The Flood is a hard passage in the Bible.
I’ve said that before, but most of the difficulty focuses on the “faith vs. science” debate. I’ve addressed that before, too, but there are also theological issues.
We saw God’s holiness and judgment, His wrath and protection, and His power and provision.
Last week, we saw the first steps outside the Ark after the destruction of the Flood.
Today, we enter Genesis 9 and see the next events after the Flood. In His address to the eight flood survivors, God gave instructions about four areas of life. Though given initially to Noah and his family, these instructions apply to all people of all ages and places. Life is precious, and it must be handled with care.
Today, we will look at the first three areas found in Genesis 9:1-7.
1 Then God blessed Noah and his sons, saying to them, “Be fruitful and increase in number and fill the earth. 2 The fear and dread of you will fall on all the beasts of the earth, and on all the birds in the sky, on every creature that moves along the ground, and on all the fish in the sea; they are given into your hands. 3 Everything that lives and moves about will be food for you. Just as I gave you the green plants, I now give you everything.
Genesis 9:1-7, New International Version
4 “But you must not eat meat that has its lifeblood still in it. 5 And for your lifeblood I will surely demand an accounting. I will demand an accounting from every animal. And from each human being, too, I will demand an accounting for the life of another human being.
6 “Whoever sheds human blood, by humans shall their blood be shed; for in the image of God has God made mankind.
7 As for you, be fruitful and increase in number; multiply on the earth and increase upon it.”
In verse 1, they are told to “be fruitful and increase in number and fill the earth.” This echoes the command of Genesis 1:28, in which Adam was told the same thing. This is a practical issue as well as a sign of the Lord’s love for life.
God’s blessing on Noah is bound up in his sons and, by extension, all of humanity after him. Although God blessed Noah, his sons would carry this blessing to later generations—including us.
But things were going to change for the animal kingdom. The Lord stated that the animals would fear us. They didn’t need to be afraid of Noah during their assemblage and residency in the Ark. Now their survival would depend on fear of humans.
Whatever the relationship between people and animals was, it was different now. Animals will run for their lives. Just as at the end of Genesis 8, the laws of Nature are being restored. Yet, there is still a constant reminder of what humanity lost in the Fall (Genesis 3).
Another change was in our diet. Now, humans could eat anything. It seems that before the Flood, our diet was limited to plants. There was no explicit prohibition on eating meat. And there was no blessing for eating meat either.
There was an exception to how meat was eaten: it could not still have blood in it. They would have to drain the blood (which also implies dressing it and preparing it). Humans were to be different from animals. Animals don’t bother to drain blood; humans drain it because we have a healthy respect for all life.
Human life is unique. Verse 6 tells us, “Whoever sheds the blood of man, by man shall his blood be shed; for in the image of God has God made man.”
The taking of human life would demand an accounting. The general rule we will see from this point is taking a human life results in forfeiting your own. We call it capital punishment.
Later in Scripture, we find there are exceptions. These exceptions occur in cases of accidental death or war (but there were still rules). Keeping verse 6 in the context of the Old Testament, we are talking about murder.
This section ends as it started: (re)populate the Earth with people.
This passage reiterates, among other things, that human life is uniquely precious to the Lord. We are, even in our sin, created in God’s image. Every set of eyes you see reflects the Creator. They are precious in the sight of the Lord.
God spared Noah so humanity could survive, and God sent His Son so humans could live.
Life Meets Theology 