I.e.1 - A Law Concerning Animal Food And Blood Series

November 19, 2013

Commentary on the Book of Genesis

By: Tom Lowe

Lesson I.E.1: A Law Concerning Animal Food and Blood. Gen. 9:1-7

Genesis 9.1-7 (KJV)

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.

Introduction

God addressed the eight survivors of the Flood and gave them instructions concerning four areas of life. Though His instructions spans the first 17 verses, this section will only deal with verses 1-7. Though God addresses Noah and his family, these instructions are for all people of all ages and all places, and for all time. They are permanent ordinances from God for all humanity, and they must not be ignored or altered. Life is precious, and it must be handled with care.

Commentary

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.

When Noah came out of the ark he was like a “second Adam” about to usher in a new beginning on the earth for the human race. Faith in the Lord had saved Noah and his household from destruction, and his three sons would repopulate the whole earth.

It is clear from verses 1-3 that mankind now traces its origin to Noah, so the original charge to Adam is repeated (Ge. 1.28) with significant changes. Noah was a “righteous man, blameless among the people of his time” (Ge. 6.9), but the corruption around him had left its mark, if not on him, then on his sons. Though the “image of God” was still there (v. 9), it had been so marred, that man’s dominion would be marked by fear and dread (v. 2), and the outward sign of this was man’s use of animals for food.

God had told Adam and Eve to “be fruitful and multiply, and replenish (fill) the whole earth” (Ge. 1.28), and he repeated that mandate twice to Noah and his family (vv. 1, 7). All of Noah’s descendants were important to the plan of God, but especially the line of Shem. From that line Abraham would be born, the man God chose to found the Jewish nation. From that nation would come to the Redeemer, who would fulfill Genesis 3.15[1] and crush the serpents head.

The word “replenish” is meaningful here because we know there was a civilization before the Flood, and now there is to be a civilization after the Flood. (When Adam was told to replenish the earth, we assume there had been living creatures—I don’t know what to call them—before Adam. They apparently were living creatures of God’s creation. Anything I could say beyond that, would be pure speculation.

When God established Adam and Eve in their garden home, He gave them fruit and plants to eat (Ge. 1.29[2]; 2.9, 16[3]); but after the flood, He expanded the human diet to include meat. Apparently, man had not been a meat-eater before the Flood. All animals were tame, and one is not inclined to eat an animal that is a pet. Remember that the animals came to Noah when the Flood was imminent; they seemed to have no fear of him at all. This grant of the animals for food fully warrants our use of them, but not the abuse of them by poor conservation or by cruelty. We ought to do nothing to make their lives miserable while they live, nor cause them pain when we take their lives away. The harmony in nature that Adam and Eve had enjoyed was now gone, since Noah and his family no longer had dominion over animal life (Ge. 1.26, 28). Now animals would fear humans and do everything possible to escape the threat of death at the hand of man. Since most animals reproduce rapidly and their young mature quickly, the beasts could easily overrun the human population; so God put the fear of humans in the animals. Cain was a farmer, Abel was a shepherd, but Noah and his sons were now hunters.