A. Overall Lesson Objective

B. Learning Competencies

C. Lesson

Day 3 is dynamic for the earth. The Master Chef moves to gather the waters together, calls them “seas”, and produces dry land. Then He fills the earth with vegetation. Some of the things He creates are immediately recognizable; some describe some things we no longer see exactly as they were. (Some of them changed a short time after the first seven days as a result of events related to the actions of people and the consequences of those actions. This is covered in the next Unit 2.) By the end of Day 3 there is much done on earth’s surface that prepares it for living things.

As we have done in the past, we want to pay attention to words and phrases. God does not waste words. He is deliberate. His account is a summary and not a detailed treatise or scholarly paper.

🦕 CT? Why would He only provide a historical summary? It is appropriate to ask the question. He could have chosen to provide no information or a lot. Why this much? Discuss this before you go to the next paragraph. Consider this statement in the discussion: If you were a benevolent overseer over many people and you wanted to communicate enough to show your intentions but you also wanted them to come, ask, and learn, how much would you tell them?

Recall that the account God provides is intended for the average reading person to understand. Or, it can be read to someone who cannot read but is able to understand the ‘telling’ of what is written. It is good to consider His intended audience, because the details of creation that begin to unfold from this point are those that relate to the world around us that we can readily see. It is incredibly complex and fascinating. We know from other scriptures, especially those in Job, that He fully intends for us to observe His creation, to appreciate His wonderful works, as it says in Psalms. So, it is understandable that the basic timing and categories of creation are presented in an accurate and deliberate fashion with chosen words, but the discovery of the details is left to us.

Read Genesis 1:9-13.

🦕 CT? Make a list of things done by God’s commands during day 3. Once the list is done, then list some of the processes that are part of those things that are created. The exercise, even with limited observation through the eyes of a child, quickly shows some of the magnitude of what was done during day 3.

Dry land seems like a simple category of substance, but the things we can see in the earth, the soils, the rock, the shape of land around water, the manner in which water acts at the boundary of sea and land are all complex. They have fascinated people for centuries. The seaman appreciates the motion of water and how it acts around earth. The farmer recognizes soils of many types. These soils are specifically created for vegetation.

Notice that the appearance of dry land was commanded. Dry land was truly prepared for what will follow on the remainder of day 5 and 6. You might think of water-soaked land that had been subjected to constant water, but this is not what is described. It is not just land; it is dry land that is gathered and prepared on God’s command—ready for the next step. Also notice that we see waters commanded to gather to “one” place and dry land appears. This description is a bit different from what we see on the globe’s surface today, but the changes which occurred during the Genesis Flood altered the original arrangement. This will be discussed in later lessons. Note for now that the description of what God created implies that there was only one land mass at the beginning.

Verses 11-12 are the record of God’s creation of all vegetation on the earth’s surface. Actually, His command is at the beginning of verse 11. It is one word. “Let” is the command, and the remainder of the verse describes the particulars. The response to the command is specific at the end of the verse: “and it was so”. We can identify with the particulars, because we see them. From tiny plants to the giant sequoias, from tiny leafed plants to huge broad-leafed trees, from the simplest bush to the most complex mini-ecosystem of a giant crowned tree, God saw all of it before it was created and commanded it to “come forth” or sprout. In the process, He particularly sets the repeating characteristic: they will produce seed and fruit. We appreciate a forest; He saw it before it existed. We see a field of incredible plants or grasses as they wave in the breeze; He knew them before they were laid out. We marvel at the complex root systems to the chlorophyll production process that converts light to food; He designed the whole of it before it was manifest on the earth. The picture of the variety and complexity is too much to fathom, and it is a most eloquent food factory for what follows. Verse 12 describes the response to God’s command, including the understated ‘opinion’ of God that it is “good”.

🦕 CT? Examine your list of things created at the beginning of this lesson. Have you considered the array of detail that is stated in these brief verses? Explain the precision in the atmospheric conditions, which made the bio-system possible, yet He knew all of this before it was.

Note: there is no hint of hesitation, difficulty, or long elapsed time. There is a constraint that is clear: each of the types of this part of creation defines a ‘kind’, and the boundaries between those kinds are fixed. [Research note: What is a kind?]

🦕 CT? If God states things will reproduce after their ‘kind,’ what do you think that means and how firm is the command? Use this example in your explanation: grasses.

When God states a matter, it is permanent unless He changes it. Therefore, producing after a ‘kind’ is emphatic. Significant types of vegetation have boundaries. They did not develop from non-vegetation materials, and they produce after their kind, not another kind. There is no switching, strange development process, or evolving that crosses His fixed boundaries. The principle of this constraint and its outworking over time is exactly what we observe. While some things might become extinct and others seem to have a less-than-perfect use, other events unfold after creation due to the behavior of man that leads to consequences that affect vegetation. This will be studied in later lessons.

God closes the day with the identical description of the day’s start and finish.

🦕 CT? Check the closing words compared to days 1 and 2. We have three days of creation so far with one common statement showing the passage of time. So, how long has it been from the beginning of creation to the end of the third day—from the beginning to an earth with dry land with full vegetation and seas?

D. Assignment

Read Genesis 1:14-19, Psalm 19:1-6, and Isaiah 40:25-26.

E. Learning Activity

Consider soils around the world today. List as many considerations as you can that explain different types of soils that make them particularly suited for vegetation. Go find at least 3 different soil types that are close by and note the differences.

F. Concluding Assessment