Covenants
The Righteous Rest
a meditation on Genesis 5-11
“Noah was a righteous man, blameless in his generation. Noah walked with God.” - The Prophet Moses
The story of Noah (whose name means ‘rest’ or ‘comfort’) is a story of hope. It is a story of salvation. It is a prelude to the hope we have in Christ by sharing a salvation story for humanity through the Righteous One. It is a beautiful warning and a timeless tale - one day God will finally and forcefully deal with evil, a world restored and united in the righteous one, finding rest from evil and comfort in holiness, a brief prelude that offers hope in a better Noah to come. The story is about salvation, and it is about the end times. And we shall briefly hint at all these things and see glimpses of them, but we will stay in the shallows, may the Holy Spirit draw us into the deep waters, not of the flood but of the fountains of life.
The story of Noah is also the first time the word covenant is mentioned in Sacred Scripture. Whereas what we have talked about before was a covenant with mankind, what we find with Noah is the renewal of the covenant with mankind through the Righteous One whose name means rest or comfort, and God confirming his desire to save humanity through him. The story is also the first explicit mentions in scripture of baptism, altar, rainbow (a sign of the covenant), the power of blood, and the eating of flesh, among other things, as God seeks to renew what was damaged with Adam through a covenant with a better Adam, Noah the Righteous One, a type of Christ to come.
As our loving father, shortly after the fall of mankind, God is showing his children that there is a plan of salvation, a way to deal with evil permanently. And so before the story of salvation takes off, with the fathers of Israel, he gives his children a prelude and a foreshadowing to give them faith as they await a final salvation story and the inheritance of the heavenly riches prepared for us in Christ Jesus. The story of Noah and the Ark is critical for the children of God as an allegory for the end times. There are a few hints in the scripture that the story is simply a prelude, though complete and final as a story, it was simply an episode in a much larger salvation story that spans from the first man through a new man to the last man. Noah’s story is simply a genesis story of renewal that pointed forward to a greater story of redemption to come.
The first hint that the story was in one sense a story of completion is the attention to detail in how we pass ten generations from Adam to Noah. Ten is a representation of completion. 10 toes, 10 fingers, 10 commandments, in nature and in the sacred scriptures, 10 often represents completion. And 10 generations from Adam to Noah is 10 generations from the fall into sin of humanity to a salvation story that floods evil and brings forth a new creation. A new earth emerges and a saved humanity comes forth, led by a righteous man who is the source of salvation for all, the one through whom humanity finds rest from evil. This gospel story is told through Noah’s lineage. 1st Chronicles notes the line of generations succinctly,
Adam, Seth, Enosh, Kenan, Mahalalel, Jared, Enoch, Methuselah, Lamech, Noah
A rough and loose translation is -
Mankind appointed mortal sorrow, blessed God descends teaching his death shall bring the despairing rest.
A gospel in miniature, the good news taught in 10 words. A picture of completion, the story of how Man finds Rest (or Comfort), which is the blessed God dies to bring salvation, a hint of the passion and resurrection of Christ Jesus foretold once again in the earliest stories of humanity and the oldest stories of the Bible.
But the hint of it being an allegory of Christ and that those under the Old Covenant were still looking for a new Noah while hearing about the old Noah is their was no identification of the woman and her seed. The first story of Adam and Eve created a riddle that would continue throughout the salvation story, the story of the Woman and her seed, the story of the New Eve and the Last Adam. But the story of Noah is not the story of a Last Adam but instead a New Adam, and the story of Noah and his Ark, another allegory of Christ and his Church. This mystery is profound. So, let’s look at a few details to see Jesus in the Old Covenant with Noah and how Noah is a new man pointing forward to the last man, Jesus.
New Adam
“He did not spare the ancient world, but preserved Noah, a herald of righteousness, with 7 other persons, when he brought a flood upon the world of the ungodly” - Saint Peter
When the first man sinned and humanity entered into death, there created a longing in our hearts for a new man, obedient to all of God’s commandments, who brings forth mercy and life. That is the story our hearts yearn for in Noah.
At once the story of Noah is one of a new man by whom both judgement and salvation come, judgement for those outside the covenant, salvation for those part of God’s family, part of the covenant through God’s righteous mediator. And whereas the first man transgressed the commandment of God, and thereby entered into a covenant with death, the scripture writer is careful to note, throughout the story of the new man, of the obedience to God of humanity’s new man, Noah, a type of Adam, but more importantly, a type of Jesus. Hence in one place the sacred writer records,
Noah found favor in the eyes of the Lord.
And in another,
Noah was a righteous man, blameless in his generation; Noah Walked with God.
A little later,
Noah did all that God commanded him.
And once again a little later,
And noah did all that the Lord commanded him.
Throughout the whole story of Noah, the new man, the moral of the story is crystal clear, unlike the first man, the new man does all that is commanded by God. In doing so, Noah is shown to be a son of God, restoring the prophetic role of the sons of God under his holy covenant. And so where the first man was prophet, priest, and king; the new man in God’s covenant is also prophet, priest, and king. The divine offices of God continue for mankind, critical for those living in the covenant with God.
Noah is prophet in that he receives God’s word and lives fully by the divine command - a message of judgement for those who do not repent, and a message of salvation for the ones who trust God’s word and enter into his holy Ark.
Noah is priest in that he offers pleasing sacrifice for the renewal of the world, a costly sacrifice of life to in a world emerging from the waters of death into the hope of life.
And Noah is king in that the Lord confirms his dominion, like Adam, for God confirms the first command to mankind and the authority to rule,
And God blessed Noah and his sons, and said to them, “be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth. The fear of you and the dread of you shall be upon every beast of the esrth, and upon every bird of the air, upon everything that creeps on the ground and all the fish of the sea; into your hand they are delivered.
Noah is granted authority over all life, to care for God’s creation, to care for life and multiply the earth and fill God’s home with life abundant. Like Christ, the last Adam, who says,
I came that they might have life, and have it abundantly.
Noah came that the world might have life, with evil destroyed, if only briefly, for the new man pointed forward to the last man who will do away with evil permanently. First dealing with sin by the wood of the cross, and finally at the end of time by dealing with the unrepentant sinners at the final judgment. The story of Noah is a salvation story that is to give the people of God hope that obedience to God’s commands leads to life, and life abundant. And we enter salvation thanks to the Righteous One through whom God saves the world, and unlike those who lacked faith in God and did not enter his rest, we pray that when we hear God’s voice we do not harden our hearts, but instead have faith that we may enter into his eternal rest. Let us be among those who have faith and keep our souls.
By faith Noah, being warned by God Concerning events as yet unseen, took heed and constructed an ark for the saving of his household; by this he condemned the world and became an heir of the righteousness which comes by faith.
The Ark
“Blessed is the wood by which righteousness Comes” - Wisdom of Solomon
Now, in Noah’s story, mankind is saved by the wood of the Ark, a holy family entering into God’s holy vessel, guided to safety by trusting in God and his holy messenger. This was the story of the covenant with Noah.
Likewise, in the New and Everlasting Covenant with Christ, mankind is saved by the wood of the cross, a holy family entering into God’s holy Church, guided to everlasting life by trusting in God and his holy messenger, the Church, the holy bride of Jesus, entrusted with the good news of how God saves us.
The patterns of the Old Covenants continue to reveal what we will see fulfilled in the New. And in the story of Noah, more patterns are created and confirmed. This includes how God uses wood for salvation. In the first story of Man, trees bear life. In the story of the new Man, Noah, we see that even a dead tree will be turned into an instrument of life as gopher wood is converted into an ark of salvation. A holy container for God’s family.
In the story of the last man, a dead cross is turned into a tree of life, an instrument of salvation hung inside every Church and home as a memorial of our savior. Yes, unsurprising to those of use who have read thus far, parallels with the Old Covenant tree of life and ark of Noah and exist into the New Covenant with the cross of death and church of Christ.
To make the Ark of salvation, Noah had to chop wood, taking living trees and turning the wood into a house for life, a floating container. Noah had to carry the wood as he heeded God’s command and built the vessel to God’s specifications and for his purposes.
Likewise, Jesus had to carry dead wood up Calvary, turning an instrument of torture and death into a tree of life for the healing of the nations. Yes, Christ, the best farmer of all time, planted dead wood on a hill of Calvary so that we could reap salvation for eternity. As God’s beloved son, the last Man heeded God’s command and carried the cross from which he would be hung and crucified, pierced in his side, so that his bride, the Church, like Eve, could be fashioned from his side. Truly, Jesus fulfilled what was best in both Adam and Noah.
And just like Noah’s family had to enter his Ark to be saved from death and destruction, Christ’s family must enter his Church to be saved for eternity. The beauty of the old stories is how marvelously they foretell what would be fulfilled in Christ.
It is your will that works of your wisdom should not be without effect. Therefore men trust their lives even to the smallest piece of wood, and passing through the billows on a raft they come safely to land. For even in the beginning, when arrogant giants were perishing, the hope of the world took Refuge on a raft, and guided by your hand left to the world a seed of a new generation. For blessed is the wood by which righteousness comes.
Baptism
“Baptism now saves you” - Saint Peter
Water is unique element in our world, with the power of life and death over mankind. When man is immersed too long, death. At the same time, water is necessary for life and living. We drink, we wash, we cleanse; water refreshes and restores and offers life. And so it is easy how the New Covenant as well as the Old understand both the dangers and the life-giving qualities of water.
In the first story of creation, life began as the earth emerged from the waters. In the later story of Noah, the story that deals with drowning and cleansing evil, water floods the earth to destroy evil. Once the waters subside, mankind repopulates the earth. Water offers both death and life, flood and refreshment, doom and bloom. This is true in nature as well as divine revelation. As the Holy Spirit helps us see these things we begin to understand the importance of baptism, a total immersion into water, and a total immersion into death, before emerging in new life like a new creation, a new Genesis story, all of which is shown in the story of Noah and the Ark.
In fact, the story of Noah and the Ark holds many patterns that illuminate our New Covenant. For brevity’s sake, we’ll reveal a few details of the story of Noah and draw out some of the New Covenant interpretations to have a better picture of both the Old and the New, in light of each other and the Holy Spirit.
In Noah’s story, he obeys all the commands of God and creates an ark (more like a container than a ship) of wood by which all humanity and the animals enter by the side door. Noah and his family enter the Ark, because God had seen that Noah was righteous, so Noah and his his wife along with three sons and their wives and all the animals enter into the holy container built to survive the flood. After a reference to a week, like a new creation, the flood waters burst forth and the heavens were opened. For 40 days and 40 nights the flood waters rain from heaven to cover and cleanse the earth. On one hand, all flesh died; on the other, God’s righteous one and those with him are saved.
God makes the wind blow, the waters subside and many days pass. Noah opens a window and sends a raven and then a dove. The raven goes to and fro until the waters were dried. The dove found no place to set her foot and returned to the Ark. another seven days pass and the dove is sent once again, and returned with an olive leave. In the New Covenant, water, olive oil and the dice would be associated with the Holy Spirit, the third person of the trinity.
After another week, the dove is sent a third time, never to return. At this point almost a year has passed since the floods burst forth and God gives Noah the commandment that is reminiscent of the one given the our first parents,
Go forth from the ark, you and your wife, and your sons and your sons’ wives with you. Bring forth with you every living thing that is with you of all flesh - birds and animals and every creeping thing that creeps on the earth - that they may breed abundantly on the earth, and be fruitful and multiply upon the earth.
Once again, mankind is charged with ensuring the earth is full of life, and life abundant, given again the great command to be fruitful and multiply.
In terms of the New Covenant, this story resonates heavily on the life of the church. For one, John the Baptist, testified by Jesus as the greatest prophet of the Old Testament, came to prepare the way of the Lord. And the thing he does when he sees Jesus is not only witness that he is the son of God, but also baptizes him in the river. Saint Matthew records,
And when Jesus was baptized, he went up immediately from the water, and behold the heavens were opened and he saw the spirit of God descending like a dove and alighting on him; and behold a voice from heaven, saying, “This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased.”
Like the story of Noah, Jesus enters the water, the heavens are opened and the symbols of the story of Noah are present again, with water, dove, and in this case the voice of God testifies to Jesus his beloved son, the new Noah, the Last Adam.
In fact, at the start of Christ’s public ministry, the 3 persons of the trinity are present, the Holy Spirit which dwells on the Son who emerges from the water, and the Father’s voice which thunders from the heavens to confirm and testify to his beloved son.
Moreover, the dove ever since the flood becomes a symbol of peace, along with the olive branch. And in the Church, when one enters by the waters of baptism (like the story of Noah), and is confirmed by the Holy Spirit, they are anointed with oil. Where does the oil come from? It is an olive branch that undergoes its passion. For the olive to be turned into olive oil, the olive branch is harvested, crushed, and separated from water in order to become the oil used for confirming the children of God. Yes, for the branch to bear fruit that becomes oil, and thus used for food, light, healing, and anointing - in short the healing of the nations - the olive branch becomes a divine symbol and sign of peace, blessing, and life. But for that to happen , the olive branch has to go through its own passion and resurrection. God is consistent in the signs he uses to teach humanity his ways. We all have a baptism to undergo. In fact, we have two, and maybe a third. A baptism of water to grant life and a baptism in our passion of death, and entwined with our passion a baptism of fire for destruction or purification, depending on you standing with God’s holy covenant.
The baptism into water is a symbol of passion and resurrection; yes, baptism into water is a sign of our immersion into death. And emerging from the waters of death and into new life is a sign of emerging from the sleep of death and into eternity, into forever life.
Christ himself taught his disciples in Saint Luke’s gospel, after he had been baptized and set his face to go to Jerusalem,
I came to cast fire upon the earth; and would that it were already kindled! I have a baptism to be baptized with, and how i am constrained until it is accomplished!
Christ was speaking of his passion, of his death and resurrection. The baptism of water precedes the baptism of fire. And while Noah’s story is a salvation story, it is an allegory of the end times. This time, we’ll be either consumed in the fire or purified.
After Jesus undergoes his final baptism, his passion where he immerses himself into death and emerges into everlasting life, before he ascends into heaven, he offers the great commission to his eleven apostles, the last words to conclude Saint Matthew’s gospel,
All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you; and behold, I am with you always, to the close of the age.
Once again, the trinitarian mystery made evident in the mention of baptizing the nations as well as hints of Jesus’ divine nature as he exhibits the divine authority to command all obedience from his disciples. Like Noah was obedient to God’s commands, we are to be obedient to all of Christ’s commands. This would be blasphemy were he not God’s beloved son, the second person of the trinity, the Son of Man and the Son of God.
But more than the trinitarian mystery is mentioned in the great commission, for in Saint Mark’s version we see Jesus explain,
“Go into all the world and preach the gospel to the whole creation. He who believes and is baptized will be saved; but he who does not believe will be condemned.”
This is very Noah-like. For in the times of Noah, all who believed were saved. It happened to be his household. And when they emerge into a new creation, they are the ones proclaiming God’s goodness to all creation.
So, while Noah preached salvation, carried wood and built an ark, entered the ark and withstood the opening of the heavens for forty days and forty nights. Jesus, the new Noah, preached repentance and the kingdom of heaven, carried his cross, planted it on Calvary, died and rose again, and forty days later rose into heaven promising the Holy Spirit. At the beginning of the book of the Acts of the Apostles, Saint Luke confirms Christ’s promise before his Ascension, not into the Ark but into Heaven, telling them to wait in Jerusalem for the promise of the Father, which is that they would be baptized in the Holy Spirit. For Christ promises,
“but you shall receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you shall be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria and to the end of the earth.”
At the first Pentecost of the New Covenant, when the Holy Spirit comes in power and authority, and the Church is launched in the power and authority and breath of God, Saint Peter as head of the Church on earth preaches to those converted by the Spirit. Saint Luke records the moment and reaction, notice the requirement for salvation and entering the New Covenant with God is to repent and be baptized,
Now when they heard this they were cut to the heart, and said to Peter and the rest of the Apostles, “Brothers, what shall we do?” And Peter said to them, “Repent, and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins; and you shall receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. For the promise is to you and your children and to all that are far off, every one whom the lord our God calls to him.” And he testified with many other words and exhorted them saying, “save yourselves from this crooked generation.” So those who received his word were baptized, and there were added that day about three thousand souls. And they held steadfastly to the apostles’ teaching and fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to the prayers.
As the Church grew, Saint Paul also entered the Church through baptism. For Saint Luke confirms that Saint Paul had the hands laid on him by Ananias and filled with the Holy Spirit. That day he regained his sight, “then he rose and was baptized, and took food and was strengthened.”
Throughout the New Testament, both Saints Paul and Peter would confirm the importance of baptism, always tied to the indwelling of the Holy Spirit, creating a temple of the Lord out of human flesh, filled by the Holy Spirit, and making children of the father and the bride for the Son, once again showing a trinitarian mystery in baptism and confirmation.
Among lines we find in the New Testament writers to the Romans,
How can we who died to sin still live in it? Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? We were immersed therefore with him by baptism into death, so that as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life.
And to the Corinthians,
For just as the body is one and has many members, and all the members of the body, though many, are one body, so it is with Christ. For by one Spirit we were all baptized into one body - Jews or Greeks, slaves or free - and all were made to drink of one Spirit.
And to the Galatians,
For in Christ Jesus you are all sons of God, through faith. For as many of you as were baptized into Christ have put on Christ. There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is neither male nor female; for you are all one in Christ Jesus.
And to the Ephesians,
There is one body and one Spirit, just as you were called to the one hope that belongs to your call, one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of us all, who is above all and through all and in all.
And to the Colossians,
And you were buried with him in baptism, in which you were also raised with him through faith in the working of God, who raised him from the dead.
And to Titus,
For we ourselves were once foolish, disobedient, led astray, salves to various passions and pleasures, passing our days in malice and envy, hated by men and hating one another; but when the goodness and loving kindness of God our Savior appeared, he saved us, not because of deeds done by us in righteousness, but in virtue of his own mercy, by the washing of regeneration and renewal in the Holy Spirit, which he poured out upon us richly through Jesus Christ our Savior, so that we might be justified by his grace and become heirs in hope of eternal life.
And the Hebrews writer wrote to encourage the faithful,
Therefore let us leave the elementary doctrines of Christ and go on to maturity, not laying again a foundation of repentance from dead works and of faith toward God, with instruction about baptisms, the laying on of hands, the resurrection of the dead, and eternal judgment.
You can hear the echoes of the story of Noah in how the New Testament writers explain aspects of our life in Christ and how we enter it. The parallels are so many. And so, in the New Covenant, it makes sense to enter into baptism after 40 days of fasting (like Lent) after an extended period of study and preparation (like OCIA or RCIA). Christ entering heaven at his Ascension is similar to Noah entering the Ark before the flood. While all who enter the Ark do so by the righteousness of Noah, in whom they found rest, all who enter heaven do so due to the righteousness of Jesus, a better Noah, in whom we find eternal rest. And as the earth is made new, it is new in the sons of Noah, and new in the bride of Christ, the sons of God.
But lest we miss the depth of the story, lets note that the story of Noah is one of not only salvation but also suffering. For it was a suffering to chop down the trees and make an ark of gopher wood. It was a suffering to preach to an evil and wicked and unbelieving generation. It was a suffering to care for God’s creation amidst so much evil. It was a suffering to witness the death and. destruction of so much of God’s creation. But in God’s wisdom, righteous suffering leads to life, and the righteous find rest in God at the end of their suffering.
Saint Peter writes to the Church in his first encyclical,
For it is better to suffer for doing right, if that should be God’s will, than for doing wrong.
For christ also died for sins once for all, the righteous for the unrighteous, that he might bring us to God, being put to death in the flesh but made alive in the spirit; in which he went and preached to the spirits in prison, who formerly did not obey, when God’s patience waited in the days of Noah, during the building of the ark, in which a few, that is 8 persons, were saved through water.
Baptism, which corresponds to this, now saves you, not as a removal of dirt from the body but as an appeal to God for a clear conscIence, through the resurrection of Jesus christ, who has gone into heaven and is at the right hand of God.
When we start to think deeply about baptism, we begin to notice it throughout the story of life. It is there in the first chapter of Genesis as the earth emerges from the sea on the 3rd day and life begins on earth. After the fall of mankind, it’s there in the next story of salvation, a renewal of the covenant as the waters of baptism cleanse the earth and a new world emerges. Noah becomes a great hero, a magnificent prophet, a preacher of righteousness through whom the world finds rest and in whom the world is made new. As the sons of Noah repopulate the earth, immersion into water will continue to be of great importance. So important that the ministry of the last son of man and only begotten son of God starts with baptism.
At Jesus’ baptism there is a trinitarian mystery as the Holy Spirit testifies of Christ’s sinlessness by coming to dwell upon him and the Father testifies that
“this is my beloved son with whom i am well pleased.”
This is a mash up and fulfillment of both Psalm 2 and a prophecy of Isaiah. A little later, Jesus teaches Nicodemus at night about baptism and confirmation when he says,
“Truly, truly i say unto you, Unless one is born of water and the spirit he cannot enter the kingdom of God.”
Around that time, Saint John records that they were baptizing and making even more disciples than John the Baptist, the greatest prophet from the Law and Prophets, for there is none greater until the coming of the kingdom.
As Jesus sets his face to Jerusalem, he speaks of another baptism to come, the one that hearkens back to the beginning of life. For in his passion, Jesus is baptized into death, immersed into Sheol, and on the third day eternal life bursts forth as he resurrects from the dead and leaves the tomb forever.
As Jesus prepares for his Ascension, he gives his apostles the great commission to go baptizing the nations and promises that they themselves will be baptized by the Holy Spirit.
At Pentecost, the Holy Spirit comes and all who enter the Church do so by water and blood, by baptism into death and suffering which leads to true life and healing, band with baptism and confirmation comes the indwelling of the Holy Spirit. And throughout the life of the Church, baptism becomes a key sign of entering into the Church and into life; a sacred sacrament, a mystery of the faith testified from the first story that continues till the ends of the earth and the end of time.
We know from the story of Noah that all will find rest in God’s righteous son, the one who does all that is commanded of him, even unto death on a cross, for his baptism into death ends with resurrection on the third day, resurrection to eternal life.
Sign of the Covenant
Flesh and Blood and a Bow in the Clouds
After stepping off the Ark, we see Noah’s priestly role take root. As prophet, he received and obeyed God’s command regarding the Ark and salvation. Now, stepping into a new world, his first act is a priestly act. Noah “built an altar to the Lord” and offers sacrifice, “a pleasing aroma to God.” This was a costly sacrifice, after so much death there wasn’t much life yet. And so for Noah to offer life in worship of God was a significant act of faith.
As a result, God confirms,
“I will never again curse the ground because of Man, for the imagination of man’s heart is evil from his youth; neither will i ever again destory every living creature as i have done. While the earth remains, seedtime and harvest, cold and heat, summer and winter, day and night, shall not cease.”
God blesses Noah and his sons and reiterates the original command to mankind, “Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth.” He goes on to confirm their dominion, their kingship. Noah’s kingly role is seen through these words from God, which include new decrees, now the animals will have fear and dread on man, and we are to eat not only the trees bearing fruit but “every moving thing that lives shall be food for you; and as I gave you the green plants, I give you everything.” Only, their is a stipulation.
Noah’s kingly role is seen through the new decrees of God, that mankind is free to eat flesh but there is a limitation, we are not to consume the blood as that is where the life of a creature resides.
“Only you shall not eat flesh with its life, that is, its blood. For your lifeblood i will surely require a reckoning; of every beast i will require it and of man; of every man’s brother i will require the life of man. Whoever sheds the blood of man, by man shall his blood be shed; for God made man in his own image. And you, be fruitful and multiply, bring forth abundantly on the earth and multiply it.”
True to nature, poetic to Christian theology, there is life in blood. All mankind knows the lack of flowing blood in our bodies leads to sickness and death, and likewise, the blood offers healing and life. Hence, God begins a riddle in the story of Noah that is answered in Christ because you guessed it, the New is in the Old concealed, and the Old is in the New revealed.
Blood, like water, is a sign of both life and death. And so, it becomes a key sign in the covenants, but in this covenant with Noah, God mentions one sign explicitly.
“This is the Sign of the covenant which i make between me and you and every living creature that is with you, for all future generations; i set my bow in the cloud, and it shall be a sign of the covenant between me and the earth. When i bring clouds over the earth and the bow is seen in the clouds, i will remember my covenant which is between me and you and every living creature of all flesh; and the waters shall never again become a flood to destory all flesh. when the bow is in the clouds, i will look upon it and remember the everlasting covenant between God and every living creature of all flesh that is upon the earth.”
Like the covenant with creation and Adam, the covenant with Noah is one with all creation, and there is a sign, the rainbow. Just like earth emerges on the third day, and the fourth day of the creation account God sets signs in the heavens, the sun, moon, and stars by which mankind can tell the seasons, when the waters subside and the earth emerges once again from the waters, the next stage is for God to set his sign in the heavens, the rainbow. And it is a sign of the covenant with all creation.
God knows our memory is short, and so he gives us stories and signs by which we can remember and know his goodness. Stories are critical, because it is how mankind learns, communicates, and comes to know the key information for our surviving and thriving. We are programmed to love stories, and it is how we learn how we are and hear the call of what we shall become.
And signs point to a deeper meaning. So, for all flesh, the bow in the clouds becomes a sign of the covenant. In the original creation story, all creation is a sign of God’s deep love. In the story of the fall into sin of mankind, clothes become a sign of our nakedness and shame that mercifully is covered by God. And in the story of Noah, the bow becomes a sign for mankind, a dome of protection to remind God and man of the covenant He has established with all flesh.
Interestingly, between the two covenants, the first with Adam and the renewed covenant with Noah, the new Adam, we have the fullness of the sacraments of the holy Catholic Church mentioned or alluded to in these early and ancient stories. The seven sacraments have their first hints in the most ancient stories of mankind, for between the two stories of Adam and Noah we see and observe the need for the sacraments - baptism, confirmation, the eucharist, holy marriage, holy orders, and last rites.
Baptism is central to the story of Noah as we need to be restored, at baptism we are immersed into death and our souls cleansed of original sin. With that cleansing, by the power of the blood of Christ which offers eternal healing and life, we are able to be confirmed as dwelling places of the Spirit. Which means, we are free to eat of the tree of life, the flesh and blood of our our savior. If we sin, we know God is good to forgive our sins if we confess them. Like Adam and the Woman in Eden, they had to confess their sins and receive their soul’s healing from God’s decree. In both stories, Adam and Noah, we have priestly figures who are married, so holy orders and holy marriage are key to fulfilling the command, “be fruitful and multiply.” And lastly, we are designed to live forever with God. Because sin entered the world, death did to. And so, we need the last rites to offer the healing as we voyage from earth to eternity.
And the riddle and mystery of Noah’s story is marvelously revealed and fulfilled in the New Covenant. With Noah we were told that we could eat the flesh, and that the blood is where life is. And in the New Covenant, the new Noah offers his perfect flesh and pours out his lifeblood for us, to eat and drink for eternal life. As Jesus commands,
“Truly, truly, i say to you, unless you eat the flesh of the son of man and drink his blood, you have no life in you; He who eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and i will raise him up on the last day.”
Now, I suppose there is so much we could mention about the signs of divine life, but these are sufficient for us to believe in the everlasting love God has for his children through Christ Jesus, our New Noah. Let us move into the last aspects of the story of Noah and his sons before we discuss the covenants to come.
Name
“At that time they began to call on the name of the lord” - The Prophet Moses
The quote above is among the last lines to the story of Adam and Eve. After the birth of their son, Seth, and as we enter into the story of Noah, we are given a great hint of an important riddle, calling on the name of the Lord. This prelude is a hint of the themes that exist for the rest of the Bible; in fact, it is a theme that exists across the whole of history, but for this case we’ll simply consider the focus on the son of Noah, Shem, the one whose name literally means “Name.” And the son who plays a unique role in salvation history, like Eve’s son Seth and Mary’s son Jesus.
The story of Noah ends with a peculiar episode involving Noah and his three sons. After saving the world, we find out Noah is not only savior but also our world’s first farmer. And drinker. In fact, he tilled the soil and produced a vineyard. And the harvest was plenty as grapes become wine. Noah became drunk when he drank of the fruit of the vine. He ended up naked.
Adam and Eve ate the forbidden fruit and realized their nakedness. Sacrifice was needed to cover their nakedness and shame. Noah ended up drank and naked and his sons Shem and Japheth covered his nakedness. Shem is acting in a very Godlike manner, whereas God covered the nakedness of Adam and Eve, Shem ensures Noah is covered.
This is also a priestly behavior.
Remember Christ, as he’s standing trial is clothed in the robes of royalty, but as he’s stripped naked on the cross, he’s wearing a linen garment like those of priests. But since Christ had no sin, he knew no shame, what the soldiers may have meant for mockery God transformed into truth. Though he carried our sins on the cross and became a curse for all to see, God testified to his sinlessness at his baptism and at his crucifixion. God doesn’t allow Christ to be crucified with the garments that are a sign of Adam’s sin, but instead, like Adam before the fall, Christ is crucified naked and unashamed.
So, the story of the first man ends with a loving father covering nakedness with clothes made of animal sacrifice, exile from Eden, and mankind barred from eating of the tree of life. The story of the new man ends with nakedness being covered by loving sons, drunk from too much fruit of the vine, God’s blessing upon Shem and prayer for Japheth, and a repopulation of the earth. Truly, we are looking for a last man by which mankind may find blessing. And that blessing will come through Shem and his sons.
As we end the story of Noah and move into the stories of the Patriarchs, we end the story of the early world with insights about Noah and his sons, the repopulation of the earth, the world speaking one language and the Tower of Babel, where our Lord scatters peoples and confuses the tongues of the world. They were attempting to “make a name for ourselves.” But God had a name by which he would be magnified. And in these Old Covenant stories we await and start to yearn for a New Covenant where the world isn’t confused and scattered but becomes one in Christ.
There is so much we could and could have said about Noah. We barely hinted at Pentecost as an answer to Babel, nor the Church in choosing Latin as its language and all the wisdom in having a common tongue, even if considered vulgar, but alas, what Saint John said thousands of years ago is still true today,