"And God blessed Noah and his sons, and said unto them, Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth. 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, upon all that moveth upon the earth, and upon all the fishes of the sea; into your hand are they delivered. Every moving thing that liveth shall be meat for you; even as the green herb have I given you all things. But flesh with the life thereof, which is the blood thereof, shall ye not eat. And surely your blood of your lives will I require; at the hand of every beast will I require it, and at the hand of man; at the hand of every man's brother will I require the life of man. Whoso sheddeth man's blood, by man shall his blood by shed: for in the image of God made He man. And you, be fruitful, and multiply; bring forth abundantly in the earth, and multiply therein. And God spake unto Noah, and to his sons with him, saying, And I behold, I establish my covenant with you, and with your seed after you; And with every living creature that is with you, of the fowl, of the cattle, and of every beast of the earth with you; from all that go out of the ark, to every beast of the earth. And I will establish my covenant with you; neither shall all flesh be cut off any more by the waters of a flood; neither shall they any more be a flood to destroy the earth. 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: I do set my bow in the cloud, and it shall be for a token of a covenant between me and the earth. And it shall come to pass, when I bring a cloud over the earth, that the bow shall be seen in the cloud: 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. 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 flesh that is upon the earth. 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." (Genesis 9:1-17)
I often wonder why God repeats Himself so much in His Word. Is it to give emphasis to the words that He is speaking? Probably. Is it because He wants to make sure we understand Him? Also probably. Is all of this because we are slow to hear and dull in our understanding? Most definitely. We are after all only human.
Which makes the fact that God is making a covenant with us in the first place so amazing! God making a covenant with mere mortal man! Ah, but we are not mere mortal man. We are God's beloved creation. And no matter how many times judgment must fall on us because of our sinful ways, He continues to show over and over again how much He loves us.
The Hebrew word for "covenant" is beriyth and its definition, besides covenant, is alliance, pledge…in this case between God and man. It is a divine ordinance established, complete with signs or promises.
In this case the "pledge" is that God will never again destroy every living creature on the earth (so long as the earth remains), and that He will never again destroy the earth with flood.
And as a reminder to Himself (as well as being a sign to us) He has placed the rainbow ("His bow") in the clouds for us to see.
Thus, Noah and his family, and all the animals on board the ark with him, are released from their long confinement of preservation, and sent off with the command to "be fruitful and multiply." No mention of children has been made thus far between Noah's sins and their wives. Perhaps they were sent on board as "intendeds" (fiancés) rather than as husband and wives. The Hebrew often uses the term wife, husband, or spouse not only for those meanings, but also for those who are engaged; signifying the commitment right off the bat at the engagement. Perhaps, in this case, there were no children born on the ark, because there was not meant to be. Perhaps the official ceremony or consummation of the marriages of these three sons of Noah was meant to happen only upon dry ground. We do not know for certain; what we do know is now God has voiced His will that they do indeed pro-create, and have many children.
Here is the first mention of a form of civil government ordained by God. Any human or beast who kills a human, must also be put to death. The blood of the guilty one will be required for the shed blood of the victim. Thus capital punishment was originally ordained by God.
Here also is the first mention of man eating meat. Prior to this he was given all the herbs of the field as his food. Animals were killed only for sacrifices unto God. Now man is instructed to eat anything that moves. Perhaps this is why the animals will all be in fear of man, for now they will become hunted by him. We must remember however, that God has also ordained "clean" and "unclean" animals. While He has not told Noah at this point to eat only the "clean" animals, I feel certain that Noah understands the implications involved.
One final note, from this point on, we are not told what happened to the ark. We do know, however, that it rested on the mountains of Ararat; this tells us that Noah and his families most likely headed to lower ground where the living was easier and more comfortable to their lungs. It is not believed that they tore the ark apart to use for building, mostly because it was so well constructed with pitch inside and out, that it would have been difficult to tear apart again; in addition to the altitude at which the ark rested.
Therein lies all the speculation about the ark. And I do agree with Chuck Missler that it will perhaps again be a testimony to a sinful world of God's judgment to come; and that the world will not heed it any better then that it did in Noah's day.
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