Very good

DEVOTION

GENESIS

VERY GOOD

Gen 1:29-31

29 Then God said, "I give you every seed-bearing plant on the face of the whole earth and every tree that has fruit with seed in it. They will be yours for food. 30 And to all the beasts of the earth and all the birds of the air and all the creatures that move on the ground — everything that has the breath of life in it — I give every green plant for food." And it was so.

31 God saw all that he had made, and it was very good. And there was evening, and there was morning — the sixth day.

NIV

So, man as well as all the wild kingdom were vegetarians. Well that is the way God first established how it was all supposed to be. This would mean, if we are reading this rightly, that there was no food chain at all. The lamb did in fact lay down with the lion. The dinosaurs did not eat each other, nor did they hunt man. Man did not either hunt or raise livestock for food. In other words this would have been a paradise. If we read ahead we would see the Garden of Eden, a paradise where God put man. This was the way the whole of all creation was intended to be, a paradise of peace and security, free from all fear, all anxiety and all toil. This is sort of how we imagine heaven will be like, or that new city of Jerusalem we just visited during our journey through the revelation. Man had no fear of any of the beasts of the field. The beasts had no reason to fear man. Man ate from the fruit of the trees and from the plants that had seed in them. This would be corn, barley, wheat, rye, tomatoes, peppers plus a whole host of other seed bearing plants. Then we could start naming the fruit of trees such as apples, oranges, limes and lemons and oh yes, olives, lots of olives and many more. Man had more than enough to eat to live quite well and be very healthy to boot. What happened? Today is nothing like what God intended it to be. Are we all supposed to go back to being vegetarians? Well, we know the story that is ahead when the flood occurred and after Noah and his family and all the wild kingdom that was onboard the ark with him were able to exit on dry land.  God told Noah he now gives him the meat of animals to eat. The food chain of mammals began on that day, as God ordained it to be. No longer will the lamb lay down with lion. No longer will man have no fear of the great beasts of the field, like the dinosaurs, elephants, lions and tigers as well as so many others. The wild kingdom will also fear mankind, no longer will we be able to pet and be friendly with the wild kingdom. We are going to eat them instead. We have to think God knew all along what man was going to do, and that evidentially he was going to change the way he first established how the whole of his creation was to live. So why did he start it off in a manner that he did not finish it with? Why the change? Oh right, it was us humans that caused it, sin. Adam and Eve had a perfect world and they went and fell prey to temptation for more, the knowledge of good and evil and thus be as smart as God. It’s all their fault. Because of them we are no longer in a paradise setting. They changed everything, except they still were vegetarians and the lamb still laid down with the lion until the time of the flood. The big difference was they were expelled from the garden and they would have to toil the earth for their food, toil it all the days of their lives. This we should leave alone till we get there. But the point here is we are seeing how God intended it to be in the beginning and how man sort of corrupted that by disobeying God’s command which is sin. But having already been in the last book of the Bible and having journeyed through the revelation we know that because of Jesus we have the opportunity to once again be in that paradise where the lamb will lay down with the lion. We will once again eat the fruit of the trees that bear fruit continually and we will also be able to eat from that tree of life, which Adam was not allowed to eat from. God’s plan, as how he established it in the beginning will be how it will be in the end. He is the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end. We see how it was, and how it is and how it is going to be. Why did Adam have to mess it up? It could have been so nice, so free from all anxiety, all fear, all restlessness, all worry and all sin. Yet that is exactly how it is when we are truly in Christ. He tells us:

John 14:25-27

25 "All this I have spoken while still with you. 26 But the Counselor, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, will teach you all things and will remind you of everything I have said to you. 27 Peace I leave with you; my peace I give you. I do not give to you as the world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled and do not be afraid.

NIV

Although we can eat the meat of animals and do not have to be vegetarians right now, we can still live free of worry, free of all anxiety, all restlessness and yes, free from the guilt of sin because we can live in Christ. Our hearts do not have to be troubled and we do not have to be afraid. We can actually live in sort of a paradise right here and right now, of course we still have to toil for our food and we still have to deal with temptations, and we will have to pass through the valley of the shadow of death, but someday we will return to that paradise of God and live eternally with him. That will be very good.