The Sixth Day
Genesis 1:24-31
24 And God said, “Let the earth bring forth living creatures according to their kinds—livestock and creeping things and beasts of the earth according to their kinds.” And it was so. 25 And God made the beasts of the earth according to their kinds and the livestock according to their kinds, and everything that creeps on the ground according to its kind. And God saw that it was good.
26 Then God said, “Let us make man in our image, after our likeness. And let them have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over the livestock and over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.”
27 So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them.
28 And God blessed them. And God said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and subdue it, and have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over every living thing that moves on the earth.”
29 And God said, “Behold, I have given you every plant yielding seed that is on the face of all the earth, and every tree with seed in its fruit. You shall have them for food. 30 And to every beast of the earth and to every bird of the heavens and to everything that creeps on the earth, everything that has the breath of life, I have given every green plant for food.” And it was so.
31 And God saw everything that he had made, and behold, it was very good. And there was evening and there was morning, the sixth day.
In Genesis 1, something is “good” when it is fit for its purpose and able to function properly, or when it is complete. Therefore, the seas are not declared good on Day Two because God isn’t finished with them until Day Three, when, after they are gathered together and the dry land has been uncovered, he declares them good.
On Day Six, after God has created everything, we read:
“God saw all that he had made, and it was very good.” [1:31]
All of creation is “very good” because every part works together—it is complete. I like how Umberto Cassuto puts it:
“An analogy might be found in an artist who, having completed his masterpiece, steps back a little and surveys his handi- work with delight, for both in detail and in its entirety it had emerged perfect from his hand.”
However, man himself is NOT specifically declared good after his creation on Day Six. Why? Because he is not yet complete or fit for his purpose.
I would like you to reflect on what Leon Kass has to say about this. It is dense, but worth it.
“A moment’s reflection shows that man as he comes into the world is not yet good. Precisely because he is the free being, he is also the incomplete or indeterminate being; what he becomes depends always (in part) on what he freely will choose to be. Let me put it more pointedly: precisely in the sense that man is in the image of God, man is not good—not determinate, finished, complete, or perfect. It remains to be seen whether man will become good, whether he will be able to complete himself (or to be completed).
Man’s lack of obvious goodness or completeness, metaphysically identical with his freedom, is, of course, the basis also of man’s moral ambiguity. As the being with the greatest freedom of motion, able to change not only his path but also his way, man is capable of deviating widely from the way for which he is most suited or through which he—and the world around him— will most flourish.
The rest of the biblical narrative elaborates man’s moral ambi- guity and God’s efforts to address it, all in the service of making man ‘good’—complete, whole, holy.”
Now, go back and read that long quotation again. It’s important.
It is precisely our freedom that makes us incomplete. Unlike all the other creatures, we are free to choose good or choose evil, and, left to ourselves, we will inevitably make the wrong choice. We are not yet fit for our purpose, i.e., to rule over the earth and to reflect God’s image.
The rest of the story of the Bible is about how God plans to complete humanity and make us fit for glory.
P.S. I preached about this topic a couple of Sundays ago.
P.P.S. Yesterday, Asbury’s members voted to disaffiliate from the United Methodist Church. What’s next? Glad you asked, because I wrote a brief post about it: Buckle Up, Buttercup: Let’s Get Ready to Run.
P.P.P.S. I’m teaching a churchwide Bible study on Genesis THIS WEDNESDAY, 8/31, 6:30-8:00 PM. There is a lot in Genesis 1-11 that we don’t have time to look at in a Sunday morning sermon, so in this Bible study we’ll talk about: Cain and Abel; the Nephilim in Genesis 6 (CRAZY STORY); The Flood; and literally anything else folks ask about during the Q&A.
P.P.P.P.S. This weekend is Labor Day weekend; going to be out of town on Sunday? Come to Thursday night church instead, 6:00 PM. I’m REALLY fired up about what I’m going to preach on this week.