God gives instructions to Noah for this new era. Things will be different in many ways, so it was vital for Noah to know what God wanted him to do and how to live. Verses 1-4 begin with God blessing Noah and his sons and He said, “Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth. And the fear of you and the dread of you shall be on every beast of the earth, on every bird of the air, on all that move on the earth, and on all the fish of the sea. They are given into your hand. Every moving thing that lives shall be food for you. I have given you all things, even as the green herbs. But you shall not eat flesh with its life, that is, its blood.”
In many ways, things were going to begin again so God told them exactly as He had told Adam in the beginning. God is God and does not change and even though things were going to be different. One thing which was going to be different was their eating habits. Noah is now told that they could eat meat. I presume that he and his family had eaten meat in the ark. Adam was more than likely a vegetarian. Noah would have a different relationship with the animals, the animals would fear humans whereas before they did not as they were not in danger of becoming food for humans. However, there was a proviso that man must respect the blood and not eat live animals or the blood of animals. Blood represents life and is precious, none more so than the blood of Jesus which was shed for our sins.
God moves on a stage further in responsibility given to Noah and his sons and the generations to follow with regard to the shedding of blood. “Surely for your lifeblood I will demand a reckoning; from the hand of every beast, I will require it, and from the hand of man. From the hand of every man’s brother I will require the life of man. “Whoever sheds man’s blood, by man his blood shall be shed; For in the image of God He made man. And as for you, be fruitful and multiply; Bring forth abundantly in the earth and multiply in it.” (v5-7)
Man was made in the image of God and therefore, the blood is precious, and God will demand a reckoning for the shedding of it. It is clear that for murder, the death penalty is ordained by God. The Bible creates distinction between murder and killing as not all killing is murder. God provided the cities of Refuge in the Old Testament for those who killed accidentally to flee to escape the avenger, the lawful executioner. Over fifty years ago our government abolished the death penalty for murder. It was an emotional reflex action in the light of a few miscarriages of justice. As we said in chapter 4 dealing with Cain’s murder of Abel, even if man does not carry out justice on murderers, God will unless there is genuine repentance.
Many complain about the number of prisoners today, but we have only ourselves to blame as more and more murderers are incarcerated for long periods, some for life. There may be one bright light, however, in that some of those murderers do come to faith in the Lord Jesus Christ during their incarceration.
One of the arguments put in favour of the abolition of the death penalty was that human judiciary has no right to pass judgment and forfeit a person’s life. These verses make it clear that God allows for the guilty person’s blood to be shed by man. Authority and judicial government are ordained by God. God instructed Noah and his family to be fruitful and multiply as the earth would begin to be repopulated.
The LORD God confirms his promise (referred to in 8:21,22) with a covenant, an agreement, (v8-11) “And as for Me, behold, I establish My covenant with you and with your descendants after you, 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, every beast of the earth. Thus, I establish My covenant with you: Never again shall all flesh be cut off by the waters of the flood; never again shall there be a flood to destroy the earth.”
These are God’s own words, and He is to be trusted. There will come a time when the situation degenerates to those which existed pre-flood – “…. As it was in the days of Noah, so shall it be in the days of the Son of Man….” (Matthew 24:37) and God will take action. These are the days preceding the second coming of Jesus, and we told to look up for our redemption is drawing near. God will destroy the earth but not by flood, but by fire. 2 Peter 3:9-14 – “The Lord is not slack concerning His promise, as some count slackness, but is longsuffering toward us, not willing that any should perish but that all should come to repentance. But the day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night, in which the heavens will pass away with a great noise, and the elements will melt with fervent heat; both the earth and the works that are in it will be burned up. Therefore, since all these things will be dissolved, what manner of persons ought you to be in holy conduct and godliness, looking for and hastening the coming of the day of God, because of which the heavens will be dissolved, being on fire, and the elements will melt with fervent heat? Nevertheless we, according to His promise, look for new heavens and a new earth in which righteousness dwells. Therefore, beloved, looking forward to these things, be diligent to be found by Him in peace, without spot and blameless;”
God, in His mercy, said He would give them a sign to confirm His promise – the rainbow (v12-17). This was to be a sign to all flesh living on the earth. This was set in the cloud by God. The rainbow would be seen by all, and God said that He would look on it to remember His covenant. There was no question that God has a bed memory or would forget His promise, He was identifying with His creation rather like Jesus did when He was baptised by John the Baptist in the New Testament. He had no sin to repent of unlike all of us. “God said to Noah, “This is the sign of the covenant which I have established between Me and all flesh that is on the earth.”” I make a habit of thanking God every time I see one. We are encouraged to live by faith not by sight, but God, in His mercy gives us a sign.
Sadly, the rainbow has been hijacked by other organisations, (some of them totally Godless) but we must remember the significance of it in God’s terms. It is about God’s judgment and mercy and His dealing with the sin question. God has shown His love for mankind by sending His Son Jesus to die for our sin on the cross. The ark is an early picture of salvation and rescue provided by God from His judgment on sin.
The scene turns to life after the ark, and we are given an insight into the family of Noah and his three sons, Shem, Ham, and Japheth (v18,19) from which the earth was now to be populated. Ham was the father of Canaan.
Having spent 120 years building the ark, Noah turned his hand to farming and planted a vineyard (v20-23). It was understandable that he found work, he had a family to keep. He drank of the wine he had produced, and this turned out to be a big mistake. This is the first mention of drunkenness in the Bible. Nowhere in the Bible is it forbidden to drink wine; however, this is the first of many warnings of the dangers of it. Alcohol is a depressant. It takes away much of their self-control, people do things under the influence of alcohol which they would never dream of doing. It affects their judgment, their choices, their wisdom, and their balance. I’m sure you’ve seen a drunken man staggering around, falling, incoherent.
The wise sayings in the book of Proverbs – “Wine is a mocker, strong drink is a brawler, and whoever is led astray by it is not wise.” (20:1)
“Who has woe? Who has sorrow? Who has contentions? Who has complaints? Who has wounds without cause? Who has redness of eyes? Those who linger long at the wine, those who go in search of mixed wine. Do not look on the wine when it is red, when it sparkles in the cup, when it swirls around smoothly; at the last it bites like a serpent, and stings like a viper. Your eyes will see strange things, and your heart will utter perverse things” (23:29-33). It may seem harmless and appetising, but it has a venomous kick.
“Give strong to him who is ready to perish, and wine to them of heavy hearts. Let him drink and forget his poverty and remember his misery no more” (31:6,7). That’s what the world says – a temporary cure, but after the affect wears off the poverty and misery return, usually in greater measure. ‘Ready to perish?’ Certainly not for the Christian.
Other wise sayings — Isaiah 5;11 “Woe to those who rise early in the morning, That they may follow intoxicating drink; Who continue until night, till wine inflames them!”
Isaiah 5:22 “Woe to men mighty at drinking wine, Woe to men valiant for mixing intoxicating drink,”
Many people who get drunk become victims of abuse, sexual and otherwise. Noah was no exception. Remember this was a righteous man. What was he doing getting into this state? It was foolishness in the extreme. He became naked in his tent. One doesn’t become naked, either he deliberately did it or perhaps someone did it. It may well have been that he was warm and fell asleep. Ham saw his father and told his brothers. Shem and Japheth took a blanket, went into Noah’s tent backwards so they couldn’t see their father and covered him. I believe the Hebrew words for Ham’s action was that he told his brothers with delight and was making mock of his father as a godly man.
“So Noah awoke from his wine and knew what his younger son had done to him. Then he said: “Cursed be Canaan; a servant of servants he shall be to his brethren.” And he said: “Blessed be the LORD, The God of Shem, and may Canaan be his servant. May God enlarge Japheth, and may he dwell in the tents of Shem; and may Canaan be his servant.” (v24-27)
Ham was cursed because he drooled over the nakedness of his father, whereas Shem and Japheth shielded their eyes and were blessed. Ham wasn’t mentioned by name rather ‘his younger son’ but the curse was to Ham’s son, Canaan. It is thought that Canaan was involved with his father, and this was foretelling of Ham’s son’s future and not that the curse of the father passing on to their children, which would be unjust.
Noah lived three hundred years after the flood and died at the age of 950 years and even though his later years were not as good as his previous days, he is still remembered as a man of faith. I’m sure that Noah regretted what he had done, sin always has consequences, but we can be sure that upon repentance we have God’s forgiveness.
