Genesis 1:20-23 And God said, Let the waters bring forth abundantly the moving creature that has life… I. EXPLANATION OF THE PASSAGE. 1. Animals the issue of fifth and sixth days. 2. Panorama of the emerging animals. Lo! the nautilus spreads his sail, and the caterpillar winds his cocoon, and the spider weaves his web, and the salmon darts through the sea, and the lizard glides among the rocks, and the eagle soars the sky, and the lion roams the jungle, and the monkey chatters among the trees, and all animate creation waits the advent and lordship of man, God's inspiration and therefore God's image, God's image and therefore God's viceroy. 3. The animal succession a progress. (1) Animals of the water. (2) Animals of the air. (3) Animals of the land. (4) Man.And with this Mosaic account of the origin of life, ascending from plant, by way of animal, to man, the geological records substantially agree: first, plants and fishes of the Palaeozoic period; secondly, birds and reptiles of the Mesozoic period; thirdly, mammals and man of the Neozoic period. 4. "After their kind." Almost like a prophetic caveat against the modern hypothesis of the mutability of species. 5. The Creator's blessing. The benediction of fertility. 6. The Divine delight. II. MORAL MEANING OF THE STORY. 1. Animals have "souls." What in man we call reason, in animals we call instinct. As that mysterious force which vitalizes and builds up the fabric of the human body is the same mysterious force which vitalizes and builds up the fabric of the animalcule, so that mysterious guide which teaches Newton how to establish the law of gravity, and Shakespeare how to write his "Hamlet," and Stephenson how to bridge the St. Lawrence, seems substantially to be the same mysterious guide which teaches the beaver how to build his dam, and the spider how to weave his web, and the ant how to dig his spiral home. The difference does not seem to be so much a difference in nature or kind, as in degree or intensity. As the diamond is the same substance with charcoal — only under superior crystalline figure — so reason seems to be substantially the same with instinct — only in an intensely organized state. One thing is common to man and animals: it is that mysterious principle or force which, in want of a better name, and in distinction from the term spirit, we call "soul." 2. Animals perhaps are immortal. I quote from that profound treatise by Louis Agassiz, entitled "Essay on Classification": "Most of the arguments of philosophy in favour of the immortality of man apply equally to the permanency of the immaterial principle in other living beings. May I not add that a future life in which man should be deprived of that great source of enjoyment and intellectual and moral improvement, which results from the contemplation of the harmonies of an organic world, would involve a lamentable loss? And may we not look to a spiritual concert of the combined worlds and all their inhabitants in presence of their Creator, as the highest conception of paradise?" (See Romans 8:19-23.) (G. D. Boardman.) Parallel Verses KJV: 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. |
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