The Flood represents the closest God has ever come to giving up. We used to be stewards of the whole earth; after the Fall, we were stewards of the whole earth except Eden. God tasked us with healing the world, but we fared no better the second time around than the first, and so God used the Flood to baptize the earth. And yet, the Flood—which was wholly disastrous—came with a promise. It was God’s promise to give the world another chance.
The Flood restored God’s willingness to remain in the muck of humanity. The Flood gave us a new chance for deep peace with both our Creator and His Creation. The Flood stands as a reminder that God hates sin, that God can and sometimes will take steps to stop it in its tracks, but that God will find new ways to remind us who we were created to be and to help make us right.