Genesis

Genesis 9: God preserves life by His promise

Begin in prayer

Before we read God's covenant with Noah and the family that still needs His mercy, let us thank Him for His faithfulness. Ask Him to show us the worth of those He made and our need for the promised Savior.

Yahweh, remember your tender mercies and your loving kindness, for they are from old times.

Psalm 25:6

Father in heaven, please open our eyes to understand Your promise and the value of the lives You give. Show us Jesus, who brings mercy to sinful people. Make us more like Him in the way we honor others. Please bless our family as we worship You together. In Jesus' name, Amen.

See where we're going

God blesses Noah and his sons, giving food and protecting the lives of people made in His image. He establishes His covenant with their descendants and every living creature, promising that another flood will never destroy all flesh. The rainbow becomes the sign of His promise, while the earth is populated from Noah's three sons. Yet Noah becomes drunk and lies uncovered, and Ham tells his brothers about their father's disgrace. Shem and Japheth cover Noah with their faces turned away, and Noah later announces Canaan's servitude while speaking blessing concerning Shem and Japheth. Though he has survived the flood, Noah's life still ends in death.

As you read Genesis 9, look for the answers:

Reflect together

Key truth

God preserves life by His covenant, and His mercy points sinful people to the promised Savior.

God renews His blessing over Noah's family, commanding life to fill the earth He has preserved. Animals may now be eaten, yet their blood must be left, teaching that life belongs to the One who gives it. God requires a murderer's life because the victim bears His image, grounding human dignity in His creation rather than a person's usefulness. Every people descends from the family that leaves the ship, so every person bears that image. God then binds Himself to preserve all flesh from another destroying flood, giving the rainbow as the sign of His covenant. His promise covers living creatures, while personal forgiveness still requires the saving mercy sinners receive through faith in Christ. Noah's drunkenness shows that the family carries sin into the renewed world, and his sons respond differently to his disgrace. The curse names Canaan, whose descendants Israel will meet in the land. Noah blesses the LORD as Shem's God, and Luke traces Jesus' family through Shem, carrying the promise toward its Savior (Luke 3 verse 36).

How does Genesis 9 show us that God preserves life by His covenant, and His mercy points sinful people to the promised Savior?

God blesses life and protects people made in His image.

God gives animals as food while reserving their blood, reminding Noah's family that life remains His gift. He requires the murderer's life because every human being bears His image, giving every victim equal worth before Him. God gives people the duty to punish murder, and Paul names rulers as His servants for this (Romans 13 verse 4).

God binds Himself to preserve the earth from another destroying flood.

God establishes His covenant with Noah's descendants and every living creature, taking the obligation upon Himself. The rainbow is His appointed sign, and His looking at it assures people that He attends to His promise. This promise preserves the world in which His saving purpose unfolds, without promising forgiveness to everyone living in it. God keeps the world He made, and His Son comes into that world to pardon sinners who trust Him.

God keeps His promise through a family that still needs mercy.

Noah becomes drunk and lies uncovered, and Ham tells his brothers about his father's disgrace. Shem and Japheth cover their father while looking away, treating him with honor instead of making his shame a public story. Noah announces Canaan's servitude, blesses the LORD as Shem's God, and asks God to enlarge Japheth. Shem's line will carry the promise to Jesus, the Savior this sinful family needs even after surviving the flood.

Memorise

I set my rainbow in the cloud, and it will be a sign of a covenant between me and the earth.

Genesis 9:13

Looking to Jesus in my life

Ask yourself in your heart, what contempt must I confess to Jesus, asking Him to change me?

God gives Noah a sign of His promise, saying, “I set my rainbow in the cloud”. Yet the same chapter records Noah's sin and closes with his death. Preserving the earth leaves sinful people needing a Savior who can deal with guilt and death.

God keeps the family line through which Jesus comes, and Luke includes Shem and Noah among His ancestors (Luke 3 verse 36). Our hearts share the corruption that remained after the flood, and we owe the holy God an answer for our sin. Christ answered for His people at the cross, bearing the punishment their sins deserved. He died and rose again, and His complete sacrifice leaves nothing more to pay for those who trust Him.

Turn from excusing your sin or claiming worth above another person, and trust Jesus Christ. He grants forgiveness to all who repent and believe in Him. If you belong to Him, your hope rests on God's faithful promise rather than your ancestry or your record. Please give thanks for His patience, and honor the people He made in His image.

Parent's note

Tell your children that God's promise remains faithful, and explain Noah's drunkenness and his sons' responses in your own words. Jesus bore His people's punishment and rose again, giving forgiveness to everyone who repents and believes. Please do not tell them they are saved just because they grew up in a Christian home. Call each child to turn from sin and trust Jesus, and pray that God would give them a new heart.

Pray together

Now please close your time together in prayer. Thank God for His faithful promise, and bring the heart question to Him. Every child can pray, so give each one time to thank Him for a person they find hard to honor if they want to.

If you are Christ’s, then you are Abraham’s offspring and heirs according to promise.

Galatians 3:29

Lord God, thank You for preserving life and keeping Your covenant. Please forgive our contempt for people made in Your image, and lead each of us to turn from sin and trust Jesus. Teach us to honor others, speak truth with love, and rest our hope in Your faithful mercy this week. Amen.