Genesis 1:9-13
Divine Life – Part i
And God said, Let the waters under the heaven be gathered together unto one place, and let the dry land appear: and it was so. (Genesis 1:9)
And God called the dry land Earth; and the gathering together of the waters called he Seas: and God saw that it was good. (Genesis 1:10)
And God said, Let the earth bring forth grass, the herb yielding seed, and the fruit tree yielding fruit after his kind, whose seed is in itself, upon the earth: and it was so. (Genesis 1:11)
And the earth brought forth grass, and herb yielding seed after his kind, and the tree yielding fruit, whose seed was in itself, after his kind: and God saw that it was good. (Genesis 1:12)
And the evening and the morning were the third day. (Genesis 1:13)
  The first principle in Chapter 1 of Genesis is that GOD exists and that He communicates. The next principle we see is that God is Divine Light and He is the Creator of all things, and the very next principle that God brings us to is that of ‘division.’ After light was first declared as being ‘good’ then, and only then, did God divide the light from darkness. Now we come to the next revelation of God revealed to us in the third day. To reiterate some of the principles within Genesis Chapter 1: God exists, God communicates, God is Creator, God is light, God is good, God divides and now God is Divine Life.
  The Bible reveals God, Genesis is a revelation from God about God. Searching within every word and phrase in Genesis Chapter 1 for some deep clue hidden within the words to give us an understanding of how God created the universe is a search beyond the comprehension of the mind of men.
The Five Sentences of the Revelation of Divine Life
  The very first introduction of life, and renewal of life, and resurrection of life is in Genesis 1, verses 9 through 13, when the dry land appeared to rise from the waters, and the waters flowed away into the crevasses and depths of the sea. I like the phrases, And God called the dry land Earth, and the waters called he Seas because it was God who named our planet ‘Earth,’ and it was He who named the ‘Seas.’ Merely 5 sentences to describe the naming of the planet, life within the seed, the fixity of species, the genetics within the species, a time element in the number 3, and resurrection. God sure can cut a lot of extraneous words from a narrative and get to the true issues at hand. Other times He loves to spend time offering us details, not only of the visual, but of the odors of life and death, and the sounds of action and turmoil,
  Five verses or five sentences speaks a library filled with truths and knowledge. There are two different types of writings, one is informational, and the other is spiritually directed to the soul and spirit. Both are important and there is a time for both. God, being the Perfect Instructor, the Perfect Teacher, the Perfect Author gives us all that the mind, heart, and soul of men needs to understand regarding the issues that He deems important.
 Yes, plainly within the ‘after his kind,’ and ‘whose seed is in itself’ there is the fixity of species, and the genetics within all life, and the revelation that within all life there are genetical identifiers that can be called barcode genes. Wonderful as this all is, and very exciting to know that God created all life with such precision and perfection, let us look at Genesis through the eyes of Him who spoke. Our focus should be on God and what He has told us about Himself in His very first message to mankind, and not become consumed by questions or the answers of how He created, but on Him — the Creator. The majority of mankind under the delusion and control of ‘science falsely so called’ are earnestly waiting to receive the first message of contact from a world beyond ours. Guess what — we have already been contacted — and we have already received the very first message from a world beyond ours — and we refuse to believe it! GOD HAS SPOKEN TO US!
  Forget about the how, forget about the when, forget about the why . . . because it is about the WHO! God has revealed Himself to us! What greater revelation could there possible be than this? GOD HAS SPOKEN TO US!
Nicodemus answered and said unto him, How can these things be? (John 3:9)
Jesus said, If I have told you earthly things, and ye believe not, how shall ye believe, if I tell you of heavenly things? (John 3:12)
  I have pulled these verses out of their content, but not out of their context to show you that we are not able to understand things that are unseen in the universe; therefore, God does not spend or waste His time in Genesis Chapter 1 attempting to instruct us on His Creatorial Power and actions. (Read Chapter 3 of the Gospel of John for it’s context, which is centered around being born again — the mystery of the unseen in the new birth of every true Christian).
  There are some issues that can be repeatedly mentioned, for instance, Genesis is not the revelation of creation, but it is the revelation of the Creator. What can we glean from our main study verses? The key words are ‘dry land,’ ‘and it was so,’ ‘seed,’ ‘after his kind,’ ‘seed is in itself,’ ‘and it was good,’ ‘the third day.’ This is much more than the origin of matter — it is the unfolding through the physical of the inherent nature of God — in that — HE IS DIVINE LIFE.
 God is the Great Teacher, He instructs us by using the objects around us, those things that we call ‘nature,’ the simple examples of the seen to unveil to us the things that are unseen.
  ‘And it was so,’ this phrase is only found in the Old Testament, and it is repeated more times in Genesis than in any other Old Testament book. In fact, it is repeated six (6) times in Genesis and all these six times it is found in Chapter 1 of Genesis. Six is the number that relates to man, and thus, relates to the world of man. Through His words, through His proclamations, through His commands all is brought to fulfillment, ‘and it was so.’ All that exists comes from the very breath and essence of the Almighty God. He called into existence, ‘and it was so.’
The Spirit of God hath made me, and the breath of the Almighty hath given me life. (Job 33:4)
For with thee is the fountain of life: in thy light shall we see light. (Psalm 36:9)
For as the Father hath life in himself; so hath he given to the Son to have life in himself; (John 5:26)
  ‘dry land’ — from a barren and dry land that God called out of existence, He brought forth a land rich and invigorated with life. This is not only a picture of His creation, but the barren and dry land is a picture of the true state of sinful man before a righteous God. Even though sin, through Adam, had not yet appeared in the universe of man, the type and principle is clear: first comes chaos, then God’s proper order; first is the darkness then God’s Divine Light; first it is the barrenness, then God’ Divine Life. Within all types and principles there is God’s perfect order — man’s day, or the time of man always begins with night and darkness, and then comes the light of day.
  And the evening and the morning were the third day. This time setting phrase ‘And the evening and the morning’ which is observed by Jews today is quite fitting, for they are still in the night of their day. The people that walked in darkness have seen a great light: they that dwell in the land of the shadow of death, upon them hath the light shined. (Isaiah 9:2) This phrase ‘and the evening and the morning’ is only recorded seven (7) times in the Bible, and is found six (6) times in Genesis, Chapter 1, and one (1) time in Daniel 8:26. The following verse of prophecy states that when His people (Exodus 3:7 it is first recorded that Jehovah not only called the sons of Israel, but He owned them as ‘my people’) come to the time of His power over the nations of the world, they shall then be willing, and in the beauty of His holiness, and at the time of the birth of the morning they (the Jewish people) shall be renewed and refreshed as in the time of their harmony with Him when they first entered into their land. Thy people shall be willing in the day of thy power, in the beauties of holiness from the womb of the morning: thou hast the dew of thy youth. (Psalm 110:3) I love that phrase from the womb of the morning, from the dayspring, from the first beam of the sun, from the first beam of the Son when He returns to earth wrapped in His full glory, not His glory cloaked as at His first advent, but wrapped in glory for all eyes to behold. I shall see him, but not now: I shall behold him, but not nigh: there shall come a Star out of Jacob, and a Sceptre shall rise out of Israel, and shall smite the corners of Moab, and destroy all the children of Sheth. (Numbers 24:17)
  Through the tender mercy of our God; whereby the dayspring from on high hath visited us, (Luke 1:78) In this prophecy about John the Baptist by his father Zacharias we understand that the dayspring, the first beam of the ray of the morning, and of the first manifestation of His promise to a barren earth, and to His people in darkness was the dayspring, the womb of the morning, sent from God on high and had visited, and walked among men. Peter adds to our comprehension in 2 Peter 1:19, We have also a more sure word of prophecy; whereunto ye do well that ye take heed, as unto a light that shineth in a dark place, until the day dawn, and the day star arise in your hearts: Then in Revelation 22:16, the Lord Jesus Christ states, I Jesus have sent mine angel to testify unto you these things in the churches. I am the root and the offspring of David, and the bright and morning star.
  We are not finished with this phrase And the evening and the morning. This phrase is never recorded in the New Testament, but we do find something of interest, the phrase ‘morning till evening,’ occurs only once in the Bible and that is found in Acts 28:23 And when they (the Jewish leaders in Rome) had appointed him (Paul) a day, there came many to him into his lodging; to whom he expounded and testified the kingdom of God, persuading them concerning Jesus, both out of the law of Moses, and out of the prophets, from morning till evening. Here a time element is recorded specifically from morning till evening. Why only this one time in Scripture? Because the true Light had come, the Dayspring on high had been revealed through the Lord Jesus Christ. Men need no longer to live in the fear of the blackness of the darkness of night away from God. For God, who commanded the light to shine out of darkness, hath shined in our hearts, to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. (2 Corinthians 4:6)
After his kind and the number 9
  ‘after his kind,’ These three words are recorded nine (9) times in Chapter 1 of Genesis, and a total of twenty-seven (27) times in the Old Testament (27 the cube of 3). Nine is the square of three, and three is the number of Divine perfection, and it is a number peculiar to the Holy Spirit. Interestingly, there are 27 books in the New Testament — God glorified in His perfection (3³) through His perfectly accomplished written word to mankind — it is finished — through His perfectly accomplished sacrifice by His Living Word, Christ — it is finished. Another interesting point is that the Lord said these words of ‘it is finished’  in the 9th hour while He was on the cross. (Matthew 27:45-50, compare to Mark 15: 34-37, compare to Luke 23: 44- 46, and compare to John 19: 30).  Through the number 9 God instructs us of His completion, the finality of His work. (This is, of course, not the total revealing of the number 9 in Scripture). In Genesis Chapter 1 through this number nine (9) we see the conclusion of the matter. God simply states ‘after his kind’ is the fixity of species, nothing to add in the physical realm of creation for kind produces after its own kind. The principle is set at the very beginning of God’s teaching, that kind produces after its own kind — said and done — the conclusion of the matter — the number 9.
  ‘seed is in itself’ ‘seed was in itself,’ — What a wonder! What a miracle! What a supernatural action within! You can refer to the genetical tree of life, you can speak of the reproductive miracle, or should I say the supernatural element of life within all life, but nothing that we can see can reach the depth of what God simply states as the ‘seed is in itself.’ Thank God that God spoke to simple man so that simple man can simply understand. The Greatest Botanist didn’t use complicated phrases or labels, nor did the Greatest Geneticist write about theory, or genetical engineering, or hereditary transmission and mutation — not my God — He understood His audience, knew our limitations, and simple said whose ‘seed is in itself.’ Life was within every living thing, and from death life would come.
©Copyright 2016, Mary Haigh
Article may be used, but not for gain. Freely ye have received, freely give.
All Scripture references are from the Authorized King James Bible. (KJV)