The Third Day

Genesis 1:9-13

9 And God said, “Let the waters under the heaven be gathered together unto one place, and let the dry land appear”; and it was so.

10 And God called the dry land Earth; and the gathering together of the waters called He Seas; and God saw that it was good.

11 And God said, “Let the earth bring forth grass, the herb yielding seed, and the fruit tree yielding fruit after his kind, whose seed is in itself, upon the earth”; and it was so.

12 And the earth brought forth grass, and herb yielding seed after his kind, and the tree yielding fruit, whose seed was in itself, after his kind; and God saw that it was good.

13 And the evening and the morning were the third day.

Dry Land
Remember that at the beginning of creation in verses 2 and 3 that the entire Earth was covered with water, deep water in fact. That means that there is no dry land and whatever solid land was in existence at the time will be submerged under the water.

On the third day, God said to gather the waters into one place and allow the dry land to appear. The world that then was is a single continent surrounded by water, given the description of the creation act of God here.

At the same time, God named the dry land Earth and the waters the Seas (plural to denote the wide expanse). And God liked what He saw and called it good.

But did you know that as the tectonic plate action caused the continent or dry land to be pushed up above the water level, we read that the Earth also has a foundation that is fastened, probably to the layer below the crust.

Job 38:4  Where wast thou when I laid the foundations of the earth? declare, if thou hast understanding.

5  Who hath laid the measures thereof, if thou knowest? or who hath stretched the line upon it?

6  Whereupon are the foundations thereof fastened? or who laid the corner stone thereof; 

Pro 8:29  When he gave to the sea his decree, that the waters should not pass his commandment: when he appointed the foundations of the earth: 

The diagram shows the conceptual depiction how it has since been discovered that there are pillars that fasten the continents to the mantle. Perhaps, this is the foundations of the Earth. The Earth's crust is very thin, equivalent to the skin of an apple. There is very little known about what is under the Earth's surface. We have great difficulties looking into the Earth both on the dry land and beneath the Sea.

Perhaps, as more advanced exploration is undertaken that we may find out more of the glory of the creation of God in the near future.

Plant Life
In verse 11, God makes plant life. It is very interesting to pay attention to the order that God is creating the world. It is all in proper, meaningful order in preparation to receive Man to dwell. It is not by accident.

1. God begins by forming the Earth and covered with lots of water but it was shrouded in darkness that no one can see.
2. He makes visible light to unveil the glory of His creation.
3. He then separates the water and forms the atmospheric environment to receive life.
4. He then gathers the water and pushes the land beneath the water up to form dry land.
5. With this dry land, God decrees the existence of plant life.

There is no room for the Theory of Evolution. God tells us that He first prepare plant life before He formed animal life. There is a very good reason for this too.

That plant life is intended for food is God's wisdom to think ahead that when animal life and Man was created, they will not go hungry and die. Death has no part in God's creation. Furthermore, God decreed that plant life was to reproduce after his kind. This is now very clear to us to refer to the DNA of plant life where a durian tree cannot become a mango tree. They will always reproduce after its kind and this predictability and the code within the genes governing the reproduction is God's decree, God's code of life.

At least, the farmer will never be surprised that his crop can become something else one day.

With the discovery of DNA and the appreciation of its yet to fully fathom depth of information, we can clearly see that life is by design and not by chance. Evolution is about chance. Creation is about design.

Let us consider the Theory of Evolution. If it took millions of years to evolve, all plant life will have died out and withered. Earth will be barren. Anyone who has tried to grow plants, trees or grass from seeds will know that if left by themselves, over time, they will just die. Evolution says that single cell life forms evolved to higher life forms and plant forms came from the same protoplasm washed ashore.

How then can plant life exist unless God formed them fully grown and with reproducing seeds as well. Evolution over millions of years just won't do and sounds really ridiculous as well.

In closing, this is the THIRD DAY and God prepared food and oxygen producing plants in store for animal life and Man in the coming days of creation.