Fresh Start
I write this on Easter Sunday. It is the business of God to bless people with fresh starts. The horrible evil of Genesis 6 is gone, the day of judgment is past, the visible sign of God's promise of future grace is in the sky as a multi-colored rainbow and Noah is reaffirmed as a new "Adam" over creation.
Genesis 9:1–3 (ESV) And God blessed Noah and his sons and said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth. 2 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. 3 Every moving thing that lives shall be food for you. And as I gave you the green plants, I give you everything.
Everything about this passage draws us backwards to Genesis 2. God blesses and gives. Then God commands multiplication and moving outward. As well, God elevates the gift to Noah's generation to eat any moving thing. He is to repopulate the Earth with God's new covenant of even greater blessings.
God can't help giving to and blessing people.
But God also elevates the law.
Genesis 9:4–5 (ESV) But you shall not eat flesh with its life, that is, its blood. 5 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.
Whereas before the flood God protected the murderer Cain from death and instead gave him a mark now God demands a reckoning for violence that will eventually become "lex talionis" - an "eye for an eye."
What does this teach us about God?
He blesses AND He guides.
We see for the first time that God's restraint is a gift! His laws are a blessing. They will become more detailed under Moses and more numerous as well and God will remind them in Deuteronomy (which means 2nd law) that they are indeed a blessing!
Deuteronomy 4:8 (ESV) what great nation is there, that has statutes and rules so righteous as all this law that I set before you today?
It is a blessing to know what God wants and how God believes your life should operate. He made you and He knows what's best for you. Every other option is a reversion to the original temptation Eve faced to take charge and do life on our terms and we all know how that ended up.
No... God's laws are just as good as God's gifts.
So what do we have in Christ? We have a "New Commandment" that we should "love one another even as Jesus has loved us." Do you have enemies who hate you? Jesus loved His enemies. Do you have challenging people in your life? Jesus did, and He loved them. Do you have a church that isn't in any way at times a very good representation of God? Guess what! Jesus hung out with a guy named Peter for three years and loved him into radical discipleship.
That's the highest law! And it's the law where God's grace and righteousness meet and they meet in us. His once hardened enemies captured by His unfathomable love.
Romans 5:8 (ESV) God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.
Genesis 9:1–3 (ESV) And God blessed Noah and his sons and said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth. 2 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. 3 Every moving thing that lives shall be food for you. And as I gave you the green plants, I give you everything.
Everything about this passage draws us backwards to Genesis 2. God blesses and gives. Then God commands multiplication and moving outward. As well, God elevates the gift to Noah's generation to eat any moving thing. He is to repopulate the Earth with God's new covenant of even greater blessings.
God can't help giving to and blessing people.
But God also elevates the law.
Genesis 9:4–5 (ESV) But you shall not eat flesh with its life, that is, its blood. 5 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.
Whereas before the flood God protected the murderer Cain from death and instead gave him a mark now God demands a reckoning for violence that will eventually become "lex talionis" - an "eye for an eye."
What does this teach us about God?
He blesses AND He guides.
We see for the first time that God's restraint is a gift! His laws are a blessing. They will become more detailed under Moses and more numerous as well and God will remind them in Deuteronomy (which means 2nd law) that they are indeed a blessing!
Deuteronomy 4:8 (ESV) what great nation is there, that has statutes and rules so righteous as all this law that I set before you today?
It is a blessing to know what God wants and how God believes your life should operate. He made you and He knows what's best for you. Every other option is a reversion to the original temptation Eve faced to take charge and do life on our terms and we all know how that ended up.
No... God's laws are just as good as God's gifts.
So what do we have in Christ? We have a "New Commandment" that we should "love one another even as Jesus has loved us." Do you have enemies who hate you? Jesus loved His enemies. Do you have challenging people in your life? Jesus did, and He loved them. Do you have a church that isn't in any way at times a very good representation of God? Guess what! Jesus hung out with a guy named Peter for three years and loved him into radical discipleship.
That's the highest law! And it's the law where God's grace and righteousness meet and they meet in us. His once hardened enemies captured by His unfathomable love.
Romans 5:8 (ESV) God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.
Comments
Post a Comment