Welcome to EBible Fellowship’s Bible study in the Book of Genesis. This is study #4 of Genesis, chapter 9 and we are going to read Genesis 9:4-7:

And surely your blood of your lives will I require; at the hand of every beast will I require it, and at the hand of man; at the hand of every man's brother will I require the life of man. Whoso sheddeth man's blood, by man shall his blood be shed: for in the image of God made he man. And you, be ye fruitful, and multiply; bring forth abundantly in the earth, and multiply therein.

I will stop reading there. In our last study, we saw that God is giving a Law after the flood, just over 7,000 years ago from our present day and it was one year after the flood had begun, so it was the year 4989BC. God commanded that whoever takes the life of man, whether it be man or beast, that man or animal is to be killed. God required life for life. If someone slayed a human being made in the image of God, then his or her life is required in return. This is how the Law can be satisfied. It goes on to say in Genesis 9:6:

Whoso sheddeth man's blood, by man shall his blood be shed: for in the image of God made he man.

This is not the case with animals. A man can shoot a deer. He can kill a rabbit. He can shed the blood of animals and then he can eat the animals, as long as he does not consume it with the blood. The Bible allows for man to kill and to eat animals, but that is not the case with a human being. Again, this Law serves to highlight the special nature of man and the fact that he is a higher creature than all the other creatures that were created. Mankind is supreme and he is distinct from all the other creatures. He, alone, is made in the image and likeness of God.

Of course, in our modern world there is the wisdom that comes from the minds of men in their fallen condition and mankind has decided that the world just happened “by chance” and the life we see in the world is all a result of evolution. Things just randomly occurred and then natural selection operates and we get one animal that runs on four legs and another animal that eventually learned to stand on two feet – mankind. And, therefore, mankind is nothing special, except that he is further along on the evolutionary ladder. This belief serves to uplift the animals. I guess that is the case. The animals are viewed in a higher sense, but it also serves to lower mankind to the level of the animals. Since man is not that special, the taking of the life of a man is not that much different from taking the life of an animal. That is one of the reasons why so many people are shocked when they hear an animal has been abused or killed, but it appears they do not have the same concern when they hear that a human being has been abused or killed. There is a lessening of the seriousness of taking human life because human life has been devalued by the ideas of men. It has taken mankind off the lofty plateau the Bible placed him on as the highest of the creatures and it has brought mankind down to a baser form like the animals.

Because of man’s fallen condition, God says that when a man dies, he perishes like a “beast,” and that is what sin has done in the life of mankind. It has lowered him in many ways, but in Genesis, chapter 9 this is describing a fallen man and it is not speaking of man in his original perfect state when he was created and God saw that man was good and perfect, but in Genesis, chapter 9 the world is restarting after the flood and all eight souls are sinners. Noah found grace in the eyes of the Lord and maybe the seven others were also saved, but even if they were saved they still had corruptible bodies and their offspring would have been born in sin and born speaking lies.

By the way, two saved people do not beget a saved person. It does not work that way. Two sinners will beget an unclean thing, so even if both parents are saved the child will be born a sinner, unless God miraculously creates a new heart and soul in the child. That is why the world is populated with a great majority of unsaved people, because everyone is conceived in sin and most are born unsaved. God does save some babies in the womb, like John the Baptist, but unless God acts to save in the womb everyone is born unsaved. The overwhelming majority of people are unsaved and it is people with corrupted bodies that God still says are in the image of God. So, if anyone kills a man that was created in the image and likeness of God, then his own blood will be shed in response. That is the Law.

Down through history governments have enacted laws that require the execution of people that commit murder. Even in our society today, which is trying to cast off all the Laws of the Bible, we still have some laws in some places that continue to follow this Law that says that anyone that murders someone is to be killed. A judge or a jury decides and an execution is performed and it is all done lawfully and justly. When Exodus, chapter 20 says, “Thou shalt not kill,” there are some people that misinterpret what God has said and they say that no government can carry out an execution, but in the Ten Commandments God is saying, “Thou shall not murder.” In the Old Testament, the Hebrew word translated as “kill” is also translated as “murder” and when God killed people and when God ordered Moses to stone a man to death who had picked up a few sticks it was an illustration of capital punishment wherein God gave authority to government to kill. It is obvious in the Bible that there is lawful killing and, again, it can be performed by government and Romans, chapter 13 picks up that idea when it says that those that God has placed in power do not carry the sword in vain. They may execute murderers and punish people for wrongdoing. When someone murders another individual it is an act of wrongdoing and God’s Law stipulates that the murderer is to be killed.

There is also a spiritual dimension regarding killing. The Bible does speak of those that are spiritually killed or spiritually murdered. What “kills” are lies dressed up as truth when people bring other kinds of gospels and they say, “This is coming from God. This is the truth. This will save you and deliver you from death.” But it serves to kill or murder the hearer. It says in Psalm 79:1-3:

God, the heathen are come into thine inheritance; thy holy temple have they defiled; they have laid Jerusalem on heaps. The dead bodies of thy servants have they given to be meat unto the fowls of the heaven, the flesh of thy saints unto the beasts of the earth. Their blood have they shed like water round about Jerusalem; and there was none to bury them.

Then it says in Psalm 79:10:

Wherefore should the heathen say, Where is their God? let him be known among the heathen in our sight by the revenging of the blood of thy servants which is shed.

This does have some historical application when the Babylonians entered Jerusalem and there was blood shed of the corporate people of God, the Jews, and many were taken into captivity. However, it spiritually points to the time of the end when Satan was loosed at the end of the church age and Satan and his emissaries entered in to the churches and overcame them. He began to rule within the churches of the world and the doctrines of his emissaries shed the blood of the people within the congregations because a lie cannot save them and it served to “kill” them. They also drove out the true believers and in John, chapter 16 God likens being driven out of the synagogue to being killed. When you are killed, your blood is shed. That is the idea.

It says in Ezekiel 22:2-4:

Now, thou son of man, wilt thou judge, wilt thou judge the bloody city? yea, thou shalt shew her all her abominations. Then say thou, Thus saith the Lord JEHOVAH, The city sheddeth blood in the midst of it, that her time may come, and maketh idols against herself to defile herself. Thou art become guilty in thy blood that thou hast shed…

Just consider that we read in Genesis 9, verse 6, “Whoso sheddeth man's blood, by man shall his blood be shed,” and God is speaking of the “bloody city,” which is Jerusalem. The city sheds blood in the midst of it. It is “earthly Jerusalem” or the earthly church that has shed the blood of those inside of it with their false doctrines and gospels. Again, it says in Ezekiel 22:4:

Thou art become guilty in thy blood that thou hast shed; and hast defiled thyself in thine idols which thou hast made; and thou hast caused thy days to draw near, and art come even unto thy years: therefore have I made thee a reproach unto the heathen, and a mocking to all countries.

Then it says in Ezekiel 22:6-7:

Behold, the princes of Israel, every one were in thee to their power to shed blood. In thee have they set light by father and mother: in the midst of thee have they dealt by oppression with the stranger: in thee have they vexed the fatherless and the widow.

These things are related to the shedding of blood. To “set light by father and mother” is related to not honoring your parents. To deal “by oppression with a stranger” is spoken of by God in other places. To “vex the fatherless and the widow” relates to oppressing the elect, God’s people. By sinning in this way against the people of God, they have spiritually shed blood.

Then it says in Ezekiel 22:8-9:

Thou hast despised mine holy things, and hast profaned my sabbaths. In thee are men that carry tales to shed blood…

This is a very good summary of a picture of those that carry tales or false teachings; they are not carrying the truths of what God has said in His Word. The term “carry tales” is also translated as “slander.” They are carrying lies and deceit and this is what makes up the false gospels. They carry these tales to others, which results in the shedding of blood. Do you see how God is tying together the shedding of blood with sharing false teachings? In this same chapter in Ezekiel, it says in Ezekiel 22:26-27:

Her priests have violated my law, and have profaned mine holy things: they have put no difference between the holy and profane, neither have they shewed difference between the unclean and the clean, and have hid their eyes from my sabbaths, and I am profaned among them. Her princes in the midst thereof are like wolves ravening the prey, to shed blood, and to destroy souls, to get dishonest gain.

It continues this language and the meaning is unmistakable to God’s people as God pronounced condemnation on the corrupt body of national Israel, which spiritually represents the New Testament corporate church. It is very familiar language that indicates the sins of the congregations and those sins serve to “shed blood” in a spiritual sense.

God says in Numbers 35:33:

So ye shall not pollute the land wherein ye are: for blood it defileth the land: and the land cannot be cleansed of the blood that is shed therein, but by the blood of him that shed it.

Here is the same principal that is being put forth in our verse in Genesis 9, verse 6. He who sheds blood must in turn have his blood shed, but here it speaks of polluting and defiling the land and the land cannot be cleansed. The word “cleansed” is the Hebrew word for “atoned.” The land cannot be cleansed or atoned until there is blood shed for it.

It says in Ezekiel 36:17-18:

Son of man, when the house of Israel dwelt in their own land, they defiled it by their own way and by their doings: their way was before me as the uncleanness of a removed woman. Wherefore I poured my fury upon them that they had shed upon the land, and for their idols wherewith they had polluted it:

The word translated as “poured” is Strong’s #8210 and it is the same word translated as “shed,” so God is basically saying, “Wherefore I shed my fury upon them for the blood that they shed upon the land.”

It goes on to say in Ezekiel 36:19:

And I scattered them among the heathen, and they were dispersed through the countries: according to their way and according to their doings I judged them.

Here God is explaining why judgment came upon the house of God, the corporate churches. It is all related to the Law that said if you shed blood, then your blood must be shed. It cannot just be forgotten. It cannot be overlooked, ignored or dismissed. The Law says that if you have shed blood, your blood must be shed. The churches had shed much blood, spiritually, with their false teachings and erroneous doctrines and their false gospels. Therefore, God shed His fury upon them for the blood that they shed upon His land. This would be the revenging of the blood of the souls under the altar, as mentioned in Revelation 6:10: “How long, O Lord, holy and true, dost thou not judge and avenge our blood on them that dwell on the earth?” Their blood was shed, from righteous Abel to Zacharias, as we read in Matthew, chapter 23. It is all the blood that Babylon shed, as we read in Revelation 18. The corporate church was given over to Satan and came under the rule of Babylon and became one of its provinces. Judgment first began at the house of God and the wrath of God was poured out upon them for their shedding of blood, but Babylon (the kingdom of Satan) also shed much blood of the individuals within the corporate body. So, God then turned and brought judgment upon Babylon for all the blood that was shed in all the world throughout history, both the physical and spiritual murders that killed the people of God and killed mankind. God pronounced judgment upon the king of Babylon and all the inhabitants of Babylon, representing all the unsaved people of the earth.

We are living in Judgment Day, a time for the retribution of vengeance from God. It is the time when man’s blood is shed, which spiritually represents his very life and, finally, man will die physically. In accord with the Law of God, unsaved mankind must die. He has broken many laws and the Law of God stipulates that anyone that transgresses in even one point is guilty of all.