Week 3

Fall 2024

9/15/2024

Central Passage: Genesis 6-9

Genesis 6-9 contain the first occurrences of the word “covenant” in the Bible. The covenants shape God’s story of salvation. The six covenants (Adam, Noah, Abraham, Moses, David, and the New Covenant) are the Bible’s narrative backbone. This covenant with Noah was actually not a new covenant but a reaffirmation of God’s covenant with creation. The typical phrase for beginning a new covenant can be woodenly translated as “cutting a covenant,” yet this phrase does not occur until Genesis 15 with Abram. Thus, God reaffirmed His covenant with creation through Noah, His new Adam.

Note the parallels between creation and Noah. Just as God’s Spirit hovered over the waters in Gen 1:2, in Gen 8:2, God made a wind/Spirit (same Hebrew word) blow over the water. The days of creation in Gen 1 also echo throughout chapter 8. God gave Noah the same mandate: “Be fruitful and multiply/fill the earth” (8:17; 9:1). However, because man’s wickedness continued after the flood (8:21), God advanced this covenant in 9:6: “Whoever sheds the blood of man, by man shall his blood be shed, for God made man in his own image.” The same corruption that defiled the earth with violence in 6:13 will continue, and though God will not judge with a flood that covers the earth, He will judge as creation’s caretaker by toppling cultures of death.

Notice the rise and fall and the numerous bloodthirsty empires that neighbored Israel. God may have used the Assyrians (the likely inventors of crucifixion) to judge the northern ten tribes of Israel, but God judged the Assyrians for their violence by raising up the Babylonians. God then raised up the Persians to topple the Babylonians. Then, the Greeks, culminating with the Macedonian empire toppled the Persians. This history of God’s judgment against violent nations continues, even after Rome, because God values the life he creates and sustains. He confirms that commitment by preserving Noah and reaffirming His covenant. God’s great care for life and revelation of His life-preserving plans to Noah not only strongly contrast with ancient Near Eastern pagan gods, but they also should leave us unsurprised when Jesus claimed to be the resurrection and the life (John 11:25) and the life-giving light of men (John 1:4-5). Even in Gen 6-9, a story in which God’s judgment against violent corruption takes center stage, God unfolds His story of salvation in opposition to the death that sin produces.