Genesis 9:1-17, What’s Valuable?, Dr. John Carpenter

Genesis 9:1-17 and the Value of Human Life

Genesis chapter 9 be reading verses 1 to 17 hear the word of the Lord and God blessed Noah and his sons and said to them be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth. The fear of you and the dread of you shall be upon every beast of the earth and upon every bird of the heavens.

Upon everything there creeps on the ground and all the fish of the sea into your hand. They are delivered. Every moving thing that lives shall be food for you. And as I gave you the green plants, I give you everything.

But you shall not eat flesh with its life. That is its blood and For your life blood I will require reckoning from every beast. I will require it and from man. From his fellow man, I will require reckoning for the life of man.

Whoever sheds the blood of man by man shall his blood be shed for God made man in his own image and You be fruitful and multiply team on the earth and multiply in it. Then God said to Noah and to his sons with him behold I established my covenant with you and your offspring after you and With every living creature that is with you the birds and the livestock and every beast of the earth with you as many as come out Of the ark it is for every beast of the earth.

I established my covenant with you that never again shall all flesh be cut off by the waters of the flood and never again Shall there be a flood to destroy the earth. And God said this is the sign of the covenant That I make between me and you and every living creature that is with you for all future generations.

I've set my bow in the clouds and It shall be a sign of the covenant between me and the earth. When I bring clouds over the earth and the bow is seen in the clouds I will remember my covenant that is between me and you and every living creature of all flesh and the water shall never again Become a flood to destroy all flesh.

When the bow is in the clouds I will see it and remember of the everlasting covenant between God and every living creature of all flesh that is on the earth. God said to Noah This is the sign of the covenant that I've established between me and all flesh that is on the earth.

May the Lord had his blessings to the reading of his Holy Word. Well, what's valuable to you? What are the things of the people or experiences that mean the most to you? You know, we'll be able to see it just what you give the most time most interest most attention most money to What you're willing to sacrifice for you know, we like to be shown Practically that we're valuable.

I once received a performance review on a job, which is very positive. The boss had all kinds of good things to say about me and then the boss ended by Asking me. Yep. Do I have anything to say you have anything to say and I said yes, I like a raise.

I'm doing.

Such a good job. Like you say I am I want you to show it. I'm gonna sign that these aren't just words and in the form of money and he said oh, yeah, that's the next thing. You're getting a race. Hospitality businesses like hotels and restaurants know if they can show you.

That they value you. They consider you dignified and important then you are more likely to return a waitress soon learned that the more she can. Show her customers that she really values them, you know that she's paying attention to them.

She's refilling their drinks and so forth. Well, there's no bigger tips. She'll get good hotels have concierges whose job it is simply to serve the guest needs and like that. Seeker sensitive churches are geared to make you feel valued.

They put on a good show and they talk about topics you're interested in. They probably have someone greet you at the door. Maybe ask if you're a visitor particularly to escort you right to your seat of this kind of thing.

They play music to fit your taste and. They dress and they talk like you. The only problem is often in such cases it's only about you and Often not about God. Well, many people say that God or the Bible is valuable to them.

But if you really show it one of the weird things I've seen over the last 14 years when we started this church is the number of people outside the church who say They want a reformed or a healthy or a biblical Church.

It's whatever you want to call it expository preaching a true church family, and they know we are that. Who say they support us they will even recommend us to other people. But they don't support us by joining.

What they say they value and what their life shows they value are two different things. If the concierge or the waitress told me with great passion How much he or she Valued me. I'm here to serve you and whatever you want.

I'll do for you. Well, that may sound good to begin with but if I asked I need a toothbrush. They didn't bring it or I'm gonna refill of my water and it didn't come. Well, I won't be impressed then. Some Americans put great emphasis on family members always saying I love you often, you know began and end every phone conversation.

But that kind of thing. I love you, but I'm much more impressed by seeing love. Seeing being valued practically demonstrated in actions. We all value being valued. We love being loved. We want to be treated with dignity.

Like by our time our needs our desires our feelings our ideas our comfort are worth looking after now. Sure after the fall that can be seen here already in Genesis that that inclination can soon degenerate into arrogance into narcissism and Egomania the feeling that I am God and everyone should serve me.

But it would not be right to overreact to our sinful inclination by saying that we are valueless. We may have grievously fallen every inclination of our hearts is only evil all the time from youth. But we're not worthless.

We're still made as chapter 9 here shows us in the image of God. This passage shows us that God values us that he loves all life. Especially our lives human lives and he shows that in practical ways things we can see.

He shows that here in three commands first to increase life.

Second.

To inflict death and Finally to inherit the promise first increase. God tells us to increase those make more life. He blesses us and he makes most of us able to have children. And he repeats that command from chapter 1 that right after the creation Be fruitful and multiply fill the earth.

Increase.

We could get the impression from the flood story that God doesn't really like life. Particularly he prefers everything to be washed and clean, you know sterile. But he would rather have the mess of life and the sterility of a freshly washed land.

God values life. So should we the kids who come here later today will leave a mess. But better the mess of life than the cleanliness of sterility. Our Commission is to increase and he shows in three ways first fruitfulness second Dominion and third in Values.

Are that the order or the hierarchy of different kinds of life? We increase by being fruitful. God twice tells Noah and his family to be fruitful and multiply. He repeats that when he repeats something it's not because he forgot.

He said it just before it's for emphasis. Pay attention to this be fruitful. And multiply. God wants life to flourish whether literal physical especially human life or spiritual life. That's why the Commission here is to multiply and fill the earth and the Great Commission and the New Testament is to preach the gospel.

So God can increase Spiritual life through it. This command comes right after the flood. So we don't get the impression after God has just killed so many people and animals. The God sterile is cold and dead.

Here we see he wants Fruitfulness and verse 7 God again repeats the command to increase. Is it another way? Be fruitful and multiply and adds team.

T-e-e-m.

Like what the animals were doing in chapter 1 remember that they were teaming all the animals the fish the birds. They're teaming now. People are supposed to team on the earth. Now. There's an ideology now that hates human life.

I Thinks it could be sacrificed before birth for our convenience or at a very old age also for our convenience. It can be reduced population control. So we could have more stuff. That's what it's all about.

So we could have more stuff more pleasure more leisure. We don't have these other annoying people around us to get in our way. It's all about me. The culture of death. One politician just last week complained that the reason we're noticing inflation is that we have children.

Think of that.

If you weren't if whatever these horrible children that you were having you wouldn't notice the things. You wouldn't notice prices are going up because you wouldn't be having to buy some of stuff for them.

But we're to live for our. The suggestion is we're to live for our indulgence. For ourselves not for life. They say cultures grasped by that idea have been suffering. Population decline and here the Lord reissues his command to multiply.

God is pro life. Second. Dominion. God also renews our Dominion over the earth at creation. We were given Dominion the right to rule over the creatures under God here. That Dominion is is demonstrated.

You can see it, but it's demonstrated in somewhat sad way in verse 2. The fear of you in the dread of you. She'll be upon every beast.

Animals now.

Generally, let's say we domesticate them somehow have a fear of distrust of humanity and still in them, you know birds and deer and rabbits. They flee from us. There's an alienation between God's creatures.

Even the few creatures that don't have that innate fear of us. I mean we've we've Domesticated it out of them like cows and chickens. They would have it if they only knew what we were gonna eventually do to them.

But even even cows left to themselves don't don't know what to do with people. They can be scared by them once I was running down Slade Road first time I ran down there and there's this herd of cattle just grazing.

I guess never no one has ever run down there before. I guess to the cows never seated and they were startled by me. And I'm running down so they started stampeding away. Well kind of parallel to me. But I'm on the other side of this barbed wire fence and then they come to a turn as they're running away from me.

Frightened by me. I mean each one of these cows is probably several times larger than I am. But anyway, they're scared by me is I'm running down the road and then they come to the turn the corner and their pin.

Whatever the field they're in and there's barbed wire there and they all turn away and there but one cow didn't apparently didn't see the barbed Wire and just burst right through it and kept running and then the cow meander right in front of me.

And so here we are. We're running down this road and this cow is right in front of me scared to death that I'm chasing it. What am I gonna do. I so I I crossed the road and then I sped up. So I'm in front of the cow and then the cow can see me and it stops.

And I hope the poor thing got back to his its field. This is there was a fear and a dread of me, even though it's a thing that's much larger than me. I mean it could it could hurt me if it was scary, but that's that's the condition of animals now.

But in verse 3 God says speaking of animals like cows. What's the cow? Everything that moves including that cow running down slave road as food for you. So we don't have to be vegetarians. We are given meat to eat just like vegetables as I have given you the green plants.

You did that earlier remember in chapter was one or two. I give you everything. There is no spiritual or moral reason for claiming that we should only eat vegetables and fruits. Maybe there's for some for people for health reasons.

You're free to be a vegetarian if you like the vegetarianism. The ideology that says it's immoral to eat animals is not biblical. We can eat animals. But even when we do that we should show here practically some value for the life of animals in verse 4.

You shall not eat the flesh with this life. That is its blood in it and in verse 5. It says there's a reckoning for this life. Otherwise this life is worth something. You don't just kill it for no reason you can eat it.

Yeah, you can eat it, but it you you pay attention to the life of this thing. It's worth something notice. The blood is is equated in verse 4 with life. We can have their meat if we honor their life the blood of the symbol for their life.

Here in this chapter in the Old Testament, they're not to eat or to drink that that blood. So imagine the shock. When the Lord Jesus said in John chapter 6 verse 53 that we must drink his blood. Blood is the symbol for the life of the source of the blood.

Abel's blood cried out for justice his life still spoke. Jesus's blood says something better and we must take that blood that life his life into ourselves. Spiritually, it's the spirit that gives life.

The flesh is of no help at all. Jesus also said in fact, he said almost immediately after he said drink my blood. Third values. We understand different values that God has put on different kinds of life.

The hierarchy of values. Almost not all animal life is the same. There's different ranks in there and Hinduism or Buddhism cattle is as valued as human beings at least virtually. But the theoretically they admit that but practically it is.

We value animal life, but we value animal life less than that of humans. This is this our culture is forgetting as it gets further and further away from a biblical influences from a biblical worldview.

You begin to get fused you think animals are worth just as much as people for example. A woman named Karen Davis is the head of an organization called United poultry concerns. She's the author of such books as the Holocaust and the hen maids tale and the Holocaust.

They're referring to the slaughter of chickens as she insists that the lives of chickens and other poultry are just as valuable as human lives. She called colonel Sanders a mass murderer for creating company that's responsible for killing millions of chickens now.

She is confused without the light of God's Word though. That's just the kind of confusion that we can expect to abound in our culture and here we're shown the higher value of Human life. All life is a value.

Human life is the most value at least among creatures. We increase human life by putting it above animal life. And one way we do that is by eating the animals. Colonel Sanders has done chickens a favor.

What greater honor could a chicken have than being eaten by someone made in the image of God? What greater end is there for a chicken than that? I'm just gonna be by something anyway in the end you realize that a wolf or a dog or a Turkey vultures or something might as well be eaten by someone made in the image of God.

That's the best in the thing could ever have right? So that anyway here is quite emphatically says that all animals are given for our food. And that includes it's an interesting because this is at the Old Testament.

This is in the law the Torah before you know, all the dietary laws and restrictions and so that includes not only chicken or beef but also things like pork. And oysters shrimp which were later declared unclean and the dietary laws of Moses now such laws.

Some people are still trying to say we're bound by those laws. But here we see even in the Old Testament that such laws were temporary their temper. They were for the Israelites. To show the importance to the Israelites of being a people set apart of glorifying God and everything we do.

Including eating and drinking but here we see that such was not God's original plan not as eternal plan that there was nothing.

Necessarily.

Defiling about eating pork oysters. Nothing you say you're free to have it. But far above animal life is our human lives in verse 5. For your life blood you you people I will require a reckoning. It's God speaking.

I'm gonna. But you are responsible for what you kill the animals. You should show them some respect for it should be for a reason the price for killing people. That's a very serious matter. It's a price for killing people because we are made in the image of God in verse 6.

So second. We practically show the value we put on human life by what we not ironically.

Inflict.

We increase life and we inflict Death. We inflict a punishment for not valuing life. The penalty for violating human life must fit the crime. Remember that from Cain to the flood. We were told this several times just in the first like nine eight chapters I guess of Genesis one of the major problems without society was violence.

Cain killed his brother an Islamic soon a couple generations after killed somebody and they boasted of it and there was just a spirally out-of-control violence lives were being taken and no price was being inflicted and.

That violence is.

Spiraled out of control. And so God now shows that his love for us by instituting some form of the judicial system here.

God.

Deputizes us in other words He gives us some of his authority to do what. What is his right now? He's given it to us to inflict punishments that will protect life and that's what governments are for. Here God himself says in verse 6 whoever sheds the blood of man by man.

Shall his blood be shed and notice we are to do it by man. Means that we now have the responsibility to inflict the punishment. The Lord is instituting a punishment that demonstrates the value of human life and that that punishment is death.

But people in our culture have a very difficult time understanding this. The assumption in our day is there needn't be or there shouldn't be any consequences for many crimes. For many there's a sentiment in our culture that Punishment accepted extreme cases.

It's usually a bad thing. If you're wise you can find some way around. Punishing it shows I think a lack they think Punishment does they think it shows a lack of caring. Shows a lack of valuing other people if we love more.

They say we'd be more indulgent. And so we wouldn't discipline. Certainly not corporal or capital punishment. Now the truth is that we promote and protect what we value we show what we value. But what we do we value animal life to some degree here here in this case by not eating blood.

We value human life by not spilling the blood in the first place. God himself tells us to even be willing to inflict a punishment for violating that which is valuable. Inflicting the death penalty is a way of honoring Human life.

Now, I know that sounds absurd to some people. In fact, I remember once here in the BBC just kind of mocking that I some American politicians said though. We honor life by flicking the death penalty on murders.

They just found that just a ridiculous that to say that inflicting death is a way of valuing life. But we value human life by inflicting a penalty that will help stop it. Being devalued. That's why God is saying here and while he is saying that He is instilling two bigger principles that are important for understanding ourselves before God.

First the duration of human life and second the Evaluation of a life. First duration. Now think about it. God here calls a murder to be repaid. By taking the murderer's life. Now, why? Is it just to be a deterrent?

It's just a way to terrorize would-be murderers from killing. Or if there's something more to it than that. It can't be that and something more and Genesis 4 Abel's blood still speaks. That is his life.

Remember the blood is the life his life Himself still speaks even after he's dead. He may be dead. He's not gone. Remember that blood is the symbol for life. And verse 6 whoever pours out a life From a person from his body separating the soul from the body should have his life also poured out.

In other words, God is calling for the life of the murderer because the person he or she murdered is still before God.

It's not gone.

Gone from us maybe but not from him. The victim is neither out of sight or out of mind as far as God is concerned. Here's one of the first clues in the Bible that the duration of our lives is.

Beyond.

The duration of our mortal bodies. Second the eternal duration of our lives shows us the valuation. We put on human lives, you know. We already said that all life is valuable. But some lives are more valuable than others.

Animal life is not as valuable as human life now. Some people would apply that to humans. To some some people's lives are more valuable than others. Some races are less valuable. Some are more or what they have more money or their power.

They have more value. What is the human life worth. The passage gives us the equation for the valuation of human lives one against another? What is one life against another compare? What does it depend on race?

It's a depend on the power the money they have their status their sex. What is it? Is it depend on anything? Well, that equation is simple here. It's one for one. One equals one. One person's life equals another.

So all people are equally valuable. Destroying any kind of racism or anything that that would say that some are some are less than others. It says that whoever sheds the blood of man. Any man any person of any race or nation or sex or age?

No matter how much wealth or power that person has or has none at all. Whoever says the blood of man by man. Shall his blood be shed. He shall have the punishment inflicted so as to show the way you can see show the value of every person made in God's image.

This is how much destroying someone created God's image.

Cost.

In other words, the punishment must fit the crime. Now once we've learned this.

Equation.

It's equation for valuation, which is one equals one. Kind of simple, isn't it? Whereas for animals is different. They're not. Is equal to us. Once we learn this equation, we can apply it to other crimes.

We've seen that even the animals have some dignity that we should honor their lives. Even if we do eat them. Humanity has the most value the most dignity of any earthly creature because we are made in God's image.

The equation of valuation. Then is that the punishment fits the dignity or the value of the one being? Violated. Now if you see a cockroach scurrying around here and you step on it and. Please do if you get the chance.

There is no penalty. Because those disgusting creatures that may be the exception. They may have no value no dignity that I can see. They probably have negative dignity at least as far as I think they're probably stowaways on the ark, but if you killed a dog unjustly for no reason.

You could be required to pay the owner for the life of the dog. Perhaps pay an additional fine to maybe in some places even jail for a while. Dogs have some value some dignity that their lives deserve not nearly as much as humans, but some.

If you murder a human person. Then the way you make that right before God is to pay with your life. All human beings are made in the image of God and so are of equal value. The punishment is equal to the value of the victim.

And so you take that principle. Punishment inflicted and matches the dignity of the victim. Take it one step further. Remember human life is not the ultimate value. Why is it worth the life of another?

There's a reason for that. It's given there. Because people are made in the image of God here in human life derives its value from being made in the image of God. Chickens can't say that dogs can't say that human only human beings are made in the image of God in verse 6.

And Man is not the measure of all things. Human life is not the highest. It's not the most valuable not the most dignified thing in the universe. God is the standard. God is the ultimate value our values derived from him being made in his image.

Now I think about that light in the principle of the punishment. We've just seen the just punishment for violating the dignity of someone depends on the value of the one we violated. We violate a human being made in the image of God equal to ourselves.

We should pay an equal price. And what can we do then? When we violate God's glory the divine dignity now that is infinite and We violate his glory. We have we offend the divine dignity every time we sin in sin.

No matter how small we might think it is. We say that God is not valuable. That our desires to do this or that whatever it is. Against his command those desires. They are more valuable. They're worth more with saying when we said They're more valuable than God's will.

More valuable than God. So when we sin against another person. You can make that up we could by apologizing making recompense restitution of some kind if we murder. We have a life to give an exchange.

There's a limited debts that we we can pay. But when we sin against God. When we even try to murder God by hanging him on a cross. How can that be made up? You know, that's an infinite debt. Even if we could live as long as Noah 950 years make sacrifices live the rest of our lives sinless.

Moral, we still couldn't lessen one bit of our infinite debt. This is why you can be moral you can be decent you can be religious a great neighbor. But if your infinite debt hasn't been paid you still owe an infinite price.

So if we're proud We refuse to bow the knee to Jesus if we just will not believe him. Otherwise, maybe we live decent lives. We live we're nice to people but we just we just don't love the Lord. You'll not sincerely worship him.

Then we have violated his glory we have offended his dignity his value and so committed an infinite crime and the only right punishment for that is an infinite punishment when we violate his dignity when we offend his glory that is Limitless and the only way we can pay for that is by suffering an infinite penalty by being punished forever.

Without end without any limit to its severity or duration. So what we see here is the principle behind hell. The punishment must fit the crime. Our crimes are infinite. And so we must have a punishment inflicted on us.

That is infinite and.

That is the final conclusion and that command to inflict that we see here leads us to and that would only be gloom and despair if Not for what also? comes here. There's the command to increase to inflict and finally third to inherit.

Now if you're one of God's people like Noah here you inherit his covenant. God sets up a covenant with Noah. It's not some reciprocal contract, you know know if you do this I'll do something back for you that God will uphold if we just keep our end of the bargain.

This is a unilateral covenant made by God not in any way dependent on human behavior. We just inherit it. Covenants come with signs. In other words, you can see them like good service at a restaurant.

You can there it is. It's obvious you can see it here. Their sign is the rainbow or literally here. Just there's the bow in verse 13 says I was set my bow. The Hebrew word there bow is the same word kind of like an English rain bow bow like for bow and arrow.

A bow.

Is a weapon of war. God has just unleashed this weapon of war. It's mass weapon of mass destruction, which is the flood. Here in chapter 9 here our warrior God hangs up this particular weapon. He gives us a sign by hanging it in the clouds.

Now, of course, we know that rainbows. They have a natural cause but we can also believe that God in his providence. He arranged nature. He arranged the laws of physics that there would be this sign of his covenant and that sign reminds us that God loves.

Life.

Especially human life. That side shows that the Covenant depends totally on God and not on ourselves if it depended on people dependent on us keeping the violence and the and the sin down and if we don't do it.

You know, God says I'll flood you again. That was the Covenant. Well, we'd all probably be thinking when we need to build another ark right now. It's probably another flood coming but it does it it's not something we earn.

It's not like a paycheck. It is given to us because of our relationship like an inheritance when you see a rainbow. Think about what what did you do to make that rainbow come about? What did you add to the rainbow?

Well, nothing. What comes to rainbows were simply spectators. So the rainbow reminds us that the Covenant depends entirely on God's work. The rainbow declares our utter dependence on God. Sign of the rainbow here is not just just for us look at verses 15 and 16.

God says that when he sees the rainbow He's looking down and he sees it. Then he will remember his Covenant. It suggests because God is holy. He is still provoked by our sinfulness the same Provocation the people before the flood were making were making but before unleashing a new flood he sees the sign.

The rainbow that bow of his that he's hung up put away. He's unleashed at once but he's now he's put it away and he restrains himself now. It's not of course that God forgets but that he has arranged this phenomena of a rainbow.

To be a reminder of that the way he will deal with sin from now on will not be. To wipe us all out with a flood never again. Will he obliterate nearly all people. He will save some. It's true that many will finally be judged and condemned, but they will be judged by fire.

Some will be saved. God will finally show his value for our lives by saving. His people were saved not by morality or religion. But simply by inheriting the Covenant by being people who deserve that infinite penalty inflicted on us but instead had someone else a person of infinite value of infinite worth and Dignity a perfect person who had no sins of his own to have to pay for.

Who because he was infinite and perfect could pay the infinite price that we owed. God has valued his people enough to inflict that penalty on the perfect son having done that. For his people he then promises to increase their lives.

Eternally, all we do is.

Inherit.

That's God's value on us if we're his people now. What is your value of God? God has a value that cannot be can't be priced can't be measured. That could not be bought with all the money in the world an infinite worth.

When we sin against him, we violate that dignity. We say he's not worth whatever else it is. We're tempted by. So, how are we to pay for it? We can either pay pay for our sins ourselves and suffer an infinite punishment facing the infinite wrath of God toward our sin into.

Infinity.

Or.

We can accept the sufferings of the infinite God Who came in human flesh and died a brutal death on a cross and had that infinite wrath of God. Toward him towards sin poured out on him and his lifeblood was spilled.

Jesus.

Paid it all He made a new covenant Just as God made a covenant with Noah here. Just like that rainbow. Just like the rainbow There is nothing we can add to it till we set up another covenant with his blood.

Paying that infinite debt just with a rainbow. When it comes to salvation We're just spectators. He increased Bringing life himself To earth. He inflicted the punishment on the infinite Sun So that we could inherit it.

Is it that the most valuable thing in your life.