In God’s image & likeness, part 3 (Genesis 9)

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 terror of you will be on every beast of the earth and on every bird of the sky; with everything that creeps on the ground, and all the fish of the sea, into your hand they are given. Every moving thing that is alive shall be food for you; I give all to you, as I gave the green plant. Only you shall not eat flesh with its life, that is, its blood. Surely I will require your lifeblood; from every beast I will require it. And from every man, from every man’s brother I will require the life of man.

     “Whoever sheds man’s blood, by man his blood shall be shed, for in the image of God He made man. As for you, be fruitful and multiply; populate the earth abundantly and multiply in it.” —Genesis 9:1-7

The blessing of God to mankind and His command to multiply and fill the earth was repeated twice for Noah and his sons (verses 1 and 7). It seems God wanted them to be doubly sure they knew He wanted human life to go on, even though He had destroyed nearly the entire population of Earth in the great flood. This passage shares something important with Genesis 1 and Genesis 5 and adds significantly to our understanding of what it means to be made in God’s image.

What's new after the flood?

• After the flood, animals began to live in fear of men. Men not only continued to rule over other living creatures but, if they follow the rule about not eating “flesh with its life… its blood,” men could kill and consume the flesh of animals without fearing God. They would not incur bloodguilt. 
• Animals that shed human blood and eat human flesh are accountable to God, but men are not in the same way accountable to God when they kill animals.
• God does hold accountable any person who kills another human being. In future times, this will be called “bloodguilt.”
• The death of a human being is accounted for by the death of the killer. This is not accomplished by the hand of God but is expected to be by the hand of a man. Most likely the victim’s brother would be his avenger. 

These points bear out the very fundamental difference between mankind and other creatures. Killing a human being is not the same as killing an animal and is treated much differently. That is because men bear the image of God and animals do not. Here are two examples from scripture:

1. God's attention to the killing of Abel was much different than the attention He paid to the Abel's animal sacrifice (Genesis 4:4). That animal’s death pleased God, while Abel’s death at the hand of his brother Cain caused Him great distress. Abel’s blood was said to be crying out to Him from the ground. It demanded a reckoning, just as from the flood onward any murder would.

2. When the law was later instituted, it followed this principle. In Exodus 21:28-32, God said that an animal who killed a man had to be killed. Furthermore, its flesh could not be used for food. The deaths by animals of both men and women, sons and daughters, and male and female slaves would be treated identically. Before the flood, violence between men ran unchecked on earth, as seen in Genesis 6:11. God’s law later gave Israel more insight into how the capital punishment could be properly implemented (see Numbers 35).

The creation of man as God’s image bearer is here given as the very reason for capital punishment. Capital punishment does not violate the sanctity of human life but was instituted to uphold it. 

Down through the ages, mankind as a whole (not just certain lineages or “races“) is represented as being made in God’s image. This instruction to Noah and his sons came centuries after the fall, after mankind was said to be under the curse. And it came immediately after the great flood, which was a reckoning for mankind’s rampant evil. 

Men and women can do terrible things. We may think of certain acts as “inhuman,“ or call a person who behaves badly an “animal,“ but human beings do not lose the image of God by sinning egregiously. All sin is human. Nevertheless, the biblical record attests that mankind still bore the image of God after the Fall, as it does today. The distinctiveness of humanity continues to be passed from generation to generation.

Next: Mankind is given life (Genesis 2:7)

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Image credits: 

The Creation of Adam by Michaelangelo, Sistine Chapel

Vitruvian Man by Leonardo Da Vinci. Image supplied by janeb13 on Pixabay