Ok, I don't know whether to bring this up here because I don't have an answer and I don't want anyone to stumble. So be forewarned. Here goes. Reprimand me if you must. God made us. He made us fallible (interesting that "fall" is in that word). He knows what we will do before we do it. So none of what happens in Genesis was a great surprise to Him, right? Yes, the decision to sin is ours. But the flaw in us is His. We would all agree that parent's take some responsibility in the actions of their children. The creator takes some ownership and responsibility for his creation. To create something that you know will do evil, aren't you allowing and, therefore, somehow implicated in what happens? Isn't God somehow ultimately responsible because He ultimately has the power to decide what happens? I don't pretend to understand any of this. But I trust and have faith in God's love for us. And so I'm comfortable in not understanding this. Because I trust in God's love. He sent His son to save us all. That fact changes everything I read in the Bible, beginning with the Old Testament.
I believe that somehow, someway and for some reason, our sinfulness or weakness is ultimately for our own benefit. We all have something to overcome and God is glorified in our weakness. He picks flawed tools with which to work on this earth.
Man is wicked so God destroys him in the Flood. Except Noah and his wife and his sons and all of their wives. Do you imagine all of them were good enough to be saved? Or did some of them find grace because of Noah? I wonder? It gives me pause as a parent. I pray often that my sins do not fall upon my own children. And I pray, too, that some measure of grace is afforded them because of me. Not because of any good in me but because of the good in Christ who I acknowledge and try, though imperfectly, to follow.
Then, after the flood when God establishes the covenant with Noah, there is this curious verse:
"And for your lifeblood I will surely demand an accounting. I will demand an accounting from every animal. And from each man, too...." [Genesis 9:5]
From this I infer, correctly or incorrectly, animal's have some responsibility and accountability in life. So do they, like us, also have some reward?
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