Genesis Chapter 9

Chapter 9
vs 1-4
And God blessed Noah and his sons and said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth. 2 The fear of you and the dread of you shall be upon every beast of the earth and upon every bird of the heavens, upon everything that creeps on the ground and all the fish of the sea. Into your hand they are delivered. 3 Every moving thing that lives shall be food for you. And as I gave you the green plants, I give you everything. 4 But you shall not eat flesh with its life, that is, its blood.

Here again we see God telling Noah in a similar way to "Be fruitful and multiply". Its not just enough to have lots of children, but to be Fruitful in the process. We are given a huge responsibility to raise our children to know Jesus Christ. One interesting difference between Man's relationship with the animal kingdom with Adam is that there seemed to be a sense of relationship with Adam and the beasts. With Noah, God tells him that the animals will fear and dread humans. We know this is true today. Sometimes we see videos where animals attack humans. Most of the time the experts tell us that the animal is either scared, or protective. In the New Earth man will once again have fellowship with the animal kingdom. We also read in the these opening verses of chapter 9, that God allows Man to eat animals for food. He forbids the consumption of their blood as God wants Noah and all of us to know that all life is precious. In addition there were health reasons and sanitary issues that God knew would be hazardous to humans. We will revisit this topic in the future as we get further into the Old Testament.

vs 5-6
5 And for your lifeblood I will require a reckoning: from every beast I will require it and from man. From his fellow man I will require a reckoning for the life of man.

6 “Whoever sheds the blood of man,
by man shall his blood be shed,
for God made man in his own image.

God gives us orders to invoke death, on anyone who murders another human being. No other part of creation has been created in the image of God except humans. God HATES murder, and demands that anyone who kills a person unjustly should be put to death! I have had many debates with Christian brothers and sisters that do not believe that God would want even a murderer to face death, but God clearly feels differently. Some might say well that is the God of the Old Testament and we don't listen to the Old Testament anymore. First the God of the Old Testament is the same God in the New Testament. Secondly this predates the law of Moses. The only part of the Old Testament that we do not live by in the New Testament era is the Ceremonial portion of the law(as Christ has already fulfilled that for us on the cross ex. sacrificing animals,the washings etc Christ did this on the cross!). So we absolutely abide by the Old Testament in principal, and in practice when it comes to the commands of God. Here are a few examples of justified killing
1.Executing a murderer
2.Times of War
3.Defending your family or yourself from a life and death situation
4.Giving your life to save somebody in danger
5.Defending and protecting as a vocation(Police,Security etc)

vs 7-17

7 And you, be fruitful and multiply, teem on the earth and multiply in it.”
8 Then God said to Noah and to his sons with him, 9 “Behold, I establish my covenant with you and your offspring after you, 10 and with every living creature that is with you, the birds, the livestock, and every beast of the earth with you, as many as came out of the ark; it is for every beast of the earth. 11 I establish my covenant with you, that never again shall all flesh be cut off by the waters of the flood, and never again shall there be a flood to destroy the earth.” 12 And God said, “This is the sign of the covenant that I make between me and you and every living creature that is with you, for all future generations: 13 I have set my bow in the cloud, and it shall be a sign of the covenant between me and the earth. 14 When I bring clouds over the earth and the bow is seen in the clouds, 15 I will remember my covenant that is between me and you and every living creature of all flesh. And the waters shall never again become a flood to destroy all flesh. 16 When the bow is in the clouds, I will see it and remember the everlasting covenant between God and every living creature of all flesh that is on the earth.” 17 God said to Noah, “This is the sign of the covenant that I have established between me and all flesh that is on the earth.”

Here we see the very first covenant between God and man recorded in the Bible. God in his infinite knowledge knew He would one day destroy this world. That the sin of man would come to an end, and that we would all stand before Him to be judged. And that the New Earth would be our eternal home. Thinking about how devastating it must have been from the prospective of Noah to see the entire Earth flooded, and EVERY person, animal and everything on the Earth totally and utterly destroyed, I believe God makes this promise to Noah that this will never happen again. He gives a sign in the sky to remind Noah of this promise, and for us today to show us that our God can be trusted. That when he makes a covenant with you He will ALWAYS keep it. That gives us all great hope and joy, because anyone who belongs to Christ NEVER has to worry about losing their salvation, or God just being tired of working on us, He will never let you go!

vs 18-19

18 The sons of Noah who went forth from the ark were Shem, Ham, and Japheth. (Ham was the father of Canaan.) 19 These three were the sons of Noah, and from these the people of the whole earth were dispersed.

So here we see the end of the story of the great flood, and now life is beginning to get back to normal once again. The entire Earth is full of people even to this day that stem from Noah, and his children.

vs 20-28

20 Noah began to be a man of the soil, and he planted a vineyard. 21 He drank of the wine and became drunk and lay uncovered in his tent. 22 And Ham, the father of Canaan, saw the nakedness of his father and told his two brothers outside. 23 Then Shem and Japheth took a garment, laid it on both their shoulders, and walked backward and covered the nakedness of their father. Their faces were turned backward, and they did not see their father's nakedness. 24 When Noah awoke from his wine and knew what his youngest son had done to him, 25 he said,

“Cursed be Canaan;
a servant of servants shall he be to his brothers.”

26 He also said,

“Blessed be the Lord, the God of Shem;
and let Canaan be his servant.
27 May God enlarge Japheth,
and let him dwell in the tents of Shem,
and let Canaan be his servant.”

28 After the flood Noah lived 350 years. 29 All the days of Noah were 950 years, and he died.

So after the flood, Noah begins a new life, in part symbolic of an almost new creation , and he plants a vineyard. Its important to see that Noah is still sinful, and still totally depraved apart from the grace of God. He apparently starts to drink way too much, and becomes drunk enough to pass out and lay naked in his tent. It is not a sin to drink alcohol, but time and time again throughout the Old and New Testaments we read that God forbids drunk us to become drunk. God wants us under the influence of the Holy Spirit, not drugs, alcohol etc. In any event Noah's youngest son seeks to humiliate his father. Instead of honoring his father and covering up Noah's shame, he goes to his other two brothers and begins to laugh and scorn Noah. God is very angry when children do not honor their fathers and mothers.(Even when our parents sin, we are to love them, pray for them and forgive them. It is easy to trash them especially if they are in a place where we totally disagree with decisions they are making, but it is not for you to be their judge, Christ will judge them, you do what you can to cover their shame and bring them closer to Jesus!) I think it is key to note how Noah's other two sons treated him, and the curse that was held over Canaan. God will not be mocked, and again we are to never be happy when anyone falls into sin.