5. FILLING THE EARTH - Genesis 1:14-25

 

‘And God said, Let there be lights in the firmament of the heaven to divide the day from the night; and let them be for signs, and for seasons, and for days, and years: And let them be for lights in the firmament of the heaven to give light upon the earth: and it was so. And God made two great lights; the greater light to rule the day, and the lesser light to rule the night: he made the stars also. And God set them in the firmament of the heaven to give light upon the earth, And to rule over the day and over the night, and to divide the light from the darkness: and God saw that it was good. And the evening and the morning were the fourth day. And God said, Let the waters bring forth abundantly the moving creature that hath life, and fowl that may fly above the earth in the open firmament of heaven. And God created great whales, and every living creature that moveth, which the waters brought forth abundantly, after their kind, and every winged fowl after his kind: and God saw that it was good. And God blessed them, saying, Be fruitful, and multiply, and fill the waters in the seas, and let fowl multiply in the earth. And the evening and the morning were the fifth day. And God said, Let the earth bring forth the living creature after his kind, cattle, and creeping thing, and beast of the earth after his kind: and it was so. And God made the beast of the earth after his kind, and cattle after their kind, and every thing that creepeth upon the earth after his kind: and God saw that it was good (Genesis 1:14-25).’

 

In the first three days of creation God can be said to have created form and structure out of that which was originally created chaotic. From day four onwards God can be said to actually be filling the universe, bringing fullness to that which was originally created empty.

The other thing to notice in the verses now under consideration is the parallelism of the first three days with the last three days of creation. On day one God created light, while on day four He created the luminaries. On day two God created the waters and the heavens, while on day five He created the fish and the birds to fill them. On day three God created the dry land and the plants, while on day six He created the animals and man to live on and among them. There is a definite parallelism in the structure of these six days of creative activity by God.

NOTE: INDIVIDUAL DISCOVERY QUESTION HERE: Is there any evidence of the Big Bang theory of creation in this passage (Genesis 1)? Does the Bible provide any evidence of such a beginning?

 

Verses 14 and 15: Verse 14 once again confronts us with the very clear statement that God spoke and that which He intended came immediately into existence (Ps 33:6-9). On this day it was the luminaries that were brought into existence. These luminaries were put into the expanse of verse 6, or the heavens of verse 8.

The luminaries were created (Job 26:13) in order to achieve that which God had already achieved in verse 4, namely to divide the day from the night (see also verses 16 and 18). It would seem that the dividing light of day one was now attached to the luminaries.

But the luminaries served other purposes also. The luminaries were to serve as signs (Mt 16:2,3), for seasons, for days and for years. In other words they were created to form specific functions, functions which God Himself had determined. In other words, the seasons, days and years could all be determined by the luminaries that God had provided. They were to be signs for separating the seasons, marking of days and for counting the years. These three periods of time (seasons, days and years) are all determined by the sun and the moon.

QUESTION: Does the Bible teach a doctrine of astrology in this verse by describing the role of the luminaries as being for signs? Explain your answer.

 

Verse 15 provides a further function of the luminaries, simply that of providing light in the heavens and upon the earth.

When God spoke the luminaries were created and the purpose for which He created them was also accomplished or put into place. He spoke and it was done!

Verses 16-18: The two great lights are to be understood from the perspective of our own planet. The fact is that there are many great lights in the heavens, yet from the earth’s perspective there are only two, the sun that dominates the day (Ps 136:5-9) and the moon which dominates the night (Ps 136:9).

The verse also gives an amazingly brief description of the creation of all that fills space (Ps 8:3), for ‘he made the stars also.’

Once again God describes His creative activity as good.

Verse 19: In this verse God again tells us that this creative work was all accomplished in a one day period, making up the fourth day of time.

Verses 20 and 21: In these two verses we see the beginning of the fifth day of creation. On this day God creates those organisms which live in the waters (which would include the inland waters, such as the rivers and lakes) and those that fly in the expanse. Again, this is done through God speaking and by no other way.

Interestingly the creatures of both the waters and the expanse seem to have been created out of the waters in some way. Does this then yield ground to evolution? The overall context of both Genesis 1 and the rest of Scripture (to any honest reader) clearly gives no such ground. Rather the verse gives clear testimony to the creative power of God’s Word.

Verse 22: In this verse God explains that these creatures were created with the ability to reproduce after their own kind, so that the earth is perpetually filled with their own respective kind. There is no evidence of an ability to ‘evolve’ into any other kind of organism, rather a definite ability given to propagate perpetually the same kind of organism only.

Verse 23: In this verse God again tells us that this creative work was all accomplished in a one day period, making up the fifth day of time.

Verses 24 and 25: These two verses bring us to the sixth and final day of God’s creative activity. They do not contain the entirety of what God created on day six, for more will follow regarding the creation of man (see the next study). What we do see in these two verses is the creation of the various land organisms.

Again we see something similar in these organisms, to that of the creatures that were created on the previous day, for these were created in some manner from the earth. Again, there is no evolution to be found here, just further testimony to the power of God’s Word. God spake and these creatures came immediately into existence. Again there is the mention of their own kind and no ability is given to evolve into another kind of organism.

There are a number of various animal categories mentioned here also, being a loose classification if you like of those animals which God created. These include the cattle, or animals that will become useful to God’s further creation - man.

Once again God declares that which He had created to be good. This of course means it accomplished His purposes and was without any flaw whatsoever.

 

INDIVIDUAL DISCOVERY

In the remainder of Genesis 1, is there any evidence to be found of the evolution of man from the lower species? Explain your answer.

 

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23/06/2007

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