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Genesis 1:29-31

29God said, “See, I have given you every plant yielding seed that is upon the face of all the earth, and every tree with seed in its fruit; you shall have them for food. 30And to every beast of the earth, and to every bird of the air, and to everything that creeps on the earth, everything that has the breath of life, I have given every green plant for food.” And it was so.

31God saw everything that he had made, and indeed, it was very good. And there was evening and there was morning, the sixth day.

There is no violence, no shedding of blood in the world of God’s creating.  All are fed by the fruit of the earth and the grasses of the field.

The shedding of blood will become the second crisis for humanity when Cain rises up against Abel.  Abel’s blood will cry out to God from the ground.  Then Tubal-Cain will create weapons and his father, Lamech, will kill a man for wounding him and boast of seventy-seven-fold revenge.  (There is a reason Jesus calls for seventy-seven-fold forgiveness; he is undoing this world of revenge.)

When the biblical authors take up the cultural tale of the flood they transform it profoundly.  It is because the earth is filled with violence that God regrets making humans and determines to destroy humanity and all the earth’s creatures.  And it is not only the people God intends to destroy but all the animals, creeping things, and birds:  Humanity has thrown the whole creation so off balance that the animals too have begun to kill.

Though God’s faithfulness triumphs over grief and an unexpected future is given through the ark, humanity has not changed.  And when Noah and his family come off the ark, God makes a concession to allow the killing of animals for food under the condition that humanity remembers they are trespassing on sacred ground.  Life belongs to God and the blood must be returned to the ground.

God’s struggle to limit and contain human violence persists throughout the biblical text, and the vision remains of a world free of violence and death.  To this the prophets bear witness: 

6The wolf shall live with the lamb, 
the leopard shall lie down with the kid, 
the calf and the lion and the fatling together, 
and a little child shall lead them.
7The cow and the bear shall graze, 
their young shall lie down together; 
and the lion shall eat straw like the ox.
8The nursing child shall play over the hole of the asp, 
and the weaned child shall put its hand on the adder’s den.
9They will not hurt or destroy on all my holy mountain; 
for the earth will be full of the knowledge of the LORD
as the waters cover the sea. (Isaiah 11:6-9)

Jesus, the embodiment of all God’s word, of all God’s self-expression, all God’s encounter with us – this Jesus endures the brutality of human violence and there are no heavenly armies, no raised sword of vengeance, no raining of fire and brimstone.  There is mercy.

And we are called to live it.

There is a theological argument to be had about the necessary use of violence in a fallen world.  But the word of God abides.  The vision remains.  There is no violence, no shedding of blood in the world of God’s creating.

Breath of Life, 
Eternal Mercy,
let your mercy live in us.

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Photo: DKBonde
New Revised Standard Version Bible, copyright © 1989 National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide. http://nrsvbibles.org
© David K Bonde, 2021, All rights reserved