Gospel Light Christian Church Thru-The-Bible Series (16.5)
The Book of Genesis
Genesis 8:20-22 to 9:1-17 - Read this Bible
passage once through before referring to the notes below.
The Covenant of God through Noah
v.20-22It is no accident that the first deed of Noah in the new world was to build an altar to the LORD and worshipped
Him.Noah’s devotion
is not surprising, as he had distinguished himself as a man who walked with God by unwavering faith.The whole burnt offering represented
the worshipper’s total surrender and dedication to the LORD, and the expression “the LORD smelled sweet savour” represented God’s acceptance (cf. Lev. 1).The people of God, who are walking with God, are to be a worshipping people, offering
to God the praise of their lips and the best of their possession from their hearts.
The foundation of this sacrifice is laid in God’s fixed purpose to assert righteousness in the world, to bring
men and women out of a wrong state and to establish them onto a true state.Through the flood, God restored human dependence on Him by making
people aware of their impotence.By his sacrifice, Noah expressed his submission to the gracious government of God in his life and in his
world.By it, he confessed
evil in himself and his fellows, which had brought destruction upon the world.By it, he acknowledged the wonder of the wisdom of God in redeeming
and restoring life.The
true Christian worshipper, who by God’s grace, escaped the condemnation of everlasting judgement, likewise confesses
the reality of the same truths through sacrificial worship of offering himself or herself completely to God (cf.
Rom. 12:1-2).
v.1 The repetition of the commission first given to Adam demonstrates
that with Noah there is a new beginning, but one that required a covenant. A covenant with obligations for men
and women and promises from God was now necessary because the extent of the destruction might cause people to wonder
whether God held life cheap, or whether the taking of life was a small matter.From this introduction of the first covenant, the God of Israel would
be known as a covenant-making and covenant-keeping God.
v.2-4 Besides the parallel in the commission of God to man, there
is another parallel to the garden scene.God now opened the animal world to man for food (cf. 1:29) – there is now permission to eat any animal.Humankind now lived with the reality
of killing, so the animal world would be afraid of humans.
But there is the prohibition to against eating blood (cf. 2:16-17).The point of the prohibition is that people may eat flesh as long
as it no longer has life in it – and the blood represented the life.The text is prohibiting not simply the consumption of blood but rather
the pulsating lifeblood.
v.5-6 God warned that there will be divine retribution for any violation
of the law of blood.The
three-fold repetition “will I require” expresses God’s absolute lordship over every life.This is important after the massive destruction of the great Flood – humankind must
be aware that they do not have unlimited power over life just because God does.Hence, we are taught to safeguard life, both in how they eat meat
and in how they preserved human life on the earth.
There will also be punishment for the shedding of human blood.The blood of human beings is the life of the flesh – humans dare not spill it, for
humans are in the image of God.For the crime of murder, then, society would have the right to take the murderer’s life.Human government (“by man”, v.6, cf. Ro.
13:1-4) was instituted in these early provisions as law is necessary for the stability
of life in the new order so that wickedness could not go unchecked as it had before.However, evil might still attain dimensions that nothing short of
a “blotting out”
could correct, as in the case of Sodom and Gomorrah (cf. 18:20-21; 19:24-25).
v.8-11 God made an unconditional covenant with Noah and his descendants
that there will not be another watery judgement like the flood.This covenant does not depend on human obedience to the laws given to Noah (9:1-5).However, human’s compliance with
the laws will allow them to live and enjoy this covenant.The nature and extent of the covenant, which God instituted, is explained as a gracious
provision of protection for all creation.
v.12-17 God demonstrated His high regard for life by [1] establishing a new order with the blessing
of fruitfulness; [2] prohibiting the taking another person’s life; [3] promising by covenant never to destroy every
living creature again by such a flood.
The
covenant is cosmic and universal, as seen from the great sign – the rainbow.As it arched over the horizon after the rain, it formed an all-embracing sign of God’s faithfulness
to His Word of grace.The Hebrew word for “bow” is the same word for the regular battle bow, which makes a vivid description of what was
going on – God hung up His “battle bow” to be a sign of peace.It is a sign that God has no pleasure in destruction, that He does not give way to moods,
that He does not always chide.
The
beautifully rainbow thus draws out bitter-sweet emotions.Bitter, because it reminds us of the wickedness of man which once brought upon man a great judgement;
a wickedness, which still exists today in our world.Sweet, because God’s anger and judgement upon sin ends in peace and rest for those who receives
His grace through faith. The rainbow also reminds us that we serve a faithful God – when God said that He will
“remember”, it meant that He will be faithful to the promise He had made.There has never been a worldwide flood ever since.