October 26, Genesis 9
"Behold I establish my covenant with you and your offspring after you." - Genesis 9:9
Do you have a will? Are you married? Have you borrowed money from a financial institution? If you've done any of those things, you've made a covenant. Genesis 9 is about a covenant between God and Noah, the head of the human family, version 2.0.
The first two times (of about 200) the word "covenant" appears in the ESV are about the covenants God made with Noah. The first one was to save him by the ark from the flood. The next time it's used is in this chapter, as God announced a new covenant with Noah and his descendants.
Although Noah and his family were saved by grace from the flood, they were still flawed humans when they left the ark. The sad incident involving Noah, one of his sons and one of his grandsons at the end of this chapter shows that even a “righteous man” among his doomed generation saved from the flood was not righteous enough to save himself.
God told Noah and his sons, "Behold I establish my covenant with you and your offspring after you" (Genesis 9:9). Let's use this example of a covenant to remind ourselves of some fundamentals about covenants between God and humans beings.
Notice that a covenant from God is announced, not negotiated. God must initiate any possible covenant between himself and unholy human beings. A covenant, whether this one or the one announced to Moses and Israel at Sinai, or the one sealed with the blood fo Christ at Calvary, is established by God in heaven. There is no bargaining table, no counteroffer or compromise. God establishes it, and humans accept it through their faith and obedience. That the covenant exists at all is a matter of grace. That same grace anticipates the need for more grace for humans to be able to live under the covenant.
A covenant from God usually contains commandments. In this case, God commanded the survivors of the flood to "Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth," just as he told Adam and Eve when the world was new. There are usually prohibitions as well. In this example, "But you shall not eat flesh with its life, that is, its blood" (verse 4). God tells his creatures with whom he establishes a covenant what they must do and what they must not do.
A covenant from God also comes with promises of what God will do. He told Noah and his sons, "The fear of you and the dread of you shall be upon every beast of the earth..." (verse 3).The dominion Adam and Eve were given was still intact in the postdiluvian world. And covenants usually tell of the provisions God is giving the covenant people bound to him in the covenant relationship: " Every moving thing that lives shall be food for you...as I gave the green plants" (verse 3).
The covenant also includes warnings: "Whoever sheds the blood of man, by man shall his blood be shed, for God made man in his own image" (verse 6). The warning was tied to the prohibition. The blood of an animal or a human was the creature's life.
God's covenants are backed by his faithfulness: “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" (verse 11). And covenants are often confirmed with a sign, a way to summarize and remember what the covenant has guaranteed (verses 16-17). The rainbow was the sign of this one. Later, circumcision would be the sign among Israelites. Baptism, the Lord's Supper and the presence of God's Holy Spirit in the life of every Christian are all in some ways signs of the new covenant in the blood of Christ.
You don't have to get married or agree to the bank's terms if you are unwilling to accept the terms of the covenant. You are not entitled to what the covenant offers, but you can take it or leave it. That's not exactly the same situation in a covenant established by God. It's more like, "You can take it or break it." But you can't negotiate with God and there are no good alternatives. Those who refuse to live under the covenant God by his grace provides to us are destined to experience the bitter consequences of rebelling against God and despising his gracious offer to save us.
Copyright © 2021 by Michael B. McElroy. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Today in God's Word—October 2024
East Tallassee Church of Christ
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