God's Covenant with Noah
Notes
Transcript
God desires for His people to flourish under the blessings of His covenant.
God desires for His people to flourish under the blessings of His covenant.
We might ask a question after the flood like, “does God really love His people? How could He do such a thing to those He cares about?” But what we will see today is God’s desire to bless His people, God values His people and He will show this through a Covenant.
This covenant provides hope and comfort to mankind, with the raimbow as a sign that God will be faithful to His promise.
There is two sections to this chapter. V. 9:1-7 and 9:8-17
This whole section also points forward to God’s covenant with the Israelites on Mt Sinai in Exodus where God will bring blessing to His people through their obedience to Him.
God calls His people to produce and preserve life
God calls His people to produce and preserve life
Flourishing comes through worship (1,7)
Flourishing comes through worship (1,7)
Notice it starts with Noah offering a sacrifice to the Lord, Noah worships God. And God shows him how to continue to live in obedience. First, by being fruitful and multiplying. This continued procreation will be a sign of God’s blessing. In doing so there are more who can care for creation.
Flourishing comes through caring for His creation (2-4)
Flourishing comes through caring for His creation (2-4)
We see that Noah is again given the task to care for God’s creation. To have authority over the animals and watch over them all.
But notice in giving Noah all the animals they also will become food for them. It will be part of their flourishing that they can enjoy meat from creation. But this is also given in light of animals having “fear and terror” of them. Therefore humans can judge for themselves when life and death is necessary for animals.
-Why couldn’t they eat the animal with its blood? Because blood represents life in the animals, they were to eat that which only was dead. To kill it was to show decency to the animals, not disregarding it or torturing it. Unlike other animals that would eat while it was still alive.
Flourishing comes through protecting the vulnerable (5-6)
Flourishing comes through protecting the vulnerable (5-6)
God now creates divine laws with specific consequences to breaking them.
Three times God says those who kill will give an account or “I will require”
To kill those made in God’s image is to insult God.
God’s covenant is a promise to provide the ingredients necessary for flourishing
God’s covenant is a promise to provide the ingredients necessary for flourishing
God is faithful to His Word
God is faithful to His Word
Notice, that in this covenant that only God has been given any obligations. Mankind is given a way to flourish within His covenant, but it is predicated on God’s faithfulness. Like if your parent says “if you do this, then I will give you that”. The obligation is only on the parent, you are given freedom either way.
Whenever God makes a covenant it is always predicated on His faithfulness. Notice all the language pointing to God.
The rainbow is a sign of peace, that He never fails at His promises.
-Since we can trust God’s promises it means we can live according to His promises and know that there will be blessing in our obedience
-God is faithful to His promises even when we are not, even when He knows mankind will still be evil.
The world is unfaithful to their promises. We can’t trust them at their Word.
God protects His creation by His grace
God protects His creation by His grace
We know that God desires for His creation to flourish, He has made it for this purpose. Therefore we should seek to live under His grace. Knowing that in our desire to follow God His grace will be on us.
Noah is a reminder of what will happen through Jesus. That through one man God will provide grace to all of His creation.