Anna Tsukroff

The story of the Flood in Genesis has remained a powerful one throughout many years. This is due, in my opinion, to its simplicity and clarity. The story itself is concise and easily understood: God is an all-powerful being who decided to destroy all life on Earth on a whim because he felt men were not obeying him and were acting in a cruel, evil manner. The only one he saved, Noah, was saved because he was obeying God and therefore found favor with him. The message of the Flood is that actions have consequences. If you act in an evil manner, God will punish you. If you are good and righteous, God will reward you.

It is interesting that God has a change of heart after the Flood. He makes a covenant with Noah stating he'll never destroy all life on Earth again. There is a transition here from an angry, vengeful God to a more forgiving figure. I feel that at this point, God becomes more reliable in the eyes of the reader because he is saying that no matter what man does and how evil and corrupt he is, he will never kill everyone on Earth in a great catastrophe again. Personally, when I read this, this doesn't seem like a completely comforting statement. God is saying he won't kill humanity as a whole again, but he's not saying he won't kill or punish individuals. The message of understanding the effects and consequences of your actions still applies even through God's covenant with Noah.

What I find hypocritical about Noah, however, is the incident with his son Ham seeing him naked. It is never stated or even implied in the text that his son purposefully spies on him or really wants to see Noah naked. In fact, he does a nice thing by going and getting his brothers Shem and Japheth to cover his father up when he's too much in a drunken stupor to keep himself clothed. Instead of thanking his son for taking care of him, however, Noah curses his son and all of his son's descendants, the Canaanites. This seems a completely unforgiving and spiteful act for someone who is supposed to be so righteous.