Please read the passage before reading the commentary.
I recall the seven days of creation )(Genesis 1:1-2:2) and how God rested on the seventh day and gave us the Sabbath as sign of God’s covenant with us (Cf Exodus 31:12-13). In the beginning of the act of creation, the earth was a formless void, a messy nothingness, for God to put in order. At that time God saw all that God had made, and God found it very good.
Sin and corruption, however, made their way into creation and God repented of having made the earth. The story of the flood brings us back to un-creation. The waters of chaos and nothingness again swept over the face of the earth and God’s wind, or breath, blew over the waters again. The waters subsided and dry land again appeared. The rainbow became another sign of the covenant God made with us. The story of the flood is the story of a second creation of the world. Once again God saw the world as good.
Flood waters are chaotic; they bring chaos. They need to be tamed. Chaos, what is waste and void, and the darkness of the stormy night, are ways we have to explain what nothing is like. When we say that God created the world out of some primeval slime or mud, we are trying to describe how God made the world out of nothing.
The messiness of storms can frighten us. We hope to get through the storms and chaos and return to the safety of our lives. God “went through” the primal nothingness to create the world. God brought the ark safely through the flooding waters to a safe rest on dry land.
The water of uncreated chaos gave way to the flood waters of Noah’s time. The waters of the flood then gave way to the dangerous waters of the Red Sea and then to the high waters of the Jordan River. Note that in each instant of water barriers, there was a “going through” that had to be done. Whenever our lives are filled with turbulent waters, if we are going through rough times, the word is, “Keep going through.”
We continue to meet water in the Scriptures and in our lives. Jesus passed through the waters of the Jordan in his baptism. Jesus also went through the waters of death and came through on the other side alive and well.
Even the raging waters of the earth have cleansing power. God cleansed creation through the waters of the flood. God saved the Israelites through the Red Sea waters. God brought them home through the waters of the Jordan. The waters of baptism mark us out as beloved children of God. God saves us even as we go through the waters of death. As long as the earth lasts, and even beyond, God’s creative power to save and restore remains.