Noah And The Flood Series

So, let us be warned: God hates sin and judges it. The reason people do not take the warning seriously is because God does not usually judge sin immediately. He does not do so because he is patient toward us, as Peter said in 2 Peter 3:9, “not wishing that any should perish, but that all should reach repentance.” However, a day will come when it is too late. So, don’t delay! Repent and turn to the Lord today!

III. God’s Grace (8:20-9:17)

And third, let’s observe God’s grace.

During the flood, we have a beautiful statement in Genesis 8:1a, “But God remembered Noah….” Of course, God did not forget Noah. Kent Hughes explains what Moses meant in verse 1:

God’s remembering is more than a recollection because when God remembers, he acts. When God remembered Abraham, he saved Lot (Genesis 19:29). When he remembered Rachel, she conceived (Genesis 30:22). As Brevard Childs said, “God’s remembering always implies his movement toward the object.… The essence of God’s remembering lies in his acting toward someone because of a previous commitment.”

God now began to reverse the impact of the flood, because he “made a wind blow over the earth, and the waters subsided” (8:1b).

Eventually, the waters receded, and after 370 days in the ark, Noah, his family, and all the creatures came out of the ark. Notice the very first thing that Noah did after exiting the ark, in verse 20, “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 what was God’s response to Noah’s sacrifice? Verse 21 says, “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 living creature as I have done.’” Moreover, in Genesis 9:1 we read, “And God blessed Noah and his sons and said to them, ‘Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth.’”

Then, God’s grace is seen in the establishment of a covenant with Noah. In Genesis 9:8-11 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.”

The covenant of grace has several supporting covenants, of which the covenant with Noah is the first. The other covenants are the Abrahamic, Mosaic, Davidic, and the new covenants. The Catechism for Young Children defines a covenant as “an agreement between two or more persons.”

Note that this covenant with Noah is universal, unilateral, and unconditional. The Noahic covenant is universal because it encompasses all humans (both believers and non-believers) and all animals. It is unilateral because God alone is the initiator. Twice he calls it “my covenant” (9:8, 11). The covenant does not require any assent, action, or ratification on our part. In fact, it does not even require our acknowledgment. God produced the covenant, and he will fulfill the terms of the covenant. And finally, the Noahic covenant is unconditional because God will never again destroy the earth by water, no matter what we do.