After the Flood
Genesis 9
In the previous chapters, we see how God was not happy with the state of his creation and decided to wipe out everything on the face of the earth, save Noah and his family. Many people view this story of Noah and the ark as a wonderful children’s story about Noah building an ark and filling it up with the animals, but in reality this is a terrifying and tragic story of God’s wrath being poured out. In fact, this is by far the worst holocaust in the history of the world. Can you imagine how Noah and his family must have felt as the waters rose and everything about their prior lives (including the people they knew) was destroyed? They probably had no idea how long they were going to be on the ark (it was over a year) and what the future held for them. And once the water finally receded and they were able to step back out onto dry land, how strange it must have been entering all alone into a whole new world.
At the start of Genesis chapter 9, as Noah and his family begin life on earth all over again, God blesses them and gives them the same commandment that he gave to Adam and Eve back in Genesis chapter 1, to “be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth.” In other words, God is telling them “let’s start over.” As we read through the rest of chapter 9 there are a number of interesting points to observe:
Although the command to be fruitful and multiply is the same, it is a different world. Adam and Eve began in paradise, whereas Noah’s family begins in a world that has been infected with sin.
God states that all animals will now be fearful of humanity, leading us to believe that this wasn’t the case prior to the flood.
In Genesis 1, God gave plants as a food source, God now gives permission to eat animals.
In order to prevent some of the evil that was occurring before the flood, God states that any man who takes another man’s life shall have his own life taken.
God makes a covenant that he will never again destroy the entire earth and everything on it with a flood (God says that whenever he sees the rainbow, he will remember this covenant).
Chapter 9 ends with the story of Noah getting drunk and passing out naked in his tent. One of Noah’s sons, Ham, sees him there and somehow dishonors him, while the other two sons respectfully cover up their father. This results in Noah later cursing Ham’s son Canaan and his descendants. At the same time, Noah blesses Shem and Japheth.
This story reflects that sin still exists on the earth, a fact that will become abundantly clear in the subsequent chapters of Genesis and continues to hold true to this day. We will see throughout the Bible that God continues to hate sin, but that he has a plan that will provide a way for us sinful people to be reconciled to God. Here in Genesis chapter 9, when Noah blesses Shem and his descendants, we see an allusion to the continuance of the messianic line (through Noah and his son Shem) that will lead to the Savior, Jesus Christ, who will be God’s final remedy for sin.
written by Joe Hust