Sunday, September 17, 2023 PM

Sunnyside Baptist Church

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turn to Genesis chapter 6. Genesis 6 and we'll be reading some passages from this cycle concerning Noah here in a moment.

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We talk about the sixth commandment, thou shalt not murder.

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All right, well let's start with a word of prayer. Father, we thank you so much for this day. We thank you for the clarity, the power, the purity of your word.

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We thank you for your love for us. We pray that you would bless us now as you read your word together, that we would be edified, that we would be nourished, that we would be encouraged, that we would be led and all the more conformed to the image of your

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Son Jesus Christ. We pray these things in his name. Amen. So last week we discussed the sixth commandment.

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We see how it stands at the center of the Ten Commandments, that in order to come to the point where you break that commandment, as God gave the

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Ten Commandments to his people, the way towards that horrible pinnacle sin, this great crime against God and those whom he has made in his image, you must pass through the entry points to sin concerning the worship of God and concerning the affections of the heart.

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That if you are idolatrous or if you are covetous, that this is the entry points into further and more egregious sins.

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And so when God makes the covenant with Israel, he does so in the pattern of the image of God, and he is concerned with how they relate to him, how they relate to one another, how they relate to the created order around them.

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And we see that this concern about the priority of life, the sanctity of human life, and the danger and the great atrocity of murder is all captured for us in the first four chapters of Genesis.

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We see the preciousness of human life in how God made us in his own image, the value of human life, and we see what brings death.

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We see what that Satan did as a murderer, that he deceived

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Eve and pitched to her an idolatrous notion about God, at the same time preying upon her affections, tempting her to covet that which did not belong to her, and this is how sin enters in.

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And the first interaction we see between Cain and Abel is one in which

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Cain has an improper understanding of who God is, he's not worshiping God properly, and he becomes very envious and covetous concerning Abel's standing and the reception of Abel before God, and this leads to murder.

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God confronts Cain, tells him that sin is crouching at the door, desiring to master him, but he must rule over it instead.

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Cain does not listen to God, he ends up murdering his brother. And past this terrible story about Cain and Abel, we see that death and destruction and violence and murder fill the earth, and then

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God answers with judgment in the form of a flood. In other words, the earth was filled up with murderers, and so God ended their lives as a just judgment.

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And that comes into play, as we see later on in Genesis chapters 6 through 9, about what

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God has to say about murder. So let's take a look at the covenant that God makes with Noah, and we'll begin there in chapter 6 of Genesis, and look with me at verses 18 through 21.

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God says, but I will establish my covenant with you. All right, so what have we heard so far?

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We've heard that the earth is filled with violence, filled with murderers, the Lord is promised to destroy all that which has the breath of life upon the face of the earth.

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He says, but, but I will establish my covenant with you, Noah, and you shall go into the ark, you, your sons, your wife, and your sons' wives with you.

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And of every living thing, of all flesh, you shall bring two of every sort into the ark to keep them alive with you.

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They shall be male and female. Of the birds after their kind, of animals after their kind, and of every creeping thing of the earth after its kind, two of every kind will come to you to keep them alive.

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And you shall take for yourself of all food that is eaten, and you shall gather it to yourself, and it shall be food for you and for them.

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And so God promises to make a covenant with Noah, and in so doing, you hear language that sounds a lot like Genesis chapter 1.

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Here's all these various creatures after their kind. We hear about husband and wife, male and female, once again.

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Noah, you and your wife, your sons and their wives. Here's the food that's going to be for you and for them.

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It's, in some ways, just a summary of Genesis chapter 1, all condensed down.

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There's going to be a preservation of God's good created order, and it's going to be preserved with Noah on the ark.

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So this is God's answer to all the violence. There's going to be a restart filled with life according to its kind.

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God's answer to out -of -control violence is what? Capital punishment.

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That's what he's... All this is going to die, we're going to wipe this out, and we're going to preserve that which is good.

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Now, let's turn over to Genesis chapter 9, and we'll begin reading in verse 1.

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This is also going to sound a little like Genesis chapter 1. So God blessed

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Noah and his sons and said to them, be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth. And the fear of you and the dread of you shall be upon every beast of the earth and every bird of the air and all that move on the earth and all the fish of the sea.

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They are given into your hand. Every moving thing that lives shall be food for you.

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I have given you all things, even as the green herbs, but you shall not eat flesh with its life, that is, its blood.

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Surely for your life blood I will demand a reckoning. From the hand of every beast

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I will require it, and from the hand of man, from the hand of every man's brother, I will require the life of man.

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Whoever sheds man's blood, by man his blood shall be shed.

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For in the image of God he made man. And as for you, be fruitful and multiply, bring forth abundantly in the earth and multiply in it.

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So we are reminded that God is the creator. He is the one who blesses those whom he has created and structures and ordains it all.

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He's the giver of life, and so the taking of life must be according to his standards.

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So because of who God is, therefore he gives these standards to Noah, to his sons, and says this is how you're going to operate.

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So he says, first of all, no animal ought to be eaten while still alive. That may sound strange to you, but in Hindu cultures where they supposedly respect all life and all animals and so on and so forth, they routinely bleed cattle and use the blood for protein, keeping the animal alive while wounding it.

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And God says further, all the blood of a slain animal ought to be cooked out of the meat.

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Why is he saying this to Noah and his sons? Why is he saying this in the Noahic Covenant?

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Because man should not consider himself as to have the rights over another's life.

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This is the life is in the blood, so it has to be completely cooked out because that belongs to God and God alone doesn't belong to man.

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What is God emphasizing to Noah and his sons after this world had been filled up with violence and everybody like Lamech of the line of Cain, he was insulted and he was wounded and so he said it was my right to take that young man's life, he says to Ada and Zillah, his two wives.

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He thought it was in his hand, the life of this other person or the life of this creature.

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I can do whatever I want with it. No, actually you can't. God is the giver of life. God is the owner of all things.

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That's what God is communicating to Noah and to his sons. The blood belongs to God as the giver of life.

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Now it's interesting how God sets this up because he makes a connection here between the blood of an animal and the blood of people, right?

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There's not the same quality but there is a similar concern.

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If you're going to butcher an animal, God says, you have to cook all the blood out of it because the blood belongs to me and then he has concern with the blood being shed of someone made in his image.

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And what does he say about that? So first of all about the animal, you don't get to do whatever you want to with its blood, that belongs to me.

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And then he says, verse 5, surely for your lifeblood, for the blood of a human being,

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I will demand a reckoning. If a beast, if a beast sheds the blood of a man, then what happens to the beast?

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Needs to be killed. And what happens if a man kills a man? What happens to that murderer?

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He is to be killed. God says this is the way it ought to be. Now he's just sent this flood.

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He has just done this in his justice. He has just demonstrated the way to deal with out -of -control violence, hasn't he?

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Now what happens when man says we know better than God? What happens when man says we know more about ourselves than the

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Bible says? You know, we're a bunch of accidentally evolved combination of matter and energy, and we're so evolved now that we know that when somebody murders somebody else, it was because their parents did a bad job.

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Or it's because society is unjust, and they're just crying out for help, and that's why they're murdering old women.

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Right? What happens when we don't follow

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God's wisdom? What happens to the violence? Tends to get out of control, doesn't it?

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And violence begets violence, and things just get even more and more violent because there is nothing to stem the tide.

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Well, God lays a foundation not only for order, but also for hope, especially when he makes a connection between the the blood of an animal and the blood of a man.

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It's not the same connection, but you can already see that there is a an opportunity here to begin to think about an animal being offered in substitution for man.

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Already the blood belongs to God. That's an interesting connection.

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When we look at verse 5 for a second, verse 5 says, "...surely for your lifeblood

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I will demand a reckoning. From the hand of every beast I'll require it. From the hand of man, from the hand of every man's brother,

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I'll require the life of man." That's the first time the word brother has been used since the story of Cain and Abel.

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So you can see where the cycle of violence started with Cain and Abel, how it went on and on and on, and now

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God's coming back to it now and saying, here's how we're going to handle it moving forward. Now, God is concerned about the shedding of man's blood.

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Why? Because, he explains it in verse 6, why is this important? "...whoever sheds man's blood by man's blood shall be shed."

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Why? For, here's the explanation, here's the reason why, "...in the image of God he made man."

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That's why. That's why. The mention of the image of God is significant.

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It's showing that there is something different. Now, it didn't belong to him.

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The man doesn't say that. There is a differentiation between animals and those made in God's image.

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There is a clear distinction being made here. We have a tendency in our world today to treat animals like people and people like animals, to elevate animals into the status of being family members, and treat it as if they are co -equals with human beings.

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That is the trend. It is also the trend to look at humans and call them animals, and say, we're just a bunch of, we're full of animal -based instincts, and who can deny our own instincts?

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This is just the way we evolved. And so, people are made out to be animals and animals made out to be people.

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And that is a sinful confusion. Here, it's being clarified. There's a righteous clarity here in this text.

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Humanity owns the animals, right? Didn't God give all the animals to humanity? And so, in righteous stewardship, animals can be killed by humans because humans own the animals, right?

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What is the purpose of the cow? Well, one purpose is to give milk. Another purpose is to enrich the land.

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Another purpose is to give meat. And it is the man who owns the cattle, he gets to decide.

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He gets to decide about that. Now, God owns people.

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God owns men and women. He's the Creator. And so, He alone gets to decide how that works, right?

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Our days are numbered, are in the hands of the Lord, and then He gives, here, authority to man in a specific way to bring about capital punishment against those who murder.

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And so, we are reminded in Romans 13 that God has made the civil magistrate minister, a deacon, to do something to serve him in a particular way.

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Speaking of rulers, in other words, speaking of civil magistrates, in verse 4, for he, the civil magistrate, the judge, the representative of this organized society who has been appointed for this task, he is

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God's minister. God's minister. A civil magistrate may be a servant of the people, but first and foremost, he's a servant of God, something they need to be reminded of.

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Many politicians may make lip service to answering to their constituents, but more importantly, they must answer to God.

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As Jesus reminded Pilate, you don't have any power unless God gave it to you. You don't have this position unless God gave it to you.

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Now, verse 4 says he is God's minister to you for good, but if you do evil, be afraid, for he does not bear the sword in vain.

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For he is God's minister and avenger to execute wrath on him who practices evil.

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You see, that is the role of the civil magistrate, and that has its roots back here in Genesis chapter 9.

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Now, notice how God answers the issue of murder in verse 6, but immediately ties it to the the preciousness and the importance of us being made in God's image, and immediately ties this to the creation mandate.

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Verses 6 and 7, whoever sheds man's blood by man his blood shall be shed for the image of God he made man and as for you be fruitful multiply bring forth abundantly in the earth and multiply in it.

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It's unsurprising, actually, to find the institution of capital punishment to be so intrinsically tied to the image of God and the creation mandate.

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Why? Because this concern lies at the heart of the Ten Commandments. It indeed lies at the heart of the covenants that God makes because they are all in the shape of the image of God.

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God is responding graciously to man's fall into sin. What happened?

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The devil murdered Adam and Eve through this deceit where they were led into false worship and covetousness.

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Cain, for the false worship and covetousness, murders his brother. The whole world becomes filled with violence, and then

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God brings his judgment upon the world, restarts everything with Noah and his family, and says, you are made in my image, here's how we're going to relate to one another, here's how you're going to relate to one another, here's how you're going to relate to the created order around you.

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And so what is he doing here? He's bringing forward the the principles of what made the garden very good, what made the

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Garden of Eden a wonderful situation, and God brings those principles forward and sets them before Noah and his sons and says this is how we're going to operate.

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And, you know, humans murdering each other does not go real well with be fruitful multiply.

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In fact, it is the polar opposite. It is the direct opposite. You can't get more opposite to the image of God than murder.

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You can't get more opposite to the creation mandate than murder, which is why it's the central concern there in the

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Ten Commandments. All right, let's talk a little bit about Abraham.

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When God calls Abraham out of Ur, he makes a promise to him that is in the shape of the image of God.

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Now in verses 1 through 3 in Genesis 12, now the Lord said that had said to Abram, get out of your country from your family and from your father's house to a land that I will show you.

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I will make you a great nation, I will bless you and make your name great, and you shall be a blessing.

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I will bless those who bless you, I will curse him who curses you, and in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed.

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And so there is a promise of, and so the Lord is saying here's how we're going to relate, I'm gonna make you into a great nation, here's how you relate with your own family and all the families of the earth, and I'm gonna give you a land in which you're going to prosper.

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So that's really good news for Abram and Sarai, who don't have a child yet, but boy it's good news, and it's time to leave their country and they come into this new country, a land that I will show you, and as soon as they get there he shows them that it's in deep famine.

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Wow, thank you God, that's that's amazing. Wow. So they move on down to Egypt, following where they're going to try to find some grain, some food, and survive.

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Now what happens when they get down to Egypt? Remember the story of what happens when

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Abraham and Sarai get down to Egypt? I'm gonna lose my wife and my life.

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This is not gonna go well down here in Egypt. And why was that?

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What was his reasoning? He wasn't wrong, was he? Look here, he said, now look at verse 11 of Genesis 12, and it came to pass while he was close to entering

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Egypt that he said to Sarai, his wife, indeed I know that you are a woman of beautiful countenance, therefore it will happen when the

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Egyptians see you they will say, this is his wife, and they will kill me but they will let you live.

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Please say that you are my sister, that it may be well with me for your sake, and that I may live because of you.

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So what's the problem here? What did he identify as the problem? These Egyptians are going to look upon the wife of another man and desire her for themselves.

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That's the tenth commandment, correct? Then they will think about how they were going to steal her from him, that they may commit adultery with her, which requires that they kill him first.

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You see how we ramped up the backside of the Ten Commandments right there? Why? Because that is violations one after another of the image of God in progressive problems.

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Now later on, the same issue occurred when Abraham and Sarah went down to the

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Philistines, and the same issue came there, and he gave his reasons there, which are going to be his same reasons here.

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There's no fear of God in this land. There's no fear of God in this land, and when there's no fear of God in the land, you know what will happen?

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All kind of covetousness and theft and adultery and murder is going to happen. And so Abraham had the very distinct understanding, we are heading into godless enemy territory.

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And so when he told his wife to lie, he did a very good thing, because they weren't going to be lying to their neighbors.

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They weren't bearing false witness about to their neighbors. They weren't lying to their neighbors to gain some sort of advantage over them in court, and so on and so forth.

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What were they doing? Hey, if you're in deep in enemy territory, feel free to lie, and just do it well so that you survive, and you protect your family, and protect your children, and whatever you're doing.

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If you're Brother Andrew smuggling Bibles, or if you're Corrie ten Boom hiding Jews, whatever it is, you know, as harmless as doves and as wise as serpents.

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That's not about lying to neighbors, bearing false witness to neighbors. That's doing something very righteous and good, and you see that God blessed

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Abraham at the end of this story, showing the folly of the godless, impure

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Egyptians, and exalting Abraham, his servant, who sought the best for his wife.

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And again, his concern was that of murder. Let's give it some consideration to what happens in Genesis 14.

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Now, in Genesis 9, we're told that if anybody sheds man's blood, by man his blood shall be shed.

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That if a man takes up some sort of weapon, or uses his own hands directly to murder somebody else, then that person should be put down.

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That person should be executed by others. When we get to chapter 14 of Genesis, Cheddar Laramore, and he was a powerful king of the north, and he had cities paying him tribute.

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In the south, including Sodom, and Gomorrah, Admah, Zeboim, and Zohar, and they paid tribute to Cheddar Laramore, because they feared him, because he had powerful allies, and they knew that if they didn't pay him on a regular basis, and he'd come down and destroy them.

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But they got tired of that, and they said, well, we've got five cities, he's only got four, and I think we could take him.

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They were wrong. So Cheddar Laramore, with three other kings, came down from the north, and did battle against the kings of Sodom, and Gomorrah, Admah, Zeboim, and Zohar, and the five kings of the south lost badly.

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And Cheddar Laramore took the survivors of the cities, including Lot, Abram's nephew, and all the spoils of war.

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So what just happened here? Cheddar Laramore came down and murdered a whole bunch of people. Well, what does Genesis 9 say?

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If any man sheds blood by man, his blood must be shed. Well, who's going to take care of Lot?

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Well, Lot doesn't have a brother to stick up for him, but he does have an uncle. That'll do. And Abram, in faith, gathers together his allies, which wasn't much, about 318 men, and they gave pursuit to Cheddar Laramore, and they caught up to his encampment at night, and they split up their forces into three, and they came in like a whirlwind, and killed, cut down the marauders.

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Well, that's just straight -up Genesis 9. Here were the violent workers.

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Now, this is a lot bigger, isn't it? This isn't a picture where there's one individual who goes out and murders, and then it's found out who it is, and they are brought before the town elders, and then they have a trial, and then they're put to death.

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This is a much bigger scale, isn't it? But the principle, you see, scales even to this size, which is, again, part of the job of the civil magistrate is to punish evildoers with the sword, whether they be a single criminal doing individual acts, or is it a group of enemy soldiers wanting to destroy and raid and pillage the citizens of your nation?

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You see, the civil magistrate must be God's servant to punish evildoers.

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But notice what happens with Abram. He kills the enemy, and then what does he do?

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He comes back with all these people, and all the spools of war, and then what does he do? He goes up to the city of Salem, or in the

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Hebrew, Ereshalom, Jerusalem. He gets there, and there's a king there, a king of righteousness named

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Melchizedek, a priest of God Most High, and he worships the Lord, and they acknowledge the

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Lord's power and victory in the situation. They give honor to the Lord. The Lord gave the victory. It looks like Abram was

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God's civil magistrate to execute righteous judgment against these evildoers.

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Now, what does Abram do with all those spools of war? He didn't take a lick of it, lest the king of Sodom would say,

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I made Abram rich. What was Abraham doing there? We see that Abram, he did shed blood, but he did it in a righteous way, in the fear of God, according to Genesis 9.

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But it was not motivated by illicit desire, covetousness, or idolatrous worship.

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It wasn't that he coveted the spoils of Sodom, and I want that for me. It wasn't that he worshiped false gods and called upon pagan gods for his help in victory over Cheddar -Leomor.

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He worshipped the one true God, and he was not covetous. He was not covetous. So we see that what he did was in righteousness.

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We'll come back to God's instructions to Abraham, because in chapters 15 and following,

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God has some instructions to him, some promises to him, that's going to involve a continuation of what

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Abraham did there in chapter 14. Any questions or thoughts as we close?