The sixth day has arrived. Trees and plants are now growing on the land. There are birds in the trees and in the sky. Certain birds walk on the ground, but there is nothing more to see. God changes this with his next words. He gives the command that there will be animals that live on the earth. These animals are called living creatures. They are divided into three groups:
Livestock. Here we should think of animals that can serve humans and live close to people—sometimes even in their own yards.
The crawling animals. These are all the animals that live close to the ground. Animals that, in our eyes, hardly rise above the earth.
The wild animals. A misunderstanding looms here. The translation
wild beasts
makes us quickly think of predators—animals that are dangerous to people and other animals. That is not the intention here. The wordwild
here describes all animals that do not live close to people and neither serve man as docile animals. It refers to animals that like to live in the wild. Before the fall, even these wild animals were in no way a threat to man or other animals. Death and the killing of others did not exist then. There was true peace on earth between all creatures.
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.