God pronounces that his creation is good
After God created something he
called it good. This was done in verses 4, 10, 12, 18, 21,
and 25. Next in verse 31 we read: "And God saw every thing
that he had made, and, behold, it was very good. And the
evening and the morning were the sixth day." The word,
"very," comes from a Hebrew word that when joined with
another word is an intensive. Thus, the phrase "very good"
carries with it the idea that it was exceedingly good.
We have the perfect God creating
the heavens and the earth and all that is contained therein
and calling it very good. There should be no valid
criticisms of what God has created including man. It was
all "very good."
The word, "good," speaks to the
moral nature of the universe that God created. In the
creation every thing that God created responded in obedience
to the calling of God when he said, "Let there be…" "and
there was." The vast majority of God's creation was made
with the inherent nature to obey and could not disobey God.
Their obedience gives glory to God: Psa. 19:1 "To the chief
Musician, A Psalm of David. The heavens declare the glory of
God; and the firmament showeth his handiwork."
God made man with the ability to
choose to do good or to do evil. With this freedom of
choice, when man obeys God it is a higher glory to God than
the creation of God that must obey the laws of God without
the ability to choose. In light of this, Adam, and
subsequently all mankind, dishonored God when Adam disobeyed
the commandment of God in the Garden of Eden.
God makes provision for man and all his animal creation
Gen. 1:29 "And God said, Behold,
I have given you every herb bearing seed, which is upon the
face of all the earth, and every tree, in the which is the
fruit of a tree yielding seed; to you it shall be for meat.
30 And to every beast of the earth, and to every fowl of the
air, and to every thing that creepeth upon the earth,
wherein there is life, I have given every green herb for
meat: and it was so."
Notice that in the beginning God
did not give man or animal meat to eat. God gave the herbs
and the fruit of the trees for man to eat and green herbs
for the animals to eat. God is the owner of all that is.
He is a sovereign and he has the sovereign right to set the
limits on what even is permitted to eat. Later he gives the
right for man to eat meat.
Man was initially a vegetarian
and fruit eater and this was the provision that God gave to
man. The animals were vegetarians as well. It was only
after the fall of man that this was changed.
Obviously the fruits and
vegetables God gave for man to eat was originally
satisfactory to satisfy the needs of man. |