July 11, 2021

Online Worship for Trinity Six, Sunday July 11, 2021

Preacher:
Passage: Genesis 9,1-17
Service Type:

Sermon for Trinity Six – Sunday July 11, 2021
Calvary/Marquette ● Soli Deo Gloria

Grace be unto you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus, the Christ. Amen.

Genesis 9:1–17 (NKJV)
So God blessed Noah and his sons, and said to them: “Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth. 2 And the fear of you and the dread of you shall be on every beast of the earth, on every bird of the air, on all that move on the earth, and on all the fish of the sea. They are given into your hand. 3 Every moving thing that lives shall be food for you. I have given you all things, even as the green herbs. 4 But you shall not eat flesh with its life, that is, its blood. 5 Surely for your lifeblood I will demand a reckoning; from the hand of every beast I will require it, and from the hand of man. From the hand of every man’s brother I will require the life of man. 6 “Whoever sheds man’s blood, By man his blood shall be shed; For in the image of God He made man. 7 And as for you, be fruitful and multiply; Bring forth abundantly in the earth And multiply in it.”

8 Then God spoke to Noah and to his sons with him, saying: 9 “And as for Me, behold, I establish My covenant with you and with your descendants after you, 10 and with every living creature that is with you: the birds, the cattle, and every beast of the earth with you, of all that go out of the ark, every beast of the earth. 11 Thus I establish My covenant with you: Never again shall all flesh be cut off by the waters of the flood; never again shall there be a flood to destroy the earth.”

12 And God said: “This is the sign of the covenant which I make between Me and you, and every living creature that is with you, for perpetual generations: 13 I set My rainbow in the cloud, and it shall be for the sign of the covenant between Me and the earth. 14 It shall be, when I bring a cloud over the earth, that the rainbow shall be seen in the cloud; 15 and I will remember My covenant which is between Me and you and every living creature of all flesh; the waters shall never again become a flood to destroy all flesh. 16 The rainbow shall be in the cloud, and I will look on it to remember the everlasting covenant between God and every living creature of all flesh that is on the earth.” 17 And God said to Noah, “This is the sign of the covenant which I have established between Me and all flesh that is on the earth.”

In the Name of Jesus, the Christ,
Who shed His own blood to reconcile us to God,
Dear Fellow Redeemed in His most precious blood –

On the evening before Halloween, Sunday night October 30th 1938, many Americans heard a series of news bulletins broadcast on the radio describing an Alien invasion of New Jersey. Many listeners believed it was real and began calling the police, newspapers and radio stations to report what they had heard. Still others panicked and there were reports of mass stampedes and even suicides as people faced what they believed was – the end of the world.

It wasn’t the end of the world. It was just a radio adaptation of a novel: H. G. Well’s, The War of the Worlds converted into a series of fake news bulletins and broadcast by actor Orson Welles and his Mercury Theatre on the Air.

The next day, people were not amused. Some even threatened to shoot the actor on sight. For all the movies about the end of the world and starting over, I would guess that the prospect frightens more people than it entertains.

The words that make up this portion of God’s Word are not an adaptation of a fictional novel – but an actual record of what happened after the Flood. When these words took place, the end of the world had nearly come. The earth, once a perfect creation had been laid waste.

Why did it happen? God had watched His Creation go from bad to worse. It all began when humanity – the crown of his creation – rebelled against Him. In the course of time, humankind turned away from Him. God regretted having created the earth and all that was upon it, and so He determined to destroy all human and animal life by means of a world-wide flood.

Were it not for the grace of God and faith granted to a man named Noah, the end of the world would indeed have come! Noah built a boat according to specifications given him by God (Genesis 6:14-22). God brought two of every animal (probably infants or young animals) to Noah and when Noah and his wife and three sons and their wives were inside the Ark, God sealed it up and the fountains of the deep were opened and it rained 40 days and 40 nights.

very human being and animal that was not sealed within the Ark drown and died. It would have been the end of the world but for the eight human beings and two of every animal within the Ark. After 150 days, God caused the waters to recede and in time God commanded Noah to release the animals upon the earth and to disembark.

We can’t even imagine the devastation. We’ve all seen ariel pictures of the devastation caused by flooding. The prospect of cleaning up and starting over seems immense. We’ve perhaps even seen the destruction caused by tidal waves called Tsunamis.

When Noah stepped off the Ark, he saw a world that had been destroyed, completely covered in water. The earth as he had known it was fundamentally changed, both it’s topography and its climate. Can you imagine the uncertainty and fear? There were no houses to move into, no food to eat that wasn’t on the Ark. It would take time to grow and harvest the fruits of the earth. How would they survive? What would they do? How would they start again?

How would the human race survive? They would survive and flourish again because of the grace of God. We see in this Scripture how God values and supports human life.

May God the Holy Spirit bless our meditation upon these words and help us to remember that this is no legend or fairy tale, but God’s own revelation of history. Amen.

+++++++

The Sanctity of Human Life…it seems sometimes that fewer and fewer people place importance on life today. In the news, death is always a headline. Wars spring up from place to place and human beings kill one another for a variety of reasons. One ethnic group hates another and would ‘cleanse it’ by killing the other. Others show disdain for human life by aborting their own unborn children.

There are those who would mock even the suggestion that God cares for human life. After all, what kind of God snuffs out the entire population of the earth…save eight? What kind of God sends His chosen people into the Promised Land with marching orders to exterminate every other human being living there?

If God cared so much for humankind, then why did these things happen?

Well, there is a fairly simple answer to that question, but our world won’t accept it. It won’t accept it because some deny there is a God and others claim there is no such thing as absolute truth. Our world won’t accept the answer because it has denied even the possibility of sin. Far from cheapening the value of human life, after the Flood God again expressed the importance of human life when He restated and blessed human reproduction, saying:

So God blessed Noah and his sons, and said to them:
“Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth.”

 This wasn’t the first time God spoke these words to humankind. After God created Adam and Eve, He blessed them and told them to be fruitful and multiply. They had done so; but many of their descendants had turned away from the LORD.

 After the Flood, God spoke these words a second time. So, to whom did God speak these words? He spoke them to Noah and his sons…who were married. It was God’s will that they be fruitful and multiply, yet not wantonly, but within the bounds of marriage. They were to be fruitful and multiply, for there were only eight of them.

God didn’t only express the importance of human life by blessing reproduction. He also promised to protect human life.

2 And the fear of you and the dread of you shall be on every beast of the earth, on every bird of the air, on all that move on the earth, and on all the fish of the sea. They are given into your hand.

The relationship between humankind and the animal kingdom was different at creation. After creating them, God brought all of the animals to Adam, who named them (Genesis 2:19-20). God gave humankind dominion over the animal kingdom to order it and sustain it (Genesis 1:28). It seems fair to say that the animals didn’t fear humankind or vice versa. When a snake spoke to Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden, it seems they weren’t afraid or even surprised!

The relationship between Noah and the animal kingdom on the Ark was also different. God brought two of every kind of animal to Noah and into the Ark and he cared for them.
But after the flood, God placed the fear and dread of man in the animal kingdom. Even in our day, when animals, birds and fish see us, they flee from us.

How was this a protection for humankind? Well, think about it. There were eight human beings and hundreds of other kinds of animals, including larger and stronger predators. The animals were also given the ability to reproduce, and they do so far quicker. Shortly after birth many animals can sustain themselves; but our own offspring are dependent upon us for years.

In placing the fear of humankind in the animals, God protected one from the other. Moreover, God didn’t only express the importance of human life by protecting it but also by sustaining it by means of the animal kingdom.

3 Every moving thing that lives shall be food for you. I have given you all things, even as the green herbs. 4 But you shall not eat flesh with its life, that is, its blood.

We can’t say for certain that human beings were vegetarians up to this point. There is some evidence that human beings had begun to look upon animals as food (e.g., Abel had domestic flocks). God here sanctioned and even encouraged the practice. God had first given fruit and green herbs as food, but in a devastated world it would take some time for plant life to return. God allowed man to kill animals to eat them.

God made only one stipulation – they were not to eat flesh in which was blood. They were not to eat animals while they still lived. After the flood they were not to eat blood, in which was life. God made the same stipulation to the Jews when they became His special people.

God expressed the importance of human life by placing consequences on those who shed human blood. The descendants of Noah could take animals for food without fear of retribution, but if a man or animal shed the blood of a human being there would be an accounting and consequences.

5 Surely for your lifeblood I will demand a reckoning; from the hand of every beast I will require it, and from the hand of man. From the hand of every man’s brother I will require the life of man. 6 “Whoever sheds man’s blood, By man his blood shall be shed; For in the image of God He made man. 7 And as for you, be fruitful and multiply; Bring forth abundantly in the earth And multiply in it.”

There can be no doubt that God values human life. God made the animal kingdom food for humanity to preserve humanity. It was one thing to shed the life of an animal; it was another to take the life of a human being.

 If an animal killed a human being there were to be consequences for the animal. The animal control laws mentioned in the book of Exodus show how that was put into practice (Exodus 21:28-36).
 If a man shed the blood of another man there were also to be consequences. We are to look upon one another as one human family, brothers and sisters.

When God declares, “Whoever sheds man’s blood, by man his blood shall be shed” He does not allow us to take the law into our own hands, but lays the groundwork for human government. The word translated ‘man’ here is a word that refers to mankind, not to an individual person. In the 5th Commandment, imprinted upon the human heart and later given in written form, God declares that the individual does not have the right to kill or murder.

It’s in the letter to the Romans that God gives government authority for capital punishment, saying (Romans 13:1-2, 4):

Let every soul be subject to the governing authorities. For there is no authority except from God, and the authorities that exist are appointed by God. 2 Therefore whoever resists the authority resists the ordinance of God, and those who resist will bring judgment on themselves… 4 For he is God’s minister to you for good. But if you do evil, be afraid; for he does not bear the sword in vain; for he is God’s minister, an avenger to execute wrath on him who practices evil.

God would have us cherish and defend human life. It isn’t just that God is opposed to murder; it’s that in taking another’s life one takes away the other’s time of grace. God gives human life – not merely so that we make our way and our fortune here on earth. He gives human life because He would have us hear His Word and learn of Him that this is only the breezeway, the ultimate goal is to reach the Father’s house. The only way we enter heaven is through faith in Jesus the Christ and what He has done. If we are killed or die before learning of Him and receiving the blessings of heaven by faith, then we miss out on so much more than earthly opportunity.
God supports and defends human life because it is His will to give to every human being spiritual and eternal life through faith in Christ and what He has done.

God help us that we neither consider ending another’s time of grace or even hate another for whom Christ died. Now that said, we remember that God so loved the world that He gave His Son for it, for everyone.

God not only expresses the value of human life by blessing a man and his wife; He also protects human life and sustains human life. He Himself promised that He would never again devastate the earth by means of a world-wide flood.

8 Then God spoke to Noah and to his sons with him, saying: 9 “And as for Me, behold, I establish My covenant with you and with your descendants after you, 10 and with every living creature that is with you: the birds, the cattle, and every beast of the earth with you, of all that go out of the ark, every beast of the earth. 11 Thus I establish My covenant with you: Never again shall all flesh be cut off by the waters of the flood; never again shall there be a flood to destroy the earth.”

12 And God said: “This is the sign of the covenant which I make between Me and you, and every living creature that is with you, for perpetual generations: 13 I set My rainbow in the cloud, and it shall be for the sign of the covenant between Me and the earth. 14 It shall be, when I bring a cloud over the earth, that the rainbow shall be seen in the cloud; 15 and I will remember My covenant which is between Me and you and every living creature of all flesh; the waters shall never again become a flood to destroy all flesh. 16 The rainbow shall be in the cloud, and I will look on it to remember the everlasting covenant between God and every living creature of all flesh that is on the earth.” 17 And God said to Noah, “This is the sign of the covenant which I have established between Me and all flesh that is on the earth.”

God is both just and full of mercy and love. There are some who may dispute that, but remember the circumstances.

God had nearly brought the end of the world by means of a worldwide flood. Noah and his sons had spent a year of fear on a boat, not knowing the future. They knew only that all was in the hands of the LORD God.

Noah and his family were again on dry ground.

In one sense, nothing was the same. The landscape was markedly different, it was devastation, a mess of global proportions. There were only eight human beings left – Noah and his wife; Shem, Ham and Japeth and their wives. There were animals of every kind on the earth. It’s was time to start over and repopulate the earth according to God’s will and order.

In another sense, everything was the still the same. The flood had not washed away sin. All eight human beings alive were sinful! What good could come from them? Yet, God mercifully promised to never again destroy humankind and the animal kingdom from the face of the earth.

How could Noah be sure that history would not be repeated in 120 years?

God gave His Word. It was a one-way agreement – in which God obligated himself. He promised never again to judge humankind by means of a world-wide flood. There would be floods in places and judgment – what else can a just judge do? He would continue to support and sustain humankind, because He had not yet fulfilled the first promise, the one made to Adam and Eve, to send a Savior, the Christ.
God gave a Sign. It was a sign that every human being could see. God placed it in the sky, in the clouds, a rainbow. The rainbow was to remind humanity – every time it appeared – of what God had promised never again to do. The sign would appear, year after year, as a continual reminder of God’s Faithfulness. The rainbow is not to be a symbol or celebration of human sin – but a statement of God’s faithfulness.

God has kept His Word. He has not sent a worldwide flood. He has also sent the Promised Savior – His perfect, sinless Son to this fallen and devastated cesspool of a world – to die for us all, to make atonement for our sins and to reconcile us to God for time and for eternity. He has delivered us from sin through water, the water of baptism (1 Peter 3:18-21). What the Flood could not do – cleanse of sin – God has done through His Son in Holy Baptism.

So, how could anyone – in view of these things - say that God doesn’t value human life? Amen.

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