RENEWAL OF THE COVENANT As God smelled the soothing aroma from the renewed man’s offering, He blessed humanity, presenting it with a law to submit to, a covenant to attach it to Him, and a mark to support him in the days of its sojourn on earth. 1- God blesses Noah and his sons 1. 2- The Law of Noah 2-7. 3- Renewal of the Covenant 8-17. 4- Noah and his nakedness 18-23. 5- Noah’s prophesy on Canaan, Shem, and Japheth 24-28. 1- GOD BLESSES NOAH AND HIS SONS “God blessed Noah and his sons and said to them: ‘Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth’ ”(Gen. 9: 1) As Noah and his sons left the ark to the earth, renewed by the water of the great flood, God blessed them and granted them what He previously granted Adam and Eve: “Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth.”.. as though man has started anew; or as though the world set forth anew through Noah in place of the first Adam. This blessing is actually a symbol of the blessing that the Church gained in the New Testament through the true Noah - our Lord Jesus, the Grantor of comfort and rest. So in place of the first Adam, we got the Second Adam; and in place of the first Eve, we got the Church as a new Eve, through whom children of God would be born, multiply and greatly grow. Through the first Adam, we got the carnal birth, and through the New Adam or the New Noah, we got the spiritual birth. St. Jacob of Serug says: [Our first father was smitten by the serpent, that took him down to Hades, where he is humiliatingly thrown amid mud and worms. This is our first father, and that is where he is. If this destiny didn’t change then we would have been in great humiliation… Get away, O listeners, from that horrible humiliation, and seek another Father in heavens. Hasten to Baptism and seek her as your mother. She will present you with a rich Father filled with all goodness. She will give birth to you, even if you are an old man, to make of you a son beloved to your royal Father1.] St. Augustine says: [We have two births: One of them earthly and the other heavenly; one from the body, and the other from the Spirit; one of a corruptible nature and the other of an eternal nature; one from a man and a woman, and the other from God and the Church; one make us sons of the body, and the other makes us sons of the Spirit; one makes us sons of death, and the other makes us sons of resurrection; one makes us sons of the world, and the other makes us sons of God; one makes us sons of curse and wrath, and the other makes us sons of blessing and love; one will bind us with chains of sin, and the other will set us free of all its bonds2.] 1 ميمر عن المعمودية المقدسة. 2 In Ioan. hom 19. 4 2- THE LAWOF NOAH If God granted humanity, through the water of Baptism, a blessing, to begin a new setting forth, through Noah in place of Adam, He set for it a law in place of the commandment He previously gave to Adam. That law, which could be called, “the Law of Noah,” came to include the following items: (1) Allowing eating flesh of animals, birds, and fish, He said to them: “The fear of you and the dread of you shall be on every beast of the earth, on every bird of the air, on all that move on the earth, and on all the fish of the sea, they are given into your hand. Every moving thing that lives shall be food for you. I have given you all things, even as the green Herbs” (Gen. 9:2, 3). Man was before, a vegetarian, but now he was allowed to feed on animals, birds, and fish. Why? To prepare the way for receiving the Mosaic Law, by which a priest is committed to eat from sacrifices, as a symbol of enjoying the flesh and blood of our Lord Jesus Christ, according to His saying: “For My flesh is food indeed, and My blood is drink indeed. He who eats My flesh and drinks My blood, abides in Me and I in him... and will live forever” (John 6:54, 55). A sacrifice is not, as some pagans think, to avoid the wrath of God, as God does not find pleasure in burnt offerings, and does not feed on flesh or fat, but the Holy Sacrifice proclaiming the reconciliation of God with man, is a gift to man, by which his soul and heart are fulfilled, on an exalted supernatural spiritual level. (2) Having allowed the eating of flesh, He was warned against eating it with its blood, to prepare the way to reveal the importance of the blood shed for our sake, as an essential factor for atonement and redemption; as “Without shedding of blood, there is no remission” (Hebrew 9:22), and “With the precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb without blemish and without spot” (1 Peter 1:19). Physically, forbidding man to eat or drink blood, was for protecting his own health; and behaviorally, to protect him against being savage and violent. But, spiritually, it is meant to sanctify blood, as representing life delivered for the sake of salvation of man. (3) Perhaps God considers that if man is allowed to eat flesh of animals, that he would attack his fellow man, so He warned against shedding man’s blood. 3- RENEWAL OF THE COVENANT God established a covenant with Noah and his children, and made the rainbow a sign of that covenant between Him and them, and between Him and their descendants after them. As the chastisement came through nature (the great flood), God set the sign likewise, openly in nature (the rainbow). Yet in the New Testament, as Christ the Lord carried our chastisement in His body, He made the sign in Him through the wounds of the cross. A rainbow appears around the divine throne (Revelation 4:3; 10:1). That is because the glory of God is not just might and greatness, but it is also love without limit. The rainbow is the sign of love given by God as He set with Noah a covenant after the great flood. And God remains, in His love for mankind, presenting to us love through His covenant with us. That rainbow has several colors, proclaiming the numerous gifts of God. As a bow, it refers to the weapon that was used in wars, as though God defends us by His bow, yet without an arrow, as He does not like shedding of blood; by Him we overcome sin, and tread over the devil1. It is amazing how God, in His love for man, is proud of His covenant with .٣٨ ¡ 1 للمؤلف: حزقيال، ١٩٨١ ، ص ٣٧ 5 him, saying: “My covenant,” and “My rainbow” (Gen. 9:11, 13) 3- NOAH AND HIS NAKEDNESS Coming out to the new earth, that was cleansed by the water of the great flood, “Noah began to be a farmer, and he planted a vineyard” (Gen. 9:20). He was not “a tiller of the ground” (Gen. 4:2) as was Cain before him, but “a Farmer who planted a vineyard.” Cain refers to man who puts his work in the earth and earthly, and his energies in the worldly; but Noah, on the other hand, refers to Christ the Lord, who came to us as a Farmer to plant His vineyard anew; that is the Church that became as a new land, irrigated by the waters of the Holy Spirit, and cleansed by the holy blood of the Lord Christ. In a Jewish tradition, it came that Noah found a little vine branch that fell from Paradise, and he planted it1. Anyhow, Noah most probably was not aware of the action of the fermented juice of vine.., that is why some Fathers believe that he was the first man to experience it2. Yet, if he became drunk, aware or not aware of its action, he “became uncovered in his tent” (Gen. 9:21). The Holy Scripture underscored that weakness, to confirm to us that salvation was not because of Noah’s self-righteousness; if he was righteous, that was because of God’s exceeding grace that supported him in his strife. That situation revealed the following: (1) Danger of drinking liquor that deprive man of his dignity, and bares him even before his children. St. Jerome says: [Nobody should say that drinking is not a sin; we read that Noah got drunk once; but God warns us not to think of him as an addicted drunkard3.] He also says: [One hour of drinking, has bared Noah who, for 600 years remained dignified4.] St. Ambrose says: [How far the authority of wine goes; it made him, whom the water of the great flood could not overcome, naked5.] Sin is truly the liquor that bares and disgraces the soul. But Christ the Lord is the splendid clothing that covers the soul against its eternal disgrace. St. Jerome says: [We are the garment of Christ; as he puts us on through our faith in Him, we also put Him on as a garment for us.] And as the apostle Paul says: “For as many of you as were baptized into Christ have put on Christ” (Galatians 3: 27). As we put on Christ, He also puts us on6.] (2) As Noah was bared, Ham saw his father’s nakedness; but Shem and Japheth, inspired by the natural Law, were keen not to do the same. Here, the unity of the natural and the written laws is revealed, as the law warns against exposing the nakedness of the father or the mother. This should not be understood literally, as it probably warns man against desecrating his step-mother, or a girl, against committing evil with her step-father!... But what Ham did was ridiculing his naked father in the literal sense of the word. If we, in faith consider everyone as our father, mother, brother, or sister, it is fitting for us not to bare anyone, but, as far as possible, cover him or her in love, in Jesus Christ, who covers our sins. 1 Edersheim: The Bible History, V. 1. p. 55. .( 2 من هؤلاء الآباء القديس يوحنا الذهبي الفم والقديس چيروم (رسالة ٢٢ 3 On Forgiveness of Sins and Baptism 12. 4 Ep. 69:6. 5 Conc. Virgins 1:9 (53). 6 On Ps. 45. 6 (3) If Noah did wrong by getting drunk and naked, yet God, in His love did not cover up the weaknesses of His men, but is turning these weaknesses to the good; as He did when He turned the evil plan of Joseph’s brothers against him to his and their good. St. Jerome sees in this story of Noah, a symbolic portrait of what was to happen to the Lord Christ, who drank the cup of passion, got naked for our sake on the cross, and was ridiculed by the wicked (Ham), while the Gentiles (Shem and Japheth) believed in Him. And as said by St. Jerome: [All this was said as a symbol of the Savior who drank the cup of passion on the cross, saying: “O My Father, if it is possible, let this cup pass from Me” (Matthew 26:39); He drank, got naked, and was ridiculed by His elder son (Ham), namely the Jewish people, while His younger one, namely the Gentiles, covered up His sufferings... And as the Lord got drunk through His passion, so also the saints get drunk by the fragrance of their faith, get drunk by the Holy Spirit. Finally, when the Holy Spirit descended upon the disciples, and filled them, they talked in several tongues, to be accused to be “full of new wine1.”] It is to be noted that St. Jerome counted Ham as the elder brother to Shem and Japheth, representatives of the Gentiles. Anyhow, there is much controversy as to the right order of seniority of Noah’s sons: Some talk of them as Shem, Ham, then Japheth, based on the fact that they were mentioned as such in many locations in the Holy Scripture. And yet some others believe that, although Shem was not the firstborn, yet he was put first, because from him, the great fathers: Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob came, and from him came the ancient people, out of whom the Lord Christ was born according to the flesh. What confirms this, is that, in chapter 10, the sons of Japheth were presented first, followed by those of Ham, then of Shem. 5- NOAH’S PROPHECY ON CANAAN, SHEM, AND JAPHETH “So Noah awoke from his wine, and knew what his younger son had done to him” (Gen. 9:24). Some believe that the younger son here, is Canaan the grandson of Noah from his son Ham. But it is more probably Ham himself. Origen believes that Canaan saw the nakedness of his grandfather and told his father Ham. Ben Ezra says that Canaan went too far in ridiculing his grandfather. Anyhow, it seems that Ham and his son Canaan both took part in mocking Noah; representing by that those who “crucify again for themselves the Son of God, and put Him to an open shame” (Hebrew 6:6), by their wicked deeds. Noah cursed his grandson Canaan, blessed the God of Shem, and prayed for the goods for Japheth. His word came to bear a prophecy concerning the future generations, in which the following are to be noticed: (1) Noah did not curse his son Ham, but his grandson Canaan; probably because his grandson did the most ridicule. St. Justine2 believes that the son, who was previously blessed, together with his brothers, by the mouth of God, could not be cursed. From another side, calling Canaan “a servant of servants,” namely the lowliest of the servants, is a prophecy about the Canaanites who challenged God, and deviated to the defilements of the pagans, as for instance sacrificing their children to the idols (Leviticus 18:25-28; Deuteronomy 20:17-18). (2) When He talked about Shem, he blessed the “God of Shem;” as the Lord was referred to the descendants of Shem, from whom came Abraham, Isaac, and 1 On Ps. hom 13. 2 Dial. ad. Trypho 139. 7 Jacob. And as St. Augustine1 said, that prophecy was realized by the birth of the Lord Christ from them according to the flesh. If the name ‘Shem,’ means ‘high’ or ‘exalted,’ what name would be so, more than the Lord Christ, whose fragrance was all over the world?! (3) The prophecy concerning Japheth, whose name means ‘enlargement,’ or ‘fulfillment,’ that “May God enlarge (him), and may he dwell in the tents of Shem.” Shem’s dwellings - the Church of Christ - were enlarged to receive the Gentiles, namely to receive Japheth in it. 1 City of God 16:2.
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