The Bible: One Bite at a Time Expository Sermon Series Notes Genesis to The Revelation Sid Galloway © 1999

Day Five: Genesis 1:20-23 Creation of Souls Tape # 9 - Dec 19, 1999   Updated Feb 12, 2000

Review: (Gen 1:1-19) Days 1-4 See the notes on the Web

Genesis 1:20-23
20 Then God said, “Let the waters abound with an abundance of moving creatures that have life (sherets = moving) (nephesh = souls) (chay = life) , and let birds (owph = birds, insects, bats) fly (uwph = fly) above the earth across the face of the firmament of the heavens.”
21 So God created (bara) great (gadowl = large, long) sea creatures (tanniyn = dragon/dinosaur, whales, sharks, crocodiles) and every living thing (chay nephesh - soul of life) that moves (ramas = glides), with which the waters abounded, according to their kind, and every winged bird (owph) according to its kind. And God saw that it was good.
22 And God blessed (barak) them, saying, “Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the waters in the seas, and let birds multiply on the earth.”
23 So the evening and the morning were the fifth day.

Gen 1:20-23 Exposition and Commentary

"let the waters abound with an abundance"
"let flyers fly above the earth"
- abound = swarm to fill the previous void with beings who could share in God's life and love.
- God is a Triune family in intimate relationship with one another. Relationships are the most important things in life (see my little boy, Michael's, heart surgery comments).
- the Hebrew is not "waters bring forth" as in v. 3 and plants. The earth can only bring forth the chemicals composing the organic machinery of plants. On day five, a new, special thing is created.
Plants are soul food, without souls, without pain, without consciousness.
- v.21 "bara" created out of nothing (ex nihilo). In Gen 1:25 more souls are "made" (asah).

"living souls that move"
- nephesh chay sherets = souls of life that move. Same terms for animals and humans.
  [1:21, 24, 30; 2:7; 2:19; 9:4, 5, 10, 12, 15] [ruach chay 7:15, 21]
- Conscious souls choosing to relate with God, His world, and one another.
  [Isa 11 & 65, the whole earth will again be filled with intimate knowledge of the LORD.]
  [Mat 6:26; 10:29, God cares for His little animals souls infinitely more than we do]

Prov 12:10 "A righteous man regardeth the life of his beast:
but the tender mercies of the wicked are cruel."

- God fills the hydrosphere and the atmosphere on day five, but not the dry land yet.
- The first "life" was not plants, or a one-celled blob of protoplasm, but incomprehensibly complex souls of life. [Invertebrates, vertebrates, fish with electro-sensors, mammals such as whales and dolphins with echo-location, sharks, pleseosaurs, octopi, insects, birds, flying mammals such as bats with echo-location, pteradons, etc..]
- Note the order in which creatures entered existence is NOT the order of evolution. Evolutionary theory and creationism are impossible to reconcile. Theistic evolution is an oxymoron.
- The modern taxonomy of animals is merely an arbitrary classification invented by men to help in the study of God's creation (Kingdom, Phylum, Class, Order, Family, Genus, Species).

"After their kind"
- DNA gene pool was fixed and limited, yet had an awesome potential for variation within kind.
- DNA = © Designed Not Accidental  www.soulcare.org/Genesis-Day-Three.html
- No cross breeding (mixing) between kinds.
- Similar structures observed in different kinds of animals are merely proof they each had the same designer, not that they "evolved" one into another. (See the web article, "Evolution: A Racist Religion Where Violence is the Central Virtue", for sources of evidence for Creationism).

"Blessed"
- Not a mere wish of God, but a personal command and a promise of provision.
- God always provides the power and potential for the fulfillment of His commands.

"Good"
- The earth was now formed and becoming filled so it could fulfill His purpose:
     * To please and glorify God through souls sharing His life and love in intimate relationship.
     * No selfish competition, violence, pain, suffering, fear, or death existed before sin.

Personal Application for God's glory:
Does your life reflect the unselfish, cooperating, humble character of your Creator?
In your specific ranks, roles, and relationships can others see God in you?
Does you spouse see and feel the life and love of God through you?
Do your children experience the heart of Father God in all that you are?
Kids, are you the kind of child for them that Jesus (God's Son) is to God His Father?
Families do your neighbors see God's family when they watch and listen to yours?

Click here for more evidence of "Animal Consciousness"
(They think, feel, and choose)!