JAN 11

Genesis 1:24-31
Memorise Psalm 8:4-9
“O LORD our Lord, how excellent is thy name in all the earth!”

We come finally to the sixth day, where the final elements of creation are added to make everything complete. The seas and the skies have now been filled with living things; what remains now is the dry land. Whilst they were filled with plants and trees on day three, there were still no living creatures to populate the vast landscapes. And so now on the sixth day, God calls: “let the earth bring forth the living creature after his kind, cattle, and creeping thing, and beast of the earth after his kind”. And thus it was so. All the land animals, as well as all land-based insects and other organisms were created, and God saw it was good.

However, that was not all that was done on the sixth day. In a separate unique category of creation, not one that was considered as a ‘beast of the earth’ or some other sort of land creature, God made man. In Genesis 1:26, God said “let us make man in our image, after our own likeness”. We see a sort of ‘divine council’ convening, whereby God within His own Godhead, conferred and decreed to make man. This shows that this particular work of creation would be different from the rest, for it was not just the most complex of all, but it was to be the one who would reign over and be charged with caring for the rest of creation. In fact, the creation of man was so important to God, that He would devote a large part of the next chapter to zoom in on the account of man’s creation, and explain the happenings in day six of creation in greater detail.

But here, what we do see is God creating man as the crowning glory of all of creation, as the one who would have dominion over the whole earth that He has created and over all the living creatures in it. Creation would not have been complete, without man, as God’s representative, to subdue the whole earth. Man is therefore to be a responsible steward over the created world, to use it for God’s glory, and not to abuse it. Indeed, the whole world in all its splendour and beauty is given as a gift from God to man. Through it we have our life, our breath, our food for our sustenance. Sadly, man in his sin, greed and pride has sought to conquer portions of the world for himself, and has sought to exploit all he can out of it for his own benefit. As we live in this world, remember that God made all things, and has given it all to us!

Thought: To subdue and have dominion is not to abuse and exploit.

Prayer: Lord, may I be a responsible steward over Thy creation.