Beast Accountability For Human Lifeblood?

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Hi S____,
Thank you for your question.
You ask:

Here is that verse and the following verse from the NIV:

Gen 9:5 And for your lifeblood I will surely demand an accounting. I will demand an accounting from every animal. And from each man, too, I will demand an accounting for the life of his fellow man.
Gen 9:6 “Whoever sheds the blood of man, by man shall his blood be shed; for in the image of God has God made man. (NIV)

Notice verse five ends with “I will demand an accounting for the life of his fellow man“. While Christ tells His followers to “love their enemies”, He has nevertheless ordained the death penalty to be carried out by the civil authorities for certain actions which cost another human life. There is no death penalty for the loss of the life of an animal. There is as much as four- fold restitution for the theft of certain animals, but there is no death penalty. But mankind, “all in Adam” are all “God’s sons”, and the death of one of His sons at the hand of either another of His sons or an animal, demands an accounting.
Here is how Gen 9:5 is to be understood and applied as it regards both man and animal.

Exo 21:28 “If a bull gores a man or a woman to death, the bull must be stoned to death, and its meat must not be eaten. But the owner of the bull will not be held responsible.
Exo 21:29 If, however, the bull has had the habit of goring and the owner has been warned but has not kept it penned up and it kills a man or woman, the bull must be stoned and the owner also must be put to death. (NIV)

Notice, any animal that kills a human “must be stoned to death, and its meat must not be eaten”. That is just how much more important to God, a human is compared to an animal. If a human accidentally killed a human, God provided cities of refuge for that person.

Num 35:11 select some towns to be your cities of refuge, to which a person who has killed someone accidentally may flee. (NIV)

But the next verse, there in Gen 9, places the accounting upon the man. “If… the bull has had the habit of goring and the owner has been warned but has not kept it penned up and it kills a man or woman…” in that case “the owner also must be put to death”, because he had been warned, and did not care for his fellow man enough to keep his bull penned up.
I hope this helps you to see just how precious you are to our heavenly Father, and that to Him “you are worth more than many sparrows” or bulls. I also hope this helps you to understand what God meant in Gen 9:5 when He said “I will demand an accounting from every animal… for your lifeblood”. It is speaking specifically of animals killing humans.

Mat 10:29 Are not two sparrows sold for a penny? Yet not one of them will fall to the ground apart from the will of your Father.
Mat 10:30 And even the very hairs of your head are all numbered.
Mat 10:31 So don’t be afraid; you are worth more than many sparrows. (NIV)

Animals do not “believe that Jesus is the Son of God” and animals are not equipped to be “overcomers”. The very existence of beasts is to demonstrate to “overcomers” what they themselves are without Christ in them making them overcomers. Animals do not “give an accounting” for the deeds they have done in the flesh. Their destruction is just a spiritual type and shadow of our giving an accounting of the deeds we have done in our beastly physical bodies of sinful flesh and blood. Animals themselves do not “give an accounting”!

Ecc 3:18 I said in mine heart concerning the estate of the sons of men, that God might manifest them, and that they might see that they themselves are beasts.
Ecc 3:19 For that which befalleth the sons of men befalleth beasts; even one thing befalleth them: as the one dieth, so dieth the other; yea, they have all one breath; so that a man hath no preeminence above a beast: for all is vanity.

Without a resurrection of the dead, even “all in Adam” would never amount to any more than a dead beast which is simply dust.

Gen 3:19 In the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread, till thou return unto the ground; for out of it wast thou taken: for dust thou art, and unto dust shalt thou return.
Ecc 3:20 All go unto one place; all are of the dust, and all turn to dust again.
1Co 15:17 And if Christ be not raised, your faith is vain; ye are yet in your sins.
1Co 15:18 Then they also which are fallen asleep in Christ are perished.

Animals have no “faith”, and animals do not “fall asleep in Christ”. God bless you.
Your brother in Christ,
Mike

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