The Noahic Covenant:
Redemptive/Historical Fulfillment and Interpretation
- Promise—the promise of no more destruction will be realized in the restoration of all created things after Christ returns in judgment.
- Recipients—Noah’s offspring includes all subsequent generations, as long as the Earth remains, its inhabitants benefit from the promise God made to Noah.
- Sign—the sign remains the rainbow, but Christ is the ultimate Bow of God, bridging as it were, the chasm between His holiness and His sinful creatures; He is our promise of protection from the wrath of God, whether it be by volcano or flood.
- Commands
- God’s command for murderers to be punished by death remains and transcends cultures and governments, however, just as God has given provision for divorce in certain instances, and because of the institution of marriage and the sanctity of life (due to humans bearing God’s image) being connected to God’s act of creation, they have a permanence associated with the temporal realm. Like with divorce, God has made provision for capital punishment in the case of murder, yet forgiveness and mercy are the order of the day. So, because of men’s hardness of heart, God gave provisions for divorce and capital punishment when men seek justice, but in some cases it is better to seek mercy. In this way temporal kingdoms mimic the Kingdom of God in that they illustrate God’s just wrath through the implementation of the provisions and they illustrate His mercy when they refrain (Matthew 5:31-42; 19:3-9).
- God has mandated Mankind’s dominion over the created environment in which he has been placed—this in no way gives man the right to abuse or destroy this gift, but he must be a steward over it just as he is over his own children—taming when necessary, but allowing them to flourish according to God’s design. This command, carried over from Adam and given to Noah at the “recreation by water”, is presently active as God deals with us today (Matthew
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