January 7th

January 7th -- Genesis 9:1-17  (http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Genesis%209:1-17&version=NLT)

This section is about God confirming His covenant after the flood.

I find it really interesting that in verse 5 where God is speaking, it says "And anyone who murders a fellow human must die." I've been taking a law course, and one issue the briefly came up was capital punishment. This is a majorly controversial issue. The Old Testament law is now considered to be completely washed away, since Christ basically set the new laws of the New Testament which were made to replace the laws of the Old Testament. The only thing is, do things like that still stick? Where God himself said in that covenant (one that still carries on today, as evidenced by rainbows, because yes this was part of that covenant) that a person who kills another person must die. Honestly that verse just made the whole capital punishment debate that much more complicated in my mind.

Also, related to above, some people argue that if God wants the person to be killed for their crime, He will do it in His own way (You know how people tend to think "lightning bolt will come out of the sky and strike them dead"? I think that's almost what they mean XD ). Yet, in verse 6 it says " If anyone takes a human life, that person’s life will also be taken by human hands. For God made human beings in his own image." So.... I find that majorly confusing. Again, I kind of feel it comes down to if ALL the Old Testament law is to be ignored, or just parts of it (such as sacrifices).     Just a thought that I had when I read that part.

Then there are verses 12-17, when God is basically deciding and then reinstating that the rainbow shall be the symbol of that covenant. I think maybe that's kind of why I like rainbows so much. It's just neat to be able to look at one and think "The first one of these appeared in an actual time and a place I can find on a map thousands of years ago (maybe longer, sorry, I'm not much good at history) when God spoke to a man...". I just think that's neat to think of it that way. :)

Well, I must be off. I think I wrote a tad more than the last few times fortunately. :) If you have a blogger account, please leave any comments/questions. If you don't but perhaps have a tumblr account : http://emdaisy1.tumblr.com would be my tumblr blog so feel free to message me on there. Also, even if you do not have an account, you can message me, but it will just show up to me as someone who sent it anonymously. Thanks all! :)

God bless! :D