A Brave New World

The world was ready for a new beginning after the Great Flood. Noah and his family and all the animals in the Ark were all the creatures needed to repopulate the Earth. In v1, God commanded them to "be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth". This is the same command when God first Created Man and he creatures. However, the significant difference is in v2 and v3, where God caused the animals to fear Man, (presumably before this, the animals and man lived together without fear for each other) and God now allows man to eat other animals. 


In v9, we also see God establishing his covenant with Noah and his sons. Presumably before the Flood, there was an understanding between God and those that walked with Him, that they will be God's people and would enjoy God's favour and protection. However, just after the Flood, it is understandable that God would need to re-affirm his commitment to His chose line of people. The sign of the covenant is the Rainbow. The covenant also included the promise that future judgement would not be brought by another world wide flood.




Genesis 9


¹ So God blessed Noah and his sons, and said to them: “Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth.^[a] 2 And 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. ³ Every moving thing that lives shall be food for you. I have given you all things, even as the green herbs. ⁴ But you shall not eat flesh with its life, that is, its blood. ⁵ Surely for your lifeblood I will demand a reckoning; from the hand of every beast I will require it, and from the hand of man. From the hand of 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 And as for you, be fruitful and multiply;
      Bring forth abundantly in the earth
      And multiply in it.” 
⁸ Then God spoke to Noah and to his sons with him, saying: ⁹ “And as for Me, behold, I establish My covenant with you and with your descendants^[b] 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 go out of the ark, every beast of the earth. ¹¹ Thus I establish My covenant with you: Never again shall all flesh be cut off by the waters of the flood; never again shall there be a flood to destroy the earth.” 
¹² And God said: “This is the sign of the covenant which I make between Me and you, and every living creature that is with you, for perpetual generations: ¹³ I set My rainbow in the cloud, and it shall be for the sign of the covenant between Me and the earth. ¹⁴ It shall be, when I bring a cloud over the earth, that the rainbow shall 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; the waters shall never again become a flood to destroy all flesh. ¹⁶ The rainbow shall be in the cloud, and I will look on 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, “Thisis the sign of the covenant which I have established between Me and all flesh that is on the earth.”