Genesis 9 - The Promise Continues
The rainbow is not a symbol of unlimited human freedom, but of God's gracious covenant.
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Genesis 9 (ESV)
1 And God blessed Noah and his sons and said to them,
“Be fruitful
and multiply
and fill the earth.
2 The fear of you and the dread of you
shall be upon every beast of the earth
and upon every bird of the heavens,
upon everything that creeps on the ground
and all the fish of the sea.
Into your hand they are delivered.
3 Every moving thing that lives shall be food for you.
And
as I gave you the green plants,
I give you everything.
4 But you shall not eat flesh
with its life,
that is, its blood.
5 And for your lifeblood I will require a reckoning:
from every beast I will require it
and from man.
From his fellow man
I will require a reckoning for the life of man.
6 “Whoever sheds the blood of man,
by man shall his blood be shed,
for God made man
in his own image.
7 And you,
be fruitful and multiply,
increase greatly on the earth
and multiply in it.”
8 Then God said to Noah and to his sons with him,
9 “Behold, I establish my covenant
with you
and your offspring after you,
10 and with every living creature that is with you,
the birds, the livestock,
and every beast of the earth with you,
as many as came out of the ark;
it is for every beast of the earth.
11 I establish my covenant with you,
that never again
shall all flesh
be cut off by the waters of the flood,
and never again shall there be a flood to destroy the earth.”
12 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,
for all future generations:
13 I have set my bow in the cloud,
and it shall be a sign of the covenant between me and the earth.
14 When
I bring clouds over the earth
and the bow is seen in the clouds,
15 I will remember my covenant that is between me
and you
and every living creature of all flesh.
And the waters shall never again become a flood to destroy all flesh.
16 When the bow is in the clouds,
I will see it
and remember the everlasting covenant
between God
and every living creature of all flesh that is on the earth.”
17 God said to Noah,
“This is the sign
of the covenant
that I have established
between me
and all flesh that is on the earth.”
18 The sons of Noah who went forth from the ark were
Shem,
Ham,
and Japheth.
(Ham was the father of Canaan.)
19 These three were the sons of Noah,
and from these the people of the whole earth were dispersed.
20 Noah began to be a man of the soil,
and he planted a vineyard.
21 He drank of the wine
and became drunk
and lay uncovered in his tent.
22 And Ham,
the father of Canaan,
saw the nakedness of his father
and told his two brothers outside.
23 Then Shem and Japheth
took a garment,
laid it on both their shoulders,
and walked backward
and covered the nakedness of their father.
Their faces were turned backward,