God's COVENANT with Noah.
Good morning and welcome to the start of our new sermon series on God’s Covenant with his people. This is something that I have wanted to do for ages, because it is a wonderful glorious theme that runs throughout Scripture. In fact we speak of it probably far more often than we realise for the very word Testament in Greek literally means Covenant and so our Bible is divided into two sections predominantly marking the Old and new covenants. And yet it is a theme that biblically speaking is not given to us all at once, ‘at one bite of the cherry’. Instead it’s a theme that grows and matures as time passes, and our knowledge and understanding of it develops and deepens through a series of encounters revealed to us within Scripture, and I can guarantee you that if you were to read the Bible from beginning to end, your understanding of Covenant will be radically different and enriched by the time that you got to the end of the Bible that it appeared when you first started. And it is my hope that this short series of sermons will help point you in the right direction so that you can start to ‘get a taste’ and see for yourselves what I mean (if you haven’t already!); and by the end we will have covered a journey involving a series of snapshots that explore the theme of God’s Covenant with his people from Genesis to Revelation..
So lets’ get going! The first thing that we need to appreciate, is that actually Covenants aren’t new, they’ve been around for centuries even before those biblically recorded. So what precisely is a ‘covenant’? Well the Oxford English Dictionary describes a covenant as being an agreement or a contract under seal. In other words it is an agreement, or a treaty, which has a binding force to it. It’s not casual, it has purpose and intent, and frequently there are rules and regulations that guide it, a list of do’s and don’ts that either uphold the privileges on the one hand or perhaps invoke the penalties on the other. These sort of agreements could easily be made between friends and equals, but often they were made between folk precisely because they weren’t equal. The sort of agreement that might be made between a king and his subjects, or perhaps between a conquering nation and a vanquished one. For it was quite common for a large nation to make a formal agreement or covenant with a smaller one, or with a defeated foe. In such cases the rules and regulations were very precise and very important. They would contain promises of privilege and responsibility. For instance a smaller nation might promise to pay tribute to a larger one, pay taxes, return runaway slaves, send men to join its armies and trade goods and commodities. In return it would be blessed with the knowledge that it wouldn’t be attacked, it would be safe from harm, and perhaps even protected from other hostile regimes. Occasionally that larger nation might even send money and assistance to help the smaller one develop and prosper. It’s not so different from today is it? But regardless of the size and scope of the respective parties each one was expected to respect the covenant and keep its end of the bargain.
Therefore, many covenants contained various nasty clauses of punishment, anger and wrath reserved for defaulting members; formal curses which would be evoked should the covenant be broken. These might include promises of pain, death, exile or slavery to the one who defaults, or the threat of severe famine or plague delivered by the gods who were after all divine witnesses to the agreement. And it’s interesting to note that many of these covenants, were verified, ratified and cemented within the context of a religious ceremony and even a meal.
And in fact we can find a good example of a covenant depicting a list of blessings and curses in Deuteronomy 28.
Blessings for Obedience
“If you fully obey the Lord your God and carefully follow all his commands that I give you today, the Lord your God will set you high above all the nations on earth. 2 All these blessings will come upon you and accompany you if you obey the Lord your God:
3 You will be blessed in the city and blessed in the country.
4 The fruit of your womb will be blessed, and the crops of your land and the young of your livestock—the calves of your herds and the lambs of your flocks.
5 Your basket and your kneading trough will be blessed.
6 You will be blessed when you come in and blessed when you go out. (Deuteronomy 28.1-6)[1]
But then just a few verses later we have:
Curses for Disobedience
15 However, if you do not obey the Lord your God and do not carefully follow all his commands and decrees I am giving you today, all these curses will come upon you and overtake you:
16 You will be cursed in the city and cursed in the country.
17 Your basket and your kneading trough will be cursed.
18 The fruit of your womb will be cursed, and the crops of your land, and the calves of your herds and the lambs of your flocks.
19 You will be cursed when you come in and cursed when you go out. (Deuteronomy 28.15-19)[2]
And there’s a whole lot more that I have included. So as you can see covenants are far from new, but what is new, and extra special in the Biblical sense, is that God is not simply an abstract bystander, a deity far removed witnessing these things from far on high. No! God is actively engaged, stepping into history and being party to them. No other nation, faith or religion had at that time, as one of its basic foundation principles, the concept of a God who freely enters into a personal covenantal relationship with his people. Biblical Covenants are therefore some of the most unequal covenants that there are, and because of that they are some of the most special, the most rewarding and the most exciting. But the Covenant story is in many ways just that - a story, it is something that changes and develops overtime and its almost as if - if we were ever really going to understand the truth, then we had to learn it one step at a time. The whole thing, all at once would have been simply too much for anyone to understand or comprehend.
And so we begin with Noah, or at least with God’s Covenant with Noah. Now you might want to know - why I’m not starting with Adam? Well Adam is the story of man’s creation and indeed there are covenantal aspects to the story, but it’s also the story of man’s downfall. The opening chapters of Genesis are therefore not written to tell us so much as to how the world came into existence, but why the world is as it is. It starts off gloriously, with God’s creation of the world and with man’s dominion over it. With Adam made in the image of God, naming the animals in partnership with him, but that wonderful beginning is quickly marred as Adam succumbs to temptation, and eats of the tree of knowledge, thinking that he will be made wise and as clever just like God, but that knowledge in truth only serves to reveal to him just how puny he is; that he is naked, weak and frail, but more importantly the consequence of his selfish disobedience, was a fallen world tainted with sin, corruption and death, and from that moment on, the whole world becomes different to what it was and is far removed from that perfect creation that God had looked upon and declared as good. It’s a fallen world, a broken world, a world full of anger, hurt and pain. It’s a world full of wickedness, evil and sin - and the story of Noah starts right there!
But the story of Noah is also something different; it’s the start of a story of salvation. It’s the beginning of a journey back; but that journey starts from a very dark place, a place almost without hope.
“The LORD saw how great man's wickedness on the earth had become, and that every inclination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil all the time. The LORD was grieved that he had made man on the earth, and his heart was filled with pain.
So the LORD said, "I will wipe mankind, whom I have created, from the face of the earth - men and animals, and creatures that move along the ground, and birds of the air - for I am grieved that I have made them." (Genesis 6.5-7)
How terrible is that? It’s awful isn’t it? And yet in all that gloom there is a spark of light for we are told that God ‘remembered’ Noah:
“Noah found favour in the eyes of the LORD.” “Noah was a righteous man, blameless among the people of his time, and he walked with God.” (Genesis 6.9)
It’s wonderful isn’t it to think that in all that gloom, there was one bright light and his name was Noah, a man whom God remembers and of whom we are told walked with God and there is a deliberate echo here of that earlier man Adam who had also walked with God.
And the story is the one that you know, a story of faith, rescue and salvation, a story of the building of an Ark, a mighty ship, which acts as a safe haven, not just for Noah and his family but for all the animals, sweeping them up and rescuing from the floodwaters of judgment.
“You are to bring into the ark two of all living creatures, male and female, to keep them alive with you.” (Genesis 6.19)
Adam had, at the Lord’s bidding named the animals, Noah saves them. And of course the big, crucial difference is that Noah did everything that the Lord had commanded him, whereas Adam had clearly not, and yet its also interesting to note that Noah was not spared the time of judgement, but was saved through it, as he obediently follows the commands of God, who in turn demonstrates his own steadfast faith, love and mercy to all those who put their faith and trust in him.
Now the story of the Ark is a wonderful story, but I want to take you on to that point just afterwards when God makes his covenant with Noah.
And so we are told that after 40 days the water receded, and what is the first thing that Noah does? He worships God and gives thanks for his salvation and the salvation of his family. He builds an altar and sacrifices two birds upon it, as burnt offerings to God. And its within this context of religious ceremony that God’s blesses Noah and makes his covenant with him.
20 Then Noah built an altar to the Lord and, taking some of all the clean animals and clean birds, he sacrificed burnt offerings on it. 21 The Lord smelled the pleasing aroma and said in his heart: “Never again will I curse the ground because of man, even thougha every inclination of his heart is evil from childhood. And never again will I destroy all living creatures, as I have done.[3] Genesis 8.20.21
And so the first thing to note is that this covenant is completely universal in its scope and compass. Just as the judgement had fallen across the whole of the known world, so was the promise of salvation. Two, three, four times, God stresses the universal nature of the agreement. And just as a rainbow arcs across the sky and earth so does God’s promise, and the rainbow would be a sign of that promise.
8 Then God said to Noah and to his sons with him: 9 “I now establish my covenant with you and with your descendants after you 10 and with every living creature that was with you—the birds, the livestock and all the wild animals, all those that came out of the ark with you—every living creature on earth. 11 I establish my covenant with you: Never again will all life be cut off by the waters of a flood; never again will there be a flood to destroy the earth.”
12 And God said, “This is the sign of the covenant I am making between me and you and every living creature with you, a covenant for all generations to come: 13 I have set my rainbow in the clouds, and it will be the sign of the covenant between me and the earth. 14 Whenever I bring clouds over the earth and the rainbow appears in the clouds, 15 I will remember my covenant between me and you and all living creatures of every kind. Never again will the waters become a flood to destroy all life. 16 Whenever the rainbow appears in the clouds, I will see it and remember the everlasting covenant between God and all living creatures of every kind on the earth.”
17 So God said to Noah, “This is the sign of the covenant I have established between me and all life on the earth.” (Genesis 9.8-17)
[4]
So we can see quite clearly that firstly Noah stands in this agreement as a representative of all mankind, but secondly God’s covenant is not just with him but with the whole of creation.
But earlier we had seen how covenants have certain rules and regulations, certain promises and responsibilities as part of their makeup, and this one is no different. And yet the blessings are strangely familiar, because they have a distinct ring of Genesis, Adam and Eve about them.
“Then God blessed Noah and his sons, saying to them, “Be fruitful and increase in number and fill the earth. 2 The fear and dread of you will fall upon all the beasts of the earth and all the birds of the air, upon every creature that moves along the ground, and upon all the fish of the sea; they are given into your hands. 3 Everything that lives and moves will be food for you. Just as I gave you the green plants, I now give you everything.[5] (Genesis 9.1-3)
So here we have a new start and a new beginning, for just as with Adam, God provides for Noah and his family by giving him dominion over all creation, but this isn’t quite Eden! Things aren’t quite as idyllic as they were before, for as our own Bishop David points out in his latest book: Renewing the Face of the Earth” we are still at this point in a fallen world, and there is now a natural element of fear and dread shot through the created order and the animal kingdom. And it is perhaps the first implicit acknowledgement that for one thing to live, another has to die. Death is part of the fall, and animals being part of the food chain provide Noah and his descendants with nearly all that they need for food and sustenance.
But with the privileges come responsibilities. Twice Noah and his family are instructed to go forth and multiply. For not only are they, the faithful few, to be ultimately the parents of each and every generation, they are also to be the means by which the Covenant is shared with the world. This Covenant, this promise would be for them and for all who are far off, and not just for those of Noah’s day.
Secondly, there were some food regulations. For God goes onto to tell Noah that he “must not eat meat that has its lifeblood still in it.” (Genesis 9.4) [6] And he goes on to say “And for your lifeblood I will surely demand an accounting. I will demand an accounting from every animal. And from each man, too, I will demand an accounting for the life of his fellow man.
(Genesis 9.4-5)
So you see, despite the terrible floods and the judgment of Noah’s story, we also have here a statement that upholds the sanctity of life, for all life is sacred. That’s why when the Israelites sacrificed their animals, they poured that animals blood out upon the alter, for they were recognising the sanctity of life and offering the life-force perceived to be within the blood back to the one who had graciously given it. You know God’s covenant with Noah is of course eternal, but in many ways its quite literally a covenant for our time, for it’s a green covenant, for prior to the flood because of sin there had been no accountability only corruption, wickedness and death, but after the flood there is once again the concept of mutual respect, good stewardship and accountability, not just towards each other, and the people of the world, but the world itself. For if we are to take dominion over the world then we need to have a responsible concern for it. Which is why such a callous lack of concern for the value of human life is so appalling, whether it be through military conflict or through reckless street crime. It’s why a neglect of people, wildlife and the environment is so ill responsible, because it does nothing to preserve the sanctity of life or its quality. Whether it be war in Afghanistan or the destruction of the rainforest. Even locally the killing of bull calf’s the day they are born seems so wasteful compared to the desperate plights and need of others. God’s covenant with Noah therefore not only reminds us that we have a God who cares for those who put their faith and trust in him, it reminds us that we too have a God given duty to care for one another and the natural world of which we are a part, because life is sacred, its special and it’s a gift from God.
Bishop David in his book suggest that although climate change is clearly a threat, it might also be real opportunity, for and I quote “This could be the time when the industrialized world wakes up to the failure of the gods of consumption, and returns to ‘Seek the Lord and live’… when we return to the moral and spiritual values for which God made us. This could be a time when the world comes together to work for climate justice – here and now – especially on behalf of the poorest. The Scriptures hold out for us a vision of a sustainable covenant community within a sustainable world – of shalom, peace with justice, which touches all of our relationships” with God, the environment and each other.
And interestingly (and wonderfully) God takes takes to heart his responsibility to, saying:
Whenever I bring clouds over the earth and the rainbow appears in the clouds, I will remember my covenant between me and you and all living creatures of every kind. Never again will the waters become a flood to destroy all life. (9.14-15)
You see, the rainbow isn’t just there for our benefit, it also serves to remind us that God remembers us, his covenant with Noah and his promise not to flood the earth.
The problem with Covenants made with God, is that they are not made between equals. And in the words of Anne Robinson, in terms of these agreements “we are the weakest link”. We are always the weakest link as the story of Noah’s drunkenness in the very next chapter so aptly reminds us.
And so although there are no real curses in this passage, there is a dire warning that the covenant should be taken seriously. For:
“Whoever sheds the blood of man, by man shall his blood be shed; for in the image of God has God made man.” (9.5-6)
So there we have it – “God’s Covenant with Noah”. The first step of a very exciting journey. It’s a universal covenant encompassing all people and the whole of creation. And the rainbow is a sign, reminding us that not only is God a righteous judge who deplores evil, wickedness and sin, it reminds us that he has the propensity to save, to give a second chance, to Noah, his family and all those who put their faith and trust in him. He gives us the world and everything that is needed for our health and well being, but with the privilege comes the responsibility to love and care for it.
Next week we shall look at God’s Covenant with Abraham, and see how God’s Covenant with his people and the process of our salvation history, takes another exciting step. In the name of Christ.
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[1]The Holy Bible : New International Version. 1984; Published in electronic form by Logos Research Systems, 1996 (electronic edition.) (Dt 28:1). London: Hodder & Stoughton.
[2]The Holy Bible : New International Version. 1984; Published in electronic form by Logos Research Systems, 1996 (electronic edition.) (Dt 28:15). London: Hodder & Stoughton.
a Or man, for
[3]The Holy Bible : New International Version. 1984; Published in electronic form by Logos Research Systems, 1996 (electronic edition.) (Ge 8:20). London: Hodder & Stoughton.
[4]The Holy Bible : New International Version. 1984; Published in electronic form by Logos Research Systems, 1996 (electronic edition.) (Ge 9:8). London: Hodder & Stoughton.
[5]The Holy Bible : New International Version. 1984; Published in electronic form by Logos Research Systems, 1996 (electronic edition.) (Ge 9:1). London: Hodder & Stoughton.
[6]The Holy Bible : New International Version. 1984; Published in electronic form by Logos Research Systems, 1996 (electronic edition.) (Ge 9:4). London: Hodder & Stoughton.