Genesis 1.20-23-The Fifth Day of Restoration
Tuesday August 9, 2005
Genesis: Genesis 1:20-23-The Fifth Day of Restoration
Lesson # 6
Please turn in your Bibles to Genesis 1:20.
This evening we will study the fifth day of restoration, which is recorded in Genesis 1:20-23.
Genesis 1:20, “Then God said, ‘Let the waters teem with swarms of living creatures, and let birds fly above the earth in the open expanse of the heavens.’”
“Teem” means, “to abound or swarm; be prolific or fertile.”
“The waters” refers to the mass of water that formed the seas that surrounded the super continent.
“Living” is the noun nephesh (pronounced: neh-phesh), which denotes soul life.
“Creatures” is the noun chayyah, which is a designation for all kinds of marine life: vertebrate, invertebrate and reptiles.
The fact that animals have soul life does “not” mean they are on a par with mankind.
The soul life of animals is completely different from the soul life of human beings since mankind was created in the image of God according to Genesis 1:27 however, marine life and animal life and the birds were not.
Genesis 1:27, “God created man in His own image, in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them.”
According to Leviticus 17:11 and 14, the soul life of animals resides in their blood.
Leviticus 17:11, “For the life of a creature is in the blood.”
Leviticus 17:14, “the life of every creature is its blood.”
The verb bara in Genesis 1:21 indicates that the souls of marine and animal life and the birds were, “created out of non-existing material,” whereas and the verb yatsar in Genesis 2:19 indicates that their “physical bodies” were yatsar, “constructed out of existing material,” namely, the earth.
Corrected translation of Genesis 1:21:
Genesis 1:21, “Next, God created out of nothing the great reptiles. Also, He created out of nothing each and every living creature: those, which crawl, those, which the waters teem with, each of them according to their own species. Also, He created out of nothing each and every winged bird according to their own species and then God observed that it was perfect.”
Corrected translation of Genesis 2:19:
Genesis 2:19, “Consequently, the Lord God constructed from the ground each and every creature of the field as well as each and every bird of the air. Then, He brought them to the man in order to see what name he would designate to them. Consequently, whatever name the man designated to these living creatures that was its name.”
Genesis 1:21, “God created (bara) 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.” NASU
“Monsters” is the noun tannin (/yN@T^), which is pronounced tan-neem and refers to a “large reptile” or simply some “large animal.”
The context in which the word is used will determine what kind of large reptile or large animal is in view.
“Great” is the adjective gadhol (lw{dG*), which is pronounced gaw-dole and is used of extended dimension to describe the “size” of the tannin.
Now, in Genesis 1:21, many of the English translations translate the noun tannin “sea monsters, creatures of the sea” but tannin does “not” specifically refer to a creature that lives in the water.
In the Hebrew Old Testament, the word is used in some contexts referring to “snakes, serpents” (Ex. 7:9-12; Deut. 32:33).
Sometimes in the Hebrew Old Testament, tannin can refer to the “crocodile” that infested the waters of the Nile River in Egypt (Ezek. 29:3).
Many times the word refers to a “jackal,” which was a scavenger that roamed about the ruins of abandoned cities and was always used to symbolize God’s judgment (Job 30:29; Psalm 44:19; Isa. 35:7; 43:20; Jer. 9:11).
Also, the noun tannin is used for the “whale” (Job 7:12; Ps. 148:7; Ezek. 32:2).
The adjective gadhol describes the massive size of these already large reptiles or animals.
Therefore, together the noun tannin, “monsters” plus the adjective gadhol, “great” denotes a large or massive reptile or animal, thus, it refers to none other than the dinosaurs, which were massive reptiles.
The definite article ha preceding the noun tannin is “generic” meaning that it marks out a particular class or category of massive reptiles that were unique and determined in themselves.
British anatomist Sir Richard Owen coined the word “dinosaur” in 1842.
The term was derived from the Greek words deinos, meaning “marvelous” or “terrible,” and sauros, meaning “lizard.”
The dinosaur is one of a group of extinct reptiles that lived during the Antediluvian period meaning prior to the time of the flood of Noah and were destroyed by this flood.
The fossil remains of these creatures are with us today in various graveyards around the globe.
The entombment of such numbers of such great creatures literally demands some form of catastrophic action.
The great catastrophe that took place on the earth that was responsible for the extinction of the dinosaur was the flood of Noah.
This unique phrase in the Hebrew `eth-hattanninim haggedholim, “the great reptiles” does not appear in Genesis 6:16-20 for the list of living creatures that went into the ark.
Therefore, we can conclude that the dinosaurs were destroyed in the flood.
Genesis 6:17, “Behold, I, even I am bringing the flood of water upon the earth, to destroy all flesh in which is the breath of life, from under heaven; everything that is on the earth shall perish.”
Genesis 6:18, “But I will establish My covenant with you; and you shall enter the ark -- you and your sons and your wife, and your sons' wives with you.”
Genesis 6:19, “And of every living thing of all flesh, you shall bring two of every kind into the ark, to keep them alive with you; they shall be male and female.”
Genesis 6:20, “Of the birds after their kind, and of the animals after their kind, of every creeping thing of the ground after its kind, two of every kind will come to you to keep them alive.”
There are those who contend that the dinosaurs lived thousands and perhaps millions of years prior to the creation mankind and therefore lived during the days of Satan before his fall.
The fact that they were created out nothing on the fifth day clearly indicates that they did “not” exist in the days of Satan before his fall since the verb bara in Genesis 1:21 denotes that the dinosaurs did “not” have an existence prior to the fifth day.
There are those who contend that the dinosaurs lived thousands and perhaps millions of years prior to the creation mankind and use carbon dating to support their claim.
But carbon dating is “not” a full proof method to determine the age of skeletal remains.
We must reject the conclusions of science when they don’t agree with the Bible.
We must never reconcile the Bible with science but rather reconcile science with the Bible.
Corrected translation of Genesis 1:21:
Genesis 1:21, “Next, God created out of nothing the great reptiles. Also, He created out of nothing each and every living creature: those, which crawl, those, which the waters teem with, each of them according to their own species. Also, He created out of nothing each and every winged bird according to their own species and then God observed that it was perfect.”
Genesis 1:21 classifies these living creatures into three categories: (1) Those which crawl upon the earth according to these species (2) Those which swarm in the water according to their species (3) The birds according to their species.
Genesis 1:21, “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.” NASU
“That moves” is the articular participle form of the verb ramas (sm^r*), which is pronounced: raw-mas, and is used of living creatures in general that crawl about the earth and is not restricted to movement in the water.
A survey of this verb’s usage in the Hebrew Bible reveals that except for one instance in Psalm 69:34, the verb ramas is always used of living things that creep “on the earth.”
“After their kind” indicates that each organism was to reproduce after its own order or species or family, not after some other order, family or species.
Genesis 1:22, “God blessed them, saying, ‘Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the waters in the seas, and let birds multiply on the earth.’”
“Blessed” is the verb barakh (pronounced: bah-rach), “to bless,” which means, “to endue with power or capacity to produce offspring in great numbers,” thus indicating that these living creatures were endued with power by the word of the Lord to execute His command to be fruitful and multiply on the face of the earth.
“Be fruitful” is the verb parah, which is pronounced paw-raw and means, “to be fruitful” in the sense of to reproduce.
“Multiply” is the verb ravah is intransitive and means, “to multiply, to increase” in number or quantity.
Genesis 1:23, “There was evening and there was morning, a fifth day.” NASU
Now, as we have been noting throughout our study of Genesis 1, each day of restoration typifies some part of the work of redemption of man meaning each of the historical events that transpired during the six days recorded in Genesis 1 parallel the historical events in the life of our Lord Jesus Christ in providing our so great salvation.
The first day where we have the restoration of light to the creation typifies the incarnation of the Lord Jesus Christ who is the light of the world.
The second day where the Lord inserts the atmosphere between the floodwaters typifies the Cross of Christ, which divides the human race into believers and unbelievers.
The third day where the Lord causes vegetation and plant life to appear on the earth typifies the resurrection of Christ from the dead.
The fourth day where the Lord restores the earth’s sun and moon and the stars of the stellar universe typifies the ascension and session of Christ.
On the fifth day the Lord creates out of nothing animal life, which typifies the Lord Jesus Christ who upon His session at the right hand of the Father bestows eternal life and is responsible for the church being a new creation.
Therefore, the fifth day typifies the Lord Jesus our life and the new creation, which is the church and His body.
Colossians 3:3, “For you have died and your life is hidden with Christ in God.”
Colossians 3:4, “When Christ, who is our life, is revealed, then you also will be revealed with Him in glory.”
Five is the number of grace in Scripture represents divine omnipotence made manifest in human impotence.
On the fifth day, we have divine omnipotence manifested in the impotence of the earth, which had no life in it, and so it is in our lives where God’s life and power is manifested in us though we were once spiritually dead.
2 Corinthians 12:9: “And He has said to me for my benefit and it still has application at the present time, my grace is as an eternal truth sufficient for you, for my power as an eternal truth finds its consummation in human impotence. Most gladly, therefore, I will rather boast about my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may dwell in me.”
It is well known to Bible students that in Scripture "waters" symbolize peoples, nations (cf. Revelation 17:15) and in its typical application then, Genesis 1:20-23 signifies life being manifested in unregenerate humanity.
This typifies the Christian experience where the believer by experiencing identification with Christ in His death and resurrection manifests the life of God in the midst of the spiritually dead.
Philippians 3:10, “that I come to know Him experientially and the power from His resurrection and the participation in His sufferings by my becoming like Him with respect to His death.”
Philippians 3:11, “If somehow (by becoming like Him with respect to His death), I may attain to the exit-resurrection, namely, the one out from the (spiritually) dead ones.”