Then God said, “Let there be a firmament in the midst of the waters, and let it divide the waters from the waters.” Thus God made the firmament, and divided the waters which were under the firmament from the waters which were above the firmament; and it was so. And God called the firmament Heaven. So the evening and the morning were the second day. Then God said, “Let the waters under the heavens be gathered together into one place, and let the dry land appear”; and it was so. And God called the dry land Earth, and the gathering together of the waters He called Seas. And God saw that it was good. Then God said, “Let the earth bring forth grass, the herb that yields seed, and the fruit tree that yields fruit according to its kind, whose seed is in itself, on the earth”; and it was so. And the earth brought forth grass, the herb that yields seed according to its kind, and the tree that yields fruit, whose seed is in itself according to its kind. And God saw that it was good. So the evening and the morning were the third day.
My focus now turns toward the land appearing. God said, "Let the earth bring forth grass, the herb that yields seed, and the fruit tree that yields fruit according to its kind..." Notice that God doesn't say, "Let there be..."
This is a distinction that is noteworthy for a simple reason. When God creates the animals and people and birds and fish, He says, "Let there be..." Here, God isn't the one who creates the vegetation. The Earth itself brings forth the vegetation. God does direct it and speak it forth, but God does not create it directly. God creates it indirectly.
Whats the point?
There is the complication of what did Adam eat? We can see that God tells Him in the second chapter to be vegetarian. The first time we see God say that humanity is allowed to eat meat is after the flood. If Adam ate vegetation, and vegetation is living, was there death before sin?
I am not going to say that trees, grass, and herbs are not living. We can see that they have cells that are very alive and active. If Adam cuts down some herbs to let them dry, is he killing them?
This is somewhat important. The real debate is about evolution. In order for there to be evolution, death has to exist before sin. Well, I'm not going to get into the evolution debate at this time. I simply want to pose the argument that for Adam to eat the vegetation, it is not death.
Think ahead a little bit to Genesis 4. Cain killed his brother Abel. The blood from the ground cried out to God.
That doesn't happen in the Garden.
So there isn't any sign of bloodshed at all before sin.
I think that this is the point. "The life is in the blood." It isn't that plants are not living, but that Hebrew word for "life" can be translated as breathe. God breathed into Adam, and Adam became a living being. It's the same idea. The breathe of life is in the blood.
So, it isn't that plants are not living. What is more important is that God has not breathed the breath of life into them.
Next thing to ponder: the first three days are building.
Remember that first entry about Genesis 1:1? It appears like God is building a Temple for Himself to dwell in. What does that mean for these first three days and what is done within them?
There is a premium placed on that which God chooses to do and how He chooses to do it.
Remember in 1 Kings when Solomon built the Temple? He built 3 parts to the Temple. The outer court was where sacrifices would be made to God. The sacrifices in this context would be the gathering of the praises of the creation. The heavens declare the glory of God. The earth moans and groans.
The inner court was where the priests ministered unto the Lord by prayer and worship. There was no light from the outside in this area. The only light received was from a menorah. Remember what happened on the second day? God separated the waters to build the inner court (if you will). He made the atmosphere and blocked off the outer court from the inner court with a layer of water.
What about this day three?
The third place in the Temple was the Holiest Place, or the Holy of Holies. This was where God Himself said to Moses "I will meet with you face to face." Here in the deepest part of the Temple (for Moses it was the Tabernacle) where the ark of the covenant was found is where God promised to speak. This room was completely cut off from all light.
There is something to know about the ark of the covenant. It was built out of wood, and overlaid with gold. In it was the Testimony (the 10 Commandments). On top of it was what the King James translators called the mercy seat. In the Hebrew, the wording used for mercy seat is lid. So where did they get mercy seat?
Mercy seat comes from the New Testament, but it is not a wrong interpretation. The idea is that these two cherubs that sit opposite to one another and look down to the ark and forward to one another stretch their wings up and over their heads to touch one another. God says in between them He will speak to Moses. But they're touching. There isn't room between them. And that is the point. It is possible that these cherubs were placed on the side of the lid so their wings went up along the back to form the back of a throne. The lid then would make the ark look like a throne upon which God would sit.
This is why it was called the mercy seat: mercy triumphs over judgment. God says that in between the cherubs we will speak with Him. But the cherub wings touch one another. It is in our lives together and the interconnectedness of all things that God meets with us. It is on our being outside and one with creation that we can find God more than when we're locked in the house and barely see the sunshine.
The people I know who claim there is no god are the very people who go day after day after day being inside, sucking the air that has been adapted to either be warm in the winter or cold in the summer, disconnecting themselves from the creation around, and then claim that when they sit in their homes they can't see God anywhere around them.
Duh.
The point of the third day and what God is creating here is that He is found in the everything. When we sit outside in the fresh air and learn to just enjoy the beauty that we see, we find it much easier to find God. It is much easier to find God when we live on a farm than when we live in a school building always behind a computer. God is in His creation, and if we can't be one with His creation, then we can't be one with Him.
In Hebrew, the word for wilderness is attached to the word for word. Davar means word. The idea is that it is an order of letters to create a word. These letters formed in this way mean something. Devarah (Deborah) means bee. The idea of the bee is that it has a hive full of order (from the way the bees act and interact to the very precise way of building honeycomb). The word for wilderness is midvar. Midvar comes from the idea that when you leave nature to itself, it will take care of itself. It is at complete harmony and order by itself. It is when mankind comes in and starts trying to take care of it and adapt it that we find destruction and pollution. The wilderness is a place of order - and order comes from God.
So the idea of the Garden (or the third day of forestry being made) is a direct link to the Holy of Holies. God is found there. He is in the ordered place. God is building a Temple for Himself in Genesis 1, and we have the choice to either be a part of that Temple or to destroy that Temple.
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