Genesis 9:1-13 And God blessed Noah and his family and said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth.

² The fear of you and the dread of you shall be upon every beast of the land and upon every bird of the sky, upon everything that creeps on the ground and all the fish of the sea. They are placed into your hand.

³ Every moving thing that lives shall be food for you. And as I gave you the vegetation, I give you everything.

⁴ But you shall not eat flesh with its soul, that is, its blood.

⁵ And for the blood of your souls I will require the same: from every beast I will require it and from man. From his fellow man I will require the same for killing the soul of man.

⁶ “Whoever sheds the blood of man, by man shall his blood be shed, for God made man in his own image.

⁷ And you, be fruitful and multiply, increase on the land and multiply in it.”

⁸ Then God said to Noah and to his sons with him,

⁹ “See, I establish my covenant with you and your offspring after you,

¹⁰ and with every living soul that is with you, the birds, the livestock, and every beast of the land with you, as many as came out of the ark; it is for every beast of the land.

¹¹ I establish my covenant with you, that never again shall all flesh be cut off by the waters of the flood, and never again shall there be a flood to destroy the land.”

¹² And God said, “This is the sign of the covenant that I make between me and you and every living soul that is with you, for all future generations:

¹³ I have set my bow in the cloud, and it shall be a sign of the covenant between me and the land.

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A New Covenant

Every covenant has promises of provision and protection by the greater party, and requirements of obedience and faithfulness by the lesser party. This covenant is between God and the land, and includes Noah and his descendants. The God who created the land can decide how it is to be used. He wanted the humans to increase and multiply, and fill the land. He gave them the animals to eat, as well as the vegetation. He warned them not to take the lives of their fellow humans, and not to eat animals while they were still alive (that is what it meant for them to still have their souls). God’s covenant was for the purpose of filling the land with his image. All of his covenants are.

LORD, show us how to fill this planet with your image.