The parallels between creation and the flood are considerable, but they do not end there, Noah, the chief figure in the flood story, is described as a “second Adam.” At creation, the animals are brought to Adam, in the flood story the animals are brought to Noah. “Pairs of creatures that have the breath of life in them came to Noah and entered the ark” (Gen 7:15). Note the similarity of language in the instructions God gives to Adam and Noah (Gen 1:26-30; 9:3-9). Noah’s diet is prescribed by God just as Adam’s was in the original creation.

Noah is described, therefore, as a second Adam, a new Adam. In fact, the very language of the Hebrew is parallel. The name “Adam” means “earth.” Using the very same Hebrew term Gen 9:20 says, “Noah, a man of the soil (adamah), proceeded to plant a vineyard.” Noah was a man of the earth. Was Adam a man of the earth? “And the LORD God formed man from the dust of the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and man became a living being.” (Gen 2:7) Furthermore, just as Adam fell into sin and shame by eating from the fruit of a tree (Gen 3:5-10), Noah shamed himself by drinking from the fruit of the vine (Gen 9:20-23). It says of Adam that when he ate the fruit, his eyes were opened (Gen 3:5,7). It says of Noah that after he became drunk, he awoke and he realized what had happened to him (Gen 9:24).

There are amazing and purposeful parallels between the story of creation and the story of the Flood. When the Flood is described, the language of Creation is used. When the new creation after the Flood is described, the language of Creation is used again. In other words, God used the language of the past to describe His working in the present (I apologize, Creation and Flood below should be side by side so you can see the parallels more easily, but my blog program can’t seem to do that):

Creation

Waters cover earth
Spirit overshadows waters
Waters divided
Dry land appears
Image of God
Dominion over earth
Fruitful and multiply
Adam
Formed from the earth
Put to sleep
Woman formed
Shamed by fruit of tree
Paradise
Tree of life
Test
Serpent
Covenant implied

The Flood

Waters cover earth
Wind blows over waters
Ark passes through waters
Dry land appears

Animals afraid of Noah
Fruitful and multiply
Second Adam (Noah)
Man of the soil

New earth formed
Shamed by fruit of vine




Covenant renewed

When you compare the two stories, it becomes evident that, in these two mighty acts, God was acting according to a consistent pattern. You could say that God’s actions in the creation story predicted His actions in the time of the Flood. Since God is consistent, His past actions are predictive of His future actions.

But while the pattern between the two accounts is plain, there are also differences between the Flood and the creation story. There is no serpent in the Noah story, no testing tree, nor a Tree of Life, and no woman plays a prominent role. So not all the elements of the creation story are repeated in the flood story. God is consistent, but not mindlessly so. God uses the language of the past to describe His later actions, but the correspondence is not point by point. God is consistent, but He is not predictable. We will see this pattern again in God’s third mighty act of the Old Testament, the Exodus.