The Lord concludes Chapter 8 with this promise regarding the seasons: "As long as the earth endures, seedtime and harvest, cold and heat, summer and winter, day and night, will never cease." (Genesis 8:22) Noah and his family may have feared that the changes brought about by the flood might be even more drastic than they appeared. Will they still be able to plant and harvest? Will they still be able to tell when is the proper time to sow seed? The Lord assures them that He has not done away with the seasons. They will still know how to go about the business of agriculture.
I grew up hearing a myth (and some of you may have heard it as well) that as we get closer and closer to the end of time, the seasons will run together. As a child I heard quite a few people saying this was in the Bible: that the day would come when we couldn't tell one season from another. No such thing is in the Bible. I'm not sure where this myth originated, but it isn't true, and right here at the end of Genesis 8 we have the proof. We are always going to have spring, summer, fall, and winter. Different areas of the world experience the seasons to varying degrees, but somewhere in the world every winter there is going to be cold weather and snow. Somewhere in the world every summer there will be high temperatures. Things are going to bloom in the spring. Things are going to go into a dormant stage in the fall. God has ordained the seasons and He promises that as long as the earth stands, we are going to have four seasons a year.
"Then God blessed Noah and his sons, saying to them, 'Be fruitful and increase in number and fill the earth.'" (Genesis 9:1) The Lord must give the same instructions to these men and their wives that He gave to Adam and Eve because the world needs to be repopulated.
Humans are going to need to supplement their diet with meat in the post-flood world. "The fear and dread of you will fall on all the beasts of the earth, and on all the birds of the sky, on every creature that moves along the ground, and on all the fish in the sea; they are given into your hands. Everything that lives and moves about will be food for you. Just as I gave you the green plants, I now give you everything." (Genesis 9:2-3)
Up til now, as far as we can tell from the Scriptures, humans haven't eaten animals. Animals haven't eaten animals either. Why is it necessary now for humans to prey on animals and for animals to prey on each other? Some scientists believe it was because the population is going to explode faster than agriculture can support the growing human race. It's going to take some time for the farming industry to be up and running again. During an age when people lived very long and fertile lives, and during an age when no birth control existed, each married couple likely produced a new baby as soon as the previous baby was weaned. This means a new child every two to three years for decades and decades, considering that couples in Genesis continued having children after they were several hundred years old. Plus, their children are having children at the same accelerated rate. And then their children's children produce offspring at that same rate, and so on. Imagine how much each family farm would need to produce in order to support so many offspring!
Not only will agricultural pursuits have trouble keeping up with demand at first, but something in the ground or in the atmosphere or in the plants themselves may have changed. Perhaps vegetables grown after the flood no longer contained all the nutrients necessary for the health of the human body. We have vegetarians in our own day, but they have to be careful to make certain they consume enough protein and iron and calcium. If not they can become anemic or develop problems with bone density and muscle condition. The easiest way to consume enough protein and iron and calcium is to eat meat and eggs, but if a person does not eat meat and eggs, he will have to consume plenty of beans, nuts, and soy products. Many vegetarians take a daily multi-vitamin/multi-mineral supplement. So we see that either something is lacking in the products that make up a vegetarian diet, or something has changed about the human body, or both. Before the flood it was possible for humans to get everything they needed from a vegetarian diet. But now it's going to be quite difficult, so the Lord gives man permission to eat meat.
Because the Lord gives man permission to eat meat, He causes the animals to fear man. This serves a couple of purposes. For one thing, many species of animals now need more protein in their diet in the post-flood world. If the Lord didn't give them a fear of humans, they would attack the humans for food. The eight people who survived the flood are highly outnumbered by the animals who survived the flood. If the animals attacked them, that would be the end of humans on earth.
For another thing, if the Lord had not told the animals to regard humans as predators, the animal kingdom would have ceased to exist. Up til now the animals have had no fear of man. The animals all came to Adam in the garden for him to name them. The animals came to Noah to be placed on the ark. Animals have been friendly and submissive to human beings, but if they continue in this attitude they will become extinct. It will be far too easy for a person to pick off every animal that is within reach. The Lord is giving the animals a fighting chance. If He had not, they wouldn't exist today. Can you imagine a world without animals in it? I don't even want to imagine a world without animals! My sweet little dog who is peacefully snoozing beside me right now wouldn't even be here, and that's a sad thing to consider.
Join us tomorrow when God gives the survivors of the flood instructions about how to humanely go about adding meat to their diet.
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