Dale Partridge - Genesis 9_1-17： God's Weapon—The Bow in the Clouds

00:00:00.000 Amen. Not a short passage of scripture today. We're going to get through 17 verses. It's

00:00:09.700 actually not that long of a sermon, at least I hope not, but I am really, I was really excited

00:00:16.480 to get through this text and I think you will understand why here shortly. Last week we covered

00:00:22.280 Noah's final days on the ark. Final days on the ark. God had not revealed to Noah how long he

00:00:29.620 would be on the ark. And so imagine that. Imagine just being on the ark and you have no clue how

00:00:35.080 long you're going to be on this boat. And so Noah sent out a raven and a dove to see the condition

00:00:44.700 of the earth. And we learned that the scavenging behavior of the raven, that the raven likely found

00:00:54.600 a place to stay on the floating carcasses of the dead from the flood and we saw the contrast with

00:01:05.800 the dove the dove rather than being able to survive on eating the dead as the raven does

00:01:13.120 but instead requires seeds and dry ground and leaves the dove went out and offered a more clear

00:01:21.060 sign that the waters had truly receded. We also examined the detailed chronology of the flood.

00:01:29.240 If you look back into chapter 8, there are so many instances of time frames and months and days and

00:01:35.640 years, and it was God anticipating that the scriptures on this particular passage, the

00:01:43.660 narrative of the flood, would be mythologized, would be fictionized. And so when you put these

00:01:49.640 precise dates, it turns it into a historical event rather than a fictional story. And we saw that

00:01:58.540 after 150 days, the ark had landed on the mountains of Ararat. Now, what a lot of people don't realize

00:02:04.940 is that once the ark landed there, it remained on those mountains, though the water was all around

00:02:10.860 them, it remained on those mountains for 225 days. So they were fixed, stationary. It's not like they

00:02:18.620 were just floating around until the day they got off no there was 150 days of them floating they

00:02:24.420 landed on the mountains of ararat and then they stayed there for 225 days now you have to be

00:02:30.760 sitting there going fix and you go when are the waters going to recede when are we getting off

00:02:35.680 this and then it makes more sense that we go hey let's throw out the raven let's throw out the dove

00:02:39.700 so in total noah was on the ark for 375 days a little bit over a year and when he finally exited

00:02:48.140 we saw that God gave five different commands. They were, go out from the ark, number one,

00:02:54.740 bring out every living thing with you, let them swarm on the earth, be fruitful, and multiply.

00:03:04.740 Okay, so these five commands were granted by God to Noah, and we see how these commands were really

00:03:14.960 very similar to Genesis chapter one. In a very real sense, getting off of the ark was much like

00:03:21.260 a recreation moment. It was a parallel to Genesis one, a recreation, a new creation moment. Exiting

00:03:30.800 the ark was kind of a new world that had entered, a new time. And lastly, we saw Noah's first act.

00:03:40.660 what does he do after this extremely long trial of faithfulness? It's not just the 375 days that

00:03:49.920 Noah was on the ark. It's the 100 years prior to that that he started building the ark. Noah has

00:03:57.060 been faithful for 100 plus years of just trusting the Lord. And he finally gets off of the ark in

00:04:04.840 this new world and the first thing he does is he worships and he offers on the very first altar at

00:04:11.600 least listed in the scriptures a sacrifice pleasing the aroma was pleasing to God and in response

00:04:20.100 God promised that he would never destroy the earth again by water and he essentially set the promise

00:04:27.860 that there will be some sort of global order or regularity it was a promise of stability there

00:04:33.620 would never be a natural catastrophic global event that would destroy everything again. Everything

00:04:40.640 would continue on in seed time and harvest and summer and winter and day and night. And what

00:04:45.460 does this do for us? How does this make us feel? Well, it says that we don't need to watch National

00:04:50.180 Geographic's story on the mega comet that's coming to destroy the world or, you know, Yosemite's,

00:04:57.140 you know, super volcano that's going to take out 90% of humanity. No, all of these things cannot

00:05:02.340 be true if this text is true we are not going to see an elimination of the vast majority of the

00:05:08.340 planet like we saw in the flood and so today we are going to be going through genesis chapter one

00:05:16.980 or nine verses one through 17. now unlike adam noah enters into a different world adam enters

00:05:24.260 into this perfect sinless world noah enters into a new world but it's not without sin it's still

00:05:30.740 fallen, it's still broken. And we're going to see three dimensions. He talks about animals

00:05:36.100 and even what I would say dangerous animals, sinful men and murder, and then also the judgment

00:05:42.480 of God. And so we're going to see how this unfolds in this text. So let's look at verse one.

00:05:49.360 And God blessed Noah and his sons and said to them, be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth.

00:05:55.220 the fear of you and the dread of you shall be upon every beast of the earth and upon every bird of

00:06:03.580 the heavens upon everything that creeps on the ground and all the flat all the fish of the sea

00:06:07.980 into your hand they are delivered every moving thing that lives shall be food for you and as i

00:06:16.060 gave you the green plants i give you everything so first just note in verse one the patriarchy

00:06:24.360 just the patriarchy it's right there and god blessed noah and his sons so the blessing flows

00:06:32.220 to the men it flows to the men now why does this matter well the women are not being ignored the

00:06:38.140 women are seen within the men okay when you look at a man you look also at his wife because they 0.89

00:06:44.600 are one they are one it is why historically we had the the legal law of what's called coverture 0.87

00:06:51.680 where a woman would lose her legal identity in her husband. 0.63

00:06:55.540 It's why she would be called Mrs. John Smith.

00:06:59.540 It's because she is now one with her husband.

00:07:03.020 And so the blessing to the men extends to the wife

00:07:05.800 because she is one with her husband.

00:07:10.060 And so second, we see that the procreation of the earth

00:07:14.560 or procreation in general is God's will for humanity.

00:07:17.560 Yet he gives this command to the men.

00:07:20.140 He says, be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth. 0.99

00:07:23.140 And so even though the women are the ones that are bearing the children, 0.96

00:07:26.120 he gives the responsibility for multiplication to the men. 0.96

00:07:30.340 And this is called the dominion mandate, and it's an important doctrine

00:07:33.380 because it stands contrary to those who oppose marriage.

00:07:37.800 It stands contrary to those who oppose marriage,

00:07:39.920 including the Roman Catholics who would restrict priests from taking wives.

00:07:45.360 Now, God never disconnects children from marriage.

00:07:48.260 okay god never disconnects children from marriage so those who argue against single or argue for

00:07:56.200 singleness are also arguing for childlessness okay they are connected for example people often

00:08:04.940 use paul's passage in first corinthians chapter 7 regarding singleness which is a unique address

00:08:10.920 for a particular moment of people that are entering into some form of ministry under a

00:08:15.500 season of persecution but they don't take in that context and they offer oh you know god's will is

00:08:20.180 for for some people to be single in this no now if you can if you apply that as a blanket principle

00:08:26.620 that singleness is god's ideal for people then you are pitting god against paul or you are pitting

00:08:33.900 paul against god now prior um well i'll say this god's will is for us to be fruitful and multiply

00:08:44.460 and that doesn't mean just multiply. I've seen many families that multiply without fruitfulness.

00:08:51.100 If you are multiplying at a degree in which you cannot remain fruitful and your kids are

00:08:55.580 disobedient and your kids are not following the Lord and there's no fruit on the family,

00:09:00.080 you are multiplying in a way that you are not fulfilling the discipleship of raising your

00:09:04.460 children and the nurture and admonition of the Lord. Great. I love big families. You got 10 kids

00:09:10.240 and eight of them fall away? God isn't interested in you reproducing God-haters.

00:09:16.900 No, he wants us to have families that love the Lord. And so you need to be as fruitful,

00:09:22.120 or you need to multiply as faithfully as you can be fruitful. And so if you've been proven

00:09:29.240 faithful, and it's always hard, right? It's always hard. Okay? We've had, we have four kids,

00:09:36.380 five miscarriages. We know all the difficulties that come with raising children.

00:09:43.060 There are always circumstances that the Lord may bring up. Cancer, sicknesses,

00:09:50.320 medicines that you need to take, trials, suffering, barrenness, all of these things. These are real.

00:10:00.400 The reality is this. God calls us to be fruitful and God calls us to multiply.

00:10:06.380 and we should do that faithfully.

00:10:11.740 Now, it says here that the animals will now dread man.

00:10:17.460 They'll dread man.

00:10:19.880 And then God says, into your hand they are delivered.

00:10:23.720 So prior to the fall, prior to the flood,

00:10:25.800 we don't know too much about animals between Eden and the flood,

00:10:30.060 but we do know that in Eden especially,

00:10:34.320 and I believe also prior to the flood,

00:10:36.380 that animals and man lived in some degree of harmony. There was certainly less fear, if any

00:10:42.720 fear, between animals and man. And this might explain how Noah was able to even get all of the

00:10:49.480 animals on the ark because there was no dread. You don't run towards it. Right now, you run at a deer

00:10:55.120 and the deer's gone, right? But at this point, it's implied that maybe that wasn't the case,

00:11:01.640 that there was no dread upon the animals of man and that you could actually take that animal and

00:11:07.460 lead them on to the ark now man's dominion over the animals is probably a mercy and i think this

00:11:16.420 is an interesting dimension to pay attention to without the animal kingdom without man having

00:11:23.440 dominion over the animal kingdom you have animals with hyper reproductive cycles that can reproduce

00:11:29.440 much faster than mankind can and they would likely overpopulate the earth if just think

00:11:37.460 about it for a second if you don't hunt a particular species now you're going to overpopulate

00:11:42.620 that species in a particular area i do believe that prior to the flood man was not able to eat

00:11:50.520 meat was not commanded by god to eat meat and i think the people who were fallen and were not

00:11:57.920 following God, which is the vast majority of humanity, were killing the animals, and they

00:12:02.720 were eating the animals, but God had not yet granted that permission over the animals.

00:12:10.740 One theologian said, Cain was a farmer, Abel was a shepherd, but Noah and his sons were now hunters.

00:12:19.460 Now, I do want to point out the flow of relations between man and animals. I think it's

00:12:25.160 I think it's important. Before the flood, we had, again, this harmony. In a post-flood fallen world,

00:12:33.580 we have conflict between man and animals. We have men killing animals, and we have animals killing

00:12:39.300 men. That happens still to this day. But scripture says that in a renewed creation, we will have some

00:12:45.780 sort of Edenic peace return between man and animals. The lion will lay down with the lamb,

00:12:51.620 the child will play with the cobra. We're going to have some sort of Edenic reality of a restoration

00:12:57.820 between man and animals again. Now, I often remind Christians that what we now consider beautiful in

00:13:05.360 nature, we go look at the Grand Canyon, and we think, oh, it's so pretty. No, what, yes, it's

00:13:11.320 pretty, but the reality is that it's a scar on the earth from the flood. That's what you're looking

00:13:16.400 at. You want to see pretty? Well, you want to see what the world will be restored to. The Edenic 0.98

00:13:22.080 world, the pre-flood world, the beauty of that, we've never seen. And God may restore this in an

00:13:29.520 Edenic way that we can see what that world looks like. I don't know if it's going to be exactly

00:13:35.640 the same, but we don't know. But we know we will have a restored world. And I think in the same way

00:13:43.260 we look at animals. And what we do now for sport, we have to remember that once was forbidden.

00:13:50.440 It once was unnecessary. And it's now tied to some degree of survival in the world. It's tied

00:13:58.860 to even our health. And so today's hunting, it's necessary. It's permitted by God.

00:14:06.700 But I don't think you could say it's heavenly. I think it's right. I think we need it.

00:14:11.660 but it's not going to be what we see in heaven. There will be a day that there will be no more

00:14:18.300 death, and no more death means no more animal death. It means no more human death. One of our

00:14:24.520 family's favorite country songs is called Country in the Clouds, and one of the lyrics in there says,

00:14:31.320 I know the Bible says that it's as perfect as can be. Is it a sin to wish there's a couple of deer

00:14:37.420 stands in the trees. It's talking about heaven, and it says, and maybe me and Jesus, my daddy and my

00:14:42.560 brothers, will go catch a couple keepers till they call us in for supper. No, there's not going to be

00:14:49.420 any deer stands in heaven, okay? There's not. We're not going to be out there hunting deer and catching

00:14:55.480 fish the way that we do down here. All things are going to be made new. Instead, we are going to be

00:15:02.580 eating from the tree of life. We are going to be having a water from the rivers of God. We are

00:15:07.840 going to be having some sort of Edenic diet. I don't know what that looks like. I don't know.

00:15:12.880 The Bible doesn't actually give us much detail on that. We do know that we eat. We know that Jesus

00:15:17.860 ate fish. We know Jesus ate meat. And so again, when God says that every moving thing that is

00:15:27.460 alive shall be food for you. I give all to you as I have given the green plant. He's describing

00:15:33.520 a post-flood concession in a world marked by death. It's a post-flood concession in a world

00:15:42.420 marked by death. Now, again, nobody needs to feel guilty about eating animals. Again, Christ ate

00:15:47.360 animals. You know, we have to do it, and we do it in thanksgiving. We do it all to the glory of God,

00:15:54.140 but it's not going to be a reality in the restored world that's not what we're going to see first

00:16:00.920 timothy four uh chapter or chapter four verses one through three it actually deals with both of

00:16:07.400 these issues of procreation and animals it's very fascinating it says paul writes now the spirit

00:16:13.720 expressly says that in later times some will depart from the faith by devoting themselves

00:16:19.140 to deceitful spirits and teaching the doctrines of demons, who forbid marriage and require

00:16:27.440 abstinence from foods that God created to be received with thanksgiving by those who believe

00:16:33.420 and know the truth. And so there we go, right there in the New Testament. We are not to forbid

00:16:39.200 marriage, which is forbidding childlessness, and we are not to forbid people from eating

00:16:46.160 that which is clean, and God has called meat clean. I just want you to understand that we

00:16:50.880 are not going to have the same diet in an Edenic world.

00:17:00.200 So God gives us in the next verse, look at chapter 4. So we talked about death.

00:17:04.980 We've talked about marriage. We've talked about life. We've talked about animals and the death

00:17:10.300 of animals. And, but God gives us some moral boundaries in verse four. He says, but you shall

00:17:17.020 not eat flesh with its life. That is its blood. And for your life blood, I will require a reckoning

00:17:27.020 from every beast. I will require it. And from man, from his fellow man, I will require it reckoning

00:17:35.520 for the life of a man. Whoever sheds the blood of a man, by man shall his blood be shed. For God

00:17:43.160 made man in his own image. And you, be fruitful and multiply, increase greatly on the earth and

00:17:50.080 multiply in it. So first, scripture confirms that life is in the blood. Life is in the blood. It's

00:17:59.360 why we sing so many songs about the blood of Christ. Life is in the blood. To God, blood is

00:18:06.760 not some sort of biological liquid. It's life. It's life. I could give an entire sermon on

00:18:15.740 a theology of blood. I mean, it is so incredibly profound. In fact, there are scientific studies

00:18:23.580 right now that are showing that life, whatever it is, however you can measure it physically,

00:18:31.380 scientifically, it's in the blood. Life is found in the blood. Leviticus 17 11 says,

00:18:37.760 for the life of the flesh is in the blood and I have given it to you on the altar to make

00:18:42.260 atonement for your souls. For it is the blood by reason of the life that makes atonement.

00:18:47.120 We know that the wages of sin is death. Something needs to die. That is the cost of sin. Whether

00:18:53.000 you die or something as a substitute dies on your behalf, something has to die. There is no sin that

00:19:00.520 goes unpunished without death. Either it's going to be you dying and burning in hell, that the sin 0.98

00:19:06.280 lays on your shoulders, or it's going to be dying or it's going to be the sin lays on Christ who died

00:19:13.360 on your behalf as your substitute. But there is no sin that does not have the penalty of death.

00:19:19.500 It dies on you or it dies on Christ.

00:19:22.060 Those are your only two options.

00:19:24.740 Now, as it pertains to redemption and the atonement of Jesus,

00:19:29.500 it's why we can say when Christ's blood spilled, his life spilled.

00:19:35.320 His life was poured out for us.

00:19:37.580 His blood was poured out for us.

00:19:39.280 Those are the connection points there.

00:19:41.280 It's also why there's a debate around the Lord's Supper.

00:19:45.260 Are we drinking wine or are we drinking life?

00:19:48.840 Or are we drinking both?

00:19:52.360 Now, I'd argue that we're drinking both.

00:19:55.700 And that is the difference.

00:20:00.060 Roman Catholicism's argued that we're drinking life alone.

00:20:04.840 I stand with the Lutherans, the Anglicans, the High Reformed.

00:20:08.120 I think it's both. 0.72

00:20:09.540 I think we're drinking life.

00:20:12.100 I also think we're drinking wine.

00:20:14.380 I don't think the wine transforms fully and only into blood.

00:20:23.900 But we don't need to bring clarity to a mystery.

00:20:27.960 Many theologians have failed by overextending and going beyond the Scriptures and saying,

00:20:32.560 you know what, let's bring clarity to this thing that the Scriptures don't bring clarity on.

00:20:36.220 Let me just say this thing, what I think it is,

00:20:39.500 when in reality there is nothing in the Scriptures to testify to that position.

00:20:44.380 and so God reinforces in this passage of scripture the sanctity of human life

00:20:51.960 by declaring judgment upon those who shed innocent blood now some have suggested that

00:20:59.280 God emphasized this point because like think about this for a second just just join me here

00:21:04.880 on a little mental trial here you just get off the ark I don't know what it looks like

00:21:12.040 but millions of people died so there's very likely carcasses or bodies that you see

00:21:21.000 and it's very easy to believe that maybe life is expendable

00:21:29.040 because god just literally eliminated millions of people dead animals dead bodies

00:21:37.720 all over the world. And you might be going, is life that valuable if God just did this?

00:21:45.100 And so if that's the posture of Noah, which we don't know, but it could be, then it makes sense

00:21:51.960 for God's affirmation here that life is not expendable. Life is valuable. Life is good.

00:21:59.800 and so god reinforces the sanctity and value of life and the rationale for the value is that man

00:22:10.580 is made in the image of god now this is uh needed for both the abortion industry

00:22:19.480 and the modern justice system there are two applications that we need to make here

00:22:27.780 We kill the innocent in the womb, and we protect the guilty in the courtroom.

00:22:33.300 We are literally failing on both sides of this issue. 0.84

00:22:37.880 Now, because of the feminization of the justice system, we give murderers this endless appeals, 0.87

00:22:44.160 insanity pleas, reduced sentences, lifelong imprisonment, instead of killing murderers. 0.61

00:22:51.600 And notice that I use the difference of words there.

00:22:54.080 killing is not murder and murder is not killing okay killing is killing and murdering is murdering

00:23:03.280 killing is something that you can do righteously we know that if you are a soldier assigned to

00:23:11.000 war submitting to your government and going out to kill you're not a murderer you're a killer

00:23:17.440 and a killer that has been granted by God the act of justice with the use of the sword. You have no 0.99

00:23:25.060 reason to feel guilt. In fact, if the government would just teach all of their soldiers, you

00:23:31.420 wouldn't have half as much PTSD. You wouldn't have half as much guilt or condemnation that people

00:23:36.460 walk out of the military. Yes, it's tough. There's nothing good about killing on the conscience.

00:23:41.540 But you can stand without shame, knowing that that is a work that you are doing to serve the justice of God.

00:23:53.940 Adam Smith once said, mercy to the guilty is cruelty to the innocent.

00:23:58.320 Mercy to the guilty is cruelty to the innocent.

00:24:01.740 Not killing murderers is sinful.

00:24:05.340 Okay?

00:24:05.920 Pay attention to that.

00:24:06.980 Not killing murderers is sinful.

00:24:09.640 When you have a murderer who is convicted and you don't kill him, that is the state sinning against God.

00:24:18.120 We have to remember that the death penalty protects life.

00:24:22.220 When you kill murderers, you protect life.

00:24:26.100 You protect innocent.

00:24:28.340 To not kill those who murder is to murder the innocent.

00:24:32.780 I don't know how many ways I can say this, but that's the true way of understanding this.

00:24:36.460 And how many times has a convicted murderer received 10, 15 years only to go on to either murder another prison cellmate or to go murder somebody else upon the release? 0.97

00:24:50.560 It is our duty and job as Christians to uphold God's design that we must kill murderers.

00:25:00.300 one theologian said capital punishment reflects a high view of life not a low view of life 0.98

00:25:08.920 we think oh if you're pro-life you must be against uh the the death penalty no

00:25:15.940 no the only people that say that are illogical thinkers

00:25:21.000 no the capital punishment is a high view of life not a low view of life because it protects

00:25:28.720 the innocent. Ultimately, those nations who uphold the death penalty produce safer societies.

00:25:36.500 You want to love America? Kill murderers. That is a great way to love your neighbor, 1.00

00:25:42.180 is to make sure that those who murder are eliminated. That is basic, fundamental, Genesis

00:25:49.100 doctrine. But what's fascinating is that God not only applies this to man, but also to beasts.

00:25:58.720 animals that take life the life of humans are to be killed this is not cruelty this is also

00:26:07.940 protection we know in scripture you know in leviticus it talks about if you if you have a

00:26:14.200 bull that gores somebody or kills somebody if it's on accident and and it's it's first time

00:26:20.760 you didn't know then you don't have to kill the animal but you have to put the animal in a place

00:26:28.580 where it can never kill anybody again. And if that animal does kill a second person, you die with it.

00:26:35.500 That's the biblical structure. So if you've got a pit bull and it bites somebody or kills a child,

00:26:45.100 the law should be, well, if that dog does it again, you die with it. Are you going to keep

00:26:54.920 that dog? No. No, you're going to put that dog down because you don't want to risk the possibility

00:26:59.900 of your dog killing somebody and you're suffering the capital punishment as a result.

00:27:09.740 So we are not only to protect life, sorry, we are not only to produce life,

00:27:16.320 we're to protect life. This is a double dimension that God is going through. We're not supposed to

00:27:20.960 just produce life, but to protect life. And Noah may have wondered, okay, wait, God, are we going

00:27:27.920 to be fruitful and multiply and then fill the earth only for you to destroy it all again?

00:27:33.940 That has to be running through Noah's head. Is this going to happen again?

00:27:40.740 In verse 8, God graciously assures him, no, it will never happen like this again.

00:27:47.240 He says,

00:28:17.240 destroy the earth. So this is probably calming Noah down a bit. Okay, this isn't going to happen

00:28:22.820 again. Verse 12, and God said, this is the sign of the covenant that I make between me and you

00:28:30.840 and every living creature that is with you for all future generations. Notice the multi-generational

00:28:37.500 nature of the covenantal structure. Verse 13, I have set my bow in the clouds and it shall be a

00:28:44.800 sign of the covenant between me and the earth. When I bring clouds over the earth

00:28:51.700 and the bow is seen in the clouds, I will remember my covenant that is between me and you

00:28:58.300 and every living creature of all flesh. And the water shall never again become a flood

00:29:05.120 to destroy all flesh. When the bow is in the clouds, I will see it and remember the everlasting

00:29:13.800 covenant between God and every living creature of all flesh that is on the earth. God said to

00:29:21.620 Noah, this is the sign of the covenant that I have established between me and you and all flesh that

00:29:28.720 is on the earth. So much doctrine here. I could spend five sermons on that section of scripture,

00:29:36.420 so I'm going to just kind of fly over it. God, again, starts talking covenant and he's talking

00:29:44.480 to the men. God is not making covenant with ladies. He's making covenant this patriarchal 0.96

00:29:50.760 structure. As much as our modern world hates patriarchy, it is the biblical model. So God

00:29:56.680 speaks only to the men, not only to Noah, but also to his sons, showing the multi-generational

00:30:03.420 nature of covenantal thinking. Now, God promises that he is never again going to pour out his

00:30:12.200 wrath through a global flood upon future generations. Now, for Noah and all who came

00:30:18.320 after him, clouds are probably going, wow, I'm a little bit freaked out about the clouds

00:30:27.500 because the last time i saw the clouds the whole world was destroyed and so this is something that

00:30:33.700 he's he's god even gives that when you see the clouds and you'll see the bow in it

00:30:38.620 and so there was some sort of fear associated with the clouds and the remembrance of god's judgment

00:30:48.040 and so to confirm his promise god says that he's going to lay down his bow all right what most 0.59

00:30:57.040 people don't realize is that the rainbow is a weapon the rainbow is the weapon now the gays 0.65

00:31:03.420 have perverted it we'll talk about that in a minute but the rainbow is a very masculine thing 0.96

00:31:09.480 it's why the gays have taken it to pervert it okay it is a weapon it is a bow like a bow and arrow 0.94

00:31:17.460 and in the flood his arrows were catastrophic rain that is what the imagery is being communicated 0.92

00:31:25.780 here. When you see the rainbow in the sky, you are watching God lay down his weapon in which he

00:31:32.560 destroyed humanity with, and he's saying, I will no longer do that. It is a sign of peace between

00:31:39.840 him and the earth. I'm not here to war against sinful man in this particular way. You can see

00:31:47.980 in the sky that God is saying, peace, I remember my covenant with man that I will not destroy you

00:31:54.480 with these arrows. Now, what makes this particularly striking is that the homosexual movement has 0.99

00:32:03.820 taken the very weapon of God's judgment against the sins, including homosexuality, and turned it 0.99

00:32:10.680 into a banner of prideful rebellion against God. Imagine waving God's weapon in front of him in 0.95

00:32:19.560 pride. The very weapon that he used to destroy sin, they're using to mock God. We know the

00:32:29.060 scriptures say that God will not be mocked. Each and every single one of those people will suffer

00:32:34.980 eternal damnation if they don't repent and turn to Jesus Christ. So the world after the flood

00:32:41.940 was not heaven restored. It's a new world, but it was not yet the restored earth.

00:32:50.980 It's not the world that we wait for. It was a restrained world awaiting for redemption.

00:32:58.980 There were still animals, dangerous animals. There were still dangerous men and evil men in the world.

00:33:04.300 And there was still the reality of sin and judgment to come.

00:33:07.120 but in the middle of the fallen world god gave noah those three things he has dominion over the

00:33:13.360 animals he has justice to restrain evil through capital punishment he has covenant mercy to have

00:33:19.580 peace with god as they wait for the final judgment and i think that remains our calling today

00:33:25.500 we get to do a few things we get to get married we get to raise children to be fruitful and

00:33:33.460 multiply. We are to receive creation and the gifts of food with thanksgiving and glory and gratitude

00:33:43.100 and mercy of God. And that we are to uphold justice in the world. We are to look to the

00:33:51.380 church and to the state and recognize that evil must be restrained. And it is our duty as Christians,

00:33:56.760 the people of God, to teach the state these things. The pagans aren't going to teach the

00:34:01.020 state these things? No, it is our duty as Christians to disciple the state.

00:34:08.760 And above all, we are to live under the mercy of God,

00:34:13.040 knowing that God has restrained his wrath, at least by a flood,

00:34:19.480 and that he has shown us mercy and the grace of the gospel,

00:34:24.620 and that the next judgment, the judgment that's coming,

00:34:28.900 that if we are like Noah in that ark,

00:34:34.000 that ark of Christ, we will be safe.

00:34:38.360 Amen?

00:34:39.560 Let's pray.

00:34:40.820 Father, we thank you, Lord, for this truth,

00:34:42.800 for the beautiful narrative and the great story of redemption.

00:34:46.900 We thank you for the faithfulness of our forefather Noah

00:34:49.480 and for the covenant you've made with him.

00:34:53.120 Lord, that you have redeemed and saved your church.

00:34:58.900 Lord, give us strength, give us mercy, give us endurance, give us faithfulness.

00:35:07.260 Let us be fruitful as we multiply.

00:35:10.800 Let us stand for justice and uphold righteousness in the land.

00:35:14.980 We ask for all these things in the name of Christ.

00:35:17.700 Amen.

Dale Partridge - May 24, 2026

Genesis 9_1-17： God's Weapon—The Bow in the Clouds

Episode Stats

Summary

Transcript