What is the meaning of Genesis 1:20? And God said The verse opens with a familiar rhythm—God speaks, and reality responds. • Scripture presents God’s word as the creative force itself. “For He spoke, and it came to be; He commanded, and it stood firm” (Psalm 33:9). • This pattern of divine speech runs through all six days (Genesis 1:3, 6, 9, 11, 14, 20, 24). The text leaves no room for processes outside His direct command; when He speaks, things immediately exist. • Hebrews 11:3 confirms the same truth for New-Covenant readers: “By faith we understand that the universe was formed at God’s command.” By stressing that God simply said, Genesis underscores His unmatched authority and power—no contest, no delay, no rival. Let the waters teem with living creatures God’s first focus on Day Five is the seas. • “Teem” paints a picture of abundance: countless species, sizes, colors, and purposes. Psalm 104:25 celebrates that overflowing variety: “There is the sea, vast and spacious, teeming with creatures beyond number.” • Genesis 1:21 immediately records the fulfillment: “So God created the great sea creatures and every living thing that moves.” This declares a literal, sudden appearance of marine life—whales, sharks, plankton, everything from the microscopic to the massive. • Job 12:7-8 invites us to learn theology from creation itself: “Ask the beasts, and they will teach you… or speak to the earth, and it will instruct you.” The seas preach God’s creativity and generosity. Observing today’s oceans—whether watching a dolphin leap or viewing coral reefs—should stir worship, because each living form owes its existence to this spoken command. Let birds fly above the earth in the open expanse of the sky Next, God populates the skies. • The phrase “fly above the earth” stresses mobility and freedom, contrasting with the earlier division between waters and dry land (Genesis 1:9-10). Birds bridge those domains. • Psalm 104:12 notes how “beside them the birds of the heavens dwell; they sing among the branches,” echoing this day’s handiwork. • Jesus later used birds as living sermons of providence: “Look at the birds of the air: they do not sow or reap… yet your heavenly Father feeds them” (Matthew 6:26). Their ongoing care flows from the same Creator who first launched them into the sky. • Isaiah 40:26 calls us to lift our eyes and see who created these countless “hosts”; each wingbeat testifies to His sustaining power. The “open expanse” (first introduced in Genesis 1:6-8) is the atmosphere God previously formed. Now He fills it—swiftly and specifically—with everything from soaring eagles to fluttering sparrows. summary Genesis 1:20 reveals the start of Day Five, when God’s spoken word instantly filled sea and sky with life. His command displays: • Authority—He merely speaks, and creation obeys. • Abundance—oceans brimming with organisms, skies alive with flight. • Care—each creature, great or small, exists by His will and for His glory. Reading the verse literally invites awe: the same God who populated waters and heavens in a moment still sustains every fish, every bird—and invites us to trust Him with equal confidence today. |
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