The Noahic Covenant (Gen 8:6-9:1)

Introduction

If you have your Bible, please turn it to Genesis 8:6-9:1.

We’re making our way through the flood account—and really, this sermon could’ve been title “The Flood - Part 4,” but I decided I should be a little more creative than that, so I went with a title that reflects probably the most important part of this text, which is the covenant that God makes with Noah after the flood—the Noahic Covenant. Now, don’t get me wrong, the rest of the text is also important—in this part of the text we see Noah’s family disembarking the Ark and we see the reiteration of what we call the Dominion Mandate (to be fruitful and multiply), but the only part of this text that is unique in that we haven’t seen or read it before is this covenant that God gives to Noah.

Now, I do want to point out that today’s passage ends at the first iteration of the Noahic Covenant, but next week the text expounds on the covenant more so. So, today’s text will end the flood and bring Noah and his family safely onto dry ground again; this passage will show us a new covenant that God makes, but it isn’t until next week’s passage when the details of that covenant are explained.

Keep all this in mind as we read the text for this morning.

Genesis 8:6–9:1 ESV

6 At the end of forty days Noah opened the window of the ark that he had made 7 and sent forth a raven. It went to and fro until the waters were dried up from the earth. 8 Then he sent forth a dove from him, to see if the waters had subsided from the face of the ground. 9 But the dove found no place to set her foot, and she returned to him to the ark, for the waters were still on the face of the whole earth. So he put out his hand and took her and brought her into the ark with him. 10 He waited another seven days, and again he sent forth the dove out of the ark. 11 And the dove came back to him in the evening, and behold, in her mouth was a freshly plucked olive leaf. So Noah knew that the waters had subsided from the earth. 12 Then he waited another seven days and sent forth the dove, and she did not return to him anymore. 13 In the six hundred and first year, in the first month, the first day of the month, the waters were dried from off the earth. And Noah removed the covering of the ark and looked, and behold, the face of the ground was dry. 14 In the second month, on the twenty-seventh day of the month, the earth had dried out. 15 Then God said to Noah, 16 “Go out from the ark, you and your wife, and your sons and your sons’ wives with you. 17 Bring out with you every living thing that is with you of all flesh—birds and animals and every creeping thing that creeps on the earth—that they may swarm on the earth, and be fruitful and multiply on the earth.” 18 So Noah went out, and his sons and his wife and his sons’ wives with him. 19 Every beast, every creeping thing, and every bird, everything that moves on the earth, went out by families from the ark. 20 Then Noah built an altar to the Lord and took some of every clean animal and some of every clean bird and offered burnt offerings on the altar. 21 And when the Lord smelled the pleasing aroma, the Lord said in his heart, “I will never again curse the ground because of man, for the intention of man’s heart is evil from his youth. Neither will I ever again strike down every living creature as I have done. 22 While the earth remains, seedtime and harvest, cold and heat, summer and winter, day and night, shall not cease.” 1 And God blessed Noah and his sons and said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth.

As we study this passage together, we’re going to break it into three parts: (1) The Conclusion of the Flood (6-12), (2) God’s Reminder of the Dominion Mandate (13-19), and (3) The Noahic Covenant (8:20-9:1). In this passage, we see the end of the flood, which again, reminds us of God’s faithfulness to His people. In addition, we see a new covenant given specifically to Noah, but generally to all. The application for this sermon is two-fold: (1) we can trust God because He keeps His covenants and (2) the Noahic Covenant removes fear (I’ll explain that more later).

Prayer for Illumination

The Conclusion of the Flood (6-12)

Recap — Let me take a moment to put you back in the shoes of Noah (or sandals or whatever he wore).

In ch. 6, we’re told of the increasing corruption and sin of mankind—that as mankind continued to grow, so did their wickedness. To the extent that eventually their hearts were only evil continually, and God was grieved in His own heart and determined to judge them for their sin.

However, there was a man named Noah and Noah walked with God and because he walked with God, he was righteous and blameless.

And because God cares for His people, He warns Noah about an impending flood that would be utilized for the judgment of mankind and their sins—a flood that would be global, a flood that would destroy all life outside of the ark, a flood that would be absolutely devestating; and God was absolutely within His right and His prerogative to do so as the one true Creator of all things.

Ch. 7 then tells us that Noah and the animals entered into the ark, that God shut them into the ark and then the waters started pouring and coming from out of the earth. Everything was covered within a matter of 40 days and nights to the extent that water covered the highest mountains with 15-20 feet of water.

Everything outside of the ark died, which was the purpose of the judgment or the wrath of God against the sins of mankind.

The end of ch. 7 then tells us that the waters prevailed on the earth 150 days.

The beginning of ch. 8 then tells us that God thinks on the covenant that He made with Noah and as a result of that covenant, the waters subside and the ark finds itself where we are today in v. 6.

The Bible says that the waters abated until the tenth month and v. 6, continues with “at the end of forty days Noah opened the window of the ark that he had made and sent forth a raven. It went to and fro until the waters were dried up.”

What Noah is doing is he’s sending birds out to check for dry ground—he’s checking to see if its safe for them to leave the ark.

So, he does this with a raven before doing this with a dove three—now, I will say that some have tried to draw theological conclusions based on the birds used by Noah, but I’d argue that you ought to be very careful with doing that.

There could be symbolism between the doves used and the sacrificial system or it could be symbolic in the sense that the Holy Spirit during Jesus’ baptism descends like a dove, but to dogmatically say that this symbolizes something like that is reading too much into the text.

We simply don’t have any evidence textually that that is the purpose behind these specific animals being used.

All we know is that Noah started with a raven who went to and fro and couldn’t find a place to land and then in v. 8, he sent the dove “to see if the waters had subsided, . . . but the dove found no place to set her foot.”

And then in v. 11 he sends a dove back out and the dove returns with a freshly plucked olive leave.

Again, we can’t be overly dogmatic about any symbolism that we might see concerning the olive leaf—some point out that the leaf is connected with the tabernacle, but again, the passage isn’t clear on it; so, it would be wise to not read into potential symbolic ideas like that.

Eventually Noah sends out a dove that doesn’t return, which shows him that the ground had dried enough that the bird felt no need to return and thus, it was safe to disembark the ark.

The flood is over and you’d have to imagine from the point of view of Noah and his family—there’s got to be an amount of thanksgiving going on that they’ve survived such a tremendous ordeal (they’ve survived what no one else could’ve survived) simply because God counted Noah as righteous because Noah walked with God.

Vv. 13-19 then tells us of the disembarkation process and in it God speaks to Noah.

Let’s read those verses.

God’s Reminder of the Dominion Mandate (13-19)

Genesis 8:13–19 ESV

13 In the six hundred and first year, in the first month, the first day of the month, the waters were dried from off the earth. And Noah removed the covering of the ark and looked, and behold, the face of the ground was dry. 14 In the second month, on the twenty-seventh day of the month, the earth had dried out. 15 Then God said to Noah, 16 “Go out from the ark, you and your wife, and your sons and your sons’ wives with you. 17 Bring out with you every living thing that is with you of all flesh—birds and animals and every creeping thing that creeps on the earth—that they may swarm on the earth, and be fruitful and multiply on the earth.” 18 So Noah went out, and his sons and his wife and his sons’ wives with him. 19 Every beast, every creeping thing, and every bird, everything that moves on the earth, went out by families from the ark.

The Bible says that in the 601st year, the first day of the first month, the waters were dried from the earth.

Note that the 601st year refers to Noah’s age, we see that because according to 7:11, we’re told that the “fountains of the great deep burst forth, and the windows of the heavens were opened and rain fell upon the earth forty days and forty nights” “in the six hundredth year of Noah’s life.”

So, it makes contextual sense that the 601st referred to in 8:13 is about Noah’s life—that in the 601st year of his life the waters were dried from off the earth.

And the Bible reiterates that the waters had dried out in v. 14 by giving additional detail.

Now, we could look at that and sort of question why the Bible would say that twice, but remember Moses (who is the author of Genesis) does that elsewhere. We see that same pattern in Genesis 1 concerning creation and then Genesis 2, which reiterates creation with more detail.

It’s the same situation here—in v. 13 we’re told that the waters were dried, in v. 14, we’re told that the earth had dried out and we all know what exactly that looks like. After a large storm passes through our area, eventually the water stops raining, things appear dry initially, but it takes a moment for the ground itself to dry enough for you to stop on it without sinking into it—same idea here.

By “the second month, on the twenty-seventh day of the mont, the earth had dried out.”

Now, those details really aren’t the most interesting nor are they really the most important part of this text.

Unless you really like mud, the fact that the mud had dried probably wouldn’t mean anything to you.

But it does harken back to the idea that God remembered His covenant with Noah to provide safe passage through the flood; so much so, that when Noah and his family left the ark the ground was absolutely dry.

The reality is the important part of these verses are the parts in which God speaks to Noah and we see the first instance of that in vv. 15-19. God speaks to Noah and there are a few details worth noting.

First, he tells Noah to go out with his wife and his sons and his son’s wives from the ark.

It might sound like common sense for them to leave the ark, but if you think from their perspective—after all that they’ve been through for 150 days on the ark, the fact that God tells them that it’s safe to leave the ark is definitely reassuring.

II think we would all need some encouragement during an ordeal like the flood.

Second is that God tells Noah to not just leave the ark with his family, but to bring everything else off the ark.

The reasoning for that is hard to say—if I were to guess, my assumption would be that many animals wouldn’t want to leave the ark, which they’ve called their home for 150 days whether that’s out of fear or for some other reason.

Those sorts of animals that are more fearful might choose to stay on the ark if Noah and his family didn’t bring them off the ark.

Third is that we see God tell Noah and his family to take the animals off the ark for the purpose of the animals being fruitful and multiplying on the earth.

Or, in other words, the whole point of the ark was to preserve life—and concerning the issue of preserving life, the ark was completely successful.

Now, I do want to point out a connection in vv. 17-19 with the beginning of Genesis.

In the way that God speaks of the animals being fruitful and multiplying is precisely how God speaks during creation.

Let’s take a look back at this command through the book of Genesis:

In Genesis 1:22 after the creation of water creatures, swarming creatures, and birds, “God blessed them, saying, ‘be fruitful and multiply and fill the waters in the seas, and let birds multiply on the earth.’”

After the creation of man in Genesis 1:28, “God blessed them. And God said to them, ‘Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and subdue it, and have dominion.”

Which is again called the dominion mandate.

What this actually tells us is that God’s plan hasn’t changed—He still wants mankind to have dominion, He still wants the animals, the birds, creatures, and yes, even mankind to keep multiplying and to fill the earth.

Or, we might say it like this—if God plans something, it’s going to happen, even if it looks like it has been foiled.

If God plans something, it’s going to happen, even if it doesn’t seem like it’s happening now.

If God plans something, it’s going to happen, even if you think you’ve messed it up.

God is sovereign—He is in control and He providentially works all things for the good of His people.

Noah and his family went out from the ark along with “every beast, every creeping thing, and every bird, everything that moves on the earth, [they all] went out by families from the ark.”

Already it sounds like a happy ending for Noah, his family, and the surviving animals (doesn’t it)? And yet, it isn’t over. In fact, Noah is about to do something that pleases the Lord and God is about to make another covenant. Now, I will say, we’re just going to briefly touch on this covenant today, but next week, we’ll dig a lot deeper into it.

Let’s look at 8:20-9:1 before we head towards our application.

The Noahic Covenant (8:20-9:1)

Genesis 8:20–9:1 ESV

20 Then Noah built an altar to the Lord and took some of every clean animal and some of every clean bird and offered burnt offerings on the altar. 21 And when the Lord smelled the pleasing aroma, the Lord said in his heart, “I will never again curse the ground because of man, for the intention of man’s heart is evil from his youth. Neither will I ever again strike down every living creature as I have done. 22 While the earth remains, seedtime and harvest, cold and heat, summer and winter, day and night, shall not cease.” 1 And God blessed Noah and his sons and said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth.

Noah, his family, and the animals all disembark from the ark and the first thing that Noah does is something that ought to teach us a significant lesson in and of itself.

Noah gets off the ark and “[builds] an altar to the Lord.” Noah walks away from what is the most devestating event to happen on earth—not counting the fall of mankind into sin and looking primarily at a global scale.

He has just spent 150 days locked on a boat with his family, in-laws, and a bunch of animals. They’ve just spent a a third of the year while the wrath of God was poured out on mankind and sin.

And as they come off the ark, they’re literally the only people left.

I think the emotional aspect of everything that has happened and continues to happen in their lives is tremendous and yet, the first thing that Noah does after getting off the ark isn’t to succumb to fear or dread or worry or doubt.

The first thing that he does after getting off the ark is to build somewhere where he can worship the Lord. He builds and altar and he takes some of the extra animals that God told him to bring along and Noah offers those animals as a sacrifice—Noah worships.

Again, we should learn a significant lesson in this because it’s typically not how we respond in situations that we think are just as devestating.

Our tendency, unlike Noah, is to succumb to our fear, our dread, our worry, our doubt; and it is to choose to go any other way than towards God for worship.

And yet, Noah builds and altar and he worships the Lord through his offering.

The Bible says that God was pleased with the offering, “The LORD smelled the pleasing aroma” and then the Lord says something, but not to Noah. The Bible says that God says something in His heart.

This statement is the first iteration of the Noahic covenant—a promise that God makes not just to Noah, but rather to Noah, his family, and anyone who was born of their offspring.

It is an unconditional covenant—meaning, we (as finite and fallible humans) cannot mess it up. It relies wholly on God and who He is.

It is a covenant that is still in effect to this day.

And it’s found for the first time in Scripture in vv. 21-22, God says, “ I will never again curse the ground because of man, for the intention of man’s heart is evil from his youth. Neither will I ever again strike down every living creature as I have done. While the earth remains, seedtime and harvest, cold and heat, summer and winter, day and night, shall not cease.”

The Noahic covenant is a promise from God that until Revelation 21, which surrounds the events of the end of the world, the world will not experience devastation like it did in Genesis 6, 7, and 8.

2 Peter 3:10–12 describes the end of the earth, which occurs in Revelation 21 “10 But the day of the Lord will come like a thief, and then the heavens will pass away with a roar, and the heavenly bodies will be burned up and dissolved, and the earth and the works that are done on it will be exposed. 11 Since all these things are thus to be dissolved, what sort of people ought you to be in lives of holiness and godliness, 12 waiting for and hastening the coming of the day of God, because of which the heavens will be set on fire and dissolved, and the heavenly bodies will melt as they burn!”

But until that day—until the eschaton (until the end), Genesis 8:21-22 tells us that the earth will not experience the wrath of God to the same extent because God has promised not to do it until the end.

The proof of this is found in the seasons and the days of the week, “While the earth remains, seedtime and harvest, cold and heat, summer and winter, day and night, shall not cease.”

The reality is that this promise from God ought to cause us great relief because what it essentially says is this, “until God says it’s over, it isn’t over.”

Which is the exact opposite of what we see when we read or watch or hear the news—according to the news, the world is on the precipice of ending at any second due to political unrest, injustice, global warming, pollution, global pandemics or whatever else you can possibly think.

But what does the Bible actually say? That until God says its over, it isn’t over—now, God can say its over at anytime, but what this passage tells us is that it is His decision not ours and because God never changes, we cannot force His hand—He will do it in His own time and in His own way.

The text for today then ends with a familiar statement given to Noah and his family in v. 1 of ch. 9, “Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth.”

Again, if God plans something, nothing can thwart that plan, nothing can change that plan. If God wills it it will happen.

Which brings us to our application. I do want to clarify one thing in that the whole account of the flood of Noah has an overarching application. Through the whole account of the ark and the flood, the overall application has been that eventually sin requires judgment and the wrath of God will come against sin. The overall application has been that now is the time to repent from sins and call on the name of the Lord and follow Him; and if you do repent of your sins and call on the name of the Lord and follow Him, He places you safe in His ark of salvation given through Jesus Christ.

But the beauty when you take multiple weeks to focus in on a section of Scripture like this is that you can see other applications that are just as applicable even if they aren’t necessarily the main applications of the text. So, the main idea of the ark and the flood is that God will judge sin, but salvation is found in Jesus Christ and if you are saved, you need not worry or fear the impending judgment of God against sin.

In Genesis 8:6-9:1, there are two ideas that are also apparent, in which we gain additional application and they’re found in these two statements: (1) God keeps His covenants, so you should trust Him, and (2) Because God keeps His covenants and He made the Noahic covenant, we have no reason to fear the end of the world apart from His sovereignty. So, let me explain those applications:

Application

Probably one of the most important reoccurring themes throughout the entire Bible is that God keeps His Word—if He said it, He will do it and thus, we as His people can trust Him because He keeps His Word.

In the case of Genesis 8:6-9:1, the promise that God has kept is the promise of keeping Noah, his family, and the animals on the ark safe from the destruction outside of the ark.

God saw Noah as righteous and blameless not because of what Noah necessarily had done, but because Noah walked with the Lord and the Lord made him righteous and blameless.

God tells Noah to build this ark and then after the animals, Noah, and his family board the ark, God shuts them within the ark while the flood starts.

It is God thinking on the promise that He made with Noah and his family that initiates the end of the flood and the waters subsiding.

And then it is God who tells Noah that it is safe and that it is time for them to get off the ark.

What God said would happen certainly happened—it took 100 years from the first statement of God until the days the waters broke forth; and yet, God still did it.

It took 150 days from the moment the waters started flooding the earth until Noah and his family disembarked and yet, they were brought safely through the flood because God said He would bring them safely through the flood.

Noah trusted God because he knew God and he knew God keeps His Word.

Now, we live several years after Noah and the flood; and yet, we know that God keeps His Word if for no other reason than that God never changes—He is the same yesterday, today, and forever. However, if you want more proof, just think through the Bible.

God promises Abram a son—it takes decades, but Abram and Sarai have a son.

God says that He will take His people out of Egypt—it doesn’t happen overnight, and yet, there is no doubt that God took His people from out of Egypt.

When God anointed David to be king, David was still a child and yet, God said he would be king. It didn’t happen immediately because of King Saul’s sin, but eventually David sat on his throne and reigned over Israel.

God promised in Genesis 3 that someone would be born of the seed of the woman who would crush the head of the serpent—it took thousands of years and yet, Jesus was born and through His death, burial, and resurrection, He crushed the head of the serpent.

He keeps His Word and it is so very clear throughout Scripture that He does over and over and over again.

Now consider the promises that He makes to every believer:

First, that if you repent from your sins, call on the name of the Lord, and believe in your heart, which is found in Romans, that you will be saved. Do you realize that that is a promise?

Second, that He will complete the sanctification process within you—that He who began a good work within you will complete it. That’s a promise.

Third, that Jesus would send HIs Holy Spirit to dwell within HIs people—that the Spirit would lead, direct, convict; that the Spirit would comfort, that the Spirit would seal us until the day of redemption. Those are all promises.

That Jesus went to prepare a place for His people—that’s a promise. That Jesus will come back to judge mankind, to take His people, and to bring His people to a place flowing with milk and honey with no pain, sorrow, or suffering. That He will dwell with His people—those are all promises.

And despite living in a world that persecutes; in a world in which there is pain and suffering; in a world in which it feels as if we’re being battered around—we can still trust in God because He keeps His Word.

Now, that is a hard thing to do when life is particularly difficult, but it gets easier the more your relationship with God grows.

The more that you fill your mind with Scripture, the easier it is to see how God keeps HIs promises.

The more that you spend time in prayer, the easier it is to not allow your emotions to dictate how you think or feel about God.

The more that you spend time fellowshipping with other believers and building one another up within the body of Christ, the more that your trust the validity of the Gospel.

The more that you reflect on the truth, the easier it is to believe that it is true.

God keeps all His Words, Jesus Himself says it when He says that He came not to abolish the Law (or the Old Testament), but that He came to fulfill it. Because God keeps His Word and you can see evidence that He does—you need to simply trust Him.

Lastly, the Noahic covenant eliminates fear.

If God keeps HIs Word, which we see that He does throughout Scripture, then when God says something, we can trust it. That includes His statement that until He says its over, it won’t end.

Again, I mentioned that our news today has a tendency to create large amounts of fear, anxiety, and trepedition.

Part of that’s in the way that they produce our news—you have to remember that fear, anxiety, and trepidation translated to more views, more readers, and more listeners.

When the producers make everything out to be worse than they are, they make more money.

Now, I’m not saying every news station does that, but you have to have noticed that the vast majority of the news isn’t happy news to hear, but rather fearful things that cause anxiety.

The news will make it seem like anything can and will cause the end of the world—whether that’s global warming, illness, weather, or whatever it may be.

The news makes everything out to be a crisis.

But what does God’s Word say? “While the earth remains, seedtime and harvest, cold and heat, summer and winter, day and night, shall not cease.”

So, the question then is, do you accept what God’s Word says or are you going to take what’s said on the news as more authoritatively than what God’s Word says?

Are you going to trust God’s promises or are you going to trust what man says or what your emotions say (again, the heart, the seat of your emotions is deceitfully wicked according to Jeremiah)? Are you going to trust God’s Word or are you going to ignore God’s Word because someone online sounds convincing?

If you believe that this is genuinely God’s Word, which that’s what you claim when you become a Christian—then you have no reason to fear because God keeps His Word including the one that says that until He says its over, it isn’t over.

God keeps all His Words. You simply need to trust Him.

What we learn from Genesis 8:6-9:1 is that even after significant hardship in life (like the flood was for Noah and his family)—you can trust God because He always does what He says He will do. So, don’t fear, don’t worry, don’t allow emotion to dictate your life. Rather, trust the God who has everything under His control.

Pastoral Prayer