Bible Story (Genesis Edition; Part I)

An Old Man & The First Flood

Oldman & The First Flood

We all know that life is hard to enjoy sometimes, and even at some point of our lives, we can think that world is a hideous & terrible place to life, with all its problems that never ends. News about war, disease, and criminality will always be the all-time favorite for our society. We've recently heard the news about the Corona Disease and how it has been spread out in a world-wide scale. It terrifies the world and some nations have also alert the citizens to stay safe, even schools were also closed for several days due to responding this phenomenon.

And suddenly, it reminds me of the 'Inferno' movie, a movie that's so typical to utilitarian ideology. To produce a global catastrophe by spreading deadly virus to the whole world, in order to save humanity from overpopulation. Well, it sounds like the antagonist were trying to do 'a greater good' for the people, but they're fooling themselves. And there's a line by Tom Hank that said 'The greatest sins in human history were committed in the name of love'. Yes, they're the truth! And we can do several researches of the greatest man in history (or literature) to proof that. Samson told his secrets to Delilah in the name of love, Hitler started the war to proof his love to his nation, and even Thanos wiped out half the universe, and claiming that it's the act of love.

Global catastrophe although it's hideous & cruel, has been so persuasive to some people that even myself, thought that 'it's fine to kill several people, as long the greater numbers of people could thrive'. And it was the first thing that God have done, thousands of years ago, according to the Genesis story. God has seen that humanity has been corrupted, evil, and there's no other way to make a better world & society, except to wipe out the entire globe, with the animals, by flooding all the earth surface. It must've been a terrible time at that era.

(Interruption : This essay is not to allow or promoting the utilitarian principles, because I'm not a big fan of human sacrifice for a greater good. We're not living in a stone age anymore)

Although we've realized that our world is so bad & evil, there's still hope for humanity. Noah is the great example of the hope for humanity. He's the only faithful guy in his time and that's why God chose him over millions of people in the world. He's the savior of our existence. This story represents the symbol of a personal improvement to be a better man, that would eventually, doing a greater good for the world. Saving the world doesn't have to start by a big action, sometimes it just need a small step. (Peterson, 2017). The story would be different if Noah is just as sinful as his neighbor or society, right?

Yes, faithful can be perfectly an insane idea. Noah has spent hundreds of years, diligently, and consistently, building an arc with his family, only for 120 days of flood. Comparing the time that they made it, and the time they used it, it's quite bizarre isn't it? And God was not just instructing him to build any arc! He also mentions it's size; the width, length, height, and then, the type of woods that they will used, and the other instructions that as insane as the first one is, to collect all the animals in the world in 7 days.

How did he manage to do that? Well, it's not specified yet in the book, but one thing that the writer told us specifically, about Noah's response to God's order is, he did all of them, precisely as what God says. He patiently build the arc for a hundred years, although it must be a hard time for him & his family, doing an impossible mission & still mocked by the neighbors, relatives, and friends. That's why he's the perfect example of a faithful & noble man. Faithful has never been an easy path to go and this could be a great deal for us.

Being faithful can also mean an insane move, because we are lack of evidence to do something. You know, it's crazy enough for Noah to believe that there's going to be a flood coming to the world, and it's more insane for him to keep believing his God's word for more than a centuries! That's why Noah is also consider one of the noble man that had lived in this world. His belief to God's word, has also proved himself that he's a great man, not because of his social status, his age, but his respond to do what's right although it's not a good option at that time.

Well, after the flood is also an interesting incident. After awhile, Noah decided to be a farmer & planting grapes. He made himself wine & made himself drunk at that night. It's not clear to know what's wrong about being drunk, because the writer didn't tell us anything about what did Noah do, when he was drunk. But when Sem came to his tent and see him naked, he seems like disgracing his father and mocking his nakedness by doing nothing to cover his father and to make it worse, he told his brothers about it. Of course, Ham & Yafet are doing the right thing to do; to cover their father nakedness and they even didn't see Noah while they're doing that.

It took me a long time to clearly understand why Sem was cursed by Noah, untill finally I learnt some perspectives about the ancient world view. Nakedness is a symbol of vulnerability at that time (Peterson, 2017), so when Sem saw Noah's nakedness, it's not just his body that Sem saw, but also his vulnerability. And how he respond to it, by letting the nakedness open wide, and told his brothers about it, is a stupid & ridiculous action. He can't handle himself with this secret and even spread it out, unwisely. Well, it's such a shame reputation for the son of a faithful man.

And that's the reason why Ham & Yafet was blessed crazily by his father, after that incident. Ham & Yafet respect his father, and prove themselves as a trustworthy people by refusing the temptation to see Noah's body. They loved their father & therefor, they respect him. They carefully took a blanket and cover Noah with it, so that they didn't see Noah. And after Noah woke up from his drunkenness, he immediately blessed Ham & Yafet, for being so gentle & respectful to him, and of course, cursing Sem for being so careless & brought shame to himself.

That's the end of the story of Noah & his family. It's Noah's faithfulness that saved humans existence & prevent from a total extinction, by making an arc for more than 100 years, collecting the animal, and above all, obey to His plans. And the next point after the flood, is the story of Sem, Ham, and Yafet, for their life choices after they're being faced by the same incident; Noah's nakedness. Ham & Yafet, had proven themselves as a worthy descendant, by being respectful to the higher authority and gentle responding vulnerability. It's Sem's fault, to being careless to handle 'nakedness' and therefor, brought curse to himself.