1 “And God blessed Noah and his sons, and said unto them, Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth. 2 And the fear of you and the dread of you shall be upon every beast of the earth, and upon every fowl of the air; with all wherewith the ground teemeth, and all the fishes of the sea, into your hand are they delivered. 3 Every moving thing that liveth shall be food for you; as the green herb have I given you all. 4 But flesh with the life thereof, which is the blood thereof, shall ye not eat. 5 And surely your blood, the blood of your lives, will I require; at the hand of every beast will I require it; and at the hand of man, even at the hand of every man’s brother, will I require the life of man. 6 Whoso sheddeth man’s blood, by man shall his blood be shed; for in the image of God made He man. 7 And you, be ye fruitful, and multiply; bring forth abundantly in the earth, and multiply therein.
8 “And God spake unto Noah, and to his sons with him, 9 saying, And I, behold, I establish My covenant with you, 10 and with your seed after you; and with every living creature that is with you, the fowl, the cattle, and every beast of the earth with you; of all that go out of the ark, even every beast of the earth. 11 And I will establish My covenant with you; neither shall all flesh be cut off any more by the waters of the flood; neither shall there any more be a flood to destroy the earth. 12 And God said, This is the token of the covenant which I make between Me and you and every living creature that is with you, for perpetual generations; 13 I do set My bow in the cloud, and it shall be for a token of a covenant between Me and the earth. 14 And it shall come to pass, when I bring a cloud over the earth, that the bow shall be seen in the cloud, 15 and I will remember My covenant, which is between Me and you and every living creature of all flesh; and the waters shall no more become a flood to destroy all flesh. 16 And the bow shall be in the cloud; and I will look upon it, that I may remember the everlasting covenant between God and every living creature of all flesh that is upon the earth. 17 And God said unto Noah, This is the token of the covenant which I have established between Me and all flesh that is upon the earth.
18 “And the sons of Noah, that went forth of the ark, were Shem, and Ham, and Japheth; and Ham is the father of Canaan. 19 These three were the sons of Noah; and of these was the whole earth overspread.”
1 “And the whole earth was of one language and of one speech. 2 And it came to pass, as they journeyed east, that they found a plain in the land of Shinar; and they dwelt there. 3 And they said one to another, Go to, let us make brick, and burn them thoroughly. And they had brick for stone, and slime had they for mortar. 4 And they said, Go to, let us build us a city, and a tower, whose top may reach unto heaven, and let us make us a name; lest we be scattered abroad upon the face of the whole earth. 5 And the Lord came down to see the city and the tower, which the children of men builded. 6 And the Lord said, Behold, they are one people, and they have all one language; and this is what they begin to do; and now nothing will be withholden from them, which they purpose to do. 7 Go to, let us go down, and there confound their language, that they may not understand one another’s speech. 8 So the Lord scattered them abroad from thence upon the face of all the earth; and they left off to build the city. 9 Therefore was the name of it called Babel; because the Lord did there confound the language of all the earth; and from thence did the Lord scatter them abroad upon the face of all the earth.”
SUGGESTIVE QUESTIONS.
(1) How did God further show His recognition of Noah’s offering of faith? Gen. 9:1. What command did He repeat? (2) How was man to be regarded by the animal creation? V. 2. (3) That their lives might be preserved, what permission was now granted? V. 3. Note 1. (4) What restriction was made in the eating of flesh meat? V. 4. Why? Lev. 17:14. (5) What value is placed on the life of man? Why? Vs. 5, 6. (6) What general truth did the Lord state? V. 6. Note 2. (7) What everlasting covenant did God make with all flesh? Vs. 8-11, 15. Note 3. (8) What was to be the token of the covenant? Vs. 12-14, 16, 17. Note 4. (9) Did the world retain the truth expressed in this token? See Gen. 11:1-9. (10) How many languages were spoken at this time? V. 1. (11) What is said of the sons of Noah? Gen. 9:18, 19. Note 5. (12) What is contained in chapter 10? (13) As the children of men journeyed from the east, to what land did they come? Gen. 11:2. (14) What did they determine to do? Why did they wish to build this city and tower? Vs. 3, 4. Note 6. (15) Who came down to see their work? V. 5. (16) What did He say? V. 6. (17) What did He propose to do? V. 7. (18) What did He do? Vs. 8, 9. (19) What became of their plan? Vs. 4, 9. (20) Was this plan in harmony with His previously-stated design? Gen. 9:1. (21) Who built this city and tower? Gen. 10:8-10. Note 7. (22) What practical benefit do you derive from this lesson?
Suggestive Readings.—“Patriarchs and Prophets” (chapter, “The Tower of Babel”), pp. 117-124; “Spirit of Prophecy,” vol. 1, pp. 91-93; “Empires of the Bible,” pp. 1-5.
ADDITIONAL NOTES.
(For original notes see Lesson Quarterly.)
1. Every moving thing that liveth.—There may be a twofold reason suggested why God gave man animal food to eat, contrary to man’s original bill of fare. Gen. 1:29. (1) All vegetation was destroyed by the flood, and God, to preserve the life of man, permitted him to eat flesh. And yet the Lord plainly shows that He recognized the distinction at this very time by saving more of the clean animals than of the unclean. Noah could eat only of the clean animals. (2) God permitted man to eat flesh that the days of that long-lived race might be lessened. Man’s nature, his anatomy, his teeth, all prove him to be graminivorous, frugivorous, but not carnivorous. Vegetarian diet was man’s original diet, and for the normal man is better now.
2. Shall his blood be shed.—Not a command, nor a decree, but a prophecy of what man would do to preserve his life.
3. Everlasting covenant.—This is but another aspect of God’s everlasting covenant of grace.
4. For a token.—The bow of promise is a token of God’s faithfulness cast upon the clouds of man’s sorrow and trouble. It is the beauty of God’s glory, which faith sees in beholding God’s light through a veil of tears. See Eze. 1:28; Rev. 4:3; 10:1.
5. Overspread.—In obedience to the command of God to replenish the earth. Much study can be put upon Gen. 9:18-28 and chapter 10.
6. Let us.—This is a striking example of man’s attempt to save and exalt himself. He thought it would prove the gate of heaven, and so named it according to the monuments, “Bab-il,” “the gate of heaven,” or “the gate of God.” But God called it just what every attempt of this kind will prove, Babel, Babylon, “confusion.” In thus doing the people were following Lucifer, the king of Babylon. See Isa. 14:4, 12-14.
7. Nimrod.—Nimrod, a mighty hunter of men, was the beginner of organized rebellion against God.
ADDITIONAL STUDY.
(1) How many great curses rested upon the earth when Noah came out of the ark? (2) What took the place of affection toward men on the part of the animal creation? See also James 3:7. (3) What does the bow of promise mean to us?—It is the covenant of righteousness and peace. See Isa. 54:7-10; Luke 2:14; John 14:27. (4) Show that the distinction of beasts into clean and unclean was known before the flood. See Leviticus 11 for Bible classification. (5) Was the division of animals into clean and unclean a part of the ceremonial law? Give reason for your reply. (6) Locate the plain of Shinar.
