God's Blessing and Caveat - Genesis 9:1-7

1 So God blessed Noah and his sons, and said to them: "Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth. 2 And the fear of you and the dread of you shall be on every beast of the earth, on every bird of the air, on all that move on the earth, and on all the fish of the sea. They are given into your hand. 3 Every moving thing that lives shall be food for you. I have given you all things, even as the green herbs. 4 But you shall not eat flesh with its life, that is, its blood. 5 Surely for your lifeblood I will demand a reckoning; from the hand of every beast I will require it, and from the hand of man. From the hand of every man's brother I will require the life of man. 6 "Whoever sheds man's blood, By man his blood shall be shed; For in the image of God He made man. 7 And as for you, be fruitful and multiply; Bring forth abundantly in the earth And multiply in it." - Genesis 9:1-7

OBSERVATION QUESTIONS:
1) In what three ways did the Lord bless Noah and his sons?
2) Over what did the Lord give Noah and his descendants dominion?
3) What did the Lord allow Noah and his descendants to do, that He did not allow Adam and Eve to do? 
4) How did the blessing over Noah and his descendants differ from the blessing given to Adam and Eve?
5) Under what circumstances, and why, did the Lord allow man to take the life of another man?

APPLICATION QUESTIONS:
1) How has the Lord blessed you and your family?
2) What has the Lord given His people dominion over?
3) In what areas of your life do you exercise your God-given dominion (authority)?
4) Why do you think that the Lord allowed man to murder anyone who shed the blood of another man?
5) Do you value the lives of everyone the Lord has brought into your life? How do you demonstrate that?

LIFE LESSONS:
1) The Lord always prospers the righteous spiritually, if not materially.
2) The Lord has allowed man to rule over all living creatures (that includes self-rule).
3) The Lord highly esteems the life of everything that He has created.  

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