Starting Over

Genesis 8:1,20-22; 9:1-13

Genesis 8:

¹But God remembered Noah and all the beasts and all the livestock that were with him in the ark. And God made a wind blow over the earth, and the waters subsided.

 

²⁰ Then Noah built an altar to the Lord and took some of every clean animal and some of every clean bird and offered burnt offerings on the altar. ²¹ 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. ²² While the earth remains, seedtime and harvest, cold and heat, summer and winter, day and night, shall not cease.”

 

Genesis 9:

And God blessed Noah and his sons and said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth. ² 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. ³ Every moving thing that lives shall be food for you. And as I gave you the green plants, I give you everything. ⁴ But you shall not eat flesh with its life, that is, its blood. ⁵ 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.

⁶ “Whoever sheds the blood of man,
by man shall his blood be shed,
for God made man in his own image.

⁷ And you, be fruitful and multiply, increase greatly on the earth and multiply in it.”

⁸ Then God said to Noah and to his sons with him, ⁹ “Behold, I establish my covenant with you and your offspring after you, ¹⁰ 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. ¹¹ 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.” ¹² 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: ¹³ I have set my bow in the cloud, and it shall be a sign of the covenant between me and the earth.

Look at v.1 And think about Genesis 1:2 The earth was formless and empty and dark. And the Spirit of God is hovering over the waters. And then God acted to bring form, light, and fullness of life to the earth. He is acting again! God does this on the broadest scale, with the whole earth. He will do this on the smallest scale, with our own selves and even aspects of our lives!

 

There are many parallels between the after flood and the creation account. If you start looking for them, they jump out at you.

 

 

1. God is Pleased Once Again

        v.21 pleasing aroma

 

Just like he says in the Garden “It is good, good!”

 

 

1. Sacrifices of thanksgiving for Salvation

Noah does not sacrifice for forgiveness. God has given him grace and he and his family are saved from the wrath of God. God is pleased by his gratitude because it is appropriate. God is pleased with his sacrifices because they reflect what is true about God, Noah and reality. Noah is on the right track!

 

Hebrews 13:13-16

¹³ So, let us go out to Him outside the camp, bearing His reproach. ¹⁴ For here we do not have a lasting city, but we are seeking the city which is to come.

¹⁵ Through Him then, let us continually offer up a sacrifice of praise to God, that is, the fruit of lips that give thanks to His name. ¹⁶ And do not neglect doing good and sharing, for with such sacrifices God is pleased.

I wonder how much in our lives can be solved if we will just be grateful for what we have. The tenth commandment and all. My marriage would be more celebrated. My wealth, my home, my vehicles, my health, my family, my kids, my job, my friends, my hobbies, my city, my neighbors, my neighborhood, my state, my country, my time in history, my education. There is just so much of God’s great blessings to rehearse!! Why do I not constantly scream with joy at His goodness toward me!

He saved me BEFORE He made demands of me! Just think about that one!!!

1. Obedience is the greatest sacrifice!

        Isaiah 11:11-17

¹¹ “What are your multiplied sacrifices to Me?”
Says the Lord. “I have had enough of burnt offerings of rams
And the fat of fed cattle; And I take no pleasure in the blood of bulls, lambs or goats.
¹² “When you come to appear before Me, Who requires of you this trampling of My courts?
¹³ “Bring your worthless offerings no longer, Incense is an abomination to Me. New moon and sabbath, the calling of assemblies— I cannot endure iniquity and the solemn assembly.
¹⁴ “I hate your new moon festivals and your appointed feasts,
They have become a burden to Me; I am weary of bearing them.
¹⁵ “So when you spread out your hands in prayer, I will hide My eyes from you; Yes, even though you multiply prayers, I will not listen.
Your hands are covered with blood.

¹⁶ “Wash yourselves, make yourselves clean; Remove the evil of your deeds from My sight. Cease to do evil,
¹⁷ Learn to do good; Seek justice, Reprove the ruthless, Defend the orphan, Plead for the widow.

 

Saul: To obey is better than sacrifice because rebellion is like witchcraft!

 

1. Life and provision for life are guaranteed

        Never again curse the ground

Never again wipe out all of the creatures of the ground

 

 

Planting harvest, cold heat, summer winter, night day. The regular cycle of the earth and environment will continue. This is the necessary provision for life. It makes the growing of food possible!

 

 

1. God’s Covenant with Noah

 

1. It is because of salvation

        God has already acted to save Noah. God has already acted to     save the Children of Israel. God has already acted to save us in         Christ. Jesus is the reality. The ark and Passover Lamb are       shadows!

 

 

1. It includes instructions to be followed

 

        Don’t eat the blood in the animals

 

Respect the image of God in man by requiring murderers to    be forfeit their lives.

 

Be fruitful and multiply.

 

There is a new relationship to the animal kingdom. Now we         have the fear of man in animals. And we have the animals as a    food source.

 

 

The two key commands so far in Genesis:

1. Don’t eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. We could say it this way: Obey God, do what is right and good. The Genesis 2 command refers to man’s relationship with God. It is: Love the Lord your God will all of your heart soul mind and strength.

 

The command here in Gen 9 is directed toward man. And if I        were to state it in its simplest terms it would be:

 

1. Respect the image of God in man

 

        This is such a huge and fundamental issue that it would be difficult to understate it’s importance to God and man.

 

God’s character must be discovered! God’s character must be reflected! And the value of those things is inestimable. So, even if people are corrupted by sinful desires, we do not take from them the image of God respect!

 

Declaration of Independence: We hold these truths to be self evident, that all men are created equal and are endowed by their Creator with (value that is to be respected)

 

Now, this is very important to recognize this truth if we are to live in a blessed manner!  In our country we said this, but we did not do this. We bought and sold people as slaves. We did not treat all men as being created in the image of God. And we still bear trouble in our culture because of those attitudes today.

 

All people are created in the image of God. In no way are any two people equal in ability, size, intelligence, talent, health, family, wealth etc. We are all different. We are not equal. And if we seek to make those types of things equal there will be great suffering. What equality we need to give people is equality of respect. Equality of access. Equality of an even playing field in life. You owe every person you meet the same level of love and respect afforded to them by God.

 

Genesis 3 command is broken and there is a curse.

Genesis 9 command? You will have to wait until next week!

 

III. God Promises and Provides Life

 

1. This level of judgement is unique

 

                “Never again”

Even the Second Coming of Christ is different in that the result of         that is a new heaven and earth, without any curse at all.

 

 

1. A new covenant sign

 

        Covenant signs are interesting things. They are things given to us by God to demonstrate to us that we are in covenant with Him. Circumcision for example. Baptism.

 

The sign of this covenant is the rainbow. Dr. Inch used to comment about this as a covenant sign that when you were meeting someone and you didn’t know whether or not they were friendly, they could hold their bow high in the air. Their bow would be set in the sky as a sign of peace. You can’t fire arrows from a bow held high in one hand.

 

God provided life by sending animals on the ark