Genesis Chapter 9

Genesis Chapter 9:1 “And God blessed Noah and his sons and said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth.”

Once Noah and his family moved out of the ark (he waited for God’s instruction, see last post) God told him to “fill the earth”.    There are other verses in the bible speaking favorably of having children and children being a blessing.  As a father of three wonderful girls I can tell you that a child is one of the greatest blessings one can receive! Later in the chapter, God states again (verse7) “As for you, be fruitful and multiply; Populate the earth abundantly and multiply in it.” It seems to me that God always intended for his children to populate the earth abundantly.  Because God created all things and knows all I trust that he create a world able to sustain his command for us to populate abundantly!

Genesis 9:4 “Every moving thing that is alive shall be food for you; I give all to you, as I gave the green plant.” Genesis Chapter 9:2-3 tells of how the “fear” of man will be on every beast of the earth, every bird, fish, ect.  In the above quoted scripture, God gives us the flesh of animals to supplement our diet.  However, verse 5 God instructed Noah to not eat the “lifeblood” of the animal (blood I am assuming).

Later in the chapter, God spoke to Noah and his sons and made a covenant with them.  God promised never to create a flood to destroy the earth.  Verse 13 “I set my bow in the cloud and it shall be for a sign of a covenant between Me and the earth.” God said later in verse 15 that He will “remember My covenant which is between Me and you and every living creature of all flesh;…”  Years ago when I first read this, I never look at rainbows the same way again.  What a beautiful creation and reminder!

The last part of the chapter Noah started farming and planting a vineyard.  I guess he drank too much of his own wine and became drunk and was naked inside of his tent.  Ham, father of Canaan saw Noah in this drunken state, naked inside the tent and instead of covering him up (he will pay for this in a minute) he told his brothers Shem and Japheth outside.  Shem and Japheth covered Noah by coming into the tent backwards so that would not see him in his naked state and respectfully covered him up.  Needless to say Noah woke up angry and said (Genesis 9:25) “So he said, Cursed be Canaan; A servant of servants. He shall be to his brothers.”

I will have to put a note to find out what happened to Canaan’s descendants as I read on.  If you have scriptures that you can cite that will help me please post them!