Noah Offers a Sacrifice Beneath the RainbowBible World
9:8Genesis 9:8
And God spake unto Noah, and to his sons with him, saying,
And God spake unto Noah, and to his sons with him, is part of the inspired, divine words of Genesis and records literal history in which God actually spoke to a real Noah and his sons in connection with a real flood. That speaking introduces His gracious covenant with Noah and his sons with him after the flood and reveals His mercy and grace.
The generation at Babel afterward should have gratefully remembered that covenant, but instead they murmured against God as arbitrary and severe for destroying the world by a flood. That covenant still restrains judgment, for although sin has kept increasing since Adam and Eve were shut out of Paradise and rebellious people now trample God's law and His Sabbath under foot, God does not come out of His place to punish the inhabitants of the world for their iniquity or sweep them away by a flood as in Noah's day. He spares them because of the covenant made with Noah, and this sparing proves His benevolence has not been cut off but His love and care still flow earthward, for He is full of compassion, mercy, and love.
Noah's day prefigures the present age before Christ's appearing in the clouds of heaven, since human nature uninfluenced by the Spirit of God remains the same now as then, so the character of that generation marks this age. Christ points all generations to this Old Testament history, showing the Old and New Testaments cannot be divorced and settling doubt about the Old Testament by pronouncing it divine.
And God spake unto Noah, and to his sons with him, is part of the inspired, divine words of Genesis and records literal history in which God actually spoke to a real Noah and his sons in connection with a real flood. That speaking introduces His gracious covenant with Noah and his sons with him after the flood and reveals His mercy and grace.
The generation at Babel afterward should have gratefully remembered that covenant, but instead they murmured against God as arbitrary and severe for destroying the world by a flood. That covenant still restrains judgment, for although sin has kept increasing since Adam and Eve were shut out of Paradise and rebellious people now trample God's law and His Sabbath under foot, God does not come out of His place to punish the inhabitants of the world for their iniquity or sweep them away by a flood as in Noah's day. He spares them because of the covenant made with Noah, and this sparing proves His benevolence has not been cut off but His love and care still flow earthward, for He is full of compassion, mercy, and love.
Noah's day prefigures the present age before Christ's appearing in the clouds of heaven, since human nature uninfluenced by the Spirit of God remains the same now as then, so the character of that generation marks this age. Christ points all generations to this Old Testament history, showing the Old and New Testaments cannot be divorced and settling doubt about the Old Testament by pronouncing it divine.