GENESIS 9
We see in this chapter the beginning of a new age or dispensation. The world that then was had disappeared under the flood, and there was a new beginning. Before the flood there does not seem to have been any special dealing of God with men. There was a testimony; Enoch was a prophet, and Noah was a preacher; but there was no restraint upon man in the way of [p. 76] government; he was left very much to take his course; it was a time of unrestrained self-will.
It is very blessed to see the divine character of the new system; it began in the savour of the burnt offering. The instruction that comes out in this chapter is founded on that, and it will be characteristic of the world to come. At the end of the chapter we come back to what is historical; but we see the elements here that make up God’s world — the fact that man is to live on the result of death; that he is to be preserved in the dignity of being in the image of God; and the covenant and the sign of the covenant. All these are elements that constitute the world to come; they follow on what we have been seeing in the previous chapter. Then there is also the setting up of government, and committing it to man. This will be fully realised in the world to come; man will be in his proper place then in the exercise of government, and everything will own his place. I do not think “the fear and dread of you” implies suffering necessarily; it rather gives the thought of the place man is put in. The fact that man was made in the image of God is recalled, and this determines his place as to the animal creation, and it is also the ground on which government is set up.
The animal creation is also given for food to man instead of green herbs; that shows an entirely new departure. We noticed in chapter 1 that the principle of life — the seed principle — was to characterise man’s food. Now there is an entire change; man is privileged to feed on that which is the result of death. It is wonderful how death is presented to us in the early chapters of Genesis. It is first seen as the judgment of God: “In the day that thou eatest of it thou shalt certainly die”. Then it appears as the power of Satan, in the words: “Thou shalt bruise his heel”. Then, thirdly, it is the evidence of man’s condition and frailty as under sin; “Dust thou art, and unto dust shalt thou return”. Then on the line of grace death comes in as a source of clothing — righteousness — for man. And Abel comes to God in the acceptance of One whose excellence was uncovered by death. Then death — in figure — separates the saved family from the world under judgment. Then it becomes, in Noah’s burnt offering, the basis of all God’s relations with man and with the earth. This will appear publicly, as we have seen, in the world to come; it is now true spiritually. Now we come to a further thought; that death is to yield food for man. Man’s constitution is built up by what he feeds on, and God’s thought is to have a world where every one will be formed and built up by feeding on the result of death. We get this fully developed in John 6; every one is to be nourished on death. Sin had not come in at the beginning, but after sin had come in one could not be built up in a constitution suitable to God, except by feeding on the result of death. If a world is to be set up on the ground of the burnt offering, the people to fill that world must be nourished and formed by feeding on Christ as the One who has died. He has brought the will of God and the love of God into death — the only place where it could truly become food for us. The light of this would preserve the people of God from taking up vegetarianism as a principle.
Then we may note that the image of God is to be preserved and honoured in man; it is what is proper to man, his place and dignity. Government preserves [p. 78] the rights of God, and the dignity of man as His creature. We ought to remember that; it would help us if we retained a deeper sense of it. In the world to come nothing will be allowed that is inconsistent with it. The reason why government is set up, and it is said, “Whoso sheddeth man’s blood by man shall his blood be shed”, is because man is in the image of God; “In the image of God made he man”. These are principles that will come into evidence in the world to come; there every one will have fed on Christ as having been in death, and the image of God will be preserved in man. No deadly influence of evil will be allowed to kill the man in the image of God. We miss a great deal if we do not see that this is prophetic of the world to come, of that order of things that comes about after the judgment has passed. We have seen Noah as a figure of Christ, carrying His family through the time of tribulation into the world to come; and this chapter follows, and gives a picture of conditions that will obtain in the world to come. Of course it all has a present spiritual application, because Christianity is a spiritual anticipation of the blessedness of the world to come. We do not understand Christianity if we do not see that.
It is a striking fact here that the blood is reserved. The blood is not spoken of sacrificially in Genesis, but its being reserved leaves room for all the precious teaching as to it in Exodus and Leviticus. God develops the efficacy of the blood very much there; here it is only a hint; God says, as it were, It is for Me. All the offerings in Genesis are burnt offerings. God gives a hint to Cain of a sin offering, but there is no record in Genesis of a sin offering being offered; it is always the burnt offering.
[p. 79] Then we come to what is most blessed — the covenant. It is in connection with Noah that we first get the thought (Genesis 6); God says to him: “With thee will I establish my covenant”. Christ is Himself the covenant, as we see plainly in Isaiah 42: 6 and 49: 8. The burnt offering is the ground on which God can carry out the purposes of His love and enter into covenant. How marvellous to think of God making a covenant! The covenant conveys the idea of definite and perpetual relations between God and man, the terms and conditions of which are proposed and established by God and into the blessedness of which man can enter. We see this idea of covenant all through Scripture. As to the actual provisions of this particular covenant the terms of it do not go very far; they are merely that the world should not be destroyed by flood any more. A covenant is something stable; it cannot be altered, especially if God makes it. Even man’s confirmed covenant no one adds to or disannuls; Galatians 3: 15. If you make a covenant you have to stand to it even if you were very foolish in making it. And we may be sure that if God makes a covenant the thing is certain and abiding. It is perfect contrast to the idea of curse. God rejects what He curses, but if He enters into covenant He binds Himself to the persons or things in whose favour the covenant is made. In this covenant He binds Himself to all creation. And it is instructive to see the abidingness of it — ‘Perpetual generations’ and ‘everlasting covenant’ speak of this.
There is no demand in this covenant; later on, when the law was the covenant, there were demands, because that was a covenant proposed — ordained by [p. 80] angels in the hand of a mediator — between two parties not in accord with one another. “The law was added because of transgressions”. The blessing of that covenant depended upon the fulfilment of the law by man; but the man was a transgressor, so there was no point of agreement. The new covenant is put into the hands of a Mediator who can not only propose conditions, but bring man into accord with them. God proposes terms and stands to them, and works in man to bring him into accord with them, so that the two parties are in agreement. The principle of the new covenant is thus in contrast to the law.
The bow in the cloud was the sign of God’s covenant. The clouds were judgment at the time of the flood, but the character of cloud now is different. When God brings a cloud over the earth it is for the purpose of sending down showers of blessing; and that is connected with the idea of covenant. If God enters into covenant it ensures showers of blessing. Where would you get the early and latter rain from if there were no clouds? Pentecost was the early rain, and in a coming day there will be the latter rain, when Joel 2: 28 will be fulfilled. Joel speaks of the former and the latter rain. It is the latter rain when the Spirit is poured out on all flesh, and Christ is the sign of God’s covenanted blessing in connection with it all — the blessed sign of God’s faithfulness. The rainbow is white light broken up into its constituent elements; it seems to suggest the display in detail of the perfection of God’s faithfulness.
In the world to come there will be a perfect providential witness to the goodness and faithfulness of God, but faith will raise its eyes above all that to Christ, and see Him as the true token of the covenant,
[p. 81] every blessing leading the heart to apprehend more His beauty and glory. Men will bless themselves in Him. The bow is seen of men in verse 14 and seen of God in verse 16.
God is always looking at Christ. In Acts 2 it seems to me that Peter points them to the bow in the cloud; there had never been such a shower of blessing before in this world. Peter says, in effect, Look at Christ in heaven; God has made Him both Lord and Christ — He is the sign and pledge of all God’s blessing and faithfulness in heaven. Psalm 110 also shows us the bow in the cloud — the One whom God has set at His right hand until His enemies be made His footstool; every covenanted promise will be established in kingly power and priestly grace. Christ at the right hand of God is the pledge of God’s faithfulness to fulfil every promise. Christ is the bow in the cloud; and God is always looking at Him. There He is as sign and pledge of God’s covenant! After Peter had said, You crucified your Messiah, and have cut yourselves off from every shred of blessing; when they answered, What shall we do? he could tell them that the bow was in the cloud; God’s faithfulness had not broken down, and Christ risen and glorified in heaven was God’s token that not a single thing had failed on His side. On their side they had forfeited all. Now, “Repent and be baptised and ye shall receive the gift of the Holy Spirit”. That was indeed a shower of blessing. They would get Joel’s early rain before the rest of the nation got the latter rain in another day.
In the coming day all the providential goodness of God will be seen connected with Christ; there will be no sickness, no bad harvests, everything in [p. 82] abundance. Men will revel in the providential goodness of God, and they will see the glory of Christ in it all; every blessing will bring Christ before them. We do not see the same outward tokens of favour in God’s providential dealings now; it is the other way. Our bow in the cloud is Romans 5 and Romans 8; when everything around you is wrong, you see the bow in the cloud; you see the love of God in Christ, and the love of God is shed abroad in your heart. You see that in tribulation, and in the midst of weakness and sorrow; the bow in the cloud is there. God is faithful; in bereavement and trouble the Christian looks up and sees the sure pledge of the faithfulness of God in Christ. Now a Christian may have sorrows and everything going against him; his wife sick, and his children delicate, his business not thriving; and yet he is happy in the sense of God’s love and faithfulness in Christ. That is the proper normal blessing of the Christian.
There are clouds of sorrow, disappointment, bereavement, trial, but where the cloud is the bow is in it; the blessed witness of God’s faithfulness is in every cloud. People say that every cloud has its silver lining; but J.B.S. said, “There is no silver lining without a cloud”! You could never have the bow if you had not the cloud. God brings the cloud: you may have tribulation; it is the normal surrounding of the saint; but when God brings a cloud, an exercise, a difficulty, look out for the bow. There is not a sorrow or an exercise or a difficulty, but God means you to have through it the light of the beauty and blessedness of Christ in a way you never had before. So that you may have a peculiar sense of God’s faithfulness, and that nothing can separate you from the love of Christ nor from the love of God; that is the bow. We do not [p. 83] learn how good God is by looking at providence, but we learn how good He is by looking at Christ and seeing Him to be the token of divine faithfulness, and taking in the blessed love that was revealed in the death of Christ. In the millennium everything outwardly will bear witness to the faithfulness of God which has brought in every blessing through and in Christ; but as brought into the covenant we have the sure token of that faithfulness in the One in whom every promise is Yea and Amen, before there is any change outwardly. God delights to remember the covenant, and as man delights to remember it there is blessed accord between God and man! God as it were says, I will work in your hearts so that you shall not draw back from me, and I will not draw back from you; Jeremiah 32: 40.
It may be called a dispensational picture down to verse 17; and then begins a bit of history, which contains one of the most remarkable prophecies as to the history of the world. The whole history of man, and God’s ways of grace, are summed up in a verse or two. Noah, as has often been remarked, set up in government, fails to govern himself. He plants a vineyard, and gets drunk, and dishonours himself. Then his son dishonours him, and the curse comes in. There is one family under curse and another under blessing. This is brought in to show the source of the wicked people who would be destroyed hundreds of years after by Joshua. The Revelation traces everything to its moral conclusion; but Genesis traces everything to its moral source; hence they are good books to read together.
Here we see Ham dishonours his father, and is cursed in his posterity. The children of Ham can never be like any other people in this world. “A servant of servants shall he be”. If you trace the history of nations back to their sources, and see their parentage, you may know their character by seeing how they began. Ham means ‘Black’, and Shem ‘Renown’. God connects renown with Shem. Japheth looks down on Shem now, but that is all a mistake, for God connects renown with Shem; God’s purpose was to bring Christ into the family of Shem. Then Japheth means enlargement: the grace of God has reached out, and the very fulness of God’s thoughts has been brought out in connection with the Gentiles. “In thy seed all nations shall be blessed”, was said to Abraham, and God is persuading or enlarging Japheth now by bringing him into the tents of Shem; there is no blessing anywhere else. Many of us have been persuaded to come into the tents of Shem; all blessing is connected with Christ. Shem is the renowned family into which God has brought Christ. He came into the tents of Shem, and you must go there to get blessing. It is beautiful to notice that when the gospel was first proclaimed, God vindicated the character of His grace by converting one out of each of these three families — the Ethiopian eunuch from Ham; Saul of Tarsus from Shem; and the centurion, Cornelius, from Japheth. God brought in one from each family to show the perfection and universality of His grace.