Genesis 9:1-15

Ge 9:1

And God blessed Noah and his sons, and said unto them, Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth.

For thus saith the LORD that created the heavens; God himself that formed the earth and made it; he hath established it, he created it not in vain, he formed it to be inhabited: I am the LORD; and there is none else. (Isaiah 45:18)  Then once Noah and his family left the ark God told them to be fruitful, multiply and to replenish the earth.  They were to begin the repopulation of the entire earth just as Isaiah 45:18 teaches that the LORD created the earth to be inhabited.

Ge 9:2

And the fear of you and the dread of you shall be upon every beast of the earth, and upon every fowl of the air, upon all that moveth upon the earth, and upon all the fishes of the sea; into your hand are they delivered.

Before the fall into sin Adam and Eve had great relationship with the animals since they were not hostile because sin had not entered the world.  In this verse we are taught that the relationship has changed.  Now the animals will fear man and they will dread man, in other words, the animals will run from man and will not have the same attitude toward him.  God had restored partially the dominion man has over the animals and the birds and the insects and here he includes the fish of the sea.  Man will now kill animals for food such as cattle or fish and the animals will have to be caught as in a trap because they will now move about in fear of man.  Thou madest him to have dominion over the works of thy hands; thou hast put all things under his feet: (Psalm 8:6) 

Ge 9:3

Every moving thing that liveth shall be meat for you; even as the green herb have I given you all things.

Before the fall man had eaten fruits and vegetables but now the LORD has included meat in the diet of man.  He shall eat meat as he does the herbs.  In the future, God will outline what meats can be eaten under the law and what cannot since they would be considered unclean.

Ge 9:4

But flesh with the life thereof, which is the blood thereof, shall ye not eat.

Since the blood represented life, before they ate the meat from an animal they were to drain out all the blood.  For the life of the flesh is in the blood: and I have given it to you upon the altar to make an atonement for your souls: for it is the blood that maketh an atonement for the soul. (Leviticus 17:11)  The blood would be a representation of the blood which the Lord Jesus Christ would shed upon Calvary.

Ge 9:5

And surely your blood of your lives will I require; at the hand of every beast will I require it, and at the hand of man; at the hand of every man's brother will I require the life of man.

In the first phrase of this verse we read that God is setting up prohibitions concerning the murderous shedding of blood of man and of beasts.  If a man kills another man then God is stating that he must give his own life for the deed.  This includes a beast who kills a human.  Many times we have heard that when an animal gores a person, that animal is normally put to death.  In the last phrase of this verse we read that if a man murders another man, then that man is to pay the ultimate price by means of his own life and the family of that man would be permitted to carry out the sentence.  In this verse God is stating the importance of human life since God created man in his own image and must now impose serious penalties for such crimes.

Ge 9:6

Whoso sheddeth man's blood, by man shall his blood be shed: for in the image of God made he man.

This is the punishment for murder which is considered a capital crime.  It required capital punishment which is the forfeiting of the life of the perpetrator of the crime.  This would normally be done by the government in that area where the crime was committed.  In many countries, capital punishment has been done away with and instead life in prison has been substituted for it.  God takes murder so seriously that he requires the committer of the crime to pay with his own life.

Ge 9:7

And you, be ye fruitful, and multiply; bring forth abundantly in the earth, and multiply therein.

Then God repeats an earlier command to be fruitful, that is, bear many children, and they will continue to multiply upon the earth and abundantly populate it.  So many today speak about over population and here the LORD is telling man to be abundant in bringing forth the people to populate the earth.  Today the billionaires want to exterminate 90% of the people on earth so they can live in a utopian environment.  What fools they are!

Ge 9:8

And God spake unto Noah, and to his sons with him, saying,

Then God spoke directly again to Noah and his sons.

Ge 9:9

And I, behold, I establish my covenant with you, and with your seed after you;

The covenant God made with Noah concerning the fact that he would never destroy the earth by water again is repeated here but now God extends that to the descendants of Noah.  The covenant here may also have an inkling of the covenant of grace since Noah was in the Messianic line leading up to the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ who is also called a seed.  Now to Abraham and his seed were the promises made. He saith not, And to seeds, as of many; but as of one, And to thy seed, which is Christ. (Galatians 3:16)

Ge 9:10

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.

God now include the animals in the covenant that he will never destroy the earth by water which means the lives of all the land animals, the birds, and all the insects will never be slain in that manner again.  This was the great promise God made to the animals as well as Noah even if the animals did not understand.  There are many who are not saved and they enjoy the benefits of that covenant.  That ye may be the children of your Father which is in heaven: for he maketh his sun to rise on the evil and on the good, and sendeth rain on the just and on the unjust. (Matthew 5:45)  The unbelievers enjoy the same benefits of the creation that we do, whether it be rain or sun.

Ge 9:11

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 God spells it out plainly that he promises that man will not be destroyed by a universal flood again and there will never again be a universal flood which will destroy the earth.  As stated previously, there will be local floods around the world but they will never change into a universal flood.  We see the power and damage a local flood can produce so it is not out of the question that a universal flood can cause total devastation.

Ge 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:

Then God states that he will give a symbol or token of the covenant which he made with Noah including all the living creatures and that symbol would be seen throughout all the future generations right up until the end of time.

Ge 9:13

I do set my bow in the cloud, and it shall be for a token of a covenant between me and the earth.

The token which God gives is the rainbow which shows God’s promise or covenant with the earth.  It unfortunate that in our day two evil groups have taken the colors of the rainbow and used it as their symbols: The New Age Movement and the Sodomites.  They have no idea what the rainbow represents but just like unbelievers who serve Satan, they want to change the meaning from what the Bible teaches and overshadow it with their evil sense.  Just like Halloween has overshadowed the Reformation.  How many Christians when asked the significance of October 31 will almost immediately mention Halloween?  Just like the Easter bunny overshadows the resurrection of Christ.  Just like Santa Claus has overshadowed the birth of Christ. 

Ge 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:

Then the rainbow in the clouds will be seen when there is a rainstorm and many times we see double rainbows.  I was once sitting in my car in a local park and a rain storm had come up and after the rainstorm had ended a rainbow appeared.  I was sitting directly across from the end of the rainbow as it touched the ground.  It was the only time in my life I ever saw a rainbow end close up.

Ge 9:15

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.