HIGHLIGHTS FROM GENESIS

All through the Bible God relates to His people through a “covenant” relationship. Understanding the covenants (or promises) God makes with His creation helps us to see the 'big picture' of the Bible. Simplified, these covenants between God and mankind contain promised blessings for keeping the relationship along with curses for breaking it. And those curses ain't no joke, y'all... 😳

Genesis 6:18 is the first time the word “covenant” is mentioned in the Bible. But to fully understand the covenant between God and Noah, it's important to go back 10 generations to the Garden of Eden and re-read one of the most foundational verses of the Bible. In Genesis 3:15, God says to satan: “I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your seed and her Seed; He shall bruise your head, And you shall bruise His heel.” [The “Seed” of The Woman (indicating a virgin) is none other than Jesus Christ (1 John 3:8).] Many scholars recognize God's promise as the first covenant... the “Adamic Covenant”. In this covenant, God prophesied about a “Seed” who will destroy the curse of sin. After Adam & Eve's screw-up, God didn't throw in the towel but He did throw down a gauntlet of consequences. From that day forward, He proclaimed that men and women would both endure death, sorrow and “painful labor”... man, by the sweat of his brow and woman, by the sweat of labor pains, i.e. pushing a watermelon out of a keyhole. (See Genesis 3:16-19, with a bit o' paraphrasing. 😜)

From this point on, the rest of the OT is pretty much an outline of God's plan to bring forth the promised “Seed”, while dealing with all the bone-headed antics of His creation.

Which brings us to God's covenant with Noah. A mere 1,650 years after God created man, the world had grown evil beyond belief. Although He was filled with regret and grief for His creation (Genesis 6:6), God's promise to Adam and Eve remained. When God shut the door to the Ark, He was protecting His plans for the Seed. And oh, the symbolism! Just as the Ark delivered Noah through the flood waters into a new life, Christ delivers Believers from sin to salvation through baptism.

FUN FACT:

Noah’s name means “rest and comfort.” When he was born, Noah's father (Lamech) prophesied that Noah would "comfort us in the labor and painful toil of our hands caused by THE GROUND THE LORD HAS CURSED.” (Genesis 5:29). This refers back to the very same curse of Genesis 3:17-19. After the flood, Noah presented God with a burnt sacrifice and God said in His heart: “Never again will I CURSE THE GROUND because of humans, even though every inclination of the human heart is evil from childhood. And never again will I destroy all living creatures, as I have done.” (Genesis 8:20-21).