Creation of man occurs on day 6, the final day of creation. Man is the crown of God’s glory in creation. However, immediately prior to the creation of man, God crated land animals. With the creation of land animals and man, the creation of life is complete and man is placed in the Garden of Eden.
God created man as male and female and in the likeness and image of God. He blessed man and instructed them to be fruitful and multiply, fill the earth, subdue it and then gave man dominion over all other living things on the earth.
Days one through five of creation set the stage for Day 6. Man was created on Day 6 and man is given the number 6 as we learn in Revelation 13:18. The number of God is 7, representing his perfect holiness. As we shall see, on the seventh day of creation, God rested and established the seventh day as a holy day upon which man was to rest and give glory and thanks to God.
Exodus 20:8, the Fifth Commandment, says: 8 “Remember the Sabbath day by keeping it holy. 9 Six days you shall labor and do all your work, 10 but the seventh day is a sabbath to the Lord your God. On it you shall not do any work, neither you, nor your son or daughter, nor your male or female servant, nor your animals, nor any foreigner residing in your towns. 11 For in six days the Lord made the heavens and the earth, the sea, and all that is in them, but he rested on the seventh day. Therefore, the Lord blessed the Sabbath day and made it holy. NKJV.
Man was created to live in the presence of God and to declare the goodness and holiness of God. What this should look like is described in Revelation 4.
In Revelation 4:8-11, John appears in the Throne Room of God where he witnesses the following:
The four living creatures, each having six wings, were full of eyes around and within. And they do not rest day or night, saying:
“Holy, holy, holy,
Lord God Almighty,
Who was and is and is to come!”
9 Whenever the living creatures give glory and honor and thanks to Him who sits on the throne, who lives forever and ever, 10 the twenty-four elders fall down before Him who sits on the throne and worship Him who lives forever and ever, and cast their crowns before the throne, saying:
11 “You are worthy, O Lord,
To receive glory and honor and power;
For You created all things,
And by Your will they exist and were created.” NKJV.
I think it is worth noting here that God is called Lord God Almighty and is represented by seven declarations: Holy, holy, holy, worthy, glory, honor and power. The Beast/Antichrist/Devil, on the other hand, is represented by 666, which is the number of Man. The Beast/Antichrist/Devil declares himself to be God, but he is an imposter and falls short of the perfection of God. The Beast/Antichrist/Devil was created by God and cannot raise himself to the same level as God, although he has declared to do so.
I say all of this to emphasize that all of creation in Genesis 1 sets the stage for the creation of man by God as His final act of creation. Man holds a special relationship with God having been created in the image and likeness of God. And God gives man dominion over all other living things on earth.
With this having been said, let us look at Genesis 1:24-31. On day six of creation prior to the creation of man, God creates all land life as is set forth is verses 24 through 25 as follows: 24 Then God said, “Let the earth bring forth the living creature according to its kind: cattle and creeping thing and beast of the earth, each according to its kind”; and it was so. 25 And God made the beast of the earth according to its kind, cattle according to its kind, and everything that creeps on the earth according to its kind. And God saw that it was good. NKJV.
These verses divide the land creatures into cattle, beast of the earth, and everything that creeps according to its kind. Obviously, God did not consider it important to distinguish which animals fit it which category. Arguably, cattle would include all animals that are able to be domesticated, beasts of the earth would include all wild beasts, and the creeping things would include all other land animals perhaps including insects, reptiles, amphibians, etc. However, the message is clear, God first created plant and tree life, then life in the waters and life in the air, followed by life on the land. At this point, the Earth is fully created with life and the stage is set for the creation of man.
The creation of man is set forth generally in Genesis 1:26-31 and the details are more specifically set out in Genesis 2:7 through 25. We will discuss Genesis 2 in a later post.
Genesis 1:26-31 states as follows:
26 Then God said, “Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness; let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the air, and over the cattle, 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 Then God blessed them, and God said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply; fill the earth and subdue it; have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the air, and over every living thing that moves on the earth.”
29 And God said, “See, I have given you every herb that yields seed which is on the face of all the earth, and every tree whose fruit yields seed; to you it shall be for food. 30 Also, to every beast of the earth, to every bird of the air, and to everything that creeps on the earth, in which there is [i]life, I have given every green herb for food”; and it was so. 31 Then God saw everything that He had made, and indeed it was very good. So, the evening and the morning were the sixth day. (NKJV).
Unlike all other life that God created, it is clear that man holds a superior position in relation to God. God said, “Let Us make man in our image, according to Our likeness”. This does not mean that man was created equal with God. But, it clearly states that man has characteristics similar to the attributes of God. Arguably, this would include intelligence, communication, the ability to make rational and informed decisions, creativity, free will, and the ability to love, among many others.
This could also mean that the triune nature of man is an image of the triune nature of God. Not a direct duplication, but rather an image. Thus, the Scriptures clearly state that God is one, but there are three distinct personalities of God: to wit: The Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit. All three are shown to be distinct personalities, but they are unified as one God. On the other hand, each of us are formed as body, mind and spirit, but we are one person.
This is not to say that the Father is the body of God, the Son is the mind and the Holy Spirit is the spirit like we are. Rather, it is worth noting that man existing as body, mind and spirit is created in the image of God. But, unlike God, our body is corrupt, our mind is diminished and our spirit seems to be where our identity exists. The Bible clearly states that God is spirit and those who worship Him must worship Him in spirit and truth. John 4:24.
There are a couple of other things that are important to note in this passage on the creation of man. First, creation of man consists of male and female. Male is not man, and female is not man. The two of them together form man. Today’s society has defined male as man and then takes offense about what the scriptures say about man. This is a strawman argument that redefines the term “man” and then takes offense at the re-definition. Simply stated, Genesis is clear. Man has dominion over the life on Earth, not merely male.
Man, as male and female, has dominion over the earth, and man, as male and female, is to be fruitful and multiply. This implies that man reproduces after its own kind. Since there is only one species of man, it is unnecessary to say to reproduce according to its own kind. All other categories of life contains multiple species, and thus, they reproduce according to their own kind.
Second, man was designed to live off of the herbs that yield seed and the fruit from trees. Likewise, all land animals and birds of the air were to live off of every green herb. Unfortunately, all of this changed with the fall of man, which we will discuss in a future post.
Day six concludes God’s creation of all things and culminates in the creation of man. God declares it all to be good, which implies it is perfect. However, man, with free will, will ultimately choose to disobey God and will fall. This will bring imperfection into the world and will create the need for God to provide a plan of redemption for mankind. This plan will be developed in future posts.