Tuesday: Covenant with Noah
“But I will establish my covenant with you; and you shall come into the ark, you, your sons, your wife, and your sons’ wives with you.” (Gen: 6:18, RSV).
In this one verse we have the basics of the biblical covenant that God makes with humanity: God and humankind enter into an agreement. Very simple.
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Yet, there are more elements than first meet the eye. To begin, there is the element of obedience on humanity’s part. God says to Noah that he and his family shall go into the ark. They have their part to do, and if they do not do it, the covenant is broken. If the covenant is broken, they are the ultimate losers, for in the end they are the beneficiaries of the covenant. After all, if Noah said No to God and did not want to abide by the covenant or said Yes but then changed his mind, what would have been the results for him and his family?
God says that it is “my covenant.” What does that tell us about the basic nature of the covenant? What difference would there be in our concept of the covenant if the Lord had called it “our covenant”?
However unique this particular situation, we see here the basic God-human dynamic found in the covenant. By establishing “my covenant” with Noah, God here again displays His grace. He shows that He is willing to take the initiative in order to save human beings from the results of their sins. In short, this covenant must not be seen as some sort of union of equals in which each “partner” in the covenant is dependent upon the other. We could say that God “benefits” from the covenant, but only in a radically different sense from which humans do. He benefits in that those whom He loves will be given eternal life — no small satisfaction for the Lord (Isa: 53:11). But that is not to say that He benefits in the same way we — on the receiving end of the same covenant — benefit.
Try this analogy: a man has fallen overboard from a boat in the midst of a storm. Someone on the deck says that he will throw a life preserver over to haul him in. The one in the water, however, has to agree to his end of the “deal,” and that is, to grab on and to hold on to what has been provided him. That, in many ways is what the covenant between God and humanity is all about.
| How does the above analogy help you understand the concept of grace that exists in the covenant? How does it help you understand what your relationship to God even now needs to be based on? |
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The story goes that John Glenn, the astronaut was asked what it felt like at a space launch. He said, "I felt exactly how you would feel if you were getting ready for a launch and knew that you were sitting on top of 2 million parts - all built by the lowest bidder on a government contract."
And Noah was asked by God to take his family and enter the Ark. He had built it himself with his family and some contracted workers out of wood, 150 metres long 25 metres wide and 15 metres high. They had to put their trust in a wooden box, stuck together and waterproofed with pitch.
But God had said to Noah:
A covenant from God provides surety and security. Noah did the preparation and the work but God provided the certainty that gave Noah the confidence to step out in faith. The same can be said for many of the covenants mentioned in the Bible: the assurance for our faith.
Yes, Maurice, God was asking Noah to trust in the Lord and the wooden device he had built himself. The role of faithful obedience is undeniable.
If trusting in God, Noah would have no doubts concerning the ark which God gave him the plans for.
For 120 years Noah preached while he built the ark, warning of the coming flood. What did he say? Join me in the ark or build your own for your family? Would there have been space for them in the ark?
While Methuselah, a true believer, helped to build the ark did he plan to be in the ark when the flood came?
If everyone believed and repented would the LORD have not let the flood happen like he did with Nineveh?
I like your questions, Shirley. There would have been room for Methuselah, but not for the entire crowd.
I discovered the Ark was huge, have a look at this website where they built a life size ark.
Ark Encounter
Ark Encounter features a full-size Noah’s Ark, built according to the dimensions given in the Bible. Spanning 510 feet long, 85 feet wide, and 51 feet high, this modern engineering marvel amazes visitors young and old.
However the LORD specifically said to Noah that His Covenant was for only Noah and family to enter the Ark.
Methuselah was very old so I think eternal life would be more important to him than physical life.
Maybe the LORD said these words to him as well.
Rev 14:13. And I heard a voice from heaven telling me to write, “Blessed are the dead—those who die in the Lord from this moment on.” “Yes,” says the Spirit, “they will rest from their labors, for their deeds will follow them.”
for those of us who are new to the theology of Methuselah being involved with Noah in building the ark....
A hundred and twenty years before the Flood, the Lord declared to Noah His purpose and directed him to build an ark. He was to preach that God would bring a flood of water upon the earth. Those who would believe the message and would prepare by repentance and reformation, should find pardon and be saved. Methuselah and his sons, who lived to hear the preaching of Noah, assisted in building the ark. {EP 52.3}...EG White, From Eternity Past.
Amid the prevailing corruption, Methuselah, Noah, and many others labored to keep alive the knowledge of the true God and to stay the tide of moral evil. A hundred and twenty years before the Flood, the Lord by a holy angel declared to Noah His purpose, and directed him to build an ark. While building the ark he was to preach that God would bring a flood of water upon the earth to destroy the wicked. Those who would believe the message, and would prepare for that event by repentance and reformation, should find pardon and be saved. Enoch had repeated to his children what God had shown him in regard to the Flood, and Methuselah and his sons, who lived to hear the preaching of Noah, assisted in building the ark. {PP 92.2}...thanks for writing about Methuselah, another patriarch who is only briefly mentioned in Scripture but is written about by Ellen White..i never had seen that before.
Hi Mark, I also found this comment in the above quote interesting : While building the ark he was to preach that God would bring a flood of water upon the earth to destroy the wicked. Those who would believe the message, and would prepare for that event by repentance and reformation, should find pardon and be saved.
What was meant by the words "be saved"? Saved from the flood or given eternal life at the LORD's Second Coming? Which was more important to them and today to us?
What is remarkable, is that Noah was put in the same situation as Abraham: He did not know anything about an ark, not its use, nor its strength, the conditions within, where it will land etc. There must be awful load of questions during that time. But it's swerve not even a minute of the construction. That is real faith in action. He totally trust the promise in the covenant. Well others in the likes of Methuselah, Lamech and Jared around him also assisted his faith also. We hope to have those around us to help us going through this uncharted waters.
Each Covenant we find starting with Adam and Eve are ALL about deliverance and restoration. Deliverance from both sin and its affects.
I totally agree. I found it almost frustrating that the lesson keeps saying that the first covenant began with Noah. Gods covenant with man began with Adam and Eve, and God referred to it when He was talking to Noah. I think we forget what this battle is all about. It’s about Satan lying about Gods character and God showing humanity that those lies just aren’t true. God did not destroy the earth with a flood to punish those that wouldn’t get on the ark, He did it so that He could preserve an avenue through which the Messiah could come. Noah was the last one that still fully believed in God. It was an act of mercy.
The life preserver analogy shows us how salvation works. We did nothing to deserve it. It was a free gift from the Giver. And dare I say, many of us spurn the life preserver and try our own way, and end up losing our lives.
It all comes down to faith. Faith and relationship. We hardly accept agreements with people we do not have any reference from. Thus, either it is necessary a previous relationship or a good list of references in order for us to enter a covenant! By knowing Who God really is, we should be super flattered to receive His offer of covenant! We should be thankful, and joyful! Thank God because His plans for us are always higher than ours! We may not recognize this at first, but at the end, being by His side is the safest! And how could I do this if I have any doubt about the power, or even the existance of God? It all begins and ends with faith!
I quote the writer:
Try this analogy: a man has fallen overboard from a boat in the midst of a storm. Someone on the deck says that he will throw a life preserver over to haul him in. The one in the water, however, has to agree to his end of the “deal,” and that is, to grab on and to hold on to what has been provided him. That, in many ways is what the covenant between God and humanity is all about.
God doesn't need me to be God, but I need God in my life to be me and exist. Therefore the covenant is God's covenant not "our covenant."
I have a question.
Is the calendar calculation BC and AC the same? Imagine building an ark for 120 years.
Sarah, in those days people were living for 800 or 900 years so 120 wasn't as long as it would be today.
The Ark was enormous it was built by hand, no power tools!
But Noah found grace in the eyes of the Lord Gen 6:8
Covenant with Noah
The Power of friendship
Many will agree with me that they have a good or best friend in life. But how did that person who was a complete stranger became your good or best friend? Was it over night, wks, mths or yrs. How did you confined in that person the deep things of your life that you will not tell anyone else? Think about it.
Noah was a man who had a spouse and 3 sons. In those days the people had gotten gross wicked and evil was found everywhere says the bible, but Noah had a relationship with the Lord. For a relationship to prosper/flourish it is rooted in some facts- e.g constant communication, trust, support. Inspite of an evil world where Noah lived, he had a relationship with God. They spent time together and were friends. Noah listened, obey and was not contaminated with evil around him. So, when the Lord asked him to build the boat it was easy for him to do so and follow the directions because they were friends. He trusted his friend and believed what his friend said. He prove the Lord time and time again that he is a faithful friend. It was a friendship relationship that the Lord had with Noah then he made the the covenant with him. Gen 6:18.
I constantly say all of us have our own relationship with Jesus, mine is different to yours. I constantly talk to him, I pray and he answers me.
Today, do we find a friend in Jesus? Do we trust him and his words? Can he confine in us his plans? Can he use us a an instrument of his grace?
Yesterday as I was going to work I was praying telling the Lord let me be an instrument for him because the closest some may come to know him is through me. Then at work during the day I thought I had the worst assignment. At one time I stop to think if this was right for me to be given such a 'terrible' assignment? Many times we want the Lord to use us but we want the easy way out, we dont want to suffer for his sake. When we are weak, he becomes strong. We can depend on him for him to carry us.
Perhaps Shirley, the majority of men had reached the level of unpardonable sin, “for their thoughts were of evil continually”. Thus there was no more regard for God or their fellow man, even though salvation was preached to them for 120 years. Which was obviously rejected.
Yes Ronald, I believe you are right, yet the LORD still had Noah preach for all that time. Ellen White says some initially believed but were dissuaded by the multitude. The LORD gave them enough warning and enough time to make up their minds and so they had no excuse in the final judgment.
I believe this is why the final message of the three angels is so important!
Throughout all the ages, our Creator stayed in touch with His children. There is no doubt in my mind that humanity is endowed with the spirit of Him who created us. Again and again we find records of this spiritual communion taking place between man and God; but all our ‘knowing’ of what happened in earth’s past is based on that we believe that the Creator exists.
Enough geological and cultural evidence has been found to evidence the scriptural accounts of a worldwide flood. Noah build and he and his family entered the Ark by faith and so assured mankind’s survival; we and all land creatures would not be here if he would not have acted upon that which he believed.
The Father still reaches out to his children to be saved. He is found in the living examples of those who believe Him already and live their life according to His Will, or by reading or hearing their testimonies speaking of His transforming work in their heart and mind, giving reason to join His family and live in the Father’s heavenly Kingdom established from the Beginning of this world.
Nothing has changed about the Father’s approach to reach out to humankind and for us to respond – believing that He is is still required, acting upon that which we have heard is still required; Faith in His Word is still required to see us through this life we live here in the flesh.
By the faith of just one man, Noah, the Father has grown His family again; this time to include millions upon millions of faithful believers who desire to live their lives according to His Will.
Yes, all Covenants are His Covenants with man; He established the guidelines to bring mankind out of its spiritual darkness into His heavenly Light and so with again know its Creator; man is always the beneficiary, not a negotiating partner.
I believe that our Father designed all the Covenant’s, starting with Noah’s, to increase among man the knowledge of Him so that trust, faith and love in/for Him could increase in the hearts and minds of His children.
Father and Son poured out their spirit to benefit all humanity; all the living can experience His loving, merciful, gracious heart’s desire as He guides His lost children home.
Man, women, and children have had the blessing to meet our Creator in the person of Jesus Christ our Savior. In this last age of humanity, God fulfilled His Promise to dwell among man for a while and so demonstrate His Way of loving His children and to inspire us to love likewise.
Just a child who has learned to trust its parent so Noah has learned to trust God. In my childhood there were times my mother told me to do something which did not seem to make sense but I did it believing she knew the outcome and she did not intend to hurt me. We need to have such faith based on our knowledge and experience with out loving FATHER , God.
It's an interesting analogy: a man has fallen overboard from a boat in the midst of a storm. Someone on the deck says that he will throw a life preserver over to haul him in. The one in the water, however, has to agree to his end of the “deal,” and that is, to grab on and to hold on to what has been provided him. That, in many ways is what the covenant between God and humanity is all about.
However, I would complete it with a proviso that although the man may lay hold of the life preserver, he still needs to trust the captain of the ship to haul him onboard. Some Christians perhaps are trusting in their own strength to hold on to the preserver, while neglecting the faith in the Captain to bring him all the way home. Regardless of the life preserver, one must still live by faith in the One at the other end of the rope.
The covenant was not written down until Moses, but since God changes not, we must believe that the covenant has not changed since the path to restoration from the fall is always the same: repentance and faith. Gen 26:5 helps us understand this also doesn't it? Also, Joseph knew the law of God and the definition of wickedness, long before Moses.
Regarding: "my covenant" vs "our covenant", WE are the sinners who need salvation, and by God's mercy and grace, this salvation is offered on His righteous terms. It is we who have fallen away by choice, and God can only offer salvation, since He has given us free will, and only God could provide adequate propitiation for our sin. In Luke 15 we have 3 different views of God's covenant of grace which help define the dynamics of this agreement/union God wishes to make with sinners. Each view adds to our understanding of God's will and offer, yet there are not 3 different covenants. In John 15 Jesus taught the vital union that must take place in this covenant relation. Only in abiding can there be Union.
Without our willing acceptance, there can be no salvation. Repentance and faith, this is our part which has been clearly established throughout scripture.
The life preserver analogy misses the mark because the man overboard may not know how to swim and may be close to drowning or he may be exhausted by the time the boat turns around and gets close enough to make a rescue attempt. So Someone will have to get into the water to rescue this helpless soul, because in his own strength, the drowning one may not even be able to hang onto the life preserver that is thrown to him.
Further, anyone who gets into the water to rescue drowning people knows from experience that when these souls begin to recover or regain consciousness, they can put up a frantic struggle and literally kill their rescuer by drowning them. A lifeguard literally puts his life on the line with each rescue attempt made.
The drowning one must put his complete trust in his Lifeguard for his rescue and cooperate with him by following his instructions. His Lifeguard is the only Way to Life. In this way, the drowning one may be brought back to the boat and safety.