God’s Original Design for Food

Have you ever wondered why God created food in the first place? Think about it: why did God make it so that we have to eat? Why didn’t God just create us like plants so that we could get energy and nutrients straight from the sun?

Let’s ask a different question: did Adam and Eve need to eat? We in the present day need to eat so that we don’t eventually starve to death. But in God’s original creation, no one died. So if Adam and Eve didn’t have to eat to live, why did God create food?

I asked my husband this question and he told me that food, just like everything else in creation, was created to be enjoyed. God created food sorely for pleasure. Perhaps Adam and Eve still got tired and hungry and had to seek out food to replenish themselves (see resource at the end). The difference however between our current state and the Garden of Eden is that it wasn’t hard for Adam and Eve to seek out food. All they needed was right there. I think it is very likely that Adam and Eve got hungry because hunger only increases the pleasure of eating. No one likes to eat when they are full, right? (See Proverbs 27:7.)

Knowing that God gave mankind food for pleasure reveals why God reserved the most delectable food in the Garden for Adam and his wife.

“Then God said, ‘I give you every seed-bearing plant on the face of the whole earth and every tree that has fruit with seed in it. They will be yours for food’.”

Genesis 1:29

As we know, seed-bearing plants (fruit) have the highest sugar content of any natural food. They are both very nutritious and extremely yummy. It’s evident that God wanted His most special creation to enjoy the most desirable foods, while the animals were limited to only eating greens:

“And to all the beasts of the earth and all the birds in the sky and all the creatures that move along the ground—everything that has the breath of life in it—I give every green plant for food.” And it was so.”

Genesis 1:30

Obviously things have changed now. Birds love to eat the most beautiful fruit on the tops of our fruit trees. We have to spray our produce with pesticides so that bugs don’t eat them. Fences have to be put up around gardens so that rabbits don’t sneak in. All part of the Fall.

But the fact that God originally designed food to be sorely for pleasure should encourage us. God wants good things for us. In the fallen state we are in, we have to eat undesirable things sometimes in order to steward our health. Yet God doesn’t want our every meal to be plugging our nose while eating broccoli. His original design is that we enjoy all food, which means we can look forward to a day where that original design is restored! In the New Earth, the most delectable, delicious foods won’t make us fat and sick! Even here on earth, when we submit our eating to the Lord, our palates often change so that we start to enjoy foods that are nourishing to us. But even if you never lose your sweet tooth, don’t feel guilty for liking ice cream and donuts. Those things are God’s gift to us, and the fact that we have to eat them in moderation is only temporary. One day our healthy food will taste like unhealthy food, and unhealthy food won’t exist! So keep your eyes on Heaven, and know that God wants you to enjoy eating!

Read more about why God created people with material needs in this article by Dr. David Jones.