創世記9章

       創世記9:1-7  ,

       創世記9:8-17   ,

       創世記9:18-29 ,

創世記9:1-7

9:1 上帝賜福給挪亞和他的兒子，對他們說：「你們要生養眾多，遍滿了地。
9:2 凡地上的走獸和空中的飛鳥都必驚恐，懼怕你們，連地上一切的昆蟲並海裡一切的魚都交付你們的手。
9:3 凡活著的動物都可以作你們的食物。這一切我都賜給你們，如同菜蔬一樣。
9:4 惟獨肉帶著血，那就是牠的生命，你們不可吃。
9:5 流你們血、害你們命的，無論是獸是人，我必討他的罪，就是向各人的弟兄也是如此。
9:6 凡流人血的，他的血也必被人所流，因為上帝造人是照自己的形像造的。
9:7 你們要生養眾多，在地上昌盛繁茂。」

Then God blessed Noah and his sons, saying to them, “Be fruitful and increase in number and fill the earth. ² The fear and dread of you will fall on all the beasts of the earth, and on all the birds in the sky, on every creature that moves along the ground, and on all the fish in the sea; they are given into your hands. ³ Everything that lives and moves about will be food for you. Just as I gave you the green plants, I now give you everything.

⁴ “But you must not eat meat that has its lifeblood still in it. ⁵ And for your lifeblood I will surely demand an accounting. I will demand an accounting from every animal. And from each human being, too, I will demand an accounting for the life of another human being.

⁶ “Whoever sheds human blood,
    by humans shall their blood be shed;
for in the image of God
    has God made mankind.

⁷ As for you, be fruitful and increase in number; multiply on the earth and increase upon it.”

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    上帝在洪水以後，允許人吃肉，但是為了尊重生命，禁止吃血，並且不可以流人的血。之所以如此，是因為血代表生命！流人的血，就是殺害人的性命，是惹動上帝的心。之所以如此，是因為人是按照上帝的形像造的，是上帝看為寶貝的！

    也因為如此，上帝將獻祭的律例告訴摩西，要以牛、羊的血來為人贖罪，就是要上帝和人清楚罪的代價就是死，犯罪之後的懲罰就是要付上生命的代價。也因此，人對罪不能隨隨便便的態度，要非常得慎重。而上帝用牛、羊的血，來預表耶穌基督也要獻上自己為贖罪祭，為人的罪流出寶血，將人買贖回來，不再落入上帝的震怒之中。

    因此，我們要認清上帝為了完成祂的公義，來拯救在罪中的我們，所付出的代價是何等的重大，這不是用話講講就了事的，是真正有行動，有付出的，不是讓我們今生好過就好，更是要我們得著永生，是我們成為祂榮耀恩典的張顯！我們豈可說用我們的喜好選擇要與不要接受，我們更是要用全心、全意、全志、全力來回應，看為寶貴至極！

箴言22:24-25

22:24 好生氣的人，不可與他結交；暴怒的人，不可與他來往；
22:25 恐怕你效法他的行為，自己就陷在網羅裡。

²⁴ Do not make friends with a hot-tempered person,
    do not associate with one easily angered,
²⁵ or you may learn their ways
    and get yourself ensnared.

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    人常常被情緒所控制，尤其是怒氣！許多人被暴怒所影響，以致於做了許多讓自己後悔的事情。然而怒氣不只會影響當事人，也會讓周圍的人受到影響，似乎具有傳染力，也因此要避免與「好生氣的人」和「暴怒的人」做朋友。

    當然，要克制脾氣還是要靠聖靈，因為聖靈會將「節制」的特質賜給我們，使我們尊主為大之後，知道靠自己是無法成就大事，要仰望主來引導，就會有謙卑的心！而有謙卑的心，就不會想用自己的怒氣來成就上帝的義，如此就不會被怒氣所綑鎖。

    求主保守我們的心懷意念，讓我們遠避一切與怒氣有關的事，讓我們承認自己得無法克制，就會避免自己被脾氣網羅，如此就不會做出後悔不已的事情，保守我們一生的平安！

創世記8:15-22

8:15 上帝對挪亞說：
8:16 「你和你的妻子、兒子、兒婦都可以出方舟。
8:17 在你那裡凡有血肉的活物，就是飛鳥、牲畜，和一切爬在地上的昆蟲，都要帶出來，叫牠在地上多多滋生，大大興旺。」
8:18 於是挪亞和他的妻子、兒子、兒婦都出來了。
8:19 一切走獸、昆蟲、飛鳥，和地上所有的動物，各從其類，也都出了方舟。
8:20 挪亞為耶和華築了一座壇，拿各類潔淨的牲畜、飛鳥獻在壇上為燔祭。
8:21 耶和華聞那馨香之氣，就心裡說：「我不再因人的緣故咒詛地（人從小時心裡懷著惡念），也不再按著我才行的滅各種的活物了。
8:22 地還存留的時候，稼穡、寒暑、冬夏、晝夜就永不停息了。」

¹⁵ Then God said to Noah, ¹⁶ “Come out of the ark, you and your wife and your sons and their wives. ¹⁷ Bring out every kind of living creature that is with you—the birds, the animals, and all the creatures that move along the ground—so they can multiply on the earth and be fruitful and increase in number on it.”
¹⁸ So Noah came out, together with his sons and his wife and his sons’ wives. ¹⁹ All the animals and all the creatures that move along the ground and all the birds—everything that moves on land—came out of the ark, one kind after another.
²⁰ Then Noah built an altar to the Lord and, taking some of all the clean animals and clean birds, he sacrificed burnt offerings on it. ²¹ The Lord smelled the pleasing aroma and said in his heart: “Never again will I curse the ground because of humans, even though^[a] every inclination of the human heart is evil from childhood. And never again will I destroy all living creatures, as I have done.

²² “As long as the earth endures,
seedtime and harvest,
cold and heat,
summer and winter,
day and night
will never cease.”

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    上帝雖然大費周章除掉了世上一切的惡人，雖然挪亞是上帝看為義的人，其實留下來的人仍然是從小時心裡懷著惡念，也就是說人仍然還是有罪性。所以，上帝設立獻祭來預表基督，使人盼望上帝的救贖。

    然而上帝也因為挪亞獻祭所產生的「馨香之氣」，心裡喜悅，賜福大地：「我不再因人的緣故咒詛地，也不再按著我才行的滅各種的活物了。地還存留的時候，稼穡、寒暑、冬夏、晝夜就永不停息了。」

    可見，上帝樂意與人同在，樂意赦免人的罪，只要人肯順服，上帝的福份是永不斷絕的！求上帝在基督裡，大大的賜福我們！

創世記8章

          創世記8:1-14  ,

          創世記8:15-22  ,

創世記8:1-14

8:1 上帝記念挪亞和挪亞方舟裡的一切走獸牲畜。上帝叫風吹地，水勢漸落。
8:2 淵源和天上的窗戶都閉塞了，天上的大雨也止住了。
8:3 水從地上漸退。過了一百五十天，水就漸消。
8:4 七月十七日，方舟停在亞拉臘山上。
8:5 水又漸消，到十月初一日，山頂都現出來了。
8:6 過了四十天，挪亞開了方舟的窗戶，
8:7 放出一隻烏鴉去；那烏鴉飛來飛去，直到地上的水都乾了。
8:8 他又放出一隻鴿子去，要看看水從地上退了沒有。
8:9 但遍地上都是水，鴿子找不著落腳之地，就回到方舟挪亞那裡，挪亞伸手把鴿子接進方舟來。
8:10 他又等了七天，再把鴿子從方舟放出去。
8:11 到了晚上，鴿子回到他那裡，嘴裡叼著一個新擰下來的橄欖葉子，挪亞就知道地上的水退了。
8:12 他又等了七天，放出鴿子去，鴿子就不再回來了。
8:13 到挪亞六百零一歲，正月初一日，地上的水都乾了。挪亞撤去方舟的蓋觀看，便見地面上乾了。
8:14 到了二月二十七日，地就都乾了。

But God remembered Noah and all the wild animals and the livestock that were with him in the ark, and he sent a wind over the earth, and the waters receded. ² Now the springs of the deep and the floodgates of the heavens had been closed, and the rain had stopped falling from the sky. ³ The water receded steadily from the earth. At the end of the hundred and fifty days the water had gone down, ⁴ and on the seventeenth day of the seventh month the ark came to rest on the mountains of Ararat. ⁵ The waters continued to recede until the tenth month, and on the first day of the tenth month the tops of the mountains became visible.

⁶ After forty days Noah opened a window he had made in the ark ⁷ and sent out a raven, and it kept flying back and forth until the water had dried up from the earth. ⁸ Then he sent out a dove to see if the water had receded from the surface of the ground. ⁹ But the dove could find nowhere to perch because there was water over all the surface of the earth; so it returned to Noah in the ark. He reached out his hand and took the dove and brought it back to himself in the ark. ¹⁰ He waited seven more days and again sent out the dove from the ark. ¹¹ When the dove returned to him in the evening, there in its beak was a freshly plucked olive leaf! Then Noah knew that the water had receded from the earth. ¹² He waited seven more days and sent the dove out again, but this time it did not return to him.
¹³ By the first day of the first month of Noah’s six hundred and first year, the water had dried up from the earth. Noah then removed the covering from the ark and saw that the surface of the ground was dry. ¹⁴ By the twenty-seventh day of the second month the earth was completely dry.

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    「鴿子回到他那裡，嘴裡叼著一個新擰下來的橄欖葉子」，這樣的畫面對我們來說是時分熟悉的，因為有許多的賀年遍或卡片，常常會畫一隻鴿子嘴巴叼著一根橄欖葉，尤其是白鴿咬著綠葉，特別有美感。

    然而為何有許多的圖案會如此表現呢？因為這是要向世人宣告一個新天地的開始，因為洪水已退了，過去的一切已經不存在了，要迎接一個新的開始！而這樣的一個新天地的開始，是建立在「上帝記念挪亞和挪亞方舟裡的一切走獸牲畜」的基礎上，表示上帝是多麼的眷顧這些餘種。

    同樣，今日上帝保護守基督徒如同餘種，也要將新天新地的盼望放在這一群人的心中。這群人必定看見「鴿子回到他那裡，嘴裡叼著一個新擰下來的橄欖葉子」，因為上帝透過聖經將自己的心意顯明出來了！