Genesis 1:28-31

I finished Genesis 1 last night, but I'm trying to post separately each time I have a thought or concern. Tonight, I focus on verses 28 through 31.

28 And God blessed them, and God said unto them, Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth, and subdue it: and have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over every living thing that moveth upon the earth.
29 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.
30 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 food: and it was so.
31 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.

I can't help but wonder whether these verses still apply. Is God speaking only to ancient Israelites? Or does this speak to me in the third millennium?

"Be fruitful and multiply" made a lot of sense 3,000 years ago. The Catholic Church often uses this verse as part of the scriptural justification for the prohibition of birth control. I have trouble believing, however, that God still wants us to multiply. Growing from 600 to 600,000 was good. Growing from 6 billion to 6 trillion might strain the planet. Today, I'm not so sure that multiplying still replenishes the Earth.

Does the Bible have to have a consistent message? Truth never changes, but instructions certainly could change, couldn't they? "Wait...wait...wait...now, go!" This set of instructions might be perfectly valid. Yet, when put into writing, it sure seems like "wait" is contradicted by "go." But maybe it is not.

Having dominion over the fowl and the beasts and the birds is another issue that some people have trouble with. I know a lot of people who would find it immoral, almost inhuman, to hunt, and especially to be cruel to animals. I don't think this passage tells us it is okay to be cruel. It just says to have dominion. I think our place in the world food chain suggests that this dominion was granted us. Science says this is nothing more than our superior brains giving us the intelligence to dominate the world. But, brains might just have been God's tool to exercise the dominion.

The thing that troubles me about verses 28-31 is the passage about God giving us "every herb that yields seed" and "every green herb for food." More importantly, when he was done creating these thing, He saw "everything" and saw that it was "very good."

I do not see everything among the herbs as being very good. There are poisons, like hemlock, and drugs, like khat and cocoa leaves, and marijuana and opium poppies, that are not "very good indeed." In fact, from what I see, they appear to be wicked tools of evil. Why would God even create opium poppies? And if He did so to bring us medicine, why would He create these things with qualities that would lead large numbers of people into drug abuse, depression and temptation? I would think that God would see the herbs, and, looking thousands of years into the future, see that they were very bad, very bad indeed. And, I know I'm jumping ahead, but I recall from Sunday school that there is a tree that bears fruit that God decides not to permit man to eat.

I've made it through the end of creation. I'm spending a long time contemplating each passage, because I don't want to just rip through it without thinking. I'm starting to read other Christian blogs now, too. I know that isn't always the best source of theology, but seriously, I don't think there is any other forum in which I can speak freely, and be spoken to frankly. I honestly fear that if I go to my church and express all of my concerns about what I am reading, I'd face expulsion rather than discussion. And I appreciate that people are finding me and posting comments. I won't delete any of them, no matter their viewpoint, as long as they follow the subject matter.