Genesis 1:24-31 - Homilies By R.a. Redford

The sixth day.

We pass from the sea and air to the earth. We are being led to man. Notice—

I. THE PREPARATION IS COMPLETE . Before the earth receives the human being, it brings forth all the other creatures, and God sees that they are good—good in his sight, good for man.

II. THE PURPOSE OF THE WORK IS BENEVOLENT . Cattle, creeping thing, beast of the earth. So man would see them distinguished—the wild from the domestic, the creeping from the roaming, the clean from the unclean. The division itself suggests the immense variety of the Divine provision for man's wants.

III. The incompleteness of the earth when filled with the lower creatures is A TESTIMONY TO THE GREATNESS OF MAN 'S SPIRITUAL NATURE ; for in comparison with the animal races he is in many respects inferior—in strength, swiftness, and generally in the powers which we call instinct. Yet his appearance is the climax of the earth's creation. "Man is one world, and hath another to attend him." Vegetable, marine, animal life generally, the whole earth filled with what God "saw to be good," waits for the rational and spiritual creature who shall be able to recognize their order and wield dominion over them. Steps and stages in creation lead up to the climax, the "paragon of animals," the god-like creature, made to be king on the earth.— R .