This text and reading centers on the conclusion to the flood story; The Lord destroys the earth by flood, except for Noah, his family, and the animals on the Ark. Yet, divine, destruction, because of human sinfulness, gives way to divine commitment. God blessed Noah and his sons and told them to have many children and to repopulate the earth. "All wild animals and birds and fish will be afraid of you." God told him; " for I have placed them in your power, and they are yours to use for food, in addition to grain and vegetables. But never eat animals unless their blood has been drained off. To eat blood is to eat life, ( for blood is life)! The life of the flesh is in the blood. . The principle is reverence for life, God's gift. It is also given at the Altar to make atonement for the soul. A murder is forbidden. Man-killing animals must die.and any man who murders shall be killed; for to kill a man ( who is made in the image of God requires the murderer to be put to death. Yes, have many children and repopulate the earth, and subdue it. Some certain individuals came down from Jerusalem and were teaching the brothers" unless you are circumcised according to the custom of Moses, you cannot be saved." For they belonged to a sect called Pharisees, who lived under the law. So the apostles and the elders met together to consider the matter. Peter wants to know why the Jewish church is putting God to the test by placing on the neck of the disciples a yoke that neither our ancestors nor we have been able to bear. Paul says he has reached a decision that we should not trouble those gentiles who are turning to God, but we should write to them to abstain only from things polluted by Idols and from fornication and from whatever has been strangled and from blood. Then God told Noah and his sons, " I solemnly promise you and your children, and the animals you brought with you-all these birds and cattle and wild animals- that I will never again send another flood to destroy the earth, and I seal this promise until the end of time.I have placed my rainbow in the clouds as a sign of my promise. If we look at 1st Peter {3:18-22} In his reading the author emphasizes God's action on behalf of Noah, his family and the creatures. this saving presence continues to be manifested through Christ in the act of baptism.
God's covenant which binds himself with Noah and His people including non-humans, which is held to serve him in Holiness and righteousness, calling this the moral aspect of the covenant. (cf. Rom. 9:4), where the gift of the covenant and the law are joined together); " we can also find the same fundamental meaning found in (Acts 3:25); the expression "sons of the covenant" underlies the creative power of the covenant which has brought into being in history a people which owes its existence entirely to it.
Everything in this is wrapped up in the coming of Jesus Christ. all of the law and prophets are fulfilled in Jesus, as we know from the transfiguration. The spirit that comes to Jesus at his baptism sustains him when he is tested by Satan so that he might proclaim the gospel of God's reign.
Jesus is Baptized. The next thing we hear is that "the spirit is immediately driven into the wilderness to be tempted by Satan for forty days Interesting choice of words. Matthew's and Luke's version of this story describe the spirit as " leading," into the wilderness, but, Mark's
account the spirit's action is much more forceful than that. The spirit drove Jesus out into the wilderness sharply by the neck, like a bouncer does. It is the operative word in all exorcism stories, when Jesus confronts the unclean spirits The (Greek) "ekballo's" them, means to grab roughly, forcefully,He throws them out of the people they inhabit. So often we fail to recognize Jesus in those we encounter and for the same reason- we don't take time to look. Take a look at Mark's Gospel (1:9-15)
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