Creation - Day Five - Air and Sea Creatures

And God said, "Let the waters swarm with swarms of living creatures, and let birds fly above the earth across the expanse of the heavens." So God created the great sea creatures and every living creature that moves, with which the waters swarm, according to their kinds, and every winged bird according to its kind. And God saw that it was good. And God blessed them, saying, "Be fruitful and multiply and fill the waters in the seas, and let birds multiply on the earth." And there was evening and there was morning, the fifth day. ~Genesis 1:20-23 (ESV)

And God Said... The fifth day of creation begins with familiar words--And God said--to once more accentuate the fact that our God is so powerful all He has to do is speak to make it so. This world He is summoning into being through His Word is His creation, something only an Almighty, All-Powerful, Sovereign God can do. Once more, He pronounces His work as "good."



Swarm The Hebrew word used here means to swarm, to teem, and to multiply. When I hear the word I think of abundance. God is preparing an abundance of creatures in His perfect creation.





Birds Oph is the Hebrew term used here, and it literally can be a general term for birds, but is also used to refer to flying creatures, including winged insects. So this part of creation not only included birds and fish, but also other water creatures and flying insects.





Living Creatures/Great Sea Creatures Notice that the term "fish" is not used here, but instead a general reference to living creatures in the water, possibly suggesting not only fish, but also other organisms. The word "fish" in creation is not used until the next day when God tells man to have dominion over all living creatures, including fish. 



The Hebrew word for "great sea creatures" used here is tanniym, a sea-serpent or monster, or perhaps a whale.





According To Their Kinds One commentator suggests that water creatures are the simplest forms of life (consider the amoeba and plankton), with birds a little more developed life-form, yet less complex than the mammals (created on day six). I'm not a biologist, but one way or the other, we see the perfect and detailed organization of God's creation. I've often heard the expression, "the devil is in the details." I couldn't disagree more. GOD is in the details!



The Blessing of Fruitfulness You may want to sneak a peek at the sixth day of creation in Genesis 1:28 and also look back at how the plants produced seed. Fruitfulness, the ability to multiply, is a blessing of life, as God's creation continues to sustain itself day after day. (See also Genesis 9:1)



Closing Thoughts

What wonder and awe should be ours when we consider God's work of creation. On this fifth day, every part that He has formed (waters, sky, land), He is now abundantly filling with life. Not only did He determine their place in either the sky or sea and their very existence, but He determined how they would move (swim and fly). His creation is not only ordered in great detail, but varied with such complexity that it's mind-boggling to think about. How sad that we've become so jaded that we often miss the sheer awe and wonder of what God accomplished at creation.





O Lord, how manifold are your works!
In wisdom have you made them all;
the earth is full of your creatures.
Here is the sea, great and wide,
which teems with creatures innumerable,
living things both small and great.
There go the ships,
and Leviathan, which you formed to play in it
(or, you formed to play with).
These all look to you,
to give them their food in due season.
When you give it to them, they gather it up;
when you open your hand, they are filled with good things.
~Psalm 104:24-28 (ESV)