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THE COVENANT

Chapter 9

For the fourth time in this book, we read that God blessed mankind, this time represented by Noah who started a new generation. The former were:

• 1:22: all the animals that live in water (fish, crustaceans, molluscs, etc.) and birds.

• 1:28: humans (perhaps also including all animals that live on land, whether wild, domestic or reptiles). Repeated in 5:2.

• 2:3: the seventh day.

This time God blesses Noah and his sons: they are to be fruitful and multiply and replenish the earth.

Instead, however, of the previous harmony that characterized the relationship between humanity and animals (and between animals), now dread and fear of man shall come upon all animals.

Man´s vegetarian diet is transcended, allowing him also to eat the flesh of anything that moves and lives: the only condition is that the blood is first removed. This condition was maintained in the Law of Moses (Leviticus 3:17), and reiterated to the Gentiles who converted to Christ, by the church of Jerusalem (Acts 21:25).

The word “blood” is a translation of the Hebrew "dam" that is used for the blood of all animals and humans, with the exception of fish! In this passage, the word is synonymous with life (v.4) and bloodshed and means murder and the death penalty (v.6). But shedding the blood of animals means killing an animal: according to the Mosaic Law it was necessary to make an offering before the tabernacle of the LORD for each ox or lamb or goat killed so as not to have imputed on him the guilt of bloodshed (Leviticus 17:3-4). Elsewhere we see the word blood used in the sense of guilt, e.g., Leviticus 20:9, and also the responsibility for the death of himself or others, e.g. Joshua 2:19.

The blood of animals could be offered in atonement (covering) of guilt (Leviticus 17:11): as Adam's sin brought guilt worthy of death on him and his descendants (Romans 5:12), the blood of animals propitiated that guilt, symbolizing the perfect offering that would bring life to Adam and all others represented in the sacrifice (Hebrews 10:4).

The animal sacrifice was a type or figure of Christ's blood, Who made the one great and only perfect atonement for the guilt of those He replaced. The shedding of His blood seals the covenant of life between God and many (Matthew 26:28).

Life (blood), either of man or animal, belongs to God who gave it: nobody has the right to take his own life or that of others: the murderer must pay for his crime with his own life and should be killed by another man (with authority to do so) as in verse 6, because of the nobility of human life created in God's image.

God also establishes his covenant with all mankind (to date), and all creation: there will never be another flood to destroy the earth, leaving as a sign the rainbow. (Next time, the judgement over the world will be in the form of fire, as in 2 Peter 3:10-13).

The rainbow is a kind of pledge, concrete, visible, that God made this promise. This is another indication that, before the flood, it possibly had not rained and the rainbow was a novelty now, come with the rains.

Then we have the account of an episode that followed, and had dire consequences for the descendants of a grandson of Noah.

Noah was a farmer (as Adam, and Cain, in the beginning). With his ability, he planted a vineyard, in due time harvested grapes, squeezed their juice, and this fermented into alcoholic wine. (According to recent scientific studies it is possible that the very thick cloud cover before the flood did not allow the passage of ultraviolet rays, which are essential for fermentation, so this was a new experience for Noah. Notice that the Bible does not condemn Noah for his drunkenness).

Inside his tent, when drunk with wine, and possibly feeling the heat, Noah took off his clothes. His son Ham saw the nakedness of his father: not just a quick accidental glance, but watched him with scorn and satisfaction, humiliating his father, and went to tell his brothers outside. They showed respect, went in and covered their father without looking at him.

Upon waking, Noah found out what Ham had done, and so made a prophetic statement:

• From one of the sons of Ham, Canaan, would come an inferior and servile descent (the Canaanites). Centuries later, they were subdued by the Israelites beginning with Joshua, and later, Solomon. They do not exist as a people or race today. The Babylonians, Egyptians and other Africans are also descendants of Ham through his three other sons (10:6).

• The descendants of Shem would have a special relationship with the LORD his God. All divine revelation has been through the Semites (Jews) and the Lord Jesus is his descendant on his human side. The Arabs are also Semites.

• Japheth would be magnified (Japheth means enlargement), his descendants would spread through the land and prosper. By"may he dwell in the tents of Shem", we believe that they would occupy the land of the Semites, and would enjoy the spiritual blessings that come through the Semites. It comprises all other peoples and nations.

Noah lived another 350 years after the flood, only dying when he was 950 years old.

R David Jones

1 So God blessed Noah and his sons, and said to them: "Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth.
2 And the fear of you and the dread of you shall be on every beast of the earth, on every bird of the air, on all that move on the earth, and on all the fish of the sea. They are given into your hand.
3 Every moving thing that lives shall be food for you. I have given you all things, even as the green herbs.
4 But you shall not eat flesh with its life, that is, its blood.
5 Surely for your lifeblood I will demand a reckoning; from the hand of every beast I will require it, and from the hand of man. From the hand of every man's brother I will require the life of man.
6 "Whoever sheds man's blood, By man his blood shall be shed; For in the image of God He made man.
7 And as for you, be fruitful and multiply; Bring forth abundantly in the earth And multiply in it."
8 Then God spoke to Noah and to his sons with him, saying:
9 "And as for Me, behold, I establish My covenant with you and with your descendants after you,
10 and with every living creature that is with you: the birds, the cattle, and every beast of the earth with you, of all that go out of the ark, every beast of the earth.
11 Thus I establish My covenant with you: Never again shall all flesh be cut off by the waters of the flood; never again shall there be a flood to destroy the earth."
12 And God said: "This is the sign of the covenant which I make between Me and you, and every living creature that is with you, for perpetual generations:
13 I set My rainbow in the cloud, and it shall be for the sign of the covenant between Me and the earth.
14 It shall be, when I bring a cloud over the earth, that the rainbow shall be seen in the cloud;
15 and I will remember My covenant which is between Me and you and every living creature of all flesh; the waters shall never again become a flood to destroy all flesh.
16 The rainbow shall be in the cloud, and I will look on it to remember the everlasting covenant between God and every living creature of all flesh that is on the earth."
17 And God said to Noah, "This is the sign of the covenant which I have established between Me and all flesh that is on the earth."
18 Now the sons of Noah who went out of the ark were Shem, Ham, and Japheth. And Ham was the father of Canaan.
19 These three were the sons of Noah, and from these the whole earth was populated.
20 And Noah began to be a farmer, and he planted a vineyard.
21 Then he drank of the wine and was drunk, and became uncovered in his tent.
22 And Ham, the father of Canaan, saw the nakedness of his father, and told his two brothers outside.
23 But Shem and Japheth took a garment, laid it on both their shoulders, and went backward and covered the nakedness of their father. Their faces were turned away, and they did not see their father's nakedness.
24 So Noah awoke from his wine, and knew what his younger son had done to him.
25 Then he said: "Cursed be Canaan; A servant of servants He shall be to his brethren."
26 And he said: "Blessed be the LORD, The God of Shem, And may Canaan be his servant.
27 May God enlarge Japheth, And may he dwell in the tents of Shem; And may Canaan be his servant."
28 And Noah lived after the flood three hundred and fifty years.
29 So all the days of Noah were nine hundred and fifty years; and he died.

Genesis chapter 9