Issued: 6/4/21    Updated: 6/22/21 Revised: 11/24/23

“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 unacknowledged fact about human suffering is that if men were not abettors/enablers of and complicit in Satan’s goals, there would be no evil in the world.  ‘False gospels’ love to blame a vindictive God for mankind’s tragedies; but just as a plant can only give it own variety of fruit and a single source cannot give both sweet and bitter waters (James 3:11-12), so a God of love and justice cannot possibly and arbitrarily dish out punishments out of anger and vengefulness.

   In point of fact what encourages men in their pursuit of evil is the fact that punishment is not immediately forthcoming (Ecclesiastes 8:11); otherwise morally and spiritually bankrupt transgressors would be summarily dealt with on a regular basis. While eventual comeuppance is inescapable, it is not Father‘s main objective, as attested to in Matthew 13:24-30 and 2Peter 3:9: He would prefer transgressors came to their senses and do what is needed to obtain immortal life. Thus towards that end, rather than automatically incinerate the unrighteous as the Apostles suggested (Luke 9:54-56), Father appeals to reason in order to save and not have to destroy men (Lamentations 3:33; Ezekiel 33:11). And if He will indeed destroy evildoers’ bodies and souls at Armageddon (Deuteronomy 32:35; Matthew 10:28; Revelation 20:9), it is because the opposition must be exterminated so that His worshippers inherit the Kingdom He promised them.

   Given this state of affairs, and having broken Father’s covenant of obedience (Isaiah 24:5; Jeremiah 31:32↔Hebrews 8:9; Hosea 8:1), men opened the doors for all the curses in Deuteronomy 28:15-68 to befall them; both in terms of natural catastrophes and warfare by fierce nations swooping down like “eagles” bent on dominion and control. Hence Daniel’s eagle-winged “sea beasts” sporting faces of predatory animals’ (Daniel 7:3-7,17).¹ Other “beasts,” symbolic of empires (Daniel 8:3-22 or unholy alliances of secular and religious powers (Daniel 8:23-25↔Revelation 13:1-17, 17:12-19), were empowered by Satan to wage war against men (Revelation 13:2,7,11,14-15)—whether through atheistic regimes; secular/religious alliances professing to be beacons of Christian orthodoxy; or proponents of anti-Semitism. Their imperative has become a historical constant:  To crush dissenters who will not align with Satan’s rank and file.

SIXTH DAY: ANIMALS

“God said, ‘Let the earth bring forth living creatures after their kind, livestock, creeping things, and animals of the earth after their kind’; and it was so… And God saw that it was good.”

Genesis 1:24-25

   In Fifth Day we discussed Satan’s array of forces marshaled against nascent Christianity, symbolically represented by “birds of every kind” and assorted “beasts.”  Not coincidentally, the very symbols Scripture uses to identify Satan are emblematic of these nations:  Stars [take your pick], eagles [imperialistic empires/nations], and solar symbols [authoritarian/fascist regimes].  Since Satan has been given stewardship over all nations (Isaiah 22:15-18; Luke 4:6), and he is oftentimes represented under the guise of earthly rulers,² national emblems are his prideful/boastful way of telling us who commands them.

   If the “birds and sea beasts” created on Fifth Day symbolized the powers that be, foot soldiers [i.e., men] were needed to wage them; hence the creation of “cattle according to their kinds, and all the creatures that creep along the ground according to their kinds” (Genesis 1:24).  But why specifically cattle and creepy-crawlers?  Red flags.  Cattle are livestock, like oxen, sheep, horses and goats, animals who like some people ‘follow their herds’; or creepy-crawlers like scorpions, snakes, spiders, etc., whose harmful/predatory behaviors some human beings ‘mimic.’   What Genesis 1:24 is telling us is that men according to their natural disposition would behave righteously or not, either by impeding or facilitating Satan’s raids on human souls. From Fifth Day until the beginning of Seventh Day or Millennium of rest, evil’s blitzkrieg would prevail to the point of seeming all triumphant—unless divinely stopped (Psalm 125:3; Isaiah 8:21-22; Matthew 24:22; Revelation 9:20-21, 16:9-11).

   The singular feature of Daniel’s “beasts” is that while emerging from “the sea,” these monstrous beings do not resemble marine predators.  The reason is obvious:  The “sea” is a symbol for humanity at large, so that “beasts” emerging from it would have to resemble land-dwelling predators—which in fact they do.  This is our first pointer that Sixth Day animals symbolize not their natural counterparts, but men who behave like them.

   We have seen Peter’s use of “lion” to denote Satan (1Peter 5:8), a predator which stalks its prey and pounces on it to “devour” it—Peter’s imagery regarding imperiled souls. But Peter did not invent it.  It appears in Isaiah 35:8-9, among predators no longer endangering souls on the Way of Holiness to Heavenly Jerusalem; in Amos 3:12, the lion from whose mouth mutilated victims are saved in the nick of time by a shepherd; in 2Timothy 4:17, where Paul professed to have silenced the lion’s mouth with Jesus’ help while preaching the Gospel to the Gentiles; and last but not least one of the predators that David, the preeminent symbol for Jesus in Scripture, killed in order to protect his sheep (1Samuel 17:34-35).  On the obvious side, a lion is ‘king of the beasts,’ a predator with no natural enemies and a symbol for pride(↔Job 41-34).  You connect the dots.

   If “field” in Scripture means the world (Matthew 13:38), then the term “beasts of the field,” used extensively throughout prophecy, refers to animals [shadow] as well as men [substance], as in Leviticus 26:22, Jeremiah 12:9, 27:6; Ezekiel 5:17, 34:5; Psalm 74:19; 1Corinthians 15:32, among others.³    In similar fashion Genesis 1:25’s “animals of the earth” prefigures the same purpose:  Different species [i.e., nationalities/ethnicities]; their placement in the food chain [i.e., predators versus prey]; or in social strata [i.e., rich/poor, leaders/followers, tyrants/oppressed, persecutors/persecuted, etc.].

    Two graphic examples in terms of behaviors are found in 2Peter 2:22:  “The dog turns to his own vomit again,” and “the sow that has washed to wallowing in the mire.”  Peter is here quoting from Psalm 26:11; yet his comments are not dissertations on animal idiosyncrasies, but comparisons to men who received the Gospel, rejected it, and went go back to their sinful ways.  Some canines do have the obnoxious habit of eating their vomit; pigs, who can be loving and intelligent pets, are reviled in Scripture not because of trichinosis, but because once washed clean of muck relish soiling themselves again.  “A gold ring in a pig’s snout,” says Proverbs 11:22, is as the absence of “discretion in a beautiful woman”:  No type of outward embellishment can mask a pig’s disposition, any more than a woman’s physical beauty can compensate for her lack of virtuous behavior. Jesus had warned what going back to one’s old ways entailed spiritually (Matthew 12:43-45↔emphasis on 45); and Paul followed suit in terms of perdition (Hebrews 6:4-6, 10:26-27)—a fate further confirmed by Revelation 22:15.⁴

   Therefore, it is not coincidental that dogs and pigs are “unclean” animals (Leviticus 11:7,27); and that they are prominently featured in Isaiah 66:3 as offerings by men whose worship Father reviles, alienate Him, and persecute the faithful (Isaiah 66:4-5).  Dogs, superb animals that they are, may be regarded as man’s best friends; but they are really their masters’ loyal and obedient slaves irrespective of their masters’ moral character or lack thereof. Which is the reason why Jesus singled out dogs for censure in Matthew 7:6:  ‘Dogs’—and he was talking about men, not Pit Bulls or Chihuahuas—will do as they are taught or trained to do in the service of evil; whereas Jesus’ ‘flock of sheep‘ will imitate his example (John 10:27). So what was Jesus’ coded message? Do not waste on ‘dog-like’ men what should be bestowed on Father: Loyalty/obedience to His will.  In the same breath Jesus reviled ‘pig-like’ human beings, who failing to discern whatever is of spiritual value [“pearls” symbolic of the Kingdom of Heaven↔Matthew 13:45-46] would trample down virtues and their exemplars alike.

   Again, as everything else in the Bible, there is more to Leviticus’ listing of “clean” and “unclean” animals than meets the eye; and while we might come up with some reasonable suggestions [see To eat or not to eat: Never the question] , there is not enough written ‘evidence’ to support comprehensive explanations.  There is however some specific evidence.  We know the symbolic meaning of ‘oxen’ in Deuteronomy 22:10 and 25:14 is:  They allegorize Gospel preachers, tillers of the “field” where Father‘s “seed” is to be planted (Luke 8:11; 1Corinthians 9:9-10; 1Timothy 5:17-18).  Oxen are “clean” animals (Leviticus 11:3), which is the reason why Father abominates those sacrificing them to Him (Isaiah 66:3).  Donkeys, on the other hand “unclean,” are recalcitrant animals that resist authority and discipline; thus ‘donkey-like’ men are not to be paired with ‘oxen-like’ preachers (Deuteronomy 22:10), so as not to hinder the latter’s work.  Ditto camels, also “unclean,” which must be handled roughly if they are to do as they are expected; hence the connection between donkeys, camels and humans: The stubborn resistance to follow Jesus’ instructions (↔Hebrews 12:2-3)

   Peter’s vision in Acts 10:10-12 leaves no doubt that animals and creepy-crawlers on that “linen sheet” coming down from Heaven meant people.  With the ingrained elitism that seems to be part of Jewish religion (Exodus 33:3; Acts 10:28), Peter refused to eat although so instructed by Jesus; and it was only later, after meeting Cornelius, that he realized the vision meant Father had embraced “unclean” Gentiles the world over who met His standards—an understanding that came second nature to Paul despite his previous Pharisaic zealotry (Acts 26:5; Galatians 1:14, 3:28; Philippians 3:5-6). 

   Hands down, Paul is the greatest Apostle not only because of his understanding of all Jesus stood for, but because he used Scripture’s symbolism to great effect.  His letters do not outwardly discuss Genesis 1’s symbolic meanings, but he obliquely referred to creational events.  Christians were engaged in war in a spiritual battlefield:  “Put on the whole armor of God so that you may be able to stand firm against the devil’s strategies.  For our struggle is not against human opponents, but against rulers, authorities, cosmic powers in the darkness around us, and evil spiritual forces in the heavenly realm [First and Second Days events]” (Ephesians 6:11-12)—let alone the true import of Genesis 1:26-27, 2:21-24↔Ephesians 5:31-32 [Sixth Day event].

   For Paul “rulers and authorities” were led by Satan, “the ruler of the power of the air, the spirit that is now active in those who are disobedient” (Ephesians 2:2).  He referred to false preachers as savage wolves bent on decimating the flock; the former “unclean” animals under Mosaic Law; the latter livestock in the form of sheep (Acts 20:29)—both Sixth Day creatures. Paul must have borrowed the imagery from Ezekiel 22:27, 34:3,8,10: “Her princes [priests↔Acts 23:5] in its midst are like wolves ravening the prey, to shed blood, [and] to destroy souls that they may get dishonest gain…You eat the fat, and you clothe yourself with the wool, you kill the fatlings; but you don’t feed the sheep. As I live, says the Lord Yahweh, surely because my sheep became a prey, and my sheep became food to all the animals of the field, because there was no shepherd, neither did my shepherds search for my sheep, but the shepherds fed themselves, and didn’t feed my sheep…The shepherds [shall not] feed themselves anymore; and I will deliver my sheep from their mouth, that they may not be food for them”.⁵ Since in the context of history human nature repeats itself (Ecclesiastes 1:9), past religious predators serve as role-models for future ones.

   Jesus said his sheep would “recognize” his voice (John 10:26-27); and here he was reaffirming his pre-existence as Yahweh Son proxy God: “For thus says the Lord Yahweh: ‘Behold, I myself, even I, will search for my sheep, and will seek them out…You my sheep, the sheep of my pasture, are men, and I am your [proxy] God, says the Lord Yahweh’” (Ezekiel 34:11,17,31). On Judgment Day, Jesus will judge [↔John 5:22] “between sheep and sheep, the rams and the male goats,” placing the “sheep” to his right and the “goats” to his left (Matthew 25:33-34). The granddaddy of all “goats” is Satan, Father’s designated “scapegoat” carrying all of His people’s sins out into the desert—i.e., outside His camp (Leviticus 16:10,21-22).

   This “desert” is the dead world upon which Satan will be chained during Seventh Day Millennium (Isaiah 14:16-17,20; Revelation 20:3).  The “goat” sacrificed so that its blood, carried into the Holy of Holies, would sanctify men must signify Jesus, rendered here ‘goat-like’ instead of the familiar “Lamb of God.” Straddling as he was the Mosaic Covenant which he would invalidate with his crucifixion (Galatians 3:13) and the New Covenant of faith mediated during his lifetime, Jesus was “goat” in terms of the former, in the process becoming so offensive to Father by assuming men’s sins (Isaiah 53:3-4,6) that he bemoaned his fate on the cross (Matthew 27:46)—as he had voiced through David centuries before (Psalms 22:1). Yet he was “Lamb” in terms of the New Covenant, patiently ‘perfected’ in Father’s discipline “for the joy set before him” (Isaiah 53:5-12; John 10:17, 18:11; Hebrews 2:10, 12:2); superseding the male, ‘flawless,’ sacrificial animal required by Mosaic Law (Leviticus 22:19-21).

   What is the generic classification of all these animals, sheep, goats, lambs?  Livestock, cattle animals; as are bulls (Psalm 22:12, 68:30; Isaiah 34:7; Ezekiel 39:18); cows (Amos 4:1); buffalos (Psalm 22:21; Isaiah 34:7); camels (Jeremiah 2:23); horses (Jeremiah 50:11; Ezekiel 39:20); some of them symbolic of evildoers.  Theirs will be the bodies in God’s “great supper”: “You will eat the flesh of mighty men and drink the blood of the princes of the earth, as though they were rams, lambs, goats and bulls, all of them fatlings of Bashan” (Ezekiel 39:17-21↔Revelation 19:17-21).

   So much for one of Genesis 1:25’s target groups.  What about the other group, creepy-crawlers?  What did Jesus call the evildoers of his time?  “Offspring of vipers” (Matthew 12:34).  Jesus had told his followers to be as “shrewd” as snakes in the midst of wolves (Matthew 10:16); in other words, size up your opponents; keep low when advisable (Amos 5:13); bide your time; be open-minded (1 Thessalonians 5:21); blend [as reptiles camouflage] into your milieu in order to succeed—Paul’s preferred approach (1Corinthians 9:22).  Jesus was obviously not suggesting attacking or harming anyone; out of an “unclean” animal like a snake, he was extrapolating that animal’s shrewdness and applying it to his followers, coupling it with the “simplicity” of doves. Tread lightly and quickly move away from counter-productive situations; travel far afield; nest wherever available; do your outmost for Father‘s cause and be mindless of daily needs, for Father will provide (Matthew 6:31-33).  Which Paul paraphrased thusly: “No soldier on duty entangles himself in the affairs of life that he may please him [in this case Jesus, Commander of Father‘s host] who enrolled him as a soldier” (2Timothy 2:4).

   In lambasting Israel for seeking protection from Egypt rather than Heaven, Yahweh Son proxy God talked about beasts in the Negev desert, where vipers and the “fiery, flying serpent” (↔Job 41:19-21) dwelled “in land of trouble and anguish” (Isaiah 30:1-6).  Who could that flying serpent be if not Satan?  Ordinary snakes do not fly, but as a Cherub identified as “dragon/serpent” in Scripture, Satan was capable of flight (Genesis 3:1; Ezekiel 28:14; Revelation 20:2). The same epithet appears in Isaiah 14:29 in connection with judgments against Philistia—modern-day Palestine—for old ethnic hatreds and aiding the Greeks in plundering Judah and Jerusalem (Ezekiel 25:15-17; Joel 3:4-8). Isaiah prophesied that from the root of the “rod/snake” that had struck the Philistines would spring a “viper” from whose egg would emerge the “flying, fiery serpent.” Since Satan’s is the “body” from which nations/alliances emerge (Daniel 7:17; Revelation 13:1, 17:3); the “snake” apportioning nations as he sees fit (Luke 4:6); and wielder of the rod/scepter controlling the wicked (Isaiah 14:5), can these be references to nation/nations complicit in ‘hatching the egg incubating’ Satan’s future plans of destruction?

   Let us list some other creepy-crawlers.  Scorpions?  “You, son of man, don’t be afraid of them, neither be afraid of their words, though briers and thorns [Fourth Day plants] are with you, and you do dwell among scorpions: Don’t be afraid of their words, nor be dismayed at their looks, though they are a rebellious house” (Ezekiel 2:6).

   Spiders? “They hatch the eggs of vipers and spin a spider’s web.  Whoever eats their eggs will die, and when one is broken, an adder is hatched [evil begets evil].  Their cobwebs are useless for clothing; they cannot cover themselves with what they make.  Their deeds are evil deeds, and acts of violence are in their hands” (Isaiah 59:5-6).

   Bees/wasps?   “They surrounded me like bees. They are quenched like the burning thorns.  In the name of Yahweh I cut them off (Psalms 118:12↔Isaiah 7:18-19).

   Grasshoppers/locusts?  Your plunder is gathered as when grasshoppers gather; just like locusts pounce, people have pounced on it” (Isaiah 33:4).

   Even Jacob [i.e., Israel] is portrayed like a worm and its citizens as insects (Isaiah 41:14), perhaps to denote their insignificance as a nation surrounded by mighty empires (Deuteronomy 7:7), as well as their prodigious fertility despite millenary attempts to exterminate them.

   The most extensive listing of Sixth Day animals occurs in Isaiah 34:5-15, in reference to Father’s war against all nations (↔Psalms 110:1):  “Yahweh’s sword [Satan]⁶ is filled with blood. It is covered with fat, with the blood of lambs and goats, with the fat of the kidneys of rams…The wild oxen [untamed, unlike obedient preachers] will come down with them, and the young bulls [soldiers] with the mighty bulls [their leaders/commanders]; and their land will be drunken with blood…The pelican and the porcupine will possess it. The owl and the raven will dwell in it… and it will be a habitation of jackals, a court for ostriches.  Hyenas will meet with jackals.  Male goats will call to their mates. Screech owls will rest there and find a resting place for themselves… yes indeed, vultures will gather there, each one with its mate.”  Honestly, why this comprehensive listing of animal instead of human species to depict post-Judgment Day realities? Because these are Sixth Day events—as intimated by verses 3-4 and 9-10, with their corresponding confirmations in Revelation 6:13-14, 14:11 and 19:3.⁷

   Even the glorious future of Zion is evoked in now familiar imagery:  “Lift up your eyes all around, and see: They all gather themselves together, they come to you; your sons shall come from far, and your daughters shall be carried in the arms…and your heart shall thrill and be enlarged; because the multitude of the sea shall be come to you.  Throngs of camels shall cover you, the dromedaries of Midian and Ephah…All the herds of Kedar shall be gathered together to you, the rams of Nebaioth shall minister to you…Who are these who fly as a cloud, and as the doves to their windows?” (Isaiah 60:4-8).

   And unless we choose to believe that the Heavenly Jerusalem will be a zoo or an outpost of the Humane Society, it is the Judeo-Christian family that is meant:  “Your people [Father‘s] also shall be all righteous;⁸ they shall inherit the land forever, the branch of my planting, the work of my hands  [Yahweh Son proxy Creator, Father’s “beloved” (↔Isaiah 5:1)], that I may be glorified…that they may be called trees of righteousness, the planting of Yahweh [Father], that He may be glorified…[for] surely the vineyard of [Yahweh Son proxy God] is the house of Israel, and the men of Judah [Jesus’ tribe] his pleasant plant” (Isaiah 60:21, 61:3, 5:7). In short, the restauration of the non meat-eating, Eden-like garden allegorized in Genesis.

   It would be too much of a coincidence that the trajectory of Judeo-Christianity through the ages fits so well with the systematic and symbolic order of Genesis’ Creation.  Plants—Israel—preceded the “animals” and “sea beasts” that Christendom would unleash upon the world; and wild beasts they were.  Israel waged wars against outside aggressors in order to survive as a nation, perhaps not always—to this day—in less reprehensible ways; but they did not fan out over the world decimating populations; launching Crusades; devising grotesque methods of torture as the Inquisition did; viewing non-Christian cultures as soulless animals; raping, pillaging, and looting on monumental scales.  No: People carrying Jesus’ cross did, wielding it not a memorial to the man who loved the whole of mankind to the point of self-obliteration; but as a club to bludgeon non-conformists into submission, and failing that, to literally turn them into ashes.

  In our next installment, we will round up Sixth Day discussing its most signal event:  The creation of Man and Woman.

¹ See also Hosea 13:7-8.

² King of Babylon (Isaiah 14:4-20; King of Tyre (Ezekiel 28:12-19); Pharaoh, King of Egypt (Ezekiel 29:3; Revelation 20:2).

³ Paul disapproved of the term when used derogatorily (Titus 1:12)].

⁴ Do not forget other kinds of dog-like animals, like foxes (Songs 2:15; Ezekiel 13:4; Luke 13:32) and jackals (Psalm 44:13-14,19, 64:9-10).

⁵ Which brings to mind Matthew 23:5-6,14,24-25,27: False religious leaders with goals of fame and profit in mind.  Searching the Net for the relative wealth of today’s mega-church, evangelical ‘poseurs’ will reveal the con is still afoot. 

⁶ Jesus’ sword is Father‘s word, which is the sword of the Holy Spirit (Ephesians 6:17).  This is why a two-edged sword (↔Hebrews 4:12) protrudes out of Jesus’ mouth (Revelation 1:16), the weapon he fights evil forces with (Revelation 19:11-16).  It has the power to condemn souls, thus depriving them of eternal life; but it does not draw human blood:  That distinction belongs to Satan, the perennial, homicidal slayer (John 8:44; Revelation 6:8)—whenever allowed by Father to do so (Ezekiel 21:11,13).  Though Ezekiel mentioned the King of Babylon, he was not talking about Nebuchadnezzar but about Isaiah’s King of Babylon, Satan (Isaiah 14:4-6).  That Satan’s homicidal sword is also under Yahweh Son‘s control is evident from Exodus 12:23 and 2Samuel 24:16-17.

⁷ Armageddon will take place on the “evening” of Seventh Day; at which point time as we know it becomes eternity. Please note that as Armageddon takes place in the eve of a new creation, it corresponds with Jesus’ Sunday resurrection, himself made, along with those to be resurrected as he was, new creatures by Father‘s will (2Corinthians 5:14-18; 1John 3:2↔Psalms 17:15).

⁸ See Isaiah 60:19-20 and its confirmation in Revelation 21:23.  In regards to righteousness, see 1Peter 2:9 and Revelation 1:6.