This week, we are continuing to look at the story of Noah
and the Ark, which is recorded for us in the very first letter of the Bible,
called the book of Genesis. Yesterday, we saw God stop the rain and recede the
waters of the flood. After 300 days, the earth was now dry. However, Noah was
still on the ark, waiting for the o.k. to reenter the world. Today, we see what
happens next in verse 13:
Now it came about in the six hundred and first
year, in the first month, on
the first of the month, the water was dried up from the earth. Then Noah
removed the covering of the ark, and looked, and behold, the surface of the
ground was dried up. In the second month, on the twenty-seventh day of the
month, the earth was dry. Then God spoke to Noah, saying, "Go out of the
ark, you and your wife and your sons and your sons' wives with you. "Bring
out with you every living thing of all flesh that is with you, birds and
animals and every creeping thing that creeps on the earth, that they may breed
abundantly on the earth, and be fruitful and multiply on the earth." So Noah
went out, and his sons and his wife and his sons' wives with him. Every beast,
every creeping thing, and every bird, everything that moves on the earth, went
out by their families from the ark.
70 days after the dove had failed to return back to the
ark, Noah removes the covering that served as the roof for the ark to discover
that as he looked across the earth, he saw earth. The earth was dry. However
Noah, while having evidence from his observations that the earth was dry,
wanted to hear from the Lord as to when he was to leave the ark.
And after 377 days in the ark, God does in fact speak to
Noah, commanding him to lead his family, along with all of the animals out of
the ark and into the world. And as God’s creation entered back into the world
God commanded the creation to repopulate the earth. Moses records for us that
Noah responded by faithfully following God’s command and left the ark to
reenter the world. We then see Moses reveal for us another way that Noah
responded to God’s grace in verse 20:
Then Noah built an altar to the
LORD, and took of every clean animal and of every clean bird and offered burnt
offerings on the altar. The LORD smelled the soothing aroma; and the LORD said
to Himself, "I will never again curse the ground on account of man, for
the intent of man's heart is evil from his youth; and I will never again
destroy every living thing, as I have done. "While the earth remains,
Seedtime and harvest, And cold and heat, And summer and winter, And day and
night Shall not cease."
Noah responded to God’s gracious in his life by
worshipping God. And as Noah built an altar and expressed his thanksgiving and
joy in worship to God’s gracious activity in his life, we see Moses paint for
us a word picture to describe God’s response to Noah’s worship. The phrase
smelled that soothing aroma conveys a word picture of acceptance and the
extending of peace. Noah’s act of worship was received by God and appeased that
His right and just response to selfishness and rebellion.
God then makes an amazing statement that reveals an
amazing promise: I will never again curse the ground on account of man, for the
intent of man's heart is evil from his youth; and I will never again destroy
every living thing, as I have done. But this morning, what does that mean? What
is God promising here?
When God states that He will never again curse the ground
on account of man, He is not removing the curse of Genesis 3. Instead, God is
promising that He will never again add additional judgment to humanity that was
over and above the curse. You see, the flood was God’s judgment over and above
the curse that he had pronounced at the selfishness and rebellion of Adam and
Eve. God is revealing for us the reality that the human heart had not changed
as a result of the flood. The human heart was still and is still bent and
intent on selfishness and rebellion from birth.
However, God’s response to the selfishness and rebellion
of humanity would be to extend even greater grace to the human race. God would
respond to the rebellion of humanity by continually pursuing humanity and
extending opportunities for grace, forgiveness, and restoration to the
relationship with God and one another that they were created for. God would
graciously pursue humanity as He restored the rhythm of life that the earth
experienced before the flood but after the sin of Adam and Eve in Genesis 3.
The earth would still experience the consequences of Adam
and Eve’s rebellion, but would not experience another earth-wide act of God’s
justice and judgment. God then turns the focus of His response from His promise
to humanity and toward a conversation with humanity, beginning in Genesis 9:1:
And God blessed Noah and his
sons and said to them, "Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth.
"The fear of you and the terror of you will be on every beast of the earth
and on every bird of the sky; with everything that creeps on the ground, and
all the fish of the sea, into your hand they are given. "Every moving
thing that is alive shall be food for you; I give all to you, as I gave the green plant. "Only
you shall not eat flesh with its life, that
is, its blood. "Surely I will require your lifeblood; from every
beast I will require it. And from every
man, from every man's brother I will require the life of man.
"Whoever sheds man's blood, By man his blood shall be shed, For in the
image of God He made man. "As for you, be fruitful and multiply; Populate
the earth abundantly and multiply in it."
Here we see God reveal to Noah two significant changes
that would occur in human relationships as a result of the flood. First, we see
that the relationship between humanity and the animal kingdom was changed as a
result of the flood. As a result of the flood, humanity was now allowed to use
the animal kingdom for food. The flood did not bring the creation back to
Genesis 1; instead there are still consequences for the curse of selfishness
and rebellion, which includes a changed relationship between humanity the
animals. Humans were now allowed to take the life of an animal for food.
However, while humanity was given the right to willingly
take the life of a member of the animal kingdom, God makes perfectly clear that
no such right extended to human beings themselves. So second, we see a change
when it came to the consequences for willingly taking the life of another human
being. God’s consequence for willingly and thoughtfully taking another’s life
was death. Murder was to receive a punishment that matched the crime.
Today, we call this capital punishment. And as you might
imagine, the subject of capital punishment provokes strong and heated debate
from those on both side of the issue. And while a discussion on capital
punishment would be a sermon in itself, I want to take a minute to address the
most common objection that I hear from those who oppose capital punishment,
which is that capital punishment is inhumane and devalues life.
If you would identify with that statement, I would like
to challenge that objection. And my challenge to that objection comes from this
verse. God established capital punishment to demonstrate how much He values
life. God cares and values life so much that He demands the life of those who
would take another’s life. Because mankind is created in the image of God;
because mankind was designed to represent and reflect the nature and character
of God on earth; and because God values all human life; He demands the life of
those who would take another’s life by the act of murder. Instead of taking
life, God commands humanity to produce life. God then provides an amazing sign
that would serve to remind humanity of God’s promise in verse 8:
Then God spoke to Noah and to
his sons with him, saying, "Now behold, I Myself do establish My covenant
with you, and with your descendants after you; and with every living creature
that is with you, the birds, the cattle, and every beast of the earth with you;
of all that comes out of the ark, even every beast of the earth. "I
establish My covenant with you; and all flesh shall never again be cut off by
the water of the flood, neither shall there again be a flood to destroy the
earth." God said, "This is the sign of the covenant which I am making
between Me and you and every living creature that is with you, for all
successive generations; I set My bow in the cloud, and it shall be for a sign
of a covenant between Me and the earth. "It shall come about, when I bring
a cloud over the earth, that the bow will be seen in the cloud, and I will
remember My covenant, which is between Me and you and every living creature of
all flesh; and never again shall the water become a flood to destroy all flesh.
"When the bow is in the cloud, then I will look upon it, to remember the
everlasting covenant between God and every living creature of all flesh that is
on the earth." And God said to Noah, "This is the sign of the
covenant which I have established between Me and all flesh that is on the
earth."
God’s sign for all humanity throughout history to be
reminded of God’s promise to never flood the earth is the rainbow. As we saw
earlier, when God states that I will remember My covenant, God is not saying
that He had forgotten His promise. The word remembered is one of action that conveys
that sense of remembering in a way that extends grace and mercy to someone so
as to rescue them from death. You see, just as the clouds and the storms would
serve as a reminder of God’s power and His right and just response to the
selfishness and rebellion of humanity, the rainbow would serve as a reminder of
God’s grace and mercy to rebellious humanity.
Now does that change how you
view a thunderstorm? How does that change how you view a rainbow? In the
rainbow in the midst of the rainstorm, we see a word picture that is Divinely
designed to remind us of God’s right and just response to selfishness and sin
and God’s grace and mercy towards selfishness and sin. We see God as a promise
maker and a promise keeper. We see humanity given a new and fresh start with a
new and fresh hope.
Friday, we will see humanities
response to the new and fresh hope they were given…
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