Chuck Larsen

In Genesis 1:29, God gives us all the trees and plants for our food. Then in verse 30 he gives them to the animals also. Genesis 1:30 reads, “’And to every beast of the earth and to every bird of the heavens and to everything that creeps on the earth, everything that has the breath of life, I have given every green plant for food.’ And it was so.” This leads me to think that before the fall of man and the corruption of the earth we were all vegetarians. This seems to be the consensus of many scholars as well. It wasn’t until after the flood that God presented animals as food. Those living before the flood were the “antediluvians.” They were “…made out of nothing by a direct fiat of God, in God’s image and after His likeness, male and female; were appointed the lords of creation; and were vegetarians till after the Deluge”^[1]

There has always been a contingent of vegetarians throughout history. You can find it in ancient Greece, before Socrates, but in the west the pronouncement as meat for food after the flood has been dominant. Yet, there has always been various sects that were vegetarians and promoted that as God’s way. There was a religious sect of Methodism “…founded in Hackensack, New Jersey, about 1890, by Huntsman T. Mnason. Mnason and his followers have everything in common, and believe they shall be judged by their works, and not by their faith. They are careful to harm no living thing, and they adhere to a strict vegetarian diet. They do not believe in any form of marriage, whether civil or religious, and hold the most extreme ideas of free love.”^[2] Then with the advent of many Hindu influences in the US in the 1960’s and 1970’s vegetarianism has found a fresh following. For example, “Sikhism gained a considerable influence in the West through Yogi Bhajan… who in 1968 founded the Healthy, Happy, Holy Organization (3HO), beginning his first ashram in Los Angeles. Many young Americans of the counterculture movement joined him. From there he moved to a forty-acre ranch in New Mexico, where … They are strict vegetarians and live a drug-free life, egalitarian life.”^[3] This, and other influences gave rise to PETA. PETA (People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals) will often point to Genesis 1:30 to show that God’s care for Animals is the same as His care for man. He feeds them both!  According to the web, “PETA was founded in 1980 and is dedicated to establishing and defending the rights of all animals. PETA operates under the simple principle that animals are not ours to experiment on, eat, wear, use for entertainment, or abuse in any other way.”

I’m not sure about this and I’m not endorsing it, but Norm Geisler has an answer as to what changed after the flood. He writes, “Why is it that in Genesis 1:29 God commends to Adam and Eve a vegetarian diet, while in Genesis 9:3, after God has reset the limits on human longevity, he now includes meat in their diet? If one eats meat, one ingests a much higher concentration of heavy elements that over time can accumulate in the body. If one lives nine hundred years, this would become a serious problem. If one lives 120 years or less, the accumulation never reaches levels that would adversely affect one’s health. Thus, this change in diet is also consistent with the dramatic change in longevity of human beings indicated in the Bible.”^[4] One thing is for sure, both vegetarians and those of us who eat a hamburger once in a while live under the same life span for the most part. Anyone reaching 120 years is a rare bird. But modern studies have shown that vegetarians do live a little longer. But there are other issues to consider. William MacAskill wrote in his web article “Vegetarians live longer but it’s not because they don’t eat meat.” He says, “One of the most basic concepts in science is that correlation does not imply causation—even though it is sometimes highly suggestive of it. For example, in post-war Germany, as the stork population fell, so did the human birth rate. But as I was deeply troubled to learn, storks do not cause babies—rather, economic growth led to both destruction of stork habitat, and to declining fertility rates. So it goes with vegetarianism and longevity. It’s absolutely true that vegetarians live longer (at least among Seventh Day Adventists, the target group of the study). In fact, in this study, vegetarians live six to nine years longer, which is a huge effect. But vegetarians are also more likely to exercise, be married, smoke less and drink less alcohol—all factors that also contribute to a longer life. The actual causal relationship between becoming vegetarian and living longer is unclear and is certainly smaller than the correlation might seem to suggest.”

^[1] Woods, F. H. 1908–1926. “Antediluvians.” In Encyclopædia of Religion and Ethics, edited by James Hastings, John A. Selbie, and Louis H. Gray, 1:560. Edinburgh; New York: T. & T. Clark; Charles Scribner’s Sons.

^[2] Arsdale, F. D. Van. 1908–1926. “Angel Dancers.” In Encyclopædia of Religion and Ethics, edited by James Hastings, John A. Selbie, and Louis H. Gray, 1:474. Edinburgh; New York: T. & T. Clark; Charles Scribner’s Sons.

^[3] Geisler, Norman L. 1999. “Sikhism.” In Baker Encyclopedia of Christian Apologetics, 707. Baker Reference Library. Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Books.

^[4] Bradley, Walter. 2001. “Why I Believe the Bible Is Scientifically Reliable.” In Why I Am a Christian: Leading Thinkers Explain Why They Believe, 176. Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Books.

My Mom and Dad both grew up during the depression. I hear stories about how Gramma would send the nine kids to the parks to pick dandelions so she could use them to make a salad for dinner. I have a picture of my dad as a young man standing in a food line with a cup to get his share of soup. But thanks to their hard work, I’ve never seen an empty refrigerator or pantry! We have so much more food than we’ll ever eat and as a matter of fact we have to be careful about eating too much. We’re always watching our weight because we have the tendency to overeat! According to some recent statistics, overeating is a major problem in the US. The US obesity prevalence was 30.5% in 2000. By 2018 it had increased to 42.4%. During the same time, the prevalence of severe obesity increased from 4.7% to 9.2%. Obesity-related conditions include heart disease, stroke, type 2 diabetes, and certain types of cancer. These are among the leading causes of preventable, premature death. The estimated annual obesity related medical costs in the United States was $147 billion in 2008. Even those in the poorest counties in our country have a high obesity rate. There are so many charitable organizations in our country that give food to the poor or disadvantaged that no one needs to go hungry, and it looks like they don’t.

We are so blessed in America to have so much food available for everyone. For the most part, I think we’ve taken it all for granted. Yes, that might be one of the results of living in a competitive, capitalistic society where production and delivery of food products to everyone produces profit. Someone posted two pictures on face book. On the right was a photo of a grocery store with full shelves. The one on the left was the same grocery store with nearly bare shelves. The tag lines, “This is the difference between capitalism on the right, and socialism or communism on the left.” Very well, but I think we should never forget that the ultimate source of our full tables at Thanksgiving and year around are not solely the result of our economic system.

The ultimate source of our food is God. In Genesis 1:29, “And God said, ‘Behold, I have given you every plant yielding seed that is on the face of all the earth, and every tree with seed in its fruit. You shall have them for food.’” Our tables are full because God has given us so much. Granted, because of greed and corruption, the poor around the world have suffered at the hands of other humans, but the food is there. It’s just being hoarded by those in control.  This is one of the many pieces of evidence of God’s love for man. He filled the world with colors and gave us eyes. He filled the fields with flowers and aromas and gave us noses. He filled the world with good things to eat and gave us taste buds and appetites. Growing up Catholic I learned a simple little prayer of gratitude for my food. I remember that prayer: “Bless us our Lord and these thy gifts which we are about to receive through Jesus Christ our Lord.” One website puts it this way: “Got ten seconds? Then you have time to say one of the most familiar prayers in the world: grace before meals. Seriously. You can do this in about ten seconds—and even that humble act can serve to connect you, however briefly, with the Creator of all you are about to receive.”

Notice God’s instructions to the first man in Genesis 1:28. There are two things for Adam to focus on. “Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and subdue it and have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over every living thing that moves on the earth” (Gen. 1:28). He is to be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth. Then he’s to “subdue it” and have “dominion over it.” The Hebrew word for “subdue” was used in the Old Testament to describe the condition of the land after Joshua conquered the promised land. We read in Joshua 18:1, “Then the whole congregation of the people of Israel assembled at Shiloh and set up the tent of meeting there. The land lay subdued before them.” “Subdue and have dominion over are parallel expressions with reference to the plants and animals that God has put on the earth. This is not a command to go to war, but for the first people and their offspring to ‘take control, be in charge, have direction over.’”^[1] God made mankind the boss!

According to Briscoe, “Pascal said, ‘Man is neither angel nor beast.’ Far from being on a par with the beasts and yet, unlike the angels, stationed on earth, humankind stands under God, above creation, to order and direct it as God desires. From the very beginning of time God put humankind to work in the most responsible position imaginable.”^[2] “The word translated “subdue” (Hebrew kābash) implies that Adam and Eve should make the resources of the earth useful for their own benefit, and this implies that God intended them to develop the earth so that they could come to own agricultural products and animals, then housing and works of craftsmanship and beauty, and eventually buildings, means of transportation, cities, and inventions of all sorts.”^[3]

Being the boss means that we’re responsible for it. That requires a sense of accountability. This verse does not give us carte blanche in managing our environment. Walton sees it correctly. He argues, “…our role in subduing and ruling must be seen as a function of stewardship, not of ownership. This world is not ours to dispose of as we will, but it has been put under our charge to manage for its owner, God. That management is not with our own benefit in mind, but with the mindset that this is God’s world.”^[4] Jesus tells stories about the master that entrusts the care of his goods with his servants and then returns to hold them accountable for how they managed it. Shouldn’t we think of it like that?

^[1] Reyburn, William David, and Euan McG. Fry. 1998. A Handbook on Genesis. UBS Handbook Series. New York: United Bible Societies.

^[2] Briscoe, D. Stuart, and Lloyd J. Ogilvie. 1987. Genesis. Vol. 1. The Preacher’s Commentary Series. Nashville, TN: Thomas Nelson Inc.

^[3] Grudem, Wayne A. 2003. Business for the Glory of God: The Bible’s Teaching on the Moral Goodness of Business. Wheaton, IL: Crossway Books.

^[4] Walton, John H. 2001. Genesis. The NIV Application Commentary. Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan.

Notice God’s instructions to the first man in Genesis 1:28. There are two things for Adam to focus on. “Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and subdue it and have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over every living thing that moves on the earth” (Gen. 1:28). He is to be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth. Then he’s to “subdue it” and have “dominion over it.” I know there is a lot of discussion about over population, but I truly don’t see it. I’ve driven from South Carolina to San Francisco and from Southern California to New York. The one thing that has not changed in my lifetime is that there is a lot of room out there! If you’re not careful you might fall asleep from Lincoln to Denver because there is little but open space to look at. We surely haven’t “filled” the earth. Some argue that the real issue is that there isn’t enough food. If you ask google if overpopulation is a problem you’ll find it is not. One writer, who was well-versed in economics and agriculture said that the world isn’t even close to being overpopulated. He goes on to say that we export about 25 percent of our edible produce. Further, the countries of the world could produce immeasurably more than they do now with the right technology and training. He concludes “…the truth is that overpopulation in the United States is not even close to a serious problem. Even globally, overpopulation is an overstated problem.”

We have for the most part, bought into the lie of over population. It’s a plot of the secular humanists who deny man’s creation by a loving, caring and intelligent God. They replace the unique dignity the Bible gives humanity with the impersonal, void concept of evolution that robs mankind of what God gives us. Morey says, “While human life or animal life in general has no intrinsic value or dignity, it can have ‘acquired worth’ in terms of its utility or function. When a person’s utilitarian worth is over so far as society is concerned, that person no longer has any ‘right to life.’ The ‘privilege of life’ can be withdrawn by the state at will. Because human life has no intrinsic worth, it is perfectly proper, if deemed for purposes of utility, to abort unborn babies, murder babies already born, to put to death those who are sick, handicapped, disabled or old.”^[1]

In response to the question about over population one writer suggested, “The biblical answer to ‘over-population’ is not to demand fewer people. It is to honor people enough to provide for their needs (see Mark 12:31). Greed, lust for power, and foolishness lead to the mishandling of resources, and millions of people suffer as a result.”^[2]

^[1] Morey, Robert A. 1989. How to Keep Your Faith While in College. Iowa Falls, IA: World Bible Publishers.

^[2] Got Questions Ministries. 2002–2013. Got Questions? Bible Questions Answered. Bellingham, WA: Logos Bible Software.

Verse 11 of chapter six explains the situation which necessitated the destruction of the whole human race. Corruption and violence are the two conditions described in this verse. “Now the earth was corrupt in God’s sight, and the earth was filled with violence.” Corruption relates to the perversion of true religion. I’ve often argued that Jesus did not come into the world to establish another religion to compete with Judaism, Hinduism, Islam, or any other so-called “religion.” He came to destroy them!  Radical convictions may drive people to kill each other. I’m writing this on Memorial Day, May 30, 2022. I just saw a post about the numbers of people that died in the wars, from the civil war through the current wars in the Mideast. Of course, WWII was the largest. We lost half a million lives during that war.

Genesis 6:11 explains the flood! The corruption of religion leads to violence. When men cast off a personal walk with God, a genuine relationship with the God of heaven and earth, they naturally turn to some form of perverted religion. When there is no “fear of God” in man, we naturally turn against one another. Without God, as Exell puts it, man “has only to let the laws of nature take their course…for when men depart from God, the principle of union is lost, and self-love governs everything: and being lovers of their own selves, they will be covetous, boasters, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy, without natural affection, truce breakers, false accusers, incontinent, fierce, despisers of those that are good, traitors, heady, high-minded, lovers of pleasure more than lovers of God. Such a flood of wickedness is at any time sufficient to deluge a world with misery.”^[1]

Recently, a border guard rushed into a classroom in Uvalde, Texas. He killed a shooter who murdered 22 people. The world celebrates the death of that shooter, and the parents want to know why they didn’t break into the classroom earlier. We do not grieve the elimination of pure evil. We celebrate it! Just as the border guard shot and killed the madman in the school to protect others, God shot and killed a whole generation of evil for the sake of those that would follow. After the flood, in Genesis 9:6, God gave the right to the border patrol agent to shoot that murderer. It says, “Whoever sheds the blood of man, by man shall his blood be shed, for God made man in his own image.” Today, we honor the memories of men and women who were charged with protecting us from evil in the world, and in so doing, they gave up their lives so we might live in peace.  Today, we thank them and thank God for raising them up for us.

^[1] Exell, Joseph S. n.d. The Biblical Illustrator: Genesis. Vol. 1. The Biblical Illustrator. London: James Nisbet & Co.

The climax of the sixth day of creation is in Genesis 1:26. It says, “Then God said, ‘Let us make man in our image, after our likeness. And let them have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over the livestock and over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.’” When we crossed the equator while on deployment to the western pacific, we had an initiation into the realm of Neptune and had to endure some incredible humiliations. I love the way Spurgeon began a sermon, “Old ocean does not belong to Neptune, as the heathen used to say; Father Neptune is an idle dream. The idolaters parcelled out the various kingdoms among their deities: one should rule the heavens, another the clouds, another the earth, and another the sea; but we know that there is one God alone. The sea is Jehovah’s, and not Neptune’s.”^[1] It is all Gods! And he has given it to you and me! As a matter of face God has entrusted to us, mankind, the care and preservation as well as the enjoyment of the whole earth.

Up to the creation of man on the sixth day “All of creation has been merely a prelude to what would happen at the end of day six. The creation of the human race was the central object of God’s creative purpose from the beginning. In an important sense, everything else was created for humanity, and every step of creation up to this point had one main purpose: to prepare a perfect environment for Adam.”^[2] You see, “From the very beginning, therefore, man and woman, being created in the image of God (both of them!), were given dominion (lordship) over the whole of the created earth. They were the ones who bore the image of God and, bearing that image, were to be in charge, to tend the Garden, to keep it and preserve it before their own Lord.”^[3]

There is a natural wonder in being at sea. It’s different at sea than on land. When at sea there is a sense of marvel one doesn’t have on shore. Spurgeon went on in his sermon to say, “The free sea cannot be parcelled out, nor hedged, nor ditched, nor dyked, nor walled. It has no lords of the manor but remains free and unappropriated for ever. ‘The sea is his, and he made it.’ According to law, a few miles from the shore the sea belongs to the country which borders on it; but once reach the main ocean, and nationalities are forgotten. The sea is neither English nor French, Dutch nor American. No one ever thought of impounding stray whales for going out of their owner’s fields. The pastures of the deep are for all fish; they may feed where they will, from shore to shore.”^[4] According to Proverbs 30:19, the way of a man with a maiden is compared to the ways of a ship on the high seas!^[5] Mysterious indeed!

^[1] Spurgeon, C. H. 1912. “The Sea! The Sea! The Wide and Open Sea!” In The Metropolitan Tabernacle Pulpit Sermons, 58:104. London: Passmore & Alabaster.

^[2] MacArthur, John. 2001. The Battle for the Beginning: The Bible on Creation and the Fall of Adam. Nashville, TN: W Pub. Group.

^[3] Schaeffer, Francis A. 1982. The Complete Works of Francis A. Schaeffer: A Christian Worldview. Vol. 2. Westchester, IL: Crossway Books.

^[4] Spurgeon, C. H. 1912. “The Sea! The Sea! The Wide and Open Sea!” In The Metropolitan Tabernacle Pulpit Sermons, 58:104. London: Passmore & Alabaster.

^[5] Zuck, Roy B. 1991. A Biblical Theology of the Old Testament. Electronic ed. Chicago: Moody Press.

Genesis 1:24 says, “And God said, ‘Let the earth bring forth living creatures according to their kinds—livestock and creeping things and beasts of the earth according to their kinds.’ And it was so.” God completes the creation of animals at the beginning of day six. Looking back at all the days of creation we see the three kinds of animals that God made. They are mentioned several times after this. According to Hosea 4:3 we see them mentioned in prophecy, “Therefore the land mourns, and all who dwell in it languish, and also the beasts of the field and the birds of the heavens, and even the fish of the sea are taken away.” They are also mentioned in the Psalms and in Zephaniah. But in verse 24, God creates three kinds of land creatures. In this English translation the three kinds of land animals are livestock, creeping things, and beasts of the earth.

Locomotion seems to be the dividing line between plants who are stuck to the ground to the birds that have free reign in the air and fish who roam the seas at will. Now God deals with the animals that have movement on the dry ground. In verse 28, they are called “every living thing that moves on the earth.” Speaking of some Jewish commentators, Kissling says, “They argue that livestock walk on top of the ground, creatures that move along the ground slide on it, while the NIV’s (New International Version) ‘wild animals’ are animals which dig through it, i.e., ‘animals of the earth.’ They note that part of the punishment of the serpent has to do with its ‘manner of locomotion.’”^[1] The translator’s handbook helps with thos attempting to translate this passage in other languages adds a little more detail. It says, “Cattle translates a word that here refers to domestic animals. See also 34:23; 47:18. Creeping things refers not only to reptiles like snakes, lizards, or turtles, but also to insects, rodents, and all kinds of small animals. Beasts of the earth is literally ‘living things of the earth,’ referring to wild animals, or perhaps dangerous animals.”^[2]

Genesis 1:25 lays out the three kinds pretty clearly. It reads, “And God made the beasts of the earth according to their kinds and the livestock according to their kinds, and everything that creeps on the ground according to its kind. And God saw that it was good.” The overall goodness of God’s creation should cause several positive responses from us. According to Boice there are four of them. First, we should be thankful for the world around us with its variety. Second, we should find real delight in it. We should appreciate it’s beauty. Anyone who might forget their schedule for a minute and take a look around at the plants, creatures won’t be able to help but notice the variety should have pleasure it in all. Thirdly, it should have a sense of responsibility towards it. But finally, and most importantly one should recognize the wonder and glory of the one who made it all. Here’s how Boice concludes his argument, “Finally, after he has contemplated nature and has come to value it, the Christian should turn once again to the God who made it and sustains it moment by moment and should learn to trust him.”^[3]

^[1] Kissling, Paul J. 2004–. Genesis. The College Press NIV Commentary. Joplin, MO: College Press Pub. Co.

^[2] Reyburn, William David, and Euan McG. Fry. 1998. A Handbook on Genesis. UBS Handbook Series. New York: United Bible Societies.

^[3] Boice, James Montgomery. 1998. Genesis: An Expositional Commentary. Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Books.

God’s command to the fish and the birds after he created them was to procreate. Genesis 1:22-23 says, “And God blessed them, saying, ‘Be fruitful and multiply and fill the waters in the seas, and let birds multiply on the earth.’ And there was evening and there was morning, the fifth day.” This is the first time anything is “blessed” by God in the Bible. We see it again with man at the end of the chapter. What is the nature of God’s blessing? Is it like Spokes, “life long and prosper?” Well, kind of but it seems more closely related to reproduction. Reyburn says, “Most interpreters are agreed that God’s blessing in the creation story is the gift of reproduction.”^[1]

Through the whole Old Testament we see the desire for children. We see the promise to Abraham was to multiply greatly and to have as many children as there are grains of sand or stars in the sky. We can understand how the absence of children is a curse while the presence of many children is a great blessing.  After Leah gave birth and Rachel remained barren she cried out to Jacob, “Give me children, or else I die.”

It seems that in many cases in the bible, God’s blessings involve offspring. But it’s not just children it’s offspring that produces wealth like cattle and sheep. Deuteronomy 28:4 includes this blessing. “Blessed shall be the fruit of your womb and the fruit of your ground and the fruit of your cattle, the increase of your herds and the young of your flock.” God’s blessing involves increase! As we’ll see in Genesis 24:60, When Rebekah was leaving her family to become Isaac’s wife her family, “…blessed Rebekah and said to her, “Our sister, may you increase to thousands upon thousands.” Some translations suggest it’s thousands of millions, but the point is the blessing involved a fruitful and ever increasing life! This blessing is also seen when the people pronounce their blessing upon Boaz when he assumes the responsibility of Ruth and her mother in law. Ruth 4:11 says, “The Lord make the woman who is coming to your house like Rachel and Leah, the two who built the house of Israel; and may you prosper in Ephrathah and be famous in Bethlehem.”

^[1] Reyburn, William David, and Euan McG. Fry. 1998. A Handbook on Genesis. UBS Handbook Series. New York: United Bible Societies.