On day 5 God begins to restore animal life on the earth. And now it becomes necessary to distinguish between two words found in the text to describe what God is doing and how He’s doing it. In Genesis 1:1 we saw “In the beginning God created…” and the word translated “created” is bara, “to bring into existence or being”. Then in 1:7 we saw “and God made…” the word “made” being asah, meaning, “to manufacture or make from existing materials”.
Now, in days 5 and 6 you’re going to see both words used, along with the phrase “let there be”, where hajah means, “to come to pass or to be finished”. And it is important to keep these words in mind and remember that neither asah nor hajah indicate a creative act.
So, we’re ready for Genesis 1:20. “And God said, Let the waters bring forth abundantly the moving creature that has life and let birds fly above the earth in the open expanse of the sky.”
Let’s look at the key words here:
“Bring forth abundantly” is sharats, to swarm or reproduce rapidly. Then “moving” is sherets, an active mass or group of animals, a swarm. This describes the different species of sea animals that reproduce quickly and move in schools or masses. There are over 100,000 different species of shellfish, 20,000 species of fish with scales, 5,000 species of coral and 3,000 species of sponges – all part of the food chain that would support life in the water.
“Creature” is nephesh, here used in a general way to describe the basic principle of life, from the root word naphash, meaning, to breathe. Nephesh seems to include two components that make life possible: 1) the ability to breathe, and 2) the presence of a vascular system that contains blood (Genesis 9:4).
“Life” is chay, living or having the ability to sustain life. When applied to man (which we will discuss later), it refers to the soul. When applied to animals it has to do with the presence of an autonomic nervous system that sustains breathing, blood circulation and glandular function. Also, in animals there is a semblance of soul function seen in varying degrees of intelligence and emotional response, though there is no reference to animals having an eternal soul that exists past the death of their body as it is with man.
Then Genesis 1:21 reads, “So, God created great whales and every living creature that moves, which the waters brought forth abundantly, after their kind, and every winged fowl after his kind, and God saw that it suited His purpose.”
Here we have the first mention of a creative act since verse 1 when God created the heavens and the earth. Bara is the qal stem, meaning this is an action only God can perform and refers to the initiation of self-sustaining life (something that had been utterly destroyed in the destruction of the original earth). Now, we need to get somewhat technical to understand how verses 20-21 are combined so we don’t get confused.
Verse 20 does not start out with “let there be”; instead, it begins with “let”. The difference is this: “let there be” describes an action taken by God (as illustrated in previous verses) to restore something previously created; however, “let” simply states a purpose that will be followed by the action that carries out that purpose. In other words, verse 20 tells us God’s intention was to bring forth the animals that would live in water and those that would fly through the air. Then in verse 21, He tells us how He did it – He created them.
This is important if for no other reason than to understand that all animal life on the original earth was destroyed when God covered it with water, then encased it in ice. And we know from the fossil record that the animal life that was destroyed has no resemblance to the animal kingdom that now exists. We don’t have to deny the existence of dinosaurs or accept the various theories of a so-called ice age. The truth is found in Genesis 1.
The geologic record is accurate, but you have to interpret it with Scripture, not with the theories of unbelieving or ignorant men. For instance, the remains of a mastodon found encased in ice is real; but it was part of the original animal kingdom created in Genesis 1:1 and destroyed in 1:2. Fossil remains of huge dinosaurs prove their existence in a previous age; but they were not part of the restoration described in verses 20-21.
“Great whales” is tannin, large fish or sea animals, a general reference to the larger creatures that feed on the smaller, again, the food chain. “Every living creature that moves”, as in verse 20, refers to all the thousands of species of animals that exist in the water that posses the ability to breathe, have a vascular system with blood, the ability to sustain life on their own and can reproduce.
“Every winged fowl” is also connected grammatically with the original verb bara, so the over 1200 species of birds were created as well, and again, different from those that lived on the original earth. “After their kind” is miyn, used 10 times in chapter 1 to illustrate and emphasize an essential principle. Miym comes from a root word that means, “to portion out”. By implication, the meaning is this: when something divides (a process that is necessary in all reproductive systems) in order to reproduce, it will always possess the same physical makeup (chromosomes) that will produce the same physical characteristics possessed by the original.
This word is used to illustrate descent or ancestry. It represents the principle created by God that in every species of plant and animal life He established a genetic boundary that cannot be crossed. Each species created by God has the ability to reproduce offspring that possess the same genetic code found only in the previous generation. This genetic blueprint insures that the same unique, consistent, distinguishing characteristics are kept in this species generation after generation.
It is not possible for any species of plant or animal to evolve over time into a higher or more complex species. There are more than 2,000,000 different species of plant and animal life on the earth. They did not (could not) evolve from one original life form – God created them all individually to reproduce “after their kind” and they exist today in the same form they did on the day they were created. There has always been great variety in God’s creation. For instance, there are over 1,000 species of cockroaches, 10,000 species of bees, 40,000 species of flies, 110,000 species of butterflies and 250,000 species of beetles.
God gave some forms of life the ability to reproduce at astonishing rates. One bacterium can produce 281,500,000,000,000 descendants in just 24 hours. A codfish can produce 10,000,000 eggs in one season. A mature elm tree can produce 1,584,000,000 seeds in one season. Anyone who honestly observes the plant and animal kingdom should come to the conclusion that evolution is not a scientific issue. There is no evidence that it is even possible, much less that is actually happening. It is a perfect example of how far dishonest men will go to escape being submitted to God. It is a spiritual issue.