◄ Genesis 9:3 ►
Everything that lives and moves will be food for you; just as I gave you the green plants, I now give you all things.
Study Bible
Every moving thing that lives
This phrase marks a significant shift in the dietary permissions given to humanity. In the Hebrew text, "every moving thing" (כָּל־רֶמֶשׂ) refers to all creatures that move, indicating a broad inclusion of animals. Historically, this represents a post-Flood covenant where God expands the human diet to include meat, contrasting with the pre-Flood diet of only plants. This permission underscores God's provision and sovereignty over creation, allowing humanity to utilize the resources He has provided.

shall be food for you
The Hebrew word for "food" (אָכְלָה) implies sustenance and nourishment. This divine provision reflects God's care and concern for human survival and well-being. It also establishes a new relationship between humans and animals, where animals become a source of sustenance. This change is not merely practical but also theological, as it signifies God's ongoing covenant relationship with humanity, ensuring their needs are met.

As I gave you the green plants
This phrase recalls Genesis 1:29, where God initially provided plants for food. The continuity of God's provision from plants to animals highlights His unchanging nature and faithfulness. The reference to "green plants" (יֶרֶק עֵשֶׂב) serves as a reminder of the original creation order and God's initial intentions for human sustenance. It also emphasizes that God's provision is both abundant and varied, catering to the needs of His creation.

I now give you everything
The phrase "I now give you everything" (נָתַתִּי לָכֶם אֶת־כֹּל) signifies a comprehensive and generous provision from God. The Hebrew root נָתַן (natan) means "to give," indicating a gift from God to humanity. This reflects God's grace and generosity, as He entrusts humans with the stewardship of His creation. Theologically, it underscores the idea of dominion and responsibility, reminding humanity of their role as caretakers of the earth, accountable to God for how they use His gifts. This provision is not just about physical sustenance but also about spiritual trust and reliance on God's ongoing care.

Persons / Places / Events
1. Noah
A righteous man chosen by God to survive the flood and repopulate the earth. After the flood, God establishes a new covenant with him.

2. God
The Creator who establishes a covenant with Noah, granting him and his descendants dominion over all living creatures.

3. The Flood
A cataclysmic event that destroyed all life on earth except for Noah, his family, and the animals on the ark. It represents God's judgment and mercy.

4. The Ark
The vessel built by Noah under God's instructions to save his family and pairs of every animal species from the flood.

5. Post-Flood Earth
The renewed earth after the flood, where God reestablishes His covenant with humanity and sets new guidelines for living.
Teaching Points
God's Provision
Recognize that God is the ultimate provider of all our needs, both physical and spiritual. He has given us the resources of the earth to sustain us.

Stewardship and Responsibility
With the freedom to consume all living things comes the responsibility to steward God's creation wisely and ethically.

Covenant Relationship
Understand the significance of God's covenant with Noah as a foundation for His ongoing relationship with humanity, marked by both provision and responsibility.

Dietary Freedom and Respect
While we have freedom in dietary choices, we should respect others' convictions and practice gratitude for God's provision.

Gratitude and Worship
Use the resources God provides as an opportunity to express gratitude and worship, acknowledging His sovereignty and goodness.
Bible Study Questions
1. How does Genesis 9:3 reflect a change in humanity's relationship with creation compared to Genesis 1:29-30?

2. In what ways does the permission to eat all living things highlight God's provision and care for humanity?

3. How can we apply the principle of stewardship in our daily lives when it comes to using the resources God has given us?

4. What are some practical ways to balance the freedom we have in Christ with respect for others' dietary convictions?

5. How can recognizing God's provision in Genesis 9:3 lead us to a deeper sense of gratitude and worship in our daily lives?
Connections to Other Scriptures
Genesis 1:29-30
Initially, God gave Adam and Eve every seed-bearing plant for food. Genesis 9:3 expands this provision to include animals, indicating a shift in human diet post-flood.

Acts 10:9-16
Peter's vision of clean and unclean animals, where God declares all foods clean, echoes the permission given to Noah, emphasizing the removal of dietary restrictions.

Romans 14:2-3
Discusses the freedom of believers in dietary choices, reflecting the broader principle of liberty in Christ that began with God's covenant with Noah.
Sermons
Noah a Representative PersonW. Adamson.Genesis 9:1-7
The Divine Benediction on the New HumanityT. H. Leale.Genesis 9:1-7
The New Life of Man on the EarthR.A. Redford Genesis 9:1-7
The New World and its Inheritors -- the Men of FaithP. Fairbairn, D. D.Genesis 9:1-7
People
Ham, Japheth, Noah, Shem
Places
Tigris-Euphrates Region
Topics
Alive, Creeping, Green, Herb, Meat, Moving, Plant, Plants
Dictionary of Bible Themes
Genesis 9:3

     4402   plants

Genesis 9:1-3

     1335   blessing
     5002   human race, and creation
     8472   respect, for environment

Genesis 9:1-4

     4438   eating

Genesis 9:1-5

     4029   world, human beings in

Genesis 9:1-17

     7203   ark, Noah's

Genesis 9:2-4

     4017   life, animal and plant

Library
Capital Punishment
Eversley. Quinquagesima Sunday, 1872. Genesis ix. 1, 3, 4, 5, 6. "And God blessed Noah and his sons, and said unto them, Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth. . . . Every moving thing that liveth shall be meat for you . . . But flesh with the life thereof, which is the blood thereof, shall ye not eat. 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 …
Charles Kingsley—All Saints' Day and Other Sermons

Noah's Flood
(Quinquagesima Sunday.) GENESIS ix. 13. I do set my bow in the cloud, and it shall be for a token of a covenant between me and the earth. We all know the history of Noah's flood. What have we learnt from that history? What were we intended to learn from it? What thoughts should we have about it? There are many thoughts which we may have. We may think how the flood came to pass; what means God used to make it rain forty days; what is meant by breaking up the fountains of the great deep. We may …
Charles Kingsley—The Gospel of the Pentateuch

Death.
PSALM CIV. 20, 21. Thou makest darkness, and it is night: wherein all the beasts of the forest do creep forth. The lions roar after their prey, and seek their meat from God. Let me say a few words on this text. It is one which has been a comfort to me again and again. It is one which, if rightly understood, ought to give comfort to pitiful and tender-hearted persons. Have you never been touched by, never been even shocked by, the mystery of pain and death? I do not speak now of pain and death …
Charles Kingsley—Westminster Sermons

Covenanting Enforced by the Grant of Covenant Signs and Seals.
To declare emphatically that the people of God are a covenant people, various signs were in sovereignty vouchsafed. The lights in the firmament of heaven were appointed to be for signs, affording direction to the mariner, the husbandman, and others. Miracles wrought on memorable occasions, were constituted signs or tokens of God's universal government. The gracious grant of covenant signs was made in order to proclaim the truth of the existence of God's covenant with his people, to urge the performance …
John Cunningham—The Ordinance of Covenanting

That the Ruler Should Be, through Humility, a Companion of Good Livers, But, through the Zeal of Righteousness, Rigid against the vices of Evildoers.
The ruler should be, through humility, a companion of good livers, and, through the zeal of righteousness, rigid against the vices of evil-doers; so that in nothing he prefer himself to the good, and yet, when the fault of the bad requires it, he be at once conscious of the power of his priority; to the end that, while among his subordinates who live well he waives his rank and accounts them as his equals, he may not fear to execute the laws of rectitude towards the perverse. For, as I remember to …
Leo the Great—Writings of Leo the Great

The Doctrine of Non-Resistance to Evil by Force Has Been Professed by a Minority of Men from the Very Foundation of Christianity. Of the Book "What
CHAPTER I. THE DOCTRINE OF NON-RESISTANCE TO EVIL BY FORCE HAS BEEN PROFESSED BY A MINORITY OF MEN FROM THE VERY FOUNDATION OF CHRISTIANITY. Of the Book "What I Believe"--The Correspondence Evoked by it-- Letters from Quakers--Garrison's Declaration--Adin Ballou, his Works, his Catechism--Helchitsky's "Net of Faith"--The Attitude of the World to Works Elucidating Christ's Teaching--Dymond's Book "On War"--Musser's "Non-resistance Asserted"--Attitude of the Government in 1818 to Men who Refused to …
Leo Tolstoy—The Kingdom of God is within you

Original Righteousness.
"For in Him we live and move, and have our being: as certain also of your own poets have said. For we are also His offspring." --Acts xvii. 28. It is the peculiar characteristic of the Reformed Confession that more than any other it humbles the sinner and exalts the sinless man. To disparage man is unscriptural. Being a sinner, fallen and no longer a real man, he must be humbled, rebuked, and inwardly broken. But the divinely created man, realizing the divine purpose or restored by omnipotent grace …
Abraham Kuyper—The Work of the Holy Spirit

The Sixth Commandment
Thou shalt not kill.' Exod 20: 13. In this commandment is a sin forbidden, which is murder, Thou shalt not kill,' and a duty implied, which is, to preserve our own life, and the life of others. The sin forbidden is murder: Thou shalt not kill.' Here two things are to be understood, the not injuring another, nor ourselves. I. The not injuring another. [1] We must not injure another in his name. A good name is a precious balsam.' It is a great cruelty to murder a man in his name. We injure others in …
Thomas Watson—The Ten Commandments

Being Made Archbishop of Armagh, He Suffers Many Troubles. Peace Being Made, from Being Archbishop of Armagh He Becomes Bishop of Down.
[Sidenote: 1129] 19. (12). Meanwhile[365] it happened that Archbishop Cellach[366] fell sick: he it was who ordained Malachy deacon, presbyter and bishop: and knowing that he was dying he made a sort of testament[367] to the effect that Malachy ought to succeed him,[368] because none seemed worthier to be bishop of the first see. This he gave in charge to those who were present, this he commanded to the absent, this to the two kings of Munster[369] and to the magnates of the land he specially enjoined …
H. J. Lawlor—St. Bernard of Clairvaux's Life of St. Malachy of Armagh

Mosaic Cosmogony.
ON the revival of science in the 16th century, some of the earliest conclusions at which philosophers arrived were found to be at variance with popular and long-established belief. The Ptolemaic system of astronomy, which had then full possession of the minds of men, contemplated the whole visible universe from the earth as the immovable centre of things. Copernicus changed the point of view, and placing the beholder in the sun, at once reduced the earth to an inconspicuous globule, a merely subordinate …
Frederick Temple—Essays and Reviews: The Education of the World

Mount Zion.
"For ye are not come unto a mount that might be touched, and that burned with fire, and unto blackness, and darkness, and tempest, and the sound of a trumpet, and the voice of words; which voice they that heard entreated that no word more should be spoken unto them: for they could not endure that which was enjoined, If even a beast touch the mountain, it shall be stoned; and so fearful was the appearance, that Moses said, I exceedingly fear and quake: but ye are come unto Mount Zion, and unto …
Thomas Charles Edwards—The Expositor's Bible: The Epistle to the Hebrews

Covenanting According to the Purposes of God.
Since every revealed purpose of God, implying that obedience to his law will be given, is a demand of that obedience, the announcement of his Covenant, as in his sovereignty decreed, claims, not less effectively than an explicit law, the fulfilment of its duties. A representation of a system of things pre-determined in order that the obligations of the Covenant might be discharged; various exhibitions of the Covenant as ordained; and a description of the children of the Covenant as predestinated …
John Cunningham—The Ordinance of Covenanting

Covenanting Predicted in Prophecy.
The fact of Covenanting, under the Old Testament dispensations, being approved of God, gives a proof that it was proper then, which is accompanied by the voice of prophecy, affording evidence that even in periods then future it should no less be proper. The argument for the service that is afforded by prophecy is peculiar, and, though corresponding with evidence from other sources, is independent. Because that God willed to make known truth through his servants the prophets, we should receive it …
John Cunningham—The Ordinance of Covenanting

The Promise to the Patriarchs.
A great epoch is, in Genesis, ushered in with the history of the time of the Patriarchs. Luther says: "This is the third period in which Holy Scripture begins the history of the Church with a new family." In a befitting manner, the representation is opened in Gen. xii. 1-3 by an account of the first revelation of God, given to Abraham at Haran, in which the way is opened up for all that follows, and in which the dispensations of God are brought before us in a rapid survey. Abraham is to forsake …
Ernst Wilhelm Hengstenberg—Christology of the Old Testament

Discourse on Spiritual Food and True Discipleship. Peter's Confession.
(at the Synagogue in Capernaum.) ^D John VI. 22-71. ^d 22 On the morrow [the morrow after Jesus fed the five thousand] the multitude that stood on the other side of the sea [on the east side, opposite Capernaum] saw that there was no other boat there, save one, and that Jesus went not with his disciples into the boat, but that his disciples went away alone 23 (howbeit there came boats from Tiberias nigh unto the place where they ate the bread after that the Lord had given thanks): 24 when the multitude …
J. W. McGarvey—The Four-Fold Gospel

Genesis
The Old Testament opens very impressively. In measured and dignified language it introduces the story of Israel's origin and settlement upon the land of Canaan (Gen.--Josh.) by the story of creation, i.-ii. 4a, and thus suggests, at the very beginning, the far-reaching purpose and the world-wide significance of the people and religion of Israel. The narrative has not travelled far till it becomes apparent that its dominant interests are to be religious and moral; for, after a pictorial sketch of …
John Edgar McFadyen—Introduction to the Old Testament

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