This is part of the reason I have decided to revoke the 365 day challenge, and simply make it a challenge to read each day. I want the focus to be on God's word, completely soaking it in and hearing from each passage. I don't want the focus to become following a timeline.
There are three things that stuck out to me in Chapter 9 today.
1. Meat
In 9:2+3, God tells us that "all the beasts of the earth and all the birds of the air, upon every creature that moves along the ground, and upon all the fish of the sea; they are given into your hands. Everything that lives and moves will be food for you. Just as I gave you the green plants (Genesis 1:29), I now give you everything."
So many people are horrified by eating meat. I know several vegetarians. There are different reasons for people to not eat meat. Some are medical, some are political, some just follow the fad.
I want to be clear on something, I'm not down on vegetarians, and I'm not going to argue for or against it in this entry. I just read this passage and I found it interesting. With sin came violence and a curse upon the ground. So is that why God appointed meat into the diet? What changed? In Genesis 1, humans were vegetarian. Now after the flood, "everything that lives and moves will be food for you."
2. Alcohol
Alcoholism is a rampant disease that is taking over our world. The first man to make alcohol was the man that God had previously proclaimed as the only righteous man on earth. Noah drank and excess of wine, and we watch as even the righteous fall when alcohol is involved. I will give it to Noah that he was the first man, and that they didn't know the effects of alcohol yet, but it was his human nature inspired by greed and gluttony to intake an excess, which then led to problems. Alcohol is one of the largest issues in our world today, and one of the reasons for that is that no one recognizes that there is an issue.
I simply found it intriguing that the very first account of alcohol in the Bible is one of shame and disgrace.
3. Murder
"from each man, I will demand an accounting for the life of his fellow man.
Whoever sheds the blood of a man,
by man shall his blood be shed;
for in the image of God,
has God made man."
Genesis 9:5b-6
Execution. Capital punishment is not supported in Canada. But out of 50 US states, 35 of them have capital punishment statutes, along with the US federal government and the US military."Anyone who strikes a man and kills him shall surely be put to death. However, if he does not do it intentionally, but God lets it happen, he is to flee to a place I will designate. But if a man schemes and kills another man deliberately, take him away from my altar and put him to death." Exodus 21:20
"Submit yourselves for the Lord's sake to every authority instituted among men: whether to the king, as the supreme authority, or to governors, who are sent by him to punish those who do wrong and to comment those who do right." 1 Peter 2:13-14
I struggle with this.
I used to stand firmly upon my view that God is the ultimate judge, and thus, we have no right to take someone's life. I still stand firmly upon the fact that God is the ultimate judge, but I'm not so sure about what I think about execution.
Where is the line? We are called to submit to the governing authorities and trust that God is still the ultimate power. We are so human. How do we make the decision that someone's life is so far gone that they should die for their mistakes? What makes one sin greater than another? What makes one life worth more than another?
The very first murderer on earth is granted his life. (Genesis 4:15) I'm so confused by this verdict.
It feels like everything points to execution with no mercy. Yet, I know that God is a merciful God. I know that we have been forgiven through the blood of Jesus.
I was looking through the many men who were tried during the Nuremberg trials (World War 2 War Crimes).
Many people felt that justice was done when these men were sentenced to death.
I am angered by the things that these men did, the thousands of lives that they deemed worthless, and treated so inhumanely. But part of me cries out for them. I pray that before they died, they had a chance to hear the good news. They were so deceived. Satan had them so wrapped in his lies. Perhaps it's horrific for me to care about those people, but doesn't God love them too? Didn't He cry the day that each man died?
It is too easy for us to push these things aside and choose to not care. I don't know what I think yet, but my prayer is that I will continue to wrestle through it, and seek to hear God's voice. Too often, we leave it to other people to decide for us.
My fellow brothers and sisters, get out of your seats, off of your butts and think for yourselves! We are too apathetic.
My prayer for you today is that you would be compelled to be people of action. Allow God to convict and move you towards a life of discomfort, compassion, and to be delegates for the Truth.
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