In this lesson, Pastor Dave Capoccia examines the account of creation days five and six and the creation of animals and mankind. After making basic observations of Genesis 1:20-31, Pastor Dave considers questions of interpretation and application, including what it means to be made in the image of God and what the significance is of animals being made and reproducing according to “kinds.”
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Good morning and welcome to Sunday school. We’re jumping back into our study of the creation foundation, these pivotal chapters for understanding the world, understanding the Bible. Last week, we examined the first four days of creation, and we reached a few important conclusions. First, we saw many reasons why the days of Genesis 1 must mean 24-hour periods. Second, we responded to several objections to the 24-hour day view. And third, we saw what happened specifically on the first 96 hours or first four days of creation. Now, see if you can remember what those things were.
What did God do creationwise on day one?
He created the heavens and the earth and he created light and he divided light from darkness making day and night. Very good. What did God do on day two of creation?
Very good. He separated the waters below from the waters above and he called this separation or he says it created an expanse and he called it heaven.
And what did God do on day three?
He revealed the dry land by doing what?
Gathering the waters into one place which he called seas. And the dry land he called earth. And what else did God do?
Created the plants. created all vegetation, all trees, and all plants that yield seed after its kind. And then what did God do on day four?
That’s right. He created the heavenly bodies. They were for various purposes, but he creates the sun, moon, and the other heavenly lights on day four. So by the end of day four, what has changed from the initial state of the earth? Remember, God says it was unformed and it was unfilled. By the end of day four, what has changed?
It’s formed. The earth, the universe is formed. But what about the filling? You could argue that sun, moon, and stars is part of the filling. Or maybe it’s part of the forming. I could see it both ways. But certainly filling is going to be completed in the other days of creation. And that’s what we’re going to talk about today. days 5 and 6 with the creation of all animals and man. More specifically, here’s what we’re looking at today. We will examine Genesis 1 20-31 where we get the account of creation days 5 and six. We’ll then consider what it means to be made in God’s image and then we’ll consider the meaning and makeup of animal kinds.
Well, let’s pray and we’ll get to it.
Lord God, your word is trustworthy.
We can know where the world came from, where animals, where man came from because you tell us. Your word is reliable. God, help us to understand it.
Help us to believe it. And God, let it bring us to an awe of you in response in Jesus name. Amen.
All right. So, it’s been a while since we’ve actually read part of Genesis 1.
So, let’s start by doing that. If you would take your Bibles and open to Genesis 1. We’re going to read the passage that we’re looking at today, which is verses 20-31.
This is the beginning of day five in the creation account.
So, please follow along in your Bibles as we read Genesis 1:es 20-31.
Word of God says, “Then God said, let the waters team with swarms of living creatures, and let birds fly above the earth in the open expanse of the heavens.” God created the great sea monsters, and every living creature that moves with which the waters swarmed after their kind, and every winged bird after its kind. And God saw that it was good. God blessed them, saying, “Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the waters and the seas, and let birds multiply on the earth.” There was evening, and there was morning, a fifth 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. God made the beasts 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.
Then God said, “Let us make man in our image, according to our likeness, and let them rule over the fish of the sea, and over the birds of the sky, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.” God created man in his own image. In the image of God he created him. Male and female he created them.
God blessed them. And God said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and subdue it and rule over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the sky and over every living thing that moves on the earth.” Then God said, “Behold, I have given you every plant yielding seed that is on the surface of all the earth, and every tree which has fruit yielding seed, it shall be food for you. And to every beast of the earth, and to every bird of the sky, and to every living, and to everything that moves on the earth, which has life, I have given every green plant for food.” And it was so.
God saw all that he had made. And behold, it was very good. And there was evening and there was morning, the sixth day.
Let’s start our study of this passage with basic observations.
What does God do on day five of creation?
Creates all the sea creatures.
Well, what else?
Creates all the flying creatures and God blesses them by specifically telling them to multiply. What does God do on day six of creation?
Well, that was on day five, the all the sea creatures, even the sea monsters.
And on day six, right? It’s creating beasts, crawly things, the land animals.
And yeah, cattle. That’s part of the land animals.
Creates man, creates man and woman. And he blesses them like he bre blessed the sea and air creatures. God blesses man, telling him to multiply.
And what else?
Well, that multiply filling, yes, gives him dominion. He gives him dominion over all the earth and over all its creatures.
And he gives to man and all land animals, plants to eat as food.
Now, notice the term winged bird in verse 21.
Also, the word birds in verse 22.
We can think of some examples of what this would include. We see birds all the time. Owls, goals, jays, eagles, cranes, hummingbirds, etc. However, though what we call birds is primarily what is in mind here, the Hebrew word for bird could include all flying creatures, even some that we would not call birds like flying or except for flying insects.
They they fall into the category creeping and swarming things, but other flying creatures that are not birds would be included. And we can actually see this right in the Bible because in Leviticus 11 13 to 19, you get an unclean birds list forbidden for the Hebrews to eat. And one of the things that’s on that list is the bat.
You say, “What? The bat’s not a bird.” Well, it was the Israelites because to them, a bird is just a flying creature.
So bat was a bird. Pterodactyl would have been a bird. I mean, a flying creature to the Hebrews. So all that was created on day five.
We also see that the sea creatures were created on day five. And interestingly we have two descriptions of the kinds of sea creatures that were made. In verse 21 we have great sea monsters in the New American Standard and then every living creature with which the water swarmed.
That’s pretty broad but an accurate description of aquatic life.
You’ve got really big creatures in the water like whales, sharks, aquatic dinosaurs, and then you’ve got the smaller creatures. Now, there’s something interesting about this term sea monster.
It may even have the idea of sea dragon because the term is used later in the Old Testament to refer to Leviathan and to refer to serpents.
But of course there are other smaller creatures in the waters. They frequently do swarm. They all sorts of they all gather together. They move as a unit.
All kinds of fish, crabs, shrimp, jellyfish, seahorses, otter, seals, dolphins, all of them created on day five.
But then what about day six? Well, consider the categories of land animals that are given us verses 24 and 25.
We’ve read these terms, but I don’t know if we ever thought through them. We have cattle.
The Hebrew word could refer to animals in general, but it’s often used to speak of domesticated herd animals like cows, sheep, horses, camels. That would be that category. Then we have the creeping things, which refers to exactly what it sounds like. Everything that lives and moves close to the ground. So crickets, beetles, spiders, worms, snakes, frogs, lizards, turtles, mice, moles, groundhogs.
It fall under the category creeping things. And then we have beasts of the earth, which comes from a Hebrew word that could again refer to all land animals or refer to all animals, but was often used to speak of large animals, large wild animals. So, we’re probably talking about the big cats, the dogs, the bears, the elephants, the apes, the monkeys, and various kinds and sizes of land dinosaurs and more besides.
Now, notice that these categories of land animals, they do not exactly correspond to modern classifications of animals. Not like it says God made the mammals, God made the reptiles, God made their arachnids.
But that’s okay. The Hebrews had a right to classify animals differently than we do.
But the various categorizations of animals are all illustrating a major point and that is on day six, God made all kinds of land animals.
However you categorize it, God made them.
Now before we move to the final act of creation on day six, notice the phrase that appears many times in our passage in connection to the animals after their kind. After its kind. Seven times in our passage. And these phrases are used to describe the creation of the various animals. And we saw the same phrase three times in the previous passage talking about the creation and reproduction of plants. They were created and they reproduce according to their kind. We’ll come back to the significance of that phrase in just a little bit.
But separate from the creation of land animals and functioning as the climax of the creation process is the creation of man on day six. And notice what makes man distinct from the other created creatures. And verses 26 to 28. We are told that man was created in the image and the likeness of God.
Both male and female were created in God’s image.
And note the plural first person pron pronouns used by God.
He says in verse 26, “Let us in our according to our likeness.” That’s interesting, right? Come back to that.
But God makes man in God’s own image and then gives man dominion over all the earth and all the animals, land, sea, and air.
But what will man eat? What will the animals eat? Well, God has a ready and generous provision for them. According to verses 29 to 31, God says that all plants and all fruit trees are to be food for man, food for the land animals, food for the flying creatures.
Notice that sea creatures are not included on that list.
come back to that detail.
And then notice how God viewed his work on days five and six.
Verse 21 says that God saw his work on the fifth day and it was good. Well, verse 31 describes God’s view of creation after the sixth day. As God overviews all that he has done, it’s not just good. Behold, it was very good. OD and notice the extra emphasis of this final phrase. All throughout the creation narrative, God has been commenting on the good nature of it.
Make something that’s good. Make something that’s good. But now that the world is both formed and filled, it’s not just good, it’s very good.
And the word behold there is put in for extra emphasis as if we need to pay attention and look at it closely. Guys, this was very good.
Now with those observations, let’s now move to some interpretation questions.
Did sea animals eat different food from the rest? They weren’t included in that list that God mentioned specifically.
Could they even have been carnivores?
That’s a question with implications for whether evolution can fit with the Bible.
Whether animals ate each other during the creation week matters for questions of an old earth evolutionary understanding of Genesis because that brings about death. It means death, disease, carnivore killing.
They existed before the fall. Now the text is explicit that land animals and birds had plants for food as did humans.
Humans actually would not be allowed to eat animals until after the flood in Genesis 9.
God specifically says, “I’ve given animals for you to eat just like I gave you the plants. Now I given them to you.” Because of that, it’s likely that animals did not eat each other before that time either.
And we see this even more because God told Noah before the flood as Noah’s going to get prepared to make the ark and gather the animals that plants would be both sufficient food for the inhabitants of the ark, the people, and also the animals. Genesis 620 6:21.
It’ll be food for both of you guys. So likely animals were not eating each other before the flood until after the flood.
Now because of these facts later in Genesis and because carnifer killing definitely qualifies as death and death is not good and because Romans says that death came into the world through sin.
I think we can conclude sea animals were most likely not carnivorous.
either during the days of creation or even before the flood.
None of the other animals were. Why should the sea animals be their absence from the list of plant eaters at the end of Genesis 1? It probably is just because when speaking about land plants specifically, the sea creatures are not going to eat those because they can’t go on land most of them.
But they would have their own variety of plant type thing to eat in the waters.
So their absence in the list in Genesis 1 is not really an indication that sea creatures were carnivores. It just wasn’t relevant for them to be mentioned when talking about land food for land creatures.
All right. Now for a bigger question.
Well, actually one smaller and then a bigger question. They’re related.
Does verse 26 when it says, “Let us create man in our image,” does it prove the doctrine of the Trinity, one God and three persons? What do you think?
It certainly makes sense with the Trinity. But can you get the doctrine of the trinity from this one verse?
It’s not enough. You don’t get father’s God, Jesus God, Holy Spirit’s God from this one verse. However, you do get that there is something plural about God which really can only be explained by the doctrine of the Trinity later revealed in scripture. It’s difficult to explain this verse without the Trinity.
It’s funny if you do look up Jewish interpretation of this verse today, they come around with attempts to explain this plurality in which God speaks.
Perhaps someone might say that God is talking to the angels when he says this in verse 26. Actually, that’s what some Jewish interpreters will say. God is speaking to the angels. But why does that not really make sense?
Exactly.
God is not making man in an angel’s image, but rather in his own image.
The Old Testament is consistent at saying that man is made in the image of God, not angels or the image of God and angels. And besides, angels are never said in the Bible to create anything or to be involved in creation other than just praising God for what God is doing.
And we can’t explain away this plurality that God uses is just the kind of royal we.
You do see this sometimes in the Bible.
A singular is referred to in the plural because it is so majestic. Sometimes actually called a plural of majesty. And that does survive in even more modern times with a king saying we are not pleased. When he’s just talking about himself, that cannot be what God is doing here.
Because if we just compare the way God speaks in the rest of the Bible, he almost always speaks in singular terms.
When he’s communicating about himself to others, he says, for example, to Israel, no other gods before me, for my name I will act, not our name. I will go before you, he says to Israel.
Singular, singular, singular. So it’ be quite arbitrary for this one place in the Bible to God use a royal wei perspective when he almost never does that elsewhere.
So these two explanations don’t really work. We’re stuck with this plural pronoun from a singular being saying, “Let us make man in our image.” What could be the explanation other than the Trinity?
This then really is the first foreshadowing of the revelation of God as Trinity in the Bible. I’m sure the ancient Hebrews were puzzled by this if they lingered over it. How can you reconcile a plurality in God with his clear and insisted singularity?
God didn’t reveal the answer fully right away, but he gave more clues as the Bible unfolded. They would see actually more even in the Old Testament plurality in God. You have the angel of Yahweh who is also called Yahweh speaking to Yahweh. How can that be? It’s a plurality in God in the singular God.
It would become more and more clues in the Old Testament, but it would be revealed much more plainly in the New Testament.
But it is significant that even here we have this represented plurality in God. Oh, we might ask, well, why does he use a plurality at all if he’s using singular other times in the Bible? Well, notice to whom he is speaking. Not to man, not to angels, speaking to himself.
That’s different than when God is speaking most the other times in the Bible. That’s why there’s a difference.
Now, it’s a big one. What does it mean that God was that God made man in God’s image?
This has a question. This is a question that’s been pondered throughout the centuries. It is a profound statement.
But before we answer, do note that the text says that both male and female were created in the image of God.
Women are not any less made in the image of God than men. Rather, I think it’s even better to say that together, male and female display the image of God fully.
But what does it mean to be made in the image of God?
There are a few ways we could attempt to answer this question. We could say that man is made physically in the image of God. That is to say, man was made to literally look like God because God must have a body just like we do. He’s got a face. He’s got arms and legs.
This might be what we are inclined to intuitit from terms like image and likeness. These sound like physical descriptions.
And it would also fit with other certain descriptions we have of God in the Old Testament. It describes God stretching out his hand. He’s got arms. He’s got a face. He’s got a back.
And Mormons actually take this position.
They suppose that God the Father indeed has a physical human-like form.
But this cannot be. The image of God cannot refer to a physical form because of what the rest of the scriptures say.
In the Ten Commandments, God forbids any image to be made of him.
Presumably because no image can properly represent or capture who he is.
John 4:24 further says in the New Testament that God is spirit. He doesn’t have a physical form.
And Colossians 1:15, Colossians 1:15 further says that God is invisible.
So there’s no physical body to God the Father.
And the references to God’s body parts throughout the scriptures, they are what we can call anthropomorphisms.
anthropomorphisms, a type of figurative language where a nonhuman being or object is ascribed to human characteristics in order to make a point. And we actually use this in our language all the time, like, and we probably don’t even notice it when you refer to the leg of a table. You’ve just given it a human characteristic, a creaturelike characteristic. It doesn’t have a leg. It has something like a leg, and we call it a leg, but it’s not really alive. Doesn’t have that human body part.
Same thing with God. When the Bible’s when God asks in the Bible, “Is my arm too short to save?” He’s not revealing that he has really long arms physically, but that his power is never insufficient to accomplish his will or to keep his covenant faithfully.
So no, the image of God cannot be explained in physical terms.
So how else might we answer that question? Well, another way would be to say that the image of God refers to internal makeup. That man may not reflect God in physical nature, but in the inner person, man reflects the being of God. And this may even manifest in the outward one as well, connected to inner realities.
But this is primarily about the inner person, man reflecting who God is in his attributes.
And this makes sense, doesn’t it? We can bring up certain attributes of God like love, wisdom, holiness, mercy.
And in making man in his image, God chooses, God has chosen to give us attributes reminiscent of his own abilities and attributes. God loves, we love, though much less greatly. God has wisdom. We have wisdom, though much less in measure.
God has existence. We have existence though not timelessly like God. God is creative. We are creative though not as creative as God. God is relational. We are relational.
We don’t like being alone. God loves unity and diversity. We love unity and diversity. God values beauty. We value beauty. And we could go on.
Certainly this makes sense.
We cannot deny that the attributes of God or the perfections of God are reflected in man in a way that’s different from all other creatures.
Indeed, we would need some level of God’s attributes in order for us to even know him and appreciate him, enjoy him, worship him, to know who he is. So certainly part of being made in God’s image must mean that we are made like God to a degree in the inner man.
God has imprinted his own qualities on us in creation.
But there is another part to this answer, a part that I think actually contains what we just said.
A third way we can answer what does it mean to be made in the image of God is to say that we were made representatives of God’s rule. We were made to be representatives even under rulers of God.
And one of the reasons why I think this is an an answer we have to pay attention to is because notice in verse 26 when God says let us make man in our image. Notice what is connected to that immediately.
Let us make man in our image, according to our likeness, and let them rule.
That can’t be an accident. Why would rule be immediately mentioned after being made in the image of God if it wasn’t intimately tied up with what it means to be made in the image of God?
The context must be significant.
Rule has something to do with what it means to be made in God’s image. And of course, rule, sovereignty is an important attribute or perfection of God.
God is sovereign as a ruler. So as a reflection of God, to be made in the image of God means to be a kind of ruler yourself.
To be made sovereign as an underruler.
But why would God do that? Why would God install man as a deputy ruler over creation, the creation that God made?
Well, an answer, some have noted that in ancient times, kings would create images or statues of themselves and set them up throughout their kingdoms.
And these standing images not only reminded subjects of who the king was and what he looked like, but the images were also a statement that the king had full authority over all the surrounding land and people.
Such an idea actually fits with God being made like or with man being made like God being made in the image of God.
Man is like a statue of God.
Figuratively, of course, not physically, reflecting both who God is and also testifying that God is the one who rules this place. God is the one who rules the world, rules the universe.
Even in thinking about the Bible as a whole, an entire record of Revelation, one way to boil it all down, some theologians do this, is to say that the history of the world is all about God establishing his holy kingship over the whole universe.
God creates the universe and he’s establishing his kingship over it in a very obvious and glorious way. Man’s creation, his redemption isn’t tied up tied up in that purpose.
Even being made in the image of God is tied up in that purpose.
So I think it’s really these second two answers together that answer our question. Right at the beginning of the Bible, right in the account of creation itself, we see God’s rule being asserted in the images that he has set up. Living images that reveal in a derived sense who the real king is.
Being made in the image of God means to reflect the being and rule of God as an underruler.
Which is quite amazing. Quite amazing that we should have such a role that God would ordain for us, create for us, design for us that we should be these kind of imagebearing underrulers.
But that truth has implications.
You may have noticed if you read through different sections of the scriptures that the Bible actually draws attention to the fact that man is made in the image of God to condemn sinful actions taken against a fellow man.
For example, Genesis 9:6, two notable places where this really occurs in the Bible. Genesis 9:6 says, “Whoever sheds man’s blood, by man his blood shall be shed, for in the image of God he made man.” Genesis or James James 3:es 8-10 applies that truth in a slightly different way. James 3:8-10, “But no one can tame the tongue.
It is a restless evil full of deadly poison. With it we bless our Lord and Father, and with it we curse men who have been made in the likeness of God.
From the same mouth come both blessing and cursing. My brethren, these things ought not to be this way.
You grasping the implication?
If you mocked, graffitied, defaced, or destroyed a king’s image in ancient times, well, you were showing contempt for the king himself. And if you were caught, you would be severely punished, maybe even killed.
So it is with all those who speak against, mistreat, harm, destroy God’s image in man.
God will require it of each offender.
We see by this foundational statement here in Genesis 1, Genesis 1:26-28, we see that man was created with a certain dignity, a dignity that means he cannot be, he must not be, he should not be sinfully treated either by word or by deed.
And this dignity does not come from man himself as if he earned it, deserves it. No, man deserves this honor only because God deserves this honor and because God made man in God’s image.
So this dignity does not change based on how someone looks, how old he is, how useful he is, how righteous he is.
Dignity comes from who man is essentially as God created him. God made man in God or yeah, God made man in God’s image.
So think about what that means for how you interact with other people.
How do you regard the image of God as displayed in those around you?
Do you treat certain people of no account because you forget that they are too made in the image of God?
Do you pay no attention to do you treat with contempt the poor, homeless, children, unborn children, drunks, drug addicts, criminals, government leaders, celebrities, Democrats, Republicans, men, women, people of different skin color, different culture, different ethnic heritage, people of different religion, unbelievers, fellow Christians, your family members, and people who have mistreated you.
Those are just some examples.
But can you think of anyone or any group of people that you speak contemptuously toward or about? You have hateful and corrupting words to say about them.
Do you realize that in doing so, you curse the very image of God?
This is common for us to do about people we don’t know. Well, people who are far away, especially celebrities, we will talk about them. We will make their name light. We’ll make fun of them.
Do you realize you are defacing God’s image when you do so?
How do you think God feels about that?
And should you even move to strike, physically harm another person in a sinful way, you are striking the very image of God’s own sovereign rule.
And just as God required it of those in biblical times, he will require it of you. You will require it of me. Remember that you will give an account to God for how you treated those who are made in his image.
Even though that image has been marred due to the fall, due to sin, it is still God’s image.
I think you can realize now that so many of the great sins of our society, they persist partly due to the fact that people will not acknowledge or respond appropriately to the image of God and others. It will treat certain people or certain groups of people as not being worth dignity, kind treatment. So this is where we get problems like abortion, racism, domestic violence, sexism, murder, pornography, and the list goes on.
We are all guilty of dishonoring God by mistreating his image bearers.
Which is why we need the gospel. It’s why the gospel such desperately needed good news for us.
Because even though we have done this, Jesus came as the perfect image of God in the flesh. And he suffered and died for what we’ve done to God’s image so that we might be renewed, we who believe, into his image, the perfect image of God, the image always intended for us.
This is why we praise God for the gospel.
Jesus did what we couldn’t do, saves us, and then he enables us to do what we ought to have done all along.
Actually treat the image of God as it deserves.
I should also note that man’s being made in the image of God is another detail that disproves evolution.
Because think about it. How does the secular scientist categorize man in relation to the animals?
Yep. He’s just another animal. Maybe a higher form of an animal, more clever.
Basically still an animal, which is why he does what he does. Man can’t help it.
Just an animal, just an animal in the end.
Bible reveals that is not true. Man is not an animal. He’s not even a highly evolved animal. Man is a unique creation of God, the crowning act of creative work, the one given dominion as an underruler of God and the one created to reflect God’s own character and rule.
So though animals have some value, man has magnitudes more value.
Animals may act without moral restraints, but man is no animal. Man is responsible for his actions, for he represents and he responds to God’s rule.
Thus unlike animals all people all men and women will give an account themselves account of themselves to God their creator. They were not created as just another animal and we will not be hel accountable like an animal.
Now there’s one other issue I want to return to with you from this passage and that’s the concept of kinds.
How is it significant that God made the animals according to each kind?
As we said last week, the kinds of Genesis 1 are a testimony to how God designed animals to reproduce only according to certain parameters. Though there will be variation within a kind, no plant and no animal will ever change kinds. That’s not how God did it. That’s not how God designed it to work.
What exactly is a kind? We’re going to watch a short video from Answers in Genesis give a little explanation. Just about two minutes, but it’s a great explanation of how we are to view kinds as expressed from the book of Genesis.
So, let’s turn that on. Now, the universe displays incredible variety. Consider snowflakes. Everyone is different. Every cloud is different.
Every planet, every galaxy is different.
This variety is just as visible among organisms. Every individual is different from every other individual. Every giraffe has a unique pattern. Every zebra has distinct stripes. Every dog has a distinct personality. And every human is different from every other.
Despite all this variety, it’s easy to see which of these belong in the same group. As different as deer are from each other, we still recognize them as deer. As different as finches are from each other, we still recognize them as finches. The same is true of plants.
There are thousands of species of orchids and thousands of species of grass, but we still call them orchids and grass. Modern scientists call each of these groups families. The Bible gives a clue about the origin of such variety. Genesis 1 says that God created distinct organisms after their kind. In fact, he uses this phrase after its kind or after their kind 10 times in the creation account. What does the biblical term kind refer to? It is possible that in most instances, these kinds are the groups of similar species that scientists recognize today as families.
If so, God made an orchid kind, a grass kind, a deer kind, a finch kind, and many others. Within these kinds, he placed potential for amazing variety.
The creation of similar things with differences demonstrates that God loves variety and God loves unity.
The best explanation for this is God’s very nature. God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit. Three persons in one. Loves both diversity and unity.
Just a quick video, but I think a nice concise explanation.
This concept of kindness, I agree with the video. It really all goes back to God and to who he is.
We have these two themes so evident in creation, unity and diversity.
They’re also or they’re seen throughout the universe. They’re seen even in the mar in marriage and human family. We see it in the church. And all this is a reflection of who God is. Everything that God is is good. And so it makes sense that the goodness of of his creation would reflect all his qualities, all his attributes.
And we see universe unity and diversity in creation because we see it in God and it is good in God.
Remember the great error of evolutionary theory.
Scientists observe this is true and this is real. Scientists observe small variations within a kind of animal say finches. They observe small variations.
They observe even how certain favorable genetic traits become dominant in finches due to success in a certain environment process that scientists call natural selection.
And then based on those small changes within a kind, scientists assert that plants, animals, and people are capable of big changes, even changing of entire kinds.
This is the difference between microeolution or variation within a kind, which is real and observable, and macroevolution, variation between kinds, which has never been observed.
The former is understandable and biblical. The latter, it makes no sense.
Actually, it does not fit with the Bible.
Just because a kind can vary does not mean that it can transform into a whole new kind.
That conclusion does not follow logically from the premises.
We’ll talk more about these concepts in our next several lessons, but let me emphasize just for now that people, scientists included, they underestimate just how much variety God programmed in the originally created kinds or families, plants, animals, and people.
I pointed out to you last time that there’s a great variation in peppers and onions and grains which I think technically might be called grasses, beans, even though these are only a few kinds of plants.
Same is true of animals. And to illustrate this, let’s do a short activity.
See on the screen there, names of different animals. I’ve got 13 of them.
Just take a minute, try to figure out how many true kinds or families of animals we actually have among the 13 listed. How many? And then what are those kinds? What are those families?
So, our list says, if you can’t read it, wolf, leopard, camel, coyote, llama, tiger, cougar, jackal, bobcat, alpaca, lion, black lab, and house cat.
Take a minute, organize in your head what are the different families or kinds displayed among these animals? And then we’ll come back and go over the answer.
Okay.
13 animals. How many kinds?
Three. You might say two, but you’ll see why it’s three in just a second. So, what are the kinds?
You have a cat kind. dog kind and a camelid kind. So the dog kind we can see wolf, coyote, jackal, black lab.
They all fit under that kind. Just variations of the dog kind. Under the cat kind, we have the leopard, the tiger, the cougar, the bobcat, the lion, and the house cat. All variations of the cat kind. But of the camelid kind, the camel, the llama, and the alpaca, they’re actually all one kind. You may have been surprised by that last one, but did you know that camels and llamas can actually interbreed?
This is because they’re part of the same family, same kind. That ability to breed what’s called hybridization and similarity in physical characteristics.
They are two ways that people, scientists today classify animals.
And that’s even a way we can classify according to biblical kinds.
Side note, it is interesting how variation within a kind can sometimes become so great that two of the same kind can no longer breed or only have limited reproduction ability. It’s not the way it was originally, but this apparently can happen.
Some of you may know that donkeys and horses, they can interbreed and so can lions and tigers. But what’s the problem?
That’s right. The offspring that they produce are sterile. So the liger or the mule or the other two variations they they can’t produce more offspring.
So this is just the way I guess genetic deterioration or just how the diversity has become too great. But these were one kind originally. They can many species can still interbreed but sometimes eventually they cannot.
But we can know there was a time when the horse kind and the cat kind were not so varied that their offspring would not be limited in this way.
Just few kinds compared to the vast number of animal diversity species that we have today. This is the main point. We have so many different species. And sometimes people will talk about even when it comes to the flood like how could Noah have possibly got all those species on the ark. Guys, he didn’t have to get one of every species. He just had to get the kinds of a male and female of each kind and all the species would come from the variation within their genes.
And many different species today. A lot of variation. I mean, just think about the difference between a house cat and a lion, right?
But even among all those species, there are only some much fewer amount kinds. This is the great a variety that can occur due to the way that God created living things.
As we saw last week, animals do not change according to the evolutionary tree of life, but according to a creationary orchard of life. And you know what I sometimes wonder about?
because there were animals that were reproducing plants reproducing before the flood.
Well, Noah only took two of each animal onto the ark. So, it’s possible that there’s certain genetic information that never was allowed to go forward because only the animals that God picked that God brought to Noah, they were the ones that made it to the ark. So, maybe there are variations of cat and dog and other types of animals we just don’t know about today because they were lost due to the flood.
But still there’s such an amazing amount of beauty and creativity and uh interesting things about all the variation we see among plants and animals and people.
It’s just a you you hear it said and I think it’s worth repeating that there’s not many races of humanity. There’s just one. But it is so interesting how people can be so different. I mean it’s the unity and diversity. You’re not changing into something that’s not human. And yet, you can just look around this room or just the people that you meet and you see such variation. That’s God’s beauty, his creativity at work. And of course, being made in the image of God, it is it is very glorious.
So, let’s summarize what we’ve seen today. We looked at what happened on days five and six. On day five, God made the sea and flying creatures. On day six, God made the land animals and man.
We examine what it means to be made in the image of God. God imprinted a measure of his attributes in man and commissioned man as an underruler and testimony to God’s perfect rule is total rule. And we also consider the significance of animal kinds. There’s great variation but still limited reproduction according to kind and not evolution.
With our last bit of time, let’s consider a few application questions.
Sometimes people think it is merciful to abort a child who will be born with health problems or with a genetic disorder such as Down syndrome.
How does what we look at today speak to this issue?
That’s right. Because people are made in the image of God, there is no reason ever to abort a child.
I okay maybe qualify that there’s some medical uh emergencies and things that I I can’t speak to right now but people are made in the image of God even with physical limitations or mental limitations to murder a child in such a state it is not mercy it is not love it is a strike against one made in God’s image one of his underrulers may be more limited than who but an underruler of God. And so when you strike down that child, you strike against God himself.
God will not hold guiltless those who do so. But there is forgiveness in the gospel. Praise the Lord. But we should value every human being despite the brokenness of sin that still exists in the world.
They are valuable because they’re made in the image of God.
Number two, we can say much more about that, of course. Number two, if someone is convinced that the Bible and evolution are compatible, what is the best way to reason with that person?
Mark, exactly.
Yeah.
Well said. Yeah, just go to the scriptures. Show them from a close reading of the text that evolution and the Bible aren’t really compatible. You got to come to grips with Genesis. Come to grips with what the scriptures actually say. And there’s much to be said even about the problems of evolutionary science. Even those who don’t believe the Bible say, “Hey, we got problems here and there, and this doesn’t have an explanation.” But really, it’s just the Bible we ultimately go back to. How might a discussion of the image of God in someone actually lead to proclamation of the gospel?
What do you think? Are they connected at all? Yeah, I’m Yeah, very good. And really explaining the image of God almost requires that you explain the gospel because it goes back to how we’re made and how we are beholden to God and how we are to image forth God. But what’s the problem?
We haven’t done that and we’ve mistreated all people who are fellow images of God. And so because that is such a crime against God, we are under wrath. But the one who is the perfect image of God, Jesus Christ, came into the world to save sinners like us. And he gives us uh his own righteousness, gives us new life so that we can not suffer wrath, but be saved and be renewed into the image of God as we were meant. So really, the image of God is just another way that you can explain the gospel.
And then lastly, how should seeing the way God created animals, created man, how should that affect us?
What do you think?
Yeah. Praise and thanks. What else?
Yeah, Tony.
Submission and obedience. What else?
Yeah. So, you’re noting, Glend, that man has a role in the gospel.
That is even another response. We are to declare the truth about how God made man and see people reconciled to God in response to these things. For your the fellow man is worthy of the the kindness not because he in himself but because the image of God in that person is worthy of the kindness of you giving him the gospel.
So awe, praise, thanks, worship, obedience, evangelism, trust, these are all appropriate responses to this amazing record we have from God about how he made the world and made us.
questions about what you’ve heard today.
Yeah, Mark.
Yeah.
just in our everyday interaction with people. How do we Yeah, that’s a good question, Mark. How do you in the day-to-day process the fact that people are made in the image of God and therefore have dignity but are also corrupted by sin and therefore act in heinous ways?
I don’t know if there’s a quick answer to that other than um you process it according to how the scripture says to that you love people, you treat them with respect and justice even while you grieve over their sin. You are in one sense in a righteous way angry over their sin. You are zealous for God and you are intent on confronting that sin and giving people the gospel. So these things seem like they might contradict and they do seem like it’s a weird thing to fit together, right? People are dignified and yet they are so abased by sin. Yet those things are true at the same time. And it leads to simultaneously love and patience, but also a zeal for God and a hatred for sin.
I think there’s much more to say about that, but it’s going to be similar things at the same time. Uh Steve, yeah.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Yeah. That’s a really good point, Steve.
So, basically, another way to answer your question, Mark, is to consider the way that God interacts with sinners.
And um he is is both love and it is a an abhorance an abhorance of the wicked but yet a love of the wicked at the same time. And you’re right sometimes that’s that’s weird to have those together.
Cheryl, you were going to say something.
essentially.
[Music] [Music] Yeah. Yeah, that’s a good point, Sharon.
And I don’t know if be able to repeat everything that you just said, but just talking about how even thinking about the image of God like a mirror and sin and the fall, kind of shattering that mirror, yet there are glimpses of God, even how God originally made man even in people who don’t yet know Christ and in your relating to them that is that is something that you can affirm and even as you were saying Cheryl people do experience that even within themselves I feel like this is actually something that we can draw out to people as part of our explanation of the gospel because they affirm things that don’t make sense unless you believe the Bible like there’s no such thing as truth there’s no such thing as right and wrong And yet when you do that thing to me, that is evil. Wait, how can you say that? Well, I’ll tell you why you’re saying that. It’s because you made in the image of God. And you feel that justice inside you that God himself feels in a much fuller way. That’s why you can’t reconcile these things. But what you feel even in its broken way is right and good. But you are you have been made like the rest of us a slave of sin and under the wrath of God and you need rescue. So it should never be and this I think not only because we have been rescued from where so many other people are right now but because they are made in the image of God it should enable us to relate to people in a true way. So I think that’s that’s that’s worth pointing out Cheryl if you have other questions or comments please talk to me afterwards or email me. But that’ll be it for today. Next week our investigation of creation goes even deeper. We consider the expanded account of man’s creation. It’s given in Genesis 2, the creation of man and woman and the creation of marriage. That’s going to be a good study. So come back next week.
Let’s close in prayer.
Lord, we thank you for your word. It’s amazing. We have been given a dignity, God, that is undeserved. And yet, God, what have we done with it? We actually used it to rebel against you. That’s the great crime. That’s the great crime of sin.
And yet, God, you made a way for us to be reconciled through Jesus Christ.
Through a man who could save mankind, a man who is also God. We thank you for Jesus Christ and we want to live as true imagebearers renewed by the gospel.
Lord, help us to reach out to those who are still lost.
L would be pleased to do that for your own glory in Jesus name.
