Teeming - Genesis 1:20

Genesis 1:20 “And God said, ‘Let the water teem with living creatures, and let birds fly above the earth across the expanse of the sky’."

Have you ever noticed how children are drawn to the aquariums in Wal-Mart. They hold such an intense attraction that I’ve heard parents use the requisite trip to see the fish as a bargaining chip. It is one of the few tools to keep their sensory overloaded kids from reaching full meltdown before the shopping experience is completed.

Within the aquariums, swarm hundreds of tetras, angelfish, mollies, and goldfish. Some of the fish species in Wal-Mart naturally exist in great concentrations, as found in the tanks. Others do not, as evidenced by the layer of white ones on the bottom. Still what you see through the glass is a great mass of swarming productivity. You see a vision of God’s living creation….. a creation that is teeming. This vision is interesting and attractive to us as human beings. I believe this is in part because a complex interacting creation is also a productive creation, and a productive creation is most likely to provide for our physical needs. I think it is also attrictive because it is a key attribute of God’s creation, making it both facinating and beautiful to humans made in His image. There are numerous references to God commanding creation to either teem, as in Genesis 1:20, or similarly to be productive and fill the earth. In fact, God commanded all creatures in Genesis 1 to teem in one way or another, both humans (v28) and all creatures (v24). These commands were again repeated after the flood (Genesis 8:17, 9:1,7).

As the word teeming implies, creation was designed to be productive and moving. When things move, they interact, with each other and with their environment in unique and complex ways. The study of these interactions is essentially the branch of science called ecology. It is my understanding that the world prior to sin was teeming in ways that I cannot visualize for lack of a sinless reference. However, creation still teems today.

This teeming quality, as part of God's design for creation, by default has value. With that in mind, how do we has humans, entrusted with the care of God’s creation, interact with it and with each other in ways that help rather than hinder this mutual command to teem? There are no easy answers? In this dog-eat-dog world, we often seek competive advantages over eachother and other creatures for sustaining resources. Still, as complex and difficult as it may be, we always have the choice to make it our heart’s desire. It can still be a part of our motivation. Ultimately, we can also reflect on this quality of creation and give God glory for it as King David did in Psalms 104:25 “There is the sea, vast and spacious, teeming with creatures beyond number – living things both large and small.”

It is said that all of creation sings to the Creator. If so, I wonder if a teeming creation is the harmony?