Looking Back at the First Four Days*

Before moving forward in the creation account, it helps to review where we have been. Last time we walked through the first four days of Genesis 1.

On the first day God created light. “Let there be light.” And there was light.

On the second day God made a separation. He separated the waters below from the waters above and created the expanse between them. Some Bible versions call it an expanse, while older translations use the word firmament. I mentioned the Hebrew word raka last time. Ancient people didn’t think of this simply as empty space. They thought of it as the sky itself—the place where the sun, moon, stars, and planets were set.

Then on day three there was another separation. Nothing entirely new was created at first. God separated the waters from the land so that dry ground appeared. The dry land he called earth, and the gathered waters he called seas.

But something else happened on that third day. God said, “Let the earth sprout,” and plants began to grow. Vegetation appeared with seed in it so that it would reproduce.

That raises the question of kinds. The text says plants reproduce “after their kind.” When we talked about that, I mentioned that I’m comfortable with the idea that “kind” does not necessarily mean every modern species as we categorize them. There may have been one kind of oak or one kind of maple, and over time there was diversity within that kind. When we eventually talk about animals and Noah’s ark, I don’t think Noah necessarily had to bring every kind of dog—cocker spaniels, German shepherds, and so on. There could have been a basic dog kind from which those variations came. I’m comfortable with that understanding, though if someone isn’t, that’s okay too.

Then we came to day four.

The Lights in the Expanse

On the fourth day God placed lights in the expanse of the heavens.

Light itself had already been created on day one. That sometimes makes people stop and think. How do you have light without the sun, moon, or stars? But light itself is a real thing. In the original creation, God first created light, and then later he made the things that would hold or produce that light.

Sometimes when we explain it to children, we say that God made the sun and the stars as containers for light. The light existed, and then God made the things that would bear it.

Genesis says these lights were given several tasks.

First, they were to separate the light from the darkness.

Second, they were given as signs.

Third, they were for seasons, and for days and years.

And finally, they were to give light on the earth.

It’s interesting that giving light on the earth is listed last. When we think about the sun, we usually think that providing light is its main purpose. But in the biblical description, that appears at the end of the list.

The word translated “seasons” is especially important. When we read it, we usually think of the agricultural seasons—spring, summer, autumn, winter. But the Hebrew word carries a deeper meaning. It refers to appointed times.

These are the appointed times for gatherings.

Later in the Old Testament the Hebrew people had their new moons, Sabbaths, and festivals—Passover, the Day of Atonement, and the rest. All of those observances were guided by the positions of the sun and moon. They didn’t have clocks or wall calendars like we do. Nobody could walk over to the kitchen wall and check what day or month it was. They had to keep track of time by watching the sky.

Even today the Jewish calendar is complicated because it is based on the lunar cycle. A lunar month is about twenty-nine and a half days. If every month followed that pattern, eventually the calendar would drift out of sync with the seasons. So they occasionally add a leap month. Not every year, but some years. That keeps the festivals tied to the proper seasons.

At one point in history the wider world had to correct its calendar as well. Things had drifted so far that they suddenly skipped a number of days in order to bring everything back into alignment. People who had birthdays during those missing days simply lost them that year.

All of that helps us see what Genesis is saying. God placed the sun, moon, and stars in the heavens not only to give light and regulate the agricultural seasons, but also to mark the appointed times when his people would gather.

When I read that, it tells me something about God’s interests even in the creation week. In the middle of these seven days, God is already providing for the gatherings of his people. Later in the biblical story there would be Israel with its festivals, and eventually the gatherings of believers who worship the true God. The heavens themselves help mark those appointed times.

So when we read the word seasons, it’s helpful not to limit it in our minds to weather patterns. It also includes those special, appointed times for gathering.

The Fifth Day: Life in Water and Sky

That brings us to the fifth day.

Genesis 1:20 says:

“Then God said, ‘Let the waters swarm with swarms of living creatures and let birds fly above the earth across the face of the expanse of the heavens.’ And God created the great sea monsters and every living creature that moves with which the waters swarmed after their kind and every winged bird after its kind. And God saw that it was good. Then God blessed them saying, ‘Be fruitful and multiply and fill the waters in the seas, and let the birds multiply on the earth.’ And there was evening and there was morning, a fifth day.”

On this day God created the creatures of the sea and the birds of the air.

One phrase that caught my attention in my translation was “great sea monsters.” I hadn’t thought much about that before, so I looked into the Hebrew word used there. It refers to large sea creatures—things we might think of as dragons, crocodiles, whales, and other massive creatures of the deep.

Then you also have the rest of the creatures that swarm in the waters—fish and everything else that lives there.

When you start thinking about the oceans, you realize how much life there is that we have never even seen. There are creatures living at depths we cannot easily reach. My grandson was telling me about organisms that live near volcanic vents on the ocean floor and somehow get their energy from sulfur compounds coming out of those vents. I had never even heard about creatures like that before.

It makes you wonder how many things exist down there that nobody has ever seen. The ocean is deep enough that there may be countless forms of life we still haven’t discovered. God made them all, and I sometimes think he must delight in them.

Someday when human beings discover more of those things, we will probably stand back and say again how remarkable the Creator is. Perhaps when He created them, God thought, “I can’t wait until they first get their eyes on this!”

The Blessing on the Creatures

There is another detail in this passage that is easy to miss.

After creating the creatures of the sea and the birds of the air, verse 22 says, “God blessed them.” He said, “Be fruitful and multiply and fill the waters in the seas, and let the birds multiply on the earth.”

Later we will see God say something very similar to human beings. But humans are rational creatures. We can think about what it means to be fruitful and multiply.

What does it mean when God says that to animals? He is speaking to creatures that don’t reason or reflect the way we do. Yet the text still says he blessed them.

One way to understand that blessing is that God created them with the instinct to reproduce. The blessing guarantees the continuation of their existence. If God had created all these living creatures but withheld that blessing, they would disappear in a single generation.

Instead, the blessing means that one generation follows another. Creatures reproduce after their kind, and life continues.

Some things have gone extinct over time, but in general the pattern remains: life reproduces life after its own kind. The blessing God spoke at creation ensured that the world he made would continue to be filled with living creatures.

And that is exactly what we see.

*Some articles on this publication or website are adapted from my recorded Bible teaching. I use transcription and editing tools (including AI-assisted editing) to convert spoken lectures into readable written form. The ideas, interpretations, and theological conclusions are my own and come directly from my teaching.