Rainbows & Representatives
In the Beginning: A Study in Genesis • Sermon • Submitted • Presented • 31:12
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Over the years, in an attempt to communicate that life is not all good all the time, I'll say something like “life is not all fairy tales and rainbows and puppy dog kisses.”
Well, here in Genesis 9, life basically is “rainbows”; though I’m not sure about the fairy tales and puppy dog kisses.
After the flood, after the flood waters receded, after Noah and his wife and their sons and their wives came out of the ark and all the animals along with them...
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 humans, even though every inclination of the human heart is evil from childhood. And never again will I destroy all living creatures, as I have done.
22 “As long as the earth endures,
seedtime and harvest,
cold and heat,
summer and winter,
day and night
will never cease.”
And then the Lord continues with Genesis 9:1-17—this is the Word of the Lord to Noah.
>If you have your Bible (and I hope you do), please turn with me to Genesis 9. If you are able and willing, please stand with me for the reading of God’s Holy Word.
1 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 on all the beasts of the earth, and on all the birds in the sky, on every creature that moves along the ground, and on all the fish in the sea; they are given into your hands. 3 Everything that lives and moves about will be food for you. Just as I gave you the green plants, I now give you everything.
4 “But you must not eat meat that has its lifeblood still in it. 5 And for your lifeblood I will surely demand an accounting. I will demand an accounting from every animal. And from each human being, too, I will demand an accounting for the life of another human being.
6 “Whoever sheds human blood,
by humans shall their blood be shed;
for in the image of God
has God made mankind.
7 As for you, be fruitful and increase in number; multiply on the earth and increase upon it.”
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 destroyed 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.”
May the Lord add His blessing to the reading of His Holy Word!
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Kids, I’m glad you’re here with us this morning. We’ve been working our way through the book of Genesis—Creation, Adam and Eve, Cain and Abel, a genealogy thrown in there for fun, some weird verses about the sons of God and the Nephilim, and, most recently, Noah and the Ark.
In Genesis 6-8, we read about the Lord deciding to flood the whole earth, destroying all mankind and all the animals.
Tell me, kids. What was His reason? Why would God do this?
Because of sin.
The widespread sin of the people led to God’s judgment. God judges sin because God is Holy and Righteous. Sin grieves the heart of God. This is true today. God was so grieved, so righteously angry at the evil of His originally good creation that He sends a flood to cover the earth.
7 So the Lord said, “I will wipe from the face of the earth the human race I have created—and with them the animals, the birds and the creatures that move along the ground—for I regret that I have made them.”
17 I am going to bring floodwaters on the earth to destroy all life under the heavens, every creature that has the breath of life in it. Everything on earth will perish.
And so it was.
But, even in the midst of this flood, even in the midst of judgment, there’s grace, mercy, promise. There’s hope.
Immediately after telling Noah that He was going to destroy all life under the heavens, God says:
18 But I will establish my covenant with you, and you will enter the ark—you and your sons and your wife and your sons’ wives with you.
Covenant. That’s a big word. Not big (size-wise), but big as in important. You need to know this word. We need to know this word
This is the first time we see the word covenant in the Bible. It’s the Hebrew word “berit”. This is the first of 280 times the OT uses this word.
Covenant refers to the act of God in freely establishing a mutually binding relationship with humankind. God bestows blessings on his people—sometimes conditionally, other times unconditionally.
In this covenant with Noah, God bestows blessings on humans regardless of their obedience or disobedience. This covenant is unconditional and everlasting.
The Lord Himself establishes this covenant totally on His own initiative; this covenant is the Lord’s idea, and His idea only. No one else is at the table signing this contract, just God. God tells Noah:
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 destroyed by the waters of a flood; never again will there be a flood to destroy the earth.”
The order of events goes like this: Creation. Fall of man. Widespread sin. Covenant announcement. Flood. Covenant.
The covenant comes out of nowhere. There’s no reason for it. The covenant is purely of grace. The covenant is here because God is full of love and compassion. He knows the people—even Noah and his family—are going to continue to sin. He knows this. And still, He makes this covenant with them.
This is the promise of the promise-keeping God. He has entered into a relationship with these people; He’s committed to them.
In essence, God creates and then de-creates, and here re-creates. Noah is a new Adam. Things are a little different, but much is the same.
The Lord God blesses Noah, tells him and Mrs. Noah to be fruitful and increase in number and fill the earth.
Everything God does is awesome and praise-worthy, but what God does next should really make us thankful:
3 Everything that lives and moves about will be food for you. Just as I gave you the green plants, I now give you everything.
When God put Adam and Eve in the garden, He gave them fruit and plants to eat. But after the flood…oh, boy, after the flood, God expanded the human diet to include MEAT!
Everything that lives and moves about will be food for you.
“Praise to the Lord, the Almighty, the King of Creation! Oh, my soul, praise Him, for Yahweh has given me bacon!”
Dinner just got a whole lot more interesting! No longer vegans; they are full-fledged omnivores; they’ve been given permission to be carnivorous. What a gift! What a blessing!
Noah and his family didn’t have the dominion over animal life the way Adam and Eve did; now the animals would fear people and do everything possible to escape them; fear and dread [would] fall on all the beasts of the earth.
Cain was a farmer. Abel was a shepherd. Noah and sons are now hunters.
The only restriction to their new and improved diet was this: eat no meat with its lifeblood still in it. It’s okay to eat the meat, but not to consume the animal’s blood. Why? As an acknowledgement that all life is from God.
This is huge, post-flood truth: All life is from God—the Creator—the One who made all living creatures and breathed life into them. AND, as Noah’s family and all creatures great and small testify to: all life on earth after the flood was specially sustained by God. He kept them safe and secure in an ark.
God sustained and sustains life. He also protects life. He highlights the great value that humankind has.
Thus far in history, mankind doesn’t have a very good track record of taking care of one another. Cain killed his own brother. Lamech killed a young man and bragged about it. We read that the earth was filled with violence of all kinds. They’re failing pretty hard at basic decency.
God had put the fear of humans in the animals. Now, as one writer puts it, “God had to put the fear of God into the humans lest they destroy one another.”
Any person who takes a human life will be held accountable by God.
People—all people and only people—are made in the image of God. This is beyond significant. This is repeated over and over and over again for us.
Like your parents telling you: “Don’t hit your brother, don’t hit your brother, don’t hit your brother…look both ways before you cross the street, look both ways before you cross the street, look both ways before you cross the street”— God’s Word tells us over and over again that people are His special creation, that all people (regardless of what you think about them) all people are priceless to Him. To treat another poorly is to treat God poorly, and He won’t stand for it.
God—the Sustainer and Protector of life—once again tells Noah to be fruitful and multiply. God want’s humanity to flourish, not to be destroyed by violence or another flood.
This leads right into the covenant God would make with all living beings. Remember, this covenant was mentioned briefly before the flood:
18 But I will establish my covenant with you, and you will enter the ark—you and your sons and your wife and your sons’ wives with you.
Now, God sets the terms of the covenant and gives them a sign:
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.
The Sign of this Covenant: A Rainbow
The Sign of this Covenant: A Rainbow
Different covenants have signs or symbols linked to them.
Let’s think through some Biblical covenants together:
God’s covenant with Abraham was marked by: circumcision (ouchy).
God’s covenant with Israel from Mount Sinai: the Sabbath.
On this occasion, with this covenant, God’s designated sign is the rainbow. Whenever a rainbow appears, during or after a rain storm, it is a visible reminder of God’s everlasting covenant with all living beings.
Whenever people saw the rainbow, they would remember God’s promise that no future storm would ever become a world-wide flood that would destroy humanity.
There’s a story told of Mark Twain and his friend William Dean Howell. One Sunday, the two stepped out of church just as a violent rainstorm began.
Howells said, “I wonder if it will stop.”
To this, Twain replied, “It always has.”
He was right; it always has! Why? Because God made a covenant and He always keeps His word. Always. That’s the message the rainbow speaks.
God spoke of the rainbow as though Noah and his family were familiar with it, so it must have existed before the flood. After all, rainbows are caused by the sunlight filtering through the water int he air, each drop becoming a prism to release the colors hidden in the white light of the sun—so it surely happened before, a rainbow had appeared before this.
Still…think about it: who else but God could have created something like that?
And why not pick this as the sign of this covenant?
It’s beautiful, like God’s promise to sustain and protect life.
And it’s universal, just like the covenant. You can see rainbows all over the world. I have personally seen rainbows in three different countries and in almost every state I’ve visited (it didn’t rain much in New Mexico). But I don’t have to travel everywhere to know that rainbows pop up everywhere.
The rainbow is not only for us to see and enjoy. “Roy G. Biv” is not just some trivia for us to memorize. No, rainbows are also for God, in a way.
The Lord says:
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.”
Now, God doesn’t forget His covenants with His people. This is just another way of assuring us that we don’t need to be afraid.
What we see, God sees. When we remember this promise He made to Noah and to all of us, we know the Covenant-Creator and Promise-Maker remembers His covenant and His creation.
And so we can give thanks and rest easy in Him, the Maker of rainbows and covenants.
The Representative of this Covenant: Noah
The Representative of this Covenant: Noah
God makes this covenant with a group of people. He does this by covenanting with one who represents them. In this case, the covenant is made with Noah. Everyone else then experiences the covenant by virtue of being included “in” the representative.
Here, the animals are included as well as Noah’s descendants. Noah is a kind of Adam, this covenant shows.
In this covenant, God guarantees to all mankind blessings that come from Noah.
The covenantal representative here is Noah.
Later, God makes a covenant with Abraham (the representative of the people) and promises to bless all people through their connection to Him.
Same for David. David is the representative of the covenant—that there would be someone on David’s throne for ever and ever. All the blessings and favor that God would bestow upon David would spill over to those who were “in” his line.
The covenant God makes with the representative of mankind—Noah—is a new beginning.
Even as God judges the earth for its sin and corruption, in His grace, God continues His Kingdom on earth by making a new start with Noah, Noah’s family, and the animals with him.
God makes a new beginning with Noah; covenant and rainbow and representative all point us to that truth.
It’s easy to see how Noah points us to Jesus, if we have eyes to see and ears to hear.
Through Jesus—God’s only son—God makes a completely new start with His people and His creation. Jesus offers His life to atone for human sin once and for all. Jesus ushers in a New and better covenant—a covenant with a sign.
The Representative of the New Covenant: Christ
The Representative of the New Covenant: Christ
Jesus offered up His body on the cross and poured out His blood so that we might be forgiven of our sins.
When He did this, Jesus was establishing the New Covenant. For those who are “in Christ”, there is the promise of personal relationship with God and an the promise of an intimate knowledge of God.
During the time of the Old Testament and the old covenant(s), the people of God were a mixed community. That is to say, Israel was composed of both believers and non-believers. Just because everyone lived under the blessing and promise of the covenant God made with Noah, didn’t mean that everyone knew God or loved God (far from it, as we’ll see).
Later, when the people lived under the Abrahamic covenant—the promise God made with Abraham—not everyone who was circumcised in his flesh was circumcised in his heart.
Not everyone who received the physical sign of the old covenant was born again or regenerate. The sign of that covenant wasn’t a guarantee of anything.
On the other hand, every member of the New Covenant is a believer. Every member of the New Covenant has been given new life in Christ—personal, first-hand, intimate, saving knowledge of God.
We can’t initiate or establish a covenant with God. We don’t get to approach Him and say: “Okay, fella, here’s the rub: these are the stipulations of the contract we’d like to strike with you.” It doesn’t work like that.
God alone can initiate and establish a covenant with man. And God has done that only with those who belong to Him by faith in His Son, Jesus Christ. Only those who are in a relationship with the Representative of the New Covenant, Jesus—a members of the New Covenant.
Friends, if you don’t know Jesus personally, if you don’t have a personal, saving knowledge of Him, if you’ve not given your life to Him, may today be the day you say, “Jesus, I believe you are the Christ, the Son of the Living God. I believe you died for me and that you are my only hope. I believe that there is salvation is no other name.”
Maybe He’s calling you to Himself. Maybe you’ve been resisting, putting it off. There’s a good chance some of you are trying to ignore what He’s asking you to do.
Today, friends. Today. Today is the day of salvation, offered to you full and free through the sacrificial death of Jesus.
>Jesus knew that He was the Representative of a New and better Covenant, one that would be sealed with His blood. This New Covenant would bring, not temporary or conditional blessing upon those who belonged, but would secure eternal salvation for each and every covenant member.
Through His blood, through this New Covenant, life everlasting is given to those who belong.
On the night Jesus was betrayed, He gave us a sign of this New Covenant. Not another rainbow, but something of supreme beauty and unmatched significance.
On the night Jesus was betrayed,
19 And he took bread, gave thanks and broke it, and gave it to them, saying, “This is my body given for you; do this in remembrance of me.”
20 In the same way, after the supper he took the cup, saying, “This cup is the new covenant in my blood, which is poured out for you.
The Sign of the New Covenant: Communion
The Sign of the New Covenant: Communion
This morning, we are going to come to the Lord’s Table. We who belong to this New Covenant by faith in Jesus Christ are going to take and eat in remembrance of Him who gave Himself up for us.
We who belong to this New Covenant by faith in Jesus Christ are going to take this cup—the new covenant in His blood—in remembrance of Him.
Let’s pray as we come to the table and celebrate that we are members of this New Covenant because of Christ.