During the early days of ministry, a senior clergyman taught me how to plan my teaching ministry for a year at a time. Slotted into every quarter was any Christian Holiday like Good Friday, Resurrection Sunday and so on, throughout the year. All sermon series, special days, Bible Studies for the year were planned a year in advance. Through him I found a way to organize my pastoral life easier as I knew what would happen the next Sunday, Midweek and so forth.
When you think of God’s creative plan for creation, it was like that, planned ahead. He knew what would happen from Day One through Day Six. Even better, as His creative skills commenced, each day shows the needed requirement before the next day arrives. It’s like a carpenter with his pieces of wood, each one with different joins … and stage for stage he assembles the table with each part fitting snugly into the other until completed. As we cast our attention back, we see a picture taking shape from Day One to Day Five … and although Day Six and what will happen there has not yet arrived … there is beauty, majesty and a reflection of the holiness, creativity and Lordship of God. Now we come to Day Six … and the planet is perfectly ready for what God is going to do on this day. Verses 24 to 31 will take longer that one Note to unpack. Please read:
Ge 1:24 And God said, “Let the land produce living creatures according to their kinds: livestock, creatures that move along the ground, and wild animals, each according to its kind.” And it was so. 25 God made the wild animals according to their kinds, the livestock according to their kinds, and all the creatures that move along the ground according to their kinds. And God saw that it was good.
1) Land animals. There are three kinds of animals here …
(a) Livestock. This would be cattle and in some way had a type of domestication about them.
(b) Creatures that move along the ground. This group could be with or without feet such as reptiles, insects and worms.
(c) Wild animals. The thought behind the Hebrew is animals with vital energy and activity and with freedom of movement.
Once again God spoke these creatures into being … but note how He did it … He said … “Let the land produce …”. One commentator says … “from the earth they came and to the earth they would return.” Also, these animals will multiply “according to their kinds”. It must mean something that God says … “produce living creatures according to their kinds” (v24); “each according to its kind” (v24); “according to their kinds” three times (v25). God is very precise here. He created animals, like with the various vegetation (v11 & 12) to flourish after its own kind. So with the sea creatures and sky creatures in verse 21. It does seem as though God intended the vegetation … plants which included vegetables and trees which included edible fruits as well as sea, sky and land animals to produce after their own kind. It seems as though God decided upon certain kinds of vegetation, sea, sky and land animals of His choice, for His enjoyment and glory.
Remember, we are in Day Six and there is one final aspect to creation. By now the earth is complete … just as God wants it … though it lacks one thing. A ruler! Someone who would rule the planet under God’s instruction and authority.
2) Human Beings. What follows in the text is the crown jewel of creation … please read:
Ge 1:26 Then God said, “Let us make man in our image, in our likeness, and let them rule over the fish of the sea and the birds of the air, over the livestock, over all the earth, and over all the creatures that move along the ground.” 27 So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them. 28 God blessed them and said to them, “Be fruitful and increase in number; fill the earth and subdue it. Rule over the fish of the sea and the birds of the air and over every living creature that moves on the ground.” 29 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. 30 And to all the beasts of the earth and all the birds of the air and all the creatures that move on the ground—everything that has the breath of life in it—I give every green plant for food.” And it was so. 31 God saw all that he had made, and it was very good. And there was evening, and there was morning—the sixth day.
(1) We see into the council of heaven. There God gives us a hint into His Trinitarian Nature when He says “Let us” and “our likeness”. Some suggest God is addressing the angels … yet we argue against this because God says … “let us make man in our image.” Man is not made in the image of angels. The Lord Jesus, when coming to earth as God incarnate did not come in the shape of an angel. We are blessed to have the complete Bible and know that in Genesis 1:1 the Father is spoken of, then in v2 the Holy Spirit is spoken of and in John 1:1-3 and Hebrews 1:1-3 the Son is spoken of. We cannot but agree that on the first page of the Bible God provides us with a vailed bit of information of Him as Triune. Because this is important and significant, it is worthwhile stopping to remind ourselves that God is one. In the Godhead we have the Father as God, the Son as God and the Holy Spirit as God. Three distinct persons, yet one God in substance. Such a concept might be extremely difficult to grasp and understand due to our humanness and limitedness. However, the only real way to grasp God as Triune is to believe what the Bible says and believe God is what He says He is in the Bible. Perhaps to end off with today we could remind ourselves what the Bible says about God …
(2) Read through the following passage to remind yourself that Jesus is God and so is the Holy Spirit, together with the Father …
Mt 1:20 “Joseph son of David, do not be afraid to take Mary home as your wife, because what is conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit. 21 She will give birth to a son, and you are to give him the name Jesus, because he will save his people from their sins.” 22 All this took place to fulfill what the Lord had said through the prophet: 23 “The virgin will be with child and will give birth to a son, and they will call him Immanuel”—which means, “God with us.”
Jn 1:1 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. 2 He was with God in the beginning.
Jn 10:30 “I and the Father are one.”
Col 1:15 He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation. 16 For by him all things were created: things in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or powers or rulers or authorities; all things were created by him and for him. 17 He is before all things, and in him all things hold together.
Heb 1:1 In the past God spoke to our forefathers through the prophets at many times and in various ways, 2 but in these last days he has spoken to us by his Son, whom he appointed heir of all things, and through whom he made the universe. 3 The Son is the radiance of God’s glory and the exact representation of his being, sustaining all things by his powerful word. After he had provided purification for sins, he sat down at the right hand of the Majesty in heaven
Jn 14:16 “And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Counselor to be with you forever— 17 the Spirit of truth. The world cannot accept him, because it neither sees him nor knows him. But you know him, for he lives with you and will be in you. 18 I will not leave you as orphans; I will come to you.“
2Co 13:14 May the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God, and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you all.
Thank You Lord for showing us things in Your Word we might not have seen before. Help us to love Your Word and read it correctly. Amen.