Noah: Flood announced, January 3, 2013 8:35 AM

Genesis 6:5–7:24

According to the Anchor Bible Dictionary, the name “Noah” means “to rest, settle down, repose, etc.; thus ‘Noah’ may mean ‘to rest.’” For me, if I consider people and things as symbols of thoughts, Noah represents a state of consciousness resting in God, at peace in God. When we rest in this way, we “build an ark” that floats above and delivers us from the destruction that comes from negative states of mind (represented in this story by the rest of humanity). The clean and unclean animals are also thoughts. They suggest, to me, spiritual thoughts (clean) and mundane, worldly thoughts (unclean). Both kinds are rescued and preserved; both spiritual and mundane thoughts are necessary in the new world, although the spiritual thoughts are given greater priority (seven pairs versus a single pair). We can bring both our spiritual and our ordinary thoughts into the quiet place of rest, where they are carried by God into a new place.

I notice that once Noah is in the ark, he has nothing to do for the whole time he is there (except to care for an entire zoo!). He just stays in his place of rest, and is carried through the destruction. As the psalmist writes, “God is our refuge and our strength” (Ps. 46:1). Or as another Psalm puts it, “Cast your burden on the Lord, and He will sustain you” (Ps. 55:22). We cast all our care upon God (I Peter 5:7) as Noah put his life, his family, and his livestock into the Ark, and we rest there.

The story as it is told in the Bible clearly comes from a primitive state of consciousness, a tribal state of consciousness that viewed God as a terrifying being who could arbitrarily decide that because he doesn’t like what humanity has become, he will just wipe them off the face of the earth. Literally. And, apparently, taking no responsibility for how what he created has turned out. And yet there is the element of truth, and of true insight. The divine, which lives in us and is us, has no tolerance for thoughts that are wicked, corrupt, and full of violence. The divine within us does act to obliterate such thinking. It speaks to us, and calls us to that place of rest, the Noah’s Ark within that we can find in quiet meditation. There, the waters of God wash over our minds, erasing our error states of consciousness, and all that is not in accord with the divine nature.

I take some time today to enter the Ark and to rest.