Sermon Tone Analysis

We live in a culture that is increasing devaluing life.

There have been 14 mass shootings in the United States since 2010, an average of almost two per year.

And we just heard this week of the shooting at a Maryland newspaper office that killed five.

We abort a little less than 1,000,000 babies per year.

And suicide rates are rising across the US with nearly 45,000 deaths per year, the 10th leading cause of death.

These statistics reveal a devaluing of life in the United States.

After studying the flood narrative as we have the last several weeks, we might be tempted to think that God shares our society’s disregard for life since He annihilated all living creatures except eight people and a pair of every animal.

However, quickly dismisses this as a possibility.

sets this up

The flood narrative ends the same way it begins with Noah building and God speaking.

In Noah builds the ark in response to God’s warning of the flood and instructions for the ark.

Now in we see Noah building an altar and God responding with blessing and covenant.

Here Noah is building of his own accord to worship God for salvation.

8:21-22 also serves as a summary of the 9:1-17.

Following Noah’s offering God responds to the sacrifice by promising to never again curse the ground or destroy every living thing.

This is parallel to v8-17 of chapter 9 which reiterates and expands this covenant and offers a sign to prove it.

Then in v22 God promises to sustain the rhythm of life on earth while the planet remains.

This is parallel to v1-7 in which God blesses the rhythm of life.

This passage is all God speaking to Noah and both the covenant and the blessing help us see the emphasis of the text.

Going into this week I presupposed that the emphasis of this text was on God’s promises and His faithfulness to keep them (as you could possibly tell by the songs that we sung this morning), but while that sub-theme is here, as I studied the text another, stronger emphasis in the text became clear: that the life that God creates and sustains is immensely valuable in His eyes in spite of the flood.

Although God had destroyed all living creatures in the flood, He still values the life that He creates, and He will sustain it as long as the earth exists.

From this passage we can see that a culture that devalues life is ungodly because it doesn’t share God’s perspective of the life.

The more we value the life God creates and sustains, the more like Him we are thinking, so in this is your truth to take home: God values creating and sustaining life; therefore, we must value life as He does.

God values creating and sustaining life; therefore, we must value life as He does.

How do we value life as God does?

God’s blessing and covenant reveal two ways in which God values life that we must seek to follow.

God values the creation of life (9:1-7)

God values the __________________________ of life (9:1-7)God values the _________________________ of life (9:8-17)

This is seen in 9:1-7

We may not think of all of this as part of the same blessing, but please notice that the similar language of v1 and v7 forms an inclusio, which is a literary way of tying information together.

The reason this inclusio might seem strange to us is because this blessing consists of three seemingly distinct aspects:

The blessing starts with God repeating the blessing He gave to Adam and Eve at creation.

This indicates that Noah is a sort of new creation following the flood.

In other words, God is starting over with Noah.

The repetition of this blessing ties the post-flood world and Noah to the post-creation world and Adam.

Noah is operating as a new Adam.

From a theological perspective this is important because it hints that God’s ultimate new creation would also come through a new Adam who will be able to do away with inherited progressively growing sin completely.

But even though God connects the pre and post-flood eras in the blessing, a contrast also becomes clear.

After blessing humanity, God gives the animals to Noah for food.

The relationship between humanity and the animals would change from this point on.

Now animals would be fearful of humans and just as humanity had enjoyed the green plants as food before, now they would also enjoy animals as food.

The connect to 8:22 is clearest here as we see God continuing the rhythm of life with food.

Here again is a connection to the creation narrative because in chapter 2 God gave an abundant yes and a solitary no concerning food.

There He gave the fruit of all of the trees in the garden but one (see ).

Here God gives another abundant yes, by adding animals to the food, and another solitary no, by asking that they not consume the blood (v4).

The idea isn’t to avoid a medium-rare steak, but to avoid consuming the blood itself.

This prohibition was to emphasize the value of blood and its connection to life itself.

Throughout Scripture the value of blood is emphasized because of its connection to life.

So God prohibits consuming it.

But He made another change as well.

He protects the life of humans.

God places a strong prohibition on the taking of human life here promising to require life for life.

This prohibition reminds us of the violence that preceded the flood, and I believe it underscores the connection of violence to the sin of humanity in and the Nephilim in particular.

Cain and Lamech and much of Noah’s society seemed to be pursuing violence as the answer to broken relationships.

God didn’t require the life of Cain, nor of Lamech, and apparently not of others either, but here He says that is going to change.

In order to protect the life He had created, He was going to start requiring life for life for those pursuing the violence of Cain, Lamech, and the Nephilim.

It is unclear in v6 if the image of God is the reason why God will require life for life or if it is the reason why He will allow humanity to shed the murderers blood.

The image God makes humanity higher and more important than the animals, but it could also indicate God’s willingness to delegate His authority to humanity.

In other words, the requiring of life can be acted upon by humans because humans have been given the unique responsibility to represent God in the world.

But what is even more interesting is v7 which repeats the be fruitful and multiply blessing.

How are these things related?

The repetition emphasizes the big point: Be fruitful, multiply, and fill the earth.

But the rest is related: We are able to be fruitful and multiply because God has expanded the food source to include animals.

Further we will continue to be fruitful and multiply only if we do not go killing each other.

To do violence to another human is to experience the opposite of God’s blessing to be fruitful and multiply, on the contrary, it is unproductive and subtracting.

God values creating life.

He knows that humanity experiences His best when we are being fruitful, multiplying, and filling the earth; this wouldn’t be a blessing if that weren’t the case.

So rather than destroying life, we must seek to join with God in creating it.

This means that we should stand against abortion and for children.

This is one of the reasons why we support the Metro Women’s Center as a church, but it isn’t enough for us only to put money in the offering plate and then sit back thinking we’ve done our part, we must do what we can to encourage them with our presence and support in prayer, volunteering, attending their events, and giving personally.

And let me add that to use verbal or physical violence against abortionists or clinics is not the way to end abortion.

That only serves to close people off to the truth we proclaim.

We must also stand against violence whenever it happens in our society.

Let me just preface that what I am about to say is not a political statement about gun rights; whether or not I am for gun rights is something I will never say from this pulpit.

It is common for some Christians to get vocal about defending gun rights in the wake of mass shootings in our society, but if our first thought is to defend our political right to bear arms before we defend the lives of those who have been lost, then we are not valuing life as God does.

God’s heart is broken over violence and ours should be too.

As Christians we should be caring more for the families and survivors of such violence than we should ever be caring about our right to carry a gun.

This also emphasizes that there is something praiseworthy about those who protect life as they should.

We have many civil servants who risk their lives on a daily basis to protect our lives, and they deserve our support and respect.

In a way even unbelieving police officers, firefighters, and paramedics are acting in a godly way when they do their job well.

We must also stand against violence in our society.

Let me just preface that what I am about to say is not a political statement about gun rights; whether or not I am for gun rights is something I will never say from this pulpit.

It is common for some Christians to get vocal about defending gun rights in the wake of mass shootings in our society, but if our first thought is to defend our political right to bear arms before we defend the lives of those who have been lost, then we are not valuing life as God does.

God’s heart is broken over violence and ours should be too.

As Christians we should be caring more for the families and survivors of such violence than we should ever be caring about our right to carry a gun.

Let me finally emphasize that these verses imply that children are a blessing from God, not a curse.

We should love children; we should have children; we should welcome children.

Couples may or may not have children for various reasons, many which we cannot control, but if any of us refuses to have children because they are inconvenient, noisy, expensive, or for any other selfish reason then we are not valuing life like God does.

If any of us are ever more annoyed by children than we experience joy from children then we are not valuing life like God does.

If we question those with big families sarcastically wondering if they know how that happens, we are not valuing life like God does.

We must rejoice with and in children because God does, because He values creating life.

But that is not the only way God values life.

In addition to valuing the creation of life, God also values the sustaining of life.

God values the sustaining of life (9:8-17)

This is in v8-17

God’s value on sustaining of life is seen here in two ways:

First, the covenant itself reveals God’s desire to sustain life.

The establishment of the covenant is an expansion of .

This covenant emphasizes two important facts: The first is who is making the covenant: God.

The Hebrew in v9 emphasizes in three different ways that it is God Himself making this covenant.