No 11

(Day 5 of creation)

“And God created great whales and every living creature that moveth which the waters brought forth abundantly after their kind and every winged fowl after his kind and God saw that it was good” (Gen 1 : 21). God, in His majesty, created literally thousands and thousands of different species that live in the water. This includes mammals such as whales, porpoises, plesiosaurs and crocodiles. It also includes all types of fresh and salt-water fish such as pike, perch, sharks, and barracudas. Life in the sea is extremely complex when we begin looking at the various invertebrate creatures that God made. There are millions and millions of tiny, microscopic creatures in one drop of ocean water. These creatures go through a very complex life cycle. An oceanographer once said that to learn all there is to learn about all the biology in a single drop of seawater could take a lifetime. The word “abundantly” in verse 21 above means “teeming with” or “swarms and swarms of” creatures. How did Moses know this? He wasn’t a scientist. It had to be given to him be divine inspiration. God also created organisms that are heavier than air and that defy the law of gravity. Flight has always intrigued mankind and it is only in the 20^th century that we have been able to accomplish what God created on the 5^th day of creation. Birds are amazing how they are able to fly and soar in the air. Two wonderful examples of this are seen in the Arctic tern and the Albatross. The Arctic tern travels from north of the Arctic circle to south of the Antarctic circle and back again every single year – we’re talking here of 12000 miles! The tern is just a little bird but God has given it this amazing instinct. The other example is the Albatross. A baby Albatross, once it gets its feathers and starts to fly, remains airborne 24 hours a days for 7 to 8 years until it reaches maturity. These are marine birds and skim across the water and feed on fish. In the verse above, we encounter the words “after their kind or after his kind”. The word “kinds” here refers to species and not to different kinds within the same species. In other words, whales are whales; there are sperm whales, humpback whales, blue whales, etc. Or for the birds – eagles are eagles; there are bald eagles, golden eagles, Stellar’s sea eagles, etc.

The three words “after their kind” are very important. The Lord has instilled is His creation an exclusivity within each species; there is no cross-species breeding. Any attempt to do this has always been futile because of the DNA codes in all living creatures. There are two laws that science calls the immutable laws of nature. They are : 1) Life comes from life 2) Similar kinds breed similar kinds. The Bible says : “For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are My ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts” Isaiah 55 : 9. We have a God who is, at the same time, all-powerful and our loving heavenly Father.