day no. 16,788: recreation

I recently listened to "Ode to Sea Monsters and Such" by Gregg Strawbridge on Canon+ and learned some new concepts.

First, I learned that Psalm 104 is structurally based on the Genesis 1 creation account. It follows the same pattern of light (vs. 1-4), air/sea (vs. 5-13), land (vs. 14-18), constellations (vs. 19-23), birds/fish (vs. 24-30), land animals and man (vs. 31-35).

Secondly, I learned that the creation account itself follows a pattern:

Day 1 - light            

Day 2 - air/sea       

Day 3 - land            

Day 4 - light dwellers

Day 5 - air/sea dwellers

Day 6 - land dwellers

As you can see:

Day 1 pairs with Day 4

Day 2 pairs with Day 5

Day 3 pairs with Day 6

In this way, Days 4-6 are a repeat of Days 1-3, where the creatures that inhabit the respective realms are created in the same order as their respective kingdoms were during the first three days of creation. The kingdom of the heavens, the kingdoms of the air and the sea, and the kingdom of land are made by God and then filled in the same order with creatures to rule them: sun, moon, and stars rule the heavens; birds rule the air; sea monsters rule the waters; beasts rule the land; and man rules them all. The man's throne is on dry land and foreshadows in Messianic type the Son of Man who becoming flesh would rule the world from the land on which He walked (when He wasn't walking on water). Everything is defined by its relation to His feet. The world is Christ's footstool and all authority in heaven and on earth are His. All things are under His toes.

Additionally, there is a chiastic component to the bookends of Day 0 being God and nothing else and Day 7 being God and everything else. In the beginning there was only God and in the end there is God and everything else.

Day 0 - nothing but God

Day 7 - everything and God

There is a distinction between God and His creation. He is not a created thing and not part of the created world. Prior to creation, it was just Him. After creation, it was uncreated Him and crated everything else. He is not a zero sum entity. He is not less because creation came from Him. He is not God minus what He gave to make everything else. He is uncreated. Creation is not divine in se. It is divinely created, but it remains distinct in its creatureliness just as God remains distinct in His divinity. Man alone is the image of God and that because God took special care to impose that distinction upon him alone. The dirt is not made in the image of God, but the man made from the dirt is. That dirt made by God's Word and animated by His Spirit.

On Day 0, there was only the immaterial. God is spirit (Jn. 4:24). On Day 7, there is still the immaterial, but now there is a material world distinct and apart from it.  The material world was created by God upon completion He rested from His creative endeavor. All creation is completed by the end of Day 6. Since then, all creativity has been a matter or manipulating existing material, not the creation of new material.