RUINED

Genesis 6:12 God saw how corrupt the earth had become, for all the people on earth had corrupted their ways.

I recently found my old baseball glove. I really used it more for softball than baseball. Usually I played in the outfield. I've got some wheels and (when in shape) a pretty good arm too. (Insert story about how I threw a guy out at home plate from deep right field). I am not entirely sure what happened to my glove but when I found it there were white and greenish blue fuzzy spots all over it. If you got close enough, which I would not recommend, it had this musty stale smell. 

This of course is what happens when you leave a leather glove in a damp basement for a few years; untouched, unused and forgotten about. I literally put my hand in my glove and then noticed the spots. If you have any ideas on how to get it out please let me know! Until I get rid of the spots and the smell it really is unusable. Unfortunately for me and my glove, if those spots have been there for too long they will leave a permanent stain.

Naturally, this leads us to Noah. From verse eleven to verse thirteen “the earth” is mentioned six times and “to ruin” (translated as corrupt) is mentioned five times. We are meant to see that this ruining of the Earth is systemic, pervasive, everywhere. It begins with the ruining of individual people and soon becomes part of entire cultural systems. Put another way: the earth had become corrupt because the people had become corrupt. The ruining that starts in the heart or mind of an individual eventually affects the body too.

It starts with one person, and in time becomes part of societal and cultural expectations. What I realized is that even though the mold did not cover every square inch of my glove, even though it only touched certain parts, the entire glove smells, the entire glove is unusable. It is going to take a lot of patience and work to get my glove back to the way it used to be and there really is no guarantee that it will. I may be better off starting over with a new glove.

Just a Meandering Thought...

VIOLENCE

Genesis 6:11 Now the earth was corrupt in God’s sight and was full of violence.

Maybe you heard the news story in 2014 about extremists of a particular religion in the Middle East doing door to door evangelism... sort of. The message of ISIS in Northern Iraq was roughly, "By the end of the week you must leave your home, convert to our ideology or die. If you missed that story here is an article from then so you can get caught up from The Telegraph.

Refugees gathering in the hopes of supplies and escape
(Photo Credit)

It was a campaign of intimidation, manipulation violence and the threat of violence. ISIS systematically went through towns in Northern Iraq and the result was a humanitarian crisis that brought in the American military for assistance.

Violence in some capacity is the result of unchecked evil.

The word “violence” in this verse from Genesis is a translation of the Hebrew word chamas. Think guttural, like you are clearing your throat, This word denotes any antisocial behavior or unneighborly activity. Elsewhere in the Old Testament it is translated as "malicious" and "cruel". Very often it involves the use of brute force or threat of force but it may also be the exploitation of the weaker by the stronger.

Amos 6:1-3 uses this word to speak against the powerful taking advantage of the weak and the rich taking advantage of the poor. Proverbs 16:29 uses this word to speak against the clever exploiting the naive. Scripture consistently speaks against those who exploit others and calls it violence.

What ISIS was doing in Northern Iraq that summer (what they continue to do) is the kind of "violence" described in Genesis 6. The threatening use of force by those with perceived power over those without power, the exploitation of the weak by the able, the poor by the rich, the have not's by the have's, When the use of violence for the exploitation and the intimidation of weak becomes the norm God knows it is time to step in and do something. Wouldn't you want someone to?

Just A Meandering Thought...

EARTH

Genesis 6:11 Now the earth was corrupt in God’s sight and was full of violence.

Have you ever had a dream, a vision for the future, a hope beyond the present? Have you ever made big plans and had them spoiled, ruined by someone or something... poured yourself into a project and then watched someone else mishandle it and had the whole thing fall apart? 

Genesis six tells us that the wickedness of man had corrupted the earth. God had a dream, a vision for something but man mishandled it. This word "corrupt" in the Hebrew literally means to ruin or bring to ruin. The root of “to ruin” is used to describe the spoiling of a garment, or a pot as in with the stale smell and splotchy stain of mold. In other places it is used to describe the sudden destruction of peoples and cities in war, or through divine judgment. So in this word we have a picture of something being spoiled in a smelly splotchy kind of way to the point of being destroyed.

At the end of each day of creation we read “and God saw…” because God looked at creation and was pleased. By the time we get to chapter six God is heart broken at what he sees; heart broken over the ruin, the spoiling, the corruption of his creation. No wonder he wanted to wipe humanity from the Earth.

So at this point in the narrative God sees a spoiled dream, plans brought to ruin, a mishandled, uncared for, abused and unprotected hope that is falling apart. Does this sound like anything you have ever experienced? God knows the pain of loss, the angst that comes with the smelly splotchy spoiling of a dream? Good thing this is not the end of the story.

Just a meandering thought...