And God said, Let the earth bring forth the living creature after his kind, cattle, and creeping thing, and beast of the earth after his kind: and it was so.
Ver. 24, 25. Let the earth, &c.] Lo here the earth, in itself a dead element, brings forth, at God's command, living creatures, tame, wild, and creeping. "Why then should it be thought a thing incredible," that the same earth, at God's command, should bring forth again our dead bodies restored to life, at the last day? Act 26:8 Surely if that speech of Christ, "Lazarus, Come forth," Joh 11:43 had been directed to all the dead, they had all presently risen. If he speak to the rocks, they rend; if to the mountains, they melt; if to the earth, it opens; if to the sea, it yields up her dead; if to the whole host of heaven, they tremble and stand amazed, waiting his pleasure. And shall he not prevail by his mighty power, the same that he put forth in the raising of his Son Christ, Eph 1:19 to raise us from the death of sin; and of carnal, to make us a people created again? Psa 102:18 Doth he not "plant the heavens, and lay the foundations of the earth, that he may say to Zion, Thou art my people?" Isa 51:16 "Empty man would be wise," saith Zophar, Job 11:12 "though man be born like a wild ass-colt." Man's heart is a mere emptiness, a very Tohu vabohu, as void of matter to make him a new creature of, as the hollow of a tree is of heart of oak. God, therefore, creates in his people clean hearts. Psa 51:10 And, as in the first creation, a so in the new creature, the first day, as it were, God works light of knowledge; the second day, the firmament of faith; the third day seas and trees, that is, repentant tears, and worthy fruits; the fourth day, the sun, joining light and heat together, heat of zeal with light of knowledge; the fifth day, fishes to play, and fowls to fly, so to live and rejoice in a sea of troubles, and fly heavenward by prayer and contemplation; the sixth day God makes beasts and man, yea, of a wild ass-colt, a man in Christ, with whom "old things are past, all things are become new," 2Co 5:17 and to whom, besides that they are all taught of God θεοδιδακτοι , 1Th 4:9 the very beasts Isa 1:2 and birds Jer 8:7 do read a divinity lecture. "Ask now the beasts, and they shall teach thee, and the fowls of the air, they shall tell thee". Job 12:7 The whole world is nothing else, saith one, but b "God expressed," so that we cannot plead ignorance; for all are, or may be, book-learned in the creature. This is the shepherd's calendar, the ploughman's alphabet; we may run and read in this great book, which hath three leaves - heaven, earth, sea. "A brutish man knoweth not, neither doth a fool understand this". Psa 92:6 They stand gazing and gaping on the outside of things only, but ask not who is their Father, their Creator; like little children, which when they find a picture in their book, they gaze and make sport with it, but never consider it. Either their minds are like a clock that is over-wound above the ordinary pitch, and so stands still; their thoughts are amazed for a time; they are like a block, thinking nothing at all, or else they think, atheistically, that all comes by nature; but "hast thou not known?" saith the prophet, "hast thou not heard, that the everlasting God, the Lord, the Creator?" &c. Isa 40:28 Or, at best, as the common passenger looks only at the hand of the dial to see what of the clock it is, but takes no notice of the clockwork within, the wheels and poises and various turnings and windings in the work; so it is here with the man that is no more than a mere "natural." "But he that is spiritual discerneth all things"; 2Co 2:15 he entereth into the clock-house, as it were, and views every motion, beginning at the great wheel, and ending in the least and last that is moved. He studies the glory of God revealed in this great book of nature, and praiseth his power, wisdom, goodness, &c. And for that in these things "he cannot order his speech, because of darkness," Job 37:19 he begs of God a larger heart, and better language, and cries out continually with David, "Blessed be the Lord God, the God of Israel, who only doeth wondrous things. And blessed be his glorious name for ever and ever: and let the whole earth be filled with his glory. Amen and Amen". Psa 72:18-19
a Lightf. Miscel.
b Anton. Eremita ap Aug. l. 3. De Doctr. Chris. Neceph. l. 8. c. 40. Clem. Alex.