Scripture Introduction
Lest we suspect that God is like Santa, winking at sin and hoping we will be more nice than naughty, the Bible records the catastrophic and world-wide flood in the days of Noah – God’s judgment on the rampant violence and wickedness which characterized mankind. That gruesome tale sometimes shocks modern sensibilities; we prefer our deities calm and detached. God, however, is passionate and involved.
So what is next? God mercifully spares eight lives, but where will they obtain the courage to begin again? What do you do the day after judgment?
To protect Noah and his descendants from despair, God gives precious and very great promises. The beginning of covenant promises is our topic; I will take up God’s word with Genesis 8.20, and read through chapter 9, verse 17.
[Read Genesis 8.20-9.17. Pray.]
Introduction
When Rebekah was very little, she occasionally woke during the night, fearful from a bad dream. Suddenly I would hear the alarm piercing the previous silence: “DADDY!”
I jumped out of bed, rushed in my little girl’s room, and said, “Daddy’s here; what’s wrong?”
“Daddy, I had a terrible dream; I dreamed our house was blown down in a storm.”
I took little Rebekah in my arms and said those perfectly soothing words, “Don’t worry little one; daddy’s here. It will be OK. I promise.” Simple words, really, but when the one making the promise is trustworthy, they are all she needed. A few moments later, she rests assured and returns to sleep.
In the year 2000, I did not have any computer problems, but I did travel to Turkey on a “mission” trip of sorts. While there, we drove through parts of that country devastated by the earthquake of 1999. In certain places, every street was piled high with rubble which a month earlier were homes. In God’s providence, that disaster presented a unique opportunity to show the love of Jesus. Our denomination collected about $250,000.00 and sent it through our missionaries and church planters to rebuild a community. We went in and said, “I know you are hurt, but help is coming. We will make it better; we promise.” Simple words, really, but by proving them with love in action, trust is built. People who never before met a Christian were opened to hearing about Jesus.
In “Bible-speak,” we call the place in which we live, “a fallen world.” We are saying that sin abounds, and with it, misery and suffering. Some are able to hold off the effects, at least for a while, by insulating themselves and their families. Others may deaden their ability to feel the pain by immersing themselves in pleasures. But neither insulation or immersion allows anyone to escape forever. When you face a terrible reminder that the fallen world cannot provide comfort and satisfaction for which your soul longs, what will you do? How do you repel fear, find hope, and remain motivated?
Noah spent over a year packed in a boat with the seed of the entire new world. And when the doors finally come off, he sees… complete destruction. Maybe you remember the tsunami of 2004, the five year anniversary of which is in a couple of weeks? Though it was one of the worst water disasters ever recorded, its devastation pales when compared to this flood. Noah woke, and the disaster was not a dream.
So he does what all trusting children do: he calls for his daddy. Noah calls on God, and God answers. The Father in heaven assures as only he can, “It will be OK my child. I know you hurt now, but I will make it better. Weeping may endure for a night, but joy comes in the morning. I promise.” Simple words, really, but when the one making the promise is trustworthy, it is all we need.
When God promises, he calls it a covenant, and the Bible tells us that God is the covenant keeper. In other words, whatever he says he will do, he does. And as a result, his people act in faith on those promises.
For example, Hebrews 13.5 tells us that God “will never leave you nor forsake you.” Verse 6 then responds: “So we can confidently say, ‘The Lord is my helper; I will not fear.’” God promise, and we respond in faith, because he who promised is faithful. The Bible repeats this pattern frequently: God promises, God’s people act because they know he who promised is faithful. And it begins right here with Noah. Five truths about the covenant promises of God.
1. God’s Covenant Promises Give Hope to Displace Despair (Genesis 8.20)
If we consider what life must have been like in the ark, we will understand Noah’s need for a promise after getting out. The screams of people dying must have rung in his ears regularly; the smell of the animals could not be washed from his life; the sight of so small a band of survivors cramped into such tight quarters would not stir confidence in his chance of survival. And apparently Noah feared that God had forgotten him, for when Moses explains how God made the waters recede, he says, “But God remembered Noah” (Genesis 8.1). And when, after more than a year, the boat touches land and the eight depart, they see first-hand the consequences of sin: a fallen world, freshly judged, newly destroyed, completely wiped out.
A. W. Pink describes the situation well: “Such an awful catastrophe as the Flood would shake violently the confidence of men in the established order of Nature, and distressing apprehensions were likely to obsess their minds for generations to come. They would be filled with terror as they feared a repetition of it.” They would be filled with terror as they feared a repetition of it.
So when Noah steps off the ark, he falls on his knees. He calls on his heavenly Father in worship. Noah surely is thankful for his own deliverance, but he also knows that his sins deserve punishment. The power, and the fury, and the extensiveness of God’s judgment would make any faithful man quiver. Noah surely wondered, “In his just wrath, will he always remember mercy? Will I again be spared, or am I next to be destroyed?”
I do not think Noah was a proud man. I do not believe that he looked around and said, “Good riddance. It’s about time God wiped away those worthless rebels. Now, we will see about doing things right.”
I think Genesis 8.20 is a cry for mercy, the cry of a heart humbled by the awfulness of God’s wrath. And God answers through the rest of this passage: “It will be OK, Noah. I know you hurt, but I will help you. I promise.”
God knows our fears, our failings and our frailty. That is why he reminds us in Hebrews 4.16: “Draw near to the throne of grace, that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need.” God’s covenant promises give hope to displace despair.
2. God’s Covenant Promises Are Needed Because of Our Sin (Genesis 8.21a)
After Adam and Eve ate from the forbidden tree, the effects of their rebellion blast out from Eden to the ends of the earth. So far and wide and deep is the disease, that one day God looks out at the world here is the result.
Genesis 6.5,7: 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…. So the LORD said, “I will blot out man whom I have created from the face of the land….”
That prompted the flood, which brings us to our text, and Noah, with the world wiped clean. Based on the way the story is unfolding, I expect the Bible to tell us that sin was drowned along with the bad people. Gracious promises are the last thing we should now need, because righteous Noah represents a new beginning for mankind. All he has to do is be holy, raise his children correctly, and obey God – and everything will turn out this time.
But verse 21 shatters our fantasy about world washed clean by judgment. God even uses the same vocabulary here as he did before the flood: “the intention of the heart is evil”! The flood has not eradicated our problems; mankind is still bent toward evil, broken in his heart, born in sin.
What does that mean? Noah and the new world need God’s covenant promises the moment they step off the boat, just as Adam and Eve did the very hour of their fall, and just as you and I do right now. Changing Noah’s circumstances did not change his heart.
I think this is important, because this is one way worldliness seeps into the church without our being aware. We ought to know better, but Christians often suppose that the problems will end of they can change the world around them.
I have heard Christians say, “My spouse is awful; destruction of my marriage will solve my problems.” God says, “Your heart is evil.”
Some say, “My relatives drive me crazy; I will never be with them again.” God says, “Your heart is evil.”
People often say, “My church does not do exactly what it should; I will find another.” God says, “What about the evil bound up in your heart?”
Every four years Christians join the crowds to shout: “Washington is the problem; throw the bums out.” God says, “If my people who are called by my name humble themselves, and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven and will forgive their sin and heal their land” (2Chronicles 7.14).
Should congress be godly? Yes. Should your spouse consider you more significant than she does herself? You better believe it! Should the church, and especially the pastor, say and do the right thing? Definitely!
Here is the point: sin stows away in the heart of Noah, so what he needed was some way of being killed himself, and yet also able to board the boat and return to the new world to take dominion. What he needed was what you have – the gospel!
Galatians 2.20: “I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.”
God is saying here, “What I am giving Noah is not really a second chance, because “the intention of man’s heart is evil from his youth.” Instead, I will give him “precious and very great promises.” Only the promises of God can overcome the sinful heart.
3. God’s Covenant Promises Provide Needed Mercy (Genesis 8.21c-22)
Here is a two-fold way God treats us better than we deserve. One, the judgment of a universal flood will never again be repeated. Two, the course of nature will never be discontinued. Let me draw four applications.
First, these are merciful promises. I tend to presume that since God has not struck me with lightening today, I must not be pretty good. But this text points to a different reason, God’s “common grace,” his daily mercy on rebellious people, his kindness calling all to repentance.
Second, these show the character of God. His mercies are new every morning. Be encouraged by the promise of Hebrews 8.12: “For I will be merciful toward their iniquities, and I will remember their sins no more.” Our God is a consuming fire, but those who trust in character and come confident of grace, find help in every need.
Third, realize that “behind nature’s laws is nature’s Lord.” C. S. Lewis noted that just because God does something often does not make it any less miraculous. The promise that summer and winter, and day and night, will continue reminds us that nature works only because God works it. The so called, “laws of nature” are simply God’s faithfulness.
Fourth, let us live in confidence and hope, not fear. I know that many Christians are afraid of what Mr. Obama and Congress are going to do. I am afraid of what many Christians are not going to do. God makes these promises of mercy to elicit from Noah hope and courage and faithful action. The same is true for us. As long as the earth remains, so too will God’s promise of mercy on the earth. Let us trust in his word and act in faith.
4. God’s Covenant Promises Prove the One-sided Nature of Grace (Genesis 9.8-11)
I think one of the most interesting things in Genesis 8.21-9.17 is that the only person who speaks is God. God initiates these promises. God sets the terms and conditions; God sovereignly binds himself to the covenant; God decides with whom he will enter into relationship; and God gives the sign. From word one to the end, it is all about God.
Neither Noah, nor I, have anything to do with the assurance that the world will never again be destroyed by flood. Isn’t that good? You know you do not want it to depend on my faithfulness; do you really want it to depend on yours? So what does this assurance depend on? God binds himself to a promise of grace, not because he is fickle or faithless, but simply because you and I need promises. The Christian life is lived by faith in the promises of God. Because of our weaknesses, God binds himself to covenants, so that we will trust and obey.
5. God’s Covenant Promises Are Confirmed By Awesome Signs (Genesis 9.12-17)
Maybe it is the flat plains stretching beyond imagination, or the way the air flows off the Rockies onto the prairie, or maybe it is simply a gift of grace because God feels sorry for those who must live in Nebraska, but the rainbows we regularly saw there were phenomenal. But even so, surely they could not compare to the one Noah and his family saw.
Pardon me for some possibly allegorical interpretation, and let me offer five implications of the rainbow.
First, note how rainbows only appear when the sun is also shining. Maybe God does that to remind us that in the midst of wrath, he does remember mercy.
Second, recognize that rainbows return again and again. Knowing our weakness, God often reminds us of his promises.
Third, enjoy the beauty of rainbows. Sin is ugly; God’s solutions are splendid.
Fourth, observe how rainbows stretch between heaven and earth, proclaiming peace between God and man.
Fifth, remember that the book of Revelation pictures Jesus with a rainbow around his throne (4.3) and one over his head (10.1), telling us that all of the covenants are kept by Christ. He is both the promise maker and the Promise Keeper.
6. Conclusion
Noah must have felt overwhelmed by the world which faced him. He surely feared that God might destroy him in the same way, and worried about the work of the future. So God gave him promises.
We have great difficulties facing us. For some, it may be marriage trouble; for others, job problems. Maybe your children are in rebellion, or maybe your problems are financial, or relational, or physical, or spiritual.
But whatever problem we must face, is that not a promise which we might hear and believe, and act based on?
Two Old Testament saints faced challenges in their lives: Nehemiah and Daniel. Listen to how they prayed before they acted in faith:
Nehemiah 9.32: “Now, therefore, our God, the great, the mighty, and the awesome God, who keeps covenant and steadfast love, let not all the hardship seem little to you that has come upon us.”
Daniel 9.4: “I prayed to the LORD my God and made confession, saying, ‘O Lord, the great and awesome God, who keeps covenant and steadfast love.”
Let us, likewise, call on God in our day of trouble, and find his help sufficient for our every need.
