Genesis 1:9–13

First He commands the waters under the heavens to gather into one place, so that dry land can appear. People have noticed that all the seas of the world connect with each other, while the land masses do not. Moses could not have known this unless God revealed it to him. For the dry land to appear, it had to rise above the level of the water. Deep water still covers much land. Dry land takes up less than a third of this planet's surface.

Sudden, extraordinary acts brought about what God then did for man. Slow, ordinary causes played their part too. But here we learn that God laid down the great landmarks that remain to this day.

Again on the third day there was division. The waters above the expanse stayed as they were. God gathered the waters beneath into one place, and dry land appeared. Solid, fixed ground now appeared where everything had been unsettled and moving.

We may well believe His word, since by the word of God all things came into being and continue... The word of God is the authority the believer needs, and the believer is called to obey it in faith. The ground of faith is: "The Lord has said."

This gathering of the waters into their own place begins the great period of earth's history that we still live in. Except for the flood, when water covered everything for a time, the dry land has always been visible... Notice that God's work from the beginning was work of separating. He separated light from darkness. He separated the waters above the expanse from the waters beneath. And here again He separates the dry land from the waves that had covered it and hidden it.

The "third day" speaks of resurrection to the Christian heart. Here it is marked by resurrection power: the earth comes up out of the waters. What can be worked and made fruitful now rises from under the waste of sea that could never be reclaimed. The sea is not removed, but bounded and restrained; it cannot return to cover the earth. God acknowledges that the sea exists. He names it for the first time. In the new earth there will be no sea.

It was like this with the darkness, and now it is like this with the waters. God does not remove them completely. He controls them and sets their limits. The same is true of everything that causes uncertainty, unrest and barrenness in the soul. God does not remove it. He gives it limits it cannot pass, so it can never again cover the ground.

This illustrates the relation of Israel to the nations. The sea is a picture of the nations, who are out of control. Daniel 7:3 tells us of four great beasts coming up from the sea. These are not real beasts or a real sea. They stand for four great world empires that rise up among the nations.

Everything is divine. God said, God saw, God called. We see His thoughts, words, and acts all the way through. And so everything is very good. Sadly, it is when the creature begins to act that everything is spoiled. Notice too how God gives everything its name! He calls as well as makes all things. Night and day, heaven, earth, and seas all receive their names from Him as well as their existence. God left man to name what was for man's use and under man's control.

There is another division in Genesis 1 besides creation and the days, made by the words "and God saw" and "it was good." First He creates. Then He separates the elements to make order out of disorder… Then water and dry land, giving each its name; and the world so prepared He pronounces "good." That is the first division — an ordered world.

The earth was to have, for the most part, the shape God saw best fitted for His new purpose. There would be vast continents and vaster oceans, islands large and small, lakes salt and fresh, mountains and rivers, plains and valleys. Deep and sudden upheaval, not just slow erosion, often shaped those valleys. In Hebrew usage the "seas" take in all large collections of water — oceans, seas, lakes, and even rivers… here we learn that God laid down the great landmarks that remain to this day.

It has been observed that all the seas of the world are connected, while all the land is not. Moses could never have known this unless God revealed it to him. For the dry land to appear it would have to be raised up above the level of the water. Some land remains covered by great depths of water, for the dry land on this planet takes up less than one third of its surface.

The "third day" speaks to the Christian heart of resurrection. Resurrection power marks it here: the earth comes up out of the waters. What can be worked on and made fruitful is now brought up from under the hopeless waste of sea. That sea is not removed, but bounded and restrained; it cannot return to cover the earth. Its existence is indeed openly recognised; it gets its name from God for the first time; in the new earth there will be none (Revelation 21:1). Meanwhile He lays the foundations of the earth, so that it should never be moved.

The land speaks of what is solid and stable, in contrast to the unstable mass of the waters of the oceans. The heaving waters speak of the flesh in its unstable emptiness, whether the flesh in unbelievers or in believers. In the same way, Revelation 17:15 speaks of the waters as "peoples, multitudes, nations and tongues." There you see the flesh in all its constant turmoil and disorder. These are the waters of the seas, in contrast to the waters from above — the rain that stands for the blessing of God by His word (Isaiah 55:10-11). This separation of earth from the waters God saw to be good.

No doubt in Genesis 1 the Earth refers to the whole land surface, just as the Seas refers to the oceans that circle the globe. But what does this division between the Earth and the Seas picture? The Earth stands for the land of Israel.

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."

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 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.

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.

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.

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?

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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 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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.