If the purpose of God is to express His dominion through a world filled up of His images then His command to His images, as we have seen, is to be fruitful and multiply, i.e., to participate in the creation of those individuals. But what of preserving them?
Obviously, preservation is needed to a degree since the images have to exist in order to create other images. Hence, God lays down in Genesis 9 principles of preservation that become the building blocks for familial and national governments.
Genesis 9:1-7 reads as follows:
וַיְבָ֣רֶךְ אֱלֹהִ֔ים אֶת־נֹ֖חַ וְאֶת־בָּנָ֑יו וַיֹּ֧אמֶר לָהֶ֛ם פְּר֥וּ וּרְב֖וּ וּמִלְא֥וּ אֶת־הָאָֽרֶץ׃
וּמוֹרַאֲכֶ֤ם וְחִתְּכֶם֙ יִֽהְיֶ֔ה עַ֚ל כָּל־חַיַּ֣ת הָאָ֔רֶץ וְעַ֖ל כָּל־ע֣וֹף הַשָּׁמָ֑יִם בְּכֹל֩ אֲשֶׁ֨ר תִּרְמֹ֧שׂ הָֽאֲדָמָ֛ה וּֽבְכָל־דְּגֵ֥י הַיָּ֖ם בְּיֶדְכֶ֥ם נִתָּֽנוּ׃
כָּל־רֶ֙מֶשׂ֙ אֲשֶׁ֣ר הוּא־חַ֔י לָכֶ֥ם יִהְיֶ֖ה לְאָכְלָ֑ה כְּיֶ֣רֶק עֵ֔שֶׂב נָתַ֥תִּי לָכֶ֖ם אֶת־כֹּֽל׃
אַךְ־בָּשָׂ֕ר בְּנַפְשׁ֥וֹ דָמ֖וֹ לֹ֥א תֹאכֵֽלוּ׃
וְאַ֨ךְ אֶת־דִּמְכֶ֤ם לְנַפְשֹֽׁתֵיכֶם֙ אֶדְרֹ֔שׁ מִיַּ֥ד כָּל־חַיָּ֖ה אֶדְרְשֶׁ֑נּוּ וּמִיַּ֣ד הָֽאָדָ֗ם מִיַּד֙ אִ֣ישׁ אָחִ֔יו אֶדְרֹ֖שׁ אֶת־נֶ֥פֶשׁ הָֽאָדָֽם׃
שֹׁפֵךְ֙ דַּ֣ם הָֽאָדָ֔ם בָּֽאָדָ֖ם דָּמ֣וֹ יִשָּׁפֵ֑ךְ כִּ֚י בְּצֶ֣לֶם אֱלֹהִ֔ים עָשָׂ֖ה אֶת־הָאָדָֽם׃
וְאַתֶּ֖ם פְּר֣וּ וּרְב֑וּ שִׁרְצ֥וּ בָאָ֖רֶץ וּרְבוּ־בָֽהּ
Then God blessed Noah and his sons when he said to them, "Be fruitful, multiply, and fill up the earth. Your fear and terror will be over every animal of the earth, over every bird of the sky, over everything which scurries on the ground, and over every fish of the sea. They have been given as your responsibility.
Everything that scurries which is living belongs to you. It will be for eating. As I gave you the green vegetation, I give to you everything. Only the meat! You are not to eat it with its life, it's blood.
Surely, your blood which contains your lives I will most certainly prosecute as the responsibility of any animal or as the responsibility of a man, the responsibility of each man his brother, I will prosecute the life of a man.
He who spills the blood of a man by a man his blood must be spilled because as the image of God He made the man.
So you will be fruitful, multiply, swarm upon the earth, and multiply on it."
There are so many things that are often missed in this passage but I will stick to what pertains to our subject. First, the passage exists in the framework of the original command and is therefore a continuation of that original command. Preservation cannot work against creation, as preservation is subservient to creation. Hence, the original command remains as the governing principle. So preservation exists that the image's participation in the creation mandate might continue.
These preservational elements include two new commands. The first is the expansion of food sources. Since dominion in the original command was a command, not over other humans, but over the animals, God now gives them the right to eat the animals over which they rule in order to preserve their lives.
The second command now includes a dominion over other humans who take the lives of other humans. This is the sole reason given over other people, i.e., to execute murderers. In this context, it can be assumed that to let murder go unchallenged would work against the creation mandate as it would reduce rather than multiply possible images of God upon the earth. Hence, it is the job of the image to be fruitful, to expand his food sources by killing animals, and to execute those who take human life.
This is the job of governmental authority. Whether that governmental authority is a small family like Noah's or that small family grows into a giant family we refer to as a nation. The government is given no other role here. It must promote the preservation of human life by expanding food sources and the preservation of human life that is under the threat of demise from criminals who would take that life. That's it.
Now, as many of you may know, murder is not simply defined in the Bible as when some guy with a hockey mask knifes a bunch of college girls at a sorority house. To reject the original creation mandate in one's sexuality is murder. To steal the food (or other life-giving) sources from someone is murder. To dishonor authorities like parents is murder. Anything that takes the physical life of a civilly innocent human being is murder.
If this is true, and it is the sole job of government to oversee this, then we would expect God to only require this of the nations of the world, as we will see in the upcoming post, only Israel functions as God's priests to preserve human life spiritually and eternally, but the nations are required to preserve the physical life of its people. There is no command here for the nations to function as priests in any way.
In fact, this is what Paul is talking about in Romans 13. Notice, as here in Genesis 9, the authority that God gives over to Noah and to "you" (plural, not singular so that the reader might know that this command is for all humans, not just Noah) to have a "fear and terror" over all of the animals, and now criminals.
Paul states in Romans 13:1-7:
⸂Πᾶσα ψυχὴ ἐξουσίαις ὑπερεχούσαις ὑποτασσέσθω⸃*. οὐ γὰρ ἔστιν ἐξουσία εἰ μὴ ⸀ὑπὸ θεοῦ, αἱ δὲ οὖσαι ⸆ ὑπὸ ⸇ θεοῦ τεταγμέναι εἰσίν*. 2 ὥστε ὁ ἀντιτασσόμενος τῇ ἐξουσίᾳ τῇ τοῦ θεοῦ διαταγῇ ἀνθέστηκεν, οἱ δὲ ἀνθεστηκότες ἑαυτοῖς κρίμα λήμψονται. 3 οἱ γὰρ ἄρχοντες οὐκ εἰσὶν φόβος ⸂τῷ ἀγαθῷ ἔργῳ ἀλλὰ τῷ κακῷ⸃*. θέλεις δὲ μὴ φοβεῖσθαι τὴν ἐξουσίαν· τὸ ἀγαθὸν ποίει, καὶ ἕξεις ἔπαινον ἐξ αὐτῆς· 4 θεοῦ γὰρ διάκονός ἐστιν °σοὶ εἰς °1τὸ ἀγαθόν. ἐὰν δὲ τὸ κακὸν ποιῇς, φοβοῦ· οὐ γὰρ εἰκῇ τὴν μάχαιραν φορεῖ· θεοῦ γὰρ διάκονός ἐστιν ⸂ἔκδικος εἰς ὀργὴν⸃ τῷ τὸ κακὸν πράσσοντι. 5 διὸ ⸂ἀνάγκη ὑποτάσσεσθαι⸃, οὐ μόνον διὰ τὴν ὀργὴν ἀλλὰ καὶ διὰ τὴν συνείδησιν*. 6 διὰ τοῦτο γὰρ καὶ φόρους τελεῖτε· λειτουργοὶ γὰρ θεοῦ εἰσιν εἰς αὐτὸ τοῦτο προσκαρτεροῦντες. 7 ἀπόδοτε πᾶσιν τὰς ὀφειλάς*, τῷ τὸν φόρον τὸν φόρον, τῷ τὸ τέλος τὸ τέλος, τῷ τὸν φόβον τὸν φόβον, τῷ τὴν τιμὴν τὴν τιμήν*.
Every soul is to be in submission to the governing authorities. For there is no authority if not by God. But the authorities that exist are set up by God. Therefore, the one who resists authority, rebels against God's order, and those who resist will receive condemnation. For those who rule are not a fear for [those doing] good deeds but for [those doing] bad deeds. Do you want that fear of authority to not be there? Do good and you will have praise from it. For it is a servant of God for you resulting in the good work. But if you do what is bad, fear! For it does not bear the sword for no reason. For it is the servant of God as an avenger resulting in wrath for those who practice what is bad. Therefore, it is absolutely necessary to be in submission, not only because of that wrath but also because of the conscience. For this reason you also pay taxes, for they are administers for God to perform this very governing work. Give to everyone what is owed, whether tax to whom tax is due, revenue to whom revenue is due, fear to whom fear is due, honor to whom honor is due.
It is difficult to imagine that Paul did not have the Genesis 9 text in mind, as he begins by saying "Let every ψυχὴ be in submission." The word ψυχὴ is used throughout the Genesis 9 passage and is an unusual way to start. Why not say "Let everyone" or "Let every man/human"? Secondly, he refers to governmental authority as "fear," which is also the way authority is described in the passage. Finally, the larger idea is that the government exists to preserve civilly innocent human life. It is a servant of God, like the image, to promote "good" [see the use in Genesis 1 as that which creates and preserves human life] and to bring vengeance with the sword, i.e., execution, upon the one who does "bad," the opposite of good.
This is why Paul has no problem saying this of a pagan government. It is because a pagan government, as long as it performs this role, is functioning as God's servant. In other words, it's a government functioning how God wants it to function, Christian or not, because it is preserving innocent human life, which is its role. It's not a priest of God saving people or pushing them toward Christianity. That isn't its function. That is the function of Israel and then spiritual Israel, the church, as we see throughout the Bible. As long as the government is preserving innocent human life, it is a biblical government and must be honored as such. And the preservation of that human life has to do with temporal preservation upon this earth, not eternal or spiritual preservation which, again, is the job of God's priests, the church.
This is why Paul tells Christians to pray for government that they might lead a quiet and godly life. He also tells them to pray that they might be saved but there is no indication that this is because the government needs to become Christian in order to bring in a utopian society. Instead, he expresses that it is because God desires that all sorts of people in all kinds of stations in life be saved (1 Tim 2:1-8).
If this is all true, then we would expect God to judge the nations for failing to function in this specific way, and not because they are not worshiping YHWH or obeying Sabbath laws or anything specific to God's priests but not generalized to all nations. Let's briefly look at a few of those judgments that represent the larger corpus of God's expressed wrath upon the nations.
For instance, God tells us the reason He destroyed Sodom in Ezekiel 16:49-50.
‘Now this was the sin of your sister Sodom: She and her daughters were arrogant, overfed and unconcerned; they did not help the poor and needy. They were haughty and did abominations before me. Therefore I did away with them as you have seen.
This text says they were judged, not for worshiping other gods or ignoring the Sabbath but because they lifted themselves up over what God had tasked them to do, which was to share their food with the poor (i.e., physically preserving human life by expanding food sources with those in need) and practiced תֹועֵבָ֖ה "abomination," the word used to refer to sexual practices that are not fruitful and do not multiply. In other words, they not only did these things but openly ("before Me") promoted them in their arrogance. Hence, they were doing the opposite of what God had tasked them to do, so He "did away with them."
Even Rome in Revelation 18, which is being judged because it propped itself up as a priest to the nations that spread false religion rather than kept its falsehoods to itself, is also being judged for attacking God's people, and making itself rich by murdering other nations. For "In her was found the blood of prophets and of God’s holy people, of all who have been slaughtered on the earth" (v. 24).
Those who attack Israel and other nations or try to replace God for Israel by promising to protect Israel when they cannot are going to have a unique judgment given to them because they have become the murderers rather than the avengers of those murders. Hence, God becomes the avenger instead upon them. These are not judgments because these nations are not fulfilling the Mosaic law code in their national practices. Almost all of these have to do with these nations attacking God and His people. For instance, in Isaiah 14, God is judging Babylon and Assyria because they oppressed and murdered, not only other people, including God's people, but even their own people.
"You will not be buried with them,
because you destroyed your land
and killed your people." (14:20)
In other words, rather than preserve innocent human life by executing murderers, they became murderers of others and their own people. A nation that has continually does things like this is described consistently in the Bible as "arrogant" because they have lifted themselves and their purposes to gain resources through bribery and murder over God's purpose to preserve human life. This is the main reason they are judged.
It must be understood that God speaks about destroying their idols and making fun of the fact that they think these things will save them because they have brought havoc to His and other peoples, so according to lex talionis, He will bring the same upon their gods and temples. It is not because they are breaking some law He gave them concerning worshiping other gods. Instead, when the biblical text talks about the evil of wicked nations, it refers to their oppression, injustice toward the widow and the orphan, promoting sexual immorality (i.e., sexual acts that do not fulfill the creation mandate of being fruitful and multiplying), and allowing the wicked to thrive instead of the innocent. In other words, He judges them for not doing their one job as a governing authority. They are not preserving innocent human life.
There is also a judgment upon the nations when Israel is judged because Israel functioned as the priesthood of the world. When the priest is removed, the world is judged, as the existence of God's priests keep the wrath of God from coming upon the nations. Again, none of these judgments are specifically for idolatry or things that are specific to Israel's law code.
Hence, the false dichotomy between a wicked nation and a "Christian" nation is unbiblical. The Biblical dichotomy is between a wicked nation and a righteous nation that fulfills its mandate to physically preserve innocent human life. A biblical nationalism, therefore, is one that looks to its government to perform the biblical duty of physically preserving its people by expanding life-sustaining sources and executing justice upon those who would take away that life, Christian prince or not.
Perhaps, we should take our key from Luther (or at least what is attributed to him) who, when talking about what he wanted in a shoemaker stated that he would rather have an excellent shoemaker than a Christian one who was not so excellent and made bad shoes. Of course, he was exhorting Christians to make good shoes but as I reflect upon that I think of all of the horrible governments that claimed to be Christian throughout the history of Christendom who did not fulfill this biblical model, and then I look at nations that have sought to fulfill it and think how much better of a job they have often done than these Christian nations ever did. I would like a Christian prince to rule but not to demand what was demanded by Christ of His people, but that he might know and understand the biblical model of government and execute it in a way that allows the images of God to fulfill the creation mandate.
We'll pursue what relationship Christians are to have with governments like those of Rome that may not be fulfilling the command in times of persecution or in various ways toward people in the next post.
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