I. God Blesses Noah and the Race
A. Marriage State Blessed 1-5
1. Why this blessing necessary 1.
2. Wedlock established twice 2.
3. Evidence of God’s love to the human race 3.
4. Did this blessing pertain to Noah 4.
- Bearing of children a special blessing of God unknown to the
heathen 5.
I. God Blesses Noah and the Race
A. Marriage State Blessed.
V. 1. And God blessed Noah and his sons, and said unto them, Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth. 1. This consolation was indeed needed after the whole human race had been destroyed by the flood and only eight souls were saved. Now Noah knew that God was truly merciful, since, not content with that first blessing which he had bestowed upon mankind in the creation of the world, he added this new blessing, that Noah might have no misgivings whatever in regard to the future increase of his posterity. And the joy brought by this promise was all the greater for God’s emphatic promise on a previous occasion, that he would never again visit mankind with such severe punishment.
2. In the first place, then, this chapter renews the establishment of marriage. God, by his Word and command, joins male and female for the purpose of repopulating the earth. Inasmuch as God had been roused to anger before the flood by the sin of lust, it was now needful, by reason of that fearful proof of wrath, to show that God does not abhor the lawful cohabitation of man and woman, but that it is his will to increase mankind by this means.
3. The fact that God had expressed it as his will that the human race should be propagated through a union between man and woman, an end which could have been attained from stones had he failed to approve such union as lawful, after the manner of Deucalion of whom the poets fable—this fact tended to furnish Noah sure evidence that God loved man, and desired his welfare, and that now all anger was at an end. Therefore this passage illustrates the dignity of wedlock, which is the foundation of the family and State, and the nursery of the Church. 4. The objection is here raised that Noah had already reached an age no longer fit for procreation in view of the fact that the Bible records no instance of children being born to him afterwards, and therefore this promise was valueless. To this I reply that this promise was given, not to Noah alone, but also to his sons, even to all mankind; so that the expectation of offspring was entertained even by the grandsire Noah.
5. This passage, furthermore, tends to convince us that children are a gift of God and a result of his blessing, as is shown in Psalms 127, 3. The heathen, who know nothing of God’s Word, ascribe the increase of mankind partly to nature and partly to chance, in view of the fact that those who are evidently most fit for procreation often remain without offspring. Hence, they do not thank God for this gift, nor do they receive their children as a blessing from God.
B. Man’s Use of and Dominion over Animals 6-31
1. Whether animals feared man before the flood 6-7.
2. Relation between this use and dominion and of what they give evidence 7-9.
3. This use and rule a special blessing of God 8-10.
- Whether the custom of slaying cattle dates from the beginning of
the world 10-11.
4. Whether Adam knew of this use and dominion 12.
5. This use of animals is evidence of God’s love to the human race 13.
- God’s blessings greater than his wrath 13.
6. Whether this use extends to unclean animals 14-15.
7. How man’s fear of animals and their wildness and cruelty can exist with this dominion 16-18.
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New sins accompanied by new punishments 19-20.
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Sodom before and after its destruction 21.
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God’s punishment of Wittenberg, Bruges and Venice, and the cause
22-23.
- God’s command not to eat blood.
a. Why given 24.
b. How to treat this text, which contains God’s Word 25.
- Meaning of Nephesch and Basar 26.
c. Right understanding of the command 27.
- The words, “Surely your blood will I require” etc.
a. Lyra’s and the Rabbis’ explanation, 28-29.
b. Their true meaning 30-31.