What was God referring to when He used the promise of the rainbow to ensure "the waters shall no more become a flood to destroy all flesh."
Did He destroy the Earth before Noah's Flood?
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Asked December 30 2016
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Reinhard Illig
For follow-up discussion and general commentary on the topic. Comments are sorted chronologically.
Reinhard Illig
Yes the question was misinterpreted. The question I have is concerning the promise that God will never again bring a "full end" to all flesh on earth. Noah's flood did not bring a full end because of the ark God provided. Therefore I'm wondering if the full end was including the time before Adam when the earth became "formless and void" which seems to interpret in part the end of a social order? The phrase "formless and void" is also used in Jeremiah.
Jennifer Rothnie
The flood of Noah's time did bring an end to 'all flesh' except Noah and His family, exactly as God promised. Several verses point this out. Noah and his family's survival is not a contradiction, but an exception due to God's mercy.
"Behold, I, even I am bringing the flood of water upon the earth, to destroy all flesh in which is the breath of life, from under heaven; everything that is on the earth shall perish, but I will establish My covenant with you; and you shall enter the ark-" Gen 6:17-18a
It is this covenant to which God refers to in Gen 9:15.
"Thus He blotted out every living thing that was upon the face of the land, from man to animals to creeping things and to birds of the sky, and they were blotted out from the earth; and only Noah was left, together with those that were with him in the ark." Gen 7:23
"...through which the world of that time perished in the flood. " II Pet 3:6b
"if he did not spare the ancient world when he brought the flood on its ungodly people, but protected Noah, a preacher of righteousness, and seven others;" II Pet 2:5
It should also be mentioned that destroying all flesh, here, is a different term than the term 'full end' used elsewhere of utterly destroying a people. http://biblehub.net/search.php?q=full+end