Genesis 9:8-17 I Will Not Destroy The World Again?

Then God spoke to Noah and to his sons with him, saying: "And as for Me, behold, I establish My covenant with you and with your descendants after you, and with every living creature that is with you: the birds, the cattle, and every beast of the earth with you, of all that go out of the ark, every beast of the earth. Thus I establish My covenant with you: Never again shall all flesh be cut off by the waters of the flood; never again shall there be a flood to destroy the earth."

As I said in the previous entry, G-d felt bad about destroying the world and all the life in it. However, it was just and had to be done. Here, G-d is promising not to destroy the world again. It amazes me that there are a lot of Christians and others who point to this passage and say, "See. God isn't going to destroy the world again, he's going to transform it."

Well, with many things, the details are in what you decide not to read. Many people read their Bible the same way. They read and absorb the general stuff while ignoring the specifics. Many Christians take in the Faith, Love and Hope message while ignoring the other things. These Christians tend to lose their faith because it is supported by "feel good" theology and not based in the reality of Gods Word. Unfortunately, I feel they are in for a rude awakening.

Anyway, lets' get back to the verse. Yes, G-d does say he is not going to destroy the world again.....BY WATER. See, the specifics are in the details. II Peter, chapter 3 tells us that the world will again be purged, not by water, but by fire.

"...the heavens and the earth, which are now, by the same word are kept in store, reserved unto fire against the day of judgment and perdition of ungodly men...the day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night; in the which the heavens shall pass away with a great noise, and the elements shall melt with fervent heat, the earth also and the works that are therein shall be burned up."


Fortunately, for us, this fire is part of G-ds wrath in the end times. In I Thessalonians 1:10, We are told that we are not subject to G-ds wrath.

"And to wait for his Son from heaven, whom he raised from the dead, [even] Jesus, which delivered us from the wrath to come."

Praise G-d for his mercy upon his people.

"And God said: "This is the sign of the covenant which I make between Me and you, and every living creature that is with you, for perpetual generations: I set My rainbow in the cloud, and it shall be for the sign of the covenant between Me and the earth. It shall be, when I bring a cloud over the earth, that the rainbow shall be seen in the cloud; and I will remember My covenant which is between Me and you and every living creature of all flesh; the waters shall never again become a flood to destroy all flesh. The rainbow shall be in the cloud, and I will look on it to remember the everlasting covenant between God and every living creature of all flesh that is on the earth." And God said to Noah, "This is the sign of the covenant which I have established between Me and all flesh that is on the earth."

One thing you can take to the bank is G-d fulfills all his promises. First, not to destroy the world again with a global flood. He put the rainbow in the sky after each rain to signify his promise not to destroy the world by water. Second, to destroy the world and all the unrighteousness in it with fire. Finally, to save us from that wrath.

Praise G-d and pray for those who need him.

Shalom my friends.

Genesis 9:1-7 Your Blood ... Will I Require

And God blessed Noah and his sons, and said unto them, Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth.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.

Once again, God is telling man to be fruitful and fill the earth. Almost like saying, "OK Fellas, let's try this again." As we read this, I'd like to remind you that killing everyone off in the flood bothered G-d a lot. So much that he refuses to do it again, even if man gets himself into the same predicament. More on that in the next blog entry.

From now on, every animal will have a fear of man. Why? Well, for one thing, the next verse.

Every moving thing that liveth shall be meat for you; even as the green herb have I given you all things.

If you are now dinner for every man, wouldn't you have a fear of man? But seriously, G-d created this animousity between man and animal for the same reason that he made it harder for Adam to till the ground for food. It is going to be harder from now on. Also, and most importantly, it is to show man that a blood sacrifice will be needed as a sin offering unto G-d. Also, man sinned, not the animals. This is another sepraration as the result of our sin.

But flesh with the life thereof, which is the blood thereof, shall ye not eat. 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. Whoso sheddeth man's blood, by man shall his blood be shed: for in the image of God made he man. And you, be ye fruitful, and multiply; bring forth abundantly in the earth, and multiply therein.

There is no way getting around partaking of the blood when you eat meat. Therefore, you are automatically required to give your life for your sins.

A lot of people will tell you that these verses are telling us not to kill anyone or your life will be required, otherwise, capital punishment. They will include war, accidental and involutary man-slaughter. My answer to that is another question: "Why did G-d gives the laws concerning the Avenger of Blood and the Cities of Refufe? The answer...to point to the Messiah.

Yes it is unlawful to Murder, it is Mitsvah #6 in the Aseret ha-D'varim, or Ten Commandments. However, all we have to do is look at the word and see that it means a willfull, unjustifiable and delibrate act of taking someones life.

Let's look at this verse again. G-d includes not eating the blood of the life you just took. It doesn't take a rocket scientist to know G-d is talking about something else here. We will get deeper into this when we get further in the Torah, more specifically the D'varim or Deuteronomy.

Genesis 8:20-22 The First Altar

As mentioned before, there is a law of first mention. Here, we have, for the first time, an altar before G-d.

"And Noah built an altar unto the LORD; and took of every clean beast, and of every clean fowl, and offered burnt offerings on the altar."

Note to those who teach that Noah brought only two of every animal into the ark: In that is true, then Noah put an end to the species declared as clean. Obviously, Noah didn't take just two of every animal. Instead he took seven pairs of the clean animals. It was for this reason that he did.

Another good point is that Noah must have been super faithful to take of the only animals he and his family was allowed to eat and sacrifice some of them to the Lord. This took an incredible amount of faith that the Lord will provide. This is something a lot of us today lack.

Also, how did Noah know what was clean and what was not? Didn't the concept of clean and unclean come from the law given unto Moses? Obviously, the law was not new but forgotten when it was given to Moses. This is another example that shows that G-d doesn't change. He is the same yesterday, today and tomorrow.

"And the LORD smelled a sweet savor; and the LORD said in his heart..."

True to my nature, I must pause at this point to point out the fact that the Lord enjoys the smell of a good steak cooking on the barbie like a lot of us. :-) LOL.

"I will not again curse the ground any more for man's sake; for the imagination of man's heart is evil from his youth; neither will I again smite any more every thing living, as I have done. While the earth remaineth, seedtime and harvest, and cold and heat, and summer and winter, and day and night shall not cease."

It is amazing to hear a lot of Christians still teach that G-d destroyed mankind during the flood because of sin. Right here, it shows that G-d wiped the slate clean for what? Sin? No...because sin continued and continues till today. He wiped the slate clean because the generations of man had become impure. What exactly does that mean? We don't honestly know. A lot of evidence points to the shenanigans that was going on between the fallen angels and mankinds resulting in mutations. However, it will have to be one of those questions we ask the Lord during that first big Bible Study.

See you there.

PS. Here we also have a promise not to destroy the world again. However, there is a disclaimer....but that is for next time.

Shalom