Previous Lesson -- Next Lesson
GENESIS 9
The sanctity of life in its blood and God’s first covenant with all flesh, multiplying upon the earth. Why Noah cursed Canaan. -- (DATE: Around 1657 after Adam, up till 1757 after Adam)
DISCOVER Genesis 9: With this resolution in mind, to never again destroy all mankind through a flood, God blessed Noah and his sons, commanding them to be fruitful, multiply and fill the earth. He instilled fear and dread of them in every living creature that had come out from the ark, for he gave them all for food to Noah and his descendants, in addition to all the green plants. However, he forbade them to eat the blood of the beasts, for in it was their life. And for the lifeblood of man he would require a reckoning from each beast or man that spilled it, proclaiming that any man that sheds the blood of another, that man’s blood would be shed by another man. For he, God, had made man in his own image. With this, he reiterated his blessing on Noah and his sons that they should be fruitful and multiply on earth. -- And then he told them that he, the LORD God, would establish a covenant with them and all their offspring and every living creature with them that he would never again blot out all living beings through the waters of a flood. Nor would there ever again be a flood that would destroy the earth. As a sign for this covenant, which he, the LORD God, had set up with mankind, God set a colorful bow into the clouds (the rainbow), so that everyone who looked at it, including God himself, would remember this everlasting covenant he had made with all living creatures of the flesh that is on earth. -- And so Noah and his three sons and their wives went forth to populate the earth, making them the fathers of all the people dispersed across the whole earth. -- Noah then settled and became a man of the soil, planting and tending a vineyard. He made wine from the grapes, and one day became so dunk from it, that he collapsed naked in his tent. His youngest son, Ham, who was the father of Canaan, saw him lying there unclothed and went to tell his two brothers. They gathered a blanket and put it onto their shoulders and went to their father’s tent. There they entered walking backwards, so that they wouldn’t spy his nakedness, and then they covered him with the blanket. When Noah awoke from his drunkenness and learned of his son’s behavior, he grew angry and cursed Ham’s son, Canaan, to forever be a servant of servants to his brothers. At the same time he was very pleased with Shem and Japheth, blessing them. He blessed Shem, that God might become his God and that he might make Canaan his servant. He blessed Japheth, so that God might enlarge his family and let him dwell with his brother Shem, and have Canaan as his servant. Thus Noah lived for 350 years after the flood had ended until he died at 950 years of age.
PRAYER: Our almighty God, you are a God of truth and faithfulness. Thank you that you set up this covenant with Noah and all those who came out of the ark with him, to never again destroy all life on earth. And you have kept your covenant for millennia since then. Thank you that you gave us meat from animals for food and clearly forbade any killing of humans as a capital crime. And thank you that through your command to Noah and his sons you made sure that the earth would again be populated as it is today. We bow down before your wisdom and worship you for your goodness and justice. Amen.
QUESTION 9: What is the secret of the rainbow and what does it remind God and us about?