Morning Light: Genesis 9 – The Bow of God Revealed in Us

Today: Genesis 9 – The Bow of God Revealed in Us. In Gen. 9 the family of Noah exits the Ark to receive instructions from the Father. They are called upon to replenish the devastated earth and to rule the creatures thereof who will now dread and fear them. They were also given flesh to eat and given a prohibition against eating blood. Having set these things in order, the rainbow appears in the clouds as a powerful revelation of God’s character and something of His nature reflected in us of clemency, mercy, and grace.
[Gen 9:1-11 KJV] 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, upon all that moveth [upon] the earth, and upon all the fishes of the sea; into your hand are they delivered. 3 Every moving thing that liveth shall be meat for you; even as the green herb have I given you all things. 4 But flesh with the life thereof, [which is] the blood thereof, shall ye not eat. 5 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. 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, saying, 9 And I, behold, I establish my covenant with you, and with your seed after you; 10 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. 11 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 there any more be a flood to destroy the earth.
In v. 1-2: God blesses Noah with a command to be fruitful, multiply and to replenish the earth. His blessing was to be fruitful and multiply not be impoverished and beat down. There is no blessing in poverty. There is no blessing in loss or diminishment. Jesus said in John 10:10 that He came that we might have life and life more abundantly, and this is one indivisible truth about who God is and what His heart is toward us. In 3 John, we find this unambiguous universal statement:
[3Jo 1:2 KJV] 2 Beloved, I wish above all things that thou mayest prosper and be in health, even as thy soul prospereth.
Have blessed Noah and his family to replenish the earth we see in verse 2 that the Father reasserts the authority of man over the earth (just as he did Adam). God put the dread of man in “all the beasts of the field.” This is commentary against environmentalist interests who call upon us to be servants of the earth and the creatures found therein. We don’t serve the earth; the earth serves us. Gen. 1:28 and 2:15 declare that man’s prerogative is to subdue the earth and to have dominion over it. This is not an invitation to destroy the environment but rather to exercise stewardship over it for our own good and betterment. We should also remember that Gen. 3:1 says that the serpent (Satan himself), is more subtle than all the beasts of the field. Satan hates you because He fears you. God put the fear of you in the devil and all his hosts.
Satan is not stationed above man in the spiritual cosmology of things. God never intended the enemy to lord over us or to have any legitimate authority to harm or influence us in any way. In Isaiah, we find the declaration:
[Isa 54:17 KJV] 17 No weapon that is formed against thee shall prosper; and every tongue [that] shall rise against thee in judgment thou shalt condemn. This [is] the heritage of the servants of the LORD, and their righteousness [is] of me, saith the LORD.
Theologically we have a much higher opinion of the opposer. James 4:7 says to resist the devil, and he will flee. That’s all there is to it. If this scripture is not applicable to us, then John 3:16 doesn’t apply to us either. But it does apply, and it is not only the truth; it is OUR truth.
In v. 3-7 for the first time, God gives the meat stores of the earth to man for his dietary needs. This is why when Noah was instructed about clean and unclean animals, it wasn’t about dietary laws but providing sacrificial animals that were accepted before God. We see also a prohibition against murder. Blood is specifically mentioned. Why is it that blood is so important?
[Lev 17:11] For the life of the flesh [is] in the blood: and I have given it to you upon the altar to make an atonement for your souls: for it [is] the blood [that] maketh an atonement for the soul.
What this says to us is that the life force within us resides in our bloodstream. That is very interesting because researchers have compared the blood cells of born again and non-born again people and found that born-again people have a light emanating around their cells. Additionally, the writer of Hebrews tells us something that a phlebotomist could never know:
[Hbr 12:24 KJV] 24 And to Jesus the mediator of the new covenant, and to the blood of sprinkling, that speaketh better things than [that of] Abel.
When Abel died, his blood cried out for vengeance. When Jesus’ blood cried out, it said: “Father forgive them they know not what they do…” Jesus blood speaks and Abel’s. What does your blood say? Rev. 19:10 says that the testimony of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy. Is your blood speaking in agreement or disagreement with the testimony of Christ?
In v. 9-11, we find the record of what theologians call the “Noahic Covenant.” The Noahic covenant is the 2nd of 6 covenants that God made with man.
1.Adamic Covenant
2.Noahic Covenant:
3.Abrahamic Covenant
4.Mosaic Covenant
5.Davidic Covenant
6. New Covenant
Why only 6? I believe there be a seventh covenant that the New Testament only hints at.
[Gen 9:12-29 KJV] And God said, This [is] the token of the covenant which I make between you and me 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 [are] the three sons of Noah: and of them was the whole earth overspread. 20 And Noah began [to be] an husbandman, and he planted a vineyard: 21 And he drank of the wine, and was drunken; and he was uncovered within his tent. 22 And Ham, the father of Canaan, saw the nakedness of his father, and told his two brethren without. 23 And Shem and Japheth took a garment, and laid [it] upon both their shoulders, and went backward, and covered the nakedness of their father; and their faces [were] backward, and they saw not their father’s nakedness. 24 And Noah awoke from his wine, and knew what his younger son had done unto him. 25 And he said, Cursed [be] Canaan; a servant of servants shall he be unto his brethren. 26 And he said, Blessed [be] the LORD God of Shem; and Canaan shall be his servant. 27 God shall enlarge Japheth, and he shall dwell in the tents of Shem; and Canaan shall be his servant. 28 And Noah lived after the flood three hundred and fifty years. 29 And all the days of Noah were nine hundred and fifty years: and he died.
In v. 12-15, God promises never to destroy the earth again by water. To ratify the Noah covenant, He places His bow in the clouds. Pay attention to the fact that the bow is there not to remind US but to remind HIM.
Does the rainbow still have meaning for us? The rainbow has been co-opted by the homosexual community as a symbol of their diversity. Homosexuality is one of the more heinous demonstrations of rebellion against God, and it is interesting that they choose to cover themselves with the promise that no matter how evil men become God looks upon it and reminds Himself he will show clemency and not destroy the earth again with a flood.
The importance of these passages as they apply to us find credence even in the words of Christ. Jesus said that the dealings of God in Noah’s day would foreshadow and parallel the dealings of God in our day:
Matthew 24:37 KJV – 37 But as the days of Noe were, so shall also the coming of the Son of man be.
If we accept Jesus’ statement in the preceding verse, it is not doing violence to the meaning to conclude that just as the Father put a “bow in a cloud” in Noah’s day, EVEN SO, He is putting a prophetic “bow in a cloud in our day.” We aren’t talking about natural clouds but spiritual clouds. Is there scriptural precedent for this?
Jude 1:12 tells us that clouds actually speak of people. Even when Jesus speaks of coming in the clouds we understand He is speaking not merely of natural clouds, but clouds of people (See Mark 14:62; 1 Th. 4:17; Rev. 1:7). Also Hebrews 12:1 and Jude 1:14
We are the clouds of God, and clouds are designed by God to manifest rainbows in refraction with light. What (who) is the light? God is light, and we are light in the Lord. We are the clouds of God, and the bow is something that God put IN US. It is a symbol of clemency, love, and non-judgmentalism – so opposite from the religious mentality that contaminates so much of Christian culture.
Studying the bow of God further, we see the rainbow is made up of light. Again, the scripture tells us that God is light (1 John 1:5). We are light in the Lord, we are the cloud of God, and He is in us, and He is light.
Rainbows as we know display seven colors. These colors correspond to the seven spirits of God in Isa. 11:1-4.
Red – Spirit of the Lord?
Orange – Spirit of Wisdom?
Yellow – Spirit of Understanding
Green – Spirit of Counsel?
Blue – Spirit of Might?
Indigo – Spirit of Knowledge?
Violet – Spirit of the Fear of the Lord
In short, God is making the point that because He indwells each of us, we, therefore, have the fullness of His character and attributes living in us, activated in us, as God goes about the business of BEING GOD IN US! The Science Dictionary defines a rainbow as:
“An arc-shaped spectrum of light seen in the sky opposite the Sun, especially after rain, caused by the refraction and reflection of sunlight by droplets of water (Water represents the Word) suspended in the air.”
Rainbows are not possible without water vapor. Water in the Bible represents the Spirit of God and the word of God. The rainbow God placed in us requires the DISTILLATION OF THE WORD OF GOD in our hearts. Otherwise, we become what Jude spoke of as clouds without water:
What does that mean? A cloud without water is a cloud that cannot refract a rainbow. Spiritually speaking a cloud without water is a man or woman who does not refract God’s nature in the earth. We are in the image of God but aren’t reflecting His image because there is no word in us and not yielded ness to the Holy Spirit.
The seven colors of the rainbow give us seven attributes of God revealed in Us:
THE FEAR OF THE LORD: (Violet)
The Fear of the Lord is the entry point in every person’s relationship with God:
(Psalm 19:9 KJV) – The fear of the LORD [is] clean, enduring forever:
THE SPIRIT OF KNOWLEDGE (Indigo)
(Proverbs 1:7 KJV) – The fear of the LORD [is] the beginning of knowledge: (Also Prov. 1:29)
THE SPIRIT OF MIGHT (Blue)
The knowledge of God causes us to ascend into the MIGHT OF GOD. The word might here is “valor, strength, exploits, mighty deeds.”
(Daniel 11:32 KJV) – The people that do know their God shall be strong, and do [exploits].
THE SPIRIT OF COUNSEL (Green)
THE SPIRIT OF UNDERSTANDING (Yellow)
THE SPIRIT OF WISDOM (Orange)
1 Cor. 1:30,31 tells us that WISDOM IS A PERSON – the MAN / GOD Christ Jesus!
(1 Corinthians 1:30-31 KJV) – But of him are ye in Christ Jesus, who of God is made unto us wisdom, and righteousness, and sanctification, and redemption: That, according as it is written, He that glorieth, let him glory in the Lord.
THE SPIRIT OF THE LORD (Red). Red is the most powerful color in the visible spectrum, something in fact used for weaponized lasers.
This is the FULLNESS of the LORDSHIP OF JESUS CHRIST in us as we attain to the full measure of the seven spirits of God.
In v. 18-19, we see the genealogies of the three branches of Noah’s family line. The sons of Japheth were called the northern peoples; the sons of Ham the southern peoples; the sons of Shem are called the middle peoples. Japheth’s people settled Europe and Magog (the Russias); Shem’s people settled the fertile crescent; Ham’s people settled what became Egypt; Asia and Africa; Ham had many sons, but Canaan was mentioned specifically because his people became the Canaanite tribes who were the ancient enemies of the people of God.
Many commonly believe that Canaan was the progenitor of the black race and therefore were cursed and doomed to become servants when Noah declared they would be servants of servants. This is completely in error, but it has been the religious justification used to dominate and enslave African people in centuries past. This is totally wrong because while the African peoples derive from Ham, their progenitor is Cush, not Canaan.
In v. 20-23, we see a sad indicator of Noah’s weakness and vulnerability. Unfortunately, while sinners died in the flood, the sin principle survives to bring about an unhappy event in Noah’s family. When Ham “looked on his father’s nakedness,” we have to understand what this means. The phrase “looked on his father’s nakedness” is a commonly used idiom for sexual immorality. It is widely agreed that Ham committed a homosexual act upon his father, Noah. This would explain why Noah’s response was so swift and harsh.
In v. 24–29, Noah awakes and pronounces against Ham’s descendants. The descendants of cursed Canaan were the Canaanites who plagued the people of God for centuries. The Hebrews descended from Shem. In Noah’s prophecy, he is predicting that Shem’s descendants will rule over Canaan’s descendants. Generations later, Abram’s father Terah, a descendant of Shem transplanted his family to the land of Canaan to fulfill this prophecy. Thus we see that the promise of God to Abraham was initiated by a personal prophecy given by Noah over his sons centuries before.