Genesis 9

Genesis 9:1-7

5. The Beginning of the Beginning Again (Genesis 9:1-7): The New World-Order. (This last felicitous phrase is borrowed from Skinner, ICCG, 169).

And God blessed Noah and his sons, and said unto them, Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth. 2 And the fear of you and the dread of you shall be upon every beast of the earth, and upon every bird of the heavens; with all wherewith the ground teemeth, and all the fishes of the sea, into your hand are they delivered. 3 Every moving thing that liveth shall be food for you; as the green herb have I given you all. 4 But flesh with the life thereof, which is the blood thereof, shall ye not eat. 5 And surely your blood, the blood of your lives, will I require; at the hand of every beast will I require it: and at the hand of man, even at the hand of every man’s brother, will I require the life of man. 6 Whoso sheddeth man’s blood, by man shall his blood be shed; for in the image of God made he man. 7 And you, be fruitful, and multiply; bring forth abundantly in the earth, and multiply therein.

(1) The Divine blessing bestowed on Noah and his sons is an almost verbal repetition of the primeval blessing bestowed upon mankind (Genesis 1:28). It is conferred on Noah and his sons (and not upon their wives directly) as the new heads of the race. It is significant also that here (in contrast to Genesis 1:22) animals are not included in the Divine benediction. Man’s dominion over the animals is reaffirmed, but now in the form of fear and dread on their part; into your hand are they delivered, that is, the power of life and death over the subhuman orders is reestablished in man as lord tenant of the earth. (JB, 25,n.): The laws of nature are stabilized again. Aware of man’s continuing malice God nevertheless preserves what he himself has made and, in spite of man, will lead it to the goal that he has determined. In the beginning man was blessed and was consecrated lord of creation; he is now blessed and consecrated anew, but his rule is tranquil no longer. In this new age man will be at war with the beasts and with his fellows, The peace of Paradise will not return until -the latter days,-’ Isaiah 11:6.

(2) The central injunction here is the authorization of the eating of animal flesh for food: every moving thing that liveth shall be food for you (thus excluding such as had died of themselves or been slain by other beasts: cf. Exodus 22:31, Leviticus 22:8). We see no reason for assuming, as some commentators do, that man had been permitted only a vegetarian diet prior to the Flood: Skinner, for instance, speaks of the central injunction here as the removal of the prohibition of animal food. Where is any such prohibition to be found in previous Chapter s of Genesis? Certainly Genesis 1:29-30, while expressly authorizing vegetarian food, does not in itself exclude the eating of meat, (But what about the expression, Genesis 9:3, as the green herb I have given you all? The JB renders it: Every living and crawling thing shall provide food for you, no less than the foliage of plants. This makes sense). The view that animal food was permitted prior to the Flood is supported by the following matters. (a) the distinction between clean and unclean animals (this certainly implies some correlation between the more hygienic kinds of animal flesh and the use of it for food); (b) the language of Gen 1:29 does not explicitly forbid the use of animal flesh for food; (c) shortly after the Fall, animals by Divine direction were slain for sacrifice, and hence probably for food also (by no means an unwarrantable inference from Genesis 4:4); (d) the sufficient reason for emphasis on the authorization of animal food in Genesis 9:3 is that it is subjoined with the restrictions which follows (Genesis 9:4); however, it affords no ground for assuming the existence of previous limitations; (e) if the eating of animal flesh was supposed to heighten human sensuality (carnality), certainly vegetarianism thought to have been practised exclusively before the Flood, was no less productive of the same effect, as evident from the licentiousness and violence of the Line of Cain. We find no reason, therefore, for assuming that the human race was by Divine ordination or by any other authority restricted to a vegetarian diet before the Flood or after that event.

(3) The Law Prohibiting the Eating of Blood (Genesis 9:4), that is, the eating of flesh from which the blood has not been properly drained. This prohibition, supposed to have been enjoined on all peoples through Noah who preceded Abraham by some ten generations (hence as universal in scope as the Rainbow Covenant), was later incorporated in the Mosaic legislation (Leviticus 3:17; Leviticus 7:26-27; Leviticus 17:10-14; Leviticus 19:26; Deuteronomy 12:16; Deuteronomy 12:23-24; Deuteronomy 15:23), and subsequently was imposed upon Gentile converts to Christianity by the authority of the Holy Spirit and the Apostles (Acts 15:21; Acts 15:28-29). Among the reasons for the original promulgation of this law undoubtedly were the following: (a) the desire to guard against cruelty to animals; (b) the design to protect human life by demonstrating the inviolability which attaches in God’s sight even to the lives of lower animals; (c) the intention to emphasize the sanctity of all life as God’s most precious gift; (d) the design to point up the intimate connection between the blood and the life which subsists even in the animal world (cf. Leviticus 17:10-13); (e) the design to emphasize especially its symbolic use in relation to atonement for sin (Hebrews 9:22). Is not this law intended to enforce the truth in a special way that all life is sacred and must be restored to God before the flesh can be eaten? (W. Robertson Smith (RSFI, 338) suggests that this law originally may have been directed, at least in part, against the superstition that by eating the blood in which is the life of the totem animal, the worshiper appropriated the life and shared the attributes of the god thus worshiped.)

(4) The Law against Murder (Genesis 9:5-7). (Murder is rightly defined as the taking of another man’s life on one’s own authority and with malice aforethought), (a) Whoso sheddeth, i.e., wilfully and unwarrantedly, and not simply accidentally (manslaughter, Numbers 35:11), or judicially, for that is ordained here by the wording of the law itself. (Man’s blood, literally the blood of man).* By man shall his blood be shed:* Whitelaw (PCG, 141): Not openly and directly by God, but by man himself, acting of course as God’s instrument and agentan instruction which involved the setting up of the magisterial office by whom the sword might be borne. (The law here certainly harks back to the principle of blood revenge which had existed from the beginning [as implicit in the words of Cain, Genesis 4:14-15] and has continued to be practised for many centuries among primitive peoples, although in the verse before us the manner of execution is not specified. According to this procedure, when a murder was committed, the victim’s relatives, usually by direction of the elders of the tribe, were bound to retaliate by taking the life of the murderer. This was earliest man’s only means of preventing wholesale murder. He who took from his victim God’s greatest gift and man’s greatest possession, life itself, must needs forfeit his own life as the only penalty sufficient to restore the balance of justice.) (JB, 25 n.): The blood of every creature belongs to God, cf. Lev. l:5f., but man’s in particular because man was made to God’s likeness. God will avenge human blood, cf. Genesis 4:10, and delegates this office to man himself to be exercised through the state, or, Numbers 35:19 f., through the individual -avenger of blood.-’ Murder has never been tolerated by any ethnic group because the right to life is man’s fundamental right, and it is so because he was made in the image of God (Genesis 9:6). Whitelaw (PCG, 141): Shall. Not merely a permissive legalising, but an imperative command enjoining, capital punishment, the reason for which follows: for in the image of God made he man. Some expositors have found nothing in this law but an ordinary prophecy that the shedding of blood would always bring reprisal in civil law (in the form of capital punishment). It is plain, however, that the law against murder was a positive Divine enactment, and not a prophecy in any sense, as well as the penalty for its violation. Whether Christ, in any of his teaching, has given us the right to believe that the penalty has been removed, is yet an open question. Given to Noah, this statute, however, was designed for the universal family of man, until repealed by the Authority who ordained it. Not having been exclusively a Jewish statute, the abrogation of the Mosaic economy does not affect its stability. Christ, not having come to destroy the fundamental laws of Heaven, may fairly be presumed to have left this standing. Inferences from the spirit of Christianity have no validity against an express Divine commandment. The principle of Atonement, operating between Heaven and earth, seems always to have been life for life. (It should be noted too that a beast which might kill a human being was to forfeit its life, just as any human murderer must do: cf. Genesis 9:5, Exodus 21:28-29). To summarize the precepts given here: animals could be killed for food, but the blood must not be eaten; though the life of animals might be taken, human life was to be held sacred. Some would hold that we have in addition to the law of abstinence from blood, and the law prohibiting murder, the recognition of civil authority (cf. Romans 13:4).

REVIEW QUESTIONS

See Genesis 9:28-29.

Genesis 9:8-17

6. The Rainbow Covenant (Genesis 9:8-17).

8 And God spake unto Noah, and to his sons with him, saying, 9 And I, behold, I establish my covenant with you, and with your seed after you; 10 and with every living creature that is with you, the birds, the cattle, and every beast of the earth with you; of all that go out of the ark, even every beast of the earth. 11 And I will establish my covenant with you; neither shall all flesh be cut off any more by the waters of the flood; neither shall there any more be a flood to destroy the earth, 12 And God said, this is the token of the covenant which I make between me and you and every living creature that is with you, for perpetual generations; 13 I do set my bow in the cloud, and it shall be for a token of a covenant between me and the earth, 14 And it shall come to pass, when I bring a cloud over the earth, that the bow shall be seen in the cloud, 15 and I will remember my covenant which is between me and you and every living creature of all flesh; and the waters shall no more become a flood to destroy all flesh, 16 And the bow shall be in the cloud; and I will look upon it, that I may remember the everlasting covenant between God and every living creature of all flesh that is upon the earth. 17 And God said unto Noah, This is the token of the covenant which I have established between me and all flesh that is upon the earth.

(1) Note the word covenant. It designates, not a compact, not a contract, not even an agreement, but. a dispensation of Divine grace to be appropriated by human faith. The God of the Bible is a covenant God. God overtures and states the conditions: man accepts the conditions and thus enters into covenant relationship with God.

(2) The Pre-Diluvian Covenant (Genesis 6:18-22). In Genesis 9:18 here we have the first occurrence of the word berith, translated covenant, in the Scriptures. God informs Noah that He will establish His covenant with him. It is a sovereign dispensing of grace on God’s part, and the security arises from the action of God. It is God’s covenant, and He establishes it. Flowing from this dispensation to Noah there are corresponding obligations. Noah and his family were to come into the ark and he was to bring with him the specified number of animals and birds and creeping things. Thus there is no conflict between sovereign administration of grace and ensuing obligations (NBD, 264).

(3)* The Post-Diluvian Covenant* (Genesis 9:8-17). (a) This covenant is unconditional, that is, unilateral: no conditions are specified as terms on which the Divine grace bestowed is made contingent. (b) It is conceived and established by God Himself. There is no human contribution to the agency by which the promises are fulfilled. The sign does not even take the form of an ordinance to be performed by man at the divine behest. The bow in the cloud is for the purpose of attesting the faithfulness of God and, in anthropomorphic terms, is to bring to God’s remembrance His covenant promise. It is not a sign over which men exercise any control. (c) It is universal in its scope. It embraces not only Noah but also his seed after him and every living creature. It is a covenant between God and all flesh. (d) It is everlasting. No uncertainty or mutability can belong to God’s unconditional promise. (e) The bow in the cloud is the sign of the covenant. (f) The essence of the covenant is that the earth shall never again be devastated by a Flood (cf. Genesis 8:21-22).

(4) The Bow in the Cloud: the token or sign of the covenant, that is to say, of the Divine promise. (a) Was this the first appearance of the rainbow? We think not. Experience informs us that a rainbow has always been formed when sunshine and rainfall occur in the relationship determined by the Lawgiver of the physical (astronomical) world. But, some will say, there was no rainfall before the Flood: they base their view on the words of Gen 2:5-6. However, in these two verses we have (as explained in my Genesis, Vol. I, pp. 426-427) an account of the conditions that prevailed on the third day of the Creation, following the creation of energy-matter and light (on Day 1), and the atmosphere (on Day 2), and the lands and seas (on Day 3), prior to the first appearance of plant life (on the same Day), All these physical phenomenalight, atmosphere, lands, seasnecessarily preceded the return of the vaporous substances (mists) to the earth in the form of rainfall. There is no reason for assuming that rainfall did not continue to occur from that point on, even to the age of the Flood when the windows of heaven were thrown wide open to let torrential rains through upon the wicked antediluvian peoples. (b) Note Genesis 9:13I do set my bow in the cloud. White-law (PCG, 143): Literally, I have given, or placed. Rotherham (EB, 40): My bow have I set in the cloud. By way of comparison, when Jesus established the Communion service, He did not then make the bread or the fruit of the vine (Matthew 26:26-29, 1 Corinthians 11:23-26): He merely selected these two substances which had existed from time immemorial and appointed them to be the emblems of His crucified sinless body and his shed blood as long as the Church should exist on this earth, that is, to the time of His Second Coming. So it was with the rainbow in Noah’s time: as if God said to the patriarch, I have placed my bow in the cloud. I now appoint it to be a sign of the my covenant promise that I will never again bring a flood upon the earth to destroy mankind. Every time you and your posterity see this rainbow in the heavens you will remember my promise, and I will remember this, my everlasting covenant, which is between me and you and all living creatures. Thus we rightly designate the Rainbow Covenant the Covenant of Hope. (JB, 25n.): The covenant with Noah, the rainbow its emblem, involves the whole creation: Abraham’s covenant, whose sign is to be circumcision, embraces his descendants only, Genesis 17; under Moses the Covenant is confined to Israel, and brings with it an obligation: fidelity to the Law, Exodus 19:5; Exodus 24:7-8, and to the sabbath observance in particular, Exodus 31:16-17. The seal of the New (spiritual) Covenant is the Holy Spirit (2 Corinthians 1:21-22; Ephesians 1:10; Ephesians 4:30).

REVIEW QUESTIONS

See Genesis 9:28-29.

Genesis 9:18-28

7. Noah’s Last Days (Genesis 9:18-28.)

18 And the sons of Noah, that went forth from the ark, were Shem, and Ham, and Japheth: and Ham is the father of Canaan. 19 These three were the sons of Noah: and of these was the whole earth overspread. 20 And Noah began to be a husbandman, and planted a vineyard; and he drank of the wine, and was drunken; and he was uncovered within his tent. 22 And Ham, the father of Canaan, saw the nakedness of his father, and told his two brethren without. 23 And Shem and Japheth took a garment, and laid it upon both their shoulders, and went backward, and covered the nakedness of their father; and their faces were backward, and they saw not their father’s nakedness. 24 And Noah awoke from his wine, and knew what his youngest son had done unto him. 25 And he said, Cursed be Canaan; a servant of servants shall he be unto his brethren. 26 And he said, Blessed be Jehovah, the God of Shem; and let Canaan be his servant. 27 God enlarge Japheth, and let him dwell in the tents of Shem; and let Canaan be his servant. 28 And Noah lived after the flood three hundred and fifty years. 29 And all the days of Noah were nine hundred and fifty years; and he died.

(1) Noah’s Progeny (Genesis 9:18-19).

(a) Cornfeld (AtD, 36): Genesis does not tell us where Noah and his family lived after the Flood, but only that the earth was repopulated by Noah’s three sons, Shem, Ham, and Japheth. The chronicler regards Noah as the main link in the generations reaching to Abraham, and carefully notes that Ham, father of Canaan, is not of the same stock as Shem, the father of the Hebrews. It should be noted, however, that the emphasis continues to be on the Messianic Line, beginning with Shem and continuing through Noah to Abraham. Cornfeld again (AtD, 36): As we continue to read the genealogies, we note that the focus grows more and more narrow. The emphasis at the conclusion is on Shem, the ancestor of the Semites (see Genesis 10:21-30), which include all the sons of Eber who embraced the Hebrews, The final narrowing of the generations of Eber would come in the next chapter: read Genesis 11:16-26). (b) Of Shem, Ham, and Japheth it is said: of these was the whole earth overspread, This statement leaves us little room for doubt that Noah sired no other children than the three sons mentioned. (Of course again we have to consider the fact that in this text erets could be just as correctly translated land as earth.).

(2) Noah’s Sin (Genesis 9:20-23). Noah began to be a husbandman, and planted a vineyard. A husbandman is a farmer, a tiller of the ground. Hence JB renders this line, Noah, a tiller of the soil, was the first to plant the vine. This could mean, without any rending of the text and context, that he was the first to plant a vineyard after the Flood. Two views of this incident have been rather common among Bible students: one is that the patriarch, having been the first to cultivate a vineyard was not aware of the intoxicating qualities of its fruit, and that his intoxication was the consequence of this ignorance. Thus Skinner (ICCG, 181): Noah is here introduced in an entirely different character, as the discoverer of the culture of the vine, and the first victim to immoderate indulgence in its fruit. The other view is simply that Noah, probably in an exuberance of joy over his deliverance and newly found freedom, imbibed a little too freely of the fermented juice of the grape, even to the point of intoxication and some of the shameful indecencies which not infrequently attend such overindulgence. The present writer can hardly convince himself that Noah was the first to plant a vineyard and hence was unaware of the intoxicating character of wine. It is inconceivable that husbandry and vine cultivation were unknown throughout all those centuries before the Flood. Whitelaw (PCG, 148): That Armenia is a vine-growing country is testified by Xenophon (Anab. iv, 4, 9). That the vine was abundantly cultivated in Egypt is evident from representations on the monuments, as well as from Scriptural allusions. The Egyptians said that Osiris, the Greeks that Dioriysos, the Romans that Saturn, first taught men the cultivation of the tree and the use of its fruits.. Though this is the first mention of wine in Scripture, it is scarcely possible that the natural process of fermentation for so many centuries escaped the notice of the enterprising Cainites, or even of the Sethites.. Since the sin of Noah cannot be ascribed to ignorance, it is perhaps right, as well as charitable, to attribute it to age and inadvertence.. But from whatever cause induced, the drunkenness of Noah was not entirely guiltless; it was sinful in itself, and led to further shame. The simple fact is that Noah slipped, lapsed, this one time only, we hope, from the path of virtue. He planted a vineyard and, doubtless through knowledge acquired in antediluvian experience, he made wine from the grapes which his vineyard produced. In spite of his lifelong piety, and his experience with the debauchery and viciousness of his former neighbors, recollections of which should have prompted him to restrain himself, he drank so much of the wine that he became intoxicated. Intoxication naturally leads to sensuality, carelessness, immodesty, and the like, and the old patriarch lay uncovered in his tent, that is, he shamefully exposed himself in some way in the presence of his sons. Ham, it seems, was the first to find him in this condition, and instead of being filled with pity on seeing his father in late age in such a maudlin state, laughed about it as if the whole thing were a lark, and rushed to tell his brothers, Shem and Japheth immediately came to the tent, took a garment, and laid it on both their shoulders, and walking backward placed it over their father without even looking on his nakedness. Thus did the other two brothers act with becoming modesty while at the same time protecting their father’s honor, whereas Ham had been guilty of a profane breach of filial piety and disregard for elders in general, which was an offense of the first magnitude among primitive and early historic peoples (cf. Exodus 20:12). (Noah’s lapse in his old age is evidence that humankind was still a fallen race).

The fact should be re-emphasized here that the Bible pictures life just as it is. It is the only book in the world which portrays human character realistically. Not for one moment does it turn aside from the faithful record to conceal the weaknesses and derelictions of its great men: it pictures their lives just as they lived them. Biographers of men usually dwell glowingly on the virtues of those about whom they are writing, to the neglect of recording their faults. Not so with the Bible. No matter that Noah was perfect in his generations; no matter that he walked by faith; no matter that he was God’s chosen representative in the Messianic Line; he finally sinned, and that in his declining years. And the Bible does not attempt to conceal his fault. There is no false modesty in the Book of Books. It uses old-fashioned words to designate old-fashioned things. It is primarily the Book of Life.

(3) Noah’s Prophecy (Genesis 9:24-27). We read that Noah awoke from his wine, and knew what his youngest son had done unto him. Evidently he knew this by inspiration (or intuition?), and immediately uttered a series of terse prophetic statements which undoubtedly were inspired. We can hardly question this fact, because human history surely records, in broad outlines at least, the fulfillment of these pronouncements. (A word of caution here: I must be understood that the destinies of the peoples who sprang from the loins of Shem and Ham and Japheth were not foreordained to be what they were. Rather, these destinies were determined by the respective progenies themselves; however, they were foreknown to God and so could be communicated to Noah by Divine inspiration and thus disclosed to mankind long before they actually occurred. We must remember that foreknowledge does not necessarily imply foreordination, except with reference, of course, to the details of the Plan of Redemption. Obviously, in uttering these predictions Noah was not moved by personal resentment, but was acting simply as God’s mouthpiece. Prophecy has always been used by the Spirit to attest the truth of revelation.)

(a) Cursed be Canaan, A servant of servants shall he be unto his brethren. Note that the dominant feature of this entire prophecy is the curse on Canaan, which not only stands first, but is repeated in the blessing on the two brothers. It seems evident that prophetic insight testified that Canaan would inherit the profane disposition of his father, Ham, and that the Canaanites would abundantly deserve the destiny foretold of them; also that the curse was general in its nature and hence included the entire posterity of Ham and Canaan (for which see Genesis 10:6-20). Note the phrase, a servant of servants, etc. This is the superlative degree, literally, the meanest slave. The curse simply means that the descendants of Canaan were doomed to enslavement to the other two branches of the family. This destiny seemingly was reversed when Nimrod and Mizraim founded Babylonia and Egypt respectively. But it was abundantly fulfilled in early antiquity when the Canaanites in Joshua’s time were partly exterminated and partly reduced to abject slavery by the Israelites who belonged to the family of Shem, and those that remained were further reduced by Solomon (Joshua 9:23, 1 Kings 9:20-21). It was fulfilled later when the Phoenicians, Carthaginians, and Egyptians, all of whom belonged to the Line of Canaan, were reduced to subjection by the Japhetic Persians, Macedonians, and Romans, These peoples, the Canaanites included, all were obsessed with the gross sexual indulgences characteristic of the ancient Cult of Fertility, as described by the Apostle Paul in Romans 1:18-32. It may be fulfilled too in the longstanding moral and spiritual (and cultural) backwardness of the South African peoples who perhaps more than any other have been forcibly reduced to abject slavery by Semitic, and more particularly Japhetic, nations. As a matter of fact, African slavery is one of the darkest blots on the whole history of mankind. The fact is that there is no moral ground on which any man can obtain a legitimate title to another man’s person: this is true for the simple reason that one soul is worth as much as another in the sight of God and hence that Christ died for all men alike.

(b) Blessed be Jehovah, the God of Shem, And let Canaan be his servant. To bless Yahweh is simply to praise Him. The blessing here must be indirectly a blessing on the Line of Shem, that is, in assuming the spiritual primacy of the Semites by virtue of their having Yahweh for their God. The second part of the prophecy was fulfilled in the conquest of Canaan under Joshua, Saul, David and Solomon. By the time the Israelites were ready to enter Canaan under Joshua, the Canaanites by their grossly idolatrous and licentious religious practices had proved themselves vessels fit only for destruction (Judges 1:28; Judges 1:31; Judges 1:33; Genesis 15:13-16; Acts 7:6).

(c) God enlarge Japheth, And let him dwell in the tents of Shem; And let Canaan be his servant. That is, make room for the one who spreads abroad. This part of the prophecy was simply a foretelling of the widespread diffusion and remarkable prosperity of the Japhetic (Aryan) peoples; as a matter of fact, the history of the human family is largely the record of this enlargement, geographically, politically, economically, and socially. Indeed the phenomenon is evident also in the extension of Biblical religion into all parts of the world. The descendants of Japheth pushed across Asia Minor into Europe, and moving thence both to the North and to the West they populated the European continent, ultimately finding their way to the shores of the Americas. Nordic, Alpine and Mediterranean peoples are all of the Line of Japheth. And let him dwell in the tents of Shem. The fulfillment of this passage is obvious: certainly it occurred in the reception of the Gentiles into the duties, privileges, and rewards of Biblical religion, especially in the admission of the Gentiles into the Body of Christ (cf. Acts 10:44-48; Acts 11:15-18; Ephesians 2:11-18; 1 Corinthians 12:12-13). Smith and Fields (OTH, 443): Japheth has come to dwell in the tents of Shem as a result of the Semitic Jews-’ rejection of their Messiah, Jesus. When this occurred the Japhetic Gentiles were given the gospel of God and entered into the spiritual relationship with God that the Jews (except for a believing remnant) forfeited: Romans 11:11; Romans 11:20-24. The last part of this Noahic prophecy, Let Canaan be his servant, was used for many years as a Divine warrant for the institution of African slavery. There is a great difference, however, between a positive command such as in Genesis 9:5-6,and an inspired prophecy. Even though Noah, looking into the future, may have foreseen the spiritual and cultural backwardness of many Hamitic peoples, still and all these words do not constitute a divine authorization of slavery. They should be looked upon as only a prophetic statement of what history shows to have been a fact.

REVIEW QUESTIONS

See Genesis 9:28-29.

Genesis 9:28-29

(4) Noah’s Death (Genesis 9:28-29).

Noah, we are told here, lived after the Flood three hundred and fifty years, His life terminated, when he was nine hundred and fifty years old, on the same tragic note that characterizes the family of man: an he died (Hebrews 9:27), It is interesting to note, in this connection, by way of comparison, that Abraham lived to be only one hundred and seventy-five years old (Genesis 25:7), and Moses only one hundred and twenty years old (Deuteronomy 34:7). How shall we account for this constantly decreasing longevity?

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FOR MEDITATION AND SERMONIZING

The Bow in the Cloud

1. The rainbow in the cloud was a most meaningful emblem. It had the prime characteristic of universality. It is a phenomenon which occurs in all parts of the earth where there is the proper relation between sunshine and shower, The Rainbow Covenant was not for just one people, one nation, one race. Unlike the covenant of circumcision which was for the fleshly seed of Abraham only, the Rainbow Covenant was God’s promise to the entire family of man, in fact, to every living creature of all flesh (Genesis 9:15). Hence the sign of this covenant has to be one which is universal in scope, one that might be seen in every land. It was an attractive sign. Nothing is more beautiful, more attractive to the human eye, than the rainbow in the cloud. It stirs the finest of our emotions and the most fruitful of our meditations. In its selection, then, we detect another evidence of Divine grace. But, above all, it was a hopeful sign. It expresses the optimism of the entire book of Genesis. The darker the cloud, the more impressive is the bow in the cloud! And how forcefully this bow in the cloud reminds us of Calvary! There a cloud so dark descended upon the earth that even at midday there was intense darkness over the land (Matthew 27:45, Mark 15:33, Luke 23:44). But the eye of faith discerns in that, the heaviest cloud that ever gathered, the bright rainbow of eternal love suffering for a lost world! There is an aura of hope connected with the rainbow, even in Noah’s experience, suggestive of the new world, the cleansed world, into which he had entered on withdrawing from the Ark, and of the Divine grace which had been extended to him all along the way. The Rainbow Covenant is rightly called the Covenant of Hope.

2. The Rainbow Covenant teaches us that the blessings of nature are no longer conditioned on man’s moral conduct. All the blessings and benefits of what we call the regular course of nature are covenant blessings, flowing out of God’s post-diluvian covenant with Noah. This covenant was to the effect that while the earth remaineth, seedtime and harvest, and cold and heat, and summer and winter, and day and night shall not cease (Genesis 8:22). Isaac Errett (EB, 80): Even though the imaginations of men’s hearts should be evil from their youth, the sun will rise, the moon will wax and wane, the rains will descend, and the seedtime and harvest will come in their appointed seasons. Men in their wickedness may deprive themselves of the blessings God thus designs to bestow, but His promise is none the less fulfilled. He makes the sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends His rain on the just and the unjust; for this is His promise (Matthew 5:45). Thus, as Paul writes, God -left not himself without witness in that he did good and gave you from heaven rains and fruitful seasons, filling your hearts with food and gladness-’ (Acts 14:17). When we pause to reflect on what science unfolds to us of the ceaseless motions of innumerable worlds, and learn how the slightest variation from the established order might plunge system after system into confusion and disaster, we cannot but adore that everlasting truthfulness and unfailing goodness which hold all the mighty words and systems in harmony, and enable the astronomer to foretell for ages the sun’s rising and setting, the transits of the planets, the eclipses of the sun and moon, and even the motions of comets, God’s covenant of the day and night secures all this. God is forever true, God is absolute Truth, absolute Beauty, and absolute Goodness.

3. However, the Rainbow Covenant is evidence that the present world-order is not to last forever. The promise itself contains an intimation to the contrary: note well the words, while the earth remaineth. Is not this an intimation that our earth will not always remain, or at least not always remain what it is now? But the earth will never again be devastated by water: this was the Divine assurance. Cf. 2 Peter 3:5-7: the earth was once purged with water; it will in the next instance be swept clean by fire, in the day of judgment and perdition of ungodly men, Nevertheless, God’s saints look for new heavens and a new earth, wherein dwelleth righteousness (2 Peter 3:13; cf. Isaiah 65:17; Isaiah 66:22; Psalms 102:25-27; Hebrews 1:10-12; Hebrews 12:26; Revelation 21:1-4).

The Design of Positive Institutions

A moral law commands a thing to be done because it is right, but a positive law makes a thing right because God commands it, In popular parlance God’s positive enactments are commonly designated ordinances. All such positive institutions, although always embodying the moral quality of obedience, are primarily for the purpose of proving (testing?) the faith of the worshiper. The fact that Noah, on entering the new and cleansed world, worshiped God instead of paying homage to (blessing, burning incense to, pouring holy water on) the Ark, has a lesson of tremendous significance for all ages, In this act the very heart of the design of positive institutions revealed in Scripture is exemplified. The three following propositions will amplify this statement and serve to set forth the truly Divine purpose in all such institutions.

1. Superstition makes everything of a positive ordinance. Had Noah been a superstitious man he would have worshiped the Ark because it was the visible instrument of his deliverance. Man’s corrupt nature makes it difficult for him to look beyond the visible and temporal to the invisible and eternal (2 Corinthians 4:18). These facts account for the mass of ritual which has grown up under the aegis of the older denominations of Christendom: men have gotten so thoroughly imbued with traditions and superstitions, many of them borrowed from pagan sources, that they are willing to bow before lifeless images, put crucifixes on their walls, sprinkle holy water, wear sacred relics as amulets, etc. Their cathedrals reek with the light of candles and the odor of incense as all ancient pagan temples did. In all such cases the Christian faith itself becomes an empty shell, just sounding brass or a clanging cymbal. There are those in New Testament churches who worship baptism instead of the Christ who commanded it. No one can literally believe in baptism; rather, one believes in Christ who has ordained that believers should witness by this act of faith, to the facts of the Gospelthe death and burial and resurrection of Christ (1 Corinthians 15:1-4, Romans 6:17). There is no efficacy in the water as such, that is, there is no magic involved in the institution; the efficacy is in the faith that is exemplified in this positive act of the obedience of love for the redeeming Savior. If there is any efficacy in water, it might be right to practice infant sprinkling (infant baptism is infant immersion); if there be such a thing as water regeneration, it certainly would be implicit in the act of sprinkling or pouring water on a baby (the act which is generally and erroneously called infant baptism). The unknowing babe has no understanding of what is going on; it has no conscience entering into the transaction (cf. 1 Peter 3:21); hence the efficacy in such an act, if any, must lie in the water and in the water alone. But who believes such a thing? Is it not sheer magic, sheer superstition? Most certainly the Bible does not teach water regeneration, nor does it authorize the patting of a few drops of water on a baby’s head and calling that a baptism. Baptism is for the penitent believer: it is the expression to the world of his faith in Christ and of his love for Christ; it is his testimonial to the facts of the death, burial and resurrection of Christ. The moment the sinner begins to worship the ordinance instead of the Christ who ordained it, his faithif it can be called thathas degenerated into mere superstition. Take an example from the Old Testament: As long as the Children of Israel looked on the brazen serpent in the wilderness, and looked through it to the God who ordained it and its specific purpose, and then took God at His Word by doing what He commanded them to do, they were healed (Numbers 21:9, John 3:14). However, there came a time when they drifted into the worship of the thing itself instead of worshiping the God who, in His benevolence, had ordained it for their good; it was then that Hezekiah the king ordered the brazen serpent broken into pieces, calling it Nehushtan, that is, a piece of brass (2 Kings 18:4).

2. Mysticism, infidelity, and profanity make nothing of a positive institution. The mystic prates about the mere word, as if it were something to be trifled with He forgets that this is the Word which created and which sustains our universe in all its aspects and processes (Psalms 33:6-9; Psalms 148:1-6; John 1:1-3; Hebrews 1:1-4; Colossians 1:13-17; Romans 10:4-17). The mystic depends on feeling as his spiritual barometer, talks a great deal about heartfelt religion, spiritual experiences, about being in tune with the Infinite, etc., but, insofar as his actions are the norm, seems to care very little about the Bible. (Such groups as the Quakers, the Christian Scientists, the Unity cults, etc., spiritualize both baptism and the Lord’s Supper out of concrete existence altogether.) The unbeliever scoffs at Divine institutions, and dubs them superstitions, hangover of folklore, etc. The profane person, while halfheartedly recognizing a positive ordinance as having something of divinity, still manifests no respect for it or for the God who ordained it. To all these classes we might issue the warning expressed in the old axiom, He who despises an ordinance of God, despises the God of the ordinance, and in the blunt words of the prophet Samuel to King Saul, Behold, to obey is better than sacrifice, and to hearken than the fat of rams (1 Samuel 15:22).

3. Faith regards and uses a positive institution as a Divine appointment, as God intended it to be used. Noah made use of the Ark as he was supposed to do, according to God’s leading, in obedience to God’s Word. Biblical positive ordinances are solemn trysts, Divine appointments, wherein Divine grace and human faith meet together. Christian baptism, for example, is the appointed institution wherein God meets the penitent believer to bestow on him remission of sins and the indwelling Holy Spirit (Acts 2:38; Romans 5:5; 1 Corinthians 3:16-17; 1 Corinthians 6:19-20; Galatians 3:2). The Lord’s Supper is the appointed memorial institution wherein our Elder Brother meets, from Lord’s Day to Lord’s Day, with all whom He has bought with His own precious blood and incorporated into His Body, the Church (Matthew 26:26-29; 1 Corinthians 10:16-17; 1 Corinthians 11:23-30; Acts 20:28; Ephesians 1:7; 1 Peter 1:18-20; Revelation 5:9). In like manner, the Ark was the Divinely appointed meeting-place wherein Noah met God and received deliverance from the Divine judgment which fell upon the ungodly antediluvian world. Noah was a man of faith, and faith takes God at His Word (Hebrews 11:7, Romans 10:17). Faith, which is the substance of things hoped for and a conviction with respect to things not seen (Hebrews 11:1), appropriates the Divine positive ordinances as solemn appointments as God intends them to be used.

Noah: God’s Man for an Emergency

God always has His man for an emergency, and Noah certainly was no exception to the rule. Let us note the successive phases of Noah’s life.

1. Noah in the world of the ungodly. Contemplation of faithful Noah living in the midst of a perverse generation, warning them of judgment not seen as yet, pleading with the people to repent and reform their lives, should remind the Christian of his constant duty in spite of every obstacle and discouragement; that he should go his way testifying of sin, of righteousness, and of judgment to come, regardless of the sneers of the worldly wise, the tauntings of the vicious, and the opposition of the hypocritical purveyors of false, assumed piety. A true Christian cannot expect to pitch his tabernacle on the mountain top, as Peter wanted to do on the Mount of Transfiguration (Matthew 17:4); his work lies down in the valley where there is poverty, passion, toil, sorrow, pride, incestuousness, sin of every kind.

I said, -Let me walk in the fields,-'

God said, -No, walk in the town.-'

I said, -There are no flowers there,-'

He said, -No flowers, but a crown.-'

I said, -But the sky is black,

And there is smoke and bustle and din-';

He wept as He brought me back again,

And said, -There is morethere is sin.-'

2. Noah passing through the Flood. His deliverance through the raging waters of the Deluge is a striking figure of Christian baptism (1 Peter 3:20-21). Water is the symbol of cleansing: hence in all ages God has maintained His water-line between the saved and the lost, between His people and the people of the world (cf. 1 Corinthians 10:2; Exodus 29:4; Exodus 40:12; Leviticus 8:6; Leviticus 16:4; Leviticus 16:24 with 1 Peter 2:9; Revelation 1:6; Matthew 3:5-7; Matthew 28:19, etc.). As the water separated those of faith, in the days of Noah, from the world of the ungodly, so in our Dispensation the same line of demarcation is fixed between the church and the unsaved world. The water which rolled over the eight persons in the Ark sanctified them, set them apart for Divine deliverance. As they passed from the wicked antediluvian world, through the water, into a new world where all was cleansed by this Divine judgment, so the penitent believer leaves the bondage of sin, comes to the water, passes through it, and arises to walk in newness of life (John 3:5, Galatians 3:27, Romans 6:1-11). As Noah and his family were completely buried from view so that they could neither see nor be seen by those about them, so the penitent believer must be buried in the water, completely hidden from view, before he can claim to be baptized Scripturally (Colossians 2:12, Matthew 3:16, Acts 8:36-39). Baptism is a profound spiritual heart act of the obedience of love (John 14:15, Romans 6:17).

3. Noah in the Ark presents a different picture from the Noah in the ungodly world. In the antediluvian society there was no rest for his troubled soul, no peace of body or mind or spirit, but in the Ark was profound seclusion. No matter if the elements were raging without, he and his family must have felt, in the ark, that security and peace which obedient faith alone can give. In this respect the Ark becomes a figure of Christ. All of God’s waves and billows (Psalms 42:7, Jonah 2:3) rolled over the innocent Jesus when He hung on the Cross (Matthew 27:46), and, as a blessed consequence of His vicarious Sacrifice, none of these must pass over the saints, all of whom He has purchased with His own precious blood. At Calvary we see once again the fountains of the great deep broken up and the windows of heaven opened. At Calvary we see deep calling unto deep at the noise of thy waterfalls (Psalms 42:7). Jesus bore the burden of humanity’s sin in His own body and paid humanity’s debt (John 1:29, 1 Peter 2:21-25). He put himself under the weight of His people’s liabilities and discharged them fully. The acceptance of this truth, through unqualified belief in Him, gives to the soul that peace -which passeth all understanding.-’ Christ is our Ark of safety; in Him only can we find that blessed security which only redeeming love can bestow. (Philippians 4:7).

4. Noah coming out of the Ark and taking his place in the cleansed new world must have experienced mingled feelings of awe, gratitude, and sadness: awe, because of the strange and mighty works of God, gratitude for the deliverance of himself and his family, and sadness at the thought of his friends and neighbors having all perished in the Flood. Throughout all his experience, he had placed himself unreservedly in the hands of Jehovah and been guided by Him. The same God who said at first, Make thee an ark of gopher wood, and later, Come, thou and all thy house, into the ark, now remembered Noah and all that were with him in the ark, and made a wind to pass over the earth, and the waters assuaged; the fountains also of the deep and the windows of heaven were stopped, and the rain from heaven was restrained. The rays of the sun now poured down on a planet that had been baptized with a baptism of judgment. Judgment is one of God’s terrible acts: He takes no delight in it, though He is glorified by it. The same God now said to Noah, Go forth from the ark. And Noah went forth. and builded an altar unto Jehovah. All is simple faith and obedience. Noah, in all his varied experiences, never raised a question when God spoke! He did what God told him to do and in the way God told him to do it. What a different thing from the carping, caviling, evasive thing that men have today which they call faith! Faith never asks the why or wherefore, when God commands. (Hebrews 11:7).

5. When God closed the door of the Ark behind Noah and his house, he shut out the unbelieving and impenitent world. Then the fountains of the great deep were broken up and the windows of heaven were opened, and judgment was at hand. No matter that there were giants in the earth in those days, mighty men, men of renown; no matter that there were walled cities, and great herds and flocks on the outside; no matter that there were sounds of reveling by night, and wars and rumors of war by dayall had to be swept away! The sounds of the harp and the lyre were stilled, the forger’s hammer lay unused, and the people cried for the rocks and the mountains, but it was too late! We may imagine that, if Noah could have given just one invitation from the door of the Ark, the people would have crowded in over each other’s dead bodies! The Lord Jesus Christ opened the door of His Church on Pentecost, through His Apostles guided into all the truth by the Spirit, and it has never been closed from that day to this. It still stands ajar, ready to receive all who will enter in on the terms of the Gospel Covenant. The time is bound to come, however, when the Lord Himself shall close the door of His Church, and gather her unto Himself as a bride adorned for her husband (Revelation 21:2; Revelation 21:9-10; Revelation 22:17). When that time comes all opportunity for repentance will have terminated. In a moment, in the twinkling of an eye (1 Corinthians 15:51), He will come with His mighty angels, in flaming fire, rendering vengeance to them that know not God and obey not the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ (2 Thessalonians 1:7-10). Multitudes will cry for the rocks and the mountains to fall upon them, but everlastingly too late. The hopeless answer will be, Jesus of Nazareth has passed by. Now is the accepted time, sinner friend: this should be the day of your salvation.

Noah was God’s man for an emergency, God always has His man in the time of crisis, and Noah was this man in the early moral history of the race, Dean (OBH, 16): Some names are forever associated with great epochs: Lincoln with Emancipation, Cromwell with the Commonwealth, Moses with the Exodus, so Noah with the Deluge. Read Genesis 6:9; Genesis 7:1; Ezekiel 14:14. Noah was God’s mana heroic figure in an apostate age. Altar after altar had crumbled, but the fires on Noah’s altar did not go out till quenched by the Flood, It calls for courage to stand alone. But Noah dared to lead where few dared to follow. The absolute obedience and safety of Noah, the hopeless corruption and ruin of the racesuch as the impressive lessons. For one hundred and twenty years Noah faithfully preached and heroically lived. Only seven converts rewarded his labors: his wife, and his sons, Shem, Ham, and Jehpeth, and their wives. Yet Noah was successful: he did his duty, and he outrode the Flood.

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REVIEW QUESTIONS ON PART TWENTY-TWO

How many days of Noah’s life were spent in the Ark?

List the successive phases of the days of prevailing of the waters upon the earth.

List the successive phases of the days of assuaging.

On what basis do we conclude that a month in Noah’s life was a period of thirty days?

Would you consider it reasonable to hold that the period of Noah’s life spent in the Ark can be harmonized with the localized-Flood theory? Explain.

Where did the Ark finally come to rest?

Is there any definite conclusion to be drawn from the fact that the word erets may be translated either earth or land?

What are the three pivotal events in the history of earth?

How answer these questions: (1) Is there enough water on our planet to cover it entirely? (2) Whence came the waters which produced the Deluge? (3) Where did they go when the Flood subsided?

What is meant by the statement that God remembered the occupants of the Ark when the time arrived for them to disembark?

What is the significance of the statement that He remembered the animals that were with Noah in the Ark?

Why was the raven probably sent out first?

What was the significance of the sending out of the dove? How many times was the dove sent out?

What was probably the symbolism of the freshly-plucked olive-leaf?

What are the characteristics of a dove? What does the dove symbolize in the Scriptures?

What is the connection between this symbolism and the manifestations which occurred after the baptism of Jesus?

What probably is meant by the covering of the Ark?

What interesting facts are revealed about the families in the Ark?

Name the sons of Noah and state what each name means.

What was Noah’s first act on withdrawing from the Ark?

What is the significance of the fact that Noah worshiped God and not the Ark?

How do we know that Noah was not a superstitious man?

What probably did the statement mean that Yahweh smelled the sweet savor of Noah’s sacrifice?

What seems to have been the deeper meaning of God’s soliloquy in Genesis 8:21-22?

In what special way was man’s dominion over the lower animals reaffirmed?

What was the change in the feelings of the animals toward man after the Flood?

What does Noah’s altar teach us about the institution of Sacrifice?

What was the Divine blessing bestowed on Noah and his sons?

Is there any conclusive Scripture evidence that man was permitted only a vegetarian diet prior to the Flood?

What part of living creatures was prohibited as food after the Flood?

What law was ordained about the eating of blood? Why this prohibition?

What law was ordained about murder? What is murder?

What was the ordination with respect to a beast that killed a human being?

What was the purpose of the practice of blood vengeance?

How shall we regard the law against murder in relation to capital punishment?

Were these fundamental laws universal or only Mosaic in their scope? Explain your answer.

What is a covenant?

What was God’s pre-diluvian covenant with Noah and his house?

What was the essence of His post-diluvian covenant with Noah?

What Divine promise did this covenant include about future floods?

Was this covenant unilateral? If so, in what sense?

What was the sign of this covenant?

Does this necessarily mean that no rainbow had appeared before this time? Explain.

Of what people was the earth overspread after the Flood?

What sin did Noah commit after the Flood?

What light does this throw on our statement that the Bible is the Book of Life?

What various attitudes did Noah’s sons take with regard to their father’s sin?

What does the New Testament teach about drunkenness?

What was wrong in Ham’s attitude? What fundamental moral law did he break?

Explain the historical fulfillment of Noah’s curse on the Line of Ham and Canaan.

Explain the historical fulfillment of Noah’s blessing on the Line of Shem.

Explain the historical fulfillment of the blessings pronounced by Noah on the Line of Japheth.

How old was Noah when he died? Compare this with Abraham’s age when he died, and with the age of Moses when he died? How account for the descending longevity?

What lessons are to be derived from the story of the Rainbow Covenant?

What is the essential character of a Divine positive ordinance?

How does a superstitious man treat a positive Divine ordinance?

What lesson do we learn from the Old Testament story of the Brazen Serpent about the design of positive institutions mentioned in Scripture?

What attitude does the mystic take toward Divine positive institutions?

How does unbelief treat such an institution?

How does a profane person treat God’s positive ordinances?

What two kinds of worship does God require of His people? What is the essential character of external worship?

What do we mean when we say that positive ordnances are Divine appointments?

What does this teach us about the design of the Christian ordinances, baptism and the Lord’s Supper?

What was wrong in Peter’s attitude on the Mount of Transfiguration?

Summarize the successive phases of Noah’s life.

What does the writer of Hebrews say about Noah’s faith? How did Noah show his great faith?

Why did we say that Noah was God’s man for an emergency?