Genesis 1:30, commentary and pictures

God gave to every wild animal and bird and every small living creature that moves on the ground every green plant for food, with the word for meat meaning food in general and not animal flesh, and in that natural order no creature was to kill another to live.
Together with the verse before it this appoints fruits, grains, nuts, vegetables and roots as the food for mankind, and no flesh formed any part of the diet of the holy pair in Eden.
It was never the plan for the life of any creature to be taken for food, for death among people or animals came only as a consequence of sin, and had innocence been kept the earth would never have been stained with blood.
No permission to eat animal food was given before the Flood, and flesh was allowed only afterward when every green living plant had been destroyed, with even then the clean beasts preserved in the ark granted and flesh not the most healthful food.
God is now leading His people back step by step to subsist on the natural products of the earth, and among those waiting for the coming of the Lord meat eating will finally be done away because it is not in harmony with the light given.

Words and Creation Setting

In the verse the word meat means food in general, not animal flesh. God's definite appointment at creation gave every green herb for food and named no flesh, and together with the preceding verse this is Adam's bill of fare, with animal food forming no part of the diet of the holy pair in Eden. Adam lived nine hundred and thirty years as a vegetarian, without dyspepsia or gout.

To every beast of the earth and to every fowl of the air and to every creeping living thing God gave every green herb for food, and it was so. In their natural state one animal was not to destroy another animal for food, and one animal of God's creation was not to use another animal for food. The original diet for human beings was fruits and grains, the natural products of the earth and the garden's fruit, while animals, birds, and creatures that move on the earth were also given plant food of vegetables and grains. Taking the life of any creature for food was contrary to God's plan, and animal food was not permitted until after the Flood. People therefore need not animalize vegetables by getting their plant nourishment secondhand through eating the flesh of dead creatures. Christ was present at creation as Commander in the heavenly courts, and Adam was appointed monarch of the world under God, with dominion over fish and birds and cattle and all the earth and every creeping thing. That provision of food for animals and for Adam belongs to Christ's work of creating the world and man and to that completed creation which God saw as very good.

The provision belongs to everything God had made which He saw as very good at the close of the sixth day, part of the finished heavens and earth and all their host. After this God ended His work and rested on the seventh day from all His work which He had created and made, and blessed and sanctified the seventh day because He had rested in it, proclaiming His will to all the earth.

The verse belongs to the mighty, wondrous joint work of the Father and the Son in creating the world. The earth came forth from the Creator's hand exceedingly beautiful like a noble palace, with pure and healthful air. Its surface was not one extensive plain but diversified with hills, mountains, and plains, interspersed with rivers and other bodies of water regularly dispersed. The hills and mountains were regular and beautiful in shape, not high and ragged as now, with bare high rocks never seen upon them but lying beneath the surface answering as bones to the earth. The hills, mountains, and very beautiful plains were adorned with plants and flowers and tall, majestic trees of every description, many times larger and much more beautiful than trees now are, which angels beheld and rejoiced over.

The original Eden world was full of life with no disease, decay, nor death. Life was in everything the eye rested upon, in every leaf, in every flower, and in every tree, and the atmosphere itself was filled with life. Every spire of grass, shrub, and flower reflected like a mirror the wisdom, excellence, and love of the Heavenly Father. Adam and Eve traced His skill and glory in nature, and their songs of affection and praise rose sweetly and reverentially to heaven in harmony with the songs of exalted angels and with the happy, carefree birds.

The verse is part of God's great work of creation when the earth came from His hand holy and beautiful. Every flower, every shrub, every tree, and everything upon which the eye rested answered the purpose of its Creator, was lovely, and filled the mind with thoughts of the love of God, and every sound was music in harmony with the voice of God. Sin marred that perfect work, and thorns and thistles, sorrow and pain and death are all the result of disobedience to God. Though marred with the curse of sin, the earth still reveals God's goodness, with its green fields, lofty trees, glad sunshine, clouds, dew, solemn stillness of the night, glory of the starry heavens and moon in its beauty all bearing witness of the Creator, and every drop of rain and ray of light testifying to His forbearance and love. Parents should teach this to their children on the Sabbath, walking with them in the fields and groves to show them the reason for the institution of the Sabbath.

Literal Week and Trustworthy Record

Genesis 1:30 belongs to the authentic account of creation found alone in God's word, which came fresh from the fountain of eternal truth and has been kept pure in its purity through all ages by the divine Mind and Hand. It declares the power that laid the foundation of the earth and stretched out the heavens, and it is part of the most comprehensive and most instructive history possessed by men, the only unsullied history of the human race free from human prejudice and pride, whose light shines into the far distant past where human research seeks in vain to penetrate. This Word is to be the chief study in schools, to carry minds higher than now thought possible, to train heart and mind to preserve purity by daily supplies from eternal truth and to comprehend the important truths concerning eternal life, to give converse with patriarchs and prophets, and to teach what redemption cost the One who was equal with the Father from the beginning and sacrificed His life that a people might stand redeemed from every common earthly thing and renewed in the image of God, for education fails unless the understanding grasps its truths of divine revelation and the heart accepts the gospel of Christ.

The verse is part of the work God did in the six days of creation in the first week, which was just like every other week, and like the Sabbath the week originated at creation. God Himself measured off the first week as a sample for successive weeks to the close of time, that week consisting of seven literal days, with six days employed in the work of creation and upon the seventh God resting, then blessing that day and setting it apart as a day of rest for man. The first six days of each week are given to man for labor because God employed the same period of the first week in the work of creation, and on the seventh day man is to refrain from labor in commemoration of the Creator's rest. Each day counts as a generation because every day God generated or produced some new portion of His work, giving the productions of His work at the close of each literal day. The world was made in six days though God could have spoken it all into existence in one day.

The days of creation to which the verse belongs are literal days, not vast indefinite periods covering thousands or even millions of years. Stretching the days to accommodate the claim that millions of years were required for the evolution of the earth from chaos comes from inferences erroneously drawn from facts observed in nature and destroys the force of God's word. The record of the first week in Genesis 1:1-31 is made very plain as seven literal days about six thousand years ago, not six vast indefinite periods with another indefinite period of rest, and to say those events required seven vast indefinite periods makes indefinite and obscure what God made plain. That supposition makes senseless the fourth commandment which requires keeping the week of seven literal days, for it charges God with commanding men to observe a week of seven literal days in commemoration of seven indefinite periods, which is unlike His dealings with mortals and is an impeachment of His wisdom. It is the worst kind of infidelity, infidelity in disguise among those who profess to believe the record of creation, and strikes directly at the foundation of the Sabbath of the fourth commandment.

The great facts of creation presented in Genesis 1:1-31 are pillars of the Christian faith, yet those facts are practically rejected, either wholly or in part, by a large share of the professedly Christian world. They stand true in the plain Scripture facts of the Mosaic record revealed by God against explanations of creation as the result of natural causes, against human reasoning accepted even by professed Christians, and against the suppositions of geologists that contradict that record. It is inconsistent to reject the investigation of what God has revealed in prophecy, especially Daniel and Revelation, as too obscure to understand, while eagerly receiving mere human suppositions about creation which God has not revealed. Just how God wrought in creation, including the provision made in Genesis 1:30, He has never revealed to men, and human science cannot search out the secrets of the God of Heaven, yet the plain Mosaic record is a plain Scripture fact giving sufficient evidence for faith.

Bones of men and animals found in the earth, in mountains and in valleys, with instruments of warfare and petrified wood, show that much larger men, beasts and trees once lived and give evidence of a former state of things differing in many respects from the present. Men, animals and trees before the Flood were much larger in size than those now living, and the Flood then made great changes in the earth, which explains the wonderful things found in the earth rather than proving the world existed tens of thousands of years. The time of their existence can be learned only from the inspired record, while geology without Bible history can prove nothing, and accounting for creation on natural principles apart from the word of God leaves men upon a boundless ocean of uncertainty. God took six days when He could have spoken the world into existence in one, and this unhurried pace shows that rush and hurry, working day and night, turning night into day and day into night, and straining strength to exhaustion are wrong. Regular hours for work and sleep must be preserved, work must stop when nature says stop, and periods of rest must be observed to preserve health and strength for efficient labor.

The creative energy that called the world into existence is in the Word of God, for God spoke and His words created His works in the natural world. This Word imparts power and begets life, every command is a promise, and accepted by the will and received into the soul it brings with it the life of the Infinite One, transforms the nature, and recreates the soul in the image of God. The life thus imparted is sustained in like manner, for by every word that proceeds out of the mouth of God shall man live. Creation is a reservoir of means made ready for Him to employ instantly to do His pleasure, nothing He made was useless, and tares were sown only afterward by the enemy under the curse. Rational beings must not alone cause confusion in the world but live to God, honor Him, and reveal His perfection, for Christ came to this world that His perfection might be revealed in humanity.

Original Diet Appointed

At creation God made a definite appointment of food for mankind, giving the natural products of the earth — fruits, grains, nuts, vegetables and various roots — and naming no flesh. Together with the preceding verse this is Adam's bill of fare, and animal food was no part of the diet of the holy pair in Eden. In choosing man's food in Eden the Lord showed what was the best diet, the divinely appointed plan and God's ideal, namely a non-flesh diet. What is eaten builds up the body, and since eating animal food strengthens the animal passions, the taste must not be educated to love that gross diet but must be educated to love fruits, grains and vegetables, using less and less meat until it is not used at all.

God's children ate no flesh for nearly two thousand years after creation, flesh being permitted only afterward under peculiar circumstances. That meatless diet was kept by most pious and godly men such as Adam, Enoch, Methuselah, Noah before the Flood, Daniel and John the Baptist. Adam himself lived nine hundred and thirty years as a vegetarian.

It was not God's plan in creation for the life of any of His creatures to be taken for food, and taking the life of any creature for food was contrary to God's plan. Just as He assigned plant food to the animals, He designed the original human diet to consist of the garden's fruit. Death in man or beast came only in consequence of sin, and the taking of God's creatures' lives to sustain human life is the fruit of transgression. Had Adam and Eve maintained their Eden innocence and had the curse never fallen upon man or beast, the earth would never have been stained with blood and flesh-eating with its pain and death would never have been known.

Man came from the hand of his Creator perfect and beautiful in form, perfect in every faculty, in perfect soundness and therefore in perfect health, and so filled with vigor, glory and vital force that corrupt appetites and passions and general violations of physical law were not sensibly felt upon the race for more than a thousand years. Present sickness, suffering, debility and premature death are not the appointed lot of humanity but the long-prevailing consequence of violating physical law and the resulting human suffering. More than two thousand years of indulgence of appetite and lustful passions lessened vital force, and combined indulgence led swiftly downward into excess and violence, with debauchery and abominations of every kind weakening the energies and bringing disease of every type upon the race. Signs of decay began to show in the third generation from Adam, and successive generations after the Flood degenerated more rapidly.

The original provision proves that meat is not essential for health or strength, for God made no mistake in providing it. The simple grains, fruits of the trees, vegetables and nuts given for food contain all the elements of nutrition and all the nutritive properties necessary to make good blood and sustain muscular strength. A flesh diet cannot do this. Adam lived without dyspepsia or gout.

Flood Permission and Consequences

Before the Flood God gave no permission to eat animal food, appointing only plant food, the herb of the ground and the fruit of the field. For nearly two thousand years after creation God's children ate no flesh, subsisting upon fruits and grains with every green herb given for food, a meatless diet kept by pious men such as Adam, Enoch, Methuselah, Noah before the Flood, Daniel and John the Baptist. In choosing food in Eden the Lord showed what was the best diet, the divinely appointed plan and God's ideal, namely a non-flesh diet without animal food. Permission to eat flesh was not given until after the Flood, and only under peculiar circumstances when every green thing on the earth and every plant food people could live on had been destroyed.

Then in that necessity God gave Noah permission to eat of the clean beasts preserved in the ark. Even then the flesh of dead animals was not the original food for man nor the most healthy food for people. It is now dangerous because disease is fast becoming universal and the curse rests more heavily in consequence of the habits and crimes of man, so truth on this is to be presented with reason and care to select food that will make the very best unfevered blood.

The antediluvians violated the appointment by demanding flesh-meats, and their eating of flesh meats was intemperance in eating and drinking, eating and drinking to excess from depraved appetite without bounds. Health was sacrificed to appetite, and this indulgence was joined with abominable idolatry, violence, ferocity and corruption. They became so corrupt that God could bear with them no longer, their cup of iniquity was full, and He cleansed the earth of its moral pollution by the Flood.

The same lesson of a non-flesh diet as the food best adapted for God's people was taught again when God gave Israel manna, the bread of heaven, and not flesh, disciplining them in the wilderness by largely removing flesh-food to bring them back to Eden food. Animal food was granted only because of discontent and murmuring for the flesh-pots of Egypt, and only for a short time, and its use brought disease and death to thousands. The restriction to a non-flesh diet was never heartily accepted but continued to cause discontent and murmuring, open or secret, and it was not made permanent.

Since the Flood the eating of meat has shortened the period of human existence, and physical, mental and moral degeneracy is rapidly increasing in these last days. More than two thousand years of indulgence of appetite and lustful passions lessened vital force, with debauchery and abominations weakening energies and bringing disease of every type, so that signs of decay began to show in the third generation from Adam and successive generations after the Flood degenerated more rapidly. The claim of being weak in physical strength without meat comes from thinking, for as a man thinketh so is he.

Return to Eden Health

God is leading His people back step by step to the original design that they should subsist upon the natural products of the earth. Among those waiting for the coming of the Lord meat-eating will eventually be done away, and flesh will cease to form any part of the diet. This end should ever be kept in view and worked steadily toward, because flesh-eating is not in harmony with the light given. The original design was that people were not to subsist upon the flesh of dead animals.

The food given to Adam in his sinless state is the best food for man to use now as he seeks to regain that sinless state and to keep the body in it. That plant food of fruits, grains, and vegetables is better suited to human wants than the feverish flesh diet, preserves health, increases strength, and brings perverted appetite into a healthy state. Denying appetite to return to it removes feebleness and disease and gives physical and mental strength, clear perceptions of truth and duty, keen discrimination, and sound judgment. This is to be made plain by precept and example, in contrast to flesh-meat and to the large amount of cooking that has filled the world with chronic invalids.

God's people will learn this and return to that plant food, discarding flesh-meat and after a time butter, milk, cream, and eggs because disease in animals is increasing. God will give ability and tact to prepare wholesome food without these things, until the time comes when recipes for cooking will not be needed. People should return to the wholesome and delicious food given in the beginning by dispensing with flesh foods. Killing God's creatures to consume their flesh as a luxury has a harmful effect on soul and body and cannot continue for those seeking to become pure, refined, and holy to have the companionship of heavenly angels. Returning to the beginning food means practicing and teaching children mercy toward the dumb creatures made and placed under human dominion.

The appetite for dead flesh is a gross, perverted taste, and the thought of dead flesh rotting in the stomach is revolting. What is eaten builds up the body, and eating animal food strengthens the animal passions. Therefore the taste must not be educated to love that gross diet but must be educated to love fruits, grains, and vegetables, using less and less meat until it is not used at all. Though the change is as hard as for a rum drinker to forsake his dram, those who make it will be better for it, especially since meat is now largely diseased. Continuous meat-eating does positive injury to the system and has no excuse but a depraved, perverted appetite. It requires strenuous efforts to discontinue its use entirely and let meat alone.

The better meatless way is to be taught to people by precept and example, using reason and care to select articles of food that will make the very best blood and keep the blood in an unfevered condition. A butcher's shop will be looked upon with disgust. The flesh of dead animals is now dangerous because disease is fast becoming universal and the curse rests more heavily in consequence of human habits and crimes. In the beginning animal food was not designed to be the diet of man.

God's original order where man was first placed was a very beautiful place with lovely and fragrant flowers, trees bearing their burden of precious fruits for the use of man, and birds caroling songs of praise, in which Adam and Eve in untainted purity delighted in their surroundings. Similar sights and sounds are the surroundings God would have man rejoice in today, and to locate sanitariums amid the scenes of nature is to follow God's order. The more closely His order is followed, the more wonderfully He will work to restore suffering humanity, with places for educational and medical work selected where without obstruction the Son of Righteousness can arise and shine with healing in His wings. God created mankind for happiness, not to be kept in continual worry, and His people are to be a joyous people reposing in Him and realizing His goodness, mercy, and love.

In the beginning Adam and Eve lived simple in their habits in harmony with nature's laws, and that simple natural order gave an abundant supply for the needs of the human family, with fewer imaginary wants and more opportunities to work in God's ways. Selfishness and the indulgence of unnatural taste perverted those natural provisions and brought sin and misery into the world, from excess on the one hand and from want on the other. The simple food given to the weary, hungry throng is an assurance of Christ's power and tender care for the common needs of life. He does not attract people by gratifying the desire for luxury and has not promised His followers the luxuries of the world; their fare may be plain and even scanty and their lot may be shut in by poverty, but His word is pledged that their need shall be supplied, and He promises what is far better than worldly good, the abiding comfort of His own presence.