COVENANT AND SIGN…Bill Thoughts For Today…

Understanding important truths from the Bible….

Genesis 9:8-17

⁸ Then God spoke to Noah and to his sons with him, saying, 

⁹ “Now behold, I Myself do establish My covenant with you, and with your descendants after you; 

¹⁰ and with every living creature that is with you, the birds, the cattle, and every beast of the earth with you; of all that comes out of the ark, even every beast of the earth. 

¹¹ I establish My covenant with you; and all flesh shall never again be cut off by the water of the flood, neither shall there again be a flood to destroy the earth.” 

¹² God said, “This is the sign of the covenant which I am making between Me and you and every living creature that is with you, for all successive generations;

¹³ I set My bow in the cloud, and it shall be for a sign of a covenant between Me and the earth. 

¹⁴ It shall come about, when I bring a cloud over the earth, that the bow will be seen in the cloud, 

¹⁵ and I will remember My covenant, which is between Me and you and every living creature of all flesh; and never again shall the water become a flood to destroy all flesh.

¹⁶ When the bow is in the cloud, then I will look upon it, to remember the everlasting covenant between God and every living creature of all flesh that is on the earth.” 

¹⁷ And God said to Noah, “This is the sign of the covenant which I have established between Me and all flesh that is on the earth.”

The earth and all the inhabitants on it, both man and animal, had suffered the wrath of God with a small exception.  Eight humans and certain animals had been delivered from the judgment.

Now this judgment was complete.  The witness of it in the devastation of the land was a present visible statement to Noah and his family of God’s hatred of sin and man’s proneness to evil.  Surely they feared the re-occurrence of God’s wrath.

But God, rich in mercy, spoke to Noah and his family in the words of Genesis nine.  There is in God’s words His kind intention to establish a covenant with Noah.  It is in this covenant we find the rudiments of God’s Messianic Covenant of Grace.  A look at this covenant reveals to us: 

1.  This covenant is unilateral.  God says what He will do without exception.  VS 9 with VS 11, “I establish” are the words of institution.  There are no requirements for the establishment of the covenant or for the fulfillment of it.  What follows is the content of the covenant.
2. The covenant is universal, VS 9B-10.  The benefits of the covenant extend to all who by description are included.  In this covenant Noah’s descendants and all beasts represented by those in the ark are to receive these benefits.
3. It is an enduring covenant.  The only limit put on the time described is whatever limits God places on the earth itself, 9:11.

This covenant has a sacrament, 9:12-13.  The sign of the covenant is named, the rainbow.  This sign is known only through the word of God.  Its purpose is not otherwise known to man.

It is here that this covenant, and the explanation of it becomes important.  For it is not man’s recognition that is the seal of it, but God’s application of it to Himself.  “The rainbow shall be in the cloud, and I will look on it to remember the everlasting covenant between God and every living creature of all flesh that is on the earth”, Genesis 9:16.

The Westminster Confession of Faith, Chapter 27 Paragraph 1a.

I. Sacraments are holy signs and seals of the covenant of grace, immediately instituted by God, to represent Christ and His benefits.

If we continue the meaning of covenant we find in Genesis 9 the real value of the sacrament for us is not what we or the world sees, but what God looks at, “I will look on it to remember the everlasting covenant”.

Please  look at 2 Peter 2:13 ESV.  

“This is a wonderful affirmation of assurance that although we are called to endure and be faithful, salvation does not rest ultimately on our faithfulness, but upon that of Christ”, (note in ESV on II Tim. 2:13.

May I add, ultimately on the One who looks at the bow.