And God said, Let the waters under the heaven be gathered together unto one place, and let the dry [land] appear: and it was so.
9 13. The Third Day Two Creative Acts. (1) The Separation of Sea and Earth ( Gen 1:9-10). (2) The Creation of the Vegetable World ( Gen 1:11-13)
9. Let the waters appear ] In this verse the dry land is rendered visible by the removal of the waters, that were under the Heaven, into their special place. The account reads as if the Earth had existed previously, but had been submerged in the water. It is not stated that God made the earth at this juncture; but only that He now caused it to become visible. The description of the formation of the earth, like other details of the old Hebrew cosmogony, has been omitted either for the sake of brevity, or in order to free the account from materials which were out of harmony with its general religious teaching.
unto one place ] According to the Hebrew conception the Earth was supposed to have a flat surface, surrounded on all sides by the ocean; while the ocean was connected by subterranean channels with vast reservoirs of water that lay under the earth and fed the springs and rivers. Cf. Psa 24:2, “for he hath founded it (the world) upon the seas, and established it upon the floods”; Psa 139:9, “if I take the wings of the morning, and dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea.” In the story of the Flood we read that “all the fountains of the great deep” (Gen 7:11 P) were broken up.
Instead of “place,” the LXX reads “gathering,” , the word which is reproduced in the familiar term “synagogue.” It has been suggested that this may very possibly represent the original reading; and that, at any rate, the less usual word , miqveh = “gathering,” was more likely to be altered in transcription into the common word , maqom = “place,” than vice versa. On the other hand, the word , miqveh, occurs in the following verse ( Gen 1:10), “the gathering together of the waters” ( ), in a slightly different sense, and a copyist may have introduced the word here by accident and given rise to the LXX rendering.
the dry land ] That is, the surface, or crust, as it would now be called, of the earth, consisting of soil, sand, and rock. Christian tradition, until the beginning of the 19th or the end of the 18th century, was satisfied that the Hebrew narrative, attributing the origin of the earth’s crust to the work of a single day, adequately met the requirements of terrestrial phenomena, and did justice to the conception of Divine omnipotence. The rise of the science of Geology, in the last century and a half, has totally transformed educated opinion. It is recognized that the Hebrew cosmogony is devoid of scientific value (see p. 4). Geologists are agreed that the cooling process, by which the surface of the glowing and molten body of our planet came to be sufficiently solidified to support the weight of vast seas, must have extended over long ages to be reckoned by millions and millions of years. The subsequent geological ages, Palaeozoic, Mesozoic, Cainozoic, and Quaternary, which account for the gradual formation of the rocks as we know them, have been demonstrated to have covered a similarly stupendous length of time. The thicknesses of the successive geological strata furnish the means of estimating the relative durations of the periods. The infinite tracts of time and space, which modern science has in an increasing degree revealed to be in relation to one supreme and all embracing harmony, testify to the omnipotence of the Divine Will and Wisdom even more impressively than did the brief and intermittent acts of Creative Power, which in the legends of the ancient world accounted for the origin of earth and sea and stars.
The LXX adds at the end of the verse, “And the water that was under the heaven was gathered together into their gatherings ( ), and the dry land appeared,” which looks like a gloss. But implies a Heb. original (i.e. the plural form , “the waters,” not the sing. ).
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
– V. The Third Day
9. qavah turn, bind, gather, expect.
yabashah the dry, the ground. yabesh, be dry. bosh, be abashed.
11. deshe’, green thing, grass.
esab, herb.
zera, seed. zara, sow, sero.
pery, fruit. parah, bear; phero.
The work of creation on this day is evidently twofold, – the distribution of land and water, and the creation of plants. The former part of it is completed, named, reviewed, and approved before the latter is commenced. All that has been done before this, indeed, is preparatory to the introduction of the vegetable kingdom. This may be regarded as the first stage of the present creative process.
Gen 1:9
Let the water be gathered to one place; let the ground appear. – This refers to the yet overflowing deep of waters Gen 1:2 under the expanse. They must be confined within certain limits. For this purpose the order is issued, that they be gathered into one place; that is, evidently, into a place apart from that designed for the land.
Gen 1:10
Then called God to the ground, land. – We use the word ground to denote the dry surface left after the retreat of the waters. To this the Creator applies the term ‘erets, land, earth. Hence, we find that the primitive meaning of this term was land, the dry solid surface of matter on which we stand. This meaning it still retains in all its various applications (see note on Gen 1:2). As it was soon learned by experience that the solid ground was continuous at the bottom of the water-masses, and that these were a mere superficial deposit gathering into the hollows, the term was, by an easy extension of its meaning, applied to the whole surface, as it was diversified by land and water. Our word earth is the term to express it in this more extended sense. In this sense it was the meet counterpart of the heavens in that complex phrase by which the universe of things is expressed.
And to the gathering of the waters called he seas. – In contradistinction to the land, the gathered waters are called seas; a term applied in Scripture to any large collection of water, even though seen to be surrounded by land; as, the salt sea, the sea of Kinnereth, the sea of the plain or valley, the fore sea, the hinder sea Gen 14:3; Num 34:11; Deu 4:49; Joe 2:20; Deu 11:24. The plural form seas shows that the one place consists of several basins, all of which taken together are called the place of the waters.
The Scripture, according to its manner, notices only the palpable result; namely, a diversified scene of land and seas. The sacred singer possibly hints at the process in Psa 104:6-8 : The deep as a garment thou didst spread over it; above the mountains stood the waters. At thy rebuke they fled; at the voice of thy thunder they hasted away. They go up the mountains; they go down the valleys; unto the place that thou hast founded for them. This description is highly poetical, and therefore true to nature. The hills are to rise out of the waters above them. The agitated waters dash up the stirring mountains, but, as these ascend, at length sink into the valleys, and take the place allotted for them. Plainly the result was accomplished by lowering some and elevating other parts of the solid ground. Over this inequality of surface, the waters, which before overspread the whole ground, flowed into the hollows, and the elevated regions became dry land. This is a kind of geological change which has been long known to the students of nature. Such changes have often been sudden and violent. Alterations of level, of a gradual character, are known to be going on at all times.
This disposition of land and water prepares for the second step, which is the main work of this day; namely, the creation of plants. We are now come to the removal of another defect in the state of the earth, mentioned in the second verse, – its deformity, or rude and uncouth appearance.
Gen 1:11
Let the land grow. – The plants are said to be products of the land, because they spring from the dry ground, and a margin round it where the water is so shallow as to permit the light and heat to reach the bottom. The land is said to grow or bring forth plants; not because it is endowed with any inherent power to generate plants, but because it is the element in which they are to take root, and from which they are to spring forth.
Grass, herb yielding seed, fruit tree bearing fruit. – The plants now created are divided into three classes – grass, herb, and tree. In the first, the seed is not noticed, as not obvious to the eye; in the second, the seed is the striking characteristic; in the third, the fruit, in which is its seed, in which the seed is enclosed, forms the distinguishing mark. This division is simple and natural. It proceeds upon two concurrent marks – the structure and the seed. In the first, the green leaf or blade is prominent; in the second, the stalk; in the third, the woody texture. In the first, the seed is not conspicuous; in the second, it is conspicuous; in the third, it is enclosed in a fruit which is conspicuous. This division corresponds with certain classes in our present systems of botany. But it is much less complex than any of them, and is founded upon obvious characteristics. The plants that are on the margin of these great divisions may be arranged conveniently enough under one or another of them, according to their several orders or species.
After its kind. – This phrase intimates that like produces like, and therefore that the kinds or species are fixed, and do not run into one another. In this little phrase the theory of one species being developed from another is denied.
Gen 1:12
Here the fulfillment of the divine command is detailed, after being summed up in the words it was so, at the close of the previous verse. This seems to arise from the nature of growth, which has a commencement, indeed, but goes on without ceasing in a progressive development. It appears from the text that the full plants, and not the seeds, germs, or roots, were created. The land sent forth grass, herb, tree, each in its fully developed form. This was absolutely necessary, if man and the land animals were to be sustained by grasses, seeds, and fruits.
Thus, the land begins to assume the form of beauty and fertility. Its bare and rough soil is set with the germs of an incipient verdure. It has already ceased to be a waste. And now, at the end of this third day, let us pause to review the natural order in which everything has been thus far done. It was necessary to produce light in the first place, because without this potent element water could not pass into vapor, and rise on the wings of the buoyant air into the region above the expanse. The atmosphere must in the next place be reduced to order, and charged with its treasures of vapor, before the plants could commence the process of growth, even though stimulated by the influence of light and heat. Again, the waters must be withdrawn from a portion of the solid surface before the plants could be placed in the ground, so as to have the full benefit of the light, air, and vapor in enabling them to draw from the soil the sap by which they are to be nourished. When all these conditions are fulfilled, then the plants themselves are called into existence, and the first cycle of the new creation is completed.
Could not the Eternal One have accomplished all this in one day? Doubtless, He might. He might have effected it all in an instant of time. And He might have compressed the growth and development of centuries into a moment. He might even by possibility have constructed the stratifications of the earths crust with all their slips, elevations, depressions, unconformities, and organic formations in a day. And, lastly, He might have carried on to completion all the evolutions of universal nature that have since taken place or will hereafter take place until the last hour has struck on the clock of time. But what then? What purpose would have been served by all this speed? It is obvious that the above and such like questions are not wisely put. The very nature of the eternal shows the futility of such speculations. Is the commodity of time so scarce with him that he must or should for any good reason sum up the course of a universe of things in an infinitesimal portion of its duration? May we not, rather, must we not, soberly conclude that there is a due proportion between the action and the time of the action, the creation to be developed and the time of development. Both the beginning and the process of this latest creation are to a nicety adjusted to the preexistent and concurrent state of things. And the development of what is created not only displays a mutual harmony and exact coincidence in the progress of all its other parts, but is at the same time finely adapted to the constitution of man, and the natural, safe, and healthy ratio of his physical and metaphysical movements.
Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
Gen 1:9-10
The gathering together of the waters called He seas
The sea and the dry land
I.
THE SEA. Let the waters . . . unto one place.
1. The method of their location. Perhaps by volcanic agency.
2. The degree of their proportion. If the sea were smaller, the earth would cease to be verdant and fruitful, as there would not be sufficient water to supply our rivers and streams, or to distil upon the fields. If the sea was larger, the earth would become a vast uninhabitable marsh, from the over abundance of rain. Hence, we see how needful it is that there should be a due proportion between the sea and dry land, and the wisdom and goodness of the Creator, in that it is established so exactly and beneficently.
3. The extent of their utility. They not only give fertility to the earth, but they answer a thousand social and commercial purposes.
II. THE DRY LAND.
1. The dry land was made to appear. The land had been created before, but it was covered with a vast expanse of water. Even when things are created, when they merely exist, the Divine call must educate them into the full exercise of their utility, and into the complete manifestation of their beauty. So it can remove the tide of passion from the soul, and make all that is good in human nature to appear.
2. It was made to be verdant. And let the earth bring forth grass. The plants now created are divided into three classes: grass, herb, and tree. In the first, the seed is not noticed, as not obvious to the eye. In the second, the seed is the striking characteristic. In the third, the fruit. This division is simple and natural.
3. It was made to be fruitful. And the fruit tree yielding fruit. The earth is not merely verdant and beautiful to look at, but it is also fruitful and good for the supply of human want. Nature appears friendly to man, that she may gain his confidence, invite his study, and minister to the removal of his poverty.
III. AND IT WAS GOOD.
1. For the life and health of man.
2. For the beauty of the universe.
3. For the commerce and produce of the nations. (J. S. Exell, M. A.)
Various uses of the sea
1. Water is as indispensable to all life, whether vegetable or animal, as is the air itself. But this element of water is supplied entirely by the sea. All the waters that are in the rivers, the lakes, the fountains, the vapours, the dew, the rain, the snow, come alike out of the ocean. It is a common impression that it is the flow of the rivers that fills the sea. It is a mistake. It is the flow of the sea that fills the rivers.
2. A second use of the sea is to moderate the temperature of the world. A common method of warming houses in the winter is by the use of hot water. The water, being heated in the basement, is carried by iron pipes to the remotest parts of the building, where, parting with its warmth and becoming cooler and heavier, it flows back again to the boiler, to be heated anew, and so to pass round in the same circuit continuously. The advantage of this method is, that the heat can be carried to great distances, and in any direction.
3. A third important use of the sea is to be a perpetual source of health to the world. Without it there could be no drainage for the lands. The process of death and decay, which is continually going on in the animal and vegetable kingdoms, would soon make the whole surface of the earth one vast receptacle of corruption, whose stagnant mass would breathe a pestilence, sweeping away all the life of a continent. The winds would not purify it; for, having no place to deposit the burden, it would only accumulate in their hands, and filling their breath with its poisonous effluvia, it would make them swift ministers of death, carrying the sword of destruction into every part of the world at once.
4. It may be mentioned, as a fourth office of the sea, that it is set to furnish the great natural pathways of the world. Instead of a barrier, the sea is a road across the barrier. Hence the ocean has been the great educator of the world. The course of empire began on its shores, and has always kept within sight of its waters. No great nation has ever sprung up except on the seaside, or by the banks of those great navigable rivers which are themselves but an extension of the sea. Had it not been for the Mediterranean, the history of Egypt, of Phoenicia, of Greece and Rome and Carthage, would have been impossible.
5. A fifth office of the sea is to furnish an inexhaustible storehouse of power for the world. Of the three great departments of labour which occupy the material industry of the race,–agriculture, commerce, and manufactures,–we have seen how the first depends upon the ocean, the one for the rains which support all vegetable life, the other for the thousand paths on which its fleets are travelling. We now find that the third one also, though at first appearing not to have very intimate connection with the ocean, does in fact owe to it almost the whole of its efficiency. Ninety-nine hundredths of all the mechanical power now at work in the world is furnished by the water wheel and the steam engine.
6. A sixth office of the sea is to be a vast storehouse of life. The sea has a whole world of life in itself. It is said that the life in the sea far exceeds all that is out of it. There are more than twenty-five thousand distinct species of living beings that inhabit its waters. Incredible numbers of them are taken from the sea; in Norway, four hundred millions of a single species in a single season; in Sweden, seven hundred millions; and by other nations, numbers without number.
7. Omnipresent and everywhere is this need and blessing of the sea. It is felt as truly in the centre of the continent, where, it may be, the rude inhabitant never beard of the ocean, as it is on the circumference of the wave-beaten shore. He is surrounded, every moment, by the presence and bounty of the sea. It is the sea that looks out upon him from every violet in his garden bed; from the broad forehead of his cattle, and the rosy faces of his children; and from the cool-dropping well at his door. It is the sea that feeds him. It is the sea that clothes him, It is the sea that cools him with the summer cloud, and that warms him with the blazing fires in winter.
8. There is a sea within us which responds to the sea without. Deep calleth unto deep, and it is the answer and the yearning of these inward waves, in reply to that outward call, which makes our hearts to swell, our eyes to grow dim with tears, and our whole being to lift and vibrate with such strong emotion when we stand upon the shore and look out upon the deep, or sit in the stern of some noble ship and feel ourselves cradled on the pulsations of its mighty bosom. There is a life within us which calls to that sea without–a conscious destiny which only its magnitude and its motion can symbolize and utter. (Bib. Sacra.)
Genesis of the lands
I. EXPLANATION OF THE PASSAGE.
1. Panorama of emergent lands. A sublime spectacle it is–this resurrection of the terrestrial forms out of oceans baptismal sepulchre–this emergence of island, and continent, and mountain–this heaving into sight of Britain and Madagascar and Cuba and Greenland, of Asia and Africa and Australia and America, of Alps and Himalayas and Andes and Sierra Nevada; more thrilling still, of Ararat and Sinai and Pisgah and Carmel and Lebanon and Zion and Olivet.
2. Geologic confirmation. How could the geologist make out his magnificent geological calendar, if it were not for the successive layers of deposited or stratified rocks of the lands upheaved into view from the depths of old oceans sepulchre? And so, at this very point, the ancient seer and the modern sceptic agree; both say that the earth was formed out of water and by means of water (2Pe 3:5). But they differ as to the explanation. The ancient seer said, The secret of Nature is God. The modern sceptic says, The secret of Nature is Law. And yet both speak truly, for Truth is evermore unutterably large: God is the cause of Nature, and Law is Gods means.
3. Beneficence of the arrangement. God saw that it was good. And well might He delight in it. For a blessed thing this Divine distribution of lands and seas was.
II. MORAL MEANING OF THE STORY.
1. The birth of individuality.
2. The birth of duty. Each man is in himself a little world. The individualization of each man is not so much for the mans own sake as for the sake of all men. This, then, is the stirring thought of the hour: Individualization for the sake of mankind. Go forth then, brother, inspired with the majestic thought that you are a personal unit–a man among men–individualized from the mass of humanity for the sake of humanity andhumanitys King. Yes, happy the day, let me again say it, when God says to thee: Let the waters gather themselves to one place, and let the dry land appear. Thrice happy the day when thou obeyest, looking upward to the opening heavens and outward to the broadening horizon. (G. D.Boardman.)
The third day
Up to this point the unquiet element, which is naturally uppermost in the creature, has prevailed everywhere. Light has come, and shown the waste; a heaven is formed within it; but nothing fixed or firm has yet appeared. Just as in the saint there is first light, and a heaven too within, while as yet he is all instability, with nothing firm or settled. But now the firm earth rises. The state desired by Paul,–that we be no more tossed to and fro with every wind of doctrine, but may grow up in all things into Him who is the Head, even Christ,–here begins to be accomplished. Now the will, long buried and overwhelmed with tossing lusts, rises above them to become very fruitful; and the soul, once lost in passions, emerges from the deep, like the earth which He hath founded forever. There is yet more for us to mark in this emerging earth. Not only does it escape the floods: it comes up also into the expanse of heaven. That creature, so long buried, now mounts up to meet the skies, as though aspiring to touch and become a part of heaven; while on its swelling bosom rest the sweet waters, the clouds, which embrace and kiss the hills. When the man by resurrection is freed from restless lusts; when he comes up from under the dominion of passions into a state of rest and peace; not only is he delivered from a load, but he also meets a purer world, an atmosphere of clear and high blessing; where even his hard rocks may be furrowed into channels for the rain; heaven almost touching earth, and earth heaven, Not without awful convulsions can such a change be wrought. The earth must heave before the waters are gathered into one place. (See Psa 104:7-8.) Many a soul shows rents and chasms like the steep mountains. Nevertheless, the mountains bring peace, and the little hills righteousness. And this is effected on the third or resurrection day; for in creation, as elsewhere, the third day always speaks of resurrection. Then the earth brings forth fruit. Fruitfulness, hitherto delayed, at once follows the bounding of the waters. For, being made free from sin, we have fruit unto righteousness, and the end everlasting life. The order of the produce is instructive; first the grass, then the herb, then the fruit tree yielding fruit after his kind: as ever, the blade before the ear, the small before the great, from imperfection onwards to perfection. The first thing borne is grass, the common emblem of the flesh. Is it asked how the risen creature can bring forth fruits, which are, like the goodliness of the grass, of the flesh and carnal? Because for long the regenerate man is yet carnal, and his fruits are in the flesh, though with sincere desires for Gods glory. The development of Adam, as exhibited in the Word, not to say experience, gives proofs on proofs of this. The Corinthians, too, were carnal, though with many spiritual gifts. But after grass comes herb and tree, with seed and fruit; some to feed the hungry, some to cure the serpents bite; some hid in a veil of leaves, or bound in shapeless husks; some exposing their treasures, as the lovely vine and olive; the one to cheer mans heart, the other to give the oil to sustain the light for Gods candlestick. Such is the faithful soul, with many-coloured fruits, as the smell of a field which the Lord blesses. The form of the fruit may vary; its increase may be less or more–some thirty, some sixty, some an hundredfold; for the fruit of the Spirit may be love, or peace, or faith, or truth, or gentleness: but all to the praise of His grace, who bringeth forth fruit out of the earth, fruits of righteousness, which are by Jesus Christ. Nor let us forget,–whose seed is in itself, after his kind. Gods fruits all multiply themselves: this is their constitution. (A. Jukes.)
Distribution of sea and land
By means of this distribution the waters are ever in motion, which preserves them and almost everything else from stagnancy and putrefaction. That which the circulation of the blood is to the animal frame, that the waters are to the world: were they to stop, all would stagnate and die. See how careful our heavenly Father was to build us a habitation before He gave us a being. Nor is this the only instance of the kind: our Redeemer has acted on the same principle, in going before us to prepare a place for us. (A. Fuller.)
Fuente: Biblical Illustrator Edited by Joseph S. Exell
The waters under the heaven; both the great abyss, or deep of water which is shut up in the bowels of the earth, Gen 7:11; Psa 24:2; 33:7; 136:6; as also the sea and rivers, all which are here said to be gathered together into one place, because of their communication and mixture one with another.
Let the dry land appear; for hitherto it was covered with water, Gen 1:2; 2Pe 3:5.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
9. let the waters under the heavenbe gathered together unto one placeThe world was to berendered a terraqueous globe, and this was effected by a volcanicconvulsion on its surface, the upheaving of some parts, the sinkingof others, and the formation of vast hollows, into which the watersimpetuously rushed, as is graphically described (Ps104:6-9) [HITCHCOCK].Thus a large part of the earth was left “dry land,” andthus were formed oceans, seas, lakes, and rivers which, though eachhaving its own bed, or channel, are all connected with the sea(Job 38:10; Ecc 1:7).
Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
And God said, let the waters under the heaven be gathered together unto one place,…. Which are before called the waters under the firmament; and which were either on the surface of the earth, or in the bowels of it, or mixed with it, which by the compressure of the expanse or air were separated from it and these, by apertures and channels made, were caused to flow as by a straight line, as the word e used signifies, unto the decreed place that was broke up for them, the great hollow or channel which now contains the waters of the ocean: this was done by the word of the Lord, at his rebuke; and when it seems there was a clap thunder, and perhaps an earthquake, which made the vast cavity for the sea, as well as threw up the hills and mountains, and made the valleys; see
Job 38:10,
and let the dry land appear: clear of the waters, dried by the expanded air, hardened by the fiery light, and as yet without any herb or tree upon it:
and it was so; immediately done, the waters were drained off the earth, directed to their proper channels, and caused to run as by line to their appointed place; and the solid parts of the earth became dry, and appeared in sight.
e “congregentur tanquam ad amussim et regulam”, Fagius; “recto et equabili cursu contendant et collineant”, Junius.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
The Third Day. – The work of this day was twofold, yet closely connected. At first the waters beneath the heavens, i.e., those upon the surface of the earth, were gathered together, so that the dry ( , the solid ground) appeared. In what way the gathering of the earthly waters in the sea and the appearance of the dry land were effected, whether by the sinking or deepening of places in the body of the globe, into which the water was drawn off, or by the elevation of the solid ground, the record does not inform us, since it never describes the process by which effects are produced. It is probable, however, that the separation was caused both by depression and elevation. With the dry land the mountains naturally arose as the headlands of the mainland. But of this we have no physical explanations, either in the account before us, or in the poetical description of the creation in Psa 54:1-7. Even if we render Ps. 54:8, “the mountains arise, and they (the waters) descend into the valleys, to the place which Thou ( Jehovah) hast founded for them,” we have no proof, in this poetical account, of the elevation-theory of geology, since the psalmist is not speaking as a naturalist, but as a sacred poet describing the creation on the basis of Gen 1. “ The dry ” God called Earth, and “ the gathering of the waters,” i.e., the place into which the waters were collected, He called Sea. , an intensive rather than a numerical plural, is the great ocean, which surrounds the mainland on all sides, so that the earth appears to be founded upon seas (Psa 24:2). Earth and sea are the two constituents of the globe, by the separation of which its formation was completed. The “seas” include the rivers which flow into the ocean, and the lakes which are as it were “detached fragments” of the ocean, though they are not specially mentioned here. By the divine act of naming the two constituents of the globe, and the divine approval which follows, this work is stamped with permanency; and the second act of the third day, the clothing of the earth with vegetation, is immediately connected with it. At the command of God “ the earth brought forth green ( ), seed yielding herb ( ( breh ), and fruit-bearing fruit-trees ( ).” These three classes embrace all the productions of the vegetable kingdom. , lit., the young, tender green, which shoots up after rain and covers the meadows and downs (2Sa 23:4; Job 38:27; Joe 2:22; Psa 23:2), is a generic name for all grasses and cryptogamous plants. , with the epithet , yielding or forming seed, is used as a generic term for all herbaceous plants, corn, vegetables, and other plants by which seed-pods are formed. : not only fruit-trees, but all trees and shrubs, bearing fruit in which there is a seed according to its kind, i.e., fruit with kernels. (upon the earth) is not to be joined to “fruit-tree,” as though indicating the superior size of the trees which bear seed above the earth, in distinction from vegetables which propagate their species upon or in the ground; for even the latter bear their seed above the earth. It is appended to , as a more minute explanation: the earth is to bring forth grass, herb, and trees, upon or above the ground, as an ornament or covering for it. (after its kind), from species, which is not only repeated in Gen 1:12 in its old form in the case of the fruit-tree, but is also appended to the herb. It indicates that the herbs and trees sprang out of the earth according to their kinds, and received, together with power to bear seed and fruit, the capacity to propagate and multiply their own kind. In the case of the grass there is no reference either to different kinds, or to the production of seed, inasmuch as in the young green grass neither the one nor the other is apparent to the eye. Moreover, we must not picture the work of creation as consisting of the production of the first tender germs which were gradually developed into herbs, shrubs, and trees; on the contrary, we must regard it as one element in the miracle of creation itself, that at the word of God not only tender grasses, but herbs, shrubs, and trees, sprang out of the earth, each ripe for the formation of blossom and the bearing of seed and fruit, without the necessity of waiting for years before the vegetation created was ready to blossom and bear fruit. Even if the earth was employed as a medium in the creation of the plants, since it was God who caused it to bring them forth, they were not the product of the powers of nature, generatio aequivoca in the ordinary sense of the word, but a work of divine omnipotence, by which the trees came into existence before their seed, and their fruit was produced in full development, without expanding gradually under the influence of sunshine and rain.
Fuente: Keil & Delitzsch Commentary on the Old Testament
| The Creation. | B. C. 4004. |
9 And God said, Let the waters under the heaven be gathered together unto one place, and let the dry land appear: and it was so. 10 And God called the dry land Earth; and the gathering together of the waters called he Seas: and God saw that it was good. 11 And God said, Let the earth bring forth grass, the herb yielding seed, and the fruit tree yielding fruit after his kind, whose seed is in itself, upon the earth: and it was so. 12 And the earth brought forth grass, and herb yielding seed after his kind, and the tree yielding fruit, whose seed was in itself, after his kind: and God saw that it was good. 13 And the evening and the morning were the third day.
The third day’s work is related in these verses–the forming of the sea and the dry land, and the making of the earth fruitful. Hitherto the power of the Creator had been exerted and employed about the upper part of the visible word; the light of heaven was kindled, and the firmament of heaven fixed: but now he descends to this lower world, the earth, which was designed for the children of men, designed both for their habitation and for their maintenance; and here we have an account of the fitting of it for both, and building of their house and the spreading of their table. Observe,
I. How the earth was prepared to be a habitation for man, by the gathering of the waters together, and the making of the dry land to appear. Thus, instead of the confusion which there was (v. 2) when earth and water were mixed in one great mass, behold, now, there is order, by such a separation as rendered them both useful. God said, Let it be so, and it was so; no sooner said than done. 1. The waters which had covered the earth were ordered to retire, and to gather into one place, namely, those hollows which were fitted and appointed for their reception and rest. The waters, thus cleared, thus collected, and thus lodged, in their proper place, he called seas. Though they are many, in distant regions, and washing several shores, yet, either above ground or under ground, they have communication with each other, and so they are one, and the common receptacle of waters, into which all the rivers flow, Eccl. i. 7. Waters and seas often, in scripture, signify troubles and afflictions, Psa 42:7; Psa 69:2; Psa 69:14; Psa 69:15. God’s own people are not exempted from these in this world; but it is their comfort that they are only waters under the heaven (there are none in heaven), and that they are all in the place that God has appointed them and within the bounds that he has set for them. How the waters were gathered together at first, and how they are still bound and limited by the same Almighty had that first confined them, are elegantly described, Ps. civ. 6-9, and are there mentioned as matter of praise. Those that go down to the sea in ships ought to acknowledge daily the wisdom, power, and goodness, of the Creator, in making the great waters serviceable to man for trade and commerce; and those that tarry at home must own themselves indebted to him that keeps the sea with bars and doors in its decreed place, and stays its proud waves, Job 38:10; Job 38:11. 2. The dry land was made to appear, and emerge out of the waters, and was called earth, and given to the children of men. The earth, it seems, was in being before; but it was of no use, because it was under water. Thus many of God’s gifts are received in vain, because they are buried; make them to appear, and they become serviceable. We who, to this day, enjoy the benefit of the dry land (though, since this, it was once deluged, and dried again) must own ourselves tenants to, and dependents upon, that God whose hands formed the dry land,Psa 95:5; Jon 1:9.
II. How the earth was furnished for the maintenance and support of man, Gen 1:11; Gen 1:12. Present provision was now made, by the immediate products of the upstart earth, which, in obedience to God’s command, was no sooner made than it became fruitful, and brought forth grass for the cattle and herb for the service of man. Provision was likewise made for time to come, by the perpetuating of the several kinds of vegetables, which are numerous, various, and all curious, and every one having its seed in itself after its kind, that, during the continuance of man upon the earth, food might be fetched out of the earth for his use and benefit. Lord, what is man, that he is thus visited and regarded–that such care should be taken, and such provision made, for the support and preservation of those guilty and obnoxious lives which have been a thousand times forfeited! Observe here, 1. That not only the earth is the Lord’s, but the fulness thereof, and he is the rightful owner and sovereign disposer, not only of it, but of all its furniture. The earth was emptiness (v. 2), but now, by a word’s speaking, it has become full of God’s riches, and his they are still–his corn and his wine, his wool and his flax, Hos. ii. 9. Though the use of them is allowed to us, the property still remains in him, and to his service and honour they must be used. 2. That common providence is a continued creation, and in it our Father worketh hitherto. The earth still remains under the efficacy of this command, to bring forth grass, and herbs, and its annual products; and though, being according to the common course of nature, these are not standing miracles, yet they are standing instances of the unwearied power and unexhausted goodness of the world’s great Maker and Master. 3. That though God, ordinarily, makes use of the agency of second causes, according to their nature, yet he neither needs them nor is tied to them; for, though the precious fruits of the earth are usually brought forth by the influences of the sun and moon (Deut. xxxiii. 14), yet here we find the earth bearing a great abundance of fruit, probable ripe fruit, before the sun and moon were made. 4. That it is good to provide things necessary before we have occasion to use them: before the beasts and man were made, here were grass and herbs prepared for them. God thus dealt wisely and graciously with man; let not man then be foolish and unwise for himself. 5. That God must have the glory of all the benefit we receive from the products of the earth, either for food or physic. It is he that hears the heavens when they hear the earth,Hos 2:21; Hos 2:22. And if we have, through grace, an interest in him who is the fountain, when the streams are dried up and the fig-tree doth not blossom we may rejoice in him.
Fuente: Matthew Henry’s Whole Bible Commentary
Verses 9-13:
GRAPHIC IN HARDBOUND COMMENTARY
On Day Three, following the division of waters on Earth and formation of the visible heavens, God re-arranged the waters remaining on Earth into “one place,” forming the seas and the dry land. It is suggested that the dry land was all in one mass, as were the the waters, forming only one continent and one sea or ocean (Pro 8:27-29). If so, the various continents and islands were formed later, due to some catastrophe of nature. The flood of Noah’s day could have been this event (Genesis 6, 7, 8).
“Bring forth … after his kind.” This is the “law of the harvest,” which decrees, “Like produces like.” This law applies to all areas of life: physical, emotional, and spiritual, Ga 6:7, 8. One does not plant corn and reap beans. Neither does one plant the seeds of rebellion and reap a harvest of peace and joy.
“Upon the earth” implies that the seeds which sprouted were already in the ground, lying dormant until proper conditions of growth could prevail. This supports the belief of the perfect creation, which Lucifer wrecked following his sin and expulsion from Heaven.
In the pattern of reconstruction, God established the chain of life on this planet. The basic life-forms, plants, are for the life-support of animal life. God placed these basic forms first on Earth, to be here for the sustenance of the life He would place here later. This was the scope of His activity on Day Three.
Fuente: Garner-Howes Baptist Commentary
9. Let the waters… be gathered together This also is an illustrious miracle, that the waters by their departure have given a dwelling-place to men. For even philosophers allow that the natural position of the waters was to cover the whole earth, as Moses declares they did in the beginning; first, because being an element, it must be circular, and because this element is heavier than the air, and lighter than the earth, it ought cover the latter in its whole circumference. (64) But that the seas, being gathered together as on heaps, should give place for man, is seemingly preternatural; and therefore Scripture often extols the goodness of God in this particular. See Psa 33:7,
‘
He has gathered the waters together on a heap, and has laid them up in his treasures.’
Also Psa 78:13,
‘
He has collected the waters as into a bottle.’ (65)
Jer 5:22
,
‘
Will ye not fear me? will ye not tremble at my presence, who have placed the sand as the boundary of the sea?’
Job 38:8
,
‘
Who has shut up the sea with doors? Have not I surrounded it with gates and bars? I have said, Hitherto shalt thou proceed; here shall thy swelling waves be broken.’
Let us, therefore, know that we are dwelling on dry ground, because God, by his command, has removed the waters that they should not overflow the whole earth.
(64) This reasoning is to be explained by reference to the philosophical theories of the age. — Ed.
(65) “ Velut in utrem;” “from the Vulgate.” The English version is, “He made the waters to stand as an heap.”
Fuente: Calvin’s Complete Commentary
CRITICAL NOTES.
Gen. 1:11. Kind] Prop. form or shape, hence species, kind. Comp. 1Co. 15:38, where note the aorist tense = as it (originally) pleased him:a hint on the perpetuity of species.
MAIN HOMILETICS OF THE PARAGRAPH.Gen. 1:9-13
THE SEA AND THE DRY LAND
I. The Sea. And God said, Let the waters under the heaven be gathered together unto one place.
1. The method of their location. The great waters which covered the earth were swept into one place, and were environed by the decree and power of God, so that their wild waves would not advance further than the Divine permission. This allocation of the waters may have been instrumentally accomplished by volcanic agency. The land may have been broken up, and, amidst the general crash, the waters may have rushed to their destined home. When it is said that they were gathered into one place, it simply intimates the interdependence of seas and rivers, and also their unity as contrasted with the dry land.
2. The degree of their proportion. We must not imagine that the limit and proportion of the sea to dry land is arbitrarythat it is fixed by chance, but by the utmost exactitude. If the sea were more or less in extent it would be of great injury to the world. If it were smaller, the earth would cease to be verdant and fruitful, as there would not be sufficient water to supply our rivers and streams, or to distil upon the fields. If the sea was larger, the earth would become a vast uninhabitable marsh, from the over abundance of rain. Hence, we see how needful it is that there should be a due proportion between the sea and dry land, and the wisdom and goodness of the Creator, in that it is established so exactly and beneficently.
3. The extent of their utility. They not only give fertility to the earth, but they answer a thousand social and commercial purposes. The sea is the highway of the nations. It unites the world in the sympathy of common wants; in the hope of common friendships; and through travel on its waters, men gather a breadth of thought and life, that otherwise, would be impossible to them. The men who go down to the sea in ships, carry on the great business of the world. If they were to cease their occupation, society would receive a serious check. Many of the necessities of lifemany of our home comforts are imported from foreign shores, and these we could ill afford to dispense with. Not only are our trade relationships sustained by the passage of vessels from shore to shore, but also our political. In this way, other people see our enterprise, and gather an idea of our national prowess. Especially have we, as a nation, cause to be thankful for the billows which surround our Island home, as our protection from the invasion of a foreign foe, and as our discipline in the event of war. True, the seas of the world are often strewn with wrecks, caused either by fire or storm; they are the resting place of a vast army of once living creatures; they separate loving hearts; but notwithstanding, in the present condition of society, they are far more the occasion of joy and help, than of sorrow or impediment. They make the nations brotherly. But the time is coming when there will be no more sea; its commerce will be ended, and men, living in one great home, will never hear the mutter of the storm, or the music of wave.
II. The dry land.
1. The dry land was made to appear. The land had been created before, but it was covered with a vast expanse of water. Now the waters are removed, the earth is unveiled, and dry land appears at the call of God. Even when things are created, when they merely exist, the Divine call must educate them into the full exercise of their utility, and into the complete manifestation of their beauty. The call of God gives harmony, adaptation, utility, perfection to all human being. It can command the sea into one place of repose. So it can remove the tide of passion from the soul, and make all that is good in human nature to appear.
2. It was made to be verdant. And let the earth bring forth grass. The plants now created are divided into three classes: grass, herb, and tree. In the first, the seed is not noticed, as not obvious to the eye. In the second, the seed is the striking characteristic. In the third, the fruit. This division is simple and natural. It proceeds upon two concurrent marks, the structure and the seed. This division corresponds with certain classes in our present systems of botany. But it is much less simple and complex. Thus was laid the beautiful carpet of green, that is now spread throughout the world, and that is so welcome to the eye of man. God ordered its colour, that it might be the most restful to human vision. When the eye is weak, we often place a green shade over it to obtain ease. Nature might have been clad in a garment gay and unwelcome to the vision of man, but not so, she is either white in the purity of snow, or green in the verdure of spring.
He makes the grass the hills adorn,
And clothes the smiling fields with corn.
3. It was made to be fruitful. And the fruit tree yielding fruit. The earth is not merely verdant and beautiful to look at, but it is also fruitful and good for the supply of human want. It presents attractions to the eye. But even these are designed to win man, that they may satisfy his temporal need. Nature appears friendly to man, that she may gain his confidence, invite his study, and minister to the removal of his poverty.
III. And it was good.
1. For the life and health of man.
2. For the beauty of the universe.
3. For the commerce and produce of the nations.
VEGETATION
I. That it is the result of a combined instrumentality.
1. There was the Divine agency. It was the Power of God that gave seed and life to the earth. For it is very certain that the earth could not have produced grass, and herb, and tree of itself. But when empowered by the Divine mandate there would be no limit to its verdure and fertility.
2. There was the instrumentality of the earth. And God said, let the earth bring forth grass, &c. So when called by God the most barren instrumentalities become life-giving and verdant. When the Divine Being is about to enrich men, he gives them the power to help themselves. The soil that is to be fruitful must aid the growth of its own seed.
II. It is germinal in the condition of its growth. Seed. Fertility never comes all at once. God does not give man blade of grass or tree in full growth, but the seeds from which they are to spring. Germs are a Divine gift. This is not only true in the physical universe, but the mental and the moral. God does not give man a great enterprise, but the first hint of it. He does not make men splendid preachers all at once, but gives only the germinal conditions of the same. Hence, He finds employment for the world. The cultivation of germs is the grandest employment in which men can be engaged.
III. It is fruitful in the purpose of its life. Yielding fruit.
1. Life must not always remain germinal. The seed must not alway remain seed. It must expand, develope. This must be the case mentally and morally. Life, when healthy and vigorous, is always progressive and fruitful. The world is full of men who have great thoughts and enterprises in the germ, but they never come to perfection. The fruit must be:
1. Abundant.
2. Rich.
3. Beautiful.
4. Refreshing.
IV. It is distinctive in its species and development. Fruit after his kind. What will Mr. Darwin say to this? Is it not a refutation of his elaborate theory on the origin of species. The growth will always be of the same kind as the seed. There may be variation in the direction and expression of the germinal life, but its original species is unchanged. This is true in the garden of the soul. Every seed produces fruit after its kind.
SUGGESTIVE COMMENTS ON THE VERSES
Gen. 1:9. We must learn to leave our private sphere of life to enhance the common good:
1. Because all creatures are ordained, not for themselves, but for Gods honour, for their mutual support, and for the preservation of the community.
2. Because we enjoy nothing in our own exclusive right, but have all of Gods free gift.
3. Because the applying of ourselves to the furthering of a common good, is our greatest honour, profit and safety.
All creatures in the world obey the Voice of God:
1. Why should that voice not command them, which made them.
2. Otherwise, it were impossible for God to do all things in righteousness.
3. Let us tremble at the Power of Him whom the winds and seas obey.
Let all men lay it to heart, and bless the Author of this great mercy, when they look upon the firm foundation of their houses, the fruits of the grounds, the increase of their cattle; when they enjoy the air to breathe in, the dry ground to walk on, and the seas to wade in. And let men walk in fear before that God who might as easily let loose the sea, as keep it within the bounds that He hath set [J. White].
The use of the sea:
1. To fill the hearts of men with fear of that Great God, by beholding so vast a creature ordered by His power.
2. By observing that by it way is made to the discovering of the large circuit of the earth.
3. Beneficial to the life of man by enlarging his sphere of work and intercourse.
Gen. 1:10. To God belongs the naming as the making of His creatures; the seas are the waters gathered into their due place. Good is this globe:
1. Suitable unto Gods mind.
2. Suitable to His own idea of it.
3. Suitable for the residence of man. The beauty of the earth; the sublimity of the sea. The creatures of Gods making are good.
Gen. 1:11. It is Gods word that makes the earth fruitful. Propagation of fruit, as well as the first being of it, is by Gods word; He makes the seed and enables it to multiply.
Gen. 1:12. God will have nothing barren or unprofitable:
1. Not the earth.
2. Not the herbs nor plants.
3. Not the beasts, fishes, fowls.
4. Not the sun, moon, nor stars, which cherish all things by their light.
5. Certainly not man. Why?
1. Because all things were made to be fruitful.
2. That they may testify to the overflowing bounty of God.
Even the grass, herbs, trees, are Gods creatures:
1. Let us take notice of them as such.
(1.) Their infinite variety.
(2.) Their beautiful shape.
(3.) Their marvellous growth.
(4.) Their life, which kings cannot give nor art imitate. God draws life out of death.
1. God can do itHe is the Life.
2. It is fit He should do it to His glory.
3. Let not the Church despair.
God provides for all his creatures, that though they decay daily, yet they shall not wholly perish:
1. To shew His own unchangeable continuance by the mutability of His creatures.
2. To quicken us into a desire for heaven, where all things are constant and durable.
3. To shew, in the variety of His works, His eternal wisdom.
The teaching of the plants
1. To have a life full of good seed.
2. To let the goodness of our moral nature come to maturity.
3. To care for our posterity.
4. To aid the life and enjoyment of others.
Fruit resembles the nature of the stock from which it comes
1. Therefore let good men shew forth the renewing of their nature by the works of the spirit.
2. Abhor all hypocrisy.
Gen. 1:13. The evening
1. A time for thought.
2. A time for prayer.
3. A time for fear.
4. An emblem of life.
The morning
1. A time for praise.
2. A time for hope.
3. A time for resolution.
4. A time for work.
SUGGESTIVE ILLUSTRATIONS
Land and Water! Gen. 1:10. The actual distribution of sea and land over the surface of the globe is of the highest importance to the present condition of organic life. As Hartwig asserts, if the ocean were considerably smaller, or if Asia and America were concentrated within the tropics, the tidesthe oceanic currentsand the meteorological phenomena, on which the existence of the vegetable and animal kingdoms depend, would be so profoundly modified, that it is extremely doubtful whether man could have existed. It is absolutely certain that he could never have risen to a high degree of civilization. But now nations, by means of commerce and missionary enterprise, are holding communion with nations and mutually enriching each other by the stores of knowledge, experience, and religious education which they have each accumulated apart. Christianity is rapidly melting the separate nationalities into one; but the fusion of these discordant elements into one glorious harmonypure as sunlightinspiring as a strain of musicwill never be accomplished until the Son of God shall come in the clouds of heaven to set His throne upon the borders of the sea of glass mingled with fire
And on that joyous shore
Our lightened hearts shall know
The life of long ago;
The sorrow-burdened past shall fade for evermore.
Flowers! Gen. 1:11. A pleasant writer tells of a Texas gentleman who had the misfortune to be an unbeliever. One day he was walking in the woods reading the writings of Plato. He came to where the great writer uses the great phrase, Geometrizing. He thought to himself, If I could only see plan and order in Gods works, I could be a believer. Just then he saw a little Texas star at his feet. He picked it up, and thoughtlessly began to count its petals. He found there were five. He counted the stamens, and there were five of them, He counted the divisions at the base of the flower, and there were five of them. He then set about multiplying these three fives to see how many chances there were of a flower being brought into existence without the aid of mind, and having in it these three fives. The chances against it were one hundred and twenty-five to one. He thought that was very strange. He examined another flower, and found it the same. He multiplied one hundred and twenty-five by itself to see how many chances there were against there being two flowers, each having these exact relations of numbers. He found the chances against it were thirteen thousand six hundred and twenty-five to one. But all around him there were multitudes of these little flowers; they had been growing and blooming there for years. Now, he thought, this shows the order of intelligence; the mind that has ordained it is GOD. And so he shut up his book, and picked up the little flower, and kissed it, and exclaimed, Bloom on, little flowers; sing on, little birds; you have a God, and I have a God; the God that made these little flowers made me.
Your voiceless lips, O flowers, are living preachers;
Each cup a pulpitevery leaf a book.Longfellow.
Flowers! Gen. 1:12. Nothing can equal the immense variety of flowerstheir charming coloursor their delicious fragrance. Without the flowers, the variety of perfumes which regale our sense of smell would be but small; without them its faculties of enjoyment would not have harmonized with the outer world. Those who have studied most about flowers reckon that there are about 80,000 different kinds already known. An English gentleman, who was travelling in Persia lately, says that on one occasion he was invited into the garden to breakfast, where the flowers were so numerous that a great pile of rose-leaves was heaped up for a table before each guest. A carpet was laid over each pile. Cleopatra, the beautiful but profligate queen of Egypt, made a very poor use of the flowers which God in His goodness has caused to grow for our pleasure, when she wanted to give a splendid feast to Antony, the great Roman general, she procured roses enough to cover the floor of the large dining hall three feet thick all over; mats were then spread over the floor, and the guests sat down to feast. This was a pitiful return to Him who has
Mantled the green earth with flowers,
Linking our hearts to nature!Hemans.
Nature! Gen. 1:12. When we see a cottage with honeysuckle and roses twined round its porch, and bright flowers trained in its windows and growing in its little garden plot in front, it is a sign to us, says one, that the evils of poverty are unknown in that homethat the inmates are raised above the fear of wantand that, having the necessary food and raiment provided for them, the head of the home is at leisure and liberty to devote his care to the simple pleasures of natural life. And so, when we see in this great housethis earth of oursbright flowers growing in every window and doorway, and associated with all the uses of domestic economy, we cannot but regard the circumstance as a proof that the great Householder attends both to the lower and to the higher wants of His family. In other words, if God has provided the superfluities of naturei.e., flowersit is a pledge and guarantee that He will provide the things which are necessarythat, in fact, food and raiment shall not be wanting.
Heart, that cannot, for cares that press,
Sing with the bird, or thy Maker bless
As the flowers may, blooming sweet,
With never an eye but Gods to greet
Their beauty and freshness, learn to trust!
Lift thy thought from the earthy dust!
Flower-lessons! Gen. 1:13. An old woman lived in a cottage, and had long been confined to her bed with sickness. Near her lived a little girl, whose mother was very poor, and had little to give to her stricken neighbour. The maiden had a geranium which some one had given to her. It grew in a flower-pot in the window; and when it bore flowers, both mother and daughter found sweet pleasure in watching their bloom developing. The little girl plucked the nicest of these blossoms, and carried it to the sick woman, who was lying in her bed, suffering great pain. In the afternoon a lady called, and observed the beautiful geranium flower in an old broken tumbler on a little stand by the old womans bed. That flower makes me think what a wonderful God we have; and if a flower like this is not too little for Him to make and take care of, I am sure He will not forget a poor creature like me. During the great Manchester cotton-famine some years ago there was much distress, and many were in a state of starvation. Among them was an aged couple, who sold everything that could be turned into bread. They could not, however, sell a beautiful flower which they had in a flower-pot; so that they lived in an empty room, with only this gem of nature. That flower has been such a comfort to us in all our trouble; for when we look at it morning after morning, it seems to preach to us all the time, and to tell us of trust in God. Yes, God sent them
To comfort manto whisper hope,
Whereer his faith is dim;
For He who careth for the flowers,
Will care much more for himHowitt.
Fuente: The Preacher’s Complete Homiletical Commentary Edited by Joseph S. Exell
Day Three; Lands and Seas, Plant Life (Gen. 1:9-13)
And God said, Let the waters under the heavens be gathered together unto one place, and let the dry land appear: and. it was so. And God called the dry land Earth; and the gathering together of the waters called he Seas: and God saw that it was good. And God said, Let the earth put forth grass, herbs yielding seed, and fruit-trees bearing fruit after their kind, wherein is the seed thereof, upon the earth: and it was so. And the earth brought forth grass, herbs yielding seed after their kind, and trees bearing fruit, wherein is the seed thereof, after their kind: and God saw that it was good. And. there was evening and there was morning, a third day.
1. Need it be pointed out here that there had to be light, and there had to be an atmosphere, before there could be any vegetation upon the earth. Moreover, the earth itself had to be put in order to receive and to nourish this vegetation from the time of its first appearance. Hence we have here, in all likelihood, a description of the steps necessary to this end: the partial condensation of the vapors enveloping the earths surface, at this stage in the Creative Process, together with the cooling of the earths crust, resulted, of course, in the outlining of continents and oceans. Hence, at this point something entirely newa new increment of powerentered into the progressive development of the Creation. This something new was the appearance of the first forms of life, those of the plant world. This marked the crossing of the great divide between the world of physiochemical energy and the world of living things.
2. Just as there had to be light, and there had to be an atmosphere, so there had to be plant life before there could be any form of animal life. Plant cells differ from animal cells in the fact that they alone contain the pigment chlorophyll, which is responsible for the green color of plants and which is best known for its mysterious action in photosynthesis, the amazingly subtle and complex process by which plants convert the energy of the suns rays into stored food energy that is necessary to the existence of all living things. Scientists have not yet been able to break this process down, to learn exactly how it works. It is a scientific fact, however, that with the creation of plant chlorophyll, photosynthesis commenced and the plant kingdom began to flourish, sucking in sunlight and dumping out oxygen. E. V. Miller (WLP, 117): With few exceptions all life on this planet owes its existence to the fact that green plants are able to store up the energy of the sun. Light is known to be the sole source of energy for this process of photosynthesis. Other necessary factors are water, carbon dioxide, oxygen, and temperature of varying degrees. (In oceanic life, the microscopic organisms known as plankton carry on photosynthesis, like their relatives on the land, and so supply fish and other marine animals with food.) Thus the Genesis Cosmogony is again found to be in accord with present-day biological science.
3. On Day Three the Creative Process moved upward from the astronomical beginnings to the geological and biological phases. As we have already noted, on Day Two, the earth, when it became detached from the parent sun, began to cool. It would seem that as it cooled, the solid portions gathered at the center, with the liquids resting upon them, and the gases forming the outer envelope. As this cooling of the earths crust continued, the elements were thrown off which comprise our atmosphere, and the entire mass became surrounded by dense vapors. This expanse (atmosphere) separated the earth below, not only from the parent sun, but probably from the other planets as well, all of which were in process of being formed in the same way. Science could hardly improve on the brevity and comprehensiveness of this description. Then on Day Three, the partial condensation of the enveloping vapors, and the continued cooling of the earths crust, brought about the genesis of lands and seas, and so paved the way for the appearance of vegetation. Everest (DD, 150): The earth shrank upon itself as it cooled, continents and mountains were lifted up, ocean beds were depressed, and the waters flowed together. Evaporation began, the windwafted clouds passed over the lands, the rains fell, the rivers dashed down the slopes, and another great wheel began to revolve and flash in the presence of the Master Mechanist.
4. Let the earth bring forth, etc. (1) Various commentators hold that the classification of flora here is threefoldgrass, herbs, and trees. Skinner (ICCG, 24), thinks it is twofold, based on two different methods of reproduction, the one kind (grass, verdure, herbage, terms designating all plants in the earliest stages of their growth) producing seed merely, the other producing fruit that contains the seed. (2) And it was so. This oft-repeated formula is simply an affirmation that whatever the Creator spake,that is, willed, ordained, orderedwas done, that whatever He commanded, stood fast (Psa. 33:9). (3) Note the threefold description of the trees here: their specific nature, fruit-bearing; their peculiar characteristic, seed enclosed in fruit; and their external appearance, rising above the ground. (4) After their kind. Surely this means, not that God made every kind of plant, tree, or seed, outwardly and directly; it means, rather, that He instituted the causation, in the form of seminal power, from which each individual of a kind or class (genus, species, etc.) proceeds to grow and to reproduce its kind. Since it is the form which is embodied in the seed, it is the form (the principle of specification, e.g., the oakness of an oak tree, or that which makes it an oak tree and not some other kind of tree) which determines the structure, and not the structure which determines the form. Hence an oak tree is an oak tree and cannot be a birch tree, any more than a poppy seed can be planted and a mustard tree be produced from its germinal seed. This principle of each after its own kind is one which prevails today as always, and no doubt will continue to do so, among all living things. If this were not true, taxonomythe classification of animals and plants on the basis of their natural relationshipswould be impossible, as indeed would be all the biological sciences. Note that the Genesis account makes it clear that the causative power is in the seed, a causative power which requires light, soil, atmosphere, moisture, etc., to actualize it. Note also the clear implication of secondary causation (as described in the form of laws of nature) in the repeated formula Let the earth put forth grass, etc., Let the waters swarm with swarms of living creatures, Let the earth bring forth living creatures after their kind, etc. In a word, God provides the seminal power, but His power operates at the direction of His eternal decrees (Psa. 148:5-6). (5) And God saw that it was good. This formula (one might say, refrain), appearing at the end of each section of the Creation narrative, affirms that whatever God commanded, was done; and that the Divine purpose for which it was done was being realized. It was all good in the sense that each thing produced was doing what the Divine Will ordained it should do in the total structure of being.
Fuente: College Press Bible Study Textbook Series
(9) Let the waters be gathered together.The verb, as Gesenius shows, refers rather to the condensation of water, which, as we have seen, was impossible till the surface of the earth was made cool by the radiation of heat into the open expanse around it.
Unto one place.The ocean bed. We must add the vast depth of the ocean to the height of the mountains before we can rightly estimate the intensity of the forces at work on the third day. Vast, too, as the surface of the ocean may appear compared with the dry land, it is evidently only just sufficient to supply the rain necessary for vegetation. Were it less, either the laws of evaporation must be altered, with painful and injurious effects, or much of the earths surface would be barren.
Let the dry land appear.Simple as this might appear, it yet required special provision on the part of the Creator; for otherwise the various materials of the earth would have arranged themselves in concentric strata, according to their density, and upon them the water would have reposed evenly, and above it the air. But geologists tell us that these strata have been broken up and distorted from below by volcanic agencies, while the surface has been furrowed and worn by the denuding power of water. This was the third days work. By the cooling of the crust of the earth the vast mass of waters, which now covers two-thirds of its surface, and which hitherto had existed only as vapour, began to condense, and pour down upon the earth as rain. Meanwhile the earth parted with its internal heat but slowly, and thus, while its crust grew stiff, there was within a mass of molten fluid. As this would be acted upon by the gravity of the sun and moon, in just the same way as the ocean is now, this inner tidal wave would rupture the thin crust above, generally in lines trending from northeast to south-west. Hence mountain ranges and deep sea beds, modified by many changes since, but all having the same final object of providing dry land for mans abode.
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
THIRD DAY LAND, SEAS, AND VEGETATION, Gen 1:9-13.
9. Let the waters be gathered the dry land appear The import of these words is, that the land was partially, if not wholly, hidden by the waters; thus further explaining the statement of Gen 1:2, that it was desolate and empty, and made so by the dark overflowing deep. Now, by the divine fiat, the land is supernaturally elevated above “the face of the deep,” and the waters are made to flow off together into surrounding seas. How large a portion of land was thus made to appear is nowhere intimated. A very natural supposition is, that a large island was suddenly heaved up in the midst of the deep. And this was “the land” of the antediluvian world. On this land, thus raised in the midst of the seas, the garden of Eden was planted, and here man was first introduced. This miraculous elevation of the land from the waters we understand to be the true conception of 2Pe 3:5, which, literally and accurately translated, is, “For it is hidden from them who will it, that the heavens were from of old, and the land ( ) from water and by means of water, consisting by the word of God . ” Thus Fronmuller, in loc . : “The earth originated out of water out of the dark matter in which it was comprehended and through water, that is, through the agency of water, which partly descended into the lower parts of the earth and partly formed the clouds in the sky.” But all was effected by God’s word.
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
‘And God said, “Let the waters that are under the heaven be gathered together in one place and let the dry land appear”, and it was so. And God called the dry land ‘eretz’ and the waters that were gathered together he called seas. And God saw that it was good.’
As with the word ‘yom’ the word ‘eretz’ is not fixed in meaning. Originally ‘eretz’ was the whole earth including the waters (Gen 1:1-2), now it is the dry land as opposed to the waters. It can mean the earth as opposed to the heavens (Gen 1:1-2), land as opposed to sea (as here), and within that definition a particular area of land. Thus the people of Israel were later the ‘people of the land (‘eretz’), which meant Israel. As ‘yom’ means a period of time, so ‘eretz’ means the idea of somewhere to dwell.
God is here causing dry land ‘to appear’ in preparation for animals and man. It was already there but comes out of the sea. The birds too will benefit, as will many river fish. Again the writer expresses satisfaction with the situation by saying that God sees it as good. He is satisfied with the provision He has made for man. Thus we should be filled with praise at His wonderful provision.
It will be noted that the dry land is seen as already being under the waters. It is intrinsic within the waters. This is not a new act of creation, but a shaping by His word of what is already there. From the formlessness He produces form. From the shapeless He produces shape. But those who see ‘evolution’ at work here must recognise that it happens under God’s command and control.
So the dry land is surrounded by water, and there is abundant water above. All are held in their place and controlled by the hand of God. But let God withdraw His hand and total inundation will result, as later it will (Gen 1:7-8).
So now we have light and shape and differentiation, the building blocks of life are being put in place. But darkness ever threatens to envelop all things if God withdraws His word, and shapelessness will overcome what has been formed unless God sustains it.
Fuente: Commentary Series on the Bible by Peter Pett
The Creation of the Dry Land, Herbs, and Trees
v. 9. And God said, Let the waters under the heaven be gathered together unto one place, and let the dry land appear; and it was so. v. 10. And God called the dry land Earth, and the gathering together of the waters called he Seas. And God saw that it was good. v. 11. and God said, Let the earth bring forth grass, the herb yielding seed, and the fruit-tree yielding fruit after his kind, whose seed is in itself, upon the earth. And it was so. v. 12. And the earth brought forth grass, and herb yielding seed after his kind, and the tree yielding fruit, whose seed was in itself, after his kind. And God saw that it was good. v. 13. And the evening and the morning were the third day.
Fuente: The Popular Commentary on the Bible by Kretzmann
EXPOSITION
Gen 1:9
Day three. The distribution of land and water and the production of vegetation on this day engaged the formative energy of the word of Elohim. And God said, Let the waters under heaven be gathered together into one place, and let the dry land appear. To explain the second part of this phenomenon as a consequence of the first, the disclosure of the solid ground by the retirement of the waters from its surface, and not rather vice versa, is to reverse the ordinary processes of nature. Modern analogy suggests that the breaking up of the hitherto universal ocean into seas, lakes, and rivers was effected by the upheaval of the land through the action of subterranean fires, or the subsidence of the earth’s crust in consequence of the cooling and shrinking of the interior mass. Psa 104:7 hints at electric agency in connection with the elevation of the mountains and the sinking of the ocean beds. “At thy rebuke they (the waters) fled: at the voice of thy thunder they hasted away (were scattered). The mountains rose, the valleys sank ( LXX.; ascendunt montes, et descendunt campiJerome) to the place which thou hadst established for them” (Perowne). The gathering of the waters into one place implies no more than that they were, kern this day forward, to be collected into one vast body, and restrained within bounds in a place by themselves, so as to admit of the exposure of the earth’s soil. The “place founded for them” was, of course, the depths and hollows in the earth’s crust, into which they were immediately withdrawn, not through direct supernatural agency, but by their own natural gravitation. The configuration of the dry land is not described; but there is reason to believe that the original distribution of land and water was the same, or nearly the same, as it is at present. Physical geographers have observed that the coast lines of the great continents and the mountain ranges generally run from north-east to south-west, and that these lines are in reality parts of great circles, tangent to the polar circle, and at right angles to a line drawn from the sun‘s center to the moon’s, when these bodies are either in conjunction or in opposition. These circles, it has further been remarked, are “the lines on which the thin crust of a cooling globe would be most likely to be ruptured by its internal tidal wave.” Hence, though considerably modified by the mighty revolutions through which at successive periods the earth has passed, “these, with certain subordinate lines of fracture, have determined the forms of continents from the beginning”. And it was so. Though the separation of the dry land from the waters and the distribution of both were effected by Divine agency, nothing in the Mosaic narrative obliges us to think that these works were instantaneously completed. “There is truly no difficulty in supposing that the formation of the hills kept on through the succeeding creative days” (Lange). “Generally the works of the single creative days consist only in laying foundations; the birth process that is introduced in each extends its efficacy be, yond it” (Delitzsch). “Not how long, but how many times, God created is the thing intended to be set forth” by the creative days (Hoffman). Scripture habitually represents the world in an aspect at once natural and supernatural, speaking of it as natura and creatura, and ; and although the latter is the view exhibited with greatest prominence, indeed exclusively, in the Mosaic cosmogony, vet the frowner is not thereby denied, Not immediateness, but certainty of execution, is implied in the “it was so” appended to the creative fiat.
Gen 1:10
And God called the dry land Earth. In opposition to the firmament, which was named” the heights” (shamayim), the dry land was styled “the fiats,” “Aretz” (cf. Sansc; dhara; Pehlev; arta; Latin, terra; Gothic, airtha; Scottish, yird; English, earth; rid. Gesenius). Originally applied to the dry ground as distinguished from the seas, as soon as it was understood that the solid earth was continuous beneath the water masses, by an easy extension of meaning it came to signify the whole surface of the globe. And the gathering together of the waters called he Seas. Yamim, from yom, to boil or foam, is applied in Scripture to any large collection of water (cf. Gen 14:3; Num 34:11; Deu 4:49; Joe 2:20). “The plural form seas shows that the one place consists of several basins” (Murphy). And God saw that it was good. The waters having been permanently withdrawn to the place founded for them by the upheaval of the great mountain ranges, and the elevation of the continental areas, the work thus accomplished is sealed by the Divine approval. The separation of the land and water was good, as a decided advance towards the completion of the cosmos, as the proper termination of the work commenced upon the previous day, as the production of two elements in themselves beautiful, and in separation useful as abodes of life, with which they were in due course to be replenished. “To our view,” says Dawson, “that primeval dry land would scarcely have seemed good. It was a world of bare, rocky peaks and verdureless valleyshere active volcanoes, with their heaps of scoriae, and scarcely cooled lava currentsthere vast mud-fiats, recently upheaved from the bottom of the watersnowhere even a blade of grass or a clinging lichen. Yet it was good in the view of its Maker, who could see it in relation to the uses for which he had made it, and as a fit preparatory step to the new wonders he was soon to introduce. “Besides,” the first dry land may have presented crags, and peaks, and ravines, and volcanic cones in a more marvelous and perfect manner than any succeeding continents, even as the dry and barren moon now, in this respect, far surpasses the earth”.
Gen 1:11
And God said, Let the earth bring forth grass, the herb yielding seed, and the fruit tree yielding fruit after his kind, whose seed is in itself, upon the earth: and it was so. Three terms are employed to describe the vegetation here summoned into existence. Kalisch regards the first as a generic term, including the second and the third; but they are better understood as distinct classes:
(1) grass, deshe, first sprouts of the earth, tender herb, in which the seed is not noticed, as not being obvious to the eye; “tenera herha sine semine saltem conspicuo“ (Rosenmller); probably the various kinds of grasses that supply food for the lower animals (cf. Psa 23:2);
(2) “the herb (eseb) yielding seed,” the more mature herbage, in which the seed is the most striking characteristic; the larger description of plants and vegetables (of. Gen 9:3); and
(3) “the fruit tree yielding fruit after his kind, whose seed is in itself, upon (or above) the earth.” The first clause describes its specific nature“fruit-bearing;” the second, its peculiar characteristicenclosing the seed in its fruit; the third, its external appearancerising above the ground. “This division is simple and natural. It proceeds upon two concurrent marks, the structure and the seed. In the first the green blade is prominent; in the second, the stalk; in the third, the woody texture. In the first the seed is not conspicuous; in the second it is conspicuous; in the third it is enclosed in a fruit which is conspicuous” (Murphy). The phrase “after his kind, appended to the second and third, seems to indicate that the different species of plants were already fixed. The modern dogma of the origin of species by development would thus be declared to be un–biblical, as it has not yet been proved to be scientific. The utmost that can be claimed as established is that “species,” qua species, have the power of variation along the line of certain characteristics belonging to themselves, but not that any absolutely new species has ever been developed with power indefinitely to multiply its kind.
Gen 1:12
And the earth brought forth grass, and herb yielding seed after his kind, and the tree yielding fruit, whose seed was in itself, after his kind. It is noticeable that the vegetation of the third day sprang from the soil in the same natural manner in which all subsequent vegetation has done, viz; by growth, which seems to resolve the well-known problem of whether the tree was before the seed, or the seed before the tree, in favor of the latter alternative, although in the order of nature the parent is always before the offspring. In all probability the seed forms were in the soil from the first, only waiting to be vitalized by the Ruach ElohimThe Spirit of God; or they may have been then created. Certainly they were not evolved from the dead matter of the dry land. Scripture, no more than science, is acquainted with Abiogenesis. Believing that “if it were given to her to- look beyond the abyss of geologically recorded time, she might “witness the evolution of living protoplasm from not living matter,” science yet honestly affirms “that she sees no reason for believing that the feat (of vitalizing dead matter) has been performed yet”; and Scripture is emphatic that, if it is protoplasm which makes organized beings, the power which manufactures protoplasm is the Ruach Elohim, acting in obedience to the Divine Logos. The time when the earth put forth its verdure, viz; towards the close of the third day, after light, air, earth, and water had been prepared and so adjusted as to minister to the life of plants, was a signal proof of the wisdom of the Creator and of the naturalness of his working.
Gen 1:13
And the evening and the morning were the third day. For exposition vid. Gen 1:5. Has modern geological research any trace of this third day’s vegetation? The late Hugh Miller identified the long-continued epoch of profuse vegetation, since then unparalleled in rapidity and luxuriance, which deposited the coal-measures of the carboniferous system, with the latter half of this Mosaic day. Dana, Dawson, and others, rejecting this conclusion of the eminent geologist on the ground that the underlying Devonian, Silurian, and Cambrian systems yield abundant fossiliferous remains of aquatic life, infer that the third day’s vegetation is to be sought for among the “unresolved schists” of the Azoic period. The metamorphic rocks, it is true, have not as yet yielded any absolutely certain traces of vegetable life; and. indeed, it is an open question, among geologists whether any of the earliest formed metamorphic rocks now remain; but still it is susceptible of almost perfect demonstration that plants preceded animals upon the earth.
1. Among the hypozoic strata of this early period limestone rocks and graphite have been discovered, both of these being of organic origin.
2. In the process of cooling the earth must have been fitted for vegetable life a long time before animals could have existed.
3. As the luxuriant vegetation of the coal period prepared the way for the subsequent introduction of animal life by ridding the atmosphere of carbonic acid, so by the presence of plants must the ocean have been fitted to be the abode of aquatic life.
4. Vegetation, being directly, or mediately, the food of animals, must have had a previous existence. On these grounds Professor Dana concludes that the latter part of the Azoic age of geology corresponds with the latter half of the third creative day. In the Creation Series of Chaldean tablets are two fragments, which George Smith conjectures have a reference to the first part of the third day’s work. The one is
1. When the foundation of the ground of rock (thou didst make)
2. The foundation of the ground thou didst call
3. Thou didst beautify the heaven
4. To the face of the heaven
5. Thou didst give
The other, which is much more mutilated and obscure, describes the god Sat (or Assur) as saying
7. Above the sea which is the sea of
8. In front of the esara (firmament) which I have made.
9. Below the place I strengthen it
10. Let there be made also e-lu (earth?) for the dwelling of [man?]
HOMILETICS
Gen 1:9-12
Sea, land, and vegetation, contrasted and compared.
I. CONTRASTED, in respect of
1. Their constitutions;sea being matter liquid and mobile, land matter solid and dry, vegetation matter organized and living. All God’s creatures have their own peculiar natures and characteristic structures. Each one’s nature is that which makes it what it is. A change of constitutional characteristics would be equivalent to an alteration of being. The nature and structure of each are assigned it by God. Whence may be gathered
(1) that if all creatures are not the same, it is because God has so willed it;
(2) that God has so willed it, for this among other reasons, that he delights in variety;
(3) that no separate creature can be other than its individual nature will allow;
(4) that to wish to be different from what God has made us is to be guilty of a foolish as well as sinful discontent; and
(5) that a creature’s highest function is to act in accordance with its God-assigned nature.
2. Their situations; which were all different, yet all adapted to their respective natures and uses, and all wisely appointed. The waters were gathered into the earth’s hollows, the lands raised above the ocean’s surface, the plants spread upon the ground. It is the nature of water to seek the lowest levels; and, collected into ocean, lake, and riverbeds, it is of infinitely greater value than it would have been had it continued to overspread the globe. Similarly, Submerged beneath the waters, neither could the land have been arrayed in verdure, or made a habitation for the beasts, much less a home for man; nor could the plant, have grown without a dry soil to root in, while their beauty would have been concealed and their utility destroyed. And then each one has the place assigned it by God, out of which it cannot move, and against which it need not fret. The place founded for the waters has received them, and God has set a bound to them that they cannot pass. The dry land still maintains its elevation above the sea; and, as if in obedience to the Divine Creator’s will, the waves are continually building up terraces and raised beaches in compensation for those they are taking down, Nor does it seem possible to shake off the vegetation from the soil. Scarcely has a square inch of ground been recovered from the waters, than it begins to deck itself in green. Let us learn here
(1) that every creature of God, man included, has its own place; which is
(2) best suited to its nature, functions, and roses on the earth; and
(3) assigned it by God. Also,
(4) that to vacate that place would be to run counter to God’s ordinance and to God’s wisdom, as well as to its own nature and usefulness; and
(5) that it becomes every one to abide in that sphere of life in which he has been placed by God contentedly, cheerfully and diligently seeking to glorify his Creator. Their operations; which are as diversified as are their natures and places. The sea moves, the land rests, the plant grows. The sea fertilizes and beautifies the soil, the soil sustains and nourishes the plant, the plant decorates the land and gives food to man and beast. The sea fills the clouds, the clouds fill the rivers and the streams, the rivers and the streams slake the thirst of the valleys, the valleys, yield their substance to the corn and the wine and the oil, and these again deliver up their treasures to their masterman. The sea divides the land into continents, which, in turn, are broken up into countries by rivers; and thus nationalities are formed, and peace promoted by division. As the great highway of the nations, too, the sea helps to diffuse abroad the blessings of civilization, and to teach men their interdependence. So, likewise, the land has its specific functions in the economy of nature, being assigned to support, sustain, enrich, instruct, and comfort man. And different from both are the uses of the plants. All which is fitted to suggest wisdom.
(1) That each separate creature has its own separate work to do, for which it has been fitted with appropriate powersa lesson of diligence.
(2) That there are many different ways of serving God in this worlda lesson of charity.
(3) That God does not wish all his creatures either to be or to serve alike-a lesson of contentment.
(4) That the best way to serve God is to be ourselves and use the powers we possess, without condescending to imitate our neighbors-a lesson of individuality.
(5) That though each separate creature has its own nature, place, and power, yet each is subservient to the other, and all to the whole-a lesson of co-operation.
II. COMPARED, in respect of
1. Their natures, as being God’s creatures. Land, sea, and vegetation all owe their existence to his Almighty fiat, and all equally proclaim themselves to be his handiwork. Hence they are all God’s propertythe earth with its fullness, the sea with its treasures, the plants with their virtues. Consequently man should
(1) reverently worship him who made the sea and formed the dry land, and caused the grass to grow;
(2) thankfully receive those highly serviceable creatures at God’s hand; and,
(3) remembering whose they are and that himself is but a steward, faithfully employ them for their Creator’s glory.
2. Their characters, as being obedient to the Divine word. “Gathered be the seas,” said the word, and the seas were gathered. “Let the dry land appear,” and it appeared. “Let the grass grow.” And the grass grew. Let the land, sea, and plants be our teachers. Obedience the first duty of a creature. Nothing can compensate for its want (1Sa 15:22). And this obedience must be prompt, complete, and continual, like that of sea, land, and vegetation.
3. Their varieties. The seas were divided into oceans, lakes, rivers; the land into mountains, hills, and valleys the plants into grasses, herbs, and trees. God loves diversity in unity. As in a great house there are vessels of small quantity and vessels of large quantity (Isa 22:24), so in the world are the creatures divided into more important and less. In society men are distributed into ranks and classes according to their greatness and ability; in the Church there are “babes” and there are “perfect men” in Christ; there are those possessed of many talents and much grace, and those whose endowments and acquirements are of smaller dimensions.
4. Their qualities, as being all good in their Creator’s estimation. The highest excellence of a creature is to be approved by its Maker, rot simply commended by its fellow-creature; to be good in the judgment of God, and not merely in the sight of men.
Fuente: The Complete Pulpit Commentary
Gen 1:9. And God said, Let the waters be gathered together After the elements of light and air were appointed to their proper places, the next in density, the water, i.e.. the lower water, or that under the air, is separated, by the divine direction; and thus, at length, the earth, or dry land, emerges and appears. It is to be observed, that Moses introduces every mutation with the words God said; intimating, that the power and energy of the Divinity over-ruled and conducted each operation; and, however natural causes might work, was the primum mobile, or the first great Mover throughout the whole formation.
Unto one place All the waters of the world have one general communication. The rivers and the fountains all return themselves into the sea; and all seas have either a visible or secret communication with each other. I have no doubt but the Caspian sea disgorges itself, by subterraneous passages, into the Euxine, or the Ocean, which may be considered as the grand reservoir (the ONE PLACE) of all the waters of the earth. This observation is confirmed by the name given Gen 1:10 to this one place, this conflux, or great receptacle, of all the congregated waters, seas, or ocean. All the waters make, in this sense, but one ocean, as all the dry land makes but one earth. How all this was brought about, how the channels were hollowed, the rocks and mountains formed, &c. it is impossible for us to determine! Only this we know, that the Divine Power continued his interposition, and by his omnipotent energy, to which all things are easy, directed the whole!
Fuente: Commentary on the Holy Bible by Thomas Coke
Gen 1:9 And God said, Let the waters under the heaven be gathered together unto one place, and let the dry [land] appear: and it was so.
Ver. 9,10. Let the waters under the heaven be gathered, &c. ] The water, they say, is ten times greater than the earth, as is the air ten times greater than the water, and the fire than the air. Sure it is, that the proper place of the water is to be “above the earth”. Psa 104:6 Sailors tell us that as they draw nigh to shore, when they enter into the haven, they run as it were downhill. “The waters stood above the mountain,” till (at God’s rebuke here) they “fled, and hasted away at the voice of his thunder, to the place which he had founded for them”. Psa 104:6-8 This drew from Aristotle, in one place, a a testimony of God’s providence, which elsewhere he denies. And David, in the 104th Psalm, which one calleth his Physics, tells us that till the word of command, “Let the waters,” &c., God “had covered the earth with the deep as with a garment.” For as the garment, in the proper use of it, is above the body, so is the sea above the land. And such a garment, saith the divine cosmographer, would it have been to the earth, but for God’s providence towards us, as the shirt made for the murdering of Agamemnon, where he had no issue out. But “thou hast set a bound,” saith the psalmist, “that they may not pass over, that they turn not again to cover the earth”. Psa 104:9 God had set the solid earth upon and above the liquid waters for our conveniency; so that men are said “to go down” (not up) “to the sea in ships”. Psa 107:23 See his mercy herein, as in a mirror, and believe that God, whose work it is still to “appoint us the bounds of our habitation,” Act 17:26 will not fail to provide us a hospitium , a place to reside in, when cast out of all, as he did David, Psa 27:10 and David’s parents, 1Sa 22:4 and the apostles, 2Co 6:10 and the English exiles in Queen Mary’s days, and, before them, Luther, who, being asked where he thought to be safe, answered Under Heaven , Sub caelo b and yet before him, those persecuted Waldenses, after whom the Romish dragon cast out so much water as a flood, but the earth swallowed it; Rev 12:15 and God so provided that they could travel from Cullen in Germany to Milan in Italy, and every night lodge with hosts of their own profession. c The waters of affliction are often gathered together against the godly, but, by God’s gracious appointment, ever under the heaven, – where our conversation is, Php 3:20 though our commoration be a while upon earth, – and unto one place, as the text here has it. d The dry land will appear, and we shall come safe to shore, be sure of it. The rock of eternity, Isa 26:4 whereupon we are set, is above all billows. Washed we may be, as Paul was in the shipwreck; drowned we cannot be, because in the same bottom with Christ, and “kept by the power of God through faith unto salvation.” 1Pe 1:5
a Lib. De Mirabil.
b Scultet. Annal.
c Cade. Of the Church , p. 180.
d Pareus, in loc.
NASB (UPDATED) TEXT: Gen 1:9-13
9Then God said, Let the waters below the heavens be gathered into one place, and let the dry land appear; and it was so. 10God called the dry land earth, and the gathering of the waters He called seas; and God saw that it was good. 11Then God said, Let the earth sprout vegetation: plants yielding seed, and fruit trees on the earth bearing fruit after their kind with seed in them; and it was so. 12The earth brought forth vegetation, plants yielding seed after their kind, and trees bearing fruit with seed in them, after their kind; and God saw that it was good. 13There was evening and there was morning, a third day.
Gen 1:9-10 The initial two VERBS (BDB 876, KB 1082 and BDB 906, KB 1157) are both Niphal IMPERATIVES used as JUSSIVES. Does this imply one continent (i.e. Pangaea)? The earth is changing form (i.e. tectonic plates) continually. The question again is the age of the earth. Notice also God controls all natural phenomenon. There are no nature gods!
Gen 1:9 let the dry land appear This is similar to the original holy hill of Egyptian cosmology. Another example of this sharing of a common world-view throughout the ANE would be humans created from clay. This is common to the creation accounts of Mesopotamia, Egypt and Israel.
Gen 1:11-12 This was not meant to be a technical description for the origin of all plant life. It seems to refer to three types of plants: grasses, grains, and fruit. The animals will eat the first and second; humans will eat the second and third. God is preparing the earth step by step as a stage or platform on which to fellowship with and sustain His highest creation, mankind.
There have been several modern scientific theories as to the order of the development of plant life. Some scientists would assert this very order. But we must be careful because scientific theories change. Christians do not believe the Bible because science and archaeology confirm a matter. We believe it because of the peace we have found in Christ and the Bible’s own statements of inspiration.
Gen 1:11 Let the earth sprout This is a Hiphel JUSSIVE of the verb sprout (BDB 205, KB 233).
after their kind Creation is structured (cf. Gen 1:12; Gen 1:21; Gen 1:24-25; Gen 6:20; Gen 7:14) so that once created, plants, animals and humans can reproduce and adapt in and of themselves. God created life to adapt. At this level, evolution to varying conditions surely occurred through time (micro-evolution or horizontal evolution).
There is a growing trend in theology toward the concept of progressive creation which implies that God may have created mankind (1) in stages or (2) Adam and Eve were created at a later stage, fully developed (cf. writings of Bernard Ramm and Hugh Ross).
In contrast to the ancient Near East where fertility was worshiped as twin gods, this shows the source of life as God, not a sexual act. In many ways this creation account diminishes the gods of the ancient Near East (water; light/dark; heavenly bodies; forces of nature; and fertility gods) as the plagues of the Exodus depreciated the gods of Egypt. The sole initiator is the one and only God!
Chapter 1:9-31
Now on the third day,
God said, Let the waters under the heaven be gathered together into one place, and let the dry land appear: and it was so. And God called the dry land Earth; and the gathering together of the waters he called the Seas: and God saw that it was good. And God said, Let the earth bring forth grass, and herb yielding seed, and fruit trees yielding fruit after his kind, whose seed is in itself, upon the earth: and it was so (Gen 1:9-11).
Now the key here is the grass and the vegetables and the trees yielding seed after their kind. We’ve never been able to disprove this. Men have been planting grains of wheat for millenniums and he has yet to plant a grain of wheat and have a corn stalk grow out of it. They are “herb-yielding seed after their kind,” each has its own little code within it that reproduces after its kind; very fascinating indeed.
Also, here we begin to see some of the inventive genius of God, creating seeds to produce after their own kind. But it would be necessary for those seeds to propagate themselves into other areas. And so I am always fascinated with the various kinds of ways that God designed for the seeds to propagate themselves.
There are some little seeds that grow in the pinecones. Now, if they would drop straight down under the pine tree, they would probably never survive very long because the mother pine would be taking too much of the nutrients from the soil. There wouldn’t be room for it to grow, there wouldn’t be enough light, and so the seed needs to get out away from the mother pine a bit. So what did God do? He designed a little wing on that seed. And when the pinecone dries, it begins to pop open, and the little seed falls free. But with that wing, it begins to spin almost like a helicopter rotor and it spins on out far enough away from the pine tree so that when it lands, it can fine a suitable place to grow up into a new pine. Marvelous accident! I wonder how long the pine tree could have existed before it decided, “I need to get my seeds out further” and it developed the little wing on the seed.
There are other seeds that when the pod dries out they explode. They pop and the seed shoots out, exploding kind of a seed. Then there are other seeds that put a little hook on the end of the seed, and you or an animal walks by, and that little seed hooks on to your pants and it gets a free ride or it hooks in to your socks. And so you get the feeling, an irritation in your ankle, and you reach down and pull that seed out and throw it down. Oh, you helped it propagate itself.
There are other seeds that develop a quick-drying glue. The minute it touches you, it glues itself to you. But then, pretty soon, as the glue dries completely, it falls off and it has propagated itself. Other seeds surround themselves with a luscious tasting juice and all, and a little bit of meaty stuff, and so you eat, or the bear eats the berries, then later on he propagates the seeds in other areas.
The way that seeds are designed to propagate themselves are fascinating indeed. There are some seeds that build a little parachute. They sprout out a little parachute on top of the seed and they just wait for the wind to come along, and the wind comes and lifts the seed. And you see it floating through the air, its heading somewhere to propagate itself wherever the wind will let it drop and then it will burrow in and begin to grow.
The coconut seed is a fascinating seed; it’s conquered the South Pacific. It put a waterproof husk around itself. And thus, when the hurricane would blow, the coconut would fall off and fall into the water, and it would be carried because of the waterproof husk. It would be carried across the ocean and be thrown up on a beach somewhere. And the surf would sort of cover it with sand, and it had enough water inside to support the roots until they could get deep enough to get their own water source. And of course a little coconut tree would come up and then he would begin to propagate across the South Pacific islands.
Fruit bearing seeds, vegetable-bearing seeds, grass bearing seeds, after their kind. Oh, what a testimony of the inventive genius of God in creation. As the Bible says, “The heavens declare the glory of God, and the earth sheweth forth his handiwork. And day unto day they utter their speech; night unto night their voice goeth forth. There is not a speech nor a language” (Psa 19:1-3).
And you just look around, God’ll speak to you through the grass, through the vegetables, through the flowers, through the trees. Through His creation, as you look at the wisdom, as you study it, as God has designed the leaves to take and turn the sunrays into energy and, and all, and the photosynthesis processes by which the sun is turned into energy to feed the tree and all. Marvelous are His ways. Marvelous is His creative genius as you really look at the various life forms.
And the earth brought forth grass, and [vegetable or] herb-yielding seed after his kind, and tree yielding fruit, whose seed was in itself, after his kind: and God saw that it was good. And the evening and the morning were the third day. And God said, Let there be light in the firmament in the heaven (Gen 1:12-14)
Now, the word light here is “meor”. The word light in Hebrew is “or”. The word “meor” is a light holder. So let there be the “light holders” in the heavens
to divide the day from the night; and let them be for signs, and for seasons, and for days, and for years (Gen 1:14):
And so our time is calculated by the sun and the moon, and it is generally thought that the Earth’s rotation around the sun was a three hundred and sixty-day year. That is what the Babylonian calendar was predicated upon, and there is a lot of evidence to show that also the Mayan, Incan, Chinese calendars where all predicated on a three hundred and sixty-day year. Somehow, the earth’s orbit was changed around the sun, and now it is three hundred and sixty-five years, nine hours, fifty-six minutes, nine and four-hundredths of a second. What caused the change? We don’t know for sure.
Emmanuel Vilikovski again in his book, “Worlds in Collision” as you get into the book, we’ll find out that his theory that the introduction of the planet Venus into our solar system that caused the change of the Earth’s orbit around the sun. Now, I don’t know, it’s very possible. He presents very interesting arguments. But yet, our year is measured by the time it takes our Earth to make its rotation around the sun. And the months were originally lunar months, the time it takes the moon to go through its full cycle, as it orbits around the Earth. So that, they are for signs, for times, for seasons and so forth; and so this becomes very interesting.
Now, if this is a process of “re-creation,” then it would mean that on the fourth day, actually God did not create the sun and the moon on the fourth day, but He had now allowed them to be in their present, current positions in their relationship to the Earth, and he removed the shroud of fog, and all, from the Earth so that you can finally see the sun and the moon.
Now, we have evening and mornings, where we don’t see the sun, cloudy days, cloudy all day long. I still know it’s daytime, because there’s light, but yet I don’t see the sun. I know it’s night because it’s dark, but I don’t see the moon, because there is a cloud cover that prohibits me seeing the moon or prohibits my seeing the sun.
Now, this fog, cloud cover could have been removed on the fourth day, so that the “light holder” becomes visible. It is difficult to explain how they could have an evening and morning without the rotation of the earth on its axis if the sun wasn’t in position from verse one, and it wasn’t created until the fourth day. How could you’ve evening and morning in the first three days? So, that seems to lend credence to the “gap theory” that the heavens and the earth were created in verse one, this is an account of re-creation.
Now the fog cloud’s removed and the sun and the moon becoming visible and are now used to mark off years and days and months; used as time indicators and the greater light to rule the day, the lesser light holder to rule the night. Now, the moon we know has no light of itself, it isn’t in conflict with the scripture. It’s just called a light holder. A mirror can be in a sense a light holder, such as is the moon. It would fit with the Hebrew word “meor”. It doesn’t necessarily mean a source of light.
let them be for lights in the firmament in the heavens to give light upon the earth: and it was so. And God made two great lights; the greater light to rule the day, and the lesser light to rule the night: [and] he made the stars also. And God set them in the heavens [the firmament, in the limitless space of heaven, the rachowq of heaven] to give light upon the earth, and to rule over the day and over the night, and to divide the light from the darkness: and God saw that it was good. And the evening and the morning were the fourth day. And God said, Let the waters bring forth abundantly the moving creature that hath life, and the fowl that may fly above the earth in the open firmament of heaven. And God created the 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. And God blessed them, saying, Be fruitful, and multiply, and fill the waters in the seas, and let the fowl multiply in the earth. And the evening and the morning were the fifth day (Gen 1:15-23).
Now as we get into the creation of the animal-type of life in the fifth day, first of all, the life forms in the water, “Let the waters bring forth abundantly,” and my, the teeming life forms in the water! And again the design, and the variety! I love to go snorkeling over in Hawaii. The tremendous variety of life forms that I can see. Now, there are a lot of life forms that I can’t even see, the waters are teeming with life forms. But I often wonder why God made such weird-looking fish, in such variety, and then the fabulous colors! It’s just to me exciting, that God is not limited to just one design.
If you’d look around tonight you’d see that God isn’t limited to just one design. Yet, we all possess the basic same, you know, the basic same features. We all have a nose, we all have eyes, we all have eyebrows, we all have—well, we, most of us, have you know, some hair at least. And you know, teeth, and mouth, chin, cheeks and so forth. And yet, look at the variety! You’ve got same, basically the same features, and yet we don’t look alike at all! It just testifies to God’s neat, inventive genius, and being able to take same basic features and just creates an infinite number of varieties.
God evidently likes variety. He makes every snowflake different. Every one of them is a perfect geometrical pattern, but no two snowflakes alike. Of the trillions of snowflakes that fall every year, God just likes variety so much. He doesn’t make any two of them alike. And yet, they are so exquisitely beautiful when you look at them under a microscope. The geometric patterns and design.
And so, of all of the millions of people, there may be some who look somewhat alike, and yet, you know, when you get to know twins, you’ll be able to tell them apart at sight, because there’s just enough difference between everybody. Though the twins may have come from the same cell, divided and thus, they have the same chromosome content and gene content as each other, yet the variations that develop, I just am amazed at creation. I just love to see the different life forms.
I love to see these crazy, little tiny bugs and I don’t even know what they are, or where they’re going, and I wonder if they know where they’re going, but they know how to fly. Now, they fly in erratic patterns, and sometimes they can be pesky, but, they’ll land sometimes, I’ll read my Bible and they’ll land on my Bible, and I’ll just look and study them. And I’ll think, you marvelous little creature, you, you can fly! You’ve got something over me. So designed, so constructed, that you can fly off of that page, and just the wide variety! A fly, you hate them, but yet what fabulous design! Swept back wing design, and their ability to just hover, and then almost to fly backwards. I mean, you know, when you see them they just, they can dart in several directions, and then they can land on the ceiling and walk. And I’ve often wondered how close does he get to the ceiling before he flips over so he can land on his feet. That’s gonna worry you, isn’t it?
But, oh, how marvelous is our God! How infinite His wisdom! How great His creative genius in all of the life forms that we see. Now we have the basic life forms, the plant life forms, on the third day. Here on the fifth day, now, we have the more complex life forms. The plant forms of course, are necessarily rooted. The roots themselves are marvelous. They are able to go down and each little root is a chemical laboratory. And it is able to take out of the soil just the necessary chemicals to support that particular plant; able to tell the difference between the chemicals, knows just the chemicals that it needs out of the soil to feed the particular plant that it’s coming from, to bring the moisture up out of the soil and all. Marvelous, absolutely marvelous!
But we get the more complex life forms that sort of are a little independent. They’re not rooted, they’re not grounded, they are mobile, and the various cycles that God has created, the whole process is just so marvelous indeed. The water, teeming with life, and then the air, and the many, many kinds of birds and the variety of birds that God has created. And those instinctive abilities in the birds!
I’m always fascinated by that little bird in Hawaii that goes up into the Aleutian chain in order to mate. During the summer, they take off from Hawaii and they fly all the way up into Alaska where they mate. They build their nests, they lay the eggs, they hatch their young. And then with the coming of winter, they don’t want to spend winter in Alaska — and who can blame them. And you have to almost envy them, spending their winters in Hawaii. They take off over the thousands of miles without suitcases, without spare gas tanks, without compasses or navigational equipment. And they come and fly right into Hawaii, sometimes they get into severe storms, one-hundred, two-hundred mile an hour winds that blow them off course, but somehow they find their way right in. You say, “oh, they remember the way they flew out.”
How do they reckon? Some think they have some kind of device that tunes on the magnetic field of the earth. I don’t know. But, really, they’re not following the same path, so that argument’s sort of shot down, because, really, the parents decide to leave for Hawaii before the kids are able to fly that far. So, the parents fly off to Hawaii, leaving their kids in Alaska! But, it doesn’t seem to matter, cause a couple of weeks later, their kids take off and they fly right to Hawaii. Never been there before, yet somehow, God has built into this little bird that kind of instinct; and that’s a bird brain. And it’s not a very big kind of a computer. Talk about microsystems!
Oh, the wisdom of God, the wisdom of God. How thrilling to be able to see the design in nature, all testifying of the wisdom of the God that I serve. I’m so glad that I serve Him. I’m so glad that I know Him. Such a glorious God, so wise; all of these created life forms. Now, He created also the mammals, the great whales. He created the animals, the domesticated-type animals, all after their own kind.
And the evening and the morning were the fifth day.
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. And God made the beast of the earth after his kind, and the cattle after their kind, and every thing that creepeth upon the earth after his kind: and it was good. And God said, Let us make man in our image, and after our likeness: and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth. And God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him; male and female created he them (Gen 1:24-27).
So we find, now, the crowning act of God’s creation. Having created the world with its many life forms, He now wants one to rule over these life forms. So God said, “let us make man in our image, after our likeness.”
The tri-unity of God is found in the first verse of the Bible, “in the beginning God,” the word in Hebrew is “Elohim”. Elohim is a plural word. Other places in the Old Testament it is translated Gods. “El” is God in Hebrew, singular. In Hebrew there is a dual tense, two, and the Hebrew “Elah” is God in a dual tense. But “Elohim” is the plural tense for God. And so, even the tri-unity of God is expressed in the first verse, “in the beginning God,” Elohim. Not “El”, but “Elohim” created the heavens and the earth.
And the Spirit of God, the Holy Spirit, moved over the face of the waters. “And God said”. The moment God spoke, you have the Word of God. “And in the beginning was the Word, the Word was with God, the Word was God. And the same was in the beginning with God, and all things were made by Him”(Joh 1:1).
Now you have God saying “let us make man in our image after our likeness”. Who was God talking to? God after the counsel of His own will, in the triunity of the Godhead which we, in our feeble, finite minds cannot comprehend. But in that trinity of His nature, He said “let us make man after our image” and thus he made man after His image, a trinity of nature. So God is a superior trinity. Man, made in the image of God is an inferior trinity. The superior trinity being Father, Son and Holy Spirit, the inferior trinity of man being body, soul and spirit.
“After His likeness”. The chief governing characteristic of God is His self-determination, His will, His ability to choose and to determine His own destiny or His own mind. Man, being created in the image of God was created a self-determinant being. Being created after the image of God, God created me with a capacity to choose. I have the power of self-determination. I can choose what I want. I have that power, that capacity. I’m made in the image of God, who is a self-determinant being.
Now, if God created me with a capacity of choice, it would be totally meaningless unless He gave me a choice. What value would it be for me to have the capacity to choose if there was nothing to choose? Not only giving me the capacity of choice, He also respects the choice that I make. Again, what value would it be for God to give me the freedom of choice but then not respect the choice? I say, “well I want to do this”. He says bloop, “you can’t do that.” Then that isn’t’ free choice. He has, He does not respect my choice, and thus it isn’t really the freedom of choice. So having given me the capacity of choice, making me in His image, He has to then offer me an alternative, give me a choice to make; but then, He has to respect that choice that I have made.
Part of the intricacy of self-determination; that image of God in which man was created. That is why, when God created man and He created the garden for man to dwell in, that He put in that Garden a tree of knowledge of good and evil and said to man, “Don’t eat that”. Therein is the choice that man was given, because having been created with the capacity of choice, it is no value unless there is something to choose.
But again, in honoring and respecting my choice, if I choose that I don’t want to know God, I don’t want to serve God, I don’t want to love God, then it would be manifestly wrong for Him to force me to go to heaven where I would have to love Him, and have to be with Him, and have to serve Him. “I don’t want God in my life! I don’t want God around me! I don’t, I want God to leave me alone!” All right, if He then doesn’t leave me alone, He’s not respecting my choice. What value is it then for me to have a choice if He doesn’t respect it? It is an awesome thing to realize that God does respect my choice.
Now, He does speak to influence my choice because He loves me, and He knows what is best for me. And knowing me and loving me, and knowing what is best, He seeks to influence my choice and to direct my choice, but I always have the right to say, “bug off, God, I don’t want to follow you.” And He will not force His choice upon me, because that would not be free choice.
The chief emotional attribute of God is love. God making me in His image has made me with this beautiful capacity to love. I am capable of loving, of giving and receiving love, and to know the meaningfulness of giving and receiving love, because I am created in the image of God and that’s His chief emotional characteristic; is to love. Now God is honored when I follow Him, and I love as He loves. But I don’t have to, again I have a choice, and I can choose to hate if I want. But I have the capacity to love.
So man was made in the image of God and in the likeness of God. Now, that does not necessarily mean a physical likeness of God. What God looks like; none of us know. God constantly refused that man should make any kind of a likeness of Him. Thus, as God appeared to man in the Old Testament, there was no form, so that man would not think of God in the terms of a form and try to carve out a form that would represent God.
The likeness of God we see in Jesus Christ; the fullness of the Godhead bodily dwells in Christ. Now, when God created our bodies, He created ears so that we could hear, designed them so that they would pick up sound vibrations that would bounce or vibrate the little incus stapes, and bones in there and send these vibrations into the brain that my brain would interpret as words and sounds and make it intelligible to me. So, I think of my ears when I think of hearing.
Now, I know that God can hear, but it doesn’t necessarily follow that God has ears. I need ears to hear, but God wouldn’t necessarily need ears to hear. I make sounds by the use of the throat and the tongue and the teeth, and the roof of the mouth and so forth. I form the sounds by the expelling of air and the movement of all of these things in coordination, so that the sounds come forth in a way, that because we have agreed that particular sounds mean particular things, I’m able to communicate intelligibly to you through sounds that I can form in my mouth. I can speak to you.
Now, when God speaks, He doesn’t necessarily need all the vocal apparatus that I have; a voice box, a larynx and a tongue and all of this. I have this little system in my eyes with the vitreous jelly on the backside that is taking these little pictures at the rate of about eighteen per second and transmitting the vibrations on into the brain by which my eyes are interpreting the world around me and making it understandable as the vibrations are coming into my brain, and all of it’s unscrambling and interpretation as these little flash vibrations are bounced in at eighteen per second. And I am able to recognize you and say “oh yeah that’s” and the color of clothes that you’re wearing and the, you know, the whole thing. Your eyes are picking it all up and sending all those messages into the brain. No wonder you get tired at the end of the day.
And thus, I know that God can see, but it doesn’t follow that God has to have eyes to see. But because I relate seeing to eyes, and when I talk to God about seeing, I would say, well, the eyes of the Lord go to and fro throughout the entire earth, but it doesn’t necessarily follow that God has eyes, because eyes aren’t necessarily essential for seeing.
So what does God look like? We don’t know. He doesn’t want you to know, because we’d just be dumb enough to carve out of a little stick God, and hang Him around our neck, and you know, we’d begin to think of God as a little piece of wood, this thing carved out and is strung around my neck. He is certainly too vast, too infinite, to be confined to a form that could be hung around your neck or worn around your wrist. The infinite God, who created this universe and all the life forms within it remains unformed in our own mind. For God is a Spirit, and they that worship Him must worship Him in spirit and in truth, and God is seeking such to worship Him.
So the very first commandment that God gave was “Thou shalt have no other Gods before me.” And then He said, “Thou shalt not make unto thyself any graven image or any likeness of God to bow down and to worship it”. He wants to remain totally formless in your mind.
To this extent, I really don’t care for pictures of Christ, because there is an attempt to define Him in a form. And we really don’t know what He looked like. And if you’re expecting to see Him with shoulder-length hair and a beard, and all, you may be, you may not even recognize Him. You may be, as Isaiah said, astonished, when you see Him. The recognizable part of Christ will be the prints of the nails in His hands and the print of the sword in His side. And as we suggested last Thursday night, it is possible that He’ll be the only handicapped person in there. We’ll all be in our new bodies, perfected bodies that will know no handicaps at all. We’ll know no weakness, no pain, no suffering. But He will still be bearing the marks of His cross, and may be the only malformed body in heaven.
So, “God making man in His own image and after His own likeness” is speaking of that spiritual nature and those capacities of God: self-determination, love, those capacities that He has given to me.
And God blessed them, and he said unto them, Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth, and subdue it: and have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over every living thing that moveth over the earth (Gen 1:28).
So God placed the earth under man’s control and authority. He made man the master over the earth. That he should be fruitful and multiply and replenish the earth, to subdue it, and have dominion over the other created beings of God.
And God said, Behold, I have given you every herb-yielding seed, which is upon the face of all the earth, and every tree, in the which is the fruit of a tree yielding seed; to you it shall be for meat. [It’s your food.] And to every beast of earth, and to every fowl of the air, and to every thing that creepeth upon the earth, wherein there is life, I have given every green herb for meat: and it was so (Gen 1:29-30).
So all of the animals at that point lived off of the grasses and vegetation. There were no carnivorous animals in the beginning. The world was living in harmony with God, and thus in harmony with each other.
And God saw everything that he had made, and, behold, it was very good. And the evening and the morning were the sixth day (Gen 1:31).
Now the first three verses of chapter two belong to chapter one.
Thus were the heavens of the earth were finished, and all [of] the host of them (Gen 2:1).
Which would include the angels, for the angels are called the hosts of heaven.
And on the seventh day God ended his work which he had made; and he rested on the seventh day from all his work which he had made (Gen 2:2).
It doesn’t mean that God was now exhausted, but it means that the creative works were completed. He rested just from His creation. He had created everything that was needed at this point, and so that was the end of His creative act. He ceased His creative act on the seventh day. All of the things were created or reformed within this six-day period. And so God rested from His creative acts, as it points out here, He rested from His creation, all the work which He had made.
And God blessed the seventh day (Gen 2:3)
And He set it apart. The word “sanctified” actually means to be set apart because that in it, He had rested from all of His work, which God had created, made. Now what did He set the seventh day apart for? He set it apart for man’s acknowledging of God. The seventh day was to be the day that we acknowledge God and give unto God, and we do it by resting. A day in which we acknowledge the Creator; it’s set apart for the recognition of the Creator, as He has so left such ample evidence of Himself in His creation.
Now later on, as God calls a nation of people, a separate people to Himself, we will be, we will find Him giving them a law for the seventh day; a covenant between God and Israel forever. And on six days, they are to do their labors, the seventh day they are to rest. Six years they are to plant their fields, the seventh year they are to let their fields rest. Six years they may go into slavery, the seventh year they are set free. And this pattern of six and one, will be established by God throughout the history of His people, and interwoven into their whole culture.
So we find everything is beautiful. The world, the universe has been created. The world has been established now. The environmental conditions have been placed here for man, the trees, the vegetables have been placed here for his food. The atmosphere has been created to sustain his life. The water systems are all there, the animals, and now man to rule over it. It’s done. And God rested on the seventh day from His work of creation.
Now as we get into chapter two, we find a recapitulation that will emphasize the creation of man, because of this recapitulation we have now, because man is being emphasized. The name of God, not just being “Elohim” as it is in chapter one, but more personal because we are dealing with more the creation of man, and we are being given details of the creation of man in chapter two. And thus, because we are now relating God to man, we are coming into that mysterious name of God, “Jehovah”, “Elohim”. Jehovah, meaning “the becoming one” as God relates to man and man’s needs, and He becomes to man whatever man may need.
Now it has caused some of the critics of the Bible to see Genesis not as the work of one Author, but the work of many authors. And chapter one was written by the “Elohistic”; chapter two by the “Jehovistic.” And then you get into the priestly version of it. And so you have the “EPJ” or the “JEP” concepts of how many authors of Genesis, and somebody’s even thrown in an “I” somewhere there. And these stupid, foolish, nonsensical arguments which are of no value and of no profit to anybody.
That’s why I didn’t even get into them. I don’t intend to get into them. They are a waste of your time and my time. It isn’t who wrote it, it was the Holy Spirit that inspired the writing. And rather than trying to figure out who wrote it, it’s better to find out what it says. And so we’ll just go through finding out what it says and we’ll leave the puny, little intellects to their discussions and arguments that are without profit or value to us. What is important for us to know is what did God say. Not how did He say it, or to whom did He say it, but what did He say. For all scripture was given by inspiration of God. So the Holy Spirit, basically, is the author of all the scripture and who He was inspiring is of no import to us.
So next week, we’ll continue with chapter two. And at this rate, I’m sure the Lord will come before we get through the Bible. And I wouldn’t mind the final chapter being written up there anyhow. “Even so, come quickly, Lord Jesus”. If you’re not saying that already, you’ll be saying it before you sit in too many gas lines. As the crisis hour is approaching, the saying of which we’ve been warning, as man has carelessly lived as though there was no tomorrow, we’re coming soon to the day when they’ll be no tomorrow. We see the clock winding out. “Even so, come quickly Lord Jesus”. Exciting days, we’ll have a lot of things to share with you soon, as soon as we get all of our information packets put together. But needless to say, Jesus is coming soon.
Job 26:7, Job 26:10, Job 38:8-11, Psa 24:1, Psa 24:2, Psa 33:7, Psa 95:5, Psa 104:3, Psa 104:5-9, Psa 136:5, Psa 136:6, Pro 8:28, Pro 8:29, Ecc 1:7, Jer 5:22, Jon 1:9, 2Pe 3:5, Rev 10:6
Reciprocal: Gen 1:7 – and it Job 36:30 – and Job 38:10 – brake up for it my decreed place Pro 3:20 – the depths Jon 2:10 – General Luk 5:13 – I will Luk 8:25 – being
Gen 1:9-10. God said, &c. From the production, or separation from gross matter, of light and air, and the assigning them their proper places and uses in the creation, God proceeds, on the third day, to separate, put in order, and control the clement nearest to them in quality and use, fluid like them, comparatively simple, and pure, and although not elastic, yet of great power. Let the waters be gathered into one place The abyss in the bowels of the earth, Gen 7:11, and the hollows connected therewith. Thus, instead of the confusion which existed when the earth and the water were mixed in one great mass, there was now order; and by such a separation, both were rendered useful: the earth was prepared for the habitation and support of man, and various orders of land animals, and the waters for the still more numerous tribes of living creatures, formed to abide and seek their sustenance in the seas, lakes, and rivers.
Gen 1:9-13. Two acts are assigned to the third day, the separation of land and water, and the creation of vegetation. The former was apparently effected by the draining of the waters which covered the land into a receptacle (for one place LXX reads one gathering), so that the dry land emerged into view. It was now possible for it to be clothed with vegetation, first the tender grass, then the herbs or larger plants, and finally trees, especially those that bore fruit. Thus the way is prepared for the creation of man and animal, their food-supply being now provided (Gen 1:29 f.). Possibly, however, the term grass may be intended to cover herb and tree, in which case it means not grass but all vegetation in its earliest stage. The herb yields seed, the tree yields seed enclosed in fruit. Each genus remains fixed, and reproduces after its kinds (render by the plural here and in Gen 1:12; Gen 1:24 f.), i.e. the various species embraced in it.
The third day 1:9-13
"Seas" (Heb. yammim) probably refers broadly to all bodies of water, not just oceans.
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
Fuente: You Can Understand the Bible: Study Guide Commentary Series by Bob Utley
Fuente: Through the Bible Commentary
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
Fuente: Joseph Bensons Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
Fuente: Peake’s Commentary on the Bible
Fuente: Expository Notes of Dr. Constable (Old and New Testaments)
Fuente: Expository Notes of Dr. Constable (Old and New Testaments)