The 500-Year Flood and the Kingdom of Christ

Preached on June 15, 2008, by Eric Schumacher

Topics: Encouragement Flood Of 2008

© Eric M Schumacher – Preached June 15, 2008 at Northbrook Baptist Church, Cedar Rapids, Iowa

You probably spent your Thursday much like I did—for the most part, unable pull yourself away from the television, watching in unbelief and tears as the waters kept rising to historic records in downtown Cedar Rapids.

Governor Chet Culver stated that, by Friday morning, 24,000 people had been evacuated. People, including those in our congregation, have had their houses flooded with water, probably destroyed. Others, including those in our congregation, have lost their businesses. Most of these do not have flood insurance.

Helplessness is overwhelming. If it is your house or business that the flood waters threatened, you sit and watch and wonder, “What can I do?” If you are fortunate enough to live in a higher and dryer place, you watch and wonder, “What can I do?”

There are a few things that we frequently encourage you, here at Northbrook Baptist, to do. One is to view all of Scripture—and all of life—in relation to Jesus Christ. We teach you that the Bible contains a storyline centered on Jesus Christ. The central theme of the entire Bible, I have said before, is the glory of God in the establishing and redemption of his Kingdom through Jesus Christ. If that is the theme of the Bible, then that is the goal of all history. Therefore, I have encouraged you to live all of life conscious of that truth.

This morning, with historic flooding present in our minds, I want us to ask this question, “Where do 500-year floods fit in the Christ-centered storyline of the Bible? Where do floods come from? How should we respond to them? Where can we find hope?”

To answer those questions is to understand the meaning of this flood. To do that, we will begin with creation.

In the Beginning

The book of Genesis tells us that God created the heavens and the earth and everything in them, including man.

Man was created in the image of God to rule the earth. Genesis 1:28 tells us that after God created man in his own image, God said to them:

Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and subdue it and have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over every living thing that moves on the earth.

To be created in God’s “image” means to be created, in some sense, as his representative on earth. Together, Adam and Eve were to “fill the earth and subdue it and have dominion...” That is, man was to “rule” (fill, subdue, have dominion) over the created order in the way that God himself would.

The author of the letter to the Hebrews (2:6-8) quotes from Psalm 8 when he says:

It has been testified somewhere, ‘What is man, that you are mindful of him, or the son of man, that you care for him? You made him for a little while lower than the angels; you have crowned him with glory and honor, putting everything in subjection under his feet.’

Then, he comments, “Now in putting everything in subjection to him, he left nothing outside his control. At present, we do not yet see everything in subjection to him.”

God put everything “in subjection” to man. Nothing was left outside of his control. Therefore, man was created to rule over the skies and the birds in them. Man was created to rule over the land and the beasts on it. Man was created to rule waters of the sea and the creatures in them.

Nevertheless, as is all too apparent to us, “we do not yet see everything in subjection” to man. Instead, we see tornadoes, like the recent one that leveled Parkersburg, Iowa or the one that took the lives of four young men at a Boy Scout camp in western Iowa this past week. Instead of seeing “man” subject creation, we see a record-setting flood ravage the downtown of Waterloo, Cedar Rapids and Iowa City. And these do not even begin to touch hurricanes, tsunamis, and earthquakes that bring destruction around the world.

What Happened?

When we face situations like a 500-year flood, we have to ask this obvious question—If God has created man to have dominion over all of creation, then why are there floods that we cannot and do not subdue? Why are there tornados, over which we cannot exercise dominion? Why do we not see everything in subjection to man?

To answer the question, we need to look only a little farther in Genesis. In Genesis 2:15, after God created Adam, God placed Adam in the Garden and commanded him “to work and keep it.” The Lord gave Adam specific instructions regarding how to live—from which trees he could eat and from which tree he could not eat. The day in which Adam disobeyed those instructions, death would enter the world.

Adam was to care for the Garden. So, when a serpent entered the Garden and tempted Eve to eat of the fruit that God had forbidden, we naturally expect Adam, the worker and keeper, to step in, subdue the serpent, and exercise dominion. Rather, Adam passively stands by as Eve listens to the serpent and eats of the fruit. Adam follows suit, and deadly consequences follow.

The Wages of Sin

Regarding this forbidden tree and its fruit, God had told Adam, “in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die.” There would be consequences for sin. The wages would be death (Rom. 6:23).

Sin would disrupt the relationship between man and God, as Adam and Eve are sent out of the Garden.

Sin would disrupt the relationship between man and woman, leading her to desire to rebel against him and leading him to rule harshly over her.

Sin would also disrupt the relationship between man and the world that God created them to rule over together. God had told Adam and Eve to “fill the earth and subdue it.” Filling the earth would now be painful, as God tells Eve that the pain of childbirth will be multiplied.

Subduing the earth would also be painful, as the earth would be radically uncooperative. Listen to what happens to the relationship between creation and man, as God speaks to Adam, in Genesis 3:17-19:

Because you have listened to the voice of your wife and have eaten of the tree of which I commanded you, ‘You shall not eat of it,’ cursed is the ground because of you; in pain you shall eat of it all the days of your life; thorns and thistles it shall bring forth for you; and you shall eat the plants of the field. By the sweat of your face you shall eat bread, till you return to the ground, for out of it you were taken; for you are dust, and to dust you shall return.

Adam failed to exercise dominion in the Garden, therefore all of creation was subjected to a curse. In other words, God is saying that the task of subduing and exercising dominion over creation will now be much more difficult. Thorns and thistles will grow now. Creation will not cooperate; it will work against Adam. Filling the earth and subduing it, exercising dominion, will be painful and frustrating work.

All Creation Groans

The Apostle Paul describes the results of the curse in Romans 8:20-23:

For the creation was subjected to futility, not willingly, but because of him who subjected it, in hope that the creation itself will be set free from its bondage to decay and obtain the freedom of the glory of the children of God. For we know that the whole creation has been groaning together in the pains of childbirth until now. And not only the creation, but we ourselves, who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for adoption as sons, the redemption of our bodies.

Did you hear that? Creation is in bondage to decay, subjected to futility. Creation groans under the curse of sin wanting to be redeemed.

So how do we interpret this flood? Meteorologists and hydrologists can explain the flooding in terms of low-pressure and high-pressures systems, warm fronts and cold fronts, ground saturation, and so forth. All of these explanations are technically true in terms of how the elements of our world work. Yet, as Russ Moore commented on Hurricane Katrina, “We know, however, that at its root this natural disaster isn’t natural at all. It is a creation crying out, ‘Adam, where are you?’”

We who read the Bible know that there is an underlying theological explanation that cannot be overlooked. 500-year floods are part of the wages of sin, the curse due to man’s rebellion in the Garden of Eden. 500-year floods (and tornados and hurricanes and earthquakes) exist because creation was “subjected to futility” and is in “bondage to decay” because of the curse of sin.

500-year floods are not Mother Nature reminding us that she is still in control. Rather, they are creation reminding us that we—in Adam—have failed to fulfill the creation mandate.

The 30-foot plus flood that roars through downtown Cedar Rapids is creation groaning under the burden of sin, crying out for the day when it will be “born again.” It is the creation groaning, crying out for a righteous ruler who can free it from the curse.

Who Will Free Us From This Cosmos of Death?

Just as creation groan, so does man. The Apostle Paul once cried out in Romans 7:24, “Wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death?”

As we watched the flood waters rise, many cried, “What can we do? Who can stop this?” We might well cry out with Paul and all of creation, “Who will deliver us from this cosmos of death? Who will come to subdue the earth and exercise dominion over it?”

For the answer to that question, we can turn to Mark 4:35-41:

And a great windstorm arose, and the waves were breaking into the boat, so that the boat was already filling. But he was in the stern, asleep on the cushion. And they woke him and said to him, "Teacher, do you not care that we are perishing?" And he awoke and rebuked the wind and said to the sea, "Peace! Be still!" And the wind ceased, and there was a great calm. He said to them, "Why are you so afraid? Have you still no faith?" And they were filled with great fear and said to one another, "Who then is this, that even wind and sea obey him?"

I used to read this passage much-like I read through Jesus walking on the water, interpreting it to mean, “Jesus is God, so I should trust in Him.” Both those points are entirely true, but I think that Jesus and Mark intended for us to see something more specific than “Jesus is God.” We are seeing that Jesus is the Messiah, the promised redeemer of creation.

In Mark 4, Jesus had just been teaching in parables about what the Kingdom of God is like. Now, at the end of Mark 4 and into Mark 5 he shows his disciples what the Kingdom of God is like as he walks on water, casts out demons, heals a sick woman and raises a girl from the dead.

What we are seeing in these events is the reversal of the curse, the subduing of creation through dominion over destruction, death and the devil. We see that Jesus the Messiah is the greater Adam who exercises the dominion that the first Adam would not.

Where Adam’s failure brought thorns and thistles, the Messiah exercises dominion over creation (Mark 4:35-41). Where Adam failed to subdue and cast Satan (in serpent form) out of the Garden, Jesus exercises dominion over demons (5:1-20), casting them out of a man, into pigs, and over a cliff. Where Adam’s failure brings decay and death to our bodies, Jesus heals a hemorrhaging woman and commands a dead girl to come back to life, showing that the Messiah exercises dominion over sickness (5:21-34) and death (5:35-43).

How He Redeems

Of course, as bad as these things are, raging water, demon-possession, sickness and physical death are less than what we ultimately deserve. They are merely a down-payment of what is coming.

What we need to be saved from is the wrath of God. The Bible says that the wrath of God is coming on account of our sin (Col 3:6). That wrath will see all rebels destroyed in hell, a place of eternal, conscious torment.

Therefore, in order for Christ to exercise the dominion that Adam failed at and to remove the curse that Adam’s sin brought, he must conquer sin.

Jesus conquered sin and removed the curse at the cross and in his resurrection. The Apostle Paul writes to the believers in Colossae (Colossians 2) that “the record of debt that stood against us with its legal demands” was cancelled by God and set aside when it was nailed to the cross. Essentially, that teaches that the sin we committed was reckoned to Christ. He died for it. The penalty we deserved was placed upon him.

Therefore, when we repent of our sin and trust in Jesus Christ, our sin is reckoned to him and his righteousness is reckoned to us. We are declared forgiven. We are reconciled to God. His wrath is no longer against us. Instead of an expectation of wrath, we expect a resurrection and eternal life in his kingdom.

That resurrection life is guaranteed through his resurrection. Jesus did not stay dead, but was raised from the dead. And, as Peter tells us (1 Peter 3:22), he has “gone into heaven and is at the right hand of God, with angels, authorities, and powers having been subjected to him.”

From the beginning, creation was to be subject to man. Now, as Jesus sits at the right hand of God, everything has been “subjected” to him. As Jesus told his disciples after his resurrection, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me.”

Jesus has authority over sin, over demons, over death, over everything—including 500-year floods.

The Already & the Not Yet.

Of course, this begs a further question: If Jesus is the promised Messiah who will redeem the cosmos and exercise dominion, then why do we still have massive flooding and tornadoes? The answer is, we have massive flooding because we live in the age of the already and not yet.

The Kingdom of God is God’s saving reign in Christ. This saving dominion has come with Christ’s arrival. He said in Matthew 12:28, “If it is by the Spirit of God that I cast out demons, then the kingdom of God has come upon you.” Nevertheless, the kingdom’s fullness will be seen when He comes again in glory to judge the nations (Matthew 25:31-34).

This is why we who already possess the Kingdom (Matthew 5:3, 10), still pray “Your kingdom come” (Matthew 6:10). Christ’s kingdom is seen already in things such as the sending of the Holy Spirit and the conversion of His people and the forgiveness of sins. Yet, we still await what is not yet, the overthrow of death, the resurrection of our bodies, and the making of a new cosmos.

What is “not yet” will come with Christ’s return. We are told in 1 Corinthians 15:23-28 that at Christ’s return, he will “destroy every rule and every authority and power,” he will “put all his enemies under his feet,” the last enemy being death. He will subdue the earth and have dominion over it. He will raise us from the dead, conquering even death. Having perfectly subdued and exercised dominion over the world, he will then hand the kingdom over to His Father.

The End of Floods

In the end, what will this Kingdom, this saving dominion of Christ look like? The old earth will pass away, along with the sea (and raging floods). Death, crying, mourning, pain will have passed away, for Christ will make all things new. Listen to the promise of Revelation 21:1-5:

Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and the sea was no more. And I saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, “Behold, the dwelling place of God is with man. He will dwell with them, and they will be his people, and God himself will be with them as their God. He will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more, neither shall there be mourning nor crying nor pain anymore, for the former things have passed away.” And he who was seated on the throne said, “Behold, I am making all things new.”

The Kingdom will be a New City in a New Heaven and a New Earth, free from all the sorrows of the curse, where the redeemed people of God dwell with their bridegroom and their God. For, Revelation 22:3 says, “No longer will there be anything accursed, but the throne of God and of the Lamb will be in it, and his servants will worship him.” There will be no curse there, because the Lamb, unlike Adam, will exercise dominion as He sits on the throne.

But what about us? What about man? What will we do? After all, we were created in the image of God to fill the earth, subdue it, and exercise dominion over it! Revelation 22:4-5 states that we, his servants, “will reign forever and ever.”

At long last, our creation purpose, will be fulfilled as we reign with Christ. We, the redeemed people of Christ, are the rightful rulers of creation. At the resurrection, we will assume our thrones to reign with the King. We will stand with our living Redeemer and exercise dominion in the new world.

It is on that day and in that world that 500-year floods and all other such consequences of the curse will be destroyed and gone forever. But, as we wait, how shall we respond when such tragedies strike?

So, How Should We Respond to a 500-Year Flood?

We should respond to a 500-Year Flood...

1) ...with hope-filled homesickness.

We are filled with hope, because as Hebrews 2:8-9 states, while we do not see everything under our feet now, “we see...Jesus, crowned with glory and honor.” We do not see everything in subjection to man. In fact, we see youth-killing, house destroying tornadoes. We see houses, businesses, and cities destroyed by a 500-year flood. And, we see Jesus, crowned with glory and honor. We see, through Scripture, that Jesus Christ has conquered sin, death and the devil. We see that he reigns!

This gives us hope because, having been raised from the dead to the Father’s right hand, he proves that his reign is mightier than the power of sin. We say with the Psalmist in Psalm 93:

The floods have lifted up, O Lord, the floods have lifted up their voice; the floods lift up their roaring. Mightier than the thunders of many waters, mightier than the waves of the sea, the Lord on his is mighty!

Regardless of how the earth groans beneath the curse of sin, we know that “the Lord reigns!” (Ps 93:1).

This gives us hope because, as Romans 6:5 tells us, “if we have been united with him in a death like his, we shall certainly be united with him in a resurrection like his.” If we know with certainty that Christ has died for our sins on Calvary, then we know with certainty that we shall be raised to exercise dominion with him in glory and honor.

500-year floods should make us homesick. They should remind us that, like Abraham and the saints before us (Hebrews 11:10, 13-16), we are strangers and exiles in this world.

Over 24,000 people, in a city of 124,000, have been evacuated and displaced. But, this is no new experience for the Christ. We have always been refugees, a displaced people. Christians, like Abraham, are looking for our home, which is an indestructible (flood-proof) city, whose designer and builder is God, which exists in a better, heavenly country. Until the day comes that we live in that city with our God, we are not home.

For those of us who mourn the destruction of our hometown, we must remember that it is not and never will be our hometown. A New Jerusalem is our hometown, a city with floodwalls that cannot be breached.

2) ...with compassion and generosity.

In 2 Corinthians 8:1-5, Paul boasted of the Macedonian saints whose “abundance of joy and extreme poverty overflowed in a wealth of generosity” when fellow believers were in need. Though they were dirt-poor, they gave beyond their means, “begging earnestly for the favor of taking part in the relief of the saints.”

If this world is not our home, then our present possessions mean little in light of what is coming. Therefore, we are free and happy to use them to help our brothers and sisters in Christ, and point others to our hope.

We must not allow ourselves to be selfish when we hear of the thousands of people in need. We ought to fear falling under the condemnation of James 5:3, “Your gold and silver have corroded, and their corrosion will be evidence against you and will eat your flesh like fire. You have laid up treasure in the last days.” Instead, we ought to seek to be like the saints of Hebrews 10, who became partners with those who were mistreated, had compassion on those in prison, and joyfully accepted the plundering of their property, since they knew they “had a better possession and an abiding one.”

Will you demonstrate the joy-giving freedom of having a “better” and “abiding” possession by generously giving and serving and helping and sharing and suffering and sacrificing for those whose lives have been torn apart?

3) ...with a call to repent and believe in Jesus the Messiah.

Cedar Rapids is a city full of sinners. But, we dare not look at the floodwaters and believe those who affected were worse sinners than we whose homes are high and (mostly) dry.

In Luke 13:1-5, Jesus was asked about the Galileans “whose blood Pilate had mingled with their sacrifices.” Jesus replied:

Do you think that these Galileans were worse sinners than all the other Galileans, because they suffered in this way? No, I tell you; but unless you repent, you will all likewise perish. Or those eighteen on whom the tower in Siloam fell and killed them: do you think that they were worse offenders than all the others who lived in Jerusalem? No, I tell you; but unless you repent, you will all likewise perish.

When disaster struck, Jesus did not teach us to search for a specific sin or level of unrighteousness that must have brought this devastation. The secret things belong to God. Rather, he exhorted us to “repent”, lest we perish in the same manner.

The Flood of 2008 is God’s judgment; it is the result of the curse of sin that effect all the earth. Nevertheless, it is also God’s grace. The Flood of 2008, like all sickness and suffering, is less than we deserve. It is a warning of the destruction that awaits all those who do not obey the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

There were people in Cedar Rapids who did not evacuate or did not buy flood insurance because, this extent of flooding seemed absolutely impossible and unthinkable. There will be those who go to hell having heard the Gospel a thousand times and yet would not repent and believe because they thought it was just as impossible and unthinkable that God would punish sinners.

We must not allow our souls to grow numb to the warning of suffering and death. We should flee from the wrath to come. For the flood of God’s wrath in hell will make a 500-year flood, the Flood of 2008, look like a gentle gurgling brook on a spring day.

Fortunately, there is a solid rock of refuge from that coming flood. Our future hope is not that “eventually it will quit raining, the floods will recede and life will return to normal.” Our hope is not in the power of a community to pull together, in FEMA’s funding, in rebuilding projects, in better levees and floodwalls. Our hope is a complete and final regeneration of Cedar Rapids and all the universe through the one whom we now see crowned with glory and honor, namely, Jesus Christ.

We have a Redeemer, Jesus Christ, who has been crucified for our sins, bearing in his body the wrath of God, the curse of sin. He has been raised from the dead, victorious over sin, death, and devil, able to give life to all who will come to him.

To hope in anything else is to put your trust in a weak, sandbag levee that cannot bear up against the flood that is coming. The sandbag walls of our good works and false religions will certainly be breached and we will be destroyed by the flood of God’s wrath.

Yet, if we have cast ourselves upon the solid rock of Christ Jesus, then we are covered by the hand of God’s grace. He will pass over us on the day of his wrath and will bring us safely into his kingdom, where we will reign with Christ forever and ever.