Church: Reformed Baptist Church of Franconia | Text: Genesis 6 | Date: October 9, 2016 | Speaker: Fred Zaspel

Through the whole Bible story in a brief fashion, we see how the Bible really is a gospel-shaped, Christ-focused story. It really is a gospel-shaped, Christ-focused book. And so we tried to show that in broad swath through the whole Bible in one shot last time. Now what we’d like to do is back up and do that again, only a little bit more slowly. We’ll do it in four or five sessions, meetings together, and we’ll look at the same Bible story but from the standpoint of the various biblical covenants that God has made: the Noahic covenant, the Abrahamic covenant, God’s covenant with Israel, God’s covenant with David, and then the new covenant prophesied in Jeremiah chapter 31. And what we hope to show is how these covenants are the backbone of the story that carry this story of salvation that the Bible is all about.

Noah, the Covenant, and God’s Purpose of Salvation

Today we come to deal with the Noahic covenant. We might call the message “Noah, the Covenant, and God’s Purpose of Salvation.” I’d like to take the time to read a good portion of the selection, which of course is Genesis chapters 6 through 9, and we’ll take some selected verses through here, and hoping that you are already familiar with the story, we can remind you of the high points of it.

We’ll begin with Genesis chapter 6 and verse 1: “When man began to multiply on the face of the land, and daughters were born to them, the sons of God saw that the daughters of man were attractive, and they took as their wives any they chose.” Now, I know that several of you are going to come up to me afterwards and ask, “Who are the sons of God that are spoken of here? Is this fallen angels?” Or is this—and that was, by the way, the view of the ancient rabbis—”or is this simply the line of Cain? Or who are these people?”

And I have a ready, prepared answer for you: I don’t know. And I would like to add to that answer, nobody else knows either. There are a lot of people who think they know, but I suspect nobody knows for sure. I have some suspicions, but we’ll leave it at that. Okay, we’ve gotten past verse 2.

The Lord said, “My spirit shall not abide in man forever, for he is flesh, his days shall be a hundred and twenty years.” The Nephilim were on the earth in those days, and also afterwards, when the sons of God came in to the daughters of men, and they bore children to them, and these were the mighty men who were of old, the men of renown. The Lord saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every intention of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually. Then the Lord was sorry 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 and creeping things and birds of the heaven, for I am sorry that I have made them.” But Noah found favor in the eyes of the Lord.

These are the generations of Noah. Noah was a righteous man, blameless in his generation. Noah walked with God and Noah had three sons: Shem, Ham, and Japheth. Now the earth was corrupt in God’s sight, and the earth was filled with violence. And God saw the earth, and behold, it was corrupt, for all flesh had corrupted their way on the earth. And God said to Noah, “I have determined to make an end of all flesh, for the earth is filled with violence through them. Behold, I will destroy them with the earth. Make yourself an ark of gopher wood, make rooms in the ark, and cover it inside and out with pitch.”

Moving on, verses 17 and following, he begins to describe more of the flood, and he says in verse 18, “I will establish my covenant with you, and you shall come into the ark, you, your sons, your wife, and your sons’ wives with you.” And then we get into chapter 7. He describes the flood and how it came. He brought the animals into the ark, two of each kind, male and female, and the clean animals for sacrifice—we find he brings seven of each of those, as you’re familiar. Chapter 7, verse 11 mentions in the 600th year of Noah’s life, in the second month and on the 17th day of the month, on that day all the fountains of the great deep burst forth and the windows of heaven were open.

Now chapter 8, we’ll pick it up with verse 20. This is after the flood. The waters have receded. Noah and his family have come out of the ark. It says, “Then 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. And 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 creature as I have done. While the earth remains, seed time and harvest, cold and heat, summer and winter, day and night shall not cease.'”

And God blessed Noah and his sons. And he said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth. The fear of you and the dread of you shall be upon every beast of the earth and upon every bird of the heavens, upon everything that creeps on the ground and all the fish of the sea. Into your hand they are delivered. Every moving thing that lives shall be food for you. As I gave you the green plants, I give you everything. But you shall not eat flesh with its life, that is, its blood. And for your lifeblood I will require a reckoning. From every beast I will require him from man. From his fellow man I will require a reckoning for the life of man. Whoever sheds the blood of man by man, his blood shall be shed. For God made man in his own image. And you, be fruitful and multiply, teem on the earth and multiply in it.'”

Then God said to Noah and to his sons with him, “Behold, I establish my covenant with you and 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. It is for 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.”

And 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 seen 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 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.”

What Is a Covenant?

One of the first facts that we learn about the Bible is that it is structured in basically two parts: Old Testament and New Testament. Really basic, isn’t it? Somewhere down the line, we learn that this Old Testament and New Testament reflects writings or scriptures that were written, one, under the terms of the Old Covenant, and some written under the terms of the New Covenant. The Old Covenant was made at Sinai with Israel. The New Covenant, of course, was enacted in the blood of Jesus. So whatever else we know about covenants, we know that they are a big deal. In fact, they have structural significance in the scriptures and in redemptive history.

And in fact, it is a big deal throughout the scriptures. Hundreds of times we have this concept of covenant cropping up again and again. Sometimes the word is repeated over several hundred times, a few dozen times only in the New Testament. Often, again, the idea is brought up in other kinds of terminology where it speaks of God promising or God swearing an oath or God making an oath or saying, “I will do this for you.” We have this idea of covenant cropping up over and again. We find it in the Psalms, in the prophets. God will not forsake his covenant; Israel forsook the covenant. We find it in Jesus finally enacting the new covenant in his blood. We observe it every time we observe the Lord’s table: “This cup is the new covenant in my blood which is shed for many for the remission of sins.”

The covenant idea is what shapes God’s relationship with Noah, as we will see, with all of the earth and all of history since. It is God’s covenant that shapes his relationship with Israel, with Abraham, with David. And if you are a believer, it is what shapes his relationship with you as well. So this is not some merely incidental theme.

So let’s start very quickly with some basic things. What is a covenant? It’s not as familiar a concept as it used to be. We do hear of it sometimes. We might hear of a land covenant or something like that, a covenant on a deed. We might hear of a church covenant, an idea that I think should be put to more use in local churches—a covenant that the members make with one another. We hear it a little bit, but we don’t use it. Usually what we speak of is in terms of a contract.

And of course there are similarities. A covenant, though, is a contract, but with deeper significance. There is more solemnity to it. It is made with an oath, and there are also overtones of mutual concern for the cause of the other. It is permanent. It is not just “until we agree on these terms,” but covenants are intended to be permanent. And so it’s an agreement, a pledge, and in the scriptures covenant is an agreement or a pledge that is made with a solemn oath. It’s a promissory agreement. It’s often marked by words like “I will.” “I will do this.” “You will do the other.” “If you, then I,” or God simply making an oath, or God just making a promise.

There’s a common idiom in the Old Testament: it is “cutting a covenant.” To make a covenant is to cut a covenant. It has to do with a, to us, very strange ceremony, a ritual they would go through in making a covenant. We will see that in time to come. But it is a binding agreement, an oath, a solemn commitment, sealed in sacrifice, stipulating obligations and responsibilities of the various parties.

Now I’ve already mentioned that there’s the idea of covenants of structural significance in the scriptures. And what I want to do in this series is map out exactly how that goes. That is, God has a saving purpose, and that’s the story of the Bible as we saw last time. But there are these anchor points along the way in that story that tell the story and explain what God is doing and how he is going about doing it.

So what is the story? Well, we saw last time God created with a purpose. Creation itself declares that God is king. It’s his. He made it. He has authority over it. Eden itself was God’s throne room, his sanctuary. Those are themes picked up that we may see later on as we go forward. But Eden itself was God’s sanctuary, God’s throne room, and humanity was created, very importantly, in God’s image. And the purpose of humanity bearing God’s image was that they would exercise, in turn, dominion over the earth. And so these humans are created to image God. People are created to reflect him and to extend his dominion over the earth. This is God’s kingdom. We are created as his vice regents, and we are to represent him, in a sense, mediate his presence and establish his will in the universe, to establish his kingdom over all.

Now in Genesis chapter 1, which we went through last time, you remember in creation week, we saw repeatedly the statement, “God saw that it was good.” God saw that it was good. Day 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6. God saw that it was good. The only difference is in day 6, “God saw that it was very good.” Beyond all that, you might have noticed as we read through a few times, it mentions not only did God say that it was good—that is, created well for the purpose he intended it—but we find that God blessed creation.

We find that in day 6 of chapter 1 verse 22, God blessed them—that is the animals, the creatures that he has made. He enabled them, empowered them to do what they were made to do. Verse 28, with Adam and Eve, God blessed them and said, “Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and subdue it and have dominion.” He empowered them to do what they were created to do. God blessed them. We find it again in chapter 2 and verse 3. God blessed the seventh day, and that’s the one day that’s left open. And we’re left to think that God created us with the intention of allowing us to share in the blessing of his rest. We find a reflection of it again in chapter 5, verses 1 and 2. Again, making mention male and female, he created them and he blessed them and named them man.

Well, you quickly get the sense in all of this that God created with a gracious intent. He created us with the intention of favoring us with kindness and enabling us to fulfill our created purpose. And then we come to chapter 3. Adam’s rebellion against God seems to have threatened that purpose. We call it the Fall. It’s an apt description of it, but it entails so much. The Fall has also been referred to as—the account here in Chapter 3—as the Decreation. The Decreation or the Uncreation. Well, it makes good sense as the story goes in chapter 3. As we are told, God comes in judgment and pronounces a curse that entails all of humanity and entails all of his created order. Paul refers to it in Romans chapter 8, for example, as the whole creation subjected to vanity. All of the creation groaning and travailing, reeling from this curse still that God placed upon his creation as a result of human sin. That’s Genesis chapter 3.

But even here in Genesis chapter 3, as we saw last time, God’s intent to bless his created order—keep that in mind; you will hear that over and again—God’s intent to bless his creation remains. In the midst of his judgment, we find in verse 15, he makes a promise. A promise of a champion who will come to destroy the tempter, and the implication is he will fix this mess that the tempter has brought.

Now, it is the covenants then that in turn trace out each next step in the advancement of God’s purpose to bless humanity. We begin with Noah, we trace it through to Abraham, Israel, David, and then the new covenant that we find in Jeremiah and Ezekiel, and we have the unfolding of God’s saving purpose. God intends to reestablish his kingdom.

Now it might be good to point out here quickly as we move forward as well, there are two senses in which the Bible speaks of God’s rule or God’s kingdom. In one sense, of course, God’s kingdom is universal. He reigns over all that is; he’s the God who made it all, and it’s all his to do with as he pleases. But what he is looking for now, post-Genesis 3, is to restore not just subjects, but willing subjects. There must be a redemptive kingdom then. And that is what God has set out to accomplish. And as I say, it’s tracked out in the story through these various covenants that are made. So you can see then again what I’m emphasizing is the structural significance of these covenants as we go through the scriptures.

The Noahic Covenant

Next we come then to Genesis 6 through 8 and the covenant that God makes with Noah. It’s introduced for us first in chapter 6, verse 18: “I will establish my covenant with you and you will come into the ark.” And then we find the details of it all in chapter 8, verse 20 through chapter 9, verse 17.

Now in the background to all of this, you have to look back to Genesis 3, 4, and 5, and then the early part of chapter 6 as well. On the one hand, we have the divine curse, judgment against humanity because of its rebellion, and that is a judgment, as we’ve said, that affects the whole created order. All of even what we call natural evil traces back to Genesis chapter 3. The storms, Hurricane Matthew—whatever it is, all of it traces back to Genesis chapter 3. Creation is reeling from the curse of judgment that God has placed upon rebellious man. And all of creation is caught up in it.

So on the one hand, there’s this divine curse and all of created order reeling from it. But on the other hand, there’s humanity itself, the king of creation, not only reeling from the curse, but plunging further into sin. We see that in Genesis 3. We see it in Genesis 4, Cain killing his brother Abel. We see that pervasive effect of sin in Genesis chapter 5 with a repeated refrain: “he died,” and “he died,” and “he died,” and “he died.” Even in that pristine strength of humanity when they lived so many years with such incredible strength, they died, they died, they died.

And then we come to chapter 6 and we have sort of a summary statement of it all. Humanity has kept plunging itself into further sin and further sin. And during this time we find that Enoch prophesied. We read of him in Genesis chapter 5. Jude mentions him as one who prophesied during this time. Noah himself is described by the Apostle Peter as a preacher of righteousness, but to no avail. And we find the summary statement of it in the awful words of chapter 6 and verse 5: “The Lord saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every intention of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually.”

Let’s take a moment and reflect on this. It’s a horrible statement. It’s a comprehensive summary statement of the condition of humanity, and I want you to see it carefully. John Murray, I think it was, that gave a wonderful summary of this in a way that picks apart the details to help us understand it. Human depravity, he mentions, first of all, is intense. Notice that: the wickedness of man was great in the earth. The depravity of man is inward: the intentions of the thoughts of his heart are evil. He’s speaking of the rudimentary, the most rudimentary movements of the mind; even they are evil. Next, he says the depravity is total or pervasive: every intention, every imagination of the thoughts of man’s heart is only evil all the time. And then he mentions the depravity is exclusive: it is only evil. And it’s continual: it is only evil all the time.

Isn’t that an awful statement of the character of humanity? The wickedness of man is intense. It is great. And it in fact involves every motion of his mind and his heart—only evil, all the time. A broad sweeping condemnation and its characterization of humanity. This is what humanity has become post-Genesis 3. Caught up into Adam’s sin, humanity itself has fallen and become depraved. And of course, this is the whole backdrop to passages like in Psalm 14, where we find God looking out among the children of men to see if there were any that would seek Him, to see if there were any that did good. They’ve all gone out of their way. They’ve all together become rebellious. There is none that seek after God.

Well, the problem with all of that, of course, is not just the evil itself considered. The problem with it all is divine justice. God cannot tolerate rebellion against his glory. It is a matter of honor. It is a matter of justice. It must be condemned. It must be just. And so, at last, chapter 6, in verses 6 and 7, we find God’s patience is exhausted. Through chapters 6 through 8 we find this account of the flood where the entire human race is extinguished except for the family of Noah. When the waters recede, we read in chapter 8, only Noah and his family remain. Chapter 6 and verse 8, Noah is introduced as one who found grace in the sight of the Lord. He and his family then are spared.

Second Peter chapter 3 makes an interesting remark about this. The Apostle Peter speaks of “the world that then was” and the world, the present world, that is reserved for fire, being kept for judgment. These two worlds—the world that then was, and this present world that’s being reserved for judgment—and Noah and his family are the connecting link. They are the ones who lived in both of those worlds, and now we come to this world.

Now again, in the flood and in this whole account, we find this decreation or this uncreation theme coming up again, the reversal of creation. We have, of course, just on the surface of it, the near obliteration of the human race. But there’s also an interesting reflection of it in chapter 7 and verse 11. You might remember back on day 2 of creation in Genesis chapter 1, Moses makes the point that God put the expanse between the waters above and the waters beneath. And we have the waters above the earth, the waters below the earth, and they are put in their place at creation. And now chapter 7, look at verse 11: “In the 600th year of Noah’s life, in the second month, on the 17th day of the month, on that day all the fountains of the great deep burst forth and the windows of heaven were open.”

It’s like the created order itself was collapsing. The waters having been put in their place, seeming so permanent, now are letting go. The waters above falling down, the waters beneath surging upwards, and we have something of a collapse of creation—something of a cosmic disintegration because of human sin again. And so I think this idea of the reversal of creation is an insightful description, and it raises the question, not just for Noah himself, but for the world and for history: what about God’s intent to bless? He created with the intention of blessing humanity. He blessed them. He blessed them. He blessed them. And now there’s judgment, and now there’s more judgment, more sin, and it raises the question: does God’s purpose for creation still stand? Has his original intent to bless been reversed? And will he instead just bring judgment?

Well, within this context, we find Noah presented as a kind of new Adam with a new creation, a new beginning, and I want you to see how that is so. Look at chapter 8, and I won’t take time to read through all of these verses, but I do want you to see them quickly. Just take a glance at verses 1 to 3, and you’ll see again the separation of the waters that reflects day 2 in creation in Genesis chapter 1. Chapter 8 verses 17 to 19, you see the animals brought out again to repopulate the earth. That reflects day 6 of creation in Genesis chapter 1. In Genesis 8 verse 22, you have the days and the seasons reestablished. That reflects day 4 of creation in Genesis chapter 1.

In Genesis 9 verse 1, we find again the statement that God blessed Noah and his family, and that again reflects God’s creative order back in chapter 1 on day 6—Genesis 1:28. Genesis 9 verse 1, the second half of the verse: “Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth.” Does that ring a bell? Genesis chapter 1 verse 28, the creation mandate that was given to Adam and Eve is being re-invoked here. Genesis 9 and verse 6, God provides humanity with food in the following verses. He provides them with food. Well, again, that reflects back into chapter 1 as well. And even, in fact, in the aftermath of all this, chapter 9 verses 18 and following, where we have the sin of Noah and the nakedness and the brother rivalry and the curse and the blessing, all of that reflects back what we have read in Genesis chapters 1 to 3.

So Noah here is being presented as a kind of second Adam, a father of the post-diluvian world. A new creation is beginning, or just a new beginning. But now one thing that’s very important to notice, and that’s one continuing factor. I want you to see chapter 6 and verse 5 again: “God saw the wickedness of man was great in the earth, that every intention of the thought of his heart was only evil continually.” And notice the thinking here. Notice the reasoning: “And the Lord was sorry he made man on the earth. He grieved him and says, ‘I’m going to destroy him.'” So the reasoning goes: man is so wicked, I’m going to get rid of him. All right?

Now, keep that in mind and look at chapter 8 and verse 21. In verse 20, Noah has built an altar to the Lord, makes a sacrifice, the burnt offering, and “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.'” Now do you see in the last part there, “the intention of man’s heart is evil from his youth”? You see the reflection back to chapter 6 and verse 5, right? But do you see how the thinking has been changed? What was in chapter 8 the rationale for God destroying humanity—man’s depravity—now has become the rationale for God making a covenant. Man is so evil, therefore I’ll make a covenant. I’ll make a promise that I won’t destroy him. And so again, what was before the rationale for judgment has now become the rationale for his promise. And this is the purpose of the Noahic covenant.

Now we come to chapter 8 and verses 20 and following. We find the covenant ratified. Noah offers the sacrifice and the sweet-smelling aroma goes up to the Lord. Seeing what was signified in the sacrifice, of course, God responding with an oath. The details of the promise are spelled out for us in the following verses. Chapter 7, you might remember God commands Noah to take two of every kind of animal, seven of the clean animals. Here we find out why that is so, and Noah takes them and makes sacrifice with them.

Now we come to chapter 9. Verses 1 and 7 are bracketed by the reissuing of the creation mandate: “Be fruitful, multiply, and fill the earth.” God’s purpose for creation remains. Verses 8 through 11, God makes his covenant with Noah, but notice how it is stated. It is not just a covenant with Noah; it is with Noah and all of creation. God said to Noah and his sons, “Behold, I establish my covenant with you and your offspring after you, with every living creature that is with you, the birds, the livestock, every beast of the field that is with you, as many as came out of the ark. It is for every beast of the earth.” And he goes on to say, “I’ll make this for endless generations with all of them.” And God promises, and he spells out the promises as we have read. The seasons will continue. The created order will continue as I have made it. And he makes a solemn promise to preserve all of life on the earth. A continuation of the created order. “I’ll not do this again.”

And then verses 12 through 17 that we have read, we have the sign of the covenant. God puts his bow in the clouds. The idea here I don’t think is necessarily that there would not have been a bow in the clouds if God hadn’t put this one there. It’s just that now it’s being filled with significance. “I’m putting this in the sky as a reminder.” Now if you’re using the NIV or a couple of other versions as well, it’s translated “rainbow.” Of course, that’s what it is. It’s a rainbow. But the word that is used here is simply an archer’s bow. And the point of it is that God is hanging up his weapon to remind him that the war is over. And as a reminder, not just to all of humanity—it’s emphasized, did you notice that several times over, to remind God. He’s hung it up, and he sees it. He is reminded that he has promised not to do that again. The weapon of warfare has been put on the wall, so to speak.

And so chapter 8 verses 20 all the way through chapter 9 verse 17, we have God reaffirming his original intention to bless creation, an intention that the flood had seemed to reverse, and it still seemed in jeopardy because of human sin. But God says, “No, I won’t do this again. The seasons will continue. I will not destroy humanity like this again.” And he promises to preserve life on earth despite human rebellion. God’s purpose for creation remains. His purpose to bless remains. And that in short is the significance of this covenant. It guarantees the continuation of the created order that however it may seem otherwise, however man may merit otherwise, however sinful we may be and deserve otherwise, God is determined that he will carry through with his intent to bless. It will never again be interrupted. Or to put it in terms of chapter three, his promise of a champion in Genesis 3:15 still stands. He will come. Only now we see he must come through the line of Noah.

I should point out just briefly as an aid and as a means of preserving humanity in the world order, God establishes human government. As we’ve read in verses five and six, capital punishment: “Whoever sheds the blood of man, by man shall his blood be shed, for God made man in his own image.” This is not just a command of Moses’ law; this predates that a long way, made in the context of God’s universal and everlasting covenant with humanity. This, of course, is picked up in the New Testament a couple of different times in Acts and in Romans, and of course is the means that God eventually uses to accomplish human redemption.

What Can We Learn from the Covenant?

Well, what can we learn then from the covenant? A couple of things.

Number one, since this covenant is universal in scope, it becomes the framework for all of the later covenants. The Abrahamic covenant, you might think ahead, is made with Abraham: “that in your seed all of the families of the world will be blessed.” The Davidic covenant promises a king whose kingdom will be universal. And as we track through the rest of the covenants, we will see they bring us to the end of history when they all climax in the Lord Jesus and his final work in his second coming. All of that is taken into this covenant, and it’s not by accident, I think, that we find in the book of Revelation, we have that scene finally, Revelation 4 and then 5 and following, when God works out his purpose of judgment and salvation, he is seated on a throne, couched in a rainbow, reminding of his promise.

More personally, what else can we learn? This covenant becomes the basis of our confidence in God as our sustainer. This becomes the basis of our confidence in God as our sustainer. His purpose will be carried out. He has promised. He says it’s forever. His purpose to bless will succeed. However sin seems to threaten, however we deserve otherwise, God will fulfill his created purpose to bless.

And we should say then thirdly as well, what does all of this tell us about God? This whole story, what does it tell us about God? Is God a God of wrath? Is God a God of judgment? Yes, he is. He is. But we must say also, what kind of a God is he? He’s a God who’s determined to bless even a rebellious humanity that deserves nothing but judgment. He is a God who is determined to bless, and he has promised under oath that however much we deserve otherwise, he will keep his promise to bless.

And if I can take it just a couple of more minutes, I want to take this just one step further. Can we say any more about this? Just how God will accomplish this purpose to bless is not spelled out in this covenant. We’ll have to find some more covenants to get more details on that. But there are some reflections of how God will accomplish this purpose to bless in the story itself.

One, of course, that you’ve noticed already is chapter 8 and verse 20. Noah builds this altar to the Lord, and it says that God smelled this sweet aroma. We find that language throughout the Old Testament with reference to the sacrifice. God smells a pleasing aroma. The idea, of course, is not that God likes the smell of barbecue. He sees in that sacrifice what it looks forward to, and he sees in the death of Jesus a satisfaction for sins that satisfies God and his justice against humanity.

There’s more of the same here, I think, as well. Human rebellion and sin—we’ve turned our way against God, determined in our sin, and yet God takes a man. There’s a man whom he’s chosen. He found favor. He found grace in his sight. But divine justice demands punishment on sin. Judgment must, must, must be served. And so we find God takes Noah and he commands him, “Get in the ark.” And we find it in chapter 7 and verse 7 that Noah and his family went into the ark to escape the waters of the flood. Noah and his family went into the ark to escape the waters of the flood. And the ark, passing through judgment, was at the same time salvation for Noah and his family. Salvation through judgment.

You’ll see that again. I’m sure you’ve heard one of the most common misrepresentations of the Bible: “The God of the Old Testament is a God of judgment. The God of the New Testament’s a God of salvation. The God of the Old Testament’s a God of wrath. The God of the New Testament’s a God of love and grace.” It’s such a skewed misrepresentation, it’s just difficult to know where to start in answering. The fact is, of course, that God is in the Old Testament both a God of judgment and wrath and a God of grace and love and salvation.

And in fact, when you turn to the New Testament, it is true that that is ratcheted up in the New Testament—that God is a God of grace that you haven’t imagined, and love and salvation that you haven’t imagined. It’s ratcheted up in the New Testament. And the fact is, the judgment that we find of God, the judgment and wrath of God in the Old Testament, that’s ratcheted up in the New Testament as well. All you’ve got to do is listen to Jesus. Firm warnings against hell. We get to Revelation, and we find it in horrible terms being described: God stamping out his enemies, the blood flowing four feet high and 200 miles, and then we find the smoke of their torment going up forever and ever. Both the love and the grace of God and the wrath and judgment of God are ratcheted up in the New Testament.

But we haven’t appreciated it fully until we see that God’s justice and his grace not only are intensified in the New Testament, but they both converge in the cross of Christ. One day, God promised that he would not come against humanity again, and he hung his bow in the sky and made a promise. But on that day, he took the bow down again, as it were, and aimed the arrow at his own son, who stood in the place of sinners, bearing our condemnation and sin, and he bore the wrath of God in our place.

And I don’t think it’s over-reading the text at all; it’s simply reading the whole story to see that in the ark we find a picture of the Lord Jesus Christ. Here back in ancient time, God confirms in an oath, “I will not destroy, I will bless.” He will not destroy, but neither will he surrender his justice. His justice must be served. What he will do is bless. And so in order to bless, he sends his son to bear the judgment of our sin, and he passed under divine wrath and judgment, and we, hiding in him, are safe. Jesus, our ark. I’m jumping way ahead of myself. We’ll get to that. But we see reflections of it already that God has determined to bless. He will fulfill and successfully accomplish his created intent to bless humanity, and he will accomplish it at all costs. Amen. Let’s pray. Our Father, we’re thankful for this book that tells us the lengths you have