Making Sense of God’s Covenant with Noah

Making Sense of God’s Covenant with Noah

Background

The Noahic Covenant, found in Genesis 9:8-17, is the promise that God made to Noah and his descendants after the flood that He would never again destroy the earth by water and would preserve it through to Christ’s Coming. The Noahic Covenant has several distinguishing features. First, it is an unconditional covenant. Second, it was made to Noah and all his descendants as well as “every living creature” and the earth in general (Genesis 9:8-10). This means that it is a Covenant made to all humanity, not just Israel, nor the Church. Third, it was sealed with a sign, the rainbow as a perpetual reminder of this gracious (gracious because it is unconditional) promise.

Alister Wilson and James A. Grant remind us that “the idea of covenant is fundamental to the Bible’s story. At its most basic, covenant presents God’s desire to enter into relationship with men and women created in his image ... Covenant is all about relationship between the Creator and his creation.” [The God of Covenant]. Daniel C. Lane would add that it is made under oath, “under threat of divine curse.” [The Mean and Use of the Old Testament Term Covenant].

Important to our topic of the The Noahic Covenant, Peter Gentry [Kingdom Through Covenant] has highlighted the crucial difference between “creating a covenant” (karat berit) and “renewing/establishing a covenant previously created” (heqim berit). Why is that important? It is because heqim berit is the only phrase used in the Covenant with Noah. This is important because it implies that the Noahic Covenant is not new but in fact a re-affirmation of an earlier Covenant, namely the Creation Covenant or named by some, The Adamic Covenant. The only difference is that the Covenant with Adam involved an innocent person. The Covenant with Noah is with sinful humankind.

As noted previously the Noahic Covenant is made unilaterally or unconditionally. The context of a sinful humanity in a curse world cannot thwart the promise of God. Peter Gentry also makes the case that when the term Covenant is used it should be viewed as the other side of the word Torah. The Torah is the instruction given within the Covenant. Gentry likens it to “faith” and “repentance” which are two-sides of the same coin. This is critical to understanding the Noahic Covenant, for there is both the Covenant stated and the instructions within the Covenant that form the whole. So we see this in the Noahic Covenant. It includes the Promise (the Covenant) and the Torah (instructions or stewardship of the Covenant).

Examining the Scripture passage the following structural diagram tries to portray the Author’s intent.

Summary

The Covenant Promise: God will preserve the world until the Coming of Christ (2 Peter 3:10). 

The Covenant Torah (Instruction): God gave Noah and all future descendants stewardship over the world, including caring for it, cultivating it, and eating animals without fear of punishment. And secondly, He gave all humanity the responsibility of preserving life. All humankind is to be “pro life.”

The Covenant Sign: The sign of the covenant was the rainbow, which God set in the clouds. God said, “When the bow is in the clouds, I will see it and remember the gracious and kind Covenant” (Genesis 9:16). 

 

The New Testament picks up this expression, often referred to as “common grace.”  In Matthew 5:45b we hear these words of Jesus: “for he makes his sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the just and on the unjust.”  What Promise is behind this grace of God? “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.” (Genesis 8:21-22)

 

Implications

 

In the Noahic Covenant made with all humanity, regardless of moral character, religion or nationality, God promises to preserve the earth as long as it remains (or better: until Christ comes). This has incredible implications to current discussions on climate and the environment. Lest one become callous and seek to avoid any responsibility in that topic we are reminded that in this Covenant we are instructed to be stewards of creation.

 

Another aspect to the instructions within the Covenant includes the preservation of life. Current debates on abortion, euthanasia, voluntary suicide (MAID), etc., are assumed under this Covenant. I believe the concept of the value of human life also includes discussion on race, culture, and social status, etc. All humans bear God’s image and express equal value. The topic becomes huge when you consider categories such as medical/health care, self-defence and so on.

 

Lastly, God makes a covenant of grace to sinful humanity. The same holy and righteous God that created the world, established the Creation Covenant, re-affirms this Covenant. The experience of the Flood underscores His justice and wrath. Yet for a time He withholds His judgment and permits sinful man to enjoy both “the sunshine and the rain.”  But this is for a time. The Apostle Peter writes, “But the day of the Lord will come like a thief, and then the heavens will pass away with a roar, and the heavenly bodies will be burned up and dissolved, and the earth and the works that are done on it will be exposed” (2 Peter 3:10).

 

As God did in the Flood, so too He does as the world expects the pending wrath of God — He offers a way of escape. Again, we hear Peter, “The Lord is not slow to fulfill his promise as some count slowness, but is patient toward you, not wishing that any should perish, but that all should reach repentance” (2 Peter 3:9). Do not take advantage of this period of Common Grace, this period of the Noahic Covenant. There is judgment coming but “God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life,” Jesus (John 3:16).

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

A Summary of “The Destruction of Jerusalem” by George Holford

 

The Destruction of Jerusalem by George Holford

 Copyright © 2017 by HardPress

Of the prophecies which have already been fulfilled, few, perhaps, are so interesting in themselves, or so striking in their accomplishment as those which relate to the destruction of Jerusalem and its temple, and the signal calamities which every where befell the Jewish nation . . . Whether we consider its architecture, its dimensions, its magnificence, its splendour, or the sacred purposes to which it was dedicated, it must equally . be regarded as the most astonishing fabric that was ever constructed.

“Tell us, when will these things be, and what will be the sign of your coming and of the end of the age.” The Holy Bible: English Standard Version (Mt 24:3). (2016). Crossway Bibles.

             Such were the questions of the disciples, in answer to which our Lord condescended to give them a particular account of the several important events that would precede, as well as of the prognostics which would announce the approaching desolations; including suitable directions for the regulation of their conduct under the various trials to which they were to be exposed.

 

#1. For many will come in my name, saying, ‘I am the Christ,’ and they will lead many astray.  The Holy Bible: English Standard Version (Mt 24:5). (2016). Crossway Bibles.

 

           The necessity for this friendly warning soon appeared; for within one year after our Lord's ascension, rose the Samaritan . . . deceivers rose up daily in Judea, and persuaded the people to follow them into the wilderness, assuring them that they should there behold conspicuous signs and wonders performed by the Almighty.

 

#2. And you will hear of wars and rumors of wars . . . The Holy Bible: English Standard Version (Mt 24:6). (2016). Crossway Bibles.

            One hundred and fifty of the copious pages of Josephus, which contain the history of this period, are every where stained with blood . . . "The extent of this slaughter," says Josephus, " had no parallel in any former period of their history” . . . not less than ten thousand Jews were trodden to death in the streets . . . This event laid the foundation of a most cruel and sanguinary contest between the two nations.

#3. And there will be famines and earthquakes in various places. The Holy Bible: English Standard Version (Mt 24:7). (2016). Crossway Bibles.

            Of these significant emblems of political commotions, there occurred several within the scene of this prophecy, and, as our Saviour predicted, in divers places . . . "A heavy storm (says Josephus) burst on them during the night; violent winds arose, accompanied with the most excessive rains, with constant lightnings, most tremendous thundering s, and with dreadful roarings of earthquakes. It seemed (continues he) as if the system of the world had been confounded for the destruction of mankind; and one might well conjecture that these were signs of no common events!"

             Our Lord predicted "famines" also. Of these the principal was that which foretold would happen in the days of Claudius, as related in the Acts of the Apostles.

            Our Saviour adds "pestilences" likewise. Pestilence treads upon the heels of famine . . . The first took place at Babylon, about A. D. 40, and raged so alarmingly, that great multitudes of Jews fled from that city to Seleucid for safety, as hath been hinted already. The other happened at Rome, A. D. 65, and carried off prodigious multitudes. Both Tacitus and Suetonius also record, that similar calamities prevailed, during this period, in various other parts of the Roman empire.

“4. And there will be terrors and great signs from heaven. The Holy Bible: English Standard Version (Lk 21:11). (2016). Crossway Bibles.

1.              " A meteor, resembling a sword, hung over Jerusalem during one whole year."

2.               "On the eighth of the month Zanthicus (before the feast of unleavened bread), at the ninth hour of the night, there shone round about the altar, and the circumjacent buildings of the temple, a light equal * Luke xxi- 11. t Vide 1 Charon. xxi. 16, to the brightness of the day, which continued for the space of half an hour."

3.               “As the High.Priests were leading a heifer to the altar to be sacrificed, she brought forth a lamb, in the midst of the temple."

4.               Another

5.               Another

6.               Another

7.               As the last and most fearful omen, Josephus relates that one Jesus, the son of Ana nus, a rustic of the lower class, during the feast of tabernacles, suddenly exclaimed in the temple, "A voice from the east ,—a voice from the west—a voice from the four winds—a voice against Jerusalem and the temple—a voice against bridegrooms and brides—a voice against the whole people!" These words he incessantly proclaimed aloud both day and night, through all the streets of Jerusalem, for seven years and five months together, commencing at a time (A. D. 62)

#5. But before all this they will lay their hands on you and persecute you . . . and some of you they will put to death. The Holy Bible: English Standard Version (Lk 21:12–16). (2016). Crossway Bibles.

 

            In the very infancy of the christian church, these unmerited and unprovoked cruelties began to be inflicted. Our Lord, and his forerunner John the Baptist, had already * Luke xxi. 12. f Mark xiii. 9. \ Luke xxi. 16. been put to death; the apostles Peter and John were first imprisoned, and then, together with the other apostles, were scourged before the Jewish council; Stephen, after confounding the Sanhedrin with his irresistible eloquence, was stoned to death . . .

#6. You will be hated by all for my name’s sake.  The Holy Bible: English Standard Version (Lk 21:17). (2016). Crossway Bibles.

 

            "It was a war," says  "against the very name; to be a christian was of itself crime enough." And to the same effect is that expression of Pliny in his letter to Trajan; "I asked them whether they were Christians; if they confessed it, I asked them a second * Mat. xxiv. 9. and a third time, threatening them with punishment, and those who persevered I commanded to be led away to death.

#7. And then many will fall away and betray one another and hate one another. The Holy Bible: English Standard Version (Mt 24:10). (2016). Crossway Bibles.

 

            Speaking of the persecutions of the Christians under Nero, to which we have just alluded, he adds, "several were seized, who confessed, and by their discovery a great multitude of others were convicted and barbarously executed."

#8. And this gospel of the kingdom will be proclaimed throughout the whole world as a testimony to all nations, and then the end [of the Jewish dispensation – author’s interpretation] will come.  The Holy Bible: English Standard Version (Mt 24:14). (2016). Crossway Bibles.

            St. Paul too, in his Epistle to the Romans, informs them that "their faith was spoken of throughout the world f and in that to the Colossi and he observes, that the "Gospel had been preached to every creature under heaven." Clement, who was a fellow-labourer with the Apostle, relates of him that " he taught the whole world righteousness, travelling from the east westward to the borders of the ocean."  says that "the Apostles preached the Gospel in all the world, and that some of them passed beyond the bounds of the ocean and visited the Britannic isles":" so says Theodore t also.

CONCLUSION

“Such, briefly, is the account that history gives of the several events and signs, which our Lord had foretold would precede the destruction of the Holy City. No sooner were his predictions accomplished, than a most unaccountable infatuation seized upon the whole Jewish nation; so that they not only provoked, but seemed even to rush into the midst of those unparalleled calamities, which at length totally overwhelmed them.”