Covenants: Noah and Jesus

July 26, 2015


FIRST LESSON: Genesis 9:8–17
8God said to Noah and to his sons with him, 9“Behold, I establish my covenant with you and your offspring after you, 10and with every living creature that is with you, the birds, the livestock, and every beast of the earth with you, as many as came out of the ark; it is for every beast of the earth. 11I 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.” 12And God said, “This is the sign of the covenant that I make between me and you and every living creature that is with you, for all future generations: 13I have set my bow in the cloud, and it shall be a sign of the covenant between me and the earth. 14When I bring clouds over the earth and the bow is seen in the clouds, 15I will remember my covenant that is between me and you and every living creature of all flesh. And the waters shall never again become a flood to destroy all flesh. 16When the bow is in the clouds, I will see it and remember the everlasting covenant between God and every living creature of all flesh that is on the earth.” 17God said to Noah, “This is the sign of the covenant that I have established between me and all flesh that is on the earth.”

In Genesis Chapter One, God creates the heavens and the earth, that is, the whole universe. On Earth is the Garden of Eden. It is my picture of the earth as a planet surrounded by thick, water-filled clouds. It is like a big greenhouse. The earth is like a luscious forest or jungle. Perhaps the cloud cover is so thick that the sun never directly shines on the world, and so the world is protected from the harmful effects of the sun.

Then perhaps, in my imagination, perhaps God sent a huge meteor that struck the earth and upset the whole ecological system. The protecting cloud layer was destroyed, as it rained for 40 days and nights. And after the deluge, in the cloudless sky, the sun shone clearly and brightly, and for the first time, a rainbow appeared in the mists of the rain. The world was new. There could never be such a huge flood again. The rainbow was proof of that. It was a sign of God’s promise. And this was a covenant promise made to every living thing on earth.

God made a perfect world, but it was corrupted by sin. The sin of Adam and Eve was just the start of sin. God cursed Adam and Eve by hard work and hard childbirth. But this did not stop the sinning. By the time of Noah the whole world and all humanity was totally corrupted by sin. This time God wanted to start all over again. It would be a new Genesis. God wanted to destroy all life, but the love of God found one good man on the earth, and for this one man’s sake, he provided a way to save Noah and the animals that he loved. Genesis 6:8 says, “But Noah found favor in the eyes of the LORD. … Noah was a righteous man, blameless among the people of his time, and he walked with God.”

And so Noah became the savior of the human race. God told him to build an ark. An ark is a box [like the Ark of the Covenant, or a treasure ark]. Maybe it was like a big house boat. 450 feet long, 75 feet wide and 45 feet high, it was large enough to carry Noah’s family (8 people: his wife and 3 sons and their wives) and 2 of every kind of animals. It rained for 40 days and nights and then the water remained for another 8 to 10 months before Noah could leave the ark.

Then God makes a promise, a covenant with Noah and all living creatures. There are three parts to the covenant. 　1. That there would never be a world-wide flood again. 2. That the normal seasons would always continue. Genesis 8:21-22, “Never again will I curse the ground because of man, even though every inclination of his heart is evil from childhood. And never again will I destroy all living creatures, as I have done. As long as the earth endures, seedtime and harvest, cold and heat, summer and winter, day and night will never cease.” And 3, the third part of the covenant is that from that time on, people may eat the meat of animals, but must not eat blood, because that is life, and life belongs to God. Then as the sign of the covenant, like signing his name and setting his seal, God sets his bow in the sky. This is not the bow to shoot arrows of punishment upon people, but the bow of beautiful light that reveals the love and promise of God.

But after Noah, people start sinning again. The rest of the Old Testament is the record of God’s punishment for sin and God’s rescue from enemies. It is God’s wrath and God’s love. It is God’s mercy, because he finds a few people who are righteous and for their sakes he rescues them. And this is the story of Abraham, Moses and the Exodus, the Book of Judges, King David, and the prophets.

But sin continued. God promised to Noah that he would not destroy the world, and so this time God again sent salvation. It was not Noah and the Ark, but it was Jesus and the Cross. In Jesus there is a man who is perfectly righteous and who walks with God.

Noah took two of every animal on the Ark, but Jesus took all of our sins on the Cross. The earth turned dark and stormy. And Jesus died. On the third day, the tomb was broken open. Jesus had risen from the dead. Sin was forgiven.

And now there is a new covenant promise. It is John 3:16 and 17, “For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him.”

In order that we might remember the eternal love and mercy of God, God “signed” the covenant to Noah with the rainbow, Jesus “signed” the new covenant in a number of ways so that we can always remember his love and our salvation. 1, There is the sign of the cross. For a Christian, to see a cross is as happy as seeing a rainbow. It used to be a sign of death, but now it is a sign of life and forgiveness and resurrection and hope. 2, There is the sign of baptism. The water of the flood washed away sin, and so does baptism. Like being safe in the Ark, we are carried on the arms of Jesus. The Holy Spirit is like the dove of peace that gives us the peace of God in our hearts. 3, And there is the sign of the Lord’s Supper. I Corinthians 11:23-26

“The Lord Jesus, on the night he was betrayed, took bread, 24 and when he had given thanks, he broke it and said, ‘This is my body, which is for you; do this in remembrance of me.’ 25 In the same way, after supper he took the cup, saying, ‘This cup is the new covenant in my blood; do this, whenever you drink it, in remembrance of me.’ 26 For whenever you eat this bread and drink this cup, you proclaim the Lord’s death until he comes.”

But there is still sin and chaos in this world. It would not be a surprise if the Lord God Almighty decided to destroy the world. Jesus predicted the End of the World when he would return again. But meanwhile, we are still in this sinful world. There are troubles and storms and evil. There are times in life when we feel like we are drowning. We feel like we could die. Then we pray that God would send an Ark and rescue us. Or we feel like the disciples in the boat on the Sea of Galilee. The wind is against us. We are rowing as hard as we can. We are working as hard as we can but getting nowhere. We pray that the Holy Spirit would give us strength. We pray that Jesus will come to rescue us. The middle of the lake is lonely. We hope that Jesus will come, but do we really think he will? Do we have faith? Do our hopes seem like an illusion, like a ghost?

But the Good News of the Gospel is that Jesus can walk on water. He can rise from the dead. He can heal the sick. He can come to us when in distress. And what a joy it is when we see Jesus in our boat, in our lives, He says, “Take heart; it is I. Do not be afraid.” And that is why the story of Noah and the Ark is loved by many people. It is because we know that in Jesus we have found favor in the eyes of the Lord, and we too are in that Ark

Amen.

Michael Nearhood, Pastor
Okinawa Lutheran Church


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