Genesis 2:8-9

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8 The Lord God planted a garden eastward in Eden, and there He put the man whom He had formed. 9 And out of the ground the Lord God made every tree grow that is pleasant to the sight and good for food. The tree of life was also in the midst of the garden, and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. ~ Genesis 2:8-9

Today, we return to our study of Genesis where we have learned of God's creation of the heavens, the oceans, the land, the animals, and man. And, after God created everything, He rested. His was a rest of completion, not a rest of exhaustion because God never gets weary. The Sabbath was given by God to Israel, according to Exodus 31 to remind them that they were His special people. It also is a symbol of the eternal rest that the believer in Christ has with Him for eternity.

In v.8 of today's passage we read, "The Lord God planted a garden eastward in Eden, and there He put the man whom He had formed."

After creating man, God planted a garden eastward in Eden. Eden means "delight" or "pleasure." Eden was, if man obeyed God, to be a place not for work, but for a different purpose. This garden was something special and something intended for the man God had formed in His image. The Garden of Eden was the perfect environment, yet, man still rebelled against God because he had a choice. Later, on toward the end of time, we read in the book of the Revelation, for a thousand years Satan will be bound. So, during the Millennium the devil will not be present. And, after the thousand years is up, Satan will be released from the Abyss and a huge rebellion will take place. This will happen after the Millennium, after a thousand years of a perfect environment on earth. The Millennium will be another Eden for a thousand years; it will be a perfect paradise. But mankind will sin yet again rebel against God because man is depraved by his sin. The problem is the evil within the heart of man. It is not the environment that makes us do what we do, it is the wickedness that man invited into his heart so long ago that makes us so rebellious.

Human history involves three gardens: the Garden of Eden, the Garden of Gethsemane and the Garden in heaven where God will take all of His children to live in eternal bliss. Interestingly, in the Garden of Eden man sinned, and in the Garden of Gethsemane the Lord Jesus paid the penalty that was created by that sin on His cross. Believing on the Lord Jesus will yield eternal bliss for the believer in the heavenly Garden.

The indication here was that these two trees were in the middle of the garden. The trees were there as a test. It wasn’t that there was anything in the forbidden tree, the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil that was toxic; that tree in particular was just a test. When Adam ate of that tree it was an act of disobedience which separated him from God.

Interestingly, the ground in the Garden of Eden needed to be tilled. The ground was outside of the Garden of Eden, not in it. And, God knew well before the fall that man would fall. And so the garden, despite being made as a place where God would fellowship with man, didn’t fill the entire earth. Instead, the Garden was a localized place of grace and of abundance. It was, as God knew from the beginning, a temporary place for Adam to dwell. This isn’t readily apparent though. In this verse, it was there in the Garden of Eden that God "put" Adam.

For Adam, appreciating the Garden meant he would need to leave the Garden. This is how we learn to appreciate anything, by contrast. If there is no contrast, then we have no ability to appreciate our current state. God knew that man would start in the Garden and then be removed from that Garden because of our interaction with, believe it or not, a tree. But God’s plan is that we are to be restored to the Garden because of our interaction with another tree. The plan is so intricately woven and presented in the Bible that it’s almost beyond imagination. Everything fits so beautifully.

In v.9 of today's passage we read, "And out of the ground the Lord God made every tree grow that is pleasant to the sight and good for food. The tree of life was also in the midst of the garden, and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil."

There were many trees in the Garden of Eden and God accentuated two trees there; the tree of life and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. And of these two trees, the fruit of only one is forbidden. More than a little was tied up in those two trees. Choices were tied up in them, conditions were tied up in them, blessings and curses were tied up in them, life and death were tied up in them, the law and grace were tied up in them.

Although Adam was told to not eat of this tree, the choice was still his to make. God placed the tree in the Garden when he could have simply not have placed it there at all. By placing it there, it was possible for Adam to eat it even though he was told not to. The choice had to be there in order for love to be a reality. Obedience is always a test of our priorities and our allegiances.

Sadly, as the story unfolded Adam chose foolishly and he knew evil experientially. Before he ate of the forbidden tree, Adam was like a little innocent child because he knew nothing about evil. But the day he ate, he lost the innocence, and he was shackled by the enemy himself.

Before he sinned, Adam knew God as the generous God who loaded this little planet with so much wealth, wonder and beauty, and He gave man, made it His image, the creativity to do and make some incredible things. It was all there for Adam to enjoy. God had furnished him a garden, and in it was everything he ever needed. But man ignored God and he chose not to be dependent on God. Man wasn’t content with the life that God had given him. So he rebelled and God had no choice but to banish man from the Garden and all of man's progeny was hurled into chaos and a world of death. Sadly, it didn't have to be this way.

Genesis 2:4-7

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4 This is the history of the heavens and the earth when they were created, in the day that the Lord God made the earth and the heavens, 5 before any plant of the field was in the earth and before any herb of the field had grown. For the Lord God had not caused it to rain on the earth, and there was no man to till the ground; 6 but a mist went up from the earth and watered the whole face of the ground. 7 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 being. ~ Genesis 2:4-7

Today, we continue our study of Genesis 2 which highlights the fact that God is complete in and of Himself. He lacks nothing and therefore anything that He has created is a demonstration of His own goodness and reflects His infinite worth.

In v.4-6 of today's passage we read, "4 This is the history of the heavens and the earth when they were created, in the day that the Lord God made the earth and the heavens, 5 before any plant of the field was in the earth and before any herb of the field had grown. For the Lord God had not caused it to rain on the earth, and there was no man to till the ground; 6 but a mist went up from the earth and watered the whole face of the ground."

The words "This is the history of the heavens and the earth" is a phrase used eleven times in the book of Genesis. It is always followed by an account of what had happened before. Today's passage is the beginning of what is described regarding what happened to the world that God created. So, Genesis 2 is not a second creation account, but rather is an expansion of what we have already been told in Genesis 1. In Genesis 2, Moses tells us how man was created. This is important because it provides the background which helps us to see the magnitude of man's rebellion against God. In order to understand the fall in Genesis 3, we need to understand what we fell from. Sin will only make sense within a worldview of a good, omnipotent God who created us in His image to know Him personally.

Here, we have for the first time another name of God that appears in so much of the rest of the Bible. The name translated "Lord" is the Hebrew name YHWH. In Genesis 1 we were introduced to Elohim which is God's name for His transcendence and power over creation. In relationship to being the Creator, He is Elohim, the Mighty God. 

Sometimes the word Elohim is shortened to El and used as part of a longer name. El Shaddai, for example, means "God Almighty." El Elyon means "God Most High." When the Lord Jesus cried out from the cross, “Eloi, Eloi, lama sabachthani," He addressed the Father with a form of Elohim, Eloi which means "My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?"

In addition to Elohim, God introduced His other name YHWH. In His relationship to history, especially history of His people, the Covenant people, He uses the Covenant name Yahweh. When Moses was commissioned by God to go to the children of Israel, Moses asked God, "Who I am I going to say sent me?" God responded by saying: "Tell them that I AM has sent you to them for this is My name forever and a memorial to all generations."

The name Yahweh underscores the fact that God is the self-existent One. He doesn't depend on anybody else for life. He is the only non-contingent being in the universe. Everything else is dependent or contingent upon Him. Yahweh the uncaused cause speaks to His eternal nature, not I WAS THAT I WAS but I AM THAT I AM. The name YHWH underscores the fact that He is always faithful, He's always available. All of the characteristics that embody Him are part of His eternal nature. 

In v.6 we see that before the Fall of man, the springs of the earth watered the earth. This means the whole world of plants and trees did not receive water from above; they received water from below. This means the ability of the Earth to produce flourishing plants and flourishing trees was not originally dependent upon rain, which sometimes comes and sometimes does not. Man would have continued to enjoy these conditions had he resisted the temptation to sin. But when he transgressed even the soil of the earth obtain its moisture from above.

In v.7 of today's passage we read, "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 being."

Mankind bears God's image mentally, morally, and socially, but in this verse we learn that Adam consisted of both heaven and earth. Man was formed out of the dust and then the divine Creator breathed life into him. This doesn’t imply that he or we are in any way divine, but that the life of man came from God, not by random chance. The spark of life which quickened the clay jar was none other than the breath of the Creator. The man had become a living being. We are the final act of creation. We are the highest form of what has been made. And, we are fearfully and wonderfully sculpted.

God created the heavens and the earth out of nothing on the first day of creation. Five days later, on the sixth day, He created His final and most stupendous work of art , a masterpiece made out of the simplest and most common part of God's creation, dust. God took this "next to nothing" material, formed it and breathed His life into it. God didn’t use gold dust, He didn’t use silver dust, He didn’t even use zinc. And, to this day we are of the dust of the earth. We came from the dust and to the dust we shall return.

This verse tells us that God "formed us." The Hebrew word used here implies a careful and attentive shaping of man. This same word is used in the books of the prophets when describing a potter shaping a bowl from the clay. And so, the man became a living being. God shaped man into the form He determined and we are as He decided.

This God, Elohim YHWH, the One who created the heavens and the earth has also formed us out of the dust of the ground and He also has breathed into us His very breath. It is this same God who also forms new hearts and new eyes for everyone with a willing heart, a heart that is willing enough to take a chance on Him. He didn’t repair our old heart; No, He gave us a new heart; A new heart that is in spec with His and has the ability to see what is really real and is really fake. 

Genesis 2:1-3

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1 Thus the heavens and the earth, and all the host of them, were finished. 2 And on the seventh day God ended His work which He had done, and He rested on the seventh day from all His work which He had done. 3 Then God blessed the seventh day and sanctified it, because in it He rested from all His work which God had created and made. ~ Genesis 2:1-3

Genesis 1 showed us the wide-angle lens view of God's creation, while Genesis 2 shows us the zoom lens view of God's creation. Genesis 1 showed us the scope of all of the days of creation, and all of the things God made from the luminaries in the sky, to the heavens, to the earth, and to every living being made by God. In Genesis 2 the lens zooms in on God's crowning creation: mankind.

In v.1-2 of today's passage we read, "1 Thus the heavens and the earth, and all the host of them, were finished. 2 And on the seventh day God ended His work which He had done, and He rested on the seventh day from all His work which He had done."

Once His work was finished, the LORD rested. In doing so, He set a pattern for man to observe a day of rest, as well. The principle of resting on one day after we have worked all week is wise, otherwise we will burn out physically. But, the seventh day Sabbath wasn’t only based on creation, it was also based on redemption. Throughout Israel's history the focus of the Sabbath was to be upon the One who would redeem Israel from their sin.

In Exodus 20:8-11 we read, "Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy.  Six days you shall labor and do all your work, but the seventh day is the Sabbath of the LORD your God.  In it you shall do no work: you, nor your son, nor your daughter, nor your male servant, nor your female servant, nor your cattle, nor your stranger who is within your gates.  For in six days the LORD made the heavens and the earth, the sea, and all that is in them, and rested the seventh day.  Therefore the LORD blessed the Sabbath day and hallowed it."

This command is repeated in Deuteronomy 5 where the purpose of the Sabbath is actually different than in Exodus. The reason God gave this command in Exodus was based on the creation account. He said "For in six days the LORD made the heavens and the earth, the sea, and all that is in them, and rested the seventh day." The second reason God gave the command in Deuteronomy was based on the consummation of redemption and the promise of entering into His rest. Moses said, "And remember that you were a slave in the land of Egypt, and the LORD your God brought you out from there by a mighty hand and by an outstretched arm."

Everything in the Old Testament is a picture of something greater to come to be revealed in the New Testament. In this case that something greater is the Lord Jesus Christ. He is the true Redeemer and He has provided the complete rest which could only come about with His fulfilling the Law given to the Israelites. The Law was given to Israel alone. Until the coming of Christ, the Sabbath was a sign, like circumcision, of the covenant law received at Mount Sinai and agreed upon by the people of Israel. Nine of the Ten Commandments found in the Old Testament are repeated in the New Testament. The only commandment not repeated in the New Testament of the ten is the fourth: to remember the Sabbath.

In Exodus 31:13 we read, "Speak also to the children of Israel, saying: ‘Surely My Sabbaths you shall keep, for it is a sign between Me and you throughout your generations, that you may know that I am the LORD who sanctifies you."

Israel worked six days and rested on the seventh. This can be equated with the anticipation of rest which yet laid ahead for them. Christians following the pattern set in the New Testament, worship on the first day of the week and then work after that. Israel worked in order to rest, New Testament believers rest in order to work. The Sabbath was a sign between God and the Israelites as a part of the covenant law. According to Hebrews 7:18 and Hebrews 10:9, the law of Moses has been "set aside" by the work of Christ and the establishment of the New Covenant. What sinful man could not do in living out the law, the Lord Jesus did on our behalf. 

When the Lord Jesus said on the cross, "It is finished," that meant He paid the penalty you and I owed for our sin and He fulfilled the law that you and I could never uphold. After the Lord Jesus paid the penalty of our sin, He sat down at the right hand of God. In the tabernacle there were all kinds of furniture, there was an altar to burn sacrifices, there was a laver for washing, there was a table with bread that needed to be changed out at regular intervals, there was a lamp which needed to be filled with oil, and there was an incense altar that needed fresh incense. There were all kinds of things that needed to be done morning and evening, day in and day out, all year long. Underscored was the fact that the priest’s work was never finished. This explains why there was no chair in the tabernacle.

In Hebrews 12:2 we read, "Looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith, who for the joy that was set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God."

The Sabbath was a part of the Old Covenant, not the New. It was based on God’s work of creation and Christ's work of redemption. The Lord Jesus is our Redeemer; in and through Him we have been made a new creation. Both actions were directed to the cross. It is by faith and faith alone in what the God of the Bible has promised that brings believers into a state of rest, not the law. This is why the writer of Hebrews wrote, "For we who have believed have entered into His rest."

In v.3 of today's passage we read, "Then God blessed the seventh day and sanctified it, because in it He rested from all His work which God had created and made."

The fourth of the Ten Commandments is the only command that starts with the word "remember." The word Sabbath comes from a Hebrew word meaning "day of rest." On the Sabbath day no one was to do any work. God sanctified or set the seventh day apart because of all it represents. Essentially it points us to placing our faith in the Lord Jesus and being justified solely through our faith in His finished work on the cross. Christ’s first coming did not abolish the principle of rest; rather, it ushered in a deeper kind of rest than the Sabbath could ever offer. 

The day between the struggle of the cross and the solution through the resurrection, on that final Saturday on earth for the Lord Jesus, God was silent. It was a subtle reminder that we learn the value of sitting still, of being silent before Him and of trusting Him with our very lives. The Lord Jesus knew God would not leave him alone in the grave. We must know, God will not leave us alone with our struggles. His silence is not His absence.

Genesis 1:29-31

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29 And God said, "See, I have given you every herb that yields seed which is on the face of all the earth, and every tree whose fruit yields seed; to you it shall be for food. 30 Also, to every beast of the earth, to every bird of the air, and to everything that creeps on the earth, in which there is life, I have given every green herb for food"; and it was so. 31 Then God saw everything that He had made, and indeed it was very good. So the evening and the morning were the sixth day. ~ Genesis 1:29-31 

Today, we close out our study of Genesis 1 which is of the world that God created as we know it. God created from the least complex to the most complex which should inspire us to do the same with our own works, ever improving on what we do. God created this world by the power of His Word, the very same power whereby He re-creates the sin trapped souls of those who come to an end of themselves and who cry out to Him for salvation.

In v.29-30 of today's passage we read, "And God said, 'See, I have given you every herb that yields seed which is on the face of all the earth, and every tree whose fruit yields seed; to you it shall be for food. 30 Also, to every beast of the earth, to every bird of the air, and to everything that creeps on the earth, in which there is life, I have given every green herb for food'; and it was so."

On the sixth day, God created all of the beasts of the earth and He created man, thus completing His creative effort. God did His work in 6 days to show us a good and proper cycle of living; taking one day a week off for rest and relaxation. And also, these six days are representative of a greater picture in redemptive History. God concluded His works on the sixth day and, as we will see, He rested on the seventh. 

Today's verses remind us of what was available for man to eat after God created him. The intended food for man included the grains of the fields, and the fruit of trees. So Adam and Eve first were vegetarian, they could eat every plant yielding seed on the surface of the earth, every tree yielding fruit with seed in it was food for them. Man and animals were all vegetarians at creation because there was no death on the earth; nothing died. God established this as the original fixed pattern. It was permanent at that time. The words, "it was so" indicates its permanence. Its permanence ended with the Fall of man. Interestingly, according to Isaiah 65:25 when the curse is removed, during the Millennium, all carnivores will eat plants again. 

In v.31 of today's passage we read, "Then God saw everything that He had made, and indeed it was very good. So the evening and the morning were the sixth day."

After earlier making His pronouncement about the food available for life on earth, God expanded on His previous descriptive statement of the first five days as, "It was good."  Here, He expanded it by saying, "It was very good."

The narrative here smacks in the face of the evolutional adige of, "The survival of the fittest." Before sin entered into this world it was that everything that God created including the food for the animals and man was "very good." This provides for us a peek into life with God at the helm. In Matthew 4:4, the Lord Jesus said, "Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds out of the mouth of God." When God provided bread as the basic food of man, bread made from the grains of earth, the seed-bearing plants and the fruits, He intended that such physical bread would be a picture of the bread desperately needed at the psychological and spiritual level of man as well. In fact, the whole of scripture teaches that the Lord Jesus is the end of all of our desires.

The "bread" is none other than the Lord Jesus Christ who said, "I am that bread of life, he that eats of me shall never hunger." Then in Matthew 6 the Lord Jesus said, "Therefore I tell you, do not be anxious about your life, what you shall eat or what you shall drink, nor about your body, what you shall put on. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothing? Look at the birds of the air: they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they?"

In the same way that God provides for the birds and the animals and the flowers, He provides for the one who seeks Him for his daily needs. This is why the Lord Jesus went on to say, "Seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness. and all these things shall be added unto you." That's a great deal, especially when we consider that that which we trust the most will define us the most. As long as we keep our focus on trusting God for our daily needs, we will discover that we will never come in second as we seek Him first.

Genesis 1:24-28

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24 Then God said, "Let the earth bring forth the living creature according to its kind: cattle and creeping thing and beast of the earth, each according to its kind"; and it was so. 25 And God made the beast of the earth according to its kind, cattle according to its kind, and everything that creeps on the earth according to its kind. And God saw that it was good. 26 Then God said, "Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness; let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the air, and over the cattle, over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth." 27 So God created man in His own image; in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them. 28 Then God blessed them, and God said to them, "Be fruitful and multiply; fill the earth and subdue it; have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the air, and over every living thing that moves on the earth." ~ Genesis 1:24-28

Today, we continue our study of Genesis where God has created the infrastructure for all created living things to enjoy. Today, we consider day 6 of the six days of creation and it is Friday. Everything to this point had been created by God in anticipation of His final creation, the creation of man.

In v.24-25 of today's passage we read, "24 Then God said, 'Let the earth bring forth the living creature according to its kind: cattle and creeping thing and beast of the earth, each according to its kind'; and it was so. 25 And God made the beast of the earth according to its kind, cattle according to its kind, and everything that creeps on the earth according to its kind. And God saw that it was good."

Every animal that has ever roamed the face of this earth has a specific purpose and was designed in a specific way in anticipation of the coming man. God knew and knows every thing about every created being ever created, every thought they think, and every move they will make. In Psalm 139 we read, "Such knowledge is too wonderful for me; It is high, I cannot attain it." After God created all of the animal kingdom, He said that it was good. Seven times in this chapter God said, after He made something, "It's good." 

In v.26-27 of today's passage we read, "26 Then God said, 'Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness; let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the air, and over the cattle, over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.' 27 So God created man in His own image; in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them."

The creation of man was strikingly different from the creation of the animals. Animal life appeared much as plant life did, and as the fish and the birds appeared. The creation of the earth and the animal world is all described in very much the same language and their creation followed the same pattern. But, when God created man, a different note was struck. For example man was created by God only after God had held a divine consultation about man. God said, "Let Us make man in Our image."

God’s final part of the created order was man. Man is the most complex and sophisticated organism in the universe and even more, man bears God’s image. Mankind is like God in the sense that we have the ability to communicate attributes like God. In addition, we can reason, we are rational creatures. We have the ability to apply intellect and reason and research and come to conclusions. Logical thoughts attached to other thoughts. Animals can't do that. 

We are trichotomous beings. This means we are composed of three parts: body, soul, and spirit. In 1 Thessalonians 5, Paul prays that God would sanctify us completely, body, soul, and spirit until the coming of Jesus Christ. Not just body and soul; not just flesh and conscious life, but body, soul, and spirit. There is a clear difference between our spirit and our soul. When we were justified through Christ our spirit was made alive to God. And now that we know Him, we are experiencing change in our souls. This is sanctification.

The Hebrew word translated "God" throughout this chapter is Elohim which is a plural noun but singular in meaning. God referred to Himself in the plural when He said, "Let Us make man in Our image." This is the first time that it is revealed in the Bible that God is Trinity. These words were inter-Trinitarian communication. This is the Father and the Son and the Spirit convening together. "Let Us make man in Our image."  

The idea of the Trinity is one of those imponderables of Scripture. But, in an attempt to help us understand the Trinity, think of the fact that time can exist in three different dimensions. It can be yesterday, it can be today, and it can be tomorrow; it just depends on what reference we have. Another example is that of water which can exist in ice and in vapor and in fluid form. In like manner, the Bible teaches that there is one God existing in three distinct Persons: the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. 

Note the words at the end of v.27: "Male and female He created them." Although this point ought to be obvious and unnecessary, it seems that in the confused world that we live in people can’t figure out even the obvious. God created man as man and God created women as women. In an attempt to deny this, modern thinking has taken almost everything to extremes never intended simply to deny the difference between the sexes. This is a ploy of the enemy.

In v.28 of today's passage we read, Then God blessed them, and God said to them, "Be fruitful and multiply; fill the earth and subdue it; have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the air, and over every living thing that moves on the earth."

God’s first command to man was that man would have children sufficient to fill the earth especially since mankind began with only two people. The function of subduing the earth and having dominion over it would necessarily require a long time for the growth of a large enough population to fill the earth, and for acquiring sufficient knowledge and skills to enable man to bring it under full control and development. God's command to subdue and exercise dominion over creation in no way implies hostility and resistance from the earth. Rather, it suggests intensive study, study of the earth and its creatures and then application of that knowledge for the optimum benefit of all affected for the glory of God.

We must also note that God gave to man no instruction to exercise dominion over other people, but only over the earth and the animals. Had man not rebelled against God’s Word, all would have remained in perfect fellowship with God and, therefore, with one another. But, when man followed the deceitful words of Lucifer, the perfection of the Garden of Eden was dramatically altered. This just underscores the fact that God always has our best interest at heart even though the circumstances may scream the opposite. It is the most resounding message of the Bible that if we trust the Lord and give Him enough time, He will direct our paths resulting in His best for us.

Genesis 1:20-23

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20 Then God said, "Let the waters abound with an abundance of living creatures, and let birds fly above the earth across the face of the firmament of the heavens." 21 So God created great sea creatures and every living thing that moves, with which the waters abounded, according to their kind, and every winged bird according to its kind. And God saw that it was good. 22 And God blessed them, saying, "Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the waters in the seas, and let birds multiply on the earth." 23 So the evening and the morning were the fifth day. ~ Genesis 1:20-23

Today, we consider day 5 in the six days of creation. In a little less than two days, the fifth and part of the sixth days of creation, which were Thursday and Friday of the first week, God created every type of animal that exists. And so, on that first Thursday ever, God created the wildlife in the waters, birds, and other winged creatures, and all of the life in the sea.

In v.20 of today's passage we read, "Then God said, 'Let the waters abound with an abundance of living creatures, and let birds fly above the earth across the face of the firmament of the heavens.'"

During the first three days of creation, God created the infrastructure needed for this world to operate successfully. Then, during days four through six, God created the animals, the fish and man to inhabit the creation that He had made. We are told the Earth is 25,000 miles in circumference and weighs approximately 6,586 sextillion tons. It hangs in empty space. It spins at 1,000 miles an hour with perfect balance. At the same time that it’s spinning at 1,000 miles an hour, it is moving through space around the sun at 1,000 miles a minute in an orbit of 580 million miles. Mind blowing!

In v.20 here we have the first appearance in Scripture of a very remarkable and important word. We are told that God brought forth in the waters "an abundance of living creatures." Those two words "living creatures" is a translation of a single Hebrew word which means "soul." Here we have the first appearance of creatures with souls. Animals, as well as humans, have souls, and it is the soul that marks the major difference between animal and plant life. The mark of animal life, even marine life and bird life, is that they can think and feel and decide. The three functions of the soul are the mind, the will, and the emotions. What sets man apart from other created beings is that we have a spirit.

In v.21 of today's passage we read, "So God created great sea creatures and every living thing that moves, with which the waters abounded, according to their kind, and every winged bird according to its kind. And God saw that it was good."

For the second time in this entire chapter the word "created" appears. The first use was in the very first verse of the chapter. It is significant that again we have this particular word brought in, because with its usage, God did something different. There had been no animal life of any kind before, but now God created different than He did before. Whereas before He created everything out of nothing, here God created the animals out of something that He had made before. This is important to point out because according to the fossil records, the major divisions of animal life as we know them, except vertebrates, appear nearly simultaneously very early in the fossil records. And in those fossil remains the crustaceans, for example, are found to be fully developed crustaceans. Of course, this contradicts the teachings of the evolutionists. Just as God created Adam and Eve as adult, He created all of creations as adult.

In v.22-23 of today's passage we read, "22 And God blessed them, saying, 'Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the waters in the seas, and let birds multiply on the earth.' 23 So the evening and the morning were the fifth day." 

The fifth day of creation came to a close after God blessed and commanded the animals to multiply. This is the first time in the Bible that God commanded living beings to procreate. Animals are precious to God. In fact, when Job complained that God had mistreated him, God pointed him to creation to help Job understand His sovereignty and His goodness. Animals figured prominently in God's response to Job’s attempted indictment. In Job 38:39-41, God reminded Job that it is He who provided for the animals. According to Job 40, God also pointed out that he is more powerful than the feared Behemoth and Leviathan by the very fact that He is their Creator. While they may have been beyond Job’s reach, these creatures were never beyond God’s reach.

In response, Job acknowledged God’s sovereignty. In Job 42:6 we read, "I take back my words and repent in dust and ashes." The fact that God used examples from the animal world to convince Job of His sovereignty suggests strongly that this is part of God’s intended purpose for His creation of the animals. God has built wonder into animals, and by design, they point us all to the God of the Bible as the great and only sovereign. And, our response should be the same as Job's; respect, and honor and awe and wonder in the presence of our mighty God.

Genesis 1:16-19

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16 Then 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. 17 God set them in the firmament of the heavens to give light on the earth, 18 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. 19 So the evening and the morning were the fourth day. ~ Genesis 1:16-19

Today, we come back to day 4 of creation where God has created the heavens, the land, the sea and also the stars. And now, as we will see in day 4 on the very first Wednesday, He will create the sun and the moon. In all of this we are yet again reminded of God's vastness. The vastness of the universes underscores His greatness and His sovereignty. This, once again, highlights the fact that we can trust Him with our very lives, totally.

In v.16 of today's passage we read, "Then 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."

These two great lights are obviously the sun and the moon. God created these bearers of light and gave to them their tasks; it is the job of the sun to bring the light during the day. And, it is the task of the moon to deliver reflective light to the earth during the night. It is the moon that determines the month in the course of its movement through its somewhat odd orbit. The moon also generates the seasons, as does the sun. Because the earth is tilted on its axis, it causes the sun to be at varying distances from its surface at different points on the globe at different times of the year. This produces the seasons which are critical for the rejuvenation of life and the growing of crops and the flourishing of the earth. God designed the sun and the moon to function in determining seasons. God also designed the sun and the moon to serve in the matter of days. Right now, our 24 hour day is determined everyday by the cycle of both the sun and the moon from sunset to sunset. 

God determined that the earth would orbit around the sun and the orbit of the moon around the earth. A day then is determined by the earth’s rotation around its axis, and one 24-hour period is the time of the earth’s rotation. God determined that; it is impossible for that to be the product of time plus chance plus nothing. The sun also determines our years. God did this by establishing the fact that it would take one full year for the rotating earth, each rotation meaning a day to continue its orbit all the way around the sun. That’s a 365 day time period. So God created the sun and it rules in the sense that it dominates life on the earth.

The sun is the agency by which our time in light and dark is determined. The sun is the agency, along with the moon by which seasons are determined. The sun is the agency by which the calendar year is determined. Whereas, it is the rotation of the earth on its axis that determines the 24-hour day, specifically, it is the rotation of the moon’s orbit around the earth that determines the month. And it is the earth’s rotation around the sun that determines the year. This is why God said that the sun would rule the day and the moon the night.

In v.17-18 of today's passage we read, "17 God set them in the firmament of the heavens to give light on the earth, 18 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."

The word "rule" used here in this verse packs a punch. For example, the moon helps to create the daily rise and fall of water along our shorelines. Tides are caused by gravity. The closer two things are, the stronger the force of gravity between them, and the faster they accelerate toward one another. If the earth were sitting still in space, which it is not, due to gravity, it would immediately begin to fall toward the sun. But gravitational attraction depends on distance. Thus, the near side of the earth would be attracted to the sun more strongly than the far side. But the earth is solid. Even if one side wanted to accelerate toward the sun faster than the other, the whole mass would move as one and the earth would not stretch into an egg shape.

The oceans, however, are not solid. They are free to react to the sun’s gravitational pull. The ocean on the near side of the sun would literally fall toward the sun faster than the earth and the ocean on the far side would literally fall more slowly than the earth. It blows my mind to think of the sun suspended in mid air out there 93 million miles away. And the moon, faithfully companions the earth. The moon is just the right size and just the right distance to produce tides that gently flush our coastlands. If the tides were much stronger, the earth would experience twice-daily tsunamis that would rip apart and destroy any living thing even within great distances from the shore. If the tides were much smaller, bays and estuaries would be stagnant and inhospitable to life. The earth-moon system is unique in our solar system. It defies the possibility that it has arisen by chance. Thus, the presence of tides points to intelligent design, by a loving God, who gave us a wonderful place to live. All of God's creation was placed in the heavens and on the earth by an infinitely intelligent and loving Creator. And, He saw that it was good, because it all benefitted us.

In v.19 of today's passage we read, "So the evening and the morning were the fourth day."

Here we have the completion of the fourth day of creation. Genesis frames God's creation of all things using a poetic structure which follows a strict and consistent pattern, where God speaks, creates, observes, and blesses His work. This verse closes out the description of the fourth creative day, referencing the concept of "evening and morning" once again. God's creation of the sun, moon, and stars counters any belief that these are deities themselves. Many cultures, including ancient Egypt, worshipped the sun and moon as gods. Other religions, and modern astrology, believe that the position of these objects determines a person's fate. By making it clear that these are just pieces of God's creation, the book of Genesis dispels any claims that there is supernatural power in the heavenly bodies. Truly, the God of the Bible is the One true God and I trust you are in a personal relationship with Him.

If you are not in a personal relationship with God, let me encourage you to have a conversation with Him. Tell God that you agree with Him that you are a sinner who is in need of His help. Invite Him into your life. Trust His Son's sacrifice on the cross for the payment for your sin which separated you from Him. And, as the Scriptures say, "You shall be saved."

Genesis 1:14-15

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14 Then God said, "Let there be lights in the firmament of the heavens to divide the day from the night; and let them be for signs and seasons, and for days and years; 15 and let them be for lights in the firmament of the heavens to give light on the earth"; and it was so.  ~ Genesis 1:14-15

Today, we continue our study of Genesis 1 wherein God created the world in six 24 hour days. In today's passage we return to day 3 when God created the stars of the heavens. Our universe is vast, in fact, it would take us 150 billion light years to cross it. God's creation is incomprehensibly vast, and the main reason God created it to be so vast was to remind us that we are indeed very small. 

In v.14 of today's passage we read, "Then God said, 'Let there be lights in the firmament of the heavens to divide the day from the night; and let them be for signs and seasons, and for days and years.'"

There is that little phrase again: "Then God said." We totally underestimate God's word which includes His definition of all things but that's not all. And, only knowledge of God's word does not produce the life that we all long for on a day to day basis. Our hearts must be engaged and we must be willing to be defined by God's word. The power of God is best revealed and experienced when His word fills in the gaps of our broken souls.  

In Isaiah 55:10-11 we read, "10 Rain and snow fall from the sky and don’t return without watering the ground. They cause the plants to sprout and grow, making seeds for the farmer and bread for the people. 11 The same thing is true of the words I speak. They will not return to me empty. They make the things happen that I want to happen, and they succeed in doing what I send them to do."

Rain and snow are part of a cyclical process of precipitation which falls from the heavens to the earth, and seeps into the land to grow crops and feed the hungry. God compares His Word with rain and snow, it is faithfully sent by Him to be received by those souls that are prepared for it through their trials.The fascinating thing to it all is as He breathes out His Word and we take it in; it is always for specific purposes. The Word of God accomplishes what God desires and what we need.

When God created everything, He did it without process. There was not any length of time involved. Time added nothing to it. Therefore millions of years, billions of years, thousands of years add nothing to His creation. It was not some process that God initiated, this was something that God completed. God simply said it and it came into existence. That's a blow to the evolutionist.

In Psalm 33:6-9 we read, "6 The sky was made at the Lord’s command. By the breath from his mouth, he made all the stars. 7 He gathered the water of the sea into a heap. He made the great ocean stay in its place. 8 All the earth should worship the Lord; the whole world should fear him. 9 He spoke, and it happened. He commanded, and it appeared." 

God spoke everything into existence, and, it remained exactly as He spoke it into existence. The moon, the sun, the stars, the galaxies, the billions upon billions of galaxies, everything that is in space, all the material that is there, all the gases that are there, all the atoms, it all remains as it was created. And, as was pointed out back in v.4, the light was given to divide. 

God separated the light from the darkness. God called the light day, the darkness, he called night. Each day was made of one evening and one morning. As a result, our view of the universe was influenced by timekeeping. So at the very outset when God created light, before there was a moon, before there were any stars, before there was a sun, there was light. It wasn’t attached to any of those celestial bodies; there was light and it was attached to the 24 hour day period. By the way, God created light, He is the maker of light. He then decided to attached the light to the luminaries. This can be said of us of whom He said in Matthew 5:14, "You are the light of the world."

On the first Wednesday of the world there existed what looked like diamonds in the sky. As was the case then, on the clearest night, the human eye can only see about 3,000 stars. There are an estimated 100 billion in our galaxy alone and it is estimated there may be 500 billion galaxies. Our milky way galaxy has as its measurement 10,000 light years by 100,000 light years. And where the earth is situated, scientists have discovered, it is perfectly situated for life as we know it. If we were to travel 186,000 miles per second, it would take us 100,000 years to get from one end of our milky way galaxy to the other end of it. Such vastness and yet one of those many stars represents you and one represents me. In Genesis 15, "Then the LORD took Abram outside and said to him, 'Look up into the sky and count the stars if you can. That’s how many descendants you will have!'"

In v.15 of today's passage we read, "And let them be for lights in the firmament of the heavens to give light on the earth"; and it was so."

During each of the first three days of creation God prepared a setting, while, as we will see, each of the second three days God will populate the setting. On the first day of creation, God created light. As we are seeing and will see, God created specific sources of daily and nightly light upon the earth. The light existing before God made the stars, the moon and the sun. Light has always been a priority with God for it represents Himself, it represents the truth or the ability to see accurately. 

God made the stars in order to shed light upon the earth at night and He made the moon to reflect the light of the sun upon the earth at night. The light represents the truth which is the nature of things as they are defined by God. Truth is seeing through all the illusions of the imperfect, all the facades and the unreal images. The Lord Jesus promises the one who follows Him, "The truth will set you free." The truth permits and enables us to view life from God's vantage point. The truth frees us from the distortions that have long prevented us from the light and reality. The one thing we must do in this scenario is to follow Him as He leads.

Genesis 1:11-13

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11 Then God said, "Let the earth bring forth grass, the herb that yields seed, and the fruit tree that yields fruit according to its kind, whose seed is in itself, on the earth"; and it was so. 12 And the earth brought forth grass, the herb that yields seed according to its kind, and the tree that yields fruit, whose seed is in itself according to its kind. And God saw that it was good. 13 So the evening and the morning were the third day. ~ Genesis 1:11-13

Today we continue our study of day 3 in the order of creation. At the beginning of day 3 there was just land and sea. There was nothing alive, nothing growing, just a barren landscape waiting for the hand of God to dazzle us with His magnificent mind. In the most amazing display of wisdom, love, and beauty, God provided grass, fruit, herbs, and trees. I can’t even imagine what the incomplete world was like when God had not yet added His finishing touch upon it.

In v.11-12 of today's passage we read, "Then God said, 'Let the earth bring forth grass, the herb that yields seed, and the fruit tree that yields fruit according to its kind, whose seed is in itself, on the earth'; and it was so. 12 And the earth brought forth grass, the herb that yields seed according to its kind, and the tree that yields fruit, whose seed is in itself according to its kind. And God saw that it was good."

By the end of the third day things on earth changed dramatically from the way they were just two short days earlier. It was so breath-taking that God said of it twice "it was good." Then God commanded the earth to bring forth fruit. For the first time in creation, God did not make something out of nothing. Rather, He commanded that which He had made to produce the life.

The phrase, "according to its kind," highlights the fact that there are vast numbers of fossils which show that there are modifications of both plants and creatures within a commonly recognizable group. Dogs are an example of this; there are many kinds of dogs, yet, the different kinds of dogs are of the dog family. Dogs, of whatever variety they are, never mutate into cats or horses or donkeys. They remain forever dogs as do all the other species.

Furthermore, it is quite evident that all living things possess this amazing power to reproduce true to type. It is incredibly difficult to produce real deviations. If we turned all the dogs loose and let them run together, in a relatively short time they would revert to a common ancestral type which would probably be very much like a wolf. The strains which we produced by careful selectivity would simply disappear. Thus modifications are contained within the limits of "each kind."

There has never been mutations that happen vertically, though there is certainly movement horizontally. This defies the evolutionary theory which believes in the principal of transmutation: that over a period of time a species changed and tails fell off and limbs grew. The only problem with this is there has never been any real evidence of this transmutation. If that were true, there wouldn't just be evidence--there'd be an abundance of transmutative forms in our world but they are nowhere to be found. 

In the Bible, the third day is the day of resurrection, the display of the power of God to produce a new life. It is only that which takes place in the power of a new life, or a new birth, or a resurrected life, that can produce a fruitful humanity. It was on the third day that God called forth fruit upon the earth and there became fruit.

Further, the fruit of God is only produced by the life of God which is allowed to work in the soul of a believing human. In the same way that God commanded the earth to bring forth fruit, so He said to the Lord Jesus Christ to rise again and bring forth fruit in the lives of all who believe in Him as Savior. The only thing that makes the fruit possible is the fact that there is the life from Christ within. A Christian is a new being, produced by a new life that has been imparted to him. It is only when we possess that new life that there is any chance at all that we can be what God desires for us.

And, God looked at His world, filled with the beauty of plant life, ready for the animal life that was to be introduced into it, and said, "It is good." His created world pleased God. When the repentant sinner turns to God for forgiveness, God says of that: "It is good." Humility being given safe haven in the heart of a sinner pleases God. We are told in the New Testament that we must die first before life can emerge in and through us; just like a grain of wheat.

In v.13 of today's passage we read, "So the evening and the morning were the third day."

Once again a 24 hour day is described, and, God pulls back the curtain pointing us to the reality of the Fall of man when tempted to be defined by himself. I am so glad that God didn't stop with the bad news. No, He continued on to that third day when the Lord Jesus made it possible for our souls to be filled with hope through His resurrection and our trust in Him. Martin Luther once aptly said, "The cross is the victory, the resurrection is the triumph...The resurrection is the public display of the victory, the triumph of the crucified one." 

The amazing part of the resurrection story was that it produced in the earliest Christians a deeper faith in the Lord Jesus Christ as God. It was against all odds and against all expectations, that those earliest believers believed further, especially due to the fact that believing as they did invited a greater degree of persecution from the unbelieving world. This is what God's recreative work renders in our souls, a deeper conviction that endures no matter what. 

Genesis 1:9-10

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9 Then God said, "Let the waters under the heavens be gathered together into one place, and let the dry land appear"; and it was so. 10 And God called the dry land Earth, and the gathering together of the waters He called Seas. And God saw that it was good. ~ Genesis 1:9-10

Today, we return to our study of Genesis 1 wherein God chronicles day 3 when He created the infrastructure for the ultimate place for His highest creation to live. Here, at the end of day three, God completed the work for His remaining creation, as well, to live. God's ultimate purpose of all of this creating was His glory because all of creation, especially man, is not complete unless we are in relationship with Him.

In v.9 of today's passage we read, "Then God said, 'Let the waters under the heavens be gathered together into one place, and let the dry land appear'; and it was so."

Again, we have the words, "Then God said." This is yet another example of God defining things for us. When we ignore God’s Word, we cut ourselves off from the primary source of truth. Being defined by the Lord Jesus Christ is counter-cultural in every society, though often in different ways. In some cultures, it’s the Lord's teaching on marriage and sexuality that offends the culture. In others, it’s His emphasis on grace and generosity and mercy. Sometimes it’s His emphasis on the equality of all peoples as made alike in the image of God. Having said that, there are no better definitions of things in this world than the definitions of God. And, when we seek to follow Him, we will be offended and that is good because His ways, His culture is the best for us.

With the separation of the seas and the dry land, there must have been some incredible cataclysmic upheavals as the shifts in the tectonic plates took place. When all of this happened, the water was plunged downward and gathered into what God called "seas." And, God saw that it was good because water is so essential to life. Three-quarters of this planet is covered in water. Sixty-five percent of your bodies are made out of water. Ninety percent of your blood is made out of water. Water is essential to digestion, reproduction, respiration. 

As God spoke and defined things, the continents, once submerged beneath the oceans, became visible. Science has long discovered that the earth has indeed been under the oceans, and in certain places this has occurred many times. Further, there is considerable evidence that all of the land was once one great undivided mass. The theory of continental drift holds that once they were one great mass, but were later divided and drifted to their present locations. This original unity is suggested here, and the drift theory is confirmed by other biblical and scientific evidence. I mention this to show again the remarkable agreement here with much that science has discovered.

In v.10 of today's passage we read, "And God called the dry land Earth, and the gathering together of the waters He called Seas. And God saw that it was good."

Out of Genesis 1:1-10, we have the three parts of God's creation: the earth, the seas, and the heavens. After the creation of these three, God then saw it was good because it had reached the point where it was inhabitable. God called the waters "seas," not sea, singular, but seas, plural. This meant that though the ocean was one connected body of water, so that sea level is approximately the same anywhere in the world, yet the oceans themselves were divided into large bodies of water. The knowledge that is revealed here in this passage is not primitive at all; It is very up to date. Genesis 1 is thoroughly relevant today and is as meaningful and accurate in its scientific aspects as it is in its moral judgement. Yet, we are commonly told that Genesis 1 is a primitive document, and reflects mythological legends and ideas.

Each of the days of creation consisted of an evening and a morning; an evening which is incomplete, imperfect, unfinished, merging into that which is perfect and complete according to the phase that God desired for the earth at that time. During this period there was the rising of the continents, the weathering of the rocks and the soil forming gradually to make preparation for the plant life that was to follow. But remember too that all this on the physical level is but a manifestation of a parallel spiritual reality. If we do not study Genesis with that well in mind we will miss the great purpose of this book. 

Man's greatest pursuit is God who has defined all things for us. His definitions of life are right. In fact, all things are sacred, it is just that man has devalued what God made as sacred. Man's worst pursuit is that which is different than the culture that God has given us. One might think that Satan is our worst pursuit, and that is true. But who pursues Satan? In fact, since Satan knows he can't get most to follow him directly, his strategy is to get us to follow him indirectly. He does this by getting us to worship and follow ourselves. Every day we have a variety of choices and each choice either goes the pathway of God or the pathway of the self. We are wise to give safe haven in our souls to the culture of God which is made up of His definition of things.

For the believer in Christ, success means growing closer to God. A key aspect in this pursuit is our fight against temptation. Overcoming the temptation to sin or to go our own way is accomplished as we choose daily to be defined by God. We will know that we are being defined by God when we obey His word and follow the leading of His Spirit. Only God knows perfectly what is best for us; when we try to do things our own way, we invariably miss the mark. Obeying God is the only way to know we are doing the right thing in the end. 

Adam and Eve, our first parents, rejected God’s authority and fell into sin. After the Fall, the original state of perfect communion between God and man was broken, meaning that we can no longer know what God wants for us without being told. Even if we don’t immediately understand all of God’s commands, we must trust in His wisdom and obey. Obedience is connected to trust and respect. It actually comes from a Greek word meaning "to hear." When we obey God, it is a sign that we really trust Him and we are really listening to Him. He truly knows what is best for us. If we don’t obey God, we are essentially saying, "I know better than You do, God" which is precisely what happened in the Garden of Eden.