The Preservation and Second Purpose of Animals

Before the Flood, in His first divine pronouncement revealing that Noah will be saved, God informs Noah that the ark will also save the animals. The animals are not for Noah’s consumption, and Noah is instructed to gather additional provisions for both his family and the animals. After the Flood, God reveals another purpose to the animals. In addition to restoring life to the Flood ravaged earth, God proclaims in His covenant with Noah that animals are now a food source for man (an addition to the plant source provided in the Edenic Covenant found in Gen 1:20-30; 2:15-17).

Genesis 6:21-22

21) "As for you, take for yourself some of all food which is edible, and gather it to yourself; and it shall be for food for you and for them." 22) Thus Noah did; according to all that God had commanded him, so he did.

Genesis 9:1-7

1) And God blessed Noah and his sons and said to them, "Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth. 2) "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. 3) "Every moving thing that is alive shall be food for you; I give all to you, as I gave the green plant. 4) "Only you shall not eat flesh with its life, that is, its blood. 5) "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. 6) "Whoever sheds man's blood, by man his blood shall be shed, for in the image of God He made man. 7) "As for you, be fruitful and multiply; populate the earth abundantly and multiply in it."

Genesis 1:20-30 – The Edenic Covenant

20) Then God said, "Let the waters teem with swarms of living creatures, and let birds fly above the earth in the open expanse of the heavens." 21) God created the great sea monsters and every living creature that moves, with which the waters swarmed after their kind, and every winged bird after its kind; and God saw that it was good. 22) God blessed them, saying, "Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the waters in the seas, and let birds multiply on the earth." 23) There was evening and there was morning, a fifth day. 24) Then God said, "Let the earth bring forth living creatures after their kind: cattle and creeping things and beasts of the earth after their kind"; and it was so. 25) God made the beasts of the earth after their kind, and the cattle after their kind, and everything that creeps on the ground after its kind; and God saw that it was good. 26) Then God said, "Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness; and let them rule over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the sky and over the cattle and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth." 27) God created man in His own image, in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them. 28) God blessed them; and God said to them, "Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth, and subdue it; and rule over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the sky and over every living thing that moves on the earth." 29) Then God said, "Behold, I have given you every plant yielding seed that is on the surface of all the earth, and every tree which has fruit yielding seed; it shall be food for you; 30) and to every beast of the earth and to every bird of the sky and to every thing that moves on the earth which has life, I have given every green plant for food"; and it was so.

Genesis 2:15-17 – The Edenic Covenant

15) Then the LORD God took the man and put him into the garden of Eden to cultivate it and keep it. 16) The LORD God commanded the man, saying, "From any tree of the garden you may eat freely; 17) but from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat from it you will surely die."


References:

Cassuto U, A Commentary on the Book of Genesis, Jerusalem: Magnes (1961).

Shea W, "The Structure of the Genesis Flood Narrative and Its Implications", Origins 6 (1979): 8-29.


Scripture taken from the New American Standard Bible ®, Copyright © The Lockman Foundation 1960, 1962, 1963, 1968, 1971, 1972, 1973, 1975, 1977, 1995 Used by permission. (www.Lockman.org)


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