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GENESIS Lesson Four
The Lord created the heavens and the earth in Genesis 1:1. This creation was thrown into chaos, evidently when Lucifer, the son of the morning, tried to exalt himself above God, and to take the place of God.
God is a God of order .... not disorder .... not confusion. God does everything in a methodical manner. God put everything else in order before He placed animals and man on the earth. Man was to be His crowning creation. So often in the Bible, chapter and verse divisions create a problem of understanding. We see a verse end, or a chapter end, and immediately we get the idea that the thought is ended, and that God is beginning a new thought. However, we must understand that God did not "breathe upon holy men of old" the chapter and verse divisions. God gave the Bible as a unit .... and so we are to study it thusly. The chapter division here is unfortunate. It is actually one continuous story. God has now come to the CREATION OF MAN .... it is the last and highest stage in the production of organic life. Vs. 1-3 of Chapter 2 continues chapter I .... and then beginning in verse 4, we have a recapitulation of God’s creative work with some other details which were not given in chapter 1. Chapter I states the facts .... food created .... God formed .... God brought into existence. Chapter 2 gives some of the details of that creative work, especially in regard to NT God’s crowning creation. There is no way to escape putting Gen. 1:26-28, Gen. 2.-7 and 2:18-25 in separate time slots. These are the Scriptures that give us the account of the creation of man and woman. These verses tell us NOT ONLY that God created, but HOW AND WHY GOD created. 1. That creation did not, create itself. 2. That matter is not God’s coequal (of the same or equal age), but His creature and His servant. 3, That God not only had no beginning, but that everything else began to be by His will. 4. That the whole universe is one harmonious system, the word of one God; the projection of His thoughts, the transcript of His plan. 5. That such a plan bore the stamp of a preconceived progress; and in orderly successions, stage after stage, toward a foreseen terminus or goal. 6. That each form or type of life was made "after its kind", and owes it characteristic endowments to creative ordination, not to fortuitous development. 7. That man has not developed into what he is from some bestial type, but holds his prerogative as a gift directly from God. 8. That we owe no worship to nature, and all worship to God. In the account of the creation of plants and animals we note the following particulars. (1) It is a creation out of pre-existing materials, and not, like that of the universe, out of nothing. (2) The origin of life, like the origin of matter, is traced directly to God Himself. (3) That special prevision is made that each several kind of plant and animal shall continue its kind by natural generation. (4) That plants and animals are brought into being, NOT SINGLY, NOR IN PAIRS, but in great numbers; and (5) That this creation is said to have been effected in a certain order.
"And God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness. and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth." The language is definite, "the man...... singular and masculine. This intimates that at first only ONE human being and that ONE the male was created. With regard to fish, fowl, and animals, He did not say that they were created male and female. With regard to man, short as is the notice .... God says: "in the image of God created he him......... That is, one male, and then "male and female created he them." Instead of saying, "Let there be man" as He had said in "Let there be light," or giving a command to the elements to bring forth so noble a creature, He speaks of the work as immediately his work and in the language of deliberation. This took no more power than the creation of the smallest insect, but the superior dignity and excellence of the creature He was about to form was manifest. Now there is a king set over the earth, a complex being made of dust and in the image of God. Man’s commission, as sent forth, was "subdue" and "have dominion" in which all nature was placed at his feet.... Being in the image of God, he was capable of moral distinctions and of spiritual progress.... He was thus above nature, while of nature. WITH HIM begins the age of moral freedom and responsibility. Let us take verse 27, 2:7; and 2:21-25. These form a unit as to the creation of man and woman. These verse tell HOW God brought them into being. "So God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him; male and female created he them. "And the Lord God formed man of the dust of the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul. "And the Lord God caused a deep sleep to fall upon Adam and he slept: and he took one of his ribs, and closed up the flesh instead thereof; "And the rib, which the Lord God had taken from man, made he a woman, and brought her unto the man. "And Adam said, This is now bone of my bones, and flesh of my flesh: and she shall be called Woman, because she was taken out of MAN. "Therefore shall a man leave his father and his mother, and shall cleave unto his wife: and they shall be one flesh. "And they were both naked, the man and his wife, and were not ashamed." When man is made, God creates no more. Man is made in the image of God, essentially a moral being. He is made in two sexes: ADAM and EVE..... NOT..... ADAM and STEVE. This important function is confined to the inhabitants of the earth. This function is not shared by angels.... See Matt. 22:30 See Mark 12:25 See Luke 20:36 The human race has a unity that angels do not have .... the union of sex and sex relations. God gave this "most intimate" relation to human beings. See Eph. 5:25-33 The rapture, the affection, the love, the mutual confidence and regard of normal sexual life of man and woman have their spiritual counterparts. Such relations will be absent from the world to come. See Matt. 22:30 In their place there will be a deeper and more rapturous reality. See Isa. 62:5 Nothing can be conceived which would surpass the workmanship and the elegance of this human body. Whether we look to the external or the internal .... what is more essential or ornamental ... we are impressed. How aptly is each member to the function and offices for which they were designed. How adapted is the eye for the transmission of light. The ear for the conveying of sound. The hand for manipulation. The tongue with all its appendages, for the utterance of speech. The bones for strength and support. The muscles for locomotion. The lungs for respiration. The heart for circulation. The brain for sensation and volition. Solomon describes what happens to this wonderful machine when it gets old. Eccl. 12. And when you consider the multiplicity of parts which enter into the composition of the body .... the connection between these several parts..... the variety of functions which the whole body performs .... and yet the close dependency of one part upon another, you are struck with the fact that the body is a miracle. The body is a mechanism that has no parallel. This is a workmanship which proclaims itself Divine.
The body is generated ... made out of the dust. The soul is created by God. At every moment of conception God creates a new soul. That is why abortion is murder. That is why this nation is guilty of killing a million babies a year. That is why we stand against abortion, and the legalization of it. That is why we stand FOR the sanctity of human life. His material part was formed, fashioned out of dust ... out of existing materials. After his lifeless body had been formed, God created life ... made him a living soul. Man has two elements: (l) One is Divine, made in the image of God. (2) The other is human .... dust of the earth.
The body, at death, will go back to the dust from whence it came. The soul, that which is eternal, that which was created by God, will never cease to be. The soul will spend eternity in heaven or hell. The soul is really YOU. You reside in a body.
There never was any indecision on the part of God about giving man a help mate. God created "them". God’s purpose was to establish the home .... a man and his wife, and that was to be a spiritual union, as well as a physical union. God provides for man a home. God fashions for man a wife to be his partner ... not his slave ... and his help mater. Again and again we find instructions for the home: See Eph. 5:22-25 See Prov. 18:22; Heb. 13:4; Matt. 5:32; Mark 10:9. See Rom. 7:2 "For the woman which hath a husband is bound by the law to her husband so long as he liveth; but if the husband be dead, she is loosed from the law of her husband." MARRIAGE is figurative of God’s union with His people. It is a picture of Christ and His bride. Sin entered the world, and that perfect relationship of husband and wife, as God had created was marred, just as the universe was marred. Just as the creation did not remain perfect, so the marriage contract did not remain perfect. Throughout the millenniums of time, God’s perfect plan has been....... "one man for one woman for a lifetime." However, sin has so marred the sanctity of the marriage relationship that it is not always possible to observe the first principle of the home. If the man and the woman are both Christians and both are committed to the Lord and both are being constantly led and directed of the Holy Spirit, then marriage can be a lifetime relationship, and that is the way God intended that it should be. DUTIES OF HUSBANDS: See Gen. 2:23, 24. See Prov. 5:18 "...and rejoice with the wife of thy youth." See Eccl. 9:9 "Live joyfully with the wife whom thou lovest all the days of thy life...." See I Pet. 3:7..."Likewise, ye husbands, dwell with them (wives) according to knowledge, giving honour unto the wife, as unto the weaker vessel......" See Est. 1:20........ "all the wives shall give to their husbands honour, both great and small." Prov. 31:27....... "she looketh well to the ways of her household..." Eph. 5:22..."Wives, submit yourselves unto your own husbands..." 1 Pet. 3:1...... "Likewise, ye wives, be in subjection to your own husbands; that, if any obey not the word, they also may without the word be won by the conversation of the wives." "And God blessed them, and God said unto them, Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish (fill) the earth, and subdue it: and have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over every living thing that moveth upon the earth." Note that the command for reproduction through sex relationship was given before the fall .... so the sex relationship (within the confines of a marriage relationship) could not be sinful, as some groups claim. God’s highest and holiest purpose for man was this very act which was to reproduce. And let me add .... the sex relationship was not and is not just for reproduction. It is God’s method of uniting two into one. It is the highest and holiest relationship that man and wife can experience. It is the one area where the devil has entered into homes and created many, many problems. It is the ultimate expression of love between a man and his wife. They were to REPLENISH .... fill again the earth .... indicating that prior to this time the earth had been filled... not with soulish beings, but with some type of being. Through multiplying, they were to subdue... have dominion over everything God had created and made. Though this was lost in Adam .... it was regained in Christ, and the time will come when man will have dominion over the earth. In Verses 29-31, God provided for man’s need. Originally, man was a vegetarian. Eternally, man will be a vegetarian, however, it will not be necessary for us to eat, but since there will be eternal fruit, it is there to eat. Christ ate in His glorified body, and we shall be like Him. It appears that birds, animals, etc., are all given the same type of food to eat .... herbs of the field. When God viewed His creation, IT WAS VERY GOOD. "Thus the heavens and the earth were finished, and all the host of them." "Thus" is a word of summary ... a word of completion ... a word of finality. This is a word that seems to disregard any thought of evolution. God’s creative work was done, finished. Everything was placed in its own sphere and orbit. God has not since that time, added to His creation. God finished it. God will always bring to a successful completion that which He originates. He knows all from the beginning and so can never be frustrated or disappointed. VERSES 2 and 3 God established the 7th day as the Sabbath. God "blessed" and "sanctified" the Sabbath day. He did not command man, in this time period, to keep the Sabbath.
At this point, God did not just sit down and do nothing, and has been idle from that day to this. God rested from His "creative work." See John 5:17..."My Father worketh hitherto, and I work." The Sabbath can only be celebrated when there is nothing to be done. It could only be celebrated amid an undefiled creation .... a creation in which there was no spot of sin. God can have no rest where there is sin. This showed the completeness of creation work .... but creation work was marred and the seventh day rest interrupted; and thus from the fall to the incarnation, God was working .... from the incarnation to the Cross, God the Son was working, and from the Cross, or Pentecost, until now, God the Holy Spirit is working. Later on Israel was commanded to worship on the Sabbath .... manifesting what Israel COULD DO for God. The first day declares what God HAS DONE for us. The first day sets forth ... not the completion of creation .... but the full and glorious triumph of redemption. The Jews gathered together to read the law and the prophets. The Christians gather together to break bread. "These are the generations" is an expression found 10 times in the book of Genesis and divides the book into 10 parts. The word DOES NOT mean a list of some person’s ancestors. IT IS A REGISTER OF MAN’S POSTERITY. In this case it signifies the history of what followed upon their creation. This tells us how the earth was watered ... a mist went up from the earth. Most commentators believe that the earth was so watered after the fall until the flood. Whatever that mist was .... a dew or a vapor ... it was enough to keep God’s creation beautiful. It was enough to completely satisfy the plant and animal life. It was sufficient ... nothing lacked. God did not put man in a waste howling wilderness. God did not put man in a chaotic state. God put man in an environment conducive to holiness, righteousness, and goodness. God put man in the midst of a paradise ... not a wilderness. VERSE 8,9 The garden was ready when man needed a home. It was a separate plot of ground. God planted trees of the choicest kind. It was fit for food ... it was beautiful to look upon. What an environment!!! "Eden" means "pleasant" or "pleasure ground".
We do not know WHERE it was located, but we KNOW IT WAS located. Perhaps the flood so altered the terrain of the earth as to make the identification of the four rivers impossible. Two trees in the Garden are especially mentioned: 11) The tree of life .... this was in the midst ... in the middle. This is suggestive of Christ who occupies the center. This is where Christ was always found. See John’s Gospel. 12) The tree of the knowledge of good and evil. We do not know its location, but possible not nearly as accessible. Of one thing we are certain ... it was NOT an apple tree. It was a restricted tree .... they were not to eat of it. God provided plenty of food without it. They would not have starved had they never eaten of it. Their appetites would have been completely satisfied if they had never tasted of its fruit. There was nothing in this tree that they needed for livelihood or for pleasure, or for enjoyment of God’s creation. "Four" is the number in the Bible that speaks of "universal." Four rivers: Suggestive of the grace of - God. Where there is gold is suggestive of divine righteousness. The grace of God is free and provides us with righteousness. Bdellium is mentioned only in connection with the manna, Num. 11:7 suggestive of food to sustain in the wilderness journey. Onyx stone is the stone on which was engraved the names of the children of Israel ... pictures Christ holding us up before the Father. Suggestive of God’s grace which frees us from the power of darkness. Suggestive of the grace of God which sweeps away every obstacle in its course and subdues the most violent opposition. Saul of Tarsus is a good illustration. Suggestive of the sweetness of the revelation of God’s love which is shed abroad in the heart by the Holy Ghost. This reminds us of John 7:37-39 These 4 rivers give us pictures of how people are saved and the various emotional experiences resulting therefrom. This takes us back to verse 8. God gave man the earth and the Garden as his permanent dwelling. God gave it to him to work in. God never intended for man to be an idle creature. It is against the nature of man not to work. Laziness and unemployment came with the fall. God’s work was to be a pleasure to man .... man was to enjoy it to its fullest, and there was no weariness in it. God puts man on PROBATION. Man is a free moral agent ... a creature of responsibility. He has freedom of choice. He can eat ... or refrain from eating .... but the choice is up to the man ... not up to God. If man broke his probation and ate of the tree: (1) He would begin to die physically. (2) He would die spiritually.
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