New rules, new changes and a new beginning in a post flood world.

Good morning.

Spring flowers are beginning to show up in the Ohio landscape and the abundant beautiful song of birds and noises of other creatures fill the air. I hope you take a moment to stop, listen, look, and breath deeply and then thank God who created us in such a way that we can enjoy His creation with our senses!

Noah and his family were now going to live in a new world. The massive, swirling flood waters scoured the earth with rocks, boulders and silt. The terrain was vastly different in appearance and I suspect that it had much more variety of topography. Valleys were deeper and mountains were higher than before, creating new patterns of wind and weather. The formerly uniformly mild and moist climate now had places in the world with temperatures ranging from very cold to very hot, and everything in between.

Again, imagine going back to your hometown after being away from it for a long time. In my former hometown, there has been so much development that much of what I  see now, does not relate at all to my memories of 47 years ago. Thus, when I return to that community, in many locations it is disorienting because the familiar landmarks have been replaced with new ones.

This would have been Noah's experience, except exponentially greater in terms of everything being unrecognizable. He needed to hear clear direction from God so that he could do what God asked him to do.

That needed direction from God comes in Genesis 9. The beauty of relationships between man and animal life was substantially altered. Before the flood, man and animals were herb eaters. After the flood, animals had an inherent fear of man. God told Noah that man could now eat animal flesh along with herbs and fruits.

A divine death sentence (Capital Punishment) was instituted. In other words, if a man murdered another person, the murderer was to be put to death. God established this law for dealing with murderers.

Finally, God instructed Noah and his family to repopulate the earth. The words in the text (be fruitful and multiply, and bring forth abundantly) seem to indicate that God would bless their families with multiple offspring.  It is also safe to assume that this blessing would extend to all other forms of animal life.

Genesis 9:1-8 And God blessed Noah and his sons, and said unto them, Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth. 
And the fear of you and the dread of you shall be upon every beast of the earth, and upon every fowl of the air, upon all that moveth upon the earth, and upon all the fishes of the sea; into your hand are they delivered. 
Every moving thing that liveth shall be meat for you; even as the green herb have I given you all things. 
But flesh with the life thereof, which is the blood thereof, shall ye not eat. 
And surely your blood of your lives will I require; at the hand of every beast will I require it, and at the hand of man; at the hand of every man’s brother will I require the life of man. 
Whoso sheddeth man’s blood, by man shall his blood be shed: for in the image of God made he man. 
And you, be ye fruitful, and multiply; bring forth abundantly in the earth, and multiply therein.

The next paragraph, God gives Noah a promise and established a new covenant with Man. The first covenant, or probation period was simply, till the garden, and avoid eating the fruit of one tree. That was all Adam and Eve had to do and they failed the test. 

The heart of this new covenant is that God promises to never use a global flood to destroy the earth. God decrees that this covenant is perpetual, meaning that it will remain in effect as long as the time, space and matter continuum exists. God gave the rainbow as a sign that He will keep His promises. This promise applies not only to man, but to all flesh upon the earth. 

Genesis 9:8-17  And God spake unto Noah, and to his sons with him, saying, And I, behold, I establish my covenant with you, and with your seed after you; And with every living creature that is with you, of the fowl, of the cattle, and of every beast of the earth with you; from all that go out of the ark, to every beast of the earth. And I will establish my covenant with you; neither shall all flesh be cut off any more by the waters of a flood; neither shall there any more be a flood to destroy the earth. 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: I do set my bow in the cloud, and it shall be for a token of a covenant between me and the earth. And it shall come to pass, when I bring a cloud over the earth, that the bow shall be seen in the cloud: 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. 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. 

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.

At this juncture in history, Noah and his sons demonstrated simple faith and obedience and complied with what God commended them to do. Historically, the mountain range of Ararat are north of the Mesopotamian valley which is often referred to as the cradle of civilization. It is entirely plausible that they descended from Ararat to the area of the plains and rivers to take advantage of good soil and readily available water for crop production. 

Genesis 9:18-19 And the sons of Noah, that went forth of the ark, were Shem, and Ham, and Japheth: and Ham is the father of Canaan. These are the three sons of Noah: and of them was the whole earth overspread. 

I close this post by noting that this new beginning was soon to be marred by sin and when we look at the next section, it will remind us of the realities of living in a world where all men are born sinners and the world is laboring under the curse. The next genealogy in Genesis 11 shows that the lifespan of man grew shorter as the consequences of sin were felt in the world. Death, disease, and diabolical deeds also multiplied as man repopulated the world. But, that will be for another visit.

For now, remember when you see a rainbow in the sky, that this is the sign God gave that He will never use another global flood to destroy the world. 

Bob