In Chapter (8), we found that Noah emerged out of the ark. God gave him the promise that as long as the earth remained, it would remain in its orbit; it would continue to spin upon its axis; there would be summer and winter; seedtime and harvest; day and night; and there would be cold and heat.
“And God blessed Noah and his sons, and said unto them, be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth.” (Gen.9:1).
Notice the command is to fill the earth. We will find in Chapter (11), a rebellion against that command as they decided to build a civilization and an urbanized community in the Plain of Shinar, the area of Babylon, but God’s command was to fill the earth.
“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.” (Gen.9:2).
So, again, God makes man ruler over the earth and the created things upon the earth.
“Every moving thing that liveth shall be meat for you; even as the green herb have I given you all things.” (Gen.9:3).
Prior to the “flood” man was a vegetarian, but here God allows man to eat meat.
“But flesh with the life thereof, which is the blood thereof, shall ye not eat.” (Gen.9:4).
God is giving man a respect for blood early in their history. Later on we will be told that the life of the flesh is in the blood and man is not to eat meat with blood. Of course, the Jewish people, to the present day, strictly follow this command. An orthodox Jew would not buy meat in a gentile butcher shop. They will only buy meat where it is certified “kosher;” which means, the Rabbi must observe the butchering process and make sure that the animals are thoroughly bled. This was later codified in the Law of Moses and was also carried over to the gentile believers in the New Testament. James, when dealing with the new gentile believers in Antioch, Syria and Cilicia said, “For it seemed good to the Holy Ghost, and to us, to lay upon you no greater burden than these necessary things; that ye abstain from meats offered to idols, and from blood and from things strangled, and from fornication; from which if ye keep yourselves, ye shall do well…” (Acts 15:28-29).
“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.” (Gen.9:5).
God is talking about the sacredness of life and he is establishing a new order or new law. When Cain killed his brother, God allowed Cain to live under a curse; but, no man was to take his life. God is now establishing human government with Noah. In the establishment of human government, He establishes capital punishment.
“Whoso sheddeth man’s blood, by man shall his blood be shed; for in the image of God made He man. And you, be ye fruitful, and multiply; bring forth abundantly in the earth, and multiply therein.” (Gen.9:6-7).
As we get further into the law, we will find God has set out the law for manslaughter. If you kill someone by accident, there would be a city of refuge for you to flee to and as long as you stay in that city the death can not be avenged. Capital punishment was established by God for premeditated murder early in the history of mankind.
“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.” (Gen.9:8-11).
There is, in certain quarters, argumentation that the flood was just a local flood in the Euphrates valley. There are many problems with that. Why would God have Noah spend 120 years building an ark to escape the flood if He could have just moved him over into the next valley? If the ark, indeed, rests on Mount Ararat, which is 17,000 feet high; it would be difficult to pile water that deep in one section of the world without it leveling out and covering the whole earth. The real problem lies in the covenant of God here in the ninth chapter of Genesis. If it was just a local flood and God promised He would never flood the earth again like he did here in Genesis; then God didn’t keep His promise. We have had many local floods and areas have been devastated; but, God’s covenant was that never again would a flood destroy the earth. We do know that God is going to destroy the earth again, but by fire not water.
“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.” (Gen.9:12-17).
God established His covenant with the Rainbow. After the flood the earth became watered by rain, but it did not rain prior to the flood. We know that the rainbows are caused by the prisms formed in the droplets of water with the background of a cloud and the sun shining on the water that is falling. It is a beautiful sight to behold and the rainbow should remind us of the faithfulness of God’s promise to Noah.
“And the sons of Noah, that went forth of the ark, were Shem, and Ham, and Japheth; and Ham is the father of Canaan. These are the three sons of Noah; and of them was the whole earth overspread.” (Gen.9:18-19).
We can all trace our lineage back to one of the three sons of Noah.
“And Noah began to be an husbandman,” (farmer) “…and he planted a vineyard; and he drank of the wine, and was drunken; and he was uncovered within his tent.” (Gen.9:20-21).
There are those who suggest that this was possibly an accident and that the juice or wine did not ferment prior to the flood. We do know that the cosmic radiation does cause a souring process in milk and if it is kept protected from the radiation it will keep for weeks. There is a suggestion that perhaps, prior to the flood, the juice did not ferment and after the canopy was removed from around the earth, a greater amount of radiation got through to the earth and caused a fermentation process and the juice turned to wine. There is no substantiation of this in scripture.
Now, Noah was uncovered in his tent and it doesn’t say how he got this way.
“And Ham, the father of Canaan, saw the nakedness of his father, and told his two brethren without.” (Gen.9:22).
The word “saw” in the Hebrew means to gaze intently. There are those who suggest that he gazed in a sensual way at his father’s nakedness and that there was a homosexual act committed against his father. This is again totally without scriptural substantiation. Verse 24, suggests that Ham did something, but whether it was a homosexual act or just making fun of his fathers nakedness, the Bible doesn’t say. The idea is probably the lack of showing respect toward his father. The patriarchal society was extremely strong. In the scripture the command was to honor your father and your mother and this act against his father was a dishonorable act. I believe that it was the disrespect that Ham had for his father and his fathers condition which was his sin.
When Ham went out and told his two brothers, they showed great respect.
“And Shem and Japheth took a garment, and laid it upon both their shoulders, and went backward, and covered the nakedness of their father; and their faces were backward, and they saw not their father’s nakedness.” (Gen.9:23).
It is interesting that God destroyed the earth with a flood, but sin was not destroyed. It was still a part of man’s nature and remains a part of man’s nature today.
The sin nature of man is manifested very early in life and it’s always a very shocking thing when we see sin manifested in our children. We talk about the innocence of children, but they can lie so convincingly. Did you have to teach your children to lie? No, you had to teach them to tell the truth. You have to train your children as they don’t come by the truth naturally. It is more natural for them to lie. If you had a handicap, would you rather be put in a room with grown adults or four year olds. The adults have learned to be kind and considerate towards the handicapped person, but children can be very cruel. Children would not have the mercy toward a child that is different. The sinful nature, unfortunately, survived the flood. Noah, although righteous in all his generations, came forth out of the ark and became drunken and lies around naked. The sinful nature is still there.
“And Noah awoke from his wine, and knew what his younger son had done unto him, and he said, cursed be Canaan; a servant of servants shall he be unto his brethren. And he said, Blessed be the LORD God of Shem; and Canaan shall be his servant. God shall enlarge Japheth, and he shall dwell in the tents of Shem; and Canaan shall be his servant.” (Gen.9:24-27).
As we get into Chapter (11), and we find the various nations that are descended from Noah; we will find that this is a prophesy of Noah. One of the worst perversions of scripture is that fallacy that the curse upon Canaan was that he was to become black and thus the black people are a servant race. That is not scriptural but a perversion that was developed by those men engaged in the slave trade in order to assuage their consciences over the vile thing that they were doing. The descendants of Canaan were the ancient Phoenicians who, at one time, were one of the strongest and most powerful people on the earth. It is also true that the Egyptians and Africans were descendants of Ham but that they should be the servant class is a fallacy and not scriptural at all. The word implies that these would be the people who would bring to man many of the advances in the fields of technology. They would be of service to mankind is really the idea.
Noah blesses the LORD God of Shem and so we get the idea that from Shem would come Abraham and the Hebrew people and the line to Jesus Christ.
“And Noah lived after the flood three hundred and fifty years.” (Gen.9:28).
Now here we have a blank of 350 years. This is the last we hear of Noah that he was drunk and when he gains consciousness he curses his grandson, Canaan, for the sin of Ham. An interesting fact is that Noah lived for 58 years of Abraham’s life. It is quite possible that Abraham could have heard the story of the flood from Noah, himself. According to the scriptures, Noah was about the third in longevity of the antediluvians and even though he lived after the flood when the canopy was removed from the earth; the decreasing of longevity seemed to be a gradual decline in their life spans.
“And all the days of Noah were nine hundred and fifty years; and he died.” (Gen.9:29).
A quiet time of 350 years. Now, if you transport that to the present time, it would indicate a gap of history. If you went back 350 years from the present date to 1641, that would represent a big gap in history not to be recorded. That would take you back before the birth of our nation if you had that kind of a gap. So, it is quite a long gap in the space of history.
As we get into Chapter (10), this chapter is commonly known as the “Table of Nations.
“We see how the three sons of Noah became the progenitors of the various nations of people. “Now these are the generations of the sons of Noah, Shem, Ham, and Japheth; and unto them were sons born after the flood.” (Gen.10:1).
This genealogy was probably compiled by Shem, in that, he only followed the descendants of his two brothers until the time of Babel when the nations were divided. From the genealogies of Ham and Japheth, we get the ethnic origins of the different nations.
“The sons of Japheth; Gomer, and Magog, and Madai, and Javan, and Tubal, and Meshech, and Tiras, and the sons of Gomer; Ashkenaz, and Riphath, and Togarmah, and the sons of Javan; Elishah, and Tarshish, Kittim, and Dodanim. By these were the isles of the Gentiles divided in their lands; every one after his tongue, after their families, in their nations.” (Gen.10:2-5).
Gomer was the progenitor of the Germanic people. From Magog came the Scythians and the Russian origins. Basically the sons of Japheth were the progenitors of what are known as the Indo-European nations. If you have a European type background, it is probable that you are a descendant of Japheth. The interesting thing is the prophecy of Noah,
“God shall enlarge Japheth, and he shall dwell in the tents of Shem…” (Gen.9:27a).
When Shem’s descendants rejected the Messiah, then basically it was the European nations that picked up in Christianity and we dwell in the covering that God gave to Shem. We have come to dwell and find our place of rest in the covering of Jesus Christ. It is basically the people of Japheth who have embraced the gospel and carried it to the rest of the world. It is a fulfillment of the prophecy of Noah.
At this point Japheth’s descendants are dropped when the gentiles are divided in their land. This took place at the time of the building of the Tower of Babel. Shem lost track of Japheth and his descendants once they were scattered and it isn’t necessary to go further in that lineage. We are only interested in the line to Abraham, who comes through the line of Shem.
“And the sons of Ham; Cush, and Mizraim, and Phut, and Canaan. And the sons of Cush; Seba, and Havilah, and Sabtah, and Raamah, and Sabtechah; and the sons of Raamah; Sheba, and Dedan. And Cush begat Nimrod; he began to be a mighty one in the earth. He was a mighty hunter before the LORD; wherefore it is said, Even as Nimrod the mighty hunter before the LORD.” (Gen.10:6-9).
The word Nimrod means “rebel.” The mighty hunter, before the LORD is not in a good sense. It is in a rebellious sense, against the LORD. Nimrod is the founder of the Babylonian Religious System and he became a dictator of the civilization that he established.
“And the beginning of his kingdom was Babel, and Erech, and Accad, and Calneh, in the land of Shinar. Out of that land went forth Asshur, and builded Nineveh, and the city Rehoboth, and Calah, and Resen between Nineveh and Calah; the same is a great city.” (Gen.10:10-12).
Nimrod had a wife whose name was Synaramis and she became known as “The Queen of Heaven.” She had a son which she claimed to be virgin born and she named him Tamooz. He was being groomed to be the center of worship. One day while hunting, a wild boar gored him; he lay dead for three days and when he was found he revived. They celebrated his birth on the 25th of December. They would burn a Yule log on the fire until it was completely consumed, but in the morning a tree would appear, brightly decorated, in the home. It was an evergreen tree which was a symbol of perpetuated life. To celebrate his resurrection from being gored by the boar, they began to decorate eggs and to have a gay celebration in the Springtime which later became known as Ashtar, the Greek for Synaramis. The egg, again, is a symbol of continued life.
We are shocked as we realize that these celebrations resemble very strongly those holidays that we hold year after year. The shocking thing is that we have no biblical base for our celebrations, but there is a very strong pagan base. We find that Satan established his counterfeit very early in the history of man there in Babylon and that is why Babylon has become synonymous with the false religious system in scripture typology. We realize that these Babylonian practices have become inculcated deeply within the structure of the church. The church has carried and promoted these practices. When Jesus addresses the church of Pergamos in Revelation; he declares his displeasure with some of the practices of the church. When he gets to Thyratira, who has fully incorporated these practices, Jesus comes down heavy upon them.
It was during the period of Constantine that the church became the state religion; but, he sought to bring the pagan practices along with it and so, created the marriage of paganism and Christianity. Constantine took the practice of “Saturnalia” and incorporated it with the Christian calendar, calling it Christmas and celebrating the birth of Christ. This is what brought Babylon into the church. When Jesus speaks to the church of Sardis His complaint was they didn’t pull completely away from the Babylonian practices. “…I have not found thy works perfect before God.” (Rev.3:2b). Yes, you’ve pulled out of a system deeply steeped in Babylonian practices, but you didn’t come all the way out. The Lord comes down heavy, in Chapter (17) of Revelation, on the Babylonian System that has invaded the church and he speaks of God’s coming judgment against this system.
It is quite fascinating to realize that Satan developed his own counterfeit to God’s Plan, which he knew. It would seem that God had set His plan in the stars, which were set for signs and for seasons and that the Gospel is really there in the signs of the Zodiac; but, Astrology has become a perversion of that. This all came about at the time of Nimrod, who was one of the instigators of building the Tower of Babel to reach into Heaven.
When the birth of Christ took place there were still men in the East, who could read the stars and they were brought from afar, to worship the child that was born, by these signs. There are many interesting books on the Zodiac and the message of the gospel in the Zodiac. If you are interested in a more detailed study of the origins, that we find in the 10th chapter of Genesis, there is a book “The Genesis Record” by Dr. Henry Morrison. It traces each one of Noah’s sons national roots.
“And Mizraim begat Ludim, and Anamim, and Lehabim, and Naphtuhim, and Pathrusim, and Casluhim, (out of whom came Philistim,) and Caphtorim. And Canaan begat Sidon his firstborn and Heth, and the Jebusite, and the Amorite, and the Girgasite, and the Hivite, and the Arkite, and the Sinite…” (thought to be the Oriental nation) “…And the Arvadite, and the Zemarite, and the Hamathite; and afterward were the families of the Canaanites spread abroad. And the border of the Canaanites was from Sidon, as thou comest to Gerar, unto Gaza; as thou goest, unto Sodom, and Gomorrah, and Admah, and Zeboim, even unto Lasha. These are the sons of Ham, after their families, after their tongues, in their countries, and in their nations.” (Gen.10:13-20).
These families of Ham were dispersed during the time of the Tower of Babel when the gentiles were divided, then Shem lost track of these particular descendants of Ham. Sidon was the home of the Phoenicians and has continued to this day, which is in the area of Southern Lebanon. Sidon was the son of Canaan who was the son of Ham that was cursed. Of course, the Phoenicians were not black, so, this clinches the tale promoted by the slave traders that Canaan was black and the black people were made servants by Noah’s curse on Ham.
We will now follow Shem’s descendants and eventually get down to Abraham.
“Unto Shem also, the father of all the children of Eber, the brother of Japheth the elder, even to him were children born. The children of Shem; Elam and Asshur, and Arphaxad, and Lud, and Aram, and the children of Aram; Uz, and Hul, and Gether, and Mash, and Arphaxad begat Salah; and Salah begat Eber.” (Gen.10:21-24).
Eber was the origin of the name of the Hebrews and the Hebrews were originally much more than the descendants of Abraham.
“And unto Eber were born two sons; the name of one was Peleg; for in his days was the earth divided; and his brother’s name was Joktan.” (Gen.10:25).
We’re only interested in Peleg for his name means “division.” There are those who believe that there was a second cataclysmic change that took place. Probably at the time of the Tower of Babel, not only were the languages mixed but the earth was divided. Thus, we find the records of the Indians in Central and South America going back to this time. The stories of the flood are common to every nation around the world, showing the common origin of the nations. The basic story of the tremendous flood that destroyed the earth and a single man and his family escaped by building a boat is the general essence of the story of the flood that you find in every ethnic group if you go back far enough in their history.
“And Joktan begat Almodad, and Sheleph, and Hazarmaveth, and Jerah, and Hadoram, and Uzal, and Diklah, and Obal, and Abimael, and Sheba, and Ophir, and Havilah, and Jobab; all these were the sons of Joktan.” (Gen.10:26-29). These names don’t mean a whole lot to us, but in verse (29) the Jobab mentioned is thought, by some, to be the Job of the Bible and that it is the oldest book in the Bible. So, “These are the sons of Shem, after their families, after their tongues, in their lands, after their nations. These are the families of the sons of Noah, after their generations, in their nations; and by these were the nations divided in the earth after the flood.” (Gen.10:31-32).
Next: Genesis 11-12
Robert Clifton Robinson 