Wed Night Bible Study - Creation
Lesson/Sermon 5 - Days 6
Genesis 1:24-31 & Gen 2:4-24(ESV)
Creation Bible Study - Creation: Day 6
Looking back at Day 1-5 & remember what we’ve learned:
We learned our world did not just happen but it was created by God who did not have to use materials but spoke it into existence...
We also learned that God created light...God did not create a source of light, but He created light itself… and then on day 4 He created the celestial bodies to which He assigned that light! Sun, moon, stars…
On what Scripture describes as days 2-3 we find Moses writing about God's actions, "...separating water from water..." and we learned what that meant -- God built the atmosphere for earth.
After God has created light, an atmosphere and then separated the waters on the surface of the earth to create land… and on Day 4 he also creates vegetation with seed to fill the earth…
Day 5 corresponds with Day 2 in that God fills the sky and seas created on Day 2 with life! The birds of the air are created and all that swarms in the water was also created as well…
Now tonight I want us to take a look at Gen 1:24-31 [read passage here] day 6 of creation:
24And God said, “Let the earth bring forth living creatures according to their kinds—livestock and creeping things and beasts of the earth according to their kinds.” And it was so. 25And God made the beasts of the earth according to their kinds and the livestock according to their kinds, and everything that creeps on the ground according to its kind. And God saw that it was good.
So here in these verses we get an overview of what God accomplished on what Genesis calls the sixth day. First we see God creating all living creatures that roam the land. He had already created all creatures for the sky and for the sea, and now he was filling the land with his creations.
We see three distinct ‘types’ of animals that God created here…
Livestock (herd type animals)
Creeping things (Reptiles)
Beasts of the field (Carnivores)
There are those who believe that there were NO carnivores prior to the flood, but this simply is not true. Their justification for this is that God creates a diet for Adam and Even that is all vegetable but that diet is for humans and is NOT for animals…
However, the term used for ‘beasts of the field’ is used MANY times within Hebrew Scripture and the VAST majority of times it is used it refers to carnivorous animals. It is clear here that these carnivores were ‘created’ by God on the sixth day and that it did not come about after the flood.
26Then God said, “Let us make man in our image, after our likeness. And let them have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over the livestock and over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.” 27So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them. 28And God blessed them. And God said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and subdue it, and have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over every living thing that moves on the earth.”
Lastly God creates humanity… and in the passage here in v26-27 we see an overview of God’s creative actions regarding all of humanity. It speaks about creating both male and female… and then God’s instruction to both of them after creation.
God creates humanity and sets them above ALL of creation, sets humanity is the position of dominion over “...the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over the livestock and over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth...”
Humanity was created to have dominion over all things created BUT that does not mean that humanity can mistreat that which God has created! But God DID create us greater and over ALL the animals, reptiles, birds and water creatures that He created!
After creating humanity and encouraging them to grow, be fruitful and multiply, God then gives some instruction!
29And God said, “Behold, I have given you every plant yielding seed that is on the face of all the earth, and every tree with seed in its fruit. You shall have them for food. 30And to every beast of the earth and to every bird of the heavens and to everything that creeps on the earth, everything that has the breath of life, I have given every green plant for food.” And it was so. 31And God saw everything that he had made, and behold, it was very good. And there was evening and there was morning, the sixth day.
These verses reference what God had given for humanity to eat and what God had made available for the beasts of the earth to be able to eat… it does NOT limit the beasts to a vegetarian diet, although this is truly not an argument worth having.
What is important here is NOT what everyone could or did eat… what is important is that God created all the animals, reptiles and creeping things on Day 6 and then He created humanity!
But there is not a lot of detail in this day that issues in a great deal of change for the world… So in chapter 2 Moses begins to detail what happened on Day 6!
4These 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. 5When 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, 6and a mist was going up from the land and was watering the whole face of the ground—
Moses begins this recap by saying that what he was about to write was a record of creation, in the ‘day’ that God made the earth and heavens. This is a generalization of the act of creation…
But there is not a lot of detail in this day that issues in a great deal of change for the world… So in chapter 2 Moses begins to detail what happened on Day 6!
Until this time rain did not fall but a mist arose from the ground to provide water for all that needed it… We explored this a little earlier when we spoke about the atmosphere God created on day2. This water vapor barrier around our planet would have created a condensation effect and water would have been obtained just as Scripture says…
These verses were speaking about the time BEFORE the creation of humanity… a time before all of God’s creation was completed. This is evident in v5 where Moses wrote: 5When 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,
As creation is being formed and accomplished, God’s desire is to create humanity. So God takes the very dust of the planet and forms Adam and breathes the very breath of life into Him. The Bible tells us that when God did this He breathed the ‘breath of life’ into him so that he would become a living creature…
7then 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. 8And the Lord God planted a garden in Eden, in the east, and there he put the man whom he had formed.
Basically God takes mud and creates Adam! But God does not create Adam without purpose… a life without purpose is a life God does NOT wish upon us!
NO, God give Adam a purpose as God places Adam in the Garden and we find out in v15 Adam is supposed to care for the garden.
15The Lord God took the man and put him in the garden of Eden to work it and keep it.
Now here is something interesting that we may have always overlooked but I want us to go back and look at v8 one more time and look at that very first phrase!
“…and the Lord God PLANTED a garden in Eden, in the east…” I want us to notice that that verse does NOT say that God ‘created’ the garden, it says He planted the garden!
What God does here is sow the seed of what He had already created (on Day 3) and He plants a garden to provide food for humanity (Adam and Eve) and then places Adam/Eve there to care for this garden!
The planting of the Garden of Eden means that God did not speak it into existence, but planted seed and allowed it to grow as He had created the plants to grow… and grow they did! [read v9]
9And 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.
v9 reveals 2 things to me:
1) Adam was a mortal creation, which meant Adam had a life cycle: He had been created and there would be a time when he would die.
Many believe that death came about only after the fall, but here in v9 this alludes to the belief that because there was a Tree of life… and when God casts Adam and Eve out of the Garden in ch3 he puts a guard at the entrance of the garden to keep them from eating of the tree of life and living forever…
The 2nd thing we can surmise from this verse is that Adam was created innocent as there was a Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil… the tree that God forbid them to eat from… this leads us to believe that before the sin of disobedience came into their hearts through the temptation of the serpent that Adam and Eve were in perfect communion with God…
However, as a result of their fall, sin entered the world/humanity and they were sent out… not just out from the Garden but symbolically OUT from the presence of God… OUT from the perfect communion with God they had been created with and had enjoyed with God in the Garden…
God created humanity as an innocent and mortal creation… to be in perfect communion with Him and He placed His creation in this wonderful, lush, and fertile place --- the Garden of Eden.
At this time God inspires Moses to share with his readers where the Garden of Eden had been. He describes its location through the use of geographical markers.
We must understand that over time things change and over time the course of rivers change and sometimes the river may even dry up altogether and leave nothing but a dry riverbed…
When we look at the geographical markers given in these verses about the location of Eden we can see this being the case:
10A river flowed out of Eden to water the garden, and there it divided and became four rivers. 11The name of the first is the Pishon. It is the one that flowed around the whole land of Havilah, where there is gold. 12And the gold of that land is good; bdellium and onyx stone are there. 13The name of the second river is the Gihon. It is the one that flowed around the whole land of Cush. 14And the name of the third river is the Tigris, which flows east of Assyria. And the fourth river is the Euphrates. 15The Lord God took the man and put him in the garden of Eden to work it and keep it.
Now there are many who believe that the location of Garden of Eden can be found in what we now call the Persian Gulf…
Juris Zarins, an American archeologist claims that the Garden of Eden was situated at the head of the Persian Gulf, where the Tigris and Euphrates Rivers run into the sea, from his research on this area using information from many different sources, including LANDSAT images from space.
He theorizes that the Gihon River mentioned in v13 would correspond with what is now known as the Karun River of Iran, and the Pishon River would correspond to what we know now as the Wadi Basin river system that once drained the now dry, but once quite fertile central part of the Arabian Peninsula.
[show picture of possible sight]
But Scripture tells us in Gen 3:24 [show verse] that humanity was driven out of the Garden and an angel was placed at the entrance to keep humanity OUT of the garden…
So ‘finding’ the Garden is not gonna happen (at least that is what we can surmise from what we read in Scripture) but it is kind of interesting thinking of where the Garden was… is it not?
Now at this point… only Adam had been created and only Adam had been placed in the Garden. At this time God gave Adam some instructions for living in the Garden.
16And the Lord God commanded the man, saying, “You may surely eat of every tree of the garden, 17but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die.”
God places Adam in the garden and gives him instruction and then proceeds to give him a job…
19Now out of the ground the Lord God had formed every beast of the field and every bird of the heavens and brought them to the man to see what he would call them. And whatever the man called every living creature, that was its name. 20The man gave names to all livestock and to the birds of the heavens and to every beast of the field.
Now as ‘busy’ as this kept Adam and as distracting as being busy can be… God knew that Adam was lonely. Can you imagine all the animals and their mates parading by Adam while he is naming them and he is probably thinking… “Why don’t I have someone?”
This was already on God’s mind as in v18 we read 18Then the Lord God said, “It is not good that the man should be alone; I will make him a helper fit for him.”… 20bbut for Adam there was not found a helper fit for him.
And after naming ALL the animals Adam realized he had NO ‘helper’ and no companion of his kind. But God had a plan and we see it put into place in the next few verses:
21So the Lord God caused a deep sleep to fall upon the man, and while he slept took one of his ribs and closed up its place with flesh. 22And the rib that the Lord God had taken from the man he made into a woman and brought her to the man.
God does an operation on Adam, removing a rib and from that rib creates a companion/helper/mate for Adam… and after He does this He brings the woman to Adam after he wakes up from his sleep!
Now Adam had been counting and naming animals and he had walked thru the Garden and I am sure he had longed for some companionship and we see this come thru in the next verse:
23Then the man said, “This at last is bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh; she shall be called Woman, because she was taken out of Man.” 24Therefore a man shall leave his father and his mother and hold fast to his wife, and they shall become one flesh. 25And the man and his wife were both naked and were not ashamed.
Here God creates the first community… the first family in creating Adam and Eve to be the completion for each other. In v24-25 we find Moses, under the guidance and inspiration of the Holy Spirit relates how important this event was for ALL of humanity… this was to be a template of how humanity was to live from this time forward…
Creation is a great and wonderful thing that we cannot begin to take for granted and we should often look back to it and remember how AWESOME our God is and what a tremendous and awesome thing God has done in the Creation event!
Let’s pray!
