Free Bible Commentary
“Genesis 1:9-19”
Categories: Genesis“Then God said, ‘Let the waters below the heavens be gathered into one place, and let the dry land appear’; and it was so. God called the dry land earth, and the gathering of the waters He called seas; and God saw that it was good. Then God said, ‘Let the earth sprout vegetation, plants yielding seed, and fruit trees on the earth bearing fruit after their kind with seed in them’; and it was so. The earth brought forth vegetation, plants yielding seed after their kind, and trees bearing fruit with seed in them, after their kind; and God saw that it was good. There was evening and there was morning, a third day. Then God said, ‘Let there be lights in the expanse of the heavens to separate the day from the night, and let them be for signs and for seasons and for days and years; and let them be for lights in the expanse of the heavens to give light on the earth’; and it was so. God made the two great lights, the greater light to govern the day, and the lesser light to govern the night; He made the stars also. God placed them in the expanse of the heavens to give light on the earth, and to govern the day and the night, and to separate the light from the darkness; and God saw that it was good. There was evening and there was morning, a fourth day.”
---End of Scripture verses---
On day three God made the dry land appear from the water that covered the entirety of the earth’s surface. The Lord used winds in subsequent times to part and dissipate large accumulations of water (Genesis 8:1; Exodus 14:41) so He possibly did here as well, but the text does not divulge the method God used so it must not be necessary for us to know. It is interesting to note that verse 9 tells us the waters on earth were “gathered into one place,” and yet God refers to them as “seas” in the plural. All of the earth’s oceans are connected to each other and yet distinct from each other at the same time. The only one who could possess knowledge of this fact at this time of antiquity is the God who created them.
In a separate act of creation, but on the same third day, the Lord generated the plant kingdom. Nahum Sarna observed concerning the phrase “let the earth sprout vegetation” the following: “This creative act constitutes an exception to the norm that God’s word directly effectuates the desired product. Here the earth is depicted as the mediating element, implying that God endows it with generative powers that He now activates by His utterance. The significance of this singularity is that the sources of power in what we call nature, which were personified and deified in the ancient world, are now emptied of sanctity. The productive forces of nature exist only by the will of the one sovereign Creator and are not independent spiritual entities. There is no room in such a concept for the fertility cults that were features of ancient Near Eastern religions.”
On day three of creation God enacted the natural law that living things, and later living beings, produce seed “after their kind,” and that has not ceased to be an axiomatic, inviolable rule governing all of life. Evolution does not and cannot adequately explain the varieties of species of life on earth. Plants, animals and humans did not evolve from one, common, microbial ancestor. They did spring forth from the mind and design of one common, all-powerful Creator.
On day four God either “made” the sun, moon and stars in the “expanse of the heavens,” or He merely “placed” them there to give life-sustaining light to the earth. The text may allow for the starry, heavenly host to be a part of God’s creation on day one when He “created the heavens and the earth,” but I am not certain. Nahum Sarna wrote concerning the creation of plant life before the shining of sunlight on earth the following: “The emergence of vegetation prior to the existence of the sun” has “the common purpose of emphasizing that sun, moon, and stars are not divinities, as they were universally thought to be; rather, they are simply the creation of God, who assigned them the function of regulating the life rhythms of the universe.”
God created these lights “for signs and for seasons and for days and years” (verse 14). Our Creator set these heavenly lights to shine and perfectly serve the purpose that He created them for. Are we shining the light of God into the darkness of this sinful world and fulfilling the purpose for which He created us and recreated us in Christ Jesus?
Please read Genesis 1:20-30 for tomorrow.
Have a blessed day!
- Louie Taylor
