Walk in the Bible - Genesis 9

Genesis - Chapter 9

     A little preface before we get into this chapter , first.  Many Rabbinic scholars believe that during the flood, GOD also removed the Garden of Eden from the world, and because of this, stopped dwelling among us.  Because of this GOD was no longer among us, but rather "up there" in the heavens. Now, as you see in later chapters, he's said to "walk" with certain people, in fact, later on he said to walk between a sacrifice and make a vow with one particular person. I'm pointing this out, that GOD no longer dwelled with us, so that later on when you hear that someone is going to be called "GOD with us" you'll understand why it was such a big deal at the time!

     The first thing we see, in Chapter 1 is GOD giving the same blessing to Noah that he gave to Adam.  I'm going to remind you that this was written during the Exodus, when the ancient Israelis would have encountered Canaanites , and their belief system, as part of the Exodus took the right through a known trading route at the time. Neither the Canaanite nor the Egyptian gods blessed their human creations at all, in fact the Canaanite gods created humans to be imperfect to say the least, and gave them no way to reproduce, until one of the lesser gods in the Canaanite pantheon rebelled and gave humans that ability, and yet, here's GOD blessing humanity not once, but twice, telling Noah to be fruitful and multiply, just like he did with Adam.

     In Verse 2 we see GOD putting fear and dread in to the animals. Now , the word used for "fear" in Hebrew had multiple meanings including "Awe" and "respect", however because GOD added in "dread" , it's pretty obvious he wants the animals to fear man.  They didn't when they were aboard the ark, they'd become used to people as a source of food, and to us it would be obvious that that could increase the possibility of animals attacking human as well. Since there were so few people and animals on Earth at that time, GOD saw fit to make sure there were no problems with people or animals dying by getting them to fear us, so they wouldn't draw close to us.  The last part of the verse where we read "they are given into your hand" is almost exactly what GOD did for Adam in Genesis when he gave him charge over all the animals.

     In Verse 3 we see that GOD now allows Noah to eat meat.  In the Garden of Eden, GOD told Adam and Eve they could eat any plant in the garden, except for one, but he never mentioned the animals, here GOD is telling Noah that he can now eat the animals as well. Some of the rabbinic scholars believe that this is because there was a real shortage of plants at that time.  GOD only has one restriction which he sets out in Genesis 9:4.

     In Verse 4 he tells Noah not to eat any meat with the blood still in it.  GOD actually explains in a bit more detail why this is in Leviticus 17:1 - 16.  First, blood is sacred, it's considered life itself, and GOD states very explicitly that HE's given it to the Ancient Hebrews to make atonement for their sins. It's also stated that offering blood to other gods  was apparently known and done in that day (Leviticus 17:7) and GOD was very much against this so much so that HE was willing to literally cut them off from his covenant if this was done (Leviticus 17:10).

     In Verse 5 he tells Noah that even though he can kill animals, and offer their blood, this CANNOT be done with a human at all.  Again , remember this is being written during the Exodus and the path of the exodus brought the ancient Hebrews past a known trade route with the Canaanites.  The Canaanites worshipped many deities, one of which was Moloch and Moloch was worshipped with human sacrifice, specifically child sacrifice.  GOD is forbidding the shedding of human blood not only as murder (as in Cain and Abel) but also for any form of ritual sacrifice at all. Later on GOD would introduce the ancient Hebrews to the concept of cities of refuge in cases of accidental murder, but for now, no one is to kill anyone, period, otherwise, their life is forfeit.

     In Verse 6 he establishes what would become part of the Mosaic law (Law of Moses - shown in Exodus 21:24) when he says that if life it taken the person that does it will have their life taken in return.  Remember, the world was wicked prior to the flood, and likely, murder was rampant.  The last thing GOD wanted was a return to that type of conduct, so HE imposes the harshest penalty you can upon a living person, a life in exchange for a life.   HE even states why, that GOD made man in his image, unlike the animals.

     Verse 7 shows GOD giving NOAH the same blessing he gave to Adam. Notice that it immediately follows a command not to kill another human being?  It's not a coincidence. Not only is GOD saying not to kill, but GOD is commanding Noah and his sons to add life to the Earth, which is essential at this time!

     The Rabbinic scholars disagree with each other as to whether or not Noah's sons actually heard GOD's voice in verse 8-11. Some of them say that GOD spoke to Noah, then Noah told his sons what GOD says, others say GOD spoke directly to them so that they could hear that it was HE who was giving them this covenant. In either case  GOD begins to give his covenant with not only Noah and his sons, but with their descendants to come, bolstering what he said in verse 7, the command to be fruitful and multiply.   In effect, reassuring them that it really was okay to resume having sex (I mentioned that it  was likely forbidden to do so in the ark, a chapter or two back ! )

     In verse 9 , not only does he establish a covenant with Noah and his sons, but he also does this with the animals, both clean and unclean , all of the animals that have come out of the ark.  Typically any unclean animal was avoided. You couldn't present it for a sacrifice, you couldn't eat it. You had to stay far away from it.  However, GOD treated them no differently at this time than he did the clean animals or Noah and his family, almost mirroring a time when Christ would come to bring everyone on Earth into his family and adopt all of us as his children.

     In Verse 11 we see GOD saying that he'll maintain the covenant. As GOD is eternal, this covenant would be eternal. This covenant, by the way, would be considered a suzerain-vassal covenant (covenant between a king as his people). First, this covenant is purely voluntary from GOD, HE doesn't have to do this, rather HE CHOOSES  to do this.  The other side of this is that GOD expected Noah and all of his descendants to obey him , and this covenant was not made JUST to Noah, but to all of his descendants as well!

     In verse 12 GOD uses a visible sign to show that the covenant is real.  Bear in mind, nobody knew how to read in Noah's day, less than 2 percent of the population could when the Old Testament was first being written, so in lieu of that, a physical sign was used to show that a covenant existed.  In that day and time there were three ways that typically happened, the two parties could exchange clothes (like David and Jonathan), a sacrifice could be laid out, both parties walk between the sacrifice and made their covenant verbally then they were burn the sacrifice to show that this is what would happen if they violated that covenant, or they could eat a meal together, publically. GOD tells us that that sign will be the rainbow in verse 13.  When the Pharisees were asking JESUS for a sign in the sky ( Matthew 16:1) this is what they were referring to !

     In Verse 13, notice that GOD calls the rainbow "HIS" rainbow.  HE did create it after all, so it makes sense. However, I should point out that some pagan cultures try to say the rainbow was a "messenger of Juno" (the name of a pagan god) , the Greeks called the rainbow the daughter of Thaumas. GOD wanted to set the record straight, right away, that this was HIS rainbow, no one else's, HE created it, HE owned it.

     He told Noah outright that when the clouds gathered, like it was going to rain ( in verse 14) that he would "remember" this covenant (verse 15).  This isn't because GOD would forget, it was really for Noah's sake, for his assurance from GOD, a sign , if you will, that there would be no Earth ending flood ever again. Also, I should note the language used here is in the perfect tense, which means now and it means in the future as well!.  Verse 16 repeats what's said in verse 14 and 15, and again, it's really for Noah's sake, not for his.  Verse 17 repeats the same thing again, for Noah's sake.  It's understandable, after all, he just saw the world destroyed by rain, so one could imagine he'd get a quite nervous if he saw rain again!

     Verse 18 names the sons who came out of the ark, paying special attention to the youngest, Ham.  Normally the youngest son is the least in the house (like for example, David ).  In this case, attention is paid to him because he would become father of Canaan, which is where the Canaanites came from. It's a foreshadowing that something's going to happen with Ham.  

     Since the world had been destroyed, verse 19 serves to remind us that we're all descended from Noah's sons at this point.  Verse 20 takes a turn for the worse, as Noah after seeing GOD destroy the world and being, literally a survivor of a world-wide cataclysm, proceeds to plant, not a few grapes, but a vineyard!  Not only that, but the Hebrew word for "began" as in "began to plant a vineyard" means either "to pollute" , "to defile" or "to profane". Literally the Bible's telling us that what Noah's doing is wrong, and not only that, but the word sometimes translated as "farming" or "vineyard" is actually the word "iysh" which means man.  This sentence then , in the original Hebrew says that Noah began to pollute man by planting a vineyard!

     Verse 21 tells us the basically Noah got drunk from the wine he grew and staggered back to his tent and went to sleep in some way that caused him to expose himself. Most rabbinic scholars think  he fell on his face, and his gown, which is what they wore at that time, hiked up and exposed his genitals. This , by itself is a problem, because modesty is the foundation for Jewish values, even in the family. They have a word for it "tzniut". It's stressed for women, but also for men as well!

     The concept of tzniut doesn't allow for nudity in the home, even around family members!  That being the case, what Noah was doing would have been considered grossly immoral in that day and time. To make matters worse, Ham stumbled onto his father passed out drunk and exposed and gossiped about it to his brothers.  There's actually some disagreement about exactly what Ham did when this happened.

     Some Rabbinic scholars think Ham castrated his father, but the scripture passages that follow this event don't match up with that happening.  Other scholars think Ham may have sodomized his father. Yes, I know what that sounds like, however, at this time you need to remember that Ham was the youngest, and therefore the least of his brothers. Also remember that this is actually being written during the Exodus as well.

     The Sumerians had an almanac named "The Suma Anu" and among other things that it said, it said "If a man has sex with another man in the butt and that man is his equal that that man (the active partner) would be a leader among men". Again the passages after this event don't match the sequence of events that you would expect to happen after such an event, so it's not likely that happened either.   Some  scholars have even speculated that Ham actually raped his mother, and yes, I realize his mother isn't mentioned in that passage, however, the phrase "uncovered your father's nakedness" has a slang meaning ( for example in Leviticus 18:7-16 and Leviticus 20:11-21) , it refers to the practice of incest. Once again, the sequence of events after this event doesn't match up with that happening either.  

     The most likely explanation is that Ham saw his father in a grossly immoral situation. Noah being nude in his tent was, at that time a grossly immoral situation, according to the traditions and practices of that day, and rather than try to fix the situation , like his brothers did, Ham dishonored his father by gossiping about it to his brothers.  Remember again , this is being written during the Exodus, and one the ten commandments is actually "Honor your father and your mother, that your days may be long upon the land which the Lord your God is giving you." (Exodus 20:12). Ham certainly didn't honor his mother or father. 

     Verse 23 shows Shem and Japeth actually  honoring their father, by not only covering him up, but by turning their backs so they wouldn't see him in that grossly immoral state. Verse 24 doesn't just show Noah waking up, it shows him finding out what happened when he sobered up.  Verse 25, interestingly enough, shows Noah cursing, not Ham, GOD had already blessed him so he couldn't curse him. (GOD would tell Peter as much in Acts 10:9-16!) but rather Ham's youngest son, Canaan, by name to be the servant of Shem and Japeth. Canaan would come to be known as the father of the Canaanites, and the descendants of Shem and Japeth would go on to conquer them!

     Verses 25 - 27 is the literal equivalent of Noah changing his will and totally cutting Ham out. He's literally re-writing his will and prophesizing at the same time when he asks GOD to dwell in Shem's tents. As a matter of fact, a descendant of Shem would be responsible for rebuilding the temple after the Jews return from the Persian occupation spoken of in both Jeremiah and Isaiah.  He's also prophesizing that the descendants of Ham would be slaves to both of the other brothers, and in fact, the Ancient Israelites, who were descended from Shem and Japeth WOULD eventually toss the Canaanites out of Canaan and rule over it themselves!

     Verses 28-29 show that as good and as righteous as Noah was, he still died in the end. Also,  some rabbinic scholars believe that it says how many years after the flood he lived to help mark time since the flood. An interesting side note here, some scholars think he and Abram were alive in and about the same time. More interesting was the fact that Abraham  was from Ur, which is a land in Canaan!

 - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - 

    Summary

     In this chapter, Noah literally becomes the second Adam, up to and including getting the same blessing from GOD. Just like Adam, he was given charge over the land and was given the plants as food. Unlike Adam, he was given animals as food too. Although he was righteous in GOD's eyes, and even though there was no Tree of Good and Evil, there was certainly a vine of good and evil, and he sure drank from it. Even though he didn't discover he was nude, his son discovered Noah was passed out and exposed in his tent. 

     For that, Noah would curse his son's youngest son, Canaan, father of the Canaanites, to be his older brothers servant. Canaan, as I said, would found the wicked race of Canaanites, but in a surprise twist, he would later on call Abram out of a Canaanite city to vecome the father of millions and a revered figure in Judaism and Christianity as well.  GOD showed his power by creating a rainbow and calling it HIS so that pagans couldn't claim it as their own. We also saw that Noah died at a ripe old age, and not due to a flood. He kept his promise

     No matter where you are right now, whether you're walking strongly in your faith, or whether your at rock bottom, GOD's promise to you is that HE loved you so much that HE sent HIS own son to pay your price so that you wouldn't have to die, but so you could walk with HIM, just like Noah.  If you need help believing that, please drop me a line, I'd love to hear from you!