The Devotional Journey: Bible Reading 6

Yahweh makes a covenant with mankind

Read Genesis 9:1–29.

After the Flood, Yahweh gave new information and instructions to Noah and his descendants.

1. Before the Flood, animals were not afraid of mankind. But now, land animals, birds and sea creatures would be afraid of mankind.

2. Before the Flood, God gave mankind plants as food. But now, mankind was also given the meat of animals as food.

3. Before the Flood, God had no instructions on what to do when a person was murdered. (Recall that when Cain murdered his brother Abel, God simply sent him away from society.) But now, Yahweh said that whether a human or an animal kills a person, the killer must lose their life. Why? All humans are made in the image of Yahweh. If someone kills an image of God, God demands that the killer’s life be forfeited as well. This was the beginning of capital punishment. God was saying that murder was such a serious crime that the only appropriate punishment was for the killer to forfeit their life.

4. Because capital punishment was serious, the guilt of the murderer had to be properly established. This meant that capital punishment was to be responsibly exercised by a civil authority, that is, by civil governments. Governments are God’s idea and the role of governments is to restrain or limit evil in a fallen world. Governments are to punish all who murder by taking away the murderer’s life. Civil governments are known as the fourth divine institution.

Then Yahweh did something really fascinating. He made a contract with all mankind. The God of the Bible is the only God who makes contracts with man. No other religion has a god who makes contracts with mankind. In the contract, Yahweh promised no more global floods. And He also promised in Genesis 8:22 that He would maintain the stability of the planet so that it would have regular seasons and food production would continue to be possible.

And then He signed the contract with His signature: the rainbow. Every time someone looks up and sees the rainbow, they would be reminded that Yahweh had a made a promise never to destroy the world with another global flood.

Why would the Creator-God of the universe bother to lower Himself to man’s level and tie Himself to mankind with a contract? Because He wants people to know that He is a God whose words have meaning. He is a trustworthy God whose promises can be relied on. And He is a God who is deeply concerned with the creatures He has created—mankind.

But God also recorded a sinful incident that happened to Noah’s family after the Flood. Noah got drunk and ended up sleeping naked in his tent. And then Ham saw what happened and mocked his father. This incident showed that even though Noah and his family believed in God and were saved from the Flood, they were still sinful, fallen people.

This early history of the world is not just a series of past events that have no relation to us. Rather, there are consequences from these events that affect us. Today, animals are afraid of mankind; people eat meat; nations have governments; and the death penalty or capital punishment exists in some countries to deter serious crimes. We also see rainbows in the sky.

And all humans on earth today are descendants of Noah and his family. This means that even though there are many people groups on earth today, all of us can trace our family lines back to one family—Noah’s family. We are all members of the same extended family even if we speak different languages, have different cultures and look different from one another. We are all image bearers of God.

God wants us to know how the world today came to be. In recording the Bible for us, God wants us to know real history and truth. And till today, we can see that there has never been another global flood that destroyed all the peoples of the world. Yahweh is actively keeping His covenant. Though He signed that contract more than 4,000 years ago, He still keeps His word. He is showing He and His words are trustworthy. This gives us confidence that we can trust the Bible.

Let us thank Him for being a God who communicates with us and who wants us to understand the world we live in.