Monday: Creation of Air and Water Animals
Read Genesis 1:20-23. What evidence, if any, exists in the texts that would imply randomness?
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The waters and the atmosphere were populated on the fifth day of Creation. Many have seen a relationship between the second and fifth Creation days. The waters were separated by the atmosphere on the second day, and both were filled with living creatures on the fifth day. The Creation events seem to have occurred in a sequence that reflects an intentional pattern, showing the care and orderliness of God’s activity. In other words, nothing in the Creation account provides any room for randomness.
Notice that both water creatures and air creatures are mentioned in the plural, indicating that a diversity of organisms was created on the fifth day. Each creature was blessed with the capacity to be fruitful and multiply. Diversity was present from the beginning. There was no single ancestor from which all other species descended, but each species seems to have been endowed with the possibility of producing varieties of individuals. For example, more than 400 named breeds have been developed from the common pigeon, and at least 27 breeds of goldfish are known. God apparently gave each of His creatures the potential to produce a great variety of various offspring, further adding to the diversity of the creation.
In verse 21, God saw that the creatures He had made were good. This implies they were well-designed, attractive to the eye, free from defects, and harmoniously participating in the purpose of the creation.
Few living creatures excite our imagination and admiration more than the birds. Birds are truly amazing creatures and are wonderfully designed. Their feathers are lightweight but strong, stiff yet flexible. The parts of a flight feather are held together by complex sets of tiny barbs that provide strong but lightweight bracing. A bird’s lung is so designed that it can obtain oxygen as it inhales and also as it exhales. This provides the high level of oxygen required for powered flight. This result is accomplished by the presence of air sacs in some of the bones. These sacs function to sustain the flow of oxygen and, at the same time, to lighten the body of the bird, making flight easier to maintain and control. Birds are amazingly constructed.
With all this in mind, read Matthew 10:29-31. What comfort can you find in these words?
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All these creatures are created so that we can be amazed and amused. I'm so thankful for a creative Creator. I especially loved reading some on this lesson about the intricate wonders of bird design. So many principles of flight are studied in birds to create better flight technology for human air jets.
Wow, never knew that about birds. Just appreciated them for their beautiful colours, and their ability to give off such beautiful sounds. Never knew they were so intricately designed. God be praised, and imagine, if they are so well designed, what about the human body. God is indeed great, let's keep praising Him for His goodness and love towards us.
God knew what He was doing. He is a very precise and a detailed oriented God. He is totally amazing. Just think about the birds and how high they fly and why they are able to fly. This is due to our great creator God and his superior design.What more can I say! God's awsomeness is mind-boggling. He is worthy to be praised!
God apparently gave each of His creatures the potential to produce a great variety of various offspring, further adding to the diversity of the creation. The lesson says God create all fish and fowl. Then it makes the comment above. Respectfully, Bill
We have a God that is totally detailed oriented and very precise. How could I not praise Him? How could I ignore the fact that... If He cares about every minute detail of the birds, How could he not care a great deal about me? God doesn't require out "stamp of approval" to show that He is our Creator. It is all revealed in nature.
What lesson do we get from this part as christians?
Thanks
God in His creative ability made all creatures with the power of His words. He commanded the specific designs that were to be indigenous to each animal. In all of this variety, there were no confusions about how each of His designs would function independently yet harmoniously with each other! How great is our Creator and Sustainer, redeemer and Friend! He must be worshipped and glorified! Indeed!
this lesson brought reminders that God in His infinite wisdom and power created or if i may use the word invented everything as we know it, and the marvelous part is that creation in its entirety is self sustaining unlike anything man-made or anything that may happen by chance..like the big bang or evolution. also on the issue of animals created in plurals that definitely rules out this single-cell life form idea.
today's lesson reminded my of our Biology Teacher " Bud " Olsen an avid " Birder / member of the Audubon Society. he would take us out " birding " for class quite often..
i appreciated the text in Matthew today, as well..
thanks be to God..and, good writing to the author!
While I understand what the author meant by saying, "In other words, nothing in the Creation account provides any room for randomness" to me there is delightful abundance of randomness in life. No two trees are exactly alike; the same goes for snowflakes and human fingerprints. Wouldn't it be a boring world to live in if everything were just clones - everything looking exactly like all the rest in its species? What would it be like to have your spouse exactly like the spouses of all your neighbors? How would that impact your marriage relationship? Under those circumstances would it be a unique one?
I think part of the "good" that God proclaimed is the tremendously random variety that He produced and the adaptability of each species to change with conditions. Besides that, what we are generally unaware of is that the flood wiped out the majority of species that God originally created so that what we are left with is but a sampling of the variety that once populated our planet.
It just goes to show all of us how beautiful everything was and there was no fear in the creations, and then came sin. now its the 21st century and people throw parties to dress up as ugly as they want to be. it's shameful but true. as for me I'll stick to the original plan, the way God intended it to be, and will be again !
Looking at the beauty of the birds and the careful detail each one of them carries is simple proof that our God is a beautiful God. What a pleasure it is to be given the responsibility of being in charge of God's beautiful creatures. This also proves that we are superior in a way. Purposely created and trusted by God. What an honour! Matthew reminds us that even though God's creatures are valuable we are more valuable in the eyes of our God.
I enjoyed the lesson for today and had no idea that birds were made with such detail. I have two African Grays that are beautiful to watch, but what is so amazing is that they talk and seem to know what to say at the appropriate time. When I leave in the morning, they say "Good bye" and "be back in a little bit" and in the evening when it's time for "bed", they say "time to go night night". I think, now, I will think of God every time I hear them talk.
Apart from the lessons already discussed above, the other lesson is that we have a mandate to take good care of these animals. Proverbs 27:23-27. The animals are not for worship, and neither are the sun, moon, and stars. Deut 4:16-19
Can someone help me. God created air, sea and land life in variety, in its kind. For example cattle we have different breeds, but still call all of them cattle.
Now, when He created Humans, only two were made and made in His image for that matter. Whence cometh, the Black skinned, white skinned and other colours people bear. Man was told to reproduce and multiply. Does this multiplication mean also variety of human spices. Please help!
All humans are called people. Inasmuch as we have cattle in their varieties ranging from those that have a black coat, white coat, etc. we also have people that are black, white, etc.
In creating Adam and Eve, God placed in them the reproductive organs necessary for the multiplication of the human race. It is not said in the creation history that there was a diversity of "man" as compared to the diversity of the "birds". We are all descendants of one human father and mother who are Adam and Eve. I believe that the racial diversity that we observe today is relevant to that concept of human adaptation to the various changes that have occurred on the earth after creation and mostly after sin. Therefore, God's mandate to multiply does not suggest a specific strategy for diversity of the different skin colors that are currently observed. However, I am not aware of any biblical restrictions on the union of a man and a woman who love each other to be wedded in Godly sanctioned Matrimony regardless of the color of their skin.
Hope this helps, Renford.
I believe Ngoni expressed the right idea. There is only one human race. We have different skin colors, as we have different eye colors and hair colors. It is all a result of the marvelous diversity of genetic possibilies with which God endowed our first father and mother.
Think of it this way: Just as God created flowers that can have many different colors (such as roses), so He created humans with the potential to have many different colors.
I believe the sons of Noah were probably very different from each other in appearance. And these differences were evident in the families of their children, grand-children, etc. When God confused the language at the Tower of Babel, I'm sure He allowed immediate family members to understand each other. So these family groups moved into different areas of the world, and when they became isolated from those with different genes, they lost the ability to have children with different colors.
When people from different color backgrounds now marry, they recombine the gene pool, and we can again see that marvelous diversity in just one family.
Renford, I must say I love your reference to "variety of human spices." It may have been a typing error, but the result is so appropriate. 🙂 As spices make our food taste good, so the different colors in the human race spice up our appearance. 🙂
I remember being in an African-American church near Andrews University, Michigan, in the 1960's. After the sermon, one little old African-American lady asked my husband, "How come you're so white and I'm so black?"
He explained, "Why it's like this: God probably made Adam and Eve a nice brown color. As time went on and different people moved to different parts of the world, some of us got so bleached out we have hardly any color at all. (Blue eyes are the result of no pigment at all.) And others got burnt, like toast, so they are all black. ;)"
The lady clearly had a good sense of humor, because she chortled gleefully, "So you're bleached, and I'm burnt!"
Dear Brothers and sisters,
The argument of skin colors come as a result of some people's disatisfaction/lack of appreciation of how we should accept God's gift with thanks giving to us. Being black, white, brown, green, yellow etc shouldn't make us sin by envying others thus sinning and risking the loss of heaven. See yee there with Jesus!
Someone mentioned that day 1 of creation was a prep day for day 4 of creation. 2 separate lights (temporary and permanent) were created on those respective days. I tend to believe that day 2 and day 5 are also related. The dwelling place for creatures who would exist under the vault and the place where the creatures would exist in the vault(sky)were created on day 2 and the actual creatures were created on the 5th day. Day 3 the vegetation was created which the creatures created on day 6 would need for sustenance. The Lord's work is always praiseworthy whether it be in the creation of this planet or the creation of a pure heart within us.
Ngoni,Inge pierre
I really appreciate your responses. I have added some more knowledge to my understanding of "Variety of Human Race Spice"
You are blessing.
Thanks Inge for that correction-"Spices"
Its with great joy to see how God is more wonderful and glorious to be worship. He created everything at the right time with the correct color,size and even height. Look at fish in the water, birds on air. Birds cannot live inside water and fish can never live on dry land less fish will die.I will always praise and worship Him with my family.
Why did He create the way He did?
The comment in Monday's lesson, "Many have seen a relationship between the second and the fifth day creation days," got me to thinking. Could God have chosen to create and record the creation employing a chiastic format?
In Hebrew literature a chiasm is a common poetic device used to tell a story or epic record in a linguistically memorable and pleasing fashion. Indeed, the first five books of the Bible are written in the format of a chiasm. The chiasm is used throughout the Bible and is used extensively in the Revelation of Jesus Christ.
So why not check it out. A chiasm works this way: Assume you have a large inverted V before you. Starting at the left base is Day 1, as you ascend the left side you pass Day 2 and then Day 3, arriving at the peak, which is Day 4. Then you descend the right side, passing Day 5, then Day 6 and arrive at the base Day 7. That's the easy part.
Now we must check to find if the consecutive day's events show a progressive movement up the left side, with a logical transition at the apex, or fourth day, and then descend in a way so that the days on the descending side, which are horizontally opposite to the days on the ascending side, are logically connected. (Hope that makes sense.) It seems to me that it all works out beautifully. Let me explain.
There is progression up the left side: The earth is prepared for occupancy on Day 1, 2 and 3. On Day 4 God arranges the sun moon and stars in relation to the earth so as to sustain life and to mark time -- which is all important to relationships and much more. Day 4 is indeed pivotal and transitional. Now God is ready to fill the earth with life. This is pictured on the descending side of the chiasm (or inverted V).
Day 5, introduces aquatic life and avian life requires seas and atmosphere from Day 2 but also requires dry land and vegetation, a resting place and food supply. This came on Day 3. Then on Day 6 there is a direct dependence of the land animals and mankind on Day 2, which supplies all-important oxygen and water.
Next we compare Day 1 to Day 7. The corresponding link is inescapable. On Day 1, God intentionally set out to create a family and make a home for it. On Day 7 He rested -- indeed, celebrated, a completed and perfectly beautiful home for His new family. Everything was just right!
Having spent considerable time studying the literary devices of Hebrew and Apocalyptic literature I sometimes wonder if the chiastic literary device had its beginnings from direct divine inspiration.
Well what is your response? Have a happy Sabbath.
Andy, I think you may be very right and that raises some interesting questions about what Moses wished for us to get out of the discussion about creation. The narrative certainly doesn't tell us exactly how God did it but rather seems to put things in perspective. Another interesting thing to contemplate is where everything is divided into two parts or binary pairs and what relation that has to the chiasm. It also seems to me that the chiasm forms a kind structure similar to Hebrew parallelism that is used in poetry where things are repeated in different ways.
I got to thinking about the chiasm and believe we can also think of a chiastic structure as a sort of mirrored image where one side of the chiasm is a reflection of the other side. Other ways of considering it is like a stack in computer programming where the flow of objects is like a narrow hallway with no exit at the end. The only way out is the way in so that what we have is a last in - first out kind of a flow. Or one could think of it like a call to a function in a computer program where the program jumps to a function and after it completes the function it comes back out by returning to the place in the program where it jumped from. So what we get with a chiastic structure is a way to enter into a topic to a point then back out much like the introduction - body - conclusion or epilog kind of organizational structure used in most literature today.
While the Genesis account may not tell us “exactly how God did it,” I believe it does give us an outline of the chronology and the actual amount of time, from our perspective, for God to create our world.
A chiasm is a literary device, to be sure, but in this case, I believe it is much more. It demonstrates that God is a lover of order and beauty.
Some see the Genesis account as poetry, and I have no inclination to argue with that view. The ancient story tellers of various cultures had the responsibility of preserving the accurate history of their people. And much of it was in the form of poetry, because poetry is easier to memorize and recite accurately. In fact, the listening audience would likely remind the historian if he left out a word. Thus a tightly constructed poem is the best means of accurately preserving the oral account of a historic happening.
I consider it likely that Moses wrote down the story as it had been passed down from Adam and Eve, who got their story from the Creator Himself. This does not rule out that God may also have given Moses a vision of events as they happened.
Since I am a literary person, the chiasm makes more sense to me than computer stacks, so I cannot comment on the latter. 😉
It is also interesting that most of the psalms which are written in poetry were meant to be accompanied by music which is another powerful way to memorize. I believe that that is why hymns are so important to our worship services.