Issued: 5/28/21    Updated: 6/22/21 Revised: 11/21/23

PLEASE NOTE:  Because Bible versions sometimes differ from each other in crucial ways, the version quoted here will be the one that best clarifies the point being made.  For a quick comparison between versions, please go to: http://www.biblehub.com.

   All bracketed material may be authorial comments, attempts at proper syntax, or minimal rewordings of Scripture for the sake of clarity and continuity.  These emendations will not be italicized.

   The “/” will be used to signify “and/or.”  The symbol “↔” is used to connect verses corroborating each other and so establishing doctrinal truths (Matthew 18:16↔2Corinthians 13:1).

   In differentiating between Yahweh Son [Jesus] and Yahweh Father [the Most High God], lower case letters have been used when discussing the former; upper case letters are reserved for the Only and Most High God.  Since Jesus was at pains to differentiate himself from Father, we have followed his lead here.

   The term neo-Christians will be used to differentiate between false Christians and Jesus’ true followers.

The Bible may be the best-selling book of all time but it remains largely misunderstood, misquoted, and unplumbed.  When Paul talked about “God’s hidden wisdom which [Father] foreordained before the world began for our glory” (1Corinthians 2:7), most Christians seem to think that “wisdom” begins and ends with the rudiments of faith; to wit, Father “sacrificed” Son for love of mankind (John 3:16); Jesus’ blood remits men’s sins (Hebrews 9:22; 1Peter 1:18-19) there is a promise of an afterlife following the first resurrection (John 5:28-29↔Daniel 12:2); and an exterminating bonfire after the second resurrection that will consume Satan and his minions (Revelation 20:5-10).

While James, Peter, John and Jude expounded on obvious doctrine, only Paul seemed to grasp Old Testament meanings and concepts, coming up with novel interpretations and ideas—as for example, in 1Corinthians 9:8-10, or Hebrews 7:9-10, on which we based the ‘potentiality’ angle previously discussed. No wonder Peter advised converts on issues “hard to understand” in Paul’s teaching (2Peter 3:15-16); which in a very real sense is sad to realize. Given that Father is no respecter of persons (Acts 10:34-35; Romans 2:11↔Deuteronomy 10:17), one would imagine all the faithful to have the same degree of “hidden” wisdom; yet this is not the case.

Jesus told us that whatever useful qualities people had to serve his cause, more would be given them (Mark 4:25); perhaps this was true of the totally committed Paul, whose criticism of Peter’s occasional wishy-washiness (Galatians 2:11-14) attested to Paul’s higher allotment of the Holy Spirit given by Jesus.¹ If Peter, who had spent three years under Jesus’ tutelage, could stumble this way, we should do well to follow James’ advice to the letter (James 1:5-8); and refrain from consulting men on what they believe the Bible is about. But then, we have already been warned about such tendencies (Psalms 146:3; Jeremiah 17:5). Please note that the only exception to these warnings is Jesus, who was not born of man.

Furthermore Paul argued that if the eagerness was there, Father would accept the gift according to what people had to offer, not according to what they lacked (2Corinthians 8:12). Paul was talking about people wishing to contribute things they might be unable to give—be them material, spiritual, or intellectual. We can expand that argument to suggest that not every faithful truly believes that wisdom comes from the Holy Spirit Jesus “anoints” us with, so that we have no need of human sources (John 15:26, 16:3; Galatians 1:12,15-17; Ephesians 3:3-5; 1John 2:27). Consequently, not every person professing Jesus’ faith may be able to “see and perceive” the way Jesus meant in Mark 4:11-12; which as stated therein presents a danger to us in terms of redemption or damnation; and may be the reason for Paul’s observation that differences of opinion happen amongst Christians so that those who “are approved may be made manifest” (1Corinthians 11:19).

This lamentable, Christian tendency has resulted in the fluff and pious bromides preached in today’s congregations, catering to human priorities inimical to Father’s objectives (Isaiah 55:8). Thus when Paul, addressing Jews in Hebrews 5:12-14, made the distinction between the “milk” of rudimentary doctrine and the “solid food” it contained but which Jews had never assimilated, he chided their lack of mastery in grasping “hidden” messages in those Scriptures they had studied all their lives.² To this day, Judaism’s Scriptural deficiency lives on in Christianity.

Our current discussion of Genesis 1 is predicated on these principles:  They must have deeper layers of meaning; they must tell us what Father plans to do through His Holy Spirit (Amos 4:13; John 16:13; 1Corinthians 2:10); without losing sight of the fact Son, no matter his pre-existent epithet, was the conduit between Father’s will and Spirit’s actions. “Light” [no Big Bang] was called into being and appointed proxy Creator to put order over pre-existent waters and formless land. Celestial bodies were created on Fourth Day, after skies were created on Second Day. Plants needing sunlight for survival preceded the Sun generating that nourishing energy. And as we shall see on Fifth Day, sea life and birds emerged from waters under skies delimited on Second Day. By presenting a Creation out of step with the natural world, we submit that Genesis 1 addresses something else:  The unfolding of Father’s plan over the span of human history using symbolic imagery. Genesis 1 is the one exception in the Bible where presenting things out of order is a red flag, a calculated device,³ unlike the editing which renders parts of the Bible confusing—most notably, in the Book of Revelation.  

The goal for us here is to think big, beyond and outside the box, and in terms of symbols, since Father’s mind is not constrained by the limitations of human imagination.

FIFTH DAY

“And God said, ‘Let the water teem with living creatures, and let birds fly above the earth across the vault of the sky.’  So God created the great creatures of the sea and every living thing with which the water teems and that moves about in it, according to their kinds, and every winged bird according to its kind. And God saw that it was good. God blessed them and said, ‘Be fruitful and increase in number and fill the water in the seas, and let the birds increase on the earth.’ And there was evening, and there was morning—the fifth day”

Genesis 1:20-23

   In Fourth Day, the nation of Israel was symbolized as plant life; let us consider why.  It was one ‘phylum’ of people transplanted from Egypt to Canaan.  Had they not angered Yahweh Son Angel proxy God with their grumblings and idolatrous bent,⁴ they would have been led straightaway into the promised land (Numbers 14:26-30).  Naturally, it was foreknown they would default (Deuteronomy 31:16-29):  The entire Exodus narrative is shadow to the substance Judeo-Christian introduction into Father’s Kingdom led by Jesus.  The goal from the start was ‘rooting’ Abraham’s progeny into a place where they would live in peace and prosperity forever (2Samuel 7:10; Amos 9:15)—never the reality for past and present-day Judeo-Christians.

On Israelites’ way to Canaan, pagan nations would be dispossessed of their lands, which may appear ‘imperialistic’; but as Father is Landlord over everything (↔Job 41:11), and even His people were “strangers and foreigners” with respect to Him (Leviticus 25:23), He had the right to evict unwanted [i.e., pagan] tenants to honor His contract with pre-qualified worshippers.  On the main, Israelites were to intimate peace with surrounding nations and to wage war if demands were refused, as a last resort engaging in ‘scorch-the-earth tactics’ so characteristic of military offensives (Deuteronomy 20:10-20).  Though these battles are shadow to the bloodless, spiritual counterparts waged by Jesus’ armies, Jews have not left a genocidal, historical record of invasions and pillage like most nations—though it must be admitted that to their shame, modern Israelis have proven equally inhumane and brutal in fighting back Palestinian aggression to protect life and secure new territory.

Thus as Israelites/plants were to put down roots in Canaan and not seek other lands, Sixth Day animals/beasts of the field which did, allegorized roaming, plundering, non-Jewish nations waging warfare against Israel; and by extension, as shadow implies substance, empires/allied nations which for centuries would decimate not only ‘soulless, pagan’ populations the world over but even Father‘s ‘saints’ in His and Jesus’ names (Daniel 2:37-45, 7:19-25, 8:20-25↔Revelation 13:1-7, 17:12-18).

Fifth Day takes another poke at science:  Birds emerged from “waters,” not dinosaurs which took to the air—regardless of suggestive, paleontological evidence; for dinosaurs as land-dwellers—had they existed—would have been created on Sixth Day; therefore birds precede dinosaurs in Genesis’ Creation. Now “waters,” as we have discussed, may be symbols for angelic beings [“waters above the expansion”] and for human populations [“waters below the expansion’]; so it follows that ‘bird’ imagery was used to depict angels. Thus “birds flying above the earth and across the vault of the sky” aptly describes angels of whatever rank engaged in heavenly missions, from Cherubim (Ezekiel 1:10-11; Revelation 4:7) to subalterns (Luke 17:37; Revelation 8:13).

The symbolic woman of Revelation 12 was given “two wings of the great eagle” [guess whose?] to carry her to safety (Revelation 12:14), the self-same imagery used in Exodus 19:4 allegorizing Yahweh Son Angel proxy God‘s heavenly assistance towards Israel.⁵ As Moses later confirmed, “Like an eagle that stirs up its nest and hovers over its young [spreading] its wings to catch them and carries them aloft.  Yahweh [Angel proxy God] alone led Jacob [Israel’s progenitor↔Genesis 32:28]; no foreign god was with him” (Exodus 13:21, 14:19; Deuteronomy 32:11-12).  Let it be said in passing that this is the type of spiritual assistance those who obey Father can expect: “Those who wait in Yahweh will renew their strength. They will soar on wings like eagles; they will run and not grow weary, they will walk and not be faint” (Isaiah 40:31)—which sounds a lot like Paul’s “mercy and grace in our time of need” (Hebrews 4:16).

Enough about eagles.  Because good and evil angels assist/influence human beings in their respective spiritual domains, the “bird” symbolism includes people as well.  Those who receive the “seed” of Father’s word (Luke 8:11) could have it “pecked out” of them by Satan’s “birds” [angelic or human↔Luke 8:4, 11-12].  Jesus enjoined his followers to be “as shrewd as snakes and as innocent as doves” (Matthew 10:16).  The Kingdom of Heaven was like the foliage of a mustard tree capable of housing all “birds of the sky” (Mathew 13:31-32).  Jesus bemoaned the fact that he had tried and failed to gather Jerusalem’s inhabitants—in his preexistence as Yahweh Son proxy God—“as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings” (Matthew 23:37). And he had tried (Isaiah 46:4)!

   Yahweh Son proxy God‘s rhetorical question to Job (12:7-9) could not have been answered by any of the entities he enumerated [animals, birds, fishes], unless he had meant human beings.  David used “bird” imagery while proclaiming his longing for the Heavenly Jerusalem, Father and Son’s eternal abode:  “How lovely is your dwelling place, Yahweh of hosts [Son]! My soul yearns, even faints, for the courts of Yahweh; my heart and my flesh cry out for the living God [Father].  Even the sparrow has found a home, and the swallow a nest for herself, where she may have her young—a place near your altar, Yahweh Almighty [Father], my King and my God” (Psalms 84:1-3).  As was his plea for protection: “Do not deliver the soul of your turtle-dove to wild beasts” (Psalms 74:19).  And Jeremiah followed suit to differentiate between people who understood Father’s will and those who did not: “Even the stork in the sky knows her appointed seasons, and the dove, the swift and the thrush observe the time of their migration.  But my people do not know Yahweh’s law” (Jeremiah 8:7).

   While it may be argued that these are straightforward comparisons, real animals do not ‘know’ why or what they do insofar as they act out of instinct; which though presumably programmed into them by their Creators, drives their behavior irrespective of ‘understanding’ causes and effects.  So why the insistence on “birds” to harp on issues of human spirituality or lack thereof?  Red flags.

   Let us turn to “sea life.”  Solomon provided the first meaningful link between birds and fish:  “As the fish that are taken in an evil net, and as the birds that are caught in the snare, even so are the sons of men snared in an evil time, when it falls suddenly on them” (Ecclesiastes 9:12).  When Jesus asked Peter and Andrew to follow him, he upgraded their customary catch from aquatic creatures to humans:  “Come after me, and I will make you fishers of men” (Matthew 4:19).

   As a straightforward allegory, it falls short.  Real-life fishing involves some level of violence:  Fish can be harpooned or hooked, then gutted open with knives.  ‘Fishing for men’ meant gaining converts for Jesus without harming them; so rather than resorting to mere comparisons, Jesus was reusing tried and tested symbols, as he had done as Father’s Spokesperson when pronouncing judgment against Satan in the guise of Pharaoh, king Egypt:  “Behold, I am against you, Pharaoh, king of Egypt, the great dragon that lies in the midst of his rivers…I will put hooks in your jaws, and I…will bring you up out of the midst of your rivers, with all the fish [his human minions] of your rivers which stick to your scales (↔Job 41:15-17,30). I’ll cast you forth into the wilderness, you and all the fish of your rivers” (Ezekiel 29:3-4).  How do we know this Pharaoh was Satan?  Easy:  Revelation 12:9 tells us who the dragon has always been.  So who are the fish of his rivers?  His human minions in all the nations of the world (Revelation 17:15).

  What gives the show away is Ezekiel 29:5:  “You’ll fall on the open field. You won’t be brought together, nor gathered.  I have given you for food to the animals of the earth and to the birds of the sky”; which was the prophesied outcome for Satan and his minions, both in Jeremiah 25:33, “The slain of Yahweh shall be at that day from one end of the earth even to the other end of the earth: they shall not be lamented, neither gathered, nor buried; they shall be dung on the surface of the ground [following Judgment Day]”; and Isaiah 14:11, 19-20: “Maggots are spread out under you, and worms cover you. Look how you have fallen from the sky, O shining one, son of the dawn! ⁶  You have been cut down to the ground, O conqueror of the nations!…But you are cast away from your tomb like an abominable branch, clothed with the slain [i.e., their maggots]…like a dead body trodden under foot.  You are not united with them in burial.”

But of greater significance is Genesis 1:21’s reference to “great sea-monsters.”  Not Moby Dick, not the Kraken, but Leviathan, “the dragon in the seas [(Isaiah 27:1) who was] like a lion (see 1Peter 5:8) among the nations, but [is] a monster in the seas…[thrashing] about in [his] streams [nations], [stirring] up the water [people] with [his] feet, and [muddying his] streams…I will also water with your blood the land in which you swim, even to the mountains; and the watercourses shall be full of you” (Ezekiel 32:2,6).  In this context “seas” is shadow for the world at large [substance], the domain God bequeathed Satan/Leviathan “to play there” (Psalms 104:25-26; Luke 4:6; 2Corinthians 4:4; 1John 5:19).  Throughout his realm, Satan’s actions undermine everything Jesus strives for:  Sowing discord instead of harmony (Matthew 12:25); fostering divisiveness instead of unity (Ephesians 1:9-10); and spreading false gospels to obscure the only true one (Galatians 1:8-9). And the Holy Spirit, Scripture’s proverbial ‘ghost-writer’ (2Peter 1:20-21), is the first to admit that Father owns up responsibility for it all (Daniel 4:17,35; Luke 4:6; John 19:11).

   The most complete portrait of Leviathan is presented in Job 41, too long a passage to quote fully here, but a few verses should suffice to establish Satan’s identity in the context of ‘marine’ imagery: “Can you draw Leviathan out of the water with a hook (↔Ezekiel 29:4, 38:4; Amos 4:2)…Can you fill its hide with harpoons or its head with fishing spears…[or] fill its hide with harpoons or its head with fishing spears?(Job 41:1,7,23,26-29)…When it rises up, the mighty are terrified (Job 41:25), at its thrashing about they withdraw…He causes the deep to boil like water in a pot, and churns the sea like one stirs ointment (Job 41:31-32)…There’s nothing like him on earth; he was created without the ability to fear.  He looks down on everything that is high; he is king over all the sons of pride” (Job 41:33-34).

So much for one “sea-monster” but what of others?  Quoting from Daniel 7:2-7: “I saw in my vision by night, and, behold, the four winds of the sky broke forth on the great sea [the world, humanity at large]… four large beasts came up from the sea; they were different from one another…The first was like a lion, and had eagle’s wings…another like a leopard [had] four wings of a bird on its back.  After these things, as I was watching in the night visions a fourth beast appeared, one dreadful, terrible, and very strong. It had two large rows of iron teeth (↔Job 41:14).  It devoured and crushed, and anything that was left it trampled with its feet…”

   Let us parse the above without resorting to explanations—scholarly or otherwise—that have been made about these beasts.  We are in the midst of a discussion involving the creation of symbolic birds and sea-monsters at a particular juncture in mankind’s history, very near end times, after which prophecy will no longer be of any value (1Corinthians 13:8). What Father meant to be known must be revealed now.

   Thus we have come to visions involving four monstrous beings coming out of the sea, all of them bearing attributes associated with Satan. Three of these are meat-eating, land-dwelling predators [lion, bear, leopard]; two of which have eagle/bird wings attached to their backs [lion, leopard]; one of which is stripped of its wings and becomes man-like with human desires [lion]; and a fourth whose signal characteristics are large rows of iron teeth which devours and tramples everything under its feet (Daniel 7:3-7↔Job 41:22,25,31).

As far as the “sea” is concerned, we have the now-standard symbol for humanity at large; and this is substantiated by the fact that the monsters emerging from it are land dwellers rather than sea creatures.  The “lion” is Peter’s symbol for Satan (1Peter 5:18).⁷ The stripping of the “lion’s” wings signifies Satan’s banishment from Heaven (Revelation 12:8-9); having lost all vestiges of divinity, he has become wholly and indistinguishably man-like (Daniel 7:4).  As a Cherubim, Lucifer had wings (Ezekiel 28:12-14).  On earth, Satan is no longer the protector he was conceived to be but channels his worst impulses through like-minded humans: His never extinguished lust for absolute power (Isaiah 14:13-14); pretending to be a force for good (2Corinthians 11:14); lying and killing (John 8:14); uncaring of human suffering (Isaiah 14:6-8, 16-17,20); vengeful loser (Revelation 12:12). 

   As portrayed in Scripture, Cherubim were four-winged, composites of several animals (Ezekiel 1:6,8-11, 41:18-19); hence the four-winged, leopard-like monster.  The bear is a devourer of flesh, a killing machine. What the significance of the tree ribs in his mouth is, we are not equipped to say; but may venture guesses:  Symbolic of the three Abrahamic progeny [Judaism, Christianity, Islam] he has been most adept at decimating?  Symbolic of the other three Revelation horsemen with whom he lays waste to mankind (Revelation 6:2-8)?  Adam was made out of dust (Genesis 2:19); Eve, the mother of mankind, was fashioned out of Adam’s rib (Genesis 2:21).  In similar fashion can we say that, symbolically speaking, as mankind ‘issued from a rib,’ then as ‘ribs‘ it can be allegorized?  Food for thought.

In summary, Genesis 1:20-23 charts Satan’s marshaling of evil forces to be deployed against the nascent Christian Church.  In Sixth Day we shall see how the struggle moved onto land, when land-dwelling rather than sea creatures were used to portray those forces.   The auto-da-fés; inquisitorial dungeons; crusades to free Jerusalem; eradication of entire cultures in name of a loving God; idolatries; enforced doctrinal brainwashing; rampant anti-Semitism; transformation of pagan sites into places of Christian worship; revival of polytheism under the veneer of cults to Christian saints; and a 360 degree return to solar and Great Mother worships, would fill the remainders of Fifth and Sixth Days until the second coming of Christ.

But stirrings of brewing apostasy had already been felt in the early days of the Apostles.  Paul warned of men who [had] erred concerning the truth, saying that the resurrection [had already taken place, thus] overthrowing the faith of some” (2Timothy 2:18).⁸ Desertions had begun, as well as personal betrayals (2Timothy 4:10,14) and in-house opposition (3John 1:9).  James was impatient with contradictory behaviors (James 4:1-4); and while Paul could be philosophical about differences of opinion (Romans 14:5; 1Corinthians 11:19), he advocated censuring them when the occasion called for it (Titus 1:10-16), or repudiating unrestrained sensualists (2Timothy 3:5-8).  The wolves in sheep clothing had infiltrated the flock, as Paul had warned (Acts 20:29-30); and Peter acknowledged their boldfaced shamelessness even while “reveling in their deceit…they feast with you” (2Peter 2:13-15).  All the while angels good and evil flew to and fro “above the earth in the open expanse of sky…every winged bird according to its kind” (Genesis 1:20-21), some assisting Father’s people (Hebrews 1:14), while others were harbingers of disaster (Revelation 6:2-8, 7:1-3, 8:5-13, 9:1-19, 15:7, 16:1-21).

   The “waters,” rivers and nations, “[were] filled with many kinds of living beings” (Genesis 1:20), both righteous and evil.  The dragon’s body had begun to metastasize into nations and armies bent on conquest and imposing subservience (Revelation 13:2-4,11-17, 17:12-18↔Daniel 8:23-25), eradicating opposition by any means deemed expedient or necessary—the more brutal and more fear-inspiring, the better.  Though Father had pronounced judgment on the great dragon lying in the midst of its rivers (John 16:11), the Leviathan “created without the ability to fear…king over all the sons of pride” (Job 41:33-34) challenged Father time and again waging wars of attrition fated to be lost at the expense of incalculable human suffering.

   From the get go, Satan and his minions had taken off like the hare in Aesop’s fable, while the Christian tortoise, with its eyes on the prize and focused on the race to run, plodded on patiently and steadfastly towards the finish line.

¹ This brings to mind the “double portion” of the Holy Spirit that Elisha requested prior to Elijah’s assumption into Heaven, which then allowed him to part the waters of the River Jordan (2Kings 2:9-14).

² A sobering reminder to those of us who believe that because scholars/religious leaders hold doctorate/divinity degrees, they are in a better position to understand Scriptures Father prevents them from grasping (1Corinthians 1:20-21↔Isaiah 29:14, 44:25).

³ Not an unheard of notion in Scriptures like Isaiah 28:13 and its New Testament counterpart, Mark 4:11-12, where the objective is to keep scoffers of faith from learning what stands to save their souls.

⁴ They missed the food they had eaten in Egypt and the pagan gods that seemed more amenable than the demanding Yahweh who had led them to a desert (Exodus 16:2-3,8; Numbers 21:5; Exodus 32:1-4).  Quickly forgotten were the 430 years of Egyptian slavery during which they have prayed for deliverance (Exodus 2:23-25).

⁵ Obviously not the unseen, unheard Father.  Israel’s Angel proxy God spoke directly to Moses from inside the burning bush (Exodus 3:2-6) and called to him from atop Mount Sinai (Exodus 19:3).

⁶ A reference to Lucifer’s creation by Yahweh Son proxy Creator?  Though Satan has used our Sun to foment pagan solar worships since time immemorial, as well as December 25 to commemorate the birthday of the Unconquered Sun, Lucifer is not the Morning Star, Sun of righteousness which refers exclusively to Jesus (2Samuel 23:4; Isaiah 60:1; Habakkuk 3:4; Malachi 4:2; John 1:9; 2Peter 1:19; Revelation 22:16). It has been posited that Isaiah’s “morning star” refers to the planet Venus, the brightest object during pre-dawn hours; which however brilliant is only reflecting the Sun’s luminosity. Even here we find “hidden” symbolism: Satan tries to ‘outshine’ Jesus by wrapping himself in “Light‘s” attributes (2Corinthians 11:14).

⁷ In terms of stalking victims seeking to devour souls.  His feline shadow in the natural world is called king of the animal kingdom.  And as lions are symbols of pride, so Satan is king over the sons of pride (Job 41:34).  Revelation 5:5 calls Jesus “the Lion of the tribe of Judah,” but he is neither predator not devourer of souls.  He is, however, King and fierce protector of his people, which takes us to Jacob’s dying blessings (Genesis 49:8-10):  “Your brothers will praise you, Judah [Jesus’ tribe↔Hebrews 7:14].  Your hand will be at the throat of your enemies, and your father’s [read Father’s?] children [those given to Jesus by Father↔Isaiah 8:18; John 17:12; Hebrews 2:13] will bow down to you.  Judah is a lion cub…The scepter will never depart from Judah, nor a ruler’s staff from between his feet (Psalms 23:4), until the One comes [Father to whom Jesus will surrender all authority↔1Corinthians 15:28], Who owns them both [Jesus and the redeemed], and to Him will belong the allegiance of nations Isaiah 2:2-3).”

⁸  Because of Matthew 27:52-53?