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.