Gen 9:3 | KingComments | STEP | Noah is on a cleansed, renewed earth ( ). He has made an offering. On the basis of this offering God blesses Noah and his sons. To bless is to speak good of someone, to wish someone good. God assures them of His benevolence for them and of His merciful purposes with them. All the promises of God to give the good flow from His purposes of love and the counsel of His will ( ; ). Noah is given the same command as Adam to be fruitful and to fill the earth ( ). Just like Adam he also gets the rule over the animals ( ). But there is an additional element that was not there in the case of Adam, and that is that “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”. This is the result of sin. Another new element is that humans are given animals for food. This means a spiritual lesson: The life of man is based on feeding with the death of another ( ). Whoever believes this has eternal life ( ). Whoever is a vegetarian out of conviction, that is to say who consciously shall not eat flesh in order not to have to kill an animal, (unconsciously?) adheres to a doctrine of demons: “But the Spirit explicitly says that in later times some will fall away from the faith, paying attention to deceitful spirits and doctrines of demons, by means of the hypocrisy of liars seared in their own conscience as with a branding iron, [men] who forbid marriage [and advocate] abstaining from foods which God has created to be gratefully shared in by those who believe and know the truth” ( ). Everything is good and nothing is reprehensible of what comes from the hand of God and is given to us to feed us ( ).

‏ Genesis 9:3

God Blesses Noah

Noah is on a cleansed, renewed earth (Psa 104:30b). He has made an offering. On the basis of this offering God blesses Noah and his sons. To bless is to speak good of someone, to wish someone good. God assures them of His benevolence for them and of His merciful purposes with them. All the promises of God to give the good flow from His purposes of love and the counsel of His will (Eph 1:11; Jer 29:11).

Noah is given the same command as Adam to be fruitful and to fill the earth (Gen 1:28). Just like Adam he also gets the rule over the animals (Gen 1:26 ; 28). But there is an additional element that was not there in the case of Adam, and that is that “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”. This is the result of sin.

Another new element is that humans are given animals for food. This means a spiritual lesson: The life of man is based on feeding with the death of another (Jn 6:51b). Whoever believes this has eternal life (Jn 6:54).

Whoever is a vegetarian out of conviction, that is to say who consciously shall not eat flesh in order not to have to kill an animal, (unconsciously?) adheres to a doctrine of demons: “But the Spirit explicitly says that in later times some will fall away from the faith, paying attention to deceitful spirits and doctrines of demons, by means of the hypocrisy of liars seared in their own conscience as with a branding iron, [men] who forbid marriage [and advocate] abstaining from foods which God has created to be gratefully shared in by those who believe and know the truth” (1Tim 4:1-3). Everything is good and nothing is reprehensible of what comes from the hand of God and is given to us to feed us (1Tim 4:4).