"Whenever I form clouds over the earth and the bow appears in the clouds, I will remember My covenant between Me and you and every living creature of all flesh: water will never again become a deluge to destroy all flesh."
Genesis 9:14-15
The end of the Flood story. God makes this covenant with Noah and all is descendants after him. It's interesting, however, to note the other three stipulations included in this covenant...
- Animals are given as food, but God requires that we do not eat them alive. (Genesis 9:3-5)
- "Whoever sheds man's blood, his blood will be shed by man..." (Genesis 9:6)
- "Be fruitful and multiply..." (Genesis 9:7)
At first, I wondered why these things were part of the covenant. Then, I read back to the beginning of the Flood story, and recalled that violence was the main reason mentioned for God's displeasure with mankind. That definitely makes #2 make sense. However, it's somewhat contradictory to #1... In order to eat meat, we must first kill the animal, which is violent. My thought here is that it's okay to kill an animal if it's for food, but any other kind of violence towards animals is unacceptable.
The third note above is strange to me because God has already given this command to mankind. When I think about this, I try to put myself in Noah's shoes... He just rescued his family, and there's nobody left but his wife, his sons, and his sons' wives. Even though we haven't gotten to the Law yet, we as readers know how taboo incest is.
At what point is incest acceptable? Is cousin-marriage okay? If there's only one family left on the planet, does that make it okay? Noah and his sons, and all of their wives, were probably wondering all of these things, because without at least allowing cousin-marriage (after Noah's sons get busy) there would be no way to continue the human race. God's reiteration of the "be fruitful" commandment makes it clear that, yes, Noah's family should procreate. And I'm so glad they did, because otherwise none of us would be here today!
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