Chuck Larsen

Genesis 1:24 says, “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.’ And it was so.” God completes the creation of animals at the beginning of day six. Looking back at all the days of creation we see the three kinds of animals that God made. They are mentioned several times after this. According to Hosea 4:3 we see them mentioned in prophecy, “Therefore the land mourns, and all who dwell in it languish, and also the beasts of the field and the birds of the heavens, and even the fish of the sea are taken away.” They are also mentioned in the Psalms and in Zephaniah. But in verse 24, God creates three kinds of land creatures. In this English translation the three kinds of land animals are livestock, creeping things, and beasts of the earth.

Locomotion seems to be the dividing line between plants who are stuck to the ground to the birds that have free reign in the air and fish who roam the seas at will. Now God deals with the animals that have movement on the dry ground. In verse 28, they are called “every living thing that moves on the earth.” Speaking of some Jewish commentators, Kissling says, “They argue that livestock walk on top of the ground, creatures that move along the ground slide on it, while the NIV’s (New International Version) ‘wild animals’ are animals which dig through it, i.e., ‘animals of the earth.’ They note that part of the punishment of the serpent has to do with its ‘manner of locomotion.’”^[1] The translator’s handbook helps with thos attempting to translate this passage in other languages adds a little more detail. It says, “Cattle translates a word that here refers to domestic animals. See also 34:23; 47:18. Creeping things refers not only to reptiles like snakes, lizards, or turtles, but also to insects, rodents, and all kinds of small animals. Beasts of the earth is literally ‘living things of the earth,’ referring to wild animals, or perhaps dangerous animals.”^[2]

Genesis 1:25 lays out the three kinds pretty clearly. It reads, “And God made the beasts of the earth according to their kinds and the livestock according to their kinds, and everything that creeps on the ground according to its kind. And God saw that it was good.” The overall goodness of God’s creation should cause several positive responses from us. According to Boice there are four of them. First, we should be thankful for the world around us with its variety. Second, we should find real delight in it. We should appreciate it’s beauty. Anyone who might forget their schedule for a minute and take a look around at the plants, creatures won’t be able to help but notice the variety should have pleasure it in all. Thirdly, it should have a sense of responsibility towards it. But finally, and most importantly one should recognize the wonder and glory of the one who made it all. Here’s how Boice concludes his argument, “Finally, after he has contemplated nature and has come to value it, the Christian should turn once again to the God who made it and sustains it moment by moment and should learn to trust him.”^[3]

^[1] Kissling, Paul J. 2004–. Genesis. The College Press NIV Commentary. Joplin, MO: College Press Pub. Co.

^[2] Reyburn, William David, and Euan McG. Fry. 1998. A Handbook on Genesis. UBS Handbook Series. New York: United Bible Societies.

^[3] Boice, James Montgomery. 1998. Genesis: An Expositional Commentary. Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Books.

God’s command to the fish and the birds after he created them was to procreate. Genesis 1:22-23 says, “And God blessed them, saying, ‘Be fruitful and multiply and fill the waters in the seas, and let birds multiply on the earth.’ And there was evening and there was morning, the fifth day.” This is the first time anything is “blessed” by God in the Bible. We see it again with man at the end of the chapter. What is the nature of God’s blessing? Is it like Spokes, “life long and prosper?” Well, kind of but it seems more closely related to reproduction. Reyburn says, “Most interpreters are agreed that God’s blessing in the creation story is the gift of reproduction.”^[1]

Through the whole Old Testament we see the desire for children. We see the promise to Abraham was to multiply greatly and to have as many children as there are grains of sand or stars in the sky. We can understand how the absence of children is a curse while the presence of many children is a great blessing.  After Leah gave birth and Rachel remained barren she cried out to Jacob, “Give me children, or else I die.”

It seems that in many cases in the bible, God’s blessings involve offspring. But it’s not just children it’s offspring that produces wealth like cattle and sheep. Deuteronomy 28:4 includes this blessing. “Blessed shall be the fruit of your womb and the fruit of your ground and the fruit of your cattle, the increase of your herds and the young of your flock.” God’s blessing involves increase! As we’ll see in Genesis 24:60, When Rebekah was leaving her family to become Isaac’s wife her family, “…blessed Rebekah and said to her, “Our sister, may you increase to thousands upon thousands.” Some translations suggest it’s thousands of millions, but the point is the blessing involved a fruitful and ever increasing life! This blessing is also seen when the people pronounce their blessing upon Boaz when he assumes the responsibility of Ruth and her mother in law. Ruth 4:11 says, “The Lord make the woman who is coming to your house like Rachel and Leah, the two who built the house of Israel; and may you prosper in Ephrathah and be famous in Bethlehem.”

^[1] Reyburn, William David, and Euan McG. Fry. 1998. A Handbook on Genesis. UBS Handbook Series. New York: United Bible Societies.

In verse 14 of Genesis chapter 1, we move from vegetation in the third day to outer space. It says, “And God said, ‘Let there be lights in the expanse of the heavens to separate the day from the night. And let them be for signs and for seasons, and for days and years.’” In creating the stars and planets in space along with the sun and moon, God had a specific purpose in mind for us living on earth. Exell sees that as, “The moon by her four quarters, which last each a little more than seven days, measures for us the weeks and months. The sun, by his apparent path in the sky, measures our seasons and our years, whilst by his daily rotation through the heavens he measures the days and the hours; and this he does so correctly that the best watch-makers in Geneva regulate all their watches by his place at noon; and from the most ancient times men have measured from sun dials the regular movement of the shadow”^[1]

A website with current statistics said, “Around 63.4% of Americans follow astrology and nearly 1 in 5 — 19.2% — have made a money decision based on their horoscope according to LendingTree’s survey.” Another website says that the horoscope is a 2.2-billion-dollar industry annually. If you search for “astrology” you might raise the Wikipedia article which begins with a paragraph that discredits it. It reads, “Beyond the scientific tests astrology has failed, proposals for astrology face a number of other obstacles due to the many theoretical flaws in astrology including lack of consistency, lack of ability to predict missing planets, lack of connection of the zodiac to the constellations in western astrology, and lack of any plausible mechanism. The underpinnings of astrology tend to disagree with numerous basic facts from scientific disciplines.” Leupold asks “Is there perhaps a silent contrast involved with the superstition of the heathen that is wont to attach itself to the stars? The statement, therefore, is unusually exhaustive in order to show what purposes the Almighty fixed for the heavenly bodies and to leave no room for heathen misconstruction.”^[2]

God gave us the “lights” in the sky to mark off the movement of time. That’s pretty clear from Genesis 1:14. In his long book on the dangers and errors of Astrology, Morey concludes, “The theory and practice of astrology has been examined in terms of its origin, history, popular arguments, scientific credibility, philosophic integrity, and its compatibility with historic and biblical Christianity. The theory of astrology fails to validate its claims to be scientific and philosophically credible. Its internal contradictions and the scientific evidence against it are conclusive to those who approach it with an open mind. Astrology is merely the modern form of ancient planetary worship. Its language and raison d’etre are clearly polytheistic and anthropomorphic. As a religious world view, it is incompatible with Christianity. It has been weighed in the scales of history, science, philosophy, and Christianity and has been found lacking of any validity. Its only appeal to modern man is by way of superstition and magic. There is no place for astrology in the life of a Christian believer.”^[3] I’ll make someone mad but I must say that astrology is excrement from a male cow.

^[1] Exell, Joseph S. n.d. The Biblical Illustrator: Genesis. Vol. 1. The Biblical Illustrator. London: James Nisbet & Co.

^[2] Leupold, H. C. 1942. Exposition of Genesis. Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Book House.

^[3] Morey, Robert A. 1981. Horoscopes and the Christian. Minneapolis, MN: Bethany House.

As Genesis records God’s final creative efforts on the third day, He not only creates fruit trees and vegetables, he makes them so that they will reproduce themselves for all generations. “And God said, ‘Let the earth sprout vegetation, plants yielding seed, and fruit trees bearing fruit in which is their seed, each according to its kind, on the earth.’ And it was so. The earth brought forth vegetation, plants yielding seed according to their own kinds, and trees bearing fruit in which is their seed, each according to its kind. And God saw that it was good. And there was evening and there was morning, the third day.”

That the statement, “after their kind” as Berkhof observes, “distinctly favors the idea that the different species of plants were created by God and did not develop the one out of the other. Each one brought forth seed after its kind and could therefore only reproduce its kind. The doctrine of evolution, of course, negates both of these assertions; but it should be borne in mind that both spontaneous generation and the development of one species from another, are unproved, and now largely discredited, assumptions…”^[1]

I’m not sure whether God created three types of botanical life in this verse or just two. If you want to see that there are three they would be grass, then plants and finally trees. But others think that the use of the first phrase “vegetation” is just a collective term that points to the two sub-categories of plants and trees. What’s interesting is that plants and trees, and grass for that matter, only produce after their kind. Gowan said this is because God had a concern to preserve the order of the universe for us. He is not a God of confusion. He writes, “But there is a pastoral concern revealed here also, in the repeated emphasis, ‘according to its kind.’ The reader is reminded that God has put regularity and predictability into his world. If one plants a lettuce seed, a lettuce plant will come up, not an onion. This is visible evidence that God has created a world of order and dependability…”^[2] Man, it would be a downer to plant sweet corn and have Brussel sprouts grow.  Exell says that the oak and the cedar we now know are the same trees Adam and Eve observed in Eden.  He adds, “And the odours we breathe in spring-time are from the same flowers” that were enjoyed by the first man and woman. He continues “And upon our thousand hills the cattle feed upon the self-same grasses that fattened the living creatures to which Adam gave names.” He concludes, “Around every seed, as it came from the creative hand, was bound as an iron fetter that thing we call ‘law.’ All the men of the world, with all their power and skill of chemistry and magic, cannot produce a rose from a lily seed, nor a pomegranate from a fig-tree.”^[3]

^[1] Berkhof, L. 1938. Systematic Theology. Grand Rapids, MI: Wm. B. Eerdmans publishing co.

^[2] Gowan, Donald E. 1988. From Eden to Babel: A Commentary on the Book of Genesis 1–11. International Theological Commentary. Grand Rapids, MI: W.B. Eerdmans Pub. Co.

^[3] Exell, Joseph S. n.d. The Biblical Illustrator: Galatians. New York; Chicago; Toronto; London; Edinburgh: Fleming H. Revell Company.