The Foundation: Study in Genesis Part 11

Genesis 8:20-22; Genesis 9:1-17 The Noahic Covenant

Open with prayer

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.”

It is significant to me that Noah’s first act after leaving the ark for the first time in over a year was to build an altar to the Lord and make a sacrifice on it. A few things to think about:

This is the first thing that we see Noah doing that God did not specifically command him to do. This tells me that it is never wrong to make an appropriate sacrifice to God. Today, our sacrifices are not animal sacrifices but rather “the fruit of our lips”, that is, praise. The lesson is that we don’t have to have a “leading” to praise the Lord and to thank Him...We should be doing it continually!

This sacrifice cost Noah something. There were only 14 of each of these clean animals on the face of the earth! This was a costly sacrifice to Noah!

This burnt offering of clean animals pre-dates the Mosaic law by many hundreds of years. God had to have put this understanding in Noah.

The burnt offering was an offering of the entire animal. Nothing was kept for Noah and his family. It all went to God!

Verse 21 says “The Lord smelled the soothing aroma...” This is a biblical way of telling us that the Lord was pleased with Noah’s costly sacrifice.

We might look at God’s response and think that it is rather odd. In chapter 6, God used similar language to describe why that he was going to destroy the earth through a flood. Let’s look at that again:

Genesis 6:5–7 NASB95

5 Then the Lord saw that the wickedness of man was great on the earth, and that every intent of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually. 6 The Lord was sorry that He had made man on the earth, and He was grieved in His heart. 7 The Lord said, “I will blot out man whom I have created from the face of the land, from man to animals to creeping things and to birds of the sky; for I am sorry that I have made them.”

I see two differences...There may be others, but I see two:

Before the flood, man had committed much wickedness. Immediately after the flood, man had (as far as we know) committed no wickedness. Yet in both cases, God said that “every intent of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually.” In other words, the corrupt nature of man was still in Noah and his sons, though they had committed no wickedness. Later in the chapter, we will see this played out in a story of Noah and his sons.

The big difference between God’s response before the flood and his response after the flood was that a perfect sacrifice had been made. It was because of the sacrifice that God would not destroy man in this way anymore!

This prefigures the death of Christ on the cross. It is because of the perfect sacrifice of Christ on the cross that God will not destroy every living thing on the earth as He did in the days of Noah!

Look at verse 22 again:

Genesis 8:22 NASB95

22 “While the earth remains, Seedtime and harvest, And cold and heat, And summer and winter, And day and night Shall not cease.”

Evidently, there were not seasons on the earth before the flood as there are now. As we have mentioned before, it seems that the earth before the flood was probably like a greenhouse, where the entire earth was basically the same temperature year round. Now, the seasons have been introduced. God has promised that as long as the earth remains in the state that it is in, there will be seasons. Spring and fall, winter and summer will always be. Don’t pay any attention to the “global warming” alarmists. These things will always be until He decides to bring in a new heaven and a new earth.

Genesis 9:1–4 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.

There are parallels between this section of Genesis and Genesis 1 where God gives his first commands to Adam. Noah is something of a second Adam (prefiguring Christ who is the real second Adam). God had told Adam to “be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth.” Noah is given the same command.

One contrast between this section and the section in the first chapter is that while Adam is told that he could eat plant life with no mention of animals, now Noah is told taht he can now eat animal life. Notice that all animal life is given to him to eat. Of course, under Moses, this would be restricted for the Jewish people. It was not ever a restriction for non-Jews.

Evidently, before the flood, man and animals lived in harmony with one another. After the flood, God would put fear in the heart of animals towards man. This fear of man accompanied the new fact of man as a carnivore.

God’s only restriction is that man is not to partake of the blood of the animal. We still today are not to drink blood. To God, blood is sacred. It symbolizes the sacredness of life. The next verses brings this out...

Genesis 9:5–7 NASB95

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.”

God institutes capital punishment here. It is important to note here that Biblically there is a difference between killing and murder. While the old King James translates the sixth commandment “Thou shalt not kill” it is better translated as “You shall not murder” (as NASB and most modern translations has it.) God permits the taking of human life in certain circumstances. Three of them are in self-defense, in a just war, and when the state takes a life in capital punishment.

This flies against current thought. Most western nations have outlawed capital punishment, saying that it is a cruel punishment. Even in the U.S., it is only permitted in some states. And in most of those cases, it may be decades before it is carried out. I will just say that if the biblical mandate were carried out fairly and judicially, there would be far fewer murders in this country and elsewhere.

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.”

This is the first covenant mentioned in the Bible. In chapter 6, God told Noah that He would make a covenant with him. Now He is fulfilling that promise. There are four covenants (that I can think of) between God and man in the Bible. Do you remember the other three? Abrahamic, Mosaic, and New Covenants

Some of these covenants are conditional and others are unconditional. What about this covenant with Noah? Unconditional...Noah is told that God will never again destroy the earth by a flood. That’s a promise we can bank on!

A feature of each of these covenants is that there would be a sign. Let’s read on...

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.”

The rainbow has been used in recent years as an ungodly sign by various groups. However, it is in fact a Godly sign. It is put there in the clouds to remind us of the promise that God made that He will never again destroy the earth by water.

In Isaiah, God later refers to this covenant as an example of His steadfast love. He tells Israel that His covenant of peace which He will make with her would be as durable as the covenant He made with Noah...

Isaiah 54:9–10 NASB95

9 “For this is like the days of Noah to Me, When I swore that the waters of Noah Would not flood the earth again; So I have sworn that I will not be angry with you Nor will I rebuke you. 10 “For the mountains may be removed and the hills may shake, But My lovingkindness will not be removed from you, And My covenant of peace will not be shaken,” Says the Lord who has compassion on you.

It is important to note though that though God will not destroy the earth by water again, He has told us that He would destroy it with fire in the last days:

2 Peter 3:3–7 NASB95

3 Know this first of all, that in the last days mockers will come with their mocking, following after their own lusts, 4 and saying, “Where is the promise of His coming? For ever since the fathers fell asleep, all continues just as it was from the beginning of creation.” 5 For when they maintain this, it escapes their notice that by the word of God the heavens existed long ago and the earth was formed out of water and by water, 6 through which the world at that time was destroyed, being flooded with water. 7 But by His word the present heavens and earth are being reserved for fire, kept for the day of judgment and destruction of ungodly men.

There will be a day...a day that we are near to I would say...that will be like the days of Noah.

Matthew 24:37–39 NASB95

37 “For the coming of the Son of Man will be just like the days of Noah. 38 “For as in those days before the flood they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, until the day that Noah entered the ark, 39 and they did not understand until the flood came and took them all away; so will the coming of the Son of Man be.

Men will go about without a care in the world. Mocking God...following their own lusts. Completely oblivious to the fact that the end is near...Just like in the days of Noah. Let’s go back to 2 Peter.

2 Peter 3:8–13 NASB95

8 But do not let this one fact escape your notice, beloved, that with the Lord one day is like a thousand years, and a thousand years like one day. 9 The Lord is not slow about His promise, as some count slowness, but is patient toward you, not wishing for any to perish but for all to come to repentance. 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. 11 Since all these things are to be destroyed in this way, what sort of people ought you to be in holy conduct and godliness, 12 looking for and hastening the coming of the day of God, because of which the heavens will be destroyed by burning, and the elements will melt with intense heat! 13 But according to His promise we are looking for new heavens and a new earth, in which righteousness dwells.

As in the days of Noah, so it is today. God is incredibly patient with this sin-sick world. But one day, He will say, as He said in the days of Noah...IT IS ENOUGH!

The question for us today is...are we ready? And what sort of persons are we to be as we rapidly approach the end. I would say that the sort of people that we are to be are people like Noah...Looking for and even hastening to the day of the Lord.

Noah could not have imagined how different the earth on the other side of the flood would be. We can’t imagine how different the world will be on the other side of Jesus’ Second Coming either. There will indeed by new heavens and a new earth...in which righteousness dwells.

Questions/Comments?

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