Genesis 1:20-23 The Fifth Day: God creates sea creatures and birds

"And God said,

'Let the water teem with living creatures,

and let birds fly above the earth across the expanse of the sky.'

So God created the great creatures of the sea

and every living and moving thing with which the water teems,

according to their kinds,

and every winged bird according to its kind.

 And God saw that it was good.

God blessed them and said,

'Be fruitful and increase in number

and fill the water in the seas,

and let the birds increase on the earth.'

And there was evening and there was morning -- the fifth day."

Genesis 1:20-23 (NIV)

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Some observations:

• Throughout this passage, there is a sense of great abundance being created.  God uses phrases like:  "let the water teem with living creatures...be fruitful....increase in number....fill the water".

• "great creatures of the sea"  This phrase was used in Canaanite mythology to refer to a dreaded sea monster.  It was seen as a symbol for 'chaos', for powerful forces beyond control.  In the Old Testament, the prophets used this as a metaphor for powerful hostile forces or nations.  Here are some verses about this sea creature or 'leviathan':

 "Can you pull in the leviathan with a fishhook

or tie down his tongue with a rope?

Can you put a cord through his nose or pierce his jaw with a hook?

Will he keep begging you for mercy?  Will he speak to you with gentle words?

Will he make an agreement with you for you to take him as your slave for life?

Will traders barter for him?  Will they divide him up among the merchants?

Can you fill his hide with harpoons or his head with fishing spears?

If you lay a hand on him, you will remember the struggle and never do it again!

Any hope of subduing him is false; the mere sight of him is overpowering.

No one is fierce enough to rouse him.

Who then is able to stand against me?

Who has a claim against me that I must pay?

Everything under heaven belongs to me."

Job 41:1-11 (NIV)

[I thought it was interesting that whatever sea creature this leviathan is, it seems that it would be mere foolishness to attempt to capture him with conventional methods such as fishhooks, ropes, spears or even harpoons.  Whatever it is must have had a very tough outer hide, or was so huge that even the hope of subduing him is out of the question.  In contrast, however, God is perfectly able to control the leviathan, as we see in these verses.]

"But you, O God, are my king from of old;

you bring salvation upon the earth.

It was you who split open the sea by your power;

It was you who crushed the heads of Leviathan

and gave him as food to the creatures of the desert.

It was you who opened up springs and streams;

you dried up the ever flowing rivers.

The day is yours and yours also the night;

you established the sun and moon.

It was you who set all the boundaries of the earth;

you made both summer and winter."

 

  Psalm 74:12-17 (NIV)

[These verses emphasize many of the aspects which we have been talking about lately -- how God created day and night, sun and moon, seasons, etc.  Did you note that the Leviathan mentioned above seems to be at least a dual-headed beast?  Near Eastern creation myths depicted the primeval waters as a many-headed monster which the creator had to overcome in order to establish his own order to the world.  Although some would say that the imagery here is borrowed from such myths, perhaps it was the myth-makers who borrowed the imagery from events which took place between the Creator and his creation, including this Leviathan.  Although sometimes the leviathan concept was used as a metaphor to depict nations which were hostile to God, it seems that there actually was such a powerful creature which God as its creator was fully able to control.

Also, when the verses above speak about how God crushed Leviathan's head and gave him as food for desert creatures, it made me wonder if at the time of the Flood such creatures had been dashed to death by the torrential flooding and then deposited upon the desert floor and eaten by desert creatures as the flood waters receded.  The later is just speculation on my part, but if so, then these verses have a dual application -- to events which actually happened as well as imagery which depicts God's triumph over nations which opposed him.  At any rate, the point is quite clear:  God is fully in control and is able to triumph over anything or anyone who might oppose him.]   

In Genesis chapter 1:20-23, though, such creatures are simply seen as part of God's creation.  In fact, Psalm 104:24-26 portrays this sea creature or 'leviathan' in this way:

"How many are your works, O LORD!

In wisdom you made them all;

the earth is full of your creatures.

There is the sea, vast and spacious,

teeming with creatures beyond number --

living things both large and small.

There the ships go to and fro,

and the leviathan, which you formed to frolic there.

These all look to you

to give them their food at the proper time.

When you give it to them, they gather it up;

when you open your hand, they are satisfied with good things.

When you hide your face, they are terrified;

when you take away their breath, they die and return to the dust.

When you send your Spirit, they are created,

and you renew the face of the earth."

Psalm 104:24-30 (NIV)           

   

To its Creator, the dreaded leviathan is no more than a playful creature frolicking in the vast sea.  This word 'frolic' has the idea of 'cheerful playfulness' and 'merriment', which is about as far away from the concept of a threatening monster as one could get!  It depends upon God for food and for its very breath. The NIV Study Bible note on these verses says this:  "That fearsome mythological monster of the deep (see Job 3:8 and note) is here portrayed as nothing more than God's harmless pet playing in the ocean." 

Other observations:

• 'let birds fly above the earth'  While the sea frames the lower half of creation, the sky above is filled with creatures of its own. 

• The phrase 'according to their kind' or 'according to its kind' appears again.  There are distinct types of creatures, not ones which have evolved from a common ancestor.  They are contemporaries, existing at the same time.

• 'God blessed them'  By God's blessing, creatures fill the sky and the seas.  God's rule is one of life and goodness.

 

 

       

Genesis 1:14-19 The Fourth Day: God creates the sun, moon and stars

"And God said,

'Let there be lights in the expanse of the sky

to separate the day from the night,

and let them serve as signs to mark seasons and days and years,

and let them be lights in the expanse of the sky to give light on the earth.'

And it was so.

God made two great lights --

the greater light to govern the day and the lesser light to govern the night.

He also made the stars.

God set them in the expanse of the sky to give light on the earth,

to govern the day and the night,

and to separate light from darkness.

And God saw that it was good.

And there was evening and there was morning -- the fourth day.

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The two great lights which God made were obviously the sun and the moon.  Although God had named the land and seas when He created them, the sun and moon are merely called 'greater light' and 'lesser light' in this passage.  According to the NIV Study Bible notes on this passage, this is because  the terms 'sun' and 'moon'

"... were used as proper names for the pagan deities associated with these heavenly bodies.

They are light-givers to be appreciated, not powers to be feared,

because the one true God made them."

Although these lights were called 'sun' and 'moon' in other passages of Scripture, I think that it was important to distinguish in this passage that these greater and lesser lights were just that -- lights -- and not deities.  Once that is established, there is no problem with calling them sun and moon in other passages.  

God assigned purposes for the sun and moon.  They were to:

• separate the day from the night.  [Their orderly appearance day after day and night after night gave a sense of continuity and structure.]
• serve as signs to mark seasons and days and years. [not in the sense of astrology, but indicating upcoming changes of seasons, or other matters such as planting times, etc.  I imagine that the appearance of certain astronomical events (constellations, etc.) would also indicate the passage of years, etc., to help people recall when significant events in history had taken place.]
• govern the day and the night
• give light to the earth

 God also made the stars.  At first this passage may seem to be saying -- "oh, yeah, God also made the stars." -- as though this was not really an important matter.  However, Psalm 136:9 says that the stars help the moon to govern the night.  Some stars are well-known indicators of direction, like the North Star.  The appearance of certain constellations could indicate seasons.

Did you know that God even named each individual star?  Isaiah 40:25-26 (NIV) says so:

" 'To whom will you compare me?

Or who is my equal?' says the Holy One.

Lift your eyes and look to the heavens:

Who created all these?

He who brings out the starry host one by one,

and calls them each by name.

Because of his great power and mighty strength,

not one of them is missing."

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Psalm 147:4-6 (NIV) concurs:

"He determines the number of the stars

and calls them each by name.

Great is our Lord and mighty in power;

his understanding has no limit.

The LORD sustains the humble

but casts the wicked to the ground."

[I included verse 6 in the above passage because of a great note from the NIV Study Bible's thoughts on this subject:

"He whose power and understanding are such that he fixes

the number of (or counts) the stars and names them

is able to sustain his humble ones and bring the wicked down."

In other words,  the God who is able to create and name the countless number of stars which are present in the universe is Someone who the wicked are unable to withstand.  Someone who can remember the names of countless stars will not forget their evil deeds.  This is obviously of great comfort to those who are aligned with Him, for He will be able to meet all their needs and protect them from any enemies.  It is also a warning for the wicked to repent of their deeds and turn to God.]

Genesis 1:9-13 Day Three: God Creates the Land, Seas, Plants and Trees

"And God said,

'Let the water under the sky be gathered to one place,

and let dry ground appear.

 And it was so.

God called the dry ground 'land,'

and the gathered waters he called 'seas.'

And God saw that it was good.

Then God said,

'Let the land produce vegetation:

seed-bearing plants and trees on the land

that bear fruit with seed in it,

according to their various kinds.'

And it was so.

The land produced vegetation:

plants bearing seed according to their kinds

and trees bearing fruit with seed in it 

according to their kinds.

And God saw that it was good.

And there was evening, and there was morning -- the third day."

Genesis 1:9-13 (NIV)

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After separating the waters which were above the sky from those which were below it, God proceeded to create the dry ground -- the land -- and the gathered waters, which He called seas.  These items were formed by means of His word:  God spoke and they were created.

Note also that after creating these things, God saw that it was good.  There was no evil in it, and no decay.  It was complete, whole, unspoiled.  It was good.

Then, God began to fill this land which He had created.  He called for the land to produce seed-bearing plants and trees which bore fruit with seed in it, so that the land would continue to have an abundance of vegetation.

As I read these verses today, I thought that even these words are an argument against evolution, because right from the start there were a variety of plants and trees on the earth, each with its different seeds which would produce only its own kind of plant or tree.  Here there was no struggle of some indeterminate goop to survive and adapt to its surroundings, but instead, divinely created plants and trees, each fashioned with the ability to produce more of its own kind.  In fact, that phrase "according to  their kinds" is repeated twice in this short passage, as if to emphasize that fact.

As with the previous two days of creation, the last verse in this passage notes that there was evening, and morning, [not millions of years] and then the third day was completed.  This formula was repeated after every day of creation.  It  sounds very simple, so simple that even a child could understand it.  Perhaps some might even mock at the simplicity of it.  However, such simplicity also has the ring of truth about it.  I know that to say that you believe in six literal days of creation is considered to be equivalent to having had a lobotomy in some circles, but let that be as it may.  If you think about it, if there is a real God, six days would have been more than sufficient for Him to create the world.  In fact, being God, He could have done it in an instant.  So why didn't He?  I do not know what God was thinking, but perhaps He set things up this way to introduce the concept that a week consisted of six days followed by a day of rest so that man would continue in this pattern.  Later, in Exodus 20:8-11, this concept is formalized at the giving of the Ten Commandments:

"Remember the Sabbath day by keeping it holy.

Six days you shall labor and do all your work,

but the seventh day is a Sabbath to the LORD your God.

On it you shall not do any work,

neither you, nor your son or daughter,

nor your manservant or maidservant,

nor your animals, nor the alien within your gates.

For in six days the LORD made the heavens and the earth,

the sea, and all that is in them, but he rested on the seventh day.

Therefore the LORD blessed the Sabbath day and made it holy."

Exodus 20:8-11 (NIV)

See also Exodus 31:12-18, where the Sabbath is to be observed as a sign of the covenant between God and Israel.

So, on the third day God created the land, seas, plants and trees.  It rhymes, so it is an easy way to remember this third day of creation:

Land, Seas,

Plants and Trees

Childish?  Perhaps.  But it does stick in your mind, now that you've read it, right?  So it's all good.

                                               

Genesis1:6-8 God Makes the Sky

"And God said,

'Let there be an expanse between the waters to separate water from water.'

So God made the expanse

and separated the water under the expanse from the water above it.

And it was so.

God called the expanse 'sky'.

And there was evening and there was morning -- the second day."

Genesis 1:6-8 (NIV)

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There are only three verses in this section, but some amazing things are revealed here.  If you read it carefully, you see that this passage is not only about how God created the sky (called 'the expanse' in this passage).  That would be amazing enough, but there is more to this picture.

In verse 6, God calls for 'an expanse between the waters to separate water from water'.  This means that the sky which God is creating has the purpose of separating two distinct sections of water.  If we were to draw a picture of the results, it would look something like this:

 )))))))))))))))    (water)

                            

              _______________________       (sky/expanse)

))))))))))))))))    (water)

If you remember, when God created the heavens and the earth (according to Genesis 1:2), "the earth was formless and empty, darkness was over the surface of the deep, and the Spirit of  God was hovering over the waters."  To me, it seems as if God had created all the material which would make up the universe, but it was at first like a fluid blob.  It was not yet differentiated.  Now He calls for a sky to divide this mass of fluid material into two parts:  the water above the expanse/sky and the water below it.  In the following verses (verse 9 and following), God will create the dry ground and seas, and all that is in them.  Right now, though, I want to point out that we have something unusual going on here, because it seems that above the sky which God has created, there would still be a mass of water.  It may be either in fluid or water vapor form, but it was up there.

So what?  Why does this matter at all?  Well, I just find it interesting, because way later, when the flood comes, the Scriptures say that:

"In the six hundredth year of Noah's life,

on the seventeenth day of the second month --

on that day all the springs of the great deep burst forth,

and the floodgates of the heavens were opened.

And rain fell on the earth forty days and forty nights."

Genesis 7:11-12 (NIV)

 

Did you see that?  "...the floodgates of the heavens were opened."   I was thinking about that verse and I looked into a dictionary to see if they had some information about floodgates, in order to form a better picture of that in my mind.  Here's what I found in The Oxford Desk Dictionary:

flood

  1) overflowing or influx of water, especially over land; the water that overflows

  2) outpouring, torrent

  3) inflow of the tide

  4) deluge sent by God

  5) overflow,cover, or be covered with or as if with a flood

  6) irrigate, deluge or overfill

  7) come in great quantities

floodgate

  1) gate for admitting or excluding water, especially in a lock

  2) last restraint against tears, rain, anger, etc.

lock
  1) mechanism for fastening a door, box, etc., that requires a key or combination
      to open it
  2) section of a canal or river within gates for raising or lowering the water level
  3) mechanism for exploding the charge of a gun
  4) fasten or shut up with or as with a lock
  5) imprison (a person)
  6) make or become rigidly fixed
  7) (cause to) jam or catch
  8) link; interlock

All of these definitions are helpful, because together they give us that sense of a great quantity of water being held back in reserve, then powerfully let loose.

The thing that I found so interesting about the fact that there was this great quantity of water held in reserve above the sky was that it probably was this water which was let loose during the flood in Noah's time, when "...the floodgates of the heavens were opened."   People sometimes scoff at the idea of a world-wide flood, in which, according to Scripture,

"...all the high mountains under the entire heavens were covered.

The waters rose and covered the mountains to a depth of more than twenty feet."

Genesis 7:19-20 (NIV)

SIDE NOTE:  [Well, "all the high mountains under the entire heavens were covered" -- that kinda rules out the concept of just a localized flood, doesn't it?]

But if we read all of the Scriptures about the flood, including this verse in Genesis 7:19-20, we could reasonably conclude that it would have been possible for these flood waters to cover the earth to a depth of twenty feel above the highest mountains if these vast quantities of water were falling from above, and at the same time, "all the springs of the great deep burst forth" (Genesis 7:11).  I mean, if the quantity of water which was falling from above the sky was anywhere near even half of the amount of water which our seas contain today, that is a lot of water!  I am sure that people will still have more questions about the flood and that's fine, but aren't these things that Scripture says at least starting to look less like a fantasy and a bit more possible to you?

Some may be saying that all of the above depends upon us taking the Scriptures as being truly the Word of God.  That is true.  However, I will eventually get to writing about why I believe that they are true.  For now, just remember that -- as I have written many times before -- nothing which the Scriptures say has been conclusively proved to be wrong.  Nothing.  It always turns out that in the end, they are correct.  It may take years before the proof is revealed, but it always vindicates the Scriptures.  So don't dismiss Scripture too quickly.

Wow.  All that just to say that on the second day, God created the sky.