Genesis 9:1-7 (part 1)
"A Mixed Blessing"

God has flushed out the wickedness that was on the face of the earth.

He has brought Noah into a new creation.

He has set Noah up as a second Adam to rule over this new Garden of Eden.

And he has announced the scheme was a failure.

He will never again curse the ground, he says, because the imagination of man's heart is evil from his youth (8:21). Noah is not the perfect man necessary to inaugurate a new paradise; he himself is tainted with wickedness, born with it because of his father Adam. And if God keeps wiping out the earth because of the wickedness of men, then no one will survive. Not even Noah. But God must keep his promise that the Seed of the woman will crush the serpent's head and thus will paradise be restored to the children of Adam and Eve.

But what will society be like. How will men live while waiting for this Woman-Seed to crush the serpent? Are they given authority over the earth, as Adam was at creation; or has even this dignity been stripped from them? And if men are wicked, will they not constantly be killing each other - a multitude of Cains at one another's throats and not an Abel in sight?

  1. God renews the command to be fruitful and multiply
    1. He had made that command to Adam and Eve at the beginning
      1. Creating them, he sent them forth to be fruitful and multiply, to fill the earth with their kind
      2. It was a blessing there, a promise that God would make them fruitful. He would not render Adam infertile or close up Eve's womb
      3. It was a promise, as well, that God would care for their children so that they would not bear them in vain.
    2. So he renews this command to Noah and sons
      1. He has brought them into a new creation - not the new creation, the consummate one brought in by Christ - but a new creation at least.
      2. They are to fill this new creation with their kind.
      3. And already, we hear a hint of hope in this command. Why should they fill the earth if they bear children only to futility?
      4. But as with Adam and Eve, this command comes with a blessing
        1. God blessed Noah and his sons and said to them… (1a)
        2. It was a blessing that promised to make them fruitful. He would not render them completely infertile nor their wives barren
        3. It was a promise that God would care for their children and bring some (if not all) up to maturity to bear their own children.
        4. The human race would be perpetuated
    3. And this is done in the hope of Christ
      1. All this childbearing is useless if Noah and sons die and the children die, and so it goes forever.
      2. Ecc 5:15-17
        Naked a man comes from his mother's womb,
        and as he comes, so he departs.
        He takes nothing from his labor
        that he can carry in his hand.
        16 This too is a grievous evil:
        As a man comes, so he departs,
        and what does he gain,
        since he toils for the wind?
        17 All his days he eats in darkness,
        with great frustration, affliction and anger.
      3. To say, "Be fruitful and multiply" is implicitly to say that this situation will not prevail. You will not forever bear your children into frustration, affliction, anger, and futility.
      4. Rather, the Seed will still come
        1. Therefore, bear children like Eve who begot Cain with the Lord's help.
        2. And when he proved not to be the Seed, she begot Seth (an ancestor of Christ), for the Lord gave him as a replacement.
      5. And so humanity is to go on bearing children, knowing that God will not entirely frustrate the process, hoping that one of them will be the promised Seed.

So God has renewed the command to be fruitful and multiply. For Adam that came with the command to have dominion over the earth - to fill the earth and subdue it. In fact, that dominion was bound up in the image of God, for it was godlike to exercise authority over the creation. So did man still have authority over creation? In other words, did he still retain the image of God?

  1. He renews man's dominion, but with a dark twist
    1. Fear and dread of you on every living creature
      1. Here is where the command takes a different turn, in keeping with its coming after the Fall
        1. Before the Fall, God said, "Be fruitful and multiply; fill the earth and subdue it; have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the air, and over every living thing that moves on the earth." (1:28)
        2. Now, he says, "Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth. 2And the fear of you and the dread of you shall be on every beast of the earth, on every bird of the air, on all that move on the earth, and on all the fish of the sea. They are given into your hand." (9:1,2)
      2. Man retains his dominion over the animals, but the animals are no longer his willing subjects.
      3. Rather, they live in terror of him.
      4. The language speaks of the terror and fear of men in battle when their foes overtake them and destroy them
        1. It is like the fear that God promised would go before Israel in possessing the Promised Land: "No man shall be able to stand against you; the LORD your God will put the dread of you and the fear of you upon all the land where you tread, just as He has said to you." (Deut. 11.25)
        2. "They are given into your hand" particularly emphasizes this idea of the terror of enemies in war.
        3. How many of Israel's enemies were "given into their hand" by God
          1. Og King of Bashan, Sihon king of the Amorites, Jericho, the King of Ai, Gilgal, Sisera, the Midianites, the Philistines, the Arameans - Scripture uses this language concerning them all.
          2. And they were destroyed by the armies of Israel
          3. They were given into the hand of God's people for judgment.
      5. And this is the key, this idea of judgment
        1. Before the Fall, man exercised a dominion over the earth such as God exercised over him - benign, caring, with his subjects not at all in fear of him.
        2. Now man must exercise a dominion in the image of God that reflects more God's post-Fall attitude toward man - judgment
        3. God came in the floodwaters of judgment and men ran terrified from him but could not escape
        4. So man's dominion over the animals reflects this new aspect of judgment
        5. He comes to the animals and they flee in terror. They call upon the mountains to cover them. They hide, but they are found out and taken away and slaughtered.
    2. They'll be food for you
      1. So man's relationship to the animals turns predatory
      2. He is no longer the benign dictator, caring for his subjects. He lives at their expense.
      3. And he has a right to do so; they are given into his hand for this very purpose.
      4. Just as God gave him the plants for this purpose, now he gives him the animals as well.
    3. But don't eat the blood
      1. A curious restriction.
        1. This does not spring from some pagan notion that all life is "sacred"
        2. There is nothing immoral per se about eating an animal's blood.
        3. In Deut 14:21 God tells his people not to eat anything that dies of itself and the reason for this restriction is that the animal will not have been properly drained of its blood.
        4. However, the same verse says this animal may be sold to a resident alien or a foreigner. So there is nothing immoral about eating the blood or God would not have allowed Israel to profit from such a sale.
        5. But the Israelites are to refrain, God says, because they are holy.
        6. So the restriction not to eat the blood is a mark of a people's holiness before God.
      2. The blood is the life
        1. God is here demonstrating that he has ultimate authority over life
        2. A man may have dominion over the animals, but not ultimate dominion. The life belongs to God.
      3. the blood is connected with sacrifice
        1. God owns not only the animal's life, but man's
        2. So the animal's blood is to be poured out in the place of man's, as a sacrifice to God.
        3. Thus the man is prevented from pouring out the animal's blood to demons or to himself. It belongs to God.
      4. Thus, it is clear that the restriction on eating blood does not apply today
        1. There is no more earthly altar
        2. The blood of Christ has been shed once for all
  2. He reestablishes the significance of human life
    1. Threefold repetition of "Require"
      1. Same word each time (not apparent in NKJV)
      2. The sanctity of animal life is a pagan notion. The sanctity of human life is Biblical.
      3. God is assuring Noah that human life has not become worthless in his sight
        1. A welcome assurance after God has just wiped out the bulk of humanity and told Noah, "You're evil too, you know."
        2. Rather, God still holds human life in esteem and will seek out the shedder of man's blood.
      4. This is deliberately reminiscent of God's promise to Cain that he would be avenged sevenfold if anyone killed him
    2. Even the animals will pay a penalty
      1. The animals may defy the created order and kill man (when they have rather been given into man's hand)
      2. And in this way they will defy the image of God, which is to have dominion over the animals.
      3. But God will require the blood of them. The man will be avenged.
      4. It's not a perfect solution. One would prefer not to have this happen at all.
      5. It makes one long for Christ and his perfect dominion as Lord of all, doing exactly as he pleases, never frustrated.
      6. But for now, it's better than nothing. At least it means that God is still concerned for humanity and offended when men are wrongly slain.
    3. And man as well for slaying his "brother"
  3. He hands over even judicial dominion to man
    1. Man will execute God's judgment against murderers
    2. Because man is in God's image
    3. Thus, civil government is established
  4. And he repeats, "Be fruitful and multiply."
  5. The significance for the people of God

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