6-6-21 Grace-Tucson Sermon

Genesis 1:20-31 [God’s Zoo #1]

Pastor Ron Koehler

Grace--Tucson, AZ

June 6, 2021

Dear Friends in Christ, I have never been to the grand opening of a zoo, but maybe you have had the chance to walk through and see for the very first time the animals there. If not a grand opening, most of us have been to a zoo at some point. And if not, you’ve definitely seen pictures of various animals. You may have animals in your home—dogs, cats, or birds. Here in Tucson, you might even find animals in your yard or neighborhood—javelina, bobcats, snakes, lizards, maybe even a mountain lion! But the grand opening of a zoo would be different than all of that. At a grand opening—the first day—you would get to see, before anyone else, the BIG animals, the exotic ones, the kind that don’t normally live in your area.

Today God’s Word takes us back to the beginning, to his amazing, creative work—to days 5 and 6 of Creation. Let’s picture ourselves at the entrance of God’s Zoo, as the gates are opened for the first time. Before going in to see all the animals, we are told about some of them and the different areas of the zoo—the aviary where birds can be seen, the aquarium where the fish and other water animals are, and the areas where land-dwelling animals may be viewed. Today is the Grand Opening where we learn about the animals. But as we go about our walk through God’s Zoo this summer, we’ll stop to see specific animals in the Bible and discover what they can tell us about God and our Savior Jesus. And so, let’s begin…

Welcome to the Grand Opening of God’s Zoo! You are welcome to turn to the page with the lesson from Genesis on it, if you’d like.

What we read there is the account of Creation that God had recorded so that we could know that he made all things, and even how he created all things. For instance, on day 6 of his creating, God said, “Let the earth produce living creatures…” Just like you learn stuff you didn’t know when the guide at the zoo tells you things about the zoo or the individual animals, we may learn things here in Genesis that we didn’t know.

Maybe the fact that God made the animals out of the ground is one of them! We may have missed that, even though God also says it in Genesis 2: Out of the soil the LORD God had formed every wild animal and every bird of the sky (v.19). We may even find some other things we didn’t realize, as we are introduced to God’s Zoo! When it came to creating human beings, God did it entirely different than the water, sky, or land creatures. God said, “Let us make man in our image, according to our likeness, and God created the man in his own image. In the image of God he created him. Male and female he created them. So right away, we hear that human beings were created very different than the animals. They were formed in the image of God, as Father, Son, and Holy Spirit decided. The Bible tells us that this meant that they were without sin. They were righteous—just like God.

After this Genesis chapter 1 overview of his creation of animals and humans, God zooms in to take a closer look at his creation of people in chapter 2. There it says about the first man, Adam: The LORD God formed the man from the dust of the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living being (Genesis 2:7). And about the first woman, Eve: The LORD God caused the man to fall into a deep sleep. As the man slept, the LORD God took a rib and closed up the flesh where it had been. The LORD God built a woman from the rib that he had taken from the man and brought her to the man (2:21-22).

Again, the way God made them was different than the way he made the animals. What Adam and Eve were was different than what the animals were. Such special care God took as he made them. He breathed life into them. They would be the first parents, from which all people would come. So human beings are different than animals. They are not highly-evolved animals or simply created as the greatest animal on the planet.

They are not animals at all. They are the crown of God’s creation. They have souls, which animals do not have. And they are above all the animals.

You might say that God made them the first zookeepers! They were to subdue the earth (be the greatest of all creatures), and they were to have dominion over (or manage) the fish, the birds, and every animal on the earth. Just like the people at a zoo take care of the animals, so the first human beings were charged with managing the animals God had put in his creation.

So let’s think now about the animals God put on earth. Most often, when we think of all the animals that were created, we base it on all the animals we see today. That’s not exactly the way we should think about it. Let me explain—and this is going to be helpful in understanding Noah’s Ark, which we will talk about in two weeks. Listen to what the Creator tells us: God created the large sea creatures and every living creature that moves, with which the waters swarm, according to their own kind, and every winged bird according to its own kind.

God said, “Let the earth produce living creatures according to their own kind, livestock, creeping things, and wild animals according to their own kind,” and it was so. God made the wild animals according to their own kind, and the livestock according to their own kind, and everything that creeps on the ground according to its own kind.

When God is so thorough as to repeat something many times, it seems to me that it is quite important, something that he wants us to understand well. You heard the phrase “according to their own kind” 7 times in those few verses. It seems important and it is important. It helps us to understand what God created, how the Ark could hold all the animals, and the variety and number of animals we see today. Since we’re going to learn about the Ark in a couple weeks, we’ll skip that today, but instead think about the created animals and the animals we are familiar with today.

“According to their own kind” is sometimes understood to be the same as “species,” but that isn’t exactly right. The word species, in fact, has had different meanings over the years, and the meaning now is not entirely agreed upon by everyone. Compared to the Hebrew word God used, “species” it is a modern term with modern definitions.

God’s word is “kind” or “type,” and it reveals a smaller number of animals at Creation.

For instance, let’s consider dogs. We can go to the park or the pet store or Pima Animal Care Center and we can see all sorts of dogs: golden retrievers, pit bulls, chihuahuas, poodles. But scientists—including scientists who are Christian—believe that they all go back to one “dog” type of animal. Over the years, as they were fruitful and multiplied, it resulted in different characteristics—different coloring, spots, longer fur, and so on. After the fall into sin (which we’ll talk about next week), mutations also affected the offspring of animals. People would also purposely breed dogs that were different from each other.

This still goes on today. That’s how we get Labradoodles and Golden Doodles, Shorkies and Morkies, Yorkipoos and Schnoodles. (It sounds like a Dr. Seuss book, doesn’t it?!) And those are just the new purposeful breeds! But you know what? You can’t have a dog-cat combo animal. You can’t breed a dog and a llama. Why? Because God made them totally separate “kinds” of animals. Each animal was made “according to their own kind.” That’s one of the amazing things about God’s creative wisdom and power! He has established boundaries, while still allowing for a great and growing variety among animal types! The diversity of animals we can enjoy in this world is incredible—and God allows it all within the limits of “their own kinds.” It’s not evolution; it is variety within kinds.

So if you want to create a more realistic painting of God’s Zoo, don’t put a German Shepherd, a Corgi, a Dachshund, and a Beagle in there. One kind of dog seems to be enough—and you may want to make it look like a wolf; that’s kind of what scientists think anyway. Also, don’t paint a Triceratops and Eoceratops and a Leptoceratops.

Just one pair of the same kind will do. You can put a Liger or a Zonkey in there, but it won’t be right.

What this all means is that there were not as many different animals at The Grand Opening of God’s Zoo on days 5 and 6 of Creation as we see today. How many were there? How many “kinds” did God make? That’s a tough one. Some scientists today work with a current estimation of about 950. That’s quite a bit less than you probably thought. But then again, how many different sorts of cats do we see—or cows—or monkeys? The narwhal was probably not the original whale, nor the orca or beluga. All of these go back to a “kind” like God talks about. When we look carefully at the way God created the different animals…and how he only allows them to multiply according to their “kind” …and the way different-looking types of these animals came to be, it all starts to make more sense!

God saw everything that he had made, and indeed, it was very good. What a pure zoo the world was when God made it! Doesn’t this make you sit in awe of the allpowerful, wise, creative God? All of this he did because it pleased him and for the enjoyment and appreciation of people, the crown of his creation, the ones created in his image. God intended that his perfect people would enjoy this perfect zoo of a world.

Of course, this is not what we see today. While we enjoy the diversity of animals God has allowed to increase “according to their own kinds,” we also see the effects of sin on the animal kingdom. It was human beings who rebelled against God, bringing sin into this world and affecting all of creation and bringing the mutation of sin to every person. The fact is, sinful people have affected animals because they have not subdued and exercised dominion over the animals in the way God intended. God intended for people to realize that they are above the animals as his top creative work and to care for and manage animals perfectly. This is not always what happens now.

This explains what we read in the book of Romans, where Paul talks about the coming end of this world. He wrote this: In fact, creation is waiting with eager longing for the sons of God to be revealed. For creation was subjected to futility, not by its own will, but by the will of the one who subjected it, in the hope that even creation itself will be set free from slavery to corruption, in order to share in the glorious freedom of the children of God. For we know that all of creation is groaning with birth pains right up to the present time (8:19-22).

If you have dabbled with the man-made teaching of evolution and even toyed with the notion that maybe God didn’t create things as Genesis describes, you need to repent.

If you have mistreated God’s creation, abused or neglected pets, negatively impacted the environment where God’s creatures live—intentionally or unintentionally—you need to repent. If you have lacked a perfect appreciation for God’s power and wisdom and creativity in making every animal and the amazing boundaries he has set for the different “kinds,” you need to repent. I think that includes us all. In one way or another, we have sinned against God and his Creation.

The good news for us is that God really did create people to be different than animals.

He cares for our souls and, though we are sinful, he wants us to be with him in heaven.

For this reason, Jesus entered our world. He paid for these very kinds of sins on the cross. We are forgiven—for the sins that we know we have committed and even those we don’t realize. So now, as forgiven children of the almighty Creator-God, we can show our thanks and our love to him with a proper view of the Genesis account of Creation, by caring for his creation—specifically animals—and by appreciating the amazing God who gave us this incredible zoo we find ourselves in. Amen.

Now the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. Amen.