The days of creation continued:
Day 6 – Livestock, Creeping things, Beasts of the field, Man and Woman
Day 7 – Rest
Genesis 1:24 “And God said, “Let the earth bring forth living creatures according to their kinds—livestock and creeping things and beasts of the earth according to their kinds.” And it was so.”
There are two things to notice from this verse. First, the phrase “according to their kinds”, and secondly, that God divided those kinds into three different categories.
According to their kinds means that each species from their family kind was created. Some may say that every species was created on day six while others believe the parent kind that had the DNA to produce every species of its kind was created, but what is important to note is that God created “kinds” and that all the species we know today come from their kind and there is no crossover. Evolution will tell you that we evolved from fish and that dinosaurs evolved from birds, among other things, but birds and fish were created on day five and are different “kinds” of animals than what was created on day six. And, yes, that means that dinosaurs were created on day six. There is no evidence of any animal crossing over or producing offspring outside of their kind. There is plenty of evidence to show that “kinds” of animals adapted and created new species or that different breeds came from within their kind, but that is known as speciation and not evolution. Evolution is a whole other topic, so we’ll leave it at that.
The other thing to notice from verse 24 is the three categories of land animals. It mentions the livestock, creeping things, and the beasts of the field. The Hebrew words used are behemah (H929), remes (H7431), and chay (H2416) ‘erets (H776). This isn’t important to understand right now, but it will come up again in a couple of weeks, so I thought I would bring it to your attention here.
Genesis 1:26 “And God said, “Let us make humankind according to our image and according to our likeness.” Verse 27 says humankind was made in the image of God, “He made them male and female.”
There is some debate on what it means to be made in the image of God. Verse 26 says that God said, “Let US…”, so some believe that God is talking to Himself as the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, so, therefore, the image of God is three parts meaning that man is made in three parts; body, mind, and spirit. That is what I was taught. It’s plausible, but I’m going to present you with a different perspective.
God is good in all aspects. He is righteousness and perfection. Adam was made in this image. Adam was righteous and perfect. Verse 31 says, “And God saw everything that He made, and look, it was very good!” God created Adam and considered him very good. Fast forward to the words of the Messiah in Mark 10:8 where He tells the rich young ruler that “No one is good except God alone.” Or in Romans 3:10 where Paul quotes from the Psalms in saying, “There is no one righteous, not even one.” That comes from Psalm 14:3. The beginning of the verse tells us why that is the case. “All turned aside together. They became useless. (Or, “all have become corrupt” in the ESV.) There is not one doing goodness; there is not even one.” It is because of sin that no one is good. Adam wasn’t created in sin. He was created in God’s image, perfect and without sin. Later this week, we’ll see that Adam was created in the image of God, but Seth was born in the image of Adam. Being created in the image of God means that you were created to be perfect, but sin has prevented us from reaching that perfection.
To expound on that point, all we have to do is look at the Messiah. Colossians 1:14-17 says, “It is through His Son that we have redemption — that is, our sins have been forgiven. HE IS THE VISIBLE IMAGE OF THE INVISIBLE GOD. He is supreme over all creation because in connection with Him were created all things — in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones, lordships, rulers or authorities — they have all been created through Him and for Him. He existed before all things, and He holds everything together.”
The Son was not created in the image of God, but He was the visible IMAGE of God. The Son was perfect, without sin; righteous, and without blemish. He was and is the IMAGE of God, the same image that we were created in.
Yeshua uttered these words in the Sermon on the Mount, “You, therefore, must be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect. (Matt. 5:48)” Of course, it is impossible for anyone to be perfect since we are born in sin. The image of God is tarnished in us. But Paul wrote in 2 Corinthians 5:21, “For our sake He made Him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in Him we might become the righteousness of God.”
We cannot be perfect, but we can put on His righteousness and once again be in the image of God as He created us to be. If someone is in Christ, then His righteousness is put on us and we will receive our perfect bodies in the new world to come.
One other thing to notice about day six is that God gave Adam and Eve and all the animals the green plants and seed-bearing plants and seed-bearing fruit as food. They didn’t eat meat because there was no death, and you can’t have meat without the death of an animal. Everyone and everything was a vegetarian at the beginning of creation.
Chapter 2 of Genesis begins with God resting on the seventh day because all creation was complete and His work was done. God blessed the seventh day and made it holy. In the Complete Jewish Bible (CJB), it says that God “separated” the day as holy. The six days of work were considered common (or similar), but the seventh day is separated as holy. God established the Sabbath at creation, and sabbath simply means to cease from your labors and do no work.