The Time of Creation: Chapter 5 - The Third Day (Genesis 1:9-13)
A Biblical Study Book of Genesis 1:1 - 2:25 From All-Creatures.org

One of the books in the "Let's Study God's Word Together" series with: Frank L. Hoffman

The Time of Creation - A Biblical Study Book of Genesis 1:1 - 2:25
Chapter 5 - The Third Day (Genesis 1:9-13)

Again, it is best to read the following verses several times and compare them with other translations before we begin this portion of our study.

9 . Then God said, " Let the waters below the heavens be gathered into one place, and let the dry land appear"; and it was so.

10. And God called the dry land earth, and the gathering of the waters He called seas; and God saw that it was good.

11. Then God said, " Let the earth sprout vegetation, plants yielding seed, and fruit trees bearing fruit after their kind, with seed in them, on the earth "; and it was so.

12. And the 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.

13. And there was evening and there was morning, a third day.

In verses 9 and 10 we see God separating the earth from the waters below the expanse.

Prior to this point in the creation process, the waters below still constituted a shoreless ocean. The surface of the earth was most likely smooth with a relatively uniform covering of water.

This is also the time that God set the foundations of the earth; that is, the original surface features. He caused part of the land to rise slightly, and other to sink down, so that there would be some deeper waters, and some dry land. This all changed during the time of the Flood.

We can see this foundation creation from several Hebrew references that are much closer to the time in question than we are.

From Job 38:4, we hear God questioning Job about the foundation of the earth.

4. "Where were you when I laid the foundation of the earth!
Tell Me if you have understanding.

From Psalm 102:25, we hear it confirmed in praise.

25. "Of old Thou didst found the earth;
And the heavens are the work of Thy hands.

From Isaiah 48:13, we hear Messiah (Jesus) speaking through the prophet of founding the earth.

13. "Surely My hand founded the earth,
And My right hand spread out the heavens;
When I call to them, they stand together.

And from Zechariah 12:1, we hear the prophet proclaiming it as proof of who the Lord is.

1. The burden of the word of the Lord concerning Israel. Thus declares the Lord who stretches out the heavens, lays the foundations of the earth, and forms the spirit of man within him,

In verse 11 and 12 we see the creation of all plant life. Note specifically that it does not say that life started in the sea. But, on the other hand, it doesn't say that it didn't start in the sea.

Remember that since the waters above the expanse, or atmosphere, were still there, the effect of God's creation was a giant greenhouse.

We also see that there probably had to be the creation of fertile soil at this time, or nothing could grow. This would not be soil from dead and decaying life forms, for they did not yet exist. God simply created fertile soil. He didn't have to wait for it to become fertile, He just created it as fertile soil.

Here also we have the creation of the "life building block", DNA. We see this in verse 11 in the words "seed" and "kind". This indicates reproduction and the requirement of the genetic-blueprint model, DNA.

Additionally, with the word "kind", we see that God intended a limitation on variation.

Once again we see recorded God's joy over His creation, "it was good".

But we humans are not always satisfied with the goodness of God's creation, and the "kinds" of plant life that He made.  We certainly don't want to know about any limitations on variations.  So we embark upon genetic engineering to do a "better job" than God.  In this arena, I believe we are playing with fire.  God built in checks and balances that have some controlling factors built into plants and animals.  When humans generically engineer these traits out of some of these plants and animals, or build other in,, we may be causing a future disaster which we may not be able to control.  We simply are moving to fast to understand the full ramification of what we are doing.

Go on to: Chapter 6 - The Fourth Day (Genesis 1:14-19)
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