Genesis 9:8-17

William F. Schnell

March 1, 2009

The professor of a contract law class asked one of his better students, "If you were to give someone an orange, how would you go about it?" The student replied, "Here's an orange." The professor was outraged. "No! No! Think like a lawyer!" The student then replied, "Okay. I'd tell him `I hereby give and convey to you all and singular, my estate and interests, rights, claim, title, claim and advantages of and in, said orange, together with all its rind, juice, pulp, and seeds, and all rights and advantages with full power to bite, cut, freeze and otherwise eat, the same, or give the same away with and without the pulp, juice, rind and seeds, anything herein before or hereinafter or in any deed, or deeds, instruments of whatever nature or kind whatsoever to the contrary in anywise notwithstanding...'"

Contracts have a way of making simple things sound complex. And so it goes with covenants. God has entered into a covenant with us, which sometimes sounds more complex than it is. Sometimes even the experts in the Law get confused, as when one asked Jesus to distill the hundreds of religious rules and regulations down into the most important one. Jesus replied: "‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.' This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: `Love your neighbor as yourself.' All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments" (Matthew 22:37-40). So even Jesus complicated things a bit by adding a second commandment to the first and greatest one.

And Jesus was only referring to the terms binding upon us as partners to a covenant with God. Covenants, like contracts, are agreements between two or more parties with terms binding upon all of them. In a business contract I, on my part, might agree to provide you with 100 widgets; and you, on your part, would agree to pay me $100 in exchange for them. If either party fails to keep their terms of the contract, they are said to have broken it.

The only difference between a contract and a covenant is that the former is a worldly agreement between two parties, whereas a covenant is a spiritual agreement. Sometimes you have agreements that are both contractual and covenantal in nature, and most marriages would fall into this category. The contractual part is entered into at the courthouse with a marriage license, and the covenantal part is entered into at God’s house with a wedding ceremony.

We are going to consider our covenant—our spiritual agreement—with God in the messages I am preaching during the season of Lent. Our first message will emphasize the terms binding upon God in that covenant. The second message will emphasize the terms binding upon us in that covenant. The final message will add an interesting twist which is designed to limit the interference of middlemen like religious experts who, like legal experts, always seem to complicate things beyond measure.

The title of our first message in this series of sermons is: "The Rainbow Connection," because a rainbow is the sign of the covenant the Creator entered into with his creation as recorded way back in the first book of the Bible. Then God said to Noah and to his sons with him: "I now establish my covenant with you and with your descendants after you and with every living creature that was with you—the birds, the livestock and all the wild animals, all those that came out of the ark with you—every living creature on earth" (Verses 8-10).

You may recall that after God created the first man and woman, their descendants multiplied and began to fill the earth with people. And just as the first man and woman rebelled against God in the Garden of Eden, so their descendants rebelled against God wherever they were to be found. As it is written: The Lord saw how great man’s wickedness on the earth had become, and that every inclination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil all the time. The Lord was grieved that he had made man on the earth, and his heart was filled with pain. So the Lord said, "I will wipe mankind, whom I have created, from the face of the earth… (6:5-7).

God sort of sounds like the frustrated parent of a rebellious teenager, no? But there are exceptions to every rule, and Noah was one of them. Noah was a righteous man, blameless among the people of his time, and he walked with God (6:9). Would God punish the righteous with the wicked? This is a primary question which will help to inform our understanding of the covenant that God enters into with Noah and, through him, with us.

Further, if God intended to spare the righteous Noah, how would God save him and his family from the wholesale destruction of the wicked? God’s plan was to bring a great flood upon the earth and flush the wicked down the drain. But God told Noah to build a great ship called an "ark." Into the ark not only would go Noah and his family so that there would be people to repopulate the earth, but also two of every kind of animal so that they could also fill the earth with their kind.

As it happened the ark was built and filled according to God’s plan, and it commenced to rain for 40 days and nights also according to God’s plan. In the resulting deluge the wicked were flushed down the drain. Sometime after the rain stopped and the water receded, the ark came to rest on a mountaintop. As the water receded further, Noah and his family and the animals came out of the ark to fill the earth with their kind once again.

Our text occurs just as Noah and his family members are departing the ark to make their new beginning. The first thing they do is build and altar and worship God. The first thing God does is enter into a covenant with them. "I establish my covenant with you: Never again will all life be cut off by the waters of a flood; never again will there be a flood to destroy the earth." And God said, "This is the sign of the covenant I am making between me and you and every living creature with you, a covenant for all generations to come: I have set my rainbow in the clouds, and it will be the sign of the covenant between me and the earth" (Verses 11-13).

So whenever we see a rainbow in the sky, which is a magnificent sight to behold, it should serve to remind us of God’s covenant not only with Noah and his family, but with all the generations to follow—including ours. It should serve to remind us of God’s promise never to destroy all life on earth with a flood. Okay, but does that leave open the possibility that God might destroy all life on earth with fire from a super volcano like the one that left what is now Yellowstone Park, or a meteor strike like the one that wiped out the dinosaurs, or a pandemic like the Black Plague that wiped out 1/5 of the world’s population in the mid-1300’s? Well, at least we don’t have to worry about drowning anymore.

I think there must be more to this covenant than meets the eye—or ear from reading the text—and I think it has to do with that question which was asked a moment ago. Will God destroy the righteous with the wicked? Sometimes it seems as if he might, as when God got disgusted with the towns of Sodom and Gomorrah and threatened to destroy them. Abraham questioned God about this: "Will you sweep away the righteous with the wicked? What if there are fifty righteous people in the city? Will you really sweep it away and not spare the place for the sake of the fifty righteous people in it? Far be it from you to do such a thing--to kill the righteous with the wicked, treating the righteous and the wicked alike. Far be it from you! Will not the Judge of all the earth do right?" (Genesis 18:23-25).

God acquiesces and says that for 50 righteous people he will not destroy the city. Abraham pushes the line of reasoning. What about 40, 30, 20 or just 10 righteous people? Will God destroy them along with the wicked? Each time God acquiesces. In the end the few righteous folks are led out safely while God rains down burning sulfur on the two wicked cities. So God found a way to judge the wicked justly while not committing an injustice against the righteous in the process.

And so it goes in the story of Noah. The wicked are swept away in a flood and flushed down the drain, while righteous Noah and his family are floated to safety in the ark until they can make a fresh start. And so it goes for the exiles when this story is compiled into sacred scriptures for their edification. While many of their fellow countrymen had been destroyed because of their rebellion against God, a righteous remnant had been preserved until God could restore them to the Land of Promise and they could make a fresh start.

And so it goes for us these many years later. Whenever we see a rainbow in the sky it should remind us of our connection with every other generation since Noah, and our connection with God through the everlasting covenant he established with all generations. In this covenant God promises to never destroy the righteous with the wicked. God promises to find a way to preserve the faithful, just as he preserved righteous Noah and just as he preserved righteous Abraham and just as he preserved the righteous remnant.

I think that is a reassuring promise in times of uncertainty such as these. We have already spoken of the corporate greed and consumer excess which have led to this mess. We may have been personally responsible for it to the extent we spent more than we had or borrowed more than we should or insisted we have what we really didn’t need. Or maybe we were not as personally responsible as others. Maybe we minded our P’s and Q’s and saved prudently and lived wisely.

Why should we be punished for the excesses of others? Why should our investments take a hit? Why should our home values decline. Why should today’s printing of money devalue our savings tomorrow? Why should our taxes go up? Why should we be swept up in this flood of uncertainty with everyone else? If nobody gets out of this alive, how fair and just is that for those who have done no wrong? From where we stand, it sure looks dark and stormy and overcast for as far as the eye can see.

Praise be to God for his Word to us, which splits the dark clouds of doubt and sends a ray of hope eternal that creates a rainbow to remind us of God’s covenant to never destroy the righteous with the wicked. To be honest, there is a little wickedness in all of us that needs to be purged every now and again. It is not pleasant, but once the wickedness is flushed away, the righteousness remains; once the fire burns off the dross it is pure gold that remains.

In his Sermon on the Mount Jesus made a very interesting point. He said, "Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy, and where thieves break in and steal. But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where moth and rust do not destroy, and where thieves do not break in and steal" (Matthew 6:19-20). A few sentences later he said, "Seek first (God’s) kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things"—food, clothing, and all other needful things—"will be given to you as well. Therefore," he concludes, "do not worry about tomorrow" (Matthew 6:33-34).

It does not matter how big a mess we have made, or how long we have made it or who is most responsible for it. As soon as we start storing up treasures in heaven and seeking God’s righteousness, we don’t have to worry about a thing because of the rainbow connection—our connection with the everlasting covenant God establishes with all generations. The covenant where he promises never to punish the righteous with the unrighteous. The covenant where he promises to save the righteous in his time and way.