And God blessed Noah and his sons and said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth. 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. Every moving thing that lives shall be food for you. And as I gave you the green plants, I give you everything. But you shall not eat flesh with its life, that is, its blood. 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.
“Whoever sheds the blood of man,
by man shall his blood be shed,
for God made man in his own image.
Comment: We could seek to word this in theologically and politically, very verbose, terms but it seems to me that God is making several strong points which unfortunately many in our world are ignoring.
- Man is more than an animal , he bears the image of God on him/her.
- Mankind is given the responsibility of inhabiting and wisely ruling creation.
- We are given a wide choice of meats and vegetables.
- Blood is seen as the life force – murder is punishable by death. The place of blood in our relationship with God leads to the central core teaching which is developed throughout the Bible. We are saved ‘by the Blood of Christ’, in His supreme sacrifice on the Cross.
Prayer: Help me to walk through life in a way that pleases You, my God.
As I read it! 