Ecclesiastes 3:19-21: A View of the Souls and Spirits of Humans and Animals
By Frank and Mary Hoffman - 14 Apr 2011
Dear William:
Thank you for writing back.
We agree with you about your interpretation of Genesis 9:9-10, it we take it as a stand alone passage. However, it we look back to the beginning of the chapter, which we believe Mike was doing in his commentary, and couple that with God's comment about Noah's sacrifice at the end of the previous chapter and humans being evil from their youth, we begin to see more of a connection to the concession to eat animal flesh, for the concession seems to be coupled to a curse, for almost all of our chronic diseases and most of our viral diseases have their origin in the raising and eating of animals products. There is nothing about the killing and eating of animals being a blessing. In fact it is the only class of food for which the Jews don't have a prayer blessing.
With this in mind, please take a look at Matthew 19:3-9 about divorce, and that Moses only allowed it because of the hardness of the human heart, and God's comments to Samuel about the people wanting a human king in 1 Samuel 8, and the fact that they had turned against God, and we see that these are also concessions. There is something very similar taking place in these Genesis passages, and the reason that we believe that this is also a concession. Even though God did bless Noah and his sons, He still considered them evil from their youth as He said in 8:21, and there is nothing to suggest that this blessing extended any further.
We don't believe we are in any way distorting Scripture. We are just looking at it in the light of God's creation and heavenly will, just as Jesus taught us to pray for and have on earth as it is in heaven, where there is no longer and pain or death.
God never gave His sanction for inflicting pain and suffering on animals as has become standard practice with almost all commercially farmed animals, and human participation in this practice makes them part of the sin.
We hope you understand where we are coming from.
In the Love of the Lord,
Frank and Mary
| 