Linked to Bible study post for February 21 and the following set readings:
OT: Genesis 9:8-17 God’s covenant promise to Noah
NT gospel: Mark 1:9-15 Jesus’ baptism and declaration of the kingdom
NT letter: 1 Peter 3:18-22 The risen Jesus proclaims victory to the imprisoned demons
WE READ BIBLE accounts of God speaking, sometimes audibly. At other times He makes a solemn proclamation through His acknowledged prophet of the time.
And of course, He speaks to His children all the time, through His word, through pictures and more contemporary expressions, and (less directly) through nature and through events.
When we go back to the times when God has spoken with great clarity, as in this week’s story, there is an enduring quality, a permanence which has been tested, which we recognise.
We have seen rainbows and heavy rainfall and floods — but never a destruction of biblical proportions. We have a good picture of Jesus as God’s Son and the delight of the Father over the extreme test of obedience for the Son and what He did for us by going to His death. And the proclamation that Jesus started His ministry with, to repent and believe provoked the Reformation and has brought evident change to the lives of billions. The proclamation that Jesus made to the imprisoned demonic spirits is the basis of our confession and our praise: Jesus is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.
1. God speaks to Noah in the first proclamation
The first of four proclamations in our story is in Genesis 9 following the flood, when God speaks to Noah and his sons, saying”:
“I now establish my covenant with you and your descendants… and with every living creature… on earth… Never again will all life be destroyed by the waters of a flood.”
Genesis 9:9-11
The sign of the covenant would be the rainbow, and it would be a covenant for all generations to come — eternal.
This decree is of much greater importance than an ancient promise not to flood the earth again. It tells us how God works, so that we recognise His decrees and statements as having legal force in the heavenly realm.
We can have the most confident expectation that he will back up what He has said, and that is the basis of the hope which is the foundation of faith. Hope confidently expects a good outcome, because it is God’s character to be utterly honourable to what He has said.
Faith, then, in the sense of the spiritual gift of faith, is a guided pledge that we make based on on our general hope, the confident expectation we have in God’s faithfulness. Upon that foundation faith rises specifically on what He has said, on which we can base our faith. This might be a prophetic word or a word of knowledge, or a Scripture verse that the Holy Spirit highlights as God’s truth in a particular situation.
All of this depends on our awareness of God’s faithfulness, and His faithfulness is demonstrated by His covenants and decrees throughout Scripture which are like legal precedents in court.
The five eternal covenants between God and man
There are five major covenants which are called “everlasting” and this covenant with Noah is the first and a bit different from the others because it is God’s promise NOT to do something — flood the earth. The other apparent difference is that it appears to be one-sided with no real participation from Noah. But God Himself calls it a covenant, and it comes under the headline command for Noah and his sons:
“Be fruitful and increase in number and fill all the earth…”
from Genesis 9:1-7
This is a re-run of His command to Adam in the garden to be a steward of other living creatures, extended to include eating meat. Genesis 1:27-30
Noah’s participation in the covenant is to trust in and rely on God — an important principle. This helps us to understand the difference between righteous living — where we do trust and rely on Him — and sin, where we have become independent.
The other four main covenants which are everlasting are:
- The covenant with Abraham, Genesis 17:7
- The priestly covenant, Numbers 25:10-13
- The Davidic covenant, 2 Samuel 23:5
- The promised New Covenant, Jeremiah 32:40
The covenant with Moses, or the Sinai covenant, was a rule of life for the Jewish nation until the Holy Spirit was given. It was terminated on the Cross, Romans 6:14, Galatians 3:10-13.
The New Covenant in Jesus — not law but grace
Jesus has fulfilled the Law and wants us to choose to live like Him, in the awareness of the Great Commandment, Matt. 22:36-40, rather than live under law. That choice that we make as Christians is both guided, and enabled, by the Holy Spirit, who trains us, “I will inspire them to fear (revere) Me” in the words of Jeremiah, to more than fulfil the objectives of the law (the Ten Commandments and much more) given to Moses – but willingly and intentionally and creatively. The New Covenant is a covenant of grace, not law. It is a covenant freely offered for us to choose, rather than rules we have to obey. We have to be careful that the Good News in Jesus and His kingdom doesn’t become a new kind of law, a command-and-comply religion that is not centred on believing and trusting Jesus. Paul’s teaching in the Galatian letter addresses this directly.
2. God speaks and affirms His Son
In Mark 1:9-11 we see Jesus line up with those repenting of their sins to be baptised by John in the River Jordan. Jesus didn’t have any sins to renounce. But He knew this was His Father’s will, so that He could publicly identify with those He had come to save. And a voice came from heaven:
“You are My Son, whom I love; with You I am well pleased.”
This was one of the three occasions the audible voice of God was heard over Jesus (also at the Transfiguration, and then while teaching following His triumphant entry to Jerusalem shortly before His death). It was also for Him an impartation of the Holy Spirit and an anointing for ministry.
The next divine proclamation in this story is made by Jesus as He headlines His message of good news, announcing:
3. Jesus announces the kingdom of God
“The time has come… the kingdom of God has come near. Repent and believe the good news!”
Church traditions over the centuries have all done their bit to institutionalise this message, as the close fellowships of believers became the church andthe religion of the Roman Empire, complete with the Roman love of an ordered set of beliefs and practices, borrowing the processions and rituals and priests of their pagan traditions, through the Reformation, various waves of renewal and social engagement, Pentecostalism and charisamtic expressions to the present day. A lot of baggage has been added, and removed, and added again to that headline and mission statement. However, fundamentally Jesus is still calling people to turn from independence to consider and believe what He has done for them, today.
4. Jesus’ victory proclaimed to the dark spirit world
The fourth proclamation is Peter’s account of what happened between Jesus’ death and being seen alive on the morning of the third day.
For Christ also suffered once for sins, the righteous for the unrighteous, to bring you to God. He was put to death in the body but made alive in the Spirit.
After being made alive, He went and made proclamation to the imprisoned spirits — to those who were disobedient long ago when God waited patiently in the days of Noah while the ark was being built…
1 Peter 3:18-20
The days of Noah’s early life and his long project to build something that no one inland had ever seen, were times of wickedness over the earth.
The Lord saw how great the wickedness of the human race had become on the earth, and that every inclination of the thoughts of the human heart was only evil all the time. The Lord regretted that he had made human beings on the earth, and his heart was deeply troubled.
Genesis 6:5-6
It’s a moot point among scholars, but the simplest explanation is usually the best and it seems that the Lord while dead physically was alive spiritually. In this spiritual state before he appeared to people in His resurrection body, He went to the place where demonic spirits were held, going right back to that time of wickedness which Noah knew, pending God’s final judgment. There He proclaimed the truth of His victory over sin and death and evil.
Peter uses the death of the old, wicked life on earth through the flood and the emergence of a new righteous life as a picture. It’s like believers sharing their story of an independent (and sometimes colourful) life and then meeting Christ, before going down under the water in the baptism pool, a powerful symbol of putting to death their old life and emerging in the new.
Putting it into practice
These are four proclamations by God which are heard by the entire spirit world, not just the people of the time. And that is an important teaching for us. When God speaks, the spirit world stops and shudders. And that is why it is good for us to speak out prayers of praise, especially as led by the Spirit, because it attracts the angels who serve God and it repels and frightens the evil part of the spirit world. Allowing God’s blessing to unfold.
///////