Bird's-eye view
On the fifth day of creation, the narrative takes a dramatic turn. The first four days were about forming and filling the foundational structures of the cosmos, light and dark, sky and seas, land and luminaries. Now, God populates two of these great realms, the waters and the sky, with living creatures. This is not just the introduction of life, but of nephesh, a Hebrew word indicating soul-life, creatures that move and breathe and experience the world. God speaks, and the waters erupt with swarms of life, from the microscopic to the majestic, and the sky is filled with winged birds. This is a picture of divine largesse, of God's unrestrained creative joy. He doesn't just make a few fish; He makes the waters swarm. He doesn't just make a sparrow; He makes every winged bird after its kind. The passage climaxes with two crucial actions: God sees that His work is good, reaffirming the inherent goodness of the material world, and for the first time, He blesses His creatures, commanding them to be fruitful and multiply. This sets the stage for the cultural mandate given to man, showing that fruitfulness is a foundational principle woven into the fabric of the created order itself.
This day is a frontal assault on any gnostic or dualistic worldview that would denigrate the physical world. God is not a distant, abstract deity; He is a master artist delighting in His work, filling it with motion, sound, and teeming vitality. The sheer variety and abundance of life point to the infinite creativity and generosity of the Creator. The blessing of fruitfulness is a divine imperative for life to flourish, expand, and fill the domains God has prepared for it. This is the pattern of the kingdom: God creates, God blesses, and God commands His creation to fill the earth with His glory.
Outline
- 1. The Populating of the Waters and Heavens (Gen 1:20-23)
- a. The Divine Command for Life (Gen 1:20)
- b. The Divine Action in Creating (Gen 1:21)
- i. The Great Sea Monsters
- ii. Every Living Creature in the Waters
- iii. Every Winged Bird
- c. The Divine Appraisal of Goodness (Gen 1:21)
- d. The Divine Blessing of Fruitfulness (Gen 1:22)
- e. The Divine Ordering of Time (Gen 1:23)
Context In Genesis
The fifth day follows logically from the work of the previous days. On Day Two, God separated the waters above from the waters below, creating the sky and the seas as distinct realms. On Day Three, He established the dry land. Now, having prepared these habitats, He begins to fill them. Day Five populates the realms created on Day Two (the seas and the sky), just as Day Six will populate the realm created on Day Three (the land). This reveals the magnificent order and symmetry in God's creative work. The passage also introduces key themes that will be developed throughout Genesis and the rest of Scripture. The concept of creating creatures "after their kind" establishes the principle of ordered biological integrity. The first divine blessing, "Be fruitful and multiply," is given here to the animals, and then extended in a fuller way to mankind on Day Six. This shows that the dominion mandate given to Adam is rooted in a more fundamental principle of God's desire for His creation to flourish and fill the earth.
Key Issues
- The Meaning of "Living Creatures" (Nephesh Chayyah)
- Creation "After Their Kind"
- The Goodness of the Material World
- The First Divine Blessing
- The Principle of Fruitfulness
- The Great Sea Monsters and Polemics against Paganism
The Teeming Goodness of God
Modern man, particularly the secular variety, tends to think of the world as a closed system, a cosmic accident that just happens to have life in it. The biblical account is radically different. The world was made for life. It was prepared, furnished, and decorated, and then the divine host spoke life into existence to enjoy the house He had built. And notice the character of this life. It is not sparse or minimalist. God says, "Let the waters swarm." The Hebrew word is potent, suggesting a wriggling, teeming, overflowing abundance. God's creative impulse is one of glorious excess. He loves abundance. He loves variety. He loves life.
This is a profound theological point. Our God is not the god of the stoics, nor the sterile, abstract "unmoved mover" of the philosophers. He is the living God, and the life that bursts forth in creation is a reflection of His own infinite vitality. When we see a flock of birds wheeling in the sky or a coral reef exploding with color and motion, we are seeing a parable of the divine nature. The world is thick with God's glory, and the fifth day is a particularly vibrant manifestation of this truth. To despise the material creation, to see it as a distraction or a lower reality, is to insult the Creator who looked upon this swarming, flying, swimming multitude and declared it to be good.
Verse by Verse Commentary
20 Then God said, “Let the waters swarm with swarms of living creatures, and let birds fly above the earth across the face of the expanse of the heavens.”
The pattern continues: God speaks, and it is so. The divine fiat is the engine of creation. Here, God addresses the waters, commanding them to bring forth life. This is not to say the waters have inherent creative power, but rather that God is calling forth life into the specific domain He prepared for it. The command is for a "swarm of swarms," an emphatic Hebrew construction that communicates an overwhelming, teeming abundance. Life is not to be a rare commodity, but the defining characteristic of the seas. At the same time, He commands birds to fill the sky, the "face of the expanse." He is populating the two great fluid realms, the hydrosphere and the atmosphere, with creatures designed perfectly for them.
21 And God created the great sea monsters and every living creature that moves, with which the waters swarmed after their kind, and every winged bird after its kind; and God saw that it was good.
The text moves from the divine command to the divine action. And here the word used is bara, "created," the same word used in Genesis 1:1. While God commanded the waters to "bring forth," the ultimate source of this new form of life is God's direct creative act. He specifically mentions the "great sea monsters." In the ancient Near East, great sea creatures (like Leviathan) were often symbols of chaos and evil, divine adversaries that had to be defeated. But in Genesis, they are simply part of God's good creation, made by His sovereign power. They are not rivals to God; they are His pets. This is a powerful polemic against paganism. The God of the Bible is the undisputed master of all things, even the things that seem most fearsome to man. He then creates "every living creature that moves," again emphasizing the comprehensive scope of His work. And crucially, all are made "after their kind." God creates with order and structure. Fish produce fish, and birds produce birds. This is the biblical foundation for biology, a system of created kinds with variation within fixed boundaries. And the verdict is rendered: "God saw that it was good." This is not just good, it is very good. It is a declaration of the intrinsic worth and rightness of the physical creation.
22 Then God blessed them, saying, “Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the waters in the seas, and let the birds multiply on the earth.”
This is the first instance of a divine blessing in Scripture, and it is bestowed upon animals. The blessing is not a mere wish; it is an impartation of power. God empowers these creatures to do what He commands. And the command is to be fruitful, to multiply, and to fill their respective domains. This is the creation mandate in its primordial form. God's design is for the earth to be filled with His glory, and one of the primary means for this is procreation. Life is meant to expand, to flourish, to press out to all the boundaries of the habitat God has provided. This principle is foundational. The same command will be given to man, but with the added responsibility of dominion. The blessing shows us that procreation is not a mere biological accident; it is a divine institution, a central part of God's good plan for the world.
23 And there was evening and there was morning, a fifth day.
The refrain returns, marking the close of another distinct period of God's creative work. The structure of time, established on the first day, continues to provide the framework for God's activity. The evening and morning mark a literal 24-hour day, consistent with the pattern established and the subsequent institution of the Sabbath week for Israel. God works in an orderly, measured, and purposeful way, and He is bringing His magnificent project to its climax.
Application
First, we must cultivate a deep and robust appreciation for the created world. A Christian should be the truest environmentalist, not in a pantheistic, earth-worshipping sense, but in the sense of a steward who delights in the handiwork of his Father. The teeming life of the sea and the sky is a sermon on the extravagant goodness and creativity of God. We should reject any spirituality that is ethereal and detached from the glories of the material world. God declared it good, and we should rejoice in it. When you eat a well-cooked fish or hear the morning chorus of birds, you are participating in the goodness of the fifth day.
Second, we must recognize the principle of fruitfulness as a divine blessing. The command to be fruitful and multiply is woven into the fabric of creation. While this finds its highest expression in the family and the Great Commission, we should see the general principle at work everywhere. God wants things to grow. He wants churches to grow, families to grow, gardens to grow, and righteousness to grow. We should be a people characterized by life, abundance, and growth, pushing back against the culture of death, sterility, and barrenness that surrounds us. We serve a God who commands the waters to swarm, and He has commanded us to fill the earth with disciples, baptizing and teaching. The same power that filled the seas is the power at work in us through the Holy Spirit.
Finally, we are reminded that God is the sovereign Lord over all that seems chaotic or fearsome. He created the great sea monsters. The things in this world that cause us to fear, whether political turmoil, economic collapse, or spiritual adversaries, are all creatures. They are on a leash. Our God is not locked in a cosmic struggle with chaos. He spoke, and the monsters came into being as part of His good plan. This should give us profound confidence and peace. The God who made Leviathan can certainly handle our problems. He is the Creator, and all creation, from the smallest fish to the greatest beast, exists to serve His purposes and declare His glory.