The everlasting covenant and gospel dispensations -- Part 3 (Noah)

Part 1 introduces the everlasting covenant in the context of gospel dispensations. At every new dispensation, there is a righteous priesthood holder who seeks to re-establish the everlasting covenant. We saw how Enoch did this in part 2. He managed to gather the righteous, becoming a new creation in a city that was taken up to heaven. The wicked were left behind and therefore a new gospel dispensation or re-establishment of the everlasting covenant was needed. This dispensation was headed by Noah and it was quite dramatic. Lord Wilmore has written extensively on Noah and related symbolism of "rest" (the Hebrew meaning of his name), which stands in stark contrast to the unrest that the wicked experienced at the flood.

What is the nature of "the everlasting covenant"? In part 1, we defined it as "the fullness of the gospel of Jesus Christ, including all ordinances and covenants necessary for the salvation of mankind". This may seem confusing because the covenants with Enoch and Noah that are sometimes referred to as "the everlasting covenant" are quite specific for them and may differ from the ordinances and covenants we have today. But I believe that the core of the covenant always is to offer the ordinances, conditions and promises necessary for salvation. The practical details of that may vary from one dispensation to another but on an overall level it is about restoring man, and by extension the whole creation, back to God's presence.

In the JST of Genesis 9:15, we read

And God spake unto Noah, and to his sons with him, saying, And I, behold, I will establish my covenant with you, which I made unto your father Enoch, concerning your seed after you.

This marks a new dispensation and a new establishment of the covenant. God specifically refers to the covenant he made with Enoch. Later, in JST 9:21-25, we get more details

21 And the bow shall be in the cloud; and I will look upon it, that I may remember the everlasting covenant, which I made unto thy father Enoch; that, when men should keep all my commandments, Zion should again come on the earth, the city of Enoch which I have caught up unto myself.

22 And this is mine everlasting covenant, that when thy posterity shall embrace the truth, and look upward, then shall Zion look downward, and all the heavens shall shake with gladness, and the earth shall tremble with joy;

23 And the general assembly of the church of the firstborn shall come down out of heaven, and possess the earth, and shall have place until the end come. And this is mine everlasting covenant, which I made with thy father Enoch.

24 And the bow shall be in the cloud, and I will establish my covenant unto thee, which I have made between me and thee, for every living creature of all flesh that shall be upon the earth.

25 And God said unto Noah, This is the token of the covenant which I have established between me and thee; for all flesh that shall be upon the earth.

In Enoch's time, the covenant was about gathering the righteous in a city and lifting them up to heaven. In Noah's time, it was about having posterity that could "embrace the truth" and long for the same city but not attain it until the onset of the millennium when heaven and earth would reunite. This covenant, as all covenants at the time, was to be taken very seriously. This is indicated by the token of the covenant. In Hebrew, there is no word for rainbow, there is only the "bow". This is pointing upward towards heaven as if God is saying: "May I be shot if I break this covenant".

With the re-establishment of the covenant with Noah, we see the recurring elements listed before:

• References to the creation
• References to eternity or "before the foundation of the world"
• Hearkening to the word of God and receiving instruction
• Being called after His order
• Preaching and exemplifying redemption, becoming a new creation

Especially the creation is alluded to repeatedly. The whole story of Noah is both an anti-creation account and a re-creation account. Both before the flood, describing the destruction, and after the flood, describing the new beginning, we find multiple allusions to the creation account, as Lord Wilmore also has mentioned previously.

And the Lord said: I will destroy man whom I have created, from the face of the earth, both man and beast, and the creeping things, and the fowls of the air; for it repenteth Noah that I have created them (Moses 8:26)

Beast, creeping things and fowls of the air are all creation language from Genesis 1. So is "breath of life", which is only found in the creation account in addition to the story about Noah:

And, behold, I, even I, do bring a flood of waters upon the earth, to destroy all flesh, wherein is the breath of life, from under heaven; and every thing that is in the earth shall die. (Genesis 6:17)

Then God brings the earth to a pre-creation state of watery chaos by flooding the earth. When the flood recedes, the narrative describes a re-creation with continued references to the first creation account.

• In Genesis 5:29, there is a wordplay on the name, Noah (Hebr. "rest"), who will "comfort us concerning our work and toil of our hands, because of the ground which the Lord hath cursed". The cursed ground alludes to Genesis 3:17 after Adam had eaten the forbidden fruit. In Genesis 8:21 God promises not to curse the ground again.
• In Genesis 9:1, Noah and his sons are commanded to "be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth", just like Adam and Eve in Genesis 1:28
• In Genesis 9:2-3, Noah is commanded to rule over the creatures, just like Adam in Genesis 1:28-29
• Genesis 9:6 repeats that God made man in his image

This is all part of a re-creation and beautifully symbolizes the two creations necessary for salvation. The dual destruction/anti-creation and re-creation narratives also remind us that we need to destroy the parts of our lives that are not in line with our covenants and preserve or re-create the parts that are. 

These references to the creation and Adam also follow the pattern of referring one head of a dispensation to other dispensations. In addition to Adam, Noah connects to Enoch in Genesis 6:9. "Noah walked with God" just like "Enoch walked with God" (Genesis 5:24).

Moses 8 displays further typical characteristics of a gospel dispensation.

13 And Noah and his sons hearkened unto the Lord, and gave heed, and they were called the sons of God...

16 And it came to pass that Noah prophesied, and taught the things of God, even as it was in the beginning...

19 And the Lord ordained Noah after his own order, and commanded him that he should go forth and declare his Gospel unto the children of men, even as it was given unto Enoch.

I didn't think that I would spend the entire post on Noah, but it turned out to be even more than I thought once I started digging deep. The next post will continue with the gospel dispensation of Abraham and its relation to the everlasting covenant.