The Noahic Covenant

From creation to the flood, a history of God's provision

This is the third post in my series about the laws in the Bible and how they effect us today. This is an ongoing study for me, so I reserve the right to change directions like Barry Sanders if needed.

The first two posts in the series can be read by clicking the following links:

Part one, an introduction
https://steemit.com/jesus/@garthfreeman/christianity-the-law-and-the-ten-commandments

Part two, an overview of the Old Testament Covenants
https://steemit.com/bible/@garthfreeman/the-covenants-of-the-old-testament

Note: In this post I will use Man to refer to humanity. It's consistent with the Bible, so please don't berate me as a sexist...

Now that we have a basic understanding of what covenants are, and are familiar with some of the most important ones in the Bible, Lets take a look at them as they come up in the Bible narrative.

I say narrative because the Bible really isn't a collection of random sayings and laws, it is a story. True, it's a very complex story that includes various sayings and long lists of laws, but it's important to keep in mind that they all have their place in the larger story the Bible is trying to tell.

We all know how it begins, right? In the beginning God created the Heaven and the Earth. The rest of the biblical narrative is built on this one very complex statement. This opening line answers the question of where we all came from and it establishes God's authority over all that we can see, taste, and touch.

After creating the Heaven and the Earth, God gets to work filling them with life. In the Heaven, He creates His Heavenly Host, commonly called the angels, and He fills the Earth with all kinds of life. This creation of His is very good, and He says so many times.

It wasn't perfect, though. There were still things to be done.

God could have made a perfect world, but instead He made a good one. Then, as the culmination of His creative acts, God makes Man. Man is different than the rest of creation in that God says he is made in His image.

Here's how it goes in the Authorized KJV:

"And God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness: and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth.

So God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him; male and female created he them.

And God blessed them, and God said unto them, Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth, and subdue it: and have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over every living thing that moveth upon the earth.

And God said, Behold, I have given you every herb bearing seed, which is upon the face of all the earth, and every tree, in the which is the fruit of a tree yielding seed; to you it shall be for meat.

And to every beast of the earth, and to every fowl of the air, and to every thing that creepeth upon the earth, wherein there is life, I have given every green herb for meat: and it was so.

And God saw every thing that he had made, and, behold, it was very good. And the evening and the morning were the sixth day."

Notice that God gives the man assignments: to replenish the earth and subdue it, and to be fruitful and multiply. God also tells the man what to eat, and gives him authority over the rest of the animals on earth. Man was supposed to take care of the "lesser" life forms.

Next we see God putting man in the garden he made, in Eden. The garden is a special place, not quite like the rest of the Earth. God Himself plants the garden, and He puts man in it and tells him to cultivate it. The garden is the place on Earth where God chooses to walk with man, his favorite creation. In the garden, we see a picture of what God intended with His creation, which is a place where Heaven and Earth meet. This becomes important later in the Bible, but I'll leave a further exploration of it for a later post.

At this point, God gives man his first prohibition: don't eat of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. Man has everything he needs, and is living in a very good world created for him, but he just can't help himself. Man allows himself to be convince to disobey, by one of God's heavenly host, and death and decay enter the world.

At this point, I can almost hear some people shouting, "Hey, you forgot..." or "aren't you going to mention..." All I can say is not this time around. This post is long enough as it is.

As a result of Man's disobedience, God removes him from the garden and sends him into the world, which is now plagued by death and decay. No longer is man to walk with God in this earthly realm.

Also, as a result of his decision to disobey, Man is forced to work for his food, which now includes Herbs and Grain. Women are going to suffer too, in child birth, and in that now there will be a constant struggle with the Man.

God promises a solution, though. He promises that one day, an offspring of the Woman would destroy the Serpent. This is another story line that will be developed throughout the Bible.

After Man moves out into the world, things really start to fall apart. People start murdering one another, men take multiple wives, and instead of taking care of the world man allows it to be corrupt.

In fact, God declares the whole world to be corrupt:

And God looked upon the earth, and, behold, it was corrupt; for all flesh had corrupted his way upon the earth. Genesis 6:12

Man, too, is a great disappointment to God:

And God saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually. Genesis 6:5

God did find at least one family He though was worth saving. God tells this guy Noah to build an ark to put his family in, and two of every kind of animal, because the whole Earth was going to be destroyed by a flood.

At this point, we see the idea of a covenant for the first time in the narrative. God promises to establish a covenant with Noah, after the flood.

But with thee will I establish my covenant; and thou shalt come into the ark, thou, and thy sons, and thy wife, and thy sons' wives with thee. Genesis 6:18

So, into the ark they go, Noah, his family, and all the animals God told them to bring. God shuts them in, and the flood comes. The flood wipes out all the human and animal life on Earth, except Noah, his family, and the animals in the ark.

Eventually things calm down, and Noah decides to come out of the big boat. The Earth is dry, and plants are starting to come back. Noah wants to show his appreciation for being saved, so he builds an alter, and sacrifices animals to God.

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/d/d8/Jan_van_Kessel_II_-Noah%27s_Family_Assembling_Animals_before_the_Ark-_Walters_371998.jpg

God sees Noah's sacrifice and it pleases Him that Noah would think it so important to thank God. God then decides that man can't be saved by wiping out all the bad people because they're all bad. Even from an early age, we just can't help ourselves. There's something broken that drives us to violence.

God then starts to work on another plan to fix the problem with man. First, He promises Himself that He wouldn't wipe out all life on Earth again, and that as long as the Earth remains there would always be seasons, harvest, day and night.

Then, God commands Noah and his family to carry on Adam's original marching orders: be fruitful, multiply, and refill the Earth.

Next he changes the rules up a bit. From now on, animals would have a fear of man inherent in them. Probably a good thing for them because next, God authorizes the eating of meat. Blood, however, isn't on the menu. God tells the man that he isn't to eat the blood of animals.

The final thing God commands Noah and his family is not to murder. God tells them that for any creature that kills a Man, He would hold their life forfeit. God tells them that if man or animal kills a Man, by Man will their blood be shed.

And surely your blood of your lives will I require; at the hand of every beast will I require it, and at the hand of man; at the hand of every man's brother will I require the life of man.

Whoso sheddeth man's blood, by man shall his blood be shed: for in the image of God made he man. Genesis 9:5-6

Now comes the promised Covenant. From Genesis 9:8-17

And I, behold, I establish my covenant with you, and with your seed after you;

And with every living creature that is with you, of the fowl, of the cattle, and of every beast of the earth with you; from all that go out of the ark, to every beast of the earth.

And I will establish my covenant with you, neither shall all flesh be cut off any more by the waters of a flood; neither shall there any more be a flood to destroy the earth.

And God said, This is the token of the covenant which I make between me and you and every living creature that is with you, for perpetual generations:

I do set my bow in the cloud, and it shall be for a token of a covenant between me and the earth.

And it shall come to pass, when I bring a cloud over the earth, that the bow shall be seen in the cloud:

And I will remember my covenant, which is between me and you and every living creature of all flesh; and the waters shall no more become a flood to destroy all flesh.

And the bow shall be in the cloud; and I will look upon it, that I may remember the everlasting covenant between God and every living creature of all flesh that is upon the earth.

And God said unto Noah, This is the token of the covenant, which I have established between me and all flesh that is upon the earth.

Now remember from last time, the different parts of the covenant

Terms	Sign	Blessings and curses
God promises not to wipe out all life on Earth ever again. He tells man not to kill one another and authorizes meat eating.	The sign of the covenant is the Rainbow, which appears everywhere on earth when conditions are right.	The blessing is that God will never again destroy humanity, though we might deserve it. The curse is that if Man kills man, by man shall his blood be shed.

Now, at this point, all of Mankind is under the covenant. For the rest of the Bible, these terms, blessings and curses, and the sign, are in effect for all of humanity. The promise never again to flood the earth is unconditional, but so too is the prohibition against murder.

This is an important point when discussing the Law, because for the rest of the Bible most of the people on Earth are under this Covenant, which is in effect the law for mankind. Later, God chooses a family to carry on His plan to redeem Man, and he establishes other covenants with them. That's for a later post, though.

For now, to be continued...

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