Diamond Hinges–"as" and "so"
(No. 2962)
A SERMON PUBLISHED ON THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 16, 1905.
DELIVERED BY C. H. SPURGEON,
AT THE METROPOLITAN TABERNACLE, NEWINGTON, ON LORD'S-DAY EVENING,
AUGUST 1, 1875.
"For this is as the waters of Noah unto Me; for as Ihave sworn that the
waters of Noah should no more go over the earth; so have I sworn that I
would not be angry with you, nor rebuke you." Isaiah 54:9.
THERE are some people in the world who, the moment we begin to speak of
a type, try to disparage that style of speech by calling it
"spiritualizing." They seem to be far too wise to be able to learn
anything by that mode of teaching. Yet the Holy Spirit has given us, in
the Old and New Testaments, abundant instances of spiritualizing and,
though He could have used new metaphors and fresh phrases in His
Infinite Wisdom, He preferred to use the old historical allusions and
the old historical types for the instruction of God's people. It is a
pity that we should crave that which is new when it can truly be said,
"the old is better." In the case before us, the Holy Spirit uses Noah's
flood and the Lord's Covenant– that it should no more return to
destroy the earth–as symbolical of the Covenant of Grace which is made
with the people of God in Christ Jesus. Surely He did this for our
instruction! Oh, that He would shine upon the Word and make it to be
both for our edification and our comfort! His Divine Treasure House is
full of blessings, but He must give us the key or we shall not to able
to enter. Open it, blessed Spirit, to all Your believing people!
There are two things in our text for us to consider. The first is that
there are, in Noah and the Flood, and the Covenant, many symbols
illustrating the Covenant of Grace. And the second is that there is one
main symbol here which was certainly intended first and chiefly,
whether the rest were intended or not. On that main point I hope to
speak at some length.
I. But, first, IN NOAH, THE FLOOD AND THE COVENANT, THERE ARE MANY
SYMBOLS ILLUSTRATING THE COVENANT OF GRACE.
First, Noah's name signified, "rest."We know where our rest is to be
found and who is our Noah. Of our Lord Jesus Christ, we can truly say,
"He is our peace." It is through Him that "the peace of God, which
passes all understanding," keeps our heart and mind at rest evermore.
We rest in Him and nowhere else. Did He not say, "Come unto Me, all you
that labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest"? And has He
not fulfilled His promise?
Further, Noah, in a time of general corruption, was the only man who
was found righteous before God. If you turn to the Book of Genesis, at
your leisure, you will see that "the wickedness of man was great in the
earth." But you will also read that "Noah was a just man and perfect in
his generations, and Noah walked with God." It is also written that
"Noah found grace (or favor) in the eyes of the Lord." Noah was, in his
day, the one man who was told to prepare a hiding place from the storm
and a refuge from the tempest. Noah's ark was the one place of refuge
for our race in which eight persons wore preserved, or, otherwise, the
whole race would have been destroyed!
Now, we know that Jesus Christ is pre-eminently the one lone Man of the
human race whose perfect righteousness has given God infinite delight.
When all the rest of mankind had gone astray like lost sheep, He walked
with God. Here upon earth He was found, tempted, but never sinning. He
was compassed with infirmity, but never transgressing–the one Man upon
whom God could look with complacency as the type of what the race ought
to have been. He could not look thus on the first Adam, for, when He
looked upon him, He cursed the ground for his sake. The blessing came
through the Second Adam, upon whom the Lord always looks with joy, and
for whose sake He blesses all those who are in Him. If I might call
Noah the second father of the human race–and I might properly do so–I
might with still
greater propriety call Jesus the Second Father of the ever-living
race–the race that is quickened into newness of life by the power of
the Holy Spirit!
Again, Noah, thus standing out in solitary grandeur, as a type of the
lone Redeemer, was a preacher of righteousness and therein, also, he
was a type of our Lord Jesus, for never did any mere man preach
righteousness as He did, for He not only preached it–He created it! We
must not forget that Noah preached righteousness in vain, for no one
except the members of his own family would believe his testimony. In
this respect, also, he was a type and symbol of Him who was to come.
The cry of Jesus and of His faithful servants in all ages has been,
"Who has believed our report, and to whom is the arm of the Lord
revealed?"
But that wondrous man, Noah, was also a builder. Probably all that he
had of worldly abundance and wealth went into that strange ark in which
the survivors from the deluge were to be preserved. And you know how
our blessed Master gave all that He had in order that He might build a
spiritual Church out of which the new world should be peopled. He laid
down His life that He might be the Redeemer of His chosen race, and He
still lives to be the great Master-Builder of His Church.
You know also that when the right time came, Noah went into the ark and
was shut up in it, away from all the rest of mankind. When the flood
came, it spent itself upon the ark as well as upon all people and
things outside it. The ark must endure the long pelting of the rain and
go through the terrible deluge as through the waters of death, itself,
as though it were a coffin, floating over the world's grave–from a
dead world into a new world. "The same figure," says the Apostle Paul,
"whereunto even baptism does also now save us." That is to say, Baptism
is a type and symbol of salvation, just as Noah's ark was, for therein
we, being spiritually dead with Christ, are buried with Christ in the
outward symbol and rise from the water, even as Christ rose from the
grave, to live henceforth among the twice-born race who fear not the
second death! After the deluge, Noah came out into a new worldand Jesus
rose into a new world to which He had brought life and immortality to
light. Noah survived a flood that had spent all its force–and Jesus
stands among us and we, His people, stand with Him to look upon a flood
of Divine wrath that has spent all its force so far as we are
concerned. It is true that it will sweep away the ungodly who are not
of the twice-born race, but it will not injure any who belong to the
race that is allied to this Second Adam, this more glorious Noah! For
them, the flood of wrath has spent itself forever. Noah came out into a
new world which was very different from that which existed before the
flood. And he came out of the ark with a sacrifice of thanksgiving,
even as Jesus presented Himself to His Father as the appointed Offering
which made all His people acceptable in Him.
And, lastly, it was with Noah that the Lord's Covenant was made, even
as the Covenant which most concerns us was made with Jesus Christ. And,
as the Covenant with Noah still stands, so stands the Covenant with
Christ. The world, preserved today from destruction by flood, is a
symbol of the Church of Christ preserved forever from all the wrath of
God which was due to it because of its sin, but which was borne by its
great Substitute and Surety, our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ!
I have just hurriedly mentioned these various points in which Noah was
a type of Christ. This is a subject which is worthy of being thought
out another time–and it deserves your earnest consideration and
constant remembrance.
II. But in the second place, I want to deal more fully with the chief
point of the text. THERE IS A MAIN SYMBOL HERE–"This is as the waters
of Noah unto Me; (for this reason, that) as I have sworn that the
waters of Noah should no more go over the earth; so have I sworn that I
would not be angry with you, nor rebuke you."
The text turns on the two hinges of, "as," and, "so"–two precious
diamond hinges upon which it hangs! And these mean, I think, first, "as
surely as," and then, "in the same manner as."
First, as surely as God has sworn that a devouring flood shall never
again cover the earth, so certainly has He sworn that His wrath and
rebuke shall never go forth against His redeemed Church, or against one
of His redeemed people. And you may rest assured that as the one is a
fact, so is the other, and as the one shall never be altered, so the
other never shall be! The first oath is irrevocable and so is the
second–"As I have sworn that the waters of Noah should no more go over
the earth; so have I sworn that I would not be angry with you, nor
rebuke you."–
"My God, the Covenant of Your love Abides forever sure And in its
matchless Grace I feel My happiness secure."
But it not only means "as surely as," it also means, "in the same
manner as," and there I notice two points of resemblance. As God has
sworn, absolutely, that He will not again destroy the earth with a
flood, so has He sworn absolutely that He will not pour forth His wrath
against any Believer, or against the Church of Christ as a whole. And
the second point is that as God has promised with a symbol that He will
not destroy the earth a second time by water, so has He also promised
to His people, with a symbol, a token, a sure sign–that He will not be
angry with them or rebuke them.
First, then, in both cases God has promised absolutely what He will not
do. You observe that there is not a single, "if," in either of these
Covenants. The Lord said absolutely, "I will not again destroy the
earth with a flood." He did not say, "Unless such-and-such
contingencies arise, I will not send another flood." He supposed no
contingencies, or else, regardless of all contingencies, He said, "I
will never again destroy the earth with a flood–under no
circumstances, at no time, and for no reason whatever will I do so." In
like manner, God has sworn that His wrath shall never be let loose upon
you who believe in Jesus Christ and are saved, in time or in eternity,
or under any supposable circumstances whatever–"As I have sworn that
the waters of Noah should no more go over the earth; so have I sworn
that I would not be angry with you, nor rebuke you." There may be dark
rain clouds–there have been many such. There may be partial
floods–there have been many such–but these have not invalidated the
Covenant that the waters shall never again cover the earth as the flood
did in the days of Noah. That Covenant stands fast forever!
In like manner, the Church of God may be very severely tried. Fierce
persecutions may break out against her. She may be torn with schisms
and poisoned with heresies–but God will not forget her or forsake her!
And you, child of God, may have many trials and, indeed, you will have
them because you are a child of God. You may have to go through deep
waters, and sometimes unbelief will say–
"The Lord has quite forsaken you! Your God will be gracious no more."
But that can never be true! You must not judge of God's love by any
outward Providences any more than you would judge of His Covenant not
to destroy the earth with a flood by the fact that there are heavy
showers of rain now and again. God stands true to His Covenant with
Noah, let it rain as heavily as it may! And God stands true to His
still greater Covenant of Grace, let your trials and troubles be as
numerous and severe as they may be! Get a firm grip of this glorious
Truth of God, that there is not a drop of Divine wrath in all your
sufferings! You have an aching head and a palpitating heart. You have
lost your property. You have buried the darlings that nestled in your
bosom. You say, "I am the man that has seen affliction," but, for all
that, not a drop of God's wrath, nor even a rebuke, in the strong sense
in which that word is used here, has fallen upon you! Gentle, tender,
paternal rebukes you have had and can expect to still have–but no such
rebuke as signifies fierce wrath, no such rebuke as brings a withering
curse with it can ever fall upon you if you hide yourself in the
Redeemer's pierced side, if you trust to the Covenant of Grace which
Christ has made with His Father on your behalf!
There will yet come upon the earth greater convulsions than have yet
been experienced, for, in the verse following our text, we read, "The
mountains shall depart, and the hills be removed." Before the history
of the world is complete there will come dreadful shakings and
upheavals. I am no Prophet, nor the son of a Prophet, but, as it has
been in the past, so may we expect that it shall be in the future.
Dynasties will die, empires will collapse, there will be wars, famines,
pestilences and we know not what, for the earth is subject to all these
things! But the Church of God shall never suffer from famine–her
dynasty shall never be dissolved, the gates of Hell shall not prevail
against her–and her King shall sit upon His throne forever! And you,
dear Friend, may have such troubles that it shall seem to you as if the
mountains had departed and the hills had been removed and you shall
seem to have no resting place for the soles of your feet, but if you
are trusting in Jesus, He will not be angry with you, nor rebuke you,
for so God's promise stands! "The mountains shall depart and the hills
be removed, but My kindness shall not depart from you, neither shall
the Covenant of My peace be removed, says the Lord that has mercy on
you." Ah, the most terrible convulsions may come–the star called
Wormwood may fall and the seven vials be emptied out! And the earth may
shake with the tramp of the armies gathered together for the last dread
battle–but, whatever may happen, the people of God must forever
remain–
"Safe in the arms of Jesus."
Stormy may be the outlook, but all are safe who are within the ark! The
huge billows may threaten to overwhelm us, but, "with Christ in the
vessel," we can "smile at the storm." His kindness shall not depart
from us nor shall the Covenant of His peace be removed–
"Firm as the lasting hills, This Covenant shall endure, Whose potent
shalls and wills Make every blessing sure. When ruin shakes all
nature's frame, Its jots and tittles stand the same." I would like to
sit down and think over these blessed Truths of God and enjoy them. May
the Lord be pleased to give each of us the Grace to feed upon them and
to know, by personal experience, the blessedness of them! Think, dear
Brothers and Sisters, how can there be any wrath treasured up against
God's people when it was all poured out upon the Lord Jesus Christ,
their Surety and Substitute? For–
"Payment God cannot twice demand, First at my bleeding Surety's hand,
And then again at mine."
If Jesus suffered in my place, how can God's wrath fall upon me? Does
Infinite Justice demand two victims? Can God smite the Substitute and
them smite the sinner for whom He stood as Substitute? I know, in my
inmost soul, that this is utterly impossible! If Jesus really did
suffer in my place–and well do I know that He did–if, in the place of
all His believing people, He has bled and died, and well do we know
that it was so–then, Beloved, the wrath of God cannot fall upon us,
for there is none, it is all gone! Christ has borne it all so far as
all His people are concerned!
Observe, too, that there is such a close union between Christ and all
His people that if God's wrath did fall upon Christ's people, it would
also fall upon Christ! If you were to scald one part of my body–the
soles of my feet, for instance–you would scald me. You could not crush
my little finger without hurting me. Brothers and Sisters in Christ, we
are so vitally united to Christ that if we were lost, Christ would not
have a perfect body, for "we are members of His body, of His flesh and
of His bones." So His Inspired Apostle assures us. Be comforted, then,
you who are one with Jesus! How can wrath fall on any part of the body
of Christ? And you are a part of that body and, therefore, you are safe
from wrath forever–
"If ever it should come to pass, That sheep of Christ should fall away,
My feeble, fickle soul, alas, Would fall a thousand times a day."
That shall never be, for He will keep His own and preserve them in
righteousness and true holiness, in faith, and love, and hope, until He
brings them to His eternal Kingdom and Glory! When our Great Shepherd
counts His sheep at the last, they shall, each one, pass under the rod
of Him that counts them, and they will, every one of them, be there!
That little lamb that was all but devoured by the lion shall be there.
That poor weather-beaten ewe that was seized by the bear shall be
there–the one that had the hardest lot of all shall be there, for the
Lord will never let it be said that He kept the strong but could not
keep the weak! He will not let it be said that He kept them that were
not tried, but that He could not keep those that were! That cannot be!
The Good Shepherd will never have to say of any of His sheep that He
has lost them–but He will say to His Father, "Those that You gave Me I
have kept, and none of them is lost." He will account for the full tale
of His flock in the Presence of Him who gave them to Him. Oh, I think I
hear the muster-roll being read out at the last! In it are the names of
all those who ever put their trust in Christ. Let not any true Believer
say–
"What if my name should be left out, When You for them shall call?" It
will not be left out if you are one of His! If the question is put "Is
Mrs. Much-Afraid here?" She will sweetly answer to her name and say,
"Yes, Lord, I am here, by Your Grace, but I am afraid no longer!" "Is
Little-Faith here?" And Little-Faith will sing out, "Yes, Lord, for
Little-Faith's grain of mustard seed has grown into a tree!" "And is
Mr. Ready-to-Halt here?" "Yes, Lord, but without his crutches, for he
no longer needs them!" "And Mr. Feeble-Mind–is he here?"
"Yes, Lord, but he has left his feeble mind behind him and now he sings
of the eternal love of Christ to such a poor sinner as he was!"
Besides, do you not know that "the Father Himself loves you," and that
He loved you so much that He gave His only-begotten Son to die for you?
Will He cast you away after doing that? Never! "For if, when we were
enemies, we were reconciled to God by the death of His Son, much more,
being reconciled, we shall be saved by His life." If He so loved us
when we were in the horrible pit and in the miry clay, when the filth
of sin was all over us, as to lift us up into the bosom of Christ, do
you think that He will not love us enough to keep us there? From
eternity He has chosen us and by the precious blood of Jesus He has
bought us! His is no child's love that burns brightly today and goes
out into cold ashes on the morrow. His love is no spark of transient
passion–it is an eternal flame and He will never allow it to burn
itself out. Let us not be afraid, therefore, that the wave of His wrath
will ever go over us, or that the torrent of His stern rebuke will ever
sweep us away. Let us rest in the joyful assurance that if we are,
indeed, in Christ, any question about the wrath of God falling upon us
can be laid aside forever.
What you all need is to have that precious Truth of God brought home to
your heart. Possibly some of you are like a sea captain to whom I was
once talking about the precious things of the Kingdom. We were going up
the river and he pointed to the great posts to which the barges and
ships could be moored. "Ah," he said, "they would hold the forest if I
could only get a rope over them. But, sometimes," he added, "we can't
fling the rope so that it goes right over the head of the post and
gives us a firm hold." If any of you, dear Friends, are in such a
difficulty as that, I pray that the Lord, as He stands on the shore,
may throw a rope to you and that you may lay hold of it and be moored
fast to this sure Truth of God that as certainly as the waters of Noah
will no more go over the earth, so will the waves of God's wrath never
go over the man who is safely sheltered in the wounds of Jesus!
The other point we were to notice is that, in both Covenants there was
a sign. As I read about the Covenant of Noah, I like to dwell upon that
part where God said of the rainbow, "This is the token of the Covenant
which I make between Me and you and every living creature that is with
you, for perpetual generations." So God has a sign for Himself, for us,
and for every living soul that is in Christ. The rainbow is a very
precious sign of the ancient Covenant. We cannot often see it, but now
and then God hangs it out–often enough, I have no doubt. But He has
given to us, in the Covenant of Grace, a sign which we can always see
and I think it is this. Our Lord Jesus once said to His disciples, "As
the Father has loved Me, so have I loved you." As certainly as the
Father loves Christ, so certainly does Christ love His people. If you
could look up into Heaven, what would you see there? You would see
Christ at the right hand of the Father–Christ the Beloved of the
Father, Christ whom the Father delights to honor, Christ the very apple
of the Father's eye! That is your token of the Everlasting Covenant
made with Christ on behalf of all His people! Whenever you can see that
sign–and you can always see it, for there is not a single child of God
who has any doubt about the love which the Father bears to Christ–that
is the token to you of the Covenant made with Christ for you. "As the
Father has loved Me, so have I loved you."
And, in a minor sense, I think that this Communion Table, around which
many of us will presently gather, furnishes us with another symbol of
the Father's love as instructive as the rainbow itself. Let me speak of
it for a minute or two. Child of God, the fact that your Father loves
you and that He will not be angry with you, nor rebuke you, is certain,
for there stands His Table furnished and prepared. For what purpose?
Why, that you may feast with Him! At the institution of the Supper,
Christ Himself sat and presided at the table–and it is no Lord's
Supper if He is not there! "You are My friends," He says to you who
believe in Him–and He invites you to come and sit at His Table and
feast with Him. If He did not love you, He would not have spread the
Table for you. As if you have had any doubt about the continuance of
His love to you, see the Table spread for you. I am sure that the poor
prodigal, when he came back from his wanderings, was comforted, among
other things, by the killing of the fatted calf and the loading of the
table at which he was a welcome guest. See how your Father loads the
table for you–
"Never did angels taste above Redeeming Grace and dying love"– yet
these items have been set before you. O Believer, rest assured that the
Lord will not be angry with you, nor rebuke you–otherwise He would not
have called you to sit with Him at His table! "Go to bed, Sir, without
your supper," is
what an angry father says to his disobedient boy. But "Eat, O Friends!
Drink, yes, drink abundantly, O Beloved," is what your Father says to
you! Therefore, be you greatly comforted!
If you look on the Table, what do you see there? You see the bread and
the wine, the emblems of the body and the blood of Jesus, and as you
see the two emblems separate from one another, they become to you the
emblems of the death of Jesus, whose blood streamed out of His body
through His many wounds. God bids you come here and think of Jesus,
your Savior. He does not bid you come here and sit and groan because of
your sins! He would have you think of the death of His dear Son by
which all your sins were put away. Our Father in Heaven says to us who
have believed in Jesus, "Come, My children, to this Table, and see how
you were cleansed from all your guilty stains. Come and see how all
that could provoke Me to wrath against you was forever put away. Come
to My Table and take the tokens of the great propitiatory Sacrifice
offered by My well-beloved Son on your behalf." When I look into the
wine cup and think of the precious blood of Jesus shed for many for the
remission of sins–and when I realize that He means this emblem of His
bloodshed to be a luxury, a source of exhilaration, a means of
spiritual strength to us as we drink it–I understand that His mind is
not full of thoughts of wrath against us, but rather of thoughts of a
sacred hospitality which bids His children to be happy while feasting
with Him at His Table!
I have not time to say more, except to remind you that all who lived in
the days of Noah did not enter the ark of safety. They did not all have
a share in that Covenant of which the bow in the cloud was the visible
sign, for the vast mass of the population was swept away by that
terrible flood. As I look upon my present congregation, I bless God
that it will not be so with you, for the most of you have, I trust,
believed in Jesus. It is a melancholy reflection, however, that there
are many here who have not entered the Ark of Salvation, or, as far as
we know, have any share in the Covenant of Grace. Every time the
Communion Table is spread here, it seems to me that it would be a
wonderful sermon even if I did not say anything. Tonight, as soon as I
have finished preaching, many of us will begin to gather around the
Communion Table and the congregation will at once begin to break up
into its several parts. There are some of you who will be going home
and others of you will be going upstairs to look on while we are
gathered at the ordinance. I do not know how you feel about this
division, but I do not like it, especially with regard to some of you
whom I respect and esteem, and who, I believe, have many admirable
points about you.
But you are not decided, you have never given your hearts to Christ so
you will be lost forever if you die as you now are! You know you will
and, years ago, it caused you quite a pang to have to go away when
others remained for the Communion. You have to leave your wife, do you
not?–and your sisters and some of you have to leave your father and
mother. I grieve to say that there are some parents here who have to
leave their children to sit at the Table while they, themselves, go
away. There was a time when you could hardly bear to do that, but you
are getting used to it, I am afraid–some of you. I pray God that you
may not get used to it because, if you do, there will come a day when
these partings will be final–when you will not merely be going home or
going up into the gallery, but you will be driven from God's Presence,
far away from the everlasting halls where His saints will be
feasting–and be cast down to the prison of black despair where
weeping, and wailing, and gnashing of teeth must be your portion
forever! What says that old-fashioned hymn that the Revivalists used to
sing?–
"Oh, there will be weeping! Oh, there will be weeping! Oh, there will
be weeping– At the Judgment Seat of Christ!" The sharp, two-edged
sword will cut many families in two and sever the husband from the wife
whom he so fondly loved, though he did not love her Savior! And the son
will be cut off from the mother whom he truly loved, but whose God he
did not. Why should we be divided thus? Why should we be divided? Why
should we not go hand in hand to Immanuel's
land?
Dear Savior, put Your almighty arms right round this Tabernacle–it is
only like a little box to You–and take the whole Tabernacle full of
us, and let us all be Yours in the day when You shall make up your
jewels! Oh, that You could then say, "They are all here, as they were
all in the Tabernacle on that first night in August, 1875–all here and
all Mine, and all saved." Oh, how fervently I pray that it may be so!
Will you not yourselves all pray the same prayer? God will hear you if
you do, for He waits to be gracious! There must be a separation, now,
but let this be the last time that it shall happen and, between now and
the first Sabbath in September, may God grant that you may all have
resolved to cast
in your lot with Christ and with His people, too! I can assure you that
if you do so, we who love the Lord, will greatly rejoice–and you also
will rejoice with us! God bless you all, and so grant us our heart's
desire, for Jesus Christ's sake! Amen.
EXPOSITION BY C. H. SPURGEON: GENESIS8:20-22; 9:8-17; ISAIAH 54:1-10.
Genesis 8:20, 21. And Noah built an altar unto the LORD and took of
every clean beast, and of every clean fowl, and offered burnt offering
on the altar And the LORD smelleda sweet savor–A savor of rest.
21, 22. And the LORD said in His heart, I will not again curse the
ground anymore for man's sake; for the imagination of man's heart is
evil from his youth; neither will I again smite anymore everything
living, as I have done. While the earth remains, seedtime and harvest,
and cold and heat, and summer and winter, and day and night shall not
cease. So that you all live under a Covenant–a gracious Covenant and,
by virtue of it, the day succeeds the night, the summer follows the
winter and the harvest in due course rewards the labor of the seedtime.
All this ought to make us long to be under the yet fuller and higher
Covenant of Grace, by which spiritual blessings would be secured to
us–an eternal day to follow this earthly night and a glorious harvest
to follow this time of seed sowing!
Genesis 9:8-10. And God spoke unto Noah, and to his sons with him,
saying, And I, behold, I establish My Covenant with you, and with your
seed after you. And with every living creature that is with you, of the
fowl, of the cattle, and of every beast of the earth with you; from all
that go out of the ark, to every beast of the earth. Happy fowls, and
happy cattle, and happy beasts of the earth to be connected with Noah
and so to come under a Covenant of preservation! And we–though only
worthy to be typified by these creatures which God had preserved in the
Ark–are thrice happy to be in the same Covenant with Him who is our
Noah, our rest, our sweet savor unto God!
11-17. And I will establish My Covenant with you, neither shall all
flesh be cut off anymore by the waters of a flood; neither shall there
anymore be a flood to destroy the earth. And God said, This is the
token of the Covenant which I make between Me and you and every living
creature that is with you, for perpetual generations: I do set My bow
in the cloud, and it shall be for a token for a Covenant between Me and
the earth. And it shall come to pass, when I bring a cloud over the
earth, that the bow shall be seen in the cloud. AndI willremember My
Covenant, which is between Me andyou and every living creature of all
flesh, and the waters shall no more become a flood to destroy all
flesh. And the bow shall be in the cloud; and I will look upon it What
a wonderful expression that is! It is similar to that remarkable
declaration of Jehovah, recorded in Exodus 12:13. "When I see the
blood, I will pass over you." The blood was not to be sprinkled inside
the house where the Israelites might be comforted by a sight of it, but
outside the house where only God could see it. It is for our sake that
the rainbow is set in the cloud and we can see it there. Yet Infinite
Mercy represents it as being there as a refreshment to the memory of
God–"The bow shall be in the cloud; and I will look upon it."
16. That I may remember the Everlasting Covenant between God and every
living creature of all flesh that is upon the earth. So when my eye of
faith is dim and I cannot see the Covenant sign, I will remember that
there is an eye which never can be dim–which always sees the Covenant
token–and so I shall still be secure notwithstanding the dimness of my
spiritual vision. For our comfortwe must see it, but for our safety,
blessed be God, it is only necessary that He should see it!
17. And God said unto Noah, This is the token of the Covenant which I
have established between Me and all flesh that is upon the earth. Now
let us read what the Lord says, through the Prophet Isaiah, concerning
this Covenant.
Isaiah 54:1. Sing, O barren, you that did not bear; break forth into
singing, and cry aloud, you that did not travail with child: for more
are the children of the desolate than the children of the married wife,
says the LORD. This promise is made to the long-barren and desolate
Gentile Church. She may well sing, for God has visited her in mercy
and, at this day, her children are more numerous than those of the
Jewish Church. We have waited, but we have been well repaid for our
waiting, for we have a larger and richer blessing than God's ancient
people ever enjoyed!
2-4. Enlarge the place of your tent, and let them stretch forth the
curtains of your habitations: spare not, lengthen your cords, and
strengthen your stakes; for you shall break forth on the right hand and
on the left; and your seed shall inherit the Gentiles, and make the
desolate cities to be inhabited. Fear not: for you shall not be
ashamed: neither be you confounded; for you shall not be put to shame:
for you shall forget the shame of your youth, and shall not remember
the reproach of your widowhood any more. O child of God, have you
passed through a time of great sorrow in which the Lord seemed to
desert you? Have all your hopes been blighted and have all your joys
fallen, like untimely figs from the trees? Yet the days of your
rejoicing shall be many! You shall soon put aside your sackcloth and
ashes and dancing and holy gladness shall be your portion!
5. For your Maker is your Husband. Rejoice, O Church of God, that you
have such a Husband! Rejoice, every member of the Church of God, that
you have such a Husband to help you!" Your Maker is your Husband."
5, The LORD of Hosts is His name; and your Redeemer, the Holy One of
Israel The God of the whole earth shall He be called. Well might Paul
write, in the Epistle to the Romans, "Is He the God of the Jews only?
Is He not also of the Gentiles? Yes, of the Gentiles also." And here
Isaiah says, Inspired by the same Spirit who taught Paul what to write,
"The God of the whole earth shall He be called."
6, 7. For the LORD has calledyou as a woman forsaken andgrievedin
spirit, and a wife ofyouth, when you were refused, says your God. For a
small moment have I forsaken you. A moment is a small period of time,
but it is made to appear still smaller by that little word, "small."
7, 8. But with great mercies will I gather you. In a little wrath I hid
My face from you for a moment, but with everlasting kindness will I
have mercy on you, says the LORD, your Redeemer. Oh, what a blessed
mouthful this text is! I might rather say, What a heart full! What a
soul full! It fills and overfills my soul and gives me sweet
contentment– "With everlasting kindness will I have mercy on you, says
the Lord, your Redeemer."
9. For this is as the waters ofNoah unto Me; for as Ihave sworn that
the waters ofNoah shouldno more go over the earth: so have I sworn that
I would not be angry with you, nor rebuke you. See how our faithful and
unchanging God lays the foundation for our hopes–
"In oaths, and promises, and blood."
10. For the mountains shall depart, and the hills be removed; but My
kindness shall not depart from you, neither shall the Covenant of My
peace be removed, says the LORD that has mercy on you. Or, as the
Hebrew has it, "says the Lord, the Pitier." Was there ever a sweeter
title to comfort our hearts than this, "the Lord, the Pitier"?