All of Mankind was Once Vegetarian
Genesis 1:29-30
“And God said, “Behold, I have given you every plant yielding seed that is on the face of all the earth, and every tree with seed in its fruit. You shall have them for food. And to every beast of the earth and to every bird of the heavens and to everything that creeps on the earth, everything that has the breath of life, I have given every green plant for food.” And it was so.”
First of all, this passage is telling us that both man and animals were not carnivorous at the beginning. Adam and Eve, and all the animals in the Garden of Eden…all were vegetarians.
Can you imagine a time without meat?
In fact, there is no indication of men or animals eating meat until centuries later after the flood. Check out what God said to Noah after he stepped off the ark…
And God blessed Noah and his sons and said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth. The fear of you and the dread of you shall be upon every beast of the earth and upon every bird of the heavens, upon everything that creeps on the ground and all the fish of the sea. Into your hand they are delivered. Every moving thing that lives shall be food for you. And as I gave you the green plants, I give you everything.”
(Genesis 9:1-3)
That explains a lot…
Think about it. One of the biggest mocking challenges given to the Genesis account of Noah and the ark is the jeering question, “Wouldn’t the T-Rex have eaten up Noah and his family and all the other animals on that ark?” Now we know the answer. The T-Rex, the lion, the tiger…all of them weren’t carnivores when they were on the ark. So Noah wouldn’t have looked like a tasty snack to them. On the contrary, he would have fed them leafy greens right alongside the brontosaurus and the cow…and he and his own family, for that matter.
It also explains why puny man is able to tame animals who are far bigger and stronger than we are. Look again at Genesis 9:2. God put the fear and dread of us into all animals. Sure, we are still killed by animals from time to time, yes…but it does explain something I’ve always wondered: why any horse would tolerate lunkheads like us sitting on its back for hours on end when it could stomp us to death if that was its wish.
Just remember this. We all used to be vegetarians once. Imagine that…