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God's Promise to Noah
1 God said to Noah and his sons:
I am giving you my blessing. Have a lot of children and grandchildren, so people will live everywhere on this earth. 2All animals, birds, reptiles, and fish will be afraid of you. I have placed them under your control, 3and I have given them to you for food. From now on, you may eat them, as well as the green plants that you have always eaten. 4 But life is in the blood, and you must not eat any meat that still has blood in it. 5-6 I created humans to be like me, and I will punish any animal or person that takes a human life. If an animal kills someone, that animal must die. And if a person takes the life of another, that person must be put to death.
7 I want you and your descendants to have many children, so people will live everywhere on earth.
8Again, God said to Noah and his sons:
9I am going to make a solemn promise to you and to everyone who will live after you. 10This includes the birds and the animals that came out of the boat. 11I promise every living creature that the earth and those living on it will never again be destroyed by a flood.
12-13The rainbow that I have put in the sky will be my sign to you and to every living creature on earth. It will remind you that I will keep this promise forever. 14When I send clouds over the earth, and a rainbow appears in the sky, 15I will remember my promise to you and to all other living creatures. Never again will I let floodwaters destroy all life. 16When I see the rainbow in the sky, I will always remember the promise that I have made to every living creature. 17The rainbow will be the sign of that solemn promise.
Noah and His Family
18Noah and his sons, Shem, Ham, and Japheth, left the boat. Ham later had a son named Canaan. 19All people on earth are descendants of Noah's three sons.
20Noah farmed the land and was the first to plant a vineyard. 21One day he got drunk and was lying naked in his tent. 22Ham entered the tent and saw him naked, then went back outside and told his brothers. 23Shem and Japheth put a robe over their shoulders and walked backwards into the tent. Without looking at their father, they placed it over his body.
24When Noah sobered up and learned what his youngest son had done, 25he said,
“I now put a curse on Canaan!
He will be the lowest slave
of his brothers.
26I ask the Lord my God
to bless Shem
and make Canaan his slave.
27I pray God will give Japheth
more and more land
and let him take over
the territory of Shem.
May Canaan be his slave.”
28Noah lived 350 years after the flood 29and died at the age of 950.
Reflect
After “every living thing on the face of the earth was wiped out” in chapter seven, and in chapter eight God “remembering Noah”, chapter nine of theStory begins “then God blessed Noah”, and as at creation, reaffirms to Noah his desire that man “Be fruitful and multiply… and fill the earth.”(Genesis1:28).
Subsequently more information is given. The animals will now fear. You can add meat to your diet though not with the lifeblood still in it. There will be an account demanded of every life taken, particularly the life of another human being because we bear the image of God (v 6). Then to top it off God makes a covenant that he will never again destroy the earth with a flood and he gives Noah the rainbow in the sky as a symbol of this promise.
The rainbow represents the third covenant God has made with man so far. In the first God promised a solution to man’s sinful nature when he told Eve that her offspring would crush the serpent’s head (Genesis 3:15). This is Jesus defeating Satan and sin by rising from the dead.
The second comes in Genesis 6:18-19 when God promises to preserve life through Noah.
Now God makes this third covenant saying, “Never again will the waters become a flood to destroy all life” (Genesis 9:15). In Isaiah 54, God even refers back to this covenant saying, “like the days of Noah” no matter what happens my “unfailing love for you will not be shaken nor my covenant of peace removed” (vv 9-10).
God keeps his promises; moreover, he gives us a Saviour to lead us to the Father (John 14:6) as the ultimate fulfillment of all those promises from Genesis 3:15 to Jesus’ last words, “Yes, I am coming soon” (Revelation 22:20). Hold on!
Respond
God of promise; you are the one who has made a covenant of peace with your people. In trusting you may I overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit, depending on your son Jesus for all that I need to serve you today. Amen.
James Paterson
James works as a visual artist. His current body of work is a series of metal wire sculptures called Prayer Machines which are whimsically ambiguous machine-like objects that give expression to mystery. “I love to share the gospel message, using art as a bridge, to encourage people in their relationship with Jesus.” He and Lynn have four young adult children. Publications Jim’s Grandiose Big Bible Picture Book (Bastian Books ,2007)