A Fresh Start for Humankind

And to that end, let me invite you to turn in your Bibles to Genesis chapter 9. Genesis chapter 9, we are moving right along in our study of, of this amazing, book of Genesis, and as we continue in our study of this book, we come today to Genesis chapter 9, verse 1. And my goal, this morning is to cover verses 1 through 7. And if you want to give a title to the message this morning, it would be a Fresh Start for humankind.

A fresh start for humankind, and we're gonna be looking at verses 1 through 7. Let me start with this though. In, in his book, The Reason for God, Timothy Keller talks about a married couple who approached him, one day and engaged in a conversation with him. And this couple told him that they did not believe in God.

basically, they came to him saying, we don't believe in much of anything, so how could we even begin to understand if there is a God? So we don't really believe in much of anything. How do we even begin to figure out if there is a God? Keller then describes the exchange that he had with this couple from that point and I want to read this exchange to you.

He says, I asked them to tell me about something that they felt was really, really wrong. The woman immediately spoke out against practices that marginalized women. I said that I agreed with her fully since I was a Christian who believed God made all human beings, but I was curious as to why she thought it was wrong. She responded, women are human beings and human beings have rights.

It is wrong to trample on someone's rights. I asked her how she knew that. Puzzled, she said, everyone knows it's wrong to violate the rights. Of someone.

I said, most people in the world don't know that. They don't have a Western view of human rights. Imagine if someone said to you, everyone knows that women are inferior. You'd say that's not an argument, it's just an assertion, and you'd be right.

So let's start again. If there is no God as you believe, and everyone has just evolved from animals, why would it be wrong to trample on someone's rights? Her husband responded, yes, it is true that we are just bigger brained animals, but I'd say that animals have rights too. You shouldn't trample on their rights either.

I asked whether he held animals guilty for violating the rights of other animals if the stronger ones ate the weaker ones. No, I couldn't do that, he said. So he only held human beings guilty if they trampled on the weak. Yes, he said.

Why this double standard? I asked. Why did the couple insist that human beings had to be different from animals, so that they were not allowed to act as was natural to the rest of the animal world. Why did the couple keep insisting that humans had this great, unique individual dignity and worth?

Why did they believe in human rights? Listen to this guys. I don't know, the woman said. I guess they're just there.

That's all. Now, this was actually a friendly exchange that was more charitable than maybe the condensed account would indicate. In fact, some of, Keller said the couple laughed at some of their own answers as they engaged in this dialogue with him. But what's interesting is to this couple's credit, this couple has a strong legitimate conviction about how people, women in particular, are supposed to be treated, but they have no foundation in their worldview that serves to explain why this is so.

Timothy Keller says it's almost like their moral intuitions are free floating in midair far off the ground. However, as Christians who believe the Bible as we do, we have an explanation. We have a theology that perfectly explains why human life is precious and why humans should be treated differently than animals. And important chunks of that theology are in our passage today in Genesis chapter 9.

verses 1 through 7. In these verses, God is speaking to Noah and to his sons, and he's trying to get them off to a good fresh start on this side of the flood. In the process, we're gonna see a huge repetition of themes and words that we found back in Genesis chapter 1 and 2. And we will also see some basic principles that are laid down here by God, principles that have profoundly impacted the Western view of human rights and justice.

We're all, whether we recognize it or not, living in the good of the influence of this very passage that we're gonna look at today. Let me read it to you beginning in verse 1 of Genesis 9. Says, and God bless Noah and his sons and said to them, Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth. The fear of you and the terror of you will be on every beast of the earth and on every bird of the sky with everything that creeps on the ground, and all the fish of the sea into your hand they are given.

Every moving thing that is alive shall be food for you. I give all to you as I gave the green plant. Only you shall not eat flesh with its life, that is its blood. Surely I will require your life blood from every beast, I will require it, and from every man, from every man's brother, I will require the life of man.

Whoever sheds man's blood, by man shall his blood be shed, for in the image of God, he made man. As for you, be fruitful and multiply. Populate the earth abundantly and multiply in it. This is the word of God and may God help us to understand His word this morning.

The way we'll break our study of this passage down is we're gonna observe seven actions of God in getting Noah and his sons off to a fresh start at life in a post-flood, world. And the first action that we observe in this passage is that God provides for the blessing. of human procreation. God provides for the blessing of human procreation.

The text says, and God blessed Noah and his sons and said to them, Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth. Interestingly, in Genesis chapter 1 verse 28, We're told in the creation account that God blessed Adam. God blessed Adam and Eve, and here in our passage today, we find exactly the same language where God blesses Noah and his sons and by extension, their wives. And blessing Noah and his sons, God was not just stating a wish, he's not just wishing them well, like when we say bless you.

When I say bless you after you sneeze, I'm not imparting some real good to you. It's just a wish, right? But when God blesses Noah and his sons, he is imparting real good to them in that blessing. In Genesis 1:28, God commanded Adam and Eve to be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth, and here he is giving to Noah exactly the same commands.

Clearly, this is a fresh start, wherein God is giving to Noah and his sons the same mandate that he gave to Adam and to Eve. God blesses them with the power to procreate, and then he instructs them to act on that blessing by being fruitful and multiplying and filling the earth. And keep in mind this is not just words that are spoken, this is an empowering word. Noah's sons would hear this and be assured that they indeed will be able to reproduce and multiply because this is what God commanded them to do.

God is commanding them to be fruitful in terms of offspring. He's commanding them to multiply in number, and he's commanding them to fill the earth, which clearly indicates that he wants mankind to spread out over all. Of the earth. The earth is the Lord's and God is speaking to Noah and his sons, like a host would speak to his guests, and God is telling Noah and his sons to make themselves at home on his earth and to spread out and experience all of God's green earth with all that it has to offer.

This is God saying, Make yourself at home. God here is blessing Noah and his sons, and he's telling them what to do with that blessing, and that is have children. The Bible teaches that children are a blessing from the Lord, they're precious gifts, and the ability to have children is a blessing from the Lord, and there are many blessings that God gives to us, and among them, is the blessing of being able to have children, and because of this, children should be celebrated. For the blessing that they are.

As one writer says, children are the universal evidence of the Lord's creation blessing, who are not to be disparaged nor exploited, but celebrated by responsible parenting and societal protection. We have the seeds of those ideas right here. Notice that God gives his command to Noah and his three sons, all of whom are married to wives that they took onto the ark with them and that they brought out of the ark with them. It is to married people that God gives this command to be fruitful and to multiply.

God wants children to be born in the context. Of the husband-wife relationship where there is a mom and a dad who are covenanted to each other for life. This is God's plan for the fundamental makeup of society, which is getting off to a fresh start here. This concept is ignored in our culture.

Today. sexual promiscuity is the norm. It's expected. People experience the pleasures of sex outside of the covenantal confines of the marriage relationship between a man and a woman, and in such an environment, children are often most unwelcome.

And rather than viewing children as a blessing, many people in our culture view children as curses to be eliminated. And as a result, we're left with a woeful tale that continues day by day and leaves our country ripe for the wrath of God. Listen to this observation that Warren Weirsby made back in the 1990s. He says, in nearly 200 years of American history, starting with the Revolutionary War, 1.2 million military personnel have been killed in nine major wars.

But in one year, in the United States, 1.6 million babies are legally aborted. That 1.6 million number. is a number that would have been accurate in 1990 and a couple other years after that have come close to that awful number. Such numbers represent a rejection of God's affirmation of marriage and of sex within the covenantal confines of marriage and of his pronouncement of children as a blessing.

In Genesis chapter one, God tells, God is trying to, here in this chapter is trying to drive home to Noah and to his sons. He's blessing them and telling them what to do with that blessing, and that is to be fruitful. Have children within the confines of your marriage relationship. This is something that all of us should take to heart.

Moving on in Genesis 1, God tells Adam and Eve to be fruitful and to multiply and to fill the earth, and then God immediately in chapter one, talks about their relation to the animals, telling them to rule over the animal world in chapter 1 verse 28. Here in our passage today, God does exactly the same thing. He turns his attention. From telling Noah and his sons to be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth to their relationship to the animals.

And this brings us to God's next act, as God seeks to get Noah And his sons off to a fresh start in a post-flood world. Act number 2, God reaffirms man's dominion over the animals. Verse 2, and the fear of you and the terror of you will be on every beast of the earth and on every bird of the sky with everything that creeps on the ground, and all the fish of the sea into your hand, they are given, God says. Often when we read What God says here, it sounds negative, right?

But actually, this is largely a wonderfully positive declaration by God. The language here literally is actually the language of blessing that is found elsewhere in the Old Testament. It is one of God's ways of saying, I give you power, I give you dominion, I am on your side and I will be with you to such a degree. That the animals will recognize that you are uniquely blessed by me.

That's what God is saying here. In fact, in Deuteronomy 11:25, you might want to write that reference down and there's other places where we find this language, but just one place where we see it. God gives the Israelites this promise. He says, there shall no man be able to stand before you.

The Lord your God shall lay the dread of you and the fear of you on all the land on which you set foot. This is stated as a good thing, right? This isn't a curse, hey, everyone's gonna be frightened of you. No, they would have heard this and been encouraged by this.

In Genesis 35:5, we're told that as Jacob and his family was journeying to Bethel, that there was a great terror upon the cities which were around them, and they did not pursue the sons of Jacob. This was a sign of God's protection of them. And so for God to tell Noah and his sons here in Genesis 9:2 that the fear of you and the terror of you will be on every beast of the earth and on every bird of the sky, this is an expression of blessing, an indication of God's blessing. Telling Noah and his sons that man's rule and dominion over the animal creation has not been forfeited as a result of man's sin, but it will continue.

Animals will be afraid of men. And respect men and recognize man as the highest of God's earthly creations who have God's mandate to rule over the animal world. This would be a comfort to Noah and to his family because they're right now living in a world with animals that outnumber them and could tear them apart and wipe out the human population if these animals were so inclined. But God is assuring Noah and his sons that the animals won't do this, that he will put upon them the fear of man.

God also says to Noah, into your hands, they are given, reinforcing the fact that man still has dominion over the animals. This is the language we see many times in the book of Joshua and Judges where God promises victory and dominion to Israel. And Joshua 10:8, just one example, God tells Joshua to go into battle and regarding his enemies, God says, do not fear them, for I have given them into your hands. That's good news for Joshua.

And here God is saying the same thing to Noah and to his sons. I have given animals into your hands, you have dominion. This is my blessing to you. Does that make sense?

Now, having said all of that, we probably should. Allow for the possibility that the language here, though it is the language of blessing, it probably does indicate that the relationship between man and animals is going to be more adversarial than before. And at least one of the reasons for this adversarial relationship is explained in what is stated next. And this brings us to the next act of God.

And getting Noah and his son started out on their new life in a post-flood world, and that is God expands man's dietary provision. To include animals. God expands man's dietary provision. To include animals.

Prior to the fall in Genesis 1:29, God said this to man, he says, behold, I have given to you every green plant yielding seed that is on the surface of all the earth and every tree which has fruit yielding seed, it shall be food for you. And if we take these words at face value, We would learn or infer from these words that prior to the fall of man, man's diet was a vegetarian diet of fruits and vegetables, right? Just based on the language that we find here. And yet here in Genesis chapter 9 verse 3, God is saying to Noah and his sons, like in verse 3, he says, every moving thing that is alive shall be food for you.

I give all to you, as I in the past gave the green plant. God here is expanding man's dietary allowance. Man's diet is no longer to be strictly a vegetarian. Diet, man is now free to eat any animal that he chooses to eat.

And this is presented in the text as a good thing. As one writer says, God enlarged the scope of man's diet in order to show man his varied and manifold mercy. Think about this. After man's sin, God expands man's diet.

This is the overwhelming mercy and grace of God. It would have made more sense if God had come to Noah and his sons and said to them, Noah, prior to the flood, people were allowed to eat fruits and vegetables, but now because of man's sin, I'm going to shrink man's diet. From now on, you will only be able to eat vegetables. No more sweet fruit for you.

Now it is only broccoli. And spinach and cauliflower, and you have to eat it with ranch dressing, OK? That would have made sense, right? As a result of man's sin for God to shrink man's diet, but God doesn't do that.

Instead, he expands man's dietary allowance. This is the grace of God to where now it includes animals and we live in the good of that expansion almost daily, all of us. Every time we eat salmon. And chicken every time we eat a ham sandwich or a hamburger, every time we eat bacon.

And eggs or even smell the aroma of bacon. We are living in the good of this expansion of man's diet that occurred here in human history. So God is being very gracious. He provides for man, man blows it and sends.

God responds with the flood, but on the other side of that, he expands man's dietary allowance. And says anything that moves, that you want to eat, you are welcome. To eat it. Make yourself at home here, Noah.

And his sons. God has one limitation though. Just like he had one limitation with Adam in the garden in Genesis 2, God had told Adam of every tree of the garden, you may freely eat, you may gorge yourself, but of the tree that is in the midst of the garden, you shall not eat. And the same is true here.

God gives man license to eat of any animal, but he imposes one restriction, and this brings us to our next point. The 4th act of God in getting Noah and his sons off to a fresh start, and that is that God insists on the respectful consumption. Of animals. God insists on the respectful consumption of animals.

Verse 4, he says, only you shall not eat flesh with its life. That is, its blood. The word that is translated as life here is the Hebrew word nephesh, which speaks of the animal's soul. Animals don't have human souls, but they have animal souls.

We learned that earlier in the book of Genesis, and the language of the text here is equating the soul of an animal with the blood. That is coursing through the veins of that animal and God is telling Noah and his sons that they are not to eat an animal that has its soul or its life in it, inasmuch as it has its blood still in it. Essentially, God is telling mankind that he's not allowed to eat animals while those animals are still alive. Nor are they to eat animals that have not had the blood drained from them.

Man is to kill the animal and then drain the blood from the animal and then eat it. There's a respect for life. That we find here. I did some reading this week on practices of other cultures throughout history who have disregarded this instruction.

Some pagan cultures throughout history have had practices where they remove a part of a living animal. And then eat that part of the animal while the animal is still alive. One writer speaks of the cruel practice of the Abyssinians who gouge out portions of meat from the shanks of living animals, fill up the cavity with dung, and then eat the warm blood meat of that animal while it is still alive. But all such activities are forbidden here.

God is saying here that while man can eat animal flesh, he is to do so in a respectful way. The animal is to be dead and the animal's blood is to be drained from that animal. As one writer says, animal life, though given to humanity for sustenance, remain valuable in the eyes of God. As a living creature and therefore merited proper care, not wanton abuse.

This restriction is God's way of saying that allowing the eating of animal meat is not a license for savagery. Man is at the top of the food chain, but he is not to eat animals the way that wild animals eat other animals. sometimes I go on YouTube and I watch nature videos and So the most horrid thing that I think I've seen in some of the nature videos is wild dogs who will capture an animal and they don't, they don't, kill the animal and then begin to eat. They're eating away at the animal while the animal is still alive and panting and struggling.

And it's a horrid thing to watch. and God is telling Noah, I don't want you doing that. That's beneath you as a human being. And it's not treating the animal with the dignity and the respect that I want you as an image bearer of me to treat those animals with.

God wants animals to be consumed in a way that shows a respect for their life blood which leads actually to the next act of God and getting Noah and his sons set up for life in a post flood world. And that is that God provides for the protection. Of human life. God provides for the protection of human life.

Verse 5, God says, surely I will require your lifeblood from every beast, I will require it, and from every man, from every man's brother, I will require the life of man. Keep in mind, you may ask why does God bring this up right now? Well, keep in mind that before the flood, twice we're told that the earth was filled with violence. That's in Genesis 6:11 and in chapter 6 verse 13.

The earth was filled with violence. So it's not surprising, and this is actually stated as one of the reasons that God sends the flood. So it's not surprising then that God would want to address this issue here on this side of the flood. God is about to promise Noah and his sons that he will never again send another flood.

To destroy all of life, but God doesn't want to just simply promise that. He wants to tackle one of the key problems that made the flood necessary in the first place. As one writer says, God is wanting to make sure that laws are established that will curb the violence among humanity that had brought about the necessity of the flood. Let's look at the structure of verse 53 times we see the word require.

In the new American Standard Bible, and the word require is a translation of the Hebrew word that simply means to seek. And the idea of the term in a context like this is to seek retributive justice, to seek justice in retribution for something that somebody has done. And so let's go with that translation as we look at this passage. God says, surely I will seek justice or retributive justice for your life blood.

Literally, we can translate life blood as soul blood. The presence of the soul in the body is equated with a person having his blood coursing through his body. And the clear idea is that when someone is murdered and their blood is shed, Their soul expires from their body. And what God is saying here is this, if anyone kills you, and sheds your blood and causes your soul to expire from your body, I will seek justice.

From anyone who takes your life in this way. Whom will God seek this reckoning from? He says, from every beast, I will seek retributive justice. God is saying here that even if an animal kills a man or a woman, that animal's life is to be taken.

We see this later in the Old Testament law, you can write down the reference Exodus 21:28, where it is legislated that if an ox gores a man to death, that ox is to be stoned. And by the way, it goes on to say that if the owner of that ox knew that that ox had a habit of goring people, and he did nothing about it, and his ox gores a person to death, that ox and the owner of the ox is to be stoned. So God is saying, even if an animal takes the life of a human being, I will require justice, even from that animal.

He says, from every beast I will seek this justice.

He goes on, literally in the Hebrew, and this is not brought out in all of the English translations, unfortunately, but it says literally, and from every man, and you could, you could translate it this way, and from every man, comma, i.e. or in other words, from every man's brother, comma, I will seek. Justice for the life of a man. God is saying, I will require the life of every human being who kills, who murders another human being.

Interestingly, God is not content to just say from every man. But he adds the words from every man's brother, I will require the life of man. God inserts the words and, and most commentators stop and ponder this as they're expositing this passage. He inserts the words from every man's brother as a reminder to all of us that homicide, is fratricide, which is the murder of one's brother.

God wants us to know that whenever a man murders any other person, he has just killed his brother. Or his sister. We are all one race of people who bear the image of God. This is part of the point that God is wanting to drive home.

As one writer says, humanity is a family. And because of this fact, all murder is the killing of one's own brother or one's own sister. And the Democratic presidential Debate a couple of weeks ago, each candidate was asked the question, do black lives matter? What God says here is his answer.

To that question. This is God's way of saying all human lives matter. And part of the reason for this is that we are all brothers and sisters in the human family. The two white men who killed Emmett Till in 1955 will be held to account by God for killing their own brother.

The black man in Houston who shot and killed a white police officer while he was pumping gas back in August of this year, that man, that murderer will be held to account for having killed his own brother. Imagine if all of us thought this way. And try to see all humans as our brothers and sisters in the human family in accordance with what we're being taught here and elsewhere. If we thought this way and saw ourselves as family in the family of humanity and saw ourselves as brothers and sisters linked by what we have in common, we would become less hyphenated.

In our labels, or at least we would be more focused on what's on the right side of the hyphen. Than we are on what's on the left side. Of the hyphen We would focus more on the fact that we all share Noah as a common ancestor and that makes us all brothers and sisters. It makes us all relatives in the human family.

And then, in spite of our ethnic and historical differences, we might be able to fulfill Martin Luther King's dream. Of sitting down together. At the table of brotherhood. More importantly, we would learn from Christ who has that Christmas song goes, oh holy night, Christ who taught us to love one another, his law is love and his gospel is peace, chains shall he break, for the slave is our brother, and in his name, all oppression.

Shall cease When Cain killed Abel. In Genesis chapter 4, he killed his brother. And ever since then, when any man kills any other man, he is killing his brother. All murder is fratricide and should be viewed with the same horror as if a person just killed his own blood brother.

Three times God says in this passage, I will require. And we've learned already up to this point of Genesis that whenever God says something 3 times, that is putting an exclamation point on what he is asserting. God is saying as the judge of all the earth, if anyone takes the life of his brother, My justice will demand that I require their life, their own lifeblood and judgment. I will be their prosecutor.

I will be their judge, and my justice will not sleep until a full reckoning. is accomplished. Clearly in this passage, God is the judge who requires this, but who is the executioner? Of his vengeance.

Observe what the text says in verse 6. He says, whoever sheds man's blood, by man shall his blood be shed. Notice the words, by man shall his blood be shed. God the judge is saying that if someone sheds human blood, I will require that their blood be shed, and the agents whom I want to carry out this sentence is man himself.

God is hereby authorizing man to be the agent of his justice against people who murder. The statement by God imposes on mankind a responsibility to have a system of verifying that a crime of murder has been committed and then to carry out the death penalty on the person who has willfully murdered his fellow men. Essentially this guideline provides us the underpinnings of human government. In Romans 13, Paul speaks of the governing authorities that are established by God.

And in verse 4, Paul describes the government as, listen to this, a minister of God to you for good, but if you do what is evil, be afraid, for it does not bear the sword for nothing. For it is a minister of God, an avenger who brings wrath upon the one who practices evil. And we see the beginnings of all that here in our passage today. You say, where did the government get the sword to do this?

The sword was handed to the government by God. As Martin Luther says, by these words here in Genesis 9, temporal government was established and the sword was placed in its hand by God. God says, if someone murders, I want their life to be taken. If someone murders a human being by human beings, I want their life to be taken.

Now why is this so? Why is it that animals are allowed to kill each other and devour each other, but man is not allowed to kill another human being? Why is it that man can kill animals and eat them, but neither man nor animal can kill a human being? What is it that is so unique about mankind?

That makes it such that he must behave differently than the animals and must be treated differently than the animals. This brings us to the next act of God as he seeks to give Noah and his sons a fresh start in a post-flood world. And that is that God affirms the image of God and man. God affirms the image of God and man.

God says, here's my reason why I am saying this. Anyone who sheds man's blood. By man, his blood shall be shed, for in the image of God, He made man. At the end of verse 6, God is stating the reason for the provisions that he has just given.

In the image of God, I made man, God says. And there are 3 truths housed inside of this affirmation that you see on the screen. one is there is a God. Number 2, God made man, and number 3, God made man in His image.

You take any one of those three things away. And this whole foundation crumbles. It is because of God's creation of man in His own image that it is wrong. To murder another human being.

To kill a man based on the language here is actually, according to this passage, a religious act. Wherein a person does violence against the image of God in the person that he's killing. The murderer is engaged in a religious act in which he is striking a blow against God. And against the image of God in his fellow men.

Also notice the wording of the text. God says, whoever sheds man's blood, by man shall his blood be shed because in the image of God, He made man. This affirmation of man being created in the image of God is not simply stated as the reason why murder is wrong, but it is stated as the reason why murder should be punishable by death. As one writer says, it is because of man's special status among the creatures that this verse insists on the death penalty for murder.

And society is not well served when this foundational principle given by God to Noah for all of the nations that would descend from him when that is disregarded. From a theological perspective, we see here, an encouraging affirmation that the image of God still exists in men, even after the fall. We know that Adam and Eve were created in the image of God that was stated a handful of times, but our thought might be, well, that was before the fall, before man's sin, but here we learn on this side of man's sin.

That apparently the image of God still persists in men, though no doubt in a marred and profoundly diminished way.

It is because man was created in the image of God and because man still bears the image of God, though in a diminished way that man is to be treated with the respect that is appropriate to an image bearer of God. We see this affirmed in the New Testament in James chapter 3, verse 9 and 10, because man is created in the image of God, we should treat, according to James, every human being with respect, even in the way we speak to them and speak about them. Listen to what James says as he speaks about what we do with our tongue.

He says in verse 9, with it, with our tongue, we bless our Lord and Father, and with it we curse men who have been made in the likeness of God.

My brethren, these things ought not to be this way. This is a fundamental contribution that the biblical doctrine makes to our view of our fellow men. Every human being, including the unborn, the defenseless, the sick, the poor, the elderly, the disabled are all image bearers of God and are thus entitled to respect. To protection and care.

Even our enemies whom we feel like cursing. are image bearers of God, and God says you better treat them accordingly and make sure you speak to them and about them in a way that accords with this reality that they are image bearers of God. God says here in this passage, if anyone sheds man's, any man's blood, by man shall his blood be shed, because in the image of God, he made man. We can state this from 3 vantage points.

We could say that you shouldn't murder a fellow human being because that human being bears the image of God. We could say you should not murder a fellow human being because you yourself were made in the image of God and you poorly reflect God's image when you kill another human being. And we could also say from this passage that you should not murder a fellow human being because doing so not only assaults the image of God and the person you're killing. But it also injures the image of God in you.

Clearly the image of God and man is a foundational principle that is supposed to prevent taking the life of other human beings. But what positive action should the knowledge of this principle produce? This brings us to the last act of God. In getting Noah and his family off to a fresh start in a post-flood world, and that is God recommissions mankind to populate.

The earth. God says, as for you, be fruitful and multiply, populate the earth abundantly and multiply in it. Notice that the Earth is mentioned twice in this verse. Populate the earth and multiply in it.

God says, this verse has much to do with man's relationship to the planet. Notice also the turn of phrase at the beginning of this verse, God says, as for you. God has just told Noah and his sons not to take the life of other people. Instead, they are to be increasing the population of people on the planet.

As one writer says, Noah and his sons are to be life producers, not life takers. That's the flow of thought in the passage here. God has just stated that man is in the image of God, and he's given that reality as an argument against murder. Here now in this verse, God is turning this truth into an argument for childbirth.

God is telling Noah and his sons that he wants this planet to be heavily populated with image bearers of God. Rather than slaying our fellow men, we should be doing our part in helping to see that the earth is filled and populated with human life that bears the image of God. God has already given a similar command in verse one, but now he repeats, and he adds to it. He's already said be fruitful.

And multiply. And fill the earth, but here he says, populate the earth abundantly. The Hebrew word that is translated populate abundantly is the Hebrew word that is translated as swarm back in Genesis chapter one verse 20. And in other places.

God is telling Noah and his sons that he wants the earth swarming with image bearers of God. God also commands Noah and his sons to multiply in it. In other words, planet Earth is the place where God wants man to live, and it is the place where he wants man. To multiply It's an interesting study in contrast when you look at the biblical account of the flood and compare it with the approximately 200 other accounts of the flood that are out there, and some of the ancient accounts are actually we've got in writing.

that have been discovered and in one of the ancient, flood accounts, one of the most famous called the Atrahasis epic. Part of the reason that the flood was sent by the gods upon the earth is because the earth was overpopulated. And so the gods send the flood to wipe out the human population, but then the gods on the other side of the flood are still worried about the world becoming overpopulated. And so this is actually in writing, in the narrative of this particular ancient flood account, these gods set it up that on this side of the flood that there would be women who are barren.

And that there would be women who have stillbirths, and that there would be demons who, as needed, would snatch babies out of their mother's laps. And through those means keep the world from ever becoming overpopulated again. The biblical account is 100% different. Here in the biblical account in verse one, God is saying be fruitful and multiply and now here in verse seven, God repeats it.

God is not concerned about overpopulation. He blesses Noah and his sons and says be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and populate the earth abundantly and multiply in it. And he blesses them with the power to do that. Just in summary, guys, what we find in this passage are all the great themes for a healthy Society We have the procreation of life, of human life in the context of marriage relationships.

We have the dominion of man over animals. We have human diet, we have the respectful consumption of animals. We have the protection of human life, the punishment of crimes, respect for one another as image bearers of God and man's relationship to the earth. If mankind would simply honor these basic societal principles, then the world would not descend to the depths to which it descended prior to the flood.

This is a grace from God, all of the wisdom and insight that is contained in these verses. We can also appreciate the fact that here we see A vision of God who created man and who created man in His image and who's concerned about things like childbirth and the context of marriage, and he's concerned about our diet, he's concerned about what we eat, he's concerned about laws and about justice and even about what is done. With the lifeblood of animals. He cares about all of these things, large and small.

God cares about such things and so should we. We should be spokespersons on every front for this radical affirmation that in the image of God, he made man. That's a radical thought. I have found lately when I'm witnessing the people, I like telling them you are an image bearer of God.

An image bearer of God created by Him. This is now the 5th time that we're told in Genesis, this truth that God created man in His image, and today we're shown the staggering implications of this reality that in the image of God, he made man. We find in this passage why it is that humans must behave differently than animals and why we must treat our fellow humans differently. than animals.

It is because God created man and he created man in His image and it's also because God has spoken to us in His word and told us these things. Let me close with this. Arthur Allan Leff, formerly a law professor at Yale. university, he spent many years of his life trying to figure out, he was not a believer in God or a deity, and he, he spent many years of his life trying to figure out if there was some normative law for morality that could govern human behavior.

And his answer, after years of thought and study is there is no normative law. For morality And in the conclusion of his book entitled Unspeakable Ethics, he writes these words. All I can say is this, it looks as if we, we humans are all we have. As things are now, everything is up for grabs.

And now ready for some moral intuitions that are suspended in midair. Here we go. Nevertheless, napalming babies. is bad.

Starving the poor is wicked. Buying and selling each other is depraved, and there is such a thing as evil. All together now, says who? God help us.

God help us. We answer his question differently than he does. He answers it with despair. He says, I know certain things are right and wrong, I just know that, says who?

I, I have no answer. But to the question says who we answer God says. And to the words God help us, we say God has helped us. God has helped us hugely in His word, but it's up to us to read it.

There's so much wisdom, so much insight in this book, and we're already seeing the wisdom and insight that is found. In the Book of Genesis. In the 1st 9 chapters of this book. And that is our message to the world, there is a God.

This God created us and he created us in His image. And therefore all of human life is sacred and should be treated as such. Our message is also that God sent His Son Jesus Christ into the world, who was the exact representation of God's nature. Jesus was the only perfect image bearer of God to ever live.

And we all participated. And delivering a blow against the image of God when we participated in the killing of Jesus Christ, the only perfect image bearer of God who ever lived, when he died on the cross. But Christ was raised from the dead, and he's now at the right hand of God and he's giving out salvation and forgiveness and transformation. To all who humble themselves, confess their sins, repent of their sins, and cry out to Him for salvation.

And I say to you this morning that if you are lost in your sins today, My message to you is, you are a broken image bearer of God. Believe in Jesus, call on his name for salvation, even right now where you're seated, repent of your sins, and God will forgive you of your sins and He will save you and he will begin to transform you such that one day you will stand before God. As a perfect image bearer of him with the image of God fully restored in you. Let's bow our heads together.

Lord, we thank you for your word this morning to us. You're a good God to give us wisdom and to give us insight. To give us What we've learned in this passage today. This is not some primitive text as we just open our hearts living in 2015 and we hear the wisdom from thousands of years ago, traveling from ages past to us in the present and it speaks to us with such clarity and says in the image of God, He made man.

That is one of the most profound, the most sophisticated affirmations ever to come from human lips. And it has radical implications for how society operates and how we live our lives each day. And it's even tied to our destiny as believers, as you, Lord, in saving us are making us more and more conformable to the image of your Son who is the perfect image bearer of God. This is our destiny.

And we thank you that we find all of these things, Lord. In seed form in this passage. To guide us for how we live our lives and relate to one another. I pray that if there's any here in this room, Lord, that have never surrendered themselves to your love and believed in you, that they would call on your name right now.

That they would be born again, regenerated by your Holy Spirit, and that they would respond to you and believe in you and be saved. We thank you for this opportunity that we now have to give of our offerings to you, Lord. Receive these funds, do much. With all that is given to you in this offering.

In the name of Jesus, we pray, and all God's people said,