I have one solution for every computer problem I encounter. Reboot it. And if that doesn’t work, reboot it again. The worst moment in my technological existence comes when I’ve rebooted four or fives times and the problem is still there—because then I know it’s going to be a long, painful process on the phone with someone in another country that ends with me buying a new computer.
You may not have realized it before, but there’s a “reboot” in the Bible. God doesn’t call it that, of course, but that’s what happened with Noah and the ark. Things in the world had gotten so rotten that God decided to reboot creation.
I know the Noah story brings up a lot of questions (historical questions about the flood, practical questions about the ark, philosophical questions about the goodness of God), but what we should see first and foremost is God’s agenda in the reboot.
Two agendas define this reboot:
1. God’s care for the whole creation.
When Noah and his family climb off the ark, God makes a covenant with all creation, not just with Noah: “The covenant that I make between me and you and every living creature that is with you, for all future generations (Gen 9:12). God loves humanity most in his creation, but we’re fools to think he doesn’t care for all of it.
Creation, you see, is chomping at the bit to be restored to its ultimate purpose. And the one thing standing in the way of that is our sin (Rom 8:19–21). Even now, creation echoes the glory that God intended. As Psalm 19 says, “The heavens declare the glory of God.” If you listen, the skies and the seas and the mountains have voices. They are singing to us of God’s beauty, power, and creativity, and urging us to join them.
I love how Sally Lloyd-Jones says it:
“God wrote ‘I love you.’ He wrote it in the sky, and on the earth, and under the sea. He created everything in his world to reflect him like a mirror—to show us what he is like, to help us know him, to make our hearts sing.”
But human sin muffles that voice. That’s why one of our jobs as stewards of God’s creation is to help it speak clearly. The world isn’t trash to be discarded one day when we reach paradise (as in Islam). It’s not an illusion or a manifestation of evil (as in Hinduism). The world is the loving creation of God, preaching to us to accept redemption so that it, too, can be what God created it to be.
2. The extraordinary value of human life.
The value you place on something is shown by the price you pay for it. That helps explain the interesting verse after Noah exits the ark: “Whoever sheds the blood of man, by man shall his blood be shed, for God made man in his own image.” (Gen 9:6). The only thing equal to human life on earth is other human life. No other price comes close.
Don’t miss this: this verse is so much larger than the specific practice of the death penalty. This teaches us the extreme value that God puts on human life. God is, in every possible way, pro-life. And if we know him, we will be, too.
And not just in a “let’s oppose abortion” sort of way. Being pro-life like God means we protect innocent human life wherever we can—of whatever race, color, age, economic status, level of intelligence or level of development—because we all bear his image. We are all precious in his sight.
Who is there in our society today that we don’t regard as precious in God’s sight? Perhaps we don’t even see them as fully human. For many it is the unborn. We cloud the conversation with talk of “choice” and “rights,” but the question remains: is that human life in the womb made in God’s image or not?
For others it is the refugee. I know the state has its own questions to consider about protecting its citizens. But as the people of God, we have other questions to consider. Isn’t that refugee in your neighborhood made in God’s image, too? God loves the refugee in our midst, no matter how they got there.
For others it is people of other ethnicities. Events of the past couple years have reminded Americans that we haven’t solved racism. Sin makes us view people of other cultures with suspicion, fear, and malice—and if unchecked, we’ll start to effectively deny that “those people” are really people at all. We’ll stop seeing them as precious in God’s sight, made in his image.
I could go on. The elderly. The disabled. The poor. The homeless. The prisoner. These are not demographics; these are people like you and me, with the same kinds of pain, fear, and love that we experience. As those who claim to follow God, we simply cannot turn a blind eye to people made in his image who are being crushed.
In 1994, at the National Prayer Breakfast, Mother Teresa made a powerful pro-life statement. Nearing the end of her life, and barely tall enough to reach the microphones, she boldly said: “Anybody that doesn’t want a child … please, give it to me. I want that child.”
That should be the posture of every church and every Christian heart. Are there individuals in our society that aren’t considered human? That are unloved, neglected, ignored? That no one wants? God, make us a people who says, “We want them. Send them to us.”
For more, be sure to listen to the entire message here.
