"The Beauty of God's Covenant with Noah"
What is Covenant? What's the importance of it?
Last Parsha, we tackled how Adonai remembered Noah after the flood. This time, Noah remembered God after going out from the ark. How? He built an altar. Noah did it as an act of worship in response to God's faithfulness in sparing him and his family and God accepted Noah's sacrifice. Chapter 8 ends with the promise of God not to engage the earth by flood again.
“ And the LORD smelled a soothing aroma. Then the LORD said in His heart, “I will never again curse the ground for man’s sake, although the imagination of man’s heart is evil from his youth; nor will I again destroy every living thing as I have done.” (Genesis 8:21)
Beginning in chapter 9, God repeated what He told Adam. History itself is cyclical..it repeats. Now I want to focus on the beauty of God's covenant with Noah.
Firstly, it is a covenant initiated by God Himself, a divine act that was offered to Noah and the rest of humanity no matter how undeserving all human beings may be. God knows this and yet still, He persisted and pursued the establishment of this covenant relationship based purely on nothing but God's grace and love for all humanity. We can relate this to Phil.2:4, “Let each of you look out not only for his own interests, but also for the interests of others” which urges us to consider not only our own interests but also the interests of others.
God gave His only Son Yeshua to save us because He cares for us.
Secondly, God's covenant with Noah encompasses all living creatures, including animals. God cares for and sustains all His creation, and as stewards of the earth, we are called to treat these creatures with care, respect, and responsibility. By doing so, we honor God's creation and fulfill our role in preserving the future of our world, aligning with the integrity of our covenant with God.
Thirdly, this covenant carries a promise - God pledges never again to destroy the earth, despite humanity's inclination towards evil. This promise reveals God's unending grace and glory. As we marvel at this mighty and everlasting demonstration of His love culminating in His Son, Yeshua, we can only humble ourselves before our Creator.
Finally, God's covenant with Noah has a sign. The sign will be a "rainbow" in a cloud. God set a rainbow in the sky as a sign of the (Hebrew in אֹות הבְּרִ ית ‘habrit ot (‘covenant with all people of the earth: “I set My rainbow in the cloud, and it shall be for the sign of the covenant between Me and the earth.” (Genesis 9:13)
A rainbow reveals God's plan for redemption. He has a plan of making things complete and new. Next is reconciliation between God and man. Then His plan for restoration. Where things are broken or dead, He restores life. Next is regeneration. When restoration takes place, there is also a new growth that occurs. Just as the earth produced new life after the flood, our hearts experience new life when we are washed and cleansed. The rainbow serves as a reflection and humble reminder of God's mercy, hope, and goodness.
So every time we see a rainbow, God is reminding us that He is a faithful God, and He gives us a fresh start. Lamentation 3:21-23 says: “This I recall to my mind, therefore I have hope. Through the Lord’s mercies we are not consumed, Because His compassions fail not. They are new every morning; great is Your faithfulness.”
📜 📜 📜 📜 📜 📜 📜 📜
Moving to verse 16, we see a profound connection between God and the actions of the Servant. God declares, "I will lead the blind in a way that they do not know; in paths that they have not known, I will guide them. I will turn the darkness before them into light, the rough places into level ground. These are the things I do, and I do not forsake them." Here, God assures His faithfulness in leading Israel out of darkness and ignorance into His marvelous light through the Servant.
This promise of redemption and freedom from blindness (spiritual darkness) is reminiscent of God's covenant with Noah in the Torah portion. Just as God remained faithful to His covenant with Noah, He reiterates His unwavering commitment to the people of Israel. Despite their wandering and straying after false gods, God's love endures, and He calls them to repent and turn back to Him through the Servant, Yeshua.
In Yeshua's ministry on Earth, we witness numerous instances where He physically healed the blind, symbolizing His ability to bring sight to those who were spiritually blind as well. By opening the eyes of the blind, He revealed the truth of God's Kingdom and His redemptive plan, inviting people to see and understand the things of God.
The promise in Isaiah 42:16 echoes the significance of the rainbow as a sign of God's covenant with Noah. Just as the rainbow served as a reminder of God's mercy and faithfulness, the actions of the Servant, Yeshua, serve as a reminder of God's promise of redemption and restoration for Israel and all of humanity.
📜 📜 📜 📜 📜 📜 📜 📜
In our text, Paul mentioned three ways of how to endure hardship.
First, remember Yeshua who was raised from the dead. Yeshua's resurrection is the main support of the gospel. If Yeshua is not risen, our faith is worthless. So the application for Timothy and us is, during hardship, to remember Yeshua, a descendant of David in fulfillment of God's promise, who is coming back to reign. Endure hardship for His word now so that we will be on His side when He returns.
Second, to endure hardship, remember that God's word is powerful (V.9). Paul said that the word of God is not chained. Paul contrasts his imprisonment for the sake of the gospel to the unchained power of the Word of God.
Finally, to endure hardship, remember that God's promises are trustworthy(Vv.11-13). If we endure hardship with Yeshua now, we will be rewarded. But if we are faithless, God will still be faithful. So when we fail, we should ask forgiveness and repent knowing that He is faithful and righteous to forgive us.
📜 📜 📜 📜 📜 📜 📜 📜
The connection of our Parsha is about faithfulness. In Torah, God shows His faithfulness to Noah through covenant. In Haftarah, In Spite of Israel's blindness, the faithful Servant Yeshua will open their eyes and promise not to forsake them. In Apostolic, even if we are faithless, He remains faithful for He cannot deny Himself.
Back to my introduction...Understanding the beauty of covenant is so important. It is because the covenant provides the skeletal framework on how the whole biblical story holds together. As the story of the Bible unfolds, we see God is a covenant making, covenant keeping, and covenant fulfilling God. He establishes covenants with certain people and these covenants are the way God unfolds His redemptive plan. The covenants are the structure of the story. If we don't understand and study the covenants, we will not and cannot understand the Bible.
Deuteronomy 7:9
“Therefore know that the Lord your God, He is God, the faithful God who keeps covenant and mercy for a thousand generations with those who love Him and keep His commandments.”
Shabbat Shalom,
Topher
Sources:
biblestrongapp
ministrymagazine.org
jewelsofjudaism.com
messianicbible.com
likeananchor.com
chasingthewind.net
www.hartman.org.il
No comments:
Post a Comment