Down in chapter 4 and verse 4, Abel brought firstlings of the flock and their fat portions…that means he brought an animal sacrifice, killed an animal, and the Lord had regard for Abel and his offering. The Lord accepted the death of animals as a sacrifice which means animal death was inaugurated by God, acceptable to God within the framework of His sacrificial system because, of course, it pointed to the wages of sin which is death. And God later allowed people to eat meat.
Over in chapter 9 when Noah and his sons came out of the ark, God said, “Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth,” chapter 9 verse 2, “and the fear of you and the terror of you shall be on every beast of the earth.” Now all of a sudden you’re going to be king of the earth, you’re going to have authority over these animals, but they’re not going to be amiable to that, they’re going to fear you. “Every beast of the earth, every bird of the sky, everything that creeps on the ground, all the fish of the sea, every moving thing that is alive shall be food for you. I give all to you as I gave the green plants.” So don’t think being a vegetarian is the Christian way. It was originally the way but once there was sin, God allowed people to eat meat. And I think that was very, very important because God demonstrated through those deaths originally that there was death for sin, death required a sacrifice, death even required a substitute.
Now in the glorious millennial Kingdom to come the question could come up…is it going to be the same? Well no, animals are going to be tame and not wild but there will be some animals killed during the millennial Kingdom for…according to Ezekiel 40 to 48 there will be sacrifices held in the millennial temple. So some of them will be killed at least for commemorative feasts in the millennial temple, and sin will exist, as I said, in the Millennium. But there will be some return to the original design. The prophet Isaiah wants us to understand, and I noted some reference to that earlier, but he wants us to understand that the world will be to some degree different. The cow and the bear will graze, the young will lie down together, and the lion will eat straw like an ox. The nursing child will play by the hole of the cobra. The weaned child will put his hand in the viper’s den and it won’t be harmed. So there’s definitely going to be some reversal of the curse, though it’s not going to be total.
In Isaiah 65:25, “The wolf and the lamb shall graze together, the lion shall eat straw like an ox,” etc. “And a serpent will eat dust.” So there will be some changes.
Well, summing it up, obviously there’s a lot more we could dig into in chapter 2 and we’ll see whether that’s something we do in the future. But for the moment, God created man in His own image, created man to be king of the earth, created man to procreate, to propagate and fill the earth with others who would be made in the image of God. He created man to enjoy the bounty of His blessing. And when that was all done, verse 31 says, “And God saw all that He had made and behold it was very good.” Not just the parts, He’s commented on the parts being good, this time He says it’s very good…that’s the first time. And not so much the parts but He saw all that He had made. Again reiterating that He is the creator and the maker of everything, no death because no evil, no sin, and no fallenness.
Folks, that ends all possibility of evolution, including any kind of theistic evolution which depends on death. There was no death. Things weren’t mutating and dying for billions of years during this time. When God says a day, He means an actual day. And so you come to chapter 2 verse 1, “Thus the heavens and the earth were completed and all their hosts.” That’s it, folks, there ain’t no more, that’s the story. It started and ended 32 verses and gave us the complete picture of the created universe in all its wondrous perfection.
Do you believe that? It’s God’s Word, isn’t it? It’s God’s Word.
Father. we thank You tonight for these weeks that we’ve been able to look at this, see Your mighty and glorious hand. Thank You for being our creator, sustainer, consummator of the universe. Thank You for being our Savior, our Lord, our friend. Thank You for being our Father that the great creator became my Savior is a wondrous reality, we bless You and thank You in Your Son’s name. Amen.
© 1997 Grace to You
“This article originally appeared here at Bible Bulletin Board.”
