WHEN DAY SIX BEGAN, God put a finishing touch on the habitat He had created for man. On day five, He had filled the sea and the skies with life, and now He did the same thing on dry land:
Then God said, “Let the earth bring forth the living creature according to its kind: cattle and creeping thing and beast of the earth, each according to its kind”; and it was so. And God made the beast of the earth according to its kind, cattle according to its kind, and everything that creeps on the earth according to its kind. And God saw that it was good. (Genesis 1:24–25)
The means of creation is the same as it has been on every previous day: “Then God said . . .” (v. 24); “And God made . . .” (v. 25). Those two expressions constitute a Hebrew parallelism. In other words, they are equivalent expressions, explaining one another and thus sealing the unmistakable clarity of the biblical record. God’s creative work was instantaneous, accomplished by nothing more or less than His creative decree. He simply gave the command for things to appear—“and it was so” (v. 24). What He commanded was instantly made complete, fixed, and in place essentially as it has been ever since.
As we have noted previously, day six corresponds with day three of creation in the same way days four and five correspond with days one and two respectively. On day one God created light; on day four He made light bearers. On day two He separated sea from sky; on day five He filled sea and sky with life. On day three he made dry land appear. And now on day six He fills the land with living creatures.
As day six dawns, we have the introduction of all kinds of land animals: “cattle and creeping thing and beast of the earth, each according to its kind” (v. 24). That includes every kind of land-based creature from insects and worms to elephants and giraffes.
Once again, the biblical account makes it unmistakably clear that these creatures did not evolve from lower life-forms, sea life, or birds. All of them were created instantaneously. And to underscore this, Scripture names three categories that God created: “cattle and creeping thing and beast of the earth.” All were created simultaneously; one did not evolve from the other.
The threefold division is very simple. Modern biologists classify biological species by a hierarchy of categories called the Linnaean system. Every creature is designated by kingdom, phylum, class, order, family, genus, and species. But the three biblical categories are not meant to give a technical taxonomy of that kind. It’s a simple, shorthand way of designating all land-based creatures.
The Hebrew word translated “cattle” is a word that speaks of livestock and animals that are capable of being domesticated. Sheep, goats, and oxen would no doubt be included as well as cattle. “Creeping thing[s]” includes reptiles, insects, and perhaps even small mammals with short legs, such as squirrels and rodents. And “beast[s] of the earth” would include all other kinds of animals. All three categories were made on the same day, by the same creative fiat. The fact that the categories are named again in a different order in verse 25 underscores this point.
In verse 24, God says, “Let the earth bring forth the living creature according to its kind” (emphasis added). This is an interesting expression. It doesn’t imply any creative forces in the earth itself, or any power in the soil to generate life. It certainly isn’t suggesting that these life-forms evolved from inanimate matter. But it reminds us that creatures God made are composed of the very same elements as the earth. Genesis 2:19 affirms this, saying that God formed the living creatures “out of the ground.” When they die, their bodies decompose and they go back to the earth. As we shall see in chapter 8, this is true of human beings as well. Adam was formed from the dust of the earth. And when we die, our bodies return to dust (Genesis 3:19). Even this reveals the infinite wisdom of the Creator.
Notice that verses 24 and 25 repeat the phrase “according to its kind” five times. The phrase appears a total of ten times in Genesis 1, repeatedly underscoring the limitations God placed on the variation of species. As we saw in the previous chapter, the genetic code built into each life-form maintains the characteristics of the various types and species. It rules out spontaneous generation, and it rules out macroevolution. Here both Scripture and science agree against the evolutionary doctrine.
As we saw with the creation of the stars, sea creatures, and birds, the variety of what God created is astonishing. It is a world filled with wonders that signify the wisdom of an all-powerful Creator.
CATTLE
Looking at each category individually, we begin with “cattle.” Common cattle are remarkable creatures. Their digestive system is a great wonder of creative design. Cows (in common with most ruminants) have four stomachs. Actually, it is probably more accurate to say that their stomach is a complex organ divided into four chambers. When a cow eats grass or hay, the partially chewed fiber passes into the cow’s first stomach chamber, called the rumen. There it ferments for one to two days. The presence of helpful bacteria in the rumen causes the fermentation, beginning the process of breaking down cellulose and converting it into simple sugars. This first chamber of the cow’s stomach is huge—holding the equivalent of nearly fifty gallons.
But when a cow drinks water (typically twenty-five to fifty gallons per day), most of that fluid bypasses the rumen and flows directly into the second chamber, the reticulum, where it is mixed with digestive enzymes and more fermentation bacteria. Meanwhile, peristaltic action (muscular movement of the stomach chamber) rolls the fodder in chamber one into little balls, and the partially fermented balls are then passed into the second chamber, where they are infused with the enzyme-saturated liquid.
Later, when the cow has leisure to ruminate, it will regurgitate those soggy balls of fiber from the second stomach chamber and chew them more finely before swallowing again. This is what Scripture speaks of when it designates the cow as one of those animals that chews the cud (cf. Leviticus 11:3). A typical cow spends about six hours per day eating and about eight hours per day chewing its cud.
The cud, after more chewing, is swallowed again, and this time, in a near-liquid state, it passes directly into the second chamber. The construction of the second chamber enables the chewed cud to be filtered. Smaller particles are permitted to pass into a third chamber. The larger particles that remain in the second chamber are regurgitated again for more chewing.
The third chamber is called the omasum. There, excess liquid is reabsorbed into the cow’s system and the thoroughly chewed cud is compacted while its chemical composition is broken down even more by the digestive process.
The thoroughly refined food then passes from the third chamber into a fourth, called the abomasum. This chamber works much like the stomachs of other mammals. It secretes strong acid and digestive enzymes, completing the digestive process. From there, nutrients pass into the cow’s blood system, sustaining the cow and providing vital nutrients for milk production.
This remarkable design enables the cow to enjoy a nutritious meal from a simple manger of hay, something that is impossible for mammals not equipped with multichambered stomachs capable of digesting cellulose.
It is a wonderfully efficient design, converting cellulose, which we cannot digest, into edibles—milk, cream, butter, cheese, and a long list of dairy products. The average milk cow produces more than five thousand quarts of milk each year. One cow can therefore supply milk for nearly sixty people. Cows are prodigious eaters, and one cow will also produce up to ten tons of manure in a year, returning vital nutrients to the pasture. In some cultures, the manure is even used as an efficient fuel for cooking food.
Cattle have exceptionally keen hearing and olfactory senses. A cow can smell scent up to five miles. Their cloven hoofs enable them to gallop long distances, even in marshy terrain. They are suited to almost every environment and thrive as well in the cold of Canada as they do in the heat of Florida.
And they are as useful as they are durable. Almost every part of the cow can be used for food, including the cow’s bones and hoofs, which can be boiled to extract collagen for making gelatin. The hide makes durable leather.
The cow seems to have been especially designed to serve the needs of humanity. Fully domesticated and easily bred, they can live almost anywhere people can live. They can graze on a wide variety of wild plant life and therefore are relatively inexpensive to feed and maintain. They are God’s gracious gift to humanity.
Another animal that seems specially designed for maximum usefulness to man is the sheep. Sheep are also ruminants like cattle and have similar four-chambered stomachs. But they can graze happily on plants other animals won’t touch.
Most breeds of sheep do not fare well in the wild. They are passive, timid creatures, easily frightened and virtually defenseless against a host of predators. Unlike most animals, sheep seem to have no instinctive sense of direction and are easily lost. Therefore they hate to be alone and naturally flock together. Their lambs are delicate creatures and in the wild their survival rate is low. That is why flocks of sheep always thrive best when cared for by a shepherd. They are among the most dependent of all animals.
Lack of instinct and self-defense are not the only disadvantages sheep suffer from in the wild. Their thick, lanolin-rich wool is a magnet for dirt. Accumulated mud doesn’t turn to powder and flake off, as it does with most animals. Therefore, sheep’s wool will become dangerously heavy and occluded if the animal is not kept clean. The wool at the tail end especially must be kept close-cropped to avoid becoming a breeding-place for maggots and other vermin. The normal life expectancy for a sheep is only about eight years.
Yet sheep are vigorous breeders and provide much that is valuable for human life. Their wool makes energy-efficient clothing for both hot and cold weather. It is breathable, fire-resistant, and warm even when wet—superior in many ways to all other fabrics.
Sheep are also raised for their meat and milk. They have been an important part of civilization from the beginning of recorded history. In modern times they have played a crucial role in medical research. Surely one of the Creator’s main purposes in creating these gentle animals was for the benefit of the human race.
Camels may also be included in the group of animals classified by Scripture as “cattle.” These sturdy creatures are also known chiefly for their usefulness to humanity. Although they were deemed unclean for food under the Mosaic economy (Leviticus 11:4), they are valuable working-beasts, bred and kept in captivity because of their usefulness to humanity. Dromedaries—the single-humped Arabian camels mentioned in Scripture—are not found in the wild today, except in Australia and central Asia, where some feral herds have formed from camels originally imported as domesticated beasts of burden.
Camels are impressive workers, able to carry large loads of a thousand pounds or more in the desert where water is scarce. They are able to do this because of their ability to absorb and retain large quantities of water. Like cattle and sheep, camels are ruminants, but unlike other ruminants they have only three stomach chambers. The second chamber can hold vast quantities of water. It enables a camel to drink nearly thirty gallons of water in ten minutes. So much water would kill most animals, but it can be slowly absorbed into the camel’s bloodstream because the camel’s blood cells are capable of swelling to more than three times normal size. The camel can then go for days without another drink. Camels have been known to survive for more than two and a half weeks in hot desert climates without drinking any water. The camel’s internal water-recycling system is so efficient that they even absorb most of the water from their own dung. Therefore camel droppings can be burned as fuel immediately when they are passed. A camel’s urine is also condensed to accommodate extreme desert climates, sometimes becoming syrupy in its consistency and holding twice as much salt as sea water.
Yet with all their amazing ability to retain body fluids, camels can also withstand the effects of dehydration better than any other species. They can lose up to 40 percent of their total body weight and still survive, because their system naturally adapts to the changes in their blood viscosity.
The camel’s hump, not primarily a water-storage organ as most people suppose, is a large mass of fat that acts as a food reserve, enabling the camel to live for days in the most extreme desert conditions. The hump also insulates the camel from the heat and other effects of solar radiation. The camel’s body temperature can adjust with its environment, enabling it to withstand the heat of the day and then dissipate heat during the cooler nighttime.
Where did the camel acquire such amazing abilities? The answer is clear from Scripture. God made these wonderful animals, as He made other kinds of cattle and creatures capable of being domesticated. And their chief purpose seems to be to render service to humanity.
CREEPING THINGS
Among the “creeping thing[s]” included in Genesis 1:24–25 are countless forms of insects, worms, arachnids, reptiles, small mammals, and other amazing creatures. Living under the curse of sin, we tend to think of many of these creatures as repulsive pests, but they were all created with good purposes, and they reveal the creative diversity, wisdom, and glory of God just as clearly as we see His majesty in the stars. The realm of creeping things is a world of wonders, like every other aspect of God’s creation.
Consider the bombardier beetle, for example. This remarkable insect is found mainly in the deserts of New Mexico. It was created with a unique defense mechanism that is impossible to explain by the evolutionary theory.
The beetle produces two chemicals in separate reservoirs in its abdomen. The two chemicals, hydraquinone and hydrogen peroxide, are harmless by themselves but potentially explosive when combined. When attacked, the beetle releases the chemicals through a movable jet at the rear tip of its abdomen. Catalytic enzymes in a tiny reaction chamber just inside the expulsion valve set the chemical reaction in motion, and at precisely the right moment, the beetle aims his abdominal turret and releases the explosive mixture in the face of his predator. The combined chemicals instantly reach the temperature of boiling water, creating a surprise and a deterrent that is powerful enough to discourage most predators. The beetle can fire up to five shots in rapid succession, and he instinctively knows how to time the explosion so that it occurs a moment after the chemicals are expelled, never in the reaction chamber where it would destroy the beetle. How does the beetle know how to do this? Could such a complex system possibly have developed through some natural evolutionary process? Consider what all the bombardier beetle’s defense system entails: The beetle must be able to produce just the right chemicals, keep them in separate reservoirs, and bring them together at the right time with the necessary catalytic enzymes. He must also possess all the equipment and ability necessary to combine the explosives, aim the mixture accurately, and fire precisely before the moment of explosion. Is it reasonable to think an evolving creature could develop such a system, with so many interdependent parts, through a process of individual, random genetic changes? The answer is clear: The bombardier beetle is the product of intelligent design.
Another amazing creature is the ant. Solomon wrote, “Go to the ant, you sluggard! Consider her ways and be wise, which, having no captain, overseer or ruler, provides her supplies in the summer, and gathers her food in the harvest” (Proverbs 6:6–8). Solomon was right. Ants are some of the hardest workers in the animal kingdom. By most accounts, they are able to lift as much as fifty times their own weight. Ants also have proportionally larger brains than almost any other animal. They work cooperatively without any kind of supervisor. Their short lifetime (as brief as forty-five days in some species) is virtually nonstop work—building their nests, foraging for food, blazing trails, removing obstacles and otherwise maintaining those trails, and carrying food for the queen back to the nest. An ant’s life is no picnic. But ants are resilient. They can survive under water, in some cases for days. They can survive being frozen, and they can withstand high temperatures. They adapt quickly to changes in the environment or climate.
The wide variety of ant species is phenomenal. Nearly ten thousand different species of ants have been catalogued, and most entomologists believe there are thousands more species that have not yet been studied. The largest species of ants grow to more than an inch long; the smallest are less than a tenth of a centimeter. And yet ants probably make up more than 10 percent of the earth’s total biomass (meaning that ants account for more than a tenth of the world’s living tissue by total volume). Experts believe that all the world’s ants combined would outweigh all the humans in the world.
Ants live in colonies and are incapable of survival on their own. An ant colony is itself a kind of massive organism, with each individual ant contributing to the welfare of the whole colony. There is an intricate and well-defined hierarchy in every ant colony. At the heart of the colony is the queen—a single queen in some species, multiple queens in others. The queen lays up to two or three thousand eggs per day. Worker ants are infertile females, and they make up the largest number of ants in any colony. Male ants exist primarily to mate with the queen, and they leave the nest and die shortly after mating. If the queen dies, the entire colony will soon die.
After a colony is established and ready to spawn new colonies, the queen lays special eggs that develop into males and young queens. Once they develop into adults, the young queens and males fly off together in swarms and mate in midflight. One mating flight supplies the queen with all the male seed she will need to fertilize every egg she will ever lay. She then flies off to plant a new colony—usually alone. (In some species, however, several tiny workers cling to her legs with their powerful jaws, thus traveling with her to help plant the new colony.)
After this initial flight, the queen loses her wings and will never fly again. She prepares a nest and seals the entrance. In most species, she will stay in the nest for the remainder of her life. Until workers hatch and begin bringing her food, she lives off her own body fat, even consuming the now useless musculature that made her wings work. Her entire life from that point on will consist of laying eggs. (Queens have a much longer life span than worker ants, living as long as ten to twenty years.) She thus populates her entire colony, laying hundreds of thousands of eggs in a lifetime. In order to keep up this prodigious output, she requires massive amounts of food, all brought to her by the worker ants.
Some species of ants actually raid other colonies, take other ants’ pupae back to their own nests, and raise them as slaves. Amazon ants, for example, cannot survive without slaves. The shape of their mandibles does not permit them to dig their own nests or feed themselves. So they use other ant species as slaves.
Other species of ants actually cultivate fungus in their nests, fertilize their subterranean gardens with leaves and other organic material, and then harvest the fungus for food. One type of fungus growers are called leaf-cutting ants. They use their sharp mandibles to cut away large leaf-segments and carry them in long single-file lines back to their underground nests, where they chew the leaves and use the pulp as a medium for cultivating an edible fungus. Armies of leaf-cutting ants have been known to strip an entire fruit grove of leaves in a single night.
Dairying ants live off the honeydew left by aphids. They even “milk” the aphids by stroking them to get the aphids to release the honeydew. In return, the ants defend the aphids from predators. In the winter, dairying ants store aphid eggs in their nests and when they hatch in the spring, the ants carry the young aphids out to the plants. Some dairying ants keep permanent “herds” of aphids in their underground nests, where the aphids feed on roots while the ants harvest the honeydew. A queen of this species will carry an egg-laying aphid between her mandibles when she flies off to start a new colony.
Who taught those ants such efficient farming techniques? Clearly God did. He created ants in such abundant variety for a host of purposes that are ultimately beneficial for the whole earth. Ants serve a vital function in the maintenance of earth’s soil, aerating and fertilizing the soil, pollinating many plants, and performing a host of other ecological housecleaning services. Ants are so vital to earth’s well-being that if all the ants on earth died, the effect would be catastrophic. All earth’s land-based ecosystems would quickly collapse.
In fact, ants and plants are so utterly dependent on each other that one could not have possibly evolved before the other. This is further proof that a mere five literal days have elapsed since the beginning of creation. Had these been long eras rather than short days, the plants created on day three would have all perished long before the arrival of the ants on day six. They must have been created together, as Scripture says—in the same week. And the ants are yet another vivid reminder of God’s creative ingenuity.
“Creeping thing[s]” would also include reptiles. The reptile world is full of wonders. Chameleons, for example, not only change colors instantly to match their backgrounds, but they also are able to move one eye independently of the other and thus view two scenes at once. Why do chameleons have these abilities, while animals supposedly higher up the evolutionary ladder do not? Science cannot explain such a discrepancy. Scripture says it is because these wonderful animals did not evolve; their incredible abilities are simply the way God designed them.
The basilisk is a lizard that can literally run on water. The toes of his hind feet have flaps that remain furled when he walks on land. But if chased by a predator, he will stand upright and run on his hind legs only, out onto a body of water. The toe-flaps unfurl and in effect his feet become large paddles. By running very fast, he is therefore able to run across the top of the water for a considerable distance. Did the basilisk’s amazing foot design evolve by accident? Scripture says he was designed that way by God.
“Creeping thing[s]” includes much, much more. And every species would make a wonderful study. All of them come equipped with remarkable defense mechanisms—built-in camouflage, armor, chemical defenses, and other amazing means of survival. Virtually all of them serve a unique and important function, each doing its own part to maintain the earth’s ecosystems. The way it all works together so perfectly is clear evidence of an intelligent Designer.
When you realize the vast numbers of animals, insects, and reptiles and all the various creatures that creep upon the earth, it is mind-boggling to think that God has such a vast creative intellect to design and make so many intricate and interconnected life-forms in a single day. But He did.
BEASTS OF THE EARTH
The final category named in Genesis 1:24–25 embraces all other land creatures: “the beast[s] of the earth.” This no doubt would include elephants, lions, tigers, giraffes, bears, wolves, coyotes, and other large and long-legged animals that would not fit the categories of “cattle” or “creeping thing[s].” “The beast of the earth” would also probably include many now-extinct species of dinosaurs.
What happened to the dinosaurs? God in His providence allowed their species to die out—probably about the time of Noah’s Flood. Job, possibly the earliest book in all of Scripture, seems to include a description of a sauro-pod dinosaur. This creature, called the behemoth, “eats grass like an ox” (Job 40:15); “his strength is in his hips” (v. 16); and “He moves his tail like a cedar” (v. 17). “His bones are like beams of bronze, His ribs like bars of iron” (v. 18). And he is too large and powerful for any but the Creator to kill him (v. 19).
The dinosaurs may have perished when earth’s climate changed severely after the Flood. We know that human life expectancy was severely decreased in the postdiluvean world. Before the Flood it was common for men to live nine hundred years or longer. After that, the human life span decreased notably almost immediately. Severe environmental and atmospheric changes may explain this, and the same types of changes may also explain the extinction of all the dinosaur species.
Today, elephants are earth’s largest land species. The elephant’s trunk is one of the wonders of the animal kingdom. Strong enough to lift large logs yet sensitive enough to pick up a single peanut, the elephant’s trunk is the organ with which he drinks, breathes, and feeds himself. It is also his chief means of feeling objects in order to determine their size, texture, and temperature. The trunk of a typical elephant weighs three hundred pounds, holds up to four gallons of water, is about seven feet long, and comprises the elephant’s nose and upper lip. No other animal can grip things or pick up things with its nose. Yet evolutionists believe these remarkable features developed in the elephant by sheer accident.
Bears are fantastic creatures, too—able to hibernate in some climates for up to seven months. But bear hibernation is different from the kind of hibernation observed in other species. When smaller animals (such as squirrels and shrews) hibernate, their body temperature falls to near freezing and their heart rate slows to only one or two beats per minute. They go into a cold, dormant state from which it takes a considerable amount of time for them to be awakened. A bear’s hibernation is more like a long and deep nighttime sleep. The bear’s body temperature drops no more than ten degrees Fahrenheit. His heart rate slows but maintains a rhythm of at least twelve beats per minute. The bear, if disturbed, can awaken very quickly from this state. Yet while he is asleep, he neither eats nor eliminates food. In most animals, enduring months without elimination would cause a fatal buildup of toxins in the blood. (Other hibernating animals do eliminate during their hibernation.) But the bear’s body is designed to accommodate those long months of sleep without any kind of elimination. He burns stored fat for fuel, but it is as if there is no waste produced by the burning of that fat. For reasons biologists cannot yet explain, the level of uric acid and other toxins in the bear’s blood remains essentially the same as when he is not hibernating.
Every beast of the earth shows evidence of special design. All of them are born with instinctive intelligence that enables them to survive and thrive in their environments. All of them have remarkable capabilities that set them apart from other beasts. No wonder. All of them were created by an all-wise Creator who endowed them with these extraordinary features. His vast creative wisdom may be clearly seen in all that He has made (Romans 1:20).
If you scan the vastness of the universe at night and contemplate all the wonders it holds, you will be brought face to face with the glory of the Creator. And if you examine a drop of pond water under a microscope, you will see still more evidence of that same glory. His creation is full of wonders, no matter what level you examine it from. Everything in creation reveals the fingerprint of the Creator.
Genesis 1:25 repeats the familiar phrase that gives us God’s own assessment of His creation: “And God saw that it was good.” This is significant. It rules out the possibility of deformities or mutations prior to Adam’s fall into sin. It therefore eliminates the possibility of natural selection and the survival of the fittest. There were no unfit animals. They were all good, as God had designed them. There was no imperfection. There was no inferiority. It was all good.
Scripture teaches that there was no such thing as death prior to Adam’s fall. Death is the result of sin. “Through one man sin entered the world, and death through sin” (Romans 5:12). The curse of sin has adversely affected all of creation. The apostle Paul wrote, “For the creation was subjected to futility, not willingly, but because of Him who subjected it in hope; because the creation itself also will be delivered from the bondage of corruption into the glorious liberty of the children of God. For we know that the whole creation groans and labors with birth pangs together until now” (Romans 8:20–22, emphasis added). So all of creation—not merely humanity—was adversely affected by Adam’s sin. It brought the introduction of death into the animal kingdom, too.
Of course that means that prior to Adam’s fall, none of the animals were carnivores. They did not hunt and kill one another for food. And Scripture affirms this in Genesis 1:30. Furthermore, Scripture teaches that in the millennial kingdom, the whole animal kingdom will return to a herbivorous state. Isaiah prophesied:
The wolf also shall dwell with the lamb, the leopard shall lie down with the young goat, the calf and the young lion and the fatling together; and a little child shall lead them. The cow and the bear shall graze; their young ones shall lie down together; and the lion shall eat straw like the ox. The nursing child shall play by the cobra’s hole, and the weaned child shall put his hand in the viper’s den. (Isaiah 11:6–8, emphasis added)
Obviously, the animals were designed with instincts and abilities that have served them well even under the curse of sin. But in earth’s original, sinless state, they did not use those abilities and instincts for hunting other animals as food. It was a perfect paradise in which there was no death. And thus there was no evolution and no possibility that the survival of the fittest could be any kind of driving force in the development of species.
This first act of creation on day six completes the earthly habitat God was making for Adam. Earth was a paradise. Everything was good. And God was now ready for the crowning aspect of His creation: a creature made in His own image.