Thursday, February 16, 2023
(click here to listen to or read today’s scriptures)
Age to age
God blessed Noah and his sons and said to them: Be fertile and multiply and fill the earth. Abound on earth and subdue it.
But things had changed. Everything had changed. The world saw its first rain at the Flood. In fact, the water that covered the earth came from above and below (the “springs of the deep and the floodgates of the heavens” Gen 8:2). Perhaps this cataclysm was violent enough to turn the earth on its axis, from straight in the sky to its present 23.5 degrees, making every astronomical calculation infinitely more complicated.
Dread fear of you shall come upon all the animals of the earth, all the birds of the air and all the fishes of the sea. Into your power they are delivered. Every creature that is alive shall be yours now to eat; I give them all to you as I did the green plants.
The animals roar in terror and death. Man named all the animals, and now he eats them. Vegetarian before, now man is carnivorous. But not bloodthirsty, not yet. God forbids that.
Only flesh with its lifeblood still in it you shall not eat.
So. We now live with thunderstorms (and rainbows), and we will be eating meat and fish and poultry along with the vegetables of the earth. And over a few centuries and many generations, we will definitely be living lots less years:
Noah         950 (3rd oldest person in the Bible) – he was 600 when he built the ark
Shem         600 (he was 98 during the flood)
Abraham 175 (nine generations from Shem to Abram) – Shem was 450 when Abram was born
Isaac          180 (Isaac was 60 when Jacob was born)
Jacob         147 (Jacob was 90 when Joseph was born)
Joseph 110 … many generations later …
David died when he was 70
David’s son Solomon died when he was 60.
God rebooted life on earth, but I think he remembered what he told himself in Eden:
The man has now become like one of us, knowing good and evil. He must not be allowed to reach out his hand and take also from the tree of life and eat, and live forever. So the Lord God banished him from the Garden of Eden.
Man did not fare well, mostly, after his banishment. Cain’s violent impatience gradually became far more common than the quiet obedience God needs from us so we can know his blessing. We got in front of God, which God the gentleman allowed, but gradually he fell further back, and we forgot him.
Will this happen again? Of course. But God does establish a covenant with the earth (that includes us) which He, at least, will keep.
See, I am now establishing my covenant, my promise to you and your descendants and to every living creature, animals, birds and fish. There shall never be another flood which devastates the earth. I set my bow in the clouds to serve as a sign of covenant between me and the earth.
So much water has flowed under the bridge since then.
Jesus told his disciples that he must suffer greatly and be rejected by the elders, chief priests and scribes, and be killed. Then he would rise again after three days. He spoke this openly. Peter rebuked him, but Jesus rebuked him back. “Get behind me Satan,” he said. And then to Peter, “You are thinking not as God does, but as human beings do.”
I imagine Jesus remembered the Rainbow Covenant. We do too, as Jesus leads us out of the past through the present into the future. No hurry now, with Him in the Kingdom of God.
(Genesis 9, Psalm 102, John 6, Mark 8)
(posted at www.davesandel.net)
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