Is God's wrath easier to understand than his grace? And what I mean by that is, does it make more sense that God destroyed the world than that he would preserve it? And last time we saw the end of the flood and Noah and his family were instructed by God to leave the ark and he made a sacrifice to the Lord. And we didn't consider it in detail, but it's almost as though God were speaking to himself at the end of chapter eight. where he was not speaking specifically to Moses in his promise for this continuation of the world. I will never again curse the ground on account of man, for the intent of man's heart is evil from his youth, and I will never again destroy every living thing as I have done. Now in chapter nine, we'll see the same idea, but now expressed in covenant form to Noah and those with him. And we'll see even to the animals, they've received a benefit. But I think we can understand why God would be righteously angry with the state of the world. If we just review for a moment, why did God send the flood? And back in Genesis 6, we saw that it was all evil all the time. That's my shorthand for Genesis 6, verse 5. The Lord saw that the wickedness of man was great on the earth and that every intent of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually. All evil, all the time. We can understand why God would send the flood. And the earth was filled with violence. We read again in Genesis six, verse 11. Now the earth was corrupt in the sight of God and the earth was filled with violence. You may recall from our earlier studies in Genesis that Cain murdered his brother, Abel. And then later, the descendants of Cain grew more and more corrupt. And Cain's descendant, Lamech, boasted about his murdering a man and a boy. for almost trivial things. He was proud of it. And that pattern continued in the ancient world to the extent that God could righteously say, the earth is filled with violence. And then, Even though we don't fully understand what was going on, it certainly seems from the scriptures that there was demonic activity at an unprecedented level with willing human participation. And so no wonder that God would destroy the earth. How could he do otherwise? In fact, if we just imagine for a moment, well, what if we were part of a heavenly council when God was considering the flood? We might have given God counsel. I mean, it's a little ridiculous to think of that, but for sake of illustration, imagine if we were giving God counsel and we heard that, God was planning to send the flood and wipe out everything. We might say, well, that certainly makes sense. Done with that, let's not try that again. Let's not have any more humans. This is not a good plan. And maybe even if you got wind of God's promise, I'm never gonna flood the earth again, we might at first think, well, sure. Because we're done with that. We don't want anything to do with that planet ever again. But rather, God wanted to preserve life. But why bother preserving the earth? And perhaps I'm a bit jaded in even asking that question. And yet, what hope could God have righteously had that people would do any better after the flood than before? But as I meditated on this, it occurred to me that this is God's nature, God's gracious desire to save a remnant of humanity. caused him to save Noah and his family and to preserve society. We'll look at all that that means in a few minutes, but his desire to save a remnant caused him to save Noah and his family, and even to the present day, preserve society so that others may be redeemed forever in Christ. It's not in hope. of a better performing humanity, higher quality. No, it is because of his mercy, because of his grace and kindness to people. But in the section of text that we read, we saw references also to a bow, a rainbow. That's a sign of God's covenant. And in this text overall, we'll see that God made some specific changes, even in the way that the earth is governed. And he established a covenant to preserve the earth. And the sign, the proof, the visible element of this covenant is the rainbow. So what about the rainbow? You know, I think for most of the Earth's history, the rainbow was a fascinating, beautiful phenomenon in the sky, and always associated, came after the rain, kind of a hopeful thing, even if people didn't understand God's intention fully for giving the rainbow But in more recent years, people adopted the rainbow as a symbol of their quest for justice, promoting equal treatment of all skin colors. And even that is consistent with what we read in the scriptures in the heavenly worship of our Lord Jesus Christ. In Revelation 5 verse 9, they declare, you were slain, speaking of course of the Lord Jesus. You were slain and purchased for God with your blood, men from every tribe and people and tongue and nation. But more recently, that rainbow symbol has been co-opted by others who want to use it to promote sin. The so-called sexual minorities who are rebelling against God's command to be joined, husband and wife together, to be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth. And it seems like it's a continuing pattern of every provision that we see in Genesis being rejected by modern society. Bit by bit, every single aspect of what's declared in Genesis, God made the world, the world society of our day says, no, he didn't, just happened. God gave commandments. God said, I made them male and female. And the world says, no, you can be whatever you want. One or the other, change back and forth or something else entirely. Every aspect, God said, a husband shall join to his wife, there'll be one flesh. And our world says, no, that's optional. We like other kinds of arrangements. And even in the adoption of this rainbow symbol, which you can see, by the way, in front of many churches. They'll have either a bench or a flag or something indicating we're welcoming, we're inclusive, no matter what you are viewing as God's commandments in how to behave in the world how he has structured the world. It is as though the rainbow, which was God's pledge never to flood the earth again, has become for them a symbol saying, my sin will never be judged. I'm free to behave however I want. The rainbow tells me that. But instead of a license to sin, God's covenant rainbow should prompt us to marvel at his mercy and cast ourselves upon the Lord Jesus Christ, who is our only hope to escape God's ultimate judgment. God has promised through that rainbow that he will never flood the earth again. And we have this period of time where God is preserving the earth, holding society together to some extent so that the gospel can go forth. People are born and born again, trusting in Christ, redeemed by his blood. So this morning we'll consider again the sword and the sign, God's human government and God's covenant. And we'll look at this in three main sections. First, the blessings and the requirements that God gave to Noah and his sons and through them to all the rest of humanity. Because as we'll see later in Genesis, every one of us is descended from Noah and one of his three sons, or maybe more than one of his three sons. lines have crossed and blended, but we're all traced back to this one family and God blessed them and then laid out some requirements for them. We'll also look at the Lord's covenant with the whole earth. And then finally, the sign, the visible aspect of that covenant in verses 12 through 17. So we'll first consider the blessing and requirements that God gave to Noah and his family in Genesis 9, verses one through seven. And there's so much here, I've broken it down even a little bit more. we will see first a repeat of God's commandment about the dominion over all the earth that he gave to Adam. And we'll see that he changed their diet. And then to forestall that violence, which filled the earth, God introduces a new deterrence. So we'll consider dominion, diet, and deterrence, and first focus on dominion. So if you'll turn in your text to Genesis 9, verse 1, we read here, and God blessed Noah and his sons. And just pausing there for a moment, God blessed them. God didn't scold them. God didn't say, You guys got through this by the skin of your teeth. Next time, I'm not gonna be so nice. No. Why is that? We'll keep seeing this theme, that God is gracious and kind, and he wants people on the earth. God blessed Noah and his sons and said to them, be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth. And of course, That should remind us, we've seen that before. That was God's command to Adam and to Eve. And now with a new earth, the command goes forth again. But notice now this command of dominion, which is a little different than the dominion given to Adam. So God tells Noah and his sons in Genesis 9 verse two, The fear of you and the terror of you will be on every beast of the earth and on every bird of the sky. With everything that creeps on the ground and all the fishes of the sea into your hand, they are given. And whatever the relationship was between humans and animals in that time before the flood, God seems to be introducing a change here. There's a bit of separation. There's fear on the part of those animals. And we'll see in a moment, they had a good reason to fear because now man is permitted to eat them. But there's also a degree of protection for humans in this provision of fear that God institutes. Because some of those animals are such that they could eat the humans. And so giving the animals a sense of fear, avoiding humans is actually a protection for humans. So we've seen this change in the dominion, similar to what was given to Adam and Eve, but now there's a separation, reflecting maybe even more the fall. There's fear between humans and animals. And then we next consider God's changes in their diet. So in verse three, Genesis nine, God says, every moving things that is alive shall be food for you. I give all to you as I gave the green plant. And maybe you've heard this little almost nursery rhyme level way to remember what's a protein and what's a carbohydrate. And I remember hearing this Protein walks around and carbohydrates grow in the ground. And God had originally given to Adam and Eve all the trees of the garden with that one little exception. Don't eat that one tree, but otherwise all the trees, all the plants, they're all for you. And God says, You can have the protein that walks around as well. Every moving thing that is alive shall be food for you. Now, that doesn't mean we need to love going out for a nice alligator steak, right? But there's no prohibition on eating the animals. But notice broad provision, just like at the beginning, One exception, and we see that in verse four. Notice, only you shall not eat flesh with its life, that is, its blood. And if you think about, if you watch nature films, you notice some of the carnivores, they'll just take a bite out of something, flesh and blood and everything, they'll just eat it. And God says, no, you don't, you're not to be that way. You're to show some honor and respect for the life of that animal. And you're not to consume its blood with it. And many people feel this is a prohibition against eating food raw, eating meat raw. And I have just no desire to eat raw meat. Some people love this dish called steak tartare. Have you heard of it? It is essentially seasoned raw meat. And it doesn't appeal to me. And we won't have any of that at our pastor's office party. All the meat is cooked. But there's something God is portraying here, that the blood is a sign of life. And you may remember from Leviticus 17, verse 11, it's the blood by reason of the life that makes atonement. The blood contains the life, And that was not understood until many centuries later, as scientists began to understand the blood carries the oxygen that's needed to all the cells in your body. In fact, I learned also that our blood circulates about once a minute. It's amazing, this body that the Lord has given us and yet, There's a better one coming. But God gives this prohibition. You're not to eat the blood because it represents the life. There's something sacred about that. And of course, Noah and his family couldn't have fully understood, but the Lord Jesus Christ was to come many centuries later and give his blood, give his life to redeem us. What a marvelous thing. So we've seen the changes in the dominion given to humans and their diet, and finally a deterrence to this violence. So continuing on that theme of blood and life, notice in verse five, God says, surely I will require your lifeblood. From every beast, I will require it. And God is saying, I want to give you such a high regard for life, that even if an animal kills someone, that animal must die. From every beast, I will require it. And from every man, from every man's brother, I will require the life of man. And maybe there's a bit of an echo from Cain killing Abel and saying, am I my brother's keeper? So everyone who kills another person is guilty before God. And God says, almost in a poetic style in the typeset Bibles that I've tried to reproduce here, whoever sheds man's blood by man, his blood shall be shed. For in the image of God, he made man. So here's the important point. We are made in the image of God. And that is why we're not to kill one another. But you notice here that the way this is carried out is, in fact, by humans. There's a requirement for humans to execute justice on murderers. A murderer will lose his life under God's justice. But it's not to be retribution, like if someone kills your brother, well, I gotta go kill that guy. No, this is a collective response under God's authority. that we must execute those who murder. And of course, this is known as capital punishment. And that's not punishment with a capital P. It actually comes from a Latin word, caput, that means head. So under capital punishment, you lose your head. And of course, that was the most common form of execution in the ancient world. But many people feel like we're so past that. We are way more sophisticated. Does God still intend for us to put murderers to death? That's so primitive. And yet, we need to take God at His word. And the main thing is simply to remember the why. God insists on protecting those made in his image. And I want to just consider very briefly some objections to capital punishment. And again, we must remember that God is protecting those made in his image. He does not want violence to fill the earth the same way that it did before the flood. He wants to preserve life so that he can grant eternal life in Christ. But someone may say, well, there's no righteous government to execute wrongdoers. So we really shouldn't have capital punishment until we have a perfect government. And then, all right, we'll do it. But we understand God has already given his assessment. He said, I will never again flood the earth. Notice in Genesis 8, 21, I will never again curse the ground on account of man for the intent of man's heart is evil. from his youth. God knows what we are like. God knows what kind of governments we will create which are filled with sinners and yet God still commands that we execute murderers. The Apostle Paul affirmed the duty of the government to execute wrongdoers in Romans 13 verses 1-4. In fact, He uses the phrase, it does not bear the sword for nothing. And that's, of course, where I get the idea of the sword in the sword and the sign. But someone may also say, well, an innocent person might be killed. What if you make a mistake? You think this person is guilty, but they're not. I mean, just to prevent that, shouldn't we just not execute any criminals? And of course, every reasonable precaution, good defense provided examining all the facts, every reasonable precaution must be taken, but we must obey God's command. And we know in a situation where there has been a murder, one innocent person, if you can say that anyone is actually innocent, but one person has already been killed, and perhaps many more will die if justice is not done. If we create an environment where people literally get away with murder, what happens to the rate of Murder, it goes up. And we're seeing that in our society. And there's a tension you can feel between those who say, no, we must have justice. We must execute those who murder. And others, no, we'll never do that. We want to let everyone be somehow rehabilitated. Even if we have to incarcerate people for the rest of their life, we'll never obey God's command to execute them. And some might say, well, it's really not a deterrent to murder. But of course, executing a murderer will absolutely permanently deter that person from ever murdering again. And we are not authorized. This is above our pay grade to use the common language of our day. We're not authorized to question God's commands, how effective they are, how appropriate they are, or how timely they are. Have we outgrown them? That's not ours to do. God has said, the one who sheds blood, the one who kills another by man, his blood must be shed. And so we see this tension again and again. Every aspect of life that God has put forth in Genesis, modern society is questioning or trying to do the opposite, including capital punishment. But God then repeats his command, his blessing to Noah and his sons in verse seven. kind of bracketing this whole little section. As for you, be fruitful and multiply, populate the earth abundantly and multiply in it. So we've seen these blessings and the new requirements of life in the new world. And then we see God's covenant with the earth in Genesis nine, verses eight through 11. So here we see again, four times in this passage, God said, and God said, and God said, it's all God. Every speech is by God. Noah says, not a word. God is saying here, verse eight, God spoke to Noah and his sons with him saying, now behold, I myself, to establish my covenant with you and with your descendants after you." Now, who are they? Well, that's us. We are those descendants from Noah and his three sons, every one of us. If we had perfect genealogical records, we could trace all the way back. But they were the only survivors of the flood Noah, his wife, his three sons, their wives, and from them, every one of us has descended. But God emphasizes here, I myself to establish my covenant with you. And we'll think in just a moment about the nature of covenants, but I just wanna jump ahead and focus on the fact that God is making this covenant unilaterally by himself. He's not saying, hey, can we agree? You know, if you will do this, I'll do that. No, it's one-sided. God says, I'm gonna do this, period. There's no thing that you must do. I'm gonna make a formal agreement. I'm gonna bind myself. I'm gonna cut off some of my options. I'm gonna require myself. Can God do that? Can God restrict himself? Yes, when he makes a covenant, he's saying, I'm voluntarily restricting my behavior. So this is with Noah, his sons and their descendants, which is us. but it's bigger. Look at this, verse 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. So, if you have a pet dog, or a pet snake, or a salamander, or a hamster, you can go speak to that animal and say, you, even you, dear animal, have a covenant from God. He's promised to protect you from a worldwide flood. Isn't that marvelous? And of course, the dog might just kind of look at you thoughtfully. The snake might stick out its tongue and you know, they won't understand, but I find this fascinating. Of all God's covenants, this is the only one that includes all the animals, all the creatures of the earth, all the birds, the bumblebees, the everything, they're all included. in God's promise and what is it? Verse 11, here it is. 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. Of course, we notice God isn't saying there's never gonna be any flood anywhere on the earth, no. He's saying there won't be a flood of judgment that wipes out the entire earth. That's a marvelous promise. We don't have to worry about that. God is restraining himself, if you will. Like could God righteously flood the earth again? Like tomorrow? Yes, except he's made a covenant. And God cannot lie, he cannot break his word, he has made his covenant with us and even with all the animals, he'll never flood the earth again. There's a certain preservation of life on the earth because God likes life. Because where there is life, there is hope, there is hope for redemption. Not just a better life, a longer life, but hope for redemption in Christ. So we've seen the blessings and the requirements of this new arrangement in their dominion, their diet, the deterrence of the death penalty, capital punishment. We've seen the covenant itself. But then finally, God gives the sign of the covenant in Genesis 9, verses 12 through 17, the sign of the covenant. And what is a sign, particularly in this context? We know sign tells you something, points to something. Don't go this direction, go that direction, one way, you know, that sort of thing. But also we saw that the shepherds, remember in that marvelous Christmas story in Luke, The angel said, I've got great news. That's for all the people. The savior has been born. But of course, the shepherds wouldn't see him as the savior for some time. He had just been born and no one expects a baby to start ruling or conquering or whatever. But the angel said, I'm gonna give you a sign. And the sign is something that you can see right away so that you'll know that this larger promise, this further away promise will also come true. So God has made this big promise. The end of chapter eight, he said, I'm never gonna flood the earth. The seasons will continue. Here in covenantal language, I'm never gonna flood the earth again. So we read verse 12, God said, this is the sign of the covenant, which I'm making between me and you and every living creature that is with you for all successive generations. We already had a sense that it was for your descendants after you. God reiterates here, repeats again, for all successive generations. And just a note on repetition. There's purposeful repetition in this passage. You may have even said, didn't you preach this sermon last week? Cause it was about not flooding the earth again. There's a purposeful, forceful repetition that God has introduced. And I hesitate to mention it, because I don't want you to do it right now. But if you look on the back of your bulletin, sometime later, after the party in the pastor's office, you'll see an excerpt from James Montgomery Boyce with a meditation on why this repetition that I think is very helpful. And of course, also notice Maya's marvelous illustration with that perfectly done rainbow, just kind of faint the way rainbows are, and the Greek word for bow there on the rainbow. So here God is saying, I'm making this sign of the covenant for all successive generations, and verse 13, explicitly now, here's the sign, I set my bow in the cloud. You may wonder, why didn't he say rainbow? Well, in Hebrew, And in Greek, the word for bow, like bow and arrows, like you shoot arrows, that word for bow and rainbow, same word. So God is saying, instead of being a warrior with my bow and arrow coming after you in judgment, I'm putting the bow in the clouds. You can see it's hung up. It's not coming after you for judgment now. You have time to come to faith, to repent of your sins. I set my bow in the cloud, verse 13, and it shall be for a sign of a covenant between me and the earth. Notice again how inclusive, me and the earth, the whole planet in a sense is the recipient of this covenant. Verse 14, it shall come about when I bring a cloud over the earth that the bow will be seen in the cloud and I will remember my covenant. Not that God is ever gonna forget his covenant, but he's using human language to reassure us of his faithfulness. 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." Again, purposeful repetition to make the point God is faithful to his word, to his covenant. When the bow is in the cloud, God says, then I will look upon it to remember the everlasting covenant. Everlasting covenant. This is a long-term, Deal. We saw in chapter eight, God said, while the earth remains, you're gonna have seasons. You're gonna have dependable patterns. I'm gonna maintain it. I'll look upon it to remember the everlasting covenant between God and every living creature of all flesh that is on the earth. And if Noah hadn't gotten it by now, God says one more time in verse 17, and God said to Noah, this is the sign of the covenant which I've established between me and all flesh that is on the earth. Now think of the covenants that God has given We, I hinted earlier that this is a unilateral covenant. The other kind of covenant is a bilateral covenant. When we get married generally, if it's in a Christian setting, there's an acknowledgement of a marriage covenant. It's an agreement and both parties agree to be bound by the terms of this covenant, you're covenanting together. It's a bilateral or perhaps if we include God in it, a trilateral covenant. But in this case, God's not asking for humans to merit participation in the blessings of this covenant. It is unilateral on his part. And some of God's covenants are conditional. If you'll do this, I'll do that. Very common in ancient treaties between kings and their subjects. But God often makes unconditional promises, unconditional covenants. What's the best one of those? It's that new covenant that I'm so fond of. I can't stop talking about it. Almost every Sunday, these blessings of forgiveness of sin and relationship with God and a transforming power from the inside out. These are the blessings of the new covenant. And that's an unconditional covenant. God doesn't say, you know, if you measure up, you work pretty hard, you might attain to this. Look at what's waiting if you'll behave. No, God just says, I'm gonna do this. Nor is it a bilateral. It is unilateral. God says, I will do this. I will forgive. I will not remember your sins. God promises unilaterally, unconditionally, he's gonna do that. God gave David a promise of a descendant who would rule forever. And did he say, and you know, if you measure up, no, he didn't say that because we know David didn't measure up, he failed. but God was gracious and gave him a unilateral, unconditional covenant. You're gonna have a son who reigns forever, and that is our Lord Jesus Christ. And here with the whole earth, you can go up to any person, any skeptic, any scoffer, any person in another religion or no religion, and you can tell them, Did you know God has made a covenant to you? You're included. I don't wanna be included. No, you're included. You don't have any choice because it was God's idea. And he made it so everybody can see it. What? Like it's written in the sky? Yes, it's written in the sky. It's this rainbow. And the rainbow, is there to remind us of God's promise to never flood the earth again. It doesn't mean he'll never judge sin. It means we know we have time to repent. Instead of a license to sin, God's covenant rainbow should prompt us to marvel at his mercy. and cast ourselves upon the Lord Jesus Christ, who is our only hope to escape God's ultimate judgment, not just of the earth, but of all people everywhere, eternity. He is our hope. Please pray with me. Father, we thank you for these promises, this covenant that you have given us. We thank you that your rainbow sign in the covenant is a perpetual reminder of your common grace, which should lead us to your saving grace in Christ. Well, may we be faithful to use this time that we have to declare your glory, to revel in your marvelous mercy, and to tell whoever will listen of your goodness that you so desire to redeem that you have voluntarily restrained yourself from judgment for a period of time that people may be born and born again to your glory. In Jesus' name, amen.