Thank you. In redemptive history, we’ve been trying to note as we go through Genesis not just the details, but we’ve tried to keep in mind the big picture, particularly as it looks forward to the rest of redemptive history. And this is a huge moment; we need to spend some time looking at it.
If you’d like to look back at chapter six, verses 17 and 18, at the outset of this flood narrative, God says to Noah—this is chapter six, verse 17—”Behold, I’ll bring a flood of water upon the earth to destroy all flesh, in which is the breath of life under heaven. Everything that is on the earth shall die, but I will establish my covenant with you, and you shall come into the ark, you and your sons, your wife, your sons’ wives with you.” And then chapter eight, which we’ve read, verse 20: “Noah built an altar to the Lord, took some of every clean animal and so on and offered the sacrifice to God.”
This would be the ceremony of cutting the covenant, which we’ll talk about in a minute. The Lord smelled a pleasing aroma. Chapter nine, verse eight, we have it mentioned again. God said to Noah and to his sons with him, “Behold, I establish my covenant with you and with your offspring after you.” So the Noahic covenant is the covenant that God made with Noah.
The Theme Of Covenant
The theme of covenant—we can back up to an even bigger subject, not just the covenant with Noah—but the theme of covenant is just huge, huge in Scripture. It’s difficult, actually, to find a more all-embracing theme in the Bible than the theme of covenant. In fact, covenant has a structural significance in the Bible. We have the Old Testament and the New Testament. Those are the words that we use, but the Old Testament scriptures are the scriptures written under the terms of the Old Covenant God made with Israel at Sinai, and we have the New Testament, the scriptures that are written under the terms of the New Covenant. Covenant is just a huge theme in Scripture. And as I say, it is part of the major division of Scripture.
You’ll want to watch for some related terminology in the covenants of Scripture. A covenant is a binding agreement. There’s more to say than that. It’s used in terms of treaties and alliances, pledges and agreements that are made. But a formal covenant in Scripture is a very solemn thing that is entered into with stipulations given on each side or promises made and entered into with a sacrifice. It’s a binding agreement, an oath, a solemn commitment. It’s sealed in sacrifice and it has various stipulations and/or promises that are made.
The significance of the biblical covenants is that it maps out for us God’s purpose in redemptive history. If you look at the big picture of the Bible, one thing I’ve tried to emphasize—you’ve heard me talk about it many times—is the Bible is not just a book of miscellaneous kinds of writings. The Bible, from front to end, is a story. It presents a story from the beginning of history to the consummation when God redeems history and all of us in Christ. And it’s the covenants that carry that story.
In Genesis chapter one—let’s back up again to the big story—in Genesis chapter one, God, the King, creates the world. It is His world. He’s in charge, but He creates humanity to be vice-regents and to share in His reign over the earth. And so man in God’s image has royal significance to it, just the terminology by itself. We saw that Eden was God’s throne room. It was the sanctuary where God dwelt. It was something of His throne room. And now humanity is appointed to extend God’s rule over the entire earth. “Fruitful, multiply, subdue the earth” and all that. We’ve seen that God has created us to rule over His creation.
We read early in the Genesis narrative that God created it and called it good. He created humanity and blessed them, enabled us to fulfill the commands that He has given to us. And we see then what God created good and created and blessed—that God created with an intent to bless. He created with a gracious intent. He created His creatures, favored them with the ability to do what He had commanded them—that’s the significance of the word “bless” that’s used—enabled them to fulfill their created purpose.
We turn to Genesis chapter three, and Adam’s rebellion seems to threaten God’s gracious purpose that He had created for. And so immediately we find in Genesis chapter three what’s been called a decreation or an uncreation. There’s kind of an unraveling of the created order because of sin. There’s judgment on mankind himself. There’s judgment in the relationships. There’s judgments in the created order. And so there’s the resistance of the created order against humanity. There’s the upsets and the upheavals of nature. All of this is the result of God’s judgment on man because of his sin. Paul picks that up in Romans chapter 8, that the world, the created order, is groaning in travail, caught up in the effects of humanity’s sin.
And it seems like then creation that God created with gracious intent is falling apart. There’s been judgment. There’s the uncreation or the decreation as it’s been called. I think that’s an insightful remark about what happened in Genesis chapter three. Get to Genesis chapter four, we see the advance of human sin, we’ve seen that. We see it in Genesis chapter five with the repeating refrain, “and he died, and he died, and he died,” and death is pervasive in humanity. Then we come to Genesis chapters six through eight, and we have this awful judgment of the flood where God says humanity has become so corrupt, “I’m going to destroy it all.” And so we have this vast judgment in Genesis six through eight.
Then we come to Genesis chapter 9 and we have a covenant, and a covenant of promise that God makes with Noah, with his sons, and in fact, with all of the world. And this covenant that God makes with Noah, and the successive covenants that come after this—like the Abrahamic Covenant, the Mosaic Covenant, the Davidic Covenant, the New Covenant—the successive covenants then trace out each new step or each new advance in the advance of God’s saving and gracious purpose.
God has set out—remember we’ve talked about God’s sovereign rule over everything—but His purpose in history is to reestablish His kingdom on the earth. He’s King over all the earth, He rules over it as a sovereign Lord, but that kingship of God is still being contested. It’s being rebelled against, and God’s purpose in history is to reestablish His rule when God’s will is done on earth as it is in heaven. That’s God’s purpose in the big picture of history. And it is these covenants now that track out each next advance in the fulfilling of that gracious purpose to save. So they’re the big picture. They carry the story. The structure of redemptive history is carried in these covenants. And so we come to the Noahic covenant.
A New Creation
Now the flood itself has been referred to again as the uncreation or the decreation or the reversal of creation. And you can find some hints of that in the text itself. We have the near obliteration of the human race. You find in Genesis chapter one, we have the creation of the human race. Genesis 6 and 7 and 8, we have the almost complete obliteration of the human race. In Genesis 1, we have the waters that are set in their boundaries above and below the earth. And then in Genesis chapter 7 with the flood, those waters now collapse from above and they burst out from beneath. The windows of heaven are open, the fountains of the deep burst out. We’ve got something of an uncreation.
The contrast between Genesis 1 creation and Genesis 6 and 7 and the flood is great. And so it is something again of a reversal of the created order. I think that’s an insightful description. It’s an undoing of what had been established even though it seems so permanent. Well, that raises the question again then, just as we had in Genesis chapter 3: Does God’s purpose to bless creation remain?
Does God’s purpose to bless creation remain? We see in Genesis 1, He created, called it good, blessed, and He blessed, and He blessed, and enabled it to do what it was called to do. But then there’s the rebellion, now there’s more rebellion, and there’s this uncreation, so it raises the question: Does God’s purpose to bless remain, or has it been permanently reversed? And the Noahic Covenant is given to answer that question.
And in fact, now at the end of the flood narrative, we’ve worked our way through the flood itself, seeing the judgment and so on, but the conclusion of the flood narrative, we find some language that seems to describe the new order of things in terms of a new creation, a new beginning. In one respect, Noah is presented as a new Adam. I’ll probably say more about that as we go along, but we have some hints here in the text itself that we have a new beginning and a new creation.
Now think with me on some of these contrasts. In chapter eight, in verse one, God remembered Noah and all the beasts and the livestock that were with him in the ark, and God made a wind blow over the earth, and the waters subsided. Does that ring a bell? That last part of that verse? That sounds a whole lot like Genesis chapter one and verse two, where the Spirit of God is pushing back the waters to bring about order.
Chapter eight, verses two and three: “The fountains of the deep and the windows of the heavens were closed. The rain from the heavens was restrained and the waters receded from the earth continually. At the end of 150 days, the waters had abated. In the seventh month, the 17th day of the month, the ark came to rest on the mountains of Ararat.” So again, that echoes chapter one, verses nine and 10, where there is the separation again of the waters and the appearance of the dry land.
Chapter 8, verses 17 to 19: the animals are brought out of the ark, and again, they’re commanded to repopulate the earth. That echoes Genesis 1, verses 20 and following. In Genesis 8:22, we have the days and the seasons reestablished after the flood. That’s an echo of Genesis 1, verses 14 and following. In Genesis 9 and verse 1, again, humanity is blessed of God. That’s an echo of Genesis 1:28. In Genesis 9:1 and 7, mankind that’s now been blessed is commanded to be fruitful, multiply, fill the earth. That’s a direct, almost quotation of Genesis 1, verse 28. In Genesis 9 verse 6, God provides humanity with food. That’s an echo of Genesis 1 verses 26 and 27.
Well, you get the picture here that there’s some echoing going on, that we are signaling here a new beginning, a new creation is happening. So after the flood now, a new creation is emerging through Noah and his family. Through Noah, his family is preserved, humanity is preserved, and God’s promise is still alive. So in that sense then, Noah is presented as a kind of second Adam, a new beginning. Not the new Adam we ultimately will need, but a new Adam kind of figure. And he’s the father then of the post-diluvian world.
Now notice, I think this is just a fascinating thing. One important continuing factor: in Genesis 6, Genesis 6 verse 5—read that with me. Look at that with me as I read: “The Lord saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, that every intention of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually. The Lord regretted that he had made man on the earth and it grieved him to his heart. So the Lord said, ‘I will blot out man whom I have created from the face of the land, man and animals, creeping things, birds of the heavens, for I’m sorry that I’ve made them.'”
Now look at Genesis 8 verses 20 and 21: “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. 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, and yet neither will I ever again strike down every living creature as I have done.'”
A couple of things here. One, the world is still marred after the flood. It is still marred by human sinfulness, just as it was before. And we’re signaled now in chapter eight, verses 20 and 21, that whatever else the flood accomplished, it did not change mankind himself. Man is still evil from his youth. We saw that before the flood, we see it now after the flood, and Moses brings it up on both sides to signal that for us, that humanity has still not changed. Judgment has come, but it didn’t fix the problem.
Now, what’s really fascinating is the difference between these two statements: Genesis 6:5 and following, and Genesis 8:20 and 21. And that is what before, in Genesis chapter 6, was the rationale for judgment is now afterwards the rationale for a promise and a covenant. “Mankind is evil. I’m going to wipe them out.” Come after the flood: “Mankind is evil. I’m going to promise not to wipe them out again.” Isn’t that fascinating? What was before the rationale for judgment is now the rationale, or what explains His promise and His covenant.
And you’ll notice that it is worded that way. “I will never”—this is verse 21—”I will never again curse the ground because of man for”—that is because, that explanatory conjunction there is important—”I will never again curse the ground because of man because the intention of his heart is evil from his youth.” So what before was the rationale for judgment is now the explanation for His promise that He gives not to do that again.
Provisions Of The Covenant
That then is the purpose and the framework of the Noahic covenant. This is how we in big terms then understand the Noahic covenant. The covenant is ratified in chapter eight, verse 20 with the sacrifice. That’s typical of covenants—made with a sacrifice—even the new covenant, the sacrifice of Christ is where that climaxes, of course. The covenant is ratified in verse 20. It says, “when the Lord smelled a pleasing aroma.” I’ve said this before, when you see that language in the Old Testament particularly—you do see it a couple of times in the New Testament as well—when you see that language, don’t think in terms of smelling barbecue. That’s not the point. This is metaphorical language. God “smelled a pleasing aroma.” The idea is that of satisfaction. Sacrifice was made and God saw in that sacrifice what would please Him. And so God stays more judgment and promises again to bless. So the covenant is ratified in sacrifice.
Now in chapter eight, verses 20 through 9:17 that we have read, we have the details and the provisions of the covenant. We’ll run through this. Chapter eight, verses 21 and 22, we have the specific provisions of the covenant.
Oh. You know, I do prefer working through an open Bible, but there’s not space up here for all that. Okay. Computer Bibles will work. Chapter eight, verse 21: “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. While the earth remains, seedtime and harvest, cold and heat, summer and winter, day and night shall not cease.'”
So there are the general framework and the provisions of the covenant. Now notice when we get to chapter 9, verses 1 to 7 are bracketed by a common theme. Verse 1: “God blessed Noah and his sons and said to them, ‘Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth.'” Verse 7: “And you be fruitful, multiply, increase greatly upon the earth and multiply in it.” Well, that is, as I’ve mentioned before now, an echo of Genesis 1:26-28. It’s a renewal of the creation ordinance to multiply, be fruitful, and then fill the earth.
So it provides then, first of all, for the propagation of human life. So God promises never again to destroy all of humanity. And to keep that promise, now He gives a couple of provisions.
One, the propagation of human life. Be fruitful, multiply, fill the earth.
Number two, the sustenance of human life. He provides for that in verses three and four—a provision for food. “Every moving thing that lives shall be food for you. As I gave you the green plants, I give you everything. You shall not eat flesh with its life, that is the blood.” So you can eat meat.
A couple of weeks ago when I was teaching, Eddie Johnston asked me in an email, “Why does God prohibit eating blood? Why that prohibition?” And I was afraid someone was going to ask that. And you know, it’s one of those questions where you think it’s got to have something to do with the whole blood theology, atonement theology, looking forward finally to the blood of Christ that was offered in sacrifice for salvation. It has to be tied to that. Exactly how? I would love it if somebody would tell me that. But that’s the prohibition. You can eat all these meats, just don’t eat the blood, or some respect, some reverence for that. And I suspect, as I say, it’s tied to the atonement theme in the Scriptures, but more than that, I can’t say.
But notice now, He allows the eating of all meats. There’s no distinction here between clean and unclean. You can eat them all. The distinction between clean and unclean will come later in the Mosaic Covenant, where Israel was given those kinds of restrictions, but not here. Now that’s an interesting thing to point out for at least one reason, and that is it’s very common to hear in popular teaching that Moses’ law forbade the eating of pork, lobsters, and things like that. That one’s okay with me anyway; I don’t eat bugs. But it breaks these prohibitions for various kinds of meats, and people will often say the reason God made that prohibition of Israel not to eat those kinds of meats was for health purposes. Pork’s not good for you, or these other ones aren’t good for you. And there are some arguments that have been made for that that are interesting, but it’s really tough to take that line when before that God had already said “you can have them all,” and after that God says “you can have them all.” So I just don’t think that works. But anyway, He gives the permission now: you can eat, eat meat, and you can have all kinds of it.
So He’s provided now in the covenant; He’s not going to destroy humanity, and He makes some corresponding provisions. Number one, enables them to propagate. Two, sustenance of life with food. And three, protection now of human life. Chapter nine, verse two, and then especially in verses four to six. In verse two, the animals will be afraid of you. Verses four to six: you must not kill a man. There must be a respect for human life. And then it climaxes in verse six: “Whoever sheds the blood of man, by man shall his blood be shed. For God made man in his own image.”
So we have the establishing here of capital punishment. Notice the reason for capital punishment. It is verse six again. Notice the “for,” the conjunction “for” in the middle of the verse. “Whoever sheds the blood of man, by man shall his blood be shed.” Why? “Because God made man in his own image.” There’s a particular dignity given to mankind. And there must be respect for it. And it is a capital offense to strike out after a man because that is an attack on God’s image. And so God commands, even in this post-fall world, this post-cursed world, this post-flood world, even with this continuing of sinful humanity, that unique status of humanity remains. We are made in God’s image and there must be respect for that. An attack on man in that sense is an attack on God.
So God has promised to preserve human life, and now He’s made provision in humanity itself to preserve human life. This theme of capital punishment—we could develop that in itself and see how it’s carried out in Scripture—but here we have, first of all, an establishing of human government. This is what God has commanded. There must be some system to carry this out. Implicit here is an establishing of human government. Law and order. And notice in verse five, this is not an option. This is an obligation. “I will demand an accounting.” God expects humanity to carry out this capital punishment for murder.
Now that’s carried on in the Old Testament and other places. It’s carried on in the New Testament as well. Some of the pacifists have argued that that’s an Old Testament thing, but that’s not in the New Testament. In Acts chapter 25, verse 11, Paul admits that there are some crimes that are worthy of death. There’s an implicit recognition of the right of capital punishment. In Romans chapter 13, Paul speaks of the government bearing the sword not in vain. The sword is not for spanking. The sword is for execution. Paul acknowledges it there. We have it implicitly in 1 Peter 2, where capital punishment becomes the means of redemption, where Christ is put to death under human government unjustly, but of course under the just judgment of God bearing the punishment of our sin.
All right, so we have the establishing of human government, law and order, and in particular, capital punishment.
Chapter 9 verses 8 through 17 now, we have a restatement of the covenant promise. Verses 8 to 11, we have the covenant oath. God said to Noah and to his sons with him, “Behold, I establish my covenant with you, with your offspring after you, 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, for it is every beast of the earth, 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.”
Now notice the covenant is not just with Noah. We call this the Noahic covenant because of course he’s the point man in it. He’s the one who receives the promise. He’s the one through whom the covenant is made. But the covenant properly is with all of creation, all of humanity, all of the created order. The seasons will continue. God won’t wipe out all the animals again. He’s not going to destroy His created order. So He promises here in the covenant a continuation of the created order, despite human sin and rebellion, and despite the judgment that they deserve, God’s purpose to bless will not be interrupted again. And so He gives a solemn promise to preserve life on earth.
Verses 12 to 17, we have the covenant sign. 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. I have set my bow in the cloud and it shall be a sign of the covenant between me and the earth. When I bring clouds over the earth and the bow is set in the clouds, I will remember my covenant that is between me and you and every living creature of all flesh and the water shall never again become a flood to destroy all flesh. When the bow is set 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.” 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.”
Now typically, covenants have an official sign, a reminder, a memorial of the covenant. In the Mosaic Covenant, the sign of the covenant is the Sabbath. In the New Covenant, the sign is the Lord’s table. “This cup is the New Covenant in my blood.” That’s the covenant sign. Here in the Noahic Covenant, the sign of the covenant is the rainbow.
I don’t think He’s saying here that the rainbow was never seen before. I don’t know that we can push it to say that much. I think all He’s saying is that here it’s being filled with significance. And what’s interesting here is the rainbow—we don’t usually think of it in these terms—but the word for “bow” here is the typical word in the Old Testament used for an archer’s bow. It’s a bow; it’s hung up, but it’s an archer’s bow that’s put in the sky. It’s a battle weapon. And that’s significant. God is saying, “I’ve hung up my bow. I put it away. I won’t come after humanity like this again.”
And in fact, I’m not sure if this is pushing the symbolism too far, but maybe it’s significant that the rainbow is pointed away from the earth. I don’t know, maybe that’s involved as well. But the symbolism is at least this: that God’s weapon against humanity has been put away. And every time there’s rain, God says, “I’ll see that.” Notice this is not simply for you to see it and remember. God specifically says this is for Him. “I will see it and remember.” And God will send rain, He’ll see the bow, and “I’ll remember the promise that I’ve made. I’ll never destroy all of humanity again.” That’s the promise that He makes.
Some people have pushed the symbolism even further. The rainbow goes from horizon to horizon. Maybe that indicates the universality of the pledge. I don’t know. The text doesn’t say that. Maybe that’s involved. But at least we can say it’s the archer’s bow. God’s weapon of warfare has been hung up and put aside, and He’ll not come after humanity like that again.
I’ll note the perspective in verses 14 and following: “When I bring clouds over the earth and the bow is seen in the clouds, I’ll remember my covenant that is between me and you and every living creature of all flesh in the water shall never again become a flood to destroy all flesh. 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.” So the promise is for God to remember, the sign is for Him, the promise is for all flesh, and it is a universal promise, an everlasting covenant that God makes. This is not to be broken.
How long? The duration of this covenant? How long is it in force? Well, He calls it an “everlasting covenant” in verse 16. Back in verse 12, He says this is “for all future generations.” This is an eternal promise, permanently binding. God is affirming in explicit language His intent to bless. It will not be interrupted again, despite how humanity deserves that judgment because of their sin. God makes this one-sided promise that “I’ll not do that again,” even though human sin is still so great.
So this covenant now becomes the basis of our confidence in God as our sustainer. And in fact, Isaiah even refers to it that way. Isaiah chapter 54, God invokes the Noahic covenant as a sign, an illustration of the enduring character of His oath to Israel. His promises are not contingent on human behavior. And then chapter—well, we have that in chapter eight, verse 20, through chapter nine, verse 17, a reaffirmation of God’s original intent to bless. An intention to bless that seemed to have been interrupted by human sin. It seemed to have been interrupted by God’s response in judgment. But now, as Bruce Waltke comments—I think very well—God will never again pull the rug out from under the drama of salvation history.
Related Thoughts
All right, quickly, some related thoughts.
One, this covenant secures an extended period of common grace. This is not a specifically redemptive promise, but within its context is redemption. It secures an extended period of common grace. This whole period between the flood and the return of Christ is an extended period of grace and God holding back the judgment that humanity deserves. Second Peter chapter three—you might remember the critics of the Christian faith would mock and say, “Well, God’s never interrupted before. He’s not going to come again. Where do you get this stuff?” And Peter points back to the flood as an illustration that God has interrupted before. And in fact, this whole period now, between then and the consummation, is an extended period of grace. Such is it that it can even lull the unbeliever to sleep and to a false sense of confidence.
Number two—now this is very important. Since this covenant is universal in scope, it provides the framework, the larger framework for all of the later covenants. We’ll have to look at the working our way through redemptive history. We’ll look at the Abrahamic covenant, the Mosaic covenant, the Davidic covenant, the new covenant that are made. Here’s the big picture for it all: God will preserve this context of the created order and it will continue as I have promised to bless it. It will continue in that way so that His purpose of salvation can be fulfilled as it will be through the successive covenants that come. So it’s kind of a forward-looking covenant, looking ahead; God’s purpose to bless will remain, and God will keep this created order intact so that He can and He will. And ultimately it points us to the eschaton when Christ will return and bring to culmination all of God’s saving promises.
Third, this covenant speaks volumes about God Himself. This is worth parking on—our time is up—but this is worth your consideration this week. God is determined to bless, and He’s unchanging in His determination to bless even a sinful, rebellious humanity, and He’s made a promise that He will. Promised under oath, however much we might deserve otherwise, He’ll keep His promise to bless. And His promise of redemption will be fulfilled as through the later covenants.
All right, that’s enough. Our time is up.