And God said, Let the earth cause grass to spring up, herb producing seed, fruit-trees yielding fruit after their kind, the seed of which is in them, on the earth. And it was so.
God's first word on the third day divided sea from dry land. His second word calls that bare land to clothe itself with life — plants that carry their own seed, each one true to its kind.
Nothing here grows out of what came before. Every stage begins again with God speaking:
Every stage is produced by His Word. Each time, God speaks. This is not simply the unfolding of what was already hidden in the earliest seed. Step by step, God puts out His power and carries out plans that are wholly His own. "We are His workmanship" — the patient, perfect work of the wisdom of God — "created in Christ Jesus."
The verse describes a fruit tree that already carries seed inside it. That order reverses what we watch in nature today:
On the third day God speaks a second time. He commands the earth to "sprout vegetation, plants yielding seed, and fruit trees bearing fruit in which is their seed, each according to its kind." This settles any objection that the tree could not be there until the seed was planted. If God had wanted to create the seed first, He could easily have done so. But He commanded the earth's fruit to come out before any seed went into the ground. That was just as simple for Him as doing it the other way round.
The phrase "according to its kind" appears here for the first time, and it arrives with reproduction itself. Older translations render it "after his kind":
The second point is this. As soon as this chapter touches life — life of the kind that reproduces its species, whether plant, tree, fish, bird, creeping thing, or cattle — it lays down the unchanging law that governs all such reproduction in three words: "after his kind." This points us to a fact that keeps proving itself in a thousand ways. Breeding and selection may modify a species within certain limits, but nothing can alter the species.
Another writer asks what the repeated phrase was meant to teach:
But what did this often-repeated phrase, "After his kind," mean? The Spirit of God surely meant something very definite by it. It states plainly that each species in nature is distinct from every other. One species never blends into another. Nothing in nature changes from one species into another.
Plants come before any creature that could eat them. God dresses and stocks the land before a single creature is there to feed on it:
But there is a second part of His work to notice: plant life for the earth as it now is, the kingdom that stands between minerals and animals. God commanded the earth to bring out grass, plants producing seed, and fruit trees yielding fruit after their kind, with their seed in them — and Scripture says it here with great emphasis. This is the true origin of plant species for the earth of Adam. God had pronounced the dry land and the seas good; now He says the same of the beautiful clothing of the dry land and the rich supplies for man and beast — food that at first was the only food even for man.
Note which day this happens on. Commentators connect the third day with resurrection:
But God also stamped the third day at creation in a remarkable way. Before that day the waters of death covered everything. On that day the waters drew back, and living, fruitful things sprang out of the dry land... And twice on this day, and on this day only, we are told that "God saw that it was good." What could that be for, except to teach us that the third day — the day of life springing out of death — was good not only in creation, but also in resurrection?
Read that way, the seed hidden inside the fruit points forward to one Seed in particular:
On the third day He made the grass, the plants, and the fruit trees yielding after their kind, with their seed in them (Gen. 1:11; 2:5) — the day which points us to resurrection... The Seed of promise is CHRIST... and all in that line are "after their kind"; but death, being made alive, and resurrection were needed if lasting fruitfulness was to come.
- Word — every stage of creation starts with God speaking; nothing simply unfolds from an earlier seed.
- Order — the tree came before the seed, and God could as easily have done the reverse; He chose this one.
- Kind — where life reproduces, God fixes the law "according to its kind": a limit breeding can stretch but never break.
- Provision — God lays the table before the guests arrive; plants clothe the land and feed man and beast.
- Resurrection — on the third day life sprang from ground the waters of death had covered, and God called it good twice.
And the earth brought forth grass, herb producing seed after its kind, and trees yielding fruit, the seed of which is in them, after their kind. And God saw that it was good.
On the third day the earth does what God told it to do. The report repeats His command almost word for word. Two things stand out: every plant and tree comes "according to their own kinds," and God calls the result good.
God spoke to the ground itself, and what came up was the plant life of the world we still live in.
God commanded the earth to bring out grass, plants that make seed, and fruit trees that bear fruit according to their kind, with the seed inside the fruit. The verse states this with great emphasis. This is the true origin of plant species for the earth of Adam. God had already called the dry land and the seas good. Now the beautiful clothing of that dry land is good as well, with its rich supplies for man and beast — at first the only food even for man.
The phrase repeats through the chapter. Pollock counts how often it appears, and asks what it is there for.
In Genesis 1 the formula — "according to its kind" — appears ten times. It covers plants in verse 11, sea life and birds in verse 21, and last of all the beasts of the earth, the cattle and everything that creeps on the earth in verse 25. Why "according to its kind"? It leaves room for each species. The lion does not mate with the tigress. The eagle does not pair with the goose. The wasp does not breed with the bee. Man arranges the only hybrids in creation, and they are sterile and come to nothing.
Notice the order. Full-grown plants and trees come first, and the seed is inside them.
The passage quoted makes it clear that God created plant life full-grown and mature… So the tree came before the seed, not the other way round. But evolution insists on a universal law of progress from "low to high," from immaturity to maturity, from the structureless cell to the perfect organization. We are asked to accept either an unproved theory or an inspired history, and here the believer has no choice.
Plants appear on day three. God does not set the sun in its place until day four.
God created life, and He keeps it going… We can see the wisdom of what He shows us in this day. How many wise men have dreamed and thought that the sun was the source of all life! Yet the plants were formed when the sun was not yet set to do its all-important work for the earth of man.
The third day has a shape to it. Water covered everything, then dry land appeared and life sprang from it.
Before that day the waters of death covered everything. On that day the waters drew back, and living, fruitful things sprang out of the dry land… Twice on this day, and on this day only, Scripture says that "God saw that it was good." What can this be for, if not to teach us that the third day — the day of life springing out of death — was good not only as creation, but also as resurrection?
The three forms — grass, seed-bearing plants, fruit trees — also picture stages of growth in a believer, from new faith to maturity.
The grass, the plants and the fruit tree illustrate the development of spiritual life in the child of God. The fresh green grass reminds us of the freshness of the faith of "little children"… The plant yielding seed is a picture of the energy of the "young men"… The fruit tree shows the maturity of "fathers," who know the Lord Jesus in a settled way and bear fruit for Him freely.
The seed sits inside the fruit, and that detail carries a lesson of its own.
There is progress; from grass and plant to "trees bearing fruit in which is their seed" — another beautiful picture. The fruit carries inside itself the power to reproduce. The fruit itself is for the Master's use, and it is well to remember that. The seed is in this fruit according to its kind — love to produce love, and so on. If we want to find love, we must show it. The riper the fruit is for the Master's taste, the riper the seed is too. The best ripe fruit is the fruit that has hung in the sun most.
- Kind — "According to its kind" appears ten times in the chapter. It fixes each species, so one kind never turns into another.
- Order — The tree comes before the seed, full-grown and complete. That is the reverse of what evolution needs.
- Source — Plants live before the sun is set in its place, so life comes from God, not from the sun.
- Sign — Land rises from the waters, and life springs out of it. Only on this day does God say twice that it was good — the mark of resurrection.
- Seed — Fruit carries its seed inside, so real fruit reproduces itself. Love produces love, and the ripest fruit has hung longest in the sun.