#29 Promises kept, Promises made

So God blessed Noah and his sons, and said to them: "Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth. And the fear of you and the dread of you shall be on every beast of the earth, on every bird of the air, on all that move on the earth, and on all the fish of the sea. They are given into your hand. Every moving thing that lives shall be food for you. I have given you all things, even as the green herbs. But you shall not eat flesh with its life, that is, its blood. Surely from your lifeblood I will demand a reckoning; from the hand of every beast I will require it,  and from the hand of man. From the hand of every man's brother I will require the life of man. Whoever sheds man's blood, by man his blood shall be shed; for in the image of God he made man. And as for you, be fruitful and multiply; bring forth abundantly in the earth and multiply in it."

This is in no way a reset back to a world without sin. Noah does not become the second Adam because he is from Adam. God finishes chapter 8 with a promise never to destroy every living thing again as He has done with the flood. In chapter 9 He continues by blessing Noah and his sons and tells them to multiply. This is a blessing extended to all mankind as Noah's family will be the parents for all future men and women. God does not go back to the beginning; he saw His work that it was good, and if it were a court of law we now have precedence for what would most surely happen again, unless God removed all temptation and free will. This is not His will for man though, to be His puppets, but man in choosing sin has also chosen to be sin's puppet. He is dead in his trespasses and sin.

God has now also proven to Noah that He is in control of nature; He has flooded the earth like He said, and saved Noah and his family like He promised. Noah's faith is not based merely upon hope but built also upon the word of a God who has proven Himself to be true. He has demonstrated that He is in control.

Yours, O Lord, is the greatness, the power and the glory, the victory and the majesty; for all that is in heaven and in earth is Yours; Yours is the kingdom, O Lord, and You are exalted as head over all. 1Chronicles 29:11

God has also told man He can eat of every living thing, except not the blood of the animal, for the life is  in the blood, and the blood will be the covering for man under the redemption plan. If they are obedient in this it will also protect man from diseases and parasites that have been introduced and developed since the fall. This is prior to the dietary laws in Leviticus. God also institutes capital punishment to be carried out by man and his responsibility to do so in the case of murder. Prior to the flood God would not allow another man to kill Cain. At that time, He still reserved the right, but the earth was full of violence in Noah's time, and man was committing murder. God judged this and allowed 120 years for man to witness the building of the ark, the faith of Noah, the opportunity to repent. God knew this would not happen but gave the opportunity, and then he destroyed every living thing except those who were on the ark.