Genesis 9:1–29

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.

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.

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.

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.

"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.

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.

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 first thing Noah does after God had blessed him is to get drunk.

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.

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.

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 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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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!

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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."

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.

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.

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.

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 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.

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."

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.

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.

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."

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.

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.

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.

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.

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 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.

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.

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.

"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.

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.

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 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.

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.

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.

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.

"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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

This covenant made with Noah and all creation was unconditional. It was a covenant of promise, not depending on any faithfulness of the creature.

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.

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).

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.

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'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.

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 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.

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.

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 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.)

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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 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).

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."

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.

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.

"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 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.

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.

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."

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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 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.

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 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 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.

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.

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."

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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, and it still holds good under a merciful pledge that cannot fail. Neither the one nor the other applied to the earth before the flood. In the verses that follow (12-17) God chooses to give a sign or token of His covenant with the earth.

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. God's words about setting His bow in the cloud clearly imply that mankind had never seen a rainbow before.

At the very least, the words mean that God was now, since the flood, pleased to attach a new and merciful meaning to it. For men might well tremble after that terrible disaster. Dark clouds had covered the skies, the rain had fallen in torrents, and tidal waves had risen over everything.

So God's goodness pledged immense comfort in the bow He set in the cloud. As a rule you do not see it unless there is rain, of course. And you only see it when the sun shines brightly behind you, from the opposite side of the sky. No sign could be more appropriate. If the rain might awaken fears, the glorious bow was fit to calm them. In this way God Himself chose to assure man of His unfailing covenant.

Last of all, God ratifies the covenant and gives a token to confirm it. The bow in the cloud is man's assurance. But it is more. It is God's own memorial of the new relationship He has entered into with His creatures. His eye, and not man's only, is upon the bow. 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.

Pure white light divides into seven distinct visible colours. They always appear in the same order, and each colour of the spectrum has a beauty of its own. This is a lovely picture of God's glory, for "God is light." Each colour stands for some particular aspect of God's many attributes: supremacy, power, authority, grace, righteousness, holiness, love, and others. So all the glory of God is involved in His promise that He will not again judge the world by means of a universal flood.

The Lord is now gathering a people for heaven. He is not filling the earth with glory yet, but gathering out a chosen family to have communion with Himself in heaven. Still He is mindful of His promise. He looks on the bow and preserves the earth. He keeps seed-time and harvest, cold and heat, day and night, summer and winter, in their fixed rounds and seasons.

The bow set in the cloud long ago, with its many colours and varied beauty, is the token of God's covenant with the earth. It is God's object lesson for the human race, 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, when in power He asserts His claim to the earth.

Genesis 9:18 — 11:9. The story of the deliverance closes here. Now we come to something very different, in many ways the opposite — the history of the delivered people. That history begins with failure. It ends with confusion — and that confusion comes from the same gracious hand that had just delivered them. It is the humbling lesson of what we are, and we now have to read it in the light of what He is.

Ham, we know, is declared to be "the little" one (Gen. 9:24) — usually translated "youngest." Chronology shows that Japheth, not Shem, was the eldest. Shem is put first in the usual formula of "Shem, Ham, and Japheth." That is not due to the order of birth, but to the spiritual purpose which gave Shem that position (Gen. 5:32; 6:10; 7:13; 9:18; 10:1). When the detailed "generations" come, though, Japheth's sons are listed first... Japheth had the honour of being firstborn. Ham is marked by his early rise to political place and natural power. But the honour Godward was kept for Shem, though he is named last.

Verse 18 gives us the names of Noah's sons — Shem, Ham and Japheth — and then the positive statement that "from these the whole earth was populated."... However obscure some races have been, they have become obscure since Noah's time. We have no clear knowledge of how they were scattered through the world — even into North and South America — but all are the descendants of Noah.

The covenant with man and the creation under him, sealed with its sign of mercy, was settled first. Then attention is drawn again to the three heads of Noah's race, "Shem and Ham, and Japheth," in the same order as before (Gen. 5:32; 6:10; 7:13). Now there is an ominous addition: "and Ham is the father of Canaan." The sad incident that follows comments on it at once, and the solemn prophecy at the end of the chapter says more still. It echoes through the whole Old Testament, and it will only be completed in that kingdom which awaits the Anointed of Jehovah, when all the earth shall be filled with His glory.

In verse 21 a notable mark is set on Eber: his forefather Shem is called, in unusual terms, "father of all the sons of Eber," though Eber came several generations later. The opposite happens with Ham, though perhaps not so strikingly. He had to bear the shame of being called "father of Canaan" (Gen. 9:18). So God calls us to notice two things. One is the man who inherited the curse and became the instrument of the enemy, trying to stop Israel from taking possession of the promised land at the right time. The other is the interest He took in making us look ahead to those who stood in the first line of the heirs of Shem's blessing.

One of Noah's three sons: he was father of Cush, Mizraim, Phut, and Canaan... We know nothing about Ham himself except his disrespectful behaviour when his father was drunk. That behaviour brought down the curse of Noah on Canaan.

"Ham" means "black," the unenlightened — or perhaps more exactly the "sun-burnt," scorched and darkened by the very light itself. Light that is not received as light becomes a source of darkness to the soul. And Ham is the father of Canaan — the "trader," as his name means.

It is not only that mankind sprang from a single pair created innocent as Adam and Eve were. A fresh start for the race began after the flood which judged the guilty mass. God preserved Noah and his three sons from destruction. From them began the conditions that continue today, and will continue for their descendants until the Son of man comes with the clouds of heaven... This time the race did not start from a single line. We have three heads with their wives — three great families to renew the history of man on earth, with the experience drawn from the world before the flood.

The last word points to what has been going on ever since... What strikes one more is how slowly it happened after the flood. Whatever moved men to hinder the plan of God, it soon became plain that mankind had settled on one united community. They would not only gather together. They would build a city and a tower with its top reaching to the heavens, and make a name for themselves, so that they would not be scattered over the face of the whole earth. This, we are assured, only brought out God's power and wisdom. He frustrated their empty purpose, and He carried out His will that they should spread over the earth. He judged their self-exalting folly by breaking the bond that held them together.

In the Bible there is no more important chapter than Genesis 10 about the way God arranged tongues, families, and nations. Here alone we find the rise of the different races, with their sources. Who else could have told us how and when this division of the earth happened?... Everyone who has studied it agrees, as far as I know, that there are three, and only three, divisions into which the nations branch... Men worth listening to are all convinced that these three grand lines are just as surely from one origin as they are distinct. That there was only one such root is the statement of the Scriptures.

In Noah's sons we have the heads of the three great divisions of the human race. Their characteristics have developed so differently today that unbelievers dare to deny their common blood (Acts 17:26).

The result of this history is that the world is set out by families. The fashion of this world has blotted out the memory and the sense of this, but not the power. It is rooted in the judgment of God. When the acquired strength of this world grows weak, it will show more and more, as it is at work even now. The fountain heads were three, first named in this order: Shem, Ham, and Japheth. Shem's was the family in which God would establish His covenant on earth, and with which He would be in relationship. Ham was hostile to God's family. Last came the Gentile Japheth, though he was the eldest and proudest.

Now there is an ominous addition: "and Ham is the father of Canaan." The sad incident that follows comments on it quickly, and the solemn prophecy that closes the chapter says still more. That word echoes through the whole Old Testament. It will be finished only in that kingdom which awaits the Anointed of Jehovah, when all the earth shall be filled with His glory.

Noah failed to govern himself by his misuse of God's creature, and gave occasion for such sin in his family that a special curse came in there... It is the sad and familiar story of the first man; as soon as he is put to the test, he breaks down. Nor does the evil stop with himself... But God is not mocked. His moral government fails no more than His grace does. And His grace answers every failure of man with something better out of His goodness and wisdom.

Noah sits in the new world — gifted and blessed, enriched and honoured, taught too, and appointed as "the power" under God. With all this he is at ease, and knows he is safe, with no evil or enemy present. A new trial of man was going on, under new circumstances. As with Adam in Eden, God leaves nothing undone on His part... And Noah, like the rest, fails. The very first foot that trod the fresh soil of the new world quickly stained it.

We may note, in passing, that Noah failed in this covenant, as man always has. Instead of drawing blessings out of the earth by working the soil, he starts to grow the vine, and gets drunk. Through this forgetfulness and fault of his, the true principle of government also lost its force at the very start. Noah held the reins of that government, and one of his sons mocked him.

Noah followed in the way of Cain and turned his attention to the ground, and serious failure followed. And so it is in Christian experience. As soon as we follow Cain's way and become occupied with the earth, Satan traps us in one of his snares.

Noah's work as a farmer was of course commendable, but people can misuse anything and bring trouble. This man had received the dignity of authority in government. Yet he allowed himself too much wine, became drunk, and lay uncovered in his tent. This illustrates the weakness of human government from its very beginning. Why is human government doomed to fail? Because those in authority fail to exercise self-government. If a man does not rule himself well, how can anyone trust him to rule others?

God entrusted government over life and death to his keeping. And the man who first received that trust was by far the best fitted for it, in godliness and in experience. Yet look at the very next thing recorded of him. No doubt through self-indulgence and a lack of watchfulness, he not only sinned himself, but brought God's ordinance of government into open dishonour.

This, truly, was a high position — a place of immense power, privilege, and responsibility. How does Noah carry himself in it? He gets drunk, and degrades himself in front of his sons! Such is the plain, obvious fact. Men may reason as they will. They try to smooth it, soften it, and pare it down. They always do that when a great truth bears down on human pride and self-congratulation. But they cannot set aside the humbling fact that the head of the restored earth got drunk.

Although Noah lived 350 years after he began to be a farmer, his name is never mentioned again... Men did not take notice of him that he had been with the Lord. Satan had won the victory over "the preacher of righteousness." This episode comes home with living power to every Christian, the oldest as well as the youngest. We do well to be watchful. "Let anyone who thinks that he stands take heed lest he fall." (1 Cor. 10:12).

Human government is now set up. It shows its weakness, not in the authority given to it, but in the feeble hands that received it. Noah fails to govern himself. So he becomes a picture of the failure of all government. Yet he is also a hint that One is coming who will reign in righteousness and bring blessing through His reign.

Several Hebrew words are translated wine. Scripture attaches various words to it — "sweet," "new," "strong," "good," "mixed," "spiced," "on the lees" — yet all are wine. And the wine was intoxicating, as we already see in the days of Noah. Drinking to excess is the abuse of it, and Scripture is full of protests and warnings against such abuse.

Man fails with government as well as without it — not the governed only, but the governor. Noah, that is, man, proves completely unable to wield the sword in righteousness before God. Whoever governs must first know how to rule himself. But Noah got drunk. And so another point comes out: man must have a ruler, and he clearly cannot be his own master. Part of God's purpose is to show this — to show the absolute need for the Man of His right hand to come and rule the earth.

This new trial had barely begun when man broke down. He failed at the very point he was responsible to keep intact before God and his fellow men. God had entrusted government over life and death to his keeping. The man who first received that trust was by far the best suited to it, in piety and in experience. Yet the next fact recorded of him is that, no doubt through self-indulgence and lack of watchfulness, he not only sinned himself, but brought God's ordinance of government into open dishonour. And the sin and the dishonour produced no godly sorrow in his own household, but contempt.

Noah sits in the new world, endowed and blessed, enriched and honoured. He is instructed too, and appointed as "the power" under God. With all this he is at ease and knows he is safe, with no evil or enemy in sight. A new trial of man was going forward, under new circumstances. As with Adam in Eden, God leaves nothing undone on His part... In Christ, and in Him only, are unfailing faithfulness and strength. And Noah, like the rest, fails. The very first foot that trod the fresh soil of the new world stained it.

What a condition to find Noah in — the only righteous man, the preacher of righteousness! What is man? Look at him where you will, and you see only failure. In Eden he fails. On the restored earth he fails. In Canaan he fails. In the Church he fails. In the presence of millennial blessing and glory he fails.

We must look at Noah in two ways: as a picture, and as a man. The picture is full of beauty and meaning, but the man is full of sin and folly... Divine grace had covered all his sins, and clothed him with a spotless robe of righteousness. Though Noah exposed his nakedness, God did not see it. He looked at Noah not in the weakness of his own condition, but in the full power of divine and everlasting righteousness.

Noah had all this high favour and special experience. Yet as soon as he was left to his own will, he became a slave to lust under Satan's influence. Noah followed in the way of Cain and turned his attention to the ground, and grievous failure followed. So it is in Christian experience. As soon as we become occupied with the earth, Satan traps us in one of his snares. Although Noah lived 350 years after he became a farmer, his name is never mentioned again. He was alive through the whole godless period that ended with the building of the Tower of Babel. Yet his presence did not restrain his descendants... "Let anyone who thinks that he stands take heed lest he fall."

The last part of this chapter shows a humiliating scene. The lord of creation fails to govern himself... What a condition for Noah, the only righteous man, the preacher of righteousness, to be found in. What is man? Look at him wherever you like, and you see only failure. In Eden, he fails; in the restored earth, he fails; in Canaan, he fails; in the Church, he fails.

Noah's sin brought God's ordinance of government into open dishonour. In his own household it produced no godly sorrow, but contempt. His younger son Ham had no feeling for God's glory, and none for what he owed his father, even in such a disastrous moment. All he showed was the wickedness of his own heart: he mocked Noah without pity, and he was eager to spread his father's shame and to trap his two brothers. Their reverence was as plain as Ham's lack of it. He forgot to whom he owed his life, and his rescue from the flood.

Noah is put to shame; but Ham, his son, glories in the shame. That was a terrible advance in the progress of evil... This was not simply being "caught in any transgression," but "rejoicing at wrongdoing."

Disrespect toward authority is a very grave sin, whether it is a parent's authority or a government's, because God set up both. In the end it leads to setting aside the authority of God, who set it up. Only when we weigh this properly do we see how right Noah's solemn curse was, once he learned what had happened.

This is the evil of despising government, which has become very common in the day in which we live (Jude 8). Though governments often fail badly, this gives us no right to reject or disobey proper authority (Romans 13:1-7).

Divine grace had covered all his sins, and clothed him in a spotless robe of righteousness. Noah exposed his nakedness, but God did not see it. He looked at him not in the weakness of his own condition, but in the full power of divine and everlasting righteousness. So we can see how far astray Ham was in what he did, how totally cut off from God and His thoughts. He knew nothing of the blessedness of the man whose iniquity is forgiven and whose sin is covered. Shem and Japheth, by contrast, show in their conduct a fine example of God's own way of dealing with human nakedness.

Love is far from being indifferent to sin. But love does not have to expose sins, or gloat over the failure of others. If possible, love will deal with sins privately, so that they do not needlessly become public. When they are dealt with and judged, love will no longer speak of them or spread them abroad.

The wicked and scornful son reaped the fruit of his evil in his own son Canaan, just as God remembered the reverent modesty of Shem and Japheth in their descendants. Salvation is by grace, and it cannot fail, because it is the work of God in Christ, where God secures everything for His glory. Even where salvation may not be, God puts honour on obedience and on respect paid where it is due.

His younger son Ham cared nothing for God's glory, and nothing for what he owed his father, even in such terrible circumstances. He only showed the wickedness of his own heart. He made unfeeling fun of Noah, and was eager to spread his father's shame and trap his two brothers. Their reverence was as plain as Ham's contempt for God, and Ham forgot the one to whom he owed his life as well as his rescue from the flood.

Shem and Japheth showed Noah the respect he was due, both as their father and as the ruler in the new conditions. Ham did not. Disrespect toward authority is a very serious sin, whether it is a parent's authority or a government's. God set up both at the start. In the end it leads to setting aside the authority of God, who set it up.

The two brothers did a work of love. The graceless hardness of their own close relative stirred them to it all the more. Yet what sorrow must have filled their hearts. Their godliness forced them to turn their backs on the one they had always looked up to. And they had looked up to him rightly, with steady affection, honour, and gratitude.

Divine grace had covered all his sins, and clothed him with a spotless robe of righteousness. Noah exposed his nakedness, but God did not see it. He did not look at Noah in the weakness of his own condition. He looked at him in the full power of divine and everlasting righteousness. So we can see how far astray Ham was in the course he took, and how completely cut off from God and His thoughts. He knew nothing of the blessedness of the man whose wrongdoing is forgiven and whose sin is covered. Shem and Japheth, by contrast, show in their conduct a fine example of God's way of dealing with human nakedness. So they inherit a blessing, while Ham inherits a curse.

The same principle holds true for a parent's authority and for a government's authority. Proper respect will seek to cover failure, not expose it. But we must stress this: it applies to cases of failure, not to cases of wicked abuse of authority.

Love is far from being indifferent to sin; but love does not necessarily expose sins, or gloat over the failure of others. If possible, love will deal with sins privately, so that they do not needlessly become public. When they are dealt with and judged, love will no longer speak of them or spread them abroad.

The wicked and scornful son reaped the fruit of his evil in his own child Canaan. The reverent modesty of Shem and Japheth was remembered in their descendants. Salvation is by grace, and it cannot fail, because it is the work of God in Christ. Even where salvation may not be in view, God puts honour on obedience and on respect paid where it is due.

God gave this man the dignity of authority in government. Yet he allowed himself too much wine and became drunk, and in that state he lay uncovered in his tent. This shows the weakness of human government from its very beginning. Why is human government doomed to fail? Because those in authority fail to govern themselves. If a man does not rule himself well, how can he be trusted to rule others?

His younger son Ham had no feeling for God's glory, and none for what he owed his father, even in such terrible circumstances. He only showed the wickedness of his own heart. He mocked Noah without pity, and he was eager to spread his father's shame and trap his two brothers. Their reverence was as plain as Ham's contempt for God. He forgot to whom he owed his life and his rescue from the flood.

Ham, we know, is declared to be "the little" one (Gen. 9:24) — usually translated "youngest". And the dates show that not Shem but Japheth was the eldest… Shem is named first in the usual formula of "Shem, Ham, and Japheth." That first place is not due to the order of birth, but to the spiritual purpose which gave Shem that position.

In Genesis, as here, the order is Shem, Ham and Japheth. We cannot assume this to be the order of birth. In Gen. 10:21, where Shem and Japheth are mentioned, Japheth is called the elder. And some ask whether "younger son" in Gen. 9:24 refers to Ham or to his son Canaan.

Disrespect of authority — whether a parent's or a government's — is a very grave sin, because God set up both. In the end it leads to setting aside the authority of God, who established it… When we come, in verses 25-27, to the curse that came from Noah's lips, we find it fell on Canaan with no mention of Ham. We think this shows two things. First, Noah's sad lapse happened some time after the flood. Enough years had passed for Canaan to have been born and become active. Second, Canaan was involved with his father in the matter, and the weight of the curse fell on him rather than on his father.

Either way it was mercy to keep the curse Ham had surely earned within the narrowest limits, instead of spreading it over all his descendants. In judgment as in grace God is always wise.

The wicked and scornful son reaped the fruit of his evil in his own offspring Canaan. In the same way, God remembered the reverent modesty of Shem and Japheth in their descendants… Even where salvation may not be, God puts honour on obedience and on respect paid where it is due.

And the saint himself is soon restored. Noah awakens from his wine. The man who was overtaken recovers himself, through the Spirit. And the grace of God gives him a great triumph. It is a very precious and glorious triumph indeed, for the restored one judges his judge, and condemns his accuser.

The end of this chapter shows that the man who first held human government could not govern himself. It is the old familiar story — man tried and found wanting, as always... The sin began with utter disrespect to a father... A man who despises the one he is bound to honour must come to shame and disgrace. He must be not just a servant but "a servant of servants." The highest pride always has the deepest fall.

When God governs the world, He does not confine Himself to the one person or generation involved in the offence... It was mercy not to punish Ham in all his descendants, but in Canaan. God is sovereign in judgment as in mercy, and altogether righteous. Canaan may well have played a part with Ham in the heartless insult and dishonour done to Noah... It was mercy not to draw everyone into God's avenging of the wrong, but to keep it within the smallest bounds.

It may seem strange that Noah did not curse Ham himself, since it was Ham who failed to respect his father. But no doubt it was God who, in His government, led Noah... to visit Ham's conduct on his son. God had already blessed Ham along with Noah and had made a covenant with him — how then could He lead Noah to curse him?... Besides, we do not find that all Ham's sons became the servants of Shem; the curse fell upon Canaan only. It was Nimrod, Ham's descendant, who founded the great kingdoms of the East, and we never read of those kingdoms paying tribute to Israel as Canaan did.

We must also remember that Noah spoke these words as a prophet. The later history of Canaan and his descendants fully justified his solemn words. The next chapter gives us the sons of Canaan. From them came the nations that lived east of the Mediterranean and just north of Egypt. That is how the region became known as the land of Canaan. Centuries later these nations were so vile in their gross sin that God ordered their destruction.

No doubt an evident curse... fell on Canaan when fire out of heaven destroyed the guilty cities of the Plain for their enormous wickedness... Yet Scripture is plain that neither the curse nor the blessing is complete until Israel returns to the land under Messiah and the new covenant. Israel will be rooted there and blessed as long as the earth endures. "And in that day there shall be no more a Canaanite in the house of the Lord of hosts."

This is no doubt prophecy. Even so, it does not give anyone the right to make slaves of others. God authorises no one to put Canaan's descendants under servitude. But Ham did not submit to authority as he should have. So his descendants would learn by experience what obedience to authority means... Canaan's line is not the only one under a curse. All mankind is under one: failing to keep on obeying everything the law commands (Galatians 3:10). Therefore, let us not think we are better than Ham.

She was not only a Gentile but from a race under a special curse. So she drops a claim of kinship that the most wretched person in Israel could make, but that was worthless for her. She bowed and said, "Lord, help me."... The truth fully burst on her, and she submitted to it. Her faith, already real, threw off its hindrance and became great. She gives up all claim, for she had none. She confesses sovereign grace, and receives the blessing at once.

The moral point at the end of chapter 9 is this: Noah abuses the blessing given to him, and so destroys all his fitness to govern. Noah gets drunk: this is not exercising authority. Then comes the wickedness of Ham; and then "Blessed be the LORD, the God of Shem; and let Canaan be his servant."

But Shem was blessed, or rather, the Lord God of Shem was blessed (v. 26). Of course we know that Israel came from Shem.

Then God begins the world again, so to speak (Genesis 9). But the moment relationship is in question (v. 26), we have Jehovah the God of Shem.

The reader may note how fitting it is that Genesis 9:26 says "Jehovah the God of Shem," while Genesis 9:27 says only "God" for Japheth. There the meaning is enlargement in providence, not the promised blessing of a special relationship with Himself.

Shem, meaning "name," becomes the family in which Jehovah, the Name, is to be revealed. Jehovah is the God of Shem. Soon we will see a son of Shem, Abram. His descendants become the keepers of Jehovah's revelation… He does not call Himself "the God of Japheth" but "the God of Shem." This shows Shem's supremacy. It is a far-reaching prophecy.

"Blessed be the LORD, the God of Shem; and let Canaan be his servant." Abraham, Isaac and Jacob came from Shem's line, and God was not ashamed to be called their God. He brought them into covenant relationship with Himself. He will yet fulfil for their children all the promises He made to the fathers.

Noah's prophecy gave the blessing to Shem. More exactly, the word was "Blessed be Jehovah, the God of Shem." So it has been. So faith knows now. And so it will be completely fulfilled, when Christ makes the truth undeniable in glorious results to every eye. This is not God's design either by the gospel or in the church. God keeps it for the age to come.

The wicked and scornful son reaped the fruit of his evil in his own offspring Canaan. God remembered the reverent modesty of Shem and Japheth in their descendants… Even where salvation may not be present, God puts honour on obedience and on respect paid where it is due.

Noah prophesied about him. He is not brought into relationship with God here, as Shem is. The prophecy foretells enlargement on the earth, and this has clearly come true.

All history, even in the past, shows God enlarging Japheth, the great coloniser of the earth. Here he stands in the sharpest contrast with Shem. Japheth was not only to spread as a nation, as Shem never did. He was also to dwell in Shem's tents. Europe and the north-east of the old world were not enough. Neither was the new world of America, Australia, and so on. He must also push into Shem's tents in the east. This earliest oracle said so, and so it has happened to the letter, beyond anything human foresight could have expected.

Notice how fitting it is that Genesis 9:26 says "Jehovah the God of Shem," while Genesis 9:27 says only "God" for Japheth. Japheth's verse means enlargement in providence, not the promised blessing of a special relationship with Him. This gives a reason from the text itself, on top of the grammatical one, against an idea many have taken up: that the verse means God dwelling in Shem's tents rather than Japheth. If the Spirit of God meant that through Noah, would He not have said Jehovah Elohim, rather than simply Elohim?

In verse 27 the "he" is Japheth, who "shall dwell in the tents of Shem," and Canaan shall be Japheth's servant as well as Shem's.

Have they not also dwelt in the tents of Shem? Not as mere conquerors, but perhaps, among other ways, as sharers in the blessing pictured so well by Israel's "own olive tree." In time this is where the adoption would be, and the glory, the covenants, the giving of the law, the service, and the promises. And here were not the fathers only, but the Son, the Messiah, whose personal dignity goes far beyond anything Israel has yet owned — to their own deep loss so far.

All the European nations come from Japheth. They have spread out to the ends of the earth, and they have entered into the favour that belonged to Israel. Israel, for the time being, has been cut out of that favour because of unbelief, as Romans 11 shows.

In their two blessings, Shem and Japheth give us two tendencies that often get split apart and should not be. Shem's is the receptive, contemplative life, and its danger is to drift into the mystical. Japheth's is the energetic, practical life, which, when it stands alone, tends to cut itself off from faith… Japheth's blessing is enlargement and dwelling in the tents of Shem. The practical life finds its true home in faith alone, and true service is only worship flowing out among men.

Japheth would enlarge and dwell in the tents of Shem. Two thousand years passed before the first signs of it appeared. Then Alexander, from Europe (Japheth's home), invaded the countries of Asia… Diplomats may plot and politicians may argue about it. They can no more stop it than they can stop the sunset. Four thousand years ago an old man said it would be, and it must be.

After the flood, God gave mankind a fresh start under Noah. But as under Adam, so again, failure and sin quickly followed. We have plenty of testimony that Noah was a godly man who found grace in the sight of the Lord. He lived for no less than 350 years after the flood, as the end of our chapter tells us. Yet only one thing about him is on record in all those years. He planted a vineyard and made wine. Self-indulgence trapped him, and he drank himself unconscious. The man now most responsible to control others lost control of himself. The age of patriarchal government broke down at the very start, even in the hands of a godly man.

Noah lived on for centuries afterwards, but the history mentions him no more. Adam disappears in the same way after his sin, and Cain's crime led to Seth being given instead of Abel.

Noah — whose name means rest, repose, comfort — lived some 350 years after the judgment of the flood. That was long enough, sadly, for him to see rebellion against God break out everywhere. He also saw idolatry rise and spread over the inhabited earth of that time.

Compared with his father Noah and those before him, Shem's years mark the growing decline of human age after the flood. Yet before he came near the end of his six hundred years, it was given to him to live into the days not only of Abram but of Isaac. Peleg, the fifth in this series, did not reach half the limit of Shem's term; and Nahor, the father of Terah, dwindled to a hundred and forty-five years. So in God's providential arrangements man was coming by rapid steps to the span of years that has been ordinary since the prayer of Moses in Psalm 90.

Noah — like John the Baptist — closed one scene and opened another. He died in that new scene, just as those of the old order before him had died. In man nothing had changed, though his circumstances and even his guilt had changed a great deal. For man had now sinned against blessing and grace.

So it was to be, according to this earliest prophecy. And so it has happened, exactly to the letter. No human foresight could have expected it. This closes the divine account of Noah: "After the flood Noah lived 350 years. All the days of Noah were 950 years, and he died."

The list of Noah's sons comes in the right place, after Noah's fall and its remarkable consequences. It is like Genesis 5, where the genealogy of Adam's sons followed his sin and Cain's sin, which had led to the revealed state of the world before the flood. Noah lived on for centuries afterwards, but the history never mentions him again, just as Adam disappears after his sin.

The human race was completely one at the beginning, and in effect it was one again in Noah after the flood. Mankind's outward progress must have been all the greater because people lived so long. Whatever that progress was, the sons of Noah had all of it for their new start.

After the flood, God gave mankind a fresh start under Noah. But as under Adam, so again, failure and sin soon followed. We have had plenty of testimony that Noah was a godly man who found grace in the sight of the Lord. He lived for no less than 350 years after the flood, as the end of our chapter tells us. Yet in all those years the record holds one thing only about him. He planted a vineyard, made wine, was trapped into self-indulgence, and became unconscious in drunkenness. The man now most responsible to control others lost control of himself. The age of patriarchal government broke down at the very start, even in the hands of a godly man.

Noah's name means rest, repose, comfort. He lived some 350 years after the judgment of the flood. That was long enough, sad to say, to see a general outbreak of rebellion against God, and the rise and spread of idolatry over the whole inhabited earth of that time.

There is no sound reason at all to doubt the long lifespans credited here to people before the flood. God made man to live, not to die; his death came in through sin… The span of years may seem long beside Psalm 90, where the prayer of Moses lays down the ordinary rule of human life. Even so, they were only the "days" of Adam, or of anyone else recorded here. After Adam they were born, and they had children; they lived and they died.

The words "and he died" are repeated so many times in this chapter. They give us a striking contrast to the words "And He shall live," written about David's Son and Lord in Psalm 72:15.

"By faith Enoch was taken up so that he should not see death, and he was not found, because God had taken him" (Hebrews 11:5). "He was not, for God took him" (Genesis 5:24). We cannot help contrasting his outcome with that of Noah, another herald of the coming judgment. God did not remove Noah from the scene. In mercy He kept him safe through the ordeal, and then settled him in the cleansed earth. He took Enoch away before the judgment fell.