The character and nature of God often need to be defended, whenever the subject of the Flood is discussed.
The defence of God’s character is known as a “theodicy.” Theodicy, from the Greek “theos” (meaning “God”) and “dikē” (meaning “justice”) is a branch of theology that seeks to reconcile the existence of evil or suffering in the world with the notion of a benevolent and omnipotent deity. It delves into questions like why a supposedly all-powerful and loving God allows suffering, injustice, and evil to occur. It is essentially an attempt to understand the role God plays in the existence of evil.
The Bible teaches that God is holy (Pss 22:3, 71:22, Isa 6:3, Rev 4:8) and just/righteous (Deut 32:4, Jn 17:25, Rev 16:5), and that sin is an affront against His holiness (2 Sam 11:27, Pss 51:4, cf. Pss 11:5, Pro 6:16-19, 11:1, 20). God does have wrath (see Nah 1:6, Jn 3:36, Rom 1:18), and this wrath is unleashed against sinful human actions; including murmuring (Num 11:1-3, 10), idolatry (Deut 29:24-28), irreverence (2 Sam 6:6-7), disobedience (Col 3:6) and unrepentance (Isa 9:12-13, Rom 2:4-6).
God’s wrath must however be properly represented. It is not like sinful human anger, which is damaging, vindictive and immoral. God’s wrath is explained in Scripture as Him simply “hiding His face” i.e. His presence leaves (1 Sam 16:14, Jdgs 16:20, Eze 5:11 NASB, Jer 7:15, 16:5, Hos 5:6, cf. 2 Chron 7:20), and then destruction occurs in the absence of His saving power (see Deut 31:17-18, 32:20, Pss 13:1, Isa 54:8, 57:17, 59:1-2, 64:7, Eze 7:22, 39:23-24, Jer 33:5, Mic 3:4). God does not need to destroy His enemies, He simply walks away (when He is rejected), permitting their sins to destroy them. This is sometimes described as God “handing over (to destruction)” (see Lev 26:25, Jdgs 2:14, Eze 39:23, Rom 1:24).
Sin is self-destructive and has in itself its own penalty (Rom 6:23). Particularly, the Bible describes the physical effects of sin on nature. Sin is often described as poisoning the Earth; it pollutes the Earth and curses it to die (see Gen 3:17-19, Lev 18:24-25). This manifests in form of natural disasters; droughts (Jer 3:2-3), inarable soil (Jer 12:4), pest infestation (Jl 1:4, 10-12) etc.
God made a perfect world (cf. Gen 1:31, 1 Tim 4:4), which is defaced by sin (cf. Rom 8:20-22). For instance, God did not create microorganisms (e.g. bacteria and viruses) to cause diseases, but sin mutates them into pathogens. Thus, sin is ultimately to blame for natural disasters, not God. Sin was bringing the Flood already (as a consequence), all God tried to do was rescue man, before it came. This is the true Flood story.
Where the Bible speaks of God “causing” natural disasters, this is not to be understood literally; the Jewish permissive idiom is being used. The permissive idiom (also called the permissive voice, divine passivity or divine withdrawal) explains that God does not directly cause evil or suffering, He allows it to happen by withdrawing His active presence or intervention, when He is rejected. God would only intervene to help when permitted to, by faith and dependence on Him. When He is not permitted, however, He stands back and refuses to impose Himself against human freewill. Destruction occurs when God does not act, not when He acts!
In this case, He “permits” destruction to occur (by doing nothing to stop it), rather than actively causing it to happen. The Hebrew language does not however distinguish between causation and permission, which confuses English readers of the Bible. The active verb is still used in describing what God passively does (e.g. “God killed” instead of “God permitted him to be killed”). This has affected modern interpretations of judgment texts in the Bible.
God’s character would be better understood if judgment texts (including the Flood narrative) are read permissively, rather than causatively. Observe the following examples:
Genesis 6:7
Causative: So the Lord said, “I will destroy man whom I have created from the face of the earth, both man and beast, creeping thing and birds of the air…
Permissive: So the Lord said, “The absence of my saving power will cause man to be destroyed, whom I have created from the face of the earth, both man and beast, creeping thing and birds of the air…
Genesis 6:13
Causative: And God said to Noah, “The end of all flesh has come before Me, for the earth is filled with violence through them; and behold, I will destroy them with the earth.”
Permissive: And God said to Noah, “The end of all flesh has come before Me, for the earth is filled with violence through them; and behold, I permit them to be destroyed with the earth (by the withdrawal of my saving power).”
Genesis 6:17
Causative: And behold, I Myself am bringing floodwaters on the earth, to destroy from under heaven all flesh in which is the breath of life; everything that is on the earth shall die.
Permissive: And behold, I allow (by being absent) floodwaters to be brought on the earth, to destroy from under heaven all flesh in which is the breath of life (both man and the animals); everything that is on the earth shall die.
Genesis 7:4
Causative: For after seven more days I will cause it to rain on the earth forty days and forty nights, and I will destroy from the face of the earth all living things that I have made.”
Permissive: For after seven more days I will permit it to rain on the earth forty days and forty nights, and I will permit all living things that I have made to be destroyed, from the face of the earth (by withdrawing My saving power, which has been rejected).
Genesis 7:23
Causative: So He destroyed all living things which were on the face of the ground: both man and cattle, creeping thing and bird of the air. They were destroyed from the earth…
Permissive: So He permitted all living things which were on the face of the ground to be destroyed: both man and cattle, creeping thing and bird of the air. They were destroyed from the earth (because His power was not present to deliver them)…
Amos 3:6
Causative: If there is calamity in a city, will not the Lord have done it?
Permissive: If there is calamity in a city, will not the Lord’s absence have done it?
Conclusively, God’s wrath “brought the Flood,” not by actively causing the waters to fall upon the Earth, but by passively doing nothing to stop it, because mankind had rejected Him, and consequently, His saving power. Man’s sin destroys him, not God.
(An excerpt from The Christian’s Guide to Origins, pp. 267-269)
