This week’s reading: Genesis 8:20— 9:17
Hi Friends,
After taking about 100 years to build the Ark, after being shut in the Ark for over a year, Noah and his little family come out, along with all the creatures that were with them. As I said last week, the first thing Noah does is build an altar to God in gratitude for His great Mercy in saving them from The Flood. While Noah was “blameless among the people of his time,” this did not mean he was without fault and that he deserved to be saved. No human deserves Salvation—it is a free gift from a very good God— and Noah is no exception. God saved them because God chose to honor Noah’s wholehearted devotion…and Noah knows this full well. And so Noah builds an altar to the Lord and sacrifices some of the clean animals upon it. The Bible says that, “The Lord smelled the pleasing aroma,” and then made a covenant with Noah and his little family, as well as all the creatures too. We are going to dive in deeper about what a covenant is, and how grateful we ought to be at the enduring patience of God, but I want to back up a bit and talk about this sacrifice a little more. So let’s start in chapter 8 verse 20 and go through to chapter 9 verse 17. Listen to the heart of God as Noah seeks to please Him:
“The Lord smelled the pleasing aroma and said in his heart: ‘Never again will I curse the ground because of man, even though every inclination of his heart is evil from childhood. And never again will I destroy all living creatures, as I have done. “As long as the earth endures, seedtime and harvest, cold and heat, summer and winter, day and night will never cease.” Then God blessed Noah and his sons, saying to them, ‘Be fruitful and increase in number and fill the earth.’” Gen 8:21 to 9:1 NIV
Sacrifice. This is not a word this current culture cares much about…and to be honest, sadly, I do not think the Church cares a whole lot about it either. Yet this is a huge aspect of godly love. To love at our own convenience is not godly love at all. To give of ourselves when it is awkward, when it costs us something, when it is difficult, now that is Love. Think Jesus on the Cross if you are not sure what I am talking about. I think believers, including myself, need to spend some serious time learning what God’s Love truly looks like. Again, if the Cross is not enough, then I am not sure what will jolt us passive Christians into gear. Nowhere in the Bible does it say that loving God with all we’ve got and loving our neighbor as ourselves is easy…but it does say it grants us the greatest blessings. And why? Simply because then we are acting like the Father in Whose Image we were originally created. The more we become like God, displaying His sacrificial love as Jesus did…and still does through the Holy Spirit…the more fulfilling our lives get. Since we were made to be like God, nothing less will ever fully satisfy us. We can have the whole world and still be empty inside. Yet when we begin to understand the freedom sacrificial love offers, we will begin to live for God and leave our selfish ways behind. So how does being a sacrifice free us and what does it free us from? Let’s think about the offering Noah gave to God and, more importantly, why he offered it. After the Flood, God permitted the consuming of animals to meet our physical needs. So humans went from being vegans to carnivores for reasons God does not tell us. But then God cautions Noah that they “must not eat meat with its lifeblood still in it.” (Gen 9:4) You see, God never takes death lightly. Because of The Downfall, death was, and is still now our reality, yet we should never be casual about it, even with animals. Since no living thing can live without this life giving fluid running through their veins, the blood represents the life of the creature and the human. To eat, or worse drink of it, insults and devalues that life, as well as disrespecting the God Who gave that life. In addition, when Noah, and later the Israelites, offered sacrifices to God, it was to be done in such a way that displayed their gratefulness towards God. Either a sacrifice was made in repentance saying “I’m Sorry” to God for sinful actions, or like here with Noah, it was given to simply say, “Thank You” to God for His Mercy and Provision. Again, because these sacrifices symbolize life, God took the act very seriously…but it was only “a pleasing aroma” to God, when the motivation behind the act was a grateful heart from the person offering it. Again with Noah, the aroma was pleasing because of Noah’s pure heart; it was full of gratitude for the saving of him and his family, as well as getting them all through The Flood, safe and sound. It is always pleasing to God when we wholeheartedly worship Him. Not because God needs an ego boost! But because then we can more fully connect with Him and receive His Love and blessings, so that we may be blessed and we can be a blessing too. Only as we connect with God, with nothing hindering this union, can we be free from the self-centeredness that caused us to be separated from Him in the first place. When we humbly and devotedly come to God with a grateful heart, we are, in essence, reversing the sin of Adam and Eve. We are proclaiming that God is our Lord and we are grateful to follow Him wherever He leads. This act is a sacrificial act, since it goes against our fallen nature. We are to choose to live for God, and not for MMI. That takes lots and lots of sacrifice on our part. But God is more than happy to help us grow into that type of human being.
Living sacrifice. Ultimately, of course, all of the sacrifices point to Jesus, as I mentioned above. He is the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. (Jn 1:29) Because of His sacrificial love, we no longer are required to kill an animal to atone, or pay for, our sin. This was the pivotal mission of Jesus. He died and paid the penalty for all mankind’s sin, then rose again to be forever our Living Sacrifice. Yet since we are not only believers, but followers of Jesus, we are to imitate this sacrificial way of life too. St Paul encourages Christians then, and now, with these powerful words: “I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that you present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, which is your reasonable service.” (Ro 12:1 NKJV) So it is because God is so merciful, that like Noah here, we are to offer our very lives in gratitude to our God Who has saved us, and is getting us through this world, safe and sound. Paul says it is our reasonable service…in other words, it is the very least we can do. This is what the life of every follower should become, more and more, as we grow in Christ. This means we are not conformed to this world. (see Ro 12:2) We are not to follow the theories and agendas and temptations of this world, which are all completely opposite of the truth the Bible teaches. 1John 2:15-16 says, “For everything in the world—the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life—comes not from the Father but from the world.” Here we see how this world, and more accurately the enemy behind all of its evil, is trying to keep us separated from God in every part of our human trinity: spirit, soul and body. “The lust of the flesh” is talking about the worldly things that tempt humans to have uncontrollable cravings for food, drink, sex and any other physical needs. This appeals to our Body, and this unrestrained excessive living, leads to being unhealthy in every area of our being. “The lust of the eyes” refers to the way we think, how we feel and what we want out of life, which I shouldn’t have to say is all based on MMI, apart from God. This is our Soul and this selfishness leads to greed and jealousy and being discontented which dishonors God. Lastly, “the pride of life” is the root of all humanity’s problem: Pride in oneself. This involves the center of who we are, where we derive our identity from, our Spirit, which causes us to try to live life on our own terms, our own way, and all on our own, apart from God. Following the world and these MMI ways only leads to death and the symptoms it brings. It is an unfulfilling, miserable way to exist…yet way too many attempt this daily because they do not understand the freedom in being a living sacrifice. Every time we follow those three enemies— the devil and his demons, this corrupted world system and our old, sinful self— we are headed for trouble and lots and lots of heartbreak. Instead, let us learn from Noah. Out of a grateful heart, let us make an altar to God and place ourselves upon it as living sacrifices, and as the verse says, be acceptable to God. Then God will be pleased to reward our wholeheartedness.
The covenant. God rewards Noah…and us because of him. God’s response to Noah’s wholehearted offering was to make a covenant with him…and us. As I mentioned last week, a covenant is an agreement between two parties. The amazing beauty of this particular pledge is that we humans do not need to do anything in return. God is taking all the responsibility upon Himself here. He promises Noah that, “never again will life be cut off by the waters of a flood; never again will there be a flood to destroy the earth.” (Gen 9:11) And as a sign of this promise, God says, “whenever I bring clouds over the earth and the rainbow appears in the clouds, I will remember my covenant between me and you and all living creatures of every kind. Never again will the waters become a flood to destroy all life.” (Gen 9:14-15) This covenant is an unconditional agreement between God and all mankind, as well as all animal, and bird kinds, and it is sealed forevermore by this rainbow. From then on, whenever the rains start pouring down and humans might be tempted to think God is going to drown us all once again, this rainbow reminds us of God’s promise that the rains will not destroy us. Rainbows are visible because the rain drops act like prisms that bend the white light of the sun. As this light enters the droplets, the wavelengths are separated and reflect the seven different colors of the rainbow. Interestingly enough, we can only see a rainbow when the sun and rain are visible at the same time. Ok, I really love symbolism so stick with me as I work this out here: rain must come into our lives, think trials here, but if we are united with the Son, S-O-N, during these rainstorms, He will be seen in spite of, and because of, the falling rain. The Son and the Rain appear together and display a beautiful nature within us, instead of being the frightening thing it could be. With the Presence of the Son, we can be assured that this rain will not destroy us either. I mean no one likes a massive rainstorm, but with Jesus the Son, we can stand steady as He reflects His Character into us, and we reflect it out into the world around us. I do hope you will never view a rainbow the same way ever again. It is a sign from God to us of His unconditional Love and Faithfulness.
Beautiful sign. As I said, the rainbow serves as a mark of God’s Faithfulness, which really has nothing to do with humans. It is good and right that, every time we see a rainbow, we be reminded of God’s incredible Character. His Mercy and Grace towards Noah and all his descendants, including us, should leave us in complete awe. Yet we can never be unbalanced when thinking about God’s Immaculate Nature. While praise God He does love us just the way we are, He loves us way too much to leave us in that pitiful, sinful state. Listen to this quote from gotquestions.org: “We should also be reminded that our God is a holy and righteous God who has a holy hatred for sin and who will not allow sin to go unpunished forever.” (for their whole article, see link below) While God is more than pleased to reward our wholehearted sacrifices, if He is Holy, and He is, then He must also punish sin…thus Christ, the Son of God. If we surrender our lives to Jesus as our Lord and Savior, then all our sin is paid for by the Blood of Christ. He gave His Blood, that is His Life, so that we never need to know eternal death, and can begin to leave behind the death symptoms here in this world too. You know, deaths symptoms like anxiety, depression, bitterness, rage, confusion and so on. The Blood or Life of Christ now in us, is meant to give us Eternal Life, which begins here, before we leave this world. In Christ, we can become living sacrifices because in Christ we will follow Him, and not follow this world. Remember I said this world and the Bible are complete opposites. We cannot walk North AND South at the same time. We will choose to either follow this fallen and fading world, or we will choose to follow our Sacrificial Lamb into Eternal Life. It is not that we will never sin again, but God has seen it all and has forgiven it all, through the sacrifice of Jesus. We might not be sinless, but as we choose to follow and live in Christ, we sin…less. Meanwhile, we are Forgiven. I think it is so very important not to skim over this New Identity marker. Jesus has atoned for each human and those of us who have wholeheartedly, and freely and willingly, chosen to believe and follow in Him, are NOW called Forgiven. Again, it is not enough to vaguely say we believe, we must follow too. If we are learning to become more and more grateful for this God whose enduring patience with us wayward humans is beyond our comprehension, then we connect with God. We will work with God to allow Him to transform us into the image of Christ. And we will become living sacrifices who honor and glorify this Loving God. We will follow, not only say we believe. The only difference between us and the demons is that we choose to be obedient to God, in gratitude for all He has done for us. (please see Jas 2:19) In the eyes of God, our New Identity now calls us Forgiven, and because of this precious new “name,” we enter into the Everlasting Covenant.
Everlasting covenant. “Whenever the rainbow appears in the clouds, I will see it and remember the everlasting covenant between God and all living creatures of every kind on the earth.” (Gen 9:16) Here, God is pointing us towards the future event where Jesus becomes the very manifestation of God’s Faithfulness. To Adam and Eve, God had promised to send The Seed of Eve Who would crush the head of the serpent, destroying his illegitimate rule in this world. This Seed is Jesus. (Gen 2:15) Now to Noah, God gives this promise to never destroy the earth with a flood and seals it with the rainbow. This Rainbow is Jesus. This Everlasting Covenant is God’s gift to a world that continues to push Him aside. But unlike this Noahic covenant, there is one condition. We humans do not need to DO anything, but we must receive what Jesus has already done on our behalf. If this Salvation is not received, then it is not real to you, and you are still your own boss, your own lord, which means you are still IN your sin, and not IN Christ. Because God’s Holiness demands it, sin has a price, and that price is death. (Ro 6:23) If you have never accepted this covenant, won’t you do so today? And if you have surrendered to Jesus, then won’t you go out and tell someone about your decision today? Time is precious, my Friends, because we never know just how much of it we have. The Bible tells us that today is the day of the Lord, let’s use it to be a living sacrifice, by not conforming to this world but instead, allowing the Son-shine of Christ reflect through our lives, whether all is well or even when the rainstorms are pouring down upon us. Because of God’s Faithfulness, we can live this type of fulfilling life. The more I grow, the more the trials of life are not draining my life, and I can be content no matter what is going on. Want that too? Then won’t you join me?
Until we meet again, keep lifting your eyes to God, He’s closer than you think.
<>< Peace, Diane
What is the Noahic Covenant?
https://www.gotquestions.org/Noahic-covenant.html
