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.