Noah's Covenant

 Assignment: find a Noah. How? Advertise on Facebook. The job description? Wanted: Most righteous person alive to build, maintain, & sail a large ship. Must have training in nautical, hydraulic, mechanical, & civil engineering. Must have practical experience in zoology, ranching, navigation, carpentry, plumbing, & public relations. Must be able to stand noise & foul odors, & ridicule. Above all, must have patience. Benefits: Free 5-month world cruise for the family. Free shovel. Free admittance to world's best zoo. Applicants? 0. Good thing God already had a plan! Noah's story begins in Ge 6:5-6, God looks at our hot mess of a world. All He sees is evil. The Lord sees people's hearts-only evil. All the time. He's grieved He even created man. The Lord's heart? Filled with pain. For the rest of Ge 6, God calls Noah & tells him how to prepare for the flood. In Ge 7 they enter the ark. Rains come, & Noah starts his world cruise. 5 months later, waters subside. The ark comes to rest on Mt. Ararat, & all leave. As Noah makes a sacrifice to God, in Ge 8:21 God reevaluates. Nothing has changed. 21aEvery inclination of man's heart is still evil from childhood. Humanity's report card hasn't changed much. Look back at God's pre-flood report card in Gen 6:5. 5Every inclination of ...man's heart is only evil all the time. Our post-flood, report card in Ge 8:21 is little changed. 21Every inclination of human hearts is evil from childhood. What did the flood accomplish? No longer are there packs of wolves. Just 2. No longer are there flocks of seagulls. Just 2. No longer are there swarms of gnats. Just 2. No matter how many there were of each species, now there are just 2. The landscape changed. Neighbors changed. All the eye can see has changed. But humanity hasn't. Humanity, created in God's image, is still the same. From Gen 6-8, God's progress report on humanity? Progress from before to after the flood? Just 2 words. "No improvement." The human heart is still inclined toward evil, bent toward evil, committed to evil, & in the habit of evil. Humanity hadn't changed. Still hasn't. What did change? God. How so? His dealings with us. From here on, God will find a new way to help us. We're His most prized creation! He'll find a new way to help us learn of His faithful, unending love. As Ge 8:21 ends, God steels His will. 21b"Never again will I curse the ground because of man... Never again will I destroy all living creatures, as I have done." Man hasn't changed. But God has. He's firmly resolved. In Ge 9:8-17 God makes a covenant. 8God spoke to Noah & his sons, Ham, Shem, & Japheth. Their descendants include us all. 9a"I now establish... Literally, 9aI am establishing my covenant with you, & your descendants after you. Not just Noah & the next generation. God includes all their descendants. Us, too. It's as if God is saying, "From now on, I'm establishing this covenant..." God is establishing a covenant with every generation. It's eternal! And it isn't just with humanity. I establish my covenant 10with every living creature. All birds, livestock, & wild animals that came out of the ark with you. Every living creature on earth. Really? Even the animals? In Ex 21:28, we see that God holds animals accountable for brutal crimes. And in Jon 3:7-8, we see animals even called to repent. Even if they can't receive it God can establish a covenant with animals. If He chooses. Still, in Scripture we never see animals accept a covenant. So, we still wonder. How can God make a covenant with animals? (Yes, He's God & can do what He wants.) But notice. God doesn't say "If you..., I will / won't..." God just says "I will..." No conditions. No strings. God just says, "I will..." 11aI establish (perfect) my covenant with you. The verb tense means an ongoing result. What's ongoing? 11bNever again will all life be cut off by the waters of a flood. Never again will there be a flood to destroy the earth." God says it twice. It's firmly decided. No more floods to destroy all life. 2 Pet 3:7 says the heavens & earth will be destroyed by fire. But never again by flood. We've had this promise from God for 1,000's of years. To us it's old hat. But imagine just coming out of the ark. Memories of The Flood still fresh. The terror when it started. The ark rising on the waters. A raging storm for 40 days. For months, endless water stretching to every horizon. To Noah & his family, God's promise is really good news. Never again! 12aGod said, "This is the sign of the covenant I'm making between me & you & every living creature with you. When God sees His sign, He'll remember it. When we see it, we'll remember. 12bIt's a covenant for all generations to come. If we weren't sure before that this is an eternal covenant, we are now. All generations. Until God replaces this heaven & earth with the New heavens & New Earth. The sign? 13aI've set my rainbow in the clouds. The rainbow appears to be new. There will continue to be clouds. There will continue to be rain. There will also be sun. And from then on, when the sun hits the rain it'll refract. The sign will appear. Never again. 13bThe rainbow will be the sign of the covenant between me & the earth. Don't miss how many times God says "covenant"-7 times in the 10 verses. Never again, 4 times. Why's that so important? 14Whenever I bring clouds over the earth & the rainbow appears in the clouds, 15aI'll remember my covenant between me & you & all living creatures. Each time. It'll remind God. 15bNever again will the waters become a flood to destroy all life. Once again God repeats His promise. He's resolved. 16aWhenever the rainbow appears in the clouds, I'll see it & remember the everlasting covenant between God & all living creatures on the earth." Why all the repetition? Why keep telling us God will remember His covenant? It's sobering. God knows nothing changed. Even after destroying all life, nothing changed. In the next passage, Noah gets drunk. Ham sins. And Noah curses Ham's son Canaan. It starts all over. Have things improved? No! But each time it rains, somewhere there's a rainbow. It's a frequent sign. Who's it for? We think it's for us. It is comforting. But the sign is for God. Why does God need a frequent reminder not to destroy all life? Yes-sin really is that bad! That God chooses a frequent reminder is sobering. But the sign is also good news. It's also a sign that in the end God's mercy & grace triumphs over human sin. To deal with sin permanently, God will send a Savior. His Son. Our Lord Jesus. He's done with destroying life. 17So God said to Noah, "This is the sign of the covenant I've established between me & all life on the earth." He won't destroy life again by flood. Instead, God will send a Savior. Good news. But so what for us? Remember who God makes the covenant with-every living creature. Not just Noah. The point? God values & loves every living creature. Plants & animals. He's the 1st environmentalist. If God values all life so highly, shouldn't we? Now, think about the rainbow. To create one takes both rain & sunshine. It takes rain combined with sunlight to create such colorful beauty. That's true of every rainbow. How much more is it true in our lives? Every life gets rain & sunshine. But when God puts them together in our lives, He makes something beautiful in us. A rainbow also shows us God's grace, mercy, & love. They remind us to hold onto our trust in God. If we do, He'll bring us through whatever we face. Just as He did Noah. Finally, in Hebrew, rainbow & battle bow are the same word. After a battle, a warrior sets his bow on a wall to put it away. Just so, God is hanging up His battle (rain)bow on the clouds. It's aimed upward. Never again will He aim destruction by flood at us. It's pointed upward to remind Him. Violence won't gain our hearts. But love will. And there is no greater love than one laying down His life for another. God won't rain destruction (literally). God chooses love. Noah's Covenant - Genesis 9:8-17 Page 1 of 1