Older than the flood?  A tablet recently announced by its finder, Irving Finkel of the British Museum, and which is alleged to predate the writings of ancient Babylon as well as the Old Testament (Hebrew Bible) has stirred enormous interest among archaeologists and scholars who study such things.  Why?  It contains, as translated, an account of a flood, along with specific instructions on building an ark to survive in it.  Hence, what we seem to have is a flood account which was written before every other one, even the most famous of all, the one in the Hebrew Bible (remember Noah and his three sons, as the story is presented in Genesis 6 - 9?).
     That we have a flood account that predates the story of Noah is nothing new.  Some fragments of The Epic of Gilgamesh, a fascinating tale of adventure and ruminations on mortality which also contains an account of a flood, date from the close of the third millennium B.C., well before Abraham even entered Canaan, and several centuries before the Hebrews began to compose their scriptures.  Moreover, it's no secret that many cultures around the globe have stories of a great flood buried in their respective legends and mythologies.
     So what can we learn from this discovery?  Regardless of how we might feel about the intentionality, historicity, or accuracy of a flood, global or localized, we can nonetheless conclude that the Hebrew account, one among many, is indeed very much a work of its time.  It reflects life in the second millennium B.C. and not that of the first century A.D.  It concords with the culture it describes.  It's consistent with its genre, it's true to its form.  It's religious, yes, but it's religion in history.  And in point of fact, unless religion comes out of history, it's no religion at all.
     God tends to speak to us as we are, beings in space and time and, in particular, he tends to speak to those who are looking for him most, in history, in space, and in time.  He is a God for us.