Genesis 9:1-17 The Noahic Covenant
We’re returning to our series on covenants this morning, just a reminder of what a covenant is: “A sacred kinship bond between two parties, ratified by swearing an oath… serving as a means to forge sociopolitical bonds between individuals or groups. God’s covenants are prominent in every period of salvation history. Divine covenants reveal the saving plan of God for establishing communion with Israel and the nations, ultimately fulfilled by the death and resurrection of Christ.” We reflected on God’s first covenant with Adam and Eve called the covenant of works where humanity was given stewardship over creation and the only stipulation of the covenant was obedience to the one command to not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. Today’s covenant is called the Noahic Covenant and builds on this first covenant.
The Noahic Covenant really begins with Adam and Eve disobeying God. After Adam and Eve disobey God, evil rapidly grows in the world, and it grows so great that God sees what’s happening and he mourns. Noah is often understood as a story of justice and vengeance, but it’s in the context of God’s grief; as the English Standard version of the Bible translates it in Genesis 6:6, “And the Lord regretted that he had made man on the earth, and it grieved him to his heart.”
God looks down and finds favour with one man, a righteous man, Noah. God doesn’t give up on humanity; God approaches Noah and calls him to build an ark to save his family and the living creatures on the earth from a coming flood. Noah has a choice to make, does his obey God or do his own thing? There are painful choices here for Noah. God’s going to save him, his wife and his sons’ families, but everyone else is going to be destroyed. Family, friends, neighbours are all going to be wiped away. Sin brings pain and brokenness. The world as Noah knows it will never be the same. Noah chooses God. We know the story, Noah builds the ark, God sends the animals and then sends the flood but Noah and his family are saved, along with the animals God sent to Noah. The creation story of Genesis 1 is reversed and watery chaos returns, but God steps in again, and restores order, renews the earth, and brings life again after the death that occurs during the flood.
After a year and 10 days, Noah, his family and the animals leave the ark to walk on dry land again and God approaches Noan again and makes a new covenant with him. As a we hear the words of the new covenant, we hear echoes to God’s first covenant with Adam and Eve, but we also see changes because the world has changed. “Then God blessed Noah and his sons, saying to them, “Be fruitful and increase in number and fill the earth. 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. Everything that lives and moves about will be food for you. Just as I gave you the green plants, I now give you everything.”
We hear the echo to be fruitful and multiply, but now the creatures of the earth will be filled with dread towards humanity. The Lord now gives them, not only the green plants to eat, but meat now enters humanity’s diet, no wonder dread of humanity enters the beasts. But as with Adam and Eve, God gives them restrictions on what they can eat, “But you must not eat meat that has its lifeblood still in it.” This is a command to not be like the nations around them who believed that there’s magical power in a creature’s blood that they can draw on for themselves when they drink the creature’s blood. Life comes from God, not through magical incantations and the shedding of blood. Life is precious, this is why God goes on, “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.” Moses wrote down these first 5 books of the Bible, so the setting of the telling of these stories is likely Mount Sinai, and these stories prepare the Israelites for the coming laws God gives them.
Now God makes a formal covenant with Noah and all living creatures, “I now establish my covenant with you and with your descendants after you 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. 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.” This is a covenant of life, a promise to never again destroy all life through the waters of chaos. God gives Noah and all living creatures a sign to remind them of his promise, and to remind himself. There are no requirements on Noah, his family, or the living creatures to live up to the terms of the covenant because this is a covenant that only God can make and keep as creator of the universe.
God tells Noah, “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: I have set my rainbow in the clouds, and it will be the sign of the covenant between me and the earth. 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.” God takes all the action and responsibility of this covenant on himself, as well as all the consequences if God fails to live up to his promise.
The rainbow is a sign of punishment and renewal and grace. Isaiah 54 refers to this covenant as a covenant of peace, “In a surge of anger I hid my face from you for a moment, but with everlasting kindness I will have compassion on you,” says the Lord your Redeemer. “To me this is like the days of Noah, when I swore that the waters of Noah would never again cover the earth. So now I have sworn not to be angry with you, never to rebuke you again. Though the mountains be shaken and the hills be removed, yet my unfailing love for you will not be shaken nor my covenant of peace be removed,” says the Lord, who has compassion on you.” God tells Noah that every time he sees the rainbow he’ll remember his covenant. According to one physicist, George Millay, there are about 10,000 noticeable rainbows at any given time around the world. God has given us a sign that is always there; a constant reminder to God of his promise.
The rainbow’s a powerful symbol of how serious God is about this covenant. The rainbow’s not a pretty bow for a present, it’s a military image, a war bow aimed straight into heaven at God himself. God’s telling the world that if he fails to keep his covenant, he will pay the price for his failure, putting himself on the line, a formidable commitment to humanity and all life on earth, to life over death, to grace over vengeance. We see this commitment by God to us in Jesus Christ who did die for us, who took on all the responsibilities of all the covenants we have failed to live up to. Jesus paid the cost of the covenants on our behalf, allowing us to receive all the benefits of the covenant.
Stan Mast writes, “Immediately after speaking his commandments for new life in verses 1-7, God anchors the continuation of life on earth in a covenant, a covenant initiated and kept by God and God alone. Contrary to the universal belief of our day, the continued existence of life on our planet does not depend on human decisions and actions. Though we are responsible to live by God’s commandments, it is not finally up to us to make human history turn out right. If right living determines whether life continues on planet earth, may God help us, because we have demonstrated from the very beginning that we cannot do it. Ours is a legacy of chaos and rebellion and disobedience and death.”
Doug Bratt echoes this thought, “Noah’s drunkenness and his sons’ disrespect show that the thoughts of post-Flood peoples’ hearts remain quite evil…. So if the post-Flood future is up to people, God help us. We’re in a lot of trouble. Genesis’ stories, our history and the current world show that we will lie, rebel, kill and push our way into the future. God, however, responds by insisting, “I now establish my covenant with you and your descendants . . ..”
The rainbow is so much more than a pretty picture after the rain; it’s God’s way of reminding us of his commitment to us; to life and grace.
