Chapter 9
2 The fear of you and the dread of you shall be upon every beast of the earth and upon every bird of the heavens, upon everything that creeps on the ground and all the fish of the sea. Into your hand they are delivered. [Gen 9:2 ESV]
After the flood, animals and birds fear man. They did not before. If it fears us, it is delivered to us. Interesting that this same thing holds true when Israel invades Canaan later. God puts fear into the residents of Canaan, and Israel easily overcomes them.
Every moving thing that lives shall be food for you. And as I gave you the green plants, I give you everything.
Genesis 9:3 ESV
This was also new. No meat eaten before. If the animals - the great big carnivores - were not given this natural fear of man, then the struggle might have been severe for dominance. Prior to the flood, man was to "tend the earth". He lived in perfect peace with all the animals, because they were not competitors for food. They didn't eat each other, and there were plenty of seeds and fruit. It will be that way again at the end. Man and animals will be at peace. Likely, we will "tend" them again. 2021 - Plants would likely not have produced enough food quickly enough for Noah and his family to survive on plants alone. Perhaps this was part of why they were to eat animals. And if we read this right, since it said earlier the clean animals were in sevens for food, it was probably a pretty close call for them to make it until the first crop came in. I would guess that the whole family stuck pretty close together for a year or a few years.
But you shall not eat flesh with its life, that is, its blood.
Genesis 9:4 ESV
I thought this rule was Mosaic law, but here it is way before Moses. Or as with clean and unclean, Moses projected backwards when he wrote...This is a difficult question to reconcile.
5 And for your lifeblood I will require a reckoning: from every beast I will require it and from man. From his fellow man I will require a reckoning for the life of man. 6 "Whoever sheds the blood of man, by man shall his blood be shed, for God made man in his own image. [Gen 9:5-6 ESV]
Anything that kills man will owe a debt to God. Capital punishment here. As with Cain and Abel, the murder of a man, or maybe even the accidental killing of man by man, will be avenged by God. 2021 - Not sure how to read this. A reckoning from animals that kill men? Lions still kill men, even today. I have no idea how this reckoning works. One ought to be ready to address this question.
The Noahic Covenant Stated specifically:
9 "Behold, I establish my covenant with you and your offspring after you, 10 and with every living creature that is with you, the birds, the livestock, and every beast of the earth with you, as many as came out of the ark; it is for every beast of the earth. 11 I establish my covenant with you, that never again shall all flesh be cut off by the waters of the flood, and never again shall there be a flood to destroy the earth." [Gen 9:9-11 ESV]
This looks like an unconditional covenant. No requirements for Noah himself or his family or his descendants are listed. There has not been a worldwide flood since that time. There are still rainbows. This covenant is between God, mankind, and creatures, and is still in force - still kept - by God. But this covenant only had that one thing. This is ONLY about no more complete destruction by water.
2024 - There were no rainbows before the flood. It could not be such a sign if it was already ho-hum. The rainbow was "invented" after the flood. Another sign of a significant change in the environment...perhaps even in the properties of light itself.
From MSB notes on vs 16 regarding covenants in the Bible:
This covenant with Noah is the first of 5 divinely originated covenants in Scripture explicitly described as "everlasting." The other 4 include:
1) Abrahamic (Ge 17:7), 2) Priestly (Nu 25:10-13, 3) Davidic (2Sa 23:5), 4) New (Jer 32:40). The term "everlasting" can mean either 1) to the end of time and/or 2) through eternity future. It never looks back to eternity past. Of the 6 explicitly mentioned covenants of this kind in Scripture, only the Mosaic, or Old Covenant was nullified.
So four are listed here, Noahic makes five, and Mosaic is the 6th. I have seen the Mosaic labelled "abolished", God "divorced" Israel. But I cannot remember where the Mosaic was ever called "everlasting". Further, I believe some or all of the Mosaic will be re-instituted during the Millennial.
Lest their be any doubt about where science should look for origins, there is this verse:
19 These three were the sons of Noah, and from these the people of the whole earth were dispersed. [Gen 9:19 ESV]
The story takes a bit of an odd turn here:
20 Noah began to be a man of the soil, and he planted a vineyard. 21 He drank of the wine and became drunk and lay uncovered in his tent. [Gen 9:20-21 ESV]
So Noah was first a herder, then a ship builder, and only now turns to farming? MSB implies that fermentation did not exist pre-flood. Noah got drunk because he had no experience with alcohol perhaps. It may have made him do things he would not ordinarily have done. Just like it does today.
Somehow, Noah ended up naked in his tent, and Ham saw him. Seeing someone naked was obviously a HUGE deal at this time and in the "culture" - which was just Noah's family. (Where did babies come from? Total darkness?) Because he saw, even inadvertently, and even though Noah's own actions led to it, Ham was cursed forever, as were his descendants. Ham's people settled in Canaan, and it is the Canaanites that are later driven out to make room for the sons of Shem - the Semites, the Jews, the Nation of Israel.
2021 - This verse:
25 he said, "Cursed be Canaan; a servant of servants shall he be to his brothers." [Gen 9:25 ESV] Noah is talking to Ham, but calls him Canaan. What is that about? The servant part may have been a family thing, not an everlasting thing. It is odd to me. Cush and Egypt both become world powers, though descended from Ham. Maybe it is best not to read in too awfully many long term consequences of this. Maybe it lasted only a lifetime. I don't see how you could claim it had any currently ongoing consequences. MSB notes say this is the basis for the "legal" conquest of Canaan by the Shemite descendants after Israel is freed from slavery. Interesting that they were in captivity in a land settled by Ham's descendants, and then it is Ham's descendants in Canaan - one of Ham's sons - who are conquered and driven out by Israel. The roots of this are very deep, but I finally have an understanding of why Canaan belonged to Shem's descendants. This, in addition to, and pre-dating the occultism and idol worship that later permeated Canaan. Japheth would also seem to be "subject to" the descendants of Shem, as Japheth would live in the tents of Shem, worship Shem's God, and so on. Shem was also the oldest, and Ham was the youngest. So the order of these things is the natural order as most think of it.
Noah lived to be 950. He and his sons were all born pre-flood, and Noah lived 350 years after the flood.