Creation of Land Animals and Man. Part 1 of 5 (Series: Lessons on Genesis)

by John Lowe
(Woodruff, S.C.)

May 28, 2013
Book of Genesis
By: Tom Lowe

PART: I GENERAL HISTORY FROM ADAM TO ABRAHAM—Gen. 1:1-11:9.


Lesson I.A.7: Creation of Land Animals and Man.


Gen. 1:24-28. (KJV)

24 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.
25 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.
26 And 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 fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth.
27 So God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him; male and female created he them.
28 And God blessed them, and God said unto them, Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth, and subdue it: and have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over every living thing that moveth upon the earth.


Commentary

24 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 said,
Verses 24 and 25 form the first part of the sixth day's work. The oceans, lakes and rivers exist, and have been stocked with fish; the air has likewise been created and stocked with birds, and the ground is green with new grass. The first part of this day will see the creation of the “beasts of the earth, cattle, and creeping things.”

The method used to create remains the same—“And God said.” But later we will be given the details of how man was created, and it will clearly be seen to be a different method. Man is a special creation, and he has a position, relationship, and a hope that no other creature has.

Let the earth bring forth the living creature after his kind,

This branch of the animal world is divided into three parts: “cattle, and creeping thing, and beast of the earth.” “Living breathing thing” is the general heading under which all these can be listed.

“Living creature” is a general term to express all creatures endued with animal life, in any of its infinitely varied kinds, from the half-reasoning elephant down to the stupid worm. All wild animals, such as lions and tigers are included, as well as domesticated animals, such as cattle and sheep. Some are carnivorous, or live on flesh, and others live on grass and other vegetables, and are capable of being tamed, and some of these, such as horses and dogs, are used for domestic purposes.

Here, as before, the Lord gave the word, he said, “Let the earth bring forth,” which does not mean that the earth had any kind of creative facility by which it could produce these animals, and God has certainly not turned over his creating power to the earth. The gist of what He said is this: "Let these creatures now come into being upon the earth in their respective kinds, and let them conform to the ideas of them as they exist in the divine counsels concerning their creation."

The recurring mention of "after their kind" rules out the notion that various species upon the earth developed into other species. It is still true that if one desires to raise a watermelon, he must plant the seed from a watermelon; he can plant all the corn seeds he wants to, but they will never grow into a watermelon. The conformity of each species to this God-ordained law is constant.

The earth's creatures, including man, are present in countless numbers, and they are all here as a result of the creative and active will of the eternal God Himself. This account does not allow any thought of so-called "spontaneous" or "naturally developed" life. God alone is revealed here as the Source of life, as well as the Source of all material things.

cattle,
“Cattle” represent the tame animals that reside with man; those that carry burdens, and those which are used by man for food and clothing—horses, asses, camels, oxen, sheep.

Some of the Hebrews distinguish between “cattle” and “beasts of the earth,” saying that “the cattle feed on grass, but the beasts of the earth eat flesh.” But the Lord, a little while afterwards, designates grass for the common food of both; and it may be observed, that in several parts of Scripture these two words are used indiscriminately. It is Possible that Moses, after he had named the cattle added the other, for the sake of providing a fuller explanation.

and creeping thing,
“Creeping things” evidently denote the smaller animals, as opposed to the cattle which are distinguished as the large kind. The characteristic of creeping is, however, applied sometimes to convey the motion of the lower animals, where the posture of the body is level to the ground, whereas man has an erect posture—“Thou makest darkness, and it is night: wherein all the beasts of the forest do creep forth” (Psalms 104:20; KJV). Creeping thing includes all the different kinds of serpents, worms, ants and such animals which have no feet or go on their bellies, and all the types of reptiles, from the very tiniest to the giant Komodo dragon.

and beast of the earth after his kind:
The “beast of the earth” signifies the wild predatory animal that lives away from man. This division includes animals that prey on other animals.

God has also shown his wondrous skill and power in the creation of beasts; the huge elephant, or the more gigantic mammoth or mastodon, the whole race of which appears to be extinct. He seems to have produced this animal merely to show what he could do, and after allowing a few of them to reproduce, he extinguished the race to keep them from destroying both man and beast. The mammoth appears to have been a carnivorous animal, which is revealed from the structure of its teeth. Scientists have computed that the mammoth must have been nearly twenty-five feet high, and sixty feet in length! Few elephants have ever been found to exceed eleven feet in height. How wondrous are the works of God! But His skill and power which are displayed in smaller creatures is no less wondrous; consider the swift cheetah, the graceful antelope, and the shrew-mouse, perhaps the smallest of the many-toed quadrupeds. In the reptile class, we also see the same skill and power, not only in the immense snake called boa constrictor, the mortal foe and conqueror of the Bengal tiger, but also in the Cobra, a venomous snake that kills many people in India, every year.

and it was so.
“And it was so”: All the creature that existed in the mind of God were immediately produced.