Knowing The Word in Genesis 1:28-31, The Sixth Day of Creation Continued

28 And God blessed them. And God said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply [like the animals] and fill the earth and subdue it, and have dominion over [unlike the animals but in accordance as God’s image-bearers] the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over every living thing that moves on the earth.” [Here we have a clear statement of the divine purpose of marriage: positively, it is for the procreation of children; negatively, it is a rejection of the Ancient Near East fertility cults. God desires his people to be fruitful. Participation in cults is a mark of unbelief (Gen 16). God is not only creator, he also law-giver over and to his creation.] 29 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. 30 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. 31 And God saw everything that he had made, and behold, it was very good. [There is an emphasis here in the word “very” that does not appear elsewhere.] And there was evening and there was morning, the sixth day. [By the end of day 6 God has shown his purpose in creating man to be that he should rule over the animal world and over nature on God’s behalf, treating the creation as God has treated and loved his creation, calling it “very good.” Below you can see that there is a theme of paired days of creation, leaving day 7, which we will take up tomorrow, unto itself.]

Table of the Paired Days of Creation (1 & 4, 2 & 5, 3 & 6)

Day 1 Light Day 4 Luminaries

Day 2 Sky/Seas Day 5 Birds/Fish

Day 3 Land (plants) Day 6 Animals & Man (plants for food)

Day 7 Sabbath (a day unto itself)