Genesis
chapter 9 begins with Noah and his sons receiving instruction from
God. Just as Adam was instructed, Noah is essentially starting over
again. His first instruction, “Be
fruitful and increase in number and fill the earth“.
Obviously the earth needed to be repopulated. Next, God tells them
something completely different about this post-flood world. “The
fear and dread of you will fall upon all the beasts of the
earth…all the birds…every creature that moves on the ground and
upon all the fish…“.
Animals will now fear man, and God adds, “Everything
that lives and moves will be food for you. Just as I gave you green
plants, I now give you everything“.
Man is no longer a vegetarian and in order to give animals a chance
at survival they are given instinctive fear of man. We are not given
an explanation, but something has changed and man’s diet after the
flood includes meat. It is likely that all the animals were
vegetarians before the flood as well! Perhaps the ground no longer
provided the necessary nutrients, or perhaps God wanted to use the
shedding of blood as a powerful lesson to all of nature, just how far
we have fallen. We buy our meat in nice neat little packages now,
but not long ago preparation for each meal would have been a bloody
reminder of our need for atonement with God.
Next,
God establishes the responsibility of capitol punishment, “And
from each man, too, I will demand an accounting for the life of his
fellow man. Whoever sheds the blood of a man, by man shall his blood
be shed; for in the image of God has God made man“.
Later through Moses the law is codified to make distinctions between
murder and accidental death, but the principal is established here.
Man is made in the image of God, we are unique. Earlier God tells
us, He will demand an accounting for the lifeblood of all (animals
included), but He does not elevate the life of the animals to the
equivalence of the life of man.
Next,
God establishes a covenant with Noah and his sons, “I
now establish my covenant with you and with your descendents after
you and with every living creature…never again will there be a
flood to destroy the earth… This will be a sign of the covenant…I
have set my rainbow in the clouds…whenever the rainbow appears in
the clouds, I will see it and remember the everlasting covenant“.
Rain would now be a regular occurrence, and God knows that man’s
nature would be to start to build arks every time we hear thunder, so
he gives us this promise. The rainbow becomes a symbol of God’s
promise and mercy.
The
chapter ends with an unflattering picture of Noah. “Noah,
a man of the soil, proceeded to plant a vineyard. When he drank some
of the wine, he became drunk and lay uncovered inside his tent“.
He is passed out and naked and we read, “Ham,
the father of Canaan, saw his fathers nakedness and told his two
brothers“.
“Shem
and Japheth took a garment and…walked in backwards and covered
their father’s nakedness“.
We don’t know what Ham (and probably Canaan) did, but “When
Noah awoke from his wine and found out what his youngest son had done
to him, he said, ‘Cursed is Canaan! The lowest of slaves will he be
to his brothers“.
Noah also blesses the descendants of Shem and Japheth. Here is a
lesson of both the consequences of getting drunk as well as an
example of honoring our parents regardless of their imperfections.
Young or old, we are blessed simply by honoring our father and
mother.