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After God judged the corrupt generation by the flood and saved Noah out of that generation, He made the third covenant with man (Gen. 9:1-17).
The One who made this covenant was God. Here “God” in Hebrew is Elohim, which is composed of two words, the first word meaning “the powerful One,” and the second word meaning “binding Himself with an oath.” Oath-making shows God’s faithfulness; power indicates God’s might. This God who made the covenant is the mighty One who is faithful.
God is faithful, and by His faithfulness He made a covenant with Noah. His faithfulness is established in heaven; it cannot be touched or altered by anything on earth. Therefore, God can never be faithless, nor suffer His faithfulness to fail, nor break His covenant which He made with man, nor alter the word that He spoke to man (Psa. 89:33-34). If man becomes faithless, He remains faithful, for He cannot deny Himself (2 Tim. 2:13).
God is also mighty, and by His might He made a covenant with Noah. His might guarantees that every word in His covenant will and can be fulfilled. He has the power to fulfill the covenant which He made with man.
The one with whom this covenant was made was Noah, who was a righteous man, a perfect man who walked with God in that corrupt generation, and a herald of righteousness. He built the ark to save himself and his entire family, and he was saved through water, being delivered from that corrupt generation.
Noah was a righteous man. This means that he was right with God, with others, and with himself. Because he believed in God, his believing was immediately reckoned to him by God as righteousness; that is, he became heir of the righteousness which is according to faith (Heb. 11:7). Moreover, because he found grace in the eyes of God, this grace strengthened him and helped him to live a righteous life. Therefore, he not only received objective righteousness but also lived out subjective righteousness.
Noah’s generation had become a corrupt generation. A number of the fallen angels in Satan’s principality came down to the earth, took human bodies, and formed illegal marriages with the daughters of men, producing a mingling of the evil spirits and human beings. No longer was the human race merely the human race; it became a mixture of humanity and fallen spirits. Thus the entire generation became a corrupt generation. God saw the earth, that all flesh had corrupted their way upon the earth (Gen. 6:12).
However, in that corrupt generation, Noah was a perfect man who walked with God (Gen. 6:9). His walking with God means that he did not override God, that he was not presumptuous, that he did not do things according to his own concept and desire, and that he did things according to God and with God. Hence, he became a perfect man. Without God, man is not perfect and is still lacking. The factor of perfection is not with man; it is God Himself. It was with such a perfect man who walked with Him that God made a covenant.
Noah was also a herald of righteousness (2 Pet. 2:5). Nothing was righteous in his generation, and the earth was filled with violence and corruption. When God told Noah that He was going to destroy all men with the earth, Noah rose up to preach God’s righteousness in opposition to the corruption of his generation, telling the people to get right with God, with others, and with themselves or else God’s righteous judgment would come upon them. Because he preached righteousness and lived a righteous life to protest against the unrighteous, ungodly, and evil generation, he was spared from God’s governmental judgment according to God’s righteousness.
While Noah was preaching righteousness, he was also building the ark. He built the ark by faith (Heb. 11:7) and also according to God’s revelation (Gen. 6:14-22). He did not construct it according to tradition or his own concept, but, believing in God and practicing God’s revelation, he constructed it absolutely according to God’s revelation. During that period of time, he must have experienced a great deal of opposition, criticism, mockery, and condemnation. No one besides his family appreciated the work of building the ark. That work was unique and strange, and in human eyes it was impractical. However, when God’s judgment came, the ark saved him out of that judgment.
Not only was Noah saved from God’s judgment through the ark, but he was also saved from that corrupt generation through water (1 Pet. 3:20) into a new age, just as the children of Israel were saved by the water of the Red Sea (Exo. 14:22, 29; 1 Cor. 10:1-2) and the New Testament believers are saved by the water of baptism (1 Pet. 3:21). The flood that God used to execute His judgment upon that evil age saved Noah from that age. Hence, Noah enjoyed a double salvation. On the one hand, by faith he entered into the ark and was saved from God’s judging flood through the ark; on the other hand, he passed through the flood in the ark and was saved, through the water of the flood, out of the condemned world into a renewed world.
Thus, it was with Noah, a righteous man, a perfect man who walked with God, one who preached righteousness, one who built the ark to save himself, and one who was saved through water, that God made the third covenant with man.
Before the human race was judged by the flood, God made a covenant with Noah (Gen. 6:18—7:5) that his family of eight should enter into the ark and that he should bring some of every living thing into the ark to keep them alive and thereby keep seed alive upon the earth. It was because of this covenant that, after God’s judgment of destruction, man and all living things were kept alive and God’s purpose for man could be maintained. This covenant may be considered the basis upon which God made a further covenant with Noah after the world was destroyed by the flood. After the flood, based on the covenant prior to the flood, God made the present covenant with Noah.
After he came out of the ark, Noah first built an altar to Jehovah and took of every clean beast and of every clean bird, and offered burnt offerings on the altar (Gen. 8:20). He did more than Abel in that he not only offered sacrifices but also built an altar. Building an altar and offering sacrifices signify the offering of Christ through the cross. This indicates that Noah took God’s way of redemption by presenting the offerings, which signify Christ, to satisfy the requirement of God’s righteousness and to be accepted by God. This was the effective basis upon which God made a covenant with Noah.
After Noah built an altar and offered the burnt offerings, Jehovah God smelled the sweet savor and said in His heart, “I will not again curse the ground any more for man’s sake...neither will I again smite any more every thing living, as I have done” (Gen. 8:21). This is because the burnt offering signifies Christ as God’s pleasure, and those who believe in Him, through their union with Him, are also accepted by God in Him (Lev. 1:1-17; Heb. 10:5-7). Hence, the sweet savor issuing from the burnt offerings brought satisfaction to God. Before the flood, the wickedness of man was great on the earth, and every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually, so that it repented Jehovah that He had made man on the earth, and it grieved Him at His heart (Gen. 6:5-6). However, here was a man who offered burnt offerings according to God’s pleasure and was accepted by God, making God happy and satisfied. Hence, God came to make a covenant with man to preserve the earth and the order of all things related to the earth that man might be kept alive and that He might use man to fulfill the economy of His intention.
In the covenant which He made with Noah and his sons, God first told them to be fruitful, multiply, and replenish the earth. When God created man, He blessed man, telling him to be fruitful, multiply, and replenish the earth that the whole earth might be filled with beautiful faces expressing God. However, man fell repeatedly, and eventually he came under God’s judgment and was destroyed by the flood. Now that God had saved Noah’s family of eight through water and had brought them into a new age, He made another covenant with man and He blessed man in order to continue the purpose of His creation of man, telling man to be fruitful, multiply, and replenish the earth that man might be brought back to His original intention and that His will might be accomplished in the man who was saved through water.
In this covenant God also charged man to have dominion over every living creature of the heavens, of the earth, and of the sea (Gen. 9:2). This was the authority that God gave to man when He first created him, that man might represent Him to exercise His authority over the earth. However, man lost this position because of his fall. Now God made a covenant again with the man who had been saved through water; He restored man’s authority and committed all living things into man’s hand. Hence, man was brought back to his original position, having the authority to represent God and to rule over all things for Him.
Before the flood God ordained that man should eat only herbs and fruits of the trees (Gen. 1:29), that is, that he should eat vegetables and not meat. However, after the flood, God ordained that animals, as well as vegetables, may also be man’s food (Gen. 9:3). God’s intention was that the man who was saved through water should know that he was fallen and that he needed redemption with the shedding of blood to maintain his life. In the Bible, meat, as food for the maintenance of life, comes from the slaying of an animal, and it signifies Christ being slain that we may have life and be kept alive. Therefore, meat signifies redemption with the shedding of blood; vegetables signify works without blood. Before the fall, man could maintain his life by merely eating vegetables, signifying that in his innocent state man could live in the presence of God by his works. However, after the fall, man became sinful, so he needed the redemption with the shedding of blood that he might live in the presence of God. Therefore, as a symbol of this matter, God told man to eat meat.
Although He ordained man to eat meat, God did not allow man to eat blood, for it is the blood, by reason of the life, that makes atonement for man’s life (Lev. 17:10-11). However, when the Lord Jesus came, He said that His blood was drinkable, for His blood truly can redeem us from sins that we may receive His life (John 6:53-56; Matt. 26:27-28). Therefore, in type, blood makes atonement for man and should not be eaten by man. However, in reality, no blood, except the blood of the Lord Jesus, can take away man’s sins (Heb. 9:12; 10:4). Therefore, no blood should be eaten except the blood of the Lord Jesus. For this reason God forbids man to eat blood. This is to show forth the matter of redemption with the shedding of blood. On the one hand, it indicates that the blood is to make atonement for man; on the other hand, it indicates that no blood, except the blood of the Lord Jesus, can truly take away man’s sins. Therefore, man must receive the blood of the Lord Jesus and depend on it in order that he may have life.
Genesis 9:6 says, “Whoso sheddeth man’s blood, by man shall his blood be shed.” This verse indicates that God’s giving man the authority over other men was the beginning of human government. Originally, apart from the husband being the head over his wife, God had not given man authority over others. Rather, He had given man authority only over the creatures, whereas men were all directly under God. When man fell out of God’s direct government, he came under the rule of his own conscience, that is, under self-government, to maintain his human life. Because of man’s continual fall, the government of the conscience became a failure. Eventually, the whole earth was filled with violence so that God destroyed the human race by the flood, preserving only Noah’s family of eight. After the flood, man was to live a new life on the earth. Thus God set up His deputy authority, placing man under the authority of others to be governed by man in order to maintain the existence and order of the human race. Hence, Noah became the head of a new race. God gave him authority not only over creatures other than man, but also over the lawless man.
Although Noah’s household of eight persons came out of the ark, they must still have been fearful, not knowing whether God would again destroy the earth and man and all living creatures upon it by the waters of a flood, whether God would again allow them to encounter such a terrible catastrophe. Although they were saved, they were still afraid in their hearts. Hence, God came to make a covenant with them. He spoke to Noah and his sons, saying, “I establish my covenant with you, and with your seed after you...neither shall all flesh be cut off any more by the waters of a flood; neither shall there any more be a flood to destroy the earth” (Gen. 9:8-11). In this covenant God said repeatedly that there would not be a flood anymore in order to take away Noah and his family’s fear, that they might hold on to the word of the covenant and have peace because of the covenant.
God set the rainbow in the cloud as a token of the covenant which He made with man (Gen. 9:12-17). The rainbow signifies God’s faithfulness. God’s faithfulness remains forever, for He cannot deny Himself (2 Tim. 2:13). Moreover, God Himself is faithfulness (1 Cor. 1:9; 1 John 1:9). Once He has spoken, He keeps His word. He must be faithful to His word, and His covenant is His word, even His word spoken with an oath. Hence, God used the rainbow as a sign of His faithfulness in keeping the covenant. Whenever a cloud covers the earth, the rainbow is seen in the cloud. God’s faithfulness is the guarantee that God will keep His covenant and that a flood will no more come to destroy man. At the time spoken of in Revelation when God will judge the earth with its inhabitants, there will still be a rainbow around the throne (Rev. 4:3), indicating that when He will execute His judgment upon the earth, He will still remember the covenant He made with Noah and will not judge mankind again with a flood nor destroy all mankind, but will keep some to be the nations on the earth to fulfill His purpose for His glory (Rev. 21:24, 26).
God’s making a covenant with the man who was saved through water resulted in the earth being preserved and the blessing being brought to the earth. Genesis 8:22 mentions eight items of the blessing, including seedtime and harvest, cold and heat, summer and winter, and day and night. The seedtime is the time of sowing the seed; the harvest is the reaping. The seedtime is the beginning, and the harvest is the consummation, the maturity. In the process there is the need of cold and heat, summer and winter, and day and night in order that the crop may grow and man’s life be maintained. The perpetual cycle of seedtime and harvest, cold and heat, summer and winter, and day and night is God’s guarantee that the order of the universe will continue to be maintained by the different cycles in regularity without end. This covenant guarantees the preservation of the earth and the growth of all kinds of living things. Thus, man may multiply endlessly and replenish the earth to fulfill God’s eternal purpose.
Although God was faithful to keep His covenant and bestowed His love on man according to His covenant, man abused the fourth item of the covenant, misused the God-given authority to form nations, exalted himself to oppose God, fell into idolatry, and was scattered abroad by God upon the face of all the earth.
Although God gave man the authority to rule over others, He did not intend for man to form nations; His intention was that there might be peace among men. However, man misused this authority to form nations on the earth. The forming of nations was the work of Satan. Satan caused man to misuse the God-given authority to form nations on the earth. The most well-known was that of Nimrod. As a mighty one on the earth (Gen. 10:8), Nimrod was the first to be a king, or the first to form a kingdom. The first kingdom in human history was probably the kingdom of Babel formed by Nimrod (Gen. 10:10). He began to misuse the God-given authority to make himself the king, to rule over others, and to form a kingdom.
Human government was of God’s authorization. However, Satan caused man to misuse the God-given authority to form nations and instigated man to rebel against God with the nations. Man rose up to exalt himself in opposition to God, even falling into an open rebellion against God, that is, the whole human race rebelling collectively against God’s right and authority. Before the incident at Babel, there were only individuals opposing God on the earth; men had not reached the extent of organized rebellion. It was at Babel that men began to organize themselves and to join themselves together to rebel against God. They made bricks with the earth by human labor (Gen. 11:3); they built a city to have a man-made, godless life; and, even more, they intended to build a tower that would reach into heaven in order to make themselves a name and to reject, to deny, God’s name. Man had exalted himself to oppose God to such an extent.
Man not only exalted himself to oppose God but also fell into idolatry. According to evidence found by archeologists and historians, when the city and the tower of Babel were constructed, every brick bore the name of an idol, indicating that the whole human race was worshipping idols. When Terah, the father of Abraham, dwelt in Ur of the Chaldees (Gen. 11:31), he also served idols (Josh. 24:2). In that age, no one paid attention to God, and no one cared for His interest. The whole human race was completely captured by Satan and fell into idolatry.
This fall of man forced God Himself to come out to execute the judgment. In dealing with the prior group of people, the Adamic race, God judged them by the flood; in dealing with this group of people, the descendants of Noah, God Himself came to the earth to judge them directly. God confounded their language that they might not understand one another’s speech and thus would be unable to form an alliance; moreover, He scattered them abroad upon the face of all the earth (Gen. 10:5, 8-11, 20, 31-32; 11:4, 8-9). At this point, man had fallen to the uttermost so that even God could not do anything to recover the fallen race. Eventually, God was forced to give up the descendants of Noah, the created race of Adam.
After God judged the corrupt generation by the flood and saved Noah’s family of eight out of that generation, He made a covenant with Noah, which was the third covenant He made with man. This covenant was made based upon the covenant which God made with Noah before the judgment of the flood. It was also based upon the sweet smell which issued from the burnt offerings presented on the altar built by man in taking God’s way of redemption. The contents of the covenant include the following items: man would be fruitful, multiply, and replenish the earth, have dominion over all living creatures, and be allowed to eat animals for food but not to eat blood; and God would give man the authority over others to maintain the existence and order of the human race, promise to destroy the earth by a flood no more, and use the rainbow as a sign of His faithfulness in keeping the covenant. The result was that the earth was preserved, that all living things were able to grow, and that man was able to multiply endlessly and fill the face of the earth. However, man abused the God-given authority to form nations, exalted himself to oppose God, fell into idolatry, and was scattered abroad by God upon the face of the earth. Eventually, God was forced to give up the descendants of Noah, the created race of Adam.
