7-Day Commentary Challenge - Genesis 1-3Sample

The Fifth Day, 1:20–23

As the creative process continued, the waters of the earth were now ready for marine life and the land and atmosphere prepared for fowl. Food and habitation were available to all. Seaweeds, grasses, trees, and other growing things provided for new forms of life. “Let the waters teem” indicates the rapid filling of the waters with marine life, but it may not necessarily mean that there were no lower forms of marine life (e.g., corals, sponges) before that time. If there were, there is no conflict between Scripture and science, which reports existence of fossils of elementary forms of marine life supposedly dating earlier than those of some plants. “Flying things” seems to include insects as well as birds.

“And God created great sea monsters.” The use of bärä’ (create) shows that the origin of those creatures is a result of direct divine action and not merely of some indirect control of a process of natural development. And the appearance of the monsters at this juncture shows that they came from God’s good hand and manifest the might of His power. They are not to be viewed as rivals of Deity as was true of the sea monsters described in pagan mythology. As the oceans and the earth began to fill up with wildlife God was pleased with the result (v. 21) as He was on the third day (v. 12). And as on day three, God specifically restricted reproduction (“after his kind”). Whatever crossbreeding or development might occur, divine limits were imposed and presumably a full-scale evolutionary process without divine control ruled out.

The Sixth Day, 1:24–31

On the sixth day land animals and man crowned God’s creative work. Having populated the sea and the sky and having blanketed the earth with herbage, He next turned to filling the earth itself with living creatures. In verse 24 three classifications of terrestrial life are listed: cattle (animals capable of domestication), creeping things (reptiles or a variety of short-legged creatures that may appear to crawl), and beasts of the earth (truly wild animals that usually cannot be domesticated). All three of these categories, like other creatures previously created, reproduce only after their kind.

As the crowning event of creation week God created man. It is evident that man is to be so considered because he was given dominion over all that God had previously created, and man was created in the image of God Himself. It is interesting to note that when God spoke of creating man, He used three first person plural pronouns: “Let us make . . . in our image, after our likeness . . .” Those indicate plurality in the Godhead, perhaps a full Trinitarian relationship. And whereas God, unspecified as to person, undertook to create other details of the universe, here the Godhead together cooperated in the creation of man, giving distinction to the work in which God was now engaging.

To leave no doubt that man was a special creation, verse 27 three times states that God created man and uses the verb bärä’, indicating a special creation. It is almost as if He anticipated a later denial of that position by modern naturalists. He made both male and female (complementary personalities) on the sixth day, as is clear from verse 27; but the details of the creation of woman appear in chapter 2.

As a special creation of God, human beings were produced in His image and likeness. Apparently that likeness to God involved both a natural and a moral likeness. By nature, man was like God in that he was a personal being possessing self-consciousness, self-determination, and knowledge or intellect. Man’s moral likeness consisted of his sinlessness. On the basis of both the moral and natural likeness, man could have fellowship with God. When man sinned, he lost the moral likeness, and fellowship with God was severed. But man still possesses a natural likeness to God, and therefore deserves the respect of other human beings (James 3:9). Would it make a difference in human relations if we recognized that all with whom we come in contact are human beings truly created in the image of God?

As a consequence of the divine image, man was to exercise dominion over all creatures, and fallen man still largely exercises it (James 3:7). His commission to subdue the earth called forth all his powers of wisdom and energy. Natural obstacles had to be overcome. Mineral wealth had to be discovered and processed. Unfortunately, in our sinful state we too often fall into the evil of exploiting the earth, its resources, and its creatures, rather than assuming the responsibilities of stewardship.

Man also was to multiply and “fill” the earth, not “replenish” it. There is no basis here for the theory that the earth once had been populated and now needed to be repopulated after some catastrophe (e.g., between verses 1 and 2). Filling the earth would require adaptation to various climates and geographical conditions.

Finally, God gave “every green plant for food” to man and to the other living beings He had created. It is questionable that this means no animals were carnivorous or that man was to be vegetarian. And it probably does not mean that all plants were edible. The primary point is that God had made provision for all living creatures.

At the end of the creative process God surveyed what He had made and pronounced it “very good.” Coming from the hand of God, it could not be otherwise.