The Everlasting Covenant

The Covenant of God to redeem mankind, as presented throughout history.

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Topics:
    Noah
    The Flood of Noah
    Covenant given to Noah
    After the Flood
    The Commands of Noah
    Covenant
“God saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually.” Genesis 6:5
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Noah:

After Adam and Eve sinned, and were driven from Eden, the people soon forgot God. Eden was still present, but barring the way were “Cherubims, and a flaming sword which turned every way, to keep the way of the tree of life” (Genesis 3:24). With this daily reminder, how could they forget that there is a God, that He is the Creator, and that only by sin was he separated from His people? The earth had been cursed (Genesis 3:17-19), but the curse as yet rested lightly. There was still incredible beauty. Living was easy. Wealth was well nigh universal. Vigorous and living over 900 years, men had time for art, science, and for wickedness of every imaginable kind, until God saw that it had to stop (Genesis 6:5-7).

God found Noah, “a just man and perfect in his generations” (Genesis 6:9). Noah was to build an ark with detailed specifications given by God Himself.  Noah wasted no time, doing “... according to all that God commanded him” (Genesis 6:22). God made a covenant with Noah (3) to save him and his family even as the flood destroyed all else. His family had faith that Noah spoke God’s message.

Building the ark was a huge project. It was not until about 100 years ago that men could again build a ship as large as the wooden ark that Noah built!  Even today, we do not know how he did it.  Noah and his family probably put everything they had, maybe even borrowed from others to get it done. Hundreds listened to Noah preach. Thousands knew of the ark, it was a monument to all. But only Noah and his family made a choice to be saved. A sampling of all the animals were also saved.

Was the ark large enough for all the population of the earth, or even a large fraction if many desired to be saved? Probably not. But the people had the example of Noah building the ark for 120 years. There was plenty of time for people to make arks for themselves!

Was God unreasonable in bringing the flood upon the earth? Genesis 6:3 indicates that the Spirit of God “strove” with man for 120 years. They had the example and also the preaching of Noah (2 Peter 2:5) as he built the ark. Did no one else notice the wickedness and violence in the earth? Did no one else cry to God to bring an end to evil? Maybe yes, but men do not notice gradual changes, and they became all too accustomed to what was occurring. One hundred twenty years is a long time, but if history teaches us anything, it is that events long foretold will eventually come to pass. The time to make preparations is always now!(2)
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The Flood of Noah:

The Day by Day Happenings of the Flood.
Noah and all the beasts entered the ark and wait for 7 days.	Genesis 7:1-16
The flood began on the 17th day of the 2nd month.	Genesis 7:11	2nd m 17th d
There was rain for 40 days and 40 nights. The waters “prevailed
Upon the earth” 150 days. The ark rested upon Ararat.	Genesis 8:4	7th Mo 17th d	150 d
The tops of the mountains were seen on the 10th Mo. 1st Day.	vs. 5	10th Mo 1st d	223 d
Noah sent forth a raven and a dove after forty days.	vs. 6-9		263 d
The dove sent again and returned with an olive leaf after 7 days.	vs. 10, 11		270 d
The dove sent a third time and did not return after seven days.	vs. 12		277 d
The earth is dry. All the inhabitants of the ark go forth.
Noah builds an altar and offers sacrifice.	vs. 14-20	2nd Mo 27th d	370 d

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Covenant of Noah
The Covenant was given by God to Noah to preserve his family and life on earth (Genesis 6-9).

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After the Flood

After the flood, Noah built an altar, and offered of every clean beast, a burnt offering to the Lord. Considering the severely limited supply of clean animals, many of which would be needed for food, this was most remarkable. Wouldn’t one lamb be enough? Weren’t the rest of the animals needed to sustain the family? In this remarkable event, Noah demonstrated his trust in God. The earth and everything on it belonged to God. He would trust God too, for his life (Genesis 8:21, 22).

God renewed His covenant with Noah. The wording of the verses is important. God is remembering the covenant He made with Noah before the flood (Genesis 6:17, 18). He makes with Noah an everlasting covenant; God regards His creation and will preserve life (4). The rainbow is given as the special sign of this covenant.

       “And I will remember my covenant, which is between me and you and every living creature of all flesh; and the waters shall no more become a flood to destroy all flesh.
       “And the bow shall be in the cloud; and I will look upon it, that I may remember the everlasting covenant between God and every living creature of all flesh that is upon the earth.
       “And God said unto Noah, This is the token of the covenant, which I have established between me and all flesh that is upon the earth” (Genesis 9:15-17).
 

Can you imagine what Noah and his family saw as they came out of the ark? Where there had been forests, fruit trees, gardens and fields of grass; there was now nothing – but mud, ragged rocks, mud, canyons, and a few straggling blades of grass beginning to show. They were discouraged, but God promised to be their God (4) and to make life normal again.

Seed time and harvest, cold and heat, summer and winter, day and night would return to their normal cycles. Life would be safe. Animals which were large and unmanageable would be restrained by fear of man. The diet was liberalized, giving permission to eat flesh and green herbs which were easier to raise. The people were reassured that there would be no more flood and no more curse. God gave them the rainbow as a token of His promise (4) as an everlasting covenant that He would continue to support life and all His creation.

The Everlasting Covenant reaches back to the covenant made before Creation, between Father and Son.  It was first given to Adam and Eve after they sinned.  It was the everlasting covenant of saving grace.

   “And I will put enmity between thee and the woman, and between thy seed and her seed; it shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise his heel” (Genesis 3:15).
 

The Redeemer prophesied in this verse made possible all blessings that God has bestowed. It was in this covenant that promised blessings were given to Noah.
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The Commands of Noah

There are some who point to the commandments given to Noah as the commandments God intended for the whole world, while the ten commandments were intended only for the Hebrews. Let’s look at the commandments given to Noah:

    1. Be fruitful and multiply and replenish the earth. Genesis 9:1
    2. Permission to eat flesh food. Vs 3.
    3. The blood thereof, shall ye not eat. Vs 4
    4. Murder is forbidden. Vs 6.
 

These four commands are clear from Genesis chapter nine. In the thinking of some writers, there are seven Noahide Commands including: proscriptions against idolatry, blasphemy, murder, sexual misconduct, theft, eating the limb of a live animal and one positive commandment to set up courts of justice. There is variation in the list of seven depending on the source. To arrive at this list of commands Genesis chapters 1-6 must be referenced.  It is admitted that these commands are “implied” rather than clearly stated.

These are all good commands, but it is doubtful that the ten commandments were unknown, and that these seven were given “for all the world” and the ten commandments just for the Jews. These  “Noahide commands” bear no relationship to the “Noahide promises” that God made in His covenant. While important, they have a limited scope and are of a different character from the ten commandments which were given at Sinai.
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Covenant

What relationship does the everlasting covenant given to Noah have to the covenant made before the foundation of the world? We need to first understand that God is absolutely loving, merciful, fair, and just. While He is all powerful and can do anything, He works through the laws He has Himself established. In Article #3 we learned that when Adam and Eve sinned, they forfeited the dominion of this world, giving it to Satan.

With Satan now being the prince of this world, does God have a right to intervene? Actually, No!  But in prolepsis, acting as if the Messiah had already come, and the everlasting covenant was already effective, God could and did intervene. The covenants given to Adam and Eve and to Noah were based on the promise of the coming Messiah, established by faith. Without this, God would do nothing.
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