Presentation 19

Presentation 19

One of the questions that has exercised the minds of political leaders is, “Will those we have signed a peacekeeping treaty keep their word of promise?” The world in which we live is increasingly insecure and anxious. Wives are asking, ‘Will my husband kept his promise to be faithful to me?’ Many employees are asking, ‘Will my employer give me the salary increase or the promotion that he promised me?’ We also find the voters in many countries asking, ‘Will the person or party I voted for keep their election pledges?’

Without trying very hard we will all be able to think of anxieties created in our own hearts because someone has not fulfilled their word of promise to us. It is against this background that we examine Genesis 9.

Introduction

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Noah must have stepped into the world after the flood with great apprehension in his heart. The bones of animals and men strewn over the landscape would have acted as sobering reminders of a great upheaval that had taken place. Would he be asking, ‘How will we survive? How can we face the future?’ These are the kinds of questions that people often ask in the aftermath of a great devastation. People can be so traumatised by past tragedy that they find it hard to face the time ahead.

They are vulnerable, anxious, isolated and often feel threatened as they stand on the threshold of a new and quite different future. This is why skilled counsellors are often on hand in disaster situations - to help people pick up the pieces. Noah was fortunate for he had the very best Crisis Counsellor on hand to help. God!

Introduction

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Into this situation God spoke his word of promise, or to use Biblical language God made a covenant with Noah. The first thing to notice is that these chapters which describe the flood and its aftermath make use of covenant terminology. Unlike the preceding chapters, where the information is succinct we find in chapter 6 that God would establish a covenant and then in chapter 8 the covenant is described in more detail, while again here in chapter 9 additional details of the covenant are provided.

Why the repetition? Noah needed this level of reassurance. He needed to hear of God’s promise again and again. Before examining the substance of God’s covenant promise consider first God’s practical care of his servant.

Anxieties Relieved

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God begins by assuring Noah that he has not given up on the human race despite, what the bleached skeletons scattered over the landscape might suggest. God republished the important mandate that he had given to Adam to fill the earth 9v1. You see, man was still the object of God’s love, the crown of his creation, and was still intended to be the focus for his greatest blessings. Close intimate fellowship with God was still God's purpose for man. And so v1 speaks of an unchanging commitment to the human race.

Anxieties Relieved

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Secondly, God deals with a threat from the animal kingdom. Was this a worry to Noah and his family. You cannot live cooked up with a menagerie of animals for as long as Noah had without thinking, “How soon might it be before these animals view me as Sunday lunch”. In response to that anxiety God promises in v2, that from that point on the wild members of the animal kingdom would stand in fear of humans.

Anxieties Relieved

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Thirdly, God directs his attention to another of Noah’s concerns. How would Noah adequately be able to feed his family? Up until this point the human race seems to have been vegetarian. In 1.29 man had been given freedom to eat fruit and crops. But now the situation is altered. Did the upheaval of the flood diminish the soil's fertility? Was there a significant climatic change after the flood? Many believe that the new world was subject to greater extremes of climate.

Anxieties Relieved

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Vegetarian meals would not always be available. And so in v3 meat is added to man’s diet. We need to appreciate the care God takes in providing for Noah’s needs and the great lengths he goes to dispel his anxieties. God has not changed! There are a whole variety of anxieties in the hearts of God’s people. We need to be persuaded of the detailed care God takes to relieve those anxieties. Remember how Jesus dispelled the anxieties of his disciples in Matt.6.25-34.

Anxieties Relieved

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We come to the heart of the covenant in v8 God says; "Never again will all life be cut off by waters of a flood”. It would be understandable if Noah and his family feared a further deluge. Once you have experienced one disaster it is extremely difficult not to think, ‘Perhaps it will happen again’. Many of those rescued from the Titanic said, "I'll never sail again". Why? Their confidence has been shaken. But God by establishing this covenant with Noah writes

“never again” across the pages of human history.

Characteristics of the Covenant

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Unlike human covenants, God’s covenants do not involve two parties agreeing to some sort of contract for their mutual benefit. God's covenants are not conditional upon human performance. God did not make his covenant with Noah vulnerable by saying, "I won't bring another flood if YOU play your part". Agreements involving unreliable human nature will always be vulnerable. Think of the Treaty of Versailles signed by Germany at the end of W.W.I. They promised not to rearm. Hitler's party broke that treaty!

In contrast God’s covenants are unilateral. They are made by him alone and so they are the most secure agreements in the universe.

Characteristics of the Covenant

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Secondly, the covenants are an expression of God's grace. They are God's way of giving to men what they do not deserve. God’s covenants are not built upon human merit but upon divine mercy. They are an undeserved gift. Can you imagine a world in which God treated us precisely as we deserved, a world shorn of mercy and of grace, where God constantly demanded his pound of flesh? When Noah stepped out of the ark he stepped into a world of grace.

Characteristics of the Covenant

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Thirdly, God’s covenants are made in the context of sacrifice. God made his covenant with Noah as he stood before the altar of sacrifice, just as he did in the case of Abraham, Moses, David and the Lord Jesus Christ. Why is the context of sacrifice so important? It is a telling reminder that it costs God to be gracious. It costs God to satisfy his justice and to treat us not as we deserve but according to his mercy.

And God himself provides the payment.

Characteristics of the Covenant

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God sealed his covenant of Grace with Noah with a sign – a rainbow. The significance of this symbol is paramount. As if God is saying, “When you look to the past you remember the awful ugliness and disfigurement produced by sin but I can overcome that. I am calling you out of that former ugliness to be with myself”. The last words prayed by an elderly Christian lady were, ‘Lord take me out of this ugly world’. Significantly, Rev.4.3 paints a picture of God sitting on a throne around which there is a rainbow!

Life here on earth may be tarnished by tragedy and ugliness but we are called to enter into the beauty of God’s holiness. Called to rainbow living – to a certain hope of a brighter tomorrow and into the grace of a beautiful new beginning!

The Sign of of the Covenant

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All of God’s covenants are accompanied by significant signs. E.g. Abraham, left his homeland in obedience to God’s word. His early days were marked by incredible loneliness - very few shared his faith in God. What did God do? He took him out under the night sky and told him to look up to the heavens. God promised him a family that would be so numerous as the stars in the sky. Are you lonely? Are you the only Christian in your workplace or family? God wants you to see things as he sees them. You are a part of a great body of believers. One day you will share in the glorious fellowship of the redeemed in heaven.

The Sign of of the Covenant

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Think now of Jacob. He was a mummy’s boy who didn’t think twice about cheating someone to get what he wanted. Such people inevitably alienate themselves from friends and family. Jacob did that and was obliged to leave home. God met not just with a lonely but an isolated man and renewed his covenant with him. The sign given to Jacob was of a ladder that stretched from heaven to earth. God was saying,

‘even although you have alienated yourself from family and friends, I choose not to be alienated from you. I can come to you and you can come to me whenever you want. I am with you wherever you go’.

The Sign of of the Covenant

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There are many alienated people around today. People who, by their behaviour, have set up barriers that keep others at a distance. Zacchaeus was that kind of person [Lk.19.1ff] his greed and selfishness had alienated him from the community of which he was a part. To such people God could say,

‘though you have alienated yourself from others I choose not to be alienated from you. I am the God who builds stairways and there is no more wonderful stairway than the one down which Jesus travelled in order to deal with alienation, in order to be your Saviour and to bring you back into my presence’.

The Sign of of the Covenant

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Now think of the new covenant established in the upper room by Jesus with his disciples on the night of his arrest. It bears all the characteristics of the O.T. covenants. It was made by God alone; it was a covenant of grace not something deserved or earned; it was established at a great cost to God, the death of his only Son. And its substance is mind-boggling. As a result of his death, Jesus would not only secure the forgiveness of his people and their acceptance with God but a place in God’s family for all eternity.

The Sign of of the Covenant

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God’s covenant ministers assurance to our hearts – it rests not on our performance but on HIS! We live in an ugly world, which is for many an increasingly frightening place but God has given us a covenant to hold onto. The sign for the new covenant is the sacrament of the Lord’s supper. It is designed to strengthen our faith. If you are anxious, lonely, alienated, weary or overcome by a sense of failure then allow the covenant of God to focus your mind on his promises, which are utterly reliable.

Conclusion

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