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BE FRUITFUL AND MULTIPLY

Genesis 9:1 So God blessed Noah and his sons, and said to them: "Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth.

For the second time since the flood ended God says to Noah and family “Be fruitful and multiply.�?The first time God spoke it, the blessing included not only Noah and family but also all the animals that were with them on the ark. Now God speaks directly concerning Noah and family. This blessing echoes the blessing first given to Adam and Eve after their creation. (Genesis 1:28). But there are some notable differences - mainly in the way of omissions. In the Genesis 1:28 blessing, Adam and Eve were also told to subdue the earth and have dominion over all the animals of the earth.

Genesis 1:28 Then God blessed them, and God said to them, "Be fruitful and multiply; fill the earth and subdue it; have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the air, and over every living thing that moves on the earth."

As I noted in my commentary on Genesis 1:28, when God created mankind in His image He gave them a position of authority over the earth itself and over all that He had made on the earth (A reflection of God’s own authority over all creation). When God created mankind, He gave them a purpose, a reason for being. Themselves being subject to God, they were to rule the earth as His stewards. Although the earth and all of its resources were theirs to freely use, this dominion was not to take the form of a ruthless exploitation of the earth or its creatures. They were to tend to and to look after the well being of all the lesser creatures of God’s creation. Their dominion, their subduing of the earth was to be positive and creative, (in the image of a loving Creator God), not destructive in nature.

All the earth was in perfect harmony. The relationship between man and animal was one of mutual cooperation. But sin now had broken that cooperative relationship. And as God’s next words would show, the relationship between man and animal would now be exploitative, adversarial and predatory.

Genesis 9:2 "And the fear of you and the dread of you shall be on every beast of the earth, on every bird of the air, on all that move on the earth, and on all the fish of the sea. They are given into your hand. 3 "Every moving thing that lives shall be food for you. I have given you all things, even as the green herbs.

The original Eden diet was a well rounded vegetarian diet. This was the ideal diet for man. And studies have shown that such a diet tends to promote good health and long life. But God now give His permission for man to eat animals in addition to the “green herbs�?/FONT> of the Edenic diet. This concession on God’s part is an expression of God’s permissive will. God’s perfect will was that all His creatures would live in peace and harmony. - a harmony that will be fully restored when the earth is made new.

Isaiah 65:17 For, behold, I create new heavens and a new earth: . . . 25 The wolf and the lamb shall feed together, and the lion shall eat straw like the bullock: and dust shall be the serpent's meat. They shall not hurt nor destroy in all my holy mountain, saith the LORD.

Isaiah 11:6 "The wolf also shall dwell with the lamb, The leopard shall lie down with the young goat, The calf and the young lion and the fatling together; And a little child shall lead them. 7 The cow and the bear shall graze; Their young ones shall lie down together; And the lion shall eat straw like the ox.

But that perfect harmony which once was, and which will once again be, is currently broken by sin. And sin will in the course of time destroy all relationships. The flood did not change the fundamental nature of fallen man. Speaking of the basic character of fallen man, God said in Genesis 8:21, “the imagination of man's heart is evil from his youth�?

Right now you may be asking; Does God make concessions to the wickedness of man? The Bible is clear that He does. Perhaps the clearest and most definitive case of God’s permissive will in the Bible is that of divorce.

Matthew 19:3 The Pharisees also came to Him, testing Him, and saying to Him, "Is it lawful for a man to divorce his wife for just any reason?" 4 And He answered and said to them, "Have you not read that He who made them at the beginning 'made them male and female,' 5 "and said, 'For this reason a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh'? 6 "So then, they are no longer two but one flesh. Therefore what God has joined together, let not man separate." 7 They said to Him, "Why then did Moses command to give a certificate of divorce, and to put her away?" 8 He said to them, "Moses, because of the hardness of your hearts, permitted you to divorce your wives, but from the beginning it was not so.

Note especially verses 7 & 8. Why did God give permission for divorce? Was it because God approved of divorce? No, but as a concession to the hardness of their (our) hearts. Scripture makes it quite clear that God hates divorce.

Malachi 2:16 "For the LORD God of Israel says That He hates divorce . . .

Just because God permits something, and even gives rules and regulations on how to do that thing, does not automatically mean that He approves of it. And so it also is with the use of animals for food. Such is not God’s perfect will, but something He permits simply because we fallen humans have bigger and more pressing issues that need to be dealt with first. As in the case of divorce, so also with the eating of animals for food, God could rightly say “but from the beginning it was not so.�?(Matthew 19:8).