Genesis Revised – Day 6 v24-25, the Land Animals

Life filled all the environments of Earth’s dry land in creation’s sixth season interpreted by nature.  The structured circular poetry conveys an outline of the evolution of all creatures.  Without the overburden of unbiblical “perfectionism,” the ancient text matches the evidence perfectly.

Genesis 1

²⁴ And God said, “Let the land produce living creatures according to their kinds: the livestock, the creatures that move along the ground, and the wild animals, each according to its kind.” And it was so. ²⁵ God made the wild animals according to their kinds, the livestock according to their kinds, and all the creatures that move along the ground according to their kinds. And God saw that it was good. (NIV)

Poetic structure filled the land of Day 3 with animals in Day 6.  The poet listed animals relevant to a human viewpoint.  That meant livestock came first.  The “ground” animals came at the end of the “day” to poetically circle back to the beginning of Day 3.  Like the stars in Day 4, the myriad of wild animals are almost an afterthought.

Unlike other creation stories, the poet simply said, “God made all the animals.”  He never tried to explain how God made them.  No biblical text says anything about an instantaneous creation or sculpting animals from clay.  Genesis Two says God made animals from the dirt of the ground.  Standard science says the same thing, but in more detail.  Molecules abundant on Earth combined until the first RNA formed.  Soon after, a membrane encapsulated it, and DNA spiraled within.  Just like the poet, science describes these events using an “unknown process.”  Both say that all animals today trace their lineage from the “dirt of the ground.”

Paleontologists have found that after plants filled dry land the aquatic gastropods and arthropods ventured out to eat them.  Evolutionary adaptation let some of them change enough to not need to return to the water; they became land creatures.  New “kinds” multiplied to fill every niche environment.  Amphibians did exactly the same thing in pursuit of the snails and bugs.  These became reptiles-like creatures whose lineage diversified into the lineage of every “kind” known.  Geologically speaking, this happened in a very short amount of time.

Generalization let “kind” embrace whatever each lineage entailed.  Outside the Bible, God accumulated evidence of His creation.  Enough of it is buried and fossilized for us to dream of long ago worlds.  All we have to do is decipher that planetary manuscript.  Science becomes our translator.  It unlocks all the wonderful details Genesis One outlines.

Dry land filled in a rush of diversification, just as there was a rush to fill the ocean.  Life on Earth is one, as its Creator is one.

To be continued:

[Lessons from Creation’s Parables: Genesis and Standard Science, Sung as One, by Jo Helen Cox.]

Also in this series:

Genesis Revised – Introduction + Day 1, The Big Bang

Genesis Revised – Day 2, Opening Sky and Ocean

Genesis Revised – Day 3, Opening Land

Genesis Revised – Day 4, Filling the Universe

Genesis Revised – Day 5, the Evolution of Life

Genesis Revised – Day 6 v26-27 and “God’s Image”

Genesis Revised – Day 6 v28-31 “Dominion”

Genesis Revised – Day 7

Genesis Revised – The Second Genesis

Also see series:

Genesis Revisited

Eden Revisited