The Goodness of Vegetation

 DEVOTION

GENESIS

THE GOODNESS OF VEGETATION

Gen 1:11-13

11 Then God said, "Let the land produce vegetation: seed-bearing plants and trees on the land that bear fruit with seed in it, according to their various kinds." And it was so. 12 The land produced vegetation: plants bearing seed according to their kinds and trees bearing fruit with seed in it according to their kinds. And God saw that it was good. 13 And there was evening, and there was morning — the third day.

NIV

It is amazing when we consider how much of our lives are supported by the vegetation, the seed-bearing plants, and the trees that bear fruit. When we think of how many foods are produced for us from plants, we wonder if we can even count them all. Then in our post-modern era, we use plants to manufacture other products we do not eat. Corn, for example, is used in the gasoline for our cars, then once again, we would think the other things corn is used in maybe countless. Without all the vegetation, and the seed-bearing plants, we would not be able to sustain our lives. When we look back into the historical records within the scriptures, we know that the first man and his descendants only ate plants. It was not until after Noah and his family left the ark when the waters had receded back into all the oceans, that God told him he and his family could now start eating the meat of animals as long as they drained all the blood from the animal first. However, that did not mean Noah and his family were to stop growing more plants, or that God caused all the plants to regrow, and Noah and his family were to continue eating from the plants. We know Noah grew grapes and made himself fine wine and overindulged so that his sons saw his nakedness which led to the blessing and the curses. Nevertheless, we have been eating from the plants forever, along with meat. We also note that when there is a breeze, we see many plants waving as if to praise their creator, giving us an example to follow. We understand that when God looked at all the plants of the earth that he said the land should produce, he said that it was good. God was satisfied with all the plants the land produced, and thus if we are right in our thinking, all the plants of the earth are good for us to eat from. Of course, our tastebuds play a part in which of the plants we eat from, but the point is what God said is good, man should not say is bad, and yet because of our blasted biases or puritanical thinking, we have determined some plants are not good to eat or to consume certain byproducts from them. This begs the question of whether man thinks he knows better than God does. Let us be satisfied to know that when God said the land should produce all the seed-bearing plants and the trees that produce fruit and he said it was good, it is good. Let us enjoy the goodness of God.