And God spoke unto Noah, and to his sons with him, saying,
– XXIX. The Covenant with Noah
13. qeshet, bow; related: be bent.
14. anan, cover, cast over; noun: cloud.
The covenant made with Noah Gen 6:18 is now formally confirmed. The purpose conceived in the heart Gen 8:21 now receives significant expression. Not only a new blessing is bestowed, but also a new covenant is formed with Noah. For he that has offered an acceptable sacrifice is not only at peace with God, but renewed in mind after the image of God. He is therefore a fit subject for entering into a covenant.
Gen 9:8-11
Unto Noah and to his sons. – God addresses the sons of Noah as the progenitors of the future race. I establish. He not merely makes karat, but ratifies, his covenant with them. My covenant. The covenant which was before mentioned to Noah in the directions concerning the making of the ark, and which was really, though tacitly, formed with Adam in the garden.
Gen 9:9-10
The party with whom God now enters into covenant is here fully described. You and your seed after you, and every breathing living thing; the latter merely on account of the former. The animals are specially mentioned because they partake in the special benefit of preservation from a flood, which is guaranteed in this covenant. There is a remarkable expression employed here – From all that come out of the ark, to every beast of the land. It seems to imply that the beast of the land, or the wild beast, was not among those that came out of the ark, and, therefore, not among those that went in. This coincides with the view we have given of the inmates of the ark.
Gen 9:11
The benefits conferred by this form of Gods covenant are here specified. First, all flesh shall no more be cut off by a flood; secondly, the land shall no more be destroyed by this means. The Lord has been true to his promise in saving Noah and his family from the flood of waters. He now perpetuates his promise by assuring him that the land would not again be overwhelmed with water. This is the new and present blessing of the covenant. Its former blessings are not abrogated, but only confirmed and augmented by the present. Other and higher benefits will flow out of this to those who rightly receive it, even throughout the ages of eternity. The present benefit is shared by the whole race descended from Noah.
Gen 9:12-16
The token of the covenant is now pointed out. For perpetual ages. This stability of sea and land is to last during the remainder of the human period. What is to happen when the race of man is completed, is not the question at present. My bow. As Gods covenant is the well-known and still remembered compact formed with man when the command was issued in the Garden of Eden, so Gods bow is the primeval arch, coexistent with the rays of light and the drops of rain. It is caused by the rays of the sun reflected from the falling raindrops at a particular angle to the eye of the spectator. A beautiful arch of reflected and refracted light is in this way formed for every eye. The rainbow is thus an index that the sky is not wholly overcast, since the sun is shining through the shower, and thereby demonstrating its partial extent. There could not, therefore, be a more beautiful or fitting token that there shall be no more a flood to sweep away all flesh and destroy the land.
It comes with its mild radiance only when the cloud condenses into a shower. It consists of heavenly light, variegated in hue, and mellowed in lustre, filling the beholder with an involuntary pleasure. It forms a perfect arch, extends as far as the shower extends, connects heaven and earth, and spans the horizon. In these respects it is a beautiful emblem of mercy rejoicing against judgment, of light from heaven irradiating and beatifying the soul, of grace always sufficient for the need of the reunion of earth and heaven, and of the universality of the offer of salvation. Have I given. The rainbow existed as long as the present laws of light and air. But it is now mentioned for the first time, because it now becomes the fitting sign of security from another universal deluge, which is the special blessing of the covenant in its present form. In the cloud. When a shower-cloud is spread over the sky, the bow appears, if the sun, the cloud, and the spectator are in the proper relation to one another. 16. And I will look upon it to remember. The Scripture is most unhesitating and frank in ascribing to God all the attributes and exercises of personal freedom. While man looks on the bow to recall the promise of God, God himself looks on it to remember and perform this promise. Here freedom and immutability of purpose meet.
The covenant here ostensibly refers to the one point of the absence, for all time to come, of any danger to the human race from a deluge. But it presupposes and supplements the covenant with man subsisting from the very beginning. It is clearly of grace; for the Lord in the very terms affirms the fact that the imagination of mans heart is evil from his youth, while at the same time the original transgression belonged to the whole race. The condition by which any man becomes interested in it is not expressed, but easily understood from the nature of a covenant, a promise, and a sign, all of which require of us consenting faith in the party who covenants, promises, and gives the sign. The meritorious condition of the covenant of grace is dimly shadowed forth in the burnt-offerings which Noah presented on coming out of the ark. One thing, however, was surely and clearly revealed to the early saints; namely, the mercy of God. Assured of this, they were prepared humbly to believe that all would rebound to the glory of his holiness, justice, and truth, as well as of his mercy, grace, and love, though they might not yet fully understand how this would be accomplished.
Gen 9:17
God seems here to direct Noahs attention to a rainbow actually existing at the time in the sky, and presenting to the patriarch the assurance of the promise, with all the impressiveness of reality.
Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
Gen 9:8-11
I establish My covenant with you
Gods covenant with Noah
I.
The covenant God made with Noah was intended to remedy every one of the temptations into which Noahs childrens children would have been certain to fall, and into which so many of them did fall. They might have become reckless from fear of a flood at any moment. God promises them, and confirms it with the sign of the rainbow, never again to destroy the earth by water. They would have been likely to take to praying to the rain and thunder, the sun and the stars. God declares in this covenant that it is He alone who sends the rain and thunder, that He brings the clouds over the earth, that He rules the great awful world; that men are to look up and believe in God as a loving and thinking Person, who has a will of His own, and that a faithful and true and loving and merciful will; that their lives and safety depend not on blind chance or the stern necessity of certain laws of nature, but on the covenant of an almighty and all-loving Person.
II. This covenant tells us that we are made in Gods likeness, and therefore that all sin is unworthy of us and unnatural to us. It tells us that God means us bravely and industriously to subdue the earth and the living things upon it; that we are to be the masters of the pleasant things about us, and not their slaves as sots and idlers are; that we are stewards or tenants of this world for the great God who made it, to whom we are to look up in confidence for help and protection. (C. Kingsley, M. A.)
The covenant with Noah
I. GODS SYMPATHY WITH MAN AND LOVE FOR HIM. Verse 8.
II. THE TRANSMISSION OF PARENTAL BLESSINGS TO CHILDREN. Verse 9. Dispositions of good or evil are almost sure to transmit themselves to succeeding generations. The descendants of a single vicious man and his wife, in the state of New York, numbered by scores, have been paupers and criminals. Put against this another illustration. The grandfather of Mary Lyon, the devoted principal of Mount Holyoke Seminary, was accustomed to pray daily for the blessing of God upon his children and the generations that should follow. Nearly all his descendants have been earnest Christians. In one graveyard lie fifty who died in the Lord. So when God covenants with Noah, it is with his children also. Here was the ground of circumcision in the Jewish Church. But it was because of this Divine principle that Peter said, The promise is unto you and to your children. We ought to expect that our children will grow up Christians, and labour for it.
III. THE ADVANTAGE ENJOYED BY OTHER CREATED BEINGS IN THE BLESSINGS GIVEN TO GODS PEOPLE. Verse 10. Men often enjoy privileges that are solely due to a Christianity at which they scoff. Certain scientific unbelievers, who deride prayer and declare man an automaton, and seek to prove the blight of Christian influence on society in the Middle Ages, would find no market for their books but for the quickened intellect that Christianity has induced. They are basking in the gospels sunlight. There are heathen nations that are pierced through and through with Divine rays of light. Japan will illustrate this fact. A while since an embassy from Japan was in this country (United States of America), studying our national characteristics. It carried back for use in its own land our systems of education, of railroading, of manufacturing, of newspaper publication, of post office management, and what not beside. In doing this, it carried back Christian influences, for as Joseph Neesima, himself a Japanese, assured the embassy, our civilization is built upon the Bible. Today every prison warden in Japan has been studying a book furnished him for his guidance by the Japanese Government. That book was written by a missionary and contains a chapter on Christianity as an influence in managing prisons. Thus do the Divine shafts of the gospel fling themselves into the most inaccessible places. Even the animals are blessed through our religion. To be sure, some heathen nations have considered certain animals to be gods, and cared for them in consequence. But the tenderness of Christian people toward the inferior creation extends to all forms of sentient life and springs from reverence to God and a religious desire to spare His creatures suffering.
IV. GODS PROMISE OF CARE AND PROTECTION. Verse 11. We distrust God when the lightning affrights us, or when we tremble in a storm at sea. Let us seek the spirit of the Christian sailor, who, when asked, as the waves were raging, how he could have so little fear, replied, Though I sink, I shall only drop into my heavenly Fathers hand, for He holds all these waters there.
V. NATURE APPEARS IN THE NARRATIVE AS A TEACHER OF MORALS AND RELIGION. Verses 12-14. God designs that we should learn spiritual truths from the open pages of creation. His power and wisdom, His plans for mans good, are manifest in sky and earth and sea. The world is a most elaborate and perfect machine, fashioned by the hand of a Master. It is as manifestly fitted for mans needs as is a mansion furnished with the luxurious contrivances of modern ingenuity. (A. P. Foster.)
Gods covenant with the new humanity
I. A COVENANT ORIGINATING WITH GOD HIMSELF.
1. Men have no right to dictate to God.
2. God reserves the power to bestow goodness.
3. The character of God leads us to expect the advances of His goodness towards men.
4. When God enters into covenant with His creatures, He binds
Himself.
II. A COVENANT OF FORBEARANCE.
1. This was an act of pure grace.
2. Human history is a long comment upon the forbearance of God. Act 14:15; Rom 3:26.)
3. This forbearance of God was unconditional. It was not a command relating to conduct, but a statement of Gods gracious will towards mankind.
4. This forbearance throws some light upon the permission of evil. We ask, why does God permit evil to exert its terrible power through all ages? Our only answer is that His mercy triumphs over judgment.
III. IT WAS A COVENANT WHICH, IN THE FORM AND SIGN OF IT, WAS GRACIOUSLY ADAPTED TO MANS CONDITION. Man was weak and helpless, his sense of spiritual things blunted and impaired by sin. He was not able to appreciate Divine truth in its pure and native form. God must speak to him by signs and symbols, and encourage him by promises of temporal blessing. In this way alone he can rise from sensible things to spiritual, and from earthly good to the enduring treasures of heaven.
1. The terms of the covenant refer to the averting of temporal punishment, but suggest the promise of higher things.
2. The sign of the covenant was outward, but full of deep and precious meaning. Covenants were certified by signs or tokens, such as a heap or pillar, or a gift (Gen 31:52; Gen 21:30). The starry night was the sign of the promise to Abraham (Gen 15:1-21). Here, the sign of the covenant was the rainbow; a sign beautiful in itself, calculated to attract attention, and most fitting to teach the fact of Gods constancy, and to encourage the largest hopes from His love. All this was an education for man, so that he might adore and hope for the Divine mercy.
(1) Mankind were to be educated through the beautiful. The beauty of the rainbow helped men to thoughts of heaven.
(2) Mankind were to be taught the symbolic meaning of nature. All nature is a mighty parable of spiritual truth.
(3) Mankind were to be taught that God is greater than nature. The creature, however beautiful, or capable of inspiring awe and grandeur, must not be deified. This was Gods bow, not Himself. God is separate from nature, and greater than it; a living personality above all things created. If we could pursue nature to its furthest verge, we should find that we could not thus enclose and limit God; He would still retire into the habitation of eternity!
(4) Mankind were to be taught to recognize a presiding mind in all the phenomena of nature. My bow. God calls it His own, as designed and appointed by Him. There is no resting place for our mind and heart in second causes; we must come at last to a spiritual and intellectual subsistence–to a living personality. Nature without this view becomes a ruthless machine.
(5) Man was to be assured that the mercy of God is equal to his extremity. He will remember men for good in their greatest calamities and dangers. (T. H.Leale.)
Divine covenants
Gods covenants show–
1. That He is willing to contract duties towards man. Man can therefore hope for and obtain that which he cannot claim as a right. Thus Mercy rejoiceth against judgment (Jam 2:13).
2. That mans duty has relation to a personal Lawgiver. There is no independent morality. All human conduct must ultimately be viewed in the light of Gods requirements.
3. That man needs a special revelation of Gods love. The light of nature is not sufficient to satisfy the longings of the soul and encourage hope. We require a distinct utterance–a sign from heaven. The vague sublimities of created things around us are unsatisfying, we need the assurance that behind all there is a heart of infinite compassion.
4. That every new revelation of Gods character implies corresponding duties on the part of man. The progress of revelation has refined and exalted the principle of duty, until man herein is equal unto the angels, and learns to do all for love, and nothing for reward. (T. H. Leale.)
The covenant with Noah
I. THE PARTIES OF THE COVENANT.
1. The all-loving and everlasting God.
(1) The time when God makes this covenant is instructive.
(2) The Divine motive which prompted this covenant is encouraging.
(3) The Divine power to fulfil the terms of this covenant is all- sufficient.
2. Noah and his sons and their posterity, and every living thing.
(1) Its comprehensiveness.
(2) Its duration.
II. THE BENEFITS OF THE COVENANT.
1. The regularity of the seasons is guaranteed.
2. Food for man and beast.
III. THE TOKEN OF THE COVENANT.
1. The beauty of the token is suggestive.
(1) Its arched form, whose apex touches the sky, and whose base is on earth, and suggests that it is Gods covenant that connects heaven with earth, and is the crown of human hope.
(2) Its colours suggest both the infinite variety and immaculate glory of Gods covenant blessings.
2. The permanency of the token is suggestive.
(1) That God never forgets His covenant with us.
(2) That He would have our faith in His promises as constantly exercised as His memory of His covenant is unfailing.
3. Its heavenly sphere is suggestive.
LESSONS:
1. Gods most endearing title: our covenant-God.
2. As covenant-God He is full of grace and truth.
3. The centre of both grace and truth is He whose blood is the blood of the covenant. (D. C. Hughes, M. A.)
Gods covenant with Noah
We see here–
1. The mercy and goodness of God, in proceeding with us in a way of covenant. He might have exempted the world from this calamity, and yet not have told them He would do so. The remembrance of the flood might have been a sword hanging over their heads in terrorem. But He will set their minds at rest on this score, and therefore promises, and that with an oath, that the waters of Noah should no more go over the earth. Thus also
He deals with us in His Son. Being willing that the heirs of promise should have strong consolation, He confirms His word by an oath.
2. The importance of living under the light of revelation. Noahs posterity by degrees sank into idolatry, and became strangers to the covenants of promise. Such were our fathers for many ages, and such are great numbers to this day. So far as respects them, God might as well have made no promise: to them all is lost.
3. The importance of being believers. Without this, it will be worse for us than if we had never been favoured with a revelation.
4. We see here the kind of life which it was Gods design to encourage–a life of faith. The just shall live by faith. If He had made no revelation of Himself, no covenants, and no promises, there would be no ground for faith; and we must have gone through life feeling after Him, without being able to find Him: but having made known His mind, there is light in all our dwellings, and a sure ground forbelieving not only in our exemption from another flood, but in things of far greater importance. (A. Fuller.)
The scheme of Providence–the promise and pledge of the Divine forbearance
The scheme of Providence, in the world after the flood, is of the nature of a dispensation of forbearance, subservient to a dispensation of grace, and preparatory to a dispensation of judgment; and of this forbearance, on the part of God, Noah receives a promise and a pledge.
I. Looking, then, to the original purpose, of which we read as existing in the mind of God (Gen 8:21-22), HIS DETERMINATION TO SPARE THE EARTH IS EXPLAINED ON TWO PRINCIPLES, WHICH IT IS IMPORTANT TO OBSERVE. The first of these principles is the inveterate and desperate depravity of man. Why should ye be stricken any more? is the indignant voice of God to Israel by His servant Isaiah;–ye will but increase revolt, ye will revolt more and more. The whole head is sick, and the whole heart faint. From the sole of the foot even unto the head there is no soundness at all; but wounds, and bruises, and putrefying sores (chap. 1:5, 6). Why, then, should ye be stricken any more? There is no sound part in you on which the stroke can take effect; discipline, correction, chastisement, is thrown away upon you; ye are beyond the influence of its salutary efficacy; ye become worse and worse under its infliction; I will strike no more, for ye are too far gone to be thus reclaimed. So also the Lord says in His heart respecting the world after the flood;–I will not again curse the earth–I will not again visit it with so desolating a judgment. Why should I? What good purpose would it serve? Thus considered, this Divine reasoning is, in many views, deeply affecting. It rebukes the presumptuous security of unbelief (Ecc 8:11). Again, this argument, as thus used by God, places in the clearest light the extreme depravity of man. The disorder of his nature is too inveterate, inborn, and inbred, to be remedied by a discipline of correction and chastisement. Undoubtedly there is an efficacy in the chastisements which God ordains, to amend, to purify, and sanctify the soul; but this efficacy depends upon there being some health and soundness, some principle of life, in those to whom such chastisements are applied. Therefore the Lord chastens and corrects His own people. But on the heart of man, as it is by nature, the Lord here emphatically testifies that the warnings and visitations of judgment will never effectually tell. Why should I smite the earth any more The imagination of mans heart is so thoroughly evil from his youth, that My smiting is altogether in vain. There is a tremendous truth involved in this argument;–it shuts forever the door of mercy on the impenitent and unbelieving. But while this saying of God presents on one side a dark and ominous aspect, on the other side it reflects a blessed gleam of light. It indicates the purpose of God, that in His treatment of the world, during the remainder of its allotted time, He is not to deal with its inhabitants according to their sins, nor to reward them after their iniquities. His providence over the earth is to be conducted, not on the principle of penal or judicial retribution–the human race being too corrupt to be thus reclaimed or amended–but on another principle altogether, irrespective of the merits or the works of man. What that other principle is, appears from the relation which the Lords decree bears to the sacrifices offered by Noah, by which He is said to be propitiated (Gen 8:20-21). These sacrifices undoubtedly derive their efficacy from the all-sufficient sacrifice of atonement which they prefigured. And it is that sacrifice, offered once for all, in the end of the world–the sacrifice of the Lamb virtually slain from the foundation of the world–which alone satisfactorily explains the Lords determination to spare the earth. It does so in two ways. In the first place, the interposition of that sacrifice vindicates and justifies the righteous God in passing by the sins of men (Rom 3:25)–in exercising forbearance, and suspending judgment. It is this alone which renders His long suffering consistent with His justice;–otherwise as the righteous Judge, He could not spare the guilty for a single hour. Secondly, that sacrifice of Christ reaches beyond mere forbearance, and is effectual to save. The very design of it–its direct and proper object–is not merely to provide that the barren tree may be let alone, but to secure that it shall be cultured and revived, so as to become fruitful. Therefore God spares the earth on account of the sacrifice of Christ, that those for whom it is offered may be saved, and that in them Christ may see of the travail of His soul and be satisfied.
II. Afterwards, in its announcement or publication to the human family Gen 9:8-17), THIS DECREE IS EMBODIED IN THE FORM OF A COVENANT AND RATIFIED BY A SIGNIFICANT SEAL. In the first place, the Lord establishes a covenant on the earth. My covenant, saith the Lord. And what covenant can that be, but the covenant of grace? Not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to His mercy He sayeth us. This, and this alone, is preeminently His covenant; always the same in its character and terms, whatever may be the kind of salvation meant. In the present instance, it is exemption, or deliverance from the temporal judgment of a flood. But still this is secured to the earth, and to all the dwellers on the earth, by the very same covenant in which the higher blessings of life eternal are comprehended. Then again, secondly, the covenant, as usual, has a, seal, or an outward token and pledge; designed, as it were, to put the Lord in remembrance of His promise, and to settle and confirm the confidence of men. It is Gods proof of His faithfulness to the children of men–the pledge that He is keeping, and will keep, His covenant. He looks on the bow, that He may remember the covenant. And as the covenant, being made by sacrifice, not only secures a season of forbearance to the earth, but looks to an end infinitely more important, to which that forbearance is subordinate and subservient;–as it is the covenant of grace or the covenant of redemption, of which the promise of exemption from the judgment of another flood forms a part;–so the rainbow becomes the seal of the covenant in this higher view of it also–and is the token and pledge of its spiritual and eternal blessings. Hence, among the ensigns and emblems of redeeming glory, the rainbow holds a conspicuous place (Eze 1:28; Rev 4:3; Rev 10:1); and hence, moreover, the covenant which it seals, respecting the days and seasons of the earths period of long suffering, gives to Gods faithful people an argument of confidence, not for time only, but for eternity. He is true to His covenant, in sparing the world; will He not much more be true to the same covenant, in saving those for whose sake the world is spared? Isa 54:9-10; Jer 33:20-25). (R. S. Candlish, D. D.)
Fuente: Biblical Illustrator Edited by Joseph S. Exell
And God spake unto Noah, and to his sons with him,…. Not only what is contained in the preceding verses, but in the subsequent ones:
saying; as follows.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
To give Noah and his sons a firm assurance of the prosperous continuance of the human race, God condescended to establish a covenant with them and their descendants, and to confirm this covenant by a visible sign for all generations. is not equivalent to ; it does not denote the formal conclusion of an actual covenant, but the “setting up of a covenant,” or the giving of a promise possessing the nature of a covenant. In summing up the animals in Gen 9:10, the prepositions are accumulated: first embracing the whole, then the partitive restricting the enumeration to those which went out of the ark, and lastly yl , “with regard to,” extending it again to every individual. There was a correspondence between the covenant (Gen 9:11) and the sign which was to keep it before the sight of men (Gen 9:12): “ I give (set) My bow in the cloud ” (Gen 9:13). When God gathers ( Gen 9:14, lit., clouds) clouds over the earth, “ the bow shall be seen in the cloud, ” and that not for man only, but for God also, who will look at the bow, “ to remember His everlasting covenant.” An “everlasting covenant” is a covenant “ for perpetual generations, ” i.e., one which shall extend to all ages, even to the end of the world. The fact that God Himself would look at the bow and remember His covenant, was “a glorious and living expression of the great truth, that God’s covenant signs, in which He has put His promises, are real vehicles of His grace, that they have power and essential worth not only with men, but also before God ” ( O. v. Gerlach). The establishment of the rainbow as a covenant sign of the promise that there should be no flood again, presupposes that it appeared then for the first time in the vault and clouds of heaven. From this it may be inferred, not that it did not rain before the flood, which could hardly be reconciled with Gen 2:5, but that the atmosphere was differently constituted; a supposition in perfect harmony with the facts of natural history, which point to differences in the climate of the earth’s surface before and after the flood. The fact that the rainbow, that “coloured splendour thrown by the bursting forth of the sun upon the departing clouds,” is the result of the reciprocal action of light, and air, and water, is no disproof of the origin and design recorded here. For the laws of nature are ordained by God, and have their ultimate ground and purpose in the divine plan of the universe which links together both nature and grace. “Springing as it does from the effect of the sun upon the dark mass of clouds, it typifies the readiness of the heavenly to pervade the earthly; spread out as it is between heaven and earth, it proclaims peace between God and man; and whilst spanning the whole horizon, it teaches the all-embracing universality of the covenant of grace” ( Delitzsch).
Fuente: Keil & Delitzsch Commentary on the Old Testament
| God’s Covenant with Noah. | B. C. 2347. |
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; neither shall there any more be a flood to destroy the earth.
Here is, I. The general establishment of God’s covenant with this new world, and the extent of that covenant, Gen 9:9; Gen 9:10. Here observe, 1. That God is graciously pleased to deal with man in the way of a covenant, wherein God greatly magnifies his condescending favour, and greatly encourages man’s duty and obedience, as a reasonable and gainful service. 2. That all God’s covenants with man are of his own making: I, behold, I. It is thus expressed both to raise our admiration–“Behold, and wonder, that though God be high yet he has this respect to man,” and to confirm our assurances of the validity of the covenant–“Behold and see, I make it; I that am faithful and able to make it good.” 3. That God’s covenants are established more firmly than the pillars of heaven or the foundations of the earth, and cannot be disannulled. 4. That God’s covenants are made with the covenanters and with their seed; the promise is to them and their children. 5. That those may be taken into covenant with God, and receive the benefits of it, who yet are not capable of restipulating, or giving their own consent. For this covenant is made with every living creature, every beast of the earth.
II. The particular intention of this covenant. It was designed to secure the world from another deluge: There shall not any more be a flood. God had drowned the world once, and still it was as filthy and provoking as ever, and God foresaw the wickedness of it, and yet promised he would never drown it any more; for he deals not with us according to our sins. It is owing to God’s goodness and faithfulness, not to any reformation of the world, that it has not often been deluged and that it is not deluged now. As the old world was ruined to be a monument of justice, so this world remains to this day, a monument of mercy, according to the oath of God, that the waters of Noah should no more return to cover the earth, Isa. liv. 9. This promise of God keeps the sea and clouds in their decreed place, and sets them gates and bars; hitherto they shall come,Job 38:10; Job 38:11. If the sea should flow but for a few days, as it does twice every day for a few hours, what desolation would it make! And how destructive would the clouds be, if such showers as we have sometimes seen were continued long! But God, by flowing seas and sweeping rains, shows what he could do in wrath; and yet, by preserving the earth from being deluged between both, shows what he can do in mercy and will do in truth. Let us give him the glory of his mercy in promising and of his truth in performing. This promise does not hinder, 1. But that God may bring other wasting judgments upon mankind; for, though he has here bound himself not to use this arrow any more, yet he has other arrows in his quiver. 2. Nor but that he may destroy particular places and countries by the inundations of the sea or rivers. 3. Nor will the destruction of the world at the last day by fire be any breach of his promise. Sin which drowned the old world will burn this.
Fuente: Matthew Henry’s Whole Bible Commentary
Verses 8-17:
God established with Noah and all his offspring the covenant which He had purposed in Himself when He saw Noah’s sacrifice after he left the ark, Ge 8:21, 22. The covenant applied not only to humanity, but to the entire earth and all its creatures. “Establish” denoted that this covenant was not at this point made for the first time. God promised to cause it to stand permanently so it could never be abrogated. The covenant guarantees the stability of the earth and the safety of mankind. It is God’s promise never to destroy the earth and its life by means of a flood of waters.
God provided a visible token, oth (see Ge 1:14; 4:15), with man, earth, and its creatures. This token is the God’s “bow” or rainbow. There are only three other places in the Scripture which mention the rainbow: Eze 1:28; and Re 4:3; 10:1. This feature of the Bible account of the flood is unique in the annals of history. It is not mentioned in the Babylonian accounts, as the Gilgamesh Epic, nor the account from any other nation.
The rainbow consists of an arc of successive bands of polarized light. It is produced by reflection and refraction of the sun’s light passing through the spherical raindrops The outer ring is red, the inner violet, and the various colors of the spectrum lie between these. It is suggested that this phenomenon did not occur prior to the flood, due to atmospheric conditions which then existed. Since the flood, however, the appearance of the rainbow is quite common, and may be caused by either the sun or the moon. Every sighting of a rainbow is God’s reminder of His faithfulness to man. He took a part of the glory with which He clothes Himself (Eze 1:28; Re 4:3) as the token of His faithfulness.
Fuente: Garner-Howes Baptist Commentary
8. And God spake unto Noah. That the memory of the deluge might not inspire them with new terrors, as often as the sky were covered with clouds, lest the earth should again be drowned; this source of anxiety is taken away. And certainly, if we consider the great propensity of the human mind to distrust, we shall not deem this testimony to have been unnecessary even for Noah. He was indeed endued with a rare and incomparable faith, even to a miracle; but no strength of constancy could be so great, that this most sad and terrible vengeance of God should not shake it. Therefore, whenever any great and continued shower shall seem to threaten the earth with a deluge, this barrier, on which the holy man may rely, is interposed. Now although his sons would need this confirmation more than he, yet the Lord speaks especially on his account. And the clause which follows, ‘and to his sons who were with him,’ is to be referred to this point. For how is it, that God, making his covenant with the sons of Noah, commands them to hope for the best? Truly, because they are joined with their father, who is, as it were, the stipulator of the covenant, so as to be associated with him, in a subordinate place (293). Moreover, there is no doubt that it was the design of God to provide for all his posterity. It was not therefore a private covenant confirmed with one family only, but one which is common to all people, and which shall flourish in all ages to the end of the world. And truly, since at the present time, impiety overflows not less than in the age of Noah, it is especially necessary that the waters should be restrained by this word of God, as by a thousand bolts and bars lest they should break forth to destroy us. Wherefore, relying on this promise, let us look forward to the last day, in which the consuming fire shall purify heaven and earth.
(293) “ Ut secundo loco in societatem accedant.”
Fuente: Calvin’s Complete Commentary
CRITICAL NOTES.
Gen. 9:9. My covenant] Usually means a compact made between two parties, delivered in solemn form, and requiring mutual engagements. As employed in Scripture, from the nature of the case, it must also be extended to mean Gods promise by which He binds Himself to His creatures without terms, absolutely (Jer. 33:20; Exo. 34:10). Gesenius derives the term from the verb to cut, as it is a Hebrew phrase to cut a covenant, and it was customary for the purpose of ratifying such to divide an animal into parts. Others derive it from the verb to eat together, thus explaining the phrase covenant of salt. By others it is referred to purifying (Mal. 3:2).
Gen. 9:13. I do set] Heb. I giveconstituteappoint.My bow] This implies that the bow previously existed, but was now appointed as the sign of the covenant. It was already a symbol of constancy in nature. The rainbow is used in Scripture as the symbol of grace returning after wrath (Eze. 1:27-28; Rev. 4:3; Rev. 10:1).Token]. Some appointed object put before two parties for the purpose of causing them mutually to remember (Gen. 31:48; Gen. 31:52).
Gen. 9:14. When I bring a cloud] Heb. In clouding a cloud, denoting intensity. A probable reference to the violent showers of the eastern world, issuing from thickly congregated clouds; on which dark ground the rainbow would appear.
Gen. 9:16. The everlasting covenant] Heb. The covenant of eternity.
Gen. 9:17. Token of the covenant] The Hebrew word is not used of miraculous signs. Any permanent object would serve. A memorial was all that was required.
MAIN HOMILETICS OF THE PARAGRAPHGen. 9:8-17
GODS COVENANT WITH THE NEW HUMANITY
God makes a covenant with Noah as the head of the new race, and also with his sons, to show that it includes the whole human family. This is the first covenant made with mankind in distinct terms; that made with Adam being implied, rather than formally indicated, by the relationship in which he stood to God. Now, a terrible Divine judgment upon human sin had intervened, so that Gods dealings with man expressed themselves with suitable enlargements and circumstances. The moral necessities of man call for fresh revelations and provisions of Divine mercy. God meets man in an especial manner at every great moral crisis of human history. Of this covenant we may observe:
I. It was a covenant originating with God Himself. The usual meaning of a covenant is that it is a compact entered into by two parties, with engagements on both sides, and ratified in solemn form. But here it signifies Gods gracious promises to men, whereby He engages to grant them certain blessings on His own terms. While He is gracious towards sinners, God retains His prerogatives, and magnifies His glory. This covenant was not made at mans suggestion, nor accommodated to his terms. It was originated and framed by God alone.
1. Men have no right to dictate to God. He cannot deal with men on precisely the same terms on which men can deal with one another. The creature belongs to God, and must be content to receive whatever His goodness pleases to bestow. The case is still stronger when the creature has fallen, and can only stand in the position of a suppliant for mercy. When angels bow in silence, sinners must lie humbled in the dust.
2. God reserves the power to bestow goodness. Men are absolutely helpless in those things which concern their real life and supreme interest. They must perish in the consequences of their own sin, unless God interferes and stretches forth His hand to save. Man learns, sooner or later, that the great issues of his life are in the hands of God. This oppression of inability is intended to tame the wildness and presumption of mans nature, and to cast him entirely upon God.
3. The character of God leads us to expect the advances of His goodness towards men. Power by itself is a terrible attribute; admirable, but alarming. But power, when engaged on the side of mercy and love, gives encouragement and hope. The forces of nature impress us with a crushing sense of power, and the only refuge we have is in that infinite heart of goodness which lies behind them. From what we know of Gods character, we may expect much from the gifts of His goodness. We may also, from His past dealings with the race, learn to trust His mercy. He had spared these eight souls, and this was a pledge that He would still be gracious, and that the resources of His mercy would not be overtasked by human sin.
4. When God enters into covenant with His creatures He binds Himself. God is infinite, yet for the sake of His creatures He condescends to bind Himself to certain courses of action. This He does, not as constrained by necessity or moved by caprice, but of His own free will and by the direction of His infinite reason. Creation itself was a limitation of God; it cannot all express His greatness or His glory, for God must be greater than all He has made or ordained. As the will of man can be limited by his determination, so Gods design to bless and save imposes in its measure a restriction upon Himself. Thus God suffers Himself to contract duties towards man. This bears upon
(1.) The creation of rights in His creatures. If God did not thus limit Himself, His creatures could have no rights, for they can enjoy no good but as He gives; and this is determined by His pleasure, and His pleasure binds Him when once expressed. God allows His creatures to have rights, which is in effect the passing over to them a portion of His own independence.
(2.) The possibility of mans sin being borne with. God, in a moment, could silence all rebellion, but He gives promises which bind Him to delay punishment, or to devise means for restoration to His favour. Thus when the highest justice might take its course, He still bears with mans sin; for He has determined that His dealings shall take the course of mercy.
3. The preservation of general laws for the benefit of men. The laws of nature preserve certain rights of man, ensure his safety, and minister to his enjoyment. The laws of the spiritual world concern him as he is a responsible creature and a candidate for immortality. If he will conform to the will of God these will further and secure his most lasting interests. Yet in ordaining these laws God binds Himself towards His creatures. How gracious is the purpose of God when He thus suffers Himself to be limited by the measures of mans necessity!
II. It was a Covenant of Forbearance (Gen. 9:11; Gen. 9:15). This covenant was simply a promise that God would not destroy the world of His creatures any more by means of a flood. He would not, until the consummation of all things, visit sin again by such an universal calamity of punishment. Here we have the forbearance of God. Severe judgments had been inflicted upon mankind, and now God promises the new race that His patience will not be exhausted while man remains upon the earth.
1. This was an act of pure grace. It has been said that man in Eden was under the covenant of works. This is not true, for no creature could be placed strictly in such a condition. Man was always under the covenant of grace; for whatever he possessed, or whatever he was permitted to do or enjoy, was possible to him only through the favour of God. The sin of man calls for fresh provisions, but they all come from grace. The forbearance of God is one particular form which His grace assumes toward mankind.
2. Human history is a long comment upon the forbearance of God (Rom. 3:26; Act. 14:15). In the history of mankind, how much would arise to provoke continually the Divine displeasure! Yet, God would withhold Himself from destroying mankind as He did by the flood. His judgments, however severe, would not reach this awful limit. The contemplation of the sin of the world is a pain and distress to a good man, often awakening a holy zeal which prays that God might arise and scatter His enemies, that He might avenge the wrongs which sinners have inflicted upon the meek of the earth. Yet mans knowledge of the worlds evil is limited, and therefore his sense of it imperfect. How much indignation against sin must a holy God feel who sees the iniquity of all times and places, and knows all the dark things of the heart and life! If history reveals the sin of man, it also reveals the forbearance of God.
3. This forbearance of God was unconditional. It was not a command relating to conduct, but a statement of Gods gracious will towards mankind. This is evident from the subjects of it, some of whom are irresponsible and unconscious of any relations to God. Not only men capable of exercising reason, but infants also, and even the earth itself are included in this covenant. Still, though unconditional, Gods gracious dealings were intended to evoke piety and devotion.
3. This forbearance throws some light upon the permission of evil. We ask, why does God permit evil to exert its terrible power through all ages? Our only answer is that His mercy triumphs over judgment. God bound Himself by a promise to continue the present course of nature and of His dealings, notwithstanding the persistence and awful developments of human sin. This indicates a leaning in the Divine Nature towards tenderness and compassion. Evil is permitted that greater good might arise, and that God might magnify His mercy. Gods forbearance has a moral end in viewto lead men to repentance. It is His gracious purpose to allow sufficient time for the maintenance and issues of the conflict between good and evil, truth and error.
III. It was a covenant which, in the form and sign of it, was graciously adapted to mans condition. Man was weak and helpless, his sense of spiritual things blunted and impaired by sin. He was not able to appreciate Divine truth in its pure and native form. God must speak to him by signs and symbols, and encourage him by promises of temporal blessing. In this way alone he can rise from sensible things to spiritual, and from earthly good to the enduring treasures of heaven. In the form and sign of this covenant, we discover the Divine condescension to a creature of narrow range, materialised ideas, and a gross way of thinking. The great God speaks in human language, as if limiting Himself by mans weakness and ignorance. He allows men to conceive of Him in the forms and limitations of their own thought and being. We must thus think of God, in a greater or less degree, until that which is perfect is come. In the education of mankind the spiritual must come last. God accommodates Himself to mans condition, and deals with him in ways having reserves of meaning, which they give up to him as he is able to receive.
1. The terms of the covenant refer to the averting of temporal punishment, but suggest the promise of higher things. The determination that the earth should be no more destroyed by a flood showed a tendency in the Divine mercy, from which greater things might be hoped. It seemed to encourage the expectation that God would be ready to save men from a more awful doom, and swallow up the worst penalties of sin in His own love. It may reconcile us to the permission of evil, that there are remedies in the grace of God. The human race was not now ripe for the full revelation of Gods mercy. It was necessary, therefore, to give mankind such a sense of it as they could feel and understand. By a long and weary journey must they be led to this promised land.
2. The sign of the covenant was outward, but full of deep and precious meaning. Covenants were certified by signs or tokens, such as a heap or pillar, or a gift (Gen. 31:52; Gen. 21:30). The starry night was the sign of the promise to Abraham (Genesis 15). Here, the sign of the covenant was the rainbow; a sign beautiful in itself, calculated to attract attention, and most fitting to teach the fact of Gods constancy, and to encourage the largest hopes from His love. All this was an education for man, so that he might adore and hope for the Divine mercy.
1. Mankind were to be educated through the beautiful. From the works of nature, men could learn lessons of the faithfulness and constancy of God; but there are certain features of His character which can only be learned through beauty. He who is perfect and holy is full of loveliness, and whatever is beautiful helps us to rise to the thought of it. Something more is necessary than the bare knowledge of spiritual truth, the soul must be filled with admiration and delight. The sense of beauty helps a man to rise out of himself, lifts him from all that is mean and unworthy, and prepares him for the scenes of grander worlds. He learns to look upon sin as a deformity, and upon God as beauty and love itself. The loveliness around us is so much of heaven on earth, as if that other world did not merely touch, but even overlap this. The beauty of the rainbow helped men to thoughts of heaven.
2. Mankind were to be taught the symbolic meaning of nature. All nature is a mighty parable of spiritual truth. Man puts meaning into things around him, and as his mind enlarges and his heart improves they give forth their meaning more plentifully, and strengthen his expectation of better things. They impart instruction, consolation, and hope, according to the soul which receives. It is scarcely a figure of speech that all things arise and praise God, for they embody His ideas, represent His truth, and show forth His glory.
3. Mankind were to be taught that God is greater than nature. The creature, however beautiful, or capable of inspiring awe and grandeur, must not be deified. This was Gods bow, not Himself. God is separate from nature, and greater than it; a living personality above all things created. If we could pursue nature to its furthest verge, we should find that we could not thus enclose and limit God; He would still retire into the habitation of eternity!
(4.) Mankind were to be taught to recognise a presiding mind in all the phenomena of nature. My bow. God calls it His own, as designed and appointed by Him. It can, indeed, be accounted for by natural causes. Science can explain how these seven rich and radiant stripes of colour are painted on the waters of the sky. Yet these laws of nature are but another name for the regular working of an Infinite Mind. God still upholds and guides all things; the numbers, weights, and measures whereof are with Him. There is no resting place for our mind and heart in second causes; we must come at last to a spiritual and intellectual subsistenceto a living personality. Nature without this view becomes a ruthless machine.
(5.) Man was to be assured that the mercy of God is equal to his extremity. He will remember men for good in their greatest calamities and dangers. I will look upon it that I may remember. Such words are accommodated to our ignorance and weakness, for the Infinite Memory has no need for such expedients. Such a device is out of tender consideration for us. Yet we may suppose that there is a sense in which God may be said to remember some things as standing out from the rest. He remembers the acts and signs of faith, the deeds of love. Not even a cup of cold water given in the name of His beloved Son can escape recognition. He who provides for all worlds, and sustains the mighty cares and interests of them, can yet stoop to the lowly, and puts the tears of His persecuted saints into His own bottle. In this appointed sign of the rainbow, the eye of man meets the eye of God. Men look to God from the depths of their calamity, and He looks to them and remembers the token of His mercy. The human and the Divine may meet in a symbol, which is a light held to the struggling soul, a comfort and an assurance. Such is the ordinance of the Lords Supper. Some might say, Could not Christ have trusted unceasing devotion to Himself, to the love and spirituality of his followers? Surely their knowledge of His character, and their zeal for Him, would never suffer them to forget Him? But He knew the human heart better than to trust this to a purely spiritual feeling, and therefore appointed an outward sign. Here Christ and His people look upon one common object, eye meets eye, and heart unites with heart. Such symbols train men in spiritual ideas, they fix the heart and entertain it with delight, they render devotion easy. Man in this first stage of his education for higher worlds needs them, and will still find sweet uses in them until he dwells in the new heavens and the new earth. Those aids from form and sight shall be no longer needed when the eye is entertained with the vision of God.
SUGGESTIVE COMMENTS ON THE VERSES
Gen. 9:8. God spake to Noah as the head of his family, and therefore the representative of the whole human race.
God still speaks to mankind, not as divided by separate interests, but as forming one family having the same superior and permanent interests. From this family He is ever gathering another, more exalted and select, united to Himself by the dearest ties of spiritual likeness and generation.
A nation can never be wise and great until the families of it hear and obey the voice of God. The purity of family life is the true defence and safety of the State.
1. The speaker Elohim, the mighty God who was able to do every word.
2. The hearers whom this concerned, Noah and his sons with him. Such as could understand, to them only he speaketh, though the matter which he spake concerneth such as could not understand, as infants and beasts.
3. The speech, which was intent and pressing, He said in saying, that is, He seriously and earnestly spake what followeth.(Hughes.)
Gen. 9:9. God enters into covenant relations with Noah as the second head and father of the race.
This covenant was not made until Noah, as a representative of the new humanity, had by sacrifice confessed his sin and signified his hope of salvation. (Gen. 8:20-21.) It was a proof that his offering was accepted.
God prevents man, with the blessings of His goodness, anticipating his desire and need; yet that goodness is not declared and revealed until man has felt his deep necessity. This covenant does but express in due form what the love of God had long before intended.
Gods covenants show
1. That He is willing to contract duties towards man. Man can therefore hope for and obtain that which he cannot claim as a right. Thus Mercy rejoiceth against judgment. (Jas. 2:13.)
2. That mans duty has relation to a personal Lawgiver. There is no independent morality. All human conduct must ultimately be viewed in the light of Gods requirements.
3. That man needs a special revelation of Gods love. The light of nature is not sufficient to satisfy the longings of the soul and encourage hope. We require a distinct utterancea sign from heaven. The vague sublimities of created things around us are unsatisfying, we need the assurance that behind all there is a heart of infinite compassion.
4. That every new revelation of Gods character implies corresponding duties on the part of man. The progress of revelation has refined and exalted the principle of duty, until man herein is equal unto the angels, and learns to do all for love, and nothing for reward.
With your seed after you. Gods promises extend to the latest hour of human history; they encourage us to expect a bright future for the race. Let us not indulge in any melancholy or depressing views, but wait in patience and hope until these promises have yielded all their wealth.
My Covenant. The covenant which was before mentioned to Noah in the directions concerning the making of the ark, and which was really, though tacitly, formed with Adam in the garden.(Murphy.)
We see here
(1) the mercy and goodness of God, in proceeding with us in a way of covenant. He might have exempted the world from this calamity, and yet not have told them He would do so. The remembrance of the flood might have been a sword hanging over their heads in terrorem. But He will set their minds at rest on that score. Thus He deals with us in His Son. Being willing that the heirs of promise should have strong consolation, He confirms His word by an oath.
(2) The importance of living under the light of revelation. Noahs posterity by degrees sunk into idolatry, and became strangers to the covenants of promise. Such were our fathers for many ages, and such are great numbers to this day.
(3) The importance of being believers. Without this, it will be worse for us than if we had never been favoured with a revelation.
(4) The kind of life which it was Gods design to encourage: a life of faith. The just shall live by faith. If He had made no revelation of Himself, no covenants, and no promises, there would be no ground for faith; and we must have gone through life feeling after Him without being able to find Him: but having made known His mind, there is light in all our dwellings, and a sure ground for believing not only in our exemption from another flood, but in things of far greater importance.(Fuller.)
Gen. 9:10. As the flood destroyed all the animals who entered not into the ark, so they were interested with man in the terms of this Divine promise. The whole creation is represented by Paul as groaning and travailing in pain together in sympathy with the curse upon man (Rom. 8:22). God, by the prophet, represents this covenant as confirmed by all the solemnity of an oath. I have sworn, etc. (Isa. 54:9.)(Jacobus.)
God stands in certain relations to creatures who are entirely unconscious of them. What these relations are, we cannot fully know; but we may be assured that they exist. God will yet give a voice to the dumb agony of creation, and redeem the creature from that emptiness of all solid result in which all things, at present, seem to end.
When man fell, there was a corresponding reduction along the whole scale of nature; when he was restored to Gods favour, the promise was given that there would be as far-reaching an extension of blessing. A covenant with man cannot concern him alone, for he is bound up with all nature under him as well as with all that is above him.
God shows compassion for creaturely life upon the earth.
Man is viewed in revelation both as he is connected with God and nature.
Such as know not Gods covenant may have a part in it.(Hughes).
Gen. 9:11. The covenant was reduced to a single provision,that the judgment of such a flood should not again be visited upon mankind. Such was the simple form which the promise of God assumed in this infancy of the new humanity. Yet here was a Divine forbearance which was a prophecy of better things, as it afforded scope for the deeds of mercy.
The covenant of law, as given to the old man, is all Thou shalt. So God to Adam said, Thou shalt not eat of it; in the day thou eatest thou shalt surely die: and by Moses repeating the same covenant of law, each command reiterates the same, Thou shalt. Such a covenant is all of works. There is a command to be fulfilled by man, and, therefore, its validity depends upon mans part being performed as well as Gods. Such a covenant cannot stand, for man ever fails in his part. Thus the covenant of law or works to man is only condemnation. But finding fault with this, the Lord saith, I will make a new covenant, and this new covenant or gospel throughout says, not Thou shalt, but I will. It is the promise, as says St. Paul to the Galatians. All that it requires is simple faith (Gal. 3:16-29). This is the covenant I will make in those days, saith the Lord; I will put my laws in their hearts; I will write them in their minds; I will be merciful to their transgressions; I will remember their sins no more; I will dwell in them; I will walk in them. It is this I will which Noah now hears, and to which at this stage God adds a token set in heaven.(Jukes: Types of Genesis.)
This expresses also the security of the moral world against perishing in a deluge of anarchy, or in the floods of popular commotion (Psalms 93).(Lange.)
Gen. 9:12. Every covenant requires an outward sign or token, by which God suffers Himself to be reminded of His promise.
A token is needed to confirm our faith in that which was done in the past, and though it still abides with us in unworn energy of blessing, we need the aid of these things that we may recognise God.
God does not leave men to general notions of, and vague expectations from His goodness. On fitting occasions in the worlds history He certifies that goodness to them.
Such tokens are instances of Gods condescension to the weakness of man. This principle will account for much concerning the form in which revelation is given us. All such communications from God must be conditioned by the nature and capacity of him who receives.
Gods mind is to teach His Church by visible signs as well as by His Word.(Hughes.)
Gen. 9:13. God made or constituted the rainbow to be the sign of His covenant, and therefore calls it My bow. The covenant token, as well as the thing itself, was Gods own.
This token was made to appear in the clouds, because their gathering together would strike terror in those who had witnessed the deluge; or who would afterwards learn, by report, of that awful judgment. In the very danger itself, God often causes the sign of hope to appear.
As it is the suns rays shining through the rain drops that reflect this glowing image on the black cloud, so is it also a fitting symbol of the Sun of Righteousness reflected, in His glorious attributes, upon the face of every dark and threatening dispensation towards His Church.(Jacobus.)
Men find their last refuge and hope in looking up to God, who fails not to comfort them with the token of mercy.
The appointment of the sign of the covenant, or of the rainbow as Gods bow of peace, whereby there is at the same time expressed
1. The elevation of men above the deification of the creature (since the rainbow is not a divinity but a sign of God, an appointment which even idolatrous nations appear not to have wholly forgotten, when they denote it Gods bridge, or Gods messenger).
2. Their introduction to the symbolic comprehension and interpretation of natural phenomena, even to the symbolising of forms and colours.
3. That Gods compassion remembers men in their dangers.
4. The setting up of a sign of light and fire, which, along with its assurance that the earth will never be drowned again in water, indicates at the same time its future transformation through light and fire.(Lange.)
To the spiritual mind, all natural phenomena are Gods revelation of Himself; each one of them answering to some other truth of His.
The rainbow is an index that the sky is not wholly overcast, since the sun is shining through the shower, and thereby demonstrating its partial extent. There could not, therefore, be a more beautiful or fitting token. It comes with its mild radiance only when the cloud condenses into a shower. It consists of heavenly light; variegated in hue and mellowed in lustre, filling the beholder with an involuntary pleasure. It forms a perfect arch, extends as far as the shower extends, connects heaven and earth, and spans the horizon. In these respects it is a beautiful emblem of mercy rejoicing against judgment, a light from heaven irradiating and beatifying the soul, of grace always sufficient for the need, of the reunion of earth and heaven, and of the universality of the offer of salvation.(Murphy.)
An arch, cheering and bright, embraces the firmament. On a scroll of variegated light there is inscribedThese storms drop fertility: they break to bless and not to injure.(Archdeacon Law: Christ is All)
Gen. 9:14. The regularity with which the rainbow appears in the sunshine after rain does not set aside the fact that it is brought to pass by the ever-living energy of the Creator. When I bring, etc.
A purely spiritual mind sees in all things in nature the working of a personal will, and does not require that distinct evidence of it which a miracle supplies.
Science deals with nature as a collection of facts, to be classified and explained as modes of the operation of general laws; but the Bible only considers the religious idea of nature.
The sun looks forth from the opposite skies. Its rays enter the descending drops, and returning to the eye in broken pencils, paint the bow on the illumined back-ground. Heaven dries up the tears of earth, and the high roof above seems to take up the Gospel hymn, Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, goodwill towards men.(Archdeacon Law: Christ is All.)
Gen. 9:15. This token is for God as well as for man. God deigns here to appoint it as a remembrance to Himself. It is a bow (says Dr. Gill), yet without arrows, and pointed upward to heaven, and not downward to the earth.(Jacobus).
The following prayer, found in the Talmud, is directed to be recited upon every appearance of the rainbow: Blessed be thou Jehovah our God, King of eternity, ever mindful of thy covenant, faithful in thy covenant, firm in thy word.
When the Scripture says God remembers, it means that we feel and are conscious that He remembers it, namely, when He outwardly presents Himself in such a manner, that we, thereby, take notice that He thinks thereon. Therefore it all comes to this: as I present myself to God, so does He present Himself to me.(Luther.)
We can only conceive of God through our human thoughts and feelings. In this way we obtain those consolatory views of His nature which we miss when we are ambitious of an over-refinement.
When God appoints the sign of the covenant, He obliges Himself, or contracts the duty, to meet man there.
How sacred are those symbols that may be said to arrest the glance of the Infinite eyeto concentrate the attention of God! They give that reality to spiritual blessings which, in the mere processes of thought, would become a cold abstraction.
The Scripture is most unhesitating and frank in ascribing to God all the attributes and exercises of personal freedom. While man looks on the bow to recall the promise of God, God Himself looks upon it to remember and perform this promise. Here freedom and immutability of purpose meet.(Murphy.)
Gen. 9:16-17. It was to be an everlasting covenant,to last until it should be needed no more.
If God looks upon the rainbow to remember, so should we, with a fresh sense of wonder and recognition of His presence. Faith in Him can alone prevent our losing this sense of wonder.
Memorial was the chief purpose intended by this sign. In that early age of the world all was wonderful, for everything seemed fresh from God. Signs were not then intended to generate faith, but to be a memorial of it.
As the rainbow lights up the dark ground that just before was discharging itself in flashes of lightning, it gives us an idea of the victory of Gods love over the black and fiery wrath; originating as it does from the effects of the sun upon the sable vault, it represents to the senses the readiness of the heavenly light to penetrate the earthly obscurity; spanned between heaven and earth, it announces peace between God and man; arching the horizon, it proclaims the all-embracing universality of the covenant of grace. (Delitzsche.)
We could not know that God had appointed such a sign but for the inspired record. Revelation is needed even to teach us the significance of nature.
How can we render thanks enough for this superadded pearl in our diadem of encouragements? We are thus led to look for our bow on the cloud of every threatening storm. In the world of nature it is not always visible; but in the world of grace it ever shines. When the darkest clouds thicken around us, the Sun of Righteousness is neither set nor has eclipse, and its ready smile converts the drops into an arch of peace.
In our journey through the wilderness, the horizon is often obscured by storms like these: terrors of conscience,absence of peace,harassing perplexities,crushing burdens of difficulties. But from behind these dusky curtains, the bow strides forth in its strength.(Archdeacon Law: Christ is All.)
ILLUSTRATIONS
BY
REV. WM. ADAMSON
Noachic Covenant! Gen. 9:1-17. We have here
(1) Principle of Government, as Gods institution for the good of His saints;
(2) Promulgation of Covenant, as Gods instruction to mankind of an everlasting covenant in Christ; and
(3) Proclamation of Rainbow, as Gods intimation of His faithfulness, in which no arrow shall ever find a place. There are men who can see no lofty aim in this chapter 9, and who only see the abstract moral principle of right and wrong, virtue and vice. Like the first visitors to the coral lagoons, they can only perceive a sheet of water; whereas deep down are the pearl-treasuresthe gems of great price. Dost thou well
To challenge the designs of the All-wise;
Or carp at projects which thou mayst but scan
With sight defective: typal contrivances
Of peerless skill and of unequalled art,
Framed by divinest wisdom to subserve
The subtle processes of grace?
ILLUSTRATIONS
BY
REV. WM. ADAMSON
Nature-Symbolism! Gen. 9:12-17.
(1) All Nature, says Leale, is a mighty parable of spiritual truth. To the attentive ear, all the earth is eloquent; to the reflecting mind, all Nature is symbolical. Each object has a voice which reaches the inner ear, and speaks lessons of wise and solemn import. The stream murmurs unceasingly its secrets; the sibylline breeze in mountain glens and lonely forests sighs forth its oracles. We are told that the invisible things of God, from the beginning of the world, are clearly seen; being understood by the things that are made. From the very first, a spiritual significance was embodied in the physical forms and processes of the universe. Nature, as a whole, was meant to be for man the vesture of the spiritual world.
(2) But, in addition to this, God takes one of these symbols in Nature, and, as it were, consecrates it to new useappropriates to it new and refreshing spiritual significance. He seizes upon an existing phenomenon, which, as Wordsworth says, had hitherto been but a beautiful object-lesson shining in the heavens, when the suns rays descended on falling rain, and consecrates it as the sign of His love to man.
And thus, fair bow, no fabling dreams,
But words of the Most High
Have told why first thy robe of beams
Was woven in the sky;
When oer the green, undeluged earth
Heavens covenant thou didst shine.
Rainbow! Gen. 9:13. If a boy, says Newton, has a ball, and wishes to know what it is made of, he takes it to pieces; and in the same way we can take the sunlight to pieces, and find out of what it is made. Go into a room which has a window towards the west where the sun is shining. Close the shutters, after boring a hole in the shutter large enough to insert your finger. A beam of sunlight comes through that hole. Hold a prism, i.e., a three cornered piece of glass so that the shaft of light falls upon it. Before that beam enters the prism, it is white; but in going through the glass it is broken up and taken to pieces. It comes out in seven different colours. Now, whenever the rainbow appears, this is the way in which it is made. God has been breaking up the light. He uses not the prism of glass, but the drops of falling rain.
When thou dost shine, darkness looks white and fair;
Forms turn to music, clouds to smiles and air;
Rain gently spreads his honey-drops, and pours
Balm on the cleft earth, milk on grass and flowers.
Covenant Rainbow! Gen. 9:13.
(1) The beautiful rainbow, in which all the seven prismatic colours are blended together in sweet and graceful proportion, is declared to be an emblem of His covenant with His people. And as the seven-fold colours thus sweetly blend in harmony of grace, so in His covenant every attribute of God is exhibited in its infinite perfection, and in it they all beautifully and gloriously harmonise together.
(2) This comes out in Eze. 1:27, where we are told by Ezekiel that, in the vision vouchsafed to him of Christ upon the mercy seat in the heavens, as the appearance of the bow that is in the cloud in the day of rain, so was the appearance of the brightness round about. If this symbolises anything, surely it symbolises the excellent grace and surpassing harmony of the Divine attributes in the covenant of Christ.
When I behold thee, though my light be dim,
Distant, O bow, I can in thine see Him
Who looks upon thee from His glorious throne,
And minds the covenant betwixt All and One.
Divine Action! Gen. 9:13.
(1) Not only is the cloud necessary, but also the sunlight. The dark cloud is of itself utterly powerless to give birth to the smiling arch of light. The bright rays of the sun are requisite to paint its glowing colours on the dark background. The sun must kiss the dark face of the storm-cloud with his lips, before it can become wreathed with beauty. The cloud alone can make no rainbow glitter on its breast; but the moment the light darts through the gloom and kisses with its golden rays the threatening cloudthat very moment, a belt of light encircles the cloud.
(2) In the Christian life-sky, the clouds of sorrow and affliction are an essential element of Divine discipline, for there drop from the clouds the raindrops of invigorating refreshment. But those clouds have on their breast no bright light of truth and faithfulness, except the Sun of Righteousness dart His enlightening beams. It is when Jesus smiles upon our cloud-woes, that the eye of the soul beholds the eternal iris of grace of truth, and as it beholds adores Him who says, I, the Sun of Righteousness, do set My bow in the cloud.
Oft, O Lord! Thy azure heaven
Did grey rainy vapours shroud,
Till at last in colours seven,
Shone Thy bow upon the cloud;
Then, for saving mercies there,
I, on my steep mount of care,
Altar built for thankful prayer.Gerok.
Rainbow-Myths! Gen. 9:14. It was a beautiful superstition which maintained that, wherever the glittering feet of the rainbow rested, there a hidden treasure would be discovered. And some foolishly set out in quest of this hidden treasure, wandering far and wide, only to find fairy golda glow of beauty which vanished ever and anon the nearer they approached it. But there was mystic truth in the fable. Where the magic hues lay, there the dull soil brightened into fruitfulness. Golden harveststhe only true riches of earthsprang up, and rewarded those who sought wealth, not in idle, superstitious wanderings, but by steady, trustful industry, in those spots where the feet of the bow of promise touched the earth. Macmillan says that our cornfields grow and ripen seemingly under that covenantarch, whose keystone is in the heavens, and whose foundations are upon the earth. And surely it is beneath the feet of the Faithful and True Witness (Revelation 1) that the golden harvest of redeemed ones, to be reaped by His angels, spring up, under the genial showers of the Holy Spirit of Grace. So that when God set his opal rainbow in the clouds He made it a teacher of the great harvest of grace, as well as
A token when His judgments are abroad
Of His perpetual covenant of peace.
Rainbow! Gen. 9:15. God was pleased to adopt the known and most beautiful, as well as welcome token of a retiring storm, as the sign of His covenant of mercy. And thus, in the visions of heaven, the throne of God is over-arched by a rainbow, and a rainbow is displayed as a diadem above the head of Christ (Rev. 10:1). Whenever we see a rainbow, let us
(1) Call to mind that it is Gods bow seen in the cloud;
(2) Conclude that, in His darkest dispensations, there is ever a gracious purpose towards us; and
(3) Consider that all warnings of wrath to come are accompanied with offers of pardon to the penitent. It is a suggestive fact that the rainbow is never seen except in a cloud from which the rain is at the same time falling. So that if the shower reminds us of the flood, the bow in that same shower-cloud shall remind us of the Covenant:
A dewy cloud, and in the cloud a bow,
Conspicuous, with three tinted colours gay,
Betokening peace with God, and covenant new.Milton.
Apocalyptic Rainbow! Gen. 9:16.
(1) In St. Johns local description of the celestial presence chamber, he tells us of his initial glance into the heaven of heavens. The august throne of Deity arrests his gaze. It has been rightly remarked that, combining the description in Revelation 4 with others which follow, this grandest of visions consists in the manifestation of God as the God of Redemption. We have Jehovah seated on the thronethe Lamb in the midst of the throneand the seven lamps or torches before the throne. The throne itself has the three primary colours; while encircling all was the rainbow.
(2) As in Ezekiels vision by the banks of Chebar, the appearance of the glory of the Lord was encircled by the appearance of the bow in the cloud, to assure him to fear nothing of Babylon or Assyria, inasmuch as He who sat enthroned above the complications and seeming confusions of earth was faithful and true; so to the Seer of Patmos was vouchsafed a similar assurance, I do set my bow in the cloud. He saw God, in His covenant aspect, as the God of salvationHis throne encompassed with the emerald iris
Beautiful bow! A brighter one
Is shining round th eternal throne!
And when lifes little storm is oer
May I gaze on this bow for evermore.Watson.
Everlasting Covenant! Gen. 9:16. The rainbow of the covenant of grace lasts for ever; it never melts. The one on which Noah gazed soon lost its brilliancy. Fainter and fainter still it grew, until, like a coloured haze, it just quivered in the air, and then faded from the vision. Ten thousand rainbows since have arched our earth, and then melted in the clouds; but the rainbow of Gods mercy in Christ abides for ever. It shines with undiminished splendour from all eternity, and its brilliancy will dazzle the eyes of redeemed humanity through the countless cycles of the same eternity. As has been said by Guthrie, it gleams in heaven to-night, yea, it beams sweetly on earth with harmonious hues, mellowed and blended into each other as fresh as ever. And when the sun has run his course and given place unto eternity, that bow of grace will still remain for ever, and be the theme of the ceaseless songs of spirits glorified in heaven, as, wrapt in the radiance of that sinless, sunless land, they realise that the darkness of earth was but the shadow of Gods wing sheltering them from earths too scorching sun.
As fresh as yon horizon dark,
As young thy beauties seem,
As when the eagle from the ark
First sported in thy beam.
Fuente: The Preacher’s Complete Homiletical Commentary Edited by Joseph S. Exell
6. The Rainbow Covenant (Gen. 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, the birds, the cattle, and every beast of the earth with you; of all that go out of the ark, even 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 the flood; neither shall there any more be 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.
(1) Note the word covenant. It designates, not a compact, not a contract, not even an agreement, but. a dispensation of Divine grace to be appropriated by human faith. The God of the Bible is a covenant God. God overtures and states the conditions: man accepts the conditions and thus enters into covenant relationship with God.
(2) The Pre-Diluvian Covenant (Gen. 6:18-22). In Gen. 9:18 here we have the first occurrence of the word berith, translated covenant, in the Scriptures. God informs Noah that He will establish His covenant with him. It is a sovereign dispensing of grace on Gods part, and the security arises from the action of God. It is Gods covenant, and He establishes it. Flowing from this dispensation to Noah there are corresponding obligations. Noah and his family were to come into the ark and he was to bring with him the specified number of animals and birds and creeping things. Thus there is no conflict between sovereign administration of grace and ensuing obligations (NBD, 264).
(3) The Post-Diluvian Covenant (Gen. 9:8-17). (a) This covenant is unconditional, that is, unilateral: no conditions are specified as terms on which the Divine grace bestowed is made contingent. (b) It is conceived and established by God Himself. There is no human contribution to the agency by which the promises are fulfilled. The sign does not even take the form of an ordinance to be performed by man at the divine behest. The bow in the cloud is for the purpose of attesting the faithfulness of God and, in anthropomorphic terms, is to bring to Gods remembrance His covenant promise. It is not a sign over which men exercise any control. (c) It is universal in its scope. It embraces not only Noah but also his seed after him and every living creature. It is a covenant between God and all flesh. (d) It is everlasting. No uncertainty or mutability can belong to Gods unconditional promise. (e) The bow in the cloud is the sign of the covenant. (f) The essence of the covenant is that the earth shall never again be devastated by a Flood (cf. Gen. 8:21-22).
(4) The Bow in the Cloud: the token or sign of the covenant, that is to say, of the Divine promise. (a) Was this the first appearance of the rainbow? We think not. Experience informs us that a rainbow has always been formed when sunshine and rainfall occur in the relationship determined by the Lawgiver of the physical (astronomical) world. But, some will say, there was no rainfall before the Flood: they base their view on the words of Gen. 2:5-6. However, in these two verses we have (as explained in my Genesis, Vol. I, pp. 426427) an account of the conditions that prevailed on the third day of the Creation, following the creation of energy-matter and light (on Day 1), and the atmosphere (on Day 2), and the lands and seas (on Day 3), prior to the first appearance of plant life (on the same Day), All these physical phenomenalight, atmosphere, lands, seasnecessarily preceded the return of the vaporous substances (mists) to the earth in the form of rainfall. There is no reason for assuming that rainfall did not continue to occur from that point on, even to the age of the Flood when the windows of heaven were thrown wide open to let torrential rains through upon the wicked antediluvian peoples. (b) Note Gen. 9:13I do set my bow in the cloud. White-law (PCG, 143): Literally, I have given, or placed. Rotherham (EB, 40): My bow have I set in the cloud. By way of comparison, when Jesus established the Communion service, He did not then make the bread or the fruit of the vine (Mat. 26:26-29, 1Co. 11:23-26): He merely selected these two substances which had existed from time immemorial and appointed them to be the emblems of His crucified sinless body and his shed blood as long as the Church should exist on this earth, that is, to the time of His Second Coming. So it was with the rainbow in Noahs time: as if God said to the patriarch, I have placed my bow in the cloud. I now appoint it to be a sign of the my covenant promise that I will never again bring a flood upon the earth to destroy mankind. Every time you and your posterity see this rainbow in the heavens you will remember my promise, and I will remember this, my everlasting covenant, which is between me and you and all living creatures. Thus we rightly designate the Rainbow Covenant the Covenant of Hope. (JB, 25 n.): The covenant with Noah, the rainbow its emblem, involves the whole creation: Abrahams covenant, whose sign is to be circumcision, embraces his descendants only, Genesis 17; under Moses the Covenant is confined to Israel, and brings with it an obligation: fidelity to the Law, Exo. 19:5; Exo. 24:7-8, and to the sabbath observance in particular, Exo. 31:16-17. The seal of the New (spiritual) Covenant is the Holy Spirit (2Co. 1:21-22; Eph. 1:10; Eph. 4:30).
REVIEW QUESTIONS
See Gen. 9:28-29.
Fuente: College Press Bible Study Textbook Series
8. God spake unto Noah The Elohistic narrative here describes more fully the covenant with Noah, briefly mentioned before in the Jehovistic narrative . Gen 8:20-22. The covenant promised (Gen 6:18) is now consummated . But there is no inconsistency, as Knobel and others have alleged, between the two narratives . They may have been appropriated by the author of Genesis from different ancient documents, but, if so, the compiler saw, as every candid reader must now see, that these verses (8-17) are supplementary, and supply most interesting information not previously given .
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
God’s Covenant with Man and with All Living Creatures ( Gen 9:8-17 )
Now we come to the primary covenant around which the whole history is written. This covenant, made with Noah and his sons, is distinctive. It is not a covenant of relationship but of direct fiat from God. It is not dependent on any response from man, which is why it is given by God as Creator (Elohim) and not as Yahweh.
The covenant was important to man’s sense of security. The Flood had demonstrated what could happen to the world and without this covenant man would henceforth live in fear of a repetition. Every gathering of clouds, every storm at sea, would be seen as a portent. Thus God gives man the assurance that he need not fear. God will not allow it to happen again. He will keep the elements in bounds.
Gen 9:8
‘And God spoke to Noah, and his sons with him.’
Only since the Flood has this stress been laid on the inclusion of the sons. There is now joint responsibility. All mankind is included in the covenant, as are the living creatures. Notice, however, that although the covenant is with all creation it is communicated to Noah and his sons. They stand in the place of God for His creation.
Gen 9:9-10
‘Saying, “I, behold I, establish my covenant with you and with your descendants after you, and with every living creature that is with you, the birds, the domesticated animals, the wild creatures, those who are with you, as many as came out of the ark, even every creature of the earth (land)”.’
Note how all creatures are included in the covenant. This is the covenant of the Creator with His creation. It is thus not dependent on man’s obedience. It is absolute.
Gen 9:11
‘And I establish my covenant with you that never again shall all flesh be cut of by the waters of a cataclysm, nor shall there ever again be a cataclysm to destroy the earth.’
God gives His guarantee that never again will there be a cataclysm of such devastating proportions. The repetition of ‘I establish My covenant’ is a double guarantee, a double confirmation for the purpose of stress, as well as a means of reinforcing the words to a listener.
Gen 9:12-16
‘And God said, “This is the sign of the covenant that I make between me and you and every living creature that is with you through all future generations. I do set my bow in the cloud, and it shall be as a sign of a covenant between me and the earth. And it shall be that when I bring a cloud over the earth, the bow will be seen in the cloud, 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 cataclysm to destroy all flesh, and the bow will be in the cloud, and I will consider it that I may remember the everlasting covenant between God and every living creature of all flesh that is on the earth”.’
God takes a natural phenomenon and turns it into a sign. ‘I do set my bow in the cloud’. The word for ‘bow’ is the same as later used for a ‘war bow’. Are we to see in this a suggestion that God is ceasing His adversarial position? That He has magnanimously ‘laid down His arms’? Every time man sees the rainbow he will recognise that God has ‘put down His bow’.
The use of the rainbow as a sign does not mean that it has never appeared before, only that it is being given a new significance. Thus every rainbow will be a reminder of God’s covenant. ‘I will remember –’. It is not of course that there is any danger that God would forget. It is man who will see the bow in the clouds and will be assured that God will ‘remember’ His covenant. Note that the bow is mentioned three times. This is a guarantee of the completeness of the protection it provides.
And the guarantee is that never again will such a flood come on the earth. Never again need they fear inundations of water of such magnitude. It has been a once for all occurrence.
“The everlasting covenant”. This covenant is permanent and unchangeable. It is for ever.
Gen 9:17
‘And God said to Noah, “This is the sign of the covenant which I have established between me and all flesh that is on earth.”
This final repetition sums up the whole and gives final confirmation to the hearers of the sign and its significance. It is God’s unconditional guarantee.
This no doubt is where the original account ended in its use at the feast for which it was considered appropriate when it would be recited as a ‘reminder’ to God of His covenant. It is followed by a further covenant history which was probably tacked on, as also applying to the sons of Noah, when the tablet on which the two accounts is found was written, with the purpose of leading on to the next account, the spread of the nations. It is quite remarkable how the compiler has gathered together disparate covenant records and combined them into one united whole, each leading on to the next.
Fuente: Commentary Series on the Bible by Peter Pett
God’s Covenant with Noah and His Seed and with Every Living Creature In Gen 9:8-17 the Lord makes a covenant with Noah. This is God’s covenant to Noah and every living creature.
Gen 9:8 And God spake unto Noah, and to his sons with him, saying,
Gen 9:9 Gen 9:10 Gen 9:11 Gen 9:11
Isa 54:9, “For this is as the waters of Noah unto me: for as I have sworn that the waters of Noah should no more go over the earth; so have I sworn that I would not be wroth with thee, nor rebuke thee. For the mountains shall depart, and the hills be removed; but my kindness shall not depart from thee, neither shall the covenant of my peace be removed, saith the LORD that hath mercy on thee.”
Gen 9:11 Comments – In Gen 9:12 God promises Noah that He would never again destroy mankind by a flood. But God will again judge men and destroy them. From now on He will do it through famine, pestilences, earthquakes and the sword. We see this method of judgment upon mankind in its fullness during the Tribulation Period described in the book of Revelation. Thus, God will destroy the earth one more time, but in a different manner. I believe one reason that God now chooses a different form of judgment upon mankind is because the earth has now changed it physical characteristics. God uses the new characteristics of the earth to inflict judgment.
Gen 9:12 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:
Gen 9:13 Gen 9:13
Gen 9:14 And it shall come to pass, when I bring a cloud over the earth, that the bow shall be seen in the cloud:
Gen 9:15 Gen 9:15
Isa 54:7-9, “For a small moment have I forsaken thee; but with great mercies will I gather thee. In a little wrath I hid my face from thee for a moment; but with everlasting kindness will I have mercy on thee, saith the LORD thy Redeemer. For this is as the waters of Noah unto me: for as I have sworn that the waters of Noah should no more go over the earth; so have I sworn that I would not be wroth with thee, nor rebuke thee.”
Gen 9:16 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.
Gen 9:17 Gen 9:17
Fuente: Everett’s Study Notes on the Holy Scriptures
The Rainbow a Token of the Covenant
v. 8. And God spake unto Noah, and to his sons with him, saying, v. 9. And I, behold, I establish My covenant with you and with your seed after you, v. 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. v. 11. And I will establish My covenant with you; neither shall all flesh be cut off any more by the waters of a flood; neither shall there any more be a flood to destroy the earth. v. 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: v. 13. I do set My bow in the cloud, and it shall be for a token of a covenant between Me and the earth. v. 14. And it shall come to pass, when I bring a cloud over the earth, that the bow shall be seen in the cloud; v. 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.
v. 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. v. 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.
Fuente: The Popular Commentary on the Bible by Kretzmann
EXPOSITION
Gen 9:8
And God spakein continuation of the preceding discourseunto Noah, and to his sons with him, saying.
Gen 9:9
And I, behold, I establishliterally, am causing to rise up or stand; (LXX.)my covenant (cf. Gen 6:18) with you, and with your seed after you. I.e. the covenant contemplated all subsequent posterity in its provisions, and, along with the human family, the entire animal creation.
Gen 9:10
And with every living creatureliterally, every soul (or breathing thing) that liveth, a generic designation of which the particulars are now specifiedthat is with you, of the fowl, of the cattle, and of every beast of the earthliterally, in fowl, &c.; i.e. belonging to these classes of animals (cf. Gen 1:25, Gen 1:30; Gen 6:20; Gen 8:17) with you; from all that go out of the ark,not necessarily implying (‘Speaker’s Commentary,’ Murphy), though in all probability it was the case, that there were animals which had never been in the ark; but simply an idiomatic phrase expressive of the totality of the animal creation (Alford)to every beast of the earth. I.e. wild beast (Gen 1:25), the chayyah of the land, which was not included among the animals that entered the ark (Murphy); or living creature (Gen 2:19), referring here to the fishes of the sea, which were not included in the ark (Kalisch). That the entire brute creation was designed to be embraced in the Noachic covenant seems apparent from the use of the prepositions describing the classes to which the animals belong, as in Gen 7:21; indicating one portion of the whole, the to minus aquo, and the terminus ad quemin their enumeration. Kalisch thinks the language applies only to the animals of Noah’s time, and not to those of a later age, on the ground that “the destiny of the animals is everywhere connected with that of the human race;” but this is equivalent to their being included in the covenant.
Gen 9:11
And I will establish my covenant with you. Not form it for the first time, as if no such covenant had existed in antediluvian times (Knobel); but cause it to stand or permanently establish it, so that it shall no more be-in danger of being overthrown, as it recently has been. The word “my” points to a covenant already in existence, though not formally mentioned until the time of Noah (Gen 6:18). The promise of the woman’s seed, which formed the substance of the covenant during the interval from Adam to Noah, was from Noah’s time downwards to be enlarged by a specific pledge of the stability of the earth and the safety of man (cf. Gen 8:22). Neither shall all fleshincluding the human race and animal creation. Cf. mankind (Genesis vi 12), the lower creatures (Gen 7:21)be cut off any more by the waters of a flood. Literally, the flood just passed, which would no more return. Neither shall there any more be a flood (of any kind) to destroy the earth. Regions might be devastated and tribes of animals and men swept away, but never again would there be a universal destruction of the earth or of man.
Gen 9:12
And God said, This is the token (vide Gen 1:14; Gen 4:15)of the covenant which I makeliterally, am giving (cf. Gen 17:2)between me and you and every living creature that is with you, for perpetual generations. Le’doroth (vide Gen 6:9); ‘olam (from ‘alam, to hide, to conceal), pr. that which is hidden; hence, specially, time of which either the beginning or the end is uncertain or undefined, the duration being usually determined by the nature of the case (vide Gesenius, ‘Hebrews Lex.,’ sub voce). Here the meaning is, that so long as there were circuits or generations of men upon the earth, so long would this covenant endure.
Gen 9:13
I do set. Literally, I have given, or placed, an indication that the atmospheric phenomenon referred to had already frequently appeared (Syriac, Arabic, Aben Ezra, Chrysostom, Calvin, Willet, Murphy, Wordsworth, Kalisch, Lange). The contrary opinion has been maintained that it now for the first time appeared (Bush, Keil, Delitzsch), or at least that the historian thought so (Knobel); but unless there had been no rain, or the laws of light and the atmospheric conditions of the earth had been different from what they are at present, it must have been a frequent spectacle in the primeval heavens. My bow. i.e. the rainbow, (LXX.), (cf. Eze 1:28). The ordinary rainbow consists of a series of successive zones or bands of polarized light, forming little concentric circles in the sky, and having a common center almost always below the horizon, and diametrically opposite to the sun. It is produced by the refraction and reflection of the sun’s light through the spherical raindrops on which the rays fall, and, accordingly, must always appear, with a greater or a lesser degree of visibility, when the two material agencies come in contact The part of the sky on which the rainbow is thrown is much more bright within than without the bow. The outer space is dark, almost black; and the inner space, on the contrary, melts into the violet almost insensibly (Nichol’s ‘Cyclopedia of the Sciences,’ art. Rainbow). It is here styled God’s bow, as being his workmanship (cf. Ecclesiasticus 43:12), and his seal appended to his covenant (Gen 9:17). In the cloud, , that which veils the heavens, from a root signifying to cover (Gesenius). And it shall be for a token, = , (LXX.). In Greek mythology the rainbow is designated by a name (Iris) which is at least connected with , to speak, and , peace; is represented as the daughter of Thaumas (wonder), and Electra (brightness) the daughter of Oceanus; is assigned the office of messenger to the king and queen of Olympus; and is depicted as set in heaven for a sign. The Persians seem to have associated the rainbow with similar ideas. An old picture, mentioned by Stolberg, represents a winged boy on a rainbow with an old man kneeling in a posture, of worship. The Hindoos describe the rainbow as a warlike weapon in the hands of Indras their god, “with which he hurls flashing darts upon the impious giants;” but also as a symbol of peace exhibited to man “when the combat of the heavens is silenced.” By the Chinese it is regarded as the harbinger of troubles and misfortunes on earth, and by the old Scandinavians as a bridge uniting earth and heaven. Traditional reflections of the Biblical narrative, they do not “account for the application in the Pentateuch of the rainbow to a very remarkable purpose,” or “explain why the New Testament represents the rainbow as an attribute of the Divine throne,” or “why angels are sent as messengers on earth” (Kalisch); but are themselves accounted for and explained by it. The institution of the rainbow as a sign clearly negatives the idea (Aquinas, Cajetan) that it was originally and naturally a sign; which, if it was, “it was a lying sign,” since the Flood came notwithstanding its prognostications (Willet). Of a covenant. “The bow in the hands of man was an instrument of battle (Gen 48:22; Psa 7:12; Pro 6:2; Zec 9:10); but the bow bent by the hand of God has become a symbol of peace” (Wordsworth). Between me and the earth.
Gen 9:14
And it shall come to pan, when I bring a cloud over the earth. Literally, in my clouding a cloud, i.e. gathering clouds, which naturally signify store of rain (1Ki 18:44, 1Ki 18:45). Clouds are often used to denote afflictions and dangers (cf. Eze 30:3, Eze 30:18; Eze 32:7; Eze 34:12; Joe 2:2). That the bow shall be seen in the cloud. Literally, and the bow is seen, which it always is when the sun’s rays fall upon it, if the spectator’s back is towards the light, and his face towards the cloud. Thus at the moment when danger seems to threaten most, the many-colored arch arrests the gaze.
Gen 9:15
And I will remember (cf. Gen 8:1). An anthropomorphism introduced to remind man that God is ever faithful to his covenant engagements (Calvin). “God is said to remember, because he maketh us to know and to remember” (Chrysostom). My covenant (vide on Gen 9:11), which is between me and you and every living creature of all flesh; and the waters shall no more become a floodhayah with leto become (cf. Gen 2:7); literally, shall no more be (i.e. grow) to a flood; or, “and there shell no more be the waters to the extent of a flood “to destroy all flesh.
Gen 9:16
And the bow shall be in the cloud; and I will look upon it, that I may remember the everlasting covenant. Literally, the covenant of eternity. One of those pregnant Scripture sayings that have in them an almost inexhaustible fullness of meaning, which does not at first sight dis. close itself to the eye of the unreflecting reader. In so far as the Noachic covenant was simply a promise that there should be no recurrence of a flood, the covenant of eternity had a corresponding limit in its duration to the period of this present terrestrial economy. But, rightly viewed, the Noachic covenant was the original Adamic covenant set up again in a different form; and hence, when applied to it, the phrase covenant of eternity is entitled to retain its highest and fullest significance, as a covenant reaching from eternity to eternity. Between God and every living creature of all-flesh that is upon the earth.
Gen 9:17
And God said unto Noah, This is the token of the covenant. Murphy thinks that God here directed the patriarch’s attention to an actual rainbow; it seems more natural to conclude that from the beginning of the interview (Gen 8:20) the ark, altar, and worshippers were encircled by its variegated arch. Kalisch compares with the rainbow the other signs which God subsequently appended to his covenants; as, e.g; circumcision (Gen 17:11), the passover (Exo 12:13), the sabbath (Exo 31:13). The Noachic covenant being universal, the sign was also universal” ” (I1; 11.27), a sign to men of many tongues. The later covenants being limited to Israel, their signs were local and provisional, and have now been supplanted by the higher symbolism of the Christian Church, viz; baptism, the Lord’s Supper, and the Christian sabbath. Which I have established. The different verbs used in this passage in connection with may be here brought together.
1. (Gen 9:12) representing the covenant as a gift of Divine grace.
2. (Hiph.; Gen 9:9, Gen 9:11, Gen 9:17) exhibiting the covenant as something which God has both caused to stand and raised up when fallen.
3. (Gen 9:15) depicting the covenant as always present to the Divine mind. Tuch, Stahelin, and Delitzsch detect an idiosyncrasy of the Elohist in using the first and second of these verbs instead of , the favorite expression of the Jehovist. But is used by the Elohist in Gen 21:27, Gen 21:32, while in Deu 4:18 the Jehovist uses . Between ms and all flesh that is upon the earth.
HOMILETICS
Gen 9:16
The covenant renewed.
I. THE AUTHOR OF THE COVENANT. God. This is evident from the nature of the case. In ordinary language a covenant signifies “a mutual contract between two (or more) parties”; cf. Gen 21:27 (Abraham and Abimelech); Jos 24:25 (Joshua and Israel); 1Sa 18:3 (Jonathan and David); 1Ki 20:34 (Ahab and Benhadad);’ comprehending a promise made by the one to the other, accompanied with a condition, upon the performance of which the accepter becomes entitled to the fulfillment of the promise” (Dick’s ‘Theol. Lect.,’ 45.). Applied, however, to those transactions between God and man which took their rise subsequent to the fall, a covenant is an arrangement or disposition originated by God under which certain free and gracious promises are made over to man, which promises are ratified by sacrifice and impose certain obligations on their recipients, while they are usually connected with institutions illustrative of their nature. But, taking either definition of the term, it is obvious that the initial move-merit in any such transaction must belong to God; and with special emphasis does God claim to be the sole Author of the covenant established with Noah and his descendants (1Ki 20:9, 1Ki 20:11, 1Ki 20:12, 1Ki 20:17).
II. THE PARTIES TO THE COVENANT, i.e. the persons interested in the covenant; viz; Noah and his posterity. But Noah and his sons at that time were
1. The heads of the race. Hence the covenant may be said to have possessed a worldwide aspect. Because of their connection with Noah the entire family of man had an interest in its provisions.
2. The fathers of the Church. As believers Noah and his family had been saved; and with them, in the character of believers, the covenant was made. Hence it had also a special outlook to the Church, for whom it had a blessing quite distinct from that which it conferred upon the world as such.
III. THE SUBSTANCE OF THE COVENANT. Calling it so frequently as he does “my covenant” (Gen 6:18; Gen 7:9, Gen 7:11), the Author of it seems desirous to connect it in our thoughts with that old covenant which, more than sixteen centuries earlier, he had established with mankind immediately after the fall. Now that covenant was in substance an arrangement, disposition, proposal, or promise of mercy and salvation; and that has been the essential element in every covenant that God has made with man. So to speak, God’s covenant is just another name for his formal conveyance to mankind sinners of the free gift of Christ and his salvation.
IV. THE FORM OF THE COVENANT. While in every age essentially the same, the form of the covenant has been changing with the changing eras of human history. When we speak of a change of dispensation, the thing meant is a change upon the outward form or mode of representing the covenanta dispensation being a Divine arrangement for communicating blessing. In prediluvian times the form which the covenant assumed was the promise of the woman’s seed. From the Deluge onwards it was a promise of forbearance” Neither shall all flesh he cut off any more by the waters of a flood; neither shall there he any more a flood to destroy the earth.” In the patriarchal era it became the promise of a son “in whom all the families of the earth should be blessed” (Gen 12:3; Gen 18:18; Gen 22:18). Under the Mosaic dispensation the promise of a prophet like unto Moses (Deu 18:15); during the monarchy the promise of a king to sit upon David’s throne (2Sa 7:12); in the time of Isaiah the promise of a suffering servant of the Lord (Isa 42:1-25; Isa 53:1-12.); in the fullness of the times it assumed its permanent form, viz; that of the incarnation of the Lord Jesus Christ as the woman’s seed, as Abraham’s child, as David’s son, as Jehovah’s servant.
V. THE SEAL OF THE COVENANT. Covenant transactions under the old or Levitical dispensation were invariably accompanied with the offering up of sacrificial victims, as a public attestation of the binding character of the arrangement. The covenant which God made with Noah had also its sacrificial seal.
1. The meritorious sacrifice. The propitiatory offering of the Lord Jesus Christ, on the sole ground of which he is well pleased with and mercifully disposed towards the race of sinful man.
2. The typical sacrifice. The offering of Noah upon Ararat after emerging from the ark.
VI. THE SIGN OF THE COVENANT. The rainbow, which was
1. A universal sign. The covenant having been made with the entire family of man, it was in a manner requisite that the sign should be one which was patent to the race; not limited and local and national, like circumcision, afterwards given to the Hebrews or Abrahamidae, but universal, ubiquitous, cosmopolitan; and such was the rainbow. This was a first mark of kindness on the part of God towards the family which he had taken into covenant with himself.
2. An attractive sign. Such as could not fail to arrest the g of those whose special interest it was to behold it. Nothing is more remarkable than the quickness with which it attracts the eye, and the pleasurable feelings which its sight enkindles. In its selection, then, to be a sign and symbol of his covenant, instead of something in itself repulsive or even indifferent, we can detect another proof of kindness on the part of God.
3. A seasonable sign. At the very moment, as it were, when nature’s elements are threatening another deluge, the signal of heaven’s clemency is hung out upon the watery sky to rebuke the fears of men. Another token of special kindness on the part of God.
4. A suggestive signsuggestive of the covenant of grace. Possibly this was the chief reason why the rainbow was selected as the sign of the covenant; a further display of kindness on the part of God.
VII. THE PERPETUITY OF THE COVENANT.
1. To eternity (verse 16). In so far as it was a spiritual covenant with the believing Church, it was designed to be unto, as it had actually been from, everlasting.
2. For perpetual generations (verse 12). In so far as it was a providential covenant with the race, it was designed to continue to the end of time.
Lessons:
1. The exceeding riches of Divine grace in dealing with men by way of a covenant.
2. The exceeding faithfulness of God in adhering to his covenant, notwithstanding man’s sinfulness and provocation.
3. The exceeding hopefulness of man’s position in being placed beneath a covenant of mercy.
HOMILIES BY R.A. REDFORD
Gen 9:8-17
The new Noachic covenant established.
I. It is a COVENANT OF LIFE. It embraces all the posterity of Noah, i.e. it is
1. The new foundation on which humanity rests.
2. It passes through man to all flesh, to all living creatures.
3. The sign of it, the rainbow in the cloud, is also the emblem of the salvation which may be said to be typified in the deliverance of Noah and his family.
4. The background is the same element wherewith the world was destroyed, representing the righteousness of God as against the sin of man. On that righteousness God sets the sign of love, which is produced by the rays of lightthe sun being the emblem of Divine goodnessradiating from the infinite center in the glorious Father of all. “And it shall come to pass, when I bring a cloud over the earth, that the bow shall be seen in the cloud.”
II. GOD‘S REVELATION SET BEFORE OUR FAITH.
1. It is waiting to be recognized. When we place ourselves in right relation to the revelations and promises of Jehovah we can always see the bow on the cloud of sense, on eventsbright compassion on the darkest providence.
2. There is an interdependence between the objective and subjective. The rainbow is the natural result of an adjustment between the sun, the earth, the cloud falling in rain, and man, the beholder. Take the earth to represent the abiding laws of man’s nature and God’s righteousness, the falling cloud to represent the condemnation and punishment of human sin, the sun the revealed love and mercy of God sending forth its beams in the midst of the dispensation of judgment; then let there be faith in man to look up and rejoice in that which is set before him, and he will behold the rainbow of the covenant even on the very background of the condemnation.
III. TRANSFIGURED RIGHTEOUSNESS IN REDEMPTION. The cross at once condemnation and life. The same righteousness which once destroyed the earth is manifested in Christ Jesus”righteousness unto all and upon all them that believe.”
IV. UNION OF GOD AND MAN. God himself is said to look upon the sign of the covenant that he may remember. So man looking and God looking to the same pledge of salvation. “God was in Christ reconciled,” &c; Their reconciliation is complete and established.R.
HOMILIES BY J.F. MONTGOMERY
Gen 9:13
The bow in the cloud,
with deep joy and yet with awe must Noah have looked around him on leaving the ark. On every side signs of the mighty destruction; the earth scarcely dried, and the busy throng of men (Luk 17:27) all gone. Yet signs of new life; the earth putting forth verdure, as though preparing for a new and happier chapter of history. His first recorded act was sacrificean acknowledgment that his preserved life was God’s gift, a new profession of faith in him. Then God gave the promise that no such destruction should again befall the earth, and so ordered the sign that the rain-cloud which might excite the fear should bring with it the rainbow, the pledge of the covenant. But as Gen 6:18 foreshadowed the Christian covenant (1Pe 3:21) in its aspect of deliverance from destruction, the text points to the same in its beating on daily life and service. The Godward life and renewal of the will which the law could not produce (Rom 8:3) is made sure to believers through the constraining power of the love of Christ (cf. 1Jn 3:3; Rev 12:11). And if clouds should cause fear, and God’s face be hidden, and the energy of dedication grow languid, we are reminded (Rom 6:14; Gal 5:24). And in the vision of the glorified Church (Rev 4:3) the rainbow again appears, pointing back to the early sign, connecting them as parts of one scheme, and visibly setting forth the glory of God in his mercy and grace (cf. Exo 33:19; Exo 34:6; Joh 1:14).
I. THE COVENANT WAS MADE WITH NOAH AND HIS SEED AS CHILDREN OF FAITH. They had believed in God’s revealed way of salvation and entered the ark (cf. Num 21:8). The root of a Christian life is belief in a finished redemption (2Co 5:14; 1Jn 5:11); not belief that the doctrine is true, but trust in the fact as the one ground of hope. Hast thou acted on God’s call; entered the ark; trusted Christ; none else, nothing else? Waitest thou for something in thyself? Noah did not think of fitness when told to enter. God calleth thee as unfit (cf. 1Ti 1:15). Try to believe; make a real effort.
II. THE POWER OF A CHRISTIAN LIFE; FAITH AS A HABIT OF THE MIND. Look to the bow. “Looking unto Jesus.” The world is the field on which God’s grace is shown; we are the actors by whom his work is done. How shall we do this? Beset by hindranceslove of the world, love of self, love of ease. We cannot of ourselves (cf. Luk 22:33, Luk 22:34; Rom 11:20). We are strong only in trusting to the power of the Lord (cf. 2Co 12:10; Php 4:13).
III. IN THIS THE HOLY SPIRIT IS OUR HELPER. His office is to reveal Christ to the soul. His help is promised if sought for.M.
Fuente: The Complete Pulpit Commentary
Gen 9:8 And God spake unto Noah, and to his sons with him, saying,
Ver. 8. And God spake. ] See Trapp on Gen 9:9 “ See Trapp on Gen 9:10 “
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
Genesis
THE SIGN FOR MAN AND THE REMEMBRANCER FOR GOD
Gen 9:8 – Gen 9:17
The previous verses of this chapter lay down the outlines of the new order which followed the flood. The blessing and the command to be fruitful are repeated. The dominion over animals is confirmed, but enlarged by the permission to use them as food, and by the laying on them of ‘the terror of you and the dread of you.’ The sanctity of human life is laid down with great emphasis. Violence and bloodshed had brought about the flood. The appalling destruction effected by it might lead to the mistaken notion that God held man’s life cheap. Therefore the cornerstone of future society is laid in that declaration that life is inviolable. These blessings and commands are followed by this remarkable section, which deals with God’s covenant with Noah, and its token in the rainbow.
1. The covenant is stated, and the parties concerned in it enumerated in Gen 9:3 – Gen 9:11 . When Noah came forth from the ark, after the stupendous act of divine justice, he must have felt that the first thing he needed was some assurance as to the footing on which he and the new world round him stood with God. The flood had swept away the old order. It had revealed terrible possibilities of destruction in nature, and terrible possibilities of wrath in God. Was any knowledge of His intentions and ways possible? Could continuance of the new order be counted on? The answer to such questions was-God’s covenant. Now, as then, when any great convulsions shake what seems permanent, and bring home to men the thinness of the crust of use and wont roofing an infinite depth of unknown possibilities of change, on which we walk, the heart cries out for some assurance of perpetuity, and some revelation of God’s mind. We can have such, as truly as Noah had, if we use the Revelation given us in Jesus.
In God’s covenant with Noah, the fact of the covenant may first be noted. What is a covenant? The term usually implies a reciprocal bond, both parties to which come under obligations by it, each to the other. But, in this case, there are no obligations on the part of man or of the creatures. This covenant is God’s only. It is contingent on nothing done by the recipients. He binds Himself, whatever be the conduct of men. This covenant is the self-motived promise of an unconditional mercy. May we not say that the ‘New Covenant’ in Jesus Christ is after the pattern of this, rather than after the manner of compacts which require both parties to do their several parts?
But note the great thought, that God limits His freedom of action by this definite promise. Noah was not left to grope in dread among the terrible possibilities opened by the flood. God marked out the line on which He would move, and marked off a course which He would not pursue. It is like a king giving his subjects a constitution. Men can reckon on God. He has let them know much of the principles and methods of His government. He has buoyed out His course, as it were, on the ocean, or pricked it down upon a chart. We have not to do with arbitrary power, with inscrutable will. Our God is not one who ‘giveth no account of any of His matters.’ To use a common saying, ‘We know where to have Him.’
The substance of this covenant is noteworthy. It is concerned solely with physical nature. There is nothing spiritual or ‘religious’ about it. There are to be no more universal deluges. That is all which it guarantees. But consider how important such an assurance was in two aspects. Note the solemn light which it threw on the past. It taught that the flood was an exception in the divine government, which should stand unrepeated for ever, in its dread pre-eminence testifying how awful it was as a judicial act, and how outrageous had been the guilt which it drowned out of existence and sight. A wholesome terror at the unexampled act of judgment would fill the hearts of the little group which now represented mankind.
Consider the effect of the covenant in encouraging hope. We have said that the one thing needful for Noah was some assurance that the new order would last. He was like a man who has just been rescued from an earthquake or a volcanic eruption. The ground seems to reel beneath him. Old habitudes have been curled up like leaves in the fire. Is there to be any fixity, any ground for continuous action, or for labour for a moment beyond the present? Is it worth while to plant or sow? Men who have lived through national tempests or domestic crashes know how much they need to be steadied afterwards by some reasonable assurance of comparative continuity. And these men, in the childhood of the race, would need it much. So they were sent out to till the earth, and to begin again strenuous lives, with this covenant to keep them from falling into a hand-to-mouth style of life, which would have brought them down to barbarism. We all need the same kind of assurance; and then, when we get it, such is the weakness of humanity, we are tempted to think that continuity means eternity, and that, because probably to-morrow shall be as this day, there will never come a to-morrow which shall be quite unlike to-day. The crust of cooled earth, on which we walk, is thick enough to bear man and all his works, but there comes a time when it will crack. The world will not be flooded again, but we forget, what Noah did not know, that it will be burned.
The parties to the covenant must be noticed. Note how frequently the share in it, which all living creatures have, is referred to in the context. In Gen 9:10 the language becomes strained in the original, in order to express the universal participation of all living creatures; and in Gen 9:13 ‘the earth’ itself is spoken of as one party. God recognises obligations to all living things, and even to the dumb, non-sentient earth. He will not causelessly quench one bright, innocent life, nor harm one clod. Surely this is, at least, an incipient revelation of a God whose ‘tender mercies are over all his works.’ He ‘doth take care for oxen’; and man, with all the creatures that are with him, and all the wild ones that ‘come not near’ him, and all the solid structure of the world, are held in one covenant of protecting and sustaining providence and power.
2. The sign of the covenant is described at great length in Gen 9:12 – Gen 9:17 . Note that Gen 9:12 – Gen 9:13 state the general idea of a token or sign, that Gen 9:14 – Gen 9:16 deepen this by stating that the token to man is a reminder to God, and that Gen 9:17 sums up the whole with emphatic repetition of the main points. The narrative does not imply, as has often been supposed, that the rainbow was visible for the first time after the deluge. To suppose that, is to read more into the story than is there, or than common sense tolerates. If there were showers and sunshine, there must have been rainbows. But the fair vision strode across the sky with no articulate promise in its loveliness, though it must always have kindled wonder, and sometimes stirred deeper thoughts. Now, for the first time, it was made ‘a sign,’ the visible pledge of God’s promise.
Mark the emphasis with which God’s agency is declared and His ownership asserted. ‘ I do set My bow.’ Neither Noah nor the writer knew anything about refraction or the prismatic spectrum. But perhaps they knew more about the rainbow than people do who know all about how it comes, except that God sets it in the cloud, and that it is His. Let us have the facts which science labels as such, by all means, and the more the better; but do not let us forget that there are other facts in nature which science has no means of attaining, but which are as solid and a great deal deeper than those which it supplies.
The natural adaptation of the rainbow for this office of a token is too plain to need dwelling on. It ‘fills the sky when storms prepare to part,’ and hence is a natural token that the downpour is being stayed. Somewhere there must be a bit of blue through which the sun can pierce; and the small gap, which is large enough to let it out, will grow till all the sky is one azure dome. It springs into sight in front of the cloud, without which it could not be, so it typifies the light which may glorify judgments, and is born of sorrows borne in the presence of God. It comes from the sunshine smiting the cloud; so it preaches the blending of love with divine judgment. It unites earth and heaven; so it proclaims that heavenly love is ready to transform earthly sorrows. It stretches across the land; so it speaks of an all-embracing care, which enfolds the earth and all its creatures.
It is not only a ‘sign to men.’ It is also, in the strong anthropomorphism of the narrative, a remembrancer to God. Of course this is accommodation of the representation of His nature to the limitations of ours. And the danger of attaching unworthy ideas to it is lessened by noticing that He is said to set His bow in the cloud, before it acts as His remembrancer. Therefore, He had remembered before it appeared. The truth, conveyed in the childlike language, is that God has His covenant ever before Him, and that He responds to and honours the appeal made to Him, by that which He has Himself appointed for a sign to men. The expectant eyes of the trustful man and the eye of God meet, as it were, in looking on the sign. On earth it nourishes faith; in heaven it moves to love and blessing. God can be reminded of what He always remembers. The rainbow reminds Him of His covenant by its calm light. Jesus Christ reminds Him of His grace by His intercession before the throne. We remind Him of His plighted faithfulness by our prayers. ‘Ye that are the Lord’s remembrancers, keep not silence.’
Fuente: Expositions Of Holy Scripture by Alexander MacLaren
NASB (UPDATED) TEXT: Gen 9:8-17
8Then God spoke to Noah and to his sons with him, saying, 9Now behold, I Myself do establish My covenant with you, and with your descendants after you; 10and with every living creature that is with you, the birds, the cattle, and every beast of the earth with you; of all that comes out of the ark, even every beast of the earth. 11I 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. 12God said, This is the sign of the covenant which I am making between Me and you and every living creature that is with you, for all successive generations; 13I set My bow in the cloud, and it shall be for a sign of a covenant between Me and the earth. 14It shall come about, when I bring a cloud over the earth, that the bow will be seen in the cloud, 15and I will remember My covenant, which is between Me and you and every living creature of all flesh; and never again shall the water become a flood to destroy all flesh. 16When the bow is in the cloud, then I will look upon it, to remember the everlasting covenant between God and every living creature of all flesh that is on the earth. 17And God said to Noah, This is the sign of the covenant which I have established between Me and all flesh that is on the earth.
Gen 9:9 I Myself do establish This covenant is unconditional and totally from God’s grace. (cf. Genesis 9, 11, 12, 17). Other covenants including the Adamic and the Abrahamic covenants had conditions. See SPECIAL TOPIC: Covenant .
Gen 9:12 all successive generations All (olam), as in Gen 9:16, means ever-lasting. See SPECIAL TOPIC: Forever (‘olam) . Also Rashi mentions that generations is misspelled in the Hebrew text. He interprets that as meaning that the covenant is only for generations with faulty faith.
Gen 9:13 bow. . .a sign The rainbow may first have appeared here. Gen 2:5-6 implies that initially watering took place in a different way from rain (i.e. mist from the ground). It is just possible that the bow (BDB 905) was a weapon that God put down (i.e. will not destroy mankind in judgment). In ancient times hanging up the bow was a symbol for peace. It is also possible that God put a new meaning to a common physical occurrence.
Gen 9:15 I will remember The bow was a sign for God and mankind. This is a physical item symbolizing the fact that God does not forget (similar to the concept of the book of life and book of deeds).
never again shall the water become a flood to destroy all flesh This does not mean no floods at all, but no universal flood that destroys all mankind and animal kind.
Fuente: You Can Understand the Bible: Study Guide Commentary Series by Bob Utley
Gen 9:8-10. And God spake unto Noah, and to his sons with him, sayings, And I, behold, I establish my covenant with you, and with your seed after you; 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.
Happy fowls, and happy cattle, and happy beasts of the earth to be connected with Noah, and go to come under a covenant of preservation and we, though only worthy to be typified by these creatures which God had preserved in the ark, are thrice happy to be in the same covenant with him who is our Noah, our rest, our sweet savour unto God.
Gen 9:11-17. And I will establish my covenant with you; neither shall all flesh be cut off any more by the waters of a flood; neither shall there any more be a flood to destroy the earth. 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: I do set my bow in the cloud, and it shall be for a token for a covenant between me and the earth. And it shall come to pass, when I bring a cloud over the earth, that the bow shall be seen in the cloud. 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. And the bow shall be in the cloud; and I will look upon it,
What a wonderful expression that is! It is similar to that remarkable declaration of Jehovah, recorded in Exo 12:13. When I see the blood, I will pass over you. The blood was not to be sprinkled inside the house where the Israelites might be comforted by a sight of it, but outside the house, where only God could see it. It is for our sake that the rainbow is set in the cloud, and we can see it there; yet infinite mercy represents it as being there as a refreshment to the memory of God: The bow shall be in the cloud; and I will look upon it,-
Gen 9:16. That I may remember the everlasting covenant between God and every living creature of all flesh that is upon the earth.
So, when my eye of faith is dim, and I cannot see the covenant sign, I will remember that there is an eye which never can be dim, which always sees the covenant token; and so I shall still be secure notwithstanding the dimness of my spiritual vision. For our comfort, we must see it; but for our safety, blessed be God, it is only needful that he should see it.
Gen 9:17. 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.
Now let us read what the Lord says, through the prophet Isaiah, concerning this covenant.
This exposition consisted of readings from Gen 8:20-22; Gen 9:8-17; and Isa 54:1-10.
Fuente: Spurgeon’s Verse Expositions of the Bible
saying
(See Scofield “Gen 8:21”) See Scofield “Gen 9:1”
Fuente: Scofield Reference Bible Notes
Reciprocal: Gen 15:18 – made
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
THE NOAHIC COVENANT
And God spake unto Noah, and to his sons with him, saying, And I, behold, I establish my covenant with you, and with your seed after you.
Gen 9:8-9
To understand this covenant, consider what thoughts would have been likely to grow up in the minds of Noahs children after the Flood. Would they not have been something of this kind? God does not love men. He has drowned all but us, and we are men of like passions with the world that perished; may we not expect the like ruin at any moment? Then what use to plough and sow, and build and plant, and work for those who shall come after us? Let us eat and drink, for to-morrow we die.
I. The covenant God made with Noah was intended to remedy every one of the temptations into which Noahs childrens children would have been certain to fall, and into which so many of them did fall.They might have become reckless from fear of a flood at any moment. God promises them, and confirms it with the sign of the rainbow, never again to destroy the earth by water. They would have been likely to take to praying to the rain and thunder, the sun and the stars. God declares in this covenant that it is He alone who sends the rain and thunder, that He brings the clouds over the earth, that He rules the great awful world; that men are to look up and believe in God as a loving and thinking Person, who has a will of His own, and that a faithful and true and loving and merciful will; that their lives and safety depend not on blind chance or the stern necessity of certain laws of nature, but on the covenant of an almighty and all-loving Person.
II. This covenant tells us that we are made in Gods likeness, and therefore that all sin is unworthy of us and unnatural to us.It tells us that God means us bravely and industriously to subdue the earth and the living things upon it; that we are to be the masters of the pleasant things about us, and not their slaves, as sots and idlers are; that we are stewards or tenants of this world for the great God who made it, to whom we are to look up in confidence for help and protection.
Canon Kingsley.
Illustration
This is the first mention in the Bible of a covenant made by God with man. It has been pointed out recently, in an able paper, that we must be careful not to lay too much stress on the human side in the covenants which God is represented as making with man; the predominant idea being rather the divine side, the promises and gifts of God. We need only to peruse Gen 9:8-17 to see how remarkably this idea holds good here. The emphasis laid on the personal pronoun I: I, for my part, establish, etc., does indeed point back to certain obligations enforced on men, but the account given of the covenant is an account of a promise. Speaking generally, the word covenant is the standing designation of a friendly relation between God and men, originating in Gods loving kindness. The animals, domesticated (= cattle) and wild (= beasts of the earth), have shared in mans overthrow. The covenant, therefore, which is made with man is, through him, made with them (cf. Rom 8:19-22). The Greek Bible omits every beast of the earth, as though there were something unfitting in the inclusion of wild animals in the covenant, but Holy Scripture never fails to represent the whole creation as His care. It is to be remembered that the word rendered ark does not mean a ship but a chest, as, in fact, ark itself does, for it is but our way of spelling the Latin arca, a chest or box. And we must also note that the phrase I will establish My covenant denotes the perpetuation of a covenant already, at least in idea, existing, rather than the formation of one altogether new.
Fuente: Church Pulpit Commentary
The Noahic Covenant was a suzerainty treaty that God made with humankind through Noah. [Note: See note on 6:18.] In it He promised never to destroy all flesh with a flood of water again (Gen 9:11). The sign God appointed to remind people of this promise and to guarantee its veracity was the rainbow (Gen 9:12-15; cf. Gen 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." [Note: Franz Delitzsch, A New Commentary on Genesis , 1:289-90.]
"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." [Note: Ross, "Genesis," p. 40.]
This covenant would remain for "all successive generations" (Gen 9:12). People have no responsibility to guarantee the perpetuity of this covenant; God will do all that He promised (Gen 9:9). Observe the recurrence of "I," "Myself," and "My" in these verses. Thus, this covenant is unconditional (Gen 9:9), universal (Gen 9:11), and everlasting (Gen 9:12). [Note: See Thomas, pp. 89-93.]
"What distinguishes the Noahic [Covenant] 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." [Note: Mathews, p. 62.]
"The covenant with Noah [Gen 6:18; Gen 9:9-16] 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." [Note: Walvoord, pp. 188-89.]
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 (Gen 9:5-6; cf. Rom 13:1-7). God promised not to judge humanity again with a universal flood (Gen 8:21; Gen 9:11-16), and He confirmed the established order of nature (Gen 8:22; Gen 9:2). God now permitted people to eat animal flesh, evidently for the first time (Gen 9:3-4). God announced that Canaan’s descendants would be servants to their brethren (Gen 9:25-26), Shem’s descendants would enjoy a special relationship to the Lord (Gen 9:26-27), and Japheth’s descendants would become enlarged races (Gen 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 (Gen 1:28) and God’s promise to bless ’all peoples on the earth’ through Abraham (Gen 12:1-3)." [Note: Sailhamer, "Genesis," p. 93.]