ADAM AND NOAH'S COMMANDMENT


Mike Blume
Nov 21, 2004 pm



  Scripture Text:

 
Genesis 2:8-9 KJV  And the LORD God planted a garden eastward in Eden; and there he put the man whom he had formed.  (9)  And out of the ground made the LORD God to grow every tree that is pleasant to the sight, and good for food; the tree of life also in the midst of the garden, and the tree of knowledge of good and evil.

Genesis 2:16-17 KJV  And the LORD God commanded the man, saying, Of every tree of the garden thou mayest freely eat:  (17)  But of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat of it: for in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die.

Genesis 9:1-6 KJV  And God blessed Noah and his sons, and said unto them, Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth.  (2)  And the fear of you and the dread of you shall be upon every beast of the earth, and upon every fowl of the air, upon all that moveth upon the earth, and upon all the fishes of the sea; into your hand are they delivered.  (3)  Every moving thing that liveth shall be meat for you; even as the green herb have I given you all things.  (4)  But flesh with the life thereof, which is the blood thereof, shall ye not eat.  (5)  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.  (6)  Whoso sheddeth man's blood, by man shall his blood be shed: for in the image of God made he man.



  Message:




Adam and Noah were very very similar in their positions in the earth and experience with God.

Both are told to multiply, replenish the earth and have dominion over everything.
  • Both were the heads of the rest of humanity.
  • Both were given dominion in association specifically with the fowl, beasts and cattle.
  • Adam names them, and Noah is told God has a covenant with man, beasts, cattle and fowl.
  • Adam enters marriage covenant with Eve.
  • Adam and Eve sin with regards to forbidden FRUIT.
  • Noah sins involving FRUIT as well... grapes from which he made wine and sinned in becoming drunk.
  • Both were naked in shame after their sin, and both were covered by another.
  • Adam and Eve hear curses from God for their sin.
  • Noah's utters a curse to Ham's son in regards to Ham's mockery of his nakedness.
  • Adam was clothed by God and Shem and Japheth clothed Noah.


But I want to concentrate upon a parallel between them both that really stresses a message to us.
  • It involves the commands God gave to each of them after he placed them in the dominion in which they received.

Adam could not eat of fruit of the knowledge of Good and Evil.
  • Or He would Die.

Noah cannot eat blood of animals nor shed man's blood.

And these two different commands are very much related to one another.

Notice that both involve eating.
  • Adam could eat fruit of many kinds except one kind of fruit.
  • Adam could eat all fruit except fruit of knowledge of good and evil.
  • All the fruit was pleasant ot the sight and good for food, including the forbidden fruit (Gen 2:9; Gen 3:6)
  • But the forbidden fruit had something in it that the rest did not have -- desire to make one wise.

Noah could all sorts of meat, except one kind of meat.
  • He could not eat meat that had something in it that all other meat He could eat did not have.
  • He could not eat meat with blood in it.

As much as the fruit could not have the desire to make one wise inside it, the meat could not have blood in it.

And notice that Adam's sin was associated with the very things that Adam was commanded in regards to sin.
  • The very thing that brought cursings was associated with what God told Adam in those commands concerning fruit.
  • The sin Adam committed was eating the forbidden fruit with the desire ot make one wise infesting it's comprisal.

Noah, on the other hand, did not make his mistake and sin in direct obvious disobedience to God's command to him regarding eating blood and shedding blood.
  • But the sin Noah did commit IS CONNECTED to that command from God in a special way.
  • Effectively in a symbolic manner, Noah shed blood and ate it.
  • Please listen very carefully to this detail.

BLOOD in the Bible is associated with GRAPES and WINE.

Genesis 9:20-25 KJV  And Noah began to be an husbandman, and he planted a vineyard:  (21)  And he drank of the wine, and was drunken; and he was uncovered within his tent.  (22)  And Ham, the father of Canaan, saw the nakedness of his father, and told his two brethren without.  (23)  And Shem and Japheth took a garment, and laid it upon both their shoulders, and went backward, and covered the nakedness of their father; and their faces were backward, and they saw not their father's nakedness.  (24)  And Noah awoke from his wine, and knew what his younger son had done unto him.  (25)  And he said, Cursed be Canaan; a servant of servants shall he be unto his brethren.

Noahs' sin was drunkenness.
  • He became a vinekeeper or a husbandman.
  • He planted a vineyard and took the grapes and squeezed out it's juice and made wine.

Notice what the bible calls wine from the grape.

Deuteronomy 32:14 KJV  Butter of kine, and milk of sheep, with fat of lambs, and rams of the breed of Bashan, and goats, with the fat of kidneys of wheat; and thou didst drink the pure blood of the grape.

Wine is called the BLOOD OF THE GRAPE.

Jesus Christ spoke of His death on the cross using the symbols of bread and wine.
  • The bread he took in his hands and broke represent His body BROKEN IN DEATH.
  • And the wine poured into the cup represents HIS BLOOD SHED IN DEATH.

And this has a whole lot of spiritual significance to the picture, and reveals a startling truth that we must recognize in our lives for God.
  • What Noah did was spiritually representative of something God directly told him not to do.
  • I say spiritually, because the bible speaks of the WINE as BLOOD OF THE GRAPE.
  • And when God told Noah to not eat blood nor to shed man's blood, when he took the wine from the grapes, according to the association the bible gives to wine, it was a picture of SHEDDING MAN'S BLOOD.
  • And when he drank the wine, it was a picture of EATING BLOOD.

Notice what Moses' law said:

Leviticus 7:27 KJV  Whatsoever soul it be that eateth any manner of blood, even that soul shall be cut off from his people.

The soul would be CUT OFF from his people if he ate any manner of blood.
  • This did not mean he was no longer a biological Jew or Israelite, but that he was not allowed to take part in the covenant of God with Israel, and benefit from sacrifices and God's blessings.

He was taken outside the camp during those times.
  • JUST LIKE ADAM WAS CAST OUT OF THE GARDEN.

Furthermore, if man SHED MAN'S BLOOD, then by man must his blood be shed.
  • Eye for an eye, and tooth for a tooth.
  • Balance had to come about.
  • Since one man's death occurred, another man's death must occur to bring justice.
  • That is why JUSTICE is represented by SCALES.
  • The punishment must match the crime.
  • And the law of our land is supposed to balance out the crime by a corresponding equal degree of punishment.

(But how many know that our laws are losing more and more justice all the time?
  • You can get away with killing an unborn human being, but if you choke a dog to death, you will get imprisoned.
  • That is not very balanced in my estimation, not to say choking dogs is alright.
  • Sounds a bit off-balance to me!)

And Adam was told he would DIE the day he sinned.
  • Adam experienced both a cutting off and a death.
  • See how Noah's commands were associated with Adam's command and Adam's experience?

Spiritually Adam died, and physically he was CUT OFF from the Garden of Eden.

We can clearly see Adam's sin associated with the command from God.
  • God said do not eat the forbidden fruit, and Adam ate the forbidden fruit and the curse was associated with that!
  • But when Noah was told to not eat blood and not shed man's blood, his sin was not eating blood and shedding man's blood, but was getting drunk.
  • But the association is nevertheless strongly indicated in scripture when the scripture calls wine BLOOD OF THE GRAPE and Jesus  said His shed blood was represented by WINE.

Although Noah was not condemned for physically eating blood or shedding man's blood, USING THE SCRIPTURAL USE OF SYMBOLS, the act of getting drunk on wine represented SHEDDING BLOOD and EATING BLOOD.
  • And Noah's nakedness as a result shows also a spiritual picture that will be our doom if we do not heed the message God has for us in His word.

I want to show how God has a message that we must not commit these things in a spiritual manner as well!

Adam was already naked before he sinned, but he was not ashamed.

Genesis 2:25 KJV  And they were both naked, the man and his wife, and were not ashamed.

But after Adam sinned, the bible says he saw his nakedness and manufactured aprons, and then hid himself because he knew he was naked when God's Presence approached him.
  • He was ashamed.

You see, Adam may have been physically naked, but he had no sin in his flesh, nor the woman in her's, that would lead to sins, and were spiritually and wonderfully clothed in their hearts and souls with God's presence.
  • But when he sinned, something was stripped off his very spirit, and he tried to do something outwardly in order to solve his problem inwardly.
  • He was confused, and did not realize you cannot do anything outward to cover up the inward, and many people are just as confused today.
  • This was indication of the whole problem mankind entered into.
  • TRYING TO SOLVE LIFE ON YOUR OWN!

The devil told the woman she could help herself and improve upon herself by making herself wise.
  • After she fell for it, and the both of them sinned and saw their nakedness, they went further, although the entire concept was just proven wrong, and tried to remedy their situation themselves.
  • But their clothing was not good enough, because when God came they still hid and He had to make them clothing.

Case in point -- you cannot improve yourself, but you need God's Life!

And Noah's sin symbolizes the same problem!!!

How many know that although Noah was told to not eat blood, Jesus said to spiritually drink His blood, represented by drinking the wine, to have eternal life.
  • God just told Noah it would mean death!
  • But Jesus said:

John 6:53-54 KJV  Then Jesus said unto them, Verily, verily, I say unto you, Except ye eat the flesh of the Son of man, and drink his blood, ye have no life in you.  (54)  Whoso eateth my flesh, and drinketh my blood, hath eternal life; and I will raise him up at the last day.

You see, drinking Jesus blood represents the fact that in order to HAVE ETERNAL LIFE YOU NEED HIS DEATH AND NEED TO BELIEVE THAT IT IS YOUR SALVATION FROM SIN.
  • It does not matter how good you are, the soul that sins must die, and Jesus' death is the only death that can count as your death so that you can be saved.
  • And drinking OTHER blood of SINFUL beings and fallen creation SYMBOLICALLY represents the idea that WE DO NOT NEED JESUS CHRIST, BUT CAN GET LIFE FROM WHAT IS ALREADY NATURAL.
  • This idea is the same basis as thinking man can save himself.
  • Man does not need God.
  • Man does not need Jesus.
  • It's similar to the knowledge of good  and evil -- "I do not need God's LIFE.  I just need to LEARN some knowledge and I can make myself good and not evil."

ANd the BLOOD is the LIFE OF THE FLESH.
  • "So drinking blood of creatures is like saying I do not need GOD'S LIFE... "
  • "What is natural is good enough!"
  • It is like saying "I do not believe this Gospel of Jesus Christ."
  • "I do not need the cross."

We need Him so much that we cannot even walk without holding his hand.
  • I come to church regularly, and I study my bible and pray because I CANNOT MAKE IT WITHOUT JESUS.
  • That is how much I know I need God!
  • If I stay away from the Word and away from worship with God's people, then the world will override my life and I will be taken away in the downward flow of humanity that is lost and without God.
  • Sins will rise up in my flesh and there will be no preaching and no prayer and not Spirit of God to KEEP IT DOWN and KEEP ME HOLY!

God told Noah he would be cut off from His people should he eat blood.
  • That represented by Noah drinking the wine.
  • Like Adam cut off from the Garden of Eden, we will be cut off from God's church and find that we cannot worship, and are not being blessed.
  • The Hebrew was cut off from the blessings of God in Israel when he ate blood.
  • He was not allowed to have the sacrifices roll his sins away from his life.

And shedding blood of a man represents the thing that cause Adam's spiritual DEATH.
  • Remember, the eating of blood cuts you off from God's people.
  • The shedding of man's blood becomes CAUSE FOR YOUR DEATH.

And we will SPIRITUALLY DIE the moment we think we can make it on our own.
  • What is "on our own"?
  • It is not believing you have need for church and for prayer and for the Word of God preached and taught.

Jesus explained it was not his physical blood he was talking about that they ought to drink.
  • He said it was not His physical flesh they must eat.
  • But at the last supper He said the bread and wine was his flesh and blood ASSOCIATED WITH THE CRUCIFIXION.
  • And eating his flesh and blood SPEAKS OF RECEIVING THE TRUTHS OF THE CROSS!
  • THE GOSPEL.

If you BELIEVE THE GOSPEL and you know you NEED His death, burial and resurrection, then you feast on the bread and wine of Jesus.

That is why Jesus saw their confusion over apparent cannibalism, and said:

John 6:63 KJV  It is the spirit that quickeneth; the flesh profiteth nothing: the words that I speak unto you, they are spirit, and they are life.

HIS TEACHINGS!
HIS WORDS.

THEY ARE LIFE!

Peter knew what He meant, and so when many left Jesus as a result of those words, and the disciples remained, and He asked them if they would leave, too, watch:

John 6:66-69 KJV  From that time many of his disciples went back, and walked no more with him.  (67)  Then said Jesus unto the twelve, Will ye also go away?  (68)  Then Simon Peter answered him, Lord, to whom shall we go? thou hast the words of eternal life.  (69)  And we believe and are sure that thou art that Christ, the Son of the living God.

PETER BELIEVED!  
  • He indicated HE WOULD eat his flesh and drink his blood!
  • He knew Jesus meant THE TEACHINGS!
  • THE WORD!
  • Who else has WORDS of eternal life????

And as the world continues to reject Jesus Christ's words about the cross and the only way to be saved being through that, and they try to be as best as THEY can be, and live by what THEY think is truth, and that man can help man well enough, spiritually, they are taking their own natural lives and eating sinful fallen blood of creatures, rather than Jesus' sinless blood that washes away sins.
  • Spiritually they are CUTTING THEMSELVES OFF from eternal life, and are convinced otherwise!
  • They are SPIRITUALLY DEAD and sinking deeper into spiritual DEATH every day and with every attempt they make to IMPROVE THEMSELVES with all they feel is required.

The greatest sin is actually the ROOT OF ALL SIN.
  • How many know money is NOT the root of all sin.
  • LOVE OF MONEY is root of all sin.
  • And what is love of money but GREED and is rooted in SELF-CENTREDNESS?
  • THIS SELF GLORIFYING and SELF COMMANDING and SELF GUIDING lifestyle and philosophy is utterly antichrist -- that is, rejecting the truth that ONLY JESUS CAN GIVE US LIFE.

There are many who KNOW they should feast on the word of God and let themselves loose and free in worship to God!
  • But they are so helpless in getting themselves to such a place, due to not getting enough preaching and word into their lives about TRUTH to have the strength to KEEP IT UP, and the world pulls them away time and time again.
  • You must realize that YOUR VICTORY comes from gaining POWER and STRENGTH -- and that you GET THAT POWER from an awareness you need Jesus and His word -- His bread and wine -- and that requires becoming faithful to God's house and church.

And those who trust in their OWN righteousness will one day be naked before God.

Revelation 3:17 KJV  Because thou sayest, I am rich, and increased with goods, and have need of nothing; and knowest not that thou art wretched, and miserable, and poor, and blind, and naked:

Revelation 16:15 KJV  Behold, I come as a thief. Blessed is he that watcheth, and keepeth his garments, lest he walk naked, and they see his shame.

2 Corinthians 5:3 KJV  If so be that being clothed we shall not be found naked.

Revelation 19:8 KJV  And to her was granted that she should be arrayed in fine linen, clean and white: for the fine linen is the righteousness of saints.

Righteousness is being GOOD ENOUGH for God.
  • If you think you're good enough without Christ and the church, then you are going to find that YOU WILL BE NAKED without clothing of GOD'S RIGHTEOUSNESS,
  • Your own righteousness is filthy rags and you will be NAKED before God, because those rags will rot away into nothingness by the time you stand before HIm one day.

Isaiah 64:6 KJV  But we are all as an unclean thing, and all our righteousnesses are as filthy rags; and we all do fade as a leaf; and our iniquities, like the wind, have taken us away.

Romans 10:3 KJV  For they being ignorant of God's righteousness, and going about to establish their own righteousness, have not submitted themselves unto the righteousness of God.

SUBMIT to his righteousness!