For the next few weeks, as we are speaking about covenants, I want to explore what it means to be God’s covenant people. We can never learn enough about what God has done for us to be His people nor what it means for us to be the people of God. For, as we realize these things, I believe such practices as communion, praise, and thanksgiving will reach a whole new meaning for us.
Therefore, I am going to explore the covenants that God made with some of the individuals in the Old Testament. Today, we are going to start with Noah. In that story we are able to see three very important doctrines for our faith. They are: the depravity of man, the inevitable wrath of God, and the gracious covenant that God extends to His people. And in seeing these things I hope in will heighten our awareness of the pressing need to pray for the lost, to proclaim the gospel to men, and reflect on God’s unbelievable goodness toward us.
However, before we get to Noah, let me say that even in creation, God’s plan was to redeem a people for Himself. He was not surprised by the fall of man, and He was not caught off guard in finding a way to redeem them. It was His plan before the foundation of the world. We just get to see it played out—and we get to play a part in it.
We see this in Genesis 3:15 as the man and the woman have already sinned and God is placing a curse upon the serpent. He says, “And I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your seed and her seed; He shall crush your head and you shall bruise His heel.”
This pronouncement by God is the beginning (from man’s perspective) of God revealing the mystery of the gospel. He tells the serpent that the “seed of the woman” will be opposed to the serpent, and with that we should be puzzled already. After all, it is usually referred to as the seed of the man. That the man impregnates the woman, and the child that is born is the seed of the man. However, on this occasion, Christ (who is this person) is called the “seed of the woman.” Therefore, though no one could probably have figured it out, it is already shown that something will be different about the birth of Jesus. Years later we would discover that He would be born of a virgin. And, therefore, would not be of the seed of man.
And God also says to the serpent that Christ would crush his head while he would bruise His heel. This is also puzzling to the original reader. However, God reveals the mystery as Christ died on the cross only to raise Himself and defeat death forever. He was bruised, but the serpent was crushed.
I say all that in order that we might be amazed at the plan of God in looking in the past. This man be done with all the Old Testament as they look forward to the Messiah, Jesus Christ. And, in looking at Noah, we see another stage in God’s plan of redemption. God shows us a little more what His plans are to redeem and have a people for Himself. What takes place in the passage we have read (in short) is that God sees the wickedness and utter depravity of man, He destroys man with His wrath, and He spares a family for Himself. He commands them (as He did in the beginning) to multiply people upon the earth that God may gather a covenant people for Himself
Many of us no doubt are familiar with the story, but I want to point out three elements in this story that are equally true today.
The first one is the man is totally and utterly wicked in his nature. Genesis 6:5 reads, “Then the LORD saw that the wickedness of man was great on the earth, and that every intent of the thoughts of his heart was only continually evil.” Apart from Christ, men are thoroughly and utterly wicked in everything.
Too many times we read the Scriptures so fast (because we think we are familiar with them) that we miss how explicitly the author is trying to communicate something. But let’s look at this again. First, he says that “the wickedness of man was great on the earth.” Then, to push it a little farther, says, “every intent of the thoughts of his heart was … evil.” That is to say, there is not any intent of the thoughts of man’s heart that is good (apart from Christ). Every thought of one’s heart is evil. And then he adds, “every intent of the thoughts of his heart was only continually evil.” Again, that is to say the only thing they were was evil. There was no good mixed in. And he says they were continually evil. There was not a moment when they were not this way. Therefore, when men think that men are inherently good or that there is at least some good in them, they are speaking directly against the Scriptures.
And so we see a doctrine crucial to understanding salvation here. Man is evil, through and through, apart from Christ. And lest we think that things changed after the flood, God ensures us that things did not change in this regard. And I think this verse is added at this place in Scripture in order to teach us this very truth. Look at Genesis 8:21. This is after the flood, and yet listen to the striking similarity between this and 6:5 which was the reason given for God destroying the world. God says, “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.”
Sure, it is in the midst of God saying something good, but He says still that man’s heart is still evil in its nature. And, in case we thought that we are good when we are little and grow evil, God corrects that thought by adding that man is this way “from his youth.” There is none born righteous, no matter how good they seem. That is us who have believed and repented before our conversion, and for those who have not believed and are unrepentant, this is a description of you now.
And, therefore, in what is often looked upon as a children’s story, what happens because of man’s depravity? God destroys the entire world, only sparing eight people. And what we can learn, and need to realize lest we grow comfortable with lackadaisical attitudes, is that God’s wrath will not delay forever. It will come, and it will come with a fury.
My sister talked about being afraid to take her kids to see The Prince of Egypt, which portrayed the exodus, because of the scenes where the death angel comes and kills the children and the water collapses on Pharaoh and His army, drowning them. I would think that if there were ever an accurate portrayal of Noah and the ark, we would not want to take our children to see it either.
We are talking about a scene with the water rising, men and women and children beating on the ark, eventually dead bodies floating around as a few have scrounged their way into the tallest tree, and, even then, only awaiting their imminent death. It is a horrible scene to think of, and I hate thinking of it.
And yet, if I give into the temptation to downplay it, then I risk deceiving the unrepentant man into thinking that our God is not capable of merciless wrath. Romans 2:5 says that those who are unrepentant are “storing up for themselves wrath in the day of judgement.”
And though we may be temporarily relieved at the thought that the entire world will not be destroyed again in a flood, 2 Peter 3:5-7 says, “For when they maintain this, it escapes their notice that by the word of God the heavens existed long ago and the earth was formed out of water and by water, through which the world at that time was destroyed, being flooded with water. But the present heavens and earth by His word are being reserved for fire, kept for the day of judgment and destruction of ungodly men.”
The next time God’s wrath is poured out on men, it will be in unquenchable, eternal fire for all the ungodly men. And before we think of only people like Adolf Hitler being a ungodly men, don’t forget 6:5 and 8:21 which speaks of all men apart from Christ.
God is wrathful as well as merciful and loving, for He is holy. That’s what the angels cry unto Him every second, “Holy, holy, holy is the Lord God Almighty.”
And yet, the final thought in this seemingly horrible picture is that God saved a people out of the earth. God instructed Noah to build an ark, and he built it. The ark was simply protection from the coming wrath of God. And God covenanted with Noah to protect him in this ark. Look at 6:17-18, “And behold, I, even I am bringing the flood of water upon the earth, to destroy all flesh in which is the breath of life, from under heaven; everything that is on the earth shall perish. But I will establish My covenant with you; and you shall enter the ark—you and your sons and your wife, and your sons’ wives with you.”
God made a covenant with Noah that He would protect Him from the coming wrath of God. That is one (and only one) aspect of what it means to be the covenant people of God. We are protected from the coming wrath of God that is more horrible than anything we could ever imagine.
And I want to point out one other thing that I will use to lead to my closing. In 8:21, it says that Noah took of every clean animal that he had taken onto the ark with him, and he offered it as a sacrifice to God. In essence, it is like Noah saying, “I know that if left to myself, I cannot live worthy of this covenant, and, therefore, these animals’ lives will serve as an offering for my sin.” (And his sin would be magnified very quickly as He gets drunk in chapter nine.)
And the author of Hebrews later informs us that with any covenant, there must be the shedding of blood, writing, “For where a covenant is, there must of necessity be the death of the one who made it” (Hebrews 9:16). And with that, we might say, “Well then, who makes the covenant between God and man is the one who makes it has to die?” The answer is in Hebrews 9:26-28, “[Christ] has been manifested to put away sin by the sacrifice of Himself. And inasmuch as it is appointed for men to die once and after this comes judgment, so Christ also, having been offered once to bear the sins of many, shall appear a second time for salvation without reference to sin, to those who eagerly await Him.”
Therefore, what allows us to be a part of the covenant people of God is that Christ shed blood so that the covenant might be made between God and man. 1 Corinthians 11:25 says this: “In the same way He took the cup also, after supper, saying, ‘This cup is the new covenant in My blood; do this , as often as you drink it, in remembrance of Me.’”
And every time we take of the juice we are to remember that Christ shed His blood in order that He may covenant with us in once aspect, in order that our sins could be forgiven and we might be protected from the coming wrath of God. Just as those in the ark were saved from the wrath of God upon all mankind, only those found in Christ will be protected from the coming wrath of God that will be eternal.
O how it should break our hearts in not understanding why God would allow us to be the Noahs of our day, finding favor with God, and being made righteous by Him. May we understand more and more the blessings we have attained, and what it means to be the people of God because of the covenant He has made with us through the death of His Son. To Him be glory and honor forever and ever, Amen.