Genesis 1:28-31 - And it was very good

1:28

“God blessed them and said to them, ‘Be fruitful ...’” The first part is like the blessing on the birds and fish (1:22). We were created to be fruitful. Also note that we live under a blessing. We will see in chapter 3 that because of sin we also live under a curse. As with gender, fruitfulness is also under attack, and has been for some time. China had its infamous one child policy, which it is now having to relax. And there are many who think we should have far fewer children. The Bible does not think so! And low birth rate is causing problems in many western countries, Japan and Italy perhaps being the most severe examples. 

We are also commanded to “fill the earth and subdue it” and to “rule over the fish ....” We are different. Human exceptionalism is the term that describes this. We are meant to have dominion, but in a godly way. Because of sin, man having dominion and ruling often has very detrimental results. The world’s answer to this is to say man is just another animal, or even that the environment would be better off without us. God’s way is to say we need to repent and be born again, i.e. the gospel way.

1:29-31

The plants and fruit were given to man for food. It is missing the point if we see this verse as support for vegetarianism, especially as later they are explicitly allowed to eat meat. The purpose of the text is that the plants were provided for food, everything was planned and purposeful. Food was also provided for the animals. At the end of the other days we are told that God saw that it was good, on this day He saw that it was very good, possibly because He is now looking at the whole plan. So what we have is a picture of a world created on purpose and for a purpose, everything carried out according to a plan, and man at the pinnacle of creation. We were created male and female, in the image of God, and with a God given purpose.