The Creation of Adam and Eve. Part two.

 

Creation in Six Days. Part six.

 

The Creation of Adam and Eve. Part two.

 

This verse tells us something tremendous. “So, God created man in his own image.” I want to submit to you that this is one of the great statements of the Word of God. I cannot consider of anything quite as wonderful as this. What does it mean? Well, man is like God, as a trinity, (body, soul, and spirit).

Immediately someone is going to say, “Oh, I know what you mean. You mean that man is physically and mentally and a spiritually being.” Yes, I believe that is true.

But, Paul, said in 1 Thessalonians 5:23, that very thing: “… And I pray God your whole spirit and soul and body be preserved blameless unto the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.” Although this is true, we will see when we get into the next chapter that it means more than that.

I think that it refers to the fact that man is a personality, and as a personality he is self-conscious, and he is one who makes his own decisions. He is a free moral agent. Apparently, that is the thing which is unique about mankind. I believe this is what is meant by God creating man in His own image.

“Male and female created he them.” These verses do not give to us the details of how man was created and how woman was created. We do not find that until we come to the second chapter. That is the reason that I say that God did not intend to give us all the details concerning the creation of this great universe that we are in or He would have given us another chapter relative to that.

But He offers no description other than He is the Creator. This puts us right back to the all-important truth which we find in the eleventh chapter of Hebrews: “Through faith we understand that the worlds were framed by the word of God, so that things which are seen were not made of things which do appear” Hebrews 11:3.

Things we see today were made from things which did not even exist before. The creation was made from nothing. Evolution has never answered the question of how nothing becomes something. It always starts with a little of something, a little piece of seaweed, or with an animal up in a tree.

Our minds must have something to start with, but the Bible starts with nothing. God created! This is the tremendous revelation of this chapter.

 

Verse 28.

“And God blessed them, and God said unto them, “Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish 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 moved upon the earth.”

 

We see here that God has given to this creature something unusual. First, He says to man, “Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth.” We will hear Him repeat that when He creates woman. God seems to be the One who introduced the two sexes to become one in union. God tells man to fill the earth by reproduction.

In fact, there are four methods that God has used to place mankind into this universe.

1. One was by direct creation, which produced Adam.

2. A second way was by indirect creation, which produced Eve (woman from man).

3. The third was by the virgin birth, and this was how Jesus Christ came into the human family.

4. The fourth way is by natural reproduction, and that is well known in our day.

God created this man in His image. God is the fundamentally personal Being, and in giving the man an immortal soul, He gave him also a true personality. Man has self-consciousness, he has the power of free choice, and he has a distinct moral responsibility. He is in the image of God.

Notice that He uses the word “replenish.” That is an interesting word and seems to indicate that this earth had been inhabited before by life. Whatever the life was, they had disappeared before man was created.

God also tells man to “subdue” the earth. “And have dominion” is God’s instruction to man. Adam was not just a gardener to cut the grass. Man was created to rule this earth.

 

Verse 29.

“And God said, Behold, I have given you every herb bearing seed, which is upon the face of all the earth, and every tree, in the which is the fruit of a tree yielding seed; to you it shall be for meat.”

 

From this statement I assume that man was a vegetarian at first, and not until after the flood did man become a meat eater.

 

Verses 30-31.

“And to every beast of the earth, and to every fowl of the air, and to everything that crept upon the earth, wherein there is life, I have given every green herb for meat: and it was so.

And God saw everything that he had made, and behold, it was particularly good. And the evening and the morning were the sixth day.”

 

Conclusion:

 

The Bible makes no attempt to prove that there is a God. Why not? Because God says in Psalm 14:1, “The fool hath said in his heart, there is no God.” The Bible is a Book written to reveal the spiritual, the redemptive truth, and that comes to us only by faith.

So, we have here the fact that God is the One who created. Note this fact, that “God” is mentioned here thirty-two times. In this first chapter of Genesis, we see the unity and power and personality of God. This is exactly what Paul wrote in Romans 1:20: “For the invisible things of Him from the creation of the world are clearly seen.”

We looked at the Creation of Adam and Eve, found in Genesis 2:1-25. But by the start of Genesis 3 we see the Fall of Adam and Eve. Genesis 3:1-24.  Because, where there is the power to choose, there must be choices. Thus, God placed a tree in the middle of the Garden of Eden from which Adam and Eve were forbidden to eat.

They could have anything else they wanted except the fruit from that tree (Genesis 2:15-17). Here we see the first example of human temptation and the exercise of a person will making in a moral choice. Satan, disguised as a snake, enters the story at this point. Through his clever and seductive questions and arguments, he creates a strong desire for the forbidden fruit. Before they know it, they have indulged. 

          As a result, they are filled with fear and guilt (Genesis 3:10). Their innocence, their paradise and their personal relationship with God is lost. They pay a tremendous price for not trusting, believing, and obeying God. This is looked upon as the time when sin came into and upon the human family.

The Creation of Adam and Eve. Part one.

 

Creation in Six Days. Part six.

 

The Creation of Adam and Eve. Part one.

 

Bible Reading: Genesis 1:26-31.

²⁶ Then God said, “Let Us make human beings in Our image, to be like Us. They will reign over the fish in the sea, the birds in the sky, the livestock, all the wild animals on the earth, and the small animals that scurry along the ground.”

²⁷ So God created human beings in His own image. In the image of God, He created them; male and female He created them.

²⁸ Then God blessed them and said, “Be fruitful and multiply. Fill the earth and govern it. Reign over the fish in the sea, the birds in the sky, and all the animals that scurry along the ground.”

²⁹ Then God said, “Look! I have given you every seed-bearing plant throughout the earth and all the fruit trees for your food. 

³⁰ And I have given every green plant as food for all the wild animals, the birds in the sky, and the small animals that scurry along the ground—everything that has life.” And that is what happened.

³¹ Then God looked over all He had made, and He saw that it was very good! And evening passed and morning came, marking the sixth day.”

 

Day Six Continue – The Creation of Man, Genesis 1:26–31.

 

          “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 crept upon the earth” Genesis 1:26.

 

The last stage in the progress of creation being now reached; God said, “Let us make man,” words which show the importance of the work to be done, the creation of a creature, who was to be God’s representative, clothed with authority and rule as visible head and monarch of the world.

The first question that arises is: How was man created? Note: the “hands on work of God in the creation of man,” God with His own hands formed man from the dust of the earth. The creation of the human species seems to be a real hands-on project for God.  For while He is seen standing back and speaking other created things into existence, when it comes to making man,

He gets His hands into the dirt, moulds his form and then breathes His breath into his nostrils, “Then the Lord God formed the man from the dust of the ground. He breathed the breath of life into the man’s nostrils, and the man became a living person” Genesis 2:7. The word human comes from humus (of the earth). 

          In Genesis 1:26-27, we read that God created man in His own image, “Then God said, “Let us make human beings in our image, to be like us. They will reign over the fish in the sea, the birds in the sky, the livestock, all the wild animals on the earth, and the small animals that scurry along the ground.” So, God created human beings in his own image. In the image of God, he created them; male and female he created them.”

This indicates man’s ability to reason, to make moral and ethical choices, to emote, to communicate and create. This is the image of God in man. The God of Scripture is portrayed with personality.

Man was made to relate with, share with, communicate with and be in relationship with God. The narrative goes on to tell of the Garden of Eden where Adam was placed and of the work he was given to do (Genesis 2:8-17). 

          God had concluded each of His creation days by surveying what He had made and declaring it Good. However, as He observed Adam, He saw something that was missing and He declared, “It is not good for man to be alone” Genesis 2:18.  

          Finding no suitable companion for him, God caused him to go into a deep sleep, took one of his ribs and formed Eve (Genesis 2:21-25).

Adam called her Woman, meaning 'Out of man.' This section of the creation narrative ends with Adam and Eve joined in the union of husband and wife. In this we see the establishment of the oldest and most enduring agency of human society, marriage and the family.  

The next chapter will tell us that. “And let them have dominion.” God gave him dominion over the earth, Adam had tremendous authority given to him. We will find out a little later that God says to him that he is to do certain things relative to this creation that God has given to him.

 

Verse 27.

“So, God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him; male and female created he them.”

 

We have here just the simple fact of the creation of man. This is the third time we find the word bara, which means to create out of nothing. So, we see that man is created; he is something new. Bara is the same word that occurred in the first verse of Genesis: “In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth.”

He created the physical universe. Then He created life: “And God created great whales, and every living creature that moved …” (Genesis 1:21).

Now we see that God created man: “So God created man in His own image.” God will give us the details of His creation of man in the next chapter and we can see from this that God has left out a great deal about the creation of the universe.

“In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth” is all the information He has given to us. God could have filled in the details, but He did not.  He will go into more detail about only one act of His creation, and that is His creation of man.

Do you know why? It is because this record was written for man; God wants him to know about his origin. It is as if God were saying, “I would like very much for you to pay attention to your own creation and not be guessing about the creation of the universe.”

 

          End of part one, part two will follow.

Adam and Eve 1. Part one.

 

Adam and Eve 1. Part one.

 

Bible Reading: Genesis 1:26-30, 2:21-24.  

“Let us make man in Our image” Genesis 1:26.

 

1. Adam the first man.

 

          The name Adam was registered with “mankind,” a sense in which it occurs in the Old Testament some 500 times. The first man (Genesis 3:17) was placed in the Garden of Eden (Genesis 2:8). He was put there to work and watch over it. The first trade is a gardener; “to work it” is commonly used for labour. So, Adam was not to be idle.

          At the fall, he disobeyed God (Genesis 2:17; 3:6) and was sent away from the Garden (Genesis 3:23). Adam was punished by hard labour, toil and sweat. The fig leaves and God’s coats of skin speaks of the warnings of colder weather and uncontrolled bushes and thistles.

          Adam was 130 years old when Seth was born and he lived 800 years after this event, making him 930 years old at his death (Genesis 5:3-4). It is presumed that Adam had other children then the three mentioned in Genesis. Some give a date of 4004 B.C. for Adam. But no one knows for sure, only the Lord God.

          Adam was formed out of the clay of the newly created earth and quickened by the breath of God into a living being. Adam was a man with existence, a being with existence. In him dust and deity met to form the noblest of God’s creatures.

God’s last and best work of creation, “and it was very good.” Adam was perfect, newly minted by the hand of God with God’s divine image stamped upon him. Man became body, soul, and spirit. This image was threefold; it included.

 

1. Rationality.

          The practice of explaining the supernatural in religion in a way that is constant with reason, Job 32:8 “There is a spirit in man, and the breath of the Almighty gives him understanding.”

 

2. Righteousness.

          A moral goodness: correctness of behaviour, Ecclesiastes 7:29 “This only I have found; that God made man upright.”

 

3. Responsibility.

          Something which one is responsible, Genesis 2:16-17 “And the Lord God commanded the man, saying, “Of the tree of the garden you may freely eat; but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die.”

          This gives man the ability to think, to have power over moral behaviour, and freedom to choose good or evil. Adam was the apex of God’s creation; before him things were “good” Genesis

1:4, 10, 12,18,21,25.

          But after him things were “very good” Genesis 1:31. For Adam was physically, mentally, and spiritually a “son of God,” Luke 3:38 “Adam, the son of God.”

          In short Adam was a free spirit in judgement and grace; he towered above the world of nature; he was its lord, its king and it governor, he was complete in his manhood and rule, Psalm 8:38 “What is man? For You have made him a little lower than the angels, and crowned him with glory and honour, you have made him t have dominion over the works of Your hands; You have put all things under his feet.”

          Adam complete in form and function, yet capable of endless development, the mould of humanity, placed in a perfect environment. Adam in this perfect environment was given a pleasant occupation and a challenging task; granted a companion as himself, the beautiful Eve. Enjoying a radiant fellowship with his Maker. What more could a man want? What possibilities! What possibility for the future!

          He did not have a past, but he had a wonderful present and a promising future. Around him lay beauty and order, above him shone the brightness and expanse, before him were the times of greatness and achievement.

BUT he lacked one thing, that was experience, and there lies the snag.

          Perfect in qualities, but he was imperfect in realities, he had no tradition to guide him. No earthly monitor to instruct him. He was in these things a loner, a pioneer of life. Look out Adam! Danger lies ahead!

Creation in Six Days. Part five.

 

Creation in Six Days. Part five.

 

5. Day Five - Animal Life (Biology), Genesis 1:20–23.

“And God said, “Let the waters bring forth abundantly the moving creature that hath life, and fowl that may fly above the earth in the open firmament of heaven.”

 

“Fowl” means every flying thing. We do have a certain amount of development within our own kind. This does not mean that everything came from one small cell. But that God made one of each creature (both male and female) and there has been development from each one. God said, “Let the waters bring forth abundantly,” and the next verse adds “after their kind.”

The word “kind” does not mean species, as even Darwin said, but it means more than that. The word used is “phylum.” If you will look up that word in the dictionary, you will see that it means a direct line of decent within a group. For example, it would include not just one cat but every cat in the cat family.

God created one like that, and there has been development from each one, tremendous development. Also, there has been devolution—that is, there has been development, then later there has been degeneration.

 

Verse 21.

“And God created great whales, and every living creature that moved, which the waters brought forth abundantly, after their kind, and every winged fowl after his kind: and God saw that it was good.”

 

Here the word “create” is used again, the first time after verse one when God created the heaven and the earth, this shows God’s interest in all things that live upon the face of the earth.

The word rendered “whales,” includes all that swims, that from the countless shoals of small fish to the great whales. Creation from the tiny insect to the king of birds, the waters and the air were suddenly filled with life.

“And God saw that it was good.” Notice that. What God does it, it iice that. When God does it, it’

s always good.

 

Verse 22.

“And God blessed them, saying, “Be fruitful, and multiply, and fill the waters in the seas, and let fowl multiply in the earth.”

 

If you read it carefully, you will notice that these animals had to “bring forth.” This will be true of mankind also.

 

Verse 23.

“And the evening and the morning were the fifth day.”

 

6. Day Six - Fertility of Creation, Genesis 1:24–25.

“And God said, “Let the earth bring forth the living creature after his kind, cattle, and creeping thing, and beast of the earth after his kind: and it was so.”

“And God made the beast of the earth after his kind, and cattle after their kind, and everything that crept upon the earth after his kind: and God saw that it was good.”

 

Again, we see a twofold work: one of the creations of all animals and the creation of man.

Notice again the expression “after his kind”—after his biological kind.

Five times you read “after their kind,” this shows that they were not evolved from one common source. They are all created different from each other and of different species.

Adam saw the same apples on the trees, as we do.

Adam saw the same birds nesting in the trees, as we do.

Adam saw the same fish swimming in the rivers, as we do.

Adam saw the same cows in the field, as we do.

Now we will see that God separates plant life and animal life from mankind, and He says, “Let us make man in our image.” This creature is of great interest to you because Adam (and Eve) happens to be your great-great, etc., grandfather, and he is mine, also.

For the whole human family is related.

 

Conclusion:

 

Here are some of the things we should note here.

1.    One of these things is the fact that “God” is mentioned here thirty-two times in thirty – one verses.

2.    The Bible makes no attempt to prove that there is a God. Why not? Because He says, “The fool hath said in his heart, there is no God” Psalm 14:1.

 

Here ends this study.

Creation in Six Days. Part four.

 

Creation in Six Days. Part four.

 

3. Day Three - Dry Land Appears and Plant Life, Genesis 1:9–13.

“And God said, let the waters under the heaven be gathered together unto one place, and let the dry land appear: and it was so.

And God called the dry land Earth; and the gathering together of the waters called the Seas: and God saw that it was good.”

 

The work of the third day is twofold, one the land from the sea, and the other appearance of vegetable life.

Now there is a horizontal division made of the waters. First the waters above were separated from the waters beneath. Now the water is separated from the land, from the earth. They tell us that every spot-on topside of this earth on which we live today was covered with water at one time.

That was evidently a judgment that had come upon the earth way back sometime in the distant eternity of the past, and we know practically nothing about it. Anything we say is speculation. God has really told us very little here. But He has told us enough so that we can believe Him.

“God called the dry land Earth.” What is God getting ready to do?

Well, it looks like He is getting ready to make a place where He can place a man, a place for mankind to dwell. Man is not a water creature, even though there are evolutionists who think we came from the sea and from seaweed cells. How bizarre can they possibly be?

 

Verse 11.

“And God said, “Let the earth bring forth grass, the herb yielding seed, and the fruit tree yielding fruit after his kind, whose seed is in itself, upon the earth: and it was so.”

 

Now God is putting plant life here because man, until the flood, was a vegetarian. Man will eat nothing but fruit of the earth. The forming of the plant life completed the third day.

 

Verses 12-13.

“And the earth brought forth grass, and herb yielding seed after his kind, and the tree yielding fruit, whose seed was in itself, after his kind: and God saw that it was good.

And the evening and the morning were the third day.”

 

4. Day Four - Sun, Moon, Stars Appear, Genesis 1:14–19.

“And God said, “Let there be lights in the firmament of the heaven to divide the day from the night; and let them be for signs, and for seasons, and for days, and years.”

 

God did not create the sun and the moon at this time. They were already up there. The atmosphere being completely purified, the sun, moon, and stars were for the first time unveiled in all their glory in the cloudless sky,

 

Verse 15-16.

“And let them be for lights in the firmament of the heaven to give light upon the earth: and it was so.”

And God made two great lights; the greater light to rule the day, and the lesser light to rule the night: He made the stars also.”

 

One of these lights was to take charge of the day, and the sun does that pretty well. Also, the moon does a good job by night.

Then there is just a small section, “He made the stars also.” That was a pretty big job, by the way, but not for God.

 

Verses 17-18.

“And God set them in the firmament of the heaven to give light upon the earth, and to rule over the day and over the night, and to divide the light from the darkness: and God saw that it was good.”

 

You will notice that it is God who does the dividing here, “to divide the light from the darkness.” You know, He still does that!

There are those today who ask, “What is the difference between right and wrong?” God has drawn all the lines. How can we know what is right? God says what is right. God has put down certain principles.

God divides the light from the darkness and there is just that much distinction between right and wrong. He is the One who makes the difference, and He still does.

 

Verse 19.

“And the evening and the morning were the fourth day.”

 

End of part four, part five to follow

Creation in Six Days. Part three.

 

Creation in Six Days. Part three.

 

1. Day One - Light; Genesis 1:3–5.

“And God said, Let there be light: and there was light.

And God saw the light, that it was good: and God divided the light from the darkness.

And God called the light Day, and the darkness He called Night. And the evening and the morning were the first day.”

 

That must have been a twenty-four-hour day. I do not see how you could get anything else out of it, for it says a day and a night.

Notice that God said, “Let there be” ten times in this chapter we will find “let there be,” for example: let there be a firmament, let there be lights, let the waters be gathered together, etc. Someone has called these the “ten commandments of creation.”

This is the divine spoken creation that we find here. “God said, let there be light.” This is the first time we are told that God spoke. These are His first words recorded in Scripture. “God said” This phrase, which occurs so repeatedly in the account means: willed, decreed, appointed; and the determining will of God was followed in every instance by an immediate result.

Note the word for “create” is not used here as in verse one, when God created the heavens and the earth. God just spoke the word of authority, “let there be light,” and light came into existence. In one-way God turned on the light so that He could see what He is doing. This is not sunlight, for the clouds did not break away until the “fourth day,” which appears on day four.

Note that God bought the light out of the darkness that covered the earth, so that the earth moved out of the darkness of its existence into the Light and purpose of God. It seems that each day beginnings in darkness (night) and ends in light (morning). Just like the Jewish day, this starts from sunset, and not sunrise.

 The change from “darkness” to “light” caused God to call the darkness “night” and the light “day.” The earth passed out of the “night” of its history into the brightness of its “resurrection day.” And as each day’s work was an advance on the previous day’s work, each day begins with an evening and ends with a morning. 

 

2. Day Two - Air Spaces (Firmament), Genesis 1:6–8.

“And God said, let there be a firmament in the midst of the waters, and let it divide the waters from the waters.”

“And God made the firmament and divided the waters which were under the firmament from the waters which were above the firmament: and it was so.”

 

“God said, let there be a firmament”—the Hebrew word for firmament (raqia), meaning air spaces. “Let it divide the waters from the waters.” What does that mean? Well, God first divided the waters vertically. He divided the waters above us from the waters which are beneath us.

            By the use of the word “heaven,” we are to understand it means our atmosphere, implies that this “enduring earth” had no atmosphere, or that it was not adapted to the formation of clouds, that in the form of vapor, would not support water, and thus divide or separate the waters of the atmosphere, from the waters of the earth.

So, the work of the second day was a “readjustment of the atmosphere.” To the needs of the present earth, and its evening and morning made up the second day.

  

 

Verse 8.

“And God called the firmament Heaven. And the evening and the morning were the second day.”

 

“God called the firmament Heaven.” This is not the heaven (where God dwells). There are three heavens that are mentioned in Scripture.

1.    The Lord Jesus spoke of the birds of heaven, and I think that is the heaven mentioned in this verse.

2.    Then there are the stars of heaven, meaning the second heaven.

3.    Then there is the third heaven where God dwells.

 

Often, we read at the end of each day “God said it was good.” But it is not found in this verse. I wonder why? Satan is latter to be called the “Prince of the Air.”

          God not saying it was “that it was good,” could be quite important.

For we read in Ephesians 2:2 “In which you once walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit who now works in the sons of disobedience.”

The Devil is called “the prince of the power of the air.” It may be that as soon as the atmosphere had become liveable again, that the “powers of evil” would be active again. “For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this age, against spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places” Ephesians 6:12.”

 With the Devil as its leader, this power of darkness, moved into the earth’s atmosphere, with the intention of making it their habitation, and so God could not say of the atmosphere “that it was good.”

 

          End of part three, part four to follow.