God’s Covenant with Noah
Text: Genesis 9:1-17
Core Idea: We are in a covenant relationship with God, which means we’re bound to Him in a deep, committed, and unbreakable way based on His promises and faithfulness rather than our performance. Then, I invite you to live with confidence, security, and purpose, knowing He will never leave us or forsake us.
INTRODUCTION
Well, we’re currently going through the Book of Genesis – looking at how all things started. And last week, we talked about how Noah was in the ark for 190 days – just aimlessly moving on the waters that covered the whole earth. But what made that experience particularly difficult was the fact that God did not speak to them during this time. He remained silent – which must have made Noah think, “What is going on here? Why isn’t He saying anything? How much longer do we have to stay inside? What’s happening outside? Actually, did God forget us? Are we on our own?” Well, thankfully, Noah never left God’s mind – which is why God responded when the right time came. Genesis 8:1, “But God remembered Noah.” Noah may have felt like he was abandoned – but God. He may have felt like everything was over – but God. He may have felt like there was no way out of this – but God. God came to a rescue. He sent a wind – causing the waters to recede. He helped the dove find a fresh olive leaf – informing Noah that life was beginning to form on the earth again. And when the right time came, He told Noah to leave the ark so that he could enjoy the world that had been made new. Then, today, we’ll see God instruct Noah on how to live in this new world that has been gifted to him. So, with that in mind, please open your Bibles to Genesis 9:1-17. Let me read this for us.
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 on all the beasts of the earth, and on all the birds in the sky, on every creature that moves along the ground, and on all the fish in the sea; they are given into your hands. 3 Everything that lives and moves about 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 human being, too, I will demand an accounting for the life of another human being. 6 Whoever sheds human blood, by humans shall their blood be shed; for in the image of God has God made mankind. 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 destroyed 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.” Amen. This is the Word of God for you today.
Let’s go through this passage under three headings:
· THE BLESSING
· THE COVENANT
· THE SIGN
1) THE BLESSING
Considering all that he experienced, to say that Noah must have been overwhelmed would be a major understatement. Think with me. He just witnessed the whole world get destroyed by the flood that consumed everything – all that he was familiar with, all that he loved, all that he took for granted was just all gone. Noah and his family were the only survivors in the entire world – there was no one else, which means that he would’ve had to build everything up from scratch all by himself. Can you imagine what Noah must have felt staring into the world that had been demolished? Sure, that initial moment of seeing the outside world would’ve been glorious – but how do you start life again? Where do you even begin? More fundamentally, can things be made right again? Noah must have been distraught. Thankfully, God wasn’t going to leave Noah to figure out everything on his own. He didn’t say, “Well, I saved you. Isn’t that enough?” No, in His grace, He restored His blessing to Noah and his sons. – verse 1, “Be fruitful and increase in number and fill the earth.” Now, doesn’t this sound very familiar? It should, because it’s the same blessing that God gave Adam and Eve in the creation account – Genesis 1:28, “Be fruitful and increase in number; fill the earth and subdue it. Rule over the fish in the sea and the birds in the sky and over every living creature that moves on the ground.” Despite His anger over sin, God’s intention was still for the good of mankind. He wanted them to multiply and make the earth flourish with life again – Noah was to build homes, cultivate the field, and advance the culture. Now, if you pay close attention, you’ll notice a difference between these two blessings – in contrast to the blessing in the creation account, God doesn’t tell Noah to subdue the earth and rule over every living creature. Instead, He says this in verse 2, “The fear and dread of you will fall on all the beasts of the earth, and on all the birds in the sky, on every creature that moves along the ground, and on all the fish in the sea.; they are given into your hands.” This is a very different picture from the Garden of Eden in that there, the animals lived in harmony with Adam and Eve – but here, peace has been broken, and every living creature is now in hostility with one another, especially mankind. Yes, it’s true that mankind still has authority and dominion over all living creatures, but under our rule, animals don’t feel safe – they feel scared. That’s not all. Verse 3, “Everything that lives and moves about will be food for you.” We read in Genesis 1:30 that God had given every green plant for food – but here, He now permits mankind to consume animals, birds, and fish as food as well. The only thing they’re not authorized to do is eat meat with its lifeblood still in it.
Now, why the difference? Why did the blessings change? Because of the devastating effect of sin on the world. The truth is that a sin may be forgiven, but the consequences of that sin usually remain. Here’s what I mean. Let’s say you said something that greatly hurt your friend. Even though your friend graciously forgives you, you may still be crushed by the guilt and shame you feel in your heart. Not just that, but your friend may also keep his distance from you – which means that you may have to earn your friend’s trust again. Others may be talking badly about you over what you have done. In fact, you may even feel unworthy to enter the presence of God – which, by the way, is not true. We can always approach God without fear, knowing that He’s our heavenly Father who loves us and cares for us. Anyway, the point is that there are consequences to our forgiven sins. And that’s what this is about – because of our sin, our relationship with the world has been distorted in that there’s now hostility between us. In fact, God knew that, left to us, we would simply abuse our power and destroy the world again. So, He put fear and dread of mankind in the animals as a way to protect them from us. Even then, God must have known that this wouldn’t stop us from hunting down the animals to eat as food. So, He permits mankind to consume meat as food but draws a clear boundary – verse 4, “But you must not eat meat that has its lifeblood still in it.” He was basically saying, “Because you’re so wicked, if I don’t intervene, you’re going to exploit the world I love. So, I’m going to put a limit on what you can do. You can eat meat along with all the green plants. But do not consume their blood.” We get a glimpse of why God commanded this by reading Leviticus 17:14 – this is what He said there, “You must not eat the blood of any creature, because the life of every creature is its blood.” In other words, blood is a symbol of life. So, to drink blood was to disregard the sacredness of life and disrespect God as its Giver. Now, this is not a commandment about how to cook your steaks – He’s not saying, “The only acceptable way of cooking steaks is well done.” No, God commanded this as a way to remind us of the devastating effect of sin – how sin distorts our relationship with the world.
But there’s still one thing that did not change – verse 5, “And for your lifeblood I will surely demand an accounting. I will demand an accounting from every animal. And from each human being, too, I will demand an accounting for the life of another human being. Whoever sheds human blood, by humans shall their blood be shed; for in the image of God has God made mankind.” Even though the image of God in us has been marred and distorted by sin, here, God reminds us that it was not enough to remove that image from us. Every single one of us still has dignity and worth because all of us carry the image of God Himself. Implication? Human life is sacred. While animal blood may not be consumed, human blood may not be shed at all – which is why if an animal kills a human being, that animal is to be put to death. If someone kills another human being, that person is to be put to death as well. Now, I know that this passage has been used to promote capital punishment – but I’m not going to go there today. But what I do want to point out is that God values the life of mankind. It is much more precious and valuable than anything else that has been created – which means that we, too, should value human life as well. We should treasure and protect human life in all circumstances.
Now, here’s something really important. So, please listen up. In dealing with our violence, God doesn’t intimidate us with fear but reminds us of this glorious truth. Do you see that? He doesn’t say, “Don’t murder because if you do, you’ll be in big trouble.” Instead, He says, “Don’t murder because you and everyone around you carry My image in them. You’re all valuable to Me – so you should value others as well.” I love that because this is how we should fight against our sin as well. We don’t overcome our sin by saying to ourselves, “God’s going to punish us if we do this.” No, we do so by saying to ourselves, “I have been crucified with Christ, and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I now live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me. So, in all circumstances, I’m going to say no to sin and live in a manner worthy of the gospel, for Christ has given me a new life and a new purpose.” Brothers and sisters, the consequence of their sin was unimaginably great – it distorted their relationship with every creature on earth and their relationship with others around them. But one thing it could not do was sever their relationship with God. Because of His great love, God blessed Noah so that he and his family would be fruitful and increase in number. Then, that’s exactly what we should do – we should make every effort to faithfully live out the call that God has given each one of us and make His name known to the world so that His glory may be seen in every corner of the earth. We’re blessed to do that. So, that’s the first thing – God blesses Noah.
2) THE COVENANT
At this point, Noah still had no idea that God had already resolved not to destroy the world with another flood. Remember, God had definitely made up His mind to do just that in Genesis 8:21, but if you read it more carefully, you’ll see that He said those things only to Himself. He did not share it with Noah yet – which means that Noah could’ve had all sorts of uncertainties and anxieties in his heart. “What if we have to go through this again in 10 years, 50 years, or 500 years? I’m no different from others in that I’m still a sinner. My family is not perfect. Then, is God going to judge us again if we don’t get our act together? What’s the point of being blessed if everything can be taken away in an instant because of our sins?” Thankfully, God reassures Noah – verse 9, “I now establish My covenant with you and with your descendants after you and with every living creature that was with you.” Now, what’s a covenant? We don’t use that term often today, so I wouldn’t blame you if you thought that it was just a type of contract. But that’s not necessarily accurate. Let me explain. A covenant is a binding agreement between two parties that’s rooted in trust and commitment – in contrast, a contract is a legal agreement between two or more parties based on mutual obligations and benefits. So, a covenant is very relational, whereas a contract is more transactional. As a result, a contract is usually conditional in that it will be terminated if one party fails to fulfill their responsibilities – but a covenant is meant to be more enduring because it has the idea of giving oneself fully to the other regardless of circumstances. In other words, it’s not based on performance but a pledge – which is why, in a covenant relationship, you don’t say, “If you don’t do this, I’m walking away.” Instead, you say, “I promise that I will do this and that for you. I’m committed to you no matter what. If you fail, I will help you succeed.” In fact, think of marriage because it’s one of the best modern examples of a covenant. The wedding service establishes a binding relationship between a man and a woman as they commit themselves to love each other unconditionally. No wonder God often describes His relationship with His people as marriage.
Well, then, what entails God’s covenant with Noah? Verse 11, “Never again will all life be destroyed by the waters of a flood; never again will there be a flood to destroy the earth.” Here, God was basically saying, “I know you’re scared, Noah. But I promise you – I will never send another flood to destroy the world again. I will preserve this world so that the serpent-crusher can one day come to, once and for all, set you free from the penalty, power, and presence of sin, just as I promised your forefather, Adam. I’m not going to give up on you. I will keep My promise. I will make a way. I will save you.” This is so important in the story of the Bible because it shows us the moment when God decided to relate to sinful mankind with grace, not justice. The truth is that the flood was just and necessary to deal with our sin. Because our God is unimaginably holy and because our sin is immensely offensive to Him, He could not just passively watch the wickedness of mankind destroy all that was meant to be good – He had to act. But this would mean that there would be this endless cycle of judgment, rescue, and re-creation since everyone is so radically corrupted by sin. Then, in order to carry out His ultimate rescue plan involving the serpent-crusher, He decided to be merciful, not judgmental, in His disposition toward mankind. Now, this doesn’t mean that He’s not going to judge us. No, when Christ comes back, He’ll come to judge the living and the dead. But until then, God will be patient with us because He doesn’t want anyone to perish – He wants everyone to repent and receive life and life to the full. So, the fact that we’ve been given another day is actually a wonderful reminder that God’s work is still not done. He’s preserving the heavens and the earth because He wants more people to come to know the saving love of Jesus Christ.
Then, what do we learn from this? We learn that He is determined to save us. Brothers and sisters, God is committed to you. That’s what it means to be in a covenant relationship with the Lord. His plan to save us will not be thwarted by anything or anyone. He will make a way, no matter how hopeless the situation may seem to us. Friends, are you insecure because of your sin? Are you questioning God’s love for you because you’ve been allowing yourself to drift away from Him in your sin? If so, remember that you’re in a covenant relationship with the Lord. We’re bound to Him, for He is unwaveringly devoted to us. Our security comes from God’s faithfulness, not ours. So, today, if you’re struggling with doubt, look to God again because you’ll see Him carrying you with His mighty arms.
3) THE SIGN
Now, as much as it was reassuring to hear God’s Word, every time it rained, every time the lightning struck, and every time the thunder roared, Noah must have shaken with fear as he thought about all the “what-if” questions – “What if God changes His mind? What if His patience runs out?” So, as a way to strengthen his faith, God gave him a sign – a rainbow. Verse 12, “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: I have set My rainbow in the clouds, and it will be the sign of the covenant between Me and the earth.” Kenneth Mathews said, “A covenant sign functions as a visible token of God’s invisible word of grace.” In other words, a covenant sign serves as an ongoing reminder of God’s promise – and it visually displays God’s pledge to His people. Then, a rainbow appearing after a rainy day was God’s way of saying, “I know that you just saw a rainstorm. But don’t worry – I haven’t forgotten My promise. Don’t be scared, for never again will the waters become a flood to destroy all life.”
Now, scholars have debated for centuries as to what the rainbow symbolizes – “Why a rainbow and not something else?” Let me just share three views on this. First, a rainbow represents God’s faithfulness. Okay, did you know that a rainbow is actually a full circle? Maybe you already knew that – I had no idea. Now, I’m not going to explain how that is the case today – you can read about it later at home. But here’s why it’s important to know that a rainbow is circular – because a circle has no beginning and no end, some scholars argue that a rainbow represents God’s eternal love, loyalty, and commitment to His people. No wonder a ring is exchanged at a wedding ceremony – it’s a sign of their lifelong devotion to each other. So, those who present this view say that God chose a rainbow because He wanted to show us that He’ll be committed to His pledge forever – that He won’t go back on His Word no matter what. Second, a rainbow represents God’s protection. Even though a rainbow is a full circle in reality, because it’s in the shape of an arc from our perspective, some scholars have argued that it’s meant to remind us of a shield that protects us from the judgment of water. It’s almost as if God had placed an umbrella in the sky to preserve His creation from His wrath against sin. Third, a rainbow represents God’s grace. The word “rainbow” in Hebrew literally means “a bow” – a war weapon used by an archer to battle against enemies. So, some scholars argued that a rainbow was God’s way of saying, “I’ve hung My battle bow on the wall – which means that I will no longer be at war against you. I’m not going to destroy the earth. I’m not going to destroy mankind. I won’t come at you with judgment but in mercy. No more condemnation – no more wrath. I will bring redemption for your souls because I love you, and I’m committed to you.” Now, these scholars also thought about the question, “How? How could there be no more condemnation for the ones who deserve nothing but His righteous wrath?” Well, they answered it by pointing to the fact that the bow is pointing up toward heaven. God has not stopped being a God of judgment. He was still a holy God who hated sin – and He was ready to pour out His wrath against all evil. But a rainbow shows us that God is aiming His arrows of wrath somewhere else – not toward His creation that is sinful but toward Himself. In fact, we don’t see an arrow in the bow – which means that the only place the arrow could have gone was into His own heart. He received the arrows. In fact, this is exactly what we see on the cross, for it’s there that God witnessed His one and only Son, Jesus Christ, being ridiculed, humiliated, assaulted, and ultimately killed on behalf of His people. And this wasn’t because He was being helplessly victimized by a series of unfortunate events. No, this wasn’t an accident. Isaiah 53:10 says, “It was the LORD’s will to crush Him and cause Him to suffer.” John 3:16 says, “For God so loved the world that He gave His one and only Son.” It was God who wanted Jesus to substitute His place with us – He’s the One who sent Jesus to receive the penalty of our sin on our behalf. And just in case you think that Jesus was forced to do this when He didn’t want to, Hebrews 12:2 clearly says, “For the joy set before Him He endured the cross, scorning its shame.” Jesus wanted to do this, knowing that it would bring great joy to His heart. All that to say, a rainbow represents God’s grace for mankind as the arrows of His wrath were not shot against His creation but against Him. Through the rainbow, through the cross, God’s unending love is displayed, for there was no pain He wasn’t willing to endure in order to bring salvation to us. God’s faithfulness, protection, and grace – these are the things a rainbow communicates. And it was meant to strengthen Noah’s faith and ours as well. Then, whenever you’re shaking with fear or doubt, look to His covenant sign, a rainbow, and know that you’re in the arms of our Father, who loves you to the end.
CONCLUSION
Lighthouse family, we are in a covenant relationship with God – which means that we’re bound to Him in a deep, committed, and unbreakable way based on His promises and His faithfulness rather than our performance. Then, I invite you to live with confidence, security, and purpose, knowing that He is devoted to us – He will never leave us or forsake us.
DISCUSSION QUESTIONS
1) The change in humanity’s relationship with animals and food tell us about the consequences of sin. In what ways do we still see the effects of sin in our relationships – with nature, with each other, and with God?
2) What does it mean that human life is sacred because we are made in the image of God? How should that affect the way we treat others?
3) What is the difference between a contract and a covenant? Why is it important that God’s relationship with us is based on a covenant rather than a contract? How does God’s promise to Noah demonstrate His grace and patience with humanity? What does it mean to live in light of God’s faithfulness, knowing He has made a covenant with us?
4) How does the image of God “aiming His bow toward Himself” in judgment point us to Jesus and the cross?