Genesis 9:1-17--God Makes a Covenant with Noah and His Descendants

Genesis 9:1-17
World English Bible

9 God blessed Noah and his sons, and said to them, “Be fruitful, multiply, and replenish the earth. 2 The fear of you and the dread of you will be on every animal of the earth, and on every bird of the sky. Everything that moves along the ground, and all the fish of the sea, are delivered into your hand. 3 Every moving thing that lives will be food for you. As I gave you the green herb, I have given everything to you. 4 But flesh with its life, that is, its blood, you shall not eat. 5 I will surely require accounting for your life’s blood. At the hand of every animal I will require it. At the hand of man, even at the hand of every man’s brother, I will require the life of man. 6 Whoever sheds man’s blood, his blood will be shed by man, for God made man in his own image. 7 Be fruitful and multiply. Increase abundantly in the earth, and multiply in it.”

8 God spoke to Noah and to his sons with him, saying, 9 “As for me, behold, I establish my covenant with you, and with your offspring after you, 10 and with every living creature that is with you: the birds, the livestock, and every animal of the earth with you, of all that go out of the ship, even every animal of the earth. 11 I will establish my covenant with you: All flesh will not be cut off any more by the waters of the flood. There will never again be a flood to destroy the earth.” 12 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: 13 I set my rainbow in the cloud, and it will be a sign of a covenant between me and the earth. 14 When I bring a cloud over the earth, that the rainbow will be seen in the cloud, 15 I will remember my covenant, which is between me and you and every living creature of all flesh, and the waters will no more become a flood to destroy all flesh. 16 The rainbow will be in the cloud. I will look at it, that I may 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 token of the covenant which I have established between me and all flesh that is on the earth.”

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The Noahic Covenant is one of the most important covenants for us as Gentiles as it is the covenant that most of the world still operates under.  That is, it was and is an eternal covenant with all of Noah's descendants in perpetuity, which includes all of us.  In this article, I'd like to go over the main points of the covenant (a word we still use today in contract law) and identify who the covenant is between, the terms of the covenant, if the covenant can be broken, who can break the covenant and what would be the consequences for breaking the covenant.

The covenant starts off with a positive command that was given to Man in the beginning of Genesis 2 before the Fall.  "Be fruitful and multiply.  Fill the earth and replenish it."  Priority one was a simple math problem of getting men and animals to repopulate the earth after the worldwide Flood.  What do we see today in rebellion to this message?  A push for population controls, less people to get married and have children, and more people who do get pregnant to have an abortion. In some parts of the world, we're even seeing voluntary or forced euthanasia, which stands in direct opposition to this command and others that will come soon in this covenant. I'm not even sure everyone rebelling against this covenant is doing it intentionally.  They may be totally unaware of God's commands here, but, the devil and his demons are aware and are working against God's will and purpose among the people of the world.

The second command was to reestablish the created order of things as Man was again commanded to have dominion over all other living and non-living things that are part of God's creation.  Mankind had abdicated its responsibility to reign and to rule over creation, to protect and defend it, but also to use it to help further the good purposes of God.  While we are humble servant-leaders serving under the greater authority of God, we are leaders over creation, not slaves to it.  While conservation and preservation are duties, they are secondary duties behind mankind doing what is necessary for its growth and survival.  Everything that has been put on this earth has been given to us for betterment, whether for aesthetic purposes or to use for resources in building or in consumption of food and drink, or simply for our enjoyment and pleasure.  We will be responsible for the choices we make with the resources God has entrusted us with as we are stewards of what He owns, but, it should be an easy decision for us when it comes to something that causes great harm to humans when trying to preserve the life of plants and animals.  That doesn't mean we shouldn't ever make and uncomfortable, sacrificial choice for the good of other living things, but, when it comes down to something that poses the risk of people dying, there really is no choice anymore.  As much as it is up to us, we must preserve human life above all else.  God has made the animal and plant life to be very adaptable to deal with finding new balances and to adapt to new habitats and usually gives animals the instinct to avoid humans.  Animals are usually more afraid of us than we are of them.

Now comes the first "negative command" that emphasizes the greater point and it is the first command in this covenant to come with a consequence.  God forbids the shedding of innocent blood (like Cain did with Abel).  No longer would the punishment simply be exile like it was with Cain.  Now, God will institute capital punishment and say that the one who kills (manslaughter or murder) is to be killed in exchange for the innocent life that was taken.  There is no other appropriate punishment for taking the life of one made in the image of God than to take the life of the manslayer (note, I am not calling such a person a murderer, because not all manslaughter is murder).  The Bible will later specify that killing in a just war, killing in defense of self or in the defense of other innocents, and taking a life in obedience to this command do not count as taking of innocent life.  However, something as simple as not keeping up with the stones on your roof and one of them coming loose and falling on someone's head and killing the passerby or failing to keep an ox known to gore people tied up (or failing to kill it to protect the public) or failing to secure the head of an ax that a friend before you use it or let someone else use it and it flies off and kills someone are all cases in which someone has been responsible for the taking of an innocent life, even if it's not the kind of action that we would normally think of as murder.

This covenant also institutes an important principle and explains an earlier restriction in the Garden of Eden and even from the exile out of the Garden to the time of the Flood (a restriction that men rebelled against).  In the past, men were only to eat fruits and vegetables, but, now the LORD is going to let them eat every kind of animal (both the ones we would call "clean" under the Law, and those we would call "unclean" under the Law).  Every animal was given to Noah and his family for food.  However, they were forbidden from eating or drinking blood because God wanted to make it clear to all men in all places at all times that "life is in the blood" and that blood was going to be something very important later.  It would be the blood of an innocent sacrifice that would atone for the life that was owed by a human guilty of sin and ultimately the blood of Jesus that would once and for all would take away all sin and give us eternal life because "Life is in the blood."  Blood is never something we are supposed to eat or drink, no matter what culture we are from.  To do so is rebellion against the LORD's explicit command here to Noah and his descendants.

We love to skip that part of the covenant and just focus on the promises that come in the next part without focusing on any of the requirements (isn't' that just like us wanting the blessings without wanting to obey?).  God makes a covenant with all the living things that were on the ark and all of their descendants to never again flood the entire earth with water.  He will never again seek to destroy all flesh in a single event like this until it is time for heaven and earth to pass away in a final judgment.  Covenants in the Bible were always accompanied by signs that the parties could look to and remember the covenant--building an altar, circumcision, or, in this case, the rainbow.  God says that this symbolized His bow that He used to make war and to judge, but He turned the bow so that the side with the string is facing us which is a declaration of peace.  You can't shoot anyone with a bow if the bowstring is facing away from you.  This also means that God is making a promise to take the judgment that we deserve upon Himself.  This will ultimately be fulfilled by Christ on the cross.  Though the rainbow is a reminder for us, God said that He was placing it in the sky as a reminder to Himself that whenever it rained, the rain storm was never again to turn into a global flood event.  As long as summer and winter and springtime and harvest remained and sunrise and sunset remained, the earth would also remain.  A day is coming when there will be an end to days and seasons, but that day will be brought about by the hand of God, not the hand of men.  God put no conditions on mankind to benefit from this promise.  This part of the covenant comes with no conditions--it is a requirement that God takes solely upon Himself.  We will see later that God surrounds His throne with a rainbow of living color to be a constant reminder to Himself of this covenant.  It's not a surprise that Satan has tried to pervert the meaning of this sign and turn it into a symbol of wickedness and rebellion to see if he can get God to think about something else other than His unconditional covenant that He made with man when He sees the rainbow and to get us to forget this covenant that God made with us when we see it.