The Bible Challenge: Day 3

The Scriptures read were Genesis 7-9, Psalm 3, and Matthew 3.


Genesis 7-9. With a last minute change in the cargo--more pairs of clean animals and birds--Noah's ark embarks on a long voyage. It rains for 40 days and 40 nights. But it's the better part of a year till the new inhabitants of a scrubbed clean earth get to put their feet on dry land. The sign the deluge is over: a dove sent to fly over the waters, just as God's Spirit hovered bird-like over the dark waters that gave birth to the creation.

And God makes a covenant, the terms of which fall exclusively on him. He will hang up his bow in the clouds to signal he will not wash away all life ever again. God knows that his creatures are corrupt from the moment they are able to make choices. But he will not wipe them out.

Nor does anyone else get to. God prohibits murder. All people are made in his image and so all murder is tantamount to deicide. All Biblical ethics are built on this: the image of God in human beings. "What you do to the least of these...you do to me." Jesus was making explicit what is implicit in the Bible.

Noah invents viticulture. And promptly gets drunk. The rest of the story is odd by modern Western standards. Noah is lying in his tent, drunk and naked. His youngest son sees him, tells his older brothers, who cover him up, walking backward into the tent and throwing a cloak over him. It's an elaborate way of showing their father respect. When Noah wakes up he curses his son Ham because of his disrespect. The cultures of the Middle East are "honor/shame" cultures. Losing face is a big thing. Imagine your dad crashes your party and is drunk and naked. Afterward, he finds you did nothing to stop him from making a fool of himself. Not cool, dude!

Psalm 3: Written at the time of the revolt of David's beloved son Absalom. He remains confident despite his change of circumstances. When things look black, God's got your back.

Matthew 3. John the Baptiser was so effective as a preacher that he could break the rules of rhetoric and still hold his audience. He insults them and their ancestry and still they stay. They know they're sick and so they are glad that John tells them just what their malady is. No progress to righteousness without a proper diagnosis first. John provides that without any fawning BS.

John foresaw Jesus' coming but not that he would come to him, John, to be baptized, like any old sinner. John almost refuses but Jesus makes his case that his identification with us is such that he needs to be baptized like all the rest. And when Jesus emerges from the water, he sees an anointing in the form of a dove and hears the loud voice of God's love. Scrubbed clean, shaking off the water, Jesus begins a new life in a dry-as-dust desert.