Genesis 9:1–7
The Bible4Jesus.com Podcast
About this episode
And now, on this new earth, God establishes the terms of engagement for all of post-Flood humanity. This is what we call the Noahic Covenant, and it is the foundation of what theologians refer to as common grace. God is not, in this passage, laying out the terms of salvation, but rather the terms of survival. He is establishing the basic, foundational structures that will keep the world from immediately spiraling back into the kind of universal violence and corruption that necessitated the Flood in the first place. He is setting up the civil and natural order, a framework within which the covenant of grace can later unfold. Without the Noahic covenant, there would be no stage for Abraham, no nation for Moses, and no world for the Son to enter. We must understand that God is here speaking to all mankind.