What does Genesis 1:25 mean?
In Genesis chapter 1, God uses three days of creation to prepare the earth. On these first days He creates light, the sea and skies, and then dry land and plants. On the second three days, He fills those environments with the sun and moon, air and sea life, and land animals.In the previous verse, God commanded the creation of all the different kinds of animals and creeping things that would fill the land of the earth. Now in this verse, He executes that command, creating what He decreed must be created. Interestingly, God phrases this command as "let the earth bring forth" these living creatures (Genesis 1:24). In literal terms, this would imply the land animals being produced by the earth itself—making this phrase part of the ancient debate over how God chose to accomplish His creation.
Once again, God recognizes what He had made as good. God did not create anything that He decided was not up to His own standards. All that He made He called good. In fact, God's original creation of the universe, before being corrupted by sin, was completely good in every way. Nothing bad or corrupt had yet entered the world.
Genesis 1:14–25 describes the second three days of creation: days four, five, and six, just prior to the creation of human kind. As with the first three, there is a common pattern. God's spoken word results in creation, which God then names and declares ''good.'' The day is then numbered. Each of these days fills something created in one of the prior three days. The sun and moon are created on day four, while day and night were created on day one. Sea creatures are created on day five, for the oceans formed on day two. Land animals—and, later, human beings—are made on day six, for the dry land and plants which God created on day three.
Genesis 1 is nothing less than a bare-bones claim that God created the universe. Setting all of the debates on models and interpretations aside, the chapter undeniably insists on one thing: God means to be known as the Creator of all things. Written in the original Hebrew language according to a rigid, poetic structure, the chapter unfolds in a series of patterns and revelations. For those who believe these words, our response should be nothing less than to worship our Maker.
