STUDY THEME: COVENANTS OF GRACE. 10-06-02
"COMMITTING TO LIFE." GENESIS 8:20—9:17.
GENESIS 8:20-22; 9:1, 2-4, 5-6, 8-11, 12-17.
PLEASE OPEN YOUR BIBLE TO GENESIS 8.
The lesson this Sunday begins a new series under the general "Study Theme" entitled "Covenants of Grace." We will study four key covenants in the O.T. which reflect the special grace and goodness of God toward individuals and toward people groups. In each case, God initiated the covenant. In each case the covenant was given to one person, but its ultimate fulfillment included many others.
These four lessons are drawn from O.T. passages. The purposes of these lessons is to help us understand more fully the initiative God took to carry out His plan to redeem His creation. Specifically, the lessons are designed to help us build a biblically based view about the value and future of life, extend God’s blessing by helping all people have an opportunity to know the one, true God, live in obedience to God’s law, and live in gratitude for God’s covenant faithfulness.
The primary meaning of the Hebrew word "covenant" is that of obligation. It is a type of bond, pact, or commitment into which two parties enter with understanding that certain obligations and benefits are involved. It would be similar to our word "contract" but not in every legal detail. Another word sometimes used for it is "testament."
Our first lesson in this series studies the covenant God made with Noah. This was an unconditional covenant. Although spoken to Noah this covenant was actually a promise to all human and animal life that God would never again destroy the earth by a flood. God gave the rainbow as a sign of His promise. This covenant shows that life is valuable and that God is committed to preserving human life. In a day when so many people think that life has no purpose or no value, this lesson will be very important for us.
The Life Question this lesson seeks to address is "How can I have hope about life when so much seems wrong?" The Biblical Truth is that God revealed to Noah His covenant to preserve and redeem His creation rather than to destroy it. The Life Impact is to help us build a biblically based view about the value and future of life.
In the secular world-view, human life is not always considered precious. Life is often seen as a purely natural phenomenon. Ending life, therefore, is not always viewed in the same way as it is by those who hold the biblical view. Genocide is the worst example of a secular view, although many people abhor it. Some secular people condone abortion, and euthanasia. Violence is widespread. Most people value their own lives and those of their friends and family, and they fear for their lives in an increasingly violent society.
Are you hopeful about humanities future? In their book "Whatever Happened to the Human Race?" Francis Schaeffer and C. Everett Koop presented biblical teaching about the value and future of human life. They did so as a response to the increasingly dominant view that says life has no ultimate purpose. In the secular world-view criticized by Shaeffer and Koop, life is depicted as a bridge built halfway across a gorge. The bridge is crowded with humans pressing forward to cross it, and one after another they fall into the gorge. The bridge is going nowhere, thus, the people moving across the bridge are going nowhere.
Whether human life has value and a future are important questions for us to answer. God addressed these questions when He made a covenant with Noah. Studying God’s covenant with Noah can help us to build a biblically based view about life and to have hope even when so much seems to be wrong in our world.
Noah is the son of Lamech; tenth in the descent from Adam in the line of Seth. According to Usser, Noah was born BC 2948 and died BC 1998 at the age of 950 years; 126 years after the death of Adam, and 350 years after the flood. His name means REST. Noah was uniquely righteous in a totally corrupt age. When he was 480 years old, 120 years before the flood, he was warned of God that the world would be destroyed by water. He was then given exact instructions for building the ark. While engaged in this colossal task, he warned men of the coming catastrophe, while God in long-suffering waited for men to repent. Noah’s three sons, Ham, Shem and Japeth, were not born until Noah was 500 years old.
One week before the flood, God led Noah and his family into the Ark, and then supernaturally directed the animals into the Ark. When all were safely inside, God shut the door. The flood came in Noah’s 600th year. For 40 days and nights rain poured from the heavens. At the same time huge swollen streams burst forth from their underground passageways and added to the rising tide. With the earth completely immersed for 150 days, every living thing that moved on the land died. Everything died, that is, except Noah, his family and the animals, God instructed Noah to take on board the Ark. After five months the floodwaters started to recede, and in the seventh month the Ark came to rest on the top of Mt. Ararat.
Why was Noah spared? Noah had a right relationship with God. God acted graciously and established a covenant promising that through Noah and his family, humankind would be given a new start after the flood. In Genesis 8:14 the earth was dried, the Flood was over, and in vs. 19 the Ark was emptied. Noah’s first activity was to build an altar and offer burnt offerings to God. Pleased with Noah’s act of devotion, God determined that although sin was still deeply rooted in humankind He would never again curse the land or destroy all living creatures. He would establish a sacred bond with His creation regarding the value and future of life. God also reestablished the cycle of seasons.
2. PLEASE READ GENESIS 9: 1.
God made a new start with Noah and his sons. The sons were crucial in this because of their children and their descendants. God blessed them by repeating to them part of the commission of Gen. 1:28. "
Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth." God had begun the human race with Adam and Eve. Now all people, except for Noah and his family, were dead. In a sense Noah became the new Adam, through whom the human race was to have a new beginning.Both Genesis 1:28 and 9:1 show several crucial facts about God, man, and new life. (1) God gives new life through human conception and birth; (2) life is the gift of God; (3) human parents are co-creators with God of human life; and (4) children are gifts from God, and a trust for parents. The conception and birth of new life is a miracle of God. It was part of the original good creation, and it continued in the covenant with Noah.
Vs. 1 represents something that was part of the original creation, but Vs. 2-4 represent some changes. In the Garden of Eden, before sin came in, Adam and the animals lived together in a harmonious relationship. He named the animals. Prior to the flood nothing explicit is said about humans eating animals. Now, after the Flood, however, God told Noah and his sons,
Although humans were allowed to eat the meat of any animal, one strong prohibition was given. No one was to eat flesh containing the blood of the animal. The lifeblood represented the life of the animal. This prohibition became part of the Jewish law.
In Vs. 5, God revealed to Noah the special accountability for the taking of human life. God will surely demand an accounting. Because man alone was created in God’s image. Humanity is precious to God, and the taking of human life is first, and foremost an offense against Him. No taking of human life is hidden from God. The victim’s blood cries out to God from the ground. Killers may manage to escape punishment because of faulty human justice systems, but they will not escape divine reckoning.
Both human and animals are under God’s instructions about the sanctity of human life. God will hold accountable every animal and each man, too. One illustration of this principle appears in Exodus 21: 28-29, which says, ‘If a bull gores a man or a woman to death, the bull must be stoned to death, and its meat must not be eaten. But the owner of the bull will not be held responsible. If, however, the bull has had the habit of goring, and the owner has been warned but had not kept it penned up and it kills a man or woman, the bull must be stoned and the owner also must be put to death.," God takes manslaughter of every kind very seriously.
In Vs. 6, God revealed to Noah how retribution for killing human beings was to be carried out, what punishment was to be exacted, and why the taking of human life demanded such a serious accountability. Most evangelical interpreters understand the phrase "by man shall his blood be shed " as part of the biblical foundation for the state’s God-given responsibility to carry out capital punishment. Offenders who take human lives forfeit their own lives.
A life for a life was demanded because of human beings’ special status: "
in the image of God has God made man." God’s original design for creation had been marred by human sin but not lost. Human life is sacred. By taking a life, a murderer demonstrates utter contempt for God, the Creator of life, and for life itself.God has saved Noah and his family, and they would repopulate the earth; but Noah might have wondered if the world would one day experience the same judgment again. While the Bible does not tell us that Noah had such a thought, God’s covenant with Noah answers the question.
The basic meaning of the Hebrew word rendered covenant is ‘obligation." Thus, a covenant is a bond or pact that unites two parties under a set of obligations and benefits. God established many of the covenants described in Scripture. The primary ones in the O.T. being those made with Noah, Abraham, Moses, and David. The covenant with Noah had the distinctive focus of preservation of lives.
The word covenant in the O.T. always refers to a solemn commitment. In covenants of God and humans, God always takes the initiative. He acts by His sovereign grace to extend His covenant to people. He was under no obligation to make this covenant with Noah and humanity, but He chose to do so. He had told Noah before the flood in Gen. 6:18, "
With thee will I establish my covenant." Now in Gen. 9: 9 He said, "Behold, I establish my covenant with you, and with your descendants after you."Although the Lord was speaking to Noah, He was including in the covenant all people and all living things. Vs. 10 spells this out. The covenant with Noah includes all of us of all times.
Of what does this covenant consist? What was God’s promise to Noah and to us? He promised never again to destroy the earth by a flood. Vs. 11 makes this clear and explicit. However, notice that God did not promise that the earth would last forever. Nor did He promise that He would not punish sinners. Neither did He promise that no floods would destroy some people. We know that the last of these happens, and the Bible assures us that unrepentant sinners will face judgment and that this earth will come to an end in God’s time and way. God has since promised in 2 Peter 3: 10-11, and again in Rev. 20: 9 & 21:1 that the earth will be one day be destroyed by fire.
The promise not to destroy the earth by flood was made without conditions on humans. This does not mean that the covenant does not have certain expectations of us in response to God’s promise. We noted some of these in Vs. 1-6. Shortly after departing from the Ark, and offering a sacrifice to the Lord, Noah heard the Lord promise that part of His promise in Gen. 8:22 was this: "
While the earth remaineth, seed time and harvest, and cold and heat, and summer and winter, and day and night shall not cease." This was an implication of the promise not to destroy the earth by water. What expectation does this make of Humans? These are not spelled out, but one surely is that the Lord expects people to live within the cycles of life as He has ordained them.Biblical covenants are usually certified by visual symbols. God established a sign of the covenant He made with Noah and all generations to come. This included humans and every living creature. A sign is some visible, outward indication that points to some truth. This sign to Noah and all generations following him pointed to the Lord’s grace, long-suffering, and salvation for sinful humanity.
The sign was a rainbow. Since the bow in the sky had no arrow in it, the empty bow could have reminded sinful, humanity that God wanted to establish peace, not warfare, with them. The text does not clearly indicate whether God created the rainbow at this time or simply chose the natural phenomenon for a sign. The bow would be a sign both to God and to the earth.
People would see the rainbow during times when clouds formed indicating a storm. Against the backdrop of danger, the sign would bring God’s message of mercy, grace, love and hope. The rainbow proclaims God’s long-suffering. God wants to redeem, not destroy this world. The rainbow speaks of peace. God keeps His promise of Grace. Since, according to Gen. 2:5, no rain had fallen before the Flood, no rainbow had been needed.
God could also see the rainbow, which would cause Him to remember His covenant He promised to humanity and all living creatures. The word "remember" carries the usual meaning but relates here to the covenant. God will not forget what He has promised. He stated His promise in such a way that Noah’s descendants would know He will never destroy all life with a flood. Each time God remembers He will base His actions on His covenant. He will remember and act with compassionate love and mercy. Since the rainbow reminds God of His promise, that fact brings assurance to all creation. Storms will come, but no flood like this one.
To God the rainbow reminds God of His everlasting covenant with the world that will come from Noah and the animals that were in the ark. Vs. 16 essentially repeats the previous verse 15. Through repetition God was proclaiming His love over His wrath for the people and creatures of this world. His love will also be everlasting like his covenant. His rainbow says "I love you." God gave the rainbow as a lasting sign of His grace toward sinful humanity, thus pointing to the ultimate redemption planned by God. We should be sure that we are among those who know God’s abundant and eternal life.
The rainbow is a sign for God, for humanity and for all life on the earth. Since God doesn’t want to destroy life, the rainbow is a sign we shouldn’t either. Our convictions about life must reflect God’s convictions if we claim to follow Him.
NEXT SUNDAY FROM GENESIS 17 WE WILL READ OF GOD’S COVENANT WITH ABRAHAM. A.V. DAUGHERTY 10-06-02