Audio Worship 2/23/2025, "God's Gracious Covenant" Genesis 9.1-17

Princeton Presbyterian Church (EPC) Sermon # 1674

February 23, 2025

Genesis 9.1-17       Click here for audio worship.

Dr. Ed Pettus

(This is an extended outline, not a verbatim transcript.)

 

“God’s Gracious Covenant”

 

 And God blessed Noah and his sons and said to them, “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. Into your hand they are delivered. Every moving thing that lives shall be food for you. And as I gave you the green plants, I give you everything. But you shall not eat flesh with its life, that is, its blood. And for your lifeblood I will require a reckoning: from every beast I will require it and from man. From his fellow man I will require a reckoning for the life of man. “Whoever sheds the blood of man, by man shall his blood be shed, for God made man in his own image. And you, be fruitful and multiply, increase greatly on the earth and multiply in it.”

 Then God said to Noah and to his sons with him, “Behold, I establish my covenant with you and your offspring after you, and with every living creature that is with you, the birds, the livestock, and every beast of the earth with you, as many as came out of the ark; it is for every beast of the earth. 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.” And God said, “This is the sign of the covenant that I make between me and you and every living creature that is with you, for all future generations: I have set my bow in the cloud, and it shall be a sign of the covenant between me and the earth. When I bring clouds over the earth and the bow is seen in the clouds, I will remember my covenant that is between me and you and every living creature of all flesh. And the waters shall never again become a flood to destroy all flesh. When the bow is in the clouds, I will see it and remember the everlasting covenant between God and every living creature of all flesh that is on the earth.” God said to Noah, “This is the sign of the covenant that I have established between me and all flesh that is on the earth.”

 

 

  • From Adam to Noah

 

We have spent some quality time in the first four chapters of Genesis. We have celebrated the work of creation and looked in awe of the creation of Adam and Eve. We have suffered through the sorrow of disobedience in Adam and Eve and the sin that has passed down to all of us. But, good news, Genesis 3.15 foreshadows the Savior who sets us free from that sin by His sacrifice on the cross. And yet, sin had its way as the human race multiplied on the earth into Genesis 6. God saw the wickedness of humanity and it grieved God’s heart. In another act of grace Noah found favor in God’s sight. God commanded Noah to build a boat for God was going to start over with humanity. Genesis 6.13-14, “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. Make yourself an ark of gopher wood. Make rooms in the ark, and cover it inside and out with pitch.” There have been imaginative interpretations as to how people treated Noah through all this. A guy building a huge boat without any water in sight. But the rains came and the animals were safely aboard along with Noah and his family and everything that had breath was destroyed in the flood. Eventually the waters subsided and Noah and his family and all the animals were once again on dry land.

Now that is a very quick and general summary of the events between Genesis 4 and 8. I would encourage everyone to go back a read those chapters and see all the details and wonder of the flood story.

 

  • Starting Over

 

That brings us to Genesis 9. Genesis 9.1 repeats the command given to Adam and Eve to be fruitful and multiply. It is time to start this whole process over. The command is given two times in this passage, verses 1 & 7, be fruitful and multiply. Fill the earth and have dominion over the earth. The dominion is through the fear that all of creation will have of human beings. We’ve all heard the suggestion when we are afraid of some creature that someone will offer, “It’s more afraid of you than you are of it!” That suggestion has no clue how fearful we might get when facing a bear or a snake. But Genesis 9.2 does affirm that we have dominion over all creation, 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. Into your hand they are delivered. So both Genesis commands are repeated, to fill the earth with children and to practice dominion over all the creatures of the earth.

But since the Cain and Abel story, now a new command enters the story line. There is a lifeblood command:

But you shall not eat flesh with its life, that is, its blood. And for your lifeblood I will require a reckoning: from every beast I will require it and from man. From his fellow man I will require a reckoning for the life of man. “Whoever sheds the blood of man, by man shall his blood be shed, for God made man in his own image.

We are not to eat any creature’s blood. I believe this is written so that we will respect the lifeblood of all creatures and especially the lifeblood of human beings. It is a sanctity of life issue. To shed the blood of another man or woman will require a reckoning of life. This is a vitally important distinction that has come about because of Cain and Abel. The command is repeated to make or give life by being fruitful and multiplying and here in verse 6 the command is given not to take a life. No murder! Murder is an offense because it destroys one made in the image of God. That is a different standard than killing an animal. The command not to murder is specifically based on being created in the image of God. The Genesis creation narrative is a foundation of the law of God and the very order of creation. It is no small matter that God created us male and female, in His image, having dominion over all creation, to marry and be fruitful, to honor the sanctity of life, all within the narrative of creation and now all within the narrative of starting over after the flood.

 

  • God’s Gracious Covenant

 

In Genesis 9 is also a promise of covenant – never again will God destroy the world with water. We have all seen the powerful destruction of water when areas are flooded at various stages, some with catastrophic results and other times with minor damage. But nothing compares with the flood story of Genesis when all is destroyed in order to start over again. The sign of the covenant is the bow in the sky. God establishes His covenant with Noah and his sons and their offspring. The rainbow becomes a reminder of the covenant that God will not destroy with water again.

On a side note, we have to work toward reclaiming the rainbow from the hideous use by the LGBTQ+ movement and other movements that try to lay false claim on the rainbow. They have twisted and corrupted the rainbow into a sign of sin rather than the promise of God to make covenant with the world. You may have seen one such movement to reclaim the truth about the rainbow so that it is no longer a symbol of sin but a promise of life.

The term covenant is repeated over and over from Genesis 8-17...

 Then God said to Noah and to his sons with him, “Behold, I establish my covenant with you and your offspring after you, and with every living creature... 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.” And God said, “This is the sign of the covenant that I make between me and you and every living creature that is with you, for all future generations: I have set my bow in the cloud, and it shall be a sign of the covenant between me and the earth. When I bring clouds over the earth and the bow is seen in the clouds, I will remember my covenant that is between me and you and every living creature of all flesh...When the bow is in the clouds, I will see it and remember the everlasting covenant between God and every living creature of all flesh that is on the earth.” God said to Noah, “This is the sign of the covenant that I have established between me and all flesh that is on the earth.”

 

Seven times the term covenant is used and with each usage there is also an emphasis on the covenant being between God and Noah and every living creature. The covenant is for all future generations and it is an everlasting covenant. This covenant will never end. God is a maker of covenants. The covenants of the Bible are agreements, partnerships, and promises made throughout the Scriptures. I think it is important for us to trace some of those covenants through the Bible so that we get a clear understanding of God’s purposes with creation, with us, and with His work of salvation.

The first covenant is with Adam and Eve basically saying that if you do not eat of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil all will go well but if you eat there will be consequences. This was the first covenant and we call it the covenant of works. But after the fall of Adam and Eve, God establishes another covenant which dominates the rest of Scripture, the covenant of grace. This covenant of grace begins with the promise of Christ in Genesis 3.15, “I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and her offspring; he shall bruise your head, and you shall bruise his heel.” This is the promise of the coming Savior, Jesus Christ. Within this covenant of grace are all the other covenants we see in Scripture.

There are five major covenants God makes with us. Today we see the covenant with Noah to never again destroy the earth with water. This covenant is unconditional in that God promises not to destroy no matter what human beings do in the future. God’s promise is to preserve life and His command within this covenant is for Noah and his family to be fruitful and multiply and don’t kill each other!

God makes a covenant with Abraham in Genesis 12. Humans do not behave much better after the flood so God makes another covenant to show His grace. He promises to make Abraham’s family great in number in order that all the families of the earth shall be blessed. God will lead Abraham and his family in the way they should go and Abraham is called to leave his land and go forth into a promised land.

By the time that promise is fulfilled and Abraham’s descendants are many in number, a new Pharaoh sees them as a threat and we come to the covenant that made through Moses. God gives Israel His law to follow and promises to make them a holy kingdom and a blessing to all people.

The next major covenant is with King David. The promise in this covenant is to make David’s name great and to bring from his descendants a savior whose kingdom will reign forever.

This leads us to that Savior, Jesus Christ, who fulfills all the covenants. With each covenant previous, God’s people rebelled again and again. But the prophet Jeremiah describes the covenant that will fulfill God’s plan of salvation.

“Behold, the days are coming, declares the Lord, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and the house of Judah, not like the covenant that I made with their fathers on the day when I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt, my covenant that they broke, though I was their husband, declares the Lord. For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, declares the Lord: I will put my law within them, and I will write it on their hearts. And I will be their God, and they shall be my people. And no longer shall each one teach his neighbor and each his brother, saying, ‘Know the Lord,’ for they shall all know me, from the least of them to the greatest, declares the Lord. For I will forgive their iniquity, and I will remember their sin no more.” (Jeremiah 31.31-34).

 

This is the story of our God of covenant. From Genesis to Revelation, God seeks to bring His people to Himself. We found ways to disobey ever since Adam and Eve. It is in Christ that God has redeemed us in the new covenant. Matthew 26.26-28, “Now as they were eating, Jesus took bread, and after blessing it broke it and gave it to the disciples, and said, “Take, eat; this is my body.” 27And he took a cup, and when he had given thanks he gave it to them, saying, “Drink of it, all of you, 28for this is my blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many for the forgiveness of sins.”

Remember the lifeblood of Genesis 9? Here it is the blood of Christ that is poured out for the forgiveness of sin. It is the covenant of God’s grace in the person and work of Jesus Christ that saves us from ourselves, from sin and death, and the devil. Jesus has overcome all for our sake.

There is a statement from the folks who created the Bible Project that speaks of the covenants building upon one another, “God preserved the world through Noah, initiated redemption through Abraham, established the nation of Israel through Moses, promised an eternal shepherd-king through David, and then fulfilled all of his covenants through Jesus. With each covenant, God’s promises and plans to save the world through the seed of the woman become clearer and clearer until we finally see that redemption can only come through King Jesus.” https://bibleproject.com/articles/covenants-the-backbone-bible/

 

The Bible is a beautiful story of redemption and love, grace and hope, and we have the tremendous blessing of knowing the Christ, the One who has fulfilled God’s purposes in the New Covenant of grace in and of Jesus Christ. On this we can rest assured of forgiveness and salvation, rest in the peace of Christ, and trust that God is sovereign over all that He has made. From creation to the end of time, God is Lord of all things and has brought His own to Himself for eternal life. Be thankful for His redemption and His grace – the same favor seen in Noah (Genesis 6.8), God now sees in us through Christ our Lord and Savior. Amen.