Blessed Assurance
Genesis 9:8-17
March 5, 2006
I don’t remember what it was that he did, but I didn’t like it. Luke blew it. I had told him to stop over and over again and when he didn’t, I let him know that he was in trouble. I said some things and took a toy.
A little bit later, God began to stir within me – to let me know that I had just blown it with my son Luke. I felt him say, “You were a bit strong. I bit aggressive. You did more harm than good.” And then I heard his question, “Do I react so strongly toward you when you blow it?”
Doing these upcoming weeks, we are going to be exploring how our Heavenly Father reacts to we, his wayward children. We will be looking at some texts that give us a picture of who our God is, how he reacts to us, and what he does for us his rebellious children.
Our first text is about the flood, Noah and God’s words to Noah.
In Genesis 6:5-7, we read God’s assessment of things before the flood.
These verses say that the Lord saw the external wickedness of humanity and that the Lord saw the internal evilness looking into the hearts of people. Hearts were evil only and evil all the time.
And God’s reaction:
This "grieved" God. "His heart was filled with pain."
The rest of chapter 6 and all of chapters 7 and 8 tell us about Noah’s preparations for the flood and then the unrelenting rain.
At the end of chapter 8, the waters have subsided and we are given God’s assessment of things. In verses 21-22, the writer reveals to us what our God was now thinking after the flood. He writes, the Lord "said in his heart", "Never again will I curse the ground because of man, even though every inclination of his heart is evil from childhood. And never again will I destroy all living creatures as I have done."
The inner thoughts of God, his conclusion and evaluation of the situation after the flood is that "every inclination of humanity’s heart is evil from childhood." Notice it is almost the exact same wording to describe what humanity was like before the flood.
Before the flood, 6:5, "every inclination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil all the time."
And after the flood, 8:21, "every inclination of his heart is evil from childhood."
Though the water had indeed brought changes.
No longer were there - packs of wolves but only 2
Pods of whales but only 2
Flocks of seagulls but only 2
Swarms of gnats but only 2
And on and on and on but now there were only 2
Humanity, that which God had created in his own image, was exactly the same. If God was writing up a progress report to measure the improvement from chapter 6 before the flood to chapter 8 after the flood, the report would be simply 2 words - No improvement.
Though the landscape had changed. Humanity hadn’t.
Though neighbors had changed. Humanity hadn’t.
Though all the eye could see had changed, what lie beneath the eye - under the surface was the reality that the human heart was:
Inclined toward
Bent toward
Had a propensity for
Was committed to
In the habit of Evil
There had been no change in man. But instead something else had changed - God.
God changes. God was changing in his dealings with man. He was undergoing a new way for his most prized of all his creation to know of his unending and certain love for them.
And he goes public with it in our text for today. Up until our text, God kept this in his heart, 8:21 says, But now he wanted humanity, Noah, his family and their descendants to hear what he had in mind.
Read text Genesis 9:8-17
If you were to identify the words our God uses over and over again in this 9 verses, there would be 3 that rise to the top. Our God uses 3 words/phrases repeatedly to make a point. I want to briefly make note of these words and then make some applications to us in year 2006.
The first word used over and over is "I". This word, this pronoun is repeated 8 times. Each time it is used, God reveals who he is and what he intends to do for Noah and his descendants.
I now establish my covenant - 5 times, v. 9, 11, 12, 15, 16, 17.
I have set my rainbow - verse 13
I bring clouds - verse 14
God when he reveals what he had been bottling up inside himself as he was observing the evil hearts of humanity does not lash out with:
"You"
"You didn’t learn anything"
"You still don’t understand"
"What are you thinking"
But I - he commits himself and involves himself with Noah. I want to be involved. I will go to work. I am working. I am establishing (3 times). It is God who takes the first action after the flood to assure and give to Noah hop in this New Beginning time.
2nd Word
The primary way that God commits himself and involves himself is by establishing a covenant. This word is used 8 times as well.
A covenant is a bond that binds people together in relationship. It is a bond done in blood and it is in the Bible administered by God. God establishes a covenant/a bond with humanity.
That covenant which before was kept inside (8:21) now gets vocalized in 9:11. "Never again will all life be cut off by the waters of a flood; never again will there be a flood to destroy the earth."
"Noah, I covenant, I am establishing with you this- You can know this for sure - I am and will be in a relationship with you and your descendants. Never again will there be such a flood that destroys life."
Noah hadn’t approached God with this idea. It was divinely established. Noah hadn’t sought out this good news - God desired to deliver it.
And to make certain that he will be committed to this covenant and remember it, in verses 13-16, that he will set a bow or rainbow in the clouds. "Whenever the bow or rainbow appears I will remember my covenant."
The word translated Bow or Rainbow is the Hebrew word quset. This word can be translated Bow, as in a bow and arrow or rainbow. It is completely interchangeable.
Though every children’s story that I have ever seen about Noah has a multicolored rainbow extending from 1 side of the page to the next. Another way to understand what God has said is this - I will never aim destruction on you again. I will not shoot arrows at you again. My bow will not be pointed down at you but away from you.
My bow pointed heavenward will remind me of this covenant, to never again destroy humanity and all living things.
Now let’s make some application. What can this text mean to us today?
1. Though my heart is evil - God’s heart desires me.
Turn to your neighbor and say, "God’s heart desires me."
It was God who pursued Noah. It was God who committed himself to him. It was God who re-entered Noah’s life.
God desires to have relationship with humanity.
I love what these verses reveal in 8:21, God kept all of this in - all of this to himself but in our text he opens up his heart and reveals it to us. It is kind of like a relationship at its beginnings. You have feelings for the other person. You’ve been watching, observing, admiring and all the while you have grown in your admiration until one day you blurt it,
I like you.
I admire you.
I want you to know . . .
I want you to know this.
I - 8 times.
Establish - 3 times.
Covenant - 8 times
Never again - 4 times.
Though my heart is evil, God opens up and tells me of his heart’s desires.
Romans 8:35-39 - Nothing will be able to separate us from the love of God that in Christ Jesus, our Lord.
2. Though my heart is evil, God has secured for me a future. When God entered into covenant with Noah, he gave to Noah a certain future. Noah’s future was now safe.
When God entered into Covenant with Noah he gave to Noah a certain future. Noah’s future was now safe.
In your bulletin is a beautiful quote by a man named Lewis Smedes.
Somewhere people still make and keep promises. They choose not to quit when
the going gets rough because they promised once to see it through. They stick to lost causes. They hold on to a love grown cold. They stay with people who have become pains in the neck. They still dare to make promises and care enough to keep the promises they make. I want to say to you that if you have a ship you will not desert, if you have people you will not forsake, if you have causes you will not abandon, then you are like God.
What a marvelous thing a promise is! When a person makes a promise, she reaches out into an unpredictable future and makes one thing predictable: she will be there even when being there costs her more than she wants to pay. When a person makes a promise, he stretches himself out into circumstances that no one can control and controls at least one thing: he will be there no matter what the circumstances turn out to be. With one simple word of promise, a person creates an island of certainty in a sea of uncertainty.
When you make a promise, you take a hand in creating your own future.
(Lewis Smedes, "The Power of Promises," A Chorus of Witnesses, edited by Long and Plantinga, (Eerdmans, 1994))
If you were to do an honest evaluation of your soul you would be able to identify numerous things about which you are worried and concerned. Life can be hectic. Life can be unsettling all by itself -
And then with the pressures to raise children well,
To buy food and pay for electricity, gas etc,
Finding and keeping work until retirement age
it can at times seem overwhelming - How can I survive or get through this? I just want to give up.
That’s when we need to remind ourselves of God’s promise to Noah and to his descendants. God has assured us of a future when we are in relation with Him.
Listen to these familiar verses:
Never will I leave you or forsake you.
I am the same yesterday, today and tomorrow.
Don’t worry about tomorrow - Seek ye first me and my Kingdom and all lesser
Things will be given to you.
As the phrase goes - we may not know what the future holds but we know who holds the future.
Our God meets up with Noah at this point of beginnings, when the journey is beginning anew and promises him certainty in the future.
One of our own said to me this week - "I know that God has brought me this for a reason - he isn’t going to abandon me now."
That is our God. He is a God who has revealed His heart to us in Jesus and given us hope for the future in him as well.
Friday night as I was working through our Lenten Devotional sheet, I read the 1st verse only of Philippians 2:1, "If you have any encouragement from being united with Christ" I stopped. Me - I am united with Christ.
I am in relationship with Christ. Be encouraged. Be encouraged.
Though you blow it as a father.
Though your heart hasn’t changed a whole lot.
Though and I could fill in the blanks -
Our text for today tells me & Philippians reminded me that God opens up his heart to me and gives me certainty in the future.
I am his and He is mine.
