Steak for dinner! Well, maybe not. It’s a bit pricey in Japan.
Anyway, it occurs to me that we probably won’t have steaks in heaven. And any barbecues we may have will probably be vegetarian.
At least, that’s what life was like before the flood. It was only after that, that eating meat was permitted by God.
Hmm…think we can have any meat substitutes in heaven? I’m sure some people won’t miss it too much, but I think even the Japanese would miss their sushi and sashimi.
Genesis 9 is a time of firsts. The first steak, for one thing. The first barbecue. I don’t know about you, but I don’t know how people lived without these things.
But it was also the first time fear entered the relationships between humans and animals, and I would guess also between animals and animals. The lion would no longer live with the lamb, and will not until Jesus comes back.
Finally, it also saw the first covenant made between God and man. And it was a one-sided covenant. It was a very rare thing when God made a two-way covenant in the Bible where both sides had to do something to fulfill it.
I think God knew that if he made covenants two-sided, they would quickly be broken, because with us being human, we are weak and sinful, and can’t keep our side of the deal. That’s what happened in his two-sided covenant with Israel.
But the first covenant was one-sided. The humans didn’t have to do anything at all. It was all on God. And he said, “Never again, will I ever send a flood to wipe out all of mankind again.”
It’s probably a good thing this covenant wasn’t two-sided, and dependent on how good humans behaved, because it didn’t take very long before mankind became corrupted again.
And God knew that. He knew we were weak. He knew things would get really bad in a very short period of time. Maybe it was because he knew how corrupt we would become that he made this covenant.
As I’ve mentioned before, God does not take any pleasure in the death of the wicked. He weeps over it.
I think you could say that every drop of rain that destroyed the earth came from the eyes of God. And maybe he didn’t have the heart to do it again no matter how bad things got.
The awesome thing is that the covenant of mercy that God set in place thousands of years ago still holds. And things have gotten pretty bad in this world. Yet the rainbow is a continuing sign of his mercy.
And yet as great as that covenant of mercy is, there is another covenant of mercy that’s even greater.
The covenant God first made with mankind when the flood ended is limited in that it only prevents judgment by water.
But on the final day of judgment, judgment will come to each man and woman. And this time, it won’t be a judgment by water, but a judgment by fire. (2 Peter 3:6–7)
The covenant of mercy God made to Noah will not apply on that day.
But there is another covenant of mercy that God has made that will see us through the judgment of fire. It’s a covenant where through the blood of Jesus, our sins may be forgiven if we’ll just put our trust in him and his work on the cross.
Paul says,
But when the kindness and love of God our Savior appeared, he saved us, not because of righteous things we had done, but because of his mercy. (Titus 3:4–5)
Noah and his family were spared from the flood by the mercy of God. We’ve been spared from being wiped out from this earth by that same mercy.
And on the day of judgment, when we see God face to face, those who have put their trust in Jesus will find mercy on that day.
May you know the mercy of God in your life.
Moment to Moment (Bible blog) 