GOD’S WORD FOR YOU
GENESIS 1:12-13
12 The earth brought forth vegetation, plants that produce seed according to their own kinds, and trees that bear fruit with seed in it, each according to its own kind. And God saw that it was good. 13 And there was evening and there was morning, the third day.
Everything was made as God commanded. It seems certain that God made the plants that live in the water on this day as well as the plants that live on land. Another thing that is not in the text but is surely part of the third day’s creation is the vast mineral wealth of the earth: the stones, rocks, and other things on the earth and under the land and sea, as well. This would surely have included the vast stores of underground oil and gas. Billions of gallons of oil still exist untouched even today, although drilling experts estimate that at the current rate of global consumption, the world will run completely dry of oil in a little over fifty years, and twice that amount of time is about all we have left before we run out of coal– at the present rate of consumption.
But returning now to the other things made on this day, the remarkable world of plants, we have one unanswered question to ask. Were any of the plants in the original creation dangerous to man? Part of the judgment proclaimed by God after the fall into sin was this: “The land will produce thorns and thistles for you” (Genesis 3:18). From this, we take it that those dangerous and damaging parts of the plant kingdom, even on the stems of my father’s rosebushes, were a modification after the fall, a change in the status of plants, just as there was a change in the status of man. For man had been holy and sinless, and had the image of God, but after the fall, the image was lost, and man was no longer holy nor sinless. We will also observe one change in the animal kingdom after the fall when we meditate on chapter 3.
Here, the answer that the plants originally held no danger for man at all is also seen in the judgment God made on this third day: “God saw that it was good.” What God had called into being had appeared just as God commanded. Everything was done according to God’s holy will, and for the good of mankind. “For everything God created is good, and nothing is to be rejected if it is received with thanksgiving” (1 Timothy 4:3). We are taught by Scripture to share whatever good things the Lord gives (Numbers 10:32), and to consider everything God gives as being good. For God even disciplines us for our good (Hebrews 12:10). We should always expect God to give us what is good. “Although much that is good comes to us from men, we receive it all from God through his command” (Large Catechism, I:26).
Here is the place where I will also take up the question about the creation of the angels. Angels are created beings, as Paul says: “For by him (that is, Christ) all things were created: things in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or powers or rulers or authorities; all things were created by him and for him” (Colossians 1:16). God did not create anything else after the week of creation (Genesis 2:2). The angels were not made out of God, for they are not absolutely divine or like God, or of the same substance as God (this is something we only say of the Son of God). They are not eternal, or this would contradict John 1:1-3. They can only have been created by God during the six days of creation. Our Professor Adolf Hoenecke (1835-1908) understands man’s curiosity about this, and he says, “As long as people remain within these limits, there is room for various definitions of the point in time (when the angels were made), although none of them can count as absolutely valid.”
Over the years, theologians have speculated about which day the angels were made:
1, On the first day. Some cite Job 38:6-7, “Who laid (the earth’s) cornerstone while… the angels shouted for joy?”
2, On the second day. One Rabbi (Yochanan, 180-279) held that because the first day is called “day one” in Hebrew and not “the first day,” that it represents a singularity of God’s existence, but after that, there may have been other beings (the angels).
3, On the third day. Very few consider the third day a candidate for the angels’ creation.
4, On the fourth day. Some city the same Job passage (Job 38:6-7) since it also mentions the morning stars singing for joy along with the angels, and the stars were not made until the fourth day (Genesis 1:16).
5, On the fifth day. Rabbi Hanina ben Dosa (middle first to second century) of Galilee, held that his was the day the angels were brought forth, perhaps on account of the creation of the “flying things” on this day.
6, On the sixth day. One might well take the passage, “You made [man] a little lower than the angels” (Psalm 8:5; Hebrews 2:7) to imply that the angels were made just before man was made. Martin Chemnitz cited Job 38:4-8 to show that the angels were created before man.
Since there are good arguments for considering the first, second, fourth, fifth and even the sixth day, I believe that we must consider 1 Corinthians 1:25, that “the foolishness of God is wiser than man’s wisdom, and the weakness of God is stronger than man’s strength.” This leads me to give at least a little thought to the third day, not because I wish to insist that this would be the correct answer, but because it has been dismissed. Also, Ezekiel 28 may have something to say about this.
Ezekiel 28 begins with a scathing condemnation of the King of Tyre for his blasphemy, claiming, “I am a god” (28:9). After this, verses 11-19 are a lament for that doomed king.
1, The king is compared with a fallen angel, a “guardian cherub” who was driven from the mount of God (28:14,16).
2, He is said to have been “in Eden, the garden of God” (28:13).
3, Various precious stones, corresponding to some of the stones on the high priest’s breastplate, “were prepared on the day you were created” (28:13).
4, The king’s pride (and that of the “guardian cherub”) caused his downfall when he was expelled and was thrown to earth (28:17).
5, Fire consumes him for torment (28:18).
6, “The immediate context points to an earthly ruler… Recognizing that that prophecy can speak about two similar people or events in one passage, it is possible that the fall of the king in this prophecy could (also) be speaking about Satan.” (Schuetze, “Angels and Demons: Have Wings– Will Travel,” p. 47).
Now, these things are the condemnation of a sinful ruler, a human ruler. But he seems to be compared with a fallen angel (perhaps Satan himself), in which case we should not overlook the reference to the various stones and even precious stones that “were prepared on the day you were created” (28:13). These things would suggest that the unlikely third day of creation would perhaps have been the day that the angels were made.
Also, it seems that on the first three days, God made things that were later filled up on the second three days. On the fourth day, he made luminaries to give light. On the fifth day, he made flying and swimming things to inhabit the second day’s sea and sky. On the sixth day, he made animals and man to inhabit the land that was brought forth on the third day. But man has a body as well as a soul. Were the angels, who have souls but no bodies, brought forth on the third day? This is only a speculation; I do not offer it to say that it is or must be correct.
About the day when the angels were created, Ambrose said, “We are free to be ignorant because we neither must nor can know.” I will agree with Ambrose before I agree with anyone else.
We are reminded by God’s creating activity on this third day of creation that he had our own best interests in mind. He had made for us a world; a house in which to live and give him glory and praise. He also, on this day, stocked the pantry of that house, with a perpetual mechanism to produce good food to fill and nourish us, not only for a whole lifetime, but for all lifetimes (Proverbs 27:25-27). This is the love and grace of God.
If we look around us today, long after the fall, deep into each of our own sad lifetimes of sin, we see that God still loves us and preserves us, providing us with what we need. For the believer, this is his love and promise: “Never will I leave you, never will I forsake you” (Joshua 1:5). For the unbeliever, this is evidence that God preserves them “so that men would seek him and perhaps reach out for him, though he is not far from each one of us” (Acts 17:26). Truly the grace of God that brings salvation has appeared to all men.
In Christ,
Pastor Timothy Smith
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Pastor Smith serves St. Paul’s Lutheran Church, New Ulm, Minnesota
God’s Word for You – Genesis 1:12-13 sin, grace, and angels