Genesis 9: Takeaways.
1. v. 4-5, The issue of eating meat with blood was a requirement in the time of Noah to instill the sanctity of every life. It is not just a prohibition for humans but for all creatures. Verse 5 says, "I will demand an accounting from every animal. And from each human being too, I will demand an accounting for the life of another human being."
In the Levitical system, God would command the Israelites to be ceremonially clean before him by not partaking of any forbidden foods, particularly blood of any flesh (Leviticus 17:13-14)
For the life of all flesh – its blood is its life. Therefore I say to the Israelite people: You shall not partake of the blood of any flesh, for the life of all flesh is its blood. Anyone who partakes of it shall be cut off”
Jesus would demystify the thinking that what comes inside the mouth of man is what makes them unclean. Jesus said, it is what comes out from the mouth (Mark 7:20-23).
20 He went on: “What comes out of a person is what defiles them. 21 For it is from within, out of a person’s heart, that evil thoughts come—sexual immorality, theft, murder, 22 adultery, greed, malice, deceit, lewdness, envy, slander, arrogance and folly. 23 All these evils come from inside and defile a person.”
The early church touched on this but not the eating of flesh with blood, but eating of blood because the Gentile Christians needed to be a witness to the Jewish Christians and they would do so by "abstaining from meat of strangled animals and from blood" (Acts 15:20). The prohibition was not for spiritual cleansing but for purity of witness.
Besides, Peter had a vision while praying, where in it the voice of the Lord spoke "Get up, Peter. Kill and eat" these four-footed animals and reptiles of the earth and birds of the air.
"Surely not, Lord!" Peter replied. "I have never eaten anything impure or unclean."15 The voice spoke to him a second time, "Do not call anything impure that God has made clean." 16This happened three times, and immediately the sheet was taken back to heaven.
2. v. 5-6, the holiness of God is not compromised by his righteousness. Let me explain. Some might think that the command to not shed human blood is without exception. We must realize that God is holy and that those who do not obey God will suffer his retribution. Verse 6 does not nullify verse 5. God still will hold people accountable and apply "capital punishment" as his preferred action to anyone who takes away life.
3. The Noahic covenant is about the agency, not the destiny. Some think that the command in verses 9-11 is that God will not destroy earth. He will still but not with water.
9 “I now establish my covenant with you and with your descendants after you 10 and with every living creature that was with you—the birds, the livestock and all the wild animals, all those that came out of the ark with you—every living creature on earth. 11 I establish my covenant with you: Never again will all life be destroyed by the waters of a flood; never again will there be a flood to destroy the earth.”
2 Peter 3:10-13 says that the world will burn because of the Lord's return.
10 But the day of the Lord will come like a thief. The heavens will disappear with a roar; the elements will be destroyed by fire, and the earth and everything done in it will be laid bare.[a]
The rainbow then in verse 15 is a reminder that the earth will not suffer a catastrophic flood.
15 I will remember my covenant between me and you and all living creatures of every kind. Never again will the waters become a flood to destroy all life. 16 Whenever the rainbow appears in the clouds, I will see it and remember the everlasting covenant between God and all living creatures of every kind on the earth.”
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