What did God create on the sixth day of creation?
The sixth day is the last of the creation week, and it carries a double load of work: the land animals are formed, and then man himself. Everything before it has been preparation, and everything after it is rest — which raises the question of why God saved man for last, and what He meant when He looked at the finished whole and called it very good.
Two Works in One Day
Commentators note that the sixth day, like the third, holds two separate acts of God rather than one. The order matters: the animals come first, then the being who will rule them.
William KellyOn the sixth day there is also a double action, and the second still more strikingly distinguished, as human life is brought into being, the highest of earthly natures here below... The days we have seen have special reference to man, who, on the sixth, follows and crowns the highest animals set under his rule.
The Land Creatures Named
The three groups listed in the verse are not scientific classes but everyday categories, described in terms of their usefulness and nearness to man.
William KellyNor is there real anachronism in giving "cattle" as the first named in verse 24, the domesticable if not yet domesticated animals, appropriate to the use of man. "Creeping thing" follows in its more literal application... "Animal of earth" designates the wild beast.
Man Made Apart
The animals are called out of the earth in bulk. Man is not — and the difference in the wording is deliberate.
A. J. PollockThe creation of man was not a mass movement, as was the case of the lower creation. We read, "And God said, Let the earth bring forth living creatures according to their kinds—livestock and creeping things and beasts of the earth according to their kinds" (Gen. 1:24). This is the description of a mass movement, and while it takes in the whole of living things on earth, yet there is one great exception—MAN. On the contrary, man was a SPECIAL creation of God from the first.
Image, Likeness, Dominion
Two things are said of man on this day: he is made in God's image and likeness, and he is given rule. One writer separates what each phrase carries, and draws out what survived the fall.
F. B. HoleMan was made in God's image, that is, as God's representative in creation. He was after God's likeness, since he was originally a free, intelligent, moral agent. And though no longer sinless but fallen, his responsibility remains.
The rule given is not shared with any other creature, and it was real from the start, not a promise for later.
William KellyNone other was to subdue the earth. He alone had the God-given capacity. He alone was called to have dominion... A striking and practical proof of the reality of this dominion... was given to Adam (Gen. 2:19) when the LORD God brought them to see what their lord would call them.
Food, and a World Without Death
The day closes with God assigning food — plants for man, green plants for the animals. What is given, and what is withheld, tells us about the state of that world.
William KellyMan has still his distinctive place in God's commission and plan; but it is in the state of innocence. After the fall came corruption and violence. Animal life was not permitted to man as food until after the flood. Herbs and fruit were given at first to man, and to the subject creation every green plant. Death was not in the Adamic earth until sin.
Commentators differ on how far this extends. Some argue from verse 30 that every animal was then plant-eating; others treat the earlier ages of the earth as outside the question entirely.
The Verdict and the Rest
God's survey at the end of the sixth day is what makes the seventh possible.
Hamilton SmithAfter the world was formed and man was created in the image and likeness of God, the creation works of God were finished. This led to creation rest with its two distinctive marks: first, God's satisfaction in all that He had made... second, the entire cessation from all His creation work... the absolute complacency in the result of the labour; and satisfaction being reached, the absolute end of all toil.
An Echo at the Cross
One writer draws a line from the sixth day of Genesis to the sixth day of the week on which Christ died.
The Christian's FriendIt seems significant that His work ended on the sixth day, which was the day on which God did His greatest works (Genesis 1:24-31), pronouncing all very good... so that He could utter that victor's cry, "It is finished," a divine proclamation concerning His own work that it was very good. Thus creation-work ends on the sixth day, and redemption-work also.
Summary
- Two acts. The sixth day divides in two: first the land creatures — livestock, creeping things, wild beasts — then man, who follows and crowns them.
- Two methods. The animals are brought forth in bulk by a word to the earth; man alone is a special creation, formed individually.
- Two words. Image means representative; likeness means a free, intelligent, moral being — and the responsibility that came with it outlived the fall.
- Two gifts. Man receives dominion over the creatures and plants for food; death had no place in that earth until sin entered.
- Two finishings. Creation work ended on a sixth day with "very good" and led to rest; redemption work ended on a sixth day with "It is finished."