Chapter 9
There are four civilisations:
1. The antediluvian [ante = before] civilisation means before the flood—from Adam to the flood. This is the civilisation where the Bible emphasises that man was in innocence and how he became a sinner. This is the civilisation which develops all but one of the divine institutions. It begins with man in innocence and having fellowship with God and it terminated with judgment, the judgment of the flood whereby all unbelievers were taken out of the world. When the new civilisation began it began with believers only.
2. The postdiluvian civilisation, which runs all of the way from Noah to the second advent of Christ.
3. The Millennium. It begins with believers only and there is a great judgment right at the end.
4. The Eternal civilisation begins after the Millennium and the judgment at the great white throne.
In chapter 8:22 there was a change in climate—heat and cold, summer and winter. Before the judgment of the flood the climate of the world was perpetual
spring. There were no seasons. In 9:14 there was the addition of clouds and winds. There is a reason for that due to the type of water storage that existed before the flood.
The basis of divine blessing to the individual is found 8:20,21 where the altar is mentioned. Noah gave his testimony to the fact that the altar was the most important factor of all. It was the place of sacrifice. The animal sacrifices were performed in order to indicate the ministry of the Lord Jesus Christ at a future date when He would die on the cross for the sins of the world.
In 9:1 we have the first of two commands to repopulate the earth. “And God blessed Noah and his sons” – He provided everything that they needed.
Verse 2 – reference to the lower creation, the animal kingdom. This is a new command because there is a new relationship. In the original situation of man’s innocence man clearly dominated all of the animal creation. Animals did not have ferocity and man was clearly the ruler. When man sinned he not only lost control over the animal kingdom but over nature as well. Not only would nature provide for him, he would have to cultivate the ground, and so on. Now we have the subjection of lower creation. It is based upon fear, upon man’s superior intellect and ability to conquer animals by his thought process, and so on. The sin in man destroyed lower creation’s voluntary subjection and now he must control through violence, through weapons which he devises. Through his ingenuity he must be able to control the animal kingdom. Therefore the animal kingdom is still inferior and subject to man but on a different basis. Fear and dread are the basis mentioned here whereby he will dominate lower creation.
Verses 3 & 4, a new set of dietary laws. These dietary laws are very important. In the antediluvian civilisation meat was forbidden. There was a violation of that principle because Cain and his progeny lived and subsisted on meat.
Verse 3 – “Every moving thing that liveth shall be food for you; even as the green herb” – vegetables, which were previously in order in the earlier civilisation. But in addition to that “have I given you all things.” Everything is for food now, everything that moves.
Verse 4 is erroneously translated in the KJV. “But the flesh with the life thereof” is not correct. The Hebrew says, “Only flesh in its soul.” The word soul means life—only living flesh. In other words, you cannot eat a stake while it is still on the hoof and while the steer is still walking around.
“the blood” – we are forbidden as members of the human race to actually eat blood.
Lower creation is not only delivered into man’s hands but he becomes one of the primary sources of man’s food. Man is given permission to slaughter animals for food. But he is not given permission to slaughter man for any purpose. This doesn’t imply that man is only starting to eat meat now because there were outlaws before this time who subsisted on animal food, but God now authorises for the first time animal food. One of the factors in demon possession is vegetarianism. There is an aesthetic branch of legalism, and many of the cults and Satanic religions demand abstinence from meat. The theory that a vegetable diet is supposed to make man noble and deliver him from the lusts of the flesh is a part of demon doctrine. Cf. 1 Timothy 4:1-6.
There is one postdiluvian taboo in the realm of diet, stated in the last part of verse 4. “Only the flesh in its life [living animals] ye shall not eat, and the blood [of animals].” Before eating the blood should be properly drained from the animal.
Verses 5 & 6 – the beginning of divine institution #4. There is more about this in chapter 11, but here is the first concept. The fourth divine institution is nationalism. Internationalism is anti-Christian. The Bible says that internationalism is the way of destruction to the human race. This is because internationalism destroys divine institution #1, which is volition. Consequently, in order to protect the human race from self-destruction God has provided these four divine institutions, the last of which is nationalism.
Verse 5 – there are two forms of capital punishment. An animal which kills human beings must be destroyed—capital punishment in the realm of lower creation. The second phrase here says, “at the hand of man” – capital punishment is mentioned here for the first time. Cf. Romans 13:4.
Verse 6 – “Whoso sheddeth man’s blood, by man shall his blood be shed.” The reason capital punishment is brought in here before the entire concept of nationalism is developed is this. Once you open the door and permit eating animal food, what is going to happen? Some are going to get a weapon and go out and kill an animal to eat. Then after killing animals they are going to do exactly what Cain discovered. He learned how to kill people by watching animals die. So the next thing some will do is to start hunting men. Here, “by man” means the proper constituted authority. Why? “For in the image of God made he man.” The image of God refers to three things—self-consciousness [I know that I exist], moral reasoning power [I ought to do this; I ought not to do that], self-determination [I will, or I will not]. Man has his own volition, he can choose for himself his course in life. And because man has the right to choose for himself you do not have the right to destroy his volition by destroying him. When it says that someone has the right to take life when man violates law [here it is murder] immediately we have authorisation for human government. The basic principle in human government is the courtroom [judge on the bench] and the policeman on the corner. The basic principle of government is common law, law enforcement, and the examination of those who appear to be criminals to determine the extent of their crime, if any, and to properly punish them. All government is built around common law and the courtroom.
There is only one way to put teeth in the law. No mater how good the law is that law is absolutely no good without capital punishment. No matter how good common law is it is no better than enforcement, and the ultimate in law enforcement is capital punishment.
In the antediluvian civilisation God Himself processed all criminal cases. But now the authority is given to man for the first time with this authority we have government.
In this verse the basis for capital punishment is said to be the image of God, and here it means volition, self-determination. Since man possesses self-determination he must take the consequences of his own decisions. If his decisions involve the transgression of law, if his decision involves murder, then he must take the consequence of his own volition. The right to kill animals does not give the right to kill man. But there are two exceptions. a) Capital punishment; b) Warfare.
Human government, therefore, is a national, geographical, ethnological or philological (all speak the same language) entity possessing common laws and government, which is on the one hand enforced (policeman on the beat), and on the other hand men are punished where violations exist (courtroom).
The fourth divine institution does not sanction personal revenge. There are two means of handling opposition against us. One is to commit it to the Lord, which is our spiritual operation, and the other is to commit is to the law of the land, which is our nationalistic operation. So the fourth divine institution does not sanction personal revenge but lays the foundation for judicial modus operandi. So the infliction of punishment or revenge is never left to the caprice of the individual, it is left to those who have authority in law. Law, of course, must be as objective as possible. The national entity, divine institution #4, is a human barrier against the supremacy of evil in the world controlled by Satan.
Verse 7 – the second command to repopulate the earth, to perpetuate the human race. This command is repeated because now the means of protecting the perpetuated human race has been established. Divine institution #4 is developed for the protection of the human race. Therefore in the human race there must be a number of national entities, governments. Each government must function over a segment of the human race. There must be no government that functions over the entire human race—internationalism. Any form of internationalism gives Satan direct and complete control of the earth. Satan will be the ruler of this world until the second advent of Christ. At the Second Advent of Christ the first form of bona fide internationalism will go into operation, Christ will rule the world. But until that time the devil is the ruler of the world and the devil is frustrated in his designs by a large number of national entities. By maintaining its own sovereignty as a government, when other governments try to take over control of the world because someone has power lust, there is warfare and balance of power is maintained. The only way we will ever have any measure of world peace is by a balance of power among national entities. There can never be world peace with any form of internationalism. Any form of internationalism, whether it is the United Nations or international communism, is the spawning ground for warfare and violence. The chief principle of the social gospel and the National Council of Churches today is to disarm. When you disarm a strong national entity that helps, or should help, to maintain peace then you destroy the peace.
Verses 8-17, the Noahic covenant. In effect, this is God’s covenant with the postdiluvian civilisation of which we are a part. This is the second half of the Noahic covenant. One part of it was found in 8:21, 22. There are two primary factors involved. God would never again judge the earth through a universal flood, and the token of this was the bow which we now call today the rainbow.
Verse 8 – the parties in the covenant are stated: God plus Noah, his sons, and the entire postdiluvian civilisation.
Verses 9-10, the scope of the covenant. It was with Noah, it was with the postdiluvian civilisation, and it was also with lower creation. The previous provisions of the covenant had been given in 8:21, 22, and the principle is that God will never again destroy the earth by flood. The human race will never be judged by water as an entity. There will be another judgment for the human race in the future, stated in 2 Peter 3:6,7, and is judgment by fire.
Verses 12-17, the sign of the covenant. No one ever saw a rainbow before the flood because in the antediluvian civilisation there was no rain. The water used to help the earth came from below the earth. The rainbow is nothing less than light broken down by refraction. This is a token of God’s promise that He will keep His word. We are guaranteed the perpetuation of the human race. In order for the human race to be perpetuated the divine institutions must be in operation as much as possible: volition, marriage, the family, nationalism.
Adam was the beginner of the antediluvian civilisation; Noah was the beginner of the postdiluvian civilisation.
A few points of analogy
1. Adam was placed on a planet which emerged from water—the water of the great deluge, Genesis 1:2, 12. In the analogy, Noah debarked from an ark from which the planet had been covered with water and the waters were now assuaged.
2. Adam was blessed by God and told to replenish the earth, Genesis 1:28. Noah was blessed by God and instructed to replenish the earth, Genesis 9:1.
3. Adam sinned by eating of the forbidden tree; Noah transgressed by drinking of the fruit of the vine.
4. Adam became naked and was covered by another—by God, Genesis 3:7, 21; Noah became naked and was covered by two of his sons.
5. Adam’s sin brought a curse upon his prosperity, Romans 5:12. Noah’s sin brought a curse upon one segment of his posterity, Genesis 9:24, 25.
6. Adam had three sons mentioned in the Bible—Cain, Abel and Seth, one of which became the line of Messiah. Noah has three sons—Shem, Ham and Japheth, one of which became the line of Messiah.
7. Adam after his fall received the prophecy of salvation, Genesis 3:15; Noah after his fall received the prophecy of human history, Genesis 9:24-26.
There are three great prophecies in Genesis: a) the prophecy of salvation, Genesis 3:15; b) the prophecy of the history of the postdiluvian civilisation, Genesis
9:25-26; c) the prophecy of the tribes of Israel, Genesis 49.
There are three points which come in the last half of Genesis 9. The first is drunkenness, followed by homosexuality, and then the prophecy of history.
Verse 20 – “And Noah began to be an husbandman [farmer]; and he planted a vineyard.”
Verse 21 – “And he drank of the wine,[1] and became drunk; and he was uncovered within his tent.” There is a homosexual act involved here with one of Ham’s sons, Canaan. Apparently Noah, sober, wouldn’t get into a jamb like this, but Noah drunk did exactly that. Cf. Habakkuk 2:15,16.
Verse 22 – apparently Ham, the youngest of the three sons of Noah, wanted to be sure that he became the heir rather than the oldest son. Consequently, apparently he set up a plot. He was involved in this apparently to the extent that he was under the curse. He attempted to discredit his father, or at least to blackmail his father. “And Ham, the father of Canaan, saw the nakedness of his father.” This simply means that he observed the homosexual act between Canaan, his son, and Noah, his father.
“and told his two brothers” – this amounts to maligning. The fact that the act had occurred is beside the point as far as Ham is concerned. He made it a point to be guilty of a very terrible sin himself, which is the sin of gossip and maligning.
Verse 23 – we notice the act of the two older brothers, Shem and Japheth, and this becomes the occasion for the prophecy. We have the courtesy and the thoughtfulness of the two older brothers and out of this comes the second great prophecy in Genesis. It concerns the activities and the historical trends right up to this time of the postdiluvian civilisation.
Verse 24 – “And Noah awoke from his win [drunkenness], and he realised what his younger son [Ham] had done unto him.
Verse 25 – the curse specifically is on Canaan, and Canaan is the son of Ham. Ham is a black-skinned man, he is Negroid, and he is the source of everything from Indians to the Negroes, and so on. We will see later that two of his sons are white and two of them are black. Notice that the curse is on Canaan, not on Ham directly. Canaan is a white son of Ham.
In order to understand the curse on Canaan the law of culpability must be understood. The second law that must be understood is the law of degeneracy.
The law of culpability is stated: Deuteronomy 24:16; Ezekiel 18:2; Jeremiah 31:29,30; Exodus 20:5. It is a law which says the sins of the parents are visited on the children down to the fourth generation. A person is only accountable for the sins he commits, but he inherits from his great grandfather, grandfather and father, certain weaknesses, areas of weakness in which he is prone to sin. Canaan being under this curse is simply a historical recognition of the fact that this area of weakness exists and that being prone in this area, and to sin and to fail, will come out in the line of Ham. It does, especially in Canaan. The people who lived in Palestine before the Jews were Canaanites. What kind of people were they? Why did God commend their complete extermination? Because they were a race of people who had gone completely mad. Just as you would kill a mad dog before it bit someone, so God ordered the complete extermination of the Canaanites. It wasn’t accomplished and that meant trouble for the human race. Cf. Leviticus 18:27, 28; 20:23.
Verse 25 – Canaan and his line are going to be completely enslaved or destroyed in the process of the postdiluvian civilisation. Remember that Ham is black but Canaan is white. The white Canaanitish race came under a special curse at this time, a curse which they tried to break by conquering the world. Satan tried to use them to conquer the world. The Hittites are a part of the Canaanites. Canaan is cursed with servitude. He is going to serve both Japheth and Shem. The whole line of Ham will always be under either Japheth or Shem.
The curse upon Canaan was fulfilled when the Jews crossed the Jordan and conquered the land. The Canaanites were almost completely exterminated, except for the Gibeonites and the Agagites. The Canaanites are characterised by child sacrifice, the phallic cult which involves all of the sexual abuses and degeneracy. “Canaan” means to stoop down, and his name means servitude and, of course, is involved with the homosexual problem there as well.
Verse 26 – “Blessed be the Lord God of Shem.” “Shem” means name. One branch of the Semitics, the Jews, would carry the name of God. That is why Shem is mentioned next, because Shem will have spiritual superiority in the postdiluvian civilisation. The “Lord God of Shem” is Jesus Christ, Jehovah Elohim. Shem is blessed, and from Shem comes Israel. Israel has the custodianship of the gospel; Israel has custodianship of divine truth. Every book in the Bible, except one instance, was written by a Jew—either a Jewish prophet (Old Testament) or an apostle/Jewish Christian (New Testament). The only exception is Luke. Noah praises the God of Shem, Jesus Christ, who is Noah’s saviour. The line of Shem will not only be the custodians of divine truth but they will have responsibility for the name and the revelation of Jesus Christ. This is brought out again in Exodus 3:13-15; 29:45.
The Canaanites are specifically to serve Shem. Notice in the curse of Canaan, verse 25, that wherever the Canaanites exist they are slaves or servants—“and Canaan shall be his servant.” That is, he shall be the servant of Shem. This is, again, the conquest of the land which took place in Joshua’s day.
Verse 27 – The blessing on Japheth. “God shall enlarge Japheth.” When God enlarged Japheth it means that every time Satan and demon possession were used to make Canaan powerful the sons of Japheth would rise up and smack them down. Always Satan is trying to build up the sons of Ham, and what is left of the sons of Canaan.
Each one of these lines has a predominant gene. Canaan = degeneracy; Shem = spiritual life, trend toward the consideration, thoughtfulness, and occupation with God; Japheth is a conqueror. He has the drive and the understanding to conquer. “God shall enlarge Japheth.” The word Japheth means expansion or enlargement. And yet Japheth is going to be subservient to Shem in one way: spiritually. “He shall dwell in the tents of Shem.” That is, believers who are Gentiles and becomes saved find salvation through Shem (the Jews). Salvation in the postdiluvian civilisation was declared and disseminated, and doctrine was protected, by the Jews. So Japheth is a conqueror, he goes out and conquers segments of the human race. But Japheth is always conquered by the Lord Jesus Christ—salvation. But all of the truth which we have about salvation came from the tents of Shem. The Bible came from the tents of Shem. The tents of Shem = the Old Testament and New Testament canon of scripture. The only thing that can conquer a conqueror is the gospel.
“and Canaan shall be his servant” – wherever Japheth goes Canaan runs. There is always an exception to the curse when people move into the tents of Shem and cursing is turned to blessing, that is, then they accept Christ and believe the Bible. God turns cursing into blessing through evangelism.