Sunday School Oct. 9th - God's Covenant with Noah

Word Study:

Now he called his name Noah, saying, "This one will give us rest from our work and from the toil of our hands arising from the ground which the LORD has cursed." (‭Genesis‬ ‭5‬:‭29‬ NASB)

Type of Christ

To understand what Noah's father meant by his naming, we must go a little further back to Gen 3

And I will put enmity Between you and the woman, And between your seed and her seed; He shall bruise you on the head, And you shall bruise him on the heel." (‭Genesis‬ ‭3‬:‭15‬ NASB)

The word bruise:

שׁוּף

Transliteration: shuwph

Pronunciation: shüf

Part of Speech: verb

Root Word (Etymology): a primitive root

Outline of Biblical Usage:

to bruise, crush, gape upon, desire?, seize?, strike out?

(Qal) to fall upon, bruise

KJV Translation Count:

4 Total bruise 2, break 1, cover 1

The connotation of the root word used for bruise is to "lie in wait for"

Thus it could be said, "He (the seed of the woman) shall lie in wait for thy head, and thou (the serpent) shall lie in wait for His heel. He (the seed of the woman) shall endeavor to crush your head, and thou (the serpent) shalt endeavor to crush his heel."

It may look like a long time past, but he lies in wait!

Waiting for the time when the serpent will strike his heel, so that He may crush the head of the enemy!

The connotations of the root word used for Head are:

רֹאשׁ rō(ʾ)š head

noun, singular, normal ± common, masculine

BDB head

DBL Hebrew head; source; top; front; the beginning; finest things; division; sum

chief, head (of man, city, nation, place, family)

front

Notice the translation of "chief or leader, whatever is "highest and supreme" (Thus a king or prince)

Thus "He shall crush your highest, supreme head, your prince shall be crushed, your chief, your leader, the head of your divisions, your source and beginning shall be crushed"

the sum of..., the full amount of..., the entirety of..., SHALL BE CRUSHED!

So we have a picture, given by God, of the seed of the woman utterly crushing and destroying the seed of the serpent.

Little did they know Noah was a deliverer, but not THE deliverer.

God kept Noah and his family in order to fulfill the promise He made to Adam and Eve in Genesis 3.

An important thing to note when we are talking about early history is that everything God does is ultimately to fulfill the ultimate purpose, which culminates in the Christ.

Every covenant that is made furthers the mission to arrive at Jesus.

No covenant cancels the previous, but either adds to it or fulfills it.

In the previous lesson, you talked about the Ark and God’s deliverance of Noah’s family from the flood.

Our Text:

Gen 8:20-22

Genesis 8:20–22 NASB95

20 Then Noah built an altar to the Lord, and took of every clean animal and of every clean bird and offered burnt offerings on the altar. 21 The Lord smelled the soothing aroma; and the Lord said to Himself, “I will never again curse the ground on account of man, for the intent of man’s heart is evil from his youth; and I will never again destroy every living thing, as I have done. 22 “While the earth remains, Seedtime and harvest, And cold and heat, And summer and winter, And day and night Shall not cease.”

Notice the beginning of the promise: I will never again curse the ground on account of man… a reference to the original curse and promise.

The guide makes a point to reflect that Noah followed the example of Abel.

The weight of this sacrifice could not be understated. Imagine the whole earth has been wiped out, and now all the living creatures on the planet are here in the ark. So to kill more of them as a sacrifice was a huge decision.

Noah is essentially relying totally on God as supply, showing his thanks for the protection despite what would have been an incredible temptation to go without.

The point here is, Noah wasn’t letting lack of resources or breadth of mission detract from his lifestyle of thankfulness.

He was God who created it all, God who gave him instruction to build the ark, God who brought all the animals to him, and He is God who could supply again.

Have you ever had God provide beyond your sacrifice?

Gen 9:1-7

Genesis 9:1–7 NASB95

1 And God blessed Noah and his sons and said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth. 2 “The fear of you and the terror of you will be on every beast of the earth and on every bird of the sky; with everything that creeps on the ground, and all the fish of the sea, into your hand they are given. 3 “Every moving thing that is alive shall be food for you; I give all to you, as I gave the green plant. 4 “Only you shall not eat flesh with its life, that is, its blood. 5 “Surely I will require your lifeblood; from every beast I will require it. And from every man, from every man’s brother I will require the life of man. 6 “Whoever sheds man’s blood, By man his blood shall be shed, For in the image of God He made man. 7 “As for you, be fruitful and multiply; Populate the earth abundantly and multiply in it.”

So God instructs something similar to the original command in Gen 1:28.

ROUND 2!

Better: Chance 2.

This continues to be the pattern moving forward, God would provide another chance, and usually this comes with a more specific set of instructions, pointing at the heart of God.

Eventually, Jesus shows up on the scene and tells them, even with all these instructions, you’re missing the point, so I’m here to reveal the heart of the Father within your own hearts.

There is also a pointing forward here on the significance of the blood. This is also a look back to Abel’s blood crying out to God.

Unlike God’s punishment on Cane, however, God would require the life of a murderer.

The sanctity of life here is rooted in man’s creation being in God’s image. Because man is the image bearer of God, to kill is not only a sin toward man, but to the ultimate one the image represents.

There is a preview in this requirement of what is to come with a system of justice and government.

Gen 9:8-11

Genesis 9:8–11 NASB95

8 Then God spoke to Noah and to his sons with him, saying, 9 “Now behold, I Myself do establish My covenant with you, and with your descendants after you; 10 and with every living creature that is with you, the birds, the cattle, and every beast of the earth with you; of all that comes out of the ark, even every beast of the earth. 11 “I establish My covenant with you; and all flesh shall never again be cut off by the water of the flood, neither shall there again be a flood to destroy the earth.”

I myself… There was none higher for God to establish the covenant by, so He established it by Himself.

There was no higher authority by which this covenant would be established and it will last until the governing authority by which it was established has ended. Because God’s authority will never end, so this covenant will never end.

The same God that brought the judgement also brings the promise of grace.

He is altogether graceful and righteous at the same time. These qualities are not at odds.

He is also the only one able to see these promises through to completion.

He continues to make promises throughout the scriptures, but never loses track of any of them.

Gen. 9:12-17

Genesis 9:12–17 NASB95

12 God said, “This is the sign of the covenant which I am making between Me and you and every living creature that is with you, for all successive generations; 13 I set My bow in the cloud, and it shall be for a sign of a covenant between Me and the earth. 14 “It shall come about, when I bring a cloud over the earth, that the bow will be seen in the cloud, 15 and I will remember My covenant, which is between Me and you and every living creature of all flesh; and never again shall the water become a flood to destroy all flesh. 16 “When the bow is in the cloud, then I will look upon it, to remember the everlasting covenant between God and every living creature of all flesh that is on the earth.” 17 And God said to Noah, “This is the sign of the covenant which I have established between Me and all flesh that is on the earth.”

God, who knows all things set a reminder that would remind Him of the promise…

This is sort of like when God asks a question…

You think God doesn’t remember?

God does this often with symbols to help man remember:

The rainbow, day and night, the seasons, pillar of cloud by day and fire by night, the cloud on the mountain, the altar Joshua builds out of the river rocks, etc.

Remember that scriptures were first given orally from generation to generation for many centuries at least until after Israel was delivered from Egypt.

So these reminders were there to help them carry the stories on throughout the generations.

Gen 9:18-23

Genesis 9:18–23 NASB95

18 Now the sons of Noah who came out of the ark were Shem and Ham and Japheth; and Ham was the father of Canaan. 19 These three were the sons of Noah, and from these the whole earth was populated. 20 Then Noah began farming and planted a vineyard. 21 He drank of the wine and became drunk, and uncovered himself inside his tent. 22 Ham, the father of Canaan, saw the nakedness of his father, and told his two brothers outside. 23 But Shem and Japheth took a garment and laid it upon both their shoulders and walked backward and covered the nakedness of their father; and their faces were turned away, so that they did not see their father’s nakedness.

As is the pattern of scripture, typically following a great triumph is a great fall. God has made this promise with Noah, then after a bit of time, it is tainted by humanity’s sinfulness.

It is significant that this is the first biblical mention of drunkenness and it is directly related to moral failure and shame.

Proverbs 20:1 NASB95

1 Wine is a mocker, strong drink a brawler, And whoever is intoxicated by it is not wise.

There is some speculation when reading this circumspectly with Lev. 18:6 in mind as to what happened here. In Leviticus, to “uncover nakedness” it typically came with sexual connotations. There is no reason other than than to think that something along those lines went on.

More likely, the significance of nakedness in this portion of scripture is closely connected with the shame of nakedness from the garden, and God is the one who killed the animal to cover their nakedness so when a person is exposed, their ultimate shame is revealed, reminding them that they are no better than those who fell in the garden and still share in their ultimate shame.

This is further supported by the fact that the blessed actions here are the covering of the nakedness, again paralleling what God did for Adam and Eve in the Garden.

Gen. 9:24-29

Genesis 9:24–29 NASB95

24 When Noah awoke from his wine, he knew what his youngest son had done to him. 25 So he said, “Cursed be Canaan; A servant of servants He shall be to his brothers.” 26 He also said, “Blessed be the Lord, The God of Shem; And let Canaan be his servant. 27 “May God enlarge Japheth, And let him dwell in the tents of Shem; And let Canaan be his servant.” 28 Noah lived three hundred and fifty years after the flood. 29 So all the days of Noah were nine hundred and fifty years, and he died.

As far as interpretation goes, these few passages provide some difficulties. Why is Canaan brought up? There seems to be some detail here that we are not afforded either by way of writing, context, or relationship.

The guide suggests that there may have been some involvement by Canaan, but we are not told this in the text. This is being written in a time looking back through the lens of what Canaan has become in Palestine, which could be a factor in the inclusion of the name.

There is no good answer here from an interpreter’s point of view. No theologies can be built or destroyed with this text. What is very clear is the importance placed on the covering of nakedness rather than exploiting it, and the shaming that comes with drunkenness.

From a Christiological Hermeneutic, this becomes significant in the crucifixion. Jesus is paraded through town naked and cursed, bearing our shame so that we could be covered again, His sacrifice being the parallel to God clothing Adam and Eve in the Garden.