Gen

Gen. 6:11-22; 9:8-17

4/27/2008

“I Establish My Covenant with You”

In our passages, we see two covenants, which God established with Noah as the representative: the first is found in ch. 6; the second in ch. 9. We will consider each in order and see the relationship between the two.

The first covenant, which God established with Noah in ch. 6, is redemptive in character. Through it God promised Noah and his family and a pair of every living creature on earth deliverance from the coming flood. In our new series on the survey of redemptive history, we saw the creation, we saw the marriage institution, we saw the Fall and we saw the consequences of the Fall. Last week we saw how God decreed our redemption in the midst of His righteous judgment, particularly in the judgment of Satan. In ch. 6, we again see God’s redemption in the context of His judgment.

The background of God’s first covenant with Noah was the universal, fallen condition of man: “The LORD saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every intention of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually” (Gen. 6:5). Here is a graphic description of the total depravity of man. (To be depraved is different from being deprived--to be depraved is to be incorrigibly wicked; to be deprived is to be lacking in something.) Take a look at the totality of man’s wickedness: every intention of the thoughts of his heart was evil; every intention of the thoughts of his heart was only evil; every intention of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually! And this was not limited to some exceptional individuals! We read in 6:12, “And God saw the earth, and behold, it was corrupt, for all flesh had corrupted their way on the earth.”

What we don’t want to do here is to look down upon Noah’s generation and feel smug about ourselves. I am certain that that is not why God put those words in the Bible. For when we speak of total depravity, we are not saying that people are as bad as they can be. Rather, we are speaking of the pervasive influence and impact of sin in every aspect of the fallen man--to the degree that even his best efforts in good deeds have the cancer cells of sin lodged deep in them and spread all throughout the soul. Total depravity is not a special condition of some evil men of notoriety. It is the real condition of all men, who have fallen in sin.

If people of all generations are totally depraved, why did God respond to Noah’s generation with a world-wide punishment? Because the Lord saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth (Gen. 6:5). This points to something that we see throughout the Bible--the idea of the full measure of sin. We do not see this all the time because God is patient. God is patient to the point that people--the fallen, sinful people, mind you--look at the world, shake their heads and cluck their tongues and say, “This world is not fair. There is no justice. If God is alive, He cannot allow so many bad things to happen in this world.” They say this because God is so patient, far more patient than sinners are patient with other sinners! But God is not just patient. Yes, God is patient because He is good. But He cannot be truly good if He does not uphold justice somehow. Think of a judge, whose main goal is to be nice rather that uphold the law and justice. So he tries a murderer of your relative and acquits him. Is he a good judge? No, he is an abomination! God cannot be truly good if He is simply patient and never executes justice, if He does not bring full justice ultimately.

This is where the idea of the full measure of sin comes in. The Bible speaks of certain “measure of sin”, which, once filled, would prompt God to send His judgment. It is as though there were a God-appointed cylinder for every individual and society, which is being filled up with the grains and stones and rocks of sins. Once these sins reach all the way to the rim, then comes the swift, fierce judgment of God. Remember what God said to Abram? “As for yourself, you shall go to your fathers in peace; you shall be buried in a good old age. And they shall come back here in the fourth generation, for the iniquity of the Amorites is not yet complete” (Gen. 15:15-16). The people of Israel had to sojourn in Egypt for four hundred years because the iniquity of the Amorites was not yet complete. That means, Israel could not take possession of the Promised Land because the time, or the measure, of the Amorites’ iniquity was not yet full. Israel’s possession of the land would coincide with God’s judgment on the Amorites. Israel was to be God’s chosen instrument of His judgment on the Amorites.

We also read in 1 Thess. 2:14-16, “For you suffered the same things from your own countrymen as they did from the Jews, who killed both the Lord Jesus and the prophets, and drove us out, and displease God and oppose all mankind by hindering us from speaking to the Gentiles that they might be saved--so as always to fill up the measure of their sins.” What is implied in these words? That once the full measure of their sins is reached, their judgment would come. We can see what was behind Sodom and Gomorrah’s destruction, behind Israel’s and Judah’s destruction.

So the Lord says in 6:13, “I have determined to make an end of all flesh, for the earth is filled with violence through them. Behold, I will destroy them with the earth.” The full measure of their sin was reached and there was nothing left but their due judgment from God. So full and so pervasive was the wickedness of the human race that it required nothing less than a world-wide destruction.

It is in this context of judgment that God makes the first covenant with Noah, a covenant of redemption. Redemption and judgment--the two cannot be separated. The two must not be separated. The two are inseparably related in two ways. As we saw last week, our redemption consists at least in part in the destruction and judgment of our enemy, Satan. But that is not all, of course. Our redemption proper is to be delivered from something horrible and dreadful, particularly and specifically from the just and righteous judgment of God against sinners. Biblical redemption is not about God making our already good middle-class American life even better, God making up whatever deficiencies we may have in our self-improvement, God helping those who help themselves achieve their full potentials. What we need to be delivered from is not just a low self-esteem, or a bad self-image, or our illnesses, or even being left out of the American dream. Those are nothing, absolutely nothing, compared to what the Bible says about what we really need to be delivered from--God’s righteous judgment against our sin.

I recently heard a pastor talking about Paul’s conversion--how it was different from Martin Luther’s. Martin Luther came to understand the gospel in the midst of his agonizing struggle against the overwhelming power and reality of sin in his life. But Paul did not meet Christ that way. He wasn’t agonizing over some oppressive sense of guilt when he met the risen Lord on the road to Damascus. Paul characterized his life at that time this way: “as to righteousness, under the law blameless”. That is all true. But the pastor went on to say that we don’t have to convince people of their sin first before we invite them to be Christians because they will eventually come to see their sinfulness after their conversion, as Paul did. But what does our conversion consist of? Doesn’t it consist of faith in Jesus Christ as well as repentance unto life (WSC 85)? How can we repent without acknowledging our sins? And take a look at the actual encounter between the risen Christ and Saul on the road to Damascus. What were Christ’s first words to Saul? “Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting Me” (Acts 9:4)? Christ broke through from heaven and convicted Saul of his sin with His very first words. And Saul had never forgotten that all throughout the rest of his life and ministry. There can be no proper understanding of our salvation apart from a proper understanding of our condition under the condemnation of God.

The great wickedness of Noah’s generation required God’s world-wide judgment. But God would not wipe out the whole humanity. It pleased our God to save Noah and his family from that worldwide judgment. Why Noah? We read in 6:8-9, “But Noah found favor in the eyes of the LORD. These are the generations of Noah. Noah was a righteous man, blameless in his generation. Noah walked with God.” How are we to understand these words in the light of Paul’s indictment against the whole humanity in all of history (after the Fall)? “‘None is righteous, no, not one; no one understands; no one seeks for God. All have turned aside; together they have become worthless; no one does good, not even one….’ For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God” (Rom. 3:10-12, 23). Was Noah an exception to this? Probably not. Paul was speaking in absolute terms. Noah’s description was in relative, comparative terms--“Noah was a righteous man, blameless in his generation” as Paul was “under the law blameless” (Phil. 3:6), “advanced in the practices of the Judeans beyond many of [his] own age among [his] people’ (Gal. 1:14). As you can see, when Paul said that he was blameless under the law, he did not mean that he was absolutely blameless before God; he meant that he was advanced beyond others in piety. There is no doubt that Noah was indeed more righteous than all others in his generation. But what was the source of his righteousness? His own goodness? Was he that promised Offspring of the woman, who would vanquish Satan? No. If he was righteous in any way, it was because he was saved by the blood of Jesus Christ! We are told in 1 Pet. 3:19 that Christ, in His Spirit, went and preached to the people of Noah’s generation, among whom Noah and his family, except Ham, were the only converts! If Noah was righteous in any way, it was because he was saved in Jesus Christ, the coming Messiah, and was changed by God’s grace. Indeed what is the picture we get from the whole episode of the Great Flood? Noah vanquishing Satan with his strength? No! Noah being saved by God, tucked away safely in the ark!

But we must pay attention to the way the Bible presents this redemption, which Noah received. The Bible does not simply tell how Noah was delivered from the Flood. How Noah was delivered was not the ultimate goal of the story. What is more, Noah’s deliverance from the Flood was not the ultimate goal of the deliverance. It had a greater purpose and it is seen in the way the narrative is told: the Bible paints Noah’s redemption as a new creation. Here I am borrowing heavily from the late Dr. Meredith Kline’s insight into this passage.

Notice the creation language used in our passage: “Of the birds according to their kinds, and of the animals according to their kinds, of every creeping thing of the ground, according to its kind, two of every sort shall come in to you to keep them alive” (6:20). Doesn’t this remind you of the creation account in Gen. 1?

Our passage also depicts the judgment as a reversal of God’s creation, particularly of what happened on the third day of creation. What happened on the third day? God gathered the lower waters into one place and made the dry land appear. This was reversed when the Lord flooded the world: “For behold, I will bring a flood of waters upon the earth to destroy all flesh in which is the breath of life under heaven. Everything that is on the earth shall die” (6:17). The dry land was once again submerged under water as it was prior to the third day of creation. And what happens when God re-enacts the creation of the third day and makes the waters to subside and the dry land to come out again? The Lord says to Noah and his family, “Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth. The fear of you and the dread of you shall be upon every beast of the earth and upon every bird of the heavens, upon everything that creeps on the ground and all the fish of the sea…” (9:1-2). As you can see, the Cultural Mandate, which was given to Adam and Eve, is now renewed and reissued to Noah and his offspring (with a few minor changes, of course).

Notice also the structure of the ark: it was to have three decks. This three-story structure corresponds to the biblical conception of the three-part structure of the cosmos, which is divided into heaven above, the earth beneath and the water under the earth (Ex. 20:4; Deut. 5:8). You see, Noah’s ark was a microcosm of the cosmos. This was reflected also in the three-compartment structure of the tabernacle and temple (i.e., the Court, the Holy Place and the Holy of Holies). These structures were given as microscopic representations of the cosmos. So then, Noah’s ark, as a microcosmic representation of the cosmos, contained in it the seed of a new creation, as it were. When the people and animals exit the ark, it is as though they are being brought into the new world in new creation!

Also take a look at the precise specifications given for the construction of the ark. View this in light of Job 38:4-5 (again in the context of creation): “Where were you when I laid the foundation of the earth? Tell me, if you have understanding. Who determined its measurements- surely you know! Or who stretched the line upon it?” The picture we get is God creating all things according to His precise measurements. Should we be surprised that the microcosmic representations of the cosmos (the ark and the tabernacle, for example) are given precise measurements as well to reflect God’s original creation? So we see that, when the tabernacle and the temple were built, they were give precise specifications. Ezekiel’s vision of a new temple (Ezek. 40-44) is replete with specific measurements as well. Such measurements are given also in the case of the New Jerusalem (Rev. 21), which is the eternal temple of the Lord, which is also the new heaven and the new earth. These things refer to the preciseness of God’s design for His creation as well as for our redemption, which is the new creation. Noah’s first covenant was redemptive in character. It is presented as deliverance from God’s coming judgment as well as God’s new creation. A new creation was necessary because of the extent and intensity of our sin: it required a cosmic new creation.

The other covenant is found in ch. 9. This covenant is not redemptive in character but preservative: “I establish my covenant with you, that never again shall all flesh be cut off by the waters of the flood, and never again shall there be a flood to destroy the earth” (9:11). What was the extent of preservation, which God promised? We read in 8:21-22, “And when the LORD smelled the pleasing aroma, the LORD said in his heart, ‘I will never again curse the ground because of man, for the intention of man's heart is evil from his youth. Neither will I ever again strike down every living creature as I have done. While the earth remains, seedtime and harvest, cold and heat, summer and winter, day and night, shall not cease.’”

Was God promising that there would never be any more world-wide judgment? How could God give such an assurance in the light of what just happened, namely the Great Deluge? (Children, “deluge” is another word for “flood”.) Did God give the second covenant simply because He felt bad about the flood-judgment? Did He feel like He had over-reacted to people’s sins and that is why He promised never to do it again? If that were the case, either He was unjust in sending the Flood or He would be unjust for withholding a similar judgment in the future. Either He was righteous in judging the people in the flood or He was not.

Or did God think that the condition of the fallen man would somehow drastically change and improve so as to make such a world-wide punishment forever unnecessary? We know that such is not true. God affirmed even after the flood that “the intention of man’s heart is evil from his youth” (8:21). In fact, the wickedness of human race necessitated another world-wide punishment a few chapters later: God did punish the whole human race at the tower of Babel by confusing their language and scattering them throughout the earth.

What God promised in the second covenant was that He would never again disrupt and reverse the creation order to the extent that He did with the Flood and that by another world-wide flood. God, being just in His immutable nature, cannot not punish sin. And man’s condition did not change after the Flood. As long as man would continue in his sin, God’s judgment would be inevitable and necessary. God promised that He would never destroy the whole humanity with a flood again. But He will do so with fire: the final judgment will be by fire: “But the day of the Lord will come like a thief, and then the heavens will pass away with a roar, and the heavenly bodies will be burned up and dissolved…, the heavens will be set on fire and dissolved, and the heavenly bodies will melt as they burn” (1 Pet. 3:10, 12).

Now we have two covenants God established with Noah. What is the relationship between the first (redemptive) covenant and the second (preservative, common grace) covenant? We have to recognize that Noah’s redemption was a type, a picture of a more ultimate redemption. Animals don’t get “saved”. They were delivered only physically as Noah and his family (although this physical deliverance was a picture of the true redemption). So, while all in the ark were physically delivered, not all were delivered from the real cause of the flood--the wickedness of man. We see this clearly in the case of Ham. Though he was delivered physically from the Flood, he would carry the line of the seed of the Serpent after the Flood. We can see it also in Noah’s drunkenness and his shameful nakedness, which resulted.

The new creation, which resulted after the Flood, was also a type: it was more of a remodeling than a complete new creation. That means that the judgment of the Flood was also only a type--as devastating as it was! For our sin deserves more than just a worldwide flood, more than just drowning in a flood. Some have rightly pointed out that, among all the biblical figures, no one talked about hell more than Jesus. This is shocking to a lot of people because they see Him only as the preacher of love and mercy. I wonder why Jesus talked so much about hell, more than anyone in the Bible. I believe it is because, as the omniscient God, He knows about hell better than anyone--how horrible, how unthinkably horrible, it is. So He warns us about it repeatedly. “If your right eye causes you to sin, tear it out and throw it away. For it is better that you lose one of your members than that your whole body be thrown into hell. And if your right hand causes you to sin, cut it off and throw it away. For it is better that you lose one of your members than that your whole body go into hell” (Matt. 5:29-30). How can we compare our woes in this world to the misery and agony of hell, which is what our sin really deserves.

So then, our redemption requires more than an ark made of gopher wood. We need something to deliver us from the eternal suffering of hell! And here we must add that Christ’s knowledge of hell is complete and perfect not just because He is an omniscient God but also because He as our Substitute actually bore the infinite misery of hell in our place for our redemption. So we read in 1 Pet. 3:18-22,

“For Christ also suffered once for sins, the righteous for the unrighteous, that he might bring us to God, being put to death in the flesh but made alive in the spirit, in which he went and proclaimed to the spirits in prison, because they formerly did not obey, when God's patience waited in the days of Noah, while the ark was being prepared, in which a few, that is, eight persons, were brought safely through water. Baptism, which corresponds to this, now saves you, not as a removal of dirt from the body but as an appeal to God for a good conscience, through the resurrection of Jesus Christ, who has gone into heaven and is at the right hand of God, with angels, authorities, and powers having been subjected to him.”

Do you see? Christ’s death and resurrection are presented as our true Ark of redemption, not made of human hands out of gopher wood but provided by God Himself with the very body and blood of His beloved Son! That is why this Ark can safely carry us through the final judgment of God, even through the fire of hell, which will consume the whole universe in the wrath of God. It is because bore that wrath of God in our behalf.

Is there any relationship between the two covenants of Noah? The second covenant of preservation (God’s common grace) is subservient to the first covenant of redemption (which is fulfilled in Jesus Christ). Simply put, the purpose of the second covenant is to sustain the world until all of God’s elect are saved, until the full measure of sin will be filled. The judgment that Noah’s generation experienced and all other judgments we read about in the Bible were all but a prelude to the final judgment. There will come a day when all God’s elect are saved, when the full measure of the world’s sin reaches its brim, the final judgment will come in fire.

Now we, who are in Christ, live in the intersection of the two covenants. To put it in a different way: we live doubly enfolded by these two covenants--the covenant of redemption and the covenant of preservation. We are assured, then, that everything that happens in this world (God’s common grace) happens at the time and in the way it happens in order to complete our redemption in Jesus Christ--to bring the elect into salvation and to sanctify God’s saints. Do we realize how secure we are in the enfolding of God’s double covenants with us? John G. Paton, a Scottish missionary to the South Seas, who ministered among the cannibals, was surrounded and attacked by the natives many a time. This is what he wrote of one of those many life-threatening occasions:

“My heart rose up to the Lord Jesus. I saw Him watching all the scene. My peace came back to me like a wave from God. I realize that I was immortal till my Master’s work with me was done. The assurance came to me as if a voice out of heaven had spoken, that not a musket would be fired to wound us, not a club prevail to strike us, not a spear leave the hand in which it was held vibrating to be thrown, not an arrow leave the bow, or a killing stone fingers without the permission of Jesus Christ, whose is all power in heaven and on earth. He rules all nature, animate and inanimate, and restrains even the savage of the South Seas.”

Do you realize that such is your life in Christ? God has offered you that eternal life in Christ Jesus. And God promises to you that everything that happens in this common grace arena is to complete and perfect your redemption, to accomplish His goal and purpose for your life. All this is so that you can live your life with that confident assurance that you are indeed immortal until God is fully done with you in this life! What a life you have in Christ Jesus! Oh, how we are called to courage and boldness as we see our lives enfolded by both God’s saving grace and common grace, by all of God’s grace in Christ Jesus! We are enfolded by God’s double-covenant. So then, no matter what happens in our life, we can sing and declare, “It is well with my soul!” We can sing this even when the clouds be rolled back as a scroll and the trumpet resound and the Lord shall descend as the fearful Judge of the living and the dead, even so we can sing, “It is well with my soul!” How? Because we are tucked away in the Ark of Christ, forever secure. As we sang this morning, we may be happier in heaven but not more secure. For the covenants of our faithful God are enfolding us secure in Christ Jesus.

So then, let us not envy the world and march at the drumbeat of this world, which is headed toward eternal destruction. Do not participate in the sins of the world, which are being filled up to its full measure. Let us keep ourselves pure and holy before God! Let us be bold in the security of His redeeming and preserving covenants in proclaiming the glorious gospel of Jesus Christ to the dying world!