Filling with Fowl and Fish

Introduction:

Tell the story of the three little pigs. (The story illustrates a “climax” in a story).

I told this story for all of us to hear the way an climax works in a story. It is something that we hear and witness but may not recognize. It is what makes stories good to listen to and to tell.

In the days of creation we have arrived at a climax. The first four days are the Exposition, the Hook, and the Rising action. Those days build up to where the story reaches a shift or a turning point, that moment where the character addresses the conflict or the highest point of tension.

Here at this point of creation it is the point of tension where the character (God) makes the corner from creating the habitable locations to creating the things that will call them as a home! He shifts to creating living things.

Transition:

We can begin by thinking through God’s filling each:

I. Location.

Genesis 1:20 “And God said, “Let the waters swarm with swarms of living creatures, and let birds fly above the earth across the expanse of the heavens.””

We are provided with 2 realms that were created for a purpose with intent. We should be emboldened to believe that God’s wisdom is beyond anything that we could imagine and it can be trusted.

He has purpose and function to all He does and wills!

God created 2 vast areas of the globe that were empty and void of life; but ready.

Transition:

The lower locations are the:

A. Waters.

Right now approximately 71% of this world is water.

- That's almost 3/4 of our planet.

*I'm saying right now because we are living in the post flood world and aren’t able to apply the scientific method for what the world was like before the deluge. According to the bible there was a lot of water released from below and from above onto the surface of the world. It entirely reshaped the globe from the way God created it.

In the creation account up until this Day, Day 5 the water had only been revealed as the seas that were collected together and divided from the land; It didn't possess any life, it was just liquid.

Here is a question to ponder: Were the seas salty before the flood?

Reason I ask: We have no idea of knowing. None!

Why are the oceans salty?

It supposedly comes from 2 sources: Erosion from the land and openings in the sea floor.

“Rocks that end up in the ocean water are the primary source. Rainwater, which is slightly acidic, erodes rocks over time. The eroding rocks release ions that eventually end up in the ocean after they pass through streams and rivers, according to the National Ocean and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA).”

I wonder if the pre-flood world had any openings in the sea floor? “Curious thing huh?”

We are told something very interesting about the surface and where a great amount of water came from:

Genesis 7:11 “In the six hundredth year of Noah’s life, in the second month, on the seventeenth day of the month, on that day all the fountains of the great deep burst forth, and the windows of the heavens were opened.”

There seems to be a moment in time where the water may have been much less salty.

It may have been before the flood.

Here we have a realm that is teaming with nothing except potential.

Prepped and ready for a moment when it is swarming with life.

Illustration:

When I was younger my step-dad had an aquarium and we had moved houses. He had the job to move his fish from one aquarium to another.

He put the fish in individual bags, we drove to the new house, he filled the tank at the new house.

I was fully expecting him to take the fish and pour them into the tank; but he didn’t. He took each bag and set them into the water and left them there for a while.

Then he poured them out, filling the new tank with his fish.

It was something that if you don’t do, the fish could go into shock and die. He acclimated them to the new tank water temperature.

God acclimated the waters, preparing them for His next creation.

Transition:

The water realm was ready and awaiting the arrival of the next amazing day of creation.

Yet the waters were not the only realm being prepared; another vast area is the:

B. Heavens.

The heavens are what we know as the sky, or firmament.

The area can be know by the storms that form in it and where clouds exist.

Let’s get back to the pondering thoughts about the sea being salty.

Again we have the 2 reasons the oceans are salty.

“Rocks that end up in the ocean water are the primary source. Rainwater, which is slightly acidic, erodes rocks over time. The eroding rocks release ions that eventually end up in the ocean after they pass through streams and rivers, according to the National Ocean and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA).”

Do you ever wonder if it rained before the flood?

The atmosphere that God had created was exact and perfect! He stated that it was good, no imperfections and complete in its purpose and concise in it’s function.

I don’t think that there was rain before the flood since God created it perfect and rain wasn’t necessary.

Genesis 2:5-6 “When no bush of the field was yet in the land and no small plant of the field had yet sprung up—for the Lord God had not caused it to rain on the land, and there was no man to work the ground, and a mist was going up from the land and was watering the whole face of the ground—”

The firmament is huge. It is approximately 5-9 miles from land to enter space Then all around the globe.

That is a very big area.

There would be no hindrances to what could be done in that realm.

Illustration:

When your sitting at an airport waiting to board your flight you can look out the terminal windows and see exactly what we see when were on busy roads:

A traffic jam. A lot of planes waiting to take off using the same runway.

On the one end of the runway you see one plane take off and on the opposite side you see one land.

Have you ever wondered about how that many planes taking off and landing in such a small area could do that?

It is crazy! That would be a hat’s off moment to all the air traffic controllers.

They manage flight elevations, flight paths, time frames, etc...

They could direct 10 different planes across a single point without any ever touching or coming close to hitting one another.

Point:

There is so much area to the firmament and it had been prepared for the potential that God would fill it with. It’s huge.

Transition:

These 2 huge realms on earth’s potential would be met with God’s creation of all the:

II. Animals.

At a single moment in time God created all of the fish and fowl!

Genesis 1:21 “So God created the great sea creatures and every living creature that moves, with which the waters swarm, according to their kinds, and every winged bird according to its kind. And God saw that it was good.”

Transition:

The statement is made: God created the great sea creatures and every living creature that moves.

Just in case we weren’t sure which ones He made He plainly says which ones. The:

A. Sea Animals.

The seas are an realm that still to this day remains mostly mysterious.

When considering the creatures in the ocean it is very concerning.

Didn’t you watch jaws? Then I heard that there was one bigger then jaws: the one they call Megaladon.

Our fallen world sees the impact of sin in God’s creations but there wasn’t any death before sin entered into the story so they wouldn’t have been near as scary; just amazing!

What did they have for food if there wasn’t any animal death?

Genesis 1:29-30 “And God said, “Behold, I have given you every plant yielding seed that is on the face of all the earth, and every tree with seed in its fruit. You shall have them for food. And to every beast of the earth and to every bird of the heavens and to everything that creeps on the earth, everything that has the breath of life, I have given every green plant for food.” And it was so.”

The food provided through God’s will are plants yielding seeds, trees with seeds in their fruit.

It wasn’t just our provision; but for all the animals as well.

? What about the sea animals?

They didn’t have apple trees or pears, or plants with seeds right?

They had and still do have plants or vegetation for food.

The passage states all animals who had life were to eat of these things.

Fish have life; their lungs fill with oxygen just as all the land animals do.

That is the requirement for something to be “alive”: breath in their lungs.

Transition:

All animals were provided for through the creating wisdom and authority of God.

This includes the:

B. Winged Animals.

Genesis 1:20-21 “And God said, “Let the waters swarm with swarms of living creatures, and let birds fly above the earth across the expanse of the heavens.” So God created the great sea creatures and every living creature that moves, with which the waters swarm, according to their kinds, and every winged bird according to its kind. And God saw that it was good.”

The animals that are to occupy the area prepared for them!

All Fowl and birds (A.K.A. Flying things)

The birds were to use a realm that was specific to their abilities.

They could fly, glide, or use what we now know as lift to have freedom that comes with flight.

Illustration:

Birds are beautiful, powerful and amazing.

One hot summer day while building a house in the middle of a corn field, I could not wait for lunch time. I grabbed my lunch box sat down on the edge of window sill by the back porch. The peanut butter and jelly sandwich was tasting so good. As I ate my lunch I looked up to the clouds and saw an alien spaceship. It was a little black spot zipping across the sky, twirling around in circles, diving down then floating back up. It was a bird flying across the sky using wind currents and updrafts. It was crazy how high this thing would go, you could barely see it.

Transition:

God’s winged creatures express the freedom that comes through obedience! The birds do what God created them to do.

They were to fly above the earth and across the expanse of the heavens and when they do that it is mesmerizing.

I was astonished that a bird could go that high and that it didn’t even have to flap it’s wings to continue to stay in the air. They glorify the Lord by doing what they were created to do and praise Him through obedience.

Transition:

And

C. It was good.

Genesis 1:21 “So God created the great sea creatures and every living creature that moves, with which the waters swarm, according to their kinds, and every winged bird according to its kind. And God saw that it was good.”

God observed His creation and made a pronouncement:

It is good!

This is a very important statement.

We can find riddled throughout the bible statements pertaining to those no no moments when people try and contradict God.

Isaiah 5:20 “Woe to those who call evil good and good evil, who put darkness for light and light for darkness, who put bitter for sweet and sweet for bitter!”

Acts 10:15 “And the voice came to him again a second time, “What God has made clean, do not call common.””

Matthew 19:6 “So they are no longer two but one flesh. What therefore God has joined together, let not man separate.””

God stated that the animals on the land, in the sky and which occupied the sea were good.

There is no way that we could ever imply or confidently state that there was wrong or evil about it.

Yet we can read and hear many stories, legends, and thoughts that try and teach us differently.

Point:

God’s created fish and fowl were good, not the same as what we observe today in our sin cursed world.

Transition:

The potential was met in both realms: the sea and all above the sea with the land.

remember these 2 distinct areas have rules set out in day 2 (that the land and sea would have a distinct barrier or separation between them?)

It parallels perfectly the forming of day 2 and here we read of it’s filling.

Since it was good and everything God wills has a plan and purpose we can hear of:

III. Their Duties.

Genesis 1:22-23 “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, the fifth day.”

God provides a unique charge here in verse :22 it is:

A. The Blessing.

God blessed these creatures.

? What was the blessing?

It seems that we could say the animals are “special” to God.

He didn’t give a blessing to the cosmos, the land, the oceans, etc...

Living things are of more importance then the vegetation or natural order of the cosmos.

Everything up to this point are things created with a set structure that cannot be altered and once they are created they have to stay within their framework. No deviation.

It is the “ball rolling downhill” scenario.

Once it has started it cannot stop and that slope goes on forever!

Yet animals do not fit within that same structure or function.

Animals think, are alive and don’t really have a set framework.

Illustration:

Let’s take a dog for example. I understand they weren’t created yet.

If a dog were to only be created for existing it wouldn’t be worth having.

They just require a lot of work with no reward.

Instead a dog is a living creature with the breath of life in it, there is no specific framework for it to stay within.

It can deviate from the “programming”.

Tell the story of a the german shepherd who beat the buried electric fence. He deviated from the plan.

That is what makes dogs great companions: they can show loyalty to their owner and that they are different than a tree. The sticker: God please let me live up to the person that my dog thinks I am. No on is more excited to see you when you get home than your dog.

Transition:

What is the blessing that God pronounces?

That they are to:

B. Be fruitful and multiply.

This doesn’t take much explanation:

Animals express and show their care for their babies in many different ways: but the goal is that there will be babies…more!

The blessing of the process for companionship amongst their kind!

They don’t have to be alone!

Even animals get lonely and need others of their kind.

Point:

This is really a foreshadowing for what God does on day 6; but serves as an illustration that God blesses the living animals with companionship and the ability to interact with others and to multiply.

Transition:

God concludes His day with His typical pronouncement:

C. A 24hr Declaration.

Genesis 1:23 “And there was evening and there was morning, the fifth day.”

The formula is again expressed:

The evening and morning and a specific day number:

Another 24hr time period has finished.

God makes sure that there couldn’t be any confusion as to how long it took Him to create the fish and fowl.

The things that occupy the 2 different portions of the globe.

The sea and the expanse.

Conclusion:

God is beginning the climax of His creation account.

He is revealing the change from Forming all the cosmos, assigning rules and the framework to follow. The signs given for interpreting seasons; then flling it all to reveal His Glory to take part in the fellowship of His creation.

Challenge:

Do you have fellowship with God the creator?

You can’t have that fellowship if you are His enemy. Sin is not able to enter His presence.

He states:

Romans 5:10 “For if while we were enemies we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son, much more, now that we are reconciled, shall we be saved by his life.”

An enemy could only enter His presence on one condition:

1 John 1:9 “If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.”

Confess your sins against Him and Him alone.

Ephesians 2:8-9 “For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast.”

Believe and Accept the gift He provided for you!

If you have a relationship with God, you can enter His presence then:

Love Him and desire more and more of Him each day.

Get to know your Lord and Father; then Praise Him always!

The filling of the seas and the air professes His wisdom, His grace and He deserves our praise!

The climax has begun, we are being told of the shift from forming to filling what was formed!

Pray!