Bible Stories – Covenant (Genesis 6:3, 5-8, 13-18, 22)

Bible Stories – Covenant (Genesis 6:3, 5-8, 13-18, 22)

Do you remember the comedy skit Bill Cosby used to do on Noah? Noah is sawing a piece of wood when He hears a voice.

Voompa Voompa Voompa Voompa Bing! Noah! Looks and then…

Voompa Voompa Voompa Voompa Bing! Noah!

Who’s talking? Who is that?

It’s The Lord, Noah!

Voompa Voompa Voompa Voompa Bing!

Noah!

What do you want? I’ve been good.

Noah! I want you to build an ark.

Right! What’s an ark?

Get some wood and built it 300 cubits by 50 cubits by 30 cubits!

Right! What’s a cubit?

Well let’s see I used to know what a cubit was. Don’t worry about that. When you get it done, go out into the world and get every kind of animal, two by two, and put them on the ark.

Right! Who is this really? How come you want me to do all these weird things?

I’m going to make it rain for 40 days and 40 nights and drown them all out.

Right! Am I on Candid Camera?

So Noah gets busy making the ark and one of his neighbors comes by and yells up at Noah. “Hey! What are you doing up there?”

Noah:    I am building an ark.

Guy:  “What’s an ark?”

Noah:   I can’t tell ya! Ha Ha Ha!

Guy: Why not?

Noah:   Look, I’ll give you a hint. How long can you tread water?

The story of Noah’s Ark has inspired books, films, television miniseries and a whole host of jokes, comics and memes. There’s even a t-shirt you can buy that says, “Looking to buy a boat? I Noah guy.” All joking aside, if you were to read the story of Noah, it’s a horrific tale. Everyone and every living thing dies, except for 8 people and the animals on the ark. On the second floor hallway of our education wing there’s a Noah’s Ark poster with a rainbow, animals, and Mr and Mrs Ark all smiles! But the bible story really isn’t happy. It’s a tragedy.

The story begins with God announcing He is sorry that He ever made human beings. The whole earth was filled with violence because of them. Every inclination of the human heart was evil all the time! You think things are bad now? What was it like to live at a time when everyone was wicked and everywhere was violence? If anyone needed a rescue from this terrible situation it was Noah.

The name Noah means “rest” or “comfort.” The name Noah is a play on words. The Hebrew word used to describe God’s regret over making human beings is best understand the word as sighing when burdened or a nostril flair breathing out frustration. God was deeply hurt that His good creation had been ruined by fallen humanity. It’s also the same word used to describe repentance, a change of heart. It’s like God held a press conference and said, “Mistake were made…” God comforted His pained heart by changing his mind about creation.

God decided to start over and wipe the earth clean of all life. God would start over with Noah and his family. Noah is described as a righteous man, blameless among the people of his time.

The story of Noah is not about cutesy animals cared, rainbows and such. It’s not a story about God’s wrath. God is saddened by the ruination of creation. Never once does the story say that God was angry. No, the story isn’t even about how to survive the apocalypse. The story is about salvation through the covenant community that lives its life under the favor of God.

God chose Israel and Israel lives according to God’s covenant Law as given through Moses. As Israel lives in obedience to the Law they are blessed by God with peace and prosperity.  We are invited through this story to join the covenant keeping community and find ourselves held safely above the waves of social chaos.

Let’s look at some key ideas the story offers which will help you to see Noah’s Ark in a different light.  Noah’s Ark is packed with theologically loaded Hebrew words, which point to other parts of scripture. Let’s take a surgical look at Genesis 6:14.

“Make an ark of gopher wood and cover it inside and out with pitch.”

The Hebrew word translated as ark only appears in one other place besides the story of Noah. The word is used to describe the basket the baby Moses was placed in to save him from the Egyptian Pharaoh’s order to drown all Hebrews boys at birth. The ark which saves Noah is pointing to the story of Moses, the Lawgiver, whom God chose to save Israel from slavery in Egypt. As God gives Noah the dimensions of the ark, those kind of details remind us of how God instructed Moses to build the tabernacle and the ark of the covenant. Both Noah and Moses are said to do “everything that the Lord commanded.” Noah’s ark points to the covenant community that is saved by obedience to Moses.

Some translations say the ark was to be made of gopher wood. The best understanding of the Hebrew word might be “the wood of a resin tree.” Resin rich trees, like cypress, are bendable and were used to make boats in the ancient world.  But nobody has ever heard of gopher wood. We should not think of gophers, like the earth burrowing rodents we know by that name. The Hebrew word is “GO-fair” which is playing on two other words in the verse, Kaphar (CawFAIR) and Kopher (CohFAIR)

  

Noah is to make an ark with wood of high resin content and cover it inside and out with pitch. The pitch comes from the resin found in the wood. Kopher is a theologically loaded term. The same Hebrew word is translated as ransom, the price paid to save a life. Kaphar is the word translated as cover. The same word is used to describe atonement. All these words, gopher, kopher and kaphar are pointing to the sacrificial system of Israel, in which the life of an animal is given as a ransom. The blood of the sacrificial animal atones for sin. Its blood covers over the sins of the people so that they may stand before God cleansed of their sins and free of guilt. We might read Genesis 6:14 like this:

"The vessel is to be atoned for with a ransom."

Now let’s step back from the Hebrew words and consider the story. At the beginning of the story God repents. He is sad and sorry that he ever made humans. The world is ruined because of our violence and wickedness.  Yet God finds favor with Noah. Noah experiences the merciful grace of God.  Noah and his entire family are saved on the ark, and all the mating pairs of animals with them. God also tells Noah to bring aboard seven pairs of all clean animals. We are all aware of the peculiarities of the Jewish diet. Certain kinds of animals were not religiously clean for Hebrews to eat. So again the story points to the covenant community through which Israel is saved.

As Paul Harvey would say, “And now, the rest of the story.” When the rains stop and enough time passes for Noah to begin to hope that dry land may again appear, Noah let loose a raven. The raven is an unclean bird. It doesn’t return to the ark. Next Noah releases a dove. The dove is a clean animal that may be sacrificed to the Lord. The dove cannot find dry land so it returns to the ark. Noah releases the bird two more times. On the second try the dove returns with an olive leaf in its beak. The olive makes oils which are used for anointing kings, priests and holy things. Olive oil was also used as a healing balm for open wounds. God’s wounded heart is healing, and a holy people will come through Noah, led by the Anointed One, the messiah, Jesus Christ.

On the third day the dove finds rest on the earth. As a Christian, when I said “on the third day” your Easter ears may have perked up. For on the third day Jesus rose from the dead and a new creation was born. The story of Noah points to Christ, who saves us through the ransom price of His life. His blood atones for, or covers our sins, now and forever.

After the ark comes to rest on the mountains of Ararat, Noah builds an altar and sacrifices some of the clean animals. God smells the pleasing odor of the sacrifice and then declares a covenant with Noah and his descendants and all the animals. God promises to never again destroy all life by flood waters. God placed a rainbow in the sky as a sign of the covenant. It’s like God put a reminder in his calendar. When the rainbow emoji pops up, God remembers not to destroy the earth by the waters of chaos. Of course, the covenant with Noah is pointing to THE COVENANT through Moses, by which Israel is saved. And the sign of belonging to the covenant community is circumcision. The sign of belonging to the new covenant in Christ is baptism. Look at how Peter linked the story of Noah to the early church.

17 For it is better to suffer for doing good, if suffering should be God’s will, than to suffer for doing evil. 18 For Christ also suffered for sins once for all, the righteous for the unrighteous, in order to bring you to God. He was put to death in the flesh, but made alive in the spirit, 19 in which also he went and made a proclamation to the spirits in prison, 20 who in former times did not obey, when God waited patiently in the days of Noah, during the building of the ark, in which a few, that is, eight persons, were saved through water. 21 And baptism, which this prefigured, now saves you—not as a removal of dirt from the body, but as an appeal to God for a good conscience, through the resurrection of Jesus Christ, 22 who has gone into heaven and is at the right hand of God, with angels, authorities, and powers made subject to him. (1 Peter 3:17-22)

But then something really odd happens. Noah plants a vineyard, gets drunk on wine, and passes out naked in his tent. I’m not making this up look in Genesis 9:21. Noah’s son Ham comes into the tent and “sees his father’s nakedness.” This is a Hebrew turn of phrase that means sexual activity. Some kind of sexual hanky-panky went on between Noah and Ham, something the Hebrews would consider extreme dishonorable.

Ham brags about it to his brothers. Shem and Japheth place a garment over their shoulders and back into the tent so that they don’t see their father’s nakedness. They cover up Noah’s shame. They treat their drunken father with compassion, mercy and honor. When Noah discovers what happened, he cursed Ham’s son Canaan. That’s way of cursing all of Ham’s descendants, his entire family. This bizarre story functions as an origin story for Israel’s enemies.

  

When you read the following chapter, Genesis 10, the line of Ham is a regular who’s who of Israel’s enemies. Canaan’s line includes the Sidonians, Hittities, Jebutistes, Amorites, Girgashites, the citizens of Sodom and Gomorrah, Gaza and Gerar. From Ham’s son Cush comes Nimrod, the builder of Babel and Nineveh, centers for the Babylonian and Assyrian Empires. Even the Philistines come through Ham’s accursed family.

Ham’s despicable behavior, taking advantage of his father in a vulnerable state, is a way of speaking about the kind of people which are Israel’s enemies. They are brutes who don’t value human life, nor do they know compassion or honor.

So here’s a lesson to learn from Noah and the Great Flood. God chose to start over and wash the earth clean of sinful humanity, but it didn’t work. Sin persisted through Noah and his family. Along with Israel’s God, we  learn that genocide is not the answer. Even though human beings are hopelessly sinful, they can at times please God. God believes we are worth saving.

The vessel is to be atoned for with a ransom.

The church is like the ark. It is the new covenant community, atoned for by the blood of Christ. Because Jesus hung upon the ransom tree, this vessel is bound for glorious new creation in His name!