Man Reduced to the Level of Beasts in the Field?

From: Questions and Answers on Scripture: From the Bible Treasury

Narrator: Chris Genthree

• 1 min. read • grade level: 8

Question: Gen. 1:29, 30; 2:16; 3:18²⁹And 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. ³⁰And 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. (Genesis 1:29‑30)
¹⁶And the Lord God commanded the man, saying, Of every tree of the garden thou mayest freely eat: (Genesis 2:16)
¹⁸Thorns also and thistles shall it bring forth to thee; and thou shalt eat the herb of the field; (Genesis 3:18). By comparing the sustenance of man and beast in Gen. 1:29, 30; 2:16²⁹And 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. ³⁰And 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. (Genesis 1:29‑30)
¹⁶And the Lord God commanded the man, saying, Of every tree of the garden thou mayest freely eat: (Genesis 2:16), with 3:18, does it not seem as if man was reduced to level of beasts in the field— “thou shalt eat the herb of the field” —and after that it goes on to say “dust thou art, &c.?”

Answer: There was no “reducing” man to fruit and vegetable as his early food till the deluge, when animal fare was allowed with prohibition of the blood with good and holy reason assigned. Man enjoyed even before far beyond “beasts of the field.” Yet even so through sin his body is as reducible to the dust as any beast’s. But why omit that he only has a soul immortal (for good or for ill) through the inbreathing of Jehovah Elohim He only was, solemnly in divine council, made “in our image, after our likeness”; the most distinct separateness from, and elevation above, every other creature on earth. Why lose sight of this?

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