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.”
God created the world in six days and rested on the seventh day. It was right at the end of day six that God formed man in His own image and likeness. He had already created all the fish of the sea, the birds of the air, and every living creature that moved on the face of the earth – and all that God made were created according to their own kind. Finally the Lord said, “Let us make man in our own image and likeness, and let them have dominion over the fish, the birds, the animals and the entire earth,” and it was so. Man was given a mandate to subdue the earth and take care of it because everything that God had made was very good. God blessed Adam and his wife and then He explained to them what they were to eat. “Look,” He 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.” It appears that not only was man to be a vegetarian at this point, but also the animals seem to have been herbivores. This state of affairs was to change following the flood and again at the giving of the Law to Israel. And there will be another adjustment at the start of the millennial reign of Christ…when the lion shall eat straw like the ox. Sadly, due to disobedience and sin, the God-ordained authority that man had been given over the earth was transferred to Satan, who is the ‘god of this age’…for a season…but the Lord in His infinite wisdom knew that man would sin and in His goodness and grace formulated His amazing redemption plan that would span all the years of human history. Just as Eve was taken out of Adam, so the Church is quickened from the dead for we are a part of His Body…bone of His bone and flesh of His flesh. Just as Adam, the husband, is the head of Eve, his wife, so Christ is the Head of the Church and we are members of His Body. Together we make up one New Man, where Christ is the Head…and we are all part of a new, perfected, and spiritual creation. The day is coming when we will be like Him. Today, by grace, we are ‘living stones’ being built up into the Body of Christ: “Till we all come into the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God.” We are all growing in grace and in a knowledge of our Lord and Savior: “Into the maturity of manhood and to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ,” for which we give grateful thanks and praise His glorious name.
Spiritual Steve 