The Covenant
Notes
Transcript
The story of the Rainbow Covenant (Gen 8:20-9:18)
The story of the Rainbow Covenant (Gen 8:20-9:18)
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Last time I ended my sermon when Noah and his family had just gotten in the ark and the earth started breaking up. The lighting was striking, and the floodwaters were rising to the tops of the highest mountains in the world. Let’s pick up their story in Genesis 7 and 8.
The Bible is clear that this was a global flood where no humans and most animals didn’t survived except the animals that like the water or the ones that were in the ark.
For 150 days Noah and his family rolled and pitched around in an endless sea of water. There was no need to navigate—they would just land wherever God took them. We don’t know what the conditions in the ark were like. We don’t know what it might have smelled like. I imagine that God and Noah were well-enough prepared to account for the animal’s food and the resulting waste that went with it. I’m sure they had ventilation and storage and living quarters and everything else that was necessary. But no matter how prepared you are, life at sea is not easy to adjust to.
We know from Genesis 9:2 that the animals didn’t have a fear of mankind before the flood, so Noah probably hadn’t built cages for the animals. But we can only image these things. The Bible doesn’t share many details. It simply says that the storm raged for 150 days and then God ended the rain—closed up the skies, stopped up the springs from the under the ground—and He made a wind blow across the surface of the water. The waters decreased and the Ark settled down in what Genesis calls “the Ararat mountains.”
It took another three months before the peaks of the mountains began to appear. Another forty days after that Noah decided to do an experiment. He sent out a raven, which quickly came back. Then he chose a dove and it too came back shortly after. A week went by and he sent out another dove, this time it came back with a leaf from an olive tree that might have been floating around at the edge of the water. He waited another week and sent a bird out again, and this time it didn’t return. It was clear that the ground was drying up.
Eleven months after the ordeal began, the Bible says that the waters had finally flowed into the oceans and lakes and ponds and dried up from the earth. And “God spoke to Noah” in Genesis 8:16-19:
next — Noah leaves the ark
“Go out from the ark, you and your wife, and your sons and your sons’ wives with you. 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.” So Noah went out, and his sons and his wife and his sons’ wives with him. Every beast, every creeping thing, and every bird, everything that moves on the earth, went out by families from the ark.
What would you feel like to finally get out of that space?
Sure, the ark was huge, but there was a lot packed into that thing—and a lot of work to do to maintain all the guests. I bet Noah and his family were all-too happy to let the animals out to fend for themselves.
It might have felt nice to stretch their legs a bit, but getting out of the ark brought on a whole new set of problems and responsibilities. They needed to find a livable space where they could build houses, cultivate gardens, tend their animals, and get busy about the essentials of life. With so much to do, it was probably tempting to get right to it. But, like a good spiritual leader, Noah brought his family together to do something extremely important—recognize and worship the one who had saved them from the flood.
next — Noah builds an altar
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.
Noah did what God taught Adam to do. He made a sacrifice. He didn’t keep the animals to ensure his family would survive in this post-apocalyptic world. That probably would have made more sense to a rational humanist, but that’s not the kind of guy Noah was. Noah was the guy who heard God's warning of judgment and plans for a weird structure called a boat, and he believed and obeyed. Noah trusted and had faith in God. Now, after the flood was over, Noah obeyed God’s command to make a sacrifice because he was thankful for God fulfilling his promise to save them from the flood, and because he believed that God would save from that old snake, the devil. Noah was walking in God’s path.
next — two paths
Remember talking about the two different paths that Adam’s children went down? There was Cain and his path of self-determination. His attitude was, “look what I’ve done, God, here’s some food. Aren’t you pleased with me?” And then there was Abel, who’s attitude was, “I trust you to forgive and save me, God, here’s a sacrifice of faith.”
Noah was doing what Abel did. He was offering a sacrifice of praise for the salvation God had already accomplished, and a sacrifice of faith in what God would accomplish in the future.
Do you wonder what God was thinking when Noah and his family stopped to worship? We don’t have to wonder because the Bible tells us exactly what was going through God’s mind:
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. While the earth remains, seedtime and harvest, cold and heat, summer and winter, day and night, shall not cease.” And God blessed Noah and his sons and said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth.
This promise is the basics of God’s covenant. God will preserve the earth, and Noah and his children would join God in His creative work of filling and governing His creation. Did you notice that this promise isn’t based on Noah’s sacrifices? God even points out “the intention of man’s heart is evil from his youth.” It’s not like God smelled the cooking meat and said, “I was angry before, but now I’m appeased, I won’t hurt man again.” No, the promise is clearly not based on the activity of man, but on the character of God. This is a promise rooted in God’s love and grace.
I’d like you to notice how this whole covenant thing works. It’s a super important theme that’s going to repeat over and over again in the Bible. In fact, the word “covenant” is the same as “testament.” The Old Testament and New Testament portions of the Bible could also be said to be the Old Covenant and the New Covenant. Unfortunately, those phrases are at the heart of some very confused theology. While we’re not going to get all technical and deep, we do need to have a framework for talking about the covenant because covenant language is the language of the relationship that God has with mankind. Understanding the basics of the covenant is important for understanding the rest of the Bible.
So, let’s unpack this a bit.
next - bullet points
In Genesis 8:21-22 God makes a promise — I will never again destroy the earth with a flood.
Then in Genesis 9:1-2 God give mankind a responsibility and invites them to be his partners in managing creation.
He goes on in Genesis 9:3-7 to expand and clarify the boundaries of their dominion.
Finally, in Genesis 9:8-17 God promises that this covenant is 1) an everlasting covenant with Noah and all his descendants, 2) and that the sign that He will keep this covenant is the rainbow that shines across the sky at the edge of a rain cloud.
We need to take a look at this “sign” idea because it sets God apart from all other gods that mankind has invented.
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And God said, “This is the sign of the covenant that I make between me and you and every living creature that is with you, for all future generations: I have set my bow in the cloud, and it shall be a sign of the covenant between me and the earth.
When the bow is in the clouds, I will see it and remember the everlasting covenant between God and every living creature of all flesh that is on the earth.”
Here’s how this is so different from man-made religions.
next - buddhist worship
All the gods that mankind has imagined stand somewhat aloof from mankind. They demand that we make the promises and that we make the signs. When we imagine a god in charge of making sure we have crops and food, we set up fertility “signs” to get that gods attention. We dance the rain dance, we set out eggs and little chicks, we offer sacrifices and perform ceremonial fertility acts.
We make the promises
We perform the signs hoping that the gods will see us and recognize our need.
next — bible religion
But the God of the Bible—the God of creation and of redemption—his plan is completely different than that.
God makes the promises to be faithful to us and preserve us
God makes the signs and God sees and remembers all on His own
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And notice that phrase in Genesis 9:16 where God says this is His everlasting covenant. It’s not the new covenant or the old covenant, it’s the everlasting covenant.
The Everlasting Covenant
The Everlasting Covenant
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Take a look at this visualization of the covenants of the Bible. You can see that there are a lot of them.
There’s the covenant God made with Adam and Eve before their fall.
Then there was the covenant God made with Adam and Eve after they sinned.
Then there’s the covenant with Noah where the rainbow comes into the story.
Then there’s a covenant with Abraham, and then Israel and then David.
… lots of covenant, but every one of them is made in the context of the covenant maker—a God who says that he is the same yesterday, today and forever. These covenant promises are all part of God’s everlasting nature. They are promises that are deeply rooted in WHO He is. They are from everlasting to everlasting because God doesn’t change.
In the context of earth’s history this covenant has taken on a variety of languages and a variety of promises. Here in the story of Noah, the promises are stated in the context of the world-wide flood that Noah’s family were still reeling from—that’s not going to happen again, God said. Abraham, a man who’s wife is not able to have children, is told he’ll have lots of kids—one of whom will be the Messiah. Israel, a group of complaining slaves, is told they’re going to be a kingdom of priests. David, a warring, bloody man, is told that the kingdom of Israel will never be taken away from his family and that he’ll be the great-great-great-great-etc grandfather of the Messiah. The promises are always communicated in the context of the people He’s talking to, but they are rooted in the everlasting promises of God’s loving nature.
Many believe that the promises in the old testament are all based on obedience, while the promises in the new testament are based on God’s grace, but this couldn’t be further from the truth. ALL of God’s promises are based in His grace.
Adam and Eve were promised that one of their children would save them from their sins—Jesus.
God promise to preserve the earth from another flood because in His grace He had made a plan to save mankind from sin—Jesus.
God promised to make a great nation of Abraham because He had a plan to save mankind—Jesus.
God promised Israel that they would be a kingdom of priests, and then gave them the gospel in signs and symbols—all pointing to Jesus.
Every single promise that God made to His people in the Old Testament was a promise based in His grace.
So, where does the whole work thing come in? What’s the Old Covenant and the New Covenant?
Those phrases are used in the Bible to describe our response to God’s everlasting covenant.
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The intended response to God’s promises is the response of faith. This was the response of Abel when he brought the sacrifice God had required. This was the response of Noah when he believed God and followed God’s plan to build the ark. This was the response of Abraham when God told him to leave his land and go to a new land that He would show him. This was the response of Jacob and Elijah and David and all the other “godly” people we find in the Bible. They believed God, and so they followed God with their lives.
This is the New Covenant Experience. The covenant promises are all coming from the everlasting covenant, but the experience is one of faith. In the New Covenant Experience we internalize God’s promises, and believe them to be spoken directly to us—Like the promise where God said he would write his law of love in our hearts. It’s an internal experience that God promises to accomplish in us by His Holy Spirit.
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Then there’s the Old Covenant Experience. The promises of God are exactly the same, but the response is a response of selfishness, pride, and arrogance. This is the experience of Cain when he decided to NOT follow God’s guidance and instead brought the fruit of his own garden. This is the experience of the Israelites when they heard God’s moral law boomed out from the mountain and then said, “all that the Lord has said, we will do, and be faithful,” and immediately proceeded to worship an idol in a licentious party. This is our experience when we say, “sure, sure, God, but...”
The Old Covenant is a faithless response to God’s everlasting covenant where we decide that instead of trusting God and following in His path, we will simply do it ourselves. This is the path of self determination. For some, this looks a lot like Cain—murdering and deceiving and all that. But for others, this looks more like the pharisees of Jesus’ day—externalizing religion with the expectation that their goodness would endear them to God and God would have no choice but to save them. But God’s promises were never based on us or our performance. His promises are based on His performance, and his character.
The story of the tower of Babal (Gen 11)
The story of the tower of Babal (Gen 11)
Let’s go back to the rainbow covenant that God made with Noah.
Shortly after God made the promise, Noah and his family began to do what God had asked them to do. They began taking care of the earth. They domesticated some of the animals. They planted gardens and vineyards (there’s a rather awkward story about that in the second half of Genesis 9). And they had children and began to spread out from the valley of Ararat with the intention of filling the earth like God had commandment. Genesis 10 is another list of kids, just to make sure you get the picture that they’re spreading out. There’s even a guy who’s name indicates some form of separation.
To Eber were born two sons: the name of the one was Peleg, for in his days the earth was divided, and his brother’s name was Joktan.
But not all was well. Just like in Adam’s day, some of Noah’s kids had faith in God and followed His path, and some went about doing things their own way—following the path of self determination.
next — tower of Babel
And that’s where Genesis 11 takes the story of the rainbow covenant.
The story begins with one simple departure from the command of God. God said, “fill the earth,” but a group of people decided they would instead settle in the plain of Shinar and build a city.
And as people migrated from the east, they found a plain in the land of Shinar and settled there. And they said to one another, “Come, let us make bricks, and burn them thoroughly.” And they had brick for stone, and bitumen for mortar. Then they said, “Come, let us build ourselves a city and a tower with its top in the heavens, and let us make a name for ourselves, lest we be dispersed over the face of the whole earth.”
“Hey guys, this place looks good. Let’s settle here.” No biggie, right. You have to pitch your tent somewhere. But pretty soon the intention of their hearts came out. They wanted to grow their population right there rather than spreading around the earth. They wanted to stay put because their hearts were defying God. They didn’t believe God’s rainbow promise that he wouldn’t destroy the earth again with a flood. So they built a city and then a tower that was intended to reach up to the heavens and be a place of safety—a man-made ark—to protect them from the wrath of God.
Judgment was about to come.
And the Lord came down to see the city and the tower, which the children of man had built.
I love that God is so involved. He never brings judgment without an investigation. He sees the truth of their hearts and the reason for their actions. But he doesn’t destroy them for it. Instead, he made it so difficult for them to work together by mixing up their languages that their natural course would be to follow God’s original plan and fill the earth.
That city and that tower were called Babel, and Babylon has ever since been known as the place where mankind makes their own counterfeit to God’s plan. Their own path of self determination.
Responding to God’s covenant
Responding to God’s covenant
So, what does a very theological concept like the covenants, and a couple ancient stories about people just after the flood have to do with me and you in the 21st century?
next x 2 — bible verse
Paul narrows down the idea in 2 Cor 1:20-22:
For all the promises of God find their Yes in him. That is why it is through him that we utter our Amen to God for his glory. And it is God who establishes us with you in Christ, and has anointed us, and who has also put his seal on us and given us his Spirit in our hearts as a guarantee.
Do you see the similarity to the promise God made to Noah? The Everlasting Covenant?
next — Rainbow Cross
All the promises in God’s everlasting covenant find their culmination in Jesus Christ. And, like the rainbow sign in God’s promise to Noah—a sign that God alone made possible—the Christian experiences a God-given sign as well: the Holy Spirit in their hearts. The Holy Spirit is the guarantee that all of God’s promises are for us.
God only asks one thing from us: that we have faith. And even our faith is a generous gift of God’s grace. We wouldn’t be able to believe if it weren’t for the Holy Spirit drawing our hearts to Him. Our faith leads us to surrender to His plan. Our faith leads us to follow His path. Our faith allows Him to fulfill all His promises in us. Like his promise to write his law in our hearts, or His promise to finish the work that He began in us.
There’s a temptation I have right now to invite you to have faith. To ask you to choose faith. But faith isn’t something that we muster up with our willpower. Faith is a natural response to surrendering to the Holy Spirit’s call to our hearts. It’s a restful trust.
Several sermons ago I invited you to take a leap of faith and believe that the Bible is a God-inspired document that uncovers the real history of how God has related to mankind and the problem of sin. I invited you to simply take the Bible at its word when it says that God created everything that exists. In the next sermon invited you to believe that there is a fallen angel who brought sin and corruption to our world by tempting Adam and Eve to disobey God. I asked you to trust the Bible when it says that God has a path of salvation. In my last sermon I invited you to trust that God was loving and just when he totally annihilated all but 8 people on the earth as well as many of the animals. Sure, I gave you good reasons for why I believe it was just, but ultimately, its not reason that convinces you. The only thing that will convince you is a restful submission to God’s word.
Simply believe.
Trust.
Have Faith.
And that’s what I’d like to invite you to do today. God has so many beautiful promises in the Bible. I’d like you to hear God’s words, to know that they were written for you, and to rest in His great and precious promises.
scripture video
And without faith it is impossible to please him, for whoever would draw near to God must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who seek him.