The story of the global flood in Genesis is a tremendous overreaction (Gen. 9:9-11) that gives us a glimpse at the type of god we’re working with. God has little tolerance for “wickedness”, whatever that may be, and proves it. His actions, however, lead to more uncertainty about the nature of God. If God is able to speak creation into existence, why does he use a catastrophic flood to enact his judgement? I see two possibilities:

1. God is not omnipotent and simply can’t uncreate things.
2. God is a sadist and wanted the wicked to cower and suffer before meeting their end.

The former is holey and the latter disconcerting. Regardless, the flood didn’t discriminate between wicked men and the rest of terrestrial creation. God’s justice and retribution may be the ultimate, but they are hardly exact.