The Fifth Day
Notes
Transcript
Handout
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.”
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.
22 And God blessed them, saying, “Be fruitful and multiply and fill the waters in the seas, and let birds multiply on the earth.”
23 And there was evening and there was morning, the fifth day.
As we look at the World of the Text, we begin by looking at the genre of the text. As a reminder, Genesis 1 is a cosmogony presented with a combination of history, narrative, and poetry genres.
In Genesis1:20, we observe that the section is set off by the repeated phrase “And God said, ‘Let...’”
In this verse, “God said, ‘Let...’”, for two elements of creation.
Let the waters swarm with swarms of living creatures.
Let the birds fly above the earth across the expanse of the heavens.
When we compare this day to the other days of creation, what phrase is missing?
The phrase “And it was so” is missing.
When looking at Genesis 1:21, we see the phrase, “So God created...” What repeated phrase is expected here? Given the pattern in the previous verses, we would expect it to read, “And God made...” Yet the pattern is broken by the phrase “God created”, reminding us of Genesis 1:1: “In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth.”
The pattern of expansion on what God spoke into existence continues.
God created great sea creatures and everything that moves in the waters according to its kind.
God created every winged bird according to its kind.
This expansion concludes with the repeated phrase, “And God saw that it was good.”
In verse 22 we have a new phrase introduced to us, “And God blessed them, saying, ‘Be fruitful and multiply and fill…’”
In verse 23 we have the closing sentence. “And it was evening and morning, the fifth day.”
We have observed the structure of the text. It is now time to apply the investigative questions to the text.
Let’s review those questions: who, what, when, where, why, and how.
In verse 20, what did God speak into existence?
He spoke swarms of living creatures into existence.
He spoke flying birds into existence.
What about other flying creatures?
The Hebrew word עוֹף (op) has a wider range of meaning than birds. It is used 35 times in the law, and is used to reference winged insects, birds, and winged things. My conclusion is that a clearer translation would be, “Let swarms of flying creatures fly above the earth.”
Where are these swarms of living creatures?
They are in the waters.
Where are these flying creatures?
They are above the earth, across the expanse of heaven.
What is meant by the term “across,” פָּנִים (peneh) in Hebrew?
It is used 587 times in the Torah; 352 of those times it is translated as “before,” 90 of those times it is translated as “face,” “faces,” and “facing,” and 28 of those times it is translated as “front”; 19 of those times it is translated as “presence.” It is only translated as “across” twice, once here in Genesis 1:20 and in Deuteronomy 22:6. In the immediate context, in Genesis 1:2, it is translated twice as “face”: “ … darkness was over the face of the deep,” and “the Spirit of God was hovering over the face of the waters.” Given this context, my conclusion is that swarms of flying creatures are flying above the earth in the face of the expanse of the heavens.
What is the face of the expanse of the heavens?
By means of deduction, it is the atmosphere of the earth, which is the first heaven.
Look with me at verse 21. What did God create?
He created great sea creatures and every living creature that lives in the water.
He created flying creatures.
What does Moses mean by “great sea creatures”?
The Hebrew word תַּנִּינִ֖ם (tannînim) gives us some insight. The meaning, depending on the context, ranges from sea-monster, sea-dragon, dragon, or serpent, to crocodile. In the Law, it is translated once as “sea creatures” and four times as “serpent.” Given Moses' usage, at the minimum we can conclude that it means “great serpents.” Also, given the immediate context of the word, great setting it off from the rest of the creatures, we can deduce that it is referencing more than just great serpents, which will be confirmed by the World Behind the Text and the World in Front of the Text.
How do the sea creatures and flying creatures reproduce?
They reproduce each according to its kind.
At the end of verse 21, what did God see?
He saw that what he created was good.
Now we will make observations concerning verse 22. What did God do?
He blessed them.
He commanded them.
How did he bless them?
He blessed them with a command to be fruitful and multiply and to fill the waters and the earth, and, of course, with his command came the ability to carry out his blessing to be abundant and fill his creation.
The section comes to a close in verse 23 with the phrase, “And there was evening, and there was morning, the fifth day,” reminding us that God, the orderly Creator, created the cosmos in an orderly fashion.
Having made our observations about the World of the Text, we turn our attention to the World Behind the Text, asking the question: “What does the author assume that I know?”
Moses assumes we know the ancient cosmogonies that are competing for the hearts and minds of his people, the Israelites.
Sumerian cosmogonies have cosmological accounts of the creation of sea creatures and flying creatures.
In Enki and the World Order, “The lord Enki organized the marshes, made grow there reeds young and old, brought fish and birds into the marshes, swamps and lakes, filled the steppe with breathing creatures as [mankind’s] food and drink, charged them with supplying the abundance of the gods.… He filled the canebrake and marsh with fish and birds, assigned them to their stations. (John H Walton, Zondervan Illustrated Bible Backgrounds Commentary (Old Testament): Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, Deuteronomy, vol. 1 (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 2009), 20.)
Moses is then reminding them that God created all this, not Enki. He is also drawing a distinction between their functions. Here the birds and fish are charged with supplying the abundance of the gods. Moses contrasts this with God’s blessing and command to be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth, with no command of them being food for man.
In Enuma Elish and Babylonian art, Tiamat is depicted as a great sea serpent, a tannin, and in Ugaritic literature it is used as a synonym for the chaos monsters Yam and Lotan. Lotan is the equivalent of Leviathan in Job 41.
Moses is addressing the Israelites' belief in these chaos creatures by stripping them of their supernatural power and putting them under God’s authority as great creatures he made on the fifth day.
Moving to the World in Front of the Text, we also see that these great creatures would be classified in today's language as dinosaurs. Dinosaur is a relatively new word coined by Sir Richard Owen in 1841; he combined the two Greek words “deinos” and “sauros”. “Deinos” means terrible, and “sauros” means lizard. Before this, large fossils were often referred to as dragons, giants, or mythological creatures.
This is strong scriptural evidence that God created what we know as dinosaurs on day five of creation, not millions of years before humanity, as the modern cosmogonies suggest.
So how does this connect us to God and thus change our lives?
We all live in God’s creation. We are a part of it, and it is all around us, created for us, created so that we can enjoy His handiwork with Him.
As a child, I was fascinated with dinosaurs. I knew many of their names and had them as toys. Thankfully, my parents were proactive in showing me in Scripture that God created them.
My little heart was so full of wonder at what God had made. My favorite dinosaur of all is the Brachiosaurus because it most closely resembles the Behemoth described in Job 40.
I still remember the “Welcome to Jurassic Park” movie scene. I want to play it for you now.
It came out in June of 1993. I was twelve years old, and that scene blew my mind at how great our God is.
I pray that you, too, would be enamored with his glory all around us in his creation, and that you would respond in praise and trust of Yahweh, our Creator and Sustainer.
Please listen and meditate on Psalm 104:24-35
O Lord, how manifold are your works!
In wisdom have you made them all;
the earth is full of your creatures.
Here is the sea, great and wide,
which teems with creatures innumerable,
living things both small and great.
There go the ships,
and Leviathan, which you formed to play in it.
These all look to you,
to give them their food in due season.
When you give it to them, they gather it up;
when you open your hand, they are filled with good things.
When you hide your face, they are dismayed;
when you take away their breath, they die
and return to their dust.
When you send forth your Spirit, they are created,
and you renew the face of the ground.
May the glory of the Lord endure forever;
may the Lord rejoice in his works,
who looks on the earth and it trembles,
who touches the mountains and they smoke!
I will sing to the Lord as long as I live;
I will sing praise to my God while I have being.
May my meditation be pleasing to him,
for I rejoice in the Lord.
Let sinners be consumed from the earth,
and let the wicked be no more!
Bless the Lord, O my soul!
Praise the Lord!
