The Story Through the Bible Gen 9

After flood reality

Noah and his family and the animals get off the ark and Noah builds an altar to the Lord. God promises ( after smelling that sweet sweet BBQ ) that he will never again curse the ground because of man. There is essentially a promise at the end of Chapter 8 that seasons and day/night cycles will continue to exist so long as the earth remains. Then we get to Ch 9 where God blesses Noah and his sons he gives them a command.

Genesis 9:1 ESV

And God blessed Noah and his sons and said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth.

Does this remind us of anything before?

Genesis 1:22–25 ESV

And God blessed them, saying, “Be fruitful and multiply and fill the waters in the seas, and let birds multiply on the earth.” And there was evening and there was morning, the fifth day. And God said, “Let the earth bring forth living creatures according to their kinds—livestock and creeping things and beasts of the earth according to their kinds.” And it was so. And God made the beasts of the earth according to their kinds and the livestock according to their kinds, and everything that creeps on the ground according to its kind. And God saw that it was good.

Genesis 1:28–30 ESV

And God blessed them. And God said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and subdue it, and have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over every living thing that moves on the earth.” And God said, “Behold, I have given you every plant yielding seed that is on the face of all the earth, and every tree with seed in its fruit. You shall have them for food. And to every beast of the earth and to every bird of the heavens and to everything that creeps on the earth, everything that has the breath of life, I have given every green plant for food.” And it was so.

Another change for the earth happens. God sanctions eating meat. Did you know he never said until this moment that man was allowed to eat anything but fruits and seeds? I’m not saying he forbid it… just that it was never mentioned as being allowed until now.

Genesis 9:3 ESV

Every moving thing that lives shall be food for you. And as I gave you the green plants, I give you everything.

There is an exception you don’t eat flesh that still has it’s life in it - the life is in the blood.

After the de-creation of the flood God is recognizing the reconstituted order of things. It’s playing the creation story over again as a theme where we recognize God’s work for us, outside our control. It brings Him alone Glory because Noah, nor anyone else had nothing to do with the “new creation” if you’ll permit me to loosely designate the post flood world as a new creation in our metaphore.

Then God tells them of the agreement he made - or the covenant - that’s another catechism question. What is a covenant? - an agreement between two or more persons.

Genesis 9:12–13 ESV

And God said, “This is the sign of the covenant that I make between me and you and every living creature that is with you, for all future generations: I have set my bow in the cloud, and it shall be a sign of the covenant between me and the earth.

Random trivia question if an ology is the study of something what is Toxology the study of? - answer Archery. Toxon is the Greek word for a bow. The bow we see here in the text is the same word for a bow like bow and arrow. The same makes that make a lot of sense right?

The Lexham Greek-English Interlinear Septuagint: Rahlfs Edition Chapter 9

τὸ τόξον μου τίθημι ἐν τῇ νεφέλῃ

This bow brings remembrance to all the earth and God about this covenant. Does God need to be reminded of anything? NO then why does it say when he sees it he will remember? To assure us that God continually remembers and abides by his promises.

We certainly need reminders but this is a one way covenant. We have no part of it. We remember God’s promises or should every time we see it, and we remember that God is also remembering - or actively thinking of his promises to us.

I recently watched a video about rainbows and it was absolutely amazing. I’m not sure how much was just my nerd side enjoying the science behind the rainbow or what but 2 things struck me.

Every rainbow is unique to the viewer - you don’t see the same rainbow as anyone else by the nature of the physics behind how a rainbow works.

The Rainbow from the ground never gets higher than 42 degrees from the horizon, but if you’re above the clouds you’ll see a whole circle.

God’s promises are to everyone but unique to each of us and the completion full circle is only possible from God’s perspective never ours.

Now… if we’re following along a pattern of creation and we have everything back with some rules what is likely to happen next in our story?

Failure, Fall… Fruit...

Genesis 9:20–21 ESV

Noah began to be a man of the soil, and he planted a vineyard. He drank of the wine and became drunk and lay uncovered in his tent.

Where was the forbidden fruit that Adam and Eve ate? - the middle of the garden Gen 2:9

Sometimes translation obscures these words being re-used but Noah “lays uncovered in the middle of his tent” is a clearer translation that shows the same “middle” word is used that was also used in Genesis.

Both Eve and Ham “saw” then Ham “told” his brothers of the nakedness where God asked who “told” Adam and Eve they were naked.

Adam and Eve “knew” they were naked and Noah when he gets up “knew” what his youngest son had done to him.

This whole incident leads of course to a brother against a brother when Noah proclaims curse for sin. Similar to the downfall of Cain and Abel after the curse of humanity. Here instead of murder one will be the slave of the other.

What did Ham do? sexually violate Noah - Noah’s wife - or just delight in the nakedness of his father’s humiliating state? the context of reactions seem like the latter one even though and it’s not really the focus.