CREATION
Genesis 1-2
“Thy Word is true from the beginning.” … Psalm 119:160a
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1:1
“
In the beginning God created the
heavens and the earth.”
The Hebrew name used for God here in verse one is Eloheem. It is a plural of majesty. It also speaks of the triune nature of God ... as we will see emphasized when we get to verse 26. This opening verse of the Bible is straightforward and to the point. It says that the Creator of all things is Eloheem. The implication is ... there is no other God. Eloheem is not a god of man’s imagination, you see. He is certainly not one of the idols which men have invented and built with their hands out of wood or stone or metal. Eloheem has no relation at all to the numerous other gods found in man’s many false religions. On this, the Bible is simple and dogmatic. Eloheem, the God of Bible, is the one who made all things. He is the one and and only Creator. There is no other. As He himself put it to Isaiah the prophet...
“Thus says the LORD, the King of
All that exists came from, and is presently holding together by, the Word of Eloheem. As the Apostle Paul put it, speaking to a crowd of polytheistic Greeks on Mars Hill...
“...in Him we live and move and have our being...” Acts 12:28
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1:2
“The earth was without form, and void; and
darkness was on the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God was
hovering over the face of the waters.”
The second statement in the Bible reveals to us that, in the beginning, all that existed was waters. At that point in time, everything was two parts hydrogen and one part oxygen (H2O). Water was everywhere ... measureless and infinite. All else of our world and universe, did not exist. Apart from the waters there was nothing. There was no space, no matter, no light, no universe, no stars nor planets. All that now is, other than waters, did not yet exist. In the beginning, there were waters and waters alone.
I take the statement here ... the spirit of God was
hovering over the face of the waters ... as referring to one of God’s
attributes. Namely, his attribute of transcendence. I
do not believe that it is a reference to any spatial aspect concerning God. Although
our God is in his creation because he is
omnipresent, he is not limited to
his creation in any way. He transcends all of that which he has made. As you have it
in First Kings 8:27a...
“But will God indeed dwell on the earth? Behold, the heaven and the heaven of heavens cannot contain
you.”
It is generally taken that the spirit of God who was hovering over the face of the waters
was the Holy Spirit. Personally, I do not think so. It may be splitting
hairs, but I believe that the spirit
of God who is referred to here was, in reality, the spirit of Christ Jesus, in his
pre-incarnate form. As you have it in John 1:3,
speaking of him ...
“All things were made through Him, and without
Him nothing was made that was made.”
And
again, in Colossians 1:16-17 ...
“For by Him all things were created that are in
heaven and that are on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or
dominions or principalities or powers. All
things were created through Him and for Him. And He is before all
things, and in Him all things consist.”
And again, in Hebrews 1:1-2 ...
“God, who at various times and in various ways spoke in time past to the fathers by the prophets, has in these last days spoken to us by His Son, whom He has appointed heir of all things, through whom also He made the worlds;
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DAY ONE ... LIGHT
1:3-5
“ Then 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. God called the light Day,
and the darkness he called Night. So the evening and the morning were the first
day.”
In Hebrews 11:3 we read...
“By faith we understand that the worlds were
framed by the word of God, so that the things which are
seen were not made of things which are visible.”
Again, in Psalm 148:5
we read…
“Let them praise the name of the LORD, for he
commanded and they were created.”
The first thing to note here is, that when God began to create, he did so ex nilo (out of nothing). He simply spoke and it was. The instant God called for light, all the waters instantly illuminated. Immediately, they were aglow with light. And, please note, the light had no source other than the Word of God. It didn’t come from a sun or a moon or a light bulb. It simply existed by the Word of God and darkness was no longer on the face of the deep.
Then, our text declares, God imposed limits upon the light he had made so that the darkness itself could be preserved. God divided the light from the darkness and caused the two to begin to oscillate between one another. God called the light “Day” and the dark, he called “Night”. Then, after the light-filled waters had gradually faded back to darkness and the dark waters had illumined back to light, the first full day's cycle was had been completed and the first twenty-four hour day in the history of the universe had passed ... as indicated by the statement, “the evening and the morning were the first day.” Keep in mind, however, that at the close of the first day ... still … all that existed was waters ... waters that had experienced one full twenty-four hour cycle of light and darkness.
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DAY TWO ...
SPACE
1:6-8
“Then God said, “Let there be a firmament
in the midst of the waters, and let it divide the waters from the waters.
Thus 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. And
God called the firmament heaven. So the evening and the morning were the second
day.”
At the first blush of the first new morning, suddenly the waters were literally pulled apart by God’s second command. The description of it, as found in these three verses, is three-dimensional. In instant obedience to the Word of God, the vast waters that were "were above the firmament" were flung outward and away from a smaller body of waters which remained "under the firmament” ... leaving between them a gigantic firmament or space. The word firmament here, is an unfortunate translation. It conveys the impression of substance. The New American Standard Version gives us the best translation of this Hebrew word. Rather than the word firmament, it translates the word “expanse”, which is its correct rendering.
Like smoking fragments from an explosion, the waters above fled away in every direction from the waters under creating ... in between ... a vast expanse. Because of Eloheem's command, the expanse became incredibly large ... gigantic ... and, from our human perspective, limitless and infinite. Today, we call that expanse “space”. And, by the way, recent scientific data has proved that it is still expanding. That is consistent with the Word of God because Eloheem did not command it to stop, you see. Our text says that God called the expanse heaven.
At the end of the second twenty-four hour cycle of creation then, there were now three things in existence ... two bodies waters and a new and limitless expanse that was ever expanding outward creating an empty space in between of limitless dimensions and distances. The expanse, however, did not contain any solar system or galaxy, planets or moons, black holes or novas or quarks or anything else. It was totally empty.
Coming back to the waters, they were now separated into two realms ... the waters above and the the waters below. Before we leave this description, let me say ... based on the literal interpretation of these verses ... if we could travel far enough and fast enough to the outer edge of our ever-expanding universe … we would doubtless come to the waters above ... boundless, completely limitless and infinite. According to the Bible, then ... it is not space that is infinite … it is the waters that are infinite.
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DAY THREE ...
LAND
1:9-13
“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. And God called the dry land Earth, and the gathering
together of the waters he called Seas.
And God saw that it was good. 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. 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. So the evening and the
morning were the third day.
During the third twenty-four hour period of creation, God began organizing the waters below into a precise unit. He said, “Let the waters under the heavens be gathered together into one place". In instant obedience, the waters below came together into one place. Logically, they would have moved together into a ball or sphere since all of the waters under the heavens would have attempted to move to one central point by God command.
Next, God called for dry land to appear.
Instantly, the newly formed sphere of waters were impregnated with a
huge mass of
solid matter pushing them
outward causing the area of the waters to vastly expand .... and, at the same
time, up from within them ... a single
great continent of land burst forth from their midst. What a sight that
must have been! Wouldn’t you have like to have been there to see it! God
then called the land Earth
and the waters he called Seas. This sequence is in agreement, by
the way, with
Psalm 24:1-2...
“The earth is the Lord’s, and all its fullness,
the world and those who dwell therein. For he has
founded it upon the seas, and established it upon the waters.”
By the middle of the third day, three initial building blocks in our present
universe were in place ... liquid, space and matter ... having been created in that
order. However, this incredible third day of creation was still far from over. Again, God
spoke. And, Earth’s single giant continent immediately began to green with infinite
varieties of vegetation. The result was immediate and
awesome beyond imagination. Symmetry ... design ... color and beauty ... splashed across the face
of Earth's gigantic land mass. Anywhere and everywhere across the continent, plant
life emerged in almost infinite varieties of shapes, colors and sizes ...
each one giving forth silent but joyous testimony to the limitless
power, intelligence and artistry of its Creator.
From that day to this, these vast multitudes of God's vegetation and flora continue
to add daily speak their testimony to their Creator's existence and handiwork. Their
testimony is unceasing, joyful and undeniable. As you have it in Romans 1:18-20...
“For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who suppress the truth in unrighteousness, because what may be known of God is manifest in them, for God has shown it to them. For since the creation of the world his invisible attributes are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even His eternal power and Godhead, so that they are without excuse...”
One time, a pastor friend of mine, Don Hanson, said, “God doesn’t believe in atheists!” He was right. According to Romans 1, above, there are no atheists (people who know there is no God), nor are there any true agnostics (people who do not know if there is a God). There are just wicked men who make empty, silly and disingenuous pronouncements that there is no God or that they do not know whether there is a God or not. Deep down in their hearts, however, they know that their silly pronouncements are lies. Believe you me, they do know there is a God. We have the Word of God on it. One day, they will be called to account concerning their actual knowledge of their Creator which he has, night and day, so clearly been displaying to them throughout his Creation and confirmed to them in their hearts by his Holy Spirit.
By the end of the third twenty-four hour day of creation, Eloheem's new world had come alive with all manner of vegetation. Grassy dells, flowers and ferns, forested mountains and verdant green plains were now adorned by all manner of vegetation caressed by gentle breezes under a vast but yet still empty expanse above.
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DAY FOUR ... THE SUN, MOON AND THE STARS
1:14-19
“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; and let them be
for lights in the firmament of the heavens to give light on the earth’; and it
was so. 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.
God set them in the firmament of the heavens to give light on 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. So the evening and the morning were the
fourth day.”
On the fourth twenty-four day, God further refined and regulated light in relation to his new world creating two great lights in the heavens to give light on the earth and the stars also. It is important to remember, however, that light and dark, in its twenty-four hour cycles, had already existed from day one ... simply by the Word of God. But, here on day four, God began by concentrating and then relegating his light into two great luminaries in relation to Earth. I would expect to find, however, that the outer expanding waters are, to this day, still oscillating between light and dark in twenty-four hour cycles without any source whatsoever other than the Word of God. That would surely be something to observe, would it not!? Be that as it may, however ... on day four, God gave light a home in the expanse he had created above the Earth and confined it to three specific sources from which to shine upon the Earth. Suddenly, as if someone had flipped on a great light switch, massive concentrations of hydrogen in a vast sun burst aflame as billions of nuclear reactions spread across its surface. Then, just as suddenly, a second celestial body appeared in the sky above and as a massive satellite moon began its first circuit around God's new Earth ... all the while reflecting the new sun’s rays down upon the planet below.
But, God was not finished yet. Incredibly ... almost as an after-thought ...
trillions of suns in billions of galaxies also appeared, adding their light
upon the Earth. Effortlessly, Eloheem had showered deep space with
countless stars in countless galaxies like the
flinging of seeds from the tips of the fingers of a sower of seed! Amazing.
Such astounding omnipotence (all power); such glorious majesty. My, how big our God is!
Furthermore, Eloheem's creation of his stars were not haphazard but precise and
individualistic. We learn from scripture that he took care and delight with each one. As you
have it in
Psalm
147:4...
“He counts the number of the stars;
He calls them all by name. Great is our Lord, and
mighty in power; His understanding is infinite.”
In the visible universe, the temporary light of the first three days of creation was now confined to its new masters all the way to the outer limits of space and trillions upon trillions of points of light began to sparkle down upon the Earth from the once empty and dark expanse above. They came forth in such numbers and with such organization and mystery that they would forever be man’s greatest wonder. As the Psalmist would later write...
“The heavens declare the glory of God;
and the firmament shows his handiwork.
Day unto day utters speech, and night unto night
reveals knowledge. There is no speech nor language where their voice is not
heard. Psalm 19:1-3
May we step aside here for a moment and speak to an old objection that I picked up in college a long time ago? It goes something like this. “It is a fact that stars are so far distant from Earth that it takes their light millions if not billions of years just to travel from any one given star down here to the Earth in order for us to see it. Therefore, the universe has to be of great age ... simply because we are able to see the light from so many incredibly distant stars. Light that, in most cases, began its journey to Earth millions if not billions of years ago. Each and every star’s light had to have time to travel here through all those great distances. This is undeniable proof that the universe is of great age.” Scientists measure the distance to a star in “light years”, by the way, (the time it takes light, traveling at 186,000 miles per second, to travel in one year). But, there is a flaw in this reasoning. Do you really think that the God who created all the stars in only one day for the express purpose, to give light on the earth would have forgotten to create the light-waves in-between so they could, indeed, give light on the earth? Do you really think that God, having made the stars, had to wait millions and billions of years to fulfill his purpose for their light to shine upon his Earth? I think not. Their light was seen on Earth the second they were created, as is clearly implied in our text. God made the stars and all their light waves in-between simultaneously, beloved. It seems silly to have to bring this up, but it is often brought forth by so-called “scientists” and other “intelligencia” as “scientific” proof against a young Earth ... but it is an empty argument.
When the fourth twenty-four hour day of creation drew to a close, the skies above Earth were now filled with emitters of light in another new, joyous and continuous “Hallelujah Chorus” to the glory of God. Their testimony ever since has been endless and relentless ... being sung, as it were, by the basso continuo of Earth’s new sun accompanied by the soft alto of its new moon and joined in by the harmonious choir of myriads upon myriads of galaxies and stars.
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DAY FIVE ...
SEA LIFE AND BIRDS
1:20-23
“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.’ 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. And God blessed them,
saying, ‘Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the waters in the seas, and let
birds multiply on the earth.’ So the evening and the morning were the fifth
day.
The fifth twenty-four hour period of creation dawned brightly upon a beautiful, but relatively quiet new world. Once again, God spoke. Immediately, within the waters of the seas, great stirrings commenced as abundant multitudes of vibrant, and sometimes noisy, sea-life simultaneously appeared. All were suddenly there at once ... from the smallest to the largest ... the micro to the macro … sand crabs to barracudas ...microbes to plankton ... starfish to sea horses ... dolphins to whales and much much more ... so much so that, even today, man has not yet discovered or classified them all. In addition, and at the same time, a plethora of feathered creatures were born (having been made from the ground beneath ... 2:19). Immediately, these glorious feathered creatures were anywhere and everywhere over and upon the earth, filling its trees, its bushes and its grasses with color and sound and the skies with vast cadres of flight.
Can you picture it? If we had been present, it would have been mesmerizing, incredibly delightful and, no doubt, tremendously humorous to behold. One can only imagine the commotion ... the utter cacophony of noise and sheer joy as each sea creature commenced to do its thing and each bird discov
ered its voice and began to exercise its abilities. By this day’s end, Earth’s skies were dotted with vocal, feathered and amazing creatures and her seas were alive with a near infinite variety of life forms. Thus came to an end the fifth twenty-four hour day of creation. One more comment here before we move on ...
Please notice that the text says that God created each living creature of the sea and the air “according to their kind”. Evolution teaches that all life evolved from one single source ascending upward and branching out from the less complex to the more complex and then from one species into another. Hence, it confidently declares, “all life is related”. The Bible, however, states that exactly the opposite is true. The Bible says that God created each species of creature unique and complete in itself according to their kind. So it was in the beginning and so it continues to be observed today. Now that is “scientific”, brother … because it is observable. A cow has always been a cow, a dog a dog, etc. And, I might add, there is not one shred of scientific evidence to the contrary. Take the fossil record, for example. If evolutionary theory is correct, there should be billions and billions of observable fossils of transitional creatures that are clearly in the process of evolving upward. Yet, there is not one such indisputable example found in the fossil record much less the billions that should be easily found there. If the theory of Evolution is correct, we should have inexhaustible evidence of fossilized creatures that are part this and part that ... part dog, for example, and yet clearly part “something else” ... part fish and yet ... part something below or above that. Yet, I repeat, we find not one single piece of such evidence in the fossil record. In fact, just the opposite is true. The fossil record contains millions of fully formed and distinct life forms. So-called science ignores this obvious evidence, however, as it continues to search for its "missing links” and hope one day to discover just one example that will prove it theory. So far, they have not even been able to come up with a single such instance. If their theory is correct, there should be billions! What a sad excuse for science the theory of Evolution is! Make no mistake about it, evolution is a godless theory, philosophy and religion but it is far from a science. If it were science, it would not demand blind and unthinking acceptance to its tenants and demand that its adherents “fit in” and be “politically correct” or be rejected from the academic community. If you would like to research further in this area, a very good starting point would be The Institute for Creation Research web site at: http://www.icr.org/. There, you can find recommended reading and current articles in a wide variety of scientific disciplines that speak loud and clear to the scientific value of assuming creation rather than evolution. Also, you might like to view Ben Stein’s recent movie, “Expelled, No Intelligence Allowed”.
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DAY SIX ...
LAND CREATURES AND MAN
1:24-25
“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. 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.
The sixth twenty-four hour day dawned to the noises and subtle music of birds interspersed with the variety of the sounds of myriads of sea creatures. No doubt, great shadows of huge soaring Plaestadons crisscrossed the landscape while tiny humming birds flitted from flower to flower. Great whales spouted and fluked in the seas as tiny crabs scurried between the waves upon the shores. Then, once again, God spoke. This time, the earth itself was given a command to bring forth life. Instantly, out of the ground, they came. From minute stirrings and displaced pebbles, every sort of insect emerged while, simultaneously, countless massive disruptions of dirt and rock were thrust upward as up-rearing dinosaurs and beasts of every size and sort scrambled out, shaking off the dirt from which they had been made. In instant obedience to the Word of God, the ground yielded up a plethora of living creatures. God had called into being each and every one after their kind. And, so they have remained unto this day. This qualifier of God’s Word reached deep into the genetic makeup of each new species. With this one profound statement, God preserved the unique identity of each of his creatures for time memorial ... forever locking out any possibility of mixing between them and forever preserving the initial state of each one. From the day that God spoke this command, each species has stubbornly maintained its own identity. So says the Bible and, I might add, so proclaims the fossil record, the genetic record and all other record one might like to scientifically examine. John 10:35, says that the Scripture cannot be broken, you see. What God says sticks. Jesus said...
“Heaven and earth will pass away, but my
words will by no means pass away.” Matt. 24:35
So, from the beginning, each of God’s creatures have been reproducing after their kind. When I was in a biology class in college, I was assigned the task of writing a paper on the evolution of the horse. The professor claimed that there was more than ample evidence for evolution in the fossil record of horses. After researching the topic and examining the evidence, however, I came up with an entirely different conclusion. I pointed out in my essay that, in spite of the differences between horses, found both inside and outside the fossil record, the bottom line was they were all still horses. True, there were horses as small as dogs in the fossil record but all that proves was that there has always been great variety within a species as there is today. In my paper, I pointed out that I did not find any evidence that there had been any movement from one species to another concerning horses. I went on to say that it is true that there is change within a species. Horses can be bred to become smaller of larger ... to be of one color or another ... but in the end you always still have a horse. I got an “F” on that paper, by the way. These so called scientists site instance after instance of change within a given species and then claim that it is proof of evolution. What utter balderdash!
In the same class, I was also given the assignment of growing fruit flies in a jar and selecting out and breeding the ones that changed their color. Supposedly, another absolute proof of evolution. But, you know what ... after all was said and done ... I still had a jar full of fruit flies. So it was in the beginning and so it has always been. Make no mistake about it, evolution is a philosophy ... a religion to many ... but it is not science. It is being taught as fact today in practically every high school and university in the nation and, for the most part, to the deliberate exclusion of any real and meaningful debate on its merits or consideration of the scientific data from a different framework such as Creation. Evolution is one of man’s greatest self-deceptions so that he does not have to deal with the true and living God who is the Creator of all things and Judge of the whole earth. A famous biologist, Dr. Edwin Conklin, once said of Evolution, “The probability of life originating from accident is comparable to the probability of the unabridged dictionary resulting from an explosion in a print shop!”
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1:26-31
“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.’ So God created man in His own image; in the image of God
He created him; male and female He created them. 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.’ 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. 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. Then God saw
everything that He had made, and indeed it was very good. So the
evening and the morning were the sixth day.”
It is impossible to over-emphasize the importance and significance of these verses in the creation account. Note that this time Eloheem SPOKE TO HIMSELF! “Let us make man in our own image.” Notice the plural pronouns here ... us ... our ... they speak to the fact that the inherent nature of God is plural. It is a clear statement of the multi-personalities that exist within the Godhead. Jesus’ words to Nicodemus in John 3:10-11 are similar.
“Jesus answered and said to him, ‘Are you the
teacher of
Here, our Lord is referring to himself, his Father, and the Holy Spirit acting in concert as One. They had all been speaking through Jesus but Nicodemus had not been listening. Later in the Bible, the Triune nature of God is specifically defined as the Father, Son and Holy Spirit. As Jesus put it in Matthew 28:19-20 for example...
“’Go therefore and make disciples of all the
nations, baptizing them in the name
(singular)
of the Father
and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching
them to observe all things that I have commanded you; and lo, I am with you
always, even to the end of the age.’ Amen.”
Three Persons ... yet only One God ... an amazing, perplexing and very mysterious concept, is it not? But, with one declarative statement in our text, the plurality of the Godhead declared that man, though made of flesh and blood as was the other creatures, would be created uniquely and separately from them. Man, God said, will be created “like Me” ... in our own image. And so it was done. By the end of the sixth twenty-four hour day, two human beings stood upon the Earth... a man and a woman ... both made in the image of God. They were the crown of God’s creation and uniquely different from all other created beings. In true reflection of God’s image, they looked about them at the creation with eyes like God ... full of self-awareness and God conscientiousness. They possessed reason ... a full range of emotions ... language and …. free will. They were not a higher form of animal, as the evolutionists and the animal rights advocates are constantly trumpeting man to be. The Scripture speaks out clearly here against such nonsense. Man is unique. He was created in the image of God. Though limited in scope, he possesses the inherent qualities of the Creator Himself! Here was a being with which God could relate and dialogue. And so, God spoke to them...
First, “God blessed them.” This is repeated in 5:2. A life blessed by the Creator is the only way to go beloved. There are a whole list of his blessings in the first 12 verses of Matthew chapter 5. You may want to read them.
Second, God said, “Be fruitful and multiply; fill the earth...” Sex is God’s idea. It is holy, it is good, it is a command and it is wonderfully pleasurable and fulfilling within the marriage parameters that God has designed for it. Surely God weeps, however, when he sees what sinful man has done with it. Hebrews 13:4 says...
“Marriage is honorable among all, and the
bed undefiled; but fornicators and adulterers God will judge.”
God’s command to be fruitful and multiply was not given to Adam and Eve in the same context that he gave it to the animals. It was given to a pair of humans that God had designed to be monogamous and to be one flesh until death parted them. According to the Word of God above, only the marriage bed is honorable and undefiled. This is God’s plan for protecting the family and for insuring the centrality of real love within a relationship. Selfish and rebellious adulterers and fornicators occupy all other sexual beds. Such, apart from Christ, await God’s judgment. In our day, the majority of the world, as well as our own society, is openly defiant or downright hostile toward this truth. Through their various forms of sexual immorality, they merrily go about destroying their own lives and others. I can assure you that they will not be so flippant and rebellious on the judgment day.
One more thing here ... children are central to God’s plan for
a married man and woman. We find here that
God’s first command to man was to procreate and populate the earth. I can’t
help but think of Psalm 127:3-5a...
“Behold,
children are a heritage from the LORD, The fruit of the womb is a reward. Like
arrows in the hand of a warrior, So are the children
of one's youth. Happy is the man who has his quiver full of them...”
Third, God said (concerning man's relationship to the Earth), “... 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 gave man authority and dominion over the Earth and its creatures. And, may I say to you, man hasn’t done a very good job of caring for it. In fact, he continues to destroy it for his own selfish purposes. Environmental groups are in accordance with the Word of God in this respect and we believers should be at the forefront of many of their concerns. Many of the creatures that man was to care for no longer even exist and much of our present world lies polluted, barren and neglected. One day, God will call men to account for it. After all, with authority comes responsibility. As you have it in Revelation 11:18...
“The nations were angry, and your wrath has come,
and the time of the dead, that they should be judged, and that you should
reward your servants the prophets and the saints, and those who fear your name,
small and great, and should destroy those who destroy the earth.”
Last, 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. 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.” In the beginning, man and all other land creatures
were vegetarians.
Later, this was changed by God. He has the right to make changes, by the way.
Today, man has the right and even the obligation to eat meat. It was not
always so. It is fascinating to me to observe how man rebels against this truth
in our day. It’s almost as if man says, “If God said it, I’m against
it!” Vegetarianism, though not wrong in itself, can often be just another
indicator of man’s rebellious sinful nature. The defining text on this subject
for our day is First Timothy 4:3...
“Now the Spirit expressly says that in latter times some will depart from the faith, giving heed to deceiving spirits and doctrines of demons, speaking lies in hypocrisy, having their own conscience seared with a hot iron, forbidding to marry, and commanding to abstain from foods which God created to be received with thanksgiving by those who believe and know the truth. For every creature of God is good, and nothing is to be refused if it is received with thanksgiving; for it is sanctified by the word of God and prayer.”
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DAY SEVEN ... THE DAY WHEN GOD’S ETERNAL REST BEGAN
2:1-3
“Thus the heavens and the earth, and all the host
of them, were finished. 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. Then God blessed the seventh day and sanctified it, because in it he
rested from all his work which God had created and made.
On the seventh twenty-four hour day, God rested (ceased) from his work of creation.
Nothing was made by God beyond the sixth day. And, from that day to
this, God has continued to rest from any work of creation. He was not tired, by the
way. He simply marked the seventh day as special. His work of creation was done.
He has continued in that "rest
from creation mode" from that day to this. The book of Hebrews points out that this
permanent rest
of God, which began on the seventh day, continues on to our day and that believers who have been placed into
Christ have themselves also entered into that rest with him.
As you have it in Hebrews 4:4,9-11...
“For He has spoken in a certain place of the seventh
day in this way: ‘And God rested on the seventh day from all His
works...’ There remains therefore a rest for the people of God.
For he who has entered his rest has himself also ceased from his works as
God did from his. Let us therefore be diligent to enter that rest,
lest anyone fall according to the same example of disobedience.”
The point there is profound. Those who have been placed into Christ by faith have
also entered into God's seventh day rest with him. Have you entered into that
rest, dear reader? If you have placed your faith in the Son of God, you were
then
placed in Christ by a divine act of God and are right now in God's day of
rest that began way back there on that historic seventh day. This
may sound strange to many, but it is a wonderful truth. Salvation can’t be
earned, you see. It is a gift. And, when you received Christ as your personal
Savior, you are placed into Him by God's Holy Spirit and
have entered into God’s eternal Sabbath rest which began way back there on the
seventh day at creation. Truly, as you have it in
Second
Corinthians 5:17...
“Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new
creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new.”
And, again...
“For by grace you have been saved through faith,
and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God, not of works, lest anyone
should boast.” Ephesians 2:8-9
One last thought before we move on ... the pre-flood world that God made and of which we have been reading has long ago passed away. It was a very different place from the present day world in which we now liysving. We will discuss more about this later in the book. For now, simply note that there was no rain in the pre-flood world. Our text says that a mist which came up from the ground watered the Earth. It produced a very temperate and lush world. Our present vast oil reserves and coal deposits are abundant and silent witness to its prior existence. Those deposits are made from the organic matter from the world of which we have been reading. Again, modern man refuses to acknowledge it. Evolutionists claim that these elements were formed over eons of time bit by bit and are still being formed today. However, they can’t produce a single concrete example to substantiate their hypothesis. Oil and coal deposits of that magnitude require catastrophe to produce them. No demonstrable catastrophes are presently taking place anywhere on Earth that are anywhere near what is required to produce the oil and coal deposits we find so abundant on the Earth today. We will discuss this in greater depth with we get to chapter 6 and the Noahic Flood. Second Peter says that ancient man also chose to ignore these obvious truths.
“For this they willfully forget: that by the word of God the heavens were of old, and the earth standing out of water and in the water, by which the world that then existed perished, being flooded with water.” Second Peter 3:5-6
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PROBLEMS
Before we move on, let me say a word about two other differing points of interpretation that have been put forward within the Christian community in interpreting this first chapter of the Bible. The underlying reason for these interpretations, in my view, are primarily to support the long time periods and geologic strata speculations upon which evolution builds its shaky case. Those who hold these interpretations feel that the Biblical account of creation is compatible with evolution. They are called Theistic Evolutionists.
1. The first view is that the six days of creation were actually ages consisting of long periods of time ... not actual 24-hour days. This is called the Day/Age Theory.
The main verse of Scripture that is used to buttress this view is Second Peter 3:8 which says...
“But, beloved, do not forget this one thing, that
with the Lord one day is as a thousand years, and a thousand
years as one day.”
The context of that verse is that God is a patient God who does not want anyone to perish. It is not teaching that words like day are not definable in the Bible. And, even if you conceded that the word “day” in Genesis 1, meant a thousand years, it still doesn’t help the Theistic Evolutionist’s case since he’s looking for millions of years not a thousand. We need to consider a couple of basic rules of interpretation here.
a. First, there is what I call, “the normal use of language rule.” Basically, this rule applies to all human writing including the Bible. The rule states that when people read something, they should always take the meaning of the words at their most common usage. In other words, the correct meaning is found by interpreting the words the way they are normally used 99.9% of the time unless specifically directed otherwise in the context. I submit to you that the word “day”, 99.9 times out of a 100, in all speech and writing refers to a twenty-four hour period of time. And, I find no indication in the Genesis account that suggests it should be taken otherwise, do you? In fact, to the contrary, the use of the term “day” in Genesis 1, is actually defined again and again in the context when the text says again and again, “and the evening and the morning were the ___ day”. That statement clearly and deliberately qualifies the word “day” as a normal 24 hour day. Have you known any day that had an evening and a morning that was not a normal 24-hour day?
b. Second, there is the “Scripture interprets Scripture” rule. Here, we need to ask ourselves, "Is there any other Scriptures that come to bear on the definition of this word “day” as it is used here in Genesis 1?" Yes, there are. Consider the following:
“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.” Exodus 20:8-11
According to the Exodus passage above, the word “day” in Genesis 1, is to be taken as a normal 24 hour day. God commanded that the Jewish seven day work-week was to be patterned aft it. As far as I’m concerned, this settles the argument. The creation was accomplished in 7, literal 24-hour days ... according to the Scripture.
2. A second view that affects the Genesis account theorizes that there is a gap between verses two and three of the first chapter. This is called the Gap Theory. It speculates that millions of years ago there was an original creation that fell and subsequently was judged and destroyed. Afterwards, God re-created this present world on top of the bones and ruins of the previous one. This too is an attempt to explain such knotty problems as the dinosaurs and the long time periods required by the theory of evolution to produce life and thereby seeks to reconcile them with the Biblical account found in Genesis.
Frankly, let me say that there is not a shred of evidence in the Bible to support this view. It is pure imagination and speculation. If there was a prior creation that fell before this one ... the Bible would discuss it. On top of that, the Bible explicitly states that sin and death entered at the fall of Adam ... not before (Romans 5:12). Furthermore, this theory violates the principle of interpretation that says to “never build a doctrine on an obscure verse or passage”. The Gap Theory doesn’t even have the comfort of a single verse. It relies on a supposed blank between verses! My, how we humans do like to fit in, aye?
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2:4-6
“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, 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; but a mist went up from the earth and watered the whole face
of the ground.”
In the “for what it’s worth” department, some have argued that we have here a second creation account that is separate from and conflicts with the first one in Genesis 1. They say that this second account of creation says that the animals were created after Adam and then brought to him for naming, contradicting the order of the Genesis 1 account. The answer is that the Genesis 1 account gives us the order of the Creation. Genesis 2 is given to fill us in on many important details. Therefore, since the order has already been given to us, this statement that God created the animals and brought them to Adam for naming is entirely correct and we are expected to know that it is not speaking about the order of the creation but merely the fact that God made them and brought them to Adam for his own purposes. So, here in the second chapter, we will now be given a much more personal and detailed account of the creation of man and the conditions under which he first lived. It is not a second creation account, as some have claimed. It is simply going from the macro to the micro. It is narrowing down to give us a greater and more detailed look at the creation of man.
Our text begins by pointing out several pertinent facts about man’s early environment. First, in the beginning, crops were not yet organized by man ... neither did he till fields … and the world was not watered by rain. Earth’s original pre-curse environment consisted of a lush terrarium-like landscape watered by means of a mist from the ground beneath. Rain was unknown. Later, in chapter 6, we will learn that the first rainfall that was experienced on Earth came with the Flood in Noah’s day. Can you imagine how great Noah’s dilemma was when, for an hundred and twenty years, he had the task of warning people about a coming rain and flood which were things no one had ever experienced before? Talk about a tough sell.
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2:7
“ 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.”
The picture here of God’s actual creation of man is a vivid and moving one.
Before we look at it, however, let me say a word about the pre-incarnate Jesus
Christ. Before Christ became a man and dwelt among us (John 1:14), he was the
eternally existing second member of the Godhead. He was God of very God. As you
have it in John 1:1-2...
“In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was
with God, and the Word was God. He was in the
beginning with God.”
Furthermore, he was the Creator. As we continue to read in the John passage cited above ...
“All things were made through him, and
without him nothing was made that was made. In
him was life, and the life was the light of
men.” John 1:3
And again, as you have it in
Colossians
1:15-16...
“He is the image of the invisible God, the
firstborn over all creation. For by him all things were created that are
in heaven and that are on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones
or dominions or principalities or powers. All things were created through
him and for him.”
In John 1:18 we read...
“No one has seen God at any time. The only
begotten Son, who is in the bosom of the Father, he has declared
him.”
Jesus is, and always has been, the Revealer of God to man. So it was before his coming into our world as well as after his incarnation (John 1:14). He has always been that member of the Godhead that manifested and revealed God. More than once, we will encounter him here in the book of Genesis. Some call these appearances “Theophanies”. In my opinion, they are undoubtedly pre-incarnate appearances of the Lord Jesus Christ. For example, it was the Lord Jesus himself, along with two of his angels, who showed up at Abram and Sara’s tent in chapter 18. And, it was the Lord Jesus who laid hold of Jacob and wrestled with him through the night in chapter 32. Afterwards, Jacob said, “I have seen God face to face, and my life is preserved” (32:30). I say all of this to remind us that the Scripture teaches clearly that Jesus is our Lord and Creator. He is the one that is spoken of here where it says, “And the Lord God formed man of the dust of the ground”.
Now let’s just think on this for a moment. Up until the creation of man, God simply spoke and it was. But that is not how it happened with the creation of man. The creation of man was a hands-on thing with. When the Lord created Adam, it was done with great intimacy, care and love. After all, man was being made in the image of God himself. Had we been able to have been there to observe, I believe that we would have seen the Lord Jesus Christ himself on his knees in the dirt scraping and molding the dirt with his own two hands like a Michelangelo working over a great sculpture. Then, we would have seen him lift his lifeless work into his arms ... and drawing very close ... breath into its nostrils the breath of life and then ... we would have seen Adam awake ... a living soul. Amazing! If you want to know the source of all life, brother, here he is. As you have it in John 1:3, quoted above ... In him was life! The first thing Adam looked upon with his new eyes ... was the face of his God and Creator ... the Lord Jesus Christ ... the source of all life. The two were soon to become fast friends.
One more thought before we leave this verse. You and I are made from the dust of the Earth, brother or sister. Our bodies are made up of fourteen or fifteen basic chemicals found in the Earth. If you went out and bought them, they probably wouldn’t cost more than twenty dollars or so ... combined. When we die our bodies return to the Earth from which our father, Adam, was formed. However we are more than body, as we see here in our text. We are also soul and spirit. We will look more closely at these aspects of man’s being as we continue on in our study.
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2:8-9
“The LORD God planted a garden
eastward in
My, how involved our God became with his new man. He himself went about
preparing a place for him on the new Earth he had made. In this, He hasn’t
changed, by the way. This brings to mind Jesus words to his followers in John 14:1-3...
“Let not your heart be troubled; you believe in
God, believe also in me. In my Father’s house are many mansions; if it were not
so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you. And
if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you to
myself; that where I am, there you may be also.”
Do you sense a pattern there? God has a great desire to care for, delight
in, and be with his people, doesn’t he?! He prepared a beautiful place for Adam
and he has prepared a beautiful place for you and me too, dear saint. The name,
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2:10-14
“Now a river went out of
The garden of Eden was the source of the headwaters
of a magnificent river. Our text tells us that, subsequently, it split off
into four famous rivers of that first world ... the Pison
... the Gihon (Nile) ... the Hiddekel
(Tigres) ... and the
The waters of the garden in
“There
is a river whose streams shall make glad the city
of
So it was in the garden of Eden; so it will be during Christ’s thousand-year reign on Earth and so it will be in our eternal home, the Heavenly Jerusalem, situated on the New Earth one day.
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2:15-17
“Then the LORD God took the man and
put him in the garden of Eden to tend
and keep it. And the LORD God commanded the man, saying, “Of every 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.”
Notice that the Lord took Adam and put him in the garden. I picture it as having come about something like this. One day, Jesus said, “Come with me Adam ... I’ve got something to show you.” After a bit of walking, suddenly, there it was. “Wow,” Adam said, “what a gorgeous place! You did all of this?” “Yes,” Jesus said, “Come on, let me show you around.”
When I was a boy, my uncle Woody Buchanan and Aunt Esther and my four
cousins invited me along on their vacation to
During the tour, the Lord and Adam came to a certain tree. “Adam,” he said,
“... you may eat the fruit of all the trees in the garden except this one. This
one you are not to eat. The day that you eat of it you will surely die.” Here
was the only prohibition in Adam’s new environment. Of the tree of the
knowledge of good and evil, he was not to eat. Let’s think, for a
moment, about Adam’s nature at that point in time. He was innocent.
Innocence means he was neither righteous nor unrighteous. God had given him a
free will and along with it came responsibility. Privilege always brings
responsibility. From that moment on, every time Adam passed by that particular
tree he had a decision to make. Ultimately, whichever way he went, he would no
longer be innocent. If he chose to obey the Lord and not eat of the tree, he
would become righteous. If he chose to disobey and eat of the tree, he would
become unrighteous. In either case, he would no longer continue in a state of
untried innocence. Now, if Adam had been a sinner and were under God’s Law (The
Old Testament) he would have eaten the forbidden
fruit immediately. I say that because, under the Law, commandments and rules just
rile up the sin within a sinner and slay him. As you have it in Romans 7:7-11...
“What shall we say then? Is the law sin?
Certainly not! On the contrary, I would not have known sin except through the
law. For I would not have known covetousness unless the law had said, ‘You
shall not covet.’ But sin, taking opportunity by the commandment,
produced in me all manner of evil desire. For apart from the law sin
was dead. I was alive once without the law, but when the commandment came, sin
revived and I died. And the commandment, which was to bring life, I found to
bring death. For sin, taking occasion by the commandment, deceived me,
and by it killed me.”
When I was in Bible school, I had a dear teacher named Dr. John G. Mitchell.
He illustrated the point like this. He said that if you have a cherry tree in
your front yard and you don’t want the kids to steal your cherries ... whatever
you do, don’t put up a sign that says, “DON’T PICK THE CHERRIES!” He said that as soon as
you put up a sign like that you’re asking for trouble and very soon you’ll have a tree
full of little toe-headed kids picking and eating your cherries. It’s the sign
(a law) combined with their sin natures that stirs it up in them, you see.
It’ll happen every time. Sin, taking opportunity by the commandment,
produced in me all manner of evil desire. But, Adam had no such
compulsion. The prohibition had no such effect on him because he was not
a sinner under the Law. However, now he did have a choice to make. And, on that
choice hung the fate of the entire human race. As you have it in Romans 5:12, 18-21...
“Therefore, just as through one man sin entered the world, and death through sin, and thus death spread to all men, because all sinned...” “ Therefore, as through one man’s offense judgment came to all men, resulting in condemnation, even so through one Man’s righteous act the free gift came to all men, resulting in justification of life. For as by one man’s disobedience many were made sinners, so also by one Man’s obedience many will be made righteous. Moreover the law entered that the offense might abound. But where sin abounded, grace abounded much more, so that as sin reigned in death, even so grace might reign through righteousness to eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.”
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2:18-20
“And the LORD God said, ‘It is not good
that man should be alone; I will make him a helper comparable to him.’
Out of the ground the LORD God formed every beast of the field and every bird
of the air, and brought them to Adam to see what he would call them. And
whatever Adam called each living creature, that was
its name. So Adam gave names to all cattle, to the birds of the air, and
to every beast of the field. But for Adam.”
God knew that Adam’s lonely state was not good. He needed a companion ... a corresponding “other half” of himself. The word “meet” is not here in the Hebrew text and the idea of the word “help” means “corresponder”. God knew that Adam was incomplete. So he began Adam’s education by putting him in school ... the school of life. God brought all the creatures he had made to Adam for him to name. Meantime, Adam was able to observe their maleness and femaleness. He must have been a pretty sharp fellow, by the way, in order to name all those animals. Having observed how each species were paired up, I believe he began to keep an eye out for his other half. But, our text says there was not found a helper comparable to him. Adam, realizing he had a need, was now in the position for his God to meet it.
If I could chase a rabbit here for a minute ... you know, I believe our Lord
still puts all his children in school to show them their need ... just so he
can then meet it for them. We see that principle over and over again in the lives of the
saints in the Bible. And the beautiful thing is, when the time is right
and they fully understand their dependence on him, God is always there to
meet their need. As you have it in Philippians
4:19-20...
“And my God shall supply all your need according to His riches in glory by Christ Jesus. Now to our God and Father be glory forever and ever. Amen.”
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2:21-25
“And the LORD God caused a deep sleep to fall on
Adam, and he slept; and he took one of his ribs, and closed up
the flesh in its place. Then the rib which the LORD God had taken from man he
made into a woman, and he brought her to the man. And Adam said: ‘This is
now bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh; She shall be called Woman,
because she was taken out of
The Hebrew word here for man is “ish”. It is very similar to the word for woman, “ishshah”. This word for woman means “out of man”. For the first time, the Creator was now creating indirectly. Again, his work is tender, intimate and compelling. He molds the woman from a part he took from Adam. The implication is that it will forever draw a woman to a man and a man to a woman. Only when they are together, will they truly feel complete. Someone has said that “a man without a woman is only half a man”. Well said. I might add that the reverse is true as well. This account of the Lord’s completion of the creation of man by making a woman is pregnant with import. Here, at the creation of Eve, we find the foundations for God’s purposes for man/woman relations within marriage. The passage teaches us at the least the following basic principles:
1. Marriage is a monogamous institution … one man one woman. Jesus quoted this passage in Genesis to the Pharisees.
“The Pharisees also came to him, testing him, and
saying to him, ‘Is it lawful for a man to divorce his wife for just any
reason?’ And he answered and said to them, ‘Have you not read
that he who made them at the beginning ‘made them male and female,’
and said, ‘For this reason a man shall leave his father and mother and be
joined to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh’? So then, they
are no longer two but one flesh. Therefore what God has joined together, let
not man separate.” Matthew 19:3-6
Polygamy has never been God’s purpose for man or woman. Wherever and
whenever it has been practiced it has lead to problems and a blurring of God’s
original purpose for a men and a women.
2. Marriage is an exclusive institution.
God
instructed Adam and Eve that there was to be a leaving and a cleaving
when marriage took place. When other relationships outside a marriage continue
to dominate one partner or the other, the union itself is often in jeopardy.
Both the man and the woman must leave all other ties behind and cleave
to each other. When there is no real genuine leaving and cleaving a marriage is
in for big trouble. If I could say a word of advice to parents here ... parents,
when your children get married, please make the leaving and cleaving easy
for them. Hands off! Your raising is over. Newlyweds, if you want your marriage
to succeed ... lovingly allow
no interference by your parents and new in-laws. This is very important.
3. Marriage is a sexual institution.
As
you have it here in the text ... the two
shall become one flesh. Sex, as we have noted earlier in the creation
account, is God’s idea. And, it is not just for the propagation of the human
race. Four Scriptures in God’s Word that address the subject of marital sex
come to mind.
“Let your fountain be blessed, and rejoice with the wife of
your youth. As a loving deer and a graceful doe, let her breasts satisfy you at
all times; and always be enraptured with her love.” Proverbs 5:18-19
a.
God made sex for pleasure.
The entire Bible book of The Song of Solomon
b.
God made sex to facilitate real intimacy and bonding in marriage.
“Lo, children are an heritage of the Lord: and
the fruit of the womb is his reward. As arrows are in the hand of a mighty man;
so are children of the youth. Happy is the man that hath his quiver full of
them…” Psalms 127:3-5a
c.
God made sex to propagate the human race.
“Nevertheless, because of sexual
immorality, let each man have his own wife, and let each woman have her own
husband. Let the husband render to his wife the affection due her, and
likewise also the wife to her husband. The wife does not have authority over
her own body, but the husband does. And likewise the husband does not have
authority over his own body, but the wife does. Do not deprive one another
except with consent for a time, that you may give
yourselves to fasting and prayer; and come together again so that Satan does
not tempt you because of your lack of self-control.” First Corinthians 7:2-5
d.
God made sex to deter immorality.
4. Marriage is a heterosexual institution.
Its
criterion is only fulfilled between a man and a woman. Not many years ago, it would have been unnecessary to even bring this up but not so in
our day. In February 2004, the Supreme Court of the state of
“If a man lies with a male as he lies with a
woman, both of them have committed an abomination. They shall surely be put to
death. Their blood shall be upon them.”
Later in our study of Genesis, we will come to the history of God’s judgment
and destruction of several cities over this issue.
In
the New Covenant that exists today, the condemnation of homosexuality is clearly condemned as
well. As you have it in
Romans 1:26-29a...
“For this reason God gave them up to vile
passions. For even their women exchanged the natural use for what is against
nature. Likewise also the men, leaving the natural use of the woman,
burned in their lust for one another, men with men committing what is shameful,
and receiving in themselves the penalty of their error
which was due. And even as they did not like to retain God in their
knowledge, God gave them over to a debased mind, to do those
things which are not fitting; being filled with all unrighteousness, sexual
immorality,
In conclusion, note that the man and the woman were naked and it caused them no shame. Shame is an emotion experienced by someone who has done something wrong and is plagued by guilt. Having not ever sinned before, there was no source for shame in the minds of Adam and Eve concerning anything at all. Then they disobeyed God and ate of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. Then, they experienced shame for the first time and attributed their new emotion of guilt to an outward source ... blaming it on the fact that they were naked. But, that wasn’t the problem, was it? Their shame was not sourced in their nakedness, it was sourced in their disobedience and rebellion against God.