Jump Start # 411 

Genesis 1:24-31 “Then God said, “Let the earth bring forth living creatures after their kind: cattle and creeping things and beasts of the earth after their kind”; and it was so. God made the beasts of the earth after their kind, and the cattle after their kind, and everything that creeps on the ground after its kind; and God saw that it was good. Then God said, “Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness; and let them rule over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the sky and over the cattle and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.” God created man in His own image, in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them. God blessed them; and God said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth, and subdue it; and rule over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the sky and over every living thing that moves on the earth.” Then God said, “Behold, I have given you every plant yielding seed that is on the surface of all the earth, and every tree which has fruit yielding seed; it shall be food for you;  and to every beast of the earth and to every bird of the sky and to every thing that moves on the earth which has life, I have given every green plant for food”; and it was so. God saw all that He had made, and behold, it was very good. And there was evening and there was morning, the sixth day.”

  Day six—this happened on a Friday. This was the final day of God’s activity. It was a busy day and it was the peak of all that He did—He made man in His image. The sixth day produced land animals, again keeping the order as He began with plants on the third day, of “after their kind.” A lion, cheetah, tiger, and kitten all belong to the cat family. They are different, but they are cats. They are not elephants. After their kind—defines the classes of animals.

  Many powerful thoughts found in these verses. Consider:

• Man is not a part of the animal world. He is made different, and he has a different role. We were not told that in biology class.
• Man’s position is over the animals. He is to rule over them. This authority and right was given to man from God.
• Dinosaurs were made the same day man was. They did not die out millions of years before man came on the scene—not if Genesis 1 is true.
• Originally, all animals and all mankind was vegetarians. As God made life in the garden of Eden, paradise, death did not happen. Death was introduced as a consequence of man’s sin. Before the sin, nothing died, including animals. Today, these natures changed. Man and many animals eat meat today. Not so originally.
• Man is made in the image of God. He alone has a soul and that soul will not die. Man has a conscience and man reasons. He is not driven by instincts. He cannot say  “ I unable to help myself.” Yes, he can. He is a spiritual being, an intellectual being, an emotional being and one that is responsible to God.
• At the conclusion of this day, God said it was VERY good. God had made someone that he could communicate with, fellowship with and have a relationship with. All of creation was for man, God’s peak of all that He made.
• God said that He made man in “OUR image.” Our is plural. This is the first insight into the trinity, the Father, Son and Holy Spirit.

  God made you. God made you to look the way you do. God made you with the eye color you have. God made you the sex that you are. God wired you the way you are—some of us are shy, others out going. Some of us are fixers, others dreamers. Some are very practical, some are theory oriented. Some work best with hands, others their minds. We are made by God, that label is on our hearts. And God wants you to want Him. Just as a parent longs for their child to want to do things with them, so does God. He made you not to live like an animal, only concerned about food and sleep, living for the moment. God wants you to bring the spiritual side of you out. To live with a vision of Heaven and to seek His ways.

  Made by God—what a great concept!

  Roger