As in the days of Noah ...

"AS IN THE DAYS OF NOAH"

The question I've had in Genesis 6 is "Why didn't Satan also corrupt Noah?" Satan apparently was successful in corrupting the rest of humanity, to the extent that God had to "pull it" and begin again through Noah.

And why, by the way, did God allow this corruption to occur in the first place, knowing full well that it would ultimately destroy all but a handful of his Creation? He is sovereign after all. He could have easily just spoken it all away.

I now think the answer is something loosely like the following:

God is engaged in a kind of spiritual "chess match" with Satan, His creation. This has been the plan from the get go. Satan was always going to have a major role in this Creation story. Satan was likely even created especially for this purpose (of "humanity destroyer") — complete with his incredible beauty and intense drive for recognition — for God knew Satan's (or, Lucifer's) future when He created him.

But God is clearly in control of this match, even if Satan doesn't fully believe that. And Satan — as brilliant as he is, and he is light-years more brilliant than even the most brilliant humans — is no match for God. Satan sees the game in finite dimensions, while God sees it in infinite dimensions, "as the heavens are higher than the earth."

So, it goes like this: God lets Satan make his moves first, then God sort of says, "OK, is that your final answer, your final move?" Once Satan commits, God then makes HIS move.

In the case of "the days of Noah", one of Satan's moves is to introduce the Nephillim, the product of fallen angels mating with human women. These Nephillim then reproduced like a virus, until the entire Creation was apparently tainted. This was Satan's attempt to to corrupt the line of Adam to prevent the fulfillment of the Messianic redemption.

Satan makes his move, and it looks to him like he just checkmated God. "Is that your final answer, your final move?" asks God. Satan clearly answers in the affirmative, maybe even holding back a bit of a smug smile.

Then God makes His move. Satan is likely puzzled when he sees what God does, because he doesn't see its ramifications at first or what it really means. But God has effectively preserved the line of Noah, just one man in all creation. It's so subtle that Satan just cannot see it. But he must realize that somehow "checkmate" has eluded him.

Satan probably won't truly begin to understand the significance of this move until the ark is being built. It will certainly hit him full force when the flood finally comes and he sees his entire plan washed away — except, of course, for one uncorrupted man, Noah — whose bloodline will carry on God's Messianic plan.

Why does God do it this way?  I don't know. As God himself says in Is 55:8-9:

 8 “For my thoughts are not your thoughts,

   neither are your ways my ways,”

            declares the LORD.

9 “As the heavens are higher than the earth,

   so are my ways higher than your ways

   and my thoughts than your thoughts."