Summary of passage: God blessed Noah and his sons and told them to be fruitful and fill the earth. All animals will fear and dread you and God placed them in man’s hands. God gave everything that lives and moves now as food for man as well as the plants.
Man must not eat meat that has lifeblood still in it. God will demand an accounting from every animal and from every man and accounting for the life of his fellow man. “Whoever sheds the blood of man by man shall his blood be shed for in the image of God has God made man.”
Questions:
5) God told both Noah and Adam to be fruitful and increase in number and fill the earth. God allowed Noah to eat the animals and not Adam. God told Noah not to eat meat that has its lifeblood still in it (same for Adam). God blessed both of them. God told both Noah and Adam to rule over the earth and its inhabitants but for Noah he made the animals afraid of man. God told Noah He will hold man accountable for every animal and for the life of his fellow man. This was unnecessary in Eden since man was sinless at the time.
6) Personal Question. My answer: Because the life of every creature is in its blood and it was the blood of animals that gave man atonement for their sins before Jesus came. Thus it was sacred, reserved for this very important purpose in man’s life.
7a) “Whoever sheds the blood of man by man shall his blood be shed (death); for in the image of God has God made man.” Basically, murderers attack the image of God and must therefore give an accounting.
b) No. God knows man’s heart and how evil his tendencies are. It’s like an eye for an eye. It seems to me to be God’s reckoning. God knows some people can become so evil that they need to be punished so they can’t hurt others. That’s why all throughout the Old and New Testament God lays down laws for the death penalty (Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy). Murderers pollute God’s earth.
Numbers 35:33: “Do not pollute the land where you are. Bloodshed pollutes the land, and atonement cannot be made for the land on which blood has been shed, except by the blood of the one who shed it. Do not defile the land…”
Murder is against the law and it is government’s job (granted by God) to institute judgment and penalty (Romans 13:1-5).
Conclusions: Here we see God’s laws again in action. First, He forbade man from eating from the tree of knowledge. Now, He forbids man from eating meat with lifeblood. I find it interesting how the forbidding list just gets longer and longer. In Eden, it was only one: no fruit from that tree. After Noah, the list just grows and grows.
It’s like the laws of countries (and most noticeably in the United States lately). There are so many laws enacted cause of one stupid person that no one can even count. Sin just seems to never stop and keeps growing.
I did like the capital punishment study. I’ve never looked at it in the Bible. Good to know when talking to people about it. I like the idea of how it’s attacking God’s image. Never thought of it like that. Attacking God’s creation. In a way, attacking God himself, especially if the Holy Spirit is indwelt.
I also like the image of how spilt blood pollutes and defiles the land. For all the talk of “pollution” in this world, you never hear it referenced in terms of the pollution murder does. Another emphasis on how all life is sacred and only God has the right to take it. How sacred and precious is ALL His creations including the land we walk upon.
Amen, there’s no such thing as pollution by our own hands when we put on Christ. <3
wow a muderer must be punished.
I sincerely love your answers. They’ve opened my mind to desire God’s Word more. The want to; to search out what does God Word says for me to do. My answers are so shallow then I encounter your answers and wow, my spirit stirs within. Thanks for sharing.