On the sixth day, God created all the land animals before crowning His work by creating humanity. God’s creation of male and female is deliberate, as He creates the man and the woman in His image to exercise dominion over the rest of creation. God blesses humanity to be fruitful and fill the earth, giving them to eat the fruit of the trees. In all of this, God’s creation is very good, so that He finishes His work of creation on the seventh day, giving it as a holy day of rest for the man and woman.
Rev. Dustin Beck, pastor at Holy Cross Lutheran Church in Warda, TX, joins host Rev. Timothy Appel to study Genesis 1:24-2:3.
To learn more about Holy Cross, visit holycrosswarda.com.
“In the Beginning” is a series on Sharper Iron that studies Genesis. The first book of Moses sets the stage for God’s entire story of salvation. As we learn the beginning of the story, God prepares us to receive the fulfillment of the story: Jesus Christ, the Offspring of the woman who has crushed our enemy’s head.
Sharper Iron, hosted by Rev. Timothy Appel, looks at the text of Holy Scripture both in its broad context and its narrow detail, all for the sake of proclaiming Christ crucified and risen for sinners. Two pastors engage with God’s Word to sharpen not only their own faith and knowledge, but the faith and knowledge of all who listen. Submit comments or questions to: listener@kfuo.org
Sharper Iron is underwritten by Lutheran Church Extension Fund. Together in faith, LCEF helps to start, sustain and strengthen LCMS ministries through financial and strategic partnerships. Visit lcef.org.
Genesis 1:24-2:3
24 And God said, “Let the earth bring forth living creatures according to their kinds—livestock and creeping things and beasts of the earth according to their kinds.” And it was so. 25 And God made the beasts of the earth according to their kinds and the livestock according to their kinds, and everything that creeps on the ground according to its kind. And God saw that it was good.
26 Then God said, “Let us make man[a] in our image, after our likeness. And let them have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over the livestock and over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.”
27 So God created man in his own image,
in the image of God he created him;
male and female he created them.
28 And God blessed them. And God said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and subdue it, and have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over every living thing that moves on the earth.” 29 And God said, “Behold, I have given you every plant yielding seed that is on the face of all the earth, and every tree with seed in its fruit. You shall have them for food. 30 And to every beast of the earth and to every bird of the heavens and to everything that creeps on the earth, everything that has the breath of life, I have given every green plant for food.” And it was so. 31 And God saw everything that he had made, and behold, it was very good. And there was evening and there was morning, the sixth day.
The Seventh Day, God Rests
2 Thus the heavens and the earth were finished, and all the host of them. 2 And on the seventh day God finished his work that he had done, and he rested on the seventh day from all his work that he had done. 3 So God blessed the seventh day and made it holy, because on it God rested from all his work that he had done in creation.
Footnotes
- Genesis 1:26 The Hebrew word for man (adam) is the generic term for mankind and becomes the proper name Adam

