OK, I let it happen again. Or, at least, I think I did. I let one of those big numbers printed in between the words of my Bible get in the way of my seeing something that’s obvious in the text.

It’s not a major theological point. But it’s worth looking at.

You remember when Noah got off the ark. After months of listening to animals, smelling animals, dealing with animals, Noah finally did what he’d been wanting to do. He took his knife to them.

Not just one animal. A bunch of them. The Bible says, “Noah built an altar to the LORD and took some of every clean animal and some of every clean bird and offered burnt offerings on the altar.” (Genesis 8:20)

Then the chapter ends with God promising never to destroy the earth. The rainbow is given as a sign of that.

Then we get that big number 9. New chapter. New context, right? Another day maybe. Another setting.

I don’t think so. What God says about Noah being allowed to eat meat is directly related to the fact that Noah has just butchered a bunch of animals and has them cooking on an altar behind him. (If you haven’t read John Mark Hicks’ Come to the Table, I highly recommend it. He is the one that showed me the obvious: many sacrifices in the Old Testament were designed as a fellowship meal between man and God.)

God is saying, “That sacrifice you made… eat any of it that you wish.* And feel free to do so in the future.”

*yes, I know, with certain guidelines about not eating blood, etc.

And I never caught that simple fact because I let the chapter number get in the way.

Graphic courtesy of Sweet Publishing
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