The climax of the sixth day of creation is in Genesis 1:26. It says, “Then God said, ‘Let us make man in our image, after our likeness. And let them have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over the livestock and over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.’” When we crossed the equator while on deployment to the western pacific, we had an initiation into the realm of Neptune and had to endure some incredible humiliations. I love the way Spurgeon began a sermon, “Old ocean does not belong to Neptune, as the heathen used to say; Father Neptune is an idle dream. The idolaters parcelled out the various kingdoms among their deities: one should rule the heavens, another the clouds, another the earth, and another the sea; but we know that there is one God alone. The sea is Jehovah’s, and not Neptune’s.”[1] It is all Gods! And he has given it to you and me! As a matter of face God has entrusted to us, mankind, the care and preservation as well as the enjoyment of the whole earth.

Up to the creation of man on the sixth day “All of creation has been merely a prelude to what would happen at the end of day six. The creation of the human race was the central object of God’s creative purpose from the beginning. In an important sense, everything else was created for humanity, and every step of creation up to this point had one main purpose: to prepare a perfect environment for Adam.”[2] You see, “From the very beginning, therefore, man and woman, being created in the image of God (both of them!), were given dominion (lordship) over the whole of the created earth. They were the ones who bore the image of God and, bearing that image, were to be in charge, to tend the Garden, to keep it and preserve it before their own Lord.”[3]

There is a natural wonder in being at sea. It’s different at sea than on land. When at sea there is a sense of marvel one doesn’t have on shore. Spurgeon went on in his sermon to say, “The free sea cannot be parcelled out, nor hedged, nor ditched, nor dyked, nor walled. It has no lords of the manor but remains free and unappropriated for ever. ‘The sea is his, and he made it.’ According to law, a few miles from the shore the sea belongs to the country which borders on it; but once reach the main ocean, and nationalities are forgotten. The sea is neither English nor French, Dutch nor American. No one ever thought of impounding stray whales for going out of their owner’s fields. The pastures of the deep are for all fish; they may feed where they will, from shore to shore.”[4] According to Proverbs 30:19, the way of a man with a maiden is compared to the ways of a ship on the high seas![5] Mysterious indeed!

[1] Spurgeon, C. H. 1912. “The Sea! The Sea! The Wide and Open Sea!” In The Metropolitan Tabernacle Pulpit Sermons, 58:104. London: Passmore & Alabaster.

[2] MacArthur, John. 2001. The Battle for the Beginning: The Bible on Creation and the Fall of Adam. Nashville, TN: W Pub. Group.

[3] Schaeffer, Francis A. 1982. The Complete Works of Francis A. Schaeffer: A Christian Worldview. Vol. 2. Westchester, IL: Crossway Books.

[4] Spurgeon, C. H. 1912. “The Sea! The Sea! The Wide and Open Sea!” In The Metropolitan Tabernacle Pulpit Sermons, 58:104. London: Passmore & Alabaster.

[5] Zuck, Roy B. 1991. A Biblical Theology of the Old Testament. Electronic ed. Chicago: Moody Press.