The Faithfulness of God

Genesis 8:20–9:17

Put yourself into Noah’s sandals. How would you feel about God after experiencing a massive, worldwide Flood?

As of Friday, this week, the death toll from Hurricane Helene had reached 28 people from Florida, Georgia, South Carolina, and North Carolina, not to mention catastrophic damage to homes and property throughout those states. How do the people feel about God?

Perhaps you lived through the historic Fargo/Moorhead flood of 1997, when the Red River rose to a height of 39.7 ft., or when the River rose even higher in 2009. Governor Burgum was in Fargo just this week to tour the F-M flood diversion project sites, a project begun in 1997 in response to this flood and which is over halfway complete, on track for completion in 2027. We’re thankful for this project!

Now, how did you feel about God after going through that flooding? It is natural for us to feel discouraged, frustrated, or upset. To entertain the idea that God is harsh, unfair, or unfaithful when we experience or witness his discipline or judgment, the more difficult side of his nature. Yet this was not Noah’s response.

In our passage today, we read about Noah’s first response to God after the Flood had ended, then we read about God’s response to Noah which followed. In this passage, we are encouraged to trust God by observing the faithfulness of God not only to Noah but for generations millennia afterwards until today.

Do you find comfort in the faithfulness of God as you face the hardships of this life, including those which seem especially catastrophic or severe?

Noah worshipped God. (8:20)

If you were Noah, what would’ve been the first thing you did after exiting the Ark? Noah worshipped the Lord. While the purpose for Noah offering sacrifices to God is not stated, we know that he did what his forefather, Abel, had done before him as an expression of faith in God (Heb 11:4).

In this case, Noah offered one of every clean animal, likely rounding these up as he released the rest of the animals either into the wild or into fields or pens for domestication. According to Gen 4:4, Abel offered his firstborn animals, meaning that he offered those which were most valuable as an act of trust. Here, Noah offered one of every clean animal as an act of trust, thereby reducing the animal supply significantly from the outset. In both cases, these men displayed trust in God as the one who both deserves the best and can be trusted to provide.

Such expressions of faith would eventually be featured in the Mosaic Law of Israel, though such was not required at this earlier point in time. Over the years, people attempted to worship God with sacrifices which were disrespectful, hoping to fulfill their legal obligation to God without expressing genuine, underlying faith in doing so:

“A son honors his father, And a servant his master. If then I am the Father, Where is My honor? And if I am a Master, Where is My reverence? Says the LORD of hosts To you priests who despise My name. Yet you say, ‘In what way have we despised Your name?’ “You offer defiled food on My altar, But say, ‘In what way have we defiled You?’ By saying, ‘The table of the LORD is contemptible.’ And when you offer the blind as a sacrifice, Is it not evil? And when you offer the lame and sick, Is it not evil? Offer it then to your governor! Would he be pleased with you? Would he accept you favorably?” Says the LORD of hosts. (Mal 1:6-8)

Thankfully, God does not require animal sacrifices from us today, for Christ himself has offered himself to us as the ultimate, once-for-all sacrifice for our sins. Even so, of those who have trusted in Christ by faith, Christ desires choices of personal sacrifice as expressions of genuine faith. These include (1) singing, praying, and sharing testimony of God’s goodness to the gathered church, (2) acts of ministry and service to the church, and (3) financial generosity to the church.

When we worship God in these ways, we must do so not out of legal or religious obligation, but as a genuine, grateful, heartfelt, voluntary expression of trust and thanks to God for his faithfulness, love, and sacrifice for us.

And as we do this, let us be especially mindful to do so in the face of what seems to be harsh, unfair, or unfaithful circumstances – not only when things seem to be going well.

This is what Job did, when he said, “Though He slay me, yet will I trust Him” (Job 13:15). Also, observe how Matthew describes the disciples’ experience in the storm on the Sea of Galilee (with terms that mirror the Flood story), and notice how the disciples worshipped Christ when they exited the boat after the harrowing adventure:

And Peter answered Him and said, “Lord, if it is You, command me to come to You on the water.” So He said, “Come.” And when Peter had come down out of the boat, he walked on the water to go to Jesus. But when he saw that the wind was boisterous, he was afraid; and beginning to sink he cried out, saying, “Lord, save me!” And immediately Jesus stretched out His hand and caught him, and said to him, “O you of little faith, why did you doubt?” And when they got into the boat, the wind ceased. Then those who were in the boat came and worshiped Him, saying, “Truly You are the Son of God.” (Matt 14:28-33)

Does this heartfelt worship of Christ reflect the way that you respond to God in your trials? Such worship of God in the face of difficult trials is a mark of genuine faith.

God delighted in Noah’s faith. (8:21-22)

If you’ve watched any televised or streaming cooking shows, you’ve seen professional chefs and food judges judge food not only by tasting it but by smelling it first, to see if the aroma is interesting and pleasing to their refined senses and tastes.

In this way, God responds to Noah’s sacrifice of worship. He acknowledges the genuineness and sincerity of Noah’s faith following his harrowing and prolonged experience on the Ark through the Flood. Rather than doubt, resent, or withdraw from God, Noah had approached God in genuine, whole-hearted faith, trust, and submission. This pleased God and he delighted in this expression of trust and worship.

Why is this so? Because God, more than anyone else, is a personal and relational God. He made us to be personal and relational beings who reflect this nature, and he responds in a personal, relational way when we respond to him in faith.

In this case, Noah’s expression of faith stirs within God’s heart a profound commitment and promise he would make – not because Noah had somehow earned this response but because he delighted in Noah’s faith as a sovereign God. Within his own thoughts, he said to himself that he would never again destroy the Earth and life on Earth through a Flood. So long as the Earth exists, he would never disrupt the global, seasonal patterns again.

These are the feelings and commitments which stirred within God’s heart in response to Noah’s worship – even though (and this is a clear, explicit concession) mankind would continue to be sinful. This shows the loving, faithfulness of God towards us.

When we worship God, we should be aware that we are worshiping a personal, relational God who responds in a personal, relational way to our expressions of genuine faith. Though a child does not earn the care and love of his or her parents through hugs, expressions of thanks, and acts of obedience and love, such things do bring delight and joy to a parent’s heart.

We must be aware of the same effects when we worship God. Do we serve and worship God – express our faith in him – in a casual, methodical, reluctant, unfeeling, or ungrateful way? If so, let us serve and worship God in a sincere, wholehearted way that desires to bring delight, enjoyment, and pleasure to the heart of our loving, faithful God.

God renewed his mandate for mankind. (9:1-7)

In this moment, as or after Noah offered sacrifices to God, God not only felt a certain way towards Noah and mankind in general, but he spoke certain things to Noah to affirm and convey his feelings, transferring his divine feelings and thoughts into divine action and promise.

To Noah, God spoke a blessing, an expression of heartfelt goodwill and purpose, extending this blessing not only to Noah but his immediate family as well, esp. his sons. To begin with he repeated what he had told Adam in the beginning, “Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth” (9:1). This showed that despite mankind’s universal descent into wickedness, God still intended for people to procreate and populate the world in large numbers. God remained committed in his desire for many people to exist and for many people to know him and experience his blessing.

But here, God offers some fascinating and new details. First, he states that this side of the Flood, animals would be significantly afraid of people. Rather than be attracted to people animals would be distrusting of them, instead.

What’s more, God announces that animals would now be available to people as an option for food. Perhaps this was due to an increased difficult in cultivating edible vegetation due to the new, post-Flood climate, or perhaps this was due to new biological, nutritional needs in this altered, post-Flood environment, requiring people to need benefits and nutrients that meat provides. Or perhaps there was a third reason or perhaps God simply wanted to expand people’s food options in a display of generosity.

Whatever the case, we know that today, all meat is available to us as a blessing from God. Consider how strongly Paul affirms this in 1 Tim 4:1-5:

Now the Spirit expressly says that in latter times some will depart from the faith, giving heed to deceiving spirits and doctrines of demons, speaking lies in hypocrisy, having their own conscience seared with a hot iron, forbidding to marry, and commanding to abstain from foods which God created to be received with thanksgiving by those who believe and know the truth. For every creature of God is good, and nothing is to be refused if it is received with thanksgiving; for it is sanctified by the word of God and prayer.

He calls the insistence that we should not eat meat, for instance, a demonic, hypocritical teaching. Wow. In fact, he says that all food (incl. meat) was “created” by God to be eaten and enjoyed!

That said, Noah received some additional new information from God – which continues to apply for us today. He stipulated that if meat was to be eaten, it should not be eaten “with its life, that is, its blood” (9:4). This is an interested Hebrew phrase that’s difficult to translate, meaning something like, “with it’s life blood,” the idea being, “with it’s lifeblood pulsing through it.” The point is not that we cannot eat anything which contains traces of blood but that we shouldn’t eat animals while they are alive, but should – first – ensure a proper and respectful death.

From this, God extends the thought to insist that if we eat animals live or kill them in violent, grotesque ways (rather than respectful, appropriate ways), then God would authorize the death penalty as a just result. What’s more, he would authorize the same even more so for anyone who murdered another person.

Perhaps you recall from the opening verses of Gen 6 that a distinctive, widespread problem which had developed in the world before the Flood was a rampant proliferation of violence. This reflects a trend of which Lamech, great grandson to Cain, had exemplified, when he violently killed a young boy for injuring him. This was an example in which not only did the punishment did not fit the crime, but the young man certainly did not deserve such treatment from a grown man.

From this point on, following the Flood, since God would never again destroy the world through a flood, and since God was about to commit to a long-term project with mankind in which he would allow them to repopulate the Earth, he instead implemented a new measure that would – in theory – deter rampant, unjustified violence from proliferating again. From this point onward, God thereby authorized the institution of human government, with the core purpose of providing defense, justice, and protection for people against injustice, violence, and rogue independence. Millennia later, Paul reaffirmed this institution:

Let every soul be subject to the governing authorities. For there is no authority except from God, and the authorities that exist are appointed by God. Therefore whoever resists the authority resists the ordinance of God, and those who resist will bring judgment on themselves. For rulers are not a terror to good works, but to evil. Do you want to be unafraid of the authority? Do what is good, and you will have praise from the same. For he is God’s minister to you for good. But if you do evil, be afraid; for he does not bear the sword in vain; for he is God’s minister, an avenger to execute wrath on him who practices evil. Therefore you must be subject, not only because of wrath but also for conscience’ sake. (Rom 13:5)

With these new stipulations in place to provide justice and encourage the repopulation of the new world, God expressed one more thing to Noah demonstrating his faithfulness to mankind.

God established a covenant with mankind. (9:8-17)

Here, God reaffirmed a promise he had made to Noah before the Flood began (Gen 6:18):

I will establish My covenant with you; and you shall go into the ark—you, your sons, your wife, and your sons’ wives with you.

As a covenant, God was making what we might describe as a contractual agreement today – only the concept of an OT covenant is far more personal and speaks not only to a transaction or deal made but to the personal character and devotion of the person making the covenant. A covenant was deeply personal and not merely a business transaction.

In this case, God’s covenant was made not only to mankind but to all animal life, as well. The covenant was a promise to never again destroy the world through a Flood. He repeats this covenant and it’s elements multiple times to reassure Noah – who had just experienced a global Flood and was likely feeling unsure about whether or not a Flood would happen again.

To make this covenant clear and settled, God established a public sign that would be a witness to all people for generations to come. This sign would ensure that this covenant would not be a private promise which could be cancelled quietly or changed somehow afterwards. It would be a perpetual reminder that God had, indeed, promised never to destroy the world through a Flood again.

To this day, we frequently see a rainbow in the sky following a rainbow, and when we do, we should pause the remember that yes, no matter what the most recent rain has been like, the rain was held back and did not Flood the earth again. This is always true!

Another fascinating concept related to this rainbow as a sign is that the word for ‘rainbow’ is the same word translated as ‘bow’ in other places, depending on the context. For instance, when used in a context of rain and the multicolored arch in the sky, the word means “rainbow.” But when used in a context of military battle and warfare, the word means “bow” as in a “bow and arrow.”

In ancient cultural records, we know that non-believing people who worshiped false gods envisioned the gods warring and fighting with people and with one another, often with bow and arrow. Here, if the Flood depicts God “going to war” with mankind for their widespread violence and sin, here (Gen 9:13) we see God “setting down” or “putting” his bow in the clouds for all to see, a kind of public “hanging up the weapon” to show that God was laying down his weapon of global judgment and entrusting justice to governmental justice for the foreseeable future, instead.

Today, we understand that even human government has its flaws – many of them. Yet, God remains faithful to his promise, entrusting justice and even capital punishment to governmental authorities for now, refraining from judging the Earth by a Flood and patiently waiting to judge the Earth one final time by fire.

The Lord is not slack concerning His promise, as some count slackness, but is longsuffering toward us, not willing that any should perish but that all should come to repentance. But the day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night, in which the heavens will pass away with a great noise, and the elements will melt with fervent heat; both the earth and the works that are in it will be burned up. Therefore, since all these things will be dissolved, what manner of persons ought you to be in holy conduct and godliness, looking for and hastening the coming of the day of God, because of which the heavens will be dissolved, being on fire, and the elements will melt with fervent heat? Nevertheless we, according to His promise, look for new heavens and a new earth in which righteousness dwells. (2 Pet 3:9-13)

To this day, God has remained faithful to this covenant. The seasons of this world continue to unfold, from spring, to summer, to autumn, to winter. Though local and regional alterations and catastrophes occur (such as Hurricane Helena, most recently), these are limited in scope and damage, and we recover from them. We continue to be able to enjoy meat as well as plants for our food! And we continue to rely on government and law enforcement to provide justice and protection against violence and crime.

While we may argue that this approach is faulty at times (sometimes very faulty), the alternative is God’s direct and decisive judgment – something he is fully able to do (e.g., the Flood) and something he will totally do again through a future, global judgment by fire, he is holding back such a response for now because he desires for as many people as possible to come to know him personally through faith in Christ.

Today, let me encourage you with the faithfulness of God.

As the hymn writer, Thomas Chisholm, wrote in 1923:

Great is Thy faithfulness, O God my Father! There is no shadow of turning with Thee; Thou changest not; Thy compassions, they fail not: As thou hast been Thou forever wilt be.

Summer and winter, and springtime and harvest, sun, moon and stars in their courses above, join with all nature in manifold witness to Thy great faithfulness, mercy and love.

Pardon for sin and a peace that endureth, thine own dear presence to cheer and to guide, strength for today and bright hope for tomorrow—blessings all mine, with ten thousand beside.

Chorus: Great is Thy faithfulness! Great is Thy faithfulness! Morning by morning new mercies I see; all I have needed Thy hand hath provided—Great is Thy faithfulness, Lord, unto me.

Today, place your complete trust in Christ and he will deliver you from the fiery judgment that is to come. If you have trusted in Christ, then rest in the faithfulness of God. He is faithful to his promises and devoted to your blessing.