Starting Over Series

September 28, 2024

We ended last time by briefly discussing the covenant sign of the rainbow. This morning we are going to begin by looking at the Covenant itself.

The Covenant God made with Noah and his descendants is the first formal covenant described in the Old Testament.

In the Hebrew language, one of the words for Covenant is “Berit.” This type of Covenant is a sacred agreement, initiated by God, that holds spiritual and moral significance and establishes a mutual commitment between God and His people. It reflects God’s love and faithfulness and serves as a framework outlining the rights, responsibilities, and promises of the parties involved. The difference with the Covenant God initiates with Noah is its scope:

1st – God blessed Noah and his family and instructed them to re-populate the earth – that instruction will be repeated in v. 7. This is the same command God gave to Adam and Eve in Genesis 1:28.

2nd – God gave detailed instructions regarding diet:

• All animal life will fear you – they are given into your hand.

• Everything that lives and moves will be food for you – However, you must not eat meat that still has the blood in it. This instruction foreshadows the dietary instructions God will give to Israel in Leviticus 11:1-31 and 17:10-14.

3rd – God outlined the consequences of murder – the shedding of innocent blood:

• Genesis 9:5-6 – “And for your lifeblood I will surely demand an accounting. I will demand an accounting from every animal. And from each man, too, I will demand an accounting for the life of his fellow man. Whoever sheds the blood of man, by man shall his blood be shed; for in the image of God has God made man.”

Again, foreshadowing the instructions he will give to Israel requiring the punishment for a crime correspond to the nature of the crime – Exodus 21:24; Leviticus 24:20; Numbers 35:9-15; Deuteronomy 4:41-43; 19:1-13.

Genesis 9:8-13 - Then God said to Noah and to his sons with him: "I now establish my covenant with you and with your descendants after you and with every living creature that was with you ----- Never again will all life be cut off by the waters of a flood; never again will there be a flood to destroy the earth…. This is the sign of the covenant I am making between me and you and every living creature with you, a covenant for all generations to come: I have set my rainbow in the clouds, and it will be the sign of the covenant between me and the earth.”

Life resumed on planet earth….. Will the future be different from the past?

Before diving into the next story, we are given a brief genealogy that of Noah, his three sons, Shem, Ham and Japheth, and one grandson – Canaan.

The Bible tells us Noah was a man of the soil and he that went about planting a vineyard. On average it takes about 3 years for a newly planted grapevine to produce its first crop of grapes – so obviously, some time has passed.

The story continues by telling us that upon drinking some of the wine, Noah got drunk and lay naked in his tent. What happens next adds to Noah’s shame – Ham walks in. There is some debate here amongst scholars: Some suggest that Ham simply walked in – walked right back out but then gossiped to his brothers about what he had seen. Others suggest that Ham actually did something to Noah of a sexual nature. Whatever the case, after Ham blabbed, his brother’s took a cloak walked backward into Noah’s tent and covered him.

Genesis 9:24-27 - When Noah awoke from his wine and found out what his youngest son had done to him, he said, "Cursed be Canaan! The lowest of slaves will he be to his brothers." He also said, "Blessed be the LORD, the God of Shem! May Canaan be the slave of Shem. May God extend the territory of Japheth; may Japheth live in the tents of Shem, and may Canaan be his slave."

Noah’s curse has caused us some problems. Why curse Ham’s son and not Ham himself? There is no easy answer, however, the situation might become clearer as we trace the decedents of Canaan (the Canaanites) and their critical future interaction with the Children of Israel who were descended from Shem.

• Ellen White (PP 117.2-118.2) - Noah, speaking by divine inspiration, foretold the history of the three great races to spring from these fathers of mankind. Tracing the descendants of Ham, through the son rather than the father, he declared, "Cursed be Canaan; a servant of servants shall he be unto his brethren." The unnatural crime of Ham declared that filial reverence had long before been cast from his soul, and it revealed the impiety and vileness of his character. These evil characteristics were perpetuated in Canaan and his posterity, whose continued guilt called upon them the judgments of God….. The posterity of Canaan descended to the most degrading forms of heathenism. Though the prophetic curse had doomed them to slavery, the doom was withheld for centuries. God bore with their impiety and corruption until they passed the limits of divine forbearance. Then they were dispossessed, and became bondmen to the descendants of Shem and Japheth….. As a rule, children inherit the dispositions and tendencies of their parents, and imitate their example; so that the sins of the parents are practiced by the children from generation to generation. Thus the vileness and irreverence of Ham were reproduced in his posterity, bringing a curse upon them for many generations….