And I will establish my covenant with 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.
11. a flood to destroy the earth ] The promise here given, that there shall never more be a flood, is appealed to by the prophet in Isa 54:9-10, “for this is as the waters of Noah unto me: for as I have sworn that the waters of Noah should no more go over the earth, so have I sworn that I would not be wroth with thee for the mountains shall depart and the hills be removed; but my kindness shall not depart from thee, neither shall my covenant of peace be removed, saith the Lord that hath mercy on thee.”
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
i.e. A universal deluge; for particular inundations there have been, whereby towns and countries have been overwhelmed with all their inhabitants.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
And I will establish my covenant with you,…. This is repeated to denote the certainty of it, as well as to lead on to the particulars of it:
neither shall all flesh be cut off any more by the waters of a flood; neither man nor beast, at least not all of them, and especially by water:
neither shall there be any more a flood to destroy the earth; not a general deluge, otherwise notwithstanding this promise there might be, as there have been, particular inundations, which have overflowed particular countries and places, but not the whole earth; and this hinders not but that the whole earth may be destroyed by fire, as it will be at the last day, only not by water any more; and this is the sum and substance of the covenant with Noah, his sons, and all the creatures that have been, or shall be.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
Gen 9:11 And I will establish my covenant with 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.
Ver. 11. Neither shall all flesh be cut off. ] See Trapp on “ Isa 54:9 “ See Trapp on “ Isa 54:10 “
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
Chapter 12
Gods Covenant With Noah
“And I will establish my covenant with 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 9:11
Noahs first act, when he came out of the ark, was to build, not a house for himself, but an altar unto the Lord on which he offered blood sacrifices as burnt offerings to God. These were received by God as a sweet-smelling savor. Having received these offerings, God declared that he would never again curse the ground for mans sake and that, as long as the earth remained, its seasons would not cease.[5]
[5] Do not allow the infidels of our day influence your thinking. Scientists, environmentalists and politicians may fret and worry themselves about global warming and the disappearance of seasons; but God has declared that while the earth remaineth, seedtime and harvest, and cold and heat, and summer and winter, and day and night shall not cease!
Then we are told, God blessed Noah and his sons (Gen 9:1). This is the first time we read of God blessing anyone since the fall of our father Adam. The basis of the blessing was the sacrifice God had received. That blood sacrifice was symbolical. It was a picture of Christ, the Lamb of God, for whose sake and through whose merits all the blessings of grace flow to sinners upon the earth. This is a new beginning. Judgment is over. Old things have passed away. All things are now new. And everything now rests upon a covenant that God made, a covenant of grace, based upon shed blood. Man had forfeited the blessing of God. He had forfeited his position as lord of creation. But grace restores him. Grace reinstates him. God made a covenant with Noah and, in its scope, that covenant reached even to the beasts of the field, the birds of the air, and the fish of the sea (Gen 9:2). This covenant was made to last forever.
Everything about Noahs salvation by the ark is representative of our salvation by the Lord Jesus Christ. The whole story is full of spiritual suggestions.
1.The ark is a picture of Christ and our redemption by him.
2.The salvation of Noah and his family by water is a picture of our salvation by the washing of regeneration. Like Noah, though we are in the world, we are dead to it. As Noah came out of the ark, out of the flood of Gods wrath, so we have come up out of the watery grave to walk with Christ in the newness of life by the power of our resurrected Redeemer.
3.As Noah came out of the ark to walk abroad in the earth, so the believer in Christ walks in freedom.
4.Noahs sacrifices to God picture the believers employment in this world – The worship and praise of God our Savior.
5.When the Lord commanded Noah to be fruitful and fill the earth with his fruit, he set forth the fruitfulness of faith. Believers bear fruit, the fruit of the Spirit, unto God (Gal 5:22-23). And as his witnesses in this world, believing sinners are spiritual parents to immortal souls, travailing in birth until Christ is formed in other chosen sinners by the work of God the Holy Spirit.
6.Noahs dominion over the beasts of the earth symbolized the believers dominion over the lusts of his own nature. Grace has made us priests and kings in Christ. We are priests to offer up sacrifices to God by Christ. We are kings to rule our own spirits by the Spirit of Christ.
7.Noahs security, standing before God upon the ground of Gods own covenant, was a picture of every believers security before God upon the basis of Gods covenant.
Before ever the earth was made, before time began, in old eternity, God made a covenant with his Son for the salvation of his elect. We call it the covenant of grace, or the everlasting covenant. That covenant was a solemn compact between God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit, which guarantees and secures the salvation of Gods elect. It is a covenant ordered in all things and made sure from eternity (Eph 1:3-6; 2Ti 1:9). It is a covenant ratified by the blood of Christ at Calvary (Heb 13:20). It is a covenant established and sealed to Gods elect by the Holy Spirit in regeneration through faith (Eph 1:13-14). It was this blessed covenant of grace that comforted, sustained, and gave satisfaction to David on his deathbed (2Sa 23:5). It is this very same covenant which is the comfort and strength of believing sinners today (2Ti 1:9-12). The covenant that God made with Noah was a covenant of pure grace and was representative of the covenant of grace which he made for us with Christ before the world began.
Who made this covenant?
The source of this covenant was God alone. This was a covenant which God made with Noah, not a covenant that Noah made with God (Read Gen 9:11-12; Gen 9:15). This was Gods covenant with Noah. Man had no part in making it, or in keeping it. And man could not break it. So it is with that everlasting covenant of grace that God has made for us. It is a covenant of pure grace (Rom 9:11-18). It is a covenant of unconditional, unqualified promise. God says, I will and you shall (Gal 4:22-31). Believers do not stand before God under a covenant that demands anything of us. We live under a covenant of promise. Its favors are unconditional. Its mercies are unlimited. All its blessings are made sure to all the seed by the oath and promise of God. As God kept his covenant with Noah, so the covenant of grace has been faithfully kept to this day (Gen 8:22), kept by God himself. Nothing in the covenant depends, in any degree, upon man – God says, I will remember my covenant, and he does. The garments of salvation are all garments of Gods providing, garments of grace. None of Gods people wear garments of linen and wool, of works and grace.
C. H. Spurgeon said, My looking to Jesus brings me joy and peace, but it is Gods looking to Jesus which secures my salvation and that of all his elect; for it is impossible for God to look at Christ, our bleeding Surety, and then be angry with us for sins already punished in him.
The covenant of grace is an everlasting covenant. Time does not change God or his purpose. David rejoiced to declare on his dying bed, The Lord hath made with me and everlasting covenant, ordered in all things and sure. Every child of God in this world can and should have the same joyful confidence in all his circumstances. Grace is never in jeopardy. Salvation is never in danger. Gods elect cannot, by any means, be lost (Isa 54:9-10). The covenant of grace is a covenant made by God and kept by God.
With whom was
the covenant established?
The covenant touched everything in Gods creation. The benefits of the covenant were given to all Noahs posterity. But the covenant was made with only one man – Noah (Gen 9:11). Even so, the covenant of grace was made with one Person – the Lord Jesus Christ; but that one Person was Surety for many (Heb 7:22). God made his covenant for us with Christ. Our divine Surety met all the stipulations of the covenant for us. In him, only in him, every believer receives all the blessings of the covenant. They are ours in Christ and for his sake (Eph 1:3-6; 2Ti 1:9).
What was the basis,
or foundation, of the covenant?
This covenant was Gods response to Noahs sacrifice (Gen 8:20-22). The covenant which God made with Noah was Gods answer to the sweet savor that ascended to him from the altar. All the blessings of the covenant flowed to Noah, because of the sacrifice. And all the blessings of the covenant of grace flow to all of Gods elect through the blood of the everlasting covenant (Heb 13:20), the blood of Christ, the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world (Rev 13:8).[6]
[6] God could not and would not bless and save even the people whom he loved with an everlasting love apart from the satisfaction of his justice by the blood of Christ.
Why was this covenant made?
We must not pry into the secrets of almighty God. I do not pretend to know all that moved God in the covenant he made with Noah, or in the covenant he made with Christ for us. However, this much he has revealed. God made his covenant to be…
a wondrous display of his amazing grace (Gen 8:21; Eph 1:6; Eph 1:12; Eph 1:14).
a perpetual declaration of his glorious sovereignty (Gen 8:22; Rom 9:11-18).
a solid ground of comfort to his elect (Rom 8:28-32).
What is included in the covenant?
In a word — Everything! The covenant God made with Noah included all the elements of the world (Gen 8:22), all the creatures of the world (Gen 9:3; Gen 9:9-10), and all the governments of the world (Gen 9:6). The covenant of grace includes everything. All things are of God (2Co 5:18). All things are yours (1Co 3:21; Hos 2:18; Rom 8:28). Everything in this world is so absolutely governed by God that nothing happens, nothing is done, nothing moves, nothing lives, nothing dies, except that which God has purposed for the fulfilling of his covenant in his elect.
What is the meaning of
the rainbow, the token of the covenant?
Read Gen 9:12-16. Here we see the rainbow upon the earth; but when John was caught up to heaven, he saw the rainbow encircling Gods throne (Rev 4:3), and he saw Christ, our Mediator, ruling all things for the fulfilment of Gods covenant, crowned with a rainbow on his head (Rev 10:1).
The Lord is ever mindful of his covenant. He does not need a token to remind him of it; but we do. So he gave us the rainbow. It was the symbol to Noah of Gods covenant with him; and it is a symbol to us to remind us of Gods covenant with us in Christ.
When may we expect to see the rainbow, the token of the covenant? The only time the rainbow is seen is when there is a cloud (Gen 9:14). When our blessed Savior died at Calvary, there was a dark cloud over the earth; and there, in the death of our Substitute, we see Gods covenant. The believers days in this world are often filled with clouds, clouds hung by our heavenly Father — When I bring a cloud. We read the lines and promises of Gods covenant best when we read them drawn out for us upon the dark and cloudy sky of adversity. You will never see the rainbow until a cloud appears. But, as A. W. Pink wrote, How blessed to know that the cloud that comes over our sky is of his bringing! And if so, how sure that some way he will reveal his glory in it!
If we would see the rainbow, there must also be some rain. The cloud itself does not give the rainbow. We will never see a rainbow without the crystal drops of water to reflect the light of the sun. And you cannot see the rainbow unless the sun shines. It is only as Christ, the Sun of Righteousness, shines in our hearts by the Spirit of grace that we are able to see Gods covenant and grace toward us in him.
“Shine, O Sun of Righteousness
Through all the clouds of time and sense;
Display the rainbow of your grace
And rest my soul in covenant peace.”
What do we see in the rainbow, the token of the covenant? In the rainbow, we see transcendent beauty and glory. That is what we see revealed in the covenant of Gods grace. In the rainbow, we see a symbol of justice and vengeance satisfied. There is the bow; but it has neither string nor arrow. God has hung up his bow. The warfare is over (Isa 40:1-2). That is the covenant fulfilled by our Surety. In the rainbow, we see streamers of joy, a banner of delight, flung across the heavens. That is what the covenant of grace is! (Jer 31:3; Jeremiah 31-34; Jer 32:37-41).
Fuente: Discovering Christ In Selected Books of the Bible
And I: Gen 8:21, Gen 8:22, Isa 54:9
neither shall all: Gen 7:21-23, Gen 8:21, Gen 8:22, 2Pe 3:7, 2Pe 3:11
Reciprocal: Gen 6:18 – establish Gen 9:9 – General Job 11:16 – as waters Psa 104:9 – hast set Rev 10:1 – a rainbow
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
Gen 9:11. There shall not any more be a flood God had drowned the world once, and still it is as provoking as ever; yet he will never drown it any more, for he deals not with us according to our sins. This promise of God keeps the sea and clouds in their decreed places, and sets them gates and bars: Hitherto they shall come, Job 38:10-11. If the sea should flow but for a few days, as it doth twice every day for a few hours, what desolations would it make! So would the clouds, if such showers as we have sometimes seen, were continued long. But God, by flowing seas and sweeping rains, shows what he could do in wrath; and yet by preserving the earth from being deluged between both, shows what he can do in mercy, and will do in truth.