A brief overview for Sunday School teachers and Bible study leaders, of Lifeway’s “Explore the Bible” lesson of Genesis 9:1-15 for Sunday, January 21, 2024, with the title, “Protect.”

A video version of this overview is available on YouTube at:

INTRO.  ??? Did someone ever make a promise to you that was/is very special to you???
(I may save mine for the very end of the lesson (you can read it there) Dad & OU game tickets! He DID what he promised he would do!)

After you’ve discussed these, then say something like, God WILL do what He promises He will do for us. We see one of His most famous promises in our lesson for today in Genesis 9:1-15.

??? Alternative INTRO or use this later under the Flood point: Have you ever been in a flood, or in a place that was dramatically affected by a flood???

(I myself have not, but I have been to places that have: many here in the Houston area were affected by Hurricane Harvey in August of 2017, when 1/3 of Houston was under water, and 150,000 homes were destroyed. MANY here have stories about that flood, their homes, damage, etc.  and then by another flood that came just a (year/or so) later.

You/your group can share these experiences, then say something like: today’s lesson deals with the aftermath of the greatest flood, in Genesis 9. …

CONTEXT:

We are continuing our study in Genesis, the first book of the Bible. In Genesis 6 we saw how man’s sin brought the judgment of God upon the earth in the flood, which destroyed all but 8 people, who were saved by taking refuge in the Ark God directed Noah to build. 

Then last week in Chapter 8 we saw how after the flood, Noah had to WAIT for God’s specific direction to leave the ark, and when it was finally time, he offered a sacrifice of thanksgiving — and God made a promise that He would not destroy everything like He just did, and that the seasons, and day and night, would not cease.

Now the story continues as we move to Genesis 9:1-15.

OUTLINE:

I. God’s Commands Concerning Life on Earth (:1-7)

II. God’s Promise Concerning Life on Earth (:8-15)

TEXT:

I. God’s Commands Concerning Life On Earth  (:1-7)

As Noah and his family came off the ark, God blessed them, :1 says, and He gave them several commands to follow as they began their new post-flood life on earth: 

A. MULTIPLY LIFE

:1 “Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth”

(This command is also repeated in :7, “As for you, be fruitful and multiply, populate the earth abundantly and multiply in it.”

??? Why would this be an especially important command for Noah and his family right then???
(Because they were the only 8 people on the earth at that time! If they didn’t have many children, the human race would not survive! 

??? Is this command still important today???
(In some ways it is not as important as it was in Noah’s day. There are 7 Billion people in the world, so there is no danger that the human race is going to die out!

But could this still be important for Christians today?

(Yes, as the more godly children we have, Lord willing the more Christians there will be in our society.  For example, in Europe, the average birth rate is 1.5 per family — lower than the 2.1 considered the necessary replacement rate. But Muslim immigrants who are coming in have DOUBLE that birth rate, over 3 per family — so you can how they are growing their presence in Europe, just by “being fruitful and multiplying”!

Now, the number of children each family has is of course between them and God, but we need to make sure we consider children to be “a blessing of the Lord” like the Bible says. And the more godly, Christian children in the world, the better!)

B. FOOD FOR LIFE: how will they survive in this new world?

:3 “Every moving thing that is alive shall be food for you; I give all to you, as I gave the green plant.” 

In Genesis 1:29 God specifically said He’d given them every plant yielding seed and fruit for food — here He says “every moving thing that is alive” — every animal now can be food for them. So there does seem to be a “shift”, post-Flood, to eating animals.  

??? And WHAT animals does He say here they can have???
(“Every moving thing that is alive”! That’s pretty broad, isn’t it?

Basically He was saying they could eat anything! (He DOES tell them in :4, “You shall not eat flesh with its life, that is, its blood.” So we are not to eat blood — this was in fact reiterated in Acts 15)

??? What’s the most exotic food you ever ate???

(Maybe alligator for me? “Stomach soup” in Romania?)

I asked my sister, who serves with the IMB in Southeast Asia, what was the most exotic food she had eaten. I figured she’d had something different, but boy was I surprised at how much!

“— wildebeest, ostrich, crocodile on safari in Kenya

— in China, I’ve eaten frogs, turtles, snakes, sea slug  (not so delicious), and dog meat. 

— In Japan, I’ve eaten sea urchin  (one of the nastiest things I’ve ever eaten), baby octopus, puffer fish, fermented soybeans (called “natto” and was absolutely disgusting), and almost anything else in the ocean that moves.

— In Thailand, they love to eat bugs. I’ve had fried grasshoppers, crickets, locust, ant larva, and silkworms- really all kinds of small insects. The one thing I never ate was the fried tarantula. It just looked too ominous.”

(So she’s probably got most of us beat!) But the point is:

— Here God says “every moving thing that is alive” is ok for food.

— God gave the Jews a special diet, as a mark that they were His special people – as one of the distinctions between them and the Gentiles.

— Mark 7:19 says: “Thus He declared all foods clean”. So the Old Testament diet was off, for Jesus’ New Covenant followers.

So we are free, under God, to eat anything we are led to.

Sometimes you hear different Christians teaching about special “Christian diets” or things you should or shouldn’t eat as Christians. And there are certainly better and worse things for us to eat. But we need to know that the Bible (the New Testament) does NOT ordain any kind of special diet for Christians to eat.

— Romans 14:17 says “The Kingdom of God is not eating or drinking, but righteousness, peace, and joy in the Holy Spirit.” In other words, it’s not what you eat or drink that makes you a Christian — but the righteousness you get from Christ.

— I Timothy 4 opens by talking about how false teachers (:3) “forbid marriage and advocate abstaining from foods, which God has created to be gratefully shared in by those who believe and know the truth. (:4) For everything created by God is good, and nothing is to be rejected if it is received with gratitude (:5) for it is sanctified by means of the word of God and prayer.” 

Again, Christianity is NOT about what you don’t eat or drink. You are allowed to eat anything you are thankful for!

NOW: does this mean we SHOULD eat everything?  No! I Corinthians 10:23 says, “All things are lawful, but not all things are profitable”! You CAN eat anything — but that doesn’t mean it is good for you!  Someone has said, eating unhealthy food won’t keep you out of heaven — in fact, it may get you there faster! Same thing with things you can drink: it may get you there faster! 

But the point is: don’t make Christianity all about what you eat and drink, Paul says. That’s not what it is. It is about getting righteousness from Christ, not what we do or don’t eat or drink. 

C. THE SANCTITY OF LIFE

:5-6 “Surely I will require your life-blood; from every beast I will require it. And from every man, from every man’s brother I will require the life of man. (:6) Whoever shed’s man’s blood, by man his blood shall be shed, for in the image of God He made man.

Here God says that human life is precious. So precious, that whoever kills someone, will forfeit their own life. He is teaching us to respect the gift of life.

??? What are some of the ways we can NOT respect the gift of life???

(— Murder is an obvious one. We are not to kill others out of anger, or to gain something for ourselves. 

— Abortion is one. Not respecting the life of the unborn child. God tells us in Psalm 139 that He knits us together in our mother’s womb; that life is precious to Him. But many do not see that life as precious, ending it 

Just read that the #1 cause of death in the world today is abortion: 

— Abortion: 44 million

— Cancer, all kinds, a little over 8 million.

Think of it: all the people we hear of who are getting cancer, and dying of cancer — and sometimes it seems like we are hearing it left and right — FIVE TIMES that are being killed by abortion!

But there are many other ways:

— Unnecessary wars also can kill thousands and millions. 

— You might not think of it right off, but suicide is another way we can disrespect life. The life God gave us is precious; it is not to be thrown away. (Someone said that suicide is a permanent answer to a temporary problem, and there is a lot of truth in that.)

Suicide is NOT an “unforgivable sin” as some have considered it. But it IS a sin. The life God gives us is precious, and should not be thrown away. 

??? WHO does :6 says shall shed the blood of one who sheds a human life???
(“By MAN his blood shall be shed”. This authorizes capital punishment. And later in the Law, God also authorized capital punishment for serious crimes. And even the New Testament, in Romans 13, says authorities “do not bear the sword for nothing” — speaking of capital punishment — that legitimate authority can take life for serious crimes. 

??? What does :6 says is the MOTIVATION for the sanctity of human life??? (WHY is it so precious?)

“For in the image of God He made man.” GOD made us, in His image: with the ability to think, to reason, to feel emotion, to have personality, to make choices and decisions, to create. We are made in the image of God. This gives dignity to every human person. (Theologians call this the Imago Dei, the “image of God.”)

There is a very thought-provoking C.S. Lewis quote in his sermon, The Weight of Glory: 

“It is a serious thing to live in a society of possible gods and goddesses, to remember that the dullest most uninteresting person you can talk to may one day be a creature which, if you saw it now, you would be strongly tempted to worship, or else a horror and a corruption such as you now meet, if at all, only in a nightmare. All day long we are, in some degree helping each other to one or the other of these destinations. It is in the light of these overwhelming possibilities, it is with the awe and the circumspection proper to them, that we should conduct all of our dealings with one another, all friendships, all loves, all play, all politics. There are no ordinary people. You have never talked to a mere mortal. Nations, cultures, arts, civilizations – these are mortal, and their life is to ours as the life of a gnat. But it is immortals whom we joke with, work with, marry, snub, and exploit – immortal horrors or everlasting splendors.”

Lewis’ quote here is so challenging regarding the sanctity of every human life. Every person you meet, will either be glorious in heaven, or a horror in hell forever. They will live forever; they are made in God’s image; and we need to treat every person with the respect that comes from that. Treat every life as precious, because it is a life given by God!

II. God’s Promise Concerning Life On Earth (:8-15)

Verse 8 then marks a transition in the text: “Then God spoke to Noah and his sons with him, saying, (:9) ‘Now behold, I Myself do establish My covenant with you, and with your descendants after you; (:10) and with every living creature that is with you, the birds, the cattle, and every beast of the earth with you; of all that comes out of the sea, even every beast of the earth. (:11) I establish My covenant with you, and all flesh shall never again be cut off by the water of the flood, neither shall there again be a flood to destroy the earth.”

The word “covenant” here, in Hebrew is “berith.” It means an “agreement, a pact, a covenant.” I plan to lead my class to interact with the text here, by asking several questions about the covenant:

??? WHO does :9-10 say that God made this covenant with???
(Noah, his descendants, and with all the living creatures on earth)

??? WHAT does God promise in this covenant??? (:11)
(That all flesh shall never again be cut off by a flood, that destroys the whole earth.)

??? Did He promise there would never again be ANY kind of flood?

(NO — only that there would not be another flood which killed everyone and destroyed the whole earth)

So THIS IS THE COVENANT God made in Genesis 9 : not to destroy the earth again by flood. And that promise is still good to this day:

— II Peter 3:3-7 “Know this first of all, that in the last days mockers will come with their mocking, following after their own lusts (:4) and saying, ‘Where is the promise of His coming? For ever since the fathers fell asleep, all continues just as it was from the beginning of creation.’ (:5) For when they maintain this, it escapes their notice that by the word of God the heavens existed long ago and the earth was formed out of water and by water (:6) through which the world at that time was destroyed, being flooded with water. (:7) But by His word the present heavens and earth are being reserved for fire, kept for the day of judgment and destruction of ungodly men.”

So even in the New Testament God is still holding to that promise not to destroy the earth again by flood.

??? What did God say in :12 would be the SIGN of this covenant He was making???

(:12 “this is the sign of the covenant which I am making between Me and you and every living creature that is with you, for all succeeding generations (:13) I SET MY BOW in the cloud, and it shall be for a sign of a covenant between Me and the earth …”

God says the bow in the sky would be the sign of His promise. “Bow” here of course refers to what we call a “rainbow” as the sign of God’s promise. 

God’s Retired Weapon קשׁת  (By Chad Bird) He quotes Genesis 9:13-15 and says: 

“Though often translated “rainbow,” the Hebrew word qeshet ordinarily refers to a “bow,” the weapon. Notice two things: one, this qeshet is not in the hands of the heavenly archer, who shot the arrows of the flood on the earth. It hangs from the clouds. The Lord has retired his weapon. Second, it faces not downward, at us, but upward, at God. We are unthreatened by it.

God transformed a weapon of war into an emblem of peace.

But it gets even better. Later, when God appears to Ezekiel, looking like a man, this likeness of the glory of the Lord is “like the appearance of the qeshet that is in the cloud on the day of rain” (Ezek. 1:28). This man-like glory is the Father’s Son, whom John sees in heaven, “and around the throne was a rainbow” (Rev. 4:3).

The two ends of the bow, joining Genesis to Revelation, point us to Christ, for “he himself is our peace” (Eph. 2:14).

(Chad Bird, Unveiling Mercy: 365 Daily Devotions Based on Insights from Old Testament Hebrew)

(There’s a longer article on this “Rainbows As The Color And Shape of Salvation”; I’ll post the address on my blog:

https://www.1517.org/articles/rainbows-as-the-color-and-shape-of-salvation   )

The point is, God has “hung up” His weapon of the flood against us, and made this promise with the rainbow — and this sign of the rainbow is found with CHRIST in Ezekiel and Revelation. It is the sign of God’s promise to us. 

If you didn’t share it in the Introduction, you might discuss important promises that have been made to you:

??? What was an important promise someone made to YOU???

(When I was a preteen, I started getting into OU football, and my dad & I would always talk about it. He said, we’ll have to go to a game some time. I was really excited about it. But time went by, and we hadn’t gone. One night, my Dad & I were at Gary’s Restaurant in our town of Harrah, and we were talking about OU football again, and Dad said again, “We’ll have to go to a game.” I said, “Yeah, you keep saying that, but we never do.” Just then he reached into his shirt pocket, and laid 2 OU tickets down on the table — and that weekend my Dad & I went to my first OU game. He DID what He said he would do! He kept his promise!

Genesis 9 is a reminder that our Heavenly Father will keep HIS promises too! Not only His promises about not flooding the world, but also His promises about forgiveness, salvation, eternal security, for walking with us through every trial, and so on. 

One of my favorite new hymn/songs is: 

“He Will Hold Me Fast”  By Keith & Krysten Getty. It talks about how God will keep His promises to hold us fast, in eternal security, when we have committed our lives to Him

“Those He saves are His delight

Christ will hold me fast

Precious in His holy sight

He will hold me fast

He’ll not let my soul be lost

His promises shall last

Bought by Him at such a cost

He will hold me fast

He will hold me fast

He will hold me fast

For my Savior loves me so

He will hold me fast.”

Even better than the best earthly Father, God KEEPS His promises to us. We can trust Him with our lives here on earth, and with our eternal salvation. The rainbow — which we can see here on earth, but Revelation says is right there with our Savior in heaven now — reminds us of that. He keeps His promises. We have a great opportunity to remind our members of that from Genesis 9 this week!

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