A restart (Genesis 9:1-17)

Noah, his family, and all the animals have left the ark.  God restarts the world through Noah and tells Noah and his family to "be fruitful and increase in number".  In fact, God gives this instruction twice, once in verse 1 and again in verse 7.  This is similar to the instruction that mankind received in 1:28.

God seems to make a few changes regarding the relationships between man and nature.  The fact that God specifies shows a potential contrast with either the antediluvian situation, the state of life for Noah in the last year while in the ark, or both.

Although God speaks to Noah, we can extrapolate this to mean God speaks to all humanity since Noah is now the father of all future generations.


1.  Animals
Two things happens with animals.  They are given the fear of people and as a corollary, God gives all animals to eat.

a.  Fear of people
The fear of people is placed into the heart of animals.  (v. 2)  This does not mean that animals will refrain from attacking or injuring people.  Rather, it means both that wild animals will try to avoid humans and that humans will have an easier time domesticating animals since they will have a natural respect for humans.

Humans are not the natural prey of any vertebrate animal.  I must specify "vertebrate" because we are the natural prey of microscopic organisms, such as the plasmodia that cause malaria.  I don't think this text addresses it.  But if an animal can feel fear or has a neural network, then it will fear humans.

This is one of those things that perhaps indicate what was very about the antediluvian situation.  If God indicates this after the Flood, then perhaps it did not exist prior to the Flood.  Or, if it did exist, it may have been corrupted.  If so, it may indicate what 6:11 means in that the "earth was corrupt in God's sight and full of violence.". Perhaps humanity was prey to animals.


b.  A fully carnivorous mankind
Man is given animals to eat, all animals.  (v. 2-3)  There are no restrictions here with regard to species, rather it is analogous to plants.  The only restriction is regard to blood, which I will discuss separately.

Why state this?

It is a sharp contrast to the flight from Eden by Adam and Eve, where there is no indication they are allowed to eat animals.  The only thing they were given to eat was plants.

Now, we can infer that they do start eating animals because God clothes them with animal skins (3:21) and in chapter 4, their son Abel is a shepherd and sacrifices one of his flock to God (v. 2-4).  But these are inferential whereas the case with Noah is explicit.

I think it also has something to do with the notion that perhaps the community on the ark was vegetarian during that year.  It certainly fits the pattern of re-creating Creation Week, but really, if the purpose of the ark was for mankind to protect animals, it would not make sense then to eat them.


2.  The special case with blood
God has special things about blood.

* Eating the lifeblood
Noah is told not to eat any meat that has its lifeblood in it.  (v. 5).  Looking ahead to the Mosaic code, it is a little different.  Note, this is not the same as "do not eat blood that has been drained".  The notion of "blood pudding" comes to mind, or also meat that has the blood removed by cooking.  Putting this together, God is saying, "do not eat, raw, bloody meat".

Going back to the notion about the microbes, cooking meat and avoiding it raw and bloody is good to avoid microbes.

* Accounting for blood
There are two aspects of this.  First, animals that draw human blood will be accounted for.  It is common practice today to put to death domestic animals that have attacked humans.  Likewise, animal control officials try to find and kill wild animals that have a "taste for human blood".  They are both aberrant to nature.

The second aspect is that people who kill another human must be accounted for with their own blood.  (v. 6).  There is no stated exception here for accidental murder, which we call "manslaughter".  Actually, taken literally, it justifies revenge killing for both intended and accidental murders.

We will find later in Mosaic Code an assortment of rules on how to deal with this, including safe cities of refuge for manslaughter.

It also stands as a stark contrast to the situation of Cain who was punished for his murdering Abel as a cursed farmer, and not killed himself (4:12-15).  Likewise, we do not exactly know what, if any, punishment Lamech received for killing a young man.  (4:23-24)

The statement by God could also be another solution to the antediluvian problem of violence (6:11).

Finally, given the phraseology of "accounting of blood" for shedding blood, one might wonder if it is appropriate to continue the death penalty after the death and resurrection of Christ.  If Christ's blood was shed for all and for all sins, then Christ's blood accounts for the blood of murderers.  Perhaps, the death penalty is now obsolete by the death of Christ.


3.  The Rainbow
Noah is probably shell-shocked from this whole Flood experience.  God promises him, every living creature with him (I.e., all nature), and all generations to come, to not do it again.

As a sign of this covenant, God creates rainbows in the clouds.

Let's consider the rainbow.

Scientifically, rainbows are formed from the separation of light through water in the air.  The moisture acts as a prism and separates light.  In other words, in order for a rainbow to form, there must be moisture in the air.  Enough moisture will cause rain or at least condensation.

The covenant by God, as indicated by the rainbow, means that even if there is moisture in the air, the entire earth will not be flooded with water.

This makes the rainbow an interesting accompaniment of rain clouds.  We can look to rainbows amidst rain clouds and know that particular rain cloud, nor any others, will flood entire the earth.

The only other rainbow I am aware of in the entire Bible occurs in Revelations 4:3.  Specifically, the throne of heaven is surrounded by a rainbow that resembles an emerald.  So, a rainbows signifies the power of God.

If we import this concept back into this covenant with Noah (and all and nature), then we can something else about the rainbow with rain clouds.  When we see a rainbow, it is like we can all look into heaven and see the throne of God holding back the waters of the flood.

The covenant and Global Climate Change
One final thing about the rainbow and more particularly about the covenant that God makes.  This regards global warming and climate change.  Some Christians look to this covenant by God to state that global warming and the associated ice melting and rising sea levels will not happen because of this covenant in Genesis 9.

I think that is a fundamental misunderstanding of the models and predictions of global climate change.  I have not seen any models or theories that the entire earth will be flooded.   Prohibition of the entire earth being flooded again is what the covenant of Genesis 9 pertains to.

The rainbow covenant is silent about regional flooding catastrophes.  We see plenty of regional flooding catastrophes each year.  Clearly, the rainbow covenant does not stop regional flooding catastrophes.

The models of global warming and climate change predict more regional flooding catastrophes.  This is something that should concern us all, regardless of the rainbow covenant.