The Covenant with Noah
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Scripture Reading
Scripture Reading
1 Then God blessed Noah and his sons, saying to them, “Be fruitful and increase in number and fill the earth. 2 The fear and dread of you will fall upon all the beasts of the earth and all the birds of the air, upon every creature that moves along the ground, and upon all the fish of the sea; they are given into your hands. 3 Everything that lives and moves will be food for you. Just as I gave you the green plants, I now give you everything.
4 “But you must not eat meat that has its lifeblood still in it. 5 And for your lifeblood I will surely demand an accounting. I will demand an accounting from every animal. And from each man, too, I will demand an accounting for the life of his fellow man.
6 “Whoever sheds the blood of man,
by man shall his blood be shed;
for in the image of God
has God made man.
7 As for you, be fruitful and increase in number; multiply on the earth and increase upon it.”
8 Then God said to Noah and to his sons with him: 9 “I now establish my covenant with you and with your descendants after you 10 and with every living creature that was with you—the birds, the livestock and all the wild animals, all those that came out of the ark with you—every living creature on earth. 11 I establish my covenant with you: Never again will all life be cut off by the waters of a flood; never again will there be a flood to destroy the earth.”
12 And God said, “This is the sign of the covenant I am making between me and you and every living creature with you, a covenant for all generations to come: 13 I have set my rainbow in the clouds, and it will be the sign of the covenant between me and the earth. 14 Whenever I bring clouds over the earth and the rainbow appears in the clouds, 15 I will remember my covenant between me and you and all living creatures of every kind. Never again will the waters become a flood to destroy all life. 16 Whenever the rainbow appears in the clouds, I will see it and remember the everlasting covenant between God and all living creatures of every kind on the earth.”
17 So God said to Noah, “This is the sign of the covenant I have established between me and all life on the earth.”
Introduction
Introduction
We continue our study in the covenants in Scripture this evening. Last week, we paid particular attention to the fact that the fall of man in the Garden of Eden did not take God by surprise. It was not something that shocked Him. Salvation of mankind was God’s plan from all eternity.
But as we continue in our study through the covenants, we come to the covenant that God entered into with Noah. And what we will see through this covenant is just how deep the need was for a Saviour.
Let us delve right into the significance of this covenant, then.
1. The Problem Preceding the Covenant
1. The Problem Preceding the Covenant
As we come to considering the covenant that God entered into with Noah, it is important that we look at the context that gave rise to the need for such a covenant. Since the fall of man in Genesis 3 until the place in which we find the first mention of Noah, there are only two brief chapters. Not all that much has been said and stated in terms of the workings of man and the workings of God in the world.
What we do find however is that wickedness was abounding in the world. That wickedness could be seen from his early on as Genesis 4 where Cain put his brother Abel to death out of jealousy. The first murder took place in the world. But this would not be the end of the wickedness and evil that would continue to abound and to grow in the world.
By the time we reach Genesis 6, we find that there was this exceptional increase in wickedness on the face of the earth. One particular verse stands out as it describes the extent of the sinfulness of man in God’s eyes.
5 The Lord saw how great man’s wickedness on the earth had become, and that every inclination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil all the time.
The one thing that should strike us from this verse is the fact that the heart of man was evil. It was the inclination of the thoughts of his heart that were evil. In other words, that which drove and motivated man was utterly affected by sin. Man’s orientation was to do that which was contrary to the ways of God.
That is an important aspect to see, and I’ll point this out a little bit later on again. But for now, let us just keep in mind that it was because of this wickedness that was abounding in the world that God would take action.
What did this wickedness and evil on the face of the earth lead God to do? We find God’s reponse in the next few verses of Genesis 6.
6 The Lord was grieved that he had made man on the earth, and his heart was filled with pain. 7 So the Lord said, “I will wipe mankind, whom I have created, from the face of the earth—men and animals, and creatures that move along the ground, and birds of the air—for I am grieved that I have made them.” 8 But Noah found favor in the eyes of the Lord.
God’s response to the wickedness was that he would bring about a catastrophic disaster that would wipe out mankind from the face of the earth. The corruption and evil in the face of the earth was so bad, that God found it necessary to bring about a great destruction. We see a further description of the extent of this wickedness in verses eleven and twelve.
11 Now the earth was corrupt in God’s sight and was full of violence. 12 God saw how corrupt the earth had become, for all the people on earth had corrupted their ways.
What a sorry picture of the sinful state of man in the world, even so soon after the creation of mankind. Sin was indeed part of humanity. The consequences of sin abounded and were clearly evident.
We do note however that God sets his favor upon one particular man. In verse eight it says that Noah found favor in the eyes of the Lord. I would argue that this favor was not because of Noah’s righteousness in so much as it was because of God’s grace and mercy. I’ll explain a bit later on why I say that.
With that said, we must consider secondly the purpose of the covenant.
2. The Purpose of the Covenant
2. The Purpose of the Covenant
As we continue to look at what unfolds from this context, what we will find is that God brings this destruction upon the earth through a catastrophic flood, all the while keeping and protecting one man and his family along with at least two of every kind of animal. What God is doing over here is he is destroying the entire created world in order to bring about somethings similar to a re-creation.
In order to do this, we read that God calls Noah to make a wooden ark through which he will bring deliverance to Noah, his family and a the animals on the face of the earth.
14 So make yourself an ark of cypress wood; make rooms in it and coat it with pitch inside and out.
Then in verses 17-18 we read…
17 I am going to bring floodwaters on the earth to destroy all life under the heavens, every creature that has the breath of life in it. Everything on earth will perish. 18 But I will establish my covenant with you, and you will enter the ark—you and your sons and your wife and your sons’ wives with you.
It’s important to see the emphasis that God is placing here on the destruction of the created world. In verse seventeen God says that he is going to destroy ALL life under the heavens. He’s going to destroy every creature that has the breath of life it. Everything on earth will perish.
But there is a promise of the covenant then given, which will be entered into with Noah and his family and those that are with him in the ark. I’ll come to those in more detail in a moment, but for now want us to just see that picture of the destruction and then the newness of the establishment of a covenant with a particular people. In the picture here is one of a new beginning, a new start.
Links to Creation
Links to Creation
I want us to draw some links between what God was doing through Adam and what he now continues to do through Noah in this covenant that he will establish with Noah. Turn in your Bibles to Genesis 1:2 while keeping a finger at Genesis 8.
In Genesis 1:2, we read…
2 Now the earth was formless and empty, darkness was over the surface of the deep, and the Spirit of God was hovering over the waters.
If we then look at Genesis 8:1, we read this...
1 But God remembered Noah and all the wild animals and the livestock that were with him in the ark, and he sent a wind over the earth, and the waters receded.
In the Hebrew language the word that is used for Spirit in Genesis 1:2 is the same as the word that is used for wind in Genesis 8:1. In other words, as the Spirit of God was hovering over the waters before God formed and shaped the earth, so there is this wind over the earth in Genesis 8:1.
In addition to this, there are a number of parallels that come out in Genesis chapter 1 and Genesis chapter eight.
In Genesis 1:6-8 we read of God separating the waters and the sky. In Genesis 8:2 we also find the mention of the waters of the deep and the waters of the sky as God closed the floodgates.
In Genesis 1:9 we read of the dry ground appearing out from the waters as God gathered the waters to one place making this dry ground appear. In Genesis 8:3-5, we read of the waters receding and the tops of the mountains appearing out of the water.
In Genesis 1:20-23, we read of the birds that God set above the earth to fly above the ground. In Genesis 8:6-12, God tells Noah to send out the Raven and the dove to fly over the earth.
In Genesis 1:24-25, God creates the creatures in the livestock and all of these creatures move along the ground in the face of the earth. In Genesis 8:17-19, we read about the creatures in the birds and the animals coming out of the ark and going and moving across the along the ground.
In Genesis 1:26-28, read of man being created in the image of God, being made male and female. In Genesis 8:16, 18, we read of Noah and his wife coming out of the ark, and in Genesis 9:6, we read of man made in the image of God.
In all of these there are very clear parallels that are being drawn between the original creation account in Genesis chapter 1, and the new mandate that will be given to Noah under this new covenant. We must not miss the connection over here.
The Terms of the Covenant
The Terms of the Covenant
Continuing on with this thought, will find that much of what God spoke to Adam in the garden of Eden will be repeated now to Noah. In other words, Noah is presented in the text as a new Adam. This comes out in the terms of the covenant that are presented to Noah. These terms are what we saw as we read in Genesis 9:1-17. Let us consider them briefly.
The first thing we find is that Noah is told to be fruitful and increase in number (Gen.9:1). He is told to fill the earth. I scarcely need to go back to Genesis 1:28 and remind you that this is precisely what God had told Adam to do in the garden of Eden.
Secondly, we find that God says to Noah in Genesis 9:2 that the fear of man and dread will be upon every living creature in terms of the animals and the birds and the fish in the sea. This links back to where God said to Adam in Genesis 1:28 that he was to rule over the animals and the birds of the fish.
Thirdly, we find that God gives food to Noah in a similar way to what he gave food to Adam in the garden. In the case of Noah, God extends this food to include animals, rather than limiting it to the plants that were given to Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden.
The fourth aspect of the terms of the covenant with Noah, and one that really is very critical, is that human life is priceless. God very clearly indicates here that humanity is one family, and that we as humans are to care for one another and not allow the life of another person to be taken. Look with me at Genesis 9:5-6…
5 And for your lifeblood I will surely demand an accounting. I will demand an accounting from every animal. And from each man, too, I will demand an accounting for the life of his fellow man.
6 “Whoever sheds the blood of man,
by man shall his blood be shed;
for in the image of God
has God made man.
This is a very important aspect in terms of God’s covenant with Noah. Essentially, God was instituting a system of justice that was to mark humanity. Many people have suggested that this is the key mark of the covenant with Noah… the institution of civil justice. While it certainly is a very key aspect, it is not the only one (as we’ve already been considering).
What I do want to note is that the wording in the original language makes it clear that mankind has a responsibility towards his fellow man.
This is not a case of an individual carrying out personal justice against another person. Rather it was a matter of society, particularly as Scripture more fully develops it, government institution, to ensure that where life was taken, that person’s life was to be taken in order for justice to prevail for the one that was murdered in the image of God.
As we finalize our considerations under this point, I just want us to note again the fact that God, through the flood that destroyed the world, brought forth a new world, almost with a new Adam in Noah, and entered into a covenant with a view to preserving and keeping his creation in order to demonstrate his mercy and grace toward mankind. I will touch on this little bit later on again.
With that in mind let us consider our third main point.
3. The Parties to the Covenant
3. The Parties to the Covenant
when we looked at Genesis 6:18, we saw that God had initially promised his covenant to Noah and his family. But as you come to the post-flood narrative in Genesis 9, we find that God broadens that application to not only include Noah and his family, but also all of the created order. In other words, God is entering into his covenant with the entirety of creation. Here is a promise that is made to creation. Notice how this comes out in Genesis 9.
9 “I now establish my covenant with you and with your descendants after you 10 and with every living creature that was with you—the birds, the livestock and all the wild animals, all those that came out of the ark with you—every living creature on earth.
It is clear from this that God’s covenant is entered into broadly speaking with all of the created order. God’s promise applies to all living creatures.
Emphasize references to ALL of creation
12 And God said, “This is the sign of the covenant I am making between me and you and every living creature with you, a covenant for all generations to come: 13 I have set my rainbow in the clouds, and it will be the sign of the covenant between me and the earth.
Further on we read…
Emphasize references to ALL of creation
15 I will remember my covenant between me and you and all living creatures of every kind. Never again will the waters become a flood to destroy all life. 16 Whenever the rainbow appears in the clouds, I will see it and remember the everlasting covenant between God and all living creatures of every kind on the earth.”
17 So God said to Noah, “This is the sign of the covenant I have established between me and all life on the earth.”
It’s very important that we note the repetition in those verses. Over and over again we hear God saying that he is establishing this covenant between himself and Noah (representing humanity) and all the living creatures, and even the created order. One commentator writes this:
This repetition is like a cathedral bell ringing out again and again, reverberating into the future, that God is committing himself to all his living creatures while the earth lasts. There can be no mistaking the parties identified in the covenant.
We must understand from this that God has not abandoned his creation, and neither will he. God has entered into covenant relationship with Noah and with humanity, and the created order, although riddled with corruption and degradation of every kind, is nonetheless held and guided by the Merciful Hand of God According to His Promise.
Practical encouragement...
That Leads Us to Consider Our Fourth Main Point.
4. The Promise of the Covenant
4. The Promise of the Covenant
The covenant of God that he entered into with Noah comes with the divine promise that he gives in the context of all that will consider thus far. We read this promise outlined in Genesis 9:11.
11 I establish my covenant with you: Never again will all life be cut off by the waters of a flood; never again will there be a flood to destroy the earth.”
God then goes on to reiterate that promise in verse fifteen…
15 I will remember my covenant between me and you and all living creatures of every kind. Never again will the waters become a flood to destroy all life.
This is a most kind and gracious promise that is given by God to humanity. But what is very important for us to notice as he gives this promise is that the basis of the promise was not in any way the goodness of man.
You see, when we read Genesis 6:5, we tend to think of that phrase, “every inclination of the heart of man only evil all the time,” as being something that was prevalent only prior to the flood. But that is not really the case. In fact, what we find after the flood is that God reaffirms the reality that the heart of man is sinful.
Read with me Genesis 8:21. Note that as we read this verse, the flood has dissipated and Noah is presenting an offering to God. And it’s as Noah presents this offering to God we find a very important statement by God concerning men in that present context. In other words, the words of God related to Noah and his family at the time, since all humanity by that time apart from them as a family had been destroyed.
Note the reference to inclination of the heart...
21 The Lord smelled the pleasing aroma and said in his heart: “Never again will I curse the ground because of man, even though every inclination of his heart is evil from childhood. And never again will I destroy all living creatures, as I have done.
Notice how the phrase in Genesis 8 links back to the one in Genesis 6. The inclination of the heart being evil. And so essentially God is saying over here that even though this is the case with men, is going to give a promise to never again destroy the world as he did at that time.
This is why I said to you earlier that when God looked with favor upon Noah it was not because of his intrinsic righteousness but because of God’s own grace. Even in this context, man is seen to be sinful. The inclination of the heart of man is evil from childhood.
The conclusion that we must draw from this is that all that is unfolding here is a wonderful work of the grace of God towards humanity.
For us in our day, we need to keep this in our minds. The fact that God does not bring destruction on the entire world even in our day, the fact that he has not brought destruction throughout the ages since the great flood of Noah’s day, is because of God’s grace and mercy. It is not because men was somehow less sinful after the flood.
As we consider these things in terms of what we’ve learned thus far, I do want us to realize that God reestablishing his covenant with Noah in light of the flood sets the stage for God to work out his plans for rescuing this fallen world that is undeserving of the grace of God.
It also teaches us something important about the justice of God that is deserving on mankind.
The sinfulness prior to the flood, the dealing of God with humanity in the flood, and the grace of God shown post the flood, are all a demonstration for us of the fact that humanity is sinful and fallen and deserving of the just wrath of God. It is further a demonstration to us of the fact that God is indeed exceedingly merciful.
We must see and emphasize that God was demonstrating mercy, and that he promises to keep being merciful to humanity through this covenant established with Moses. And note, that it is not going to be on the basis of man’s work. He will keep the covenant.
This truth is emphasized by the story that follows in the remaining verses in Genesis 9. We want delve into it now but we have the account of Noah planting a vineyard and becoming drunk on the wine that comes from that vineyard. We read there of the exposing of his shameful nakedness. And the significance of that is in the link back to the original Adam.
Adam in the garden was a worker of the ground. He was a farmer. Similarly, Noah planted a vineyard and was a worker of the ground. Just like Adam was a disobedient son, Noah also was a disobedient son that sinned leading to his nakedness being displayed. Noah was not a Savior. Noah was a sinner like you and I that would need ultimately a Savior to come in order to fully obey God.
This leads us to consider our fifth point from this covenant.
5. The Perpetual Reminder of the Covenant
5. The Perpetual Reminder of the Covenant
One of the marks of a covenant is that a sign is usually given as a reminder to that covenant. In this case, we read of the sign that is given in verses 12 to 17.
12 And God said, “This is the sign of the covenant I am making between me and you and every living creature with you, a covenant for all generations to come: 13 I have set my rainbow in the clouds, and it will be the sign of the covenant between me and the earth. 14 Whenever I bring clouds over the earth and the rainbow appears in the clouds, 15 I will remember my covenant between me and you and all living creatures of every kind. Never again will the waters become a flood to destroy all life. 16 Whenever the rainbow appears in the clouds, I will see it and remember the everlasting covenant between God and all living creatures of every kind on the earth.”
17 So God said to Noah, “This is the sign of the covenant I have established between me and all life on the earth.”
In this case we find that God was very gracious and kind to give a sign, not only to Noah, but to all of the created order in order to remind them that he would never again bring such destruction upon the world. Here was a token of the grace and mercy of God. This was a reminder, a perpetual reminder of the gracious mercy of God.
It’s interesting to see that in these verses God actually says that he will see his bow in the heavens and will then be reminded. This is not to say that God would ever forget. Rather, it is said like this in order to remind us that God has not forgotten, and neither will He forget.
I think it’s worthwhile pointing out from this that in the original Hebrew there was not a specific word from which we derive the name rainbow. In the original Hebrew, the word was literally a “bow”. The bow that was described will use day in the original language spoken of the bow of an archer. I appreciate the words of one particular commentator in speaking about the implication of this bow in the sky:
The bow is a weapon of war, an emblem of wrath. God will now set it in the heavens as a token of grace. The Lord who makes his bow of wrath into a seven-coloured arch of beauty to ornament the heavens is the one who will finally command the nations to beat their swords into plowshares and spears into pruning hooks (Micah 4:3) for the Prince of Peace takes pleasure in mercy (Micah 7:18) and the righteous judge delights in grace. [Warren Austin Gage, The Gospel of Genesis]
What a beautiful reminder this is of the grace and the mercy of our God.
This leads us to consider our sixth and final main point in this study.
6. The Place of the Covenant in Scripture
6. The Place of the Covenant in Scripture
How does this covenant with Noah fit into the overall working of God through the Scriptures? There are three passages that I’d like to take us to just very briefly to see how this will fit in and be used in the unfolding purposes of God through Scripture.
6.1. Isaiah 24:3-5
6.1. Isaiah 24:3-5
before we come to the verses themselves let me just make a comment on the context. Isaiah 24 forms part of a literary unit in which prophecies of judgment being brought against various nations. There are three sets of five prophetic judgments. The one that will read in this passage is the first one in the third group of five articles, and it is spoken against all nations and peoples of the earth.
In these verses we read these words:
3 The earth will be completely laid waste
and totally plundered.
The Lord has spoken this word.
4 The earth dries up and withers,
the world languishes and withers,
the exalted of the earth languish.
5 The earth is defiled by its people;
they have disobeyed the laws,
violated the statutes
and broken the everlasting covenant.
Notice the reference at the end of verse five to the everlasting covenant. While there are different opinions in terms of what this relates to, I’m sure you can see the importance in terms of the connection to what we’ve been studying this evening.
The covenant that God gave to Noah was a covenant for all generations. It was a covenant that was given for as long as the world would endure. We see over here that mankind has defiled the world. They have disobeyed the laws and violated the statutes of the covenant. He speaks of this everlasting covenant.
And so God pronounces a judgment that will ultimately come to the world. This does not nullify the promise given to Noah. Rather, it is a stern reminder that the sin of man deserves the wrath of God. It is also a reminder that God will bring final judgment upon the earth, although not by a flood, but in a different manner.
6.2. Isaiah 54:9-10
6.2. Isaiah 54:9-10
In this passage, what will find is that God uses the picture of his covenant with Noah to give hope to his own people that he will remain true to his covenant commitments. Read with me what he says through his prophet Isaiah in these verses
9 “To me this is like the days of Noah,
when I swore that the waters of Noah would never again cover the earth.
So now I have sworn not to be angry with you,
never to rebuke you again.
10 Though the mountains be shaken
and the hills be removed,
yet my unfailing love for you will not be shaken
nor my covenant of peace be removed,”
says the Lord, who has compassion on you.
The reference here is God speaking to his new covenant through Jesus Christ. It is through Jesus Christ that God will never again be angry with his people or remove his covenant of peace with them. In this sense, we must recognize that the covenant given to Noah would ultimately be fulfilled in Jesus Christ. Ultimately it would also be given to a particular people even as God’s judgment will come on the earth in general.
6.3. Jeremiah 33:19-26
6.3. Jeremiah 33:19-26
In this prophecy through Jeremiah, God is giving divine promises to restore the fortunes of Judah and Israel to keep his promises that he made to David. And what he does is he references his covenant with the day and the night, and the fact that he will not forsake a break that covenant, and that in the same way he will fulfill his promises to David.
19 The word of the Lord came to Jeremiah: 20 “This is what the Lord says: ‘If you can break my covenant with the day and my covenant with the night, so that day and night no longer come at their appointed time, 21 then my covenant with David my servant—and my covenant with the Levites who are priests ministering before me—can be broken and David will no longer have a descendant to reign on his throne.
When God refers here to his covenant with the day and the night, and the fact that this will never be forsaken, he is making reference to his promise with Noah and all of creation after the flood. And what he says is that just as you see this covenant continuing day after day, night after night… so my covenant with David stands. He says a similar thing in the verses that follow this…
23 The word of the Lord came to Jeremiah: 24 “Have you not noticed that these people are saying, ‘The Lord has rejected the two kingdoms he chose’? So they despise my people and no longer regard them as a nation. 25 This is what the Lord says: ‘If I have not established my covenant with day and night and the fixed laws of heaven and earth, 26 then I will reject the descendants of Jacob and David my servant and will not choose one of his sons to rule over the descendants of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. For I will restore their fortunes and have compassion on them.’ ”
There are some other links, but these relate specifically to covenant…
As we go on, we will draw out some of the other references to Noah, particulalry as we look to Christ.
Conclusion
Conclusion
God is faithful!
The sinfulness of man deserved the just wrath of God.... it deserves it in our day too.
By His mercy, God rescued one man and his family, and promised to not destroy the world in this manner. An act of Grace.
God saved Noah through an ark that was built…
God will save His people from destruction through His Son that died on the cross.