God Has This | Genesis 9:1-17
Read Genesis 9:1-17
Genesis 9 marks the end of Noah’s Ark and His story. It is a pivotal part in God’s word as it is the very first salvation narrative God gives His people. Humankind sins and brings on death, brings on separation from God, and now God establishes His first covenant with His people. God sets up an agreement with Noah, the man who has come out of Seth’s righteous lineage. Noah and God walk together and God saves Noah’s family from the flood.
“And God blessed Noah and his sons and said to them, ‘Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth. The fear of you and the terror of you will be on every beast of the earth and on every bird of the sky; with everything that creeps on the ground, and all the fish of the sea, into your hand they are given. Every moving thing that is alive shall be food for you; I give all to you, as I gave the green plant…Then God spoke to Noah and to his sons with him, saying, ‘Now behold, I Myself do establish My covenant with you, and with your descendants after you.’”
--Genesis 9:1-5, 8-9.
Promises. God is giving many promises. He is blessing Noah. Noah was faithful to God in obedience and God is faithful to Noah. This is the loving relationship of salvation that God is providing for Noah; providing for His people. God upholds His agreement with Noah establishing this special covenant between God and His people: The Noahic Covenant.
- God is giving NEW life to Noah and his family; God is the Giver of Life.
Noah’s story reminds us that God can take life and God can give life. God loves life. Look at the blessing He gives to Noah. He tells Noah to start producing more life. Noah will get to see life expand through his family, through the animals that God preserved on the ark.
God wanted to give Noah a visual reminder of this covenant made between God and His people. This sign will remain for all of God’s people to see again and again and again—a supernatural reminder that God gives life, that God loves humanity, and God has given His people a second chance to give life onto the created world.
“’I establish My covenant with you; and all flesh shall never again be cut off by the water of the flood, neither shall there again be a flood to destroy the earth.’…I set my bow in the cloud, and it shall be for a sign of a covenant between Me and the earth and it shall come about, when I bring a cloud over the earth, that the bow will be seen in the cloud, and I will remember My covenant…”
--Genesis 9:11, 13-14
Every time Noah would see this rainbow in the sky he will be reminded of God’s work through the flood; the promise that God has saved him and his family. This will give Noah hope and peace knowing that God is watching over him and working through him. God did a miracle when He instituted the covenant between Him and Noah; God sealed that covenant by created another miracle in the clouds: “A Rainbow.”
“Rather, rainbows and other similar phenomena are truly in the eye of the beholder — or, we might say, in the mind of the beholder. Seeing a rainbow is the result of a cosmic interplay between solar radiation, optical physics, billions of water droplets, and the ability of the human brain to separate white light into the visible spectrum. Four conditions are needed to see a rainbow: The Sun must be only a certain height above the horizon, it must be shining through the clouds, raindrops must be present in the atmosphere, and you need to look directly opposite the Sun. If all of these criteria are met, you will see one of nature’s most beautiful sights.” – Raymond Shubinski (Revelation 4:1-3)
God doesn’t only provide Noah with a future hope of repopulating the world, giving him the ability to create more life and a future hope in the rainbow but God provides Noah with food for life—God is the giver of life. God promises His people, His family, that He will save them from death and give them life.
“Whoever sheds man’s blood, by man his blood shall be shed, for in the image of God He made man. As for you, be fruitful and multiply; Populate the earth abundantly and multiply in it.”
--Genesis 9:6-7
God is calling Noah and his family to provide life, not to murder and take life away from humankind, from themselves because they are made in the image of God. God gives permission to Noah and his family to kill animals and to eat their meat yet God commands Noah to not eat the blood of the animal; the blood belongs to God as symbolic covering of sin.
“Only you shall not eat flesh with its life, that is, its blood. Surely, I will require your lifeblood; form every beast I will require it. And from every man, from every man’s brother I will require the life of man.”
--Genesis 9:4-5
God is giving parameters to Noah’s rule on the earth and Noah still has to obey God’s covenant and commands as he raises his children and multiplies the population of the earth. Genesis 9:1-17 is a reminder that God will save His people, God gave life to Noah and commanded Noah to give life to the earth, to continue the lineage for humanity leading to the ultimate savior of the world: Jesus Christ.
- God has given NEW Life to those who confess their faith in Him through the Life, Death and Resurrection of Jesus Christ.
--Story of Chad on the Hellevator: Riders are secured in seats, surrounding a 202-foot vertical tower, where the seat cart shoots upward at 75 kmph and then free falls back towards the ground, providing an added free-falling force of negative 1 G on the way down.
“Meanwhile, Canadian Christians were startled by another development: a formal recommendation that the governing party consider taking tax-exempt status away from churches.
The Standing Committee on Finance, which includes representatives from four of Canada’s parties, issued a report in December with 462 recommendations. Item 430 recommends Canada “amend the Income Tax Act to provide a definition of a charity which would remove the privileged status of ‘advancement of religion’ as a charitable purpose. While Canada has seen a shift away from religious affiliation in recent years, 53 percent of people still identify as Christian, Some local governments have already made moves to tax churches. In 2018, Nova Scotia decided that parts of the property of about 20 churches across the province were not tax exempt because they provided childcare centers during the week. In 2022, Iqaluit, in the territory of Nunavut, decided nonprofits would no longer be exempt at all. The two churches in Iqaluit—one Catholic, one Anglican—were told they would need to pay the government $38,000 and $29,000 each year, respectively. Church leaders described that as a “crushing financial burden,” which would likely force them into delinquency.’”—Christianity Today
Where the rainbow reminded God’s people of God’s promise of giving life and salvation; Jesus is the reminder of God’s hope and salvation for us today.
--Show the picture of Christ on the Cross
“For He rescued us from the domain of darkness and transferred us to the kingdom of His beloved Son, whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins. He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation. For by Him all things were created, both in the heavens and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities—all things have been created through Him and for Him. He is before all things, and in Him all things hold together. He is also head of the body, the church; and He is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, so that He Himself will come to have first place in everything. For it was the Father’s good pleasure for all the fullness to dwell in Him, through Him to reconcile all things to Himself, having made peace through the blood of His cross; through Him, I say, whether things on earth or things in heaven.”
--Colossians 1:13-20
“I am the door; if anyone enters through Me, he will be saved, and will go in and out and find pasture. The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I came that they may have life and have it abundantly. I am the good shepherd; the good shepherd lays down His life for the sheep.”
--John 10:9-11
In the midst of this world, in the midst of our lives, what is the church supposed to do? What is our purpose?
- The Christian life is not static; God wants us to worship Him and to share His hope with the world around us.
After God saved Noah through the Ark; He commanded Noah to go, be fruitful and multiply. God called Moses to go to Egypt and to have God work through Him to free His people from captivity, Ruth was called to work in the field in order to win Boaz’s favor to continue the lineage to Christ, Jesus, God Himself, came down and was called to live a perfect life, to withstand temptation, die on the cross for our sins and rise again three days later…God’s people, the church are called to make disciples, to share the gospel, to gather together and glorify Him.
“But the eleven disciples proceeded to Galilee, to the mountain which Jesus had designated. When they saw Him, they worshiped Him; but some were doubtful. And Jesus came up and spoke to them, saying, ‘All authority has been given to Me in heaven and on earth. Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age.’”
--Matthew 28:16-20
“For there is no distinction between Jew and Greek; for the same Lord is Lord of all, abounding in riches for all who call on Him; for ‘Whoever will call on the name of the Lord will be saved.’ How then will they call on Him in whom they have not believed? How will they believe in Him whom they have not heard? And how will they hear without a preacher? How will they preach unless they are sent? Just as it is written, ‘How beautiful are the feet of those who bring good news of good things!’”
--Romans 10:12-15
“For the coming of the Son of Man will be just like the days of Noah. For as in those days before the flood they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, until the day that Noah entered the ark, and they did not understand until the flood came and took them all away; so will the coming of the Son of Man be.”
--Matthew 24:37-39