We are continuing to track with Noah’s story, and we have finally reached this section about God’s covenant with Noah. We will be looking at the details of the covenant and looking into covenants and signs.
Noah had just taken of the clean animals and built an altar to offer a burnt sacrifice to the Lord. That was in the last issue. It was probably Thanksgiving for the safety and salvation of God over his and his family’s lives. God had reworded Noah’s purity and righteousness.
Now, we turn to look at the first covenant made by God with Noah and the whole earth. We will notice an interesting relationship between covenants and their signs. You will find this to be the case in the rest of Scripture. When a covenant is made, a sign is a confirmation of the covenant, a reminder that the covenant has been made.
God’s Blessing to Noah in His Covenant
Genesis 9:1-7: Then God blessed Noah and his sons and said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth. The fear of you and the terror of you will be on every animal of the earth and everything that flies in the skies and on everything that crawls on the land and on every fish of the sea, into your hand they are given. Every creature that lives will be your food, as I gave every green herb to you, only, you shall not eat the flesh with its life, it’s blood. And from the hand of every living thing, I will require the lifeblood from them, and from the hand of humanity, and from the hand of a man’s brother I will require the life of the man. Whoever sheds a per so that no’s Blessing son’s blood, his blood will be shed, for in the image of God I made man. But as for you, be fruitful and multiply. Swarm upon the earth and multiply on it.”
Chapter 9 begins with God’s blessing to Noah, for He makes a covenant with him. Noah’s sons are there with him. God says it to both of them. Immediately, you will see similarities with the creation of man and woman from Genesis 1, just as we saw similarities in the creation account and the restoration of the earth after the flood.
God blesses Noah and his sons with the same blessing and charge He gave Adam and Eve. He commands Noah and his sons to, “Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth” (Genesis 1:28)) what God says next is very interesting. In Genesis 1, God told Adam and Eve He gave them every plant and everything that has its seed to eat (Genesis 1:29-30).
It’s believed from these verses that humans and animals were vegetarian. No doubt Giants and people were eating meat during the days of Noah. Here, God gives His approval for Noah, his family, and people on earth to eat animals (Genesis 9:2).
If it wasn’t clear enough, God makes it very clear in Genesis 9:3 when He says every animal, even the fish and birds, will be for their food. What follows is the explanation and laws God puts in place. These are often called the Noahide Laws.
There are seven of them, but I’m not sure I see many of them in this passage. People who espouse them suggest that they started with Adam and go to Noah. I believe some of them are referenced in the letter from the Jerusalem Council to all the churches in Acts 15:19-21
One of these laws is based on what God says to Noah, that though he may eat animals, he may not eat them with their life, their blood in them (Genesis 9:4). In Genesis 9:5, God gives the rationale for this commandment. It is because God requires the lifeblood of anyone who murders another person, and we see later on in the Levitical laws even animals are subjected to this law.
The ultimate reason God gives is in Genesis 9:6. God made humanity in His image. Because we bear His image, our lives are of the greatest value to Him. Jesus came to earth and was willing to give up His life to bring us life.
God has a high standard when it comes to life, and so should we. This is life in all its forms, in all creatures, but especially as it deals with human life. I believe based on this and other passages about human life that there are many who will be surprised at the great white throne judgment, for those who have not taken any care for human life.
I also know that God has much grace to those who may be involved in such things and ask His forgiveness. God is gracious and generous God. He takes confession as seriously as He takes human life. It is never too late and you are never too far gone for God’s grace to reach, if that is the case.
The Noahide laws are believed to be universal laws God applies to both Jews and Gentiles. Our first section on God’s covenant with Noah ends with a repetition of God charging Noah and his sons to be fruitful and multiply.
He calls them to increase upon the earth and fill it. My translation has “swarm upon the earth,” because the verb is not the word for increase but more for insects that swarm in droves. God’s blessing and command to increase on the earth and fill it is still in place today. It has never stopped being His desire or command to us.
God’s Promise in His Covenant with Noah
Genesis 9:8-11: Then God said to Noah and to his sons with him, saying, “Behold, I Myself establish My covenant with you and with your descendants after you and with every living creature that is with you, everything that flies, and crawls, and every living thing on the earth with you, from everything that comes out of the ark, every animal of the earth, and I establish My covenant with you, and all flesh will never again be cut off by the waters of the flood and never again will there be a flood to destroy the earth.”
God’s covenant with Noah includes a promise that God will not use the flood waters as judgment ever again. This section continues God’s words to Noah and his sons. It is not broken up from the previous statement in Genesis 9:1-7. It is a continuation of what God said to them in the same sitting.
A Hebraism is where you see the same action word used twice. Here, it is God said to Noah… saying. This happens a lot in the Hebrew Scriptures and also in the New Testament, because it was written primarily by Jewish Christians.
You will also see the emphatic use of God referring to Himself. It reinforces that God is more than willing to do what He says He is doing. God establishes the first covenant with Noah in the Bible. God promises to establish His covenant with Noah Genesis 6:18.
This is the fulfillment of that promise, as He establishes His covenant with Noah in Genesis 9:9. Covenant is one of the most crucial themes of the Bible. Some believe it is what holds the Bible together. In fact, the word for testament in the Old Testament and New Testament is based on the word for covenant.
We often use the words in English “make a covenant” but the wording in Hebrew is almost always “cut a covenant.” “Establish” is also a commonly used action word for making a covenant. The reason is called cutting a covenant is because covenants often demand the blood of an animal.
The action establishing a covenant usually has the understanding of, “May God, or the person I am making this covenant with, do the same thing to me as this animal if I break the covenant.” Covenants are considered to be more deeply and seriously held than a business agreement or contract.
A unique mark of the covenant God establishes is that is not just with Noah and humanity. He includes a covenant with every living thing on the earth. He does not just say He will not flood the earth because of human wickedness. Animals will not suffer this same judgment either.
The repetition of all kinds of living creatures on the earth shows the totality of God establishing a covenant. He also says he will be for the future generations after Noah and his sons. This is a perpetual covenant. Because God initiates the covenant, it exists forever because God exists forever.
Those are some of the principles of covenants. The person who initiates the covenant maintains it until his death or until the stipulations of the covenant, perhaps passing it on to other family members, exist. A covenant only ends when it’s stipulations do not need to be fulfilled any longer, or the person who initiates it is no longer alive to fulfill it.
The essentials of God’s covenant with Noah and every living creature on the earth is that He will never again flood the earth in His judgment. The New Testament is clear that God’s next, and final, judgment will be with fire (Hebrews 10:26-27; 2 Peter 3:7; Revelation 20:14).
God’s covenant with Noah does not have to do with not judging anyone anymore. He will be doing that until the end of time. It is that His judgment will be different than it was in the flood. We can trust this promise because God gives a sign that goes with His establishment of His covenant with Noah and all the earth.
The Sign of God’s Covenant with Noah
Genesis 9:12-17: Then God said, “This is the sign of the covenant which I Myself am giving between Me and you and between every living thing that is with you, for future generations. I have placed my bow in the cloud and it will be for a sign of the covenant between Me and the earth. And it will happen that it will become visible in the cloud over the earth, and the bow will be seen in the cloud, and I will remember My covenant which is between Me and you, every living creature of all flesh, and never again will the waters become a flood to destroy all flesh. And it will happen that when the bow is in the cloud, then I will see it to remember the forever covenant between God and every living thing of all flesh which is on the earth.” Then God said to Noah, “This is the sign of the covenant which I have established between Me and all flesh which is on the earth”
As we look at God’s covenant with Noah and living things on the earth, we see another feature of covenants. This feature you will see going forward as we study covenants in the life of Abraham and others is that a covenant has a sign to accompany it. The sign reminds everyone involved in the covenant of its stipulations and responsibilities.
Once again Genesis 9:12, we see God confirmed that His covenant is not only with Noah and his descendents, but with every living creature on the earth. A covenant requires a sign usually placed upon the receiver of the covenant. In this case, Noah, his sons, generations after them, and every creature living on the earth will see God’s rainbow in the sky.
There’s a reason, not just scientifically, that you see rainbows commonly after rainstorms. When the sun comes out, many times you will see a rainbow, and sometimes double rainbows. Science can explain how God does this, but the Bible tells us why.
It must’ve been quite traumatic for Noah and the animals to see rain on the earth that did not stop for forty days and forty nights. Anytime we see a lot of rain, local floods can happen. We have seen some of the worst ones in Category 4 and 5 hurricanes like Katrina in New Orleans and Andrew in Florida years ago.
We will never again see a worldwide flood that will destroy all life on earth. When you see the rain come, look for the rainbow when the sun comes out. This reminds God and us that He has promised graciously to never judge the earth in a flood again. God does not need to remember in the sense that He forgot about His covenant to not flood the earth, but that God will not act with that same judgment for wickedness again.
Genesis 9:14-16 it explains in detail how the rainbow will show up in the clouds after the rain. The repetition shows that God is remembering His covenant with the earth every time we have torrential rains. We do not have to worry that a flood of biblical and earth-shattering proportions will ever happen again.
God reiterates in His covenant with Noah and the earth that this sign of the covenant will happen every time there is rain, or at least torrential rain. That does not mean that floods will not happen in local areas. Sometimes, they are devastating to human and animal life today.
But they are not God’s judgment. That is made clear by God several times throughout this passage. Sometimes, I hear people talking about God judging people through natural storms. Is it possible that God does this? We know from the prophetic literature that God sent distraction like locusts to destroy harvests and other judgments.
But God is very clear that He does not judge through floods. I think we need to have a clear witness about God’s judgment if He is using something like a storm to judge people. It is not a cut-and-dried situation when we see a tornado or hurricane rip through a country or place.
I would air on the side of God’s grace instead of His judgment through such events, unless He makes clear through a prophet that is a verified prophet of God. Those are just my thoughts. We can do great damage by declaring God is judging a person or people group in these ways if we are not certain we are right about that.
The Saga Continues…
We have been talking about God’s covenant with Noah and the earth in this study. I wanted to finish it out with the rest of Genesis 9, but I think the last section of the chapter is best suited for its own issue. In the next issue, I talk about Noah’s drunkenness and Ham’s sin.
