Covenants of the Bible. Covenants of God. Chasing the Seed.

Podcast Program Transcript
Episode 5: The Noahic Covenant. Covenants of the Bible. Covenants of God. Chasing the Seed.
Heather M R Olsen

The previous podcast introduced covenants in the Bible, and the 6 we are going to focus on. Our first was the Adamic Covenant. God created Adam and Eve and placed them in the Garden of Eden. He described them as “tov meod, “very good.” In an indeterminate amount of time, they did the one prohibition God gave them. They ate from the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil, and were evicted to the east, never to enter again. This started the string of curses on their lives and on the serpent. Genesis 3:15 announced the first messianic prophecy and the need for the Seed, “zerah” in Hebrew, a Rescuer and Deliverer.

Let’s go into our second covenant. NOAHIC Covenant:

In Genesis 6:18, the Noah story is the first mentioned covenant in the Bible.

Genesis 6:18 NIV
18 But I will establish my covenant with you, and you will enter the ark—you and your sons and your wife and your sons’ wives with you.”

Just prior, in Genesis 5, the line of Jesus is traced through Adam & Eve’s third named son, Seth up to Noah. It is not an exhaustive list, but the highlights of Jesus’ ancestors, as we get to Noah, who “was a righteous man, blameless among the people of his time, and he walked faithfully with God” Gen 6:11.

Let’s briefly unpack, Noah, “righteous and blameless [who] walked faithfully with God.”

Was Noah sin free?
Short answer is no! Noah was reverent and committed to God. Noah had a relationship with God, and therefore, “walked with God.” Noah is the third party, after Adam & Eve, and Enoch who was named as walking with God. At this point in the Bible, Noah was one of the few, perhaps only one, in the world who had a relationship with God, so therefore was described as righteous.

In Hebrew, Noah’s name, or “Noach נח” means “rest.”¹ “This is the account of Noah and his family. Noah was a righteous man, blameless among the people of his time, and he walked faithfully with God. Noah had three sons: Shem, Ham and Japheth. Now the earth was corrupt in God’s sight and was full of violence.” Genesis 6:9-11

The earth was filled with violence. Literally, it says, in Hebrew, “Ha-ahretz hamas.” “Hamas” in the Hebrew Bible means, “violence, wrong.”²

Noah is commanded to build a large boat, or ark. This Hebrew word is, “tevah תֵּבָה ” meaning literally, “box, chest.” The other famous time this word is used biblically, is to describe the basket that baby Moses was floated in on the Nile, in the book of Exodus.

God gave meticulous directions in size, wood (cypress or gopher wood, but my sources tell me that this wood is technically unknown), waterproof coating inside and out (pitch), and the number of decks (lower, middle, upper).

The unit of measure Noah used? A cubit! Fingertip to elbow! “Any of various ancient units of length based on the length of the forearm from the elbow to the tip of the middle finger and usually equal to about 18 inches (46 centimeters).”³ I just did a measurement of my own cubit. Had I been on the other side of the ark helping Noah, we would have had a lopsided ark as mine measures 17.7 inches. Clearly, whomever was the chief builder in the Bible, had to only use his forearm!

God then said in Gen 6:19-21 You are to bring into the ark two of all living creatures, male and female, to keep them alive with you. Two of every kind of bird, of every kind of animal and of every kind of creature that moves along the ground will come to you to be kept alive. You are to take every kind of food that is to be eaten and store it away as food for you and for them.”

I recently overheard someone scoff that animals like an elephant would be impossible to fit on the ark. Hence, clearly this Bible story is allegorical. One of my sources researched the dimensions and put them into contemporary terms for us.

“In today’s measurements, the Ark would be 450 feet long, 75 feet wide and 45 feet high. That’s hard to picture, but a few illustrations should give you an idea of how big the Ark was. It was taller than a 3-story building. It had a total deck area the size of 36 lawn tennis courts or 20 basketball courts. It was as long as a football field goalpost to goalpost and about as wide. If you stood the Ark up on its end, it would have been as tall as the Great Pyramid of Giza. [It was as long as the Great Pyramid’s height!] It was big enough to contain 522 standard US railroad stock cars! Proportionally, its length was 10 times its height and 6 times its width. In fact, the Ark has the same proportions as a modern cargo ship. A 1993 Korean study headed by Dr. Seon Won Hong found no fault with the Ark’s dimensions. Such a vessel would have been seaworthy and able to handle waves as high as 100 feet. God’s blueprints were more than adequate!”⁴

Back to the narrative and covenant:

God destroyed all the inhabitants of the earth, except for righteous Noah, his wife, his three sons and their wives. There were many living creatures on board this large ark, built by Noah, and these animals would soon repopulate the animal world. Gen 6:22 “Noah did everything just as God commanded him.”

Our Sunday school stories taught that God said to bring the animals, two by two. Biblically, God gave more detail regarding the animals which often gets left out of the Sunday school stories. Gen 7:2-3 “Take with you seven pairs of every kind of clean animal, a male and its mate, and one pair of every kind of unclean animal, a male and its mate, and also seven pairs of every kind of bird, male and female, to keep their various kinds alive throughout the earth.”

The progression: 7 pairs of clean animals, one pair of unclean animals, then Noah gets in the ark. 7 days later the rains come. It rained for 40 days and 40 nights. Again, in Gen 7:5 “Noah did all that the Lord commanded him.”

It rained and rained. Until the mountains were covered. We have that water motif again. Water = chaos = death. But God gave an “out” for life. As He always does.

On the 17th day of the 7th month (Gen 8), after 40 days Noah opened a window. Notice lots of 7’s and 40’s in this narrative. Let’s pause and examine these repetitive numbers. This will actually be a new unit of study, but briefly, I want to introduce the concept of Gematria. Gematria is the art of applying numerical value to letters in Judaism. We can find the use of Gematria throughout the Bible. The number 7 is “one of the most significant numbers in Judaism,” “most sacred and perfect,” meaning “completeness/wholesomeness.”⁵

For example, a week is 7 days, since Creation, created by God!⁶

Let’s think about the number 7 in the Bible:

• 7 days of creation
• 7 pairs of clean animals on the ark
• Noah was in the ark for 7 days before it started raining
• After 7 days of rain the flood waters came
• Jacob worked for 7 years to marry Rachel, but ended up marrying Leah, so worked another 7 years for Rachel
• Joseph’s dreams consisted of 7 lean and 7 fat cows, 7 lean and 7 fat grains
• During Passover, 7 days no yeast in the house and not eat yeast for 7 days
• Jesus said to forgive your enemy 70×7

Even our culture and nature utilize the number 7:

• 7 days in a week
• 7 colors in the rainbow ROYGBIV
• 7 notes in solfege, the musical scale
• 7 continents on Earth
• 7 seas
• 7 Wonders of the World
• Ph level neutral is 7

The number 40 is also found regularly in the Bible, indicating, “radical transformation/ metamorphosis,” or “a long time,” ⁷ throughout the Hebrew Bible.viii⁸ More on this later.

Genesis 9 we finally encounter God’s covenant with Noah.
Verses 8-11, “I now establish my covenant with you and with your descendants after you and with every living creature that was with you – the birds, the livestock, and all the wild animals, all those that came out of the ark with you – every living creature on earth. I establish my covenant with you: Never again will all life be destroyed by the waters of a flood; never again will there be a flood to destroy the earth.” [italics are mine.]

Verse 12, The “sign of the covenant I am making between me and you and every living creature with you, a covenant for all generations to come: I have set my rainbow in the clouds, and it will be the sign of the covenant between me and the earth.” God continued that every time a rainbow appears in the clouds, He will remember his covenant (Gen 9:16).

The Hebrew word here is “Kashti ַקַשְׁתִּי” meaning, “My rainbow” or “my bow”⁹ ”is “bow ֶקֶשֶׁת“

We can find the word bow in different translations, as opposed to rainbow in the NIV. NAS: I set My bow in the cloud,
KJV: I do set my bow in the cloud,
INT: my bow set the cloud

In the Hebrew Bible there are 72 instances of “ֶקֶשֶׁת”or “bow,” with most meaning a bow of war. Derivatives are: “archers (3), arrows (1), bow (54), bowman (1), bowmen (1), bows (13), bowshot (1), rainbow (1).”¹⁰

Why is that significant? Does a bow of war indicate God’s Mighty Power? Authority? God’s Presence? God hanging up His bow? Visible from earth, refrain from destruction with water? You could let your mind go with that one and see where God takes you.

Within this rainbow, we have the number 7 again. ROYGBIV: Red, Orange, Yellow, Green, Blue, Indigo, Violet, the 7 colors of the rainbow!

Gen 8:20 The covenant began after Noah’s first sacrifice. “Then Noah built an altar to
the Lord and, taking some of all the clean animals and clean birds, he sacrificed burnt
offerings on it. The Lord smelled the pleasing aroma and said in his heart: “Never again will I curse the ground because of humans, even though every inclination of the human heart is evil from childhood. And never again will I destroy all living creatures, as I have done.”

God then blesses Noah and sons in Gen 9:1-7 saying to them, “Be fruitful and increase in number and fill the earth. The fear and dread of you will fall on all the beasts of the earth, and on all the birds in the sky, on every creature that moves along the ground, and on all the fish in the sea; they are given into your hands. Everything that lives and moves about will be food for you. Just as I gave you the green plants, I now give you everything.”

Noah is given everything to eat now, not just the green plants as Adam and Eve had but there is a prohibition. “You must not eat meat that has its lifeblood still in it. And for your lifeblood I will surely demand an accounting. I will demand an accounting from every animal. And from each human being, too, I will demand an accounting for the life of another human being. Whoever sheds human blood, by humans shall their blood be shed; for in the image of God has God made humankind. As for you, be fruitful and increase in number; multiply on the earth and increase upon it.” God is not about the replacement of people but renewal Gen 9:1.¹¹

Let’s ask our five questions.

• This Noahic Covenant is between whom? **GOD and humanity, all living creatures of every kind, for all generations to come, the whole earth.
• Are there stipulations? **Though God gives a command to not to eat animals with the lifeblood in them, God made a promise to never destroy the earth again with a flood regardless.
• Is there a SIGN? **Yes, a Rainbow
• Is this covenant conditional or unconditional? **It is unconditional & one sided
• How long will it last? **God said never again, so forever.

What makes us trust God that this is true? We need to read and hear God’s promises. A world- wide flood hasn’t happened since this one. We don’t have dating of the Noah narrative, but it happened way before Abraham, which is at least 4000 years ago.

We’ve completed the Adamic and Noahic covenant, but before we close, I still want to trace the Seed “hazerah” a bit further.

Noah had three sons:
Shem, Ham, & Japheth (Gen 5:32, 6:10). They are most often listed in this order: SHEM (name), HAM (hot/warm,) Yafét (extend, beautiful). What was actual birth order?

I like to do biblical sleuthing. Again, most often find the birth order, Shem, Ham, Japheth, so it is easy to accept that as the order. We’ll begin with Ham. We have learned in biblical parentheses that Ham is the father or ancestor of Canaan. The Canaanites will play a profound role in the plight of the future Israelites. Gen 9:22-23 “Ham, the father of Canaan, saw his father naked and told his two brothers outside. But Shem and Japheth took a garment and laid it across their shoulders; then they walked in backward and covered their father’s naked body. Their faces were turned the other way so that they would not see their father naked. When Noah awoke from his wine and found out what his youngest son had done to him.” [Noah cursed Ham, the Father of Canaan].

We learn from Genesis 9 that Ham is the baby of the family. Moving onto, Japheth, he is named first in Genesis 10 with his ancestors. Genesis 10:21 “Sons were also born to Shem, whose older brother was Japheth; Shem was the ancestor of all the sons of Eber.” This puts Japhet older than Shem, who is in the middle: Japheth, Shem, Ham. Let’s hear it for the middle kid! My husband and I are both middle kids!

But why then, is the order of the three most often listed as Shem, Ham, Japheth. Let’s begin with the third, as Japheth’s descendants go by way of maritime peoples and fade from the biblical picture. Japhet’s line is no relation to the line of the Seed.

Second listed is Ham. His descendants become the Cushites, located in Southern Egypt/Northern Sudan,¹² plus his descendants settle in Canaan and Egypt. Egypt will soon play a big role later in the Bible, not only with Joseph, Jacob’s son, but with the Hebrew people, Moses/Aaron/Miriam, and the Israelites. Further, per prophecy, Egypt will serve as a place of refuge for the Christ child, Jesus, and his parents, Mary & Joseph (Matthew 2).

Back to the Cushite’s, a descendant emerged from Cush, Nimrod, who was a mighty hunter (Gen 10:9). His lineage produced Babylon, Nineveh in Assyria (1 Chron 1:10, Micah 5:6). Canaan also produced the Hittites, Jebusites, Amorites, with cities, Sodom, and Gomorrah. All of Ham’s named descendants, were mortal enemies of the Hebrew People. This will all be displayed further into the biblical narrative.

Last, but first named descendant, Noah’s son Shem, though he is the middle child, leads us to the line of the Seed. Culturally and biblically, the firstborn son is the one who receives the double portion of inheritance, the important legacy, and the blessing. However, throughout the Bible, God turns this cultural norm upside down. Remember Seth, the third born son of Adam and Eve. Now Shem, the middle kid. Repeatedly, we will encounter this trend of God’s, empowering the one He chooses, rather than who society dictates.

Noah’s son, Shem “Name” in Hebrew, is an apt name for Jesus’ ancestor. “Name” is the ancestor of the Name, Jesus. Further, the Shemites are soon to be called Semites, who ancestrally trickle down to another descendent, Eber, Abram’s named ancestor. Shortly, we will “Chase the Seed” through the line of Shem, and Eber to our next named covenant with Abram.

Genesis 11:10-26 is an “account of Shem’s family line to Abram’s family line.” Keep in mind when we are reading biblical genealogies, in the ancient near east mindset, phrases such as, “son of” and “father of” actually means “ancestor of,” so you don’t get hung up on counting years and lineage, and say we came up a few hundred years short. The author is hitting the highlights. This Genesis 11 genealogy establishes that Eber who came from Shem (Semites), Noah, Seth, Adam (the father of humanity), were all ancestors of Abram. Consequently, we will continue to establish, they are also all ancestors of Jesus.

The etymology of Eber comes from Hebrew word, “abar,” means to “pass through, cross over” (like a river, a border, an obstacle, or terrain). “Eber describes what or where you end up when you do the verb, the other side or region beyond.”¹³ Eber was the “father” of the Hebrew people, foreshadowing the journey of the Israelites coming out of Egypt, through the desert, and crossing the Jordan, to the “other side or region beyond,” into the Land of Canaan. The Promised Land.

Through this genealogy, we also encounter that Abram, or soon-to-be Abraham was the first named Hebrew. And so continues God’s story of redemption.

That’s a lot.
Please remember to go to my website, Illuminationhebrewinsights.com and get the written form of these podcasts; the transcript includes my sources, Bible verses, and written Hebrew words. I am a visual learner, so hearing a lecture and remembering what is said is difficult for me. Many of you are like me in that sense.

Let’s close with Isaiah 54:9-10 “To me this is like the days of Noah, when I swore that the waters of Noah would never again cover the earth. (GOD has kept His promise. Still). So, now I have sworn not to be angry with you, never to rebuke you again. Though the mountains be shaken, and the hills be removed, yet my unfailing love for you will not be shaken nor my covenant of peace be removed,” says the Lord, who has compassion on you.

What a beautiful reminder that God’s covenant will not be removed. Nor shaken. His promises are superlatives that can be trusted.

Shalom friends.
I pray that you can and do live under God’s eternal covenant of peace, “b’rit shlomi” “My Covenant of Peace.”

**Heather!
©2024 Heather M R Olsen, Illumination: Hebrew Insights. All rights reserved.  

Biblical Sources throughout:

Brown, A. Philip, and Bryan W. Smith. A Reader’s Hebrew Bible: Torah Neviʼim u-Ketuvim. Zondervan, 2008.

Strong’s Concordance. Bible Hub: Search, Read, Study the Bible in Many Languages, 2024, biblehub.com/.

Life Application Study Bible: NIV. Zondervan; Tyndale House Publishers, Inc, 2021.

1. “Strong’s Concordance 5146.” Bible Hub: Search, Read, Study the Bible in Many Languages, 2024, biblehub.com/. ↩︎
2. Philip A. Brown, and Bryan W. Smith. A Reader’s Hebrew Bible: Torah Neviʼim u-Ketuvim. Zondervan, 2008. iii ↩︎
3. https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/cubit. ↩︎
4. https://beyondflannelgraph.wordpress.com/the-ark/how-big-was-the-ark/. ↩︎
5. “Significant Numbers in Judaism.” My Jewish Learning, 14 Aug. 2024, www.myjewishlearning.com/. ↩︎
6. Safran, Eliyahu. “Seven: The Power of Numbers.” OU Torah, outorah.org/p/24545/. Accessed 15 Mar. 2024. ↩︎
7. Raskin, Aaron L. “Mem.” Judaism, Torah and Jewish Info – Chabad Lubavitch, Chabad.org, www.chabad.org. Accessed 15 Aug. 2024. ↩︎
8. “Significant Numbers in Judaism.” My Jewish Learning, 14 Aug. 2024, www.myjewishlearning.com/.
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9. “Bible Hub.” Bible Hub: Search, Read, Study the Bible in Many Languages, biblehub.com/. Genesis 9:13, Interlinear, Accessed 15 Aug. 2024. ↩︎
10. Ibid., biblehub.com/hebrew/7198. ↩︎
11. Michael Gabizon. “The Noahic Covenant.” The King’s University. Fall, 2021. ↩︎
12. Rufus L. Perry. “The Cushite, Or, The Descendants of Ham: As Found in the Sacred Scriptures …” Google Scholar, Google, scholar.google.com/. Accessed 15 Aug. 2024. ↩︎
13. “Meaning of Eber.” Abarim Publications, Abarim publications, 27 June 2024. ↩︎