The chapter begins with God commanding all living creatures to be fruitful and multiply. Through Noah, God gave humans charge over everything, and were reminded of God’s original plan—they and they alone are the dominant race on planet earth.
Animals interestingly enough, were not always scared of humans, part of what allowed the Ark to function so well had to do with their natural instinct to obey people.
But that changed after the flood.
Most likely the fear of man was put into those creatures in order to have them scatter. Noah was their father, they were attached to him, but the animal kingdom needed to reproduce and cover the earth, so God put a boundary between humans and the animal kingdom.
God commands humans to value the sanctity of life, and the Lord does so by putting a value on human life, and that value is another life. “Whoever sheds the blood of man, by man shall his blood be shed, for God made man in his own image.”
And there it is, the reason why humans are the most valuable creatures walking planet earth—humans and humans alone are made in the image of God. So humans are not allowed to take life unless to enforce the value of human life.
A covenant could not be more different than a contract.
People sign contracts, but God makes a covenant.
A contract assumes failure, this is what we will do if you don’t live up to you part of the bargain, this is what we are agreeing to.
A covenant focuses on success, and purposes to fulfill the covenant no matter what.
God made a covenant, promising to never destroy the animal population, people, nor the globe ever again.
God said the “bow” is the sign of the covenant. The “bow” did not exist before the flood, but now is a reminder of God’s goodness. We call it a rainbow, but the text calls it a “bow.” The Hebrew word qesheth (keh sheth) simply means to bend. We see a rainbow in the sky, a multi colored arc starting in one place and ending somewhere else. But the “bow” is in reality a complete circle, and can be as such if an airplane in the right spot.
The “bow” in the sky is God’s sign of completion.
“When the bow is in the clouds, I will see it and remember the everlasting covenant between God and every living creature of all flesh that is on the earth.”
God said to Noah, “This is the sign of the covenant that I have established between me and all flesh that is on the earth.”
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