Genesis 9:1 ¶ 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.
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