And God blessed Noah and his sons, and said to them, Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth.
The flood has ended and the ark is empty. God now speaks the first words to a re-started human race: a blessing, and a command to fill the earth again. But the wording is not quite what Adam heard in Eden, and the difference tells us where mankind now stands.
The earth has been cleared by water, and God now sets man in it on fresh terms.
Water has washed the earth clean. That gives a whole new set of conditions for people and animals. God now sets man in a new order of things. He blesses Noah and his sons, promising that they will be fruitful and will multiply to fill the earth, which had lost so many of its people.
That blessing does not come because the survivors were better than those who drowned. God had already said in His heart what man is, and He says the blessing anyway.
The new world, like the old, began its course with blessing from its Creator. "God blessed Noah." But first God gave a solemn witness. Before He spoke the blessing and the commands that came with it, He showed that the survivors of the flood were unchanged. They had the same nature as those whose sin had ruined them (Gen. 8:21). God had declared man completely corrupt before He judged the world by the flood. He says it again as the second father of the human family starts out. But now it was for mercy, not for judgment, that God spoke these words.
The command is to spread out, and the emphasis falls on the whole globe.
Notice God's command to man as he entered the restored earth. It was to refill that earth — not parts of the earth, but the earth. He wanted men spread out across the world. He did not want them clustered together, relying on their own gathered strength. We will see in Gen. 11 how man ignored all this.
Man refused this command outright.
After the flood, His word to Noah and his sons was still, "Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth." But mankind, though awed by that judgment, had no desire to do His will. They wanted to stay together... their aim was to set themselves up as a universal republic without God.
God said almost the same words to Adam. But He added something for Adam that Noah never got.
"Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth," God had said to Adam. "Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth," He also said to Noah and his sons. But to Adam He added what He did not add to Noah — "and subdue it." Was this omission accidental? To subdue the earth was God's original design for man on earth. By the fall he lost that place, and can never regain it. Another Man will do it — the Head of the new creation.
Noah gets more at the table than Adam did. He gets less authority. His standing is different.
He is "blessed," as Adam was in his day, and told to "be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth." (Gen. 1:28; Gen. 9:1) ... God put the earth under Adam, and the creatures of the forest, the field, the sea and the air recognized him as their master... Now the creatures of the earth only stand in dread and fear of Noah... Yet Noah's table was better spread than Adam's had been at first... For Adam's was the food fitting an innocent one, Noah's is the food of a ransomed one.
With the blessing comes a job: Noah is to hold the earth for God, not just enjoy it.
God commands him to fill the earth, as He had commanded Adam at the beginning. He is to order and govern it. He is to carry on his religious service and keep up his testimony to God in it. Government is his, and in company with priesthood too.
The failure comes at once.
The first thing Noah does after God had blessed him is to get drunk.
So the blessing points past Noah to someone who will hold it without failing.
Here we see Christ, the true Noah, Heir of the new earth. Of that earth we read, "no longer will there be anything accursed." All things in it are handed over to Him.
- Mercy first. God gives His verdict on man's heart before the blessing, not after. So the blessing comes from mercy, not because man had improved.
- Blessing given. The new world opens just as the old one did — with the Creator's blessing on fruitfulness and increase.
- Reach commanded. The charge covers the whole earth, not parts of it. In Genesis 11 man refuses to scatter and stays gathered around himself.
- One word withheld. "Subdue it" is absent. Adam lost that place at the fall. One writer points ahead to another Man, the Head of the new creation, who will do it.
- Result foreshadowed. God blesses Noah as a ransomed man and gives him government. Noah fails almost at once. The blessing holds in the true Noah, Heir of a new earth where nothing is accursed.
And let the fear of you and the dread of you be upon every animal of the earth, and upon all fowl of the heavens upon all that moveth [on] the ground; and upon all the fishes of the sea into your hand are they delivered.
Noah steps out of the ark onto a washed but still fallen earth, and God hands the animal world over to him. The terms are new: fear and dread, not the willing subjection Adam knew.
Adam met the animals as their namer. Noah meets them as the man they run from. One writer traces the change to how God acts in each scene.
What a different dominion from Adam's! God there, as Creator, puts all living animals under Adam's power; he names them. Here, God is a preserver, a saviour. But He only places the animals in Noah's power, and fear marks the relationship. Noah is their destroyer, and they fear him… This clearly sets the whole thing on a new system and footing.
The world God now speaks to is not the world of Eden. He deals with it as it is.
Now it was a fallen world. God blessed these men and charged them to fill the earth, and the fear and the dread of them were to be upon every beast and bird, with reptile and fish. God delivered the creatures into men's hand. Sin was everywhere, and God took it into account as a fact that could not be ignored.
This fear is not only a loss. Set against the strength of animals, it is a protection.
This is a great mercy. Beasts are stronger than man, and if they had no fear of him, they could all but wipe out the human race. So God has planted that fear in them. They no longer have a nature that submits to man of its own accord, as they did in the garden of Eden.
Noah does not receive this gift where Adam stood. One writer contrasts the two men and the ground each of them stood on.
God created Adam alone, and in "His own image," and made him the responsible head over an unfallen creation. But "Noah found favor in the eyes of the Lord." God led him into the ark, through it, and out of it on the other side of death and judgment, as a redeemed man. He was to begin a new history in another world, under God's promises and covenanted blessings… It is on this new ground that God gave the world out afresh to him.
Something lost is handed back here. Notice what the gift includes.
Then their authority over the lower creatures is restored. The fear and dread of man is to be upon every beast of the earth, and upon all that moves, and God delivers them into his hand. All things are his, and even death itself is now to furnish him with food. This fact carries the deepest meaning. It is death serving life, and God would keep us always mindful of that principle.
Noah on a renewed earth points beyond himself. Commentators see in him a picture of Christ ruling the world to come.
If Adam is a picture of Christ as the Head over all things, and as the Head of the Church, then Noah, stepping onto a renewed earth, is a picture of the Lord Jesus as the Governor of the world to come… This is very similar to what God says of man in Psalm 8. It shows that Noah, as well as Adam, pointed forward to the coming Son of Man, with all things put under Him.
That kingdom will be settled and at rest. A sacrifice stands behind it.
All this was very significant, telling us of the character of that kingdom which is to arise in the last days, when the true Noah takes the dominion. Then the earth and its creatures will be established in the covenant of lasting rest and certainty… And then the Lord God will rest in His full delight in it all. It will all stand in the sweet savour of the sacrifice which the Son of His love has offered.
- Cause. Adam named the animals; Noah is given their fear. Sin made the difference, and God deals with the world as it is.
- Gift. Noah receives it as a redeemed man, brought through death and judgment on the ground of an accepted sacrifice.
- Mercy. Animals are stronger than we are. The fear God plants in them guards the human race.
- Reach. The gift covers beasts, birds, creeping things and fish. Even death now feeds life.
- Result. Noah on a renewed earth pictures the true Noah, the Son of Man. Under Him the earth will rest in lasting peace.
Every moving thing that liveth shall be food for you as the green herb I give you everything.
After the flood God blesses Noah and sets the terms for a new world. One of those terms is a wider table, which raises three questions: why God widened it, what it now costs, and what He kept back.
Before the flood, man and beast lived on plants. Commentators read this as a real enlargement, given with no restrictions attached:
Besides this, mankind was no longer limited to a vegetarian diet (v.2). God allowed him animals, birds and fish as food, just as fully as herbs and fruits. There were no restrictions like the ones God later gave Israel under law (Lev. 11), and then set aside after the death of the Lord Jesus (Acts 10:11-16; 1 Tim. 4:4-5). Of course, if someone finds that a food gives him physical trouble, it is only wise to avoid it. But God does not forbid the use of any.
Did animals eat one another before this? Commentators differ. One writer holds that every beast, bird and creeping thing first fed on green plants, "and they may not have become carnivorous until after the flood, when flesh was given to man to eat." He allows the other view too: that sin had already changed them, and God held them in check in the ark. (Morrish Bible Dictionary)
This gift works through death. Man's food now comes from creatures that die for him, and one writer finds deep meaning in that:
All things are his, and now even death itself supplies him with food. This fact carries the deepest significance. It is death serving life, and God would keep that principle constantly before us. Almost every meal testifies to us of the very basis of all real gospel, which the Lord's supper declares in full and formal terms.
The very next verse forbids eating flesh with its blood. One writer shows why that single limit matters so much:
God now gave every moving thing that lives to be food for man (Gen. 9:3), as freely as He had first given green plants to beast and bird and reptile (Gen. 1:30). But He placed a clear restriction on the blood. Man was not to eat it (Gen. 9:4). The blood was the life, and God reserved it for Himself. Giving man the freedom to eat animals made God's claim stand out all the more. Life belonged to God, and it will go badly for those who despise or defy His rights... This is no longer the dominion given by the Creator. Now He gives permission, and He forbids.
One writer adds that Christians are given more than Noah was:
Only after we know deliverance, and in the new place with God, can this be rightly understood. We now go farther than the type and past the restriction imposed here: we drink the blood also. What is God's alone as atonement is ours to sustain and cheer us, as atonement now made.
Later God told Israel which animals they could and could not eat. One writer asks why, and finds the answer in standing, not diet:
After the flood, God gave man a grant of every moving living creature for food (Gen. 9:3). Here, under the law, He brings in restrictions... But why these restrictions? Because the law puts man at a distance from God and makes him feel it. It is also meant to teach him the great difference between standing on the ground of keeping the law and standing on the ground of grace... How free was the grant to Noah and his sons! How strict the restrictions placed on Israel!
Some would make holiness a matter of avoiding certain foods. One writer names where that idea comes from, and answers it from this grant:
Demons play on man's sense of defilement. As the cure they suggest staying away from certain foods and from marriage — the very things God has provided for His creature's good. So they make God out to be the author of man's lack of piety... Nothing that God has provided for His creature defiles. Every creature of God is good, and nothing is to be refused if it is received with thanksgiving, because the word of God and prayer sanctify it — that is, God's grant to Noah (Gen. 9:3-4) and the thanksgiving of the one who receives it.
That leaves our part. God has spoken; the thanks are ours:
In Genesis 9:3, we find how the word of God put an ample supply of food at man's disposal. It is sad if Christian households do not complete this sanctification by prayer as they use the food He has so mercifully provided.
- Granted — after the flood man is no longer limited to plants. Animals, birds and fish are food now, as fully as herbs and fruit, with no forbidden list.
- Purchased — food now comes by death. Nearly every meal says the same thing: life kept alive by another's death.
- Reserved — God kept back the blood, because the blood is the life. The wider the freedom, the clearer His claim.
- Contrasted — Israel's food laws taught distance under law. Noah's free grant shows what grace looks like.
- Received — nothing God provides defiles. Rules that ban His food attack the Giver, and thanksgiving at our table completes the grant.
Only, the flesh with its life, its blood, ye shall not eat.
God had just given Noah and his sons a new freedom. Every moving creature could now be food. But God kept one thing back. Man must not eat the blood, because the blood is the life.
The gift and the limit come in the same breath. Man gains a wide new freedom at the table, and God marks off one thing as His.
God now gave man every moving thing that lives for food (Gen. 9:3), as freely as He had first given green plants to beast and bird and reptile (Gen. 1:30). But He put a clear limit on the blood. Man was not to eat it (Gen. 9:4). The blood was the life, and God kept it for Himself. Letting man use animals for food made God's claim stand out all the more. Life belonged to God, and woe to those who despise or defy His rights.
The words "flesh with its life, that is, its blood" are packed tight. One writer works through the Hebrew behind them. The verse does not name two separate things, flesh and life. It means flesh while the life is still in it.
From Genesis 9:4 it is clear, I think, that the expression means flesh in its living state; that is what must not be eaten. And that state — of ruined flesh — lies in its blood… The verse comes in to show that the term means flesh with the life in it — flesh in its living state — which is the blood.
Behind the rule lies a question of ownership. Man may kill an animal for food, but the life in it is not his to take.
To eat blood denied the rights of God the Creator. Even though man forfeited his own right by sin, the LORD kept His title over life untouched. God set up human government in the first place to deal with death by deliberate violence. Shed blood is the sign of that death, and it belongs to God alone. Man has no right to take it for himself.
One writer sets the ban against Eden, where God closed the way back to the tree of life. To eat life would be to seize by force what sin had already lost.
To eat the blood would have been a bold taking back of what he had lost through sin — an attempt to win life again by forcing the way that the cherubim's sword guarded. This rule told the sinner that he had lost his right to the tree of life and can never return to it in his own strength. The life has gone back to God. The blood is His. And the gospel comes to tell us how He has used it, even providing with it and through it new, eternal life that cannot fail for the sinner who is dead.
God kept the blood back from man's table because He had His own use for it. One rule teaches man three things about himself, and ends in a gift.
Life belongs to God, so no one of the human race was to eat blood. The sinner has also forfeited his life. He can only live before God on the basis of the death of a sacrifice in his place… So the ban on eating blood reminds us of three important truths. We are creatures, and must remember it. We were sinners by nature, and are to acknowledge it. We owe atonement by blood entirely to God, and are always to own it. The One to whom life belongs has given it to be poured out for our everlasting blessing.
God spoke this word to Noah centuries before Moses, and through him to the whole human family. That timing shapes how the apostles later handled it.
This law pressed on Israel what God had already laid down for Noah after the flood, in Genesis 9:4. So when the apostles and elders gave the same command to Gentile believers in Acts 15:20 and 29, they were not loading them with a mere item of the law of Moses. They were repeating a ban that applies to everyone. We do well to keep it, though we need not copy the extreme carefulness of the Jews, as the instruction of 1 Corinthians 10:25 shows.
- Gift — God handed over every moving creature for food, as freely as He once gave green plants. The limit sits inside a gift.
- Reserve — He keeps back one thing: the blood. The wider the freedom to eat, the clearer His claim.
- Reason — The blood is the life, and life belongs to God. Leaving it alone is how man admits he is a creature, not the owner of life.
- Meaning — Man forfeited his life by sin. To eat life would be to seize back what he lost. The blood goes to God, and God uses it for atonement.
- Reach — God gave this word to Noah for the whole race, long before the law. He pressed it on Israel, and the apostles gave it again to Gentile believers in Acts 15.
And indeed your blood, [the blood] of your lives, will I require at the hand of every animal will I require it, and at the hand of Man, at the hand of each [the blood] of his brother, will I require the life of Man.
After the flood, God sets up a new order for Noah's family. They may eat animals, but not the blood. And God warns that He will call every killer of a human being to account. Two questions follow. Why does God claim the blood? And does a word spoken to one family still hold for everyone?
Permission to eat meat came with one limit: not the blood. That limit sets up the demand here. Giving man more freedom made God's own claim stand out.
Man was not to eat the blood. It was the life, and God kept it for Himself. Letting man use animals for food made God's claim stand out all the more. Life belonged to God, and it will go badly for those who despise or defy His rights. This is the state of a fallen world. God is a Preserver, or a Saviour, of all people, as the apostle says — especially of those who believe.
God's claim reaches past human killers. He says He will require the life at the hand of every beast.
The life of a man killed by a beast — "from every beast I will require it." So we see that God keeps His right over life, even a beast's life. They must come and offer the blood to God. Man had no meat to eat until God gave it to him. Many are seeking to do away with capital punishment; but what do they care about God? The whole order of God is broken up now. Even a beast that kills should die.
The wording reaches down to the closest human relationships. Cain's question — was he his brother's keeper — is answered here.
Above all, man's life is sacred. What Cain did is to go unpunished no longer. Man is plainly declared to be his "brother's keeper": he is to require blood for blood, and to do it as the instrument and deputy of God on earth.
That raises a question from the earlier chapters. Why did the first murderer go free?
No government had yet been set up on the earth, so God would allow no one to punish Cain. Once government began in its simplest form, men were to act, as we see in verses 5 and 6 of Genesis 9.
God foresaw that this authority would be abused. Writers read His demand here as a guard set against that abuse.
Man would soon misuse and twist the very governing authority God placed in his hand, following his own will without the fear of God. Rivers of blood would flow — not only through lawless corruption and violence, as before the flood, but through ambitious kings and rulers after it. So God, in His foreseeing wisdom and thoughtful goodness, declares at the very start of the new order, "And for your lifeblood I will require a reckoning: from every beast I will require it."
Commentators see this word as the starting point of all lawful government.
The words of Genesis 9:5-6 — "Whoever sheds the blood of man, by man shall his blood be shed, for God made man in His own image" — first laid the primary basis of human government as it is. Life belonged to God, and He passed that principle on to Noah. From then on man was responsible as God's servant to carry out wrath, even to the shedding of blood if blood had been shed; for he must not carry the sword for nothing.
This demand also set a law in place. Writers note how long that law has stood.
Life is what lets a created being enjoy the place the Creator has set it in. Sin has come in, so that life is forfeited, and God claims it in the words of Genesis 9:5. That established capital punishment for murder, and the law has never been cancelled or changed.
- Claim — Life is God's. He reserved the blood for Himself and treats every human death as a debt owed to Him.
- Reach — The claim runs to the beast, to man, and to a man's own brother; no killer is outside God's reckoning.
- Contrast — Cain went free because no government existed yet. Here God puts the sword in man's hand for the first time.
- Restraint — The same word that arms rulers also warns them. God knew authority would be twisted, and rivers of blood would follow.
- Permanence — This word established capital punishment for murder, and writers say that law has never been cancelled or changed.
Whoso sheddeth Man's blood, by Man shall his blood be shed; for in the image of God he hath made Man.
After the flood, Noah steps out of the ark into a fresh start. God lays down one rule to guard human life: whoever takes a life forfeits his own. Two questions follow. Where does a government get the right to put a killer to death, and what makes killing a person an offence against God Himself?
Government is not as old as the human race. It began at a fixed point in history.
Notice that nothing like civil government was set up at the beginning. Man did not invent it in all the centuries before the flood. God established it for the first time after that great event... This is why Cain was not punished by man, as responsibility would have required after the sword was committed to Noah. From then on God solemnly required blood for blood.
This rule does more than punish a killer. It also says what a human life is worth.
God attached a value to man's life that He had never declared before. It counted for more still, because now for the first time it fell to government, responsible to God, to defend that life.
The verse does not argue from what society needs. It argues from what man is.
The image of God expresses man's place and responsibility of representing God... It is not His likeness, for man lost this by sin and fathered children in his own likeness. But man keeps His image, even fallen as he is here. So the man who kills another (except by proper authority) is guilty of denying God's right in this respect... The murderer does not just interfere with a man and harm him as badly as possible. He also defaces God's image by killing a man, and God sentences the murderer to die.
The verse uses only one of those two words, and the difference matters.
What is insisted on here is the image, not the likeness. So Genesis 9:6. But in James 3:9 it is "likeness," not "image."... An image "represents"; a likeness is "conformed to."
God handed this right down. It did not grow up from below, so no theory about how societies form can explain it — or cancel it.
Clearly it is God's committal of the sword, the power of life and death, into the hands of man... Such is the true source and basis of civil government. It did not spring from a social contract. It did not grow by degrees out of family relationships. It did not begin in the usurpation of man or of a class. As God's command gave it being, so it can never cease to be clothed with His authority, whether men listen or refuse... It is a right of God, which He has been pleased ever since the flood to entrust to human keeping.
This command targets murder, not accidental death. And it puts the sword in official hands.
The law separated murder from manslaughter. If someone killed a person by accident, that killer could run to a City of Refuge and be protected there. God has given man governmental authority to carry out this universal command. It came long before the law of Moses, and no one has ever repealed or relaxed it. In the New Testament the magistrate does not bear the sword in vain, for he is God's servant for the punishment of evildoers. Romans 13.
One writer takes this verse straight into today's argument over the death penalty.
God had already spoken long before on this case (Genesis 9); no one has revoked it, and no one can... That ground remains, and so does the guilt on a land that does not avenge such blood. Those who today would abolish the death penalty should weigh it: "no atonement can be made for the land for the blood that is shed in it, except by the blood of the one who shed it."
The same chapter that hands man the sword also shows him drunk. That failure is part of the lesson.
Man fails with government as well as without it — not only the governed, but the governor. Noah — that is, man — proves completely unable to wield the sword in righteousness before God, because whoever governs must first know how to rule himself. But Noah got drunk... Part of God's purpose is to show this, and so to show that the Man of His right hand must come to rule the earth.
- Given — Government starts here, not in Eden. No human court punished Cain, because God had not yet handed man the sword.
- Grounded — The reason is the image of God. Man represents God, so killing a man defaces God's image and denies His right.
- Guarded — The authority is God's, only lent to man. No social contract made it, and no vote can cancel what no man granted.
- Governed — The sword belongs to the magistrate, and it answers murder, not accidental death.
- Given up — The first man trusted with the sword got drunk. Every failed ruler since points to the Man who must come to rule in righteousness.
And ye, be fruitful and multiply swarm on the earth, and multiply on it.
God speaks these words to Noah and his sons on the far side of the flood, in a world just emptied of its inhabitants. God gave the same charge in verse 1. Here it returns — but only after He has spoken about bloodshed. Why repeat a blessing on human increase at that point?
One writer points to what God already knew about the race when He said it.
Despite all He foresaw of rebellion and bloodshed, God repeats in Genesis 9:7 His word to men: "Be fruitful and multiply, increase greatly on the earth and multiply in it." They have certainly done this.
But a fuller earth also means more sinners. One writer answers that objection.
God repeats the encouragement of verse 1 to multiply on the earth, and verse 7 puts even more emphasis on it. Multiplying would bring more sinners into the world, but that would not defeat God: by His own pure grace He is able to save sinners. People today try every method of keeping the population of the world down, but God has not told them to do this. He knows how to take care of this problem and will do so in His own way.
The command is not simply to have children. It fixes where those children are to end up.
Notice, God's command to man, as he entered the restored earth, was to refill that earth; not parts of the earth, but the earth. He wanted men spread out across the face of the world, not leaning on their own concentrated strength. We shall see, in Genesis 11, how man neglected all this.
The wording echoes God's words to Adam, but the setting has changed. What man holds now is not what he held in Eden.
Back then God gave dominion to man made in His image, after His likeness — dominion over the fish of the sea, the birds of the heavens, the cattle, all the earth, and every creeping thing that creeps on the earth. Now it was a fallen world. God blessed these men and charged them to fill the earth, and the fear and the dread of them were to fall on every beast and bird, with reptile and fish. He delivered the creatures into men's hand. Sin was everywhere, and God took it into account as an existing fact that could not be ignored.
The verses just before this one hand man something new. Writers tie it to the failure that brought the flood.
The Lord's instructions to Noah in verses 3-6 show the start of human government on earth. After Adam sinned, God left man to his conscience. Man broke down completely, and the flood came. So man needed more than conscience, and at this point a new order began: human government. It was necessary to restrain evil and keep order. God, however, gives man only a minimum of law for government — just two laws, covering the rights of God and the rights of mankind.
That trust did not last long in Noah's own hands.
God entrusted government to the hands of men. Sadly, this new trial soon has the same result as before. The government given to Noah loses its honour at once. The earth, relieved by farming care, becomes in its fruit a snare to Noah. He gets drunk, and his own son dishonours him.
Two chapters later, men do the opposite of what this verse commands. They gather instead of spreading.
They were to fill the earth. But scattered in peaceful quietness they would count for nothing, so they would not. They had to get a name for themselves, to be a centre. And God scatters into nations by judgment what would not fill the earth by families in peace.
- Repeated — God gives the charge twice in this chapter. The second time carries more emphasis, and it follows His words about bloodshed. He knew what the race would do and blessed it anyway.
- Answered — More people would mean more sinners. That does not defeat God. By His own grace He is able to save sinners, and He never tells man to hold the numbers down.
- Spread — The target is the whole earth, not parts of it. God wanted men dispersed, not leaning on their own concentrated strength.
- Guarded — A filling earth needed restraint. So God put government in man's hand with only two basic laws: the rights of God and the rights of man. Conscience alone had already collapsed into the flood.
- Enforced — At Babel men refused to scatter and built for a name instead. God then scattered them by judgment. His word in this verse stood either way.
And God spoke to Noah, and to his sons with him, saying,
The flood waters had gone. The earth was fresh again. Then God spoke — not to Noah alone, but to Noah and his sons standing with him. What follows is the first covenant the Bible sets out in full. Why does God bind Himself by promise to a race He has just judged?
The word "covenant" had been used before the flood as a pledge to Noah. Here it is opened out in full.
"I will establish my covenant with you" had been God's word to Noah, before he built the ark or the waters came (Gen. 6:18). Now that the judgment is past, and the new earth is inherited, God details that covenant in full and pledges it again to His elect (Gen. 9:8-17). Every covenant we read of in Scripture is specific. Each one names its parties and states its objects plainly. There is no mistaking them.
God speaks to Noah and his sons with him. From there the circle widens further than in any other covenant.
Genesis 9:1-7 set out the blessing of God pronounced on Noah and his sons for the world that now is. From then on God allowed man to eat animal food, yet forbade him to eat blood, which belongs to God. God also put government into man's hand for the first time. Its task was to protect human life, and to vindicate God where life was taken. Now Genesis 9:8-11 give the covenant God established with mankind and every creature set under man. It is the largest covenant God ever made. It still holds under a merciful pledge that cannot fail.
Notice the direction of the speech. God speaks; Noah and his sons are not asked to agree to terms.
This covenant made with Noah and all creation was unconditional. It was a covenant of promise, not depending on any faithfulness of the creature. It was something new.
The same is said of God's covenants generally, and it sets them apart from the bargains people make with each other.
The covenants made by God are of a different order. He makes His covenants from Himself, without consulting man. With Noah God made a covenant that He would not again destroy the world by a flood. As a token of that covenant He set the rainbow in the cloud (Gen. 9:8-17). This kind of covenant takes the form of an unconditional promise.
The verse names the speaker simply as God. One writer explains why no other title would fit here.
Here we may observe that it is "God" (Elohim) who blessed and who spoke; no other title would be fitting. "The LORD" (Jehovah) would have been entirely out of place. This is not an occasion for expressing a special relationship. The subject before us is of the widest character. It is the Creator who is declaring Himself the Preserver of all here below. He does so despite the imagination of man's heart being evil from his youth, which had so recently ended in the destruction of everyone on earth outside the ark. God could and would and did bless on the ground of sacrifice. That blessing was provisional, until the infinite sacrifice by which the new heavens and new earth will come in. Here God establishes His covenant with Noah and his sons on a footing that leaves aside all question of the soul or of moral considerations.
Before God spoke these words, Noah had built an altar. The order matters.
His first act on the cleansed earth was to build an altar to the LORD. There he offered burnt offerings of all the clean animals and birds. The LORD smelled a pleasing aroma. He said in His heart that He would not again curse the ground because of man. He would not again strike down every living thing as He had done. This teaches us that God carries on His providential government of the world on the ground of the pleasing aroma of Christ's sacrifice.
A family that had just watched the world drown had every reason to expect it to happen again. God speaks to that fear.
God covenants not only with Noah and his sons and with his descendants after them, but with every living creature — cattle, bird, and beast. Without such a covenant, what could guilty man expect but repeated strokes of the same judgment which had just taken them all away? Would not old sins renewed and fresh sins added provoke the same punishment? No; God's covenant with man and the earth steps in absolutely. "I have sworn that the waters of Noah should no more go over the earth." He will surely judge and destroy in another way, as He warns elsewhere. But it was no small comfort, when the world that now is began after the flood, that God settled their trembling hearts against a blow they naturally and rightly dreaded.
- Spoken, not negotiated — God "makes His covenants from Himself, without consulting man." Noah and his sons receive a promise, not a contract.
- Built on sacrifice — the altar came first. God's ongoing care of the world rests on the pleasing aroma of Christ's sacrifice.
- Widest reach — the promise covers Noah, his sons, their descendants and every living creature. It is "the largest covenant God ever made."
- Fear removed — the survivors could expect the flood to return. God's covenant rules that out, though He warns of judgment of another kind.
- Still standing — it is an unconditional promise, so it holds "under a merciful pledge that cannot fail."
And I, behold, I establish my covenant with you, and with your seed after you;
Noah has just stepped out of the ark onto an emptied earth, and God speaks first — binding Himself by promise to Noah, to his descendants, and to every creature that came out with him. The rest of the chapter answers what this promise is, who is inside it, and what holds it up.
The word translated "covenant" appears here for the first time in the Bible, and its use is never vague. God had already told Noah He would establish it before the flood came; now He spells it out.
"With you I will establish my covenant" had been God's word to Noah, before the ark was made, or the waters had come. Genesis 6:18. Now the judgment is past and the new earth is inherited. So God spells that covenant out in full, and pledges it again, to His chosen. Genesis 9:8-17. And it is here that the word "covenant" is first used. Every covenant we read about in Scripture is specific. Its parties and its purposes are clearly defined and plainly stated. There is no mistaking them.
God does the establishing. He asks nothing from Noah in return, and nothing in the arrangement waits on how Noah's descendants behave.
This covenant made with Noah and all creation was unconditional. It was a covenant of promise, not depending on any faithfulness of the creature. It was something new.
Before the flood God spoke to Noah alone. Here He speaks to the sons as well, and one writer traces the change back to the sacrifices on the altar.
God had talked with Noah, because he was righteous before Him. He had often spoken to Noah, but never before to his sons. The Lord could not do this before the flood, or even before Noah and his family left the ark. Once the sacrifices were offered on the altar, He could and did do it... To the righteous one God could speak apart from a sacrifice; to others only on the ground of it. Noah had a place before Him on earth because of what he was; his sons only because of the sacrifice.
The covenant reaches past Noah's family to every creature under man, and it still stands.
Genesis 9:1-7 set out the blessing of God pronounced on Noah and his sons for the world that now is... Now Genesis 9:8-11 give the covenant God established with mankind and with every creature placed under man. It is the largest covenant God ever made, and it still stands under a merciful pledge that cannot fail.
Scripture uses more than one name for God. One writer explains which name stands behind the word "God" here, and why the other name would not fit.
Notice again that it is "Elohim" Who blessed (Genesis 9:1) and spoke (verse 8). No other title would be fitting here. "Jehovah" would have been entirely out of place. This is no occasion for expressing a special relationship. Far from it: what is before us here is as wide as it could be. It is the Creator declaring Himself the Preserver of everything here below. And He does so even though the thoughts of man's heart are evil from his youth — which had so recently ended in the destruction of everyone on earth outside the ark.
"Your offspring after you" is not a closed list. Everyone alive descends from Noah, so everyone alive stands under its terms.
The second head in this second world — the world since the flood — was Noah. But his place stood on changed terms: under a covenanted and unconditional blessing, whose full token was the rainbow God set in the cloud. Under the protection of that blessing we take our part as "his seed" and descendants. This unchanging covenant rests on the faithfulness of God. It is what secures all blessing to every living creature.
Some treat this as the first of the Bible's covenants. Others argue that, in the strict sense, Scripture has only two.
There are really only two covenants in Scripture — the old covenant and the new. Still, the word covenant is used in several places about the Lord where it only announces certain relationships. These are relationships He was pleased to enter into with man or with the creature (Genesis 9:8-17, and so on), or on which man was to approach Him — but without conditions. The context must decide the sense.
- Sacrifice first. God spoke to Noah's sons only after the sacrifice. The whole covenant stands on ground that sacrifice prepared.
- Gift, not deal. It is unconditional — a promise, resting on nothing the creature contributes.
- Widest reach. It takes in Noah, his descendants, and every living creature: the largest covenant God ever made.
- Creator's word. The speaker is God the Creator, declaring Himself the Preserver of all — not entering a special relationship with one people.
- Still standing. It rests on God's faithfulness, so it cannot fail. Every living thing shelters under it today.
and with every living soul which is with you, fowl as well as cattle, and all the animals of the earth with you, of all that has gone out of the ark -- every animal of the earth.
God's covenant after the flood is not made with Noah alone. The list of partners widens to take in the birds, the cattle and the wild animals that left the ark. Why does God name animals in a covenant at all? And what does that tell us about Him?
The reach of this promise marks it out. One writer gives both the size of this covenant and how long it lasts:
Genesis 9:8-11 give the covenant God established with mankind and with every creature set under man. It is the largest covenant God ever made. It still stands, held up by a merciful pledge that cannot fail.
The words "as many as came out of the ark" also draw a line around who is covered. One commentator points out what that line leaves out:
At this time God also announced a covenant with Noah and his sons. It included all his descendants too, as well as the birds and animals — all who had been in the ark, and therefore not the fish. The covenant was that God would not again send a flood to destroy the earth.
The name used for God here is not accidental. The promise reaches birds, cattle and the whole earth. So the fitting name is "Elohim" — God as Maker of everything — rather than "Jehovah," the name of a special relationship:
Here again we may notice that it is "Elohim" Who blessed (Gen. 9:1) and spoke (v. 8). No other name would fit. "Jehovah" would have been completely out of place. This is not an occasion for expressing a special relationship. What is before us is as wide as it could be. It is the Creator declaring Himself the Preserver of all here below.
This covenant does not stand on its own. One writer traces its whole reach — animals included — back to a sacrifice:
Because of the sacrifice, God established His covenant with Noah, his sons, their descendants after them, and every living thing that was with them — birds, cattle, beasts of the earth, all that came out of the ark. So the earth and everything tied to it shared in the benefits of the sacrifice. As far as the consequences of man's sin had reached on earth, just as far the blessed results of the burnt offering would be felt.
God asks nothing in return:
This covenant made with Noah and all creation was unconditional. It was a covenant of promise, not depending on any faithfulness of the creature.
Survivors of a flood have every reason to fear a second one. This covenant speaks straight to that fear:
Without such a covenant, what could guilty man expect but repeated blows of the same judgment that had just swept them all away? Would old sins repeated and new sins added not bring the same punishment? No. God's covenant with man and the earth stands in the way, and stands absolutely... He will judge and destroy in other ways, as He warns elsewhere. But it was no small comfort, when the present world began after the flood, that God calmed their trembling hearts about a blow they had every natural and just reason to dread.
The animals came through the water, and then into the covenant. One writer sees in that an early pledge of something larger:
We have had many pledges of this final redemption and joy of the creatures. Noah carried them, two of every kind, with himself and his household through the waters into the new world. And the same covenant that settled him and his descendants there provided just as much for them (Gen. 9:10).
That care for creatures runs through the whole Bible and ends in their release:
God never forgets His rights as Creator and Preserver. Even when our blessed Lord brought out heavenly and eternal things, He never taught us to despise the birds of the sky or the lilies of the field, or God's care in either case... And the New Testament is as clear as the Old in keeping before us the deliverance He will surely bring for the whole creation, which groans and suffers pain together until now.
- Sacrifice first. The covenant rests on a burnt offering. Its blessing reaches as far as sin's damage had reached.
- Gift, not bargain. It is a covenant of promise. It does not depend on any faithfulness of the creature.
- Widest reach. God names the birds, cattle and beasts that left the ark as partners. Commentators call it the largest covenant He ever made.
- Creator's name. God speaks here as "Elohim" — Creator and Preserver of all below. This is not the name of a special relationship.
- Result: rest. God calmed trembling hearts about a second flood. By including the creatures, He pledged the deliverance creation still groans for.
And I establish my covenant with you, neither shall all flesh be cut off any more by the waters of a flood, and henceforth there shall be no flood to destroy the earth.
After the flood, God speaks not to warn but to bind Himself: never again will water wipe out all flesh. Commentators ask what He promised, what it rests on, how far it reaches, and what it leaves out.
A survivor's natural thought is that the same blow could fall again. One writer sets the promise against that fear:
God establishes His covenant in a way that cuts off the least fear from every heart that trusted in Him. There is no more fear that a flood will destroy all flesh, and no fear that God will ever deal with the earth in that way again. Without such a covenant, what could guilty man expect but repeated strokes of the same judgment which had just taken them all away? Would not old sins renewed and fresh sins added provoke like punishment? Not so. God's covenant with man and the earth steps in and settles the matter.
Noah offered a sacrifice, and the promise followed. One writer draws out what that sacrifice means for the whole earth:
Noah's was the second recorded sacrifice, Abel's being the first. Abel's sacrifice shows the ground the believing individual stands on with God. Noah's shows the ground the earth stands on with God. Christ's atonement is the reason God can bear with the appalling mass of evil that meets His eye as He looks down from above. Patience would be impossible without the atoning sacrifice, which is always before the mind of God. So the unbeliever owes the very air he breathes to the Saviour whose name he scorns.
God asks nothing of Noah in return. One writer names what kind of agreement this is:
This covenant made with Noah and all creation was unconditional. It was a covenant of promise, not depending on any faithfulness of the creature. It was something new.
Another writer traces the covenant back to the sacrifice behind it:
The sacrifice of Christ (pictured here) becomes a ground for God's dealing with the earth, not only for accepting man, as with Abel. On this a covenant is founded. God binds Himself in grace, so faith has sure ground to stand on, something it can count on.
The parties named in this covenant go well beyond Noah's family. One writer measures it against every other covenant in Scripture:
Genesis 9:1-7 set out the blessing of God pronounced on Noah and his sons for the world that now is. Now Genesis 9:8-11 give the covenant God established with mankind and every creature set under man. It is the largest covenant God ever made, and it still continues under a merciful pledge that cannot fail. We first hear of a covenant with Noah in Genesis 6:18.
Another writer notes the strange use people make of a promise God has kept:
The covenant was to the effect that God would not again send a flood to destroy the earth (vv. 10-11). Once a flood like this had happened, people would fear another. But God's word on this is absolute. Sadly, because another has not come, people deny that the first ever happened! Such is the perversity of human sinful nature!
God rules out one kind of judgment, not every kind. Another still stands, and with it a way of escape:
God has told us that just as that world was destroyed by water so this world will be destroyed by fire. The same word of God says this world is kept for the fire at the day of judgment and ruin of bad men. (See 2 Peter 3:7.) He warns men, and tells them how they may escape. (John 3:16.)
- Pledge given. God removes from every trusting heart the least fear of another flood destroying all flesh. His covenant settles it.
- Pledge grounded. Abel's sacrifice shows the ground the believer stands on. Noah's shows the ground the earth stands on. The world keeps going because of Christ's atonement.
- Pledge unconditional. This is a covenant of promise. It does not depend on the faithfulness of the creature. God binds Himself in grace, so faith has something it can count on.
- Pledge wide. God made it with mankind and every creature under man. It is the largest covenant He ever made, and it still stands.
- Pledge limited. God ruled out water, not judgment. This world is kept for fire, and God warns men how to escape.
And God said, This is the sign of the covenant that I set between me and you and every living soul that is with you, for everlasting generations
God has just brought Noah's family out of the ark into a world washed by judgment. Now He speaks a promise, not a command, and He gives that promise a visible sign. Notice who the promise covers: not Noah alone, but every living creature, and not one lifetime, but all generations to come.
The verse sits at a hinge in the chapter. The opening verses gave Noah a new order for life on earth, and then God turned from ruling to pledging.
In Genesis 9:8-11 God establishes His covenant with mankind and with every creature set under man. It is the largest covenant God ever made, and it still stands on a merciful pledge that cannot fail. Neither of these applied to the world before the flood. In the verses that follow (12-17) God kindly gives a sign or token of His covenant with the earth. Of a covenant with Noah we first hear in Genesis 6:18.
Noah had offered a burnt offering. God's pledge follows on that.
God makes a covenant with Noah and with the creation, and as the witness of it He gives the rainbow… God gave this covenant to the earth right after the sacrifice of Noah, which is a picture of the sacrifice of Christ.
The verse sets no terms for Noah to keep. God says what He will do.
This covenant made with Noah and all creation was unconditional. It was a covenant of promise, not depending on any faithfulness of the creature. It was something new. The wording of God's promise clearly implies that mankind had never seen a rainbow before.
A sign answers a fear. Survivors of a flood have every reason to dread the next dark sky. The sign God chose meets that dread: it cannot appear without the very cloud that frightens them.
So the goodness of God pledged in the bow He set in the cloud brings immense comfort. As a rule you do not see the bow unless there is rain. You see it only when the sun shines bright at your back from the opposite quarter of the sky. So no sign could be more fitting. The rain might awaken fears; the glorious bow was fitted to calm them. This was God's own way of assuring man of His unfailing covenant.
Commentators differ on whether the rainbow itself was new. Hole reads the wording as proof that no one had seen one before. The Bible Treasury holds that Scripture leaves the question open, and that God may have taken a familiar sight and given it a new and merciful meaning.
God sets the sign in the sky, above human reach. The following verses say He will look at it and remember.
The Lord God makes a covenant with Noah and with all the creatures around him. He will keep the earth safe from a second flood. As a token of this, He hangs the bow in the cloud, up there under His own eye, that He may look on it, and so remember His promise… The cloud might threaten, and swell itself with water; the bow should control it. The cloud might frown; the bow should smile… And God set the creation on sure conditions, not on conditions that could fail.
The verse names animals alongside people. That reach traces back to the altar Noah built.
Because of the sacrifice, God established His covenant with Noah, his sons, their descendants after them, and every living thing that was with them… The earth and all connected with it shared in the benefits of the sacrifice. As far as the consequences of man's sin had reached on earth, so far the blessed results of the burnt offering would be felt… The earth as well as man had a share in the covenant, and the creature will one day rejoice in the liberty of the glory of the sons of God.
The rainbow does not stay in Genesis.
The bow God set in the cloud long ago, with its many colours and varied beauty, is the token of His covenant with the earth (Gen. 9:9-17)… It is God's object lesson for the human race. It is a public sign hung out in the heavens, so that all may see and learn that God is good. The last mention of the rainbow shows it over the head of the Lord as He claims the earth in power (Rev. 10:1).
- Cause. The covenant follows Noah's burnt offering, a picture of the sacrifice of Christ. The earth's blessing rests on that sacrifice.
- Gift. God adds a sign to His word: not a duty for man, but a promise of God that depends on no faithfulness of the creature.
- Fitness. The bow only appears with the cloud, so the very thing that stirs fear now carries the assurance that calms it.
- Reach. The pledge covers Noah, his descendants, and every living creature. It is the widest covenant God has made, and it still stands.
- Result. God set the bow where He Himself looks at it. It appears again in Revelation, over the One who claims the earth.
I set my bow in the clouds, and it shall be for a sign of the covenant between me and the earth.
The flood is over, and God gives a promise, not a warning — tied to something Noah could see in the sky whenever rain returned. Three questions follow: what did God "set" there, who is the sign for, and how far does the covenant reach?
The wording puts the act on God's side. He does not just point out something in nature. He gives it a meaning it did not carry before.
The bow is given as the token of the covenant; that does not mean it was created then. God could, of course, have put plenty of clouds above the earth without a rainbow. He says, "I do set my bow."
J. N. Darby (older translations read "I do set my bow in the cloud")
Commentators differ on whether the rainbow itself was new. One writer treats the question as unanswerable and points to the new meaning instead:
It is a pointless question, because Scripture has not given us enough evidence to settle it. Was the rainbow seen then for the first time, or was it well known in the earliest ages?... The least we can draw from the words is that God was now, after the flood, pleased to attach a new and merciful meaning to it.
The sign meets the moment when fear returns — when the sky darkens again.
So there is immense comfort in the bow God's goodness pledged when He set it in the cloud. As a rule you do not see it unless there is rain, and only when the sun shines behind you from the opposite side of the sky. No sign could fit better. If the rain might stir up fear, the beautiful bow had every right to calm it, because God Himself was pleased to assure man of His unfailing covenant.
Another writer holds the two halves together — the cloud God brings, and the bow God sets:
"I bring a cloud... I do set My bow." We may not separate these two, nor look at one apart from the other. It is good for us to remember that man — himself and his works — is only fit for judgment. It is just as good to remember what God is, or the soul must sink into despair.
The sign is not only for human eyes.
The bow in the cloud is man's assurance; but it is more, it is God's memorial of the new relationship into which He has entered with His creatures. His eye is on the bow, and not man's only. So He gives them fellowship with Himself in a sign that speaks of peace in the middle of trouble, and of light in the place of darkness.
The covenant this sign confirms carries no conditions for Noah to keep. This writer also takes the wording as proof that the rainbow itself was new:
This covenant made with Noah and all creation was unconditional. It was a covenant of promise, not depending on any faithfulness of the creature. It was something new. The words, "I do set My bow in the cloud," clearly imply that no one had ever seen a rainbow before.
The promise rules out one kind of judgment, not every judgment:
Another universal judgment by water will never come again (verse 15). Another judgment is in store for this planet. "The world that then existed was deluged with water and perished. But by the same word the heavens and earth that now exist are stored up for fire, being kept until the day of judgment and destruction of the ungodly."
The colours themselves carry meaning.
This is a lovely picture of God's glory, for "God is light." Each colour stands for some part of God's many attributes — supremacy, power, authority, grace, righteousness, holiness, love... So all the glory of God is bound up in His promise never again to judge the world by a universal flood.
That same pattern — glory shining out of a storm — appears again at the cross:
There was a cloud indeed — a dark, thick, heavy cloud of judgment pouring itself out on the sacred head of the Lamb of God... But, thank God, faith sees in that heaviest cloud that ever gathered the most brilliant and beautiful bow that ever appeared.
- Set, not found. God takes the bow and makes it His token. The covenant rests on His act of giving the sign, not on where the rainbow came from.
- Cloud, then bow. The sign appears only where there is cloud. God joins the reminder of judgment to the reminder of what He is, so fear does not turn into despair.
- His eye first. The bow is man's assurance, but it is also God's memorial. His own eye is on it, and that is why the promise holds.
- No conditions, wide reach. God makes the covenant with Noah, all creation, and the earth itself, and it depends on no faithfulness from the creature.
- Glory out of the storm. Colour after judgment pictures God showing His own glory — and faith sees that glory most clearly at the cross.
And it shall come to pass when I bring clouds over the earth, that the bow shall be seen in the cloud,
The bow set in the cloud is God's answer to a world that had just watched water swallow everything. So why did God tie the sign to the very thing people would fear most — the gathering cloud?
The promise attached to this sign asks nothing of Noah in return.
This covenant made with Noah and all creation was unconditional. It was a covenant of promise, not depending on any faithfulness of the creature. It was something new. The words, "I do set My bow in the cloud," clearly suggest that no one had ever seen a rainbow before.
Commentators differ on whether the rainbow itself was new. Others read the verb as appointment rather than creation:
The rainbow may have appeared to Noah before, but it was not appointed by God as a token until after the flood. The word translated "set" (nathan) is sometimes translated "appoint," as in Joshua 20:2. Others think it more likely that no one saw a rainbow before the flood, since the air was in a different state then from what it became after the flood.
The survivors of the flood had a reason to dread bad weather.
Men had good reason to tremble after that terrible disaster. Dark clouds covered the sky, the rain fell in torrents, and tidal waves rose with overwhelming force. An accusing conscience would speak even louder of the disaster they had just lived through. Man naturally expects that what happened once will happen again. He expects it all the more if old sins still ruled and new evils sprang up.
Notice that the verse names the cloud, not the rain — and that detail is exact.
As a rule you do not see it unless there is rain. And you see it only when the sun shines brightly at your back, from the opposite side of the sky. So no sign could be more fitting. If the rain might stir up fears, the glorious bow had every right to calm them. God Himself gladly chose this way to assure man of His unfailing covenant. The accuracy is even more striking. The words run, "When I bring clouds over the earth and the bow is seen in the clouds." Rain does not seem strictly necessary, but cloud is.
The verse says the bow will be seen. Scripture then adds that God Himself looks at it.
We look at the cloud; God looks at the bow. What grace is here! He says, "And the bow shall be in the cloud; and I will look upon it." The bow tells of God's unchangeable faithfulness and mercy when all is over with man. This is the ground we are on with God.
Cloud and bow appear together again in a scene of coming judgment.
The mighty angel, the angel of judgment, comes down. He is clothed with a cloud, the frightening vessel of wrath and sign of judgment. This is what God said at the beginning: "When I bring clouds over the earth." But even then the rainbow is with Him... It is not simply with a cloud He comes down, but with the cloud and the bow accompanying it. See Gen. 9:14; Rev. 10:1. This tells us that at the very end He remembers His word, and will hold judgment in check. He will say to it, "You may come this far, and no farther." ... The cloud carries out its commission and pours out its waters, or its judgments, again. But it must stop in obedience to the bow that measures and controls it.
Since God brings the cloud, the sign is meant for your own trouble too.
My fellow-believer, in all the trials of the way God would have us see the bow in the cloud. Think of this in your present trial, which He has allowed. Think of the thing that distresses you most of all, which perhaps no other Christian knows anything about. These words are written for you... The cloud may be dark and gloomy, but there is a beauty in it painted by His own hand, and it tells you, despite everything, what He is to you. And remember, whether you see it or not, IT IS THERE.
- Cloud. God fixed the sign to the very thing men feared after the flood: a sky filling with water again.
- Bow. He gives it as an unconditional promise. It rests on His faithfulness, not on anything Noah does.
- Seen. The bow appears only with cloud and with sunlight behind you. No sign could match the words of the verse better.
- Looked upon. Man watches the cloud; God watches the bow, and it is His eye on it that keeps the promise alive.
- Held back. Right to the last judgments, the cloud must stop where the bow says stop — so read your own dark sky the same way.
and I will remember my covenant which is between me and you and every living soul of all flesh; and the waters shall not henceforth become a flood to destroy all flesh.
The words of this verse are God's own reason for hanging a bow in the sky: when clouds gather over the earth, He binds Himself to remember what He has promised. Two things stand out. The promise reaches beyond Noah to every living creature. And God is the one who remembers, not man.
The flood had shown what God could do. Would He do it again? This covenant settles the question.
God sets up His covenant to cut off the least fear from every heart that trusted Him. No flood will destroy all flesh again, and God will not deal with the earth in any such way. Without such a covenant, what could guilty man expect but repeated strokes of the same judgment that had just swept them all away? Would not old sins renewed and fresh sins added provoke the same punishment? Not so; God's covenant with man and the earth steps in absolutely.
The verse ties the promise to the moment clouds appear. That is the very moment a flood survivor would fear most. The wording is also precise about what the bow needs.
This is the immense comfort God's goodness pledged in the bow He set in the cloud. As a rule you do not see it unless there is rain. And you only see it when the sun shines at your back from the opposite quarter of the sky. No sign could be more fitting. If the rain might wake fears, the glorious bow was there to calm them; for God Himself in this way assured man of His unfailing covenant. The accuracy is all the more striking. The terms run, "When I bring clouds over the earth and the bow is seen in the clouds, I will remember my covenant." So "rain" does not seem strictly necessary, but "cloud" is.
The bow is not only for human eyes. God sets it where He Himself will see it, and He says the remembering is His.
The Lord God makes a covenant with Noah, and with all the creatures around him, that He will keep the earth safe from a second flood. As a sign of this, He hangs the bow in the cloud, up there under His own eye, so that He may look on it and so remember His promise. The cloud might threaten and swell with water; the bow would control it. The cloud might frown; the bow would smile.
The promise names every living creature of all flesh. One writer traces that reach back to the sacrifice Noah had just offered.
Because of the sacrifice, God established His covenant with Noah, his sons, and their seed after them. He included every living thing that was with them — birds, cattle, beasts of the earth, everything that came out of the ark. The earth and all connected with it shared in the benefits of the sacrifice. As far as the consequences of man's sin had reached on earth, there the blessed results of the burnt offering would be felt... The covenant took in the earth as well as man, as the creation will one day rejoice in the liberty of the glory of the sons of God.
The pledge is specific: never again by water. That precision matters, because Scripture speaks of a judgment still ahead.
The rainbow speaks of a judgment now past, of His salvation and His remembrance. Another universal judgment by water will never come again (verse 15). But another judgment is in store for this planet. "The world that then existed was deluged with water and perished. But by the same word the heavens and earth that now exist are stored up for fire, being kept until the day of judgment and destruction of the ungodly" (2 Pet. 3:6-7).
The same sign appears again in Scripture. Its meaning holds even when judgment falls.
The rainbow was the seal of God's covenant with the earth, an agreement in which He pledged Himself never again to visit the earth with a flood. So the rainbow appears as a complete circle around the throne, alongside all the judgments about to come from that throne upon the earth. It is as if to remind us that God would act according to the terms of that covenant. He will never forget the pledge He has given, and all the judgments of the great tribulation will not wipe it out.
- Cause — a flood had happened once, so survivors had every reason to dread the next dark sky. The covenant cuts that fear off.
- Sign — the bow needs cloud to appear at all. So the very thing that threatens frames the promise: the cloud frowns, the bow smiles.
- Memory — God places the sign where He Himself will look at it; the remembering is His work, not our effort to hold Him to His word.
- Reach — the covenant rests on the sacrifice Noah offered. It stretches as wide as sin's damage went: every living creature, and the earth itself.
- Limit — the pledge is against water, not against all judgment. A day of fire is still coming, and the bow around God's throne shows the promise still standing.
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 soul of all flesh that is upon the earth.
This verse ends God's covenant with Noah on a striking note. God Himself looks at the bow He set in the sky. That raises two questions. Why would God, who forgets nothing, need a reminder? And how far does this covenant reach?
The key words in the verse are God's own "I will remember." One writer draws out whose memory the world now rests on:
The whole creation rests, as to its exemption from a second deluge, on the eternal stability of God's covenant, of which the bow is the token; and it is happy to bear in mind that when the bow appears, the eye of God rests upon it; and man is cast not upon his own imperfect and most uncertain memory, but upon God's. "I," says God, "will remember." How sweet to think of what God will, and what He will not remember! He will remember His own covenant, but He will not remember His people's sins.
The bow never appears alone. It appears in the cloud, and each of the two says something different about God:
If God has swept man away once in the judgment of the flood, then whatever the cloud may be, it declares again what He thinks of the first man. If mercy has shown itself and we are spared, we must still never forget that His estimate of what we are is on record, and that the same cloud bears witness to it again. And the bow in the cloud declares His faithfulness to His promise... We look at the cloud; God looks at the bow. What grace is here! He says, "When the bow is in the clouds, I will see it."
A rainbow needs both rain and sunshine. One writer shows why that makes it such a fitting sign:
So God's goodness pledged immense comfort in the bow He set in the cloud. As a rule the bow only shows when there is rain, and only when the sun shines behind you from the opposite side of the sky. No sign could fit better. If the rain might stir up fear, the glorious bow had every right to calm it; for God Himself stooped to assure man of His unfailing covenant.
The parties named in the verse are God and "every living creature of all flesh" — not one nation, not even only mankind. That breadth is deliberate:
Genesis 9:8-11 give the covenant God established with mankind and every creature set under man: the largest covenant God ever made, and still subsisting under a merciful pledge that cannot fail.
God established this covenant on the ground of a sacrifice. One writer traces how far the benefit of that offering reached:
Because of the sacrifice God established His covenant with Noah, his sons, their descendants after them, and with every living thing that was with them... So the earth and all connected with it shared in the benefits of the sacrifice. As far as the consequences of man's sin had reached on earth, so far the blessed results of the burnt offering would reach... The earth as well as man had a share in the covenant, and one day creation will rejoice in the liberty of the glory of the sons of God.
This covenant belongs to the earth as it now stands. One writer traces how long it lasts:
The bow in the cloud is the sign, or token, of this covenant with creation. Under it the earth has continued to the present time, and it will continue all through the millennial (thousand-year) period. Then Christ will hand the kingdom over to the Father, and the heaven and the earth will pass away. They will give place to the new heaven and the new earth — the everlasting state — in which God will be all in all.
The last book of the Bible shows a rainbow encircling God's throne, and readers of Genesis are meant to recognise it:
Here the rainbow is God's remembrance of His covenant with the earth... God is about to pour out judgments on the earth, and on those who had the responsibility of being His people. But He takes pains to show that, before a single judgment falls, there is mercy in store. Before He touches creation, there is the sign of His covenant with the earth... The rainbow was the witness that God had not let go of His ancient word: He could not forget it.
- Sacrifice first. God set this covenant on the ground of a burnt offering, not on better behaviour from man.
- God's memory. God sets the bow and God looks at it; the safety of the world hangs on His "I will remember," not on ours.
- Widest reach. The covenant takes in every living creature and the earth itself, not just Noah and his family.
- Seen in the storm. The bow only appears with the cloud, so the reminder of mercy comes just when fear does.
- Still standing. The bow reaches even to God's throne, showing mercy before judgment falls, and it holds until this earth gives place to the new.