Gen. 1:24-31
Review our Lessons:
Lesson # 1: “Before Creation” Gen. 1a
Lesson # 2: “God Created” Gen. 1:1b-2
Lesson # 3: “God Formed” Gen. 1:3-13 [Day 1-3]
Lesson # 4: “God Filled” Gen. 1:14-23 [Day 4-5]
Lesson # 5: “God Filled” Gen. 1:24-31 [Day 6]
Review our Creation Days:
Day 1- Earth, Light, and Time
Day 2- Water and Sky
Day 3- Plant Life
Day 4- Sun, Moon, and Stars
Day 5- Fish and Fowl
Day 6- Land Animals and Man
6. Day Six [vs. 24-31].
1. The Creation of Beasts [vs. 24-25].
God filled the skies with heavenly luminaries and flying birds. He filled the seas with fish. Now on the sixth day, the apex of creation, God filled the land with animal life and man.
“Cattle” refers to animals that could be tamed [domestic] and “beasts” to wild animals or the dinosaurs like Behemoth [Job 40:15].
The word “living creature” some suggest means animals have a soul “breathing creature.” Nephesh in the Hebrew.
The animals were formed out of the dust of the earth like man [vs. 24a, 2:7]. Both go back to the dust of the earth after death [Ecc. 3:19-20].
Animals and humans are different. Both have a soul but only man was breathed into the nostrils and had a living spirit being and bore the image of God [2:7].
2. The Creation of Man [vs. 26-28]. 4 thoughts
A. God created man in His image [vs. 26-27; 3:22; 11:7].
Here we see a deliberation among the eternal Godhead. God was not speaking to the angels because they were not created in the image of God “our image our likeness.”
Note 2:7, the word “formed” suggests a divine design and a divine designer. Adam means “taken out of the ground”; but his life came from God.
We note several truths here:
1. Man was created by God.
We were not a product of chance or at the top of the evolutionary ladder.
2. Man was created in God’s image.
We can have a relationship with God. We have minds, emotions, wills, and inner nature that enable us to know and worship God.
This image was marred by sin and the fall [Eph. 4:18-19], but can be renewed thru faith in Christ “new man.”
B. God created Him to have dominion [vs. 26-27].
Adam and Eve were given stewardship over God’s creation [Ps. 8:6-8; 15:16].
Adam lost dominion when he sinned and now sin reigns over the earth. Jesus the last Adam gains back what the first Adam lost.
C. God told them to replenish the earth [1:28].
Replenish means to fill the earth with people. This command was primarily to Adam and Eve, because God has not made everybody to have children.
This is not a command to you and me to bear as many children as we can. It was to the heads of the human race God gave this command.
D. Man was a vegetarian until after the flood [1:29-30; 9:1-4].
During the Millennium, beasts will again be vegetarian [Isa. 11:7].
Next Week- the Seventh day [2:1-4].
