For the last two devotions, we have been working through God’s covenant with Noah. This devotional reading expands on His provision of animals for food and continues the blessing.
Nuggets
- Life – human and animal – is very precious to God.
- God values life and will punish anyone who takes another’s life.
- After the flood, God expanded the region in which Noah’s descendants could live.
The first two verses we will look at are tied closely with the last verse. “I have given them [the animals] to you for food, just as I have given you grain and vegetables” (Gen. 9: 3 NLT).
God now allowed humans to eat the animals’ meat, but He had a very specific restriction that He put on it. Then He continued to bless Noah and his family – and all humans.
Let's Put It into Context
To read devotions in the Creating Everything theme, click the button below.
Devotions in the Creation’s Do-Over series
God Values Life
“And I will require the blood of anyone who takes another person’s life. If a wild animal kills a person, it must die. And anyone who murders a fellow human must die. If anyone takes a human life, that person’s life will also be taken by human hands. For God made human beings in his own image” (Gen. 9: 5-6 NLT)
Lifeblood
Life – human and animal – is very precious to God.
While He was giving Noah the go-ahead to eat animals, He did put one restriction on it. No, it wasn’t necessarily geared to how the animal was killed.
God just wanted to make sure the animal was dead before it was eaten. The best way to ensure the animal was dead was to drain its blood – its lifeblood.
“And if any native Israelite or foreigner living among you eats or drinks blood in any form, I will turn against that person and cut him off from the community of your people, for the life of the body is in its blood. I have given you the blood on the altar to purify you, making you right with the Lord. It is the blood, given in exchange for a life, that makes purification possible” (Lev. 17: 10-11 NLT emphasis added).
Disease would be in the blood because it carries waste products along with bacteria and viruses. It would make the person sick.
Murder
God values life and will punish anyone who takes another’s life.
Don’t miss what it really says. “And I will require the blood of anyone who takes another person’s life. If a wild animal kills a person, it must die. And anyone who murders a fellow human must die” (Gen. 9: 5 NLT).
It is an easier read in Exodus. “You must not murder” (Ex. 20: 13 NLT).
Yes, God was the first One to call for capital punishment.
I see you jumping up and down saying, “What about Cain? He didn’t forfeit his life for killing Abel.”
Venables addressed that. He wrote,
“The case of Cain — the strong case of the opposers of death for murder — is, when rightly understood, a strong case against them. Cain declared that the first person that met him would slay him. Who but God had written this in the tables of his heart? who save He could have engraven this on his conscience? It was a recognized principle from the beginning that the murderer should not live. But it is objected, ‘God interfered and saved his life.’ Quite true. But then, if God had not interfered, his life would have been justly taken in obedience to the general laws of God implanted in the consciences of all men; and therefore, unless God similarly interferes now by a special and marked revelation, the original rule holds good, and the murderer is put to death.”
Resource
If Sovereign God declared that murderers should be executed and placed that opinion in the hearts of humans, it is His call when and if to pardon the murderer.
We cannot choose whether or not to follow only certain laws that God had instituted. We cannot substitute a more lenient – or in other cases, a harsher – punishment.
We have to go with what God says.
Why was the command that the murderer be executed in the first place?
Venables tied it to being made in God’s image. God patterned humankind after Himself to be holy and pure.
Adam and Even tarnished that with the original sin. Cain further corrupted human flesh when he offered and unacceptable sacrifice to God. He annihilated it when he murdered Abel.
The murderer is no longer in God’s image because he has let sin rule his life. He is no longer holy and pure – he has a corrupted body.
Venables disagreed that letting a murderer live in prison is more egregious to him than executing him. (How can he feel the consequences of his actions when he is dead?)
Bottom line, though, is God commanded it so that sin could be destroyed.
I know a lot of punishments listed in God’s Word are not followed in today’s society. We say that those punishments were ended when Jesus died on the cross. Some even call this just a prediction.
Does God’s Word say that? It says He addressed the consequences of sin. When we ABCD, we no longer are spiritually dead and separated from God.
It says nothing about the punishment for the behavior of sin. It talks about eradicating the spiritual consequences of sin.
God can use a variety of punishments in this life to judge us for sin. He could allow us to get sick, lose a job, suffer a loss, etc.
God is our Creator and Judge. It is all up to Him if, when, and how we are judged in this life.
Our biggest takeaway here should be how much God values human life – even if we have tarnished being made in His image. Murder shatters our relationship as a family.
Added to the Blessing
“Now be fruitful and multiply, and repopulate the earth” (Gen. 9: 7 NLT)
After the flood, God expanded the region in which Noah’s descendants could live.
Fairbairn made an interesting observation that I hadn’t really thought through before. He wrote,
“The first is the new condition of the earth itself, which immediately appears in the freedom allowed and [practiced] in regard to the external worship of God. This was no longer confined to any single region, as seems to have been the case in the age subsequent to the Fall.”
Resource
We know the Garden of Eden was off limits. The cherubim made certain of that.
We know that Cain was exiled to the Land of Nod, which some believe to be anywhere but the Garden of Eden area.
So, God was sending them off into the big, bad area ruled by Satan. No wonder the world went back to being wicked lickety-split.
Think of it this way. The cherubim was guarding the gate. That showed that God was there.
But now Noah’s family and descendants were going where God was not and (hopefully) taking Him there with their internal worship of God.
That would make Noah the first missionary.
It makes sense. Creation was getting a do-over. Hopefully, it would do a better job because it was a new creation.
Sounds familiar, doesn’t it? “This means that anyone who belongs to Christ has become a new person. The old life is gone; a new life has begun!” (II Cor. 5: 17 NLT).
Fairbairn made another point that God gave His children – children of faith – heirship of this world. Because of grace, God gave His children heirship and dominion of the earth.
I can see why God gave that to Noah, and not Adam. Adam will forever be tied with the original sin. Noah will forever be tied to being righteous enough – if not the only righteous man – to be saved from the flood.
Making the Connections #1
We talked about this a long time ago in another devotion. All sin is directed at God.
Calthrop agreed. He wrote, “Murder, in its essence, if you trace it far enough, is not merely an injury inflicted on our fellow — not merely an act by which pain and deprivation are caused to the individual, and loss to society. It is all this, of course; but it is also more than this — it is a striking at God in the person of him who was made in the image of God.”
Resource
We can substitute adultery is not merely an injury inflicted on our spouse. Theft is not merely inflicted on the owner. Gossip is not merely inflicted on the person of which we are discussing.
It is all about God.
Making the Connections #2
Look what Fairbairn said when he was talking about the old things become new. He wrote,
“But this again indicated that, in the estimation of Heaven, the earth had now assumed a new position; that by the action of God’s judgment upon it, it had become hallowed in His sight, and was in a condition to receive tokens of the Divine [favor], which had formerly been withheld from it.
Resource
We talked about the earth being cursed because of the sin of humans. Way back in Genesis 3, God cursed the ground because of humankind’s sin. “And to the man he said, ‘Since you listened to your wife and ate from the tree whose fruit I commanded you not to eat, the ground is cursed because of you …’” (Gen. 3: 17 NLT).
God said that He would no longer curse the earth because of humans. “And when the Lord smelled the pleasing aroma, the Lord said in his heart, ‘I will never again curse the ground because of man, for the intention of man’s heart is evil from his youth. Neither will I ever again strike down every living creature as I have done’” (Gen. 8: 21 NLT).
The earth got its own do-over.
It became its own new creation. It was now blessed and sanctified again.
How Do We Apply This?
- Value life as God does.
- Walk the Sanctification Road so that we can become the true new creation that God has made us.
Father God. You value life because You are life. It is Satan that is death. Lord, may we follow Your laws and commandments so that we make have Your eternal life in us. Amen.
What do you think?
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