The Bow In The Cloud

The time from The Flood (see also How Big Was Noah's Ark?) marked a new beginning for humanity. In some ways, Noah and his wife (her name is not recorded in the Scriptures) were like a second Adam and Eve, not only because all humans are descended from Noah and his wife, through their three sons, but also because they found themselves in a new world, in which their family were the only humans, just like Adam and Eve did. Some of their instructions were the same.

To Adam's family:

"^1:28 And God blessed them, and God said unto them, Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth, and subdue it: and have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over every living thing that moveth upon the earth." (Genesis 1:28 KJV)

To Noah's family:

"^9:1 And God blessed Noah and his sons, and said unto them, Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth. ^9:2 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." (Genesis 9:1-2 KJV)

"I do set my bow in the cloud, and it shall be for a token of a covenant between me and the earth"

Humans began as vegetarians (Genesis 1:29) and continued as such right up to the time of Noah. But after the Flood, the LORD (see 'The God Of The Old Testament') told Noah and his descendants that they could also consume all clean (see Clean and Unclean) fish, birds and animals.

"^9:3 Every moving thing that liveth shall be meat for you; even as the green herb have I given you all things." (Genesis 9:3 KJV)

The first murderer, Cain (see Cain's City), was not sentenced to death for his crime. The LORD sentenced him to life, living with the painful consequences of what he had done i.e. the LORD sentenced him to a conscience. After the Flood however, the LORD declared that murderers were to be put to death.

"^9:4 But flesh with the life thereof, which is the blood thereof, shall ye not eat. ^9:5 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. ^9:6 Whoso sheddeth man's blood, by man shall his blood be shed: for in the image of God made he man [see also Why Blood?]" (Genesis 9:4-6 KJV)

The LORD declared that the rainbow would thereafter serve as a sign that never again would He destroy life by a flood - of water.

"^9:7 And you, be ye fruitful, and multiply; bring forth abundantly in the earth, and multiply therein.

^9:8 And God spake unto Noah, and to his sons with him, saying, ^9:9 And I, behold, I establish my covenant with you [see also Covenant and Testament], and with your seed after you; ^9:10 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. ^9:11 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.

^9:12 And God said, This is the token of the covenant which I make between me and you and every living creature that is with you, for perpetual generations: ^9:13 I do set my bow in the cloud, and it shall be for a token of a covenant between me and the earth. ^9:14 And it shall come to pass, when I bring a cloud over the earth [see Heavens Below, Heavens Above], that the bow shall be seen in the cloud: ^9:15 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. ^9:16 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.

^9:17 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." (Genesis 9:7-17 KJV)

Fact Finder: Where are "the clouds of heaven"? How are they found in Bible History and Prophecy?
See Behold, He Cometh With Clouds

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This Day In History, May 25

1085: Alfonso VI took Toledo, Spain, from the Moslems.

1261: Alexander IV, antipope 1254-1261 (see Antipopes), died under suspicious circumstances at age 62. Many at the time believed that he was poisoned by his successor, antipope John XXIII.

1521: Holy Roman Emperor Charles V (see The Holy Roman Empire) pronounced Martin Luther an outlaw and heretic for refusing to recant his teachings while at the Diet of Worms (i.e. "Diet" is a legislative assembly in some countries; "Worms" is the English rendering of "Vorms," a city in Germany).

1810: Argentina declared independence from Napoleonic Spain.

1914: The British House of Commons passed Irish Home Rule.

1915: Arthur James Balfour succeeded Winston Churchill as first lord of the Admiralty.

1925: Tennessee schoolteacher John Scopes was arrested for teaching Darwinian theory (listen to our Sermon Darwin's Theory of Evolution).

1946: Jordan gained independence from Britain.

1950: The "Tripartite Declaration" by the United States, Britain, and France. It sought to prevent further war in the region of Israel.

1996: Bulgaria's King Simeon II returned home after 50 years of exile; he fled in 1946 after the Soviet Red Army installed a puppet communist regime.