Title Noah's Covenant/Genesis 9:8~17
Contents Noah's Covenant/Genesis 9:8~17
What is salvation for humans in this modern world? How will that salvation come? The answer is obvious. It goes back to the Bible. It is trusting in the absoluteness of the Bible. It is listening to the voice of God's revelation through the Bible. God speaks of human nature and restoration through the Bible.
1. He judged the pervasiveness of sin with water.
At the height of creation, God commanded man to “be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth” (Genesis 1:28). He entrusted human beings to manage the created world. After God finished creation, He rejoiced and rested. And the Bible praises God's creation with expressions such as 'it was good to see' and 'it was very good'. However, the record after the fall of Adam and Eve shows that man prospered very rapidly and fell rapidly in proportion to the rate at which the earth was filled. Human beings, created in God's image, should delight in God and live before God. But he became incapable of pleasing God, and very capable of living a sinful life.
God was very angry with this and lamented over sinful mankind. You could not leave humanity as it strays from the purpose of your creation and goes on an increasingly evil path. He healed it, and He wanted to heal it for its original purpose. And the method God chose was water.
2. He saved Noah and his family.
God chose Noah, who was recorded as a righteous man of his time, and made him the seed of the beginning of a new human race. In all these processes, he showed greater interest in the salvation of Noah's family than in the judgment of mankind through the flood. So, the Bible is a long and detailed record of the salvation of Noah's family. From the point of view of redemption history, the history of mankind can be divided into Noah's Flood as the starting point. From the Creation to Noah's Flood, and from Noah's Flood to the end of the world. Noah's flood, which was a turning point in this history, was a way of punishing the sinful history of fallen mankind. And through this, he gave us the opportunity to make a new history. It means that Noah's Flood first cleansed all evil and gave mankind the opportunity to create new history through the method of salvation called the ark.
The flood began 120 years after the Great Judgment was foretold. This fact demonstrates the mercy of God who judges sin and gives opportunity for repentance until the last day. Also, the faith of Noah, who believed in the promise and obeyed the promise without being disappointed or giving up even during that long period of time, shows the spiritual attitude of the saved saints.
The Bible warns of the depravity of mankind even after Noah's flood (Romans 3:23) and the final judgment of unjudgment against this sin (2 Peter 3:7). Like Noah's Flood, we must examine ourselves with the awareness of the inevitable judgment of fire. The only way for mankind to escape the judgment of the Flood is to accept God's warning of judgment. Just as it was about building the ark according to God's command and entering the ark, salvation from the judgment of fire in the last days requires believing in the Bible's warning that judgment will come. And only when we enter the church, which is today's ark, and become God's faithful servants, we can receive God's saving grace.
3. He placed a rainbow and promised never to judge with water again.
Today's text shows how God establishes a new covenant. It is to establish a covenant with Noah and his family who came out of the ark after being saved and with all the natural world and generations to come. God makes a rainbow covenant that he will never again destroy all living things with a flood. This is the covenant of grace that guarantees freedom from the judgment of the flood. He has provided a guarantee for mankind to fully survive until the day when Christ comes back to completely destroy the power of Satan and complete the new heavens and new earth.
God established a rainbow that all creation can see as a token of His covenant. The word covenant (berit) is used for the first time in the text. Berit is derived from the word 'bara', which means 'to split'. The ancient custom of contracting was to slaughter a beast, split it in two, and then pass between them to make an oath. If you break the contract, you are ready to risk your life like this beast.
It is to secure your life. Even though there is no ethical meaning to such a thing, God makes a life-threatening covenant. This is an expression of God's faithfulness. Also, the Bible uses the word elohim as the subject of this covenant. Elohim means the Creator of the Almighty. This shows that the object and scope of this rainbow covenant extends to all mankind and creation.
The meaning of this rainbow covenant, which can be said to be another beginning between God and mankind, is very significant in the history of redemption. It is, above all, a re-acknowledgment of the position as the mandated ruler of the entire universe that was given to Adam at the time of creation. And he assured us that he would not judge mankind until the Second Coming of Christ. Because of this fact, even in the midst of extreme hardship and difficult circumstances, we can rely on God with the assurance of salvation.
The rainbow is a symbol of God's covenant, presence, and restoration. And the cross of Christ is the rainbow of the New Testament that protects the saints from all the sins, threats, and worries of the world.
1 Peter 3:21 teaches that Noah's flood was a type of baptism. Noah's family was saved and entered the new world when the old world was destroyed in the water for its sins. In the same way, baptism is the death of the old man for our sins on the cross of Christ, and it is a sign of rebirth in Christ's resurrection to live again with Christ. Therefore, Noah's Ark is the best example of the church.
We are the chosen and baptized disciples of Christ. Even the disciples flock to the dark clouds of worldly worries and anxieties. You will be engulfed in anxiety and worry. When we look to Christ, who is the rainbow of true comfort and peace, we will enjoy true peace and true freedom.
The ark is a symbol of salvation from judgment. There is only one ark, and there is no other way of salvation other than the ark that God has given. It symbolizes the one and only Jesus Christ, who has no salvation other than that. It is also a very safe refuge from harsh and atrocious tribulation, and it is also a symbol of the church where the elect are gathered together.
In a world like the sea of despair, in this age of sailing on this sea of death, there is a true ark, a salvation ship. It is the church. The rainbow in the sky is the church. That is Christ. The ark that saves us from the great storm of secularism and sin is the Church and Christ.