"And God said, Let the waters bring forth abundantly the moving creature that hath life, and fowl that may fly above the earth in the open firmament of heaven. And God created 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 fowl multiply in the earth. And the evening and the morning were the fifth day." (Genesis 1:20-23)
In one day God created all the life that exists in the oceans and all the birds (flying fowl) of the air. Further along in the books of Moses, we will learn which of these the Israelites were allowed to eat and which were not…at least until Jesus came to provide a new and better covenant. But at this point in the Bible, the animals and fowls of the air were not created as part of a food chain; they did not live in fear of man or each other. That came later after the Fall.
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 cattle after their kind, and every thing that creepeth upon the earth after his kind: and God saw that it was good. And God said, Let us make man in our image, 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. So God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him; male and female created he them. And God blessed them, and God 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 upon the earth. And God said, Behold, I have given you every herb bearing 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. And to every beast of the earth, and to every fowl of the air, and to everything that creepeth upon the earth, wherein there is life, I have given every green herb for meat: and it was so. And God saw every thing that he had made, and behold, it was very good. And the evening and the morning were the sixth day."
It's interesting that God created animals and man, both, in one day, the sixth; rather than a separate day for each. I don't know His reason for this, but I suspect there is a very good reason.
We have discussed before the dominion that man was given over animals; dominion which he still has in some degree as man is the predator of all animals, and fish, and fowl. But I'm fairly certain that the dominion man was given prior to the Fall is not what it is now after the Fall, for man fears some animals, and fear is not a part of the kingdom of God – other than the proper respectful fear of God Himself.
[Note: "the Fall" is the rebellion and sin of Adam and Eve in the garden – sin which visits each and every one of us as a result of the disobedience to God by Adam and Eve. This is a warning to all parents who might believe that the sins they commit have effect only upon themselves rather than being visited on their own children and their children's children; an error in thinking proved to be false in Exodus 20:5: "For I the Lord thy God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children unto the third and fourth generation of them that hate me." In other words, don't be foolish enough to believe that what you are doing when you sin is hurting yourself only…it is not. What is being tested here is not only whether you love God more than your own selfish desires, but whether, as is so often claimed, you love your children more than yourself. When parents sin, when ANY of us sin, we are proving that the love of self is much greater than the love of God or anyone else. Do not continue to be deceived by your own rationalizations and the reasonings of the world around you who do not know God.]
But back to dominion, we will see further on that Adam was given the privilege of "naming" the animals that he was given dominion over. And, of course, all of those creatures lived on herbs and grasses and things that God provided for them. The food chain was NOT an active part of the Garden of Eden; the food chain arrived after the Fall. Fear entered in when death entered in. Death entered in when sin entered in. Where sin is abolished, so also is death abolished, and so also is fear. That removal of sin and the sin nature comes only through Jesus Christ: the WAY (to righteousness and holiness – death to the sin rather than death to the sinner - and the way to a relationship with God the Father), the TRUTH (versus the deception of sin and the fear that drives us to it), and the LIFE (everlasting life versus death that leads to everlasting torment). John 14:6
Now, something to consider until tomorrow's posting: What does the Bible mean when it says we are made in God's image?
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