The Creation - Day 6 - Genesis 1, Moses 2, Abraham 4:24-31

The Creation – Day 6 The waters have been prepared for sea life and there are apparently birds and insects, etc. and now “the Gods prepared the earth to bring forth the living creature after his kind, cattle and creeping tings, and beasts of the earth after their kind.” Again, everything has to be “prepared” before it can actually be put there. I think that this probably means large animals, and probably the day before were more focused on small animals. Now the main event, the Gods “took counsel among themselves and said: Let us go down and form man in our image, after our likeness; and we will give them dominion.” This means dominion over all plants and animals. So they go down to the earth “to organize man” in their own image and I wonder if this means that they used the materials from the earth to create the human body. If so then that means that our bodies are made from the same stuff that used to reside in disorder out in space. There is another phrase used here that has been used several times before saying, “we will bless them… we will cause them to be fruitful and multiply, and replenish the earth.” Whenever “multiply and replenish” is mentioned, it’s always in the context of “these are blessings.” It’s interesting though because of how difficult it has been historically to support children in this fallen world. I wonder what would be the correct way to think about this back before birth control when you’re in an abusive marriage and have 8 kids already and everyone is starving and then you discover that you’re pregnant again, like I wonder how to consider that a blessing. It’s one of those concepts that are difficult to reconcile in this life sometimes. Another thing that I’ve thought about is what “in our image” means. I took an anthropology class in college and the teacher had a rendering of what a Neanderthal would have looked like based on the dimensions of the skull and he looked exactly like us. It’s been difficult to reconcile the evidence for Neanderthal and homo erectus, etc. and when I saw that picture of someone who looks just like us, I saw that God said “in his image” not necessarily “in his exact DNA sequence.” Maybe those other types of people lived on the earth in higher functioning societies, then they all died out. Maybe there was a bridge between Neanderthal and human, maybe something else, I don’t know, but I don’t need to know in order to be faithful to the gospel at this point. I believe that at one point I will figure it out and then it will all make sense, just like when I learn something here now, it makes sense and explains a lot. Finally, the last little bit that I found interesting is that for all the humans, beasts, creeping things, fowls, etc had the condition of “we will give them life, and also we will give them every green herb for meat, and all these things shall be thus organized.” Every green herb for meat, I think that means that in this pre-fallen world where they were immortal but not in glorified bodies, they were able to thrive on a purely vegetarian diet, which is fine for people now, but it says that this was the way for all animals to live too including ones that were strictly carnivorous. So in the context in which the lamb and the lion lying together makes sense.