It is the nature of Hebrew language to be indicative. It was never supposed to be legalistic; that was a perversion introduced with Hellenism after the conquest of Alexander the Great (323 BC). Rabbis began absorbing the delirium of human logic and the undying search by human pride for godhead. “You shall decide for yourselves what is good and evil.” Hellenistic reasoning (Aristotelian teaching) is the primary excuse for your intellect to usurp the throne of the soul.
God gave us the heart-mind to rule our lives. It is a prerequisite for the Law of Noah. No human is exempt from the command to let their hearts rule in seeking moral truth (AKA, “knowing good and evil”) because the heart alone is capable of reading God’s revelation woven into the fabric of Creation (AKA reality). You had darned sure better come up with a good answer from your heart-led search for truth, or God’s wrath will fall on you. You are accountable.
God’s Word says that Noah trumps all human laws. Every human government is accountable to God for getting as close to Noah as they know how. So if you read Genesis 9 about what God told Noah declared was the meaning of that rainbow, you’ll see this in verse 6:
Whoever sheds man’s blood,
By mans his blood shall be shed;
For in the image of God
He made man.
As always, Hebrew is indicative, not descriptive. Hebrew language is first parabolic, and you should reflexively seek a symbolic meaning in the words. The truth of God is not contained in the words of the Hebrew language. Divine truth is indicated; you are supposed to think of the words as sign posts pointing to boundaries and territory that should be explored in prayerful contemplation. The truth is not constrained by the words.
What kinds of things can people do that cause bloodshed? It didn’t say “violence” or “fighting” but refers to any activity that causes bloodshed. That means humans are accountable to God for anything that threatens the human existence of others. It’s not that shedding blood is inherently wrong, but that you are accountable for it. If the blood you shed is in pursuit of divine justice, then it cleanses the soil. If the blood you shed is unjust, it defiles the ground on which you stand.
And by standard Hebrew extrapolation, a lot of evil things people do can cause bloodshed indirectly. Yet this passage suggests they would be accountable for that, as well. God will demand their blood for injustice of all kinds.
Acts 4:1-21 (echoed elsewhere) is our authority to say that Christians can resist government in some circumstances. It is a matter of your convictions when and where the love of Christ demands it.
