Summer At Sea: Week 2 Day 4

Genesis 9:4-6 (ESV)

But you shall not eat flesh with its life, that is, its blood. 5 And for your lifeblood I will require a reckoning: from every beast I will require it and from man. From his fellow man I will require a reckoning for the life of man.

6 “Whoever sheds the blood of man,

    by man shall his blood be shed,

for God made man in his own image.”

What does this Scripture mean? This seems out of left field to move from the dominion of mankind to talking about drinking blood and murder. What is important, however, is that God is re-establishing the sanctity of human life. We are told that the enemy comes to “steal, kill, and destroy” (John 10:10). God hates this, especially since mankind is made in the image of God; to kill another human is to destroy an image bearer of God. So God wants to protect people from the slippery slope of taking life. Life is sacred to God, and He flooded the world to get rid of the mindless evil of that time, the wicked violence, and killing. The reality is this, as Christians we are called to protect the lives of others, in order that they may come to know Christ as their Lord and Savior. No matter if we are old or young, born or unborn, our lives’ sanctity as God’s image bearers does not go away.