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“If you’re able, please stand...” Reading Genesis 8:20–9:7. “...Thanks be to God.”
Surrender of Japan:
A treaty was signed to END THE WAR. In the face of “inevitable and utter destruction,” the Japanese chose “unconditional surrender.” The War was over. Joy exploded throughout the world.
In some ways that’s what we have in our passage this morning, a promise by God that “inevitable and utter destruction” won’t happen again like it did with the flood of Noah. Joy is the right response.
Right from the Start: In our march through Genesis we’re seeing all kinds of what Brad last week called FOUNDATION STONES. Stones you lay as a foundation and then you build on them. In the early chapters of Genesis there are truths taught that are the foundation for the entire Bible.
This morning we look at the covenant with Noah. Right from the start a covenant is made that affects us every single day. It’s the reason why the sun rose this morning, and it will rise tomorrow. At least, almost certainly.
Sermon: God promises (8:20–22), God commands (9:1–7), God covenants (9:8–17). OUR RESPONSE: WORSHIP!
Prayer
Remember the context. What Noah and his family had experienced. What had already happened in human history. We’re only 9 chapters into our Bible and already it seems like this isn’t going well and what hope is there.
Genesis 7:11 says the flood came the 2nd month, 17th day, 600th year.
Genesis 8:13 says “the earth dried out” on the 1st month, 1st day, 601st year waters dried. 2nd month, 27th day. That’s when God told Noah to leave the ark.
Over a year on the ark and then God says, “Go out from the ark, you and your wife, and your sons and your sons’ wives with you” (Gen 8:16).
This was a good day for Noah and his family. They had been delivered! God had threatened punishment and brought that punishment. God had promised deliverance for Noah and his family, and now they were experiencing that deliverance.
This was a good day.
In these verses are references to waters, wind, “every living thing, “birds and animals and every creeping thing that creeps on the earth” (8:17)—all these remind us that this is a fresh start. A new day. Even a new creation.
And this new Adam, like the first Adam, is told, “Be fruitful and multiply on the earth” (Gen 8:17).
When the surrender of Japan was announced, there was joy in NY and throughout the world. Soldiers kissed their girls. Tears and prayers were lifted up.
For Noah, it was a day to worship.
And so Noah did. Not as one following a command, but like the spontaneous peace offerings or thanksgiving offerings later in the law of Moses.
Noah “built an altar,” clean animals, “offered burnt offerings on the altar” (8:20)
In way this is like combining the offerings of Cain and Abel. Cain offered animals, but it was Abel who gave the acceptable offering. Noah gives the acceptable offering of animals on this alter.
LORD pleased (8:21)
LORD promised never to “strike down every living creature as I have done” (8:21). Never to wipe out all living creatures in this way.
Application: WORSHIP WITH OUR OFFERINGS. A picture of worship. Sacrifices given in gratitude to God’s goodness. It is pleasing to the LORD.
Our giving is a way we, too, can worship in this way:
14 Yet it was kind of you to share my trouble. 15 And you Philippians yourselves know that in the beginning of the gospel, when I left Macedonia, no church entered into partnership with me in giving and receiving, except you only. 16 Even in Thessalonica you sent me help for my needs once and again. 17 Not that I seek the gift, but I seek the fruit that increases to your credit. 18 I have received full payment, and more. I am well supplied, having received from Epaphroditus the gifts you sent, a fragrant offering, a sacrifice acceptable and pleasing to God. 19 And my God will supply every need of yours according to his riches in glory in Christ Jesus. 20 To our God and Father be glory forever and ever. Amen. (Phil 4:14-20)
Covenants in the Bible typically have a response that God requires. These are called covenant stipulations.
Read Genesis 9:1–7.
First command/stipulation: “Be fruitful and multiply” – Threefold repetition – Genesis 8:17; 9:1, 9:7 – Just like Adam and Eve were told in Genesis 1:28:
And God blessed them. And God said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and subdue it, and have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over every living thing that moves on the earth.” (Gen 1:28)
Food (Gen 9:3) but also the sacredness of blood. Blood is described as the “life” of a creature (Gen 9:4). You aren’t to consume it.
This prepares us for what God will do later in the Bible when it comes to blood. Blood will be how sin is atoned for in the law of Moses.
But especially, it is the blood of Jesus that will bring true forgiveness. It is that sacred blood that brings the true cleansing.
The apostle Peter will speak of Christ’s blood as “the precious blood of Christ” which has ransomed us from the futile ways inherited by our forefathers (1 Peter 1:18–19).
Second command/stipulation: But then God will make another point about blood. This has to do with how society is to be organized. A basic law of justice in a society.
Murder is be avenged (9:5–6). Cain and Lamech killed and were cursed. And God promised vengeance if anyone killed them prematurely. God himself would bring the vengeance.
But here there is a step toward an organized society where man is to carry out the punishment. Genesis 9:6, “BY MAN shall his blood be shed.”
Why so severe a penalty? Why is capital punishment appropriate for such a criminal act? Because of what people are. Because unique among all creatures, all the angels, “God made man in his own image” (Gen 9:6).
Application: WORSHIP WITH OUR OBEDIENCE. Part of what it means to be pro-life.
As I said, we’ll say more about this in two weeks.
In the third part of the passage we get to the covenant with Noah. Through the words God chooses and the repetition he uses, we see what this covenant is all about.
Read Genesis 9:8–17.
7x repetition of the word “covenant” (9:9, 11–13, 15–17). 7x in 10 verses. The covenant is the big idea here.
This is a DIVINE COVENANT. God making a solemn oath. And like all of his covenants, there are promises he makes. And like all of his covenants, there is some kind of defining of what it means that he is our God and we are his people.
What is God doing? “ESTABLISHING” his covenant. Repetition of that phrase, “I establish my covenant” (Gen 9:9, 11, 17).
Slightly different than the language used in Genesis 15:18 where God says he will “CUT a covenant” with Abraham.
In some ways what is being communicated here is that God is CONFIRMING an earlier covenant (made with Adam) more than CUTTING an entirely new covenant.[1] It’s a covenant to allow the earlier covenant with Adam to continue.
Looking at this phrase in the passage we see what the covenant with Noah is.
WITH WHOM? This is given in Genesis 9:9–10. The parties of the covenant. God, Noah, his family, their offspring, and all creatures.
WHAT IS COVENANTED? This is given in Genesis 9:11. Never again will there be a flood.
WHAT IS THE SIGN? This is given in verse 17. The “bow.” We call it a “rainbow.” But it’s the same word as used of an archer’s “bow.” Being upside down it’s like a military bow at rest.
And this sign is unlike any other covenant sign in the Bible. It is GOD ALONE who can create the sign. We can’t.
Reminder that this is a GRACIOUS covenant. A covenant of promise. God alone makes the promises and God alone will keep them.
The glory of this covenant is that human history will be allowed to continue until God completes his plan of redemption.
It is an “EVERLASTING” covenant. It is still in effect. Only the return of Christ will bring an end to this covenant promise.[2]
That’s good news. It means there’s time for you and me to turn to Christ. There’s time for us to repent and believe.
This realm of human history won’t last forever, though.
The Bible says we are now living in “the last days” (Acts 2:17). We’re awaiting “the last day” or “the day of the Lord” (Acts 2:21). But these are the last days.
When Christ returns our time will be up. There will be no more chance to repent and believe.
At that point a day of judgment will come where all of our works will be evaluated before Christ himself. Those who believe in him will be declared RIGHTEOUS—because of the obedience of Christ. That will be credited to us because of our faith.
Those who do not believe in Christ will be declared UNRIGHTEOUS, guilty, unworthy to enter God’s kingdom. They will stand guilty and ashamed in their own disobedience.
That’s why we need to “live like Christ died yesterday, like he rose today, and like he’s coming back tomorrow.”
Application:
The covenant with Noah is connected to the promise we’ve already heard from Genesis 3:15:
“I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and her offspring; he shall bruise your head, and you shall bruise his heel.” (Gen 3:15)
We said that this promise is connected to what’s called THE COVENANT OF GRACE. God’s covenant to save all who trust in his mercy.
As DIVINE COVENANTS are made in the Bible, they aren’t completely separate from this COVENANT OF GRACE.
They all serve the COVENANT OF GRACE in different ways.
The Covenant with Noah becomes a COVENANT OF PRESERVATION.
God will preserve the world and humanity until the SERPENT-CRUSHER comes.
The covenant with Noah is like a protective shield around that covenant. God’s promise that no final destruction will happen until the promised offspring of the woman has destroyed the offspring of the serpent.
WORSHIP WITH OUR FAITH
God promises, God commands, God covenants. OUR RESPONSE: WORSHIP...
With this covenant we get a necessary solution. Without the covenant with Noah, the world would repeatedly be plunged into destruction. The cycle of escalating sin followed by judgment and new Adams would continue.
The purpose of God to create a people for himself would never be fulfilled.
Because the great problem still remains right there in Genesis 8:21, “The intention of man’s heart is evil from his youth.”
This is a necessay covenant. And it’s a covenant that remains today. It’s an everlasting covenant.
But the real solution isn’t in this new Adam. Brad reminded us last week, Noah will show that he himself is not a solution.
Noah the New Adam is experiencing a New Creation.
But Noah the Gardener, like Adam the first Gardener, went astray with the fruit of his garden and there was shame and nakedness as a result.
Genesis 9:20-22.
We need a real solution. Like the surrender of Japan. The wartime hostilities might have ended, but human hearts remain unchanged.
Noah reminds us that we need new hearts, not just a fresh start. A fresh start just means I’ll get to the same place again. The solution is a new heart.
That’s what God does through his Spirit. Ezekiel 36:
25 I will sprinkle clean water on you, and you shall be clean from all your uncleannesses, and from all your idols I will cleanse you. 26 And I will give you a new heart, and a new spirit I will put within you. And I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh. 27 And I will put my Spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes and be careful to obey my rules. (Ezek 36:25-27)
This is what Jesus was pointing to when he spoke to Nicodemus:
Jesus answered him, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born again he cannot see the kingdom of God.” (John 3:3)
Jesus answered, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God. (John 3:5)
A new heart. That’s what it means to be “born again.” Jesus said we can’t enter the kingdom of heaven unless we’ve been “born again.” Unless we’ve experienced what Ezekiel is talking about. That is the work of the Spirit.
What can you do? Turn to Christ. Believe in him. Cry out for a new heart. Not just a fresh start but a new heart.
Prayer and song (“Christ Our Hope in Life and Death”).
[1] See Kingdom through Covenant by Stephen Wellum and Peter Gentry on the Noahic covenant for this idea. Looking at the usage in the OT this distinction generally holds. Perhaps not as emphatically as Wellum/Gentry affirm, but it’s a good distinction. As examples, see Genesis 17:7, 19, 21; 21:32; Exod 6:4; Lev 26:9; Deut 8:18; 31:16; Ezek 16:62; Neh 9:8; 1 Chr 22:19; 28:2.
[2] See John Murray, The Covenant of Grace, on this aspect of the Noahic covenant.
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