Genesis Chapter Nine
Read Genesis 9:1-3 – God Blesses Noah
v.1 “And God blessed Noah and his sons, and said
unto them, Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth.”
Thus we have the same
instruction given to Noah as was given to Adam; be fruitful, multiply and fill
or replenish the earth. We will find
this repeated again a little later.
v.2 “And the fear of you and the dread of you shall
be upon every beast of the earth, and upon every fowl of the air, upon all that
moveth upon the earth, and upon all the fishes of the
sea; into your hand are they delivered.”
God re-establishes the relationship
between man, beasts and fowls of the air.
He grants man dominion over them, they fear man and still do so
today. A number of these creatures are
useful to us, we use them either for service or food, or both, as they are
capable; as God designed them, some domesticated many not. The wild beasts fear man, though at times
when man and beast paths cross there is trouble and one or the other is hurt or
killed.
v.3 “Every moving thing that liveth shall be meat
for you; even as the green herb have I given you all things.”
One commentator said that man had
not eaten flesh up until this time but I do not find that prohibition or that
notion supported anywhere in scripture. Genesis
Under the New Testament covenant we
are told that the day would come when men would create false doctrines and then
eliminates any doubt that this would happen in the Christian age:
I
Timothy 4:3-5 “Forbidding to marry, and commanding to abstain from meats,
which God hath created to be received with thanksgiving of them which believe
and know the truth. 4For every creature of God is good, and nothing
to be refused, if it be received with thanksgiving: 5For it is
sanctified by the word of God and prayer.”
Read Genesis 9:4-7 – Concerning Blood
There is a prohibition however:
v.4 “But flesh with the life thereof, which is the blood thereof,
shall ye not eat.”
In the spiritual realm blood has a special
place. It is used as a sacrifice to God
and was used as a sin offering, trespass offering, burnt offering, peace
offering, and for atonement; both under the Mosaic Law and the New Testament
Covenant. We understand that it should
not be eaten for health and hygiene reasons but here we learn that it should
not be eaten for spiritual reasons as well.
Under the law of the patriarchs and also under the Mosaic Law:
Leviticus
Deuteronomy
Under the New
Testament law as well:
Acts
Acts 21:25 “As touching the Gentiles which believe, we have
written and concluded that they observe no such thing, save only that they keep
themselves from things offered to idols, and from blood, and from strangled, and from
fornication.”
v.5 “And surely your blood of your lives will I
require; at the hand of every beast will I require it, and at the hand of man;
at the hand of every man’s brother will I require the life of man.”
Murder has never been tolerated by
God. Cain was our first example, God’s
mercy allowed Cain to live and protected him from the vengeance of man but that
is to be no more. God will require
retribution for the shedding of blood whether the guilty one is man or
beast. This was continued under the
Mosaic Law.
Exodus
v.6 “Whoso sheddeth man’s blood, by man shall his
blood be shed: for in the image of God made he man.”
It was the same under the Mosaic Law:
Exodus 21:12-14 “He that smiteth a
man, so that he die, shall be surely put to
death. And if a man lie not in wait, but
God deliver him into his hand; then I will appoint thee
And in the Law of
Christ:
Matthew 26:52 “Then said Jesus
unto him, Put up again thy sword into his place: for all they that take the
sword shall perish with the sword.”
v.7 “And you, be ye
fruitful, and multiply; bring forth abundantly in the earth, and multiply
therein.”
Again we have the admonition made to
mankind to “BE YE FRUITFUL, AND MULTIPLY; BRING FORTH
ABUNDANTLY IN THE EARTH,”
Read Genesis 9:8-17 – God’s Covenant with
Noah
v.8-9 “And God spake unto
Noah, and to his sons with him, saying, 9And I, behold, I establish
my covenant with you, and with your seed after you;”
God had established a covenant with
Noah regarding the ark as we read in Genesis
Isaiah 54:9 “9For this is as the waters of Noah unto me: for as I have sworn that the waters of Noah should no more go over the
earth; so have I sworn that I would not be wroth with thee, nor rebuke thee.”
v.10 “And with every living creature that is with you, of the fowl, of the cattle, and of every beast of the
earth with you; from all that go out of the ark, to every beast of the earth.”
God not only made this
covenant with mankind but with all of his creatures on earth. The Psalmist tells us:
“THE LORD is
GOOD TO ALL: AND HIS TENDER MERCIES are OVER ALL HIS WORKS.” Psalms 145:9
v.11 “And I will
establish my covenant with you; neither shall all flesh be cut off any more by
the waters of a flood; neither shall there any more be a flood to destroy the
earth.”
God will make a covenant with
mankind and all of the creatures on the earth.
Never again will he destroy the earth and all that reside in the earth
by a flood.
v.12 “And God said, This is the token of the covenant which I make between me and you and every
living creature that is with you, for perpetual generations:”
God provides a token, very much like
we would sign a covenant in our daily business today. This was not at all unusual, observe the same
with Abraham:
Genesis
The mark given Cain
was for much the same reason, to indicate to all men that God had a covenant
with him to protect him from vengeance.
David asked for a “token” in his prayer to God recorded in:
“SHOW ME A TOKEN
FOR GOOD, THAT THEY WHICH HATE ME MAY SEE it, AND BE ASHAMED BECAUSE THOU, LORD, HAST HOLPEN ME, AND COMFORTED
ME.” Psalms 86:17
This token or sign
is still with us today.
v.13-14 “I do set my bow in
the cloud, and it shall be for a token of a covenant between me and the earth. 14And
it shall come to pass, when I bring a cloud over the earth, that the bow shall
be seen in the cloud:”
The seal of God’s
covenant is repeated to emphasize and assure mankind that God’s promise is
true. Each time that
the conditions are right, when we have rain or clouds that are heavy with
moisture and sunshine there is the potential for a rainbow to be seen. The thicker the cloud the
brighter the rainbow because of the density of the water droplets that are
reflecting the sunlight.
v.15 “And I will remember my covenant, which is between me and you and every living creature of all flesh; and the
waters shall no more become a flood to destroy all flesh.”
God will remember His covenant and
the rainbow is a reminder for God and all mankind of his promise. In like manner a reminder of the Mosaic
covenant with
Exodus 28:12 “And thou shalt put
the two stones upon the shoulders of the ephod for stones of memorial unto the children of
v.16-17 “And the bow shall
be in the cloud; and I will look upon it, that I may remember the everlasting
covenant between God and every living creature of all flesh that is upon the earth. 17And
God said unto Noah, This is the token of the covenant, which I have established between me and
all flesh that is upon the earth.”
God emphasizes again the covenant
between him and Noah. When we speak of
the covenants that God made with man, normally we only think of the Mosaic
Covenant and the Christian Covenant, the first made with
Genesis
Genesis
Read Genesis 9:18-29 – Noah’s Sin, Sons and
Death
v.18-19 “And the sons of
Noah, that went forth of the ark, were Shem, and Ham, and Japheth: and Ham is the father of
Canaan. 19These are the three sons of Noah:
and of them was the whole earth overspread.”
We are first told about
the three sons of Noah in Genesis 5:32. They and their generations are listed again
in I Chronicles and we’re told in Genesis
The offspring of Shem
we know as the Elamites, Assyrians, Chaleans, Hebrews, Arabs, Syria, the people of Lydia, the
Berbers and most of the tribes and peoples of the Middle East and North
Africa. This, of course, includes the
current inhabitants of
Ham is listed next and
is thought by many to be the youngest. According
to a number of sources, the name Ham in Hebrew means “hot, possibly
dark-skinned”, in Egyptian “black”. But
scholars tell us that the only black skinned descendants of Ham were the
descendants of his eldest son, Cush. If
you will remember when we studied the location of the Garden of Eden, scholars
debate its location because of the designation in scripture that it was in the
Japheth, thought by
most to be the youngest son of Noah, is the ancestor of the rest of the peoples
of the world. These include all Asian
and Indo-European peoples, Chinese, Japanese, Persians, Kurds, Aryans
(Afghanistan, India, Pakistan and the southern regions of the old Soviet
Union), Greeks, Romans, Slavs, Hungarians, Irish, Georgians (middle Europe),
Iberians (Spain), Basque, Teutonic tribes (Austria, Bavaria, Poland), Germans,
Armenians, Welsh, Celts, and Goths.
v.20. “And Noah began to be an husbandman, and he planted a vineyard:”
Noah became a husbandman, a tiller
of the soil, seeking to sustain himself from the earth as did his ancestor,
Adam. He fulfilled the edict of God when
he banned Adam and Eve from the Garden of Eden.
Genesis
3:23 “Therefore the LORD God
sent him forth from the garden of Eden, to till the ground from whence he was
taken.”
God tells us
through the pen of the wise man a truth that still stands today:
Proverbs
v.21 “And he drank of the wine, and was drunken; and
he was uncovered within his tent.”
Noah, a man of God, a
pillar of faith honored by the inspiration of God in Hebrews 11 as one of our
examples had his faults as well. He
imbibes too much of the production of his own vineyard, not the fresh product
but that which had fermented and became intoxicating.
Proverbs 20:1 “WINE is A
MOCKER, STRONG DRINK is RAGING: AND WHOSOEVER IS DECEIVED
THEREBY IS NOT WISE.”
Noah, this man of God, in his drunkenness tells us what about human
nature?
“Wherefore let him that thinketh he standeth take heed lest he fall.” I
Corinthians 10:12
v.22-23 “And Ham, the father of Canaan, saw the nakedness of
his father, and told his two brethren without. 23And Shem and
Japheth took a garment, and laid it upon both their shoulders, and went backward, and covered the
nakedness of their father; and their faces were backward, and they saw not their father’s nakedness.”
Ham saw the nakedness of his
father. Some would say, well, what’s so
bad about that? But the commentators
seem to think that there is more attached to this situation that the words of
the translation tell us. They tell us
that Ham looked upon Noah the same way that
Obadiah v.12 “But thou shouldest
not have looked on the day of thy brother in the day that he became a stranger;
neither shouldest thou have rejoiced over the children of Judah in the day of
their destruction; neither shouldest thou have spoken proudly in the day of
distress.”
Also they say that when Ham told his brothers the situation “OUTSIDE”,
literally translated “IN THE STREET”, he was scornful of his father, belittling
him. He did not follow the way of God
who tells us to:
“Honour thy father and thy
mother: that thy days may be long upon the land which the LORD thy God giveth
thee.” Exodus 20:12
“Brethren, if a man be overtaken in a fault, ye which are spiritual,
restore such an one in the spirit of meekness;
considering thyself, lest thou also be tempted.” Galatians
6:1
v.24-25 “And Noah awoke from his wine, and knew what
his younger son had done unto him. 25And he said, Cursed be
As we noted in our discussion of the
previous verses a curse was pronounced because of Ham’s lack of respect for his
father. This prohibition was continued
under the Mosaic Law:
Deuteronomy 27:16 “Cursed be he that setteth light by his father or his mother. And all the people shall say, Amen.”
And the commandment
to honor our fathers and mothers is carried over into the Law of Christ making
it a sin not to do so. Jesus repeats the
commandment five times in the gospels and Paul seals the requirement:
Ephesians 6:1-3 “Children, obey your
parents in the Lord: for this is right. 2Honour thy father and
mother; (which is the first commandment with promise;)
3That it may be well with thee, and thou mayest live long on the
earth.”
So God placed a curse on Ham and his
descendants, or did he? That is what men
who wish to justify their prejudice against dark skinned peoples have taught
falsely for generations but that is not what the scripture says. The dark skinned descendants of
v.26 “And he said, Blessed be the LORD God of Shem; and
Psalms 144:15 “HAPPY (or
blessed) is that PEOPLE, THAT IS IN SUCH A CASE; yea, HAPPY is
that PEOPLE, WHOSE GOD is THE LORD.”
The descendants of Shem
were indeed blessed in the Lord. It is
through Shem that the seed promise of Genesis
v.27 “God shall enlarge
Japheth, and he shall dwell in the tents of Shem; and
Japheth was indeed enlarged. As we noted earlier, the descendants of
Japheth include the majority of European and Asian peoples.
We’re not told what the second
phrase in this verse means but one commentator tells us that there are at least
two ways that the descendants of Japheth could live in tents of Shem. First of all first the Persians, Greeks and
Romans all conquered most of the lands of the descendants of Shem in the time
of man’s recorded history.
A second meaning could be related to
the fact that the descendants of Shem and Japheth (Ham too, as well) can now be
one in Christ. Not longer is there a
“MIDDLE WALL” that separates Jew and Gentile.
Ephesians 2:14-15 “For he is our
peace, who hath made both one, and hath broken down the middle wall of
partition between us; 15Having abolished in his flesh the enmity, even the law of
commandments contained in ordinances; for to make in himself of twain one new man, so
making peace;”
v.28-29 “And Noah lived after the flood three hundred
and fifty years. 29And all the days of Noah were nine hundred and
fifty years: and he died.”