* Part of a series of Bible studies on the significant pieces of the biblical storyline.
Part Two: Fall into sin and its effects
Highpoints of the Bible: The Covenant with Noah
1. Genesis 6.11-22: Sin, judgment, and covenant
a. Corruption and violence—
b. Judgment by flood—v 17
c. Promise of a covenant—v 18
2. Genesis 7-8: Narration of flood
3. Genesis 8.20-22
a. Sacrifice and worship
b. God’s promise—
4. Genesis 9.1-7
a. “Be fruitful and multiply” (
b. Noah is like Adam 2.0
c. “In chapter 9 Noah becomes a kind of second Adam, and he receives the same command as was given in Genesis 1:28, ‘Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth,’ with the creatures of the air, earth
5. Genesis 9.8-17
a. Language of “covenant” is used 7xs in nine
b. Covenant—“A bond in blood sovereignly administered.”[2] O. Palmer Robertson
i. “Bond”—God binds himself (ties himself) to his people
ii. “In
iii. “Sovereignly administered”—Not between two equals; the Lord is the sovereign one who sets the terms of the covenant.
c. Every time covenant is mentioned here it is in reference to all of creation
d. Shows God’s commitment to all life on earth!
i. “In the context of God’s radical judgment on the comprehensive nature of human sin (repeatedly portrayed as ‘violence and corruption’), God still commits himself to the created order itself and to the preservation of life on the planet. Although we live on a cursed earth, we also live on a covenanted earth.”[4]
ii. “This Noachic covenant provides the platform for the ongoing mission of God throughout the rest of human and natural history, and thereby also, of course, the platform for our own mission in participation with his. Whatever God does, or whatever God calls us to do, there is
iii. This is a framework that gives security and scope to all our mission: security because we operate within the parameters of God’s commitment to our planet, and scope because there is nothing and no place on earth that lies outside the writ of God’s covenant with Noah. The rainbow promise spans whatever horizon we can ever see.”[6]
e. Christopher Wright speaks of an “ecological dimension to
i. See my blog post “Habakkuk and God’s Concern for the Environment”[8]
6. New Testament
a. Romans 8.19-22
i. Creation “groans and suffers the pains of childbirth”
· “If you are in a hospital, and you hear groaning, it makes a big difference whether you are in the burn unit or in the labor and delivery unit. The groaning in the labor and delivery room signals a good outcome. There will be a birth. It will happen, one way or another. So it is with God's creation. It groans now--in labor, but because of the power unleashed by the death and resurrection of Jesus, the creation that is now groaning (all of it) will be liberated and brought into glory.”[9]
ii. Creation will be “set free”
b. Creational goodness to all people: common grace
i. Matthew 5.45—sunshine and rain to all peoples
ii. Acts 14.17—“… and yet he did not leave himself without witness, in that he did good and gave you rains from heaven and fruitful seasons, satisfying your hearts with food and gladness.” (cf. Psalm 104.15)
[1]Roy Ciampa as quoted in Keith A. Matthison, From Age to Age: The Unfolding of Biblical Eschatology(Phillipsburg, New Jersey: Presbyterian and Reformed, 2009), 31.
[2]O. Palmer Robertson, The Christ of the Covenants(Phillipsburg, New Jersey: Presbyterian and Reformed, 1980), 4.
[3]Craig G. Bartholomew and Michael W. Goheen, The Drama of Scripture: Finding Our Place in the Biblical Story(Grand Rapids, Mich.: Baker, 2004), 51.
[4]Christopher J. H. Wright, The Mission of God: Unlocking the Bible’s Grand Narrative(Downers Grove, Ill.: Intervarsity Press, 2006), 326—bold-face added.
[5]Christopher J. H. Wright, The Mission of God: Unlocking the Bible’s Grand Narrative(Downers Grove, Ill.: Intervarsity Press, 2006), 326.
[6]Christopher J. H. Wright, The Mission of God: Unlocking the Bible’s Grand Narrative(Downers Grove, Ill.: Intervarsity Press, 2006), 327—bold-face added.
[7]Christopher J. H. Wright, The Mission of God: Unlocking the Bible’s Grand Narrative(Downers Grove, Ill.: Intervarsity Press, 2006), 327.
[8]“Habakkuk and God’s Concern for the Environment” White Rose Review(November 28, 2011)—online: https://whiterosereview.blogspot.com/2011/11/habakkuk-and-gods-concern-for.html.
