Land Creatures – Genesis 1:24,25

Earth and World has come up with what they consider the top ten land animals in the world.  It is a mystery as to what the standards were for making their choices, but one choice that stands out is the liger.  It sounds like a made-up creature, and in a way it is, because it is only bred in captivity, a cross between a lion and a tiger.  They can grow bigger than their parents, are usually more docile than either lions or tigers, but have trouble reproducing.  The interbreeding of these large cats has shown that their genetic structure determines much of their personal characteristics, suggesting that God put into each creature a coding that determines a lot of their behavior.

24 And God said, “Let the earth bring forth living creatures according to their kinds—livestock and creeping things and beasts of the earth according to their kinds.” And it was so. 25 And God made the beasts of the earth according to their kinds and the livestock according to their kinds, and everything that creeps on the ground according to its kind. And God saw that it was good. (Genesis 1:24–25, ESV)

God has begun filling His world on day five with sea and sky creatures, but now turns to filling the land masses He created with land creatures.  He uses three categories of creature to stand in for all the creatures He makes: livestock, creeping things, and beasts, which most suggest would refer to domesticated animals, creeping animals and wild animals.  LightofWord.org offers an excerpt from the People’s Bible Encyclopedia listing all specific mentions of animals in the King James Bible, alphabetically, of course.

A question that is raised by the next creative act of God, the creation of humans, is what is the difference between creatures made in God’s image and creatures not made in God’s image.  It is striking, the intelligence some animals exhibit (the Superb Lyre bird can mimic nearly any sound it hears, dolphins have highly developed communication and social interaction, humpback whales have learned how to corral fish by swimming in circles blowing bubbles through their spout and forming a kind of trap), and animal intelligence in general can be highly developed.  Many of us have had pets that we found highly social, emotional and intelligent.  God did not skimp on the gifts He gave to His creations, and when he makes the creatures He makes on day six, He “saw that it was good.”

God has made it so that the creatures living around one another form an “ecosystem (or ecological system) [consisting] of all the organisms and the physical environment with which they interact. These biotic and abiotic components are linked together through nutrient cycles and energy flows. Energy enters the system through photosynthesis and is incorporated into plant tissue. By feeding on plants and on one another, animals play an important role in the movement of matter and energy through the system. They also influence the quantity of plant and microbial biomass present. By breaking down dead organic matter, decomposers release carbon back to the atmosphere and facilitate nutrient cycling by converting nutrients stored in dead biomass back to a form that can be readily used by plants and microbes.”  The life and subsistence of every creature is, to some extent, dependent on that of every other created thing in the ecosystem.  Damage to one part results in damage to the whole.  We may think of the entire world as one big ecosystem, where things like climate change can have huge impacts on how the system thrives or doesn’t thrive.

God is intimately concerned and involved with all His creation.