“And God blessed them, and God said unto them, Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth, and subdue it: and have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over every living thing that moveth upon the earth. 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. 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. 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.” Genesis 1:28-31
Greater detail will be provided concerning the creation of man and woman in the next chapter, with a summary of that creation given in Chapter 1. The original command given by God to Adam and Eve was, “Be fruitful and multiply and replenish the earth....” One of the most natural and blessed occurrences for husbands and wives is the bringing forth of children. Not all couples are blessed to be able to have children and, because of the insensitivity and wickedness of many today, millions of unborn babies are aborted. What a tragedy of immorality for this generation! It is interesting to note that on two occasions in history, times of great importance at the outset of major spiritual events, innocent lives were taken by the wicked; at the birth of Moses, and at the birth of Jesus Christ. Perhaps the slaying of the innocents in our generation serves as a warning that a major event is about to take place, and what could be more of a major event than the Second Coming of Jesus Christ?
Next, man was given “dominion” over all creatures of the earth. As the crowning jewel of God’s glorious creation, mankind was granted by the Creator a unique position. As noted earlier, unlike the rest of the creatures God created, man was created in the image of God. Man’s unique origin, his innate abilities and opportunities, gave him position and privilege above all other creatures; a fact that is lost on many minds today that embrace the evolutionary hoax.
In Verses 29 and 30, we learn that man’s diet originally was vegetarian. This was true of “every beast of the earth.” Before the fall, both man and beast ate only that which grew from the earth. As we will see later, this vegetarian diet changed after the fall in the garden.
Before we move on to Chapter 2, please note something that is said at the end of each day of creation; “...God saw that it was good.” On day six, after the creation of the animal kingdom and the creation of man, Scripture declares that “God saw that is was very good.” God’s creation was “very good.” It was magnificent, beautiful and abounding with life and vitality. Before the fall and subsequent curse, the creation that God spoke into being was a thing of matchless perfection. One only has to read the final two chapters of the Word of God to get some idea what that original creation was like. Before sin entered the picture, man was in perfect oneness with the Creator and His creation. There was unbroken communion with the Almighty, as well as blessed peace and security. It was all “very good.” As we will learn in the following chapters, sin changed everything, not just for man, but for all of creation.
Pastor Steve Smith