Ordering of the Creatures and their Place
Genesis • Sermon • Submitted • Presented
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Introduction
Introduction
I grew up in the era where JAWS came out in the theatre. I didn’t see it until it came out on VHS, but I remember being scared of the water.
We would go to Hawaii and I remember going in the ocean and being hyper-vigilant. I couldn’t see the bottom of the sea floor (sandy/murky) and it freaked me out. There was a tortoise that came by us and I got even more nervous, because what else is there.
I would eventually have an opportunity to go to Mexico for short term mission trips. On our free day we’d go to the beach and swim in the ocean. I remember seeing as the waves rose up, fish in the waves swimming. Really cool sight to behold.
I would go on a deep sea fishing excursion for a friends Batchelor party. While at sea someone caught a HUGE fish… they were fighting it for a long time. After people were switching back and forth fighting the fish, it started to surface. It was a Manta-Ray bigger than the back of the charter boat… it was as if it got to the surface and said, “Oh, no I’m done playing”. It turned, snapped the line, and retreated back to the deep of the waters.
The Ocean sparks awe and wonder for me… images of circular scars on Sperm Whales that give evidence of Giant Squid deep in the ocean… terrifying.
Sperm whales, toothed whales can dive to the depths where giant squid live. This can be deeper than 1560 meters. Up to 2000 meters.
Sperm whales can hold their breath for 90 minutes. They dine exclusively on Giant and Colossal squid. The WHALES have the largest echolocation system on the planet.
This allows them to dive into deep sunless waters and see their prey with sound.
They have focus their ultra sound ( echolocation) on the squid and paralysed the squid before eating it.
The giant squid are related to octopus and considered to be intelligent.
Giant Squid 59 feet in length. A ton in weight. The biggest invertebrate on earth. We know little about them because they live at the deepest ocean levels. Their eyes are the size of basket balls. They have 8 legs with and 2 FEEDING legs to hold their food.
I was also speaking to a new acquaintance I made recently. He lives in Ireland and fairly regularly makes it to the states. He doesn’t often get past Nashville and rarely to Southern California. He’s a amateur photographer who loves taking pictures of nature. I began to speak about the PNW and the scenery, the birds, and when I got to the Bald Eagle, you could see him shift in his posture/desire to head up this way. He found what is common to us to be so rapturing. If you think about where we are, how Bald Eagles are everywhere, they are so majestic, powerful, and elegant.
All created by God. Not just created by God, but blessed by God. We’ll see this in our text today. The beauty, the awe, the mystery… all of creation is to lead us back to the Creator.
If you are able and willing, would you stand with me as I read our text this morning.
Genesis 1:20–23 “And God said, “Let the water teem with living creatures, and let birds fly above the earth across the vault of the sky.” So God created the great creatures of the sea and every living thing with which the water teems and that moves about in it, according to their kinds, and every winged bird according to its kind. And God saw that it was good. God blessed them and said, “Be fruitful and increase in number and fill the water in the seas, and let the birds increase on the earth.” And there was evening, and there was morning—the fifth day.”
This is the word of the Lord. Let us pray. Amen. You may be seated.
God Blessed Them
God Blessed Them
Good and right:
Psalm 104:24–25 “How many are your works, Lord! In wisdom you made them all; the earth is full of your creatures. There is the sea, vast and spacious, teeming with creatures beyond number— living things both large and small.”
Job 12:7–9 ““But ask the animals, and they will teach you, or the birds in the sky, and they will tell you; or speak to the earth, and it will teach you, or let the fish in the sea inform you. Which of all these does not know that the hand of the Lord has done this?”
However you want to look at it, when you see creation, and specifically the birds of the air that soar and the vastness and creativity of those things in the sea… it will inevitably point you to something and someone greater than ourselves.
But because of sin we take what is good, right, and beautiful and we can pervert it, we can subject it to something that it was not designed/made for.
In the ancient world these things would be worshiped.
Babylon: Tiamat (the chaos sea-dragon) and Oannes (came from the sea and taught man to fish and wisdom; had the form of a fish but with the head of a man under his fish’s head and under his fish’s tail the feet of a man.)
Egypt: Wadj-wer (Uatch-ur is an Egyptian god of fertility and the personification of the Mediterranean Sea, whose name means the "great green". He also symbolizes the richness of the waters of the Nile Delta.)
Rome/Greeks: Neptune/Poseidon (God of the fresh water and the sea)
Other ancient civilizations ascribed many deities, many causes to the bringing about of what is, but God’s word is so counter to that. It’s not a lot like today where we talk about karma, or “the gods”, or a force, or something out there… we recognize the complexity, vastness, our finiteness and we have to put something to it.
What God declares here is that He is over all of this. By the very means that He created it, He is over it, and sustains His creation (more on that in another study). They are not to be worshiped but that their beauty, their greatness is to be pointing us to the One who created it all.
Beauty, Creativity, and Curious
When we look at what He has done it should cause us to be in awe.
The beauty
The creativity (even the humor)
The curiousness of it all I think is there to make us wonder and be in awe. Some of us can’t help but want to understand, but in all of this the awe and mystery gives us glimpse into the depths, unsearchable wisdom, power, and majesty of God.
Good But Not Tame
Good But Not Tame
Creation is good; Genesis 1:21 “So God created the great creatures of the sea and every living thing with which the water teems and that moves about in it, according to their kinds, and every winged bird according to its kind. And God saw that it was good.”
Powerful
God speaks to Job about this… He calls him over and says:
Job 38:1–3 “Then the Lord spoke to Job out of the storm. He said: “Who is this that obscures my plans with words without knowledge? Brace yourself like a man; I will question you, and you shall answer me.”
Job 38:16–18 ““Have you journeyed to the springs of the sea or walked in the recesses of the deep? Have the gates of death been shown to you? Have you seen the gates of the deepest darkness? Have you comprehended the vast expanses of the earth? Tell me, if you know all this.”
Job 39:13–18 ““The wings of the ostrich flap joyfully, though they cannot compare with the wings and feathers of the stork. She lays her eggs on the ground and lets them warm in the sand, unmindful that a foot may crush them, that some wild animal may trample them. She treats her young harshly, as if they were not hers; she cares not that her labor was in vain, for God did not endow her with wisdom or give her a share of good sense. Yet when she spreads her feathers to run, she laughs at horse and rider.”
We’re only looking at fish, sea, birds, in this… but read all of Job 38-42… it’s a retelling in detail of Genesis 1
Job 39:26–30 ““Does the hawk take flight by your wisdom and spread its wings toward the south? Does the eagle soar at your command and build its nest on high? It dwells on a cliff and stays there at night; a rocky crag is its stronghold. From there it looks for food; its eyes detect it from afar. Its young ones feast on blood, and where the slain are, there it is.””
“Can you pull in Leviathan with a fishhook or tie down its tongue with a rope? Can you put a cord through its nose or pierce its jaw with a hook? Will it keep begging you for mercy? Will it speak to you with gentle words? Will it make an agreement with you for you to take it as your slave for life? Can you make a pet of it like a bird or put it on a leash for the young women in your house? Will traders barter for it? Will they divide it up among the merchants? Can you fill its hide with harpoons or its head with fishing spears? If you lay a hand on it, you will remember the struggle and never do it again! Any hope of subduing it is false; the mere sight of it is overpowering. No one is fierce enough to rouse it. Who then is able to stand against me? Who has a claim against me that I must pay? Everything under heaven belongs to me. “I will not fail to speak of Leviathan’s limbs, its strength and its graceful form. Who can strip off its outer coat? Who can penetrate its double coat of armor? Who dares open the doors of its mouth, ringed about with fearsome teeth? Its back has rows of shields tightly sealed together; each is so close to the next that no air can pass between. They are joined fast to one another; they cling together and cannot be parted. Its snorting throws out flashes of light; its eyes are like the rays of dawn. Flames stream from its mouth; sparks of fire shoot out. Smoke pours from its nostrils as from a boiling pot over burning reeds. Its breath sets coals ablaze, and flames dart from its mouth. Strength resides in its neck; dismay goes before it. The folds of its flesh are tightly joined; they are firm and immovable. Its chest is hard as rock, hard as a lower millstone. When it rises up, the mighty are terrified; they retreat before its thrashing. The sword that reaches it has no effect, nor does the spear or the dart or the javelin. Iron it treats like straw and bronze like rotten wood. Arrows do not make it flee; slingstones are like chaff to it. A club seems to it but a piece of straw; it laughs at the rattling of the lance. Its undersides are jagged potsherds, leaving a trail in the mud like a threshing sledge. It makes the depths churn like a boiling caldron and stirs up the sea like a pot of ointment. It leaves a glistening wake behind it; one would think the deep had white hair. Nothing on earth is its equal— a creature without fear. It looks down on all that are haughty; it is king over all that are proud.”
Not tame; A healthy respect is necessary
When I hear phrases like, “God’s creation is good but it is not tame.” I think of CS Lewis. Pastor Josh shared this quote a little bit ago and it’s one of my favorites from his Chronicles of Narnia series…
“Wrong will be right, when Aslan comes in sight, At the sound of his roar, sorrows will be no more, When he bares his teeth, winter meets its death, And when he shakes his mane, we shall have spring again. You’ll understand when you see him.” “But shall we see him?” asked Susan. “Why, Daughter of Eve, that’s what I brought you here for. I’m to lead you where you shall meet him,” said Mr Beaver. “Is-is he a man?” asked Lucy. “Aslan a man!” said Mr Beaver sternly. “Certainly not. I tell you he is the King of the wood and the son of the great Emperor-beyond-the-Sea. Don’t you know who is the King of Beasts? // Aslan is a lion - the Lion, the great Lion.” “Ooh!” said Susan, “I’d thought he was a man. Is he - quite safe? I shall feel rather nervous about meeting a lion.” “That you will, dearie, and no mistake,” said Mrs Beaver; “if there’s anyone who can appear before Aslan without their knees knocking, they’re either braver than most or else just silly.” “Then he isn’t safe?” said Lucy. “Safe?” said Mr Beaver; “don’t you hear what Mrs Beaver tells you? Who said anything about safe? ‘Course he isn’t safe. But he’s good. He’s the King, I tell you.””
C. S. Lewis. THE CHRONICLES OF NARNIA, A GRIEF OBSERVED, THAT HIDEOUS STRENGTH (pp. 63-64). Kindle Edition.
Just like a craftsman of any sort today, so too we can know more about God as He reveals Himself through His creation… that’s some of the questions that Genesis is asking. We’ve talked before… where many faiths, cults, religions are all trying to discern, “who is God!?”, “God where are you?” Eventually in the Biblical narrative God says, here I am… even now in creation He’s revealing Himself.
When we take in the vastness and power that is demonstrated and shown in nature and creation… it should cause us to tremble. “Knocking our knees” as Mrs. Beaver would say.
Fear of the Lord
Fear of the Lord
Fear of the Lord keeps us safe
Proverbs 1:7 “The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge, but fools despise wisdom and instruction.”
Looking at creation, not only does the beauty of it should lead us to the creator, but also that when we recognize that we are not the strongest, biggest, and mightiest on this planet out of creation (most special for sure), it should do two things:
Humble us, because God is over all, causing us to live in light of His power and awesomeness
He is for us, not against us, and that what He has established as boundaries is for our benefit.
The God we serve is greater than creation- Jonah 1:17 “Now the Lord provided a huge fish to swallow Jonah, and Jonah was in the belly of the fish three days and three nights.”
If he provides for the sparrows how much more us (Matt 6:26; Luke 12:24)
Matthew 6:26 “Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they?”
Coming back to the fear of the Lord:
I recently heard a story from a pastor who went to go see another famous well known pastor in prison. He thought about all that he would ask him. He prepared and as he came to the prison, he just became more and more grieved. When finally was able to be with the pastor, he asked him, “When did you stop loving Jesus?” The pastor who had been incarcerated didn’t hesitate in his response. He said, “I’ve always loved Jesus, I still love Jesus deeply. The reason I got caught up in what I did is I stopped fearing the Lord.”
When we look at creation… the birds in the air, the creatures in the sea, all of those things we can’t explain, it should drive us to the Lord’s throne.
One could make an argument that Adam and Eve loved God, but that at that moment when tempted, they didn’t fear the Lord. God is mightier and greater than the deep. Greater and mightier than what is before you today. Trust Him.
His creation is good for us to enjoy, but in it, it reflects His might, His power, His wisdom, His creativity, His beauty, and His desire to have all of this hear for us to enjoy, and that we might enjoy Him forever.
Conclusion
Conclusion
As we conclude our time together today, I want to invite you to respond to what God has laid on your heart. Perhaps as we've explored the wonder and power of God's creation, you've realized that you've lost that healthy fear of the Lord in your life. Maybe you've allowed other things to take priority, and you've drifted in your relationship with Him. Or perhaps you're here today and you've never truly connected with God personally - you've admired His creation, but you haven't yet come to know the Creator. Wherever you find yourself, I want to extend an invitation for prayer.
In a moment, we're going to have a time of worship, and I encourage you to use that time to talk to God. If you need to renew your reverence for Him, tell Him. If you need to repent of areas where you've wandered, do that now. And if you want to begin a relationship with the God who made the oceans and eagles and everything in between, simply talk to Him - welcome Him into your life and ask Him to reveal Himself to you. He is a good God, a mighty God, and a God who loves you deeply.
If you want to pray with someone, I want to invite our pastors, elders, deacons, staff down front as we want to make them available to you for someone to pray with. You can come down at any time… now, during the music, after the benediction, whenever. Let's take a moment now to respond to Him.