When people study and reflect on the great flood of Noah’s day, the symbolism of the event is rarely overlooked. It’s easy to see, after all. The flood is a great reminder of Gods’ willingness to punish sinners and spare the faithful. There’s another symbol to be studied, however, and it is less-considered.

The flood is not just a picture of judgment and grace (which we’ll talk about later this week). It is also a picture of creation.

Think about it: When the world was first made, Moses writes that it was a globe of water, over which the Spirit of God moved (Genesis 1:1-2). God soon created the dry ground below and the sky above, and He created man to live in the world, but in the beginning of the world, the world…was water.

After several generations mankind had reached a point where sinners and sin so outstripped the righteousness that God demanded of His people that He decided to “start over.” He spared Noah and his family, who would become the new procreaters of humanity but think about the state of the world when God’s judgment came. It was completely covered by water. Other than Noah’s ark, the world was as it was in the beginning.

Then Noah and his family stepped out of the ark, like Adam and Eve stepping out into the world, and started anew.

It’s poetic, no?