Joel M Bradshaw

 3Every moving thing that lives shall be food for you. And as I gave you the green plants, I give you everything. 4But you shall not eat flesh with its life, that is, its blood.5And for your lifeblood I will require a reckoning: from every beast I will require it and from man. From his fellow man I will require a reckoning for the life of man.

6“Whoever sheds the blood of man, by man shall his blood be shed,
for God made man in his own image. 7And you, be fruitful and multiply, increase greatly on the earth and multiply in it.”–Genesis 9

This is the famous covenant God made with Noah. If you like the theological term, the Noahic Covenant. It detailed that God would no longer flood the earth to wipe out man and the rainbow would be a guarantee of that promise. And man would treat blood differently.

1. DIET. Man could now eat any food he could catch and kill. He just had to eat it in a manner that dealt properly with the blood. The Law of Moses and the dietary restrictions would come much later. We get the point that up until the time of Noah no meat was eaten. This oddly enough would have been a very healthy regulation as certain meats like chicken and pork require a thorough cooking.
2. STANDARDS. Shedding man’s blood came with a price. Even in ethical discussions today, we care about if a war is just. Murder and manslaughter differentiate by intent, but they are both serious crimes. The death penalty reserved for the worst of crimes and intended deter further loss of life. Humanity was not going to be able to just kill people. Again, the Genesis 1 proclamation was repeated. Human life has intrinsic value and worth as given by God. We are made in his image and therefore are not allowed to end that life without consequences. God had just wiped out a world of horrible sin and was starting anew with basic requirements.

You will notice later that when the Israelites worship God they poured blood around the altar and not on it. God wouldn’t symbolically eat blood either. God instead directed the people to offer drink offerings not of blood, but of red wine. In Noah’s day, you would have an ultimate basis for law and order. You also wouldn’t be able to order your steak rare.–JMB