Episode 253 - "Eat what?" - Genesis 9:1-7

Gen. 9:1 And God blessed Noah and his sons and said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth. 2 The fear of you and the dread of you shall be upon every beast of the earth and upon every bird of the heavens, upon everything that creeps on the ground and all the fish of the sea. Into your hand they are delivered. 3 Every moving thing that lives shall be food for you. And as I gave you the green plants, I give you everything. 4 But you shall not eat flesh with its life, that is, its blood. 5 And for your lifeblood I will require a reckoning: from every beast I will require it and from man. From his fellow man I will require a reckoning for the life of man.

Gen. 9:6 “Whoever sheds the blood of man, by man shall his blood be shed, for God made man in his own image. Gen. 9:7 And you, be fruitful and multiply, increase greatly on the earth and multiply in it.”

It’s not uncommon to read something in the Scriptures, especially what Christians call the Old Testament, that confuses us and even gives cause for offense. This latter case happens when either the LORD or people do or say things that are contrary to the values and ideas of our own culture and era. There are examples of people who, since the time of Christ, and the completion of the New Testament Scriptures that people have been offended by what they read in the Old Testament. They have suggested that the God of the Old Testament is evil and, therefore, the Old Testament should be ignored. There are many problems with this notion that the Church has addressed and deemed this idea as heresy. Chiefly, Jesus himself frequently directed people to the Hebrew Scriptures to help people understand that they prophesied about him and that he is the fulfillment of those Scriptures. Likewise, the apostles interpreted the same Old Testament Scriptures to explain that Jesus is the long-awaited Messiah. In short, all the Scriptures of our Bible are to be highly revered by Christians as special revelation from God to humanity. So, in all likelihood, when we are offended by something in the Scriptures, it is not because what is there is wrong. It’s due to our limited comprehension of what it is about and its significance in God’s plan and for our ultimate good.

I would never want to communicate the notion that my interpretations of the Scriptures are perfect. I read the Scriptures, use the tools I’ve been trained to use in consulting the original languages, consult scholars for their help in understanding difficult passages, and make a decision as to where I either land or lean in interpreting the passage. To quote many who’ve come before me, “Let’s major on the major and minor on the minor.” The most important things in the Scriptures are things that are mostly emphasized and made clear. So, with this in mind, what’s happening with Noah and his family after they come off the ark?

The first thing we notice is something that has been emphasized before. God blessed the people and said, “Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth. (9:1)” This is what God did with Adam and Eve. Here’s an important truth of the Scriptures that is becoming very clear. God wants his people, his image bearers, to receive his blessing and enjoy the life He has given them and to have children who may also enjoy his blessing of life and provision.

Here comes one of those confusing and offensive parts. In verses 2-3, God told Noah and his family, “The fear of you and the dread of you shall be upon every beast of the earth and upon every bird of the heavens, upon everything that creeps on the ground and all the fish of the sea. Into your hand they are delivered. 3 Every moving thing that lives shall be food for you. And as I gave you the green plants, I give you everything.”

What we are reading here is the first recorded instance of God permitting humanity to eat meat. Certainly, this would be most offensive to vegans who avoid eating animal products out of conscience. What are we to do with this? Why would God appear to be so concerned about animals that he would protect the species on the ark and then, once they were through the flood, permit the people to eat meat?

It seems to me this goes back to the creation account. God made the plants and the animals and then made humanity. Humans alone were specified as being made in the image of God. God even gave them the responsibility to name the animals, which shows the authority God had given Adam over the animals. In other words, according to the first chapters of the Bible, there is a distinction between animals and humanity. This is different from the view that mankind is another species of animal. When the first people disobeyed God’s command and listened to the voice of a serpent, the paradigm was upended. The people’s attempt to cover their own guilt and shame was inadequate to God. Instead, only His provision could suffice to cover their guilt. He did this by providing coverings of animal skin. Death was/is the consequence of sin. The animal sacrifice by God was a type of substitutionary atonement for their sin. This is the principle that bears itself out in God sending His Son to die on the cross. His blood was shed. He was, as John the Baptist declared, “the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. (John 1:29)”

Is it possible that God intended for us to take offense at the idea of animal sacrifice and eating meat? This allowance by God for people to eat meat was certainly not God’s ideal. Otherwise, it would have been allowed and even commanded by God in the beginning. This appears to be an allowance by the LORD in order for people to survive. Noah and his family did not land in the Garden of Eden. There’s no indication or reason to assume there was an abundant supply of vegetables waiting for Noah and his family when they got off the ark. Is it possible that, as offensive as it might be to Noah and his family to eat the flesh of an animal, they were to recognize this offensive thing as a means of God’s mercy to them? The offense then serves to remind them (and us) of the consequences of sin. The effect should be that it causes us to become offended concerning our rebellious ways and not take offense at God.

I will continue this thought and reflection upon this passage in our next episode. My encouragement to you is to pray, “Lord, help me be offended by my own sin and not your word or your grace to mankind.”

Episode 217 - "Yes. Christ really was raised from the dead" - 1 Corinthians 15:12-19

1 Cor. 15:12 Now if Christ is proclaimed as raised from the dead, how can some of you say that there is no resurrection of the dead? 13 But if there is no resurrection of the dead, then not even Christ has been raised. 14 And if Christ has not been raised, then our preaching is in vain and your faith is in vain. 15 We are even found to be misrepresenting God, because we testified about God that he raised Christ, whom he did not raise if it is true that the dead are not raised. 16 For if the dead are not raised, not even Christ has been raised. 17 And if Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile and you are still in your sins. 18 Then those also who have fallen asleep in Christ have perished. 19 If in Christ we have hope in this life only, we are of all people most to be pitied.

In the preceding eleven verses that we covered last week, I explained that I was seeing two fundamental elements to what is called “the gospel of Jesus Christ.” Both of them were prophesied in the Hebrew Scriptures (Old Testament). The first is that Christ died according to the Scriptures. Someone might say, “Big deal! Everyone dies.” That’s true. But the Christ or Messiah is prophesied in the scriptures to have an eternal kingdom. The Messiah will reign forever on that throne. That was the argument by the crowd to Jesus in John 12:34. How can he die if he will live and reign forever? The answer is that his death was necessary for our sins to be forgiven, as is foretold in Isaiah 52-53.

This leads us to the second part of the Good News of Jesus Christ. If you think about it, why does it matter that our sins are forgiven if we are going to die? The answer to that question is that God is eternal, and while we, unlike God, had a beginning, God has intended for us to be eternal as well. Because God is also Holy (pure and perfect), he cannot overlook sin. There must be a just response to injustice. The Scriptures speak of a terrible judgment for those who reject that and reject Jesus’ sacrifice on the cross as the perfect and sufficient justice he took upon himself for our sins. Jesus, the Christ, was raised from the dead, never to die again, and he promised to return to raise the dead back to life, and we will dwell in the presence of God forever.

After laying out the basic facts of the gospel, Paul addresses the fact that people at Corinth are saying there is no resurrection from the dead. Paul explains the egregious error in that thinking. He says if there is no resurrection from the dead, then Christ could not have been raised. (v. 13) He follows with the logical fallout from that if it were true. He points out that his preaching and their subsequent faith in the message that he preached is in vain. It’s useless, and we would still be in our sins. There would be no hope. He then says that if all our hope is just in this life, we are the most pitiable of all people. Why would he say that? Because we would be spending time and resources in the worship of a god that could do nothing for us.

The hope of a resurrection and eternal life is real. That’s why, in the preceding verses, Paul spoke of the many people who saw the risen Jesus. He was implying that they could go talk to the people themselves and compare notes. While we can’t go talk to those people directly, these accounts have been preserved for us, and there is the fact that Christianity became a world religion based upon the reality of the resurrection of Jesus Christ.

We can trust this great news!