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Life Under a Preserving God: The Noahic Covenant and the Sanctity of Human Life (Genesis 9:1–7) · Reformed Thinking

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  Welcome to Reformed Thinking. This is the deep dive where we
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  take a close look at the texts and ideas that have shaped our
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  faith and try to get to the heart of what they mean for us.
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  Today we're in Genesis Chapter 9, looking at just 7 verses from
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  1:00 to 7:00. This is a small section of text,
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  but it's sitting right after the flood, a world changing
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  catastrophic event. And that context is just so
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  critical. Noah and his family are stepping
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  out of the ark into, for all intents and purposes, a brand
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  new world. It's been wiped clean.
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  Wiped clean, but the problem of human sin, of human depravity,
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  that's still there. It walked off the ark with those
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  eight people. Right.
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  So the catastrophe is done, but now civilization has to start
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  over and the conditions are different, they're harsher.
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  And this is when God speaks. He gives them the ground rules
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  for life moving forward. And our mission in this deep
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  dive is really to see this passage as a kind of universal
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  charter for all humanity. It sets the rules of the road,
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  you could say, for every nation and every person until the end
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  of this age. It's the core of what we call
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  the Noahic Covenant. We've got a lot of analysis in
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  front of us that frames this not as some temporary rule for one
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  family, but as a standard for all creation, a set of objective
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  truths about life, about justice and about government.
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  That's the idea. We're going to see three main
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  things today. First, God's original plan for
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  humanity wasn't washed away by the flood.
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  Second, the new freedom to use creation for food comes with a
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  very serious theological string attached.
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  And 3rd and 3rd, why justice, especially for the taking of a
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  human life, is demanded, not because it's convenient for
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  society, but because of the incredible dignity of every
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  single person made in God's. And all of this, these 7 verses,
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  they're set inside the bigger promise of the rainbow Covenant.
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  It defines how we live in a world that God is preserving
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  through His common grace, even though it's a world still very
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  much broken by sin. So let's get into it.
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  Let's do it. OK, to start unpacking this
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  charter, we have to look at how it's framed.
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  What's the very first thing God says to Noah and his family when
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  they step onto dry land? He gives them the command and it
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  should sound very familiar. He says be fruitful and multiply
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  and fill the earth. It's an echo.
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  I mean it's almost a word for word repetition of Genesis 1.28,
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  the command to Adam and Eve in the garden.
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  It is. The sources we're looking at
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  point out that the three specific Hebrew verbs, Peru,
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  uribu, umalayyu, are the exact same ones used in Genesis One.
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  This is not an accident. So why repeated verbatim?
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  What's the significance of that? Well, it shows an amazing
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  continuity of purpose. The flood was a massive
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  judgment. It wiped out a wicked world, but
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  it did not cancel God's original design for humanity and for the
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  planet. He's not starting a new,
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  different kind of project with Noah.
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  Not at all. He is deliberately laying that
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  same original primary calling on this small group of survivors.
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  The goal is the same. Fill the earth with people who
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  bear his image. So despite this huge,
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  catastrophic reset, the mission hasn't changed.
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  Populate the world and exercise good stewardship over it.
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  That's it. This was God's moment to change
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  the plan. If you wanted to, he could have
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  given them a smaller task, maybe a less risky one.
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  But he doesn't. The repetition is a confirmation
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  that the original mission is still a go.
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  And it's not just in verse 1. He says it again at the end of
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  this section in verse 7. He does, and that creates a kind
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  of literary frame or bookends around the whole passage.
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  Verse one is the opening statement and verse 7 is the
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  concluding charge. Which means that everything in
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  between, all the new rules about what they can eat, about
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  justice, all of it is meant to serve that bigger goal of
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  filling the earth. It really does function as a
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  frame. It's like a general speaking to
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  his soldiers after a devastating battle.
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  The field is a wreck, the conditions are tough.
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  But he gets on the radio and repeats the original mission
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  orders. It's a way of saying the
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  objective has not been aborted. The project continues.
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  There's also a theological order here that's really interesting.
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  It doesn't just launch into the command.
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  No you're right it starts with the blessing verse one says and
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  God bless Noah and his sons and said to them the blessing comes
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  before the command. And that sequence is so
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  important in Reformed thought. God's grace enables our
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  obedience. He gives it capacity first.
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  He does. He bestows the promise and the
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  ability to fulfill the task, and then he gives the task.
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  So the mandate is a response to God's generosity, not some way
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  to earn his favor. It's not a covenant of works.
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  And that pattern, that's something we see again and again
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  in the Bible. God's self gift is always the
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  foundation of the relationship. Always.
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  So let's talk about the cultural side of this.
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  If the command is to multiply and fill the earth, that has
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  huge implications for things like marriage and family.
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  Oh, absolutely. That mandate basically assumes
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  the stability of marriage of a man and a woman coming together
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  to form a family. Without that, the whole mission
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  to fill the earth just stops. So this isn't just a command
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  about having babies, it's a command about building a certain
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  kind of society. And that runs so contrary to a
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  lot of modern thinking, doesn't it?
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  I get where you often hear that increasing the human population
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  is a burden or a threat to the environment.
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  It's completely countercultural. This passage defines adding more
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  human life to the world, not as a problem to be managed, but as
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  a blessing that comes from the Creator's own will.
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  The goal from the beginning, and reaffirmed here, is to have more
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  image bearers on the planet, not fewer and.
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  When we say image bearers, we're not just talking about
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  biological life, are we? No, not at all.
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  The goal is to fill the world with what you could call
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  worshipping working culture, making image bearers.
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  This calling includes building cities, creating art, forming
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  government, making scientific discoveries.
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  The whole broad scope of human culture is wrapped up in that
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  one command. So the mission is secure, but
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  the world they are now is not eaten.
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  It's a much more dangerous place.
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  How does God change the rules so that humanity can actually
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  survive and carry out this mission?
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  That brings us to the middle of the passage versus 2 through 4,
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  where we see some really key changes to how Dominion works.
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  OK, so the sources point to three big modifications here.
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  Let's take the first one, the change from harmony to, well,
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  tension. In verse 2, God says He will put
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  the fear of you and the dread of you into every animal.
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  Yeah, this is a huge shift from the Edenic ideal, where it seems
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  like Adam's dominion involved a kind of peaceful cooperation,
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  you know, naming the animals. Now the relationship is defined
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  by a guarded distance. The animals have an instinct to
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  stay away from humans. And why was that necessary?
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  Why build fear into the system? Well, it's actually another act
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  of common grace. It's a protective measure.
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  I mean, think about it. You have eight people stepping
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  out into a wild world. They're surrounded by animals.
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  That could be very dangerous. They're incredibly vulnerable.
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  Incredibly, if the animals didn't have a built in fear of
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  people, humanity could have been wiped out pretty quickly.
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  They could have been subject to constant attack.
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  So the fear isn't about making humanity feel supreme, it's
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  about basic preservation. That's it exactly.
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  It keeps the animal world from overwhelming the new atom, as
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  some have called Noah. It gives Noah and his family the
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  space and the safety they need to actually get on with the
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  mission of multiplying. This new kind of dominion shows
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  that creation itself is now marked by hostility and
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  brokenness. OK, so God provides a measure of
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  safety. Then comes the second
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  modification, the change in diet.
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  In verse three he gives this sweeping permission.
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  Every moving thing that lives shall be food for you.
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  And that is a radical change. In Genesis 1, the diet was
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  vegetarian green plants. Now, for the first time, there's
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  explicit permission to kill and eat animals for food.
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  This puts the animal Kingdom firmly under human dominion for
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  sustenance. That must have been a massive
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  expansion of freedom for. Them Oh huge.
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  It completely changes their daily life and their
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  relationship with the world around them.
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  But notice how God it frames it. He says as I gave you the green
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  plants, I give you everything. He's presenting it as a gift, as
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  divine provision. It's not a license for humanity
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  to just go on a rampage. It's an acknowledgement that
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  life in this post flood world is harder.
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  Their needs are greater, so God's provision expands to meet
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  that need. That's a good way to see it.
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  But this new freedom is immediately limited.
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  And that brings us to the Third Modification, which is the very
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  strict rule about blood in verse 4.
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  They are not to eat flesh with its life, that is, it's blood.
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  So you can eat meat, but there's a big asterisk.
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  A very big one. This is the boundary line drawn
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  around their new freedom. The blood in Hebrew nephesh is
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  identified here as the symbolic location, the sign of life
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  itself, self. The language connects life and
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  blood so closely that to eat the blood is symbolically to consume
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  the life principle in a way that goes far beyond just getting
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  nutrients. But why is that so important?
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  If God gave the animal for food, why make such a big deal about
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  this one part of it? This is the absolute key to
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  understanding the passage. The main reason is to put a hard
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  limit on human dominion. It's a check on our pride, on
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  our tendency toward total autonomy.
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  How so? It forces humans to make a
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  distinction. It's OK to take an animal's life
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  for food. That's permitted, but it's not
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  OK to view life itself as just another raw resource that you
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  can ingest and own completely. So it's a constant daily
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  reminder that they are stewards of life, not the ultimate owners
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  of it. Exactly.
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  To consume the blood would be, in a sense, to claim ownership
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  over the very principle of life, to devour it.
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  This rule stops that arrogance in its tracks.
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  It makes sure that humans always remember that life, even animal
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  life, belongs to God alone. The analogy of a restrictive
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  covenant on a property deed is really helpful here.
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  It is. It's like you've been given a
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  beautiful piece of land by a generous owner God, he says.
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  You can live on it, you can farm it, you can eat the produce,
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  that's the meat. But the deed, it has a very
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  strict clause. You are forbidden from mining
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  the precious metals under the ground.
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  Those belong to the owner. The blood is like those precious
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  metals. It's the life and it belongs to
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  God. Which makes it a very practical
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  ethical check. Every single time they prepare a
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  meal, they have to confront this boundary that God has set.
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  And that boundary has a huge theological perfect looking
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  forward. By setting blood apart, by
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  treating it with reverence, God is preparing the way for
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  something else. You mean for the sacrificial
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  system? Yes, it directly anticipates the
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  Law of Moses. In Leviticus 17, we're told that
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  the life of the flesh is in the blood, and God has given it on
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  the altar to make atonement. If life belongs to God, then the
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  sign of that life, the blood, has to be returned to him as an
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  act of reconciliation. You don't just absorb it for
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  yourself. So even in this very basic rule
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  about how to prepare dinner, God is laying the conceptual
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  groundwork for the entire system of atonement.
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  He is, and it points even further all the way to the New
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  Testament. If animal blood, which just
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  represents temporary physical life, has to be treated with
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  such care, think how much more valuable the precious blood of
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  Christ is the blood that was poured out for the forgiveness
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  of sins. This prohibition steers our
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  minds toward the idea that blood must be set apart for a holy
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  purpose. So we've laid out the rules for
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  how humanity interacts with the animal world.
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  But now the text shifts. It gets much more intense moving
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  to the topic of human life. Yes, this is the very center of
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  the charter, verses 5 and 6. It's where God lays the
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  groundwork for all civil justice for all time.
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  He moves from the general to the most serious command of all.
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  He starts in verse 5 with some very strong legal language.
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  He says he will require a reckoning for the blood of a
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  human life. The Hebrew word there, durash,
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  is straight out of the courtroom.
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  It means to seek out, to investigate, to demand a full
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  account. God is basically casting himself
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  as the supreme investigator, the chief coroner who will
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  personally look into every single case where a human life
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  is taken. Which means that no human death
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  is ever just an accident and a moral sense.
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  God claims ownership of that life, and he demands an answer
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  for why it was destroyed. That's the implication of God's
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  sovereignty over life. Yes, and notice how
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  comprehensive it is. He demands this accounting from
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  every source, from every beast, and from man.
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  That detail about the beast is striking.
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  Even an animal that kills a person has to be put to death.
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  It is, and the reason isn't because the animal is morally
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  guilty in the way a person is. It's because the value of the
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  human life that was destroyed is so incredibly high.
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  The death of the animal is a legal statement that a human
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  life and image bearer is inviolable and that its loss
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  must be answered for in the most serious way.
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  This divine investigation is the starting point for all human
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  life. It has to be.
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  And that phrase from the hand of every fellow man also suggests a
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  kind of corporate responsibility.
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  The community has a role to play in seeing that justice is done.
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  OK, so our reckoning is required, but what's the reason
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  for it? The text is very specific.
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  It is, and this is maybe the most crucial point in the whole
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  passage. The reason for the severe
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  penalty laid out in verse 6 is not about social utility.
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  It's not about deterring other criminals.
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  It is explicitly theological, for God made man in his own
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  image. The imago dei, that's the
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  foundation for the sanctity of human life.
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  It moves the whole conversation out of sociology and straight
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  into theology. It does.
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  It means that every single human being is a visible
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  representative of the Creator on Earth.
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  Each person carries the royal seal of the King, and so to
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  murder a person isn't just a crime against that individual,
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  it's an act of high treason against God himself.
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  It gives the crime a kind of cosmic significance.
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  Think of it this way. Imagine a king commissions A
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  priceless statue of himself. If you go and vandalize some
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  random block of marble, you might pay a fine for the cost of
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  the material. But if you deface the King's
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  official statue, the penalty isn't based on the price of the
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  marble, it's based on the honor of the king you've insulted.
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  We are those statues. And that idea establishes the
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  incredible dignity of every human life.
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  And that dignity is universal. It means every life requires the
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  highest level of protection, regardless of that person's age,
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  from the moment of conception to natural death.
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  It doesn't matter what their abilities are, their race, their
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  social status. If you bear the image of God,
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  your life is sacred. So how does that square with the
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  penalty itself? If the murderer also bears the
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  image of God, how could the state be authorized to take
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  their life? That's a great question and a
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  point of tension. The argument from the sources is
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  that the penalties established precisely because of the value
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  of the image. By destroying an image bearer,
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  the murderer has forfeited their own right to life within the
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  civil order. The act of justice is about
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  vindicating the infinite value of the murdered person's life.
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  So that brings us to the mechanism for that justice.
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  Yes, because God demands this reckoning.
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  He then provides the means for it to be carried out by human
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  agents. This leads right into the
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  principle of retributive justice in verse 6.
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  Whoever sheds the blood of man by man shall his blood be shed.
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  This is lex talionis, the law of retribution, an eye for an eye,
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  but at the highest possible level.
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  Right, and the argument here is all about proportionality.
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  The only truly proportional response to destroying God's
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  image in one person is for the destroyer to forfeit their own
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  life to punish murder with anything less a prison sentence.
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  A fine would actually assign a lesser finite value to the
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  victims life. It would, in effect, cheapen it.
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  So the punishment isn't just about stopping the criminal,
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  it's about making a statement about the supreme worth of the
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  life that was taken. That's the idea.
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  The penalty itself upholds the dignity of the victim.
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  Now let's focus on that second-half of the phrase.
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  By man shall his blood be shed? This is where God delegates His
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  authority. What exactly is this
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  authorizing? This is the moment of
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  delegation. It authorizes human beings, and
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  specifically a formal authority, not just any individual, to act
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  as God's agents in carrying out this penalty.
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  This is not a license for private revenge.
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  That would just lead back to the kind of chaos we saw with Cain
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  and Lamech. So this is anticipating some
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  kind of organized government. It's the moral foundation for
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  civil government. You could call this the founding
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  charter of the state. It grants government the power
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  of the sword, the legitimate authority to use lethal force.
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  But that authority is tied directly and exclusively to the
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  task of protecting the citizens who bear God's royal seal.
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  So the primary God-given job of government is to protect human
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  life and minister justice when it's violated.
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  Everything else, building roads, collecting taxes, is secondary.
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  That's the priority that Genesis 9 sets.
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  The government's authority comes from God, It's limited by God's
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  purpose for it, and it's ultimately accountable to God.
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  What does that mean for justice system today?
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  If the whole basis is the imago day which every person has
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  equally, how does that restrain the state?
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  It demands absolute impartiality.
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  Justice can't be based on who you are, how much money you
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  have, or your political connections.
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  Any system that is corrupt, that executes an innocent person, or
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  that values the life of a powerful person over the life of
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  a marginalized person is completely contradicting the
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  very principle it's supposed to uphold.
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  Because to apply justice unfairly is to deny the equal
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  dignity of the victim. It's another way of violating
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  the Imago Dei. Precisely to deny justice to the
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  poor or the weak is in itself an attack on the image of God.
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  In them, the state is supposed to be a level shield guarding
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  every image bearer equally. When a justice system fails to
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  do that, it stops being God's agent and becomes a violator of
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  this covenant itself. So we've looked at the core
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  ethical commands, but let's pull the lens back and see how this
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  charter fits into the wider Noahic covenant that's described
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  in the rest of the chapter. Right, because this charter
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  doesn't exist in a vacuum. It's part of a much bigger
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  promise God is making to the whole world.
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  And the sources define that larger covenant primarily as a
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  covenant of preservation. Sometimes it's called the common
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  grace order. That's right, and we should
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  probably clarify what we mean by common grace.
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  It's not the same as saving grace.
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  Common grace is God's non saving kindness to all of creation.
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  It's the way he holds back the full effects of sin, the way he
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  maintains the structures of the world like the seasons, the
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  rain, and allows for good things like art, science, and stable
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  governments to exist even among people who don't acknowledge
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  him. I've heard it described as God's
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  hand on the brake pedal. It doesn't fix the engine of the
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  car, which is the sinful human heart, but it keeps humanity
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  from driving the whole world off a Cliff immediately.
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  That's a great analogy. The covenant preserves things,
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  it doesn't transform them. God says later in the story that
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  the human heart is still evil from his youth, so common grace
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  doesn't change our nature. What it does is prevent the
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  world from sliding back into the kind of total violence and chaos
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  that brought on the Flood in the first place.
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  And by doing that, it secures what some theologians call a
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  stable stage. Why is that so important?
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  It's important because without that stability, the story of
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  redemption couldn't unfold. God needs a stable world with
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  predictable seasons for farming and governments to keep some
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  semblance of order so that His plan of salvation through the
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  covenant of grace can work itself out over thousands of
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  years. So if the Genesis 9 Charter is
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  the security team for a big theater, their job is to keep
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  the lights on and stop fights from breaking out in the
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  audience. They don't write or perform the
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  play, but they make sure the play, the story of redemption,
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  can happen. That captures the idea
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  perfectly. The Noah hit covenant is the
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  scaffolding that holds human history together while God
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  builds His church within it. And it's a universal covenant.
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  Made with all of humanity and every living creature.
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  Yes, it shows God's commitment to preserving the world for
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  everyone, believer and unbeliever alike.
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  And the sign of this huge universal promise is the
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  rainbow. The rainbow.
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  It's a visible token, a reminder for both God and for us.
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  It reminds God of his promise not to destroy the world by
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  water again. And it's a visible assurance to
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  humanity that the basic order of the world is secure.
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  It guarantees that seed time and harvest, summer and winter, they
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  will continue and that stability is the foundation for all of
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  civilization. I mean, without the confidence
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  that the next harvest will probably come, why would anyone
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  bother to plant a field or build a house?
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  Exactly that stability is what makes fulfilling the creation
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  mandate to fill the Earth even possible.
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  The sign is proof that the environment is secure enough for
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  humanity to get on with its work.
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  So this charter isn't just an ancient text, it establishes
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  standards that are still binding on us today.
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  Let's connect some of these theological points to real world
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  ethical questions. What about the creation mandate
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  and the value we place on new life?
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  Well, that command to multiply and fill the Earth stands in
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  direct opposition to any philosophy that sees new human
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  life as a net negative, as just a strain on resources.
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  The mandate from God defines new life as a blessing.
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  And this connects directly to modern debates about the
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  beginning of life. It does.
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  If the whole point of this charter is to enable the filling
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  of the earth with image bearers, then any practice that
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  intentionally ends a developing human life, like abortion, is
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  seen as a direct assault on the command itself.
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  The mandate to multiply is a challenge to any mindset that
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  devalues life at its earliest and most vulnerable stages.
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  What about the other end of life?
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  How does the prohibition against shedding blood apply to things
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  like euthanasia or assisted suicide?
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  The principle is the same. Life belongs to the Creator.
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  The Imago day means that a human life has a God-given dignity
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  that can't be set aside even by the person themselves.
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  Therefore, no one has the right to treat their own life as
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  disposable, and no authority has the right to intentionally end a
• 21:44
  life to relieve suffering. It's still seen as shedding
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  blood, as violating the trust God has given us as stewards,
• 21:50
  not owners of our lives. OK, let's talk about civil
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  engagement. Verse 6 authorizes the state to
• 21:56
  protect the Imago day. How does that shape how we
• 21:59
  should think about government today?
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  Well, the idea of common grace and this delegated authority,
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  which is later affirmed in Romans 13, it really calls us to
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  be thoughtfully engaged in the public square.
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  The state is accountable to God, and because it's God-given Job
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  is to protect the image of God in people, we have a
• 22:17
  responsibility to call our governments to live up to that
• 22:20
  standard. So the Imago Day becomes a kind
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  of test for public policy, especially when it comes to
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  systemic injustice. Absolutely.
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  Because the Imago Day is universal.
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  It condemns any system that favors one group of people over
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  another. If we're talking about something
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  like criminal justice reform, the question isn't just about
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  punishment. It's about whether the system
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  treats every person, including the person in prison, as someone
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  who still bears the image of God.
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  And if that system is corrupt, if it favors the rich or is
• 22:47
  racially biased, it's failing its core mission.
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  It's failing in a spectacular way.
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  A corrupt justice system is a denial of God's sovereign claim
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  over human life. This mandate requires
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  governments to be accountable and just.
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  And we can apply that to other issues too, like caring for
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  refugees or ensuring economic justice.
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  The question is always, are our policies respecting the
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  God-given dignity of these fellow image bearers?
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  So the Charter becomes a powerful tool for judging
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  whether a society is truly flourishing.
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  It's not just about the powerful, but about how it
• 23:20
  protects the most vulnerable. That's the ultimate test.
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  If a society consistently mistreats the weak and the
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  marginalized, it is acting against the very Charter that
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  gives it more legitimacy in the first place.
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  And that changes how we can talk about these things in public.
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  We're not just arguing for a sectarian religious law
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  appealing to a universal creational standard that all
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  people are bound by, whether they recognize it or not.
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  That's right. It gives us a common ground for
• 23:45
  ethical debate. We can point to the inherent
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  dignity of the human person as an objective reality, not just a
• 23:51
  preference or a social construct.
• 23:53
  The Imago Dei gives human rights a real and solid basis.
• 23:56
  We've covered a lot of ground in this deep dive on Genesis 9.1 to
• 24:00
  7, the Noahic Charter for Life and Justice.
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  We started with the bookends, the creation mandate, which
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  shows God's unchanging purpose for humanity.
• 24:08
  Then we looked at the new rules for dominion, the fear in
• 24:11
  animals for protection, the permission to eat meat for
• 24:14
  sustenance, and that crucial prohibition on blood which
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  reminds us that life is a trust from God, not our absolute
• 24:21
  possession. And we anchored the whole thing
• 24:23
  and the supreme value of the human person made in God's
• 24:26
  image. That value is what demands a
• 24:29
  divine reckoning for murder and what requires the establishment
• 24:32
  of civil government to administer justice.
• 24:35
  It's the charter that forbids us from treating life as trivial.
• 24:38
  It establishes the moral basis for the state, and it defines
• 24:42
  the framework for all human history between the fall and the
• 24:45
  return of Christ. The world described in this
• 24:47
  noaic covenant, this preserved but still broken world, it
• 24:50
  really does point to something beyond itself.
• 24:52
  It's the stage that God is securing.
• 24:54
  It's secured until the day when the sanctity of life, which is
• 24:57
  established here in Genesis 9, is finally and perfectly
• 25:01
  realized in the new creation. And that new creation is made
• 25:04
  possible by the saving work of Christ's blood, the very thing
• 25:08
  that the pro inhibition on consuming animal blood was
• 25:11
  pointing toward all along the life that was poured out to
• 25:14
  truly cleanse the world. A really helpful framework for
• 25:17
  understanding how God preserves the world.
• 25:19
  In Hope, we hope you'll think more about how these themes of
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  covenant justice and the dignity of human life can shape your own
• 25:25
  engagement with the world today.