01-36 Never Again
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Genesis 8:20-22
Genesis 8:20-22
We live in a world full of broken promises. The problem is systemic to humanity and consequently, we see broken promises everywhere: at the national level (nations b/t nations), politicians break promises; at the professional and financial level, spiritual level (I’m sure you’ve had pastors and church leaders break promises); on a personal level (each one of us has made promises that we could not keep—regardless of intention).
Broken promises result in disappointment, distrust and discouragement—and the bottom line is that we all are on both ends of that—those to whom promises were not kept, and those who have not kept our promises.
There are many resources (time and money) spent on trying to figure out why people break promises but the answer is very simple:
9 “The heart is more deceitful than all else And is desperately sick; Who can understand it?
This is not to say that we always intend to deceive people when we promise something but that the nature of the heart is at its very core deceptive (even to ourselves). So often we may promise something to someone with every intention of following thru yet our heart deceives us into thinking we have complete control over the circumstances that are involved. We are fallen, fallible sinners—not only capable of failing, but in general terms—that is our default position (bent toward error). Now as believers, there is a new nature yet we remain in the flesh—so our Lord taught:
33 “Again, you have heard that the ancients were told, ‘You shall not make false vows, but shall fulfill your vows to the Lord.’ 34 “But I say to you, make no oath at all, either by heaven, for it is the throne of God, 35 or by the earth, for it is the footstool of His feet, or by Jerusalem, for it is the city of the great King. 36 “Nor shall you make an oath by your head, for you cannot make one hair white or black. 37 “But let your statement be, ‘Yes, yes’ or ‘No, no’; anything beyond these is of evil. 38 “You have heard that it was said, ‘An eye for an eye, and a tooth for a tooth.’
Be careful of making flippant, half-hearted vows (promises). On the other hand—the character of the righteous is that they keep their word (the man who stands before the Lord):
Psalm 15:4 (NASB95)
4 He swears to his own hurt and does not change;
In other words, he will, at all cost, keep his word (even to his own hurt). Now, while we live in a world full of broken promises, this cannot apply to God
19 “God is not a man, that He should lie, Nor a son of man, that He should repent; Has He said, and will He not do it? Or has He spoken, and will He not make it good?
18 so that by two unchangeable things in which it is impossible for God to lie, we who have taken refuge would have strong encouragement to take hold of the hope set before us.
2 in the hope of eternal life, which God, who cannot lie, promised long ages ago,
Samuel instructed Saul:
29 “Also the Glory of Israel will not lie or change His mind; for He is not a man that He should change His mind.”
God is the source and measure of all that is true—and so by definition it is impossible for God to lie. Now the contrast to this:
44 “You are of your father the devil, and you want to do the desires of your father. He was a murderer from the beginning, and does not stand in the truth because there is no truth in him. Whenever he speaks a lie, he speaks from his own nature, for he is a liar and the father of lies.
Whenever God speaks the truth, He is speaking from His own nature as the Father of truth. So God keeps His Word. Scripture cannot fail—b/c its author does not fail.
35 “Heaven and earth will pass away, but My words will not pass away.
17 “But it is easier for heaven and earth to pass away than for one stroke of a letter of the Law to fail.
89 Forever, O Lord, Your word is settled in heaven.
5 Every word of God is tested; He is a shield to those who take refuge in Him.
8 The grass withers, the flower fades, But the word of our God stands forever.
25 But the word of the Lord endures forever.” And this is the word which was preached to you.
Having this certainty, we come back to Gen, after Noah and him family come out of the ark (for the flood is over, earth is dry). God extends to Noah (and all humanity after him) a covenant (term 1st appears in 6:18) which expresses a course of action that God binds Himself to in relation to man. Some debate whether this is the 1st covenant (Adamic covenant)—it is the first explicit mention of a covenant and theologians refer to it as the Noahic Covenant.
(We’re going to take a brief hiatus from Genesis and after the new year we’ll dive deeper into this covenant).
For today, let me start with the occasion for the Noahic Covenant:
Noah’s Worship
Noah comes out of the ark and I think it’s instructive that his 1st order of business, his 1st activity is to build an altar (to the Lord YHWH). This is the 1st time an altar is mentioned in Genesis but it lit means “place of slaughter” and sacrifices were previously offered by Cain and Abel (Gen 4). This is the place where animals would be sacrificed. Those animals were from the 7 pairs of clean animals and birds that were also brought onto the ark and Noah made “burnt offerings on the altar.”
God expresses later (in the Mosaic Law) the manner in which He is to be approached by the sinner—by way of sacrifice. This is the only way of acceptance and in the OT—that was thru animal sacrifice. Now, just a footnote: Hebrews teaches us that OT sacrificial system was a shadow, a copy or type that would ultimately point toward and be fulfilled by the sacrifice of LJC Himself. This is a preview of the OT sacrificial system.
The burnt offering was made sometimes as an offering for sin. Other times the burnt offering was an act of thanksgiving to the Lord. In Noah’s case, I think it incorporates both ideas of blood atonement and thanksgiving. And the picture of the burnt offering is that it is wholly burnt and the smoke, as fire consumed the animals, would ascend to God.
This was a moment of worship, giving thanks to God for the divine preservation in the midst of divine judgment and as an offering of atonement for sin (his and his family’s). Noah, already described as “righteous man” (6:9) who “walked with God”, demonstrates his faith once again by surrendering himself, devoting himself fully unto the Lord.
This becomes the occasion for the Lord to express (to reveal) His purposes to Noah by means of a covenant.
God’s Covenant
The Noahic Covenant is one of 6 (or 7) major covenants in the OT (Abrahamic, Priestly, Mosaic, Davidic, New Covenant). In broad terms, these covenants provide a foundation for understanding God’s working in human history—how His kingdom purposes unfold.
There are 3 features of these covenants (most of them) that they share in common:
1. Unilateral
(exception is Mosaic—conditional and non-everlasting)
It is an important distinction that, while men can enter into covenants with each other (buying a house—and there are conditions that both parties are obligated to and failure to fulfill is to break the covenant), these major biblical covenants are made by God and not man. They are unilateral (as opposed to bi-lateral). They go in 1 direction and that direction is God binding Himself to a course of action that He alone determines which is not dependent on any requirement or agreement made of (or with) man. In vs 21 “the Lord said to Himself (lit. to His heart).” He is committing Himself to this course of action—dependent only on His character.
vs 21 “I will never again...”
9:8-10; 9:11; 9:12; 9:15; 9:17
These covenants (particularly Noahic) are a revelation of God’s purpose to man—how He intends to carry out those purposes. In the Noahic Covenant, God binds Himself to His own Word so that His kingdom purposes would be established. And since God cannot lie (His word cannot be broken) the covenant that He establishes cannot fail or falter—leads us to the 2nd feature:
2. Eternal
What I mean by eternal—not “eternally eternal” or in the since that it continues as long as God endures. Eternal means that so long as the conditions to which the covenant is attached endure, the covenant is unalterable. And there are conditions spelled out in the Noahic covenant “as long as earth remains”
vv 21-22 “I will never again…shall not cease”
God binds Himself to His own Word so that this covenant established with Noah, the animal kingdom, the earth, and all humanity cannot be altered until God’s purpose for the earth comes to an end:
10 But the day of the Lord will come like a thief, in which the heavens will pass away with a roar and the elements will be destroyed with intense heat, and the earth and its works will be burned up.
1 Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth; for the first heaven and the first earth passed away, and there is no longer any sea.
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.”
This is so completely different from man’s promises. Remember Peter?
31 But Peter kept saying insistently, “Even if I have to die with You, I will not deny You!” And they all were saying the same thing also.
God is not like that:
1 Kings 8:56 (NASB95) Solomon’s benediction after temple dedication
56 “Blessed be the Lord, who has given rest to His people Israel, according to all that He promised; not one word has failed of all His good promise, which He promised through Moses His servant.
20 For as many as are the promises of God, in Him they are yes; therefore also through Him is our Amen to the glory of God through us.
It is a rich blessing when God promises never to do something or never to let something happen:
1 Now the angel of the Lord came up from Gilgal to Bochim. And he said, “I brought you up out of Egypt and led you into the land which I have sworn to your fathers; and I said, ‘I will never break My covenant with you,
5 He does not put out his money at interest, Nor does he take a bribe against the innocent. He who does these things will never be shaken.
22 Cast your burden upon the Lord and He will sustain you; He will never allow the righteous to be shaken.
30 The righteous will never be shaken, But the wicked will not dwell in the land.
22 The Lord’s lovingkindnesses indeed never cease, For His compassions never fail.
Jesus uses the term “never” on several occasions:
14 but whoever drinks of the water that I will give him shall never thirst; but the water that I will give him will become in him a well of water springing up to eternal life.”
51 “Truly, truly, I say to you, if anyone keeps My word he will never see death.”
28 and I give eternal life to them, and they will never perish; and no one will snatch them out of My hand.
26 and everyone who lives and believes in Me will never die. Do you believe this?”
5 Make sure that your character is free from the love of money, being content with what you have; for He Himself has said, “I will never desert you, nor will I ever forsake you,”
These promises are rich and full and cover the entirety of your spiritual life, from initial faith in LJC to eternal security to final victory over death…we might echo Paul:
31 What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who is against us?
3. Of Grace
Covenants are unilateral, eternal and always and only according to God’s good pleasure. When God establishes a covenant it is not bc of anything outside of Himself that brings that covenant into being. This is especially true since:
Genesis 8:21 (NASB95)
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.
To understand this we have to go back to God’s purpose for judging the world in the flood. Some commentaries have taken the position that the flood failed to do what God intended:
Victor Hamilton explains:
“their interpretation is that God is frustrated because the Flood has not really worked. It has destroyed the human race, but it has not changed human nature. Post-Flood man is also a reprobate. In retrospect God sees that he has acted unwisely and too simplistically. But happily he admits his mistake and is willing to learn from it.”
But if God’s purpose for the flood is to preserve the pure seed of humanity which was being corrupted thru the offspring of the unholy marriages of demons and human women, and that indeed is accomplished when 8 persons are saved on the ark (in whom the pure seed is preserved) then God’s covenant does not come from frustration but a vivid demonstration of His grace.
God promises not to add to the curse that resulted from Adam’s fall. But as a response to Noah’s sacrifice (which is a soothing aroma) which is a term that means “to appease, or to quiet”, God’s wrath and anger are quieted even though man’s heart remains evil from its youth. God takes great delight in your worship.
8 sinners went on to the ark, 8 sinners emerged from the ark, and the children born to them would likewise have sin natures—fully deserving God’s judgment and annihilation…but God reveals His kingdom purposes and “never again” will there be a destruction of the earth by flood waters.
There are many provisions of the Noahic covenant and the 1st is found in 8:22
22 “While the earth remains, Seedtime and harvest, And cold and heat, And summer and winter, And day and night Shall not cease.”
There will be a stability of nature itself. While the earth remains, there are certainties that are divinely guaranteed. (There is an unfortunate chapter break here—for the covenant continues in ch 9). Divinely ordained cycles will continue until the earth is done away with. Nature will not act in unpredictable, capricious manner. This guarantees that there will not be a global catastrophe that could potentially interrupt God’s purposes from unfolding in human history.
So, global warming (climate change) will not bring an extinction of humans. Secular scientists fear (bc of the imaginations of their heart) human extinction from a variety of means: nuclear war, pandemics, AI, climate change, super volcano, etc… God says— “its not going to happen—as long as God remains faithful to Himself…we can take comfort in this (and the other) provision of God’s covenant with Noah.
LAWSON:
Nothing is going to happen to this planet until God says so. And in fact, this planet will continue as God has established it, until the time of the second coming; and there will come a time when God will create a new heaven and a new earth and a new Jerusalem that will come down as a bride out of heaven. But until then, this earth will remain as it is, because it is sovereign God who is holding His earth in the palm of His hand; and nothing will stop the seasons, the day, and the night, and the earth, as Almighty God Himself has established it.
