“Then God said, ‘Let the waters under the heavens be gathered together into one place, and let the dry land appear’; and it was so. And God called the dry land Earth, and the gathering together of the waters He called Seas. And God saw that it was good.” Genesis 1:9-10.
For those of you who have been following along during these last two days of God’s re-creation of earth, day three dawns with us still seated in a boat floating on an endless sea.
It is beautiful and safe because the sea is completely free of life, microscopic or monstrous. Things are about to change.
“Then God said, ‘Let the waters under the heavens be gathered together into one place, and let the dry land appear’; and it was so.” Genesis 1:9.
Our imagination really has to take over here because it is hard to say whether our little boat starts to gently rock back and forth or if it pitches violently, because for the waters to recede and for dry land to appear in less than one day the runoff would have been terrific.
What if this was not a catastrophic event like the flood of Noah’s day? What if this just happened exactly as the narrative says?
If that was the case then the scene would be something like this. You are sitting in this little boat, God’s thunderous voice calls out, “Let the waters under the heavens be gathered together into one place, and let the dry land appear…” and you suddenly find yourself floating gently in your boat next to the shoreline of a landmass.
Some people might find that a ridiculous idea. After all, that would require a miracle.
As you think of this remember the power of God when he stopped the sun for Joshua.
“Then Joshua spoke to the Lord in the day when the Lord delivered up the Amorites before the children of Israel, and he said in the sight of Israel: ‘Sun, stand still over Gibeon; and Moon, in the Valley of Aijalon.’ So the sun stood still, and the moon stopped, till the people had revenge upon their enemies. Is this not written in the Book of Jasher? So the sun stood still in the midst of heaven, and did not hasten to go down for about a whole day. And there has been no day like that, before it or after it, that the Lord heeded the voice of a man; for the Lord fought for Israel.” Joshua 10:12-14.
How did God do that, did He stop the earth without everything flying off into space? In fact, no one seems to have felt it. Did the earth stop rotating?
There are other theories, some attempting to minimize the enormity of this miracle, but God’s word tells us that the sun stood still in the midst of the sky for about a whole day.
The account of King Hezekiah’s illness in 2 Kings 20:1-11 has another fascinating miracle concerning the sun when God caused the shadow on the sun dial to go backward 10 degrees. You will find the reading interesting.
There are those among conventional Christian theologians and especially all liberal theologians who believe in the day age theory of creation; meaning that they believe that the six days were not literally days, but years or eons of time.
This makes it easy to twist God’s words to make it fit evolutionary theory. Christians should never try to align the Bible up with the pseudo-science of evolution, ever.
There will be more on this later, but the important thought here is that they try to fit eons of geological time periods within these six days.
They believe that this was some titanic upheaval with mountains being shoved around and whole continents being jammed together and pulled apart in other places, and rock strata being laid down, that would account for the geologic ages evolutionary scientists have found.
But that is not what the narrative says happened in less than one day. There are fossils in the strata that evolutionists find; there are none in the strata of this third day because there was no death before the fall of Adam and Eve.
“Therefore, just as through one man sin entered the world, and death through sin, and thus death spread to all men, because all sinned…” Romans 5:12.
“For the earnest expectation of the creation eagerly waits for the revealing of the sons of God. For the creation was subjected to futility, not willingly, but because of Him who subjected it in hope; because the creation itself also will be delivered from the bondage of corruption into the glorious liberty of the children of God. For we know that the whole creation groans and labors with birth pangs together until now.” Roman 8:19-22.
However, there was a great deal of death in the flood of Noah’s day, a universal flood over the whole earth, which evolutionists deny happened. This is when the strata were laid down and this is where the fossils came from.
“And God called the dry land Earth, and the gathering together of the waters He called seas. And God saw that it was good.” Genesis 1:10.
Here is another interesting thing; the land was dry; in less than a day. You would expect to step out of the boat and sink up to your neck in muck, but the land is dry, again, this is miraculous.
It is evident that this land mass was one huge continent, not earth as we know it today with the seven continents of North America South America, Europe, Asia, Africa, Australia, and Antarctica.
Have you ever looked at a map of the world and noticed that if you push Africa and South America together they would fit almost like a jigsaw puzzle?
Many others have and cited the reason for this as continental drift, the idea that the continents broke apart and over time drifted to their present locations.
If you type in continental drift on the internet you will find quite a bit of information on this subject. Wikipedia even has an article on it which is somewhat simple to read.
This super continent is called Pangaea. If you look up Pangaea maps you will find several pictures of this continent with the names of the modern countries shown.
It is quite interesting with the United States on its western coastline and Australia, Tibet, and Turkey among those on its eastern coastline. While this map does not have to be entirely correct, it does illustrate what the land mass may have looked like when it first appeared in Genesis 1:9-10.
Notice that at the end of verse 10 it states, “And God saw that it was good.” What that shows is that God had rebuilt this like new; He did not dredge up a lot of wreckage and use it as a re-created earth.
This means that no one, liberal theologian or evolutionist, can say that this strata is the same strata that they are digging up with fossils in it and assigning ridiculously old dates to them and guessing that the earth is 3 billion years old or some such thing.
We should remain in the boat for just a few more minutes and watch the shore. The next thing you see will perhaps amaze you more than anything you have seen so far.
“Then God said, ‘Let the earth bring forth grass, the herb that yields seed, and the fruit tree that yields fruit according to its kind, whose seed is in itself, on the earth’; and it was so. And the earth brought forth grass, the herb that yields seed according to its kind, and the tree that yields fruit, whose seed is in itself according to its kind. And God saw that it was good.” Genesis 1:11-12.
As you look at the shoreline grass and bushes begin to grow. Now quickly scramble out of your boat so you can watch the most amazing sight that no human eye has ever seen.
As you step onto the shore you forget about the boat, for as far as you can see, trees are sprouting up and producing fruit as you watch.
Take off your shoes and feel the cool grass under your feet, no need to worry, there are no thorns, broken glass or other sharp things to step on, this is before the fall of man.
Eat an orange, eat an apple, the taste is pure and unsullied by disease, pollutants, or insecticides, and it is almost pure energy. Eat a couple, fill up and breathe in pure highly oxygenated air.
Now run do not walk up the nearest hill to get a better view of the lush forests filled with flowers, berry bushes, banana trees, nuts, roots, potatoes, carrots, as far as the eye can see. How does ones brain not explode with the beauty, smell of flowers, and food of every sort?
“But as it is written: ‘Eye has not seen, nor ear heard, nor have entered into the heart of man the things which God has prepared for those who love Him.’” 1 Corinthians 2:9.
When Jesus Christ returns to this earth to reign for a thousand years, after the tribulation (and complete ruin of the earth), those who have accepted Him as their Savior will see things like this with their own eyes, because He will rebuild the earth once again as He did in the past.
And at the end of the thousand years, He will build a new heaven and a new earth that will make all of this pale in comparison.
If you are New Age or environmentally conscious and looking for a peaceful rejuvenated earth, I ask you to accept Christ as your Savior and I guarantee that you will go places and see things that you cannot even imagine.
“The thief does not come except to steal, and to kill, and to destroy. I [Jesus] have come that they may have life, and that they may have it more abundantly. I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd gives His life for the sheep.” John 10:10-11.
“And truly Jesus did many other signs in the presence of His disciples, which are not written in this book; but these are written that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that believing you may have life in His name.” John 20:30-31.
“And the earth brought forth grass, the herb that yields seed according to its kind, and the tree that yields fruit, whose seed is in itself according to its kind. And God saw that it was good.” Genesis 1:12.
God gives us three kinds of vegetation, grasses, herbs, and trees; this is God’s name for everything. Grasses would include all of the ground vegetation, including some herbs, which spread over the landscape; herbs are green plants, bushes and shrubs; and trees are the fruit trees, walnut trees, almond trees, conifers, oaks, palms, all plant life of wood.
“…according to its kind” this phrase is stated ten times in Genesis 1; God would have a specific reason to emphasize this by repeating these words.
After its kind or according to its kind has the meaning of being restricted to a certain variety. While I know very little about botany or biology, I do know that cross-pollination and cross-breeding (in animals) can create a wide variety of different plants or animals within its kind.
While there are many different types of roses, some without thorns, some orange, white, yellow, even black; they were created by men who were dedicated to creating something truly different, and I assume that they all came from one original rose.
On the other hand you cannot cross a rose with an oak tree, because they are different kinds.
I know a bit more about animals; you cannot cross a cat with a dog, they are different kinds. However we have a huge number of dogs which did not exist at creation, because, men have crossbred dogs with dogs to bring out certain traits which they wanted.
We have Great Danes, German Shepherds, Mastiffs, and Corgis because somewhere along the way someone desired those traits.
You will never see an elephantgiraffe, a hippogator, or a lionalope because they are different kinds.
Evolution tells us that we all evolved from a one celled organism and that all life is interrelated. Yet even modern science tells us that you cannot cross a cat with a dog, or a cow with a horse. DNA just does not allow this.
“And what you sow, you do not sow that body that shall be, but mere grain – perhaps wheat or some other grain. But God gives it a body as He pleases, and to each seed its own body. All flesh is not the same flesh, but there is one kind of flesh of men, another flesh of beasts, another of fish, and another of birds.” 1 Corinthians 15:37-39.
If there is a different flesh for men, animals, fish, and birds; God is telling us through the Apostle Paul that we did not evolve from a common ancestor.
The Apostle Paul would have been able to tell the doctors that they could not put a baboon’s heart into baby Fae who lived about twenty days before rejecting the heart.
The rejection was blamed on different blood types, and other surgeons questioned as to why the doctor did not put the heart of a different primate more closely related to humans by evolution into the child.
The word “kind” is repeated not only to tell us that plants and animals are designed to replicate after their kind, and are unable to cross over to another kind, but also to tell the evolutionist that their theories are entirely wrong.
God knows the beginning from the end; He knew in eternity past that ungodly men would invent evolution to destroy men, women, and children’s faith in Him. We have God’s word, the Bible in our hands; there is no reason for any of us to be ignorant.
“And God saw that it was good.” verse 12; just think, this is God saying that it was good. He lives in heaven a flawless, beautiful place that words cannot describe, other than streets of gold, gates of pearl, and walls made of diamonds, emeralds, sapphires, and the like.
To call the re-creation of the earth good has to mean that what we see today, beautiful as it is, though ruined by sin, cannot compare with the world that God gave us free of charge in the beginning.
Well, you have seen it, you ran through the grass, ate the fruit, breathed the fresh clean air, and drank water from crystal clear streams; do you agree?
“So the evening and the morning were the third day.” Genesis 1:13.
“There are many who say, ‘Who will show us any good?’ Lord, lift up the light of Your countenance upon us. You have put gladness in my heart, more than in the season that their grain and wine increased. I will both lie down in peace, and sleep; for You alone, O Lord, make me dwell in safety.” Psalm 4:6-8.
Dry Land and Vegetation, Genesis 1:9-13 taken from godisrevealed.com posted on 4-25-14, updated on 8-22-21.
Scripture taken from the New King James Version, copyright 1982 by Thomas Nelson, Inc. Used by permission, all rights reserved.