[And He Walks With Me] Genesis 9
1 It is crucial to see that, even after God destroyed virtually everything and everyone in response to sin, he still renewed the blessing and command given to Adam and Eve. One would have expected that God just washed his hands of humanity, that the whole race was fit to be discarded and replaced with a better backup plan. Yet, God merely hit the “reset” button and resolves to continue forward with us despite our flaws and failures.
2-4 Despite the renewed blessing and command of vs 1, there is a new twist in the curse placed upon humanity following The Fall. They are still placed under your authority. That is, humans are still responsible to care for the whole of creation, but now, the fear and terror of you will be in every living creature on the earth. This was a profound shift from the situation before the flood, when the animals simply came to Noah. Then, the only hostility between humans and the animal kingdom was between humans and serpents. Now, however, this hostility and wariness is expanded to every creature.
It could be argued that the curse of vs 2 is merely an adaptation of the curse upon the soil which would compel people to work hard to harvest food. It would certainly make realizing the new allowance of vss 3-4 more challenging.
In the aftermath of the flood, the human diet was expanded to include meat. Every creature that lives and moves will be food for you indicates that the original intent was for people to be able to eat any meat. This would later be refined as a way to distinguish God’s people from others. However, one could argue that this was his original intent, and when God eventually renews all things, every creature that lives and moves will be back on the menu. Indeed, this thought no doubt influenced Peter’s interpretation of the vision he received in Acts 10:9-16. This interpretation is manifest in Acts 15 when the apostles did not require Gentile Christians to abide by the rigid dietary laws imposed upon Jews.
5-6 God here defined justice, but it was also sprinkled with grace. Previously, he protected Cain after he shed Abel’s blood, but now, if someone murders a fellow human, I will require that person’s life, and Whoever sheds human blood, by humans his blood will be shed. Here is the beginning of the “eye for eye, tooth for tooth” concept of justice. The principle would seem to be that we will be treated in the same way we treat others. Therefore, do not do to someone else what you would not want done to you. This would seem to leave the door open to treat harshly those who treat us harshly. However, Jesus clarified this in Matthew 7:12 when he said, whatever you want others to do for you, do also the same for them. This so-called Golden Rule expanded the concept to say our treatment of others should not depend on how they treat us.
Notice that the root of this command is founded in the imago Dei. That is, we should do this because God made humans in his image. This is stunning because it indicates that even sin-corrupted people who barely escaped the flood are nevertheless made in the image of God.
7 God again reiterated the blessing and mandate to be fruitful and multiply, etc. If something is repeated in the Bible, it is generally important. Here, God’s directives for post-diluvian humanity is bracketed by this overarching principle: get back to doing what humans were designed to do. As such, he is essentially renewing the original covenant he established with people in the beginning. See notes on 8-11.
8-11 A covenant is, at its most fundamental level, the foundation of a relationship. The original covenant between God and humans was simple: God would provide purpose and prosperity for humans if they would obey his one command. Under that covenant, however, when they did not obey his one command and then spiraled into ever greater corruption, God nearly wiped out all of creation with the flood. This was justice in its most raw form. Here, though, the covenant is refined. God unilaterally vows that never again will every creature be wiped out by floodwaters; there will never again be a flood to destroy the earth. That is, the original notion of justice is now infused with a hint of grace: no matter how bad humans are, God will not use the flood to indiscriminately wipe out all of creation.
It is important to notice that God once again initiates this covenant. This follows the pattern of a typical suzerain covenant. We typically think of a contract as something in which both parties are equals, but in biblical times, covenants were typically initiated by the dominant party. For example, an earthly king might besiege a city, demonstrating his overwhelming strength. Then, he would offer a covenant with terms such as, “I will continue to not destroy you if you will give me all your gold.” In this case, God’s covenant is unilateral: “I will not destroy you.” This is a surprising twist because most gods demanded a high price for such a promise. God, however, is not like other gods. He is just, but he is also gracious.
12-17 The rainbow was given as a reminder to both God and people of God’s grace. It was supposed to remind God to be gracious, and to remind people that God did not treat them as they deserved. By extension, it should remind people to not take God’s grace for granted by continuing to sin. Yet, in our sin-corrupted minds, many humans see God’s grace as a license for sin. The reasoning is that our gracious God is not going to destroy us, so we can do as we please. It should be noted, though, that God never promised to not destroy us. He merely promised to not destroy all of creation with an indiscriminat flood.
18-19 The account of post-flood humanity begins with promise. Noah emerged from the ark with his three sons and grandson, and the whole earth was populated from them. That is, they were able to fulfill God’s mandate to be fruitful and multiply (1, 7).
20-28 The promise of a better future for humanity is quickly darkened. Noah set out to fulfill God’s mandate by planting a vineyard. In due time, this vineyard produced grapes, which Noah used to produce wine. All of this was good. This good start, however, was quickly derailed when he drank some of the wine, became drunk, and uncovered himself. The good wine was perverted when Noah drank too much of it, and soon, he found himself in the same position Adam and Eve were in Genesis 3: he was naked. It is interesting to note that Noah did this to himself. Often, by our own decisions, we lead ourselves into sin and shame.
It is interesting that Noah exposed himself inside his tent. This would suggest that either (a) he tried to cover up his secret sin by remaining inside, or (b) his shame was mitigated by the fact that he was inside and still enjoyed the covering of the tent. Either way, Ham’s actions were problematic. One can imagine Ham emerging from the tent snickering at his father’s nakedness. Perhaps he made fun of his body or chuckled about what a drunken mess he was. Whatever he did, Ham exposed his father’s hidden shame to the rest of the world. In response, Shem and Japheth did what they could to mitigate Noah’s nakedness and shame. It could not completely rectify the situation: Noah was still naked, and that nakedness was still exposed to the rest of the world. But they could act as God’s hands and feet and do what they could to cover his nakedness without bringing further shame. This should be standard operating procedure for the people of God! Instead of pointing out people’s sin to compound their shame, we should do what we can to mitigate its impact and preserve their dignity.