Covenant - God's Covenant with Noah - a Sermon on Genesis 9:1-17

If we are to understand God, it is important for us to consider the nature of the relationship that God has sought to have with us, and we can do this by studying the idea of ‘covenant’ contained in the scriptures. We are doing a little overview of the ‘new covenant’ during communion at the moment; now today we’ll look specifically at the covenant God shared with Noah way back.

We really have to grapple with the scriptures, and make sense of them in the context of our everyday lives, if we are going to be able to effectively witness to the wonder of God through our journey of life. We might have heard people question (or even thought ourselves):
· ‘the world is so bad … why doesn’t God end it all’, or,
· ‘how does God cope with all the injustice & cruelty in this world He created’,
· or, ‘why does God allow things to go on like this’??? What answers can we give to such questions!

We’ll have plenty of time for comments and questions at the end (or interrupt if you want to).

We know that God created everything in great hope and optimism. In the early chapters of Genesis, and again in places like Psalm 8, we read that human beings have been made in God’s image, and then given (collective) responsibility for the rest of the created order. The “fall” or the entrance of sin on the scene interfered with this, and still does, yet did not alter the fact that each human is born in God’s image – and thus their life is sacred. And this responsibility that humans have over the rest of creation has never been revoked, God remaining optimistic about the outcomes. Why … because God, as well as being this most magnificent force of creation, is also a very personal relational Being who can transform lives from darkness to light, and from meaninglessness to purpose.

Yet we see that this is not easy for God. God sees the evil and violence in the world, and the inclinations of human hearts toward such evil, and expresses (in Genesis 6:5-6) being sorry for creating humankind; in some ways God wishes that He could start over again. We then see this in the whole Noah story. God looked upon the state of the world with great disappointment; and this disappointment was too much for God. This disappointment would well over into a massive flood over the face of the earth, with dire consequences. But God did find a righteous man, whom he knew would respond well, and gave him the task of preserving the animal kingdom and re-populating the world. Noah would build an ark to provide for such safe continuance of life.

We can see that God could not easily look upon what was happening on earth, it caused God great inner turmoil. Yet when the flood was all over there was still a sense of regret in God about the action He took – such that God committed to never taking this course of action again. We learn here the gravity of sin, injustice and cruelty; at the same time as seeing God’s optimism, hope and connectedness to humanity. Just because God is compassionate, doesn’t lessen the negativity of sin. Yet despite the abuses of God’s creation and gift of life century after century, God remains faithful in His care for us.

Just as well … as we look at history, even the recent history of war, genocide, injustice and localised incidences of violence, abuse and terror! God no doubt looks on this with despair now, yet continues to seek to empower His people to clean up their mess. Following the flood, God made a covenant, not to again destroy humanity from the face of the earth. God put a rainbow in the sky to continually remind Himself of the decision that had been made. And, given what God would observe over and over again, He would certainly need such reminding.

This early ‘covenant’ was an ‘agreement’ that God was making within Himself, you might say within the Trinity or Community of God (inclusive of the Son and Spirit), with Noah as God’s witness, about how God would act in the future in regard to humanity. So much does God love us … that He will put up with a lot on the path of reclaiming us into relationship with the Divine Community!

In this covenant, without any obligation to do so, God is binding himself to humanity. God is unconditionally committed to us. I talk a lot about how we have to be on mission with Jesus, but this text reminds even me that God initially comes to us with a promise without any demands (or performance indicators) attached (other than the preservation of life itself). Later covenantal theology develops implications, but God begins here with pure promise. This is so different to our place of study where we are strictly examined, or to our place of work where our performance is judged against certain criteria, or in the material world where how we look is compared to some artificial ideal.

God is thoroughly committed to our well-being. Perhaps this is why, despite all the terrible weapons of mass destruction man has invented, life on earth continues. Whether people realise it or not, life continues because of God’s covenanted care! As we heard from the early part of Genesis 9, God places huge value on each human life, and wants to see each life maintained until the opportunity for reconciliation with each person arrives.

Following the flood, the call of the creation stories to ‘be fruitful and multiply’, are firmly restated. The beneficiaries of this ‘covenant’ or ‘agreement’ would be the descendants of all those creatures that came out of the ark, right through to you and I and all our descendants. All people of all subsequent times, places, cultures and nationalities are covered, all in the hope that they would truly become part of God’s family. [Also, lest anyone doubt our significant responsibility to the animal kingdom, note the repeated interest shown by God in each species that has been created.]

As we read in verse 16, this is an “everlasting” unbreakable covenant, that God will find ways of maintaining, and as we know, develop in it new directions. There will be future covenants with Abraham and Moses which develop our understanding of God’s relationship with His people; and we know about the ‘new covenant’ through Jesus’ blood – the ultimate offering of God’s grace.

The choice of the ‘rainbow’ as the symbol of covenant is interesting in itself. The Hebrew word used here is simply ‘bow’, and generally refers to a ‘weapon’ used by ancient Near Eastern soldiers. Thus an instrument of war and death is laid aside in the clouds to become a sign of peace and life assured in the everlasting covenant. Here we see a very early sign of God’s heart of mercy and grace … that overwhelms any sense of justice or punishment or revenge. The ‘rainbow’ is God’s cry for peace in the midst of turmoil, and an invitation to relationship in the midst of lostness.

It is not only God who needs to be reminded about His covenant by the ‘rainbow’, we too need to remember when we see the rainbow how much God cares for us … this is the real ‘pot of gold’ at the end of the rainbow. We may fail God, but God will never fail us. Irenaeus taught that God did not create human beings simply for company – God was fully complete in the Three Persons of the Trinity. God created us so that He could show us all His generosity.