TRUTH LESSONS—LEVEL TWO

LESSON THREE

THE COVENANT WHICH GOD MADE
WITH THE MAN WHO WAS SAVED
THROUGH WATER

OUTLINE

1. The One who made the covenant—God:
   1. The faithful One.
   2. The mighty One.
2. The one with whom the covenant was made—Noah:
   1. A righteous man.
   2. A perfect man who walked with God.
   3. A herald of righteousness.
   4. One who built the ark to save himself.
   5. One who was saved through water.
3. The basis for making the covenant:
   1. The covenant before the judgment of the flood.
   2. Man taking God’s way of redemption.
   3. The sweet savor issuing from the burnt offerings.
4. The contents of the covenant:
   1. Man to be fruitful, multiply, and replenish the earth.
   2. Man to have dominion over all living creatures.
   3. Man being allowed to take animals for food but not to eat blood.
   4. God giving man the authority over others.
   5. God no more to destroy the earth by a flood.
   6. God using the rainbow as a sign of His faithfulness in keeping the covenant.
5. The result:
   1. The earth being preserved.
   2. Man abusing the fourth item of the covenant:
      1. Misusing the God-given authority to form nations.
      2. Exalting himself to oppose God.
      3. Falling into idolatry.
      4. Being scattered abroad by God upon the face of all the earth.

TEXT

After God judged the corrupt generation by the flood and saved Noah out of that generation, He made the third covenant with man (Gen. 9:1-17).

I. THE ONE WHO MADE THE COVENANT—GOD

The One who made this covenant was God. Here “God” in Hebrew is Elohim, which is composed of two words, the first word meaning “the powerful One,” and the second word meaning “binding Himself with an oath.” Oath-making shows God’s faithfulness; power indicates God’s might. This God who made the covenant is the mighty One who is faithful.

A. The Faithful One

God is faithful, and by His faithfulness He made a covenant with Noah. His faithfulness is established in heaven; it cannot be touched or altered by anything on earth. Therefore, God can never be faithless, nor suffer His faithfulness to fail, nor break His covenant which He made with man, nor alter the word that He spoke to man (Psa. 89:33-34). If man becomes faithless, He remains faithful, for He cannot deny Himself (2 Tim. 2:13).

B. The Mighty One

God is also mighty, and by His might He made a covenant with Noah. His might guarantees that every word in His covenant will and can be fulfilled. He has the power to fulfill the covenant which He made with man.

II. THE ONE WITH WHOM
THE COVENANT WAS MADE—NOAH

The one with whom this covenant was made was Noah, who was a righteous man, a perfect man who walked with God in that corrupt generation, and a herald of righteousness. He built the ark to save himself and his entire family, and he was saved through water, being delivered from that corrupt generation.

A. A Righteous Man

Noah was a righteous man. This means that he was right with God, with others, and with himself. Because he believed in God, his believing was immediately reckoned to him by God as righteousness; that is, he became heir of the righteousness which is according to faith (Heb. 11:7). Moreover, because he found grace in the eyes of God, this grace strengthened him and helped him to live a righteous life. Therefore, he not only received objective righteousness but also lived out subjective righteousness.

B. A Perfect Man Who Walked with God

Noah’s generation had become a corrupt generation. A number of the fallen angels in Satan’s principality came down to the earth, took human bodies, and formed illegal marriages with the daughters of men, producing a mingling of the evil spirits and human beings. No longer was the human race merely the human race; it became a mixture of humanity and fallen spirits. Thus the entire generation became a corrupt generation. God saw the earth, that all flesh had corrupted their way upon the earth (Gen. 6:12).

However, in that corrupt generation, Noah was a perfect man who walked with God (Gen. 6:9). His walking with God means that he did not override God, that he was not presumptuous, that he did not do things according to his own concept and desire, and that he did things according to God and with God. Hence, he became a perfect man. Without God, man is not perfect and is still lacking. The factor of perfection is not with man; it is God Himself. It was with such a perfect man who walked with Him that God made a covenant.