Fully Devoted: New CreationSample

Mercy Like a Flood

God has been setting the stage for New Creation ever since the beginning of the story. His character is consistent and His goal is partnership. And the flood story in Genesis is another example of God’s intention to rescue humanity and restore all of creation. What Genesis 6-9 shows us is not God’s cruelty, but rather His complete unwillingness to give up on His creation. When the whole world is speeding towards depravity and destruction, God intervenes. And His intervention is not an overreaction—it’s a form of salvation. 

You could think of it as a doctor stepping in to perform invasive surgery on a patient with an aggressive, malignant cancer. God performed surgery on His creation to address the cancer of sin that was destroying the world. 

After flooding the earth to rid the world of the violence, corruption, and evil that had been unleashed, God began again. Throughout Genesis 8, the author references the creation story of Genesis 1 and 2 with examples like the wind blowing over the waters, the dove flying out, and God’s command to be fruitful and multiply. 

And as God recreated the world, He initiated a new covenant—a partnership—with Noah, his family, and all creation: 

And God said, “This is the sign of the covenant I am making between me and you and every living creature with you, a covenant for all generations to come: I have set my rainbow in the clouds, and it will be the sign of the covenant between me and the earth.” Genesis 9:12-13 NIV

God promised never to send a flood to destroy the earth again. And as a sign of this covenant, He placed a rainbow in the sky as an everlasting reminder of His promise. In the original language, the word translated as “rainbow” is the same word used for a “bow,” as in a bow and arrow. So God is placing His bow in the clouds. 

Picture a rainbow, but imagine it as a giant bow and arrow in the sky. The bow is pointing up, meaning the arrow would fly into the sky, away from the earth, and toward the heavens. God is saying that He will never use a weapon of violence against His creation again. Instead, the violence will be unleashed against Him. 

And that’s exactly where we see the story headed. Even as violence re-escalated and God’s chosen people pawned their hearts off to other gods and other ideas of goodness, God was looking forward to the day when He would flood the earth with His love—the only force that can truly change the human heart. Through Jesus, God took the violence of sin on Himself and unleashed the power of grace into the world. 

And because of Jesus, the end of the story can look different from Genesis 6-7. Peter describes it like this: 

For Christ also suffered once for sins, the righteous for the unrighteous, to bring you to God. He was put to death in the body but made alive in the Spirit. After being made alive, he went and made proclamation to the imprisoned spirits—to those who were disobedient long ago when God waited patiently in the days of Noah while the ark was being built. In it only a few people, eight in all, were saved through water, and this water symbolizes baptism that now saves you also—not the removal of dirt from the body but the pledge of a clear conscience toward God. It saves you by the resurrection of Jesus Christ … 1 Peter 3:18-21 NIV

Jesus suffered and died for all of us. God pointed the bow at Himself and unleashed the violence on Himself so that we could experience a different reality by living from His victory. The Genesis flood was always meant to be a preview of God’s redemptive plan to rescue humanity and restore creation. God began the process of re-creating the world with a kind of flood that no one expected—a flood that confronted violence and corruption of sin with the mercy and justice of Jesus. And this process will come to completion when Jesus returns to reign, to rid the world of the old, self-centered way of doing things, and to usher in the new heaven and new earth. 

And this flood of mercy that we get to experience through Jesus is what renews us—it changes our hearts and creates the pathway for us to return to the “Garden version” of ourselves. The version of you that looks most like the God who made you. 

Do not lie to each other, since you have taken off your old self with its practices and have put on the new self, which is being renewed in knowledge in the image of its Creator. Colossians 3:9-10 NIV

Journaling Questions 

• What verse sticks out to you most from today’s reading? Write it in your journal. 
• Journal about a time someone showed you mercy when they could have chosen wrath. How did that experience impact you?
• What do you think it means to be renewed in knowledge in the image of the Creator? How can you embrace that renewal process? 

Memory Verse

He who was seated on the throne said, “I am making everything new!” Then he said, “Write this down, for these words are trustworthy and true.” Revelation 21:5 NIV