2436.—For What Purpose?
By Editor
What do you think was to be done with the cattle, etc., which God created upon the earth, if they were not to be eaten? Surely our inquirer would not think that the only purpose for which anything could exist was to be eaten, would he? To be consistent, every living thing, in his view, would have to be eaten; not only cattle, but snakes, serpents, Gila monsters, lizards, spiders, worms, etc., would have to go toward filling the voracious maw of appetite. There are some things which God has placed on the earth to beautify it, to make it a more agreeable home for man. What would this world be without the birds in the groves and the flowers in the fields? We certainly have very good evidence that in the beginning the Lord did not design that man should eat any kind of flesh foods. The food that He gave him consisted only of fruits and grains. After sin came in, the very nature of the animals was changed, as well as that of man. Since that, some of them have been used as scavengers. "Every herb bearing seed" would refer evidently to the cereals such as wheat, barley, rye, etc., and it may at that time, before sin entered, have had reference to every kind of herb.