Josh Benner

Author: the Josh Benner Blog

  • The Noahic Covenant. Studying Genesis 8:20-9:17

    The Noahic Covenant. Studying Genesis 8:20-9:17

    God formally establishes a covenant with Noah. 

    In Genesis 6:18 we see the word covenant used for the first time in the Bible. 

    I will establish my covenant with you, and you shall come into the ark, you, your sons, your wife, and your sons’ wives with you. 

    Between Genesis 6 and Genesis 9, a lot has happened. God has flooded the earth, he’s killed all people and inhabitants of the earth, save for Noah, his family, and the animals on the ark. 

    We see more covenant language at the end of Genesis 8. After the flood, Noah builds an altar to the Lord in Genesis 8:20. Sacrifice is an important aspect of Biblical covenants. And it is here where Noah is able to make sacrifices in a newly cleansed creation after the flood. 

    Genesis 8:20: 

    20 Then Noah built an altar to the Lord and took some of every clean animal and some of every clean bird and offered burnt offerings on the altar

    The altar Noah builds is the first time we see an altar mentioned in the Book of Genesis. The altars represent locations where man could make sacrifices to the Lord and it prefigures the later temple which is also an important aspect of covenantal theology. 

    Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob would all build altars at times of great significance in Genesis. With the Mosaic covenant, there would be the tabernacle which was the portable structure which symbolized God’s presence with the Israelites and the place where the sacrifices were made. In 2 Samuel 7, when David is told to construct the temple, the thing to which the tabernacle was pointing, God also makes a promise to him in another covenant where the Lord promised a Son from David’s line who would have a kingdom that would never end. 

    2 Samuel 7:12-13: 

     When your days are fulfilled and you lie down with your fathers, I will raise up your offspring after you, who shall come from your body, and I will establish his kingdom. 13 He shall build a house for my name, and I will establish the throne of his kingdom forever

    And in Christ, we see the true temple, the true presence of God with the people where the true sacrifice is made who establishes a new covenant in his own blood and with his own body. 

    Luke 22:19-20: 

    19 And he took bread, and when he had given thanks, he broke it and gave it to them, saying, “This is my body, which is given for you. Do this in remembrance of me.” 20 And likewise the cup after they had eaten, saying, “This cup that is poured out for you is the new covenant in my blood


    Back in Genesis 8, Noah builds the altar to make the sacrifices. 

    We see the Lord make a promise. He will restate it in chapter 9, but it’s the same thing the Lord will promise in his covenant with Noah. 

    Genesis 8:21-22:

    21 And when the Lord smelled the pleasing aroma, the Lord said in his heart, “I will never again curse the ground because of man, for the intention of man’s heart is evil from his youth. Neither will I ever again strike down every living creature as I have done. 22 While the earth remains, seedtime and harvest, cold and heat, summer and winter, day and night, shall not cease.” 

    Coming into chapter 9, we see all sorts of language both of covenant and creation. God has spared Noah, his family, and the animals on the ark because he is making a new creation through them. As in creation, when the Lord gives the mandate to Adam and Eve to be fruitful and multiply, he will give that same command to Noah and his family. 

    Genesis 9:1: 

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

    But while there are creation themes, this world after the creation is not perfect. There is animosity within the creation itself. Genesis 9:2-3:

     2 The fear of you and the dread of you shall be upon every beast of the earth and upon every bird of the heavens, upon everything that creeps on the ground and all the fish of the sea. Into your hand they are delivered.  3 Every moving thing that lives shall be food for you. And as I gave you the green plants, I give you everything.

    While man can eat meat, there are still stipulations on how we can eat it. The lifeblood of the animal is something which is sacred, as is the life of our fellow man. For any who unjustly takes the life of another, the just penalty for that is death. As man is created in the image of God, so man has inherent value and worth. 

    Genesis 9:5-6: 

     for your lifeblood I will require a reckoning: from every beast I will require it and from man. From his fellow man I will require a reckoning for the life of man. 

    6 “Whoever sheds the blood of man, 

    by man shall his blood be shed, 

    for God made man in his own image. 

    In Genesis 9:7, we see the repetition of the command for humanity to be fruitful and multiply. Once again, the language harkens back to creation. 

    While the passage has already been steeped in the language and ideas of covenants, it is verse 8 when the Lord formally ratifies his covenant. 

    It’s striking in itself that God makes a covenant with a humanity that he knows is sinful and that he knows will continue to sin. 

    The Noahic Covenant

    Genesis 9:8-10:

    8 Then God said to Noah and to his sons with him, 9 “Behold, I establish my covenant with you and your offspring after you, 10 and with every living creature that is with you, the birds, the livestock, and every beast of the earth with you, as many as came out of the ark; it is for every beast of the earth.

    God’s covenant doesn’t begin by focusing on the sinfulness of man. This covenant is universal. As Noah, his family, and the animals who come off the boat represent all of the life on earth, the covenant promise is made to all of them and applies to all of mankind and to all of the animal kingdom. 

    It is the only covenant in the Bible that does this. Where it’s universal and applies to everyone and every living creature in the world. 

    Later covenants will have more specific application. Abraham’s covenant is a promise for a people who will come from Abraham. The Mosaic covenant is given to Israel. The New Covenant is given to the faithful in Christ. 

    The Noahic covenant applies to all, regardless if someone knows and honors the Lord, regardless if someone considers themselves to be part of this covenant. 

    So first, we see to whom the covenant applies. Next, we see what the covenant promises. 

    Covenant promises

    Genesis 9:11: 

    11 I establish my covenant with you, that never again shall all flesh be cut off by the waters of the flood, and never again shall there be a flood to destroy the earth

    The Lord will never again destroy the earth. 

    But what’s amazing is that he could. 

    Again, it is purely out of his grace that he makes the promise to a sinful humanity that he won’t do this again. The only thing that God is bound by is his own character and righteousness. We can’t stop him from doing whatever he wants. 

    The covenant is made by God based in the character of God. The text continues to use possessive language. The Lord keeps calling it my covenant. I will establish my covenant with you. 

    It’s not like humanity can negotiate with God. All that we have is from him. 

    The flood will be a unique event in human history. That’s not to say that local floods can’t happen. But God will never repeat the flood that he brought as his great judgment on the world. Again, not that the world doesn’t deserve that but because God is gracious and has promised not to. 

    It can be easy to be frustrated with the state of our world. So much sin. So much darkness. Wars, killings, violents, drugs. 

    The flood reminds us that God once did away with all of creation save for one family and a set of each of the animals. As Thomas Schreiner notes in his biblical theology of covenants, that the flood reminds us that the fundamental nature of humanity hasn’t changed. 

    Noah’s covenant does show God’s grace to humanity but it does not bring salvation in itself. It instead points to the preservation of humanity and the continuation of the world. Based on other covenants and promises, we know that this will continue until Christ returns. And the ultimate hope of the world is to be remade once again as a new heaven, a new earth, and a new creation at the end of the age. 

    Covenant sign

    In addition to his promise, the Lord also makes a covenant sign. 

    Genesis 9:12-13:

    12 And God said, “This is the sign of the covenant that I make between me and you and every living creature that is with you, for all future generations: 13 I have set my bow in the cloud, and it shall be a sign of the covenant between me and the earth.

    The rainbow is a sign of God’s covenant. Other covenants will have signs of their own. With Abraham, the sign of the covenant is circumcision. With the new covenant, communion would be a sign of that covenant which Christ instituted. 

    From th foreboding clouds of a thunderstorm, we can see a rainbow. 

    In a dark world, we still have a good God who is faithful. 

    Genesis 9:14-15, the Lord restates his promise not to flood the earth. 

    14 When I bring clouds over the earth and the bow is seen in the clouds, 15 I will remember my covenant that is between me and you and every living creature of all flesh. And the waters shall never again become a flood to destroy all flesh.

    Thanks for reading! If you liked this post, please share and subscribe! 

  • Evangelism Training Podcast Interview: Dr. Randy Newman

    Randy Newman is an evangelist, author, seminary professor. He also works with the C.S. Lewis Institute, and in this episode, we talk about Dr. Newman’s latest book “Mere Evangelism” which pulls evangelistic insights from the writings of C.S. Lewis, the greatest Christian apologist of the 20th century and a man who is as popular today (nearly 60 years after his death) than he was during his own lifetime.

  • Sermon: Galatians in Acts – Acts 13

    We see Paul’s first missionary activity in the Galatian province as the apostle begins in a synagogue and explains to a Jewish audience how Jesus is the fulfillment of the Old Testament. He speaks to the audience in terms they’ll understand and that is a lesson that all Christians can learn about evangelism. There is is one gospel but there is more than one way to share it.

    Sermon manuscript

  • Studying 1 Samuel 11:1-7

    Studying 1 Samuel 11:1-7

    In 1 Samuel 11, Israel is on the verge of war against the Ammonites, a surrounding enemy.

    At the beginning of the passage, the Ammonite king – Nahash – has the Israelite city of Jabesh-Gilead surrounded. The Israelites seek out a treaty with the Ammonites. 1 Samuel 11:1 says: Then Nahash the Ammonite went up and besieged Jabesh-gilead, and all the men of Jabesh said to Nahash, “Make a treaty with us, and we will serve you.”

    In verse 2, the Ammonite king makes an audacious request:
    But Nahash the Ammonite said to them, “On this condition I will make a treaty with you, that I gouge out all your right eyes, and thus bring disgrace on all Israel.”

    An immodest proposal

    There are two reasons why Nahash would make such a demand. From the text, it says that it would bring disgrace upon them. I think that’s pretty obvious. A way to shame and humiliate the people by half-blinding the nation and also the pain which that would involve. 

    A second reason is also likely for such a request. If they just gouged out one eye, they could still farm and therefore serve the Ammonite conquers. But it would make it much harder for them to have any type of military resistance. It would affect depth perception. 

    Most people are right handed and so to have to carry a sword in your right hand when you couldn’t see in your right eye would also cause problems. Carrying a shield with the left hand could also potentially obstruct the view in the left eye, especially when marching in formations as was common in ancient warfare. 

    So there is strategy behind this, but given that Nahash wanted to bring disgrace upon Israel, we also see hatred and vengeance as motivations for why he wanted to defeat them. 

    Back in our passage. Verse 3, we see a request from the Israelites in Jabesh: 

    3 The elders of Jabesh said to him, “Give us seven days’ respite that we may send messengers through all the territory of Israel. Then, if there is no one to save us, we will give ourselves up to you.”

    They ask for a reprieve of seven days. They want to see if they have any options.

    It’s obvious from the context of the passage that the Ammonite king agrees because messengers get sent out in the following verse. 

    Perhaps he’s overconfident or assumes that the Israelites couldn’t possibly mobilize a force in seven days.

    We’ve seen Israel’s situation as they come under threat. 

    And we will see in this passage that it is ultimately a story about the Lord protecting his people. 

    The king and the battle

    So the Israelites asked for a seven day reprieve. They send out messengers. 

    Verse 4: 

    4 When the messengers came to Gibeah of Saul, they reported the matter in the ears of the people, and all the people wept aloud. 

    We don’t know how many messengers are sent or how wide ranging these messengers were sent throughout Israel. But some messengers had made their way to Gibeah, the hometown of Saul, Israel’s new king. 

    There is one point worth making that helps us understand the connection between Saul’s hometown of Gibeah within the Benjaminite territory and Jabesh-Gilead which was the city under Ammonite siege. 

    A tale of two cities

    As I keep mentioning, Saul was a Benjaminite and so he lived in the Benjaminite territory. 

    The Benjaminites had fought a war against other Israelite tribes. One area that did not participate in this war were the soldiers from Jabesh-Gilead. So Jabesh-Gilead is under attack in today’s passage. They go to a place that they had previously spared and ask for help.

    So you have some good historical relations between these two cities. And that place just “happens to be” the home of the new king. 

    I say “happens to be” in quotes because it wasn’t just some random coincidence. Once again in this passage, we continue to see this theme in Samuel of the providence of God. And I want to reiterate the point I keep making. That this passage is about God’s faithfulness. Here, we see it through his providential actions. 

    Verse 5: 
    Now, behold, Saul was coming from the field behind the oxen. And Saul said, “What is wrong with the people, that they are weeping?” So they told him the news of the men of Jabesh. 

    So it just happens to be these two cities who had this warm relationship with each other, and it just happens to be the hometown of Saul, and now Saul just happens to pass by. 

    People are weeping. We’re not sure if the messengers even know that there’s a king, or know that they’re in his hometown. 

    He’s just coming by with his livestock. 

    We continue to see God’s divine initiative in verse 6. 

     6 And the Spirit of God rushed upon Saul when he heard these words, and his anger was greatly kindled.

    So we’ve seen the providence of God, now we see the equipping from God. 

    The Spirit rushed upon Saul. 

    This is something that we also see in the Book of Judges where the judges are endowed by the divine Spirit in times of crisis and then act. 

    The same thing happens to Saul and he goes to work. 

    Verse 7: 

     7 He took a yoke of oxen and cut them in pieces and sent them throughout all the territory of Israel by the hand of the messengers, saying, “Whoever does not come out after Saul and Samuel, so shall it be done to his oxen!” Then the dread of the Lord fell upon the people, and they came out as one man. 

    If nothing else, Saul is a showman. Pretty gruesome. 

    Cutting up the oxen alludes back to events in Judges but it is also giving a stern warning to his people that they’re being called upon by their king to serve. 

    The verse ends with they came out as one man. 

    Saul’s action had its intended effect. And for one of the few times in the history of Ancient Israel, the people are united. 

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  • To live is Christ

    To live is Christ

    A beloved verse from Paul’s letters to the Philippians comes from the 21st verse of chapter 1: “To live is Christ, and to die is gain.

    It’s truly profound.

    Living life on this side of heaven with everything revolving around Christ. Living for him, worshipping him, walking with him, been filled by His Spirit. Every single day.

    And in living a life totally focused and dependent upon God, to die is gain.

    For Paul, in spite of adversity and struggle, death wasn’t something to be feared because it meant that he was in the presence of the Lord. Knowing Jesus Christ as savior. Again, that’s a radical idea in our world. I think as Christians, we struggle to not be just as fearful of death as everyone else.

    But we have a God who has justified us of our sins. We have the Spirit internally witnessing to God. We have a savior who came and died for us. But perhaps because we get so caught up on what’s “practical,” that we lose sight of what is eternal.

    To live is Christ and to die is gain.

    If our entire life is devoted to Christ, to knowing him and serving him; Then an even greater thing it is to actually be with him, to be in his presence. To be with him in a place where we don’t have the worries and stresses of everyday life. Where we don’t have illness or disease. Where there isn’t sin or hurt. But where it is enjoying fellowship with the Lord.

    How do you approach a verse like that?

    Do you think “amen to that.” Or do you struggle with that idea? I know I do sometimes. But I shouldn’t.

    I love what Paul says in the following verse.

    “If I am to live in the flesh, that means fruitful labor for me. Yet which I shall choose I cannot tell. I am hard pressed between the two. My desire is to depart and be with Christ, for that is far better” (Philippians 1:22-23).

    I think it’s a reality that is difficult to embrace.

    Let us live lives that are so committed to Christ. That are so assured and reliant upon the gospel. That you are in such focused and daily pursuit of the Lord on earth that you know it’s an appetizer to an even greater feast.

    The point certainly isn’t to undermine life. Everyday we have is an opportunity to know and serve God.

    Philippians 1:24-25 says”But to remain in the flesh is more necessary on your account. Convinced of this, I know that I will remain and continue with you all, for your progress and joy in the faith.”

    There is work to be done, as participants and members of God’s church on earth.

    We don’t live for the purpose of watching football and playing video games. Certainly we can do those things. But that’s not what it’s all about. It’s about serving the Lord and growing with him. Knowing God and making God known.

    There are people who go their whole lives and have no interest in God. Maybe they say they believe in him. But he isn’t their hope for salvation. He isn’t the one for whom they are daily living and desiring to honor.

    But then they take it as a foregone conclusion that they will spend eternity with him in heaven.

    And people get mad that God wouldn’t just let everyone in.

    But if you’re interested in heaven, start pursuing God today. Start living for God today. Because we can know him. We can grow with him today.

    The secular people who think they deserve heaven…really? Because heaven is a place that is all about God.

    And for those of us who are walking with the Lord, let us live lives today that are all about God.

    Let the profundity of that transform the very way in which you approach God.

    CS Lewis said: “Aim at Heaven and you will get Earth ‘thrown in’: aim at Earth and you will get neither.”

    Thanks for reading! I’d love to hear what you think, and don’t forget to subscribe! 

    Originally published February 15, 2019