This is the New Testament, and John is about to introduce to the world the Good Samaritan, the “love your enemies” guy. And he introduces Him with these words:
10 And even now the ax is laid to the root of the trees. Therefore every tree which does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire. 11 I indeed baptize you with water unto repentance, but He who is coming after me is mightier than I, whose sandals I am not worthy to carry. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire.
He is speaking of the Son of God, Jesus Christ – cutting down and burning unfruitful trees.
12 His winnowing fan is in His hand, and He will thoroughly clean out His threshing floor, and gather His wheat into the barn; but He will burn up the chaff with unquenchable fire.”
Just as God did at the time of the flood.
And we learn more about this Son in the book of Revelation….