Narrative Lectionary / Old Testament
THE GOD WHO PROMISES
Reading: Genesis 6:5–22; 8:6–12; 9:8–17. Preacher: Phil Swain
We live in a world where promises are easily made and often broken. Political promises can be vague, qualified or quietly forgotten, while even our personal promises do not always hold. So why should we treat God’s promises differently?
This Sunday we begin our Old Testament series, The God Who Promises, with the story of Noah. It is not an easy story, containing judgement, destruction, waiting and uncertainty. Yet it ends with God placing the rainbow in the sky as a sign of an extraordinary promise … that God remains committed to this earth and all its creatures, even in the midst of human brokenness. Together, we will explore what this story reveals about the God who promises, and why our God can be trusted.
Reflection Questions
Exploring the Passage (Genesis 6:5–22; 8:6–12, 20–22; 9:8–17)
- What words and images are used in Genesis 6 to describe the condition of the world? What do you notice about God’s emotional response to its violence and corruption?
- In Genesis 8:6–12, Noah sends out birds to discover whether the waters have receded. What do his repeated actions suggest about waiting, hope and recognising signs of new life?
- Read Genesis 9:8–17 carefully. Who is included in God’s covenant, what does God promise, and what is the significance of the rainbow?
Pondering the Sermon Themes
- The sermon suggested that our experience of political promises, advertising and clickbait has taught us to be cautious. How might this experience affect the way we hear and respond to God’s promises?
- What do you make of the statement, “The flood has changed the landscape, but it has not changed the human heart”? How does this shape your understanding of what the flood accomplished?
- The sermon argued that humanity has not changed greatly, but God’s response has changed. God chooses covenant with an imperfect creation. Do you find this interpretation helpful, challenging or troubling? Why?
Going Deeper
- God’s covenant includes not only humanity but “every living creature” and the earth itself. What responsibilities might this give us in the way we treat other creatures and care for the natural world?
- God does not promise that clouds will never gather or that storms will never come. What, then, does it mean to trust God during suffering, uncertainty or disappointment?
- Think about one part of your life, your community or the wider world that feels particularly broken. How might God’s promise not to abandon creation change the way you pray, hope or act in response?
Sermon Text
Today we begin a new cycle of the Narrative Lectionary. The Narrative Lectionary takes us through the broad story of the Bible over the course of a year. We begin in the Old Testament, before moving into one of the Gospels (this year it is Matthew) and then, after Easter, into the story of the early church and the New Testament.
One of the things I appreciate about the Narrative Lectionary is that it encourages us to see some of the major threads that run through the Bible. It helps us to connect with what has come before and helps prepare us for what is still to come. We begin to notice the larger story which unfolds through the Scriptures.
Over the next month we are going to explore the Old Testament thread of promise. We will hear about God’s promise to Noah, to Abraham and Sarah, to Moses and to the people of Israel. There are a lot of promises in the Old Testament. Promises of presence, blessing, guidance and a future.
These promises tell us something about the relationship God chooses to have with humanity. God does not simply create the world and then stand back to see what happens. God becomes involved. God speaks. God calls people by name. God makes commitments. God binds Godself to people and to creation through promises.
One way of understanding the Old Testament is that it tells the story of a God who makes promises and a people learning what it means to live in the light of those promises.
Although, as we will discover, living in the light of promises is not always easy. Sometimes the people trust God. Sometimes they doubt. Sometimes they become impatient and try to force the promise to happen in their own way. Sometimes they forget the promise altogether.
And so, beneath all these stories, there is a question which keeps returning.
- Can God be trusted?
- Can God be trusted when the promise seems impossible? When circumstances appear to be moving in the opposite direction? When the waiting goes on much longer than anyone expected? When the world seems so broken that it is difficult to imagine how anything good could emerge?
These are not simple questions, particularly in our own time.
We live in a world where promises are made very easily. Politicians make promises during election campaigns. Advertisers promise that a product will transform our lives. Internet headlines promise something astonishing if only we will click on them. And we have learnt to be cautious.
So when the Bible tells us that God makes promises, we should not pretend that trust comes automatically. Why should we trust this promise? What makes God’s promise different from all the others?
That is where our Old Testament journey begins.
Not with a comfortable story in which everyone does the right thing and everything turns out well, but with one of the most confronting stories in the Bible. The story of Noah.
It is often presented as a colourful children’s story, with a large boat, animals walking in two by two, a dove carrying an olive leaf and a rainbow stretching across the sky.
But beneath those familiar images is a much darker story. It is a story of human violence, divine grief, judgement, destruction and a long period of waiting upon the waters.
And at its heart is a question that will follow us through this whole series: Can God be trusted with the future of this broken world?
Our Bible reading begins with a world that has gone terribly wrong. Genesis tells us that human wickedness had become great and that every inclination of the human heart was turned towards evil. A few verses later, it says that the earth was corrupt in God’s sight and filled with violence.
That word, violence, is important. This is not simply a world in which people occasionally make mistakes. Violence has become woven into the fabric of human life. People are hurting one another, creation is suffering and the world is no longer what God intended it to be.
But notice how God responds.
We sometimes imagine the God of the flood as simply angry, looking down from heaven and deciding to punish everyone. There is certainly judgement in this story, and we should not try to soften or avoid that.
But before we hear about God’s judgement, we are told about God’s grief. The Lord regretted making humankind on the earth, and God’s heart was deeply troubled.
That is an extraordinary glimpse into the heart of God.
God is not distant from the violence and suffering, nor does God observe it without emotion. What has happened to the world brings pain to its Creator. God looks at what humanity has become and God’s heart is deeply troubled.
And out of that grief comes God’s decision to send the flood.
Water can be symbolically seen as both destructive and cleansing. The world has become so deeply corrupted by violence that God decides to sweep it all away, to wash creation clean and begin again.
But within the ark, a small part of creation is preserved. Noah and his family, together with the animals, are carried through the waters so that life might begin again.
Eventually, the rain stops. The waters recede. Dry land appears. Noah, his family and the animals step out into a new world. It sounds almost like a second creation. A world washed clean. A new beginning. Another opportunity for humanity and creation to become what God had always intended them to be.
But there is one very important question still waiting for us.
Has the flood actually solved the problem?
At first, it might appear that it has. The violence has been swept away. Noah and his family have survived. The animals emerge from the ark. Dry land has appeared and creation has been given a new beginning. But then we hear something surprising.
Before the flood, God looks at humanity and sees that every inclination of the human heart is evil.
After the flood, God looks at humanity and says exactly the same thing: Every inclination of the human heart is evil from childhood. The words are almost identical.
The flood has changed the landscape, but it has not changed the human heart.
Humanity has not been fixed. People have not suddenly become perfect. Violence, selfishness and sin have not disappeared from the world. Indeed, as the story of Genesis continues, it becomes painfully clear that the same patterns will emerge again.
So, if the purpose of the flood was to create a perfect world filled with perfect people, then it has not worked.
But something has changed. Humanity has not changed very much, but maybe God has changed.
This is not God becoming fickle or unreliable. It is about God freely choosing to place a limit upon how God will respond to human brokenness.
Before the flood, God sees that the human heart is inclined towards evil and resolves to destroy creation. After the flood, God sees that the human heart is still inclined towards evil and yet resolves never again to destroy creation in this way.
The problem is the same. The human heart is the same. But God’s response is different.
This is the remarkable movement at the centre of the story. God moves from destroying what has become corrupted to choosing covenant with an imperfect creation.
God does not wait for humanity to become trustworthy. God does not say, “I will preserve the earth as long as you never fail again.” God does not demand proof that Noah’s descendants will behave better than the generations which came before them.
Instead, God chooses to remain committed to this world, knowing exactly what human beings are like.
God says:
- Never again will I curse the ground because of humans.
- Never again will all life be destroyed by the waters of a flood.
God chooses to live in relationship with a creation that is still unfinished, still vulnerable and still capable of causing great pain. That is what covenant means here. God freely binds Godself to the future of an imperfect world.
And that begins to answer our question about whether God can be trusted.
God’s promise is not based upon newfound confidence in humanity. It is not based upon Noah’s descendants proving that they deserve another chance. The promise is grounded in God’s own decision to remain faithful.
Humanity may still be unreliable. Creation may still be broken. But God has chosen not to abandon it.
And notice just how wide this promise is. God does not make the covenant only with Noah.
God says: I now establish my covenant with you and with your descendants after you, and with every living creature that was with you.
The promise includes Noah’s family, but it extends far beyond them. It includes every bird, every animal and every living creature. It includes generations of people who have not yet been born.
A few verses later, God describes it as a covenant between God and all life on the earth. This is not simply a private promise made to one faithful person. It is a promise to creation itself.
And that means it is a promise which includes us.
We are among the descendants who come after Noah. We are part of the creation to which God has chosen to remain committed. We live within this covenant, not because we negotiated it and not because we have earned it, but because God has freely made it.
And then God gives a visible sign of this promise:
I have set my rainbow in the clouds, and it will be the sign of the covenant between me and the earth.
The Hebrew word translated as “rainbow” is also the word used for a warrior’s bow. It is as though God hangs the bow in the clouds. The weapon is put down. God chooses covenant rather than destruction.
And notice who the rainbow is meant to remind.
God says: Whenever the rainbow appears in the clouds, I will see it and remember the everlasting covenant.
Yes, the rainbow can remind us of what God has promised creation. But in the story, God says that it will be a reminder to God of the everlasting covenant.
And even the clouds are significant.
God does not promise that clouds will never gather again. God does not promise that there will be no more storms, suffering or uncertainty.
The sign of the promise appears in the midst of the clouds.
And so we return to the question with which we began.
Can God be trusted?
The story of Noah does not give us an easy or simplistic answer.
If we are asking whether God can be trusted to prevent every storm, protect us from every painful experience or ensure that nothing ever goes wrong, this story does not make those promises.
The clouds still gather. The storms still come. Human beings remain capable of violence, selfishness and terrible harm. Creation continues to carry the consequences of our brokenness.
But if we are asking whether God can be trusted to remain committed to this world, then the answer of the covenant is yes. God can be trusted, because God is faithful.
That is the promise represented by the rainbow. When we see a rainbow stretching across the clouds, it is a reminder of the character of God.
A God who sees the world’s brokenness, who grieves over its violence and suffering, and yet chooses to remain committed to it.
Humanity may be unreliable. The world may still be unfinished. The future may sometimes appear uncertain.
But the promise is that God will remain.
God will not give up on humanity, on every living creature or on the earth itself.
And that is where our hope begins.
Amen.