Please pay attention to the way that this is stated. God did not do anything without purpose, and He says that the earth brought forth the living creature. Now we will find in verse 26, the creation of man, where it says:
I think that part of the purpose of showing the creation in the way that God did is to show that there is something that we and the animals have in common. We could have gone on and read further, but all of us have come out of the earth. Man was created out of the earth. It very distinctly said that about the animals, Let the earth bring forth . . . its kind.
We share with them a mortality. We are earthy in that respect. They too, are earthy. However, the way that this is worded also shows that there is a difference between us and the other living creatures, and that difference was made very clear in that man was created after the God-kind. We are created in the image of God. And, in addition to that, there is no sexual orientation made in respect to animals. We, of course, know that there is a sexual orientation, but God made sure that was emphasized, male and female created He them. This will have a more importance later.
So we see three things that God establishes as being different between us and the animals: mankind is in His image, mankind is in male and female, and mankind has dominion.
Please turn to Genesis 1, verse 11. If you have worked with animals, you have some understanding of the realm of midbrain responses. Within the midbrain, there is a powerful God-given resistance to killing your own kind. It comes inherently to humans as the spirit in man.
Every species, with a few exceptions, has a hardwired resistance to killing its own kind. In territorial and mating battles, when animals with antlers and horns fight one another, they head butt in a harmless fashion. I am sure it hurts but it is not lethal. But when they fight with other species, they go to the side to gut and gore. Piranhas will turn their fangs on anything but they fight one another with flicks of a tail. Rattlesnakes will bite anything but they wrestle with one another.
Almost every species has this hardwired resistance to killing its own kind. And when we humans are overwhelmed with anger and fear, we slam head-on into that midbrain resistance that generally prevents us from killing. Only sociopaths, who do not have that resistance, lack this innate violence immune system.
Another interesting point in this scripture. Keep in mind that Moses is documenting God's very words. These are the words that God is speaking. Notice that He mentions fish, birds, and every living thing that moves on earth. He is speaking about the different kinds of animals that He created. And you can see that in Genesis 1:24, Then God said, let the earth bring forth the living creature according to its kind. And then He lists various examples. This is very straightforward, but let us keep looking.
