20 Then Noah built an altar to the Lord, and took of every clean animal and of every clean bird and offered burnt offerings on the altar. 21 The Lord smelled the soothing aroma; and the Lord said to Himself, “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.
22 “While the earth remains,
Seedtime and harvest,
And cold and heat,
And summer and winter,
And day and night
Shall not cease.”
Seedtime and harvest,
And cold and heat,
And summer and winter,
And day and night
Shall not cease.”
Time: Genesis is the first book and Moses is credited as authoring. The book spans 2400 years of time. It was originally written in Hebrew.
What the Lord is Saying:
The Adamic covenant of works was instituted before Adam and Eve ate from the tree of knowledge of good and evil. Thus, works were possible to earn eternal life because sin was not yet evident and perfect obedience was possible. Once man sinned though, perfect obedience was not possible. Thus, God instituted the grace principle of redemption which means that blessings are obtained not by our own good works but by inheriting those good works from someone else through faith alone. Man on his own is incapable of being redeemed because sin always darkens even our best intentions.
Yet, the covenant of works remains. God still expects man to keep those works and he repeats commands of obedience. But, we cannot keep God's law. We will always fail.
I am still enamored by the principle here that is so elementary. It is so simply, almost too simple. And in seeing this early entry of grace in Genesis 3:15 I see how this idea is then weaved throughout all of scripture and life - God is the rescuer. And those that end up getting rescued are a small subset of people.
It is an interesting idea that the Bible provides us with laws that we are not actually expected to keep, but asked to keep. What I learn is only Jesus can really keep these laws. Yet, they are laws given to man throughout the ages to follow. And then God knows who will follow them and who will not. He is sovereign in working them all out. Each of us has free will to choose yet God will take all of those choices and work them out to his glory. Yet he asks us to pray. It remains that the Bible speaks of this predetermined state almost by God throughout history and yet man lives like this is not so. Most of religious thought is honed in on the idea that man works his future out himself through adhering to laws. Man works. In the same way that man works to get a paycheck, man works to get heaven or God's acceptance. Yet, the principle in the Bible stands contrary to this type of thinking - namely that their is substitution atonement. Man may be able to work to get a paycheck, but man can't work to get God's acceptance. What is expected at work is to do our best, but God expects us to be perfect.
Thus, the answer in the Bible is Jesus. It has always been Jesus. The Bible shows us how serious sin is to God because we see how we acts when laws are broken, when he is not revered or feared. God is jealous and doesn't want to share Himself with anything in life. God knew Jesus would be needed. But he didn't come on the scene immediately. Instead he gave man other men that would do things similar to Jesus. These men were prophets. They saw a problem, but they had an allegiance to God because the problem was man was not listening to God - listening to God's plan. Man selfishly gets off track. Jesus saw this with the Jewish leaders. There was never any intention for only Jews to receive the message from God. Even the temple had a place for non-Jews to be welcomed in. Thus, the idea of the gospel is it is open to all.
Today I examine the Noahic Covenant. Noah became the first one to be called to store away a small remnant of people from a world that had simply gone astray. Sin ushered in a "every man for himself" mentality in which there was no need for God. There were 10 generations from Adam to Noah and each of those men lived 1,000 years with one new generation being every 100 years. After the flood the life span changed from 1,000 years to 120. The Covenant that came about with Adam in the garden was the Edenic Covenant, but it was terminated by man's sin. At the time of this covenant there are 8 people which constitute the world's population. Our reminder of this covenant is the rainbow which is a promise by God to never destroy the earth by flood. Beyond that it reaffirms provisions from the Adamic Covenant and its provisions are:
1. Populate the earthThese are all doable provisions. Man can do these without sin. This covenant reminds us that God is the active agent. God preserves a stable order in life and He will provide salvation at the appropriate time through Jesus.
2. The animal kingdom is subjected to man
3. Man can eat animals, but must refrain from eating blood.
4. Human life is sacred
5. This covenant is to every living creature
6. God will next destroy the earth by fire
7. The rainbow is given as a sign that he will not destroy the earth by a flood.
Promise: God ordains life; he creates and he can take it away.
Prayer: God, I thank you for the natural order that You have created. There is stability in what you have established. You are to get all the glory God.
Note: I follow the readings from the Tabletalk Magazine devotional, though I am a little behind and working through 2017 devotionals. 2017 is a study of key biblical doctrines with April being about salvation by grace alone and how the Lord never fails to save the one whom He has purposed to save.
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