The Biblical story of the flood is unrelenting in its dark and haunting portrayal of mankind and yet the graciousness and faithfulness of God.

Genesis 5 begins with a reminder of what we were created to be: imagine bearers made ” in the likeness of God” (Gen 5:1). But in just a few generations, sin has infected and infested all of mankind:

“Now the earth was corrupt in God’s sight and was full of violence. God saw how corrupt the earth had become, for all the people on earth had corrupted their ways.”

But God’s description of the human heart is even more alarming than the outward condition of violence and conflict and perversion: ^“The Lord saw how great the wickedness of the human race had become on the earth, and that every inclination of the thoughts of the human heart was only evil all the time.” This is what mankind had become as a result of the fall. Every inclination was turned to evil and away from God.

But Genesis also portrays a God who displays gracious favor towards mankind despite our fallen state: ^“But Noah found favor in the eyes of the Lord.”(Genesis 6:8)

I find it striking that the Genesis account only describes Noah‘s character after it first mentions that Noah found favor in God’s eyes. It’s only after that when we get any description of his character: “These are the generations of Noah. Noah was a righteous man, blameless in his generation. Noah walked with God.” (Gen 6:9)

Genesis, therefore, portrays a God of grace who chooses Noah despite the wickedness of his generation and enters into a covenant relationship with him. As a result of God’s grace and favor, Noah can walk with God and remain free from the wickedness and sin of his generation. Noah in this way prefigures Abraham who would be justified by faith in God’s promises. Noah’s story also points us to Jesus Christ who is our ark of protection and our covering from the storm of God’s justice.

Because Latter-day Saints read of the flood just after reading the Book of Moses, they are likely to see this story very differently. The wickedness of mankind follows one of Mankind’s greatest spiritual triumphs. Mankind is not wicked due to the inexorable results of the fall. To the contrary, a significant portion of mankind has just exercised such great faith that the whole City of Enoch was translated into heaven.

The flood is no longer about God rescuing a single undeserving family by grace, but about God clearing out the irredeemably wicked after almost all of the truly righteous people have already been safely removed from the earth.

As I wrote about a few years ago, the story of the City of Enoch conditions LDS readers to focus on human moral achievement and righteousness rather than recognizing human corruption and fallenness.

This spills over to the flood story. The story of Noah becomes the story of righteous human beings preserved by God because of their faith and righteousness. The flood, therefore, stops being a reflection of mankind’s depravity and need for gracious redemption and becomes more about just deserts for those who refused to repent as a result of Enoch and Noah’s preaching.

I would urge my Latter-day Saint friends not to look away from the story of the flood. The wickedness and immorality of the people at the time of the flood is not something alien to us. That is the condition of our hearts without Jesus Christ and his intervention. We are inclined to wickedness and to doing whatever our heart desires. Even the best of us are sinners in need of rescue and deliverance. But the good news of the Gospel is that God saves us even though we are deserving of wrath and destruction. God mercifully provides us with a refuge from the storm and covenants with us to heal and redeem us rather than destroy us. In Jesus Christ, we are spared from the punishment that we deserve. Give all glory to him becuase he has delivered us!