Genesis 9:8-17

Genesis 9:8-17

[8] And God  spake  unto Noah,  and to his sons  with him, saying,  [9] And I, behold, I establish  my covenant  with you, and with your seed  after you;  [10] And with every living  creature  that is with you, of the fowl,  of the cattle,  and of every beast  of the earth  with you; from all that go out  of the ark,  to every beast  of the earth.  [11] And I will establish  my covenant  with you; neither shall all flesh  be cut off  any more by the waters  of a flood;  to destroy  the earth.  [12] And God  said,  This is the token  of the covenant  which I  make  between me and you and every living  creature  that is with you, for perpetual  generations:  [13] I do set  my bow  in the cloud,  and it shall be for a token  of a covenant  between me and the earth.  [14] And it shall come to pass, when I bring  a cloud  over the earth,  that the bow  shall be seen  in the cloud:  [15] And I will remember  my covenant,  which is between me and you and every living  creature  of all flesh;  and the waters  shall no more  become a flood  to destroy  all flesh.  [16] And the bow  shall be in the cloud;  and I will look upon it,  that I may remember  the everlasting  covenant  between  God  and  every living  creature  of all flesh  that is upon the earth.  [17] And God  said  unto Noah,  This is the token  of the covenant,  which I have established  between me and all flesh  that is upon the earth. 

What does Genesis 9:8-17 Mean?

Contextual Meaning

The Noahic Covenant was a suzerainty treaty that God made with humankind through Noah. [1] In it He promised never to destroy all flesh with a flood of water again ( Genesis 9:11). The sign God appointed to remind people of this promise and to guarantee its veracity was the rainbow ( Genesis 9:12-15; cf. Genesis 6:12). There may have been rainbows before this pronouncement, but now God attached significance to the rainbow.
"Shining upon a dark ground, . . . it represents the victory of the light of love over the fiery darkness of wrath. Originating from the effect of the sun upon a dark cloud, it typifies the willingness of the heavenly to penetrate the earthly. Stretched between heaven and earth, it is as a bond of peace between both, and, spanning the horizon, it points to the all-embracing universality of the Divine mercy." [2]
"The rainbow arcs like a battle bow hung against the clouds. (The Hebrew word for rainbow, qeset, is also the word for a battle bow.) ...
"The bow is now "put away," hung in place by the clouds, suggesting that the "battle," the storm, is over. Thus the rainbow speaks of peace." [3]
This covenant would remain for "all successive generations" ( Genesis 9:12). People have no responsibility to guarantee the perpetuity of this covenant; God will do all that He promised ( Genesis 9:9). Observe the recurrence of "I," "Myself," and "My" in these verses. Thus, this covenant is unconditional ( Genesis 9:9), universal ( Genesis 9:11), and everlasting ( Genesis 9:12). [4]
"What distinguishes the Noahic [5] from the patriarchal one and for that matter all others recounted in the Old Testament is its truly universal perspective. It is God"s commitment to the whole of humanity and all terrestrial creation-including the surviving animal population." [6]
"The covenant with Noah [7] is entirely unconditional rather than a conditional covenant, as in the Edenic situation. The certainty of the fulfillment of the covenant with Noah rested entirely with God and not with Noah. As this point is somewhat obscured in current discussion on the covenants of Scripture, it is important to distinguish covenants that are conditional from those that are unconditional. Conditional covenants depend on the recipients meeting the conditions imposed by God. Unconditional covenants declare that God"s purpose will be fulfilled regardless of an individual"s response. The fact that the covenant is one-sided-from God to humankind-does not mean that there is no response on the part of humankind. But the point is that the response is anticipated and does not leave the fulfillment of the covenant in doubt." [8]
The elements of the Noahic Covenant are the following. God held man responsible for protecting the sanctity of human life by orderly governmental rule even specifying the use of capital punishment ( Genesis 9:5-6; cf. Romans 13:1-7). God promised not to judge humanity again with a universal flood ( Genesis 8:21; Genesis 9:11-16), and He confirmed the established order of nature ( Genesis 8:22; Genesis 9:2). God now permitted people to eat animal flesh, evidently for the first time ( Genesis 9:3-4). God announced that Canaan"s descendants would be servants to their brethren ( Genesis 9:25-26), Shem"s descendants would enjoy a special relationship to the Lord ( Genesis 9:26-27), and Japheth"s descendants would become enlarged races ( Genesis 9:27).
". . . the author is intentionally drawing out the similarities between God"s covenant with Noah and the covenant at Sinai. Why? The answer that best fits with the author"s purposes is that he wants to show that God"s covenant at Sinai is not a new act of God. The covenant is rather a return to God"s original promises. Once again at Sinai, as he had done in the past, God is at work restoring his fellowship with man and bringing man back to himself. The covenant with Noah plays an important role in the author"s development of God"s restoration of blessing. It lies midway between God"s original blessing of all mankind ( Genesis 1:28) and God"s promise to bless "all peoples on the earth" through Abraham ( Genesis 12:1-3)." [9]