A New Order With An Old Nature

The first 12 chapters of the Book of Genesis provide an outline that is completed by the rest of the Bible. Noah and his family spent almost a year on the Ark. During their journey, Ham had a son named Canaan, or at the least his wife became pregnant on the voyage, and the child was born after they disembarked from the Ark.

Chapter 9 of Genesis tells us of the birth of a new order. A new order with the same old nature.

1. The Establishment of a New Order

Genesis 9:1 “And God blessed Noah and his sons, and said unto them, Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth.”

Genesis 9:8–9 “And God spake unto Noah, and to his sons with him, saying, And I, behold, I establish my covenant with you, and with your seed after you;”

God blessed Noah and his sons, and He established a new covenant with them, a covenant with some interesting elements.

A. Animosity and a New Diet

Evidently, prior to the Flood, there was no animosity between man and the animal kingdom.

According to the commentaries I read, the reason that animosity did not exist was that prior to the Flood man did not eat meat. Genesis 9:3 seems to hint at that fact.

Genesis 9:3 “Every moving thing that liveth shall be meat for you; even as the green herb have I given you all things.”

According to a Bible commentator that I trust, John Phillips, the command to eat meat was to make man physically stronger in order to combat Satan and his evil minions.

Now, I really find that interesting, especially considering what Paul told Timothy about the falling away in the latter days.

1 Timothy 4:1 “Now the Spirit speaketh expressly, that in the latter times some shall depart from the faith, giving heed to seducing spirits, and doctrines of devils;”

1 Timothy 4:3–4 “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. For every creature of God is good, and nothing to be refused, if it be received with thanksgiving:”

We know that Satanic activity is increasing. Could that be coinciding with the increase of plant-based diets? More and more people are becoming vegan. What did Christ say? He said that when He returns, things would be like they were in the Days of Noah.

You can eat what you want to eat. You can be vegetarian, or you can be a meatatarian. God, specifically, after the Flood and as part of His covenant with Noah, instructed Noah and his family to eat meat. To abstain from eating meat as a form of meditation or as a means of harmony with nature, you are wrong. You are going against what God told Noah was okay.

There was only one restriction given.

Genesis 9:4 “But flesh with the life thereof, which is the blood thereof, shall ye not eat.”

The meat had to be cooked.

The ritualistic eating of flesh is against God’s covenant. I do not want to be too graphic, but let me give you a couple of examples, and both examples are pagan in nature.

Tatars

Aztecs

American Indian (Buffalo)

The downside of the new diet would be the animosity that would arise between man and the animal kingdom, and animosity that will cease during the Millennium reign of Christ.

Isaiah 11:6–9 “The wolf also shall dwell with the lamb, And the leopard shall lie down with the kid; And the calf and the young lion and the fatling together; And a little child shall lead them. And the cow and the bear shall feed; Their young ones shall lie down together:

And the lion shall eat straw like the ox. And the sucking child shall play on the hole of the asp, And the weaned child shall put his hand on the cockatrice’ den. They shall not hurt nor destroy in all my holy mountain: For the earth shall be full of the knowledge of the Lord, As the waters cover the sea.”

B. Government and the Sanctity of Life

Genesis 9:5–6 “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. Whoso sheddeth man’s blood, by man shall his blood be shed: for in the image of God made he man.”

God knew man needed law and order. In the antediluvian world, there is no indication of government.

As part of the new covenant, God instituted human governance, and the number one priority of human governance was the protection of life.

All life was to be protected. Now, do not get liberal on me. God had just given Noah the go ahead to eat flesh. The meat had to be cooked. To be cooked, it had to be killed. What God is describing is the careless taking of life. He is talking about murder, but He is also talking about the careless slaughter of the animal kingdom.

If a person carelessly kills, that person’s blood is required. In the new covenant with Noah, God established capital punishment, and the institution of human government was supposed to enforce God’s edict.

There are no exceptions. A murderer deserves to die, and God gave government the responsibility to enforce His covenant.

Let me give you a couple of examples of the US Government not living up to God’s expectations.

Buffalo

Andersonville Prison (Civil War)

Abortion

Noah and his sons had been told by God to spread out, to be fruitful, and to multiply. They were given the responsibility to execute God’s plan of justice. It is the beginning of government. The number one purpose of government is to protect lives, and government cannot do that if it does no maintain law and order.

I do not want to turn this into a civics lesson, but you need to listen to this. The United States of America was established as a republic. A republic is to be ruled by law. Popular opinion does not matter except at election time when you vote. Laws have been enacted all across America protecting life, but the government does not enforce or execute the proper justice, and our country is going to hell in a hand basket.

We have sanctuary cities for abortion where the unborn can be legally executed. Now, tell me. Is the government in those states upholding the number one priority of human government?

We have states and cities claiming to be migrant sanctuaries, flaunting and openly disobeying the immigration laws of the United States of America, and nothing is done. If you want to see where we are headed and maybe I will talk about it one of these days, look at the downfall of Rome, and I will say this again.

The United States of America is not mentioned in prophecy, and I can go ahead and tell you why. A society that parades lawlessness and boasts about it will not continue to exist, and the only thing saving America from judgment is the true church of Christ still being on earth.

God takes the institution of government seriously, and he talks about it in the New Testament too.

Romans 13:1–2 “Let every soul be subject unto the higher powers. For there is no power but of God: the powers that be are ordained of God. Whosoever therefore resisteth the power, resisteth the ordinance of God: and they that resist shall receive to themselves damnation.”

Romans 13:3–4 “For rulers are not a terror to good works, but to the evil. Wilt thou then not be afraid of the power? do that which is good, and thou shalt have praise of the same: For he is the minister of God to thee for good. But if thou do that which is evil, be afraid; for he beareth not the sword in vain: for he is the minister of God, a revenger to execute wrath upon him that doeth evil.”

The institution of government is supposed to maintain law and order. Clearly, man has changed God’s design for government and has substituted his own plan, a plan corrupted by sin, depravity, and degradation. Listen. Government cannot and will not be effective if there is no law and order, and if the value of life is not important, no government can withstand.

2. The Continued Depravity of Man

Genesis 6:5–7 “And God saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually. And it repented the Lord that he had made man on the earth, and it grieved him at his heart.

And the Lord said, I will destroy man whom I have created from the face of the earth; both man, and beast, and the creeping thing, and the fowls of the air; for it repenteth me that I have made them.”

God destroyed man because all men thought about was sin and evil, and there was no end to the depravity man could conceive.

Think of sin in terms of an acorn. Inside every acorn, there is the potential for an oak tree. Inside the heart of man, there is the potential for unthinkable sin. Jesus told us such.

Mark 7:20–21 “And he said, That which cometh out of the man, that defileth the man. For from within, out of the heart of men, proceed evil thoughts, adulteries, fornications, murders,”

Mark 7:22–23 “Thefts, covetousness, wickedness, deceit, lasciviousness, an evil eye, blasphemy, pride, foolishness: All these evil things come from within, and defile the man.”

Only 8 human beings and two of every animal were saved by God’s grace. The rest of the world could only think of evil. You would think those evil thoughts would have been eliminated by the Flood, but you would be wrong because within every acorn there is the potential for an oak tree.

Noah, after worshipping God, planted a vineyard. Noah made wine from the vineyard. He got drunk and passed out naked in his tent evidently for anyone to see as they walked by.

Ham, Noah’s youngest son, walked by and saw his father’s drunken, naked state, and instead of doing the honorable thing, he did the unthinkable. There is even an indication that Ham involved his young son in the act.

Genesis 9:18 “And the sons of Noah, that went forth of the ark, were Shem, and Ham, and Japheth: and Ham is the father of Canaan.”

Genesis 9:22–23 “And Ham, the father of Canaan, saw the nakedness of his father, and told his two brethren without. And 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.”

Genesis 9:24–25 “And Noah awoke from his wine, and knew what his younger son had done unto him. And he said, Cursed be Canaan; A servant of servants shall he be unto his brethren.”

Evidently, here is what happened.

Ham saw his father drunk and naked, and instead of covering him up, he made a spectacle of his father by telling his brothers.

Shem and Japheth would not disrespect their father and refused to look upon his nakedness and drunkedness, but Ham seemed to enjoy it.

The Bible saves us the sordid details, but verse 24 seems to indicate that Ham did more than look on Noah. Look closely at verse 24.

Genesis 9:24 “And Noah awoke from his wine, and knew what his younger son had done unto him.”

Now, we come to something interesting that indicates or might indicate that Ham involved Canaan in his debauchery.

Genesis 9:25 “And he said, Cursed be Canaan; A servant of servants shall he be unto his brethren.”

Noah, with God’s blessing evidently, curses his grandson, Canaan, and not Ham. Why?

(1) Ham possibly involved Canaan in the shame of what Ham perpetrated on Noah.

(2) God could not curse Ham because He had already blessed Ham.

Genesis 9:1 “And God blessed Noah and his sons, and said unto them, Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth.”

Ham was saved, but God, in His foreknowledge, knew what the descendants of Canaan would be, so Noah, in the power of God, placed a curse on them.

That might seem unfair, but God exists outside of time and knows all things. What do you know about Canaan and the Canaanites? If you read the entire chapter of Leviticus 18, you will get a picture of the curse placed on Canaan, and I believe a picture of what Ham did to Noah. I could be wrong, but Leviticus 18 definitely goes with Genesis 9.

Moses. basically, tells the Israelites of the curse of the Canaanites, and he told them not to do as the Canaanites did, and here is an example of what he told them that God had said for them not to do.

Leviticus 18:22 “Thou shalt not lie with mankind, as with womankind: it is abomination.”

Whatever happened between Noah, Ham, and Canaan was hated by God, and Noah placed a curse, honored by God, upon his grandson for it.

Exodus 34:6–7 “And the Lord passed by before him, and proclaimed, The Lord, The Lord God, merciful and gracious, longsuffering, and abundant in goodness and truth, Keeping mercy for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin, and that will by no means clear the guilty; visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children, and upon the children’s children, unto the third and to the fourth generation.”

Ham was saved, and while he was on the Ark, he would have never considered what was lurking in the deep recesses of his heart, but an oak tree was waiting to burst forth. Noah, while on the Ark, would have never dreamed that an oak tree of durnkedness was ready to burst forth from his heart, but when we let our guard down, sin can come to surface and explode into something we would have never imagined.

Just ask Ham, David, and Bathsheba, and the tragedy of sin for a Christian is that it always affects others, including our loved ones.