DYNAMIS!
A publication of St. George Orthodox Christian Cathedral
Wichita, KS
Genesis 8:21-9:7
(3/31) 1st
After
the Flood-I ~ God’s Blessing: Genesis 8:21-9:7,
especially vs. 1: "And God blessed Noah and his
sons....” Following the
Great Flood, the Lord God blessed those who survived in the ark, promising
that, despite the evil inclinations in men’s hearts, He would
“not...any more smite all living flesh” (vs. 21). Rather, He promised that the natural cycles
sustaining plants and animals would continue (vs. 22). He pronounced a particular blessing of
fruitfulness on the remnant of mankind, in the persons of Noah and his family
(vss. 1,7). To nourish and guide
our race, God bestowed dominion over earth’s food resources on our kind
(vss. 2,3), condemning homicide, and reaffirming man as the sole creature made
in His image (vs. 6).
For the survivors of the Great Flood, the period following their
disembarkation was like the first days of Creation. The world lay before both man and
beast. All was fresh, open, and
undefined. St. Gregory the
Theologian urges us to “marvel at the natural knowledge even of
irrational creatures, and if you can explain its cause. How is it that birds have for nests
rocks and trees and roofs, and adapt them both for safety and beauty, and suitably
for the comfort of their nurslings?
Whence do bees and spiders get their love of work and art?....Look too
at the variety and lavish abundance of fruits, and most of all at the wondrous
beauty of such as are most necessary....Since nature has set before you all
things as in an abundant banquet free to all, both the necessaries and the
luxuries of life, in order that, if nothing else, you may at any rate know God
by His benefits, and, by your own sense of want be made wiser than you
were....For this is what we were laboring to show, that even the secondary
natures surpass the power of our intellect; much more then the First...which is
above all, the only Nature.”[1]
The greatest wonder in the newly scrubbed earth was the manner in which
God addressed mankind. Compare the
first part of the passage (vss. 8:21-22), with the second half (vss.
9:1-7). God declares at first how
it will be for the physical creation - the plants and the animals, seed and
harvest, cold and heat, summer and spring - shall not cease. But in the succeeding verses, the
unique, personal Being speaks to unique persons He has created and saved from
destruction: “God blessed Noah and his sons, and said to them, Increase
and multiply, and fill the earth...” (vs. 1). And He says, “on all things moving
upon the earth, and upon all the fishes of the sea, I have placed them under
your power” (vs. 2), and at the end He exhorts us, “do ye increase
and multiply, and fill the earth...” (vs. 7). As St. John Chrysostom says,
“God....hath spread out so sumptuous and exquisite a table for us, and
provided us...such abundant gladness.”[2]
In speaking to Noah, the Lord reaffirms His gift of
“dominion” to mankind, first stated at the beginning, at creation
(Gen. 1:28): “fill the earth and have dominion over it....I have placed
them [fish, fowl, beasts] under your power” (Gen. 9:1,2). As Gregory of Nyssa explains,
“That is why humankind was introduced last, after the rest of creation,
not as some unimportant afterthought, but as a suitable sovereign over all that
God had made.”[3] For, while the whole creation has been
put at our disposal, at the same time, we are accountable to God for its
care. Dominion was given that all,
rich and poor alike, “shall eat and be filled” (Ps. 21:26).
Why this special attention to the human race? Because we are fashioned in the image of
our Creator (Gen. 9:6)! And this
God-like stamp placed upon us is the underlying cause for the lavishly
provident world set before us, made for our use, and placed under our
dominion. God’s image in us
is the reason humans are withdrawn from the “food chain,” and who
ever takes the lifeblood of man answers to God (vss. 5,6). These promises remain in force to this
day.
O Lord, our Lord, how wonderful is Thy Name in all the earth! (Ps. 8:1, 8:8).