The record in the first chapter in Genesis is not merely to inform us of how God created the earth and all things in it, neither is it merely to show us the order in which God created everything. If we have the glasses of God’s economy on, we will clearly see that in Genesis 1 we have a picture of how we can experience Christ as our life.
The Spirit broods upon us, God’s word speaks to us, the light shines on us, and there’s some separation in us for life to be generated. After some further shining and separating in our being, Christ as the dry land appears and the divine life is generated in us. We become “a tender plant”, first as grass, then as herbs, and then as trees bearing fruit (day 3). But still, there is more!
Christ as the Sun of righteousness shines on us, the church reflecting Christ shows us the way, and the overcoming saints turn us to the path of righteousness (see day 4). As a result of this further light and stronger shining, there is a further growth in life and a higher form of life comes into being.
On day five of God’s process of creation the fish and the birds were created. The fish are a higher level of life than the plants, still with a low level of consciousness, and the birds are even a higher level of life than the fish. The fish point to Christ as the One who overcame the death waters in His living, and who became food for us to enjoy and be nourished.
The birds also signify Christ as the soaring and transcending One above the things on earth, the One who brings us to God’s destination, and the One who is an offering to God for His people. We need to grow in life and experience Christ as life to the degree that we ourselves become the same as Christ in these aspects!
The Animal Life in the Sea – Overcoming Death and Being Food to Man
As a result of the further and more definite light brought about by the sun, the moon, and the stars created in day four, there is now a further growth in life for the producing of a higher form of life, the fish in the sea and the birds in the heaven on day five.
What do the animal life in the sea signify in our spiritual experience? The fish are a higher level of life than the plants, but they still have a low level of consciousness. They signify our first step in the growth in life (see 1 John 2:13).
Specifically, the fish live in the salty sea and they themselves are not salty (unless they are dead). Christ is “the fish” who lived in a salty sea, full of death, and yet He was not salted. Satan had nothing in Him (John 14:30; 17:15-16).
After we receive Christ as life, we live in the world, in the human society, which is like a great salt sea filled with death and corruption. Yet, because of Christ in us, we are not salted by it but rather are living! In the midst of an environment of death, the divine life in us causes us to survive and overcome.
Just like Christ in His human living on earth, we have God’s life in us with a power that overcomes death, and greater is He who is in us than he who is in the world (1 John 4:4). Christ’s life in glory is our life practically and subjectively to overcome the death in the world.
Furthermore, the animal life in the sea also shows the riches of Christ’s life in feeding man with His riches. Christ is the real two fish and barley loaves feeding man (John 6:9), and after His resurrection He fed His disciples with Himself as fish and honey (John 21:9).
In the first stage of our growth in the divine life, because of God’s life in us we overcome the death in our environment and are not subdued by the salty situations, and we become food for others to enjoy and be nourished.
PS. And if you don’t believe that “men are fish”, then read Matt. 4:19, where the Lord told Peter that He will make him a fisher of men, catching men (as fish) alive.
The Bird Life in the Air – Transcending All Frustrations and Being for God’s Satisfaction
The fish life is good, but the bird life is even better – it not only survives the death waters but it transcends them! The bird life is higher than the fish life, because the fish can live and survive in the death waters, but the birds can transcend the death waters and soar above any death situation!
By growing further in the divine life, we will be able to not only survive in a death situation but even transcend all the frustrations on the earth (Isa. 40:31). Christ is the real eagle who transcends anything of death, and nothing of the earth could frustrate Him from accomplishing God’s purpose. The more we grow in the Lord, the more we experience the transcendent life of Christ and become like eagles, bearing ourselves above death and even bearing others for God (see Isa. 40:31).
The bird life typifies the riches of the life of Christ as seen in Him being an eagle for carrying God’s people to His destination both in the Old Testament (the people of Israel were carried by Christ as the eagle to the good land, see Exo. 19:4; Deut. 32:11-12), and in the New Testament (the church is taken by Christ as the eagle into the wilderness, see Rev. 12:14).
Also, Christ is the reality of the turtledoves and pigeons for offering to God for the sins of God’s people (Lev. 1:14; 5:7). As we grow in life and experience Christ as our life, we will not only soar above all the situations of death and head out toward the New Jerusalem (our destination), but we will also be food to satisfy God. How much we need to continually grow in life, stage by stage, by experiencing Christ as life inwardly and daily!
Advancing in the Growth in Life by Experiencing Christ as Life: there is still more!
I would really recommend you read the life-study of Genesis by brother Witness Lee, especially messages 3-6, to see more concerning the process of God’s creation. I particularly like his sentence coming after interpreting each stage of creation / growth in life, “This is wonderful, but there is still more.”
We need to continue to grow and develop in life, and as we grow from stage to stage, there is still more! Being a plant is not the end, and being a fish in the sea is not enough. We need to go on and grow in life until we are a bird, cattle, a man with God’s image, and eventually until we are filled with God’s life (signified by the tree of life).
Stage by stage, we grow in life by experiencing Christ as life until we are fully swallowed up by the divine life and we become persons of life as members of the city of life, the New Jerusalem! Today we are still in the process of being much more saved in His life (Rom. 5:10) and enjoying much more the abundance of grace and of the gift of righteousness (Rom. 5:17) so that we may reign in life over death, sin, and Satan!
Lord Jesus, keep us growing in life every day. May we experience You as life subjectively so that we may have a further growth in life every day. Thank You for being the indestructible, incorruptible, and invincible life in us, causing us to not be touched by the death in the world and the human society around us. Lord, we want to experience You as the eagle, the soaring transcendent resurrection and ascension life, so that we would be soaring with You toward the New Jerusalem far above any death situation on the earth! Lord Jesus, keep growing in us every day!
References and Further Reading
- Inspiration: bro. Minoru’s sharing in the message and portions in, Life-study of Genesis (msg. 6), as quoted in the Holy Word for Morning Revival on the Crystallization Study of Genesis (1), week / msg 3, The Experience of Christ as Life Portrayed in Genesis 1.
- Further reading: Gen. 1:20-21 and the footnotes in the Recovery Version.
- Hymns on this topic:
# Day five the fish arrive, / Against the worldly tide, / Death waters did survive, / With life and power; / From fish to bird I soar, / I’m waiting on You, Lord, / Your grace to me afford, / Strength for all things.
# Touching now Thine outstretched scepter, / O most mighty King of kings; / Of Thy fulness now receiving, / High I mount on eagle wings.
# Breathe Thou, O Lord, on me, / Strength to my spirit bring, / That running, walking, fainting not, / I’ll mount on eagles’ wings.
# From Thy fulness grace outpouring, / Show me ever greater things; / Raise me higher, sunward soaring, / Mounting as on eagle-wings. / By the brightness of Thy face, / Ever let me grow in grace.
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