Messiah in the Books of Moses – Genesis 9: The Noahic Prediction

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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=upSwQZlToQc&t=21s

NOTES

The Introduction

The promise of Messiah progressively unfolds throughout the Old Testament. Messiah became the proper name associated with the promised Anointed One of Yahweh Who would come to deliver, redeem, and restore Israel. Since the fall of Adam and Eve into sin, God has kept the hope of His people alive through the promise of Messiah. The Hebrew term Mashiach (מָשִׁ֖יחַ) literally translates Anointed One. The Greek equivalent of Mashiach/Messiah appearing in the New Testament is Christos (χριστός). Each time the word Christ appears in the New Testament, it is a reference to the office of Jesus as the Messiah.

In the study of Messiah in the Books of Moses, six Old Testament prophetic predictions will be explored: The Edenic Prediction (Gen. 3:15); The Noahic Prediction (Gen 9:25-27); The Abrahamic Prediction (Gen 12:1-3); The Judaic Prediction (Gen 49:8-12); The Balaamic Prediction (Num 24:15-19); and, The Mosaic Prediction (Deut 18:15, 18). Each prophecy will be studied within its historical context and in light of its fulfillment in the Person and work of Messiah Jesus as recorded in the New Testament.

After His resurrection, Jesus appeared to His disciples, opening their minds to understand all that was written concerning Himself in all the Scriptures. “Then beginning with Moses and with all the prophets, He explained to them the things concerning Himself in all the Scriptures” (Luke 24:27). A study of Luke 24 introduces Messiah in the Books of Moses, establishing the primary importance of studying messianic prophecy in the Old Testament. This study focuses on the first six predictions of Messiah in the Pentateuch.

Genesis 3 – The Edenic Prediction (Gen 3:15): Humanity of Messiah
Genesis 3 records the fall of Adam and Eve into sin. Before casting the man and the woman from the garden of Eden, God gives the woman a promise that includes the first predictive prophecy of Messiah in the Bible. Genesis 3:15 has commonly been called the protoevangelium (“the first gospel”) because it is the first prophecy in the Bible, revealing the promise of a future Redeemer Who will crush the head of Satan.

Genesis 3:15 is the “mother prophecy” that launches the promise of redemption for fallen humanity through the Messiah Who is the “seed/offspring” of the woman. The Edenic Prediction establishes the humanity of Messiah, the promised “seed/offspring” Who becomes the central figure of God’s unfolding kingdom plan.

Genesis 9 – The Noahic Prediction (Gen 9:25–27): Divinity of Messiah

Based on the genealogies in Genesis 5, at least 1500 years pass between creation and the great flood in the days of Noah. With the assumption that the seven days of creation took place around 6000 BC, some biblical scholars tentatively propose and evidence supports 3800 BC as the estimated time of the flood.

In the millenniums that follow the entrance of sin into the world through Adam and Eve, wickedness multiplies exponentially until the whole earth becomes corrupt in God’s eyes. “God looked on the earth, and behold, it was corrupt; for all flesh had corrupted their way upon the earth” (Gen 6:12). Genesis 6–9 records God’s execution of judgment on the earth by a flood that destroys all living things except for Noah, his three sons, Shem, Ham, and Japheth, their wives, and the animals God preserved on the ark.

When Noah and his household disembark after the flood waters receded, God blesses them and commands them to “be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth” (Gen 9:1). Genesis 9 records the sin of Ham, Noah’s son, against his father, resulting in the blessing of Shem and Japheth, and in the cursing of Canaan, the son of Ham. Within this prophetic passage of blessing and cursing, the second prediction of Messiah occurs in Genesis 9:25-27, predicting God’s dwelling in the tents of Shem.

As Genesis 3:15 establishes the humanity of Messiah, Genesis 9:25-27 establishes the divinity of Messiah. The human and divine converge for the first time in the advent of Messiah Jesus, the unique God-Man, the Word of God Who became flesh and made His dwelling among humanity (cf John 1:1-18).

STUDY QUESTIONS

1.  After Noah and his household come out of the ark after the flood waters recede, building an altar and making offerings to the LORD, who does God bless? What does God command them? (9:1)

2.   According to God, what four things will fear Noah and his sons, being given into their hand?  (9:2) What is given to them for food just as God had previously given the green plant? (9:2-3) What are they forbidden to eat? (9:4) 

3.   (A) Does God command all people to live as vegetarians? Defend your answer.

4.   What will God require from every beast? What will God require from man? (9:5) Why does God require that a man’s blood be shed by man for shedding another man’s blood? (9:6)  
What three imperatives does God give to Noah and his sons (9:7)

5.   (A) How does the Bible regard capital punishment as a means of executing judgment for murder? What does God’s severe judgment of murder and His command to populate the earth reveal about His regard for human life?

6.   (Noahic Covenant) As God spoke to Noah and to his sons, with whom/what does God establish His covenant? (9:8-10) What does God promise in His covenant with them? (9:11) What is the sign of the Noahic covenant between God and Noah and every living creature for all successive generations? (9:12-13) When and where will the bow be seen? (9:14) What will God remember when He looks upon the bow in the cloud? How long will the covenant endure? (9:15-17)

7.   (A) What do you learn about God from the Noahic Covenant? What assurance do you receive from the promises in the Noahic Covenant?

8.   What are the names of Noah’s sons who came out of the ark from whom the whole earth was populated? Who is the father of Canaan? (9:18-19)

9.   When Noah began farming, what does he plant? (9:20) What happens when Noah drinks the wine? (9:21)

10. Write a brief principle from the following verses regarding the Bible’s teaching on drunkenness.
Prov 20:1
Prov 23:20
Luke 17:27-28
Romans 14:21
Ephesians 5:18
1Thess 5:7
1Pet 4:3

11. What does Ham, the father of Canaan, see after his father Noah became drunk and uncovered himself inside his tent? Who does he tell? (9:22) What do Shem and Japheth do? Unlike Ham, what do Shem and Japheth NOT see? (9:23) What does Noah know when he awoke? (9:24)

12. (A) What do the son’s different reactions to their father’s nakedness being uncovered reveal about their character?

13. (P) Prophecy (Noahic Prediction 9:25-27) After Noah awakens and realizes what his youngest son has done to him, who does he curse? As a consequence of the curse on Canaan (Ham’s son), what will he be to his brothers? (9:25)

(A) What is the difference between the relationship between brothers and the relationship between a man and his servants? How is this servitude a curse?

14.  (P) Prophecy (Noahic Prediction 9:25-27) Who is the object of Noah’s blessing? (9:26) What name is applied to the LORD/Yahweh? Which one of Noah’s sons is associated with God’s Name? Who will be a servant of the LORD, the God of Shem? (9:26)

15.  (P) Prophecy (Noahic Prediction 9:25-27) Who will God enlarge? In whose tents will God dwell? Who will be God’s servant? (9:27)

(D) Messiah Jesus was a descendant of Shem and Abraham, the father of the nation of Israel. When did God become flesh and dwell among men in Israel? (cf. John 1:1, 14) How does the human ancestry and divine nature of Jesus fulfill messianic prophecy (cf. Gen 3:15, 9:25-27)?

16.   What do the following verses reveal about the divine nature of Messiah Jesus?
Psalm 45:6-7 (Messianic Psalm)
Psalm 110:1
John 1:1-3
Col 1:15-20
Heb 1:1-3

17.   How long does Noah live after the flood? (9:28) How many total years does Noah live? (9:28-29)

18.   What do you learn about God in Genesis 9? What do you learn about Messiah in Gen 9:25-27? How could these truths transform your life?

Write a prayer response to Gen 9.

BIBLE TEXT (NASB)

Gen. 9:1   And God blessed Noah and his sons and said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth. ² “The fear of you and the terror of you will be on every beast of the earth and on every bird of the sky; with everything that creeps on the ground, and all the fish of the sea, into your hand they are given. ³ “Every moving thing that is alive shall be food for you; I give all to you, as I gave the green plant. ⁴ “Only you shall not eat flesh with its life, that is, its blood. ⁵ “Surely I will require your lifeblood; from every beast I will require it. And from every man, from every man’s brother I will require the life of man.

⁶  “Whoever sheds man’s blood, 

By man his blood shall be shed, 

For in the image of God 

He made man.

⁷  “As for you, be fruitful and multiply; 

Populate the earth abundantly and multiply in it.”

Gen. 9:8   Then God spoke to Noah and to his sons with him, saying, ⁹ “Now behold, I Myself do establish My covenant with you, and with your descendants after you; ¹⁰ and with every living creature that is with you, the birds, the cattle, and every beast of the earth with you; of all that comes out of the ark, even every beast of the earth. ¹¹ “I establish My covenant with you; and all flesh shall never again be cut off by the water of the flood, neither shall there again be a flood to destroy the earth.” ¹² God said, “This is the sign of the covenant which I am making between Me and you and every living creature that is with you, for all successive generations; ¹³ I set My bow in the cloud, and it shall be for a sign of a covenant between Me and the earth. ¹⁴ “It shall come about, when I bring a cloud over the earth, that the bow will be seen in the cloud, ¹⁵ and I will remember My covenant, which is between Me and you and every living creature of all flesh; and never again shall the water become a flood to destroy all flesh. ¹⁶ “When the bow is in the cloud, then I will look upon it, to remember the everlasting covenant between God and every living creature of all flesh that is on the earth.” ¹⁷ And God said to Noah, “This is the sign of the covenant which I have established between Me and all flesh that is on the earth.”

Gen. 9:18   Now the sons of Noah who came out of the ark were Shem and Ham and Japheth; and Ham was the father of Canaan. ¹⁹ These three were the sons of Noah, and from these the whole earth was populated.

Gen. 9:20   Then Noah began farming and planted a vineyard. ²¹ He drank of the wine and became drunk, and uncovered himself inside his tent. ²² Ham, the father of Canaan, saw the nakedness of his father, and told his two brothers outside. ²³ But Shem and Japheth took a garment and laid it upon both their shoulders and walked backward and covered the nakedness of their father; and their faces were turned away, so that they did not see their father’s nakedness. ²⁴ When Noah awoke from his wine, he knew what his youngest son had done to him.

²⁵  So he said, 

“Cursed be Canaan; 

A servant of servants 

He shall be to his brothers.”

²⁶  He also said, 

“Blessed be the LORD, 

The God of Shem; 

And let Canaan be his servant.

²⁷  “May God enlarge Japheth, 

And let him dwell in the tents of Shem; 

And let Canaan be his servant.”

Gen. 9:28   Noah lived three hundred and fifty years after the flood. ²⁹ So all the days of Noah were nine hundred and fifty years, and he died.

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