The sixth day of creation finds God creating the rest of the land animals and then He makes man in His own image.
The sixth day of creation divides into two separate deeds. First, God creates more living creatures and then God makes man. In verse 24, we have the words living creatures again. These are animals that are alive and they have a mind, emotions, and willpower. If you think a donkey doesn’t have willpower try leading one somewhere it doesn’t want to go. Likewise, a cat will show you its emotions quickly if you accidentally step on its tail. Specifically, God creates cattle, creeping things, and beasts. The creeping things are small moving creatures. The word “beasts” is considered a wild animal, one not domesticated. Again, God saw that it was good.
In verse 26, God said, “let us make man in our image, according to our likeness.” Here we have three plural pronouns. Most scholars understand these to refer to the plurality of the Godhead (i.e. the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit). No one is like God, an eternal omniscient, omnipotent, and omnipresent being. In 1 Kings, Solomon says, O LORD, the God of Israel, there is no God like You in heaven above or on earth beneath, keeping covenant and showing loving kindness to Your servants who walk before You with all their heart (1 Kings 8:23). Only Jesus and the Holy Spirit are like God the Father. God, the Holy Spirit, and Jesus have been there since the beginning.
Mankind was to rule or have dominion over all the earth and the fish, birds, cattle, and creeping things. However, because of sin, all things are not under man’s dominion. You have put all things in subjection under his feet. For in subjecting all things to him, He left nothing that is not subject to him. But now we do not yet see all things subjected to him (Hebrews 2:8). Jesus will re-establish dominion over all the earth at His second coming.
God created man in His own image or likeness. The word for “image” in Hebrew means mankind as the shadow of God’s figure. God created man to have fellowship with Himself. So we see at this point, that man was in right standing with God and holy. This special distinction given to mankind was not given to anything else. It gives man a separate distinction in the world. It makes man unique, resembling but of course not equal with God. Mankind was a living symbol of God’s power and rulership. A key thing that God gave to humanity that makes us in His image is the power and freedom to make choices.
God creates mankind both male and female and He blesses them. What does it mean to be blessed? Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ (Ephesians 1:3). The word, “blessed,” in Ephesians 1:3, is the Greek word, eulogeõ. It simply means to speak well or good of someone or something. This is where we get our English words, “eulogize, and eulogy.” When David says, “Bless the Lord, O my soul,” he is praising God, speaking well of God.
Biblical Text
24 Then God said, “Let the earth bring forth living creatures after their kind: cattle and creeping things and beasts of the earth after their kind”; and it was so. 25 God made the beasts of the earth after their kind, and the cattle after their kind, and everything that creeps on the ground after its kind; and God saw that it was good. 26 Then God said, “Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness; and let them rule over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the sky and over the cattle and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.” 27 God created man in His own image, in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them.
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