Bible Gateway passage: Genesis 9:8-17, Psalm 8 - New International Version (2024)

FAQs

What is the message of Genesis 9 8 17? ›

No matter how sinful humanity becomes, no matter how many storms and floods wreak havoc on the earth, God will not wipe out life on this earth by a flood. Life will go on. That's the covenant underlying life on this planet. God promises physical life for all.

Peter used the Flood story to teach that God is equally capable of judging sin and preserving the righteous in today's world as He was in Noah's day (2 Peter 2:9–10).

God establishes an everlasting covenant with Noah. God promises to never again destroy the earth by a flood. He makes a sign of the covenant for all to see. Throughout history, God has dealt with man through covenants or agreements.

Specifically, God will require a reckoning—a dire accountability—when the lifeblood of a person is shed. God will require that reckoning whether the one who kills a person is a man or an animal. The next verse will reveal that reckoning to be the death of the one who kills any human being.

TRUST IN GOD'S JUSTICE: The psalmist acknowledges that God judges with righteousness and equity. This means that we can trust in him to judge us fairly. If we have followed God's ways, we can have confidence that we will be justified and not condemned.

GOD INSTRUCTS NOAH FOLLOWING THE FLOOD (9:1-7): God told Noah and his sons to have children and repopulate the earth. He gave them all animals and plants for food but told them not to eat meat that contained blood. Blood was to be respected because it gave life to animals and humans.

The flood wasn't an act of wanton destruction by a capricious God. God was acting to restore the goodness of his creation. God preserves one family through the flood and elevates Noah as a new Adam, placed once again in a garden on a high mountain paradise with the commission to be fruitful and multiply.

The meaning of the flood

The story of Noah, the Ark, and Flood speaks an inspired and powerful message about judgment and grace, that has instructed God's people throughout the ages about God's hatred of sin and his love for his creation.

The story of the Flood also demonstrates both the gravity of God's justice and the promise of His salvation. Every sin we commit grieves God, and His justice demands judgement for that sin.

In Genesis chapter 9, He reveals seven blessings from His new covenant that Christ would later fulfill. First, God blessed Noah's family with fertility and commanded them to fill the Earth. Today, Jesus will also bless and multiply you when you help to fulfill his command to fill the Earth with believers.

What does God remembered mean in Genesis 8? ›

After the global destruction of chapter 7, Genesis 8 begins with a comforting statement: God "remembered" Noah. This does not imply that God "forgot" Noah for a while. Rather, the idea is that Noah was always in God's sight, and in His mind. In addition, God was thinking of the animals that were with Noah on the ark.

Symbolically then, when God "sees" the rainbow in the clouds, He will "remember" His everlasting covenant with every living creature of every kind on earth. While God does not need to "see" the rainbow or "remember" His agreement, these words clarify that the rainbow is meant for our reassurance.

This verse restates, yet again, that the sign of the rainbow is meant to prove His covenant promise to all humanity and all animal-kind forever. The symbolism hints at a battle bow "set" in the clouds, instead of being held in God's hand, representing a lasting peace.

8Then God spoke to Noah and to his sons with him, saying, 9Now behold, I Myself am establishing My covenant with you, and with your descendants after you; 10and with every living creature that is with you: the birds, the livestock, and every animal of the earth with you; of all that comes out of the ark, every animal ...

God binds himself to a covenant with Noah and his descendants, promising never to destroy the earth by flood (Gen. 9:8-17). God gives the rainbow as a sign of his promise. Although the earth has radically changed again, God's purposes for work remain the same.

Mankind could not kill each other by spilling innocent blood. It also had to respect all God-given life by abstaining from any foods or drinks with blood. This blood covenant foreshadowed Christ's death at the cross. His blood atones for all mankind's sins.

The children of Zion can be glad and rejoice because rain has returned to nourish the ground (Joel 2:23). All this leads up to its climax in verse 25: “I will restore to you the years that the locust has eaten.” What this meant for these people was that God would give back the harvests that had been destroyed.

When God lets the plant die, the opposite effect is achieved. But the Lord wants to teach him a lesson by letting the plant wither in order that Jonah will forgo his anger concerning Nineveh. At the time of the events of verse 6, which took place before 4:1(and 3:10), Jonah was not yet angry.

God binds himself to a covenant with Noah and his descendants, promising never to destroy the earth by flood (Gen. 9:8-17). God gives the rainbow as a sign of his promise. Although the earth has radically changed again, God's purposes for work remain the same.