Genesis 8:14

The Bible says in Genesis 8:14-17, “And in the second month, on the seven and twentieth day of the month, was the earth dried. And God spake unto Noah, saying, Go forth of the ark, thou, and thy wife, and thy sons, and thy sons’ wives with thee. Bring forth with thee every living thing that is with thee, of all flesh, both of foul, and of cattle, and of every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth; that they may breed abundantly within the earth, and be fruitful, and multiply upon the earth.” God gave the human race a second chance. Notice the phrase that God uses in Genesis 8:17, “be fruitful, and multiply upon the earth.” This is the same thing that God said to Adam and Eve when He first created them. God said to Adam and Eve in Genesis 1:28, “Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth.”

God gave Noah and his descendents a new chance and a new start. God is like that. He forgives. His mercies are new every morning. The Bible says in Ezekiel 18:32, “For I have no pleasure in the death of him that dieth, saith the Lord God: wherefore turn yourselves and live.” God loves His creation, and it breaks His heart when He must bring judgment upon those whom He has created. Jesus did not come to judge the earth in His first coming. Jesus said, “The Son of man is come to seek and to save that which was lost.” One of the great things about being a believer in Jesus is the fact that He forgives and will continue to forgive the repentant soul. He will give us a new chance tomorrow even if we have failed today. “A bruised reed will He not break, and a smoking flax will He not quench.” “If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.”

The Bible says in Genesis 8:18-20, “And Noah went forth, and his sons, and his wife, and his sons’ wives with him: Every beast, every creeping thing, and every fowl, and whatsoever creepeth upon the earth, after their kinds, went forth out of the ark. And Noah builded an altar unto the LORD; and took of every clean beast, and of every clean fowl, and offered burnt offerings on the altar.” We already know that God required animal sacrifices from Adam and Eve, and from Cain and Abel. It became common knowledge that the offering of these animals had an important spiritual significance in being able to please God. Man is sinful. God is holy. Sins must be punished. Either you will pay the price for your sins, or a substitute must pay. The demands for holy justice must be met. That is why Jesus came into the world: to pay the price for sin. God is merciful, but He is also holy. There must be a sacrifice for sin because sin must be punished. Jesus offered Himself once for all as a sacrifice for the sins of the human race. Every human needs a Savior. All who believe in Him are saved.

Because a sacrifice for sin was made, the Bible says in Genesis 8:21-22, “And the LORD smelled a sweet savour, and the LORD said in his heart, I will not again curse the ground any more for man’s sake; for the imagination of man’s heart is evil from his youth; neither will I again smite any more every thing living, as I have done. While the earth remaineth, seedtime and harvest, and cold and heat, and summer and winter, and day and night shall not cease.” If God was pleased with the sacrifices offered by Noah and others in the Old Testament, then think how much He is pleased with the sacrifice that Christ has made on our behalf. It says in First John 1:7, “The blood of Jesus Christ his Son cleanseth us from all sin.” Those who have Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior know that God is pleased with them because of Christ. God loves His children because of Jesus and because of what Jesus did on the cross of Calvary.

When the LORD said, “While the earth remaineth, seedtime and harvest, and cold and heat, and summer and winter, and day and night shall not cease,” perhaps He was giving people an understanding of how life would be generation after generation. Summer will follow winter and winter will follow summer; year after year after year. No one should live in fear of some great catastrophe hitting the earth again and destroying all living creatures. It will not happen. If you want to know what will happen, then read the book of Revelation.

Jesus also told us of some events that would repeat year after year and generation after generation up until the end. Jesus said in Matthew 24:6-7, “And ye shall hear of wars and rumors of wars: see that ye be not troubled: for all these things must come to pass, but the end is not yet. For nation shall rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom: and there shall be famines, and pestilences, and earthquakes in divers places.”

The Bible says in Genesis 9:1, “And God blessed Noah and his sons, and said unto them, Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth.” This verse says that “God blessed Noah.” To be blessed means to be prospered on your way. When God blesses us, it means that He has good intentions towards us. Because Almighty God has good intentions towards us, it means that certain good things are going to happen to us. This is how to make sure that you are in a situation where God will bless you: 1. Believe the truth that God has something for everyone to do. 2. Be determined to follow God, and go His way to do His will. 3. Believe that God is pleased with us when we obey His will, and He blesses our efforts and He assures that our efforts bear fruit. There is always a blessing that results from following the Lord. We have work to do from Him, and we need His blessings on our efforts. When we abide in Christ, we bear fruit, because we have God’s blessings on our efforts. Jesus was teaching about this very idea in John chapter 15. He said in John 15:7-11, “If ye abide in me, and my words abide in you, ye shall ask what ye will, and it shall be done unto you. Herein is my Father glorified, that ye bear much fruit; so shall ye be my disciples. As the Father hath loved me, so have I loved you: continue ye in my love. If ye keep my commandments, ye shall abide in my love; even as I have kept my Father’s commandments, and abide in his love. These things have I spoken unto you, that my joy might remain in you, and that your joy might be full.”

God said to Noah in Genesis 9:2-3, “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. Every moving thing that liveth shall be meat for you; even as the green herb have I given you all things.” God makes it very clear that there is nothing wrong with eating meat. If you wish to be a vegetarian, you are free to do so, but do not ever think that being a vegetarian is a requirement for serving God. As a matter of fact the New Testament makes it clear that some false teachers will forbid marriage and will forbid the eating of meat. It says about false teachers in First Timothy 4:3-4, “Forbidding to marry, and commanding to abstain from meats, which God hath created to be received with thanksgiving of them which believe and know the truth. For every creature of God is good, and nothing to be refused, if it be received with thanksgiving.”

In Genesis 9:4 God did give one dietary restriction. God said, “But flesh with the life thereof, which is the blood thereof, shall ye not eat.” Many more dietary restrictions are given later on in the Old Testament. For example, many instructions about diet were given to the children of Israel in Deuteronomy 14:3-29. It appears that there was a practical reason for these restrictions. By restricting the Israelites from eating that which was called “unclean”, God was keeping the children of Israel from being exposed to certain diseases. For example, we understand the restriction in eating pork: trichinosis can come from eating pork. We understand the restriction on eating “any thing that dieth of itself,” as commanded in Deuteronomy 14:21. Who knows what disease that animal may have died from? We also know that many diseases are carried in the blood such as HIV and hepatitis in today’s world. So there is no doubt that someone who drinks blood has a very high risk of contracting a disease from it. Of course, we live in the New Testament period of time, and we have no restrictions from God on what we eat. We are free to make our own restrictions for what makes sense to us for a healthy life-style.

God commands the death penalty for murder in Genesis 9:5-6 that says, “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. Whoso sheddeth man’s blood, by man shall his blood be shed; for in the image of God made he man.” This is the law of retribution. It basically means that whatever you do to others, the same things will happen to you. That is one of the reasons that Jesus said that we should treat others the way that we wish to be treated. Jesus also said, “He that lives by the sword shall die by the sword.” Jesus also said in Matthew 7:2, “For with what judgment ye judge, ye shall be judged: and with what measure ye mete, it shall be measured to you again.” Anyone who murders another deserves to lose his own life. That is justice. That is the right thing to do. Life is precious. God gives life, and only God should take life; except in the situations where God has delegated authority to man: in war and through the legal system. Genesis 9:6 says that the death penalty is a just punishment because man was made in the image of God. Human life is precious to God, and it should also be precious to each human being. One of the reasons that God destroyed the world by the flood was because of the great violence that was on the earth. We live in a violent world today. The blood of those who have been murdered cries out from the ground and demands justice. There is One who hears and who knows, and the judgment will come. God hears and sees everything. No murder goes unhidden. A just judgment of all murderers will come.

The Bible says in Genesis 9:7-17, “And you, be ye fruitful, and multiply; bring forth abundantly in the earth, and multiply therein. And God spake unto Noah, and to his sons with him, saying, And I, behold, I establish my covenant with you, and with your seed after you; 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. 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. 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: I do set my bow in the cloud, and it shall be for a token of a covenant between me and the earth. And it shall come to pass, when I bring a cloud over the earth, that the bow shall be seen in the cloud: 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. And the bow shall be in the cloud; and I will look upon it, that I may remember the everlasting covenant between God and every living creature of all flesh that is upon the earth. And God said unto Noah, This is the token of the covenant, which I have established between me and all flesh that is upon the earth.”

The key word in the above verses is the word “covenant.” It is used seven times by God. It is the best kind of covenant because there are no conditions for man to fulfill. The covenant is based entirely upon the promise made by God. Human beings need this type of unconditional covenant because of how easily and how often we sin. This unconditional covenant has some similarities to the covenant (or testament) that is made with believers through Jesus Christ. This covenant brings God’s blessings instead of judgment and condemnation. God offers this unconditional covenant through faith in Jesus because of His great love. The Bible says in John 3:16, “For Go so loved the world, that He gave his only begotten son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.” The new covenant in Jesus Christ has similarities to the covenant made with Noah, and the new covenant in Jesus Christ also has similarities to the covenant made with David. The Bible says in Acts 13:32-34, “And we declare unto you glad tidings, how that the promise which was made unto the fathers, God hath fulfilled the same unto us their children, in that he hath raised up Jesus again; as it is also written in the second psalm, Thou art my son, this day have I begotten thee. And as concerning that he hath raised him up from the dead, now no more to return to corruption, he said on this wise, I will give you the sure mercies of David.” “The sure mercies of David” refer to the forgiveness that will be given to those who believe. These are “sure mercies.” Mercy is certain to be given. This is an unconditional promise that comes through Jesus Christ and because of Jesus.

Concerning the covenant that was made with Noah, there was something to look at and to think about as a reminder of the covenant: the rainbow. The fact that there had been no rainbow before the flood indicates that the atmosphere was much different at that time. God said that whenever we see the rainbow we can remember that He has made a promise about the future of the world. God created the world so that man would live in it and prosper. God told Noah in Genesis 9:7 “Bring forth abundantly in the earth.” Good things are going to happen because God is good. God established an unconditional covenant with Noah in Genesis 9:9, “I establish my covenant with you, and with your seed after you.” Believers should be very bold, very confident, and very positive. God has made many precious promises. God will provide. Jesus will guide. He will give grace and glory. It is no wonder that the Apostle Paul wrote in Philippians 4:13, “I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.”

___________________________________________________