The Post-Flood Covenant

The Post-Flood Covenant (GEN 8:20-9:17) A. The earth and humanity were experiencing a true Reformation. 1. This Reformation (as others) did not actually change the nature of sinful man. GEN 6:5 c/w GEN 8:21; PSA 58:3; PRO 22:15. 2. Outward judgments may terrify and restrain men, but cannot renew their nature. 3. The change of man’s nature requires creation or resurrection power, not reformation. 2CO 5:17 c/w EPH 1:19-20; 2:1, 4-5, 10; 1CO 15:52. B. By the Flood, God showed that He can destroy and start over again without any aspersions cast upon His character. c/w EXO 32:10; MAT 21:43. C. God then established (made firm) a covenant, as promised. GEN 6:18. 1. The covenant was with Noah and his seed. GEN 9:8-9. 2. The covenant was also established with the brute creation. GEN 9:10. 3. The covenant was by the sworn oath of God. ISA 54:9. 4. The covenant was therefore one of unconditional promise and could not be rescinded. c/w HEB 7:21; ROM 11:26-29. a. The heirs of God are so by His promise, not their performance. GAL 3:16, 18, 29. b. As such, their inheritance is certain. JOH 10:27-29; TIT 1:1-2 c/w 2TI 1:1. D. The covenant guaranteed that an all-consuming Flood should never again occur. GEN 9:11; PSA 104:9. 1. The covenant guaranteed the natural processes of earth to continue co-extensively with the earth itself. GEN 8:22. 2. Global warming, ozone holes, burning trees or even HARP machines would not overthrow the earth's cycles. 3. What the covenant did NOT guarantee was that the earth would never be destroyed, only that it would not again be destroyed by water. 4. Not only the earth, but also the heavens shall be consumed by fire some day. PSA 102:25-26; 2PE 3:10, 12; REV 6:14. a. In that day of wrath, the covenant which restrains the earth's waters shall expire, but their release will be irrelevant. JOB 26:10. b. The cycle of day and night is peculiar to this world, not the new heaven and earth. REV 21:25. c. Natural man’s enmity with God is such that his unbelief denies God’s promise to preserve the earth according to GEN 8:22 and also denies God’s promise to destroy this earth by fire because of sin and introduce a new earth free of sin. (1) How much of man’s doings are dedicated to preserving earth without regard to the threat that sin represents to the earth’s life? (2) “...he that is of the earth is earthly, and speaketh of the earth...” (JOH 3:31). c/w 1CO 15:47-48. (3) Perhaps you have heard the saying that someone is “...too heavenly minded to be of any earthly good.” But true heaven-mindedness hates sin, and that is very good for earth. 5. This covenant with the day and night demonstrates the stability of the Messianic government of Jesus Christ. JER 33:20-21 c/w ISA 9:7. 6. As enduring and stable as the Noahic covenant was, the covenant of saving grace exceeds it. ISA 54:8-10; ISA 51:6. 7. It is interesting that the fullest details of God’s covenant to preserve life came after Noah’s The Post-Flood Covenant 8-19-18 Page 1 of 2 “resurrection” from his ark-tomb. So, the fullest details of God’s covenant of eternal life came after Christ’s resurrection. TIT 1:1-3; 2PE 1:19. E. The covenant was sealed with a token: the rainbow. GEN 9:13-17. 1. The bow is also much a token of God Himself. EZE 1:28. 2. Thus, the bow not only is a token of non-destruction, it is a token of God in a different world. 3. The bow was something that God Himself made. He looks not on the performance of sinners but His own work to remember His covenant faithfulness to preserve. a. Jesus Christ is described by John as a mighty angel with a rainbow upon his head. REV 10:1 c/w REV 1:15-16. b. Since Jesus is God (1TI 3:16), God need look no further than Himself for a bow. c. The elect’s preservation is owing to God’s own work in Christ, not their performance. 2CO 5:21; ROM 8:31-34; JUDE 1:1. d. Salvation’s “Rainbow” did not only appear on earth after sin was judged. He then ascended “...into heaven itself, now to appear in the presence of God for us” (HEB 9:24). 4. Christ has given believers a token as a seal: the holy Spirit of promise. EPH 1:13. a. Like the bow, the comforting ministry of the Spirit attending our faith is a token of both non-destruction and of Christ in a new world. EPH 1:14; REV 4:3; 10:1. b. The bow would be a reminder of mercy in the cloud. So, too, the Spirit bears witness that our slip-ups need not destroy our hope in Christ. 1JO 2:1-2; 2CO 4:16. 5. The post-flood covenant was long-lasting. The covenant of our salvation is everlasting. HEB 13:20. The Post-Flood Covenant 8-19-18 Page 2 of 2