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Life in the Post Flood World

The flood had devastated the world – life on planet earth would never be quite the same ever again. All life terrestrial life outside of the Ark had been wiped out. It was a strange new world that met Noah when God told him at last that it was time to leave the safety of the Ark which had been his home for over a year.

We saw last week that the very first action then accomplished by Noah and his family was a religious one. However pressing it might have seemed to Noah to provide shelter for his wife by constructing some new home, it had to wait. There was a something more urgent that needed to be done first. In the new world God had to be given His rightful place and He comes first! So Noah built and altar and offered sacrifices.

How important that God should come first in our lives too. The very first commandment tells us to be careful not to have any gods before the LORD. Jesus taught that the most important commandment was that which required of all men living that they love God with everything that they have and are. Noah gave practical expression to what such commands required – worship, praise and thankfulness as he put God first.

But now life must go on and what is life going to be like in the post flood world? It is an important subject because it is just in that world that we live out our lives!

The chapter we are looking at this evening begins with the simple statement that God blessed Noah and that blessing didn't stop with him but spilled over to include his family as well.

It's a simple statement and one that doesn't surprise us so very much – after all we're used to the idea of God acting like that aren't we?

And, yes, this is characteristic of Him. Already in the Book of Genesis the LORD has declared His blessing upon the animal world, Adam and Eve – on two separate occasions – and on the Sabbath. As we read on in Genesis we find that God pronounces blessings upon the following:

    Abraham 12:2,3; 22:17; 24:1,35

    Sarah 17:16

    Ishmael 17:20

    Isaac 25:11; 26:3, 2, 24

    Jacob 30:27; 32:29; 35:9,

    Potiphar's household (because of Joseph) 39:5; 48:3

    Joseph himself 49:25.

But how good it is to read this here too! God had spared Noah and brought him along with his family safely through the flood – and this was due to His free grace – remember Gen.6:8 "Noah found favour in the eyes of the LORD."

And now that the flood has gone and Noah stands on dry ground again it is so encouraging to read that the LORD blessed him.

The LORD had already done tremendous things for him – but He had not finished! He was going to keep on going. Noah wasn't to be left to get on with things on his own but God was going to continue with him!

And it's like that with the Christian too!! The Father in His great love has given us His Son, our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. And this great Saviour has laid down His life in sacrifice for us to bring us back to God securing our pardon and forgiveness. But He doesn't leave us to get on with the Christian life by own efforts – He continues to bless us too. He gives us His Spirit who lives in us, energising us, transforming us, enabling us to resist the Devil, to turn our back on sin and temptation and to make progress in godliness.

As Paul wrote to the church in Rome:

Rom.8:32 "He who did not spare his own Son but gave him up for us all, how will he not also with him graciously give us all things?"

He has done great things for us in Christ and keeps on blessing us!

With Noah facing the unknown God came to meet him and to bless him. Noah was passive here – such blessing is not due to the engineering attempts of man! Here is divine sovereign grace.

All men and women benefit from God's blessings but not all His blessings are bound up with salvation matters. A man may enjoy good health and prosperity – it is due to God's goodness towards him but may not necessarily lead that man to salvation. As Jesus taught in Mt.5:45 "For he makes his sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the just and on the unjust."

We do not however want to restrict our understanding of blessing to such common grace but to consider the fullness of God's blessings for a believer.

When God's blessing is given something far more than just some nice sentimental feelings is involved. His blessing is deeply experiential involving a profound change of affections. When God's blessing comes it means that God does something in us and for us. The first works of grace that produce regeneration are followed progressively by the blessings of providence as God our Father deals with us day after day for the rest of our lives.

Here we have a multitude of divine blessings – knowledge of God, pardon of our sins, adoption into the family of God, union with Christ, a Sovereign Protector, a Providing Father, true freedom, joy unspeakable, clean lives, healthy work, wholesome families etc.

In this passage there are a number of blessings that are immediately highlighted:

A.    Children

The Lord is very pro-life! In v.1 and again in v.7 the creation mandate is repeated: Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth!

And children are seen in the Bible both as a blessing and as a gift from the LORD:

Ps.127:3 "Behold, children are a heritage from the LORD, the fruit of the womb a reward."

Cf. Gen.30:2 "Jacob’s anger was kindled against Rachel, and he said, “Am I in the place of God, who has withheld from you the fruit of the womb?”"

However the context in which this command is given has altered dramatically from its original context in ch.1. And this leads us on to the second blessing.

B.    Order in nature and in the society of men: instructions on how to live

In ch.1 the command to multiply was immediately followed by the command to exercise dominion over the animal world. Now in ch.9 animals react in fear and dread of mankind! There is an element of hostility that is present – the possibility of animals actually killing men is mentioned and instructions given as to how to deal with such an occurrence..

However there is no equality between men and the animals. Men may eat animals with impunity but an animal which destroys human life is in turn to be destroyed.

All life finds its origin in God and hence is to be treated respectfully but that does not mean all life is to be treated in an identical manner.

Men must not descend to eating raw meat like the animals in savage behaviour. The life-force represented by the blood must be respected even if animals may be eaten.

Human life is of the highest importance because man (alone of all the creatures that God has made) is in the image of God. It is appropriate therefore for a murderer to forfeit his life when he wilfully destroys another image-bearer!

After the flood human society will experience this wicked sin again and the LORD graciously tells Noah how it is to be dealt with. The excesses of a Lamech who retaliated with extraordinary violence and exaggeration are to be replaced with moderated just retribution. The punishment is made to fit the crime!

C.    The Covenant

Having dealt with questions of life – note the inclusios (bracketing or bookends) "be fruitful and multiply" that surround the questions about death and the shedding of blood – Moses moves on to write about the Covenant.

Now we have met this idea of covenant before. Back in ch.6:18 the LORD promises to establish His covenant with Noah. Now more details are given as to the exact nature of this covenant in vv.8-17.

This is a remarkable covenant – the first recorded in the Bible – and the further covenants that God establishes with His people later on differ in some significant ways from this one. Here we have the following elements:

1.     It is a unilateral covenant:

There is no debate, no negotiation about this covenant. There is not even a request from Noah for the establishment of a covenant. Rather what we have is a completely one-sided, unilateral covenant. In fact as we read the verses 8-17 God is the only actor – Noah does not utter even a single word.

This is a regular pattern in the Bible as God takes the initiative – man runs from God or is indifferent towards Him but God comes to seek him out. As Jesus was to teach in the NT:

Lu.19:10 "For the Son of Man came to seek and to save the lost."

Praise God that He does indeed take the initiative with sinners.

2.     It is a universal covenant:

This particular is established with Noah, his family and with every living creature. It is not therefore a covenant that deals exclusively with matters pertaining to salvation. But it concerns a promise on the part of God never to destroy the world again by the catastrophic means of a flood. He here guarantees the regular succession of the seasons. The world is ordered accordingly to regular principles which render the development of scientific study and research possible. The earth is not subject to irrational, unpredictable forces but God guarantees a certain order and regularity.

3.     It is an unconditional covenant:

If you read carefully the vv.8-19 you'll see that nothing is required of man in return for what God freely promises that He Himself will do. In subsequent covenants God determines the terms and includes conditions that men must meet not in order that the covenant might be established but because the covenant has been so set up. Obedience and submission to God are either made explicit or else clearly implied. In this case however no such obligation exists. Indeed given the fact that this covenant is established explicitly with every living creature moral responses would be impossible!

4.     It is an unending covenant:

v.16 makes this clear – the covenant is an everlasting covenant. As long as the earth exists this covenant will stand firm guaranteed by the free promise and solemn commitment of the LORD.

             Covenants in the Bible are often accompanied by some sign and that is true of this one.

The LORD places His bow in the clouds! The rainbow!! And how appropriate this is. The rainbow only appears when the sun strikes rain. The rain when it had started to fall signalled the arrival of the flood now the sun hitting failing rain serves to remind the LORD of the promises He has made.

Did you notice that? The rainbow is not primarily for men's benefit but for God's!! Now we know that it is impossible for God to forget what He has promised but by this means He underlines the importance of the commitment He has undertaken. And after all the really important thing is not that man should remember what God has promised to do but that God Himself should!!

And of course as we look up and see rainbows from time to time in the sky we can think too of the steadfast faithfulness of our LORD God.

The old pre-flood world had been destroyed but although a fresh beginning was being made with Noah it was a contaminated world nevertheless. This new world would not be the new creation. And we live in this post-flood contaminated world. We must wait for the new creation wherein dwells righteousness (2Pe.2:13) because this is not it.

As we move towards the end of ch.9, and with it the end of this particular section of Genesis, we are starkly confronted with the presence of sin in this renewed world. And how sad it is!

All begins well enough with the planting of a vineyard – nothing wrong with that. But then we read of Noah, the preacher of righteousness, succumbing to alcohol. How out of character this is for such a man who walks with God but the Bible doesn't pull its punches and we are shown not just the strengths of its heroes but also their weaknesses.

Noah lies naked in his drunken stupor – how degrading, how pathetic, how sad it all is.

We want to hurry on past and we'd preferred it if Moses hadn't recorded this little cameo for us. But here it is bringing the accounts of Noah's life to an end. And of course there are good reasons why this story should have been left in:

a)    External changes do not solve the problem of sin. The flood had brought about the most extensive structural reorganisation of all time but it hadn't dealt with the problem of indwelling sin. How slow we are to understand this and how we still long that sin might be dealt with by tinkering with society in one way or another.

In the past ignorance was the believed to be the problem - education would be the answer and put things right. It hasn't worked out like that. No poverty must be eradicated, let's remove social disadvantages and anti-social behaviour will be solved. But still no solutions! Our current government acts as though legislation is what is needed and so throws new laws at every perceived problem area.

In the UK today there are more video surveillance cameras per head of population than anywhere else in the world. Did you know that the UK has 1% of the world's population but 20% of the world's video surveillance cameras? That's roughly 1 camera for every 14 people in the UK!

But it doesn't deal with sin does it? It simple changes the way sin is expressed and where.

b)    Sin – the grossest of sins - can catch out even godly people. Noah had received God's favour, he walked with God, he had been a faithful preacher, he had experienced remarkable blessings from God as he was kept safe with his family in the Ark, he had heard the LORD making tremendous promises to him. Noah was a man of faith worthy of his citation in the Honour's list that is Heb.11. And yet he fell. And yet he fell into such a grubby sin as drunkenness.

Do you think you are too mature to fall for such sins of the flesh? Be careful!

1Co 10:12 "Therefore let anyone who thinks that he stands take heed lest he fall."

c)     Sin can take many forms. Yes, our newspapers will focus on sins on the flesh – how delighted they are to write about the pecadillos of the famous and the celebrities of this world. Happier still when they are to be able to recount the failures of such preachers of righteousness as Noah.

But gross sins of the flesh are not the only sins. Gen.9 speaks of another type of sin, sin that has devastating consequences. It speaks about the sin of Ham.

Now just what is this sin? It is obviously important as it leads to a very serious conclusion – Noah, in the only words of his that are recorded in the Bible curses his descendents!

Ham gloats. He sees his father in an out-of-character moment and spreads the word! Love doesn't do this. Peter tells us that love covers a multitude of sins (1Pe.4:8) but Ham won't even cover up just this one of his father. No, off he goes to his brothers and urges them to come take a look too!

And how easy it is for us to do the same! We share "in confidence of course" but what are we really doing? How careful we should be!

Let's follow the example of Shem and Japheth of respectfully covering up the offences of others rather than of broadcasting them to others!

d)    The Bible is such a realistic book. The new world is spotted with sin and even its heroes are flawed – but yet there is hope!

Structural changes can't deal with sin successfully. No other plans of men can either but we are not therefore shut up to hopelessness. Chapter 9 ends with some encouragements.

"Blessed be the LORD, the God of Shem" calls out Noah. Shem, the father of the Semitic nations, is the one through whom the LORD will accomplish His promise of Gen.3:15. The seed of the woman will come from Seth's line. We read in the NT "Jesus…the son of Shem, the son of Noah" Lk.3:23,36. The LORD Himself will come from Shem and provide the salvation we need, the salvation that doesn't tinker with mere externals but which renews the heart!

There is hope too for the descendants of Japheth from whom come the Indo-Europeans. They will come to dwell in the tents of Shem – there is salvation too for the non-Jew!  The OT was written in Hebrew, a Semitic language but the NT comes in Greek and the Greeks are descendants of Japheth!

Ham's descendants through Canaan are cursed and if we look on in OT history how that becomes clear as we read of the godless peoples all descended from Canaan – the Canaanites, the Amorites, the Midianites, the Philistines etc. (No hint that the descendants of Ham are black people – what a distortion that has been when used subsequently to try to justify the vile practices of slavery!) And yet even from among these generally cursed nations trophies of grace are found – Noah is painting in broad brush strokes and not defining each and every individual – Rahab is found amongst our LORD's own ancestors!

We have been confronted by the realism of the Bible this evening. Here we have seen just how the Bible deals with the world as we know and experience it.

There is much that is good – there is real blessing – and yet sin remains to rear its ugly head and does so even in the most godly of folk. Sin can be both outrageously carnal and politely gossipful. How careful we must be!

We know these things from our experience, don't we? One moment we can be walking with God the next entertaining some foul thoughts that are so unworthy. We are at times amazed at ourselves and can be pushed to cry out as did Paul in Rom.7:24 "Wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death?"

But there is hope of deliverance – here it is declared in v.26 "Blessed be the LORD, the God of Shem" and in Romans Paul declares it in Rm.7:25 "Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord!"

To God be the Glory.