Monthly Archives: January 2024

The Flood, Genesis 6,7,8

In our study of the foundations of the gospel, as seen through the book of Genesis, we come today to the story of the flood. As you know, I usually preach verse by verse, chapter by chapter. However, today I am going to try to cover the material found in three chapters of Genesis. If I were to use my usual approach, it would take several messages to cover this event. I don’t think I want to approach it that way, and so I hope to be able to give a summary of the three chapters in one message today.

But before we really begin to dig into the text, which by the way is one of the Genesis texts met with the most skepticism by critics, second only to the creation account, I would like you to consider what Jesus had to say about it. In response to the disciples question of “when will these things take place,” speaking of the end of the age, Jesus responds in Matthew 24:37-39 “For the coming of the Son of Man will be just like the days of Noah. For as in those days before the flood they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, until the day that Noah entered the ark, and they did not understand until the flood came and took them all away; so will the coming of the Son of Man be.”

Every indication in Jesus’s answer is that the flood was an actual, historical event, that not only really happened, but also serves as a foreshadowing of the second coming at end of the age. Now concerning the time of Noah, in Moses’ account in Genesis 6 vs 5 he says, “Then the LORD saw that the wickedness of man was great on the earth, and that every intent of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually.”

This is a description of the society of man in the days of Noah, and I believe it is also an indication of the society of man in the last days when the Lord Jesus returns. And I would suggest, that we are living in those last days at this very moment. God said in his critique of the days of Noah that He would not strive with man forever, but the length of his days would be 120 years. Many scholars consider God to be saying that He would allow 120 years for Noah to preach righteousness and repentance before their destruction came. If we are indeed living in the last days, we have no idea how many more years we may have been given before the wrath of God comes upon the world. But we can be certain that God has set a time limit.

Peter said in 2Peter 3:3-9 “Know this first of all, that in the last days mockers will come with [their] mocking, following after their own lusts, and saying, “Where is the promise of His coming? For [ever] since the fathers fell asleep, all continues just as it was from the beginning of creation.” For when they maintain this, it escapes their notice that by the word of God [the] heavens existed long ago and [the] earth was formed out of water and by water, through which the world at that time was destroyed, being flooded with water. But by His word the present heavens and earth are being reserved for fire, kept for the day of judgment and destruction of ungodly men. But do not let this one [fact] escape your notice, beloved, that with the Lord one day is like a thousand years, and a thousand years like one day. The Lord is not slow about His promise, as some count slowness, but is patient toward you, not wishing for any to perish but for all to come to repentance.”

So Peter said the first judgment and destruction of the earth and it’s inhabitants was by the waters of the flood. But the second judgment and destruction of the earth and it’s inhabitants will be by fire. But in both cases, God does not wish for any to perish, but for all to come to repentance. However, though the patience of God waits, He will not wait forever. God has set a time limit, and one day the door will be shut, and the wrath of God will be poured out. And then it will be too late for repentance.

Now in Noah’s age there were some things in particular that precipitated God’s judgment. Chapter 6 vs 1 describes one of those things. “Now it came about, when men began to multiply on the face of the land, and daughters were born to them, that the sons of God saw that the daughters of men were beautiful; and they took wives for themselves, whomever they chose. Then the LORD said, “My Spirit shall not strive with man forever, because he also is flesh; nevertheless his days shall be one hundred and twenty years.” The Nephilim were on the earth in those days, and also afterward, when the sons of God came in to the daughters of men, and they bore [children] to them. Those were the mighty men who [were] of old, men of renown. Then the LORD saw that the wickedness of man was great on the earth, and that every intent of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually. The LORD was sorry that He had made man on the earth, and He was grieved in His heart. The LORD said, “I will blot out man whom I have created from the face of the land, from man to animals to creeping things and to birds of the sky; for I am sorry that I have made them.”

During these days of rapid population expansion (due not only to procreation but because of long lifespans in the pre-flood world), there was an exponential expansion of evil caused by the ungodly intermarriage between the sons of God and the daughters of men. The sons of God most probably indicates angelic creatures, which in this case were fallen angels, demons that somehow took upon themselves the form of man. We know of many times in scripture that angels appeared as men. And so they would seem to have the ability to take on human form, and in this case, they took on human form because they desired sexual union with human women, referred to as the daughters of men. There are other possible interpretations of what that could be talking about, but I believe this one is most validated in scripture.

For instance, Jude speaks in vs 6 of the angels who did not keep their own domain, but abandoned their proper abode. Jude goes on in vs7 to tell us just as Sodom and Gomorrah and the cities around them, since they in the same way as these indulged in gross immorality and went after strange flesh. So here in Genesis 6, as in Sodom and Gomorrah, there was an unnatural sexual union, demons going after the strange flesh of women.

Jude 6 also makes it clear what God did with these wicked angels. They are kept in everlasting chains under darkness for the judgment of the great day for not keeping their proper place. The demonic purpose in this sexual union was to bring about an unredeemable race. To corrupt the human race through whom the promised Messiah would come, and thus prevent the seed of the woman prophesied in the Garden from appearing as the means to crush Satan’s head.

In 1 Peter 3:19-20 it says during the three days Jesus was in the grave, He, in the Spirit, went to these disobedient spirits in their prison and proclaimed His victory on the cross over them. But in Genesis 6, God pronounced destruction upon the entire human race, because they had given themselves over to that corruption. He says I will not strive with man forever, but his days shall be 120 years. Some have erroneously concluded from that that man would live to be no more than 120 years old. But a better reading is that God was forecasting that man had 120 years left before the destruction of the human race.

Peter refers to that 120 years as the patience of God kept waiting in the days of Noah, not wishing that any should perish, but all should come to repentance. Peter also says in 2 Peter 2:5 that Noah was a preacher of righteousness. So during this 120 years that Noah build the ark, in some way or another he was also preaching about righteousness and the judgement to come, calling people to repentence.

Now this union between the daughters of men and the demonic spirits seems to have produced an offspring which are called the Nephalim. The KJV translates that as giants. And that is one possible translation. However, it also can just mean fallen ones. My thinking is that they may have not been giants, but fallen in the sense that they were unredeemable, as are the demonic spirits, and had they been allowed to continue to breed, the entire human race would have eventually become a demonic half breed that presumably would be unredeemable.
I also don’t think that they actually had to have been giants, but it might indicate they had supernatural strength. Much like the demoniac whom Jesus healed had supernatural strength, or the one demon that beat up the seven sons of Sceva had supernatural strength. We know from scripture that is one common characteristic of some demon possessed people, and it’s likely that it was also true of these creatures. Moses says they were men of renown, that indicates superior prowess, or strength.

But just as demonic activity was a characteristic of the days of Noah, in like manner, we should expect to see more demonic activity, and even an embracing of the doctrines of demons in the last days, which I think has certainly already begun in our day. But in any respect, the evil of man exploded exponentially in those early days. Wickedness begets more wickedness and evil begets more evil. Adam and Eve sinned what seemed an innocuous sin, but they beget a murderer in their son Cain, and from the line of Cain came Lamech, who boasted, “For I have killed a man for wounding me; And a boy for striking me.” Violence and evil metastasized on the earth until every thought and intent of man’s heart was only evil continually. And God was sorry that He had made man. I think that refers to God grieving over man’s condition.

But Noah found grace in the eyes of the LORD: While God commanded all the earth to be cleansed of this corruption, He found one man with whom to begin again: Noah, who found grace in the eyes of the LORD. Noah didn’t earn grace; he received grace. No one earns grace, but we can all find grace if we turn to the Lord.

Vs 9 says, Noah was a righteous man, blameless in his time; Noah walked with God. This description of Noah not only refers to the righteous life of Noah, but also to the fact he was uncorrupted by Satan’s attempt to sow something like a virus among the genetic pool of mankind. And his three sons will be used by God to repopulate the earth after the flood.

Vs 11 Now the earth was corrupt in the sight of God, and the earth was filled with violence. God looked on the earth, and behold, it was corrupt; for all flesh had corrupted their way upon the earth. Then God said to Noah, “The end of all flesh has come before Me; for the earth is filled with violence because of them; and behold, I am about to destroy them with the earth.” We have already said that evil had spread on the earth so that everything was corrupted. Now we read God’s pronouncement of judgment. All flesh, man and beast, will be destroyed. The same is prophesied for the end of the ages. Only at the end of the age it will be by fire, but God will preserve a remnant, who will repopulate the new heavens and the new earth which comes down out of heaven. Let us not diminish or ignore the wrath of God against sin. God must act in judgement against evil, and He has promised it, and we ignore it to our own peril.

So we all have heard the story of Noah and the ark. We need not belabor it. Many have questioned how an ark could possibly hold all the creatures of the earth. I’m not going to spend time trying to defend that this morning. I would recommend that you go to see the Ark Encounter in Williamstown, Kentucky where there is a life sized reconstruction of the ark. I would also encourage you to explore a website called Answers in Genesis which has many articles and videos on the flood and other aspects of Creation which are scientifically based, which can answer many of your questions.

I did, however, read somewhere that the average size of a land animal is smaller than a sheep. The ark could carry 136,560 sheep in just half of its capacity, leaving plenty of room for people, food, water, and whatever other provisions were needed. But I think ultimately, believing is not a matter of science, but of faith. However, just because it is by faith, does not mean that it is the opposite of science. But it means that you need to seek out alternative views of science as opposed to evolution. And personally, I think you need more faith to believe In evolution than to believe in creation.

Hebrews 11:7 says, “By faith Noah, being warned [by God] about things not yet seen, in reverence prepared an ark for the salvation of his household, by which he condemned the world, and became an heir of the righteousness which is according to faith.” Genesis 6 vs 22 says, “Thus Noah did; according to all that God had commanded him, so he did.” Faith is obedience to what God has said. Faith is not just an intellectual assent. And by faith comes righteousness as the grace of God. The ark then is a metaphor for salvation by grace through faith.

Chapter 7:1 “Then the LORD said to Noah, “Enter the ark, you and all your household, for you [alone] I have seen [to be] righteous before Me in this time.” After preaching for 120 years, Noah has only 7 converts. He makes me feel a little better about my own efforts at preaching for the last 17 years, I suppose. But only slightly. But it is a sad commentary on the human condition, that man will not repent, but continue to harden his heart to his own damnation.

So God caused all the animals to come into the ark. We see even today evidence of the migratory patterns that animals and birds can travel great distances as if some unknown force were directing them. So in some similar fashion God caused the animals to come to the ark. Some have surmised that once in the ark God may have caused a deep sleep to fall upon many of the animals, similar to hibernation. That’s supposition, but it’s a possible explanation of how they might have survived being on board the ark for so long. But what follows is perhaps one of the most tragic statements in the Bible which is found in 7:16, “and the LORD closed it (that is the door of the ark) behind him.”

Vs 10-12 “It came about after the seven days, that the water of the flood came upon the earth.” You talk about a test of faith. Noah had been preaching and building the ark for 120 years, and now when God brings them all in the ark, He makes them wait for seven more days in there before the rain began. Imagine what that felt like. Imagine hearing people outside knocking on the walls of the ark and laughing at the fools inside.

Then in Vs. 11 In the six hundredth year of Noah’s life, in the second month, on the seventeenth day of the month, on the same day all the fountains of the great deep burst open, and the floodgates of the sky were opened. The rain fell upon the earth for forty days and forty nights.” So not only did the firmament above break open and pour down rain but the waters under the earth burst open. And it continued to rain for 40 days and 40 nights. The text goes on to say that the tops of the mountains were covered by 15 cubits, which works out to be 22.5 feet. Mt. Everest is 29000 feet tall. Incredible to think of that much water and the pressure that caused upon the earth.

Vs21-24 “All flesh that moved on the earth perished, birds and cattle and beasts and every swarming thing that swarms upon the earth, and all mankind; of all that was on the dry land, all in whose nostrils was the breath of the spirit of life, died. Thus He blotted out every living thing that was upon the face of the land, from man to animals to creeping things and to birds of the sky, and they were blotted out from the earth; and only Noah was left, together with those that were with him in the ark. The water prevailed upon the earth one hundred and fifty days.

You know one thing that I will suggest is that the fossil record, upon which so much scientific theory rests, can be explained best by the flood. I’m not a geologist, but I can tell you that if you bury a bone in the ground in your backyard, and dig it up 500 years from now, you will not find a fossil. You probably won’t find a bone either. It will simply deteriorate. Dust to dust. But in a cataclysmic event such as the flood, when vast amounts of earth is turned to sludge and mud and rapidly covers what used to be life, and then compressed by millions of tons of water, then you will find some fossil remains in that hardened sediment. And the fact that you find such all over the world, and fossils of fish and shells in the middle of the desert, or on the sides of mountains, are to me at least, evidence of a world wide flood as described in the Bible. I think it also accounts for a dramatic climate change upon the earth as evidenced by drilling in the Arctic tundra, which shows signs of a once tropical landscape far beneath the ice.

But as I said, other Creation websites and books can better give scientific evidence for these things than I can. I am going to try to finish the account and expound whatever spiritual principles that we can glean from the text and leave the science for others that are better qualified to explain it.

But I will repeat a quote by Charles Haddon Spurgeon who said, “Noah underwent burial to all the old things that he might come out into a new world, and even so we die in Christ that we may live with him.”

So in chapter 8, God remembered Noah and He caused the caused a wind to pass over the earth, and the water subsided. Also the fountains of the deep and the floodgates of the sky were closed, and the rain from the sky was restrained; and the water receded steadily from the earth, and at the end of one hundred and fifty days the water decreased. In the seventh month, on the seventeenth day of the month, the ark rested upon the mountains of Ararat. Mt. Ararat is in Turkey, about 16,800 feet above sea level, by the way.

And there is much historical evidence for the ark coming to rest there. in 275 b.c., Berosus, a Babylonian historian, wrote: “But of this ship that grounded in Armenia some part still remains in the mountains… and some get pitch from the ship by scraping it off.” Around a.d. 75, Josephus said the locals collected relics from the ark and showed them off to this very day. He also said all the ancient historians he knew of wrote about the ark. And in a.d. 180, Theophilus of Antioch wrote: “the remains [of the ark] are to this day to be seen… in the mountains.”

When the ark rested on the mountain, Noah eventually goes to the one window which is high up on the ark and releases a raven. The raven is a scavenger, and doesn’t come back to the ark. Then Noah sends out a dove, and the dove comes back because it can’t find a dry place to land. Then after another week, he sent out he dove again, and she came back with an olive leaf in her beak. Much significance has been given to the dove being a sign of peace, and an olive leaf being a sign of healing. And that may be true. But Noah knew that the earth was drying up, and that life on earth was being renewed.

Noah had entered the ark on the seventeenth day of the second month of the six hundredth year of his life. So this is almost a full year later, and in the second month of his six hundred and first year Noah left the ark. It seems he was in the ark a full calendar year. But what I like about the text is that Noah opened the door and saw the earth was dry, and yet he waited almost two months until God told him to go before he left the ark. Noah really and truly walked with God. He didn’t lead and God followed. He didn’t lean on his own understanding. He waited upon the Lord for every decision. That’s a pretty good example for our walk of faith. Don’t rely upon your reason, upon your common sense. Seek the Lord and wait on the Lord in every circumstance.

Vs20 Then Noah built an altar to the LORD, and took of every clean animal and of every clean bird and offered burnt offerings on the altar. The LORD smelled the soothing aroma; and the LORD said to Himself, “I will never again curse the ground on account of man, for the intent of man’s heart is evil from his youth; and I will never again destroy every living thing, as I have done. While the earth remains, Seedtime and harvest, And cold and heat, And summer and winter, And day and night Shall not cease.”

Noah’s first act after leaving the ark was to worship God through sacrifice. His gratitude and reverence of God’s greatness led him to worship God. It’s ironic though that after all the death and destruction were seemingly over, the first thing Noah does is to kill some of the animals that had been preserved with them on the ark. But as is the nature of true sacrifice, this was a costly offering unto God. It’s also a picture of the innocent dying in place of the guilty. Only by the sacrifice of the innocent Jesus Christ on behalf of we that are guilty are we made at peace with God.

Spurgeon said, “The sacrifice is the turning-point. Without a sacrifice sin clamors for vengeance, and God sends a destroying flood; but the sacrifice presented by Noah was a type of the coming sacrifice of God’s only begotten Son, and of the effectual atonement therein provided for human sin.”

Paul says in Romans that having been saved from the judgment to come we are to present a sacrifice as well, dying to sin, and living by faith. Rom 12:1-2 “Therefore I urge you, brethren, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies a living and holy sacrifice, acceptable to God, [which is] your spiritual service of worship. And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, so that you may prove what the will of God is, that which is good and acceptable and perfect.”

I hope that you have trusted in Christ by faith, dying to sin, that through Christ you might be saved from the condemnation of death, and being transformed into a new creation, so that you may be described as Noah, as a righteous man, blameless in his time; who walked with God.

The Fall of Man, Genesis 3:1-21

Contrary to the prevailing, popular opinion, the creation account is not mythology. It is not an allegory. It’s an actual, historical account which is spoken of as such numerous times in the New Testament, and by Jesus Christ Himself. I am not going to spend a lot of time trying to defend the historicity of the account in Genesis then, but rather try to expound on the historical facts to relate the relevancy and repercussions of the fall to our lives today.

Moses begins by introducing a new character, one he simply calls the serpent. And considering the importance of this figure in the saga of human existence, it’s amazing that he doesn’t elaborate more. But he simply says in vs 1, “Now the serpent was more crafty than any beast of the field which the LORD God had made.”

I’m sure you have seen many paintings and depictions of the temptation of Adam and Eve, and the serpent is usually pictured as a kind of beguiling, almost cartoonish snake that is in a rather upright position. I think that is somewhat misleading. The Hebrew word for serpent is “nahas”, and one of the possible interpretations of that word is a dragon. Now I know that may sound even more improbable to you than a talking snake, but I believe there is ample evidence that there were dragons in the world before and after the flood, and possibly even until the middle ages. Practically every ancient culture has paintings of dragons dating back hundreds of years, and no matter how isolated they might have been from other cultures, the representations all look very similar.

Theologically it makes little difference if it’s a snake or a dragon, but I believe that the Bible speaks often, especially in Revelation, of the dragon as a symbol of Satan. Furthermore, the Bible describes dragons in various places with terms and descriptions that can really not be concluded to be anything else. So I believe that this serpent is a dragon. You can believe what you want.

Moses says the serpent was more crafty than any beast of the field. I don’t necessarily think that this is speaking of the dragon, per se, but it’s a reference to Satan. Satan is a spirit, like all angels are spirits. And we know that demons or Satan can take possession of a human body. So in this event, it would seem that Satan himself had possessed the body of a dragon, and thus was more crafty than any beast of the field. Crafty can also be interpreted as cunning, or shrewd, but all are used in a bad sense.

But that’s about all that Moses has to say about the serpent. Although the ensuing dialogue between the serpent and Eve reveals more about the nature of Satan. But we are not told where he came from. He just appears on the scene. Moses says that he is more shrewd than all the animals that God created, which indicates that God made all creatures, even the dragon, and by extension, even the angels.

I don’t want to get sidetracked here on demonology but I will point out that nowhere in the creation account is there a mention of God creating angels. You could say that possibly in the creation of the stars there could be an allusion to angels. And so possibly the angels were created with the stars. However, I don’t think that is what is implied there, as it specifically says that the stars were lights in the heavens. That would seem to be a reference to actual stars, not angels. And furthermore, I find it hard to believe the Creator God did nothing for billions and billions of years until suddenly one week He created everything that exists, everything in the spiritual realm, and everything in the physical realm.

Furthermore, I think that the Biblical description of the fall of Satan from heaven in Isaiah 14 probably speaks of an event that predates Creation by a considerable amount of time. But that is supposition on my part, however I think there is some evidence for that theory. Moses however, doesn’t really introduce Satan, because I think Satan was already in existence. Satan had already fallen from heaven and taken 1/3 of the angels with him. And I think that Satan and his angels had been exiled to earth which prior to creation was a dark, formless and void, water covered lump of coal floating in space. And so upon creation Satan’s goal was to destroy God’s creation, especially the object of God’s love, which is man.

So Satan’s strategy then towards that end is revealed in the next couple of verses. And he said to the woman, “Indeed, has God said, ‘You shall not eat from any tree of the garden’?” Notice that Satan grossly exaggerates God’s prohibition. God had said you shall not eat of one tree in the garden. Satan says, “Has God said you cannot eat from any tree of the garden?” I also think that his starting with the word “Indeed!” Is a type of mockery. It’s like someone saying “Really?!! Are you kidding me?”

So Satan mocks the word of God. And he questions the word of God. Satan’s strategy has not changed today. He still questions the word of God. “Does it really mean that?? Are you seriously thinking that God meant that?”And by questioning God’s word, he gives Eve an opportunity to defend God. But for some reason, Eve ends up exaggerating as well. Vs 2 The woman said to the serpent, “From the fruit of the trees of the garden we may eat; but from the fruit of the tree which is in the middle of the garden, God has said, ‘You shall not eat from it or touch it, or you will die.’” God never said you could not touch it. He said you shall not eat from it. Adding to the word of God or taking away from the word of God is just another way to rebel against God’s word. But we will give Eve the benefit of the doubt, and say that was an innocent mistake on her part.

But now the serpent moves from mocking God’s word, to questioning God’s word, to exaggerating God’s word, and then to flat out lying. Vs 4 The serpent said to the woman, “You surely will not die!” Satan says that God isn’t telling the truth when He said that you will surely die. God is just trying to be a kill joy. Satan is saying that there will not be any consequences to sin. This is still the strategy that Satan employs today. Questions God’s word. Twists God’s word. And flat out lies and denies God’s word.

Jesus said to the Pharisees in John 8:44 that Satan was a liar and the father of lies. “You are of [your] father the devil, and you want to do the desires of your father. He was a murderer from the beginning, and does not stand in the truth because there is no truth in him. Whenever he speaks a lie, he speaks from his own [nature,] for he is a liar and the father of lies.”

So basically Satan promises that they will not die, and furthermore that God isn’t telling the truth. He is promising that there will not be any repercussions from disobedience. You know, you could argue that Adam and Eve did not know death, and so they did not really understand the full ramifications of death. But even if that were true, that does not excuse them.

This also eliminates another common excuse for man’s sin today, which is that man is a product of their environment. That a person is not really responsible for their sin because they are just a product of a bad environment. Adam and Eve lived in a perfect environment. They needed nothing. Everything God created was good. And yet they still sinned against God. The truth is, that man will do whatever he thinks he can get away with. If there is no punishment, then there is nothing to stop man from choosing to sin.

Then to Satan’s denial of God’s word with an outright lie, he adds another layer of deception, which was to demean the character of God. He says in vs5 “For God knows that in the day you eat from it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.” So not only are there no repercussions from doing evil, but Satan says that there is a blessing in it that God doesn’t want you to enjoy.

And this is really a multifaceted deception. First he says your eyes will be opened and you will be like God. Isn’t that a good thing? Aren’t we told in scripture that we are to be conformed to the image of Christ? So it would seem that it would be a good thing to be like God. As far as knowing good and evil, the devil seems to be saying that God knows good and evil, and it’s not a bad thing. God is trying to withhold something from you that is good, that is pleasurable. God is actually then not good, because He is trying to control you and keep you from having fun, or having some good thing.

In all of this temptation and dialogue, Eve is beginning to question God’s goodness. The very nature of God is what is being decided here by Eve. She begins to think that she knows better than God what is good or right. It looks good to eat to her. It is desirable in that it makes you like God. It seems right in her eyes. It will make her smarter, wiser. And the devil’s suggestions and lies reinforce to her the rightness of her thinking.

Then comes the most fateful, tragic statement in the entirety of human history. Vs. 6 “When the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was a delight to the eyes, and that the tree was desirable to make [one] wise, she took from its fruit and ate; and she gave also to her husband with her, and he ate.”

Sin is rebellion against God’s word. 1John 2:16 defines that rebellion; “For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh and the lust of the eyes and the boastful pride of life, is not from the Father, but is from the world.” Eve’s sin covered all three characteristics of sin. The lust of the flesh; she saw that the tree was good for food. The lust of the eyes; she saw that it was a delight to the eyes. And the pride of life; she saw that it was desirable to make one wise.

And so it met her criteria. So she took of the fruit and ate. We don’t know what the fruit looked like. It may have been an apple, it may have been something else. But it looked good, and I’m sure it tasted good. The Bible says that sin is pleasurable for a season. But the end thereof is death. Getting drunk is fun for a little while. Having immoral sex is fun for a few minutes. Eating of the forbidden fruit tasted good for as long as it lasted.

You know, when I was taught this story growing up, I was always under the impression that Adam was off working somewhere in the garden and Eve was on her own. But if you notice vs 6, “she gave also to her husband with her, and he ate.” The indication in scripture is that Adam was with Eve when she was being lied to and tempted by the serpent. Now what that means I’m not sure. But if it is true, it is much more damning to Adam than I originally thought. Because if he was there, then he abrogated his responsibility of headship in the marriage to Eve, and let the devil take advantage of her. He heard everything, and yet did not defend her or God.

There was obviously some reason that Satan picked Eve and not Adam to go after. I’m not sure what that reason is, but in some way, Satan must have believed that she would be more vulnerable to his strategy. And Adam, poor guy, he couldn’t see anything but his love for Eve. Eve may have been seduced by the serpent, but Adam was seduced by Eve. Adam was willing to sacrifice anything for her, including his life. Paul says in 1Ti 2:14 “And [it was] not Adam [who] was deceived, but the woman being deceived, fell into transgression.”

But make no mistake, both sinned. Hers was a sin of initiative. His was a sin of acquiescence. Eve was deceived, but Adam sinned with his eyes wide open. But when they ate of the fruit, then their eyes were opened to carnal knowledge. They knew good and evil. But not as God knew good and evil. Someone explained it this way. God knew evil the way a surgeon knows cancer. He knows it intellectually. The patient though knows cancer experientially. And that is an important distinction. Knowing good and evil did not make them like God. It made them evil. Sin is a cancer that metastasizes quickly, spreading from one little act into a way of thinking and decisions that are in opposition to God.

And with sin comes shame. Vs.7, “Then the eyes of both of them were opened, and they knew that they were naked; and they sewed fig leaves together and made themselves loin coverings.” The knowledge of their sinfulness made them aware of their nakedness. That wasn’t a problem before their sin, but sin opened their eyes to their sinfulness and brought shame.

The solution to their shame though wasn’t to turn to God and seek forgiveness. But it was to try to cover up their sinfulness. I’m reminded of David’s sin with Bathsheba, and how he tried to cover up his sin, by having her husband killed. Sin begets sin. And even when we try to hide our sin, then we err even more.

Adam and Eve looked for the largest leaves they could find, which happened to be fig leaves, and sewed them together to make loin cloths for themselves. We can just imagine that wasn’t sufficient. Our efforts to cover our sin, to make amends for our sins are never enough. God sees the heart. Fig leaves don’t make any difference to God. What you do behind closed doors is not hidden from God. What you whisper in the ear is heard by God. What a man thinks in his heart is known by God.

Heb 4:13 “And there is no creature hidden from His sight, but all things are open and laid bare to the eyes of Him with whom we have to do.” And yet how many times do we think we have gotten away with our sin because no one saw it. And how often we think because there is no immediate punishment then God doesn’t really care.

But God does care. He cared for Adam and Eve. And He came to them to hold them accountable. Vs 8, “They heard the sound of the LORD God walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and the man and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the LORD God among the trees of the garden.”

The indication from the original language is that the Lord was in the habit of walking in the evening to fellowship with Adam and Eve. Another interesting thing is that they heard the sound of the Lord walking. So this would be a physical manifestation of the Lord. That’s what is known as a theophany, a pre-incarnate appearance of Christ.

But rather than running to meet the Lord, Adam and Eve run from the Lord and try to hide. Imagine, running from the only One who can help them. Vs 9 Then the LORD God called to the man, and said to him, “Where are you?” This is the cry of an anguished Father. Of course God knew where they were already. But He wanted them to recognize where they were. They weren’t in fellowship with God. They were hiding from God. They were running from the Lord.

God was giving them an opportunity to see where they were, to see that they had sinned, to repent, to come to Him in repentance. God was initiating their restoration, as He does in our salvation. He comes to seek and to save those that are lost. And thank God for it. Because in our foolishness and sinfulness and blindness, we tend to run from the only One who can help us.

So Adam answers God’s question. Vs 10 He said, “I heard the sound of You in the garden, and I was afraid because I was naked; so I hid myself.” And [God] said, “Who told you that you were naked? Have you eaten from the tree of which I commanded you not to eat?” The man said, “The woman whom You gave [to be] with me, she gave me from the tree, and I ate.” Then the LORD God said to the woman, “What is this you have done?” And the woman said, “The serpent deceived me, and I ate.”

Sin made Adam afraid of God’s presence and afraid of God’s voice. Ever since Adam, men run from God’s presence and don’t want to listen to His Word. God knew the answer to this question of who told you that you were naked? He asked it because He wanted Adam to make the best of a tragic situation by repenting right then and there, but Adam didn’t come clean and repent before God.

Instead, good old chivalrous Adam blamed his sin on his wife. And notice actually he blames God for giving him Eve for his wife. A few minutes earlier, Adam was willing to rebel against God and even die for the sake of being with his wife. Now that his eyes are opened to evil, he turns against his wife and blames her for his sin, and also by extension blames God for giving her to him. You talk about falling from grace. Part of Adam’s punishment is going to be that he has to live for 900 or so years with this woman that he has just maligned. I’m sure he never heard the end of that.

Of course I’m kidding, but it does reveal how drastically Adam’s nature changed immediately after the fall. And that is what we inherit from Adam. We don’t inherit from Adam that particular sin, but the sin nature that comes from rebellion against God. And then notice that Eve blames the serpent. Like Flip Wilson used to say, “the devil made me do it.” She didn’t want to accept the blame either. But she does admit that she ate of the tree.

So sin brings the curse. First the curse is given to the serpent. vs14 The LORD God said to the serpent, “Because you have done this, Cursed are you more than all cattle, And more than every beast of the field; On your belly you will go, And dust you will eat All the days of your life; And I will put enmity between you and the woman, And between your seed and her seed; He shall bruise you on the head, And you shall bruise him on the heel.”

It would seem that God actually curses the serpent or the dragon. In some way, the dragon must have been complicit in it’s part in the temptation by Satan. He would no longer be upright, but be on his belly. And the serpent would be hated by men. I believe that tends to be generally true of snakes, but I suppose it was also true of dragons, to the point that they were hunted until they became extinct.

The second part of the curse is directed against Satan himself. God placed a natural animosity between Satan and mankind. Enmity has the idea of ill will, hatred, and a mutual antagonism. Satan’s hatred of man was already in effect — but now man will, generally speaking, have antagonism towards Satan. But especially, the second Adam, who is Jesus Christ, would be against Satan, and defeat Satan, and will one day destroy him by throwing him into the lake of fire.

God says to Satan concerning the seed of the woman, “He shall bruise your head, and you shall bruise His heel.” In this, God prophesies the doom of Satan, showing that the real battle is between Satan and the Seed of the Woman. There is no doubt this is a prophecy of Jesus’ ultimate defeat of Satan. God announced that Satan would wound the Messiah (you shall bruise His heel), but the Messiah would crush Satan with a mortal wound (He shall bruise your head). In this statement, God was announcing His plan of salvation for man, to bring deliverance through the one called the Seed of the woman.

This prophecy also gives the first hint of the virgin birth, declaring the Messiah — the Deliverer — would be of the Seed of the Woman, but not the seed of the man. Because through Adam, the first man, the sin nature was passed on. Romans 5:12 “Therefore, just as through one man sin entered into the world, and death through sin, and so death spread to all men, because all sinned.” So by Adam the sin nature is inherited, thus by the virgin birth Christ did not possess the sin nature. He was the spotless, sinless, Lamb of God who was slain for our sins, and by His death He took the sting of death away. Heb 2:14-15 Therefore, since the children share in flesh and blood, He Himself likewise also partook of the same, that through death He might render powerless him who had the power of death, that is, the devil, 15 and might free those who through fear of death were subject to slavery all their lives.

God prophesying Satan’s defeat when the devil had seemingly won the victory shows God that knew what He was doing all along. God’s plan wasn’t defeated when Adam and Eve sinned because God’s plan was to bring forth something greater than man in the innocence of Eden. God wanted more than innocent man; His plan was to bring forth redeemed man.

Then God cursed the man and the woman. vs16-19 To the woman He said, “I will greatly multiply Your pain in childbirth, In pain you will bring forth children; Yet your desire will be for your husband, And he will rule over you.” Then to Adam He said, “Because you have listened to the voice of your wife, and have eaten from the tree about which I commanded you, saying, ‘You shall not eat from it’; Cursed is the ground because of you; In toil you will eat of it All the days of your life. “Both thorns and thistles it shall grow for you; And you will eat the plants of the field; By the sweat of your face You will eat bread, Till you return to the ground, Because from it you were taken; For you are dust, And to dust you shall return.”

These curses show that God did not ever intend that immediately upon eating the fruit that they would die. But as I said last week, what died immediately was their spirit, that essence of their being that would have fellowship with God, that could worship God. Physically, they would eventually die, but in Adam’s case it was 930 years later. That seems like forever to us, but in actuality it was but a day in light of eternity. But in the process of living until that death, God multiplied hardships upon the man and the woman and in fact, cursed the earth. All of creation became under the curse of sin.

Romans 8:20-22 “For the creation was subjected to futility, not willingly, but because of Him who subjected it, in hope that the creation itself also will be set free from its slavery to corruption into the freedom of the glory of the children of God. For we know that the whole creation groans and suffers the pains of childbirth together until now.” So in effect, both Adam and Eve’s curse was applied to the earth itself in some measure.

Vs20 Now the man called his wife’s name Eve, because she was the mother of all [the] living. The LORD God made garments of skin for Adam and his wife, and clothed them.” Adam named her Eve, even though she was not a mother at all at the time. She was not even pregnant yet. Adam named her in faith, trusting God would bring forth a deliverer from the woman because God said He would defeat Satan through the Seed of the woman.

And in order for Adam and Eve to be clothed, a sacrifice had to be made. An animal had to die. Without shedding of blood there is no remission (Hebrews 9:22). Guilty Adam and Eve were clothed with a garment that was purchased with the innocent life of another. They were saved through substitutionary atonement. And in the same way, we are clothed with a garment of righteousness that was purchased with the life of another, Jesus Christ.

This grace of God, together with their faith in God’s promise, indicates that Adam and Eve were rescued from their sinful condition. Adam had faith in God’s promise of a Savior, and God provided a covering for them through a sacrifice. I believe that every indication is that they were justified by faith, and therefore were saved from death, because they believed that One would come from the seed of the woman who would take their place by dying for their sin, and provide His righteousness for their covering. We are saved in the same way, by faith in Christ, given the grace of God unto salvation. The innocent taking the place in death for the guilty, that we might be covered in the garment of righteousness through Jesus Christ and be given eternal life.

The Creation of Man and Woman, Genesis 2:4-25

Last time we looked primarily at the first six days of creation. Now beginning in chapter 2 and vs 4 we see a recapitulation of creation, which I believe is an expanded account of what happened in the six days of creation but also includes what happens in the next week or weeks to come. Moses begins this section by saying in vs 4 “This is the account of the heavens and the earth when they were created, in the day that the LORD God made earth and heaven.”

A more literal translation might read, “these are the generations of the heavens and the earth when they were created….” This is the first of ten such designations in Genesis. It’s a formula used often by Moses to add detail that might not yet have been fully presented. Oddly, it seems God says through Moses that these are the offspring of the heavens and the earth.

There is also a different term used for the name of God. In chapter one, it was Elohim, which is in plural form, meaning the Supreme God. Beginning in chapter 2 vs 4 though, He is called Jehovah God, translated, Lord God. In Chapter 1 we are dealing with the making of things, and God is presented to us under the name of Elohim, as the Creator. But when man appears on the scene God is spoken of in a different character. He now appears under His personal name of Jehovah, which means essentially the covenant-making God, the God who keeps a promise. Jehovah is God’s personal name, which indicates His relationship with man.

He also says “in the day” God made the heavens and the earth. I think the usage of that word in this case is not speaking of a single day, but figuratively speaking of the time period when God made the heavens and the earth and all that is in them. I believe there were six literal days as described in chapter 1, and now he speaks of that time period in which God made all that is in the earth.

However, I think that the logical understanding of the sequence indicates some of the events described here take place after the first week. Notice vs 5 “Now no shrub of the field was yet in the earth, and no plant of the field had yet sprouted, for the LORD God had not sent rain upon the earth, and there was no man to cultivate the ground. But a mist used to rise from the earth and water the whole surface of the ground. Then the LORD God formed man of dust from the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living being. The LORD God planted a garden toward the east, in Eden; and there He placed the man whom He had formed. Out of the ground the LORD God caused to grow every tree that is pleasing to the sight and good for food; the tree of life also in the midst of the garden, and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.”

Some Bible scholars say that this reference to “no shrub on the field was yet in the earth because there was no rain, and there was no man to cultivate the ground” is not a reference to the general plant life of the earth. We know that the plants were created on day three. But what the shrub of the field speaks of is cultivated plants which were specifically for food, such as what God planted in the Garden of Eden.

Last week we looked briefly at the creation of man on day six, and what we have in this account is an expansion of how that occurred. And not only how, but I think this account answers the question “why.” Why was man created? Every thing that God created He spoke into existence. But when God made man, we see something different. God formed man from the dust of the earth. In other acts of creation, God spoke something into existence where there was nothing. But in this case, God forms man out of the dust. Some commentators have pointed out that this word translated as “formed” is used in Jeremiah 18:2 as well as in other places, to describe a potter who would make a jar or vessel from a lump of clay. In the NT, In Eph. 2:10, Paul says we are His workmanship, poema, which speaks of a work of art.

The point I would emphasize is that man was created differently and for a different purpose than all the other creatures that God made. We see God crafting, forming man with His hands, shaping him into His own likeness, in His own image, and then breathing the breath of life into His nostrils. One of the commentators says this has the intimacy of a kiss. And so God crafted man, He breathed into him the breath of life. It’s very much reminiscent of the Lord Jesus Christ’s word to the disciples after the resurrection. He breathed upon them and said, receive the Holy Spirit. And so here we see the distinguishing feature of man. He has
[nešāmâ], the breath that has come from God. And this word nesama is always used in reference to God’s Spirit.

And the text says that man became a living soul. He breathed the breath, the spirit of God into man, and man became a living soul. God made man in His image, in His likeness. And man was made spirit, soul and body. Notice the order in which God made man. The spirit is the part of man that has communion with God, fellowship with God. It is to rule over the soul. The soul of man is made up of his intellect, his emotions and his will. So the spirit is to rule over the soul. And the soul is to rule over the body. The body is to be subject to the soul which is subject to the spirit.

Now that’s the order of God’s creation. But when man sinned, and fell, the order was reversed. God said in the day you eat of it you shall die. What died that day when Adam sinned was his spirit. And so the order of creation was overturned. Man was then ruled by his body, his fleshly lusts, and they ruled over his soul, his intellect, emotions and will. So man became enslaved to his baser passions. At regeneration, at conversion, God reestablishes the divine order of creation by giving life to our spirit, and as we walk by the Spirit, and no longer by the flesh, we renew our minds according to the design of God.

But at creation, man was given the spirit of God, made a living soul, and he was made for fellowship, for life with God. Then next we see what I think is one of the most mysterious things in the creation story. The tree of knowledge of good and evil, and the tree of life which God planted in the garden along with other trees and shrubs that were good for food.

First of all though notice that God planted a garden. This would seem to be a separate act of creation. This seems to have occurred after the six days of creation. God planted a garden that would produce food for man, and He gave man the job of cultivating, or tending the garden. The whole earth was not the garden, nor was the garden necessarily the place where God lives. But it was planted by God and given to man.

But the mysterious thing is that God also planted there the tree of life and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. I think these are literal trees with real fruit. But they are also symbolic. The tree of knowledge of good and evil is mentioned only here and in vs 17. But the tree of life is referred to many times in scripture, not the least of which is in Revelation chapters 2 and 22. This tree seems to have had the power to convey immortality to man, and as such is used in Scripture as a symbol of the Lord Jesus Christ. In the book of Revelation the tree of life appears as a symbol of the person of Christ. Paul wrote in 2 Tim.1:10 and said of Christ that he “abolished death and brought life and immortality to light through the gospel.”

But in regards to the other tree, It’s not a tree of good and evil, but the knowledge of good and evil. The fruit of the tree was not inherently sinful. Everything God made was good. I’m sure it was just a normal fruit tree that had good tasting fruit upon it. But the point was that in disobeying God and deciding to eat of that fruit, then the knowledge of evil, the knowledge of sin entered man. There are many theories as to what this means, but the best view I believe is that it indicates moral autonomy. What is forbidden is that man has the power to decide for himself what is good and what is evil. This is a decision that God has not delegated to man, and when man usurps that authority, then he has made himself the arbiter of good and evil, and has put himself in God’s place of authority. It also indicates that sin starts in the mind. It’s the knowledge of good and evil.

Now we read that there wasn’t rain on the earth in those days. Last week we mentioned the firmament or the expanse and the waters being separated above and below so that it would have made a greenhouse effect on the earth. Not only would this canopy of water have blocked out harmful ultraviolet radiation, but it would have likely caused a mist to cover the earth in the morning, and dew on the ground, which would have watered the earth and provided a moderate temperature.

But the Garden of Eden was also placed at the mouth of three rivers, which watered the Garden. You can locate the likely location of the Garden by a map which shows the Tigris and Euphrates River, though the names of the other river have been changed. And perhaps the rivers themselves have been altered in their locations due to the flood. But you can get a general idea from a map that the Garden of Eden would have been in modern day Turkey. And that also gives us assurance of the reality of these events, that they happened as described, and they were in an actual place. This isn’t a fairy tale.

Vs 15 “Then the LORD God took the man and put him into the garden of Eden to cultivate it and keep it. The LORD God commanded the man, saying, “From any tree of the garden you may eat freely; but from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat from it you will surely die.”

First of all, God put man in the garden of Eden to cultivate it and keep it. This was Adam’s job. I don’t know that it was a very difficult job, because God planted it, and there were not thorns and thistles at that time. But he was given a job to tend the Garden which provided him food. It also seems that man was a vegetarian at that time. After the flood, God said that man could, or perhaps should eat meat. We aren’t told why, but it may have to do with the canopy of water that had shielded man from harmful ultraviolet radiation was no longer provided, and so man needed the extra nutrients that can come from eating meat. But that is not directly stated in the text.

The first commandment given to man was that he could not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, and the punishment for breaking that command was that he would die. It’s interesting that Adam isn’t told that he can’t eat from the tree of life. There seems to be no prohibition in that. In fact, I can’t help but wonder if God wasn’t presenting a choice to man, to eat of the tree of life, which symbolized the immortal life given by Christ, or eat of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, which was to chose to live life according to one’s own standards, which is rebellion against God, which is sin, resulting in death. Seems like an obvious choice, but unfortunately, as we know man was deceived into thinking that he could have a better life if he chose his own version of morality. Man is still confronted with that choice today. To submit to the Lord and have eternal life, or to chose to live according to your version of right and wrong, to live according to the desires of the flesh.

Vs. Then the LORD God said, “It is not good for the man to be alone; I will make him a helper suitable for him.” I believe that the sequence of these events indicates this happened at some time after man was created. I believe when it speaks in chapter one of man being created, male and female He created them, it is referring to Adam being created, in whom was the blueprint for male and female, the male and female chromosomes. God always intended to bring a woman from Adam, but in day six of creation, God made all the hormones and chromosomes of male and female in Adam, but had not yet brought forth Eve from Adam.

But one thing should be clear from this passage, and that is that woman was made to be man’s companion. A helper suitable for him. Like him, corresponding to him. It’s also obvious that for some time, we don’t know how long, man was alone. I find it very hard to imagine all of this happening on day six. I think God wanted Adam to realize that he was alone. And to bring that into focus, God did something interesting before creating woman.

Vs19 “Out of the ground the LORD God formed every beast of the field and every bird of the sky, and brought [them] to the man to see what he would call them; and whatever the man called a living creature, that was its name. The man gave names to all the cattle, and to the birds of the sky, and to every beast of the field, but for Adam there was not found a helper suitable for him.”

We know that Moses isn’t saying that after Adam was created, God then formed the beasts and cattle and birds. Those were created before Adam was created, according to chapter one. But I think he is just referring to that act of God creating the animals and the birds and so forth in the past, and then bringing them at some point to Adam to name them all. I mentioned last week that scientists say that there are at least 18000 species of birds. Scientists have observed and classified around 1.2 million species of animals, but they estimate that there are approximately 8.7 million living animal species on earth. There are 86400 seconds in a day. So if Adam named one animal per second, then it would take about a hundred days for Adam to name all the animals. That’s if he worked really fast and never stopped to eat or sleep.

The end result though was that Adam did not find any animal or creature that would be suitable for him. I would think he felt more alone after naming all the animals. Now I surmised last time that I believe this was symbolic of something that was a similar experience for God. God looked at all the worlds and creatures that He had created since the beginning, before the earth was formed, and did not find a helper suitable for Himself. And so wanting to have a companion, a helper, God made man. That correlates to the description of the creation of man we looked at earlier when God crafted and formed man out of the dust of the earth with his hands like a potter would shape a vessel, and breathed the breath of His Spirit into his nostrils so that man became a living soul, made in His likeness, in His image.

In Isaiah 54:5 it says “For your husband is your Maker, Whose name is the LORD of hosts; And your Redeemer is the Holy One of Israel, Who is called the God of all the earth.” Man was made to be the bride of Christ. Your husband is your Creator.

So because man could find none among the animal kingdom to be a suitable helper for him, vs. 21 So the LORD God caused a deep sleep to fall upon the man, and he slept; then He took one of his ribs and closed up the flesh at that place. The LORD God fashioned into a woman the rib which He had taken from the man, and brought her to the man. The man said, “This is now bone of my bones, And flesh of my flesh; She shall be called Woman, Because she was taken out of Man.”

It seems that some pastors in the past have concluded that because of this act of creation man has one less ribs than women. Of course that’s not true, and the Bible doesn’t teach that. That’s akin to God making a man with 10 fingers and if he lost one in an accident, then his child would be born with 9 fingers.

But irregardless, God caused Adam to fall into a deep sleep, took a rib from him and closed up the flesh. Then the Lord fashioned into a woman the rib which He had taken from the man. All the raw material for woman was already made in Adam, God just used part of Adam to make woman. That still is a miracle of creation that we cannot really comprehend. I’m not sure Adam could comprehend it any better. But his first words recorded in scripture are “this is now bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh.” Adam recognized that she was a part of him. And I think that to this day man feels like something is missing in his life until he finds that woman who completes him. I remember my own dad telling me when I was single, that when I found a wife she would complete me. And I think that’s true.

Some have suggested that bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh is a covenantal statement similar to the marriage vow, “in weakness and in strength.” Saying that circumstances will not alter the loyalty and commitment to one another. And just as Adam named all the animals and creatures, so he names her Woman, for she came out of man. The word for woman in Hebrew is Issa, which also means wife. So from the Biblical rendering of the word wife it can only be used for a woman.

And in Vs24 we see that marriage commitment further delineated. “For this reason a man shall leave his father and his mother, and be joined to his wife; and they shall become one flesh.” Marriage is what is being spoken of here, a man and his wife form the marriage bond. Marriage is the joining together so that they are one. Woman was made to be the companion, helper to man, and thus be his wife. And together they become one flesh. There is solidarity in this relationship as they are joined together as man and wife.

Jesus quotes from this verse in order to confirm the sanctity of marriage. In Matt. 19:4 Jesus said, “Have you not read that He who created [them] from 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 they are no longer two, but one flesh. What therefore God has joined together, let no man separate.”

Ephesians 6 tells us that the husband and wife relationship speaks to the relationship of Christ and the church. The church of course not being an institution, but a people, conformed to the image of Christ, made in HIs likeness. These people are the bride of Christ, taken from the wound from His side. Eph 5:28-33 So husbands ought also to love their own wives as their own bodies. He who loves his own wife loves himself; for no one ever hated his own flesh, but nourishes and cherishes it, just as Christ also [does] the church, because we are members of His body. FOR THIS REASON A MAN SHALL LEAVE HIS FATHER AND MOTHER AND SHALL BE JOINED TO HIS WIFE, AND THE TWO SHALL BECOME ONE FLESH. This mystery is great; but I am speaking with reference to Christ and the church. Nevertheless, each individual among you also is to love his own wife even as himself, and the wife must [see to it] that she respects her husband.”

Finally, Moses tells us in vs25 “And the man and his wife were both naked and were not ashamed.” In the marriage relationship there is no sin. That is what I think is being indicated here. Outside of marriage sexual relations are sinful. But in a marriage relationship there is no sin. And in our relationship with Christ there is no sin. Our sin is not counted against us when we are in Christ. But outside of Christ we remain in our sins.

I trust that you are in Christ today. That you have accepted Him as your Savior and Lord, believing in Him, submitting to Him as your Lord and Master. Forsaking all others, clinging only to Him.

Creation, Genesis 1-2:3

The first four words in the Bible really set the basis for our theology. “In the beginning, God…” God does not offer evidence for His existence. He does not tell us how or when He came into being. And as the rest of the first chapter of Genesis unfolds, we aren’t really given a lot of detail or scientific evidence about how the earth or how humans came into being either. Though a lot of things presented in the Bible can be corroborated by science, or by verified history, God doesn’t seem to be concerned about trying to prove that He exists, or prove that He created the world, but He expects us to believe in Him by faith.

Hebrews 11:6 says, “But without faith [it is] impossible to please [him]: for he that comes to God must believe that he is, and [that] he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him.” The point is, that if you can believe that God exists, that in the beginning was God, then you should be able to believe in creation and everything else that God tells us in the scriptures. And God’s word says that creation is evidence enough for a person to believe in God. Rom 1:20 “For since the creation of the world His invisible attributes, His eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly seen, being understood through what has been made, so that they are without excuse.”

So as a person who is not a scientist, nor particularly educated in the sciences such as biology or astronomy or any of the sciences, I would be amiss if I were to try to explain creation according to some scientific criteria. Neither will I try to debunk evolution. I think evolution requires as much faith to believe as does creation. I think that you could make the argument that evolution isn’t really science, but a form of religion. And you can choose which religion to believe. But I would say that you cannot logically say you believe in the God of the Bible and yet believe in evolution as well. You must choose between one or the other. If you believe in the first four words of the Bible, then you will have no trouble believing in the rest of the story. But if you don’t believe in creation, then you obviously do not believe in the God of the Bible.

Last time we started with that premise of “in the beginning God created the heavens and the earth, and we didn’t get much further than that. We introduced the first day, when God said, “Let there be light.” And we said that “in the beginning” has no beginning. God existed from eternity past which has no beginning as we can understand it. And I must confess I certainly cannot understand eternity, past or future. My mind balks at trying to comprehend eternity. But somewhere in eternity past God created the heavens and the earth and that includes all that is in our universe. And as Paul said, when you consider the creation, all that God has made, it should reveal to you the eternal nature of God. The finite explains the infinite.

In the first stage of creation, Genesis says “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 earth was made of some form of earth, and water covered the earth. It was a water covered orb in space, and in some fashion the Spirit of God hovered over the face of the water.

Some critics have tried to say the Biblical description of creation is only an allegory. I don’t believe that. I think it’s a literal description. God was somehow controlling, keeping together all the elements that made up the earth. I suppose that at that time the Spirit of God set the earth’s rotation and orbit in motion, and is perhaps still controlling that rotation and orbit. Or maybe once the Spirit of God set it in motion, it continues in perpetual motion. I don’t know, but I believe that the Spirit of God hovered over the surface of the waters for some reason, and to some effect. And I believe that in some way the universe is still under His control. Col 1:17 says, “He is before all things, and by him all things hold together.”

Then God said… might have been an hour later, might have been eons later, we don’t know. Then, or you could interpret then as next, God said, “Let there be light, and there was light.” That indicates it happened immediately. God said it, and it happened immediately. And perhaps due to the rotation of the earth in relation to the light, there was evening and their was morning, one day. Light came into being on day one. And time began to be counted with the advent of light.

Notice Moses says that God divided the light from darkness. All of this was accomplished without the sun, moon or stars yet created. The light then was a supernatural light, the light of God. God is light, and He manifested His light unto the world. But there was darkness which God called night, and light which God called day. And evening and morning constituted one day. We know today that evening and morning constitutes 24 hours, and 24 hours are in one day. So I think it’s clear that scripture defines a day in regards to the creation as a literal day.

There is no need to try to accommodate science and say that a day could be a thousand years, or a million years. And actually, for evolution to even have a remote chance of being possible in the minds of it’s scientists, they don’t need millions of years, they need billions of years. So it’s pointless to try to stretch a 24 hour day into some million year age. We believe a supernatural God supernaturally created the earth and all that is in it in 6 literal days.

After the first day of creation, there is the work of the second day. Vs 6 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.”

Some translations of the Bible interpret firmament as an expanse. The waters of the land are separated from the water vapor in the sky. Some creationists think that there was a significant type of blanket of water vapor in the sky. This canopy of water above the earth would have created a very different environment and climate on the earth than what we have today.

Henry Morris said of this water canopy; “The waters above the firmament thus probably constituted a vast blanket of water vapor above the troposphere and possibly above the stratosphere as well, in the high temperature region now known as the ionosphere, and extending far into space.” It would serve as a global greenhouse, maintaining an essentially uniform, pleasant temperature all over the world.

Without great temperature variations, there would be no significant winds, and the water-rain cycle could not form. There would be no rain, as we know it today. There would be lush, tropical-like vegetation all over the world, fed not by rain, but by an evaporation and condensation cycle, resulting in heavy dew or ground-fog.

This vapor blanket would filter out ultraviolet radiation, cosmic rays, and other destructive energies bombarding the planet. These are known to be the cause of mutations, which are said to decrease human longevity. So under this canopy human and animal lifespans would be greatly increased. A vapor blanket would also provide the necessary reservoir for a potential worldwide flood. And notice Moses repeats the statement, that there was evening and morning, marking the second day.

Vs 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. 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.”

Having separated the water of the earth by an expanse, having water above and the water below on the second day, now on the third day God separates the water on the earth to let dry land appear. Some creationists imagine that at this point in creation the land formed one large continent surrounded by water, rather than the various continents that we have today. God called the dry land Earth, and the water He called Seas.

On this same day, God created grass, herbs and trees. The plants were created not as seeds, but as full-grown plants each bearing seeds. So they were created as mature plants, having the appearance of age. Someone has speculated, I believe correctly, that the trees bore growth rings, and yet were created in one day. God built in age in His creation. That answers the great question, which came first, the chicken or the egg? The answer is that the chicken came first. Now you know.

Notice also the repeated statement in each day of the creation account; And God saw that it was good. There can be no good without God. God is good. God did not create evil. But God created good. I would suggest that the devil created evil. And in turn man creates evil. But God creates good.

So the earth was created, and the foliage of the earth was created, but as of the third day there was no sun, only the light of God. Vs 14, Then God said, “Let there be lights in the expanse of the heavens to separate the day from the night, and let them be for signs and for seasons and for days and years; and let them be for lights in the expanse of the heavens to give light on the earth”; and it was so. God made the two great lights, the greater light to govern the day, and the lesser light to govern the night; [He made] the stars also. God placed them in the expanse of the heavens to give light on the earth, and to govern the day and the night, and to separate the light from the darkness; and God saw that it was good. There was evening and there was morning, a fourth day.”

God made the sun and the moon — these lights in the firmament of the heavens to be for signs and seasons. Since the beginning, man has used God’s provision of the sun, moon, and stars to mark and measure time and direction. Already had God used light to mark a day, evening and morning, but now He adds the sun and moon and the stars as physical manifestations of light. And man being able to track the sun and moon and stars is able to differentiate seasons and days and months and years. These orbits are not random, sporadic movements, but are very mathematical calculations which were set in motion by intelligent design.

Now I am unable to articulate it all scientifically, but the sun and moon especially exert gravitational forces on the earth which control many aspects of our climate and tides and even the orbit and rotation of the earth. So in the beginning when God made the heavens and the earth He was the light, and the Spirit of God controlled the earth. But at this point in creation God appoints the sun and moon and stars to give light, and the gravitational forces of those objects control the direction and orbit and rotation of the earth as well as other significant factors like climate and tides and so forth. Scientists tell us that the Earth orbits around the Sun at an average speed of about 67,000 miles per hour. This forward motion is crucial in counteracting the pull of gravity from the Sun and the Moon. There is obviously a critical, delicate balance in gravity in regards to the earth’s orbit which makes Earth habitable at all, and keeps life from either burning up or freezing, that provides enough gravity to keep us on the earth and yet doesn’t pin us to the ground. The thought that all of that is the result of random chance requires much more blind faith than believing in intelligent design.

Vs 20 Then God said, “Let the waters teem with swarms of living creatures, and let birds fly above the earth in the open expanse of the heavens.” God created the great sea monsters and every living creature that moves, with which the waters swarmed after their kind, and every winged bird after its kind; and God saw that it was good. God blessed them, saying, “Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the waters in the seas, and let birds multiply on the earth.” There was evening and there was morning, a fifth day.

One of the primary characteristics of God is that He is Creator. Again and again in Isaiah we read where God extolls the fact that He created the heavens and the earth. And what is really amazing to consider is the immense diversity in creation. It’s interesting that God takes a day to create sky and sea creatures, the fish and the birds, and then another day to create land born creatures. But consider how many different species of fish and birds He created. One scientific source has concluded that there are 18,000 different species of birds, and possibly more still to be discovered. Plus what is possibly now extinct. Google says that there are 33000 species of fish. It’s really incredible to research all the different species and with modern technology such as computers, to see how incredibly diverse fish are, with a vast array of amazing designs and colors. Again, a testament to a Almighty Creator. So many attributes of fish and birds that have no evolutionary reason for their existence or color or shape according to necessity, but it would seem just because God enjoyed creating incredible creatures.

Day six. Vs 24 Then God said, “Let the earth bring forth living creatures after their kind: cattle and creeping things and beasts of the earth after their kind”; and it was so. God made the beasts of the earth after their kind, and the cattle after their kind, and everything that creeps on the ground after its kind; and God saw that it was good.”

All animal life was created according to its kind. God deliberately created plenty of variation within a kind, but one “kind” does not become another. For example, the teacup poodle is very different from the Great Dane, but they are both dogs. However, they will never become mice, no matter how much breeding is done or how much time elapses. Evolutionists often give convincing examples of microevolution, the variation of a kind within its kind, adapting to the environment. But there has been no change outside of the kind. Microevolution does not prove macroevolution.

And then God created the crowning achievement of creation on the sixth day. Vs 26 Then God said, “Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness; and let them rule over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the sky and over the cattle and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.” God created man in His own image, in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them. God blessed them; and God said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth, and subdue it; and rule over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the sky and over every living thing that moves on the earth.” Then God said, “Behold, I have given you every plant yielding seed that is on the surface of all the earth, and every tree which has fruit yielding seed; it shall be food for you; and to every beast of the earth and to every bird of the sky and to every thing that moves on the earth which has life, [I have given] every green plant for food”; and it was so. God saw all that He had made, and behold, it was very good. And there was evening and there was morning, the sixth day.”

First of all, notice the repeated use of the plural pronouns (Let Us… in Our image, according to Our likeness) which is consistent with the idea that there is One God in three Persons, what we call the Trinity. So our fundamental understanding of who God is, is taught in Genesis 1. And secondly, an understanding of who man is begins with knowing we are made in the image of God. Man is different from every other order of created beings because He is created in the image of God, according to His likeness. Man was created spirit, soul and body, and in that sense, we are made in His likeness. Man is distinct from the animal kingdom in that they are not only physical beings, but spiritual beings. And only in spirit can we have fellowship with God. We were created to have fellowship with God.

Notice also that man was made to rule over the world, both the plant and animal kingdoms. When God created man, He decreed that man would have dominion over the earth. Man’s pre-eminence of the created order and his ability to affect and care for his environment is part of God’s plan for man and the earth. But notice that the earth was made for man, not man for the earth. Creation is in opposition to the tenets of evolution and the religion of environmentalism which says that man is evil for utilizing nature. But creation says that nature was made for man, and man has a responsibility to rule over it responsibly. The earth was made for man, to support his life and to provide for his needs. God gave man dominion over the whole earth, but only vegetation is specifically mentioned as being for food. Seemingly, before the flood, the human race was vegetarian, but after the flood, man was given permission to eat the flesh of animals (Genesis 9:3), if not the necessity to eat meat. We may discuss that further when we get to chapter 9.

But we are plainly told God created man fully formed, and created him in one day, not gradually over millions of years of progressive evolution. It’s impossible to conceive of a man that was only partially evolved to even survive, much less continue to reproduce and populate the earth. So man was made fully formed, fully mature, with all the signs of having lived already on the day that he was made.

Now there is some speculation and debate among Bible scholars as to whether or not Eve was created in the same day as Adam. I personally am of the opinion that on day six God made man, Adam, singular. But in making man, God created the blueprint for male and female, and put the DNA and chromosomes necessary for male and female in the body of Adam. Now I cannot be dogmatic about that, but reading chapter 2 it is difficult to see all of the planting of the garden, the order to Adam to tend to the garden, the naming of the all the animals and creatures in creation, all of that to occur in 24 hours. I suppose it’s possible but I don’t see that it’s necessary to see all of that happening in one day.

Furthermore, I believe God delayed the creation of woman by some indefinite period of time to illustrate a greater principle, which answers the question of why God created man to begin with. In chapter 2, after creating man, God says it is not good for man to be alone. Obviously, that means that man was created alone at first. But although God intended from the beginning to make man a helper, a mate, yet He allows some time to elapse as God brings all the animals of creation before Adam to name them. The result was that Adam did not find in all of creation a mate suitable for him. Then after that fruitless search, God caused a deep sleep to fall upon Adam and God made woman from his rib.

Now I think that could very well illustrate something that may have occurred before Creation. I know it’s speculation on my part to some extent, but I can’t help but think this is the reason the Bible presents the creation of man and woman in this way. We know that God is the Creator, creation of immense diversity of creatures is a primary characteristic of God. But perhaps at some point in eternity past, God looked at all the creatures, all the heavenly hosts if you will, in all the galaxies that He has made, and God found no creature suitable to be a help mate for Him.

And so God created man in His image, in His likeness. God desired a help mate to share life with, to be His bride, to have fellowship with. And God chose to create man for that purpose. The Westminster Shorter Catechism first question asks, What is the chief end of man? And the answer given is, Man’s chief end is to glorify God, and to enjoy Him for ever.

As we will see in our next study, in all of creation, God spoke everything into existence. God needed only to speak things into existence, and it was so. Yet with man we see a different approach. With man, God formed him out of the clay of the ground, presumably with His hands, and breathed the breath of life into His nostrils. We see an intimacy there that is unmatched in the rest of creation. One can almost visualize the love that God has toward man, stooping to scoop up the clay, lovingly forming him into His own likeness, and then bending down in almost a kiss to breath the breathe of life into Him.

Now I hope that imagery is not offensive in some way, either God or to you. But I do think it perhaps answers the question why God created man, and how God loves us enough to die for us. I think it reinforces the principle that man was made for God, for fellowship with God. But I realize that I also have taken liberties with the word of God that are not explicitly stated in scripture. But I hope that I am not being presumptuous in my speculation.

The last day of creation is one where God rests from His work. Ch. 2 vs 1, Thus the heavens and the earth were completed, and all their hosts. By the seventh day God completed 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.

God did not need rest on the seventh day because He was tired. God rested to show His creating work was done, to give a pattern to man regarding the structure of time (in seven-day weeks), and to give an example of the blessing of rest to man on the seventh day. God sanctified the seventh day because it was a gift to man for rest and replenishment, and most of all because the Sabbath is a shadow or illustration of the rest available through the person and work of Jesus Christ.

Colossians 2:16-17 and Galatians 4:9-11 make it clear that Christians are not under obligation to observe the Sabbath today because Jesus fulfilled the purpose and plan of the Sabbath for us and in us (Hebrews 4:9-11). Though God rested on the seventh day of creation, He did not institute the Sabbath as an ordinance for man at that point or show us His rest for His own sake. God does not take the Sabbath off. Jesus Himself said, My Father has been working until now, and I have been working (John 5:17). God does not need a day off, but man needs to see the finished work of God and know he can enter into that rest by the finished work of Jesus.

The description of each other day of creation ended with the phrase, so the evening and the morning were the second day and so forth. However, this seventh day of creation does not have that phrase. This is because God’s rest for us isn’t confined to one literal day. In the new creation, God has an eternal Sabbath rest for His people.

Heb. 4:9-16 So there remains a Sabbath rest for the people of God. For the one who has entered His rest has himself also rested from his works, as God did from His. Therefore let us be diligent to enter that rest, so that no one will fall, through [following] the same example of disobedience.

2Cor. 5:17 Therefore if anyone is in Christ, [he is] a new creation; the old things have passed away; behold, new things have come.