God's Covenant

Worship first. “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” (8:20). Noah gave back to God from the animals God had saved. God was pleased. “And the Lord smelled a soothing aroma” (8:21). This is a way of saying God gladly accepted Noah's offering. A promise from God's heart. “Then the Lord said in His heart, ‘I will never again curse the ground for man’s sake’” (8:21). God decided this inside Himself before He spoke the covenant out loud. Not because people changed. God knew that “the imagination of man’s heart is evil from his youth” (8:21). His promise did not depend on people being good. It came from His mercy. Every year, every day. “While the earth remains, Seedtime and harvest, Cold and heat, Winter and summer, And day and night Shall not cease” (8:22). Remains means keeps on being here. God feeds the world. “The eyes of all look expectantly to You, And You give them their food in due season” (Psalm 145:15). Every harvest is a gift from God. What this means for you. When you eat breakfast, watch the sunrise or feel the first cold day of winter, remember that God is keeping a promise He made to Noah. Thank Him for it.

Burnt offerings (8:20). Noah offered burnt offerings from “every clean animal and of every clean bird.” A burnt offering was given wholly to God. Noah's first act on the new earth was to give back to God from what God had saved. The Lord's heart (8:21). “Then the Lord said in His heart.” The promise begins as God's own decision, before the covenant is spoken to Noah in 9:9. God's mercy comes from inside Him. People do not have to pry it out of Him. Mercy in spite of the heart (8:21). In 6:5 God saw that “every intent of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually,” and judgment followed. In 8:21 He sees the same heart and promises mercy. Many Christians see that this promise came right after a sacrifice, a picture of the cross, where mercy comes to sinners through an offering. The ground (8:21). “I will never again curse the ground for man’s sake.” In 3:17 the ground was cursed because of Adam's sin. God promises not to strike the earth again as He did in the flood. The full end of the curse waits for the new creation: “And there shall be no more curse” (Revelation 22:3). While the earth remains (8:22). Seedtime and harvest, cold and heat, winter and summer, day and night: the steady rhythm of the world is a gift of God's promise. Paul told the people of Lystra that God showed His goodness to everyone by giving rain from heaven and fruitful seasons (Acts 14:17). Psalm 145:15-16. “You open Your hand And satisfy the desire of every living thing.” The God who sent the flood feeds every creature. Application. God's faithfulness shows up in small daily things. Thank Him for the ordinary rhythms of your life, and trust Him with the hard days too.

Noah's first job on the new earth was worship. He built an altar and burned offerings to God. Noah gave God some of his very best animals. God was pleased with Noah's worship. Then God made a promise in His heart. He knew people would still sin. Their hearts were still not clean. But God chose to be kind anyway. He would never again destroy every living thing that way. God promised that the seasons would keep coming. There would be planting time and harvest time. Cold and hot, day and night would keep coming. Every morning the sun comes up because God keeps His word.

Noah gave gifts to God on an altar. God was pleased. God promised to take care of the earth. He still does today!

Blessed again. “So God blessed Noah and his sons, and said to them: ‘Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth’” (9:1). These are the same words God spoke to Adam and Eve (1:28). Animals and people. “And the fear of you and the dread of you shall be on every beast of the earth” (9:2). Dread means great fear. God put people in charge of the animals. Food. “Every moving thing that lives shall be food for you. I have given you all things, even as the green herbs” (9:3). God gave meat as well as plants. Not the blood. “But you shall not eat flesh with its life, that is, its blood” (9:4). Blood stands for life, and life belongs to God. Life is precious. “Whoever sheds man’s blood, By man his blood shall be shed; For in the image of God He made man” (9:6). Because people are made in God's image, taking a human life is a very serious sin. God gave people the job of protecting life and punishing murder. Fill the earth. “And as for you, be fruitful and multiply” (9:7). God wanted His world full of people again. What this means for you. Every person you meet, at school, at home or anywhere, is made in God's image. Treat each one with kindness, because they matter to God.

A fresh start (9:1). God repeats the creation blessing, “Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth” (compare 1:28). Noah stands as a new head of the human family. Yet the world is not back to Eden. Fear and dread (9:2). In Eden people ruled the animals in peace (1:28). After the flood, animals would fear people. The world is still beautiful, but sin has changed it. Meat and blood (9:3-4). God now gives every moving thing for food, “even as the green herbs” (9:3). But “you shall not eat flesh with its life, that is, its blood” (9:4). Later the law explains: “For the life of the flesh is in the blood… it is the blood that makes atonement for the soul” (Leviticus 17:11). Atonement (say: uh-TONE-ment) means the payment that brings sinners back to God. A reckoning (9:5). “Surely for your lifeblood I will demand a reckoning.” A reckoning is a settling of accounts. God Himself holds every killer, animal or human, responsible. The image of God (9:6). “For in the image of God He made man.” The Hebrew tselem (say: TSEH-lem) means image or likeness. Even after the fall and the flood, every person still bears God's image. James 3:9 warns against cursing people “who have been made in the similitude of God.” Similitude means likeness. Justice (9:6). “Whoever sheds man’s blood, By man his blood shall be shed.” God gives human authorities the duty to protect life and to punish murder (compare Romans 13:4). Justice helps keep a world of sinful hearts from filling with violence again (6:11). Application. If every person bears God's image, then mocking, bullying or ignoring someone is never a small thing. Honor people because God made them.

God blessed Noah and his sons. He told them to have many children and fill the earth. God gave Adam and Eve that same blessing long before. God was starting over with a new family. Now God let people eat meat as well as plants. But they must not eat blood. Blood stands for life, and life belongs to God. Then God said something very important. God made people in His own image. That means people are a little like God. People can love, think and talk with Him. So every person's life is precious. Nobody may take another person's life.

God blessed Noah's family. God made people a little like Him. So every person is special to God.

God speaks. “Then God spoke to Noah and to his sons with him, saying” (9:8). A covenant. “And as for Me, behold, I establish My covenant with you and with your descendants after you” (9:9). A covenant is a serious promise that binds the one who makes it. Establish means to set it firmly in place. God goes first. “As for Me” means God takes the lead. Noah did not ask for this covenant or earn it. For everyone. The covenant is with Noah's descendants, which means every person alive today, and “with every living creature that is with you: the birds, the cattle, and every beast of the earth with you” (9:10). The promise. “Never again shall all flesh be cut off by the waters of the flood; never again shall there be a flood to destroy the earth” (9:11). Cut off means destroyed. No conditions. God did not make this promise depend on Noah's obedience. He promised it no matter what. God cannot lie. “God is not a man, that He should lie” (Numbers 23:19). When God says never again, He means never again. What this means for you. People sometimes forget or break their promises. God never does. You can lean your whole weight on what God says.

Berit (9:9). The Hebrew word for covenant is berit (say: beh-REET). A covenant is a solemn, binding promise that creates a lasting relationship. In the ancient world, kings made covenants with peoples. Here the Creator binds Himself to His creation. “I establish” (9:9, 11). God had promised this in 6:18: “But I will establish My covenant with you.” Now He does it. The covenant comes entirely from God's side. For all (9:9-10). The covenant includes Noah's descendants, and so all people, and “every living creature.” It is the widest covenant in the Bible. Every person you meet lives under this promise of God's patience. No conditions (9:11). God attaches no requirement to Noah. The covenant at Sinai could be broken by Israel: “My covenant which they broke” (Jeremiah 31:32). This one rests on God alone. Why patience? God holds back judgment so that people have time to turn to Him. The Lord is “longsuffering toward us, not willing that any should perish but that all should come to repentance” (2 Peter 3:9). An oath. Isaiah recalls this covenant: “For as I have sworn That the waters of Noah would no longer cover the earth, So have I sworn That I would not be angry with you” (Isaiah 54:9). God uses the Noah covenant as proof that He keeps His word. Hebrews 6:17-18. God confirmed His promise “by two immutable things, in which it is impossible for God to lie.” Immutable means unchangeable. Application. Keeping covenant is part of who God is. He binds Himself to His word, and in Christ He has bound Himself to everyone who trusts Him.

Next God made a covenant. A covenant is a big promise God makes and keeps. God made it with Noah and his sons. It was for their children and grandchildren too. That means it is for us today! It was even for the birds, the cows and the wild animals. God did not ask Noah to do anything first. God simply made the promise. He said a flood would never again destroy the earth. People sometimes break their promises. But God never breaks His. You can trust every word God says.

God made a promise. It was for people and animals. No flood will cover the earth again. God keeps His promise!

A sign. “This is the sign of the covenant which I make between Me and you, and every living creature that is with you, for perpetual generations” (9:12). Perpetual means lasting without end. My rainbow. “I set My rainbow in the cloud, and it shall be for the sign of the covenant between Me and the earth” (9:13). This is our memory verse. God calls the rainbow His own. With the clouds. “It shall be, when I bring a cloud over the earth, that the rainbow shall be seen in the cloud” (9:14). The sign appears when the rain comes, right when people might be afraid. God remembers. “And I will remember My covenant” (9:15). God remembered Noah in the flood (8:1), and He promises to remember this covenant every time. God looks on it. “The rainbow shall be in the cloud, and I will look on it to remember the everlasting covenant” (9:16). The same rainbow we see, God sees. Everlasting. Everlasting means it will never end. “This is the sign of the covenant which I have established between Me and all flesh that is on the earth” (9:17). What this means for you. The next time you see a rainbow, remember that God sees it too, and that He has never broken a promise. Then thank Him.

Qeshet (9:13). The Hebrew word for rainbow is qeshet (say: KEH-shet), the ordinary word for a warrior's bow. Many Christians see a picture here: after the storm of judgment, God hangs up His bow in the sky, pointed away from the earth. Covenant signs. God's covenants come with signs that can be seen. Later Israel was given the Sabbath as a sign of the covenant at Sinai (Exodus 31:16-17). In the new covenant, Jesus gave the cup: “This cup is the new covenant in My blood” (Luke 22:20). Seen by God (9:16). “I will look on it to remember the everlasting covenant.” The sign is first of all for God's own remembering, not only ours. God's faithfulness does not depend on our feelings or our memory. Everlasting (9:16). The Hebrew olam (say: oh-LAHM) means lasting for ages, without end. Hebrews 13:20 speaks of “the blood of the everlasting covenant,” the new covenant Jesus sealed by His death and resurrection. A rainbow around the throne. Ezekiel saw the glory of the Lord shining like a rainbow in the clouds on a rainy day (Ezekiel 1:28). John saw “a rainbow around the throne, in appearance like an emerald” (Revelation 4:3). God's mercy surrounds His rule. Mercy and judgment. The rainbow appears with the storm cloud. Mercy is shown against the dark background of judgment. At the cross judgment and mercy met: God's justice against sin and His love for sinners. Application. Let every rainbow be a small sermon: God judges sin, God shows mercy, and God keeps His word.

God gave a sign to go with His covenant. A sign helps us remember something important. God's sign was the rainbow. God called it “my rainbow.” He put it in the clouds when the rain comes. God said that when He sees the rainbow, He will remember. That shows how sure His promise is. Rainbows still come after storms today. Each one shows that God keeps His word. This promise will last forever. It is for every person and every animal. Next time you see a rainbow, thank God. Remember that He keeps every promise.

God put a rainbow in the clouds. It is the sign of His promise. God always remembers. Look up and thank Him!

🎉 All Matched!