Reading for February 10th

Read Genesis 9.1-29 God's covenant with creation and Noah's curse of Canaan.
In verses 3-4 God expands the original vegetarian diet for humans (1.29) to include the meat of animals,which shall be food for you.
However, the blood of any animal is to be drained from it before its flesh is eaten (Deut 12.23-25).
The blood represents life, and returning it to the ground acknowledges that life belongs to God.
In verses 5-6 every killing of a human being is a serious threat to the social and moral order of society since it crosses the created boundary between life and death.
In addition, God requires a reckoning or severe consequence (a life for a life)
because humans are created in God's own image (1.26-27).
God requires a reckoning even from an animal that kills human (v.5; Ex 21.28-32).
In verses 8-17 God establishes a covenant relationship with Noah and with all living creatures.
God promises never again shall there be a flood to destroy the earth (v. 11).
This promise fills out the contents of the earlier covenant mentioned in 6.18.
The sign of the covenant is the rainbow in the sky.
The bow will be  sign to jog the divine memory so that God will remember the
everlasting covenant between God and every living creature (v. 16).
In the ancient world, the rainbow was associated with the bow used by God to
shoot arrows of lightning (Ps 7.12-13).
To hang up the bow in the sky symbolized peace.
Worldwide destruction would no longer be a strategy used by God.
In verses 18-19 the three sons of Noah become the ancestors of all living human beings
because all other humans had died in the flood (7.21-23).
In verse 20 Noah becomes the world's fist winemaker.
The intoxicating effect of wine fulfills the words Noah's father spoke at his birth concerning
Noah's role in producing something that would bring relief from work (5.29).
In verses 21-23 Noah overindulges in the intoxicating fruits of his own labors and lies
uncovered in his tent.
Noah's son Ham, the father of Canaan, sees the nakedness of his father.
This may suggest some form of incest or other improper sexual activity (Lev 18.6-8, 24-30).
In verses 24-27 although Ham is the one who acted improperly,
it is Ham's son Canaan who is cursed to be a slave and Shem who is blessed.
As the following genealogy, or family tree, in Gen 10 shows, these sons Noah represent
geographical nations and peoples in the known world of the ancient Near east.
Ham represents the Hamitic peoples associated with Egypt and areas under Egyptian control, including at some time the land of Canaan.
Shem represents the Semitic people, which will eventually include Israel and other related nations.
Japheth included a number of groups from Asia Minor.
The cursing of Canaan and the blessing of Shem provide a backdrop and justification
for the eventual conquest of the Canaanites and the settlement of the Israelites
into the land of Canaan in the book of Joshua.
Comments or Questions...