The Noahic Covenant
The Covenant with Noah
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The Major Covenants
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Yahweh is a relational God who desires to live in peaceful fellowship with his human children. One of the ways his desire for fellowship manifests itself is through the creation of covenants, treaties that define the requirements for both parties to live in peace.1
Scripture describes many covenants between God and his people, some with individuals and some with larger groups. Four of these stand out as major developments in the history of God’s quest to restore his broken family: the covenant with Noah, the covenant with Abraham, the covenant at Sinai, and the new covenant.
The covenants with Abraham and at Sinai are specifically between God and his chosen people, Israel.2 But the covenant with Noah and the new covenant are between God and all humanity. For each of the four major covenants, God designated a special sign to remind the participants of their covenant obligations: the rainbow, circumcision, the Sabbath, and baptism. All four signs also point directly to God’s intention to restore his family through the promised offspring of Eve, Jesus of Nazareth.
Release
Then God told Noah, “Leave the ship with your wife, your sons, and your daughters-in-law. Bring out all the animals with you, some of every creature—the birds, the livestock, and the creatures that glide along the ground. They’ll disperse throughout the earth and be fruitful and increase on it.”
So Noah left the ship with his sons, his wife, and his daughters-in-law. All the animals, all the creatures that glide along the ground, and all the birds—everything that moves on the earth—left the ship, each with its own kind.
Noah built an altar to Yahweh and offered some of the clean livestock and the clean birds as burnt offerings on it.
Image by Richard Gunther from Free Bible Images, CC BY-NC 4.0
Despite Noah’s repeated attempts to determine whether the ground was dry, he ultimately waited for Yahweh’s command before leaving the ship. Finally, after more than a year on the ship, the day came when he and his family could safely leave. God also commanded him to release the animals so they could “be fruitful and increase.” By repeating his blessing from creation, God made it clear that he still intended his creatures to spread out and populate the entire earth.3
Back on solid ground, Noah first built an altar and sacrificed some of the clean animals with him as a burnt offering. This sacrifice likely served multiple purposes. It was both a thank offering to acknowledge Yahweh as the source of their salvation and a sin offering to calm Yahweh’s anger over the injustice that brought about the flood.
Before the covenant at Sinai formalized Israel’s sacrificial system, burnt offerings served as a generic act of worship. The entire sacrifice was burned on the altar, leaving no part for the worshiper to eat.4 Noah gave all to Yahweh as a recognition of his sovereignty. Noah’s willingness to sacrifice some of the few animals that remained after the flood also showed his trust in Yahweh’s promise that the survivors would thrive.
A Soothing Aroma
When Yahweh smelled the soothing aroma, he thought to himself, “Never again will I show contempt for the ground on account of humanity, because the plans of humanity are evil from youth!”
Image by Paul Bulai from Unsplash
Israel’s neighbors viewed sacrifices as providing food and drink for the gods, who depend on humanity for sustenance.5 But the Bible never portrays Yahweh eating a sacrifice.6 He does, however, smell “the soothing aroma.”
The Hebrew adjective nihoah derives from the verb nuah (“to rest”), the same root as the name Noah. It describes the aroma of the sacrifice as something that brings about rest, something “soothing” or “calming.” It does not mean “pleasing.” Death does not bring God pleasure.
This is the first reference in the Bible to the necessity of sacrifice to calm Yahweh’s anger over human sin. But this theme extends throughout the Bible as a natural result of the inexorable link between sin and death.
God warned Adam that if he sinned by eating the fruit of the tree of judgment, he would certainly die. Sin breeds death, and the fear of death, in turn, breeds more sin.7 When someone sins, God’s justice demands death as punishment. But God loves his human children and doesn’t want us to die. This puts his justice and his grace at odds with each other.
Sacrifice resolves this conflict. The soothing aroma represents God’s acceptance of the death of the sacrifice as a fulfillment of the demands of justice against the sinner. With justice served, his anger calms. Humanity doesn’t provide food for Yahweh. Rather, through sacrifice, Yahweh provides a substitute for humanity.
Never Again
“So I’ll never again destroy all life as I’ve done.
“While the earth still exists,
sowing and reaping,
cold and heat,
summer and winter,
day and night
will never cease.”
The smell of Noah’s burnt offering calmed Yahweh’s just anger and brought about a major change in the way he would deal with human sin in the future. In Genesis 6:5–7, he decided to wipe out all creation because of humanity’s innate propensity for evil. In 8:21, he gave the same reason as the basis for his decision to never again destroy all life. The flood had served its intended purpose of cleansing the earth from human injustice, but it was never meant to directly address the problem of sin.
Because humanity was still evil, injustice would inevitably fill the earth again. If God allowed the injustice of humanity to continue to serve as a reason for the destruction of the earth, he would have to destroy it repeatedly, a cycle that would continue forever. Humanity would never fulfill God’s original blessing.
God’s decision to never again destroy all life on earth gave him time to deal with human sin in a way that would prevent the continuation of the cycle. Until then, the changing of the seasons and the normal flow of time would continue uninterrupted.
A New Reality
Then God blessed Noah and his sons, “Be fruitful and increase, filling the earth! All the animals on earth, all the birds in the sky, all the creatures that glide along the ground, and all the fish in the sea will be terrified of you. I now give you full control over them. You may eat anything alive that moves. As I gave you the green plants, I now give you everything. Nevertheless, you must not eat meat that still contains blood, because that’s its life.”
Image by Gregor Moser from Unsplash
Having accepted Noah’s sacrifice, God responded with a renewed blessing and stipulations for life on the cleansed earth. His plan for humanity to fill the earth had not changed. However, the relationship between humanity and the rest of creation had. Although hostility existed between the offspring of Eve and the offspring of the snake, the rest of creation remained submissive to humanity. Now, God decreed a break in that relationship as well.
The permission to eat meat was probably a concession God permitted as part of his decision to never again destroy all life on earth. If humanity had already started eating meat, contrary to God’s command in Genesis 1:29, the slaughter of innocent animals for food would have been part of the injustice that ruined the earth and brought about the flood. This development could not be undone while humanity remained sinful.
God would not hold humanity accountable for shedding the blood of animals. However, the animals would no longer serve as easy prey. To protect them, God instilled fear in them so that they naturally run and hide from humanity.
God placed no restrictions on which animals postflood humanity could eat, but he did forbid the consumption of blood. This was accomplished by slitting the throat of the animal and allowing the blood to flow out, killing the animal much faster than a wound from a bow or a spear would. Pouring the blood out on the ground served as an acknowledgment that the life of the animal belonged to God and that the animal was slaughtered with his permission.
The Value of Human Life
“But for your blood—your lives—I’ll hold all accountable. I’ll hold all the animals accountable, and I’ll also hold all humanity accountable for human life.
Those who shed human blood,
by humanity will their blood be shed.
For God made humanity as his own image.
But as for you, be fruitful and increase. Disperse throughout the earth and increase on it.”
Although God gave humanity full control over the lives of animals, he gave them no such authority over each other. He vowed to hold accountable anyone who shed human blood, whether an animal or another human. Because God created humanity as his own image, human life remained under his protection.
As God’s image, humanity serves as his representatives to the rest of creation.8 Ancient kings frequently sent emissaries to other kings to carry messages or negotiate treaties. These emissaries represented the king and carried his full authority. Any affront against a king’s representative constituted an affront against the king himself, tantamount to a declaration of war.9 Even today, the Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations grants some level of immunity to foreign diplomats.10
Because humanity represents God, an attack on human life constitutes an attack on God himself, a high crime deserving of death. So God also charged his representatives with carrying out the prescribed punishment, putting to death anyone who would so brazenly challenge his authority.
The Covenant Confirmed
“As for me, I’m about to confirm my covenant with you, your offspring to come after you, and every living creature with you—the birds, the livestock, and all the animals of the earth, including all those that left the ship and every animal that will ever live on the earth. I confirm my covenant with you that the floodwaters will never again kill all creatures and a flood will never again destroy the earth.”
Image by George Desipris from Pexels
In Genesis 6:18, God promised that he would confirm his covenant with Noah.11 Noah then built the ship as commanded, and God faithfully protected everyone on board through the flood but with no further mention of a covenant. Now the time had finally come for the promised confirmation.
God’s covenant with Noah extends beyond just Noah himself. It includes Noah’s sons and their future offspring as well as all the animals that were on the ship and their future offspring. Without the covenant, all creation would forever live in fear of another worldwide flood that could come upon them just as suddenly as the first one had. God allayed those fears by promising that it would never happen again.
The Rainbow
“This is the sign of the covenant I’m enacting between me and you and every living creature with you for all generations to come. I’ve placed my bow in the clouds as a covenantal sign between me and the earth. When I spread clouds over the earth and the bow appears in the clouds, I’ll remember my covenant between me and you and every living creature.
“Never again will the floodwaters destroy all creatures. When the bow is in the clouds, I’ll see it and remember the eternal covenant between God and every living creature on earth.
“This is the sign of the covenant I’ve confirmed between me and all creatures on the earth.”
Image by Binyamin Mellish from Pexels
To confirm his covenant with the earth and its inhabitants, God provided a sign. Anytime a rainbow appears after a storm, it reminds God to keep his promise and assures creation that he certainly will.
As the sign of the covenant with Noah, the rainbow is rife with symbolism. The rainbow’s normal appearance at the end of a storm suits its status as proof that God will never again send a flood against the earth.
In addition, Hebrew uses the same word (qesheth) for “rainbow” and the weapon called a “bow” because the rainbow’s shape resembles a bow with its string on the ground. In that position, the bowstring cannot be drawn, rendering the weapon harmless. God had sent the flood to wage war against the earth and its inhabitants.12 By placing his “bow” in an unusable position, he declared his intention to end the war and make peace with his fallen creation.
Of the four signs of the major covenants, only the rainbow requires no human involvement.13 The covenant with Noah is an unconditional promise on God’s part. This is why the rainbow serves to remind God, not humanity, of the covenant. Humanity has no covenant obligations to remember. Nothing humanity does could prevent a rainbow from appearing. Likewise, nothing could prevent God from making peace with the earth, as he did through the sacrifice of Jesus on the cross.
The Fall of Ham
The sons of Noah, who left the ship, were Shem, Ham, and Japheth. Ham was the father of Canaan. The population of the entire earth spread out from these three sons of Noah.
Now Noah started farming the land and planted a vineyard. One day, he drank some of the wine, became drunk, and uncovered himself in the middle of his tent. Ham, the father of Canaan, saw his father’s nakedness and told his two brothers, who were outside. So Shem and Japheth took a cloak and laid it across their shoulders. Walking backward, they covered their father. Because their faces were turned away, they didn’t see his nakedness.
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The story of the descendants of Noah ends with a disturbing event illustrating the continued reality of sin and rebellion in the postflood world. Often mislabeled as “the fall of Noah,” the story recounts the reprehensible behavior of Noah’s son Ham, not of Noah himself. At worst, Noah acted foolishly, and Scripture nowhere condemns him for sleeping off some excess wine in the privacy of his own tent.14 Once again, the narrative focuses not on Noah but on the fate of his descendants, particularly his descendants through Ham, the Canaanites.15
The brief, undetailed account of Ham’s sin has led many commentators to assume he did something far worse than just see his father naked and then blab about it to his brothers. Because the phrase “to uncover someone’s nakedness,” used repeatedly in Leviticus 18 and 20, clearly serves as a euphemism for sexual relations, they suggest that Ham’s sin was sexual in nature.16 However, the text does not say that Ham “uncovered” his father’s nakedness. Instead, he “saw his father’s nakedness,” which is not a euphemism.
In the end, Ham’s sin needs no such embellishment. It is highly unlikely that he stumbled upon his naked father accidentally. Tents were not communal living spaces, and even married couples sometimes slept in separate ones.17 A grown man with his own family, Ham certainly had his own tent. What was he doing in his father’s?
Even if he saw his father accidentally, he told his brothers intentionally. Ham should have honored his father by silently covering him and leaving, as his brothers did. Instead he dishonored his father by gossiping about it. To dishonor a parent in such a way was considered a high crime in ancient Israel.18 Worse, Ham and his wife would have died in the flood had it not been for Noah.19 Ham’s ingratitude toward the man who had saved them all reveals a lot about his character.
Noah’s Youngest Son
When Noah woke up from his drunken stupor, he found out what his youngest son had done to him.
Image by Jordan Whitt from Unsplash
Modern readers are often surprised that Genesis 9:24 refers to Ham as Noah’s youngest. Many cultures normally list the names of siblings in birth order, and Scripture consistently lists the sons of Noah as “Shem, Ham, and Japheth.” However, imposing this cultural assumption on the Bible creates a discrepancy where none exists.
Mentions of Isaac and Ishmael,20 Jacob and Esau,21 and Ephraim and Manasseh22 all list the younger brother first. Exodus 1:2–4 lists the sons of Jacob’s wives before the sons of his concubines, even though Issachar, Zebulun, and Benjamin were all younger than Dan, Naphtali, Gad, and Asher. The biblical authors chose different orders for different lists for a variety of reasons other than birth order.
Because the Bible tells a story, it often lists characters by their importance to that story.23 In the history of Israel, Isaac was more important than Ishmael; Jacob, more than Esau; Ephraim, more than Manasseh. The same logic applies to Shem, Ham, and Japheth: As the ancestor of the Israelites, Shem represents the line of the promised offspring. Ham was also important as the ancestor of the Canaanites. Although Japheth was probably the firstborn, he is mentioned last because of his relative unimportance in the history of Israel.24
Canaan Cursed
[Noah] said, “Canaan is cursed! He’ll be the lowest of slaves to his brothers.”
He also said:
“May Yahweh, the God of Shem, be blessed.
May Canaan serve them!
May God make room for Japheth.
May he dwell among the tents of Shem.
May Canaan serve them!”
After the flood, Noah lived another 350 years. Altogether, Noah lived 950 years. Then he died.
Image by PublicDomainPictures from Pixabay
When Noah woke up, he somehow found out that Ham had humiliated him. Strangely, he responded with two pronouncements about his grandson Canaan that don’t even mention Ham. The curse that Ham deserved fell instead on his innocent son. But why would Noah curse Canaan for Ham’s indiscretion?
It’s actually not as clear that Noah cursed Canaan as most translations suggest. The Hebrew ʾarur kenaʿan (literally “cursed Canaan”) could be translated either as a wish (“cursed [be] Canaan”) or as a fact (“cursed [is] Canaan”). Since “he will be the lowest of slaves” is a statement, this is the most likely sense.
Noah’s second pronouncement, which does clearly express a wish, serves more as a blessing on Shem and Japheth (and Yahweh). In a similar manner, Isaac’s blessing on Jacob made Esau his brother’s servant.25
The idea that sin affects the innocent as well as the guilty dates all the way back to the fall, as does the idea that children tend to inherit the temperament of their ancestors.26 Adam’s sin brought the curse of death on all creation, including his descendants. Likewise, Noah’s righteousness brought the blessing of life on his descendants.27 Canaan was cursed not by his grandfather’s words but by his father’s actions. Rather than cursing Canaan, Noah may have been lamenting his grandson’s inevitable fate.
Ultimately, the curse on Canaan and blessing on Shem both foreshadow the conquest of the land of Canaan by the Israelites.28 But Yahweh did not give the Israelites Canaan because of the sin of Ham. He gave them Canaan because of the sin of the Canaanites, who inherited their ancestor’s shameful character.29 Otherwise, Yahweh would have given Canaan to Abraham. But the Canaanites of Abraham’s time were not as wicked as the Canaanites of Moses’s time and did not yet deserve to be disinherited.30
- See Covenant.
- See Why Israel?
- See Genesis 1:22, 28.
- In contrast, fellowship offerings served as communal meals in which only part of the animal was burned as Yahweh’s portion.
- Schnittjer, Torah Story, 102; Walton, “Genesis,” 52; Walton et al., Bible Background Commentary, Genesis 8:20–21.
- See Psalm 50:12–13.
- Genesis 2:17; 3:7–8, 19, Number 18:22, Joshua 22:20, Isaiah 53:12, Ezekiel 3:18, Romans 4:25; 5:12, 21; 6:23; 7:5; 8:2, 10, Hebrews 9:15, James 1:15, 1 Peter 2:24.
- See The Image of God.
- Walton et al., Bible Background Commentary, 2 Samuel 10:3; see 2 Samuel 10.
- Encyclopaedia Britannica Online, “Diplomatic Immunity,” by Marsha L. Frey and Linda Frey, May 2, 2013, https://www.britannica.com/topic/diplomatic-immunity.
- See Covenant.
- See Safety; The Water’s Triumph.
- See The Major Covenants.
- At best, the Hebrew of verse 20 means that Noah was the first person ever to plant a vineyard. In that case, he may not have known the effects of fermented grapes. However, this interpretation is unlikely.
- See Wenham, Genesis 1–15, 199–200.
- See Euphemism.
- Genesis 31:33, Judges 4:17.
- Exodus 20:12, 21:17, Deuteronomy 5:16, 21:18–21, Ezekiel 22:7.
- See Blameless.
- Genesis 25:9, 1 Chronicles 1:28.
- Genesis 28:5, Joshua 24:4, Hebrews 11:20.
- Genesis 48:5, 20, Deuteronomy 34:2, Joshua 17:17, 1 Chronicles 9:3, 2 Chronicles 30:1, 10; 31:1.
- See The Story of the Bible.
- See Hebrew Genealogies.
- Genesis 27:22–40; see Jacob Blessed.
- See Exodus 20:5–6, Romans 5:12; Innocent Suffering.
- See Blameless.
- Sailhamer, “Genesis,” 135.
- See Genesis 15:16, Deuteronomy 20:17–18.
- Genesis 15:16.