Things I Never Noticed in the Bible - Genesis 9

 Faithful-to-God people were vegetarians until after the Flood.  Then they could eat the meat of animals (Gen 9:3).  Vegetarians today, while they may be doing so for purely nutritional reasons, are unwittingly forbidding themselves what God has allowed.  

This was Eve's mistake in the garden, adding more prohibitions than God had.  This doesn't help, and often hurts our true godliness (Colossians 2:20-23).  To say that science/nutrition knows better than God what is best for us is the height of presumption.  We have a hard enough time obeying God's actual commands.  Adding to them is often a way for us to excuse our disobedience to them, while pointing to our following our own made-up rules to justify ourselves as righteous.  Many today think that if they are being healthy (according to their own standards), then God must favor them, regardless in what other wickedness they indulge.

God also institutes capital punishment, here (Gen 9:5-6).  Joe Biden's recent action to change the sentences of death row inmates to life in prison, along with all conviction that capital punishment is wrong, is also the height of presumption.  We receive a command from God to punish the murderer, but reject it because we know better than God what is right and wrong.

God restates the dominion mandate to be fruitful and multiply to Noah, and it seems He restates it to the animals as well (Gen 9:7).  He already said it to Noah in verse 1, so the "And you" in verse 7 is probably directed to the animals.  Confirmation of this comes in verses 8-10, when He makes a covenant with Noah AND all the animals.

The rainbow is God's sign of this covenant, to show us that He will remember the promise to preserve nature until the end.  Christians should not let LGBT co-opt this sign for themselves, but should cherish every rainbow in the sky as a renewal of God's promise.  The LGBT flag is a counterfeit of this.  But you don't stop valuing true currency because there are forgers out there.  Take back the rainbow as GOD'S sign of promise to preserve, rather than to pervert, nature.

Things I Never Noticed in the Bible - Genesis 5-6

God named people "Man" (Gen 5:2).  Then He had Adam name the animals.  There is a hierarchy here.  Naming someone/thing is an act of authority over them (as parents do with their children).  Having people or creatures under us should not get us uppity, for we have a Creator over us.

Enoch (Gen 5:21-24) was the 7th generation from Adam, and special.  He did not die.  This is a type of Christ, the 7th -generation seven from Abraham (Matthew 1:17).

Genesis 6:22, where Noah does what God tells him to do, reminds me of the great Jewish rabbit joke about chutzpah.  God's people are meant to argue with Him.  When God told Abraham He was going to destroy Sodom, Abraham protested, but what if there are 50 righteous there?  Shall not the judge of all the earth do right?  When God told Moses He was going to wipe out Israel and start over with Moses, he protested: but then what will the Egyptians think?  But when God told Noah He was going to destroy the earth, Noah just said, "How big do you want the boat?"  This is a joke.  With a serious point: we should wrestle with God in His plan for the world, our nation and our own lives.

Things I Never Noticed in the Bible - Genesis 3-4

"Then Cain went away from the presence of the Lord and settled in the land of Nod,[f] east of Eden" (Genesis 4:16).

All throughout Scripture this pattern continues.  The oldest, or natural-born son, is unfaithful and God provides another faithful son to continue the line.
 - Jacob counts on Reuben who fails him, and God appoints Judah instead.
 - Israel and Saul set their hopes on Saul as king, but he fails.  God has Samuel anoint David instead.
 - David loves Absalom, but he betrays him, and God provides Solomon instead.

 - Jesus is the God-appointed "younger brother" to the unfaithful Sanhedrin.

Painfully, the pattern continues for believers today.  I have seen it several times where faithful parents have a child who leaves the faith and the family, like Cain did.  The parents, like Adam and Eve I'm sure, are deeply grieved.  But somehow God provides another.  He gives Seth to Adam and Eve.  He may give other "adopted" children or grandchildren to parents who have for now lost their own children to the world.

However dark it seems when those you love the most go astray, God will provide a way and redeem His people.

Things I Never Noticed in the Bible - Genesis 1-2

 Ah, January 1.  The day many Christians read Genesis 1-2.

I just did, myself, actually, and decided to revive this series: things I never noticed in the Bible.

First, I do recommend a Bible reading plan to keep you in the Word, and get to ALL of the Bible over time.  Ligonier always has a good assortment of plans available - see here - and this year I'm trying the Navigators plan.

Now, what did I find anew in Genesis?  Start with a trivia question: to what created beings did God first speak directly?  The answer: those in the sea and sky, the fish and birds (Gen 1:22).  What does He say to them?  The same thing He says to Adam the next day: "be fruitful and multiply."

This is a partial dominion mandate, missing the part where we are to rule and subdue the very fish and birds He spoke to the day before!  It's reasonable to infer from this that as we are also fruitful and abound, we are also ruled and subdued by God, even as we seek to rule His creation in His stead.

There's a lot of dominion mandate talk these days, and I'm for it.  But one aspect less conspicuous in the rhetoric is that as we rule we are also ruled.  Dominion doesn't mean we get to do whatever we want with the world and our lives.  We certainly name and order things, but our activity must stay within the bounds of God's commands, which He has clearly given us.