A Place Of Grace Series

Our perspective is important when seeking to understand something. I like the feature on Google Earth which provides a panoramic view, or the big picture of our world and then allows you to zoom in to the exact address you are looking for. The first chapter of Genesis, along with the first three verses of Chapter 2 provides the big picture of how God created the heavens and the earth and then finished and furnished it.

Beginning in Genesis 2:4, we’re able to zoom in on the specifics and get a closeup of what God did on the sixth day when He created man and woman. This simple explanation helps counter the claim of liberal theologians who allege the first two chapters of Genesis contain two contradictory creation stories. When understood correctly, these accounts are complementary, not conflictive.

To say it another way, Genesis 1 tells us that man and women were created. Chapter 2 tells us how it all happened. Chapter 3 is about the entrance of sin and chapter 4 shows how sin spreads and expands in the world. We could say chapter 2 serves as the link between creation and corruption.

Let’s give our attention to this breathtaking section of Scripture by reading Genesis 2:4-9:

4 These are the generations of the heavens and the earth when they were created, in the day that the LORD God made the earth and the heavens. 5 When no bush of the field was yet in the land and no small plant of the field had yet sprung up—for the LORD God had not caused it to rain on the land, and there was no man to work the ground, 6 and a mist was going up from the land and was watering the whole face of the ground— 7 then the LORD God formed the man of dust from the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living creature. 8 And the LORD God planted a garden in Eden, in the east, and there he put the man whom he had formed. 9 And out of the ground the LORD God made to spring up every tree that is pleasant to the sight and good for food. The tree of life was in the midst of the garden, and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.

The main character of the grand story of the Bible is God. Genesis is all about who God is and what He has done. We could summarize our text this way: God created every person on purpose and put us in a place to live out His purposes.

We’ll use this summary as our outline.

1. God created every person on purpose. Verse 4 sets the context and signals the start of the first major narrative section in Genesis: “These are the generations of the heavens and the earth when they were created, in the day that the LORD God made the earth and the heavens.” The word “generations” speaks of “lineage, history, and families.” God loves to do His work through families.

Genesis is not a fable or a myth but a factual record of how God worked in history.

The phrase “the generations of…” is used 10 other times in Genesis to indicate a new family to focus on. Here are three examples:

Genesis 5:1: “This is the book of the generations of Adam.”

Genesis 10:1: “These are the generations of the sons of Noah.”

Genesis 25:19: “These are the generations of Isaac.”

The phrase, “in the day” shows this is a close-up examination of day six of creation. It’s like a recap with additional details.

I want to point out another distinction between chapter one and chapter two which critics have used as ammunition to argue Moses was not the author of Genesis. Some theologically liberal theologians hold to the “Documentary Hypothesis” or “JEDP” theory. At its root, they marginalize and minimize the Genesis account because different names for God are used in the first two chapters [The “J” stands for “Yahwist” (from “Yahweh”) and the “E” refers to “Elohist” (from “Elohim”)].

There’s a wonderful and worshipful explanation for this. In Genesis 1, the name used for God is Elohim. In Genesis 2:4, we’re introduced to the compound name Yahweh Elohim, which is translated as “LORD God” in English. This is seen in our Bibles when the word “LORD” is in all capital letters.

Let’s go a bit deeper.

• Elohim. This name comes from a word meaning, “to fear,” and signifies the highest Being to be revered. This name is in the plural, giving early evidence for the Trinity. Elohim is intensive, which indicates God’s fullness of power. The beginning letters El signify He is the strong God who is majestic and mighty. This name emphasizes God’s power as the infinitely great and exalted One, who created the heavens and the earth.