1And God blessed Noah and his sons and said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth. 2The fear and the terror of you shall be [instinctive] in every animal of the land and in every bird of the air; and together with everything that moves on the ground, and with all the fish of the sea; they are given into your hand. 3Every moving thing that lives shall be food for you; I give you everything, as I gave you the green plants and vegetables. 4But you shall not eat meat along with its life, that is, its blood. 5For your lifeblood I will most certainly require an accounting; from every animal [that kills a person] I will require it. And from man, from every man’s brother [that is, anyone who murders] I will require the life of man. 6Whoever sheds man’s blood [unlawfully], By man (judicial government) shall his blood be shed, For in the image of God He made man. 7As for you, be fruitful and multiply; Populate the earth abundantly and multiply in it.” 8Then God spoke to Noah and to his sons with him, saying, 9“Now behold, I am establishing My covenant (binding agreement, solemn promise) with you and with your descendants after you 10and with every living creature that is with you—the birds, the livestock, and the wild animals of the earth along with you, of everything that comes out of the ark—every living creature of the earth. 11I will establish My covenant with you: Never again shall all flesh be cut off by the water of a flood, nor shall there ever again be a flood to destroy and ruin the earth.”
Noah and the flood is a well known story amongst believers and non-believers alike, but is often only partially understood. Many people know that there was alot of evil and sin going on in the world in the days of Noah, and that God saw Noah as a righteous man and therefore instructed him to build the ark to save him, his family, and clean animals and seed. After 40 days and nights of rain, the Bible says something that we would do well to remember when we are in the midst of our own trials and troubles of life:
1And God remembered and thought kindly of Noah and every living thing and all the animals that were with him in the ark; and God made a wind blow over the land, and the waters receded. Genesis 8:1 AMP
God knows when we are going through a trying time in life, and he loves AND REMEMBERS his children! At just the right time, God always sends help or a way of escape to deliver us, but it is rare that God prevents or sets it up for us to evade a storm. We will discuss that truth in later posts with other individuals.
Now lets get to the main point of this post. I wanted to really look at the command or directives that God gave Noah and his family after they departed the ark, because that is what applies to us, because in essence we are the descendants of Noah. Lets take a look point by point at God’s words to Noah
- Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth. This is the 2nd time that God gave this command (Genesis 1:28), which I believe has two meanings; 1st the literal which is for HUSBAND and WIFE to procreate, and the 2nd which is often overlooked by believers which to is to plant/sow seed (spiritually), and produce spiritual fruit. Jesus later addresses the requirement of believers to produce fruit as evidence of their faith and belief in God, and relationship with Jesus (Matthew 12 and John 15). The physical be fruitful and multiply was important because at this time there were only 8 people on the Earth from which God had to restart everything. Like Adam and Eve, these individuals were the foundation from which God would produce his people from, and they must procreate to fill the Earth. Both the physical and spiritual aspects of the word apply to believers today.
- The fear and terror of you shall be instinctive in every animal. God once again gave Man dominion over animals and everything of the Earth as he did in the beginning (Genesis 1:28-31). Man is at the top of the hierarchy on Earth, although God is still supreme in all things. We are not to have fear of animals, and in fact it is true (though it sounds crazy) that animals fear us. God verbally re-establishes this order here. Man had spent intimate time with animals on the ark much like Adam had in the garden when God brought the animals before him to be named. Animals would have understood man at that time as being a caretaker and essentially their savior as Noah had provided them shelter during that time.
- Every living thing shall be food for you. In the beginning, God basically established Man and animals as vegetarians/vegans (Genesis 1:29-30). Here he interestingly gives Noah and his descendants the permission to eat meat/animals. I hypothesize that this is because it would take years for crops to be planted and grow to sustain a plant based diet for them, and instead animals would reproduce faster and provide more meat and sustenance immediately for them. Many people will cite Adam and Eve as vegan/vegetarian and use that as a basis for Christians to not eat meat, but given that our lives and circumstances more closely mirror that of Noah and his family, this would provide us with a more relevant guideline. This is also similar to Peter’s vision when God lifted the clean vs unclean eating restrictions from him in his ministry to the Gentiles (Acts 10:9-16)
- For your lifeblood I will most certainly require an accounting. God for the 1st time establishes justice and consequences for murder or blood shed. Here he says that man shall lawfully execute judgment and death on anyone who unjustly murders another man, in addition to animals who kill a human. The 1st murder that involved Cain killing Abel was unique because it not only was the 1st to occur, but that there was no law or order established for dealing with it. I’d imagine the rampant and uncontrolled sin that occurred leading up to the flood involved alot of bloodshed of both the innocent and guilty, and given the fall of man, animals were most likely just as blood thirsty as humans. God is now giving righteous individuals the authority to execute his will on Earth.
- Never again shall all flesh be cut off by the water of a flood, nor shall there ever again be a flood to destroy and ruin the earth. God establishes that he would not use a flood to destroy the Earth or mankind, yet he doesn’t remove the possibility of destroying Earth. The flood was the first recorded rain/precipitation on Earth, and God used it not to destroy the Earth, but rather to purify it from the sin that had infected the Earth. God already had a plan in place to redeem mankind through Jesus, and even more-so, God already knew that he had set aside the judgment of Lucifer and the other fallen angels and judgement of sin for the end time. From this covenant that God made with man, we received the establishment of the rainbow (Genesis 9:15-17) as evidence of God’s commitment to not destroy Earth and mankind through a flood.
Reflection Time
How well did you understand the story of the flood, and God’s reasoning for destroying mankind at that time? How do you look at the story of Noah differently now? Of these 5 points, which one is the most important or surprising to you? If you had found yourself in Noah’s situation, how would you have handled it? Is there anything else that you wish God had done or established after the flood?
