Genesis 1 SERIES - Verse 29-31

  Commentary of Charles Spurgeon, Adam Clarke & Matthew Henry

 

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.

Vs.29-31 

 

We have here the third part of the sixth day's work, which was not any new creation, but a gracious provision of food for all flesh...He has not made all these creatures in order to starve them, but he has supplied them with great variety and abundance of food, that their wants may be satisfied.

I have given you every herb - for meat - It seems from this passage that no animal whatever was originally designed to prey on others; for nothing is here said to be given to any beast of the earth besides green herbs......And before the earth was deluged, much more before it was cursed for man's sake, its fruits, no doubt, were more pleasing to the taste and more strengthening and nourishing to the body than marrow and fatness, and all the portion of the king's meat.

And, behold, it was very good - מאד טוב tob meod, Superlatively, or only good; as good as they could be. 

 

The evening and the morning were the sixth day - It is somewhat remarkable that through the whole of this chapter, whenever the division of days is made, the evening always precedes the morning.

 It is very likely for this same reason, that the Jews began their day in the evening in imitation of Moses's division of time in this chapter. Caesar in his Commentaries makes mention of the same peculiarity existing among the Gauls.

 

 He saw every thing that he had made. So he does still; all the works of his hands are under his eye. He that made all sees all;... But this was the Eternal Mind's solemn reflection upon the copies of its own wisdom and the products of its own power. God has hereby set us an example of reviewing our works. 

---Having given us a power of reflection, he expects we should use that power, see our way (Jer. 2:23), and think of it, Ps. 119:59. 

---When we have finished a day's work, and are entering upon the rest of the night, we should commune with our own hearts about what we have been doing that day; 

---so likewise when we have finished a week's work, and are entering upon the sabbath-rest, we should thus prepare to meet our God; 

---and when we are finishing our life's work, and are entering upon our rest in the grave, that is a time to bring to remembrance, that we may die repenting, and so take leave of it. 

 

Thus ends a chapter containing the most profound and most sublime truths that can possibly come within the reach of the human intellect.