DWDP - Gen 9: 1-4 The Life is in the Blood

A world remade, a family blessed, and a single command that reshapes the way we see life, food, and worship—Genesis 9:1–4 holds more than a post-flood to-do list. We open the text and trace a living thread from Noah’s altar to the cross, asking why God repeats the call to multiply, why animals now fear humans, why meat is permitted, and why blood is set apart as holy. Along the way, we weave Scripture with lived experience, including a sobering ER story that makes the phrase “the life is in the blood” unforgettable.

We sit with the tension of authority and stewardship, exploring how humanity’s role changes after the flood and why domesticated animals stay while the wild ones run. Then we probe the dietary shift: flesh is given for food, yet the blood—marked as life—belongs to God, reserved for atonement. Leviticus 17:11 and the Hebrew nefesh illuminate how Scripture unites life and soul, treating blood not as symbol only but as the vital essence of living beings. That insight turns our attention from the knife to the altar, where ancient sacrifices pointed beyond themselves.

The journey culminates in Hebrews, where the limits of bulls and goats yield to the finished work of Christ. One offering, for all time. A priest who sits because the work is done. We connect the theological dots with pastoral clarity: obedience invites blessing even when it feels upside down, stewardship demands care in a fearful world, and salvation rests not on our effort but on the once-for-all blood of Jesus. Join us, open your Bible, and step into the story that still shapes our daily choices and eternal hope. If this moved you, subscribe, share it with a friend, and leave a review to help others find the show.

Transcript

SPEAKER_01 0:02

Welcome to More Than Minutes, where Jesus is more than enough for the ills that plague our culture and our country. Hosted by author and physician, Dr. Robert Jackson.

Reading Genesis 9:1–4

Obedience Brings Blessing

Be Fruitful Without Full Dominion

Fear Of Man In The Animal World

Meat Permitted, Blood Prohibited

ER Story: Life In The Blood

Leviticus And The Meaning Of Nefesh

Limits Of Animal Sacrifice

Christ’s Once-For-All Atonement

Closing Blessing And Invitation

SPEAKER_02 0:16

Papa, can you tell me a story? Do you really want me to tell you a story? Well, you go get your brother and your sisters, and I will tell you a story. Welcome to Devotions with Dr. Papa. Gather around, grab your Bibles, and let us look into the written word, which reveals to us the living word, who is our Lord Jesus Christ. Our Bible reading and Bible study today brings us to Genesis chapter 9, verses 1 through 4. 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, and to your hand they are given. Every movie 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. May the Lord add his blessing to the reading of his word. In Genesis chapter 9 and verses 1 through 17, which we will get to eventually, contain God's own words given to Noah after his sacrifice, after leaving the ark. These verses describe God's design for human government in the New World to be exercised on behalf of God. There's also a new covenant between God and man called the great Noah Noah covenant, which is still in effect, although thousands of years have elapsed since that time. So let's look at verse one. The Bible tells us that God blessed Noah and his sons. So why the blessing? Well, I submit to you, they were obedient to build the ark, they were obedient to enter the ark, and then make a believing sacrifice after leaving the ark. You and I know that obedience always brings God's blessing. Obedience brings God's favor. Even when obedience is difficult or countercultural, or just plain doesn't make sense to you and me. Now think about it. Does forgiving your enemies make sense to you? How about praying for those that despitefully use you? Or blessing those that curse you? What about this? Giving tithes and offerings when you're broke financially. There are lots of upside-down principles in the kingdom of God that don't make sense to our worldly way of thinking. But when we are obedient, it brings God's favor, it brings God's blessing. And Noah and his sons were obedient to God. And that's why in verse 1 of chapter 9, the Bible says that God blessed Noah and his sons. And then the Bible tells us that God repeated the command given to Adam and Eve to be fruitful and multiply and replenish the earth. God's desire was for man to rapidly spread over the entire habitable earth and exercise dominion over it. Of course, under God's divine sovereignty, if you notice the phrase have dominion over the earth and subdue it, well that phrase is left out of their new charge to Noah and his sons. Speculation here, possibly this is due to the fact that Satan still retained authority over the physical realm, as we learn in 1 John chapter 5 and verse 19, which says, We know that the whole world lies in the power of the evil one. And in fact, Satan is called the God of this world. This is why the friendly relations that occurred between man and animals before the flood suddenly halted after the flood. God informed Noah that now the animal kingdom would live in literally terror of mankind. In verse 2 it says, The fear of you and the terror of you will be on every beast of the earth, on every bird of the sky, with everything that creeps on the earth, and all the fish of the sea, into your hand they are given. But it says that they will live in fear and terror of you. And you realize that, that the wild animals, when they see you, they turn and they flee. Now it's interesting that the animals that would live in the fear of mankind included all the animals, the birds, and the fish, except what was left out, cattle, which represented the animals that could be domesticated. And that's why your dogs and your horses and your cats don't run from you like the deer and the foxes and the wild goats and the wild animals. Nevertheless, man is responsible, is a responsible steward of the entire animal kingdom. Now look at verse 3 and 4. Every moving thing that is alive shall be food for you. I give all to you as I gave the green plant. Now, if you remember in Genesis chapter 1, God said to Adam and Eve that every green plant yielding seed, and every tree that yields fruit, he said, I have given to you for food. And then he went on to say that he gave it to the animals as well. Before the flood there were no carnivores. Both man and animals were strictly vegetarian. And here God authorizes the use of animal meat for food for the very first time, although many theologians suspect there had been some carnivorous activity without authorization from God before the flood by wicked and disobedient men. So here's a question. Why would God introduce animal meat for food after the flood? Two speculations. Number one, perhaps the new environment was more vigorous and required animal protein in order to survive. That's a speculation. Number two, perhaps God wanted to demonstrate the great gulf, the great divide between man and animals, in contrast to the eventual doctrine of evolution that would teach that we all evolved from animals and it equates us with animals. That evolutionary theory denies the creator in whom in whose image man alone was made. Again, that is merely a speculation. Now, I want to tell you a story before we dive into verse four. When I was a resident at the hospital where I trained, one day a man presented to the emergency room who had been injured at a car dealership not even a half a mile from the hospital. And in the accident, his femoral artery in his thigh had been severely lacerated. He began to bleed profusely. His fellow workers, in a panic, stuffed a rag in his wound. No one thought to put a tourniquet above the wound on his thigh. They put him in a private vehicle and drove him furiously to the hospital, which was only a five-minute drive away. But by the time he had arrived at the emergency room, this man had died. He had bled out. He had exanguinated. And no amount of CPR or IV fluids or giving him packed red blood cells would resuscitate this poor man. And it was a horrific event. And no one would have imagined that he would bleed so profusely from that wound in his thigh. All EMTs and emergency room doctors and emergency room personnel know that the life is in the blood, which is exactly what verse 4 tells us. Only you shall not eat flesh with its life, that is, its blood. With the permission to eat meat came a restriction in verse 4. The flesh was provided for meat, but the life of the flesh, which was in the blood, was given for sacrifice, to atone for or cover sins. Now let me read you a verse in Leviticus chapter 17 and verse 11. For the life of the flesh is in the blood, and I have given it to you on the altar to make atonement for your souls, for it is the blood by reason of the life that makes atonement. Interestingly, the word for life and the word for soul are the exact same word. It's the Hebrew word nefesh in E P H E S H Nefesh. And this is not the first time we have encountered the word nefesh. If you will recall in Genesis 1, when God created animals and man, they were both created with a living soul, a living nefesh, unlike the plants. More than that, unlike animals, mankind was made in God's image and was given a spirit that reflects the triune God. Man is body, soul, and spirit, body nefesh and spirit. Man is tripartite as God is triune. All of us intuitively know that the life is in the blood. That's why bleeding of any degree can cause such emotional trauma and urgency. When patients bleed excessively, IV fluids and plasma are no substitute for the real thing. The patient needs packed red blood cells to save their lives. Traumatized patients who present to the emergency room don't die from loss of plasma, they die from loss of blood. Then the ER personnel will shake their heads after a patient dies and they will say he bled out. The technical term is exanguinate. Adequate blood is essential to maintain bodily functions, to keep oxygen and nutrients flowing to the heart, the kidneys, and the brain. Adequate blood supply is necessary to maintain life. As the Bible says, the life is in the blood. The life of an animal and its blood, which represents its life, spilled as a sacrificial on a sacrificial altar, was accepted by God as a substitutionary death for the life of a guilty sinner who deserved to die, but was permitted to live because of the sacrifice, whose blood covered or atoned for his sins. But let me ask a question. Could the blood of bulls and goats really cover sins? No, not really. This merely points through the once for all perfect sacrifice of the Lamb of God. The writer to the Hebrews said in Hebrews chapter 10 and verse 4. Let me read that to you. Way over in Hebrews. Now this is important. And this is the writer to the Hebrews explaining to the Jews something that you and I need to understand. Hebrews chapter 10 and verse 4. For it is impossible for the blood of bulls and goats to take away sins. Something that intuitively you and I know. And then in Hebrews chapter 10, verse 11 to 14, he says, By this will we have been sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all. Every priest stands daily ministering and offering time after time the same sacrifices, which can never take away sins. But he, talking about Jesus, but he having offered one sacrifice for sins for all time, sat down at the right hand of God, waiting from that time onward until his enemies be made a footstool for his feet. For by one offering he has perfected for all time those who are sanctified. That's you and me, brothers and sisters. Those of us who trust in the Lord Jesus Christ, who trust in the perfect Lamb of God, who trust in the adequacy of his sacrifice, are those who have been sanctified, made holy, who have been cleansed by the blood of the Lamb. This picture portrayed in all of the Old Testament sacrifices was that of God's sacrificial Lamb, our Lord Jesus Christ, who now once, at the consummation of the ages, he has been manifested to put away sins by the sacrifice of himself. Praise the Lord. Our Passover has been sacrificed. Let us join the feast. Christ Jesus, our Passover, has been sacrificed. Now let us join the feast. You're listening to devotions with Dr. Papa. If you like what you hear, I pray that you would share it, like it, follow, download it. Please tell all your friends and invite them. And until next week, remember that Jesus loves you, your doctor loves you, and I pray that the Lord would bless you real good.

SPEAKER_00 16:27

Thank you for listening to this edition of Northern Medicine. For more information about the Dr. Family Ministry, I'm going to go back to the house.