Gen. 9:1-7, God’s Covenant with Noah (3)

There were two responses God had in His heart when Noah offered thanks on Mt. Ararat.  The first was, no additional curse on the ground.  The second was …

o   8:21: Nor will I again destroy every living thing as I have done.  This, as is seen at the end of Gen. 9, means He will not destroy the earth again by water.  There is a yet future day when the earth will be destroyed by fire (2 Pt. 3:10-13).

·       9:1,7: God’s blessing and command to be fruitful, multiply and fill the earth.  This is exactly what Adam was given from God.  This is repeated in 9:7 in the context of “capital punishment” (life for a life).  In other words, execution is helpful for filling the earth.  Think about that.

·       9:2: There will be fear between Man and the other living things.  This is different than with Adam.  It is interesting that Noah apparently got along fine with the animals on the ark.  But then this changed.

·       9:3: But now, ”Every moving thing that lives shall be food for you.” That is a new thing.  No more strictly vegetarian diet.  Fire up the barby.  After sin (Gen. 3) animals were killed (for clothing and as offerings to God) but not eaten.

·       9:4: There was a prohibition against eating the blood in the meat.  That did not come in just with the Mosaic Law.  You may also have noticed, the idea of “clean and unclean” animals also did not start with Moses but with Noah (8:20).

·       9:5-6: Taking a person’s life (murder) must cost the life of the murderer.  What it actually says is poignant: Surely for your lifeblood I will demand a reckoning.  This included beast that kill men as well as men who kill men.  It did not apply to men killing animals.  This has to do with being created “in the image of God.”  This was a change from before the flood.  God did not take Cains life after he took Abel’s life.  God judged Cain, and even then showed some mercy (4:11-15).  After that, Lamech (not Noah’s father but a man in the line of Cain) seemed to take advantage of God’s mercy on Cain (4:23-24).  Concerning the “lifeblood,” remember that God had told Cain that his brother’s blood cries out to Me from the ground (4:10).  Now that lifeblood, shed unjustly and in anger, would be required to be satisfied or atoned for.  A life for a life.

All this came after Noah had offered thanksgiving to the LORD.  This practice had started in Gen. 4 with Cain and Abel.  Gen. 4 was not a change in the original arrangement God had with Man.  It continues with Noah: be fruitful and multiply, fill the earth, and continue to have dominion.  By Gen. 4:1 all had sinned and all were dead.  What Gen. 4 did was about access to the promise of Gen. 3:15. God promised to resolve the sin problem.  Man’s access to that was through faith.  He demonstrated his faith, not just by being thankful, but by being thankful through the offering of a blood sacrifice.