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.
And there was evening, and there was morning -- a third day.
The third day closes with the familiar words about evening and morning. But this day is unlike the others: twice on this day God calls His work good. Commentators read the day on two levels. It was a real day, when God gathered the waters and clothed the earth. It also pictures life rising out of death.
The repeat of evening and morning is the strongest clue to how long these days were.
People ask whether the days of Genesis 1 are literal days, or figures standing for immense periods of time... For ourselves, we believe they are literal. Scripture does use "day" in a figurative sense — "man's day," "the day of salvation," and so on. But that sense is clearly a secondary one, and the literal sense is the primary one... We must have the primary meaning settled before we can reach any secondary meaning at all, and Genesis 1 deals with primary things... The repetition of "there was evening and there was morning" fits the primary meaning, and would mean very little in the secondary sense.
What God settled on this day did not pass away with it.
The earth was now to take, for the most part, the form God saw best fitted for His new purpose: vast continents and vaster oceans, islands large and small, lakes salt and fresh, mountains and rivers, plains and valleys. Those valleys were not merely worn down by slow erosion, but often broken open deeply and suddenly... In Hebrew usage the word "seas" takes in all large collections of water — oceans, seas, lakes, and even rivers... here we learn that God laid down the great landmarks which abide to this day.
Some have tried to match the third day with the long ages that produced the coal beds. Kelly answers by looking at what the text names: grass, seed-bearing herbs, fruit trees.
How absurd to take the third day before us and identify it with the Carboniferous age, the age that laid the basis for the coal beds! What real likeness is there between coal-plants and the grass, herb and tree, so clearly meant to feed animals, and above all man?... This is plainly not provision for coal, but for the food and refreshment of man and cattle, of bird and beast... For geologic eras it is a failure; for man's world it is the simple and fitting truth. It was plant-life for Adam's earth.
The phrase attached to the herb and the fruit tree here returns again and again through the chapter, and writers see it as a fixed law stamped on living things.
This is confirmed in Genesis 1 where the formula — "after his kind" — is repeated ten times. It is applied to the vegetable kingdom in verse 11, to the marine world in verse 21, and again to the winged birds in the same verse, and finally to the beasts of the earth and cattle and everything that creeps upon the earth in verse 25. Why "after his kind"? That clearly leaves room for each species. The lion does not mate with the tigress. The eagle does not consort with the goose. The wasp does not breed with the bee.
The double "good" belongs to this day alone. One writer sees in it a meaning that reaches past creation.
God also put a striking mark on the third day at creation. 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... On this day, and on this day only, we are told twice that "God saw that it was good." Why twice? Surely to teach us that the third day, the day of life springing out of death, was good not only as to creation, but also as to resurrection.
Notice the order within the day: grass first, then herb, then the tree whose fruit holds seed inside it.
Then as to the fruit. There is progress; from grass and herb to "fruit trees bearing fruit in which is their seed, on the earth" — another beautiful figure that. The fruit carries within itself the power to keep itself going. The fruit 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. And the riper the fruit is for the Master's taste, the riper the seed is also; the best ripe fruit is that which has hung in the sun most.
- Day — Evening and morning mark off an ordinary day. The figurative sense of "day" is only a secondary one.
- Boundary — God gathered the waters and raised the dry land. The landmarks He set that day still shape the earth.
- Provision — The grass, herb and fruit tree were not a fossil stage but food for man and beast.
- Fruit — Life rose out of the waters of death and bore fruit with the seed inside. The third day carries the mark of resurrection, and that life keeps reproducing itself.
And God said, Let there be lights in the expanse of the heavens, to divide between the day and the night; and let them be for signs, and for seasons, and for days and years;
On the fourth day God sets lights in the sky and gives them work to do. Two old questions follow: is this the moment the sun was made, and what are the "signs"?
The verse does not record the making of the sun and moon. Commentators point back to verse 1.
It is certainly not the creation of the sun and so on. Moses does not say that. He says only that God now set the heavenly lights in place, after the plants and before the animals, for the earth that man would live in. Light had shone in another way since the first day of the great week. Now He set the light-bearers of the heavens to do their assigned work, but it is for the earth, and indeed for man. Verse 1 already implied their creation, for God did not create either heaven or earth empty. And what would heaven be without its host? … On the fourth day He gave the lights of heaven their unhindered place, to divide the day from the night.
The chapter measures the heavens by what they do for the earth below. Size is not the standard here.
It is only their relation to man on earth that shows the exact fitness of the phrase "the two great lights." He who created all things and inspired Moses knew the size of every body in heaven better than Newton or Laplace. But think of what helps man on earth, and Israel especially, and every creature under them. For giving light by day and night, what were all the rest compared to the sun and moon?
One misuse of the word is to read fortunes in the stars.
Scripture says the lights in the expanse of the heavens are for "signs" as well as for "seasons." People have wrongly used this passage, treating the varied positions of the sun, moon and planets as a way to foretell events. Of what, then, are they signs? Psalm 19:1-6 perhaps answers that. The huge distances between the heavenly bodies, and the wonderful regularity of their movements, are a sign of the glory of the One who created them.
The word carries a second sense. God has made the sky speak at key moments in Israel's history.
We see what a sign it was to Israel when Joshua said in their hearing, "Sun, stand still at Gibeon, and moon, in the Valley of Aijalon." In far different days the Lord spoke to sick Hezekiah, and gave him a sign in the shadow that went back ten steps on the dial of Ahaz. And what a sign again at the cross of the Messiah, when all was lost as far as man is concerned! Darkness covered all the land for three hours. A mere eclipse was impossible then.
The word behind "seasons" carries more than one shade of meaning, and commentators weigh which one fits.
No comment is needed on "seasons": man alone on earth understands and values these fitting, recurring times. The same Hebrew word means "the congregation" and "the solemn feast," as well as the season or appointed time at which they kept it. So "seasons" may have a sacred sense, but the more ordinary sense seems confirmed by what follows. Very little astronomy is needed to know how "days and years" are marked out by these lights, but only for man.
Commentators also read the fourth day as a picture, where light in the sky stands for light of another kind.
The lights set in the heavens speak very plainly of Christ and of the Church… Here Christ, revealed by the Holy Spirit, shines out for men in the word of His grace. The Church is the responsible reflector of Christ, His letter to the world… Let this scene preach to us that all true and divine light now is heavenly. To let our "light shine" is nothing else than to let men see we belong to another sphere.
For a single believer, the fourth day points away from self.
The sun speaks of the Lord Jesus, "the Sun of Righteousness" (Malachi 4:2), whose brightness is so welcome, yet too dazzling for our eyes… The fourth day teaches us that we must have a proper Object outside of ourselves and of our fruitfulness. The person of the Lord Jesus is that Object. When we are blessed with the sight of His own glory, this lifts our hearts above our circumstances, and above our own spiritual state and experience.
- Appointed — God is not creating the sun here; He is setting it to work, dividing day from night.
- Aimed at earth — sun and moon rank as the great lights because the record measures them by what they do for man, marking his days, years and seasons.
- Signs upward — their steady order points to the glory of their Maker, not to fortunes read in the stars.
- Signs in history — the sun standing still for Joshua, the shadow going back for Hezekiah, darkness at the cross.
- Signs for us — Christ shines and the Church reflects Him; borrow all your light, and let others see where it comes from.
and let them be for lights in the expanse of the heavens, to give light on the earth. And it was so.
On the fourth day God does not make new matter; He gives the lights of the sky a job, and that job is measured by the earth below. So were the sun and moon made here for the first time, or only set to work for us?
One writer weighs what the text says and what it does not say.
It is certainly not the creation of the sun and the rest. The inspired historian does not say this. He says only that God now appointed the heavenly lights for the earth of Adam's day, after the plants and before the animals. Light had shone in another way since the first day of the great week. Now He set the light-bearers of the heavens to do their assigned work, but it is for the earth, and indeed for man. Their creation was implied in verse 1, for God did not create either heaven or earth empty; and what would heaven be without its host? ... The same design is repeated: they are to be lights in the expanse of the heavens. It was their effect, not their structure, that is meant.
Another writer names the opposite view, then gives his reason for rejecting it.
Some have thought that light was independent of the sun, that on the first day God created the light, and that on the fourth day He created the sun. But we are not told that on the fourth day He created the sun and the moon, but that He made two great lights... What proves that they were there from the beginning, we believe, is that there was evening and morning on the first day. That shows the daily motion of the earth in relation to the sun, which gives day and night.
The record measures the sky by what it does for the earth. The stars show how far that goes.
"He made the stars also" (v. 16, in an older translation). The record mentions this only in passing, as something of much lesser importance. Many of the stars turn out to be huge, much larger than the sun. Their number is beyond counting, and their distances range into billions of light years. Yet the sun and the moon are more important to us on earth, and God's revelation is for the benefit of human beings.
The verse closes with four words that come again and again through the chapter.
Six times in the chapter the words "And God said" have the fitting sequel, "and it was so." From the very start, the word of God shows itself powerful. It never fails of its effect. How encouraging to learn this in the first chapter of the Bible, for we may be sure it applies to every word that God has spoken. When we reach the end of the story we shall be able to say with triumph, "and it was so," about every promise He has made, every prediction He has uttered.
One writer reads the sun as a picture of Christ, because of what sunrise does to a long night.
The sun is the great centre of light, and the centre of our system. The lesser bodies revolve around him and get their light from him. So we may rightly see him as a fitting symbol of Him who is soon to arise, with healing in His wings... The mists and shades of night are all scattered, and the whole creation seems to welcome the returning source of light.
One writer applies the fourth day to the present.
The lights set in the heavens speak very plainly of Christ and of the Church... Christ, revealed by the Holy Spirit, shines out for people in the word of His grace. The Church is the responsible reflector of Christ, His letter to the world... Let this scene preach to us that all true and divine light now is heavenly. To let our "light shine" is nothing else than to let people see we belong to another sphere.
The moon carries a warning as well as a lesson.
The moon is a fitting illustration of the church, and it guards against the tendency to exalt the church at the expense of her Head. It is a dark body with no light of its own, and its only usefulness lies in reflecting the light of the sun. Moonshine, strictly, there is none — it is the reflected light of the sun. So the only use the church can be in this world is shedding the light of Christ during the night of His absence.
- Set, not started. The fourth day gives the heavenly bodies their job, not their beginning. Verse 1 already implies their creation.
- Set for earth. The record measures everything by what reaches the ground. That is why stars far larger than the sun get one passing clause.
- Set by a word. Six times "God said" ends with "and it was so." That unbroken pattern stands behind every promise God has spoken since.
- Set as a picture. The greater light points to Christ, whose rising scatters the night. The lesser light points to His people, who shine in the night with borrowed light.
- Set to reflect. A dark body shines only with light it receives. That is the calling, and the limit, of any witness during the night of Christ's absence.
And God made the two great lights, the great light to rule the day, and the small light to rule the night, -- and the stars.
On the fourth day God turns from shaping the earth to filling the sky. One verse hands the day and the night to two rulers, then adds the stars in a few words. That wording raises real questions. Were the sun and moon created here? Why "made" and not "created"? And why do the stars get so little space?
The verb here is not the verb of verse 1. One writer sets the two words side by side:
Notice that the word "made" (v. 16) is not the same as "created" (v. 1). The verse does not say that sun, moon and stars were created at the time of verse 16. It says that God then appointed them as lights for the earth. The Bible is not a textbook on astronomy, yet its language is exact: it never confuses creating things with setting them in their order.
That reading answers an old objection — that light on day one without a sun is impossible:
The work of the fourth day has caused difficulty for many. Years ago, under mistaken scientific ideas, people thought light (v. 3) without the sun (v. 16) was impossible. And people did not read closely what verses 14 to 18 do say, and do not say. Sun and moon were created as given us in verse 1; they were only made as "two great lights" on the fourth day.
Calling the sun and moon the two great lights is not a ranking by size. Something else sets the scale here:
Even here, where the subject is the heavenly bodies, the record looks at them only in view of man and this earth... On the fourth day He gave the lights of heaven their unhindered place, to divide the day from the night.
The word "rule" matters. Scripture uses these lights as a picture of authority in three levels.
In this symbolism the stars stand for subordinate authority. So the sun is supreme, the moon derived, and the stars subordinate. They are also light-bearers, and God Himself sets them in the expanse of heaven. Keeping these features in mind helps when the same symbol is applied to the angels of the churches.
The lights that govern day and night also mark out time. One writer follows that to its end:
Time is tied to the "two great lights" (Gen. 1:16), which God set in the heavens "for signs and for seasons, and for days and years" (v. 14). When these disappear, time stops and eternity begins.
The verse gives the stars only three words.
One writer explains why the smaller bodies get the larger place:
The stars are mentioned as though they were incidental and of much less importance. Many of them are huge, far larger than the sun, their distances run into billions of light years, and no one can count them. Yet the sun and the moon matter more to us on earth, and God's revelation is for the benefit of human beings.
Commentators also read the greater and lesser lights as a picture of Christ and the church:
Now, as the sun is a beautiful and fitting symbol of Christ, so the moon strikingly reminds us of the Church. The source of her light is hidden from view. The world does not see Him, but she sees Him; and she is responsible to reflect His beams upon a darkened world.
The picture also sets a limit on what the church may claim:
The moon is a good illustration of the church, guarding against the tendency to exalt the church at the expense of her Head. It is a body with no light of its own, and its only usefulness lies in reflecting the light of the sun. Strictly, there is no such thing as moonshine — it is the reflected light of the sun. So the only use the church can be in this world is to shed the light of Christ during the night of His absence.
after_note: DISCUSS
These pictures need care. One writer draws the line:
People often mistake how a symbol is applied for what it means. Christ is called the Sun of Righteousness; but Sun does not mean Christ. The sun is only a symbol of glory and supreme government. God made the sun to rule the day (Gen. 1:16). It is a mistake to drop that general idea and take the sun to mean Christ.
- Made — the verb is not "created". Here God appointed the sun and moon as lights for the earth; He did not bring them into being.
- Measured — the record speaks from the earth's standpoint. "Great" means great to us, which is why huge stars get only three words.
- Ruling — the lights govern: the sun supreme, the moon derived, the stars subordinate. They also mark out time itself.
- Reflecting — the moon has no light of its own. Commentators see in it the church, shining only with light borrowed from Christ.
- Restrained — how a symbol is used is not what it means. The sun pictures supreme government, so calling the sun Christ goes too far.
And God set them in the expanse of the heavens, to give light on the earth,
God's fourth day of work ends with an act of placing. He puts the lights where they belong and gives them a job to do. So what does it mean that God "set" them? And why does Scripture describe this work in the heavens by what it does for the earth below?
The verb "set" means more than putting something in place. One writer looks at its form:
This word first appears in Genesis 1:17, where we read that God set "two great lights" in the expanse. The verb here is in the middle (reflexive) voice, so the glory of the action belongs to the One who performed it.
Commentators read this day as the ordering of things already made, not the first making of sun and moon. Scripture mentions the stars almost in passing, and that restraint has a purpose:
I fully believe that God set the sun and the moon at this time to be for signs and seasons and years, and to make day and night. But the account looks at them here only in what they do for the earth, and only as lights. God made the two great lights, and God gave them as such. There is no creation of the bodies here. What we have is the setting up of how they appear and work, and their purpose. So when he speaks of the stars, he only reminds us that God had made them too. Instead of men worshipping them, God had distributed them to all men under heaven.
God set them in "the expanse of the heavens." That word carries a range of meaning:
The Hebrew word is raqia, meaning 'expanse.' It stands for the sky we see when we look up, and also for the air in which the birds fly. We read that God called the expanse 'heaven.' This is 'heaven' in a broad sense. Elsewhere we read of 'the stars of heaven,' but also of 'the birds of heaven.'
The whole account of this day is written from the ground up. What God pronounced good was not the newness of these bodies but the work He handed them:
God gave sun and moon to rule over the day and over the night. They were His creatures and gifts for man's use, dividing between the light and the darkness. "And God saw that it was good" — not as if they had just been created, but in the assigned work He gave them to do.
That arrangement still steadies ordinary human life, right down to navigation:
We see the wisdom and kindness of our faithful Creator in these lights above us, and we enjoy them and give thanks for them. Life would be impossible without them. They bring order, method, variety and guidance into our lives. Anyone who wants to live well and long must not ignore "the signs and seasons and days and years" for which these lights were made. The shipmaster steers his ship safely if he can take his bearings by the lights in the sky. Many a fine ship has been lost because her crew steered by dead reckoning.
God placed the lights above the earth they serve. One writer sees a pattern there for how the earth is governed:
The fourth day of creation showed that earth was to be ruled from heaven, and that the authorities were to have their place there.
One writer takes the two lights as a picture of Christ and the church:
As the sun is a beautiful and fitting symbol of Christ, so the moon strikingly reminds us of the church. The source of her light is hidden from view. The world does not see Him, but she sees Him; and she is responsible to reflect His beams upon a darkened world. The world has no other way to learn anything of Christ except through the church. "You," says the inspired apostle, "are our letter … known and read by all."
Read that way, the lights in heaven show where a believer's light must come from:
Let this scene preach to us that all true and divine light now is heavenly. To let our "light shine" is nothing else than to let people see that we belong to another sphere, and that we are not of the world, even as Christ was not. It is to let them see our faces brightened with the joy of what He is. Our hearts are satisfied with Himself, and so independent of the broken cisterns from which they try to draw refreshment.
- Set. The verb points back to the One acting; the glory of placing the lights belongs to God Himself.
- Purposed. This is not the first making of the sun and moon but the fixing of their work — and it rules out worshipping them.
- Given. They are gifts for human use, and what God calls good is the work He assigns them, not their bare existence.
- Ruling. The lights stand above the earth they light, marking out that the earth is ruled from heaven.
- Reflected. Applied to us, the light we shine is borrowed light, and its whole worth lies in showing others the One it comes from.
and to rule during the day and during the night, and to divide between the light and the darkness. And God saw that it was good.
The wording here is careful, and readers often miss it. The fourth day sets the lights in place; it is not when they first came into being.
The work of the fourth day has caused difficulty for many. Partly because years ago, under mistaken scientific ideas, light (v. 3) without the sun (v. 16) was thought impossible. Partly because people did not carefully notice what verses 14 to 18 actually say, and do not say. Sun and moon were created as given to us in verse 1; they were only made as "two great lights" on the fourth day. Further, they were set in relation to the earth — or the earth to them, as the case may be — so that they ruled over the day and over the night. In this way they divided the light from the darkness.
God's approval here is attached to something specific. It is not admiration of newly minted objects but satisfaction in the work assigned to them.
God gave sun and moon to rule over the day and over the night. They were His creatures and gifts for man's use, dividing between the light and the darkness. "And God saw that it was good" — not as if they had just been created, but in the assigned work He gave them to do.
The word "good" is repeated across the chapter, and one writer draws a large conclusion from that.
All that God made was good. This is said five times (in verses 10, 12, 18, 21, and 25) about matter, whether living or not. These are important statements, because the ordered scene of creation was so soon invaded by evil. It proves that the evil was an invasion from outside and not produced from within. All as it left God's hand was perfect and undefiled.
The word "rule" is not decorative. From the start, the earth takes its light and its order from above. That pattern says something about how God governs.
Then again, they were to rule, one over the day and one over the night. From the outset God placed the earth under the rule and control of heaven, even in the working of lifeless matter. So these heavenly bodies become a sign that "Heaven rules" (Dan. 4:26), and a faint prophecy of "the kingdom of heaven," which we read of in the Gospel of Matthew. Sadly, fallen man soon twisted all this. He began to worship these lights as though they were creator and not creature, and so changed God's truth into a lie. Romans 1:25 refers to this, we believe.
Now, as the sun is a beautiful and fitting symbol of Christ, so the moon strikingly reminds us of the church. The source of her light is hidden from view. The world does not see Him, but she sees Him; and she is responsible to reflect His beams on a darkened world. The world has no other way of learning anything of Christ except through the church. "You yourselves are our letter ... known and read by all," says the inspired apostle. And again, "You show that you are a letter from Christ." (2 Cor. 3:2-3.)
The same writer's grammar is worth noticing: the lesser light is given a rule of its own, not merely a glow. One writer draws that parallel out, and adds that the present arrangement is temporary.
His is a full, unchanging, underived light; hers a reflected, unsteady one. Yet it is said, "The moon to govern the night," just as it is, "The sun to rule the day." "You are the light of the world," just as "I am the light of the world." But Christ is absent, and it is now night — although, thank God, "the night is far spent, the day is at hand."
If the church is the moon, the picture itself corrects anyone who makes her the source of the light instead of the channel.
But here we are on ground that has its dangers. The Roman Catholic system exalted the church at the expense of her Head, and this tendency is clearly seen in quarters where it was least expected. The moon is a fitting illustration of the church, and it guards against this tendency. It is a dark body with no light of its own. Its only usefulness lies in reflecting the light of the sun. Strictly speaking there is no such thing as moonlight — it is the reflected light of the sun. So the only use the church can be in this world is shedding the light of Christ during the night of His absence.
- Made — sun and moon were created in verse 1. On the fourth day God made them "two great lights," set in relation to the earth to govern and divide.
- Given — they rule as creatures and gifts for man's use, never as powers in their own right.
- Ruled — the earth takes its light and order from above, a sign that "Heaven rules." Man's sin was to worship the lights instead of their Maker.
- Reflected — the sun pictures Christ, the moon the church. Her light is all borrowed, and her one use is to shine it into the night of His absence.
- Good — God's approval rests on the work He assigned, not on the objects. Creation is called good five times, so the evil that later spoiled it came from outside.
And there was evening, and there was morning -- a fourth day.
Genesis 1:19 closes the fourth day, the day God set the sun and moon in the sky to mark signs, seasons, days and years. Its last words raise three questions: did God make the lights then or only give them a job, why call the work "good", and why does evening come first?
So did the sun and moon begin on day four? One writer says no.
It is certainly not the creation of the sun and the rest. The inspired historian does not say that, but only that God now appointed the heavenly lights, after the plants and before the animals, for the earth of Adam's day. Light had shone in another way since the first day of that great week. Now He set the light-bearers of the heavens to do their assigned work, but it is for the earth, and indeed for man.
A sign needs a reader. The same writer names times when Israel saw these lights act as signs.
Suppose this happened an age before Adam — thousands, millions of years. What sense would there be in light-bearers "for signs and for seasons, and for days and years"? ... We see what a sign it was to Israel when Joshua said in their hearing, "Sun, stand still at Gibeon, and moon, in the Valley of Aijalon." In far different days the Lord spoke to sick Hezekiah, and gave him a sign in the shadow that went back ten steps on the dial of Ahaz. And what a sign again at the cross of the Messiah, where everything was lost as far as man is concerned! There darkness covered the whole land for three hours.
God's "good" here is not praise for something new. He approves the work He gave the lights — and day four then runs like any day since.
The stars only come in as an aside. God made them too, even if blind man turned them into gods. But God gave sun and moon to rule over the day and over the night. They were His creatures and gifts for man's use, dividing between the light and the darkness. "And God saw that it was good" — not as though they had just been created, but good in the work He gave them to do. "And there was evening and there was morning, the fourth day." No one can honestly deny it: that day's work must give us the ordinary alternation of night and day. The same daily turning followed for the fifth and sixth days, as for every day since, including the seventh. If so, consistency surely requires the same for the three days before.
Why does the verse name evening before morning? One writer traces the order back to day one.
As to the day, evening and morning: God called the light created out of darkness "day". But there was no morning then. So evening comes first — the disappearance of light. ... Genesis does not count the night, except by implication. It was the original state — absence of light — not a creation. God's works are in the light. If darkness came on, light appeared again — the dawn — there was morning. Evening is named first because it closed the day that the incoming light had just created, or ordered.
The two lights are not equal, and one writer reads that difference as a picture.
The great light of the day is the source of heat and light to the earth. Its light is its own. It never changes, and it is as constant as the day it brings. It clearly shows us the Heavenly One, back in the glory He came from. The lesser light rules the night, and its light is borrowed from His. At its best it is cold and dull by comparison. It also changes — full-faced or shrunken, depending on whether it fully faces Him or is turned away from Him. How easily we read that too.
Another writer weighs a second difference: the two lights never shine at once.
Of what are they typical? The answer is Christ and the church. The sun and the moon do not shine at one and the same time. The sun shines by day. The moon by night. That is the present relation between Christ and His church. Our Lord, in His earthly life, was the light of men, but wicked men led by religious rulers crucified Him. While He is absent, the church is to shine for Him in this world.
- Set — Day four gives the sun and moon their task; it does not make them. Light had shone since day one.
- Aimed — Day four aims at earth and man. Signs, seasons, days and years matter only to people who live under that sky.
- Approved — "Good" praises the work God gave the lights, not their newness. They rule as His gifts, never as gods.
- Ordered — Evening comes first because darkness closed the day that light began. Then dawn answers it. The night is not a creation.
- Reflected — The sun's light is its own. The moon's light is borrowed and changing, bright only while it faces the source. So Christ shines, and His people shine for Him in the night of His absence.
And God said, Let the waters swarm with swarms of living souls, and let fowl fly above the earth in the expanse of the heavens.
On the fifth day the world stops being empty scenery. Life swarms in the seas, and wings fill the sky. This one verse raises two questions. What new order of life begins here? And did God really say the water produced the birds?
Up to now God had made light, sky, sea, land and plants. Day five brings in something new, and one writer finds the sign of it in a single word. He quotes the verse in older English wording.
In verse 21 we get the word "created" for the second time. It appeared in verse 1, the original creation of the heaven and the earth. The intervening verses have told us what God made out of His original creation. Why does the word occur again here? We believe it is because here God commanded the waters to bring forth "the moving creature that has life." Plants show nutrition, growth and reproduction. Here we see a completely different order of life: creatures that can feel and move by their own will. Indeed the word translated "creature" in verses 20 and 21 really means "soul." So on this fifth day God brought in a higher form of life, a life that involves soul. That is why this was creation in the full sense.
Older English Bibles read as though the sea gave birth to birds. One writer traces the objection to the translation, not the text.
Chapter 2 shows that birds were made out of the earth; but Genesis 1:20, critics say, means that birds were made out of the waters. Genesis 1 says nothing of the sort. It agrees perfectly with Genesis 2:19. The objection shows the danger of reasoning from a mistake that has crept into a translation, instead of from Scripture itself. This verse does not teach that the waters were to bring forth birds, though our English version makes it look that way. It reads, "Let the waters bring forth abundantly the moving creature, and let birds fly about the earth in the open expanse of heaven." The point is that the birds fly in that sphere. The verse never says the waters gave birth to them.
Answering the same objection elsewhere, he shows the two clauses stand apart:
Nothing really is said or intended about the waters bringing forth birds: the latter are spoken of in a distinct clause... The true rendering is, "Let the waters bring forth abundantly, etc. and let birds fly, etc." There is no discrepancy in this case to be reconciled.
The ESV above follows this reading: the waters swarm, and the birds fly.
The order of the six days is not random.
The waters now teem with life, and birds fly in the air... It is beautiful to see God's goodness at work in all this! He first creates a setting where His creatures can live. Plant life, for instance, needs dry land to grow on. So God first brings the dry land up out of the waters. Animals need plant food, so He supplies plenty of it before He brings these creatures into being.
The first blessing in the Bible does not fall on man.
The first blessing of creation was when God made the creatures that filled the waters and the air of Adam's world. They were the first to enjoy animal life in that world. God takes pleasure in blessing His creatures. Their life is lowly, yet it can still enjoy the fruits of His goodness. He blesses them above all with a view to their reproducing and multiplying within their own sphere.
Fish and birds are called "living creatures," where older Bibles read "living souls." Some argue from this that man is no different from an animal. The reply turns on how each one received life.
Animals have living souls as part of their creation. About them God said, "Let the waters bring forth," or, "Let the earth bring forth." But God formed man of the dust of the ground, and "breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living creature." So man was unlike every other creature in two ways. God created him in His own image, and he "became a living soul" because God breathed into him.
One writer hears the voice of this verse again in the Gospels. A man standing before Jesus recognized it.
He felt that he was in the presence of the One whose voice said ages before, "Let the waters swarm with swarms of living creatures" (Gen. 1:20). He realized that God had come down from heaven to earth. His sinful condition rose up before him — his unfitness to stay in the divine presence. So he fell at Jesus' knees saying, "Depart from me, for I am a sinful man, O Lord."
- Word — God speaks, and the seas and skies fill with life. The same voice later brought a man to his knees before Jesus.
- Soul — "Creature" here means "soul": life that feels and moves. It stands above plants, so the word "created" returns.
- Order — God prepares the home before He brings in the tenants. His goodness shows in the sequence, not just the result.
- Blessing — God's first recorded blessing falls on fish and birds, so they may multiply and fill their sphere.
- Distinction — Animals received life by a command to the waters. Man became a living soul when God breathed into him.
And God created the great sea monsters, and every living soul that moves with which the waters swarm, after their kind, and every winged fowl after its kind. And God saw that it was good.
The fifth day of creation fills the seas and the sky with life. Here the Bible uses the word "created" for only the second time since verse 1. That word, and the phrase "according to their kinds," carry the weight of the verse.
At verse 21 the word "created" returns, and one writer ties it to something the plant world never had.
In verse 21 we get the word "created" for the second time. It appeared in verse 1, the original creation of the heaven and the earth. The intervening verses have told us what God made out of His original creation. Why does the word occur again here? We believe it is because here God commanded the waters to bring forth "living creatures that move." In the vegetable kingdom we see nutrition, growth and reproduction. Here we see an entirely different order of things: creatures with the power to feel and to move by their own will. Indeed the word translated "creature" in verses 20 and 21 is really "soul."
Where this word appears next, and where it does not, shows where the real dividing lines fall.
God had created the heavens and the earth before. Now He creates animate life, another order of creation entirely. So Scripture does not use the word when God brought in the animals on the sixth day. It uses it again when we are told, "God created man in His own image" (v. 27), for man is a completely different order of creation. There is a link between sea creatures, birds and animals, but none of these have any such link with mankind.
Older translations read "great whales" here. The Hebrew word is far broader than that, and the same term shows up elsewhere for very different animals.
The word tannin, used in Genesis 1:21, Job 7:12 and Ezekiel 32:2, refers to any sea monsters, without defining any particular one. … The Hebrew word tannin is also translated in the Authorised Version 'dragon,' 'sea monster,' and 'serpent.'
Commentators differ over whether whales in particular are meant. One writer notes how carefully the account marks them off from the fish.
Moses clearly separated fish, which are cold-blooded animals, from the warm-blooded creatures of the sea. Those creatures nurse their young, and they must come to the surface of the sea to breathe. … What could Moses know of such things? … And yet Moses made no mistakes in his narrative.
Some have read this passage as saying the sea produced the birds. A correct translation removes the error.
A correct translation here, as the reader can see, destroys the error that commentators, both Jewish and Christian, have tried to explain. The sense is not that the waters produced the birds. It is that God made them fly in the open expanse of the heavens. Compare Genesis 2:19, which plainly teaches that God formed the birds out of the ground, just as He formed the beast of the field.
The phrase appears twice in this one verse: once for the sea life, once for the birds. Older translations read "after his kind," and one writer traces that formula through the chapter.
In Genesis 1 the formula — "after his kind" — is repeated ten times. It covers the plants in verse 11, the sea life and the winged birds in verse 21, and the beasts, the cattle and everything that creeps on the earth in verse 25. Why "after his kind"? That leaves room for each species. The lion does not mate with the tigress. The eagle does not consort with the goose. The wasp does not breed with the bee.
The record covers sea life and bird life as a whole, and it looks ahead to what God places under man's rule.
The clear intention was to impress on all who heed the written word that the fifth day's work covered the whole circle of water animals, as well as all the bird life known to mankind… If the inspired writer speaks of what concerns man in daily life, this agrees with the blessing God spoke: "Be fruitful and multiply and fill the waters in the seas, and let birds multiply on the earth." Verses 26 and 28 confirm it strongly, for there God gives man dominion over the fish of the sea, no less than over the birds of the air.
One writer draws a personal lesson from this day for the believer.
The waters of turmoil, distress and unrest — that is, our experiences of deep trial — will bring forth abundant blessing in a way only God can do. … The power and grace of God produces some of our greatest blessing through our greatest trouble and sorrow. The birds flying in the heavens teach us that by faith our spirit may rise high above the level of our circumstances.
- Created. The word returns for the first time since verse 1. Creatures that feel and move by their own will are a new order of life, not a rearrangement of what was there.
- Soul. The word for "creature" here is really "soul." These are living souls, a step above the plant world.
- Kind. Twice in one verse God fixes life "according to their kinds," leaving room for each species.
- Distinguished. The great sea creatures stand apart from the swarming life beside them, and God formed the birds from the ground, not from the waters.
- Blessed. God calls the work good and tells it to multiply — filling the very seas and skies He would later place under man's rule.
And God blessed them, saying, Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the waters in the seas, and let fowl multiply on the earth.
The Bible's first recorded blessing falls not on man but on fish and birds, spoken over creatures made on the fifth day. What does it mean for God to bless them, why does the blessing come as a command, and why do these creatures receive it first?
One writer compares this blessing with the one given to man six verses later, and notes a difference in the wording of each:
This is the second benediction of creation. The first was when God made the creatures that peopled the waters and the air of Adam's world, the first to enjoy animal life in that world. God takes pleasure in blessing His creatures, whose life, though lowly, can still enjoy the fruits of His goodness. He blesses them above all with a view to their reproducing and multiplying within their sphere. Here, a second time, He blessed mankind, male and female. In verse 22 we have only "saying," but here "God said to them, Be fruitful."
So the blessing is spoken over the fish and birds; only man is spoken to directly. Still, blessing is the Bible's first word over any creature. The opposite word comes later, and for a reason:
Sadly, we have to hear the voice of cursing as well as the voice of blessing, because God must give expression to what He hates. So as soon as man falls away from Him we hear the curse pronounced. It is as clear and as strong as the blessing ever was: "Cursed," God says, "is the ground because of you" (Gen. 3:17)... Blessing, however, is the first thing we read of.
The blessing comes as an order: be fruitful, multiply, fill. One writer notes this as the first command in the chapter, and ties it to the creative power that had just brought these creatures into being:
Then we first get the imperative used. They now exist through creative power. So He commands them, through reproduction, to "be fruitful, and multiply, and fill the seas." And He declares that "the birds shall multiply" — again a future tense, not a present.
Increase, then, is not something matter achieves on its own. The same writer applies this against the idea that life or growth arises from within nature: "the power and the wisdom of the originator is what settles the lines of extension."
God had already made grass and herb, yet He blessed neither. Something new appears on the fifth day:
The fifth day brings another change of scene... But now even here the power of God is working; the waters swarm with swarms of living creatures, and birds fly in the open expanse of the heavens. It is still progress in the great creative plan, and life reaches new and higher forms than before. It is not now grass and herb, but the "living soul," and God blesses them, and bids them multiply.
The blessing comes after God has made sea and sky ready to hold what would fill them:
See how beautifully God's goodness works in all this! He first creates a place where His creatures can live. For instance, plant life needs dry land to grow on. That, therefore, is first brought up out of the waters. Animals need plant food, and He first supplies it in abundance before He brings these creatures into being. God's whole work, as we have already said, is always a prophecy of the good things to come.
The blessing names the seas and the earth — the spheres later handed to man. One writer reads the account as written for what concerns man in practice:
If, on the other hand, the inspired writer speaks of what concerns man in practice, that agrees with God's spoken blessing: "Be fruitful and multiply and fill the waters in the seas, and let birds multiply on the earth." Verses 26 and 28 confirm it strikingly. There God gives man dominion over the fish of the sea, no less than over the birds of the air, and beast and cattle and all that creep on the earth.
One writer offers a picture, not a settled reading. He links the filling of the seas with the gospel going out beyond one nation:
In Revelation 17:15 we have seen that the waters John saw in his vision stood for peoples and multitudes and nations and tongues. Does it not seem that the peopling of the seas is symbolic of God's gracious work among the Gentiles through the Gospel? The Old Testament testimony kept very largely to the children of Israel... The great feature of the New Testament is, however, the Gospel of God going out world-wide to the very ends of the earth.
- Blessing first. God's first word over any creature is blessing. Cursing enters Scripture only after man falls away.
- Blessing prepared. God builds the environment before He fills it — sea and sky are ready before anything is told to fill them.
- Blessing given. The creatures exist by God's creative power, and they multiply at His command.
- Blessing received. It falls on "living souls," a higher order than herb and tree, able to enjoy the goodness God gives.
- Blessing spreading. The command to fill the waters and the earth points forward: to man's rule over both, and — as one writer suggests — to a gospel that reaches every nation.
And there was evening, and there was morning -- a fifth day.
The same words close the fifth day that closed each day before it. They raise two questions commentators press hard: is this an ordinary day, and why does a day start in the evening?
The repetition itself is the argument.
Why the repetition of "there was evening and there was morning" (vv. 5, 8, 13, 19, 23, 31)? All plain enough if an ordinary day is meant — remember, the Jewish day began at 6 p.m. On the larger scale it would only say that the period had a beginning and an ending — an obvious fact, not worth mentioning, much less repeating.
The order of the words matters. It sets how the Bible counts a day, and missing that has tangled readers up in the Gospels.
Next the day is counted from the evening and the morning. That statement is of great importance for other parts of Scripture. The Spirit of God never forgets it, but modern readers almost always let it slip. That forgetfulness has been a great source of the difficulties that burden efforts to line up the Gospel accounts... People have found such puzzles, for instance, over our Lord's keeping of the Passover compared with the Jews', and over the crucifixion. The reason is that they forget that the evening and the morning made up the first day, the second day, or any other.
Until now the earth had been shaped, lit and covered with plants. The fifth day adds life — and God does more than make it. He blesses it.
The fifth day brings another change of scene. We might have thought we had left the barren waste of waters behind for good. Yet here we come back to it. But now even here the power of God is working; the waters swarm with swarms of living creatures, and birds fly in the open expanse of heaven. It is still progress in the great creative plan, and life reaches new and higher forms than before. It is not now grass and herb, but the "living soul," and God blesses them, and bids them multiply.
The word "created" also returns on this day.
This chapter uses the word "created" for the second time (v. 21). God had created the heavens and the earth before. Now He creates animate life — a wholly different order of creation.
Some try to match the fifth day to a geological age. The text has a different aim: the sea and sky life people know.
The clear intention was to impress, on all who heed the written word, that the fifth day's work covered the whole circle of water animals and all the bird life known to mankind... Verses 26 and 28 confirm this strongly. There God gives man dominion over the fish of the sea, no less than over birds of the air, and beast and cattle and all that creep on the earth. The only detail, in fact, sets out the origin of what was put under man's rule.
Commentators differ over what the fifth day pictures. Some read it as a coming time of trouble, with the faith of God's people rising out of it.
The period that will follow the Church's time on earth is that brief but troubled time which fills so much of the book of Revelation. Out of this fearful time of trouble, the faith of Israel will reach a clearness and energy perhaps not known even in Israel's best days. It will be found in the feeble remnant that turns in penitence to God. Out of that turmoil will rise a spiritual life such as Israel never had before: a life which, in the birds flying in the open expanse of heaven, suggests a liberty and a power that promise well for the glories of the coming age.
Others read the waters as the nations, and the day as the gospel spreading beyond one people.
We have seen in Revelation 17:15 that the waters John saw in his vision stood for peoples and multitudes and nations and tongues. Does it not seem that the peopling of the seas pictures God's gracious work among the Gentiles through the gospel? The Old Testament testimony went mainly to the children of Israel... The great feature of the New Testament is the gospel going out worldwide to the very ends of the earth.
The formula runs through six days. Then it stops.
In the first six days we read of the evening and the morning. On the seventh day there is no mention of this, for time is not counted in eternity.
- Counted — the closing words mark off a real day. For a vast age, saying it had a start and an end would be too obvious to repeat six times.
- Evening first — the day runs from evening to morning. Forget that, and the Gospel accounts turn puzzling.
- Created — the word used of the heavens and the earth returns on this day, because animate life is a new order. The day covers the sea and sky life man was later given to rule.
- Blessed — God does not only make the sea creatures and the birds. He blesses them and tells them to multiply. Some read that spreading life as a picture of the gospel reaching the nations.
- Unending — the refrain runs through six days, then stops. The seventh day has no evening, because eternity is not counted in days.
And God said, Let the earth bring forth living souls after their kind, cattle, and creeping thing, and beast of the earth, after their kind. And it was so.
The sixth day opens with a command to the earth, and the dry land fills with animal life. Two questions run through the verse: what is a "living creature," and why does the making of man, later the same day, read so differently?
The same Hebrew words describe the sea creatures earlier in the chapter. One writer follows that word through the chapter.
In verse 20 God spoke of the sea creatures that have life — and the Hebrew word behind "creature" there is "nephesh," soul. Verse 21 uses the same word again: every living creature that moves is a living soul. Verse 24 says it once more of the land: "Let the earth bring forth living creatures according to their kinds." So by His word God made them living souls on the earth.
The verse names three groups. One writer takes each word in turn and shows what it covers.
It is not out of place to name "cattle" first in verse 24. These are the animals that can be tamed, even if they were not tamed yet, and they suit the use of man. "Creeping thing" comes next, in its more literal sense. "Moving," used earlier, described more fully how the creatures of the waters act, so it took in not only serpents and the like but insect life. "Animal of earth" means the wild beast.
The verse also names cattle apart from the wild beasts. One writer sees a purpose in that.
We notice too that both verse 24 and verse 25 keep the "beast of the earth" separate from the "cattle." We gather from this that at the first, before sin came in, God designed certain animals for the upkeep and benefit of the man He was about to create. After sin came in, the beasts developed their wild and savage nature, while the cattle stayed fairly tame and useful to man.
The verse repeats "according to their kinds" twice. One writer sees a line God has drawn through every living thing.
Notice that each creature is "after his kind." God made the plants and the sea animals the same way on the earlier days. This establishes that species are fixed... One thing is certain: "after his kind" stamps each class of plant and animal life with its own identity. So this Scripture gives evolution no support. Yet we must be careful. In turning away from that extreme theory of unbelief, we must not fall into the opposite error of making endless classes.
Another writer points to what we can see in the animal world.
The lion does not mate with the tigress. The eagle does not pair with the goose. The wasp does not breed with the bee. The only hybrids in creation are of man's arrangement and they are sterile, and come to nothing.
The animals come at a command spoken to the ground. When God turns to make man, the words change.
The creation of man was not a mass movement, as the creation of the lower creatures was. Verse 24 describes a mass movement. It takes in the whole of living things on earth, yet there is one great exception — MAN... "And the LORD God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul." There is no mass movement here. A single individual was in view.
Pollock quotes Genesis 2:7 from an older translation, which reads "a living soul." The difference is not only in numbers. It is in the way God acts.
The animals came out of the earth at His will. He had said, "Let the earth bring forth living creatures according to their kinds," and it was so. It was not like that with man. God takes solemn counsel about creating him, and decides to make man in His image, after His likeness.
This verse is the first half of the sixth day. Everything in it points to what God does next.
We can compare God's work up to this point to an architect who designs and builds a palace for a royal person to live in. So God prepared all the beautiful world around: sun, moon, stars, clouds, non-living matter, plant life, animal life, with their countless astounding wonders. All of it was ready for this moment of supreme importance, when God created man — a creature He could have fellowship with.
- Word — The land creatures appear at a command spoken to the earth. No process, no ancestry — "and it was so."
- Soul — "Living creature" translates living soul. Animals are living souls made by God's word. That is why the breath God breathed into man stands out.
- Kind — Twice in one verse God sets a boundary. Each kind keeps its own identity, and no kind turns into another.
- Line — Livestock, creeping things and beasts of the earth are everyday words. They describe animals in relation to man, not a scientific list.
- Crown — This verse finishes the palace. Its royal occupant arrives before the day ends, made by God's counsel, not by a command to the ground.
And God made the beast of the earth after its kind, and the cattle after their kind, and every creeping thing of the ground after its kind. And God saw that it was good.
The sixth day opens not with man but with the land filling with animals: cattle, creeping things, and wild beasts, each held inside its own kind. Two questions run through the verse: why God made these animals rather than created them, and what the phrase about kinds fixes for all of nature. (Writers below quote it as "after his kind," an older translation.)
Genesis 1 does not use the same word every time. One writer notices which word is missing here:
In the early part of the sixth day God filled the earth with living souls — beast and cattle and also creeping things. Notice that God made them. It does not say that He created them. They looked very different from the creatures of the waters and the air, yet they were still only "living souls." So the word created appears only when God first created "soul" as something distinct from matter.
The three names are not a scientific catalogue. One commentator takes each term in turn and warns against forcing science onto them:
Bringing in the herbivores, the reptiles, and the carnivores here is straining after a scientific gloss… Naming "cattle" first in verse 24 is no anachronism. These are the animals that can be tamed, even if not yet tamed, and they suit the use of man. "Creeping thing" follows in its more literal sense… "Animal of earth" means the wild beast. All of them are terms in constant use where man lives and reigns.
The verse also names cattle apart from the beast of the earth. One writer reads that as a clue about the man not yet made:
Notice too that both verse 24 and verse 25 keep the "beast of the earth" separate from the "cattle." We gather from this that at the first, before sin came in, God designed certain animals to support and benefit the man He was about to create. After sin came in, the beasts developed their wild and savage nature, while the cattle stayed tame and useful to man.
The phrase about kinds falls three times in this one verse. Writers read it as a fixed law, and one adds a warning against pushing it too far:
Notice that each creature is "after his kind." This establishes the fixity of species. Scripture does not say what those species were, or how far variety might later develop inside them. In many animal species that variety is so great it is scarcely believable. One thing is certain: "after his kind" stamps its own mark on each class of plant and animal life. So evolution finds no encouragement from this Scripture. Yet in reacting against the extreme of unbelieving theory, we must be careful not to fall into the opposite extreme of making endless classes. A common unity underlies all animal creation. Each class is specially fitted for the work it has to do. Just as plainly, though, barriers that cannot be crossed separate the classes from one another.
Another points to what anyone can watch happening in the fields and the air:
Why "after his kind"? That clearly leaves room for each species. The lion does not mate with the tigress. The eagle does not consort with the goose. The wasp does not breed with the bee. The only hybrids in creation are of man's arrangement, and they are sterile, and come to nothing.
God's verdict of "good" closes this stage of the work. The next verse opens something different:
As to the life we have by nature, God's word formed the beasts out of the ground. There the ordinary creation ended, and God pronounced the beasts good (Gen. 1:25). And then God proceeds in solemn consultation to form man as His image, as lord of all He had created, and in His likeness.
One writer also reads the three classes as a picture of mankind:
Acts 10:1-15 and verse 28 show that all these animals are typical of mankind. Domesticated animals would speak of the cultured and refined classes of men. Creeping things speak of the more despised classes, in places of lowly humiliation. The beasts of the earth remind us of men in their wild, rebellious state — a third class even more common than the other two. But this work of God on the sixth day was only a preparation for a more important work the same day.
- Made — God made these animals; He did not create them. Scripture keeps the word "created" for the first making of soul, distinct from matter.
- Kind — Three times this one verse draws the same boundary. Variety inside a kind can be great, but no creature crosses out of its kind.
- Cattle — Naming cattle apart from the wild beast points to animals designed from the start for man's use. Wildness came in after sin.
- Good — With this verdict the ordinary creation ends, approved by God before man is even mentioned.
- Then Man — The next verse turns from the ground bringing forth animals to God's own solemn counsel. The whole day was preparing for the greater work still to come.