Genesis 8:20-9:17

Text

Genesis 8:20–9:17 ESV

20 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. 21 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. 22 While the earth remains, seedtime and harvest, cold and heat, summer and winter, day and night, shall not cease.” 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 dread of you shall be upon every beast of the earth and upon every bird of the heavens, upon everything that creeps on the ground and all the fish of the sea. Into your hand they are delivered. 3 Every moving thing that lives shall be food for you. And as I gave you the green plants, I give you everything. 4 But you shall not eat flesh with its life, that is, its blood. 5 And for your lifeblood I will require a reckoning: from every beast I will require it and from man. From his fellow man I will require a reckoning for the life of man. 6 “Whoever sheds the blood of man, by man shall his blood be shed, for God made man in his own image. 7 And you, be fruitful and multiply, increase greatly on the earth and multiply in it.” 8 Then God said to Noah and to his sons with him, 9 “Behold, I establish my covenant with you and your offspring after you, 10 and with every living creature that is with you, the birds, the livestock, and every beast of the earth with you, as many as came out of the ark; it is for every beast of the earth. 11 I establish my covenant with you, that never again shall all flesh be cut off by the waters of the flood, and never again shall there be a flood to destroy the earth.” 12 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: 13 I have set my bow in the cloud, and it shall be a sign of the covenant between me and the earth. 14 When I bring clouds over the earth and the bow is seen in the clouds, 15 I will remember my covenant that is between me and you and every living creature of all flesh. And the waters shall never again become a flood to destroy all flesh. 16 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.” 17 God said to Noah, “This is the sign of the covenant that I have established between me and all flesh that is on the earth.”

Introduction

In our text this morning we see the first description of a covenant between God and man

This covenant was first mentioned back in chapter 6 already

But now it is for the first time presented and explained

Covenants are a major topic throughout the Bible - so this is an important passage for us to understand because God deals and relates to His people through covenants

What is a covenant?

“a binding oath of promise”

an agreement between 2 parties

Marriage is an example of a covenant

husband and wife both make a binding promise to be faithful to one another

usually there are conditions to a covenant - you will be faithful to do this, and I will be faithful to do that

Taking Paul’s exposition of marriage in Eph 5, the husband promises to love his wife

more than just love the way she looks in jeans

the example is Christ’s love for the Church

love her sacrificially

provide for her

protect her

prayerfully intercede for her as the family’s prophet and priest

pointing and leading her in her own walk with God

The wife likewise makes a promise to submit to her husband as the head of the marriage, as the Church submits to Christ

She acknowledges his responsibility to love, lead, provide and protect

and supports him in this endeavour

There is also usually a sign of the covenant that is being made - in the case of marriage, a ring

The ring serves as a visible reminder and sign of the oath and the promise

We wear it to remind us what we have promised to do, and, what has been promised to us

Sadly, people break promises

In spite of solemn promises made before God and others, marriages fail

Usually, both parties blame the other

Usually because both parties are to blame

But God…

when God makes a promise, He keeps it

In Gen 6 He promised to destroy the earth and man with a flood, and He did

He also promised Noah that He would preserve him and his family, and He did

He promised in Gen 6:18 that He would make a covenant with him, and He did

This covenant that God makes with Noah is the subject of Gen 9 and this sermon

we will be looking at it in 4 parts:

The Parties of the Covenant

The Promise of the Covenant

The Sign of the Covenant

The Grace of the Covenant

But when we survey the scene when this covenant is established, there is a sense that although everything appears restored, there is something not yet complete

The first thing Noah does when he steps into the new world, is offer burnt offerings to God

In fear of the Lord

having just witnessed His might in destroying the entire world

and his judgement of sinners

In gratitude to the Lord

He has rescued us and redeemed us

The Lord was pleased with his offering

It was “pleasing”

The Hebrew word means “appeasing, pleasing, soothing, something which brings reconciliation, peace and relationship”

For the moment then, all seems restored

God created a paradise world for Adam to inhabit

But that world was spoiled by sin and, being separated from God, man was cursed to die

Separated from God, man’s heart was shown to be utterly evil and this was made evident in the murder of Cain and rampant evil in the world

So much so, that God determined to destroy everyone and everything with a universal flood, sparing only Noah

Now, stepping out of the boat, Noah steps onto a new recreated world

Its a new start, He makes an offering of gratitude to the Lord, the Lord is pleased...

There is a sense of reconciliation, peace and relationship again between God and man.

And yet… not quite

As we go through the text we will notice that there is both a sense of rejoicing and dread, all woven together

There is reconciliation with God, but not yet

There is peace with God, but not yet

There is relationship with God, but not yet

There is a new earth, but its still the same.

It is within this sense of “not yet” that the meaning of the covenant and this text comes to light.

1. The Parties of the Covenant

Who is the covenant for?

Gen 9:9-10 “9 “Behold, I establish my covenant with you and your offspring after you, 10 and with every living creature that is with you, the birds, the livestock, and every beast of the earth with you, as many as came out of the ark; it is for every beast of the earth.”

Gen 9:12 “12 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:”

Gen 9:13 “13 I have set my bow in the cloud, and it shall be a sign of the covenant between me and the earth.”

Gen 9:15 “15 I will remember my covenant that is between me and you and every living creature of all flesh. And the waters shall never again become a flood to destroy all flesh.”

Gen 9:16 “16 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.””

Gen 9:17 “17 God said to Noah, “This is the sign of the covenant that I have established between me and all flesh that is on the earth.””

From the text it is clear that this is a universal covenant

It is a covenant between God and every human being, every creature, even the whole earth

Nobody is excluded from this covenant with God

There are no conditions or limitations attached

It is for Noah

It’s for his family

It’s for his offspring

It’s for all future generations

It’s even for all birds and beasts - every living creature

It’s even for the whole earth.

God even declares it to be “an everlasting covenant” in verse 17…

meaning that when He says it is for all future generations, He includes us in 2022

For “every living creature of all flesh that is on the earth”

So even if you are unbeliever… an outright devil worshipping Satanist even…

This covenant that God has made extends even to you.

It is a universal, everlasting covenant between God and all living beings

2. The Promise of the Covenant

What is the promise of the covenant?

Gen 8:21 “... the Lord said in his heart, “I will never again curse the ground because of man.... Neither will I ever again strike down every living creature as I have done.”

Gen 9:11 “11 I establish my covenant with you, that never again shall all flesh be cut off by the waters of the flood, and never again shall there be a flood to destroy the earth.””

Gen 9:15 “15 I will remember my covenant that is between me and you and every living creature of all flesh. And the waters shall never again become a flood to destroy all flesh.”

The universal, everlasting covenant that God makes with Noah, all of his descendants, all mankind and every living creature, is that He will never again destroy the earth with a flood

Never again will the whole earth be destroyed by some cataclysmic event or natural disaster

What a comfort this must have been to Noah

He’s just been a first hand witness to the awesome, fearful holiness, justice, and power of God

There is still a sense of fear and reverance and total submission to God as he steps off the boat and into the new world...

and the first thing he does is make an offering of every clean animal to God

But whatever fears he may have had that if God did it once, He might do it again, are now stilled by God

Who now graciously declares and promises Noah and every generation after him...

… that as long as the earth remains,

Gen 8:22 “22 While the earth remains, seedtime and harvest, cold and heat, summer and winter, day and night, shall not cease.””

This is Common Grace

A gracious, universal promise to everyone, everywhere, that we can be assured that God will never do that again

You might believe all the hype and warnings about climate change

You might believe that for the human race’s future to be secured, we need to figure out how to create a livable environment on Mars

But in spite of the rising or dropping temperatures,

in spite of what we hear about dwindling natural resources,

I dwell secure because of God’s universal, everlasting covenant with the whole earth that He will never destroy earth again the way He did with the flood

And just by the way, this is why the flood of Noah’s day had to be a universal, worldwide flood

Because if the flood was just a local flood that only affected Noah’s community,

Then God was lying when He said “I won’t do that again”

Because there have been floods that have destroyed cities

hurricanes, earthquakes, tsunamis that have destroyed whole regions

So if we think that when God said “I won’t do that again”, He was only talking about a local flood, then God has not kept His covenant

But even though we have global pandemics that have affected the whole world, they have stopped well short of taking out the entire human race

Why? Because the flood was a universal flood, and God who keeps His covenant has said He will never again destroy the whole world as He did in Noah’s day

Whether believer or unbeliever, we all enjoy the common grace of God and the assurance that life on earth will continue

the seasons continue

seedtime and harvest continue

and therefore all creatures, deserving or not, believing or not...

continue to enjoy the common grace of God in enjoying the goodness of His creation...

the ability to work, to eat, to build, to be fruitful, to prosper, to have relationships, to live

3. The Sign of the Covenant

Gen 9:13-15 “13 I have set my bow in the cloud, and it shall be a sign of the covenant between me and the earth. 14 When I bring clouds over the earth and the bow is seen in the clouds, 15 I will remember my covenant that is between me and you and every living creature of all flesh. And the waters shall never again become a flood to destroy all flesh.”

As a sign of this covenant, God has placed His bow in the sky

We call it a rainbow because we see it after it rains

But God simply calls it “His bow”

Its the same Hebrew word and even in the same shape as a bow - that instrument of war used to shoot arrows over distances

Except in this instance, God is using the bow as a sign and a reminder of His covenant promise NOT to destroy the whole earth

Not that God needs to be reminded of anything

God knows all things and doesn’t forget, so He needs no reminders

But this language is used for our sake, so that we know that whenever WE see the bow in the sky…

WE will be reminded that God absolutely remembers the universal, everlasting covenant He made

Now we know that there has been an attempted hijacking of the rainbow as a symbol

The gay rights movement began using it as a symbol in the 70’s I believe

Which is an ironic choice

Choosing to use the symbol of God’s covenant after destroying the whole world because of sin ,

as a symbol for their sinful rebellion against God’s created order

Nonetheless - it doesn’t matter to us - this is OUR symbol

And every time we see it we will be reminded: God remembers His promise...

Transition

So it seems that all is well in the world

As I said earlier, its a new start, a new world

There is a sense of reconciliation, peace and relationship again between God and man.

And there is a universal, everlasting covenant made by God with all the earth never to again destroy it

and a sign of that covenant, giving us assurance of that covenant

And yet… something is still off

There is reconciliation with God, but not yet

There is peace with God, but not yet

There is relationship with God, but not yet

There is a new earth, but its still the same.

The first hint of that is in the burnt offering itself - Noah feeling the need to make a burnt offering to the Lord,

a sacrifice of repentance and an offering meant to appease God

And then look at what God says to Himself in Gen 8:21 “21 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.”

A repeat of the description of man before the flood

The water covered the whole earth and subsided to give a fresh start on a clean slate

But man is still man

God has promised never again to curse the ground, but He hasn’t lifted the curse of sin from the Garden

And so even Noah, known as the most righteous man on earth… he may have been the best man but he was still a man at best

And even after the flood, the intention of man’s heart is still evil from his youth.

In fact, even immediately after receiving the covenant, Noah sins and gets drunk and naked

The effects of the Fall even remain in the creation itself

Gen 9:1 “1 And God blessed Noah and his sons and said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth.”

You should be saying “I’ve heard that before”

Its a repetition of the mandate God gave to Adam back in chapter 1

Its even repeated again in 9:7

Its meant to show that what we have here is fresh start - a re-creation

So much so that the mandate given to Adam is given also to Noah

But there is a difference - and when you hold the two together and play spot the difference, you will see there is an ommission from the instruction to Noah

Gen 1:28 “28 And God blessed them. And God said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and subdue it, and have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over every living thing that moves on the earth.””

Gen 9:1 “1 And God blessed Noah and his sons and said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth.”

They’re both commanded to be fruitful and to multiply and to fill the earth, but Noah is not commanded to subdue it

Because the effects of the Fall on creation is that the work of nurtuting and subueing creation is no longer easy - its now hard

Even the relationship between man and creation, and man and beast has been fractured

Noah still has dominion over the animals - Gen 9:2 “2 The fear of you and the dread of you shall be upon every beast of the earth and upon every bird of the heavens, upon everything that creeps on the ground and all the fish of the sea. Into your hand they are delivered.”

But where Adam once walked with lions, now the lions are filled with the fear and dread of man - so much so that they would now attack and kill and eat him

everybody wishes they could walk and pet the lions…

but can you imagine being able to command the hadedahs?

Then there’s the next outworking of the Fall:

Gen 9:3 “3 Every moving thing that lives shall be food for you. And as I gave you the green plants, I give you everything.”

The cattle - they’re now food

This is one outworking of the Fall that I am not unhappy about

Praise God for steak!

This is one way that God permits Noah to exercise his dominion over the animals and to subdue them - kill them, and eat them

Then there’s the warning of Gen 9:4 “4 But you shall not eat flesh with its life, that is, its blood.”

Because blood represents life

The command to multiply and fill the earth is in its simplest statement a command to fill the earth with God’s glory

Gen 1:27 says we are made in the image of God

We are all image bearers - we bear in our bodies the image of God

God commands Noah to fill the earth with image bearers - to fill the earth with the image of God

We’ll get to the Tower of Babel later when the intent of sinful man was to resist this mandate - they rebelled against spreading God’s image

So since we are image bearers of God and meant to represent God and His glory on the earth...

then murder is an attack on the image of God and on the glory of God

Its no surprise then that the first evil act recorded by sinful man is the murder of Abel by his brother

And the first warning of God to Noah in the re-creation is “you shall not murder”

And if you do, your own life will be forfeit in return

The death penalty is God’s idea… God putting a warning and a law in place to restrain man’s rebellious desire to fight against the spread of His glory on the earth

So again the command is repeated: Gen 9:7 “7 And you, be fruitful and multiply, increase greatly on the earth and multiply in it.””

And so this is Noah’s world

redeemed, and yet still not free from sin

Living in a re-created world and party to a covenant with God where God has promised never again to curse the ground,

and yet still under the curse of sin and death

Why?

because nothing we have seen so far here is the ultimate answer to the problem of sin - but it foreshadows it

God destroyed the whole earth and kept the most righteous man, yet the problem of sin remains

Because Noah is not the Christ - he foreshadows Him.

The ark that saved Noah from the flood is not ultimate redemption - it foreshadows it

The covenant God made with Noah is not the covenant that saves and redeems us - it foreshadows it

In short, what we are given here through Noah’s story and the covenant God made with him is hope

And that hope comes to us in the faithfulness of God and the grace of God

4. The Grace of the Covenant

The grace of God is first seen in Gen 6:8 “8 But Noah found favor in the eyes of the Lord.”

Noah was a righteous man - but that not of his own virtue but because he found favour in the eyes of God

God chose to give him favour, to be gracious to him - and as a result of God’s grace on his life, Noah was righteous

Gen 8:21 “21 ...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.”

Noah didn’t approach God and say “God, can you please not do that again?”

Neither did Noah approach God and say “God, if I promise to be good, will you not do that again?”

But in spite of Noah’s inherent sin and continuing sinfulness in his heart…

God, not because of Noah’s goodness, but because of God’s goodness, is the one who determines not to do that again

And so Gen 9:1 “1 And God blessed Noah and his sons...”

All we have heard about man so far is his sinfulness and constantly evil intentions,

God destroyed the whole world because of it,

And yet God chooses to bless Noah

- and - Noah’s sons! What did they have to do with anything?? What had they done?

But God says “you have been evil towards me, but I have chosen to bless you”

You have been unfaithful to me, but I will be faithful to you.

Neither does Noah approach God and say “God, can we enter into a covenant together where you basically solemnly swear to never destroy the world again?”

But God establishes the covenant.

Look at the language...

I establish my covenant

This is the sign of the covenant that I make with you

I have set my bow in the cloud

I will remember my covenant

This whole thing is God’s idea

And we all - ALL - undeservedly so, benefit from His common grace, love and generosity

But - as I have said, this covenant is not the final word

Sin remains, and as history unfolds we will see countless acts of sin and unfaithfulness from man in spite of God’s common grace for all in the Noahic covenant

But while the Noahic covenant stops short of being the ultimate answer for man’s redemption...

it lays the foundations for future covenants

each of which build on the foundation of the last

and each foreshadowing and pointing forward to the ultimate covenant of Redemption

Next we will see the Abrahamic covenant

where the Noahic covenant is a universal covenant between God and all mankind...

God’s covenant with Abraham is with Abraham and his offspring - a tribe, a family

The promise of the covenant - God will bless Abraham and multiply his offspring

The sign of the covenant - circumcision

Out of that covenant comes Moses

and then we find the Mosaic covenant

God’s covenant with a nation - with Israel

And administrative covenant

The promise of the covenant - if you obey God, you will be blessed. If you disobey, you will be cursed

The sign of the covenant - the Sabbath day of rest

They disobey God, they end up in captivity

Man is not able to obey God’s law and therefore unable to earn God’s blessing

From there comes king David

a man after God’s own heart

Hero of the nation and prestigious king of Israel but a moral failure

God makes a covenant with David and his offspring

The promise - from your offspring will come the King of Kings whose throne will last forever

All of which laying the foundation for, forshadowing and pointing to - the New Covenant

and what all other covenants pointed to, God acheived through this covenant

The seed of David is born

Jesus Christ, King of Kings

The only righteous man

He kept the Law and fulfilled it,

and then He went to the cross and died for our failures to do so

And so God made a new covenant - this time with all who believe in Jesus Christ

The promise of the covenant - that all who repent of their sin and believe in the Lord Jesus Christ will be saved, their sins nailed to the cross and forgiven, and remembered no more

The sign of the covenant - The Lord’s supper, which serves as a sign and a reminder to us of God’s promise

All of this planned before time and before the foundation of the world, by God’s grace, in the covenant of Redemption

In which the Triune God - Father, Son and Holy Spirit,

made a covenant to redeem a people for God through the atonement of Christ’s blood - through His death and resurrection

Conclusion

The sign of God’s covenant with Noah was a bow

We still see it in the sky every time it rains

It serves as a reminder to us that God has remembered and is faithful to His promise never to destroy the world as He did with the flood

It reminds even unbelievers and rebels that God is good and He is gracious, and that even the strength that they use to shake their fists at God is only theirs to use becuase God in His common grace has given them the sustenance to have the strength to do so

But when we see that bow from this day forward, let it be a reminder to us of what that covenant foreshadowed

… of the new covenant that God is faithful to eternity to uphold

That sign is in the shape of a bow...

…an instrument of war

and yet it is a sign to us of peace and reconciliation with God

But the only reason that bow is a symbol to us of peace with God and not war with God,

is because God already went to war with our sin and prevailed …

by pouring out the full extent of His wrath against sin in His own Son as He hung on the cross

Believers - all those who believe in Jesus and are trusting in His atonement for our salvation...

can look at that bow and praise God for His saving grace

We are redeemed by the blood of the Lamb

Right now we still live like Noah floating in the ark, waiting for the promise of the New Creation

But when we step off this ark, out of this life and into the next - it will be into the new earth - completely free of sin and filled with the glory of God

Until then, we continue with our earthly mandate

Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth with the glory of God - proclaim the Gospel!

And when the rain comes, and you see the rainbow, rejoice and keep looking to God

But for unbelievers, and unrepentant sinner, when you see the rainbow...

you are reminded of the goodness of God towards you and His grace in providing with you every good thing you have

but that’s all it is for you

you receive that common and undeserved grace of God that provides you with everything good that you need to sustain your life…

yet you refuse His offer of salvation that would give you life everlasting

And so this life is as good as it will ever get for you

And when your days are over, all that then remains is for you to face the music

to face God alone and give account for every sin you have committed

without the benefit of a mediator who would give account for you

You are now getting only good things you don’t deserve

But on that day you will receive your just reward in the destruction of your soul

Turn now while you still have time

Stop taking the Lord’s goodness and kindness for granted

Believe in the Lord Jesus Christ and you will be saved

Confess your sins and He is faithful and just to forgive your sins and save you