Dread and Harmony

 DEVOTION

GENESIS

DREAD AND HARMONY

Gen 9:1-7

9:1 Then God blessed Noah and his sons, saying to them, "Be fruitful and increase in number and fill the earth. 2 The fear and dread of you will fall upon 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. 3 Everything that lives and moves will be food for you. Just as I gave you the green plants, I now give you everything. 4 "But you must not eat meat that has its lifeblood still in it. 5 And for your lifeblood I will surely demand an accounting. I will demand an accounting from every animal. And from each man, too, I will demand an accounting for the life of his fellow man. 6 "Whoever sheds the blood of man, by man shall his blood be shed; for in the image of God has God made man. 7 As for you, be fruitful and increase in number; multiply on the earth and increase upon it."

NIV

This blessing upon Noah gives us the clue as to how God intended his creation to live in harmony with one another. Here, God tells Noah that from now on fear and dread of man will fall upon all the beasts of the earth, the birds, and every creature that moves along the ground, and all the fish. Once, as it was before the flood, man lived in harmony with all the animal kingdom, as well as it lived in harmony with man and each other. It would seem, although we are not specifically told, that all creatures, including man, were vegetarians, eating green plants, which, in our opinion, meant that the prey-and-predator system did not exist; the lion would have lain down next to the lamb. However, now God gives everything; that means the meat of animals for food. This would also have meant that the wild kingdom would become what it is today; the lamb would be prey for the lion. God also established his law concerning murder, and the justice for such an offense. All of us are made in the image of God; therefore, we do not have the right to kill someone who has been made in the image of God. The world has gone so far from the law of God; killing has become commonplace, for whatever reason man can fathom. Whole people groups have been subject to genocide, while one individual murders because of racism or some emotionally revengeful state. We, believers, have been given a stronger admonishment by Jesus. He correlated hatred with murder. If we were to get so upset and become angry with another believer that we refuse to love them, or refuse to forgive them for any offense, then we could be guilty of the same thing as murder. Jesus tells us that if we have any contempt toward another believer, we are subject to judgment. We wonder when we gossip if that is a form of contempt, or at least killing someone's reputation, thus killing them. It all goes back to the two commands of Jesus: that we are to love the Lord with our whole being and to love others as we love ourselves. We would never gossip about ourselves, nor would we do anything that would harm ourselves in any way. We want the best in our lives; we want the blessing of God in our lives, so that would mean we want the same for others. Although we may no longer be able to live in harmony with the animal kingdom, for they fear and dread us, we should be able to live in harmony with God and each other.