9:1 Then God blessed Noah and his sons and said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth. 9:2 Every living creature of the earth and every bird of the sky will be terrified of you. Everything that creeps on the ground and all the fish of the sea are under your authority. 9:3 You may eat any moving thing that lives. As I gave you the green plants, I now give you everything.
9:4 But you must not eat meat with its life (that is, its blood) in it. 9:5 For your lifeblood I will surely exact punishment, from every living creature I will exact punishment. From each person I will exact punishment for the life of the individual since the man was his relative.
9:6 “Whoever sheds human blood,
by other humans
must his blood be shed;
for in God’s image
God has made humankind.”
9:7 But as for you, be fruitful and multiply; increase abundantly on the earth and multiply on it.”
9:8 God said to Noah and his sons, 9:9 “Look! I now confirm my covenant with you and your descendants after you 9:10 and with every living creature that is with you, including the birds, the domestic animals, and every living creature of the earth with you, all those that came out of the ark with you – every living creature of the earth. 9:11 I confirm my covenant with you: Never again will all living things be wiped out by the waters of a flood; never again will a flood destroy the earth.”
9:12 And God said, “This is the guarantee of the covenant I am making with you and every living creature with you, a covenant for all subsequent generations: 9:13 I will place my rainbow in the clouds, and it will become a guarantee of the covenant between me and the earth. 9:14 Whenever I bring clouds over the earth and the rainbow appears in the clouds, 9:15 then I will remember my covenant with you and with all living creatures of all kinds. Never again will the waters become a flood and destroy all living things. 9:16 When the rainbow is in the clouds, I will notice it and remember the perpetual covenant between God and all living creatures of all kinds that are on the earth.”
9:17 So God said to Noah, “This is the guarantee of the covenant that I am confirming between me and all living things that are on the earth.”
9:18 The sons of Noah who came out of the ark were Shem, Ham, and Japheth. (Now Ham was the father of Canaan.) 9:19 These were the sons of Noah, and from them the whole earth was populated.
9:20 Noah, a man of the soil, began to plant a vineyard. 9:21 When he drank some of the wine, he got drunk and uncovered himself inside his tent. 9:22 Ham, the father of Canaan, saw his father’s nakedness and told his two brothers who were outside. 9:23 Shem and Japheth took the garment and placed it on their shoulders. Then they walked in backwards and covered up their father’s nakedness. Their faces were turned the other way so they did not see their father’s nakedness.
9:24 When Noah awoke from his drunken stupor he learned what his youngest son had done to him. 9:25 So he said,
“Cursed be Canaan!
The lowest of slaves
he will be to his brothers.”
9:26 He also said,
“Worthy of praise is the Lord, the God of Shem!
May Canaan be the slave of Shem!
9:27 May God enlarge Japheth’s territory and numbers!
May he live in the tents of Shem
and may Canaan be his slave!”
9:28 After the flood Noah lived 350 years. 9:29 The entire lifetime of Noah was 950 years, and then he died.
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Two thoughts today. First, a rainbow is actually a completely unique and personal experience. There are actually 2 angles at which a person can see a rainbow. The first and most prevalent is at approximately 40-42 degrees. The second or double rainbow is at 50-53 degrees (thank you wikipedia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rainbow). The point being that no two persons see the exact same rainbow so it is truly a gift to each from God (at least that is my opinion).
ReplyDeleteSecond, and thank you for study notes because I struggled a lot with this one, why was Canaan cursed? Here is a what I formulated from some research. Ham saw Noah's nakedness and didn't cover him up himself. Instead he involved his two brothers (further bringing shame to Noah). Canaan was cursed by implication of being Ham's son. Ham should have not been in Noah's tent and since he was he should have covered Noah himself (or done nothing and left).
I find it interesting that despite the fact that Noah walked with God - he too sinned. God spoke directly to him, spared his life, restarted mankind through him, and made a lasting covenant of the rainbow and still Noah managed to be sinful. By no means do I wish to pass judgement or be comparative but that is good to know because I am just as bad and also just as much forgiven. The Bible is filled with "heros" that were sinners.
Stefan, I like all of your comments and agree with you on your hypothesis regarding God's cursing of Canaan.
ReplyDeleteThe only thought I would like to add is this: when I read that God gave everything to Noah, I thought to myself, "Wow, how awesome is that? God gave EVERYTHING to Noah! Everything! He thought so highly of Noah that He gave him everything." And after a quick second I realized, God is giving us everything, too. As Christians, we are His children, and He is offering us EVERYTHING, just as He did with Noah. God thinks so highly of us, too, that He offered us eternal life with Him in His kingdom. Wow, I am truly humbled.
Nice job to the both of you. I love the research by Stef-dogg, and then parallel conneciton by Jackie. I have received good stuff today. I'll ponder a bit more, but feel that you have sufficiently answered/typed my feelings/questions. Have a great weekend all!
ReplyDeleteI can't believe no one commented on the 2 things I find most interesting about this story.
ReplyDeleteI am well aware that God is perfect, but isn't it interesting how he puts a rainbow in the sky to remind him of his covenance with us...verses 9:14-9:16. Almost as if he is saying he feels terrible about flooding the earth. He made a mistake and this is his reminder to himself and to us that he won't do it again. Very humble.
Secondly...verse 9:6. It's not the "eye for an eye" verse, but it's close. How do you require a person to swear on the holy Bible in a court of law and then not allow the contents of the Bible to be used in law?? Especially with all the hub-bub about the death penalty as it relates to Christianity.
All this is very auperficial and I hardly dug deep to reach it, but sometimes I think things are written as plain as day for a reason. Never liked symbolism in HS Language Arts much...can you tell??