Genesis 9:1. And God blessed Noah and his sons.
In Genesis 1, God blessed Adam and Eve and told them to rule over the whole Earth. Here in Genesis 9, after the flood, God repeats the blessing to Noah and his sons.
Have you ever been given a second chance? This is one of the greatest second chances ever. God is giving all of humanity a great big do-over. Like we said on Day 35, we are still sinners, but God still loves us. He still blesses us. He still wants us to rule over creation.
But because we are such sinners, some things will be different moving forward. At the same time, some things remain the same. Even after the flood, people are still made in the image of God. But because we also have sin living inside of us, God will create something called government – people ruling over each other and punishing bad behavior. Here’s how God says it in Genesis 9:
Genesis 9:6. “Whoever sheds the blood of man, by man shall his blood be shed, for God made man in his own image.
God is saying that we all still have great value. Why? Because every single person is made in the image and likeness of God. This is why we aren’t allowed to kill each other, and if we do kill each other, then we deserve to be punished – Whoever sheds the blood of man, by man shall his blood be shed. And this is just the beginning. “Don’t kill” is one of the first laws, but many more laws will be added over the years. Can you think of any laws in your country that protect us from hurting each other?
All of this is part of a covenant (a set of promises) that God made with man, in this case with Noah. After the flood, God promised Noah that he would never again punish us by destroying the Earth. The covenant sounds like this:
Genesis 9:8-11. 8Then God said to Noah and to his sons with him, 9“Behold, I establish my covenant with you and your offspring after you, 10and with every living creature that is with you, the birds, the livestock, and every beast of the earth with you, as many as came out of the ark; it is for every beast of the earth. 11I establish 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.”
This is why God created human governments – because he won’t destroy us for sin, he made governments to punish sin, and crime, and law breaking. This means that the governments job is to always protect innocent people and help correct guilty people. Why? Again, because we are all image bearers of God. We are loved by God.
Why are there so many rules in the world? In the classroom? At home? In the town you live in? In your country? Because God wants governments to create a world where people can be free and safe. And why does God want us all to live in a free and safe world? So that the good news of Jesus can be safely and freely preached to all people everywhere.
Despite all our sin, we have not lost the image of God. In fact, even though we still sin, Jesus has come to show us how to live in his likeness. But we can only do this if we have Jesus living in our hearts, changing our hearts to so that we WANT to be like him. Is that something you want?
Questions: Have you ever been given a second chance? In what way does Jesus offer us the biggest second chance ever? Do you see the image of God in others? How does knowing that everyone is in the image of God make you want to be kind to everyone?
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