Genesis 9

God's plan for the earth involves many generations and a wide variety of blessings that come upon both those who worship Him and those who do not worship Him. As the Lord establishes a pattern for Noah and his descendants, the blessing of the Lord is necessary for their existence. They are told to be fruitful and to multiply, just as the Lord had said in an earlier generation to the first of mankind.

Combined with this renewal of an earlier instruction is the Lord's assurance that in a world where everyone will be subject to the dangers of sin and misery, the life of mankind will mean something to God. Because of this, man must not have a callous disregard for the lives of fellow human beings. They matter to God, and they must matter to us.

God has made it in this new world after the flood that the other creatures that inhabit this planet will have an instinctual fear of us. Some will have more of that fear than others, and some will be more easily domesticated than others, but man will be over all the other creatures.

Not only that, the life of an animal will not be the same as the life of a human being. As the Lord gave the plant life explicitly to mankind in the time of his innocence, He now gives “every moving thing that lives” as food for mankind. Yet there is a restriction here against the eating of raw flesh. Throughout the Scriptures we notice instruction and commandments concerning blood. Little by little, we are learning that it is through blood that salvation will come.

A man is permitted to take the life of a beast for food, but neither beast nor man is permitted to take the life of a man. The penalty, perhaps surprisingly, for a violation of this command is death. In order to show a due regard for human life, a system of the taking of that life must be enforced against those who murder. The death penalty for murderers is not an invention of mankind. The Lord informs Noah and his descendants that He will require this.

To refuse God on this matter is to ignore the difference between man and beast. People are created in the image of God. Even after the fall and after so many centuries of all kinds of sin, we are still image-bearers of the One who created the heavens and the earth. We are to multiply upon the earth, for God is not yet finished with His plans for humanity.

As a sign of the Lord's intentions for the future, not only for mankind, but for all the creatures that inhabit this planet, the Lord has put the rainbow up in the heavens. The Lord has made a covenant with every beast of the earth. He shall never again destroy all flesh and all the earth with the waters of a flood. The Lord will remember this common blessing upon the earth as long as this age continues. We can take heart and consider His promise with every rainbow that we see in the skies.

Life goes on. All mankind descends from this ancestor Noah, and from his three sons. From these roots, the dispersion of the clans of humanity will take place, a story that will be told in a later chapter.

For now God speaks about a disappointing violation of decency and respect, and gives an amazing prophesy through Noah that touches upon centuries of conflict and blessing among the peoples of the earth. The event comes before the prophesy. Noah plants a vineyard. He drinks the wine of the vineyard and becomes drunk. (Why are we skeptical about such an event? Is it that surprising that a man would plant vines that would eventually yield grapes, or that he would drink too much of his fermented beverage and find himself passed out and naked in his tent?) There was a time when a man and a woman lived in the garden of paradise, and the were naked and unashamed, but that time is long gone. It is not right for a son to take advantage of the weakness of his father, and to make that sad situation an opportunity for entertainment at his own father's expense. Respect should cover a multitude of transgressions when sons deal with the weakness of those who are above them, especially their own fathers. Ham violates this standard of decency, while Noah's other sons honor their father.

This becomes the occasion for the extraordinary prophesy that speaks of the progress of mankind for centuries to come. Canaan, who is the son of the offending Ham, is cursed by Noah. “A servant of servants shall he be to his brothers.” The descendants of Canaan will be lower than others. But the word that God gives to Shem and Japheth is a blessing. In blessing Shem, Noah blesses Jehovah, Yahweh, the LORD, as the God of Shem, and he indicates that Canaan will be his servant. This is the story of the Old Testament, the account of the glory of Israel's God over all the gods of the Canaanites, and of God's works of mercy and discipline upon a chosen group out of the descendants of Shem.

But Noah continues, and now gives us a summary of the New Testament. God will greatly enlarge the descendants of Japheth, but they will mysteriously dwell in the tents of Shem.

In due time, the Lord God became a descendant of Shem, in the person of Jesus of Nazareth, the Jewish Messiah. This great Savior is building a tabernacle of His new Israel throughout the world. His death and resurrection is being proclaimed everywhere. In the first century, the Gentile descendants of Japheth filled up the tent of Shem as they came into the house of God through faith in Jesus Christ. May all the descendants of Noah from every tribe and tongue throughout the world find their rest in Him. Jesus is Lord! He has conquered death and secured the very best blessings of God for all who trust in Him.