In the account of Noah’s altar and covenant, the author continues his close associations with ch. 1. As a result of this altar and offering, the whole of the state of humankind before the Flood is reestablished. The human race is still fallen (9:21), but through an offering on the altar they may yet find God’s blessing. It is significant that just as in Ge 1, the focus of the author’s interest in “man” after the Flood is his creation in God’s image (9:6).
While the passage could be looked at purely from a verse by verse approach, I have felt the need to explain the covenantal concepts. We will go further than Genesis 9, not further into Genesis only but also into the other covenants. First, what do we mean by the term covenant.
COVENANT This translates the Hebrew noun berith. The verbal root means “to eat with,” eating a feast wash the sign of an agreement to the covenant being made.Basically, a covenant was an agreement between two parties. In a biblical sense we usually mean a person or nation and God. Or a person or nation and another person or nation. Compare this with the Hittite “suzerain covenant,”(suzerain = vassal) in which a vassal swore fealty to his king out of gratitude for favors received. More about that in a moment.
In the OT, berith identifies three different types of legal relationships. (1) A two-sided covenant between human parties who both voluntarily accept the terms of the agreement. God, however, never “enters in” to such a covenant of equality with men. (2) A one-sided disposition imposed by a superior party . God the Lord thus “commands” a berith that man, the servant, is to “obey” . In the original “covenant of works” he placed Adam on probation, bestowing life, should he prove faithful (Gen 2:17). Humanity failed; but Christ, the last Adam (1 Cor 15:45), did fulfill all righteousness (Matt 3:15; Gal 4:4), thereby earning restoration for all who are his. (Conditional)
(3) God’s self-imposed obligation, for the reconciliation of sinners to himself . (unconditional)
In contemporary thinking, a covenant is like a legally biding agreement. A loan from a bank is an example of this. Interestingly enough, God uses these forms of covenantal agreements which were common among people at the time of the writing. (Remember the Noah flood was not reported about when it happened but many, may years later) We see in the covenant with the Jews a similar type of agreement system that all the people in that area of the middle east at that stage used. God used a form that people could understand and identify with. God contextualized the agreements, made it culturally appropriate.
· Look at verse 9f
GE 9:8 Then God said to Noah and to his sons with him: 9 “I now establish my covenant with you and with your descendants after you 10 and with every living creature that was with you–the birds, the livestock and all the wild animals, all those that came out of the ark with you–every living creature on earth. 11 I establish my covenant with you: Never again will all life be cut off by the waters of a flood; never again will there be a flood to destroy the earth.”
It sounds a bit foreign to us.
1. Descendants – Usually not mentioned in business transactions only in wills.
2. It does give the boundaries of the agreement. – V 10 responsibility for living creatures and v4 don’t drink blood.
GE 9:4 “But you must not eat meat that has its lifeblood still in it. 5 And for your lifeblood I will surely demand an accounting. I will demand an accounting from every animal. And from each man, too, I will demand an accounting for the life of his fellow man.
- A sign of promised adherence.
13 I have set my rainbow in the clouds, and it will be the sign of the covenant between me and the earth. 14 Whenever I bring clouds over the earth and the rainbow appears in the clouds, 15 I will remember my covenant between me and you and all living creatures of every kind. Never again will the waters become a flood to destroy all life. 16 Whenever the rainbow appears in the clouds, I will see it and remember the everlasting covenant between God and all living creatures of every kind on the earth.”
This is like God’s signature on the page.
What about Noah’s side of the bargain?
2 requirements.
1. Don’t eat blood and
2. Be fruitful and multiply.
Sounds a good agreement. Yes, but remember the type of agreement it is like a grant from a king for services well done. A land grant, and he gets the whole earth. All that is required is continued support of the King. (In otherwords – its an all of life agreement.)
If God wanted to make a covenant with people of the 21st century He would most probably use terminology from a bank loan or legal agreement that is contemporary. That is the way God communicated.Another thing about most covenant but not the Noahic covenant is the blessings and curses attached to them. If you kept them, the agreement held, if you broke the rules of the covenant the other person had just cause to cause you grief. The curses sound really bizarre to us, but they lived in a blessing / curse environment. People then believed in the power of words and being cursed was much like our concept of having a spell placed on them. Words had incredible meaning and power. We don’t apportion such power to words anymore but we do have a similar system of agreement. Pay your loan repayments and you end up owning your house, if you don’t you lose it. It’s all to do with the power of words that you have as fine print in your contracts.
One noticeable thing is that God’s revelations of his covenant exhibit historical progression (note plural “covenants,” Rom 9:4): (1) the Edenic (Gen 3:15), God’s earliest promise of redemption, though at the cost of the bruising of the heel of the seed of woman; (2) the Noachian (9:9), for the preservation of the seed; (3) the Abrahamic (15:18), granting blessing through Abram’s family; (4) the Sinaitic (Exod 19:5-6), designating
Entries (RSS)