God Makes Animals

Here we go. Well, good morning. Good to see all of you. And great to be able to come together and to worship God through song, opening our hearts and our mouths to Him, and then at this point in our service, we open our hearts to Him and allow Him to speak to us through His word.

and to that end, let me invite you to turn in your Bibles to Genesis chapter one, Genesis chapter one, we're doing a, verse by verse study through the, book of Genesis, at least, the first portion of the book of, Genesis. We'll see how far the Lord leads us to get into this book and as we continue in our study. Of this book, we come this morning to Genesis chapter 1 verse 20, and my goal today is to cover verses 20 through 25. If you want to give a title to the message this morning, it would be God Makes Animals.

Cause that's what happens in the passage. In our text, we're gonna see God creating abundant animal life in verses 20 through 25. I never dreamed that this would ever show up in a sermon, but several years ago, I wrote a song about a particular girl who was living With our family at the time and the poem or the song went like this. I know a girl who'll never marry.

She sleeps too much and snores too loud. Her cheeks hang low, her face is hairy, she slurps her food and walks too proud. I love her though. I think she's foxy, although she smells so very bad.

She is my dog. Her name is Roxy. She is my friend and makes me glad. This was a silly.

Thank you. Thank you. Is waiting for that. This was a silly little song that I wrote about our dog, Roxy, Whom we had for, that's what she looked like when I would sing it, to her.

But we had her for about 10 years up until about 2.5 years ago, and at least once a week. On school day mornings, I would wake up my two youngest children, Benjamin and Brianna, singing that song to them, while Roxy would make howling and whining noises, doing a pretty decent imitation of my singing voice. I had always told my kids that I did not want a dog because I didn't want to have to deal with the expense. Of a pet and I also especially did not want to experience the pain of the dog dying on me.

But my kids kept insisting, over several years and they even at one point made a video presentation arguing and making a pretty compelling case for why it is that we In the Vincent household needed a dog. So they made a great case. I watched this video. It ended with them jumping around like a bunch of hoodlums singing the song Who Let the Dogs Out?

That great hymn of the faith. but shortly thereafter, our neighbors brought Roxy over to our house. She was a beautiful boxer who was about a year and a half. old at the time, and as we got acquainted with her, the kids looked at me with pleading eyes, asking if we would be able to keep the dog.

In reply, I said probably one of the dumbest things that I've ever said in my tenure as a parent. I said to them, 2 weeks, 2 weeks. We're gonna keep her for 2 weeks and then we'll decide whether or not to keep her permanently. so, that 2 weeks commenced.

3 days later, I was on the floor frolicking with Roxy and petting her, and as I did so, a tender moment developed between us, and I looked into her eyes as she looked into mine and I spoke the words, I love you to her. And I suddenly became aware of the presence of others in the room. And I look up and it was my kids who witnessed the scene, smiling from ear to ear. They knew that the die had been cast and that Roxy was here to stay.

Over the next 10 years, there were many moments of craziness and madness. And laughter and joy and a whole lot of love and affection between us and Roxy, Roxy burrowed her way deep into our hearts and taught us much about our Creator. Long story short, on the day that we took Roxy to the animal shelter to put her down, about 2.5 years ago, when we pulled into the parking lot of the animal shelter, I, before I went to get Roxy and to pull her out of the car, I said to Benjamin and Brianna, who were with me at the time, I said, let's pray and thank the Lord for Roxy.

And I knelt over Roxy and tried to pray, but I could not pray.

All I could do was sob. It's all any of us in our family could do. I'd always not wanted a pet because I didn't want it to die on me. Yet, it was a profoundly spiritual experience, caring for Roxy in her final months and helping this animal to die with dignity.

During that time, I thought much about sin. I thought much about our sin and Adam. I thought much about how this innocent dog was dying because of our sin and Adam. I thought much about how God created Roxy and how the same mind that thought me up thought her up too.

And when Roxy died, I found myself grieving more than just the loss of a dog. I was grieving something deeper. that grief, many of you. I was shedding tears that were several 1000 years in the making.

I thought much during that season about things ancient going all the way back to Genesis chapter 1 to the passage that we're going to be looking at today. Think about it, were it not for what God did in the passage we're gonna be studying today. There would never have been a rocky, and there would never have been those animals and those pets that are a part of your own life story that have made your life all the richer. In fact, just raise your hands.

How many of you have ever at any point. In your life had a pet. An animal pet that meant something profound to you. Just raise your hand.

OK. so we know what this experience is like. If God did not do what he does in our passage today, our lives would have been impoverished in ways that we would have never even begun to realize. Today, we come to day 5 and day 6 of the creation week.

Up to this point, God has created the heavens and the earth, the sun, the moon and the stars, and God has also created plant life. We have seen all this, but on day 5, a whole new stage of creation is reached. The creation of living non-human beings, the creation of animals. Let me read the passage to you.

Beginning in chapter one verse 20 it says, then God said, let the waters teem with swarms of living creatures and let birds fly above the earth in the open expanse of the heavens. And God created the great sea monsters, and every living creature that moves with which the water swarmed after their kind, and every winged bird after its kind, and God saw that it was good. 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, a 5th day.

Then God said, let the earth bring forth living creatures after their kind, cattle and creeping things and beasts of the earth after their kind, and it was so. And God made the beast of the earth after their kind and the cattle after their kind and everything that creeps on the ground after its kind and God saw that it was good. This is the word of God that we have the blessing of studying. And hearing from this morning.

The way we're gonna frame our time together this morning as we look at the passages, we're gonna observe 7 assertions that Moses makes in these verses regarding God's creation of animals on the 5th. And the 6th day of creation, 7 assertions, Moses is speaking to the children of Israel and explaining to them. How all that they see came into existence and he makes essentially what we would call 7 assertions regarding God's creation of animals on the 5th and 6th day of creation.

Assertion number 1 is this, he tells us that God speaks the sea creatures into existence.

That on the 5th day of creation, God speaks the sea creatures into existence. In verse 20, the text says, then God said, let the waters teem with swarms of living creatures. God created the waters and now he wants the waters to teem with swarms of living creatures. In fact, this gets lost a little bit in the new American Standard.

maybe not in your English translations, but we actually see the Hebrew word for swarm 3 times in these, verses, verse 20 and 21. Look at this. Literally, the text reads, let the water swarm with swarms of living creatures, and God created the great sea monsters and every living thing that moves with which the waters swarmed after their kind. Writers point out that the Hebrew word for swarm refers to movement, especially swift, chaotic, hither and thither motion.

The term indicates a sense of abundance and movement that these creatures brought to the sea. God is creating life and he is creating abundant life, beginning in verse 20. Now what's interesting is that in this passage, beginning in verse 20, Moses refers to the sea animals as living creatures. We find the same expression in verse 2021, and 24, and it's translated as living creatures, but literally in the Hebrew, it's living souls.

Living souls. Nephesh Hayah. Souls that live. In fact, the Hebrew expression here is exactly the same as that used in Genesis 2:7.

Write that reference down where the text tells us that God breathed into Adam's nostrils the breath of life, and Adam became a living soul. It's the same word nephesh that is used there in Genesis 2:7 that is used here in describing the creation. Of animals. And so we can infer from this that sea creatures and flying creatures and animals that God is creating here on day 5 and 6 of creation are living souls.

Hence, as Randy Alcorn says, there is a strong biblical case for animals having non-human souls. The point of the text is not that animals have souls exactly as humans have souls, but animals are souls, according to the literal reading of the text. Does that seem odd to you? To think of animals as living souls.

Gary Habermass and JP Morland in their book Beyond Death say this. Listen, it wasn't until the advent of the 17th century Enlightenment that the existence of animal souls was even questioned in Western civilization. Throughout the history of the church, the classic understanding of living things has included the doctrine that animals as well as humans have souls. Humans have human souls, and animals have not human souls, but animal souls.

What does that mean? Well, trees and plants are living things. We saw that back in day 3, but they are never said to have souls. A living being with a soul is something that has a sense of self, a self-awareness, a central nervous system, a brain.

Additionally, one of the key things that distinguishes a living soul from plant life. is the ability to move. You see that mention in verse 21, trees and plants must be rooted into the earth. A living soul, however, sustains itself from the earth, but it can move around.

And not be bound to one fixed spot, as John MacArthur says. He says living creatures can move and migrate at will in contrast to plant life, which is essentially stationary. So this is clearly a different form of life than plant life that was created on day 3. It's a higher form of life with consciousness, a sense of self, and an ability to move at will.

a being that has within it the breath of life and God is filling the seas with them and as the narrative will continue, he will fill the land with them as well. you think about it, guys, it's actually a remarkable thing. A tree is able to sustain itself, but it must remain stationary. Wherever it is, it's gotta stay there in order to live.

But it's really a wonderful thing that you and I can move around. And still live. We don't have to stay rooted to the earth as plant life does. This is one of the characteristics of living things.

So God speaks the sea creatures, the sea souls into existence. There's a second development here that Moses asserts on this day of creation and that God's, and that is. That God speaks flying creatures into existence. We're beginning to see the imagination of God unfolding in these verses, verse 20 God says, and let birds fly above the earth in the open expanse of the heavens.

The word that is translated birds here just simply speaks of a flying creature, any winged creature. these are flying things that one writer says can include insects. So anything you see that has wings and that can fly, that is within the definition of the flying creatures that Moses is talking about God creating on this day of creation that he wants to fill the skies as they fly around. These are amazing creatures that God is creating.

He's created creatures for the sea and now for the air. Above the sea. These are creatures that are designed for flight. I don't know that any of us, if we were creating, would have thought to create creatures with the ability to soar in the air.

You think of the albatross, for example. a bird that has a wingspan of almost up to 12 ft. you also think of the largest bird that was ever, discovered, the Argentabus, which is actually extinct, but it had a wingspan that was twice the width of the albatross. That's basically from that far music stand there to the music stand in front of the keyboard that's the wingspan of this bird that is now extinct.

So imagine these massive flying creatures beginning on this day of creation. That's the largest flying creature, that you see on the screen. The smallest flying creature is a certain type of wasp, which is approximately, it can grow up to 2/10 of a millimeter large. In fact, here's a picture of it.

Get out of your way. The. This right here is not the creature, this is a moth. So just imagine a little moth flying around in your house.

You see that little guy right there? That's the wasp, the smallest flying creature, that, that we know of on the head of that. of that moth. Some of these flying creatures that God is creating would fly with grace, the grace of an albatross.

that has amazing aerodynamic capacities for flight. The albatross, for example, uses a technique called dynamic soaring by which it can fly literally for thousands of miles without flapping its wings even one time. Then there's the hummingbird. That has to flap its wings about 70 beats per second to stay aloft.

And then there's the bumblebee. One writer, Carl Smallwood, describes the flight of the bumblebee in this way. Listen to what he says, bees fly in an incredibly complex way that utilizes many hurricanes. In lay terms, bees fly by rotating their wings, flapping their wings over 200 times per second, which creates pockets of low air pressure which in turn creates small eddies above the bee's wing.

which lifted into the air and thus granted the ability to fly. And all of these flying creatures. And sea creatures come into existence at God's command on this day, and they all display the amazing and unsearchable imagination of God the Creator. He speaks the sea creatures into existence.

He speaks the flying creatures into existence. Moses then, as the narrative continues, restates his point, which brings us to a third assertion that he makes, and that is this, that God creates sea creatures and birds or flying creatures. And again, he's already said this, but he rewords it in a way that's actually very helpful for us. It says in verse 21, and God created the great sea monsters and every living creature that moves with which the water swarmed after their kind, and every winged bird after.

It's kind. The text says God created the great sea monsters and every living creature that moves and every winged flying creature, that word created. This is the 2nd time that we have seen this Hebrew word, the word Bara. used in this passage.

It was used back in verse one to speak of God creating the heavens and the earth. This is a key word, this is a code word in the passage. We have seen that this word is something that only God can do. Whenever anyone in the Old Testament is said to Bara, it is always God who is the one doing it.

But this word also speaks something about the nature of what it is that is being created. It speaks of something that is epoch-making. One Jewish commentator suggests that this word bara signifies that the product being created is absolutely novel. And unexampled.

So Moses' use of this term alerts us to the fact that this is epoch-making, this is huge, this is creation going to a whole new level. By the end of this day of creation, the world was very different than it was at the end of the previous day of the creation week. But look at what Moses says. He says, and God created the great sea monsters, and then he says, and everything else in the sea and, and the sky.

For some reason, sea monsters get singled out for special mention here. Some of your translations, I know the Revised Standard Version and the King James Version says the great whales. That's a possible translation. Honestly, the Hebrew expression is, the great Tanim, Tanim.

and whatever it's referring to, it is a massive sea creature of great length. That's really all that we know for sure about. What this word is referring to. The Hebrew word tananim is code for any large and fearsome creature of the sea.

This word was loaded with theological significance and it was also the stuff of nightmares for people. If people back in this day could make horror movies, they would make movies that would feature the tenanim. John MacArthur says it this way, ancient Egyptian and Mesopotamian mythology was filled with fantastic tales about sea monsters. These were supposed to be gods and the ancient pagans feared the sea creature deities, as if they were the embodiment of evil.

Such myths were common at the time that Moses wrote this account. And yet here in the creation account, the Tananim are demoted. Moses wants the Jews to know that the Tananim are merely created creatures dependent upon God for their existence and for their life. Why though is this important?

For the Jews to know. Why would Moses single them out? Well, we have a partial answer to that already from what we've looked at, but keep in mind that the Israelites are about to enter into the land of the Canaanites who had very definite beliefs about the Tannaim. Listen to one commentator, Derek Kidner as he speaks about this.

He says to the Canaanites, this, the word Tananim was an ominous word, standing for the powers of chaos, confronting Baal. At the beginning. To the Canaanites, Baal's adversaries were gods like himself or demons to be propitiated or appeased. And to the Babylonians, the chaos monster pre-existed the gods.

This view affected non-Israelite religion, for the worshiper could never be sure. That there is peace, for there were always other unknown quantities. In the background. What this means is that though the Canaanites believed in Baal as their God, they also felt that there were other entities like the Tananim who needed to be appeased.

And tended to and propitiated. To believe in Baal to the Canaanites was not enough. To appease Baal and sacrifice to him was not enough. One needed to also appease the Tananim because Baal could not protect you from them.

Or at least you could not count on that. Just like today, there are certain voodoo cultures around the world where people believe in God and yet they also believe that there are evil spirits beyond God's control that you have to tend to and appease and keep happy. You can worship God, but you also have to provide peace offerings to demons or they're going to get you. And this is the way the Canaanites believed also, and the Tananim were among those creatures that needed to be appeased or deities or beings that needed to be appeased.

Yet in the creation account, the Tananim are shown to be merely the product of God's good creation. They owe their existence to God. They're all under his power. They're in his seas that he created.

They are created entities along with the dolphin. And the trout, and the blowfish, and the shrimp. This assurance would help the Israelites to withstand the influence of the ancient voodoo culture of the Canaanites. All they need to do is put their trust in their Creator, Jehovah God and serve him, and they are safe.

There are no other unknown entities that they have to worry about. Worship God, worship Jehovah. And you are safe. Now look at the text.

It says God created the sea monsters and every living creature that moves with which the water swarmed after their kind, and every winged bird after its kind. This language makes it clear that God did not create animals like he did humans. With humans, he created Adam and Eve. And we all have descended from Adam and Eve, but that's not the way it was with his creation of the animals.

God did not just create two birds, a male and female bird, and all birds have descended from those two birds. He didn't just create two fish. male and female in all fish life has descended from those two fish. That's not the way that it worked.

The language of the text makes clear that God created a massive array of marine life. That literally left the sea swarming with abundance right away, and he also created every winged bird after its kind, not just two birds, male and female, but a whole variety of birds, flying creatures on this day of creation. And then all birds, flying creatures we see today descended from that variety that God created. It leads us to a 4th assertion that Moses makes a 4th development here, and that is that after God speaks these sea creatures and flying creatures into existence and he creates them, God sees that his creation of sea creatures and flying creatures is good.

It says in verse 21 and God saw that it was good. In other words, the birds and the sea creatures came into existence. They came in the quantity that God wanted them to come in and they showed up in the places where God wanted them to show up. The sea creatures showed up in the sea and the flying creatures showed up in the air, and God saw that what he wanted was good and that everything.

Came into existence exactly as he wanted. He saw that it all was perfect and beautiful and according to his wishes, perfectly serviceable to his purposes. His will was executed perfectly and his will itself was good. God sees all that he has made.

Up to this point of creation and sees that it is good. There's a 5th development here, a 5th assertion that Moses makes as he's telling us the story of God's creation of animal life on the 5th and 6th day of creation, and that is God speaks. This is the 1st time in the creation account that God speaks to a living being. God blesses these creatures and he gives them a mandate to multiply.

He blesses them. And he gives them a mandate to multiply verse 22, and God blessed them, saying, be fruitful and multiply and fill the waters in the seas and let birds multiply on the earth. God looks at these flying creatures and sea creatures and, and he speaks a blessing over them. And we learned the nature of this blessing in the following words, God blessed them, saying, be fruitful.

Be fruitful. God commands them to be fruitful and to have offspring. And keep in mind this is not just a command, it's a creative reality shaping word from the Lord. This is, this is the command wherein God says, let there be light and there's light.

The animals didn't just obey God's command to be fruitful. God's command, his word here made them fruitful beings, able to have. Offspring. God is not merely telling them to be fruitful.

He's making them fruitful in this command. He says be fruitful and multiply. God is commanding them to multiply their numbers. He's saying, I want more of you than what exists right now.

I like you. I like what I have created and I want to see more of you. And so I have created an abundance, but I'm now speaking to you abundant creatures, and I am saying to you, be fruitful and multiply. I've given you the capacity to reproduce and to increase your numbers.

Again, and telling them to multiply. God is not simply commanding them to multiply. He's making them multiplying creatures through this spoken blessing that he is speaking over them. He says be fruitful and multiply and fill the waters in the seas.

God has created the seas and he wants the seas to be filled with these creatures. He's saying, I want my seas to be filled with you. This is God making war against emptiness. He wants his seas to be full.

And he says, and let the birds multiply on the earth. God is commanding the birds to increase their number. God wants the number of birds to be flying creatures. He's wanting the number of flying creatures to be increasing in a multiplying fashion with the numbers growing exponentially day by day.

This is God, the creator of life, abundant life, making provision for even greater abundance to fill the whole earth. God creates many sea creatures and many flying creatures on this day of creation, but he's not content. He's making war on emptiness here, and he wants the oceans and skies to be filled with these creatures. As one writer says, from these copious beginnings, these creatures are to keep on multiplying until they fill the earth.

Every vestige of emptiness is to be ultimately canceled. That's God's agenda. I want the whole earth to be filled. With you multiply until that point is reached.

This is the blessing of God spoken to the animal souls that he created on the 5th day of creation. And by the way, this blessing continues to this day, to this very day, whenever we see an animal reproducing, we are witnessing the power of God's spoken blessing. On this, the 5th day of creation. That's the power of God's words.

That's the power of God's words of blessing. What blessings does God speak over you? As a believer in Christ. Verse 23, the text says, and there was evening and there was morning, a 5th day.

What an amazing day it has been that the Earth's rotation on its axis makes a full turn. Evening arrives with the setting of the sun representing the termination of this 5th workday of God. And then the morning comes and as soon as morning breaks, the 5th day is over and the 6th day. Begins.

And that brings us to the 6th development here, the 6th assertion that Moses makes as he's describing for us God's creation of animal life, and that is that God makes land animals. He's made flying creatures, he's made sea creatures, and now on day 6, God creates land animals, Creatures. Animal souls that will live on the land. Verse 24, then God said, let the earth bring forth living creatures after their kind, cattle and creeping things and beasts of the earth after their kind, and it was so.

And God made the beast of the earth after their kind, and the cattle after their kind and everything that creeps on the ground after. it's kind. Let the earth bring forth, God says. This is interesting.

He doesn't just speak these creatures into existence like he did the fish, the sea creatures, and the flying creatures. It seems like from the text here, he spoke them into existence, but here, God says let the earth bring forth these creatures, indicating that these animals were formed. From the soil of the ground. This is actually the same expression that is used in verse 12 to speak of the earth bringing forth vegetation where the text says in verse 12, and the earth brought forth vegetation.

Same expression, same word. God is now saying, let the earth bring forth these living creatures. So if you were around on this day, you would watch the soil develop into animals in rapid, miraculous fashion. You would watch a variety of kinds of animals all develop rapidly and separately from the soil after their kind by the miraculous handiwork of God.

He speaks of living creatures that God is bringing to existence. That's essentially the broad category. of what God is creating here, living creatures, and then inside of that broad category are, three subsets, essentially cattle, creeping things, and beast of the earth that God is creating. At this point on the 6th day of creation.

Let's talk a little bit about each of these three. It's tough to define clearly what each of these are, but I'll try to give you the best shot that commentators make. First of all, the cattle. the Hebrew word is behema.

Behema and the root of this word speaks of something that's dumb in the sense that it's not able to speak. the word Behema throughout the Old Testament is often used to speak of all animals, but here it is probably used as a category, for animals more with the meaning of cattle, and so that's why a lot of translations translated as cattle, speaking of domestic animals. Then there's another subset here of living things, and that is creeping things. Creeping things, these are creatures that move in a certain way.

They're defined. By how they move. The Hebrew word speaks of that which moves about lightly or appears to glide about. One writer suggests that this word would include mice.

Reptiles, insects, and any other little creatures that keep close to the ground. And this is probably a good explanation there. Another writer says that this word speaks of every animal, large or small, that moves upon the earth or close to the earth, having but short legs. And sometimes these creeping things, their legs are so small that we don't see their legs moving and it just seems like they're gliding about the floor, right?

It just so happens that these are the creatures. That weird me out the most. I would call them creeping things, not simply because they creep along the ground, but because they creep me out. I'm ashamed to admit this to you, but there are creatures, creeping things that weird me out.

man, probably. Probably about 1817 years ago, my wife and I were sitting in our, living room watching television and And I saw a mouse out of the corner of my eye scurry across the floor and run behind a piece of furniture and I, when I saw that out of the corner of my eye, I really, really wished that I didn't see that and I just decided I'm gonna pretend I didn't see anything and hopefully I was just imagining what I saw. But as we're watching some TV show, eventually the mouse, scurried out again.

And, and ran underneath and then behind the TV cabinet, and this time, my wife saw it.

I'll take all the emotion out of what she said, and just give you her words. she said, Milton, there's a mouse in our house. And I perceived that it went behind the TV cabinet, and I believe that you're the one to get it out of the house, unquote. Dealing with that mouse was the last thing that I wanted to do.

I was so creeped out, by it. so I bravely, as the man of the house, I approached the TV cabinet and I'm, I'm trying to look over the cabinets in order to see if I could find the mouse behind the cabinet. I was standing there on my tiptoes and I did not have any shoes on. which really bothered me.

I wanted to go upstairs and get my hiking boots on, but I didn't wanna look like a wimp in front of my wife, so I'm standing there in front of my wife, on my tiptoes, looking over the TV cabinet, looking for this mouse, realizing this mouse could easily crawl out from underneath the cabinet and attack me. My wife was folding laundry at that time, behind me, and she had in her hand a pair of dark socks. That she had just folded with one sock tucked into the other, and she gently tossed the pair of socks at my feet.

And I caught the sight of the socks in my peripheral vision right as They brushed against my bare feet.

And literally, guys, it took me all of a split second to leap from where I was to the other side of the room, feeling an itching sensation from head to my feet with my wife laughing hysterically. At this exposure of my lack of manhood. I suppose, deep down, I am thankful for God creating creeping things, but I have never been as grateful as my wife was in that moment for those creatures. but they do.

They weird me out. I think we all have animals like this, that, just, have a huge ick factor for us, and a lot of those creatures are in this category of creeping things. There's a third category, and that is beast of the earth. Beast of the earth.

Interestingly, the word translating, translated beast here is the Hebrew word for life. It's living things, but this expression for life is used probably to speak of animals that are known for their vital energy and activity. These animals probably include things like tigers and bears, elephants and antelope, dogs and cats would be included in this, this category. Now, notice in the passage, guys, you see an expression again and again.

And that is the expression after their kind. it says, after their kind in verse 24, after their kind, verse 25, after their kind, again in verse 25, after their kind. And when we see this expression 4 times in these verses, this is exactly the language we find back in day 3. Where God created plant life and 3 times it says after their kind, after their kind, after their kind.

What is meant by this expression after their kind? I think the closest English word that we have for what is being referred to here is the word species. Species, but it would be wrong for us to import the modern scientific definition of species back into this Hebrew word for time. We should not do that.

The important thing to draw from this word is the fact that God is establishing boundaries and setting limits. For the self-perpetuating creation. This is the way God designed his creation. Charles Riley says that whatever is meant by kinds, they are fixed boundaries beyond which reproductive variations cannot go.

OK? Is that clear enough? all the animals that God created. had DNA.

Information in their cells containing genes for every trait that combined with the genes of other animals that they mated with in the days to come would produce all the dazzling variety that we see today. With every new generation of animal life, no new genetic information gets added, it just gets rearranged and mixed with that of other animals according to their kind, producing what we have today. Let's say it this way, while there are more subspecies and varieties on Earth today than there were on this day of creation, all the varieties that exist today are a reflection of the genetic complexity of information contained in the DNA of the animals created on day 5 and day 6.

Of creation and what a variety we have.

When Carl Linnaeus and his students set out to set up a system for classifying living things, animal life and plant life back in the 1700s, they, they did their best to record all the species of animals known in their day and they cataloged just over 15,000 species. Of animals. By the way, regarding Carl Linnaeus. A guy who does the work that he does finding animals and giving them names and cataloging them, he's not the guy you want to pick on.

In fact, the story is told of someone who criticized him publicly for something. And so the next time Carl Linnaeus found some useless weed in Europe, he gave that weed the name of the last name of this guy who had criticized him. So you just learn to leave a guy like this alone. Anyway, that's neither here nor there, but they, they found about 15,000 species of animals.

Today, over a million species. Of animals have been discovered and cataloged. Literally thousands of new animal species are being discovered every single year. Tim Wall on the Discovery.com website suggests that there are over 7 million animal species on Earth.

Other writers suggest that that number of 7 million is hopelessly low. One author, Alistair Simpson, says this, we have only begun to uncover the tremendous variety of life around us. The richest environments for prospecting new species are thought to be coral reefs, seafloor mud, and moist tropical soil soils. But smaller life forms are not well known anywhere.

Some unknown species are living in our own backyards, literally, he says. Take for example, ants. There are over 12,000 species of ants alone. and In the book called The Ants by Burt Holdobler and Edward Wilson, they estimate that there are as many as 10 quadrillion ants at any point in time.

That's 1 million ants, over 1 million ants per human being. On the planet. That's just one animal, the ant, 12,000 species. 10 quadrillion of them on the planet and all of these living creatures were created by God according to their time.

Genetic boundaries were set, but within those boundaries, there would be dazzling variety. What a God we have. That leads us to a 7th development, a 7th assertion that Moses makes here, and that is that God saw that what he had made was good. God sees that his creation of land animals is good.

The text says and God saw that it was good. Keep in mind that this was before the fall occurred. Death and sin have not entered the world. We know that when Adam and Eve sin, death will come into the world, bringing about a change in the animal world as well.

But for right now, pre-fall, It's all good. It's all. There's a question that often comes up. When we're reading this part of the creation narrative and it goes like this, that the animals engage in predatory behavior like they do today, eating one another.

That's what animals do now, is that what they did in their original created state, and there's actually several things we could say by way of answering that question, but to keep it really, really succinct, the The answer to this question is actually found in Genesis 1:30. Look at what the text says, God says, unto every beast of the earth and to every bird of the sky, and to everything that moves on the earth which has life, I have given every green plant. And it was so, the text says.

Based on this verse, it's evident that all the animals in God's creation originally were plant eaters.

This was the expressed desire of God in verse 30, and the text says, and it was so. Apparently, the animals heard what God said and gave heed to what he said. God did not say in verse 30, I give you each other as food. Now, chase after each other and devour one another.

No, I give you the green plant as food. And the text says, and it was so. The animals abided by that obviously up until the fall when things changed drastically for humans and for animals. Just as we close our time together.

Let's ponder a few thoughts. first of all, what, what, what God do we see in these verses? We see a God of amazing power and awesome imagination. Amazing imagination.

Look at all the types of animals that there are in the world today and be amazed. These are all demonstrations of the imagination. And wisdom of God. From the lion and the bear to the orangutan and the duck-billed platypus, these are all creations of your Maker.

Of your God. From the eagle and the hummingbird to the penguin and the turkey, from the whale and the dolphin to the seahorse and the hideously ugly anglerfish. All of these and literally millions more are manifestations of the spectacular imagination of our God. And scientists are still discovering new species of animals every single year.

Guys, belief in a creator. Belief in a creator God is not a science stopper, as some would like to say. That it is. Belief in God is what drives us to do science and to study creatures.

Like these, because in the process we're learning something about the wisdom and the imagination and the glory of our Creator. I can't say this any better than Carl Linnaeus himself, who was a pastor's kid. the son of a Lutheran pastor who said this, the earth's creation is the glory of God as seen from the works of nature, and this is part of what drove him to, to study animals and plant life because it was a way of discovering God. Also, when we look at a passage like this in Genesis, we see a God who loves us.

Imagine life without animals. Imagine the world without animals. Imagine your life without any pets. Or any joy or companionship or laughter that you have known from animals.

Every moment of joy that you have ever known or experienced. Because of an animal was divinely intended as a part of God's creation. Every happy and hilarious moment you've ever known with a pet is a part of God's design. So love your pets.

When you go home today, give your pets a hug. The same mind that fought you up, fought them up too, and they are intended to be cherished by you, cared for by you. Proverbs 12:10, the righteous man shows regard to the life of his animal. Experience God.

Through them. Randy Alcorn says this, I love this. He says, I for one have praised God for and been drawn to him by the playfulness, exuberance, love, and devotion and the dogs I've had over the years. They communicate the beauty.

Of their maker Now, because of man's sin, nature is presently red in tooth and claw, as people often will say, and our relationship with the animal world has taken a huge hit. you don't wanna just go up to a tiger today and hug that tiger. and try to have a happy moment with that tiger. Things are different now in Genesis 9:2, write that reference down, after the flood, God says to Noah, the fear of you and the terror of you shall be on every beast of the earth and on every bird of the sky, and God says that right before announcing that he's giving Animals to us for food and we'll deal with that later when we get to that passage, but this was not the way this fear, this terror.

Was not the way God originally intended. Our relationship with the animal world. We know that God loves and cares about animals. He made provision actually for their deliverance when he was going to destroy the earth with a flood.

Read the book of Jonah. The, the, at the end of the book of Jonah, God says to Jonah, why shouldn't I spare Nineveh? There are so many souls in that city and there's many animals. And with that, the book ends with God mentioning the fact that there are many animals in Nineveh, which is one of the reasons why in his heart, he did not want to destroy the city.

And when Christ came into the world, where was he born? And stable for animals. The first Adam started off surrounded by animals. And so did the second Adam.

This is most appropriate. The presence of Jesus Christ on earth is good news for the animal kingdom. In Isaiah 11, Isaiah describes a future day under the rain, the good rain of Jesus Christ on earth. Listen to what he describes.

In Isaiah 11, it says, and the wolf will dwell with the lamb, and the leopard will lie down with the kid, and the calf and the young lion and the fatling together, and a little boy will lead them. Also, the cow and the bear will graze. Their young will lie down together and the lion will eat straw like the ox. And the nursing child, imagine this, parents, and the nursing child will play by the hole of the cobra, and the weaned child will put his hand on the viper's down.

And mommies will observe that and go, oh, how cute, how cute. In the meantime though, before that day arrives, all of creation, including animal creation, groans. For that day The day of redemption when the sons of God are revealed in their glory, our redemption. Our revealing as children of God is good news for all of creation, including the animal creation.

Let me just close by asking this just based on the passage I just read, I can't resist. If the reign of Christ. In that future day will have such a taming effect on the animal kingdom. What might the reign of Christ do?

For you. If his reign can tame wild animals, could not his reign in your life tame. The wildness and the rebellion in you. If the reign of Christ can make it possible for the lion and the lamb to get along.

What might his reign do for your marriage? I don't know in your marriage who the lion is and who the lamb is, but if, if the reign of Christ, Can cause a lion and a lamb to get along with each other. What could he do for you in your marriage? If the reign of Christ can make the relationship between a child and a cobra one of playfulness, what might such a one do?

In your life. Leave you with that. Let's pray. Together.

Lord God, you. You are an amazing God, and we see your dazzling spectacular imagination on display and In all of creation and in our passage that we've looked at this morning, you didn't have to do it this way. Lord, we know that your invisible attributes, your power, are displayed to the things that have been made. And that includes The animal creation and we see much of your glory.

Your wisdom And your imagination through them deepen our appreciation for this part of your creation. Help us to give glory to you for what we see and enjoy of this part of your creation. And Lord, we know that all these amazing things that we've seen created on this 5th and the beginning of the 6th day of creation is all setting the stage for the apex of your creative work, which is the creation of mankind, which we'll be looking at next week. You are an awesome guy.

A God who can create the sun, moon, and stars, and a God who Created flying creatures and a God who sees every sparrow that falls. Because you care The cattle on 1000 hills are yours. All creatures are your creatures. And we worship you, God, for a million reasons, and one of which is this.

aspect of your creative handiwork that we've seen on display today. Lord, we know in this passage that obviously when you create something that you really like, you command it to be fruitful and multiply and if that's true of animal creation, how true is it of your sons and daughters? You say to us, go into all the world, preach the gospel. To every creature.

Make disciples of all the nations reproduce, fill the earth with my name and my glory. May we give heed to that call. May we submit to the reign of Christ and allow Christ to bring about. The transformation in us, you promised to us in your word, transforming our souls, transforming our relationship with you.

Delivering us from sin, transforming our marriages, our relationships with our children and with our parents and with others, Lord, there's such a work of redemption that you have the power to do and you long to do that in our lives, and we just, we just stand in awe of you and say, Lord, do your full good work in us. We thank you for this opportunity to give of our offerings to you, Lord. We ask that you would receive these funds and do much with every penny that is given for the glory of Jesus and for the spread of the gospel of salvation through Him.

We ask these things in the name of Jesus and all God's people said.