MORE OF GOD'S DEALING WITH MAN

GOD'S COVENANT WITH NOAH

Gen 9:1

            After God had sent the flood to destroy all flesh in the world, and after Noah, his 3 sons, and their wives had exited the ark, God repeated the same command he had originally given to Adam & Eve in Gen. 9:1.  He told them to multiply and fill the earth.  He also gave them dominion over all else on the earth.  That is Noah and his family was also made king over the earth. 

            Their diet was changed.  Up until then man had lived on the fruits and herbs produced in the garden.  Now God gives to them meat to eat.  Every moving thing that liveth was given in addition to the fruits and herbs.

            He confirmed with them the continuation of seasons.  Global Warming Enthusiasts ought to read Gen. 8:22.  It says, "While the earth remaineth, seedtime and harvest, and cold and heat, and summer and winter, and day and night shall not cease."

            In this covenant God added human government.  They were told not to eat blood because it was the life of the flesh.  God commanded that if a person should take the life of another person, that person who took the life of another should also be put to death.  That is clearly capital punishment.  In this human government is established.

            In this covenant God also distinguished the peoples.  Ham means black or darkened.  God declared that his descendents, the black races, should be a servile people, Gen. 9:24, 25.  He further declared that the descendents of Shem should be blessed of the Lord.  It is through Shem that Christ came.  It was a further declaration of God that the descendents of Japheth, the Gentiles, should live in the tents of Shem, and their number should be enlarged.  Ham was not black because of any curse.  He was black because God chose to have a black race.  There was a curse, but it was because of Ham's sin.  What was that sin?  According to Gen. 9:22, Ham went in where Noah, his father, was naked in a drunken sleep.  Verse 22 says he looked on his father's nakedness.  It was more than just a casual glance at his naked father.  Verse 24 says Noah awoke from his wine and knew what his younger son had done unto him.  He would not have known about a casual look.  It is evident that Ham had performed an incestuous, homosexual act upon this father.  For this reason his descendents were cursed.

            God made a covenant with Noah, not because he deserved it, but because of His grace.  Remember Noah found grace in the eyes of the LORD.  He set his bow in the clouds as a token of His covenant.  Every time the rainbow appeared in the cloud it was a reminder to God of His promise.  That promise was that never again would He destroy the world with water.  He did not say He would never again destroy the world, but He would not do it with water.  To this day, when we see the rainbow in the sky, it is God's pledge that He will not destroy our wicked world with water.