What did God create on the Third day of Creation?

from the old testament

• "And God said, 'Let the waters under the heavens be gathered together into one place, and let the dry land appear.' And it was so. God called the dry land Earth, and the waters that were gathered together he called Seas. And God saw that it was good. And God said, 'Let the earth sprout vegetation, plants yielding seed, and fruit trees bearing fruit in which is their seed, each according to its kind, on the earth.' And it was so. The earth brought forth vegetation, plants yielding seed according to their own kinds, and trees bearing fruit in which is their seed, each according to its kind. And God saw that it was good. And there was evening and there was morning, the third day" (Genesis 1:9–13).
• God begins to lay out and piece together His eternal vision of the earth as He prepares it for the living creatures that are coming later (Genesis 1:20–30).
• God starts with the second movement of the waters (see Genesis 1:2, 6–8 and our articles on day one and day two of creation).
• Having already created the atmosphere, God gathers the waters and dry land appears. God does not "create" land on day three; He created that on day one (Genesis 1:1). Here, God simply tells the water where to go (Job 38:8–11), and the land, which is already underneath, now appears.
• God names the land "Earth." The waters, which He has gathered into specific places, He calls "Seas" (Genesis 1:10). God separates literal water and land, much like He separated the light from the dark on day one (Genesis 1:4). God establishes where water belongs and where the land belongs. The placement of the seas and the formations of land are "good," meaning they are precisely where and in what form He commands them to be (Genesis 1:10).
• God, then, continues with the creation of vegetation, producing plants yielding seed and fruit trees bearing fruit (Genesis 1:11–12).

from the new testament

• The days of creation are found in the Old Testament.

implications for today

As in each of God's acts of creation, He commands what is to be done, and it is done. God says for the waters to be gathered together and for the land to appear, "And it was so." Now, God commands the earth itself to "sprout vegetation…And it was so." The earth brings forth what God commands it to bring forth and in the exact manner in which He commands it—plants which yield seed, fruit which does the same, and "each according to its kind." In other words, a rose does not produce a seed capable of growing a pine tree. God here commands not only that the plants come forth, but that they are prepared to continue to regenerate themselves in their unique, individual aspects. We will see later that God commands the same standard for each living creature He creates. The continuation of a species is made possible because God has declared it to be so from the beginning of creation. God is a God of order, not chaos (1 Corinthians 14:33).

We also see God’s goodness and intentionality here as He creates food for living creatures He has already planned to make. Notice how He lovingly prepares the living space for His creation—not only establishing the ability for each plant to reproduce itself and be widely available, but also creating those things that will sustain the creatures He will create. God does not create the ox and then, after the fact, realize that He needs to create food for it. Instead, He intentionally creates the space and food for the ox before creating it.

After the third day of creation, God once again looked upon all that He had done and declared that it was "good;” it is what God intended. It was excellent and pleasing. The third day concludes with the same words as the other days: "And there was evening and there was morning, the third day." Three literal days have passed and God created the heavens, earth, light, land, seas, and plants.