Source: http://titusinstitute.com/teachingoutlines/teachoutgenesis3.php
Timestamp: 2019-04-26 00:34:51+00:00

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This is the third session in a four-week series on Genesis and Creation. We have been looking at God's revelation concerning the origins of everything that we see in our universe.
God was very concerned that we understand exactly how the world began, civilization began, our whole human society began and his central role in creating it and setting up its structure as a loving and generous God for the blessing of the human beings he created out of his love.
Genesis 1:20-23 v. 20 And God said, "Let the waters swarm with swarms of living creatures, and let birds fly above the earth across the expanse of the heavens." v. 21 So God created the great sea creatures and every living creature that moves, with which the waters swarm, according to their kinds, 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."
The fifth day concerns the filling of the waters and the skies with living creatures. It parallels the second day and the creation of the "expanse" that separates the waters from the atmosphere (1:6-8).
v. 20 And God said, "Let the waters swarm with swarms of living creatures."
On the fifth day God creates the living creatures that will inhabit the areas he separated on the second day, the land and sea.
This phrase, "living creatures" is also used of animals and humans, but not of plants and trees. This shows that plants are not considered by God as "living creatures." Plants and trees do not have life in them in the same way.
Swarm refers to the movement of these creatures. All these sea creatures are moving about in the water filling the inanimate sea.
v. 20 and let birds fly above the earth across the expanse of the heavens.
This noun refers to more than just birds, but all the living creatures that fly above the earth.
v.20 "across the expanse of the heavens"
Notice, the birds fly across the expanse.
This shows that the expanse was not solid and was not revealed by God as if it was solid. Some OT scholars teach that the ANE cultures believed that the sky/expanse was solid with windows for water to go through and rain upon the earth. They say that the ancient Hebrews believed the same thing and God accommodated that view in the OT when he taught them truth.
Genesis 1 contradicts that teaching. God clearly reveals that the "expanse of the heavens," "the lower heavens" were not solid. Birds flew across it. Whatever the ANE cultures surrounding the Hebrews believed makes no difference to what God has clearly revealed in Genesis 1 about it. God is teaching the Hebrews as he taught Adam at the beginning, the sky/raqiya is not solid.
v. 21 So God created the great sea creatures and every living creature that moves, with which the waters swarm, according to their kinds, and every winged bird according to its kind.
No one is quite sure what "great sea creatures" refers to here. It could be whales, large crocodiles, large sea serpents or some type of dinosaur that inhabits the sea. Most likely all of the above.
Psalm 148:7 Praise the Lord from the earth, you great sea creatures and all deeps.
God mentions these great sea creatures because they are living demonstrations of God's mighty power.
v.21 "and every living creature that moves"
God also created all the other smaller sea creatures and fish that inhabit the waters.
v.21 "according to their kinds"
God creates animals as "kinds" with similar characteristics as he did with plants. This creates order and limits in reproduction. We see this same order and limit today. That is evidence of the truth of Genesis.
v. 21 And God saw that it was good.
These living creatures will fulfill their purpose in the world as a benefit for human beings.
v. 22 And God blessed them, saying, "Be fruitful and multiply and fill the waters in the seas, and let birds multiply on the earth."
This is the first time God blesses and he blesses them with the ability and command to procreate.
v. 23 And there was evening and there was morning, the fifth day.
This final day of the creation week is the most significant of the six days. Moses gives it more space and detail than the previous five. As on the third day, there are two creative acts on the final day of the second grouping: land animals (vv. 24-25) and human life (vv. 26-28). The habitat of dry ground and vegetation were created on the third day, and this sixth day God creates the inhabitants, animals and man.
Genesis 1:24-25 24 And God said, "Let the earth bring forth living creatures according to their kinds - livestock and creeping things and beasts of the earth according to their kinds." And it was so. 25 And God made the beasts of the earth according to their kinds and the livestock according to their kinds, and everything that creeps on the ground according to its kind.
v. 24 And God said, "Let the earth bring forth living creatures."
As God does when he creates vegetation, God commands the earth to bring forth the land creatures. God uses the same defining phrase, "living creatures" for the animals he creates as for the sea creatures. Thus, he separates them along with the sea creatures from plants.
The "living creatures according to their kinds" is a general statement. Then Moses describes three categories of these "living creatures." The Hebrew word (behemah) translated "livestock" in v.24 and the Hebrew word (chayah) translated "beasts" can be used as general words for animals when they occur alone without the other. However, when the two words are used together, one (behemah) means livestock, cattle (cows and oxen in particular) and the other (chayah) means animals other than livestock.
v.24 creeping things The Hebrew word (remes) means "moving animal," i.e. ones that crawl on the ground.
Again, God sets parameters on the reproduction of these living creatures.
v.25 And God made the beasts of the earth according to their kinds and the livestock according to their kinds, and everything that creeps on the ground according to its kind.
Why does God emphasize this division of plants and now animals into kinds? He does so because this is what we see in plants and animals even today. It is evidence of God at work in creation. It is evidence of his wisdom and power as he creates structure for the animal world. God is not a God of chaos but of order and all of creation has order to it. There is no room for the theory of evolution which is based on randomness and chance.
Notice, too, as in the other days, Moses repeats what God has commanded. He describes what God created by giving the same wording as God in his command. This is to emphasize that whatever God commands is done exactly as God commanded it. God does not make mistakes.
v.25 And God saw that it was good.
God saw that his creation of the animal kingdom was good and beneficial for all his creation and especially for man.
Genesis 1:26 Then God said, "Let us make man in our image, after our likeness. And let them have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over the livestock and over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth."
Before God creates man and woman, he does something very different from the previous creation of plants, sea and air creatures, and animals, he makes a declaration of his intent to create human beings and gives their central role on earth in his kingdom. God declares that human beings will be made in the image of God and that they will rule over the earth. Human beings will not be like all the other creatures that God has created. They will be separate and above them in rule and authority.
This also is a personal intimate act of God. God doesn't say, "Let there be man." He says, "Let us make man in our image." "Us" and "our" are personal pronouns which bring out the fact that God is personally and emotionally involved in the creation of man and woman. God does not address the earth when he creates man as he does the plants and animals, instead he addresses himself. "Let us make man in our image, after our likeness," declares at the very outset the distinction and pre-eminence of man above all the other creatures of the earth.
There are two important interpretive issues in this passage, the meaning of "us" and the meaning of "image and likeness."
This is the first of four passages in the Old Testament where a plural pronoun is found in connection with God.
Genesis 3:22 "like one of us" Genesis 11:7 "let us go down" Isaiah 6:8 "And who will go for us?"
Who is Elohim talking to?
God is talking to his heavenly court of angels, but is giving a divine announcement, not an invitation to participate. Angels can't create so it has to be just a divine announcement. The problem with this view is that the statement "let us make man in our image" is not an announcement but an invitation to participate in the creation of man. "Let us" is an invitation to participate in doing something together. In this case, it is the creation of man. Angels would then be invited to participate in the creation of man which is not taught anywhere in Scripture and inconsistent with the nature and role of angels taught in the Scriptures. In this view, man would also be made in the image of God and angels. Nowhere in Scripture is the image of God joined with angels. The phrase "our image" cannot include angels. The interpretation that it is simply an announcement to angels of what God is going to do cannot be sustained.
A second interpretation of this statement is that it is a "plural of majesty." In later times, a king spoke in the plural at times when talking about himself and what he would do. But this is much later in history and there is no example of this usage in the Scriptures. So, it has very weak evidence.
3. God is talking within the Trinity.
It is an Intertrinitarian conversation. It is not meant to teach the Trinity which is not fully revealed in the OT, but to foreshadow the Trinity as is done in other places in the OT.
Lange writes, "The OT does unfold the idea of a Trinity. That the Old Testament knows nothing of a divine tri-unity...is not true; yet the Trinitarian idea only unfolds itself germinally in the Old Testament, and here it had not yet come to its development." Lange, J. P., Schaff, P., Lewis, T., & Gosman, A. (2008). A commentary on the Holy Scriptures: Genesis (pp. 161-163). Bellingham, WA: Logos Bible Software.
This is the interpretation of the early church fathers.
Mathews writes, "The interpretation proposed by the Church Fathers and perpetuated by the Reformers was an intra-Trinity dialogue...Although the Christian Trinity cannot be derived solely from the use of the plural, a plurality within the unity of the Godhead may be derived from the passage." Mathews, K. A. (1996). Genesis 1-11:26 (Vol. 1A, pp. 162-163). Nashville: Broadman & Holman Publishers.
In Genesis 1:2, the Spirit of God is hovering over the waters of the deep. Surely, the presence of God's Spirit is hinting at the Trinitarian nature of God.In Job the Holy Spirit is given a central role in the creation.
Job may be the earliest book written in the OT. It most likely comes from the time of the Patriarchs. It shows that there was a clear understanding that the Spirit of God was involved in creation. So certainly, it can be understood from the context of Genesis 1 that in v.26 God is talking to his Spirit.
In the Gospel of John, the Son of God is given a central role in the creation.
John 1:1-3 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. 2He was in the beginning with God. 3All things were made through him, and without him was not any thing made that was made.
John is clearly indicating that at the beginning in Genesis 1, the Son of God was there with the Father and was the one who actually did the creating at the will of the Father.
So, we see the one God, Elohim, Father, Son, and Spirit creating the heavens and the earth in Genesis 1:1. In that verse, Elohim is in the plural noun form and is followed by a singular verb form. The noun "Elohim" hints at the Triune nature of God. God the Father initiated and directed his Son to create everything and the Son did it by speaking it into existence and the Spirit carried it out.
Why does God bring in this intertrinitarian dialogue at this time?
This is intimate language within the Triune God as they are about to create human beings who will have a relationship with them as God. The Triune God will be personally involved in the lives of these beings he creates.
Notice that the plural possessive "our image" in v. 26 and the singular pronoun "his image" in v. 27. Here the unity and plurality of God are in view.
I think this is the same for "Elohim." Elohim is likewise in the plural form. In Genesis 1:1, Elohim which is in the plural noun form is followed by a singular verb form. Elohim hints at the Triune nature of God.
These two words are used as synonyms in the OT. They are most likely used together for emphasis. But God does not define the image and likeness of God. We are left to discover its meaning.
I believe there are three aspects to the divine image of God in man.
1. It refers to the mental and spiritual faculties that man shares with God.
The image of God involves man's reason, personality, free-will, self-consciousness, intelligence, appreciation for beauty and aesthetics, morality, and the ability to communicate with language. This gives him the ability to have a relationship with God and with others.
2. It refers to man's ability to display the communicable attributes of God.
God made human beings with certain attributes that are like his attributes. These attributes are ones such as love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. All human beings can display these human attributes apart from having a relationship with God. However, for Christians God has promised that if we trust and submit to him and walk by his Spirit, he will empower us by his Spirit to display his love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control through our human attributes.
3. It refers to man's representation of God on the earth.
God's intent was for man to rule over the earth as his righteous representative. The very next verse purposefully describes this rule or dominion. In ancient times, the king was said to be in the "image of God." The king represented the god on earth and ruled as such.
Wenham writes, "That man is made in the divine image and is thus God's representative on earth was a common oriental view of the king. Both Egyptian and Assyrian texts describe the king as the image of God (see Ockinga, Dion, Bird). Furthermore, man is here bidden to rule and subdue the rest of creation, an obviously royal task (cf. 1 Kgs 5:4 [4:24], etc.), and Ps 8 speaks of man as having been created a little lower than the angels, crowned with glory and made to rule the works of God's hands. The allusions to the functions of royalty are quite clear in Ps 8. Another consideration suggesting that man is a divine representative on earth arises from the very idea of an image. Images of gods or kings were viewed as representatives of the deity or king. The divine spirit was often thought of as indwelling an idol, thereby creating a close unity between the god and his image (Clines, TB 19  81-83). Whereas Egyptian writers often spoke of kings as being in God's image, they never referred to other people in this way. It appears that the OT has democratized this old idea. It affirms that not just a king, but every man and woman, bears God's image and is his representative on earth." Wenham, G. J. (1998). Genesis 1-15 (Vol. 1, pp. 31-32). Dallas: Word, Incorporated.
v.26 "man" and "let them"
"Man" is used here generically for mankind. We know this because the verb "rule" is in the plural form and in v.27 he creates "man" as male and female.
v. 26 "And let them have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over the livestock and over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth."
Notice, that God commanded the earth to sprout forth vegetation (v.11) and bring forth animals (v.24), but God created man directly and then gave him dominion over the animals and the earth. This shows man's superior position above the animals and the earth.
Five categories of animals are mentioned: fish, birds, livestock/cattle, "over all the earth" (all other animals are implied in this phrase), and creeping things. This is the consequence of creating man in the image of God. God gives man rule and governance over all the creatures on the earth he has created. This is important to remember in a culture like ours that wants to equate animals with human beings or even exalt them over human beings.
V.27 is poetic language which is used for memorizing and acknowledging something important.
Cassuto writes, "The poetic structure of the sentence, its stately diction and its particular emotional quality attest the special importance that the Torah attributes to the making of man, the noblest of the creatures." Cassuto, U. (1998). A Commentary on the Book of Genesis: Part I, From Adam to Noah (Genesis I_VI 8). (I. Abrahams, Trans.) (p. 57). Jerusalem: The Magnes Press, The Hebrew University.
Notice a couple of very important truths here.
1. The male and female are equals before God. Both are created in the image of God.
2. Male and female are the only sexual identities created. God is defining sexual identity here and will again in Genesis 2. There are two sexes, male and female.
Mathews writes, "Them" also is found in 1:28, where procreation is its primary interest, obviously assuming the sexual differentiation of two persons, male and female. Hebrew terms for "male" (zakar) and "female" (neqeba), as opposed to man and woman, particularly express human sexuality (and animals; e.g., Gen 5:2; 6:19; 7:3, 9, 16)." Mathews, K. A. (1996). Genesis 1-11:26 (Vol. 1A, p. 173). Nashville: Broadman & Holman Publishers.
3. The male and female have the commandment to rule over the creatures of the earth.
Notice, that not only are both the male and female made in the image of God, but they are also given the mandate to rule over the creatures of the earth. However, as we will see, Genesis 2 will explain the role differentiation between them.
v.28 And God blessed them. And God said to them, "Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and subdue it, and have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over every living thing that moves on the earth."
I call this God's First Great Commission given to all human beings.
God created Adam and Eve and gave them a commission. This commission was given to them as the father and mother of human beings and is to be followed by all their descendants. That's everybody.
This commission gave them their meaning and purpose for living in the world God had created for them.
2. Subdue it and rule over it.
Ruling the earth is now added to ruling over the creatures of the earth. This means that they are to use the resources of the earth to meet the needs of humans. In other words, God is saying "Create civilization."
This means that they are to use the resources of the earth to meet the needs of humans. One example of this is using the wood from trees to build houses. We have been doing that for thousands of years and are still doing that today.
v. 28 and have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over every living thing that moves on the earth.
This statement is repetition for emphasis. God wants us to be fully aware of the authority God has given to human beings to rule over the earth he has created for their blessing. This dominion involves ruling over animals for the benefit of mankind and civilization. God gives man the authority to subdue livestock to help man farm the land. However, God does not mean to abuse animals under their authority.
v. 29 And God said, "Behold, I have given you every plant yielding seed that is on the face of all the earth, and every tree with seed in its fruit. You shall have them for food. v. 30 And to every beast of the earth and to every bird of the heavens and to everything that creeps on the earth, everything that has the breath of life, I have given every green plant for food." And it was so.
The original diet God ordained for man was primarily fruits, vegetables, and grains as well as dairy products as we will mention in Genesis 2. God provided for animals a wider diet of "every green plant." This provision for man and animals of a continual food supply from the rich resources of the earth God had made shows his incredible love and grace.
v. 29-30 "every" and "all"
These words emphasize the abundance of the food supply over all the earth. So, man and animals were originally vegetarians. Later in Genesis 9:3, after the flood God gave human beings the authority to eat animals.
1"And God blessed Noah and his sons and said to them, "Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth. 2The fear of you and the dread of you shall be upon every beast of the earth and upon every bird of the heavens, upon everything that creeps on the ground and all the fish of the sea. Into your hand they are delivered. 3Every moving thing that lives shall be food for you. And as I gave you the green plants, I give you everything. 4But you shall not eat flesh with its life, that is, its blood."
This means, that if a person wants to be a vegetarian that's fine. If a person wants to eat meat, that's fine. Neither are Biblically mandated as better than the other.
v. 31 "And God saw everything that he had made, and behold, it was very good. And there was evening and there was morning, the sixth day."
v.31 "It was very good."
God now looks at his whole creation and views its harmonious and wonderful environment for human beings and for all the animals he had made. For the first time, he says it was very good.
Could an old earth be called "very good"?
I wonder if God could have said the same thing, if the earth was millions of years old when man was created? Since animals cannot live for millions of years, there would have been death and decay during that time. How could God call that earth "very good"?
This is to me the real issue. The young v. old earth problem isn't solved by arguing about days, but stepping back and looking at the kind of world that God provided for mankind and Genesis 1 reveals. It reveals a generous provider of everything for human beings to have a blessed existence, a brand new earth filled with an abundant food supply from the ground, animals to make the earth beautiful and interesting and helpful for man, and so much more. It was a creation that God called very good. To me, an old earth just does not fit that revelation of God.
v. 1 "Thus the heavens and the earth were finished, and all the host of them."
This is a powerful statement. The heavens and the earth are now complete. The supernatural creative action of God is complete. So, before the seventh day begins, all of creation has been completed. The laws of physics have now been fully established by God and are in place and have been ever since.
The phrase "and all the host of them" refers to everything God has made that now inhabits the heavens and the earth.
v.2 "And on the seventh day God finished his work that he had done, and he rested on the seventh day from all his work that he had done."
v.2 "And on the seventh day God finished his work that he had done"
Moses repeats this to emphasize that all that God intended to create, he created in those six days. There is now no need for God to work at creation.
v.2 "and he rested on the seventh day from all his work that he had done."
The Hebrew word translated "rest" literally means "abstain from work" that is, "not to do work."
It does not mean to stop working or to "relax, refresh oneself, or recover strength." It simply means, God did not work on the seventh day.
So, on the seventh day God does not do the work of creation because it was finished on the sixth day. As I said, when the work of creation was finished, the laws of physics were set in motion and they applied to the whole universe.
v.2 on the seventh day from all his work that he had done.
Again, Moses states and repeats the finishing of God's work. The message is clear. Creation is finished and completed. God does not work on the seventh day because he has accomplished everything he wanted to accomplish. What we see today in the universe is a result of the previous six days of creation.
Also, notice that God's creative activity is called "work." This gives honor to the idea of man working. God created work and he did work and we should do work. But on the seventh day he did not work and on the seventh day we should not work.
The Hebrew verb translated "rest" has the same root as the noun Sabbath, but the day here is not called "the Sabbath," nor does God institute the Sabbath here. However, God does establish the seventh day as a holy day. When God established the Sabbath at the time of Moses, the Jews already observed the seventh day as holy. God was establishing a deeper meaning and significance for his people as they became a nation, his nation, Israel. The use of "Elohim" in v.2 rather than "Yahweh" signifies that this is to be followed by all mankind. God is establishing the seven-day week, consisting of the six-day work week and a seventh day of no work.
v. 3 "So God blessed the seventh day and made it holy, because on it God rested from all his work that he had done in creation."
v.3 "So God blessed the seventh day"
God's blessing means that he will bless those who keep the seventh day as a day when they don't work and take time to worship God.
v. 3 "and made it holy"
"Holy" means "sacred, set apart for God."
Consecration in the Old Testament meant designating or setting aside persons, places, and things that were considered sacred because of their relationship to or possession by the Lord, who is holy. It was a sacred day set apart as a memorial to remember what God the Creator gave to all human beings. It was to be a day of thanksgiving for all that God had blessed man with in his creation.
When Cain and Abel brought their offerings to the Lord in Genesis 4 it was most likely on the seventh day.
Notice also, there is no evening and morning. Remember we saw that the evening and morning was the interval between one day and another. If the Lord had stated, "and there was evening and there was morning a seventh day," it would have led logically to an eighth day or a return to Day 1 of a second week. That would break down the pattern he was setting of the seven-day week and create confusion.

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