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 were also given the meat of animals as food.
3. Before the Flood, God had no instructions on what to do when a person was killed. (Recall that when Cain murdered his brother Abel, God simply sent him away from society.) But now, God said that whether a man or an animal kills a man, 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.
4. 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 God 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 are not just events of the past 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. We also see rainbows in the sky.
God wants us to know how all these things came to be. In recording the Bible for us, God wants us to know real history and truth.
Let us thank Him for being a God who communicates with us and who wants us to understand the world we live in.