Flood

by Brennan McPherson

  He grabbed hold of the chains with them and pulled, but the current was too strong.

  “Who is that?” Ham said, and pointed.

  There, nearly sixty paces out, a figure stood atop the water. He moved slowly, feet barely brushing the surface of the torrent.

  Noah’s eyes widened in recognition. “It is the Man.”

  “He was the one who brought the animals!” Jade said.

  The Man stopped several feet short of the door and stared at Noah. His children looked at him, then at the Man, with jaws stretched wide. No one said anything, but Noah nodded, and the Man nodded back.

  Then, with a flick of his wrist and a soundless Word, the Man commanded the door slam shut and seal.

  It obeyed.

  Chapter 71

  Noah raced through the ark past low walls and myriad animals. Their mixed scents filled the dark space, and he clamped his hands over his ears as birds screamed and cows and goats complained with the shifting of the vessel as the water rose.

  Judging by the violent weather outside, they had little time before the scaffolding failed and the ark was sent adrift.

  He wanted to look out on the world one last time before it was forever changed.

  He made his way to the top of the third deck, and shoved aside the opening to one of the few windows they’d built into the vessel. The ship rocked and bucked, and Noah was thrown against the wall as the scaffolding broke. The movement smoothed, and Noah felt a rush in his abdomen as the ark picked up speed.

  He braced himself against the wall just as Jade and Shem caught up with him.

  Noah set his face to the window.

  “What do you see?” Jade said.

  “Water is everywhere. In the distance, fountains are bursting out of the deep.” Rain pattered the ark, and thunder rumbled their throats. “There is a haze in the sky, and the world grows dark.”

  He shut the window and sat with his back to the wall. Jade joined him, and Shem placed a torch in a receptacle. They jumped as a massive explosion sounded outside, as if a mountain had just struck the earth not a thousand paces away from them. Everything shook, and the animals screamed again.

  “What was that?” Ham’s muffled yell sounded from below.

  Noah struggled to his feet and opened the window again. He searched the horizon, but could see nothing, for the rain was too intense. So he sat, and for several long moments, they listened to the groan of the wood, the rumble of thunder, and the sounds of their family and the animals two levels below.

  Even from within, they could hear the rush of the water and the splintering of trees as the world they knew was drowned and destroyed.

  But all Noah could think of was the way the Man had looked at him.

  Jade’s hand alighted on his knee. “What is it?”

  Noah shook his head. “He knew. I could see it in his eyes.” He covered his face as shame and sorrow quenched the burning that had overtaken him in the presence of the God-King.

  “You did it,” Jade said. “You made the right choice.”

  Noah shook his head. “I didn’t want to. Even now, I wish I would have done it.”

  Jade and Shem said nothing.

  “Maybe I made the right decision, but in my heart . . . I still resent the Almighty for taking from me what I’ve dreamed of all these years.” Noah quieted, fearful of speaking what he knew the Man had already seen in his heart. “I’m angry with him for not letting me kill the God-King. And I’m ashamed for it.”

  Jade leaned close, and he leaned into her, body convulsing with the force of his dishonor.

  “Hush,” she said. “The shame you feel is proof of your love.”

  “I don’t love him.”

  “Who among us can? You taught me long ago that none of us are capable of loving the Almighty in and of ourselves.”

  “But I’ve lived with the Almighty all these years. Still, my heart rejects him. What is wrong with me?”

  “You are human. As are we all.”

  Noah looked away.

  “Do you want to know what I saw in the Man’s gaze just moments ago? I saw love.”

  “Don’t say that. It only makes it worse.”

  “I think it is precisely your remorse that shows your faithfulness, that shows that you truly have surrendered to the Almighty, even as your heart won’t let you. Just remember that your being here right now is proof that he has already forgiven you.”

  Noah hugged her harder.

  “Emotions are slow to respond. They take time to catch up to our actions. If you don’t want to let go, the Almighty will help you do it eventually. Just continue being faithful, as you have.”

  And so they sat together and listened to the Music of the Almighty as it commanded the destruction of the world and every living creature in it.

  All but for one small family huddled in the dark amidst groaning animals in an ark set adrift on violent water.

  Part X

  Mercy as Judgment and Judgment as Mercy

  “For as were the days of Noah, so will be the coming of the Son of Man.”

  —Matthew 24:37

  Chapter 72

  The God-King sat on his iron throne as the world bent and shifted around him. Everything had failed, but though the end of the age was upon them, he knew hope was not yet gone—even as his brethren fled.

  For he was different. Set apart. Though the body he had inhabited these countless years was about to be destroyed, the spirit of the Abomination within that body could never be excised from the world, for it belonged to the world and was tied to it as men’s spirits are tied to the world beyond.

  After the waters were gone, the Abomination would find another host. And when it did, it would have its way. It would see its father’s plans come to fruition.

  “I will not fail the Light Bringer,” the God-King said.

  Then a crack opened in the ground beneath his throne, and he fell into the dark of the pit, and was smashed to death in the depths.

  Chapter 73

  The rains and flooding prevailed across the earth for forty days, until the highest peaks of the tallest mountains were covered. They passed over the mountains in the ark, so that Noah knew the mountains were covered to at least fifteen cubits of depth.

  All living creatures that breathed air perished on the earth. The Almighty blotted out all life, true to his promise, and after the forty days of violence, the waters prevailed on the earth for an additional one hundred and ten days, until the ark came to rest on a range of mountains cut by the water and raised to bitter peaks.

  Noah opened the windows and looked out upon dry ground, and the Voice of the Almighty spoke.

  “Go out from the ark, you and your wife, and your sons and your sons' wives with you. Bring out with you every living thing that is with you of all flesh—birds and animals and every creeping thing—that they may swarm on the earth, and be fruitful and multiply.”

  So Noah and the rest of his family went out. And every beast, every creeping thing and bird, all the creatures went out by families from the ark.

  No violence was seen among them, for the Man had commanded them to remain at peace with one another.

  Noah built an altar to the Lord and fell down before it.

  “Almighty . . . I thank you, and bless you for your faithfulness and mercy. Please, forgive my sin. Forgive me for not desiring you as I should.” He paused, and continued in a low whisper. “Forgive me for trying to take hold of vengeance. For resenting you for taking it. Truly, I don’t want such a terrible responsibility. I want to love you. Help my unlove.”

  And when he opened his eyes and looked up, he saw a pure white lamb kneeling on the altar, looking down.

  Footsteps approached.

  Noah did not move as a scarred hand softly pressed his shoulder.

  The Man dipped, kissed him on the cheek, and whispered, “I forgave you before I closed the door.”

  Then he was gone, and Noah took some of every clean animal and clean bird and
offered them as burnt offerings on the altar.

  And the Voice said, “I will never again curse the ground because of man, as happened when Cain murdered his brother, Abel. For the intention of man’s heart is evil from his youth. Neither will I ever again strike down every living creature as I have done. While the earth remains, seedtime and harvest, cold and heat, summer and winter, day and night shall not cease. For just as I have blotted out man from the earth, so I will offer a sacrifice whose blood will blot out your sins.”

  Then the Spirit of the Almighty descended as a piercing Light above the altar, and from it the Voice continued. “The fear of you and the dread of you shall be upon every beast of the earth. Into your hand they are delivered. As I gave you the green plants, so now I give you everything. But you shall not eat flesh with its blood. And for your lifeblood I will require a reckoning: from every beast I will require it and from man. From his fellow man I will require a reckoning for the life of man.

  Whoever sheds the blood of man,

  by man shall his blood be shed,

  for God made man in his own image.

  “And you, be fruitful and multiply, increase greatly on the earth and multiply in it.”

  And the Light rose into the heavens, and in its wake stretched a double rainbow that arced over the mountains. “Behold,” the Voice said, rumbling the earth like thunder, “I have set my bow in the cloud, and it shall be a sign of the covenant between me and the earth. When I bring clouds over the earth and the bow is seen in the clouds, I will remember my covenant that is between me and you and every living creature of all flesh. And the waters shall never again become a flood to destroy all flesh. When the bow is in the clouds, I will see it and remember the everlasting covenant between God and every living creature of all flesh that is on the earth.”

  And the Almighty remained faithful to his promise.

  The Real Story of Noah

  Although the story you’ve been reading was crafted with much care and respect toward the biblical text, it is a fantasy intended to entertain readers and stimulate thought. The real history of Noah can be found in the book of Genesis, the first book of the Bible. We know nothing more than what is explicitly stated in the original Hebrew text of that book, and any extra-biblical conclusions I drew in this book are either imaginative interpretations or pure invention.

  Modern translations of Genesis differ in their interpretations, limiting the text in some ways, expanding it in others. If you want to read an in-depth examination of the text of Genesis, I have prepared one for you, pulling from myriad sources studied in advance of writing this novel (go to the following link): floodnovel.com/study

  However, I think it’s time I answer the primary question readers have posed me.

  “Why Do You Write Weird Biblical Fiction?”

  My initial response to that question is that I write these stories the way I do because I feel as though it’s the only way I could have written them.

  That sounds preposterous, but it’s really how I feel.

  Many have said (which means many more have thought) that these imaginative romps through Genesis are blasphemous. I take major offense to that, but I think some points they’ve made are understandable.

  So let me try to take a stab at a more legitimate answer . . .

  A flannel-graph, Sunday school vision of Noah, his family, and the world they inhabited is useless. Noah’s world was a very uncomfortable place to live in, so a novel based on Noah’s life is necessarily uncomfortable to read.

  I find it useful to envision how these real people might have felt, and what struggles they might have encountered—even if I know this particular vision of them is purely invented.

  Noah and his family were real people who lived and struggled through a real world. Their lives have been used for millennia as inspiration to the faithful, and my hope is that the emotional aspects of how the characters were portrayed hold a concrete realism that grounds the reader and offers real meat, even while much of the story is fantastical in nature.

  However, the primary desire that birthed this particular interpretation of Genesis 5-9 was the aspiration to show just one potential scenario in which God sending the Flood could be seen as truly merciful. Because doing that demanded delving into speculative waters, I decided to fully embrace the speculative side so that no one would be tempted to believe that it actually happened the way this novel portrays it.

  Scholars disagree on how to interpret the use of the word Nephilim in Genesis 6. Were the Nephilim the offspring of demons and humans? Were they the offspring of polygamist men? Were they giants born through a genetic fluke? We have no idea, and the endless conjecture and popularity of the Nephilim has done little good. Conspiracy theories, though entertaining, are often a waste of time. Even if they’re fun.

  The point of the story of Noah and the Flood being included in Genesis 6 is to point toward man’s depravity and God’s goodness, mercy, and faithfulness.

  The thought that took hold of me while researching to write Flood was, “If the Nephilim were the offspring of demons and women, what if Satan’s intent was to pervert the human gene pool so that the Savior promised in the garden of Eden could never come?”

  It would have made the Flood merciful beyond dispute because God sending the Flood would have purified the gene pool and allowed for the redemption of humankind through Jesus.

  Mercy through judgment. A theme we see all throughout the Bible, just as we see how mercy can become a sort of punishment.

  Again, the point is not that I actually believe the story happened the way I portrayed it—no one really knows what it was like, not even scholars.

  The point is that if we can imagine one potential scenario within which God can be seen as merciful for slaughtering nearly all life on the planet, can we not trust that God had good reasons for doing so?

  My father frequently asks skeptics, “Do you think you know 10 percent of everything?”

  If people are honest, they answer, “No.”

  Next, he asks, “Well, then do you know 1 percent of everything?”

  Again, if they’re honest (or at least not perfectly self-absorbed), they answer, “No.”

  “All right,” he says, “then let’s just assume you don’t know 99 percent of everything. Can’t you assume that the answer you’re seeking is hidden somewhere in the 99 percent you don’t know?”

  The point is, who are we to distrust an all-knowing, all-powerful, omnipresent Creator?

  I have friends who turned away from the faith because their imaginations couldn’t conjure a single scenario in which God could be seen as merciful for sending the Flood.

  So I applied my imagination to conjure one such scenario. I hope it’s useful.

  God will never fit within our understanding. Once we think we have him figured out, he defies us. He demands that we engage him not just with our rational mind, but with our whole person (spirit, emotions, imagination, etc.).

  Fantasy literature is a personal letter to the rational mind that says, “Hey, I know you think you got this covered, but you don’t. Leave some space for the imagination, because God’s beyond even that.”

  ...

  Finally . . .

  If you believe in Christ, I hope you’ll join me in striving to follow him more passionately. If you haven’t dedicated your life to Jesus, now is the perfect time to get on your knees and do so. In fact, here’s a simple prayer to get you started:

  Jesus, you died upon a cross,

  And rose again to save the lost,

  Forgive me now of all my sin,

  Come be my Savior, Lord and Friend,

  Change my life and make it new,

  And help me, Lord, to live for you.

  If you prayed that prayer, welcome to the Kingdom. Your next steps should be to find a Bible-believing church to attend on Sundays, purchase a Bible, and start reading it and spending time praying every day.

  Your life will never be the same.

  Be b
lessed. And thanks for reading.

  Download a free e-book at cainbook.com to continue reading this strange series I’ve coaxed to life. And if you’re feeling particularly adventurous, pick up a copy of Cain: The Story of the First Murder and the Birth of an Unstoppable Evil.

  Want to continue the series and see the origins of the Abomination?

  Go to cainbook.com to download the free-ebook, Adam: The Mirror of the Almighty, and to buy Cain: The Story of the First Murder and the Birth of an Unstoppable Evil.

  Also available on Amazon, B&N, iBooks, Kobo, etc.

  Acknowledgments

  Thank you, Jesus, for your forgiveness. I pray that you’ll help me forgive as you’ve forgiven, so that I myself won’t be disqualified when the race is over. Thank you for my wife, Anna. My daughter, Willow. My super-cool editor, Natalie Hanemann. All my early readers and supporters. Josh Meyer, for his help and expertise. And my parents for raising me and showing me the Old Way. It’s been an amazing journey. I can’t wait to see what lies beyond the bend. . .