Columbiana County Jail 12/26/2025
Columbiana County Jail • Sermon • Submitted • Presented
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Genesis 1:20-25
Genesis 1:20-25
20 And God said, Let the waters bring forth abundantly the moving creature that hath life, and fowl that may fly above the earth in the open firmament of heaven.
What we will discover is that verses 20-23 describe thew fifth day of creation. God creates all the creatures of the sea , as well as the birds in these verses. According to the pattern of Genesis that we have been studying so far, we see that God used the first three days to prepare the environment and the second three days to populate that environment. To review, on day one, God created light, and on day four, God created the sun, moon, and the stars. On day two, God created the sea and sky, and here we see on day five, God is creating life for the sea and the sky.
We will discover in the later verses, this pattern will continue. On day three, God created dry land, and on day six, we will see the origins of land animals.
God’s spoken command is to let the waters , the seas, teem or swarm with living creatures. The picture is of filling up the ocean intended to carry the abundance of God’s creation. In a similar way, we see God command the sky to be full of birds that would fly across its previously empty expanse.
What does this teach us? We see that this is all part of a process where God’s design comes into focus. God did not merely create the oceans for their own sake. The purpose of the oceans was to support active life. The purpose of the empty sky was to host the countless variety of birds God was going to create.
21 And God created great whales, and every living creature that moveth, which the waters brought forth abundantly, after their kind, and every winged fowl after his kind: and God saw that it was good.
In the previous verse, God spoke the command for the seas to fill up with living creatures, and for the skies to be filled with flying birds. Now in this verse, God will execute this command. This is the blueprint for all six days of creation in Genesis. God speaks and His words become reality.
This verse specifically mentions great whales. As with the sun and the moon, these creatures of the sea were frequently worshipped as gods by ancient cultures. The Bible’s claim is that are merely created things, along with all the other fish and the birds. They were made by the one, true God in a day. He alone is worthy of worship, not created things.
This verse also specifies that all of these brand new creatures were made “after their kind”. From the very beginning , God divided life into categories, kinds of plants, kinds of fish, and kinds of birds. Built into each creature was the ability, the necessity, to reproduce their own kind.
Again God recognizes what He made is good, giving His approval to the world He is building.
22 And God blessed them, saying, Be fruitful, and multiply, and fill the waters in the seas, and let fowl multiply in the earth.
Here we see another first in the Bible. God gives a direct blessing. Specifically, God blesses all the creatures of the seas and the birds. His blessing is about reproduction and fertility. This blessing comes in a form of a command to these creatures. Be fruitful and multiply.
What does this mean? God commands the birds and the fish to multiply and blesses them with the ability to do so. What does this statement mean? Genesis is declaring that God is not only the Creator of life, He is also the one who enables life to reproduce itself. He alone is the giver of fertility, of new generations.
That is important for us to hear for several reasons. First, to worship any other gods in hopes of being blessed is a waste of time. Only God can grant a blessing.
Second, whatever your position on how and when God created , Genesis insists that God is the one who blesses all creatures with the ability to reproduce another generation of their kind. Reproduction does not happen without God. For all of its beauty, the creation account of Genesis provides very few actual details. What is meant to be understood, however, is profound. God and God alone is responsible for the design and existence of life.
Third and finally, we see that reproduction is a blessing. God grants new life as a gift and to fulfill His own purposes.
23 And the evening and the morning were the fifth day.
Again, this verse completes the normal blueprint for the creation days in Genesis. In each case, God speaks a command, which becomes real, God sees what He has created, and then calls it good. This verse features the typical reference to “the evening and the morning”, reflecting the Jewish concept days beginning at sunset.
So on the fifth day, God has created all sea creatures and all birds and blessed them with the ability to reproduce and populate the water and the air. This also follows the pattern seen in Genesis chapter 1, where the six days of creation are paired between the first three and the last three.
Again here is the pattern we have seen, God created light on day one, and the sun, moon, and the stars on day four. God created the sky and the seas on day two, and formed air and sea life on day five. Now this sets the stage for day six. On day three, God created dry land, so now on day six, God will now form land animals and human beings.
24 And God said, Let the earth bring forth the living creature after his kind, cattle, and creeping thing, and beast of the earth after his kind: and it was so.
Here on the sixth day of creation, God moves from the seas and the air to the land. God speaks the command for land animals to come into existence. Being more specific, God calls the land to produce living creatures according to their various kinds. This is a curious reference, and part of the long running debate over what specific mechanism God might have used to create these animals, if any.
Cattle would include livestock and other domesticated animals. Creeping things is a reference to rodents, reptiles, insects, and so forth. And beast of the earth are wild animals.
Again, this conforms to the strict sequence shown in Genesis chapter 1. The first three days of creation show parallels to the second three days. On day one, God made light, and on day four, God created the sun, moon, and the stars. On day two, God separated the waters, creating the vast empty oceans and sky, and on day five, God filled those waters with fish and the skies with birds. On day three, God created the land and filled it with vegetation, now on day six, God fills the land with animals ready to eat from those plants.
25 And God made the beast of the earth after his kind, and cattle after their kind, and every thing that creepeth upon the earth after his kind: and God saw that it was good.
In Genesis chapter one, God uses three days of creation to prepare the earth. On these first three days, God created light, the sea and skies, and then dry land and plants. On the second three days, God fills those environments with the sun and moon, air and sea life, and land animals.
In the last verse, God commanded the creation of all the different kinds of animals and creeping things that would fill the land of the earth. Now in this verse, God executes that command, creating what He decreed must be created. Interestingly, God phrases the command “let the earth bring forth” these living creatures. In literal terms, this would imply the land animals being produced by the earth itself. This makes this phrase part of an ancient debate over how God chose to accomplish His creation.
Once again, God recognizes what He created was good. God did not create anything that He decided was not up to His own standards. All that God made He called good. In fact, God’s original creation of the universe, before being corrupted by sin, was completely good in every way. Nothing bad or corrupt had yet entered the world.
