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of you' shall be upon every beast, fowl and fish. This is something lower than dominion,
and harmonizes with the general character of the age.
When Nebuchadnezzar was made `the head of gold', he became more than king of the
Babylonian Empire, or the first of a new dynasty, a dispensational change took place,
almost as great as is indicated in Gen. 9: When Daniel interpreted to Nebuchadnezzar
the meaning of the great image he said:
"Thou, O king, art a king of kings: for the God of heaven hath given thee a kingdom,
power, and strength, and glory. And wheresoever the children of MEN dwell, the
BEASTS of the field and the FOWLS of the heaven hath He given into thine hand, and
hath made thee ruler over them all" (Dan. 2: 37, 38).
The words `hath He given into thine hand', are an echo of Gen. 9: 2, `into your hand
are they delivered'; there is also more than a coincidence in the fact that in Gen. 1: 9 and
Dan. 2: these things are associated with an `image', in the one case `the image of God',
in the other a "great image whose brightness was excellent, and its form terrible"
(Dan. 2: 31).
We feel that the evident relation between the dispensation connected with Adam, and
that connected with Noah is important enough to receive the following tabulated list of
parallels and contrasts, and we trust the interested reader will pursue the them more fully
than we are able to do in these pages; we write always for BEREANS (Acts 17: 10, 11):
List of parallels and contrasts between the dispensations headed by:
ADAM
NOAH
A flood in the background that left
A judgment in the background
which left the earth without form and the earth a ruin (Gen. 7: 17-24).
void (Gen. 1: 2; Isa. 45: 18).
(The parallel between these two passages is so close that
commentators are divided as to which of them II Pet. 3: 5, 6 refers.)
The dry land appears on the
The dry land appears in Noah's
third day, grass and trees grow 601st year, and the pluckt olive leaf
(Gen. 1: 9-13).
indicated to Noah that this was so
(Gen. 8: 11-13).
Living creatures are "brought forth
Living creatures are `brought
forth' from the water and from the with Noah out of the Ark that they
earth, and God blessed them saying, may breed abundantly in the earth,
"Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the and be fruitful and multiply in the
waters in the seas, and let fowl earth" (Gen. 8: 15-19).
multiply in the earth" (Gen. 1: 20-25).
Food.--"Every herb bearing seed,
Food.--"Every moving thing that
which is upon the face of all the earth,
liveth shall be meat for you; even as the
and every tree, in the which is the fruit of
green herb have I given you all things",
a tree yielding seed; to you it shall be for
but not blood (Gen. 9: 3, 4).
meat" (Gen. 1: 29).