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About Jesus Steve Sweetman Chapter 9
God's
Covenant With Noah (ch. 9:1 - 17)
In verse 1 God tells Noah the same thing that He told
Adam. He said, "be
fruitful and increase in number and fill the earth."
The JKV uses the word "replenish" instead of the word
"fill" when God speaks to both Adam and Noah.
Some say that this suggests one reason for the Gap Theory.
This theory states, as noted in my notes on Genesis 1:1 and2,
that there is a gap between these two verses.
Prior to Genesis 1:2 there was a pre-adamic race that fell from
God's grace resulting in judgment and God destroying the earth. Verse 2 tells us about one major change that Noah and
his family experienced in relation to animals.
If you remember, in Genesis 1:28 God told Adam to
"rule" over the animals. This tells me that man had authority
over the animals. That
appears to have now changed. Animals,
including birds and fish would now be afraid of man.
Another major point to be made here is that now man could eat
animals. Prior to this, man
was vegetarian. Verse 3 carries on with the same point that is found
in verse 2. God said that
prior to this He had only given man vegetation to eat, but they could
eat everything. Any kind of
animal, bird, or fish was
now available for man to eat. Verse 4 puts some exceptions to the
"everything" that Noah and his family could eat.
They could not eat meat that still had "its lifeblood in
it." Note the word
"lifeblood." The
KJV uses the word "life."
The Hebrew word translated here is "nephish."
It's the same word used in Genesis 2:7 when God breathed into
Adam and he became a "living soul."
The words "living soul, or being" is the Hebrew word
"nephish." The
Hebrew word "nephish" is often translated as soul throughout
the King James Bible. Blood
and soul are thus closely related. Blood is important to God.
Besides God's breath of life, it's the blood that provides the
life for man and animal. When
Cain killed Abel, God said that Abel's "blood was crying from the
ground." Blood is holy
to God. It must not be
eaten. Yet with this in
mind, Jesus spoke of us drinking His blood.
Of course Jesus wasn’t' speaking literally.
Still, knowing how God viewed the importance of blood, this
statement from Jesus is significant. Verse 5 continues the point about blood, but adds to
it. God says that He will
have every man, and even every animal give account of himself when they
take the life blood from a human being.
So, if a human, or an animal kills a human, they will have to
give account of that to God some day.
How this will look when it comes to the animals, I don't know.
This tells me that animals are a living soul as man.
They are both eternal and spiritual in nature.
They weren't created in God's likeness and image, but both man
and animals had the same breath of life breathed into them that made
them both a living soul.
Verse 6 says, "whoever sheds the blood of man,
by man shall his blood be shed; for in the image of God has God created
man". Many people
point this verse to back up their thinking on capital punishment. The
text says that if man sheds the blood of another man, then that man's
blood will be shed. I'm not
one hundred percent sure this is talking about capital punishment here,
but I can certainly see how one can derive capital punishment from this
statement. Note the reason why the killers life then should be
taken. It is because he
killed someone who "God made in His image."
It's more than just the killing of a man.
It's the fact that the dead man was made in God's image, and
therefore, you're killing someone whom God has made, something similar
to God Himself. Verse 7 starts with the words "as for you",
as in "as for you Noah." These
words relate this verse to the last verse.
God just spoke about man and animals killing man, but for Noah,
this was not to be. Instead
of killing, God told Noah again to increase in number and fill the
earth. Instead of killing
life, Noah was to bring forth new life. Noah was to "fill the earth" with people.
This filling was actually a refilling, or replenishing, as the
JKV puts it. That's why some
people believe in the Gap Theory, that is the gap between Genesis 1:1
and Genesis 1:2. They
suggest that when Adam was told to fill the earth, as Noah was here, it
was also a replenishing, as the KJV puts it as well. In verses 8 through 11 God speaks to Noah and tells
him that He is making a covenant. God,
at this point made a covenant with Himself.
He agreed with Himself never to kill life from the earth with a
flood of water again. Note
that this covenant was not made to man only.
It was made to all the animals as well.
This tells me that animals are important to God, and is just
another point in my defense that animals are living souls, both eternal
and spiritual in nature. One thing we note here is that God said that He would
not kill life on earth with a flood, but He would eventually kill life
on earth, or at least most of life, as seen in the book of Revelation.
This will happen at the end of the age, and as Peter said, it
would happen with fire (2 Peter 3:7). Verse 12 once again states that this covenant is to
both man and animals, and it will last for all generations, that is, for
all time. With any covenant,
something is provided to confirm the covenant, and in this case, God
said that He would provide a rainbow in the sky as a sign to this
covenant. Now a rainbow is a natural phenomena, and is often the case,
God uses natural things, not supernatural things when He deals with man
and animals. Another example
is when God dried the earth of the water.
He used a wind. Another
thing is that man no longer lived long lives after the flood. God said
that man's life would be 120 years. This was most likely due to a
natural fact, that being, the umbrella effect of the water that no
longer existed above the sky was gone.
The sun now would have an aging process on man. Verse 13 speaks of this rainbow.
So every time we see a rainbow in the sky, it speaks to God's
covenant. The rainbow in
itself tells us that God is alive and well. Verses 14 and 16 speak of this rainbow from God's
perspective. It's not only a
reminder to us about God's covenant, it's a reminder to God Himself.
He made a covenant with both man and animals never to flood the
earth again with water, and every time God sees the rainbow this
covenant will be brought to His attention. This section ends with verse 17 that says, "this
is the sign of the covenant I have established between me and all life
on earth." Once again,
this covenant was not for man alone.
The animals are included. They
entered the ark with Noah and they left the ark with Noah.
The
Sons Of Noah (ch. 9:18 - 29) Verse 18 tells us the
names of Noah's three sons. They
were Shem, Ham, and Japheth. The
name Shem means, a name or a mark, or some distinguishing mark.
It is said that Shem's line of ancestry ended up in Verse 18 specifically
says that Ham was the father of Canaan. This is mentioned here due
to what will come later on in this chapter. Verse 19 generalizes what
I've commented on in verse 18. It
just states that from these three sons came all the people of the world.
That means you and I are descendents of one of these men. Verse 20 tells us what
work Noah involved himself in. The
text says that he worked with the soil.
It also says that he planted a vineyard.
The NIV doesn't say it this way, but the text could also read
that he was the first to plant a vineyard.
We probably can't know for sure, but if Noah was the first to
plant a vineyard, that means no one drank wine prior to this date. It
might also give Noah an excuse for what takes place in this chapter. In verse 21 we learn that
Noah drank some of the wine he made from his vineyard.
As a result, he got drunk. If
he was the first to plant a vineyard, he might well have been the first
to get drunk. We can't say
for sure. Along with being
drunk, the text says that he laid uncovered in his tent.
Laying uncovered means laying naked.
It is only speculation why Noah was naked.
Some might suggest that he just undressed himself and went to
sleep. Others might suggest
some sexual activity going on. We
just don't know. The Bible speaks lots
about getting drunk. It
teaches us not to get drunk. It
teaches us about the problems of drunkenness.
The Bible does not teach us not to drink.
I will not get involved in the discussion here, but clearly,
Jesus drank wine without getting drunk. Verse 22 tells us that
Ham saw Noah's nakedness. Why
Ham entered Noah's tent is uncertain.
All we know is that he did. Many
scholars tell us that the Hebrew suggest that Ham didn't just see his
father naked. The Hebrew
word translated as "saw" means "a long gaze" which
in the eyes of some suggest some deviousness on Ham's part.
But that's somewhat speculative as well. Verses 22 and 23 tell us
that Ham went out to get his brothers.
Then Shem and Japheth took some kind of garment, put it over
their shoulders, walked backwards so they could not see their father's
naked body and covered Noah up. They
seem to go out of their way to cover up their father without looking at
him. This suggests to me
that Shem and Japheth felt that it was wrong to see their naked father.
Or else they felt embarrassed by seeing their naked father. Verses 24 tells us that
when Noah woke up, he was very upset with what his youngest son had done
to him. There's some debate
over the term "youngest son".
It was Ham who first seemed to discover that his father was
naked. We tend to think that
Ham was the middle son, although it might be possible that when the
three sons are mentioned in the Bible, they are not mentioned in order
of their age. They're always
mentioned as Shem Ham, and Japheth, Ham being the middle son. Whatever the case Noah
was upset with this son because he did something to Noah while Noah was
naked. From the text, the only thing we know that any son did to Noah
was to cover him up without seeing his nakedness.
That doesn't seem to be anything worth getting upset over.
So, many scholars suggest something else had to have happened
before the other two sons came to cover up Noah. These
scholars suggest that Ham engaged in some kind of homosexual activity.
We don't know for sure what really happened.
All we know is that Noah was very upset with this son, and we
know this son was Ham because of what Noah says next. In verse 25 Noah cursed
Canaan, the son of Ham. The
question is always asked, "why did Noah curse Noah continues in verse
26 by saying, "blessed be the Lord the God of Shem.
May These seemingly prophetic
words spoken by Noah continue in verse 27.
Noah says, "may God extend the Verse 27 also says,
"may Japheth live in the tents of Shem."
This could be prophetic. Japheth
could represent what would some day become the Gentile nations.
We do know that Abraham came through the lineage of Shem.
Thus, the Gentiles, as in Gentile Christians, would be grafted
into the people of God, or in other words, "living in Shem's
tents." We also note that I won't get involved in
this discussion now, but here, early in human history we see the idea of
a curse. Many people believe
today that our descendents can be cursed of God as well.
Other's believe that no such curse exists for the Christian. Verse 28 tells us that
Noah lived 350 years after the flood.
He would have seen many of his sons descendents. |