1
¶ And God blessed Noah and his sons, and
said unto them, Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth. 2 And the fear of you and the dread of you
shall be upon every beast of the earth, and upon every fowl of the air, upon
all that moveth upon the earth, and upon all the fishes of the sea; into your
hand are they delivered. 3 Every moving
thing that liveth shall be meat for you; even as the green herb have I given
you all things. 4 But flesh with the
life thereof, which is the blood thereof, shall ye not eat. 5 And surely your blood of your lives will I
require; at the hand of every beast will I require it, and at the hand of man;
at the hand of every man’s brother will I require the life of man. 6 Whoso sheddeth man’s blood, by man shall his
blood be shed: for in the image of God made he man. 7 And you, be ye fruitful, and multiply; bring
forth abundantly in the earth, and multiply therein.
The command that was given to Adam and Eve at the beginning
is repeated here.
Genesis
1:28a And God blessed them, and God said
unto them, Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth…
The task is now placed on Noah and his sons to
populate the earth. This is truly a population bottleneck if there ever was
one. Modern scientists postulate several of these at various times.
The assumption is made here that pre-Flood humankind
was a vegetarian because in the beginning of Genesis he is given plants and
fruits to eat. Now, mankind is permitted to kill and eat animals. Also,
previous to this, animals were not afraid of humans as many of the more
intelligent ones are now. Man is warned not to drink blood. This admonition is
here before the Law given to Moses, within that Law for the Hebrews (Leviticus
3:17), and after that Law for the Gentile church (Acts 15:20).
Capital punishment is allowed and required for murder
and the killing of man by both beast and man. This command is further defined
and refined in every culture of mankind’s on the planet but murder is nowhere generally
allowed although for reasons of corruption, status and rank, and oppression it
has been permitted at certain times by certain people and groups of people.
But, murder is forbidden here and is punishable by death.
Clearly, then, biological and legal conditions were
quite different on this cleansed earth than on the pre-Flood earth. Flesh is
allowed to be eaten but not blood. Animals generally fear mankind. The murderer
and the beast that kills a man must forfeit their own lives rather than be
exiled like Cain or get away with bragging about it like Lamech. As we know
from reading God’s speech to Job in that book God’s hand is found in every
aspect of reality as it continues from moment to moment, including animals
obtaining their prey as being from God’s hand directly. So, this is not
something that just happens and God is standing back watching, but He is
intimately involved in these new conditions of the continuing judgment against
mankind’s rebellious nature. Prey and predator, man’s concept of justice, and
dietary changes that required a change in our physiology like your lust and
need for flesh, perhaps, were all part of God’s unfolding plan that pointed
toward Christ, God Himself coming to bear man’s punishment and to pardon him
from his ‘just deserts.’
Again the command is made to populate the earth, as it
brackets this passage.
No comments:
Post a Comment