Genesis 24-31

Then the Lord said, “Let the earth produce every sort of animal, each producing offspring of the same kind—livestock, small animals that scurry along the ground, wild animals.” And that is what happened. God made all sorts of wild animals, livestock, and small animals each able to produce offspring of th same kind. And God saw that it was good.

Then God said, “Let us make human beings in our image, to be like us. They will reign over the fish in the sea, the birds in the sky, the livestock, all the wild animals on the earth, and the small animals that scurry along the ground.

So God created human beings in his image. In the image of God he created them, male and female he created them.

The Gpd blessed them and said, “Be fruitful and multiply. Fill the earth and govern it. Reign over the fish in the sea, the birds in the sky, and all the animals that scurry along the ground.

Then God said, “Look! I have given you every seed-bearing plant throughout the earth and all the fruit trees for your food. And I have given every green plant for food for all the wild animals, the birds in the sky, and the small animals that scurry along on the ground—everything that has life.” And that is what happened.

Then God looked over all he had made and he saw that it was good!

And evening passed and morning came, marking the sixth day.

Friends, we have a lot to talk about with today’s verses (Genesis 1:24-31). There are so many things that I want to touch upon so let’s get to it. One of the first things I want to point out is how God uniquely gives Earth the power to bring forth animal life. Unlike the prior days of creation, God focuses here on letting “earth produce every sort of animal” (Gen 1:24). God does not create animal life, but speaks into the Earth to enable it to bring forth the rich diversity that is life on planet earth. Think about that miracle for a moment. God spoke into our giant, spherical ball winging its way through the deepness of space to bring forth life as we have come to know it. God spoke into this great ball of rock and gas and made it capable of bringing forth life. I am often stunned by this passage because it stands out from all the other passages. This is the first and only time God blesses land to bring forth life. In all prior verses God is specifically creating moons, stars, suns, birds, creepy-crawlies, and sea creatures, but land animals come from God speaking into the earth. This should convict all of us in how we care for the planet we are on. Are we interrupting Earth’s spiritual gift to reproduce various types of wildlife and to feed all the life on earth through our behavior? Are we going against God when we fail to protect and care for all the wild animals, livestock, and small scurrying things, the birds in the sky, and the fish and mammals of the sea?

One of the most important insights we can have about Genesis’s opening chapter is that it is a chapter that is showing us how God created the earth to be self-sustaining to all other creatures and to be cared for by his penultimate creation: human kind. Everything prior to verse 27 (where humans are created) is designed for two purposes. First to create a sense of awe and fear of the Lord. The Lord simply speaks (the Word, which is Christ) and the act of aliveness emerges. That reflects a terrible and awesome power. The second thing the chapter addresses culminating in 27 is that God created the earth not simply for the animals and plants that have emerged, but for the express purpose of also creating human beings who would share attributes of God, thus be named caretakers of the earth. Friends, I can’t stress enough how powerful a gift God starts out giving us. He creates a whole universe that is the stage for us to manifest the spiritual fruits, which are:

love, joy, peace, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. There is no law against these things!
(Galatians 5:22-23)

While I could spend a great deal of time on the Earth’s centrality in God’s creation, I want to turn to the creation of human beings. With our focus back on humans, God once more speaks them into existence. Humans are given a privileged place in the cosmos. They are created in the image of God. This does not mean they look like God, but rather they have attributes that are from God. These attributes are our creative abilities, our inventiveness, our scientific know-how all of these are mirror expressions of the power that God has over and within the universe. He has blessed us with many of his same talents when he created us in his image.

We cannot leave this discussion without noting that man and woman were created at the same time. Scholars believe the first act of creating humankind reflects an earlier myth and the second creation story, which we will be getting to soon, reflects a later mythic development. To reconcile the two myths, some scholars argue that the first creation of human beings reflects a broad stroke of the pen so to speak, while the second story gives the bread and butter of it. I leave it to you to decide whether you think these reflect two different stories or one is the greater explanation of the first.

In closing:

Thank you Heavenly Father for your grand creations. Everyday they remind me how miraculous life is and that I am to treasure all facets of your creation, for this was your first instruction to me, to be one of the many “Caretakers”. Guide me on my journey as I develop the fruits of the spirit and work toward making myself right in your eyes. In Jesus’s name, Amen.