Week 4: Genesis 9:1-17

Week 4: Genesis 9:1-17

At A Glance:

Author: Moses or P

Form: Ancient Flood Story

Themes: God's blessing with Noah.  The second major covenant of the Old Testament.  Reconciliation between God and creation through humanity.

Summary:  This is the covenantal outline of the second major covenant of the Old Testament.  There are many covenantal themes present: There is was a sacrificial seal (8:21), a blessing (v1), a condition (v4), a curse (v6), and a sign (v12-17).

Commentary:

9:1-17 - Another impressive chiasm (literary sandwich) is present here:

            A.  Divine promise not to destroy the earth (8:20-22)

                        B.  Blessing (9:1)

                                    C.  Divine sovereignty over life (9:2-6)

                        B.  Blessing (9:7)

            A.  Divine promise not to destroy earth (9:8-17)

The central focus is God's sovereignty over all life and that all blood - considered the life of the creature (Lv 17:11) - this is a foreshadow of the temple sacrifices where the life-blood of the animal sacrificed serves as atonement for sin. 

9:1-3 - These verses are the echoed blessing from the sixth day of creation.  The blessing here so closely matches Genesis 1:28-29 the author is telling us that God is establishing a relationship with the newly washed earth & humanity.  The language of this covenant is reconciliation.  The original covenant was broken and sin spread spread from Genesis 3-6 until "every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually" (6:5), informing us that all humanity was guilty and the flood was the playing out of the curse of death from the original covenant.  Here God is renewing that covenant through the establishment of a new covenant with Noah.  Rather than giving up on creation God decides to continue to attempt union with what he created. 

9:3 - God explicitly allows for the eating of animals.  Whether or not it was practiced before is not entirely clear, but there is a tradition that says that the most holy people before the flood did not partake of meat.  After the flood the explicit concession to eat meat is probably more of a practical concession since the ground would have been so waterlogged that it would be some time before Noah was able to get something substantial to feed his growing family. 

9:4 - This is the condition of the covenant.  Noah and his family are explicitly invited to eat meat of all animals, but not the blood of the animals.  God's choice of reserving the blood of all creatures to himself not only foreshadows the temple sacrifices, but also the perfect sacrifice of Jesus on the cross.  At Calvary God's own blood was spilled.  All blood belonged to God, yet God freely gave his precious blood to us.  Our lives belong to him, and he has given his life to us. 

9:6 - This verse presents the curse of the covenant.  If anyone sheds the blood of a man, by man shall his blood be shed.  The beginning articulation of justice in scripture.  Justice is the receiving of what is deserved. 

9:13-17 - The longest section of this pericope is dedicated to the sign of the covenant, in this case the bow.  Some suggest that the rainbow was not present until this passage of scripture, others suggest that it was present during the rains of the flood, but God appropriated it when he established the covenant.  God reiterates 5 times that this covenant is established with Noah and "every living creature".  God's covenant with Noah was not just him establishing relationship with one creature, but all creation through one creature.  This is one of the reasons why the early Christians felt the need to hold the Gentiles to the condition of this covenant and forbid any converts from eating the blood of an animal (Acts 12:29).  The choice of the bow as the sign is also significant of God's promise not to destroy the earth again.  The bow (“haqqeset” in Hebrew) is the same word for the weapon bow in Hebrew (2 Kgs 13:16; Am 2:15).  God’s bow is placed with its aim facing away from the earth as a sign of his promise to not destroy the earth.

Final Thoughts:

            Covenants are all about relationship bonds.  God enters into a covenantal relationship with us and like an unfaithful spouse we break our vows with him.  In modern marriage covenants when one spouse breaks their vow we run to the divorce lawyers and avoid contact with our “ex-spouse” until death do us part.  Betrayal is hurtful.  So hurtful that it literally ruptures relationships.  The story of the flood is the story of how we completely severed our ties with God we betrayed him. 

Unlike us, God did not give up on humanity.  He sought reconciliation through water, and through the establishment of a new covenant.  God will do this again and again throughout the Old Testament.  He will enter into covenant with humanity we will betray that covenant suffer the curses of that betrayal, and God seeks reconciliation with us.  This cycle continues until God establishes the perfect covenant made with all creation through his son Jesus.  Jesus is perfectly obedient to that covenant and establishes signs through which we can enter into the covenant on his merit and not ours.  Baptism washes us of all sin like the waters of the flood and we receive that divine life (or sanctifying Grace) within us. This is the life of Jesus that was given for us.  We are strengthened with this life through the reception of Confirmation and especially the Eucharist.  Even though we are strengthened to live in this new covenant we still betray it in our selfishness, but Jesus gave us a sign which reconciles us, the sacrament of Reconciliation. 

So many people see Noah and the flood as a story of God’s anger, but when we look deeper it is a story of God’s faithfulness, mercy, and love.  Even though we turn our backs on him time and time again God does not run to the divorce lawyers.  He pursues us with his holy love and calls us back to him.

Please share your thoughts and insights…