06.0.4.6. The Fifth Day

VI. -- THE FIFTH DAY THE fifth day’s work is the peopling of the sea and air (Genesis 1:20-21). Animate life now is added to inanimate. The waters swarm with life, and the air with winged tribes, which wake the woods and vales with melody. Thus, too, is it within, when on us the fifth day dawns. Now higher forms of life appear everywhere; each new form yet more revealing in the creature that which hitherto had only been treasured up in the mind of God for it. For we must never forget, that all this wondrous work, which step by step is thus produced in us, is only the developing in the creature of that which had been in Christ, the wisdom of God, from everlasting. For God will stamp Himself upon us. His will is that His fulness should be revealed in us; that as we have borne the image of the earthy, we now may bear the image of the heavenly. We have seen how several glories, -- light, a heaven, fruits, and lights, -- once hid in Him, by Him are wrought in us. Each of these was a precious gift, and worthy of the Lord, transforming the creature from its natural state of ruin to light and fair order. But now come higher blessings, forms of life unknown before, multiplying first in the air and waters, then upon the dry land.

We have seen what the waters and the heaven are within, -- the former the desires, the latter the understanding. With the waters until now little has been done save to bound them. Desires are checked in us, but this is all. Now new life moves in them, the varied fish and fowl, all figuring some of the countless forms of Christ’s spirit. For such is Christ’s fulness, that no one type can express it; and His will is that of this fulness we should be filled also; "to know the love of Christ which passeth knowledge, that we might be filled with all the fulness of God" (Ephesians 3:19). The light, or a heaven, or the seed, or sun and moon, each was but some manifestation in the creature of what had been in Him. So the turtle and the eagle, now created, are but types of some fresh gift or grace of Christ’s spirit; "diversities of gifts, but the same spirit; differences of administration, but the same Lord" (1 Corinthians 12:4-5). For just as in nature matter is one in all its forms, so in the new creation is the spirit one in all its transformations. The revelation only widens as the work proceeds. In due time the lion and ox and man are seen also; each a yet further expression of something in God’s mind, which by His Word through grace is wrought in us. But the forms and natures of the creatures made this day, like the light and fruits, will best explain themselves. The dove is the well-known figure of meek innocence. So at Christ’s baptism the Spirit "like a dove" came and abode on Him (Matthew 3:16). The eagle’s lofty flight and keen vision represent but another form of the same Divine Spirit. He who says, "I bare you upon eagles’ wings" (Exodus 19:4), gives us also to "mount up with wings as eagles" (Isaiah 40:31); for "of His fulness we all receive, and grace answering to His grace" (John 1:16). The other fowls of heaven, as the law shews us, both the clean and the unclean, each taught their own lesson; expressing in the difference of their lives and natures those faculties and emotions which give a form to life (Leviticus 11:9-23). Since the fall these emotions are mostly evil. Hence, in Scripture, birds are generally a type of evil spirits (Matthew 13:4; Revelation 18:2). The dragon and the whale too are used as evil (Ezekiel 29:3; Ezekiel 32:2). But they are only evil because fallen. In themselves they simply represent certain forms of life, good if dependent, evil if independent. Just as Satan, once an angel, is now a devil, and all his light and knowledge are accursed; so the powers of the understanding, figured by the birds, are good, and through self-will only become evil. (Note: This explains how the same type may be either good or bad. Christ is a "lion." Revelation 5:5. But Satan also is a "lion." 1 Peter 5:8. The same is true also in countless other instances.) I know the eagle-eye which loves to gaze on light, and the soaring thought which delights to mount upward, and the searching spirit which finds a pleasure in fathoming great deeps, -- "for the spirit searcheth all things, yea the deep things of God," -- may all be misused through self, and so be spoilt; for I know no good gift of God which may not become a curse to us. But the faculty as given by the Lord is good, and the thoughts or emotions which are formed to soar upward, or to dive into that depth which yet remains in us, may all tell forth the Lord’s glory. Therefore "the dragons, and the beasts, and creeping things, and flying fowl," as much as "sun and moon, and heaven, and fruitful trees," are called to praise Him (Psalms 148:1-14). As formed upon the fifth day they speak His praise, "saying, Glory to Him that sitteth upon the throne, and to the Lamb for ever" (Revelation 5:13-14). (Note: Augustine explains the "moving creatures" to be emotions. De Gen. c. Manich. l. i. c. 20. See also c. 25 of same book and Confession. l. v. c. 3, § 4, and Origen, Hom. i in Gen.) The details here would open an endless field; for the natures of these creatures vary, yet cannot be misunderstood. We have seen the dove and eagle, but others preach also, exhorting us to look for like powers to be created in us; some to sing by day, as the thrush; and some, like the nightingale, to wake the dark hours; some with clarion, like the cock, to foretell the morning, and bid the sleepers arise to greet the day; some, like vultures, far-seeing, to seek their meat from far; some, like the swallow, to live as pilgrims here; some, like cranes, to fly in ranks, and know the seasons, and watch while others sleep around; some to care for the aged, as the stork; or, like the turtle, once widowed never so to pair again. Each tells its own story of what God can work, and the rich profusion of form in which the same life may shew itself. And these increase. Some heavenly gifts, as the lights of the fourth day, can never multiply. They may rise and set, and bring round springs and winters; but they do not increase by generation. But when the fifth day comes, the forms of heavenly life then given may increase greatly. For God has said, "Be fruitful and multiply" (Genesis 1:22). And just as the fruits formed upon the third day, "whose seed is in themselves," reproduce themselves and grow rapidly, so do the graces of the fifth day spread wondrously. And when this has come, the image of God is near, when the work shall cease, for all is "very good."