Peter Barnes: A RENEWED CREATION, Genesis 9:1-7 (15 March 2020)
God promised never again to flood the world, and that He would keep nature going in an orderly sequence (Gen.8:21-22).
1. Be fruitful and multiply.
– 9:1, 7. This repeats Genesis 1:28 before the Fall. Noah is a kind of second Adam, at the head of a re-creation.
2. Human beings rate above animals.
– 9:2. Dread rather than natural harmony.
– 9:3. That was not so in Genesis 1:29. There are food laws under
Moses (Lev.11), but not with the coming of the Messiah (1 Tim.4:1-5).
– blood is not to be consumed – 9:4. This is almost certainly referred to in Acts 15:1-2, 19-20. In many pagan religions blood is consumed supposedly to gain power. I was reading of a missionary in Western Australia in the 1920s and 1930s who witnessed Aborigines do it.
3. The sanctity of human life.
– 9:5-6. Note that Cain was not put to death after killing Abel, nor was David after having Uriah killed. Ex.21:12; Acts 25:11; Rom.13:4.
– In 1838 Judge William Burton sentenced seven men to death for massacring defenceless Aboriginal men, women and children at Myall Creek. He cited these verses, and stated: ‘No human legislature could dare to depart from a law originating in the Deity, which has existed in its full force since the days of Adam.’ – John Gray criticised what he calls ‘Christianity’s cardinal error – the belief that humans are radically different from other animals.’ No wonder we are as we are! Humanity is to be fruitful and multiply; we are different to the animals; and innocent human life is sacrosanct.