Genesis 1: 1 – 31
Let Us Begin
1 In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. 2 The earth was without form, and void; and darkness was on the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God was hovering over the face of the waters. 3 Then God said, “Let there be light”; and there was light. 4 And God saw the light, that it was good; and God divided the light from the darkness. 5 God called the light Day, and the darkness He called Night. So the evening and the morning were the first day. 6 Then God said, “Let there be a firmament in the midst of the waters, and let it divide the waters from the waters.” 7 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. 8 And God called the firmament Heaven. So the evening and the morning were the second day. 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. 10 And God called the dry land Earth, and the gathering together of the waters He called Seas. And God saw that it was good. 11 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. 12 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. 13 So the evening and the morning were the third day. 14 Then God said, “Let there be lights in the firmament of the heavens to divide the day from the night; and let them be for signs and seasons, and for days and years; 15 and let them be for lights in the firmament of the heavens to give light on the earth”; and it was so. 16 Then God made two great lights: the greater light to rule the day, and the lesser light to rule the night. He made the stars also. 17 God set them in the firmament of the heavens to give light on the earth, 18 and to rule over the day and over the night, and to divide the light from the darkness. And God saw that it was good. 19 So the evening and the morning were the fourth day. 20 Then God said, “Let the waters abound with an abundance of living creatures, and let birds fly above the earth across the face of the firmament of the heavens.” 21 So God created great sea creatures and every living thing that moves, with which the waters abounded, according to their kind, and every winged bird according to its kind. And God saw that it was good. 22 And God blessed them, saying, “Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the waters in the seas, and let birds multiply on the earth.” 23 So the evening and the morning were the fifth day. 24 Then God said, “Let the earth bring forth the living creature according to its kind: cattle and creeping thing and beast of the earth, each according to its kind”; and it was so. 25 And God made the beast of the earth according to its kind, cattle according to its kind, and everything that creeps on the earth according to its kind. And God saw that it was good. 26 Then God said, “Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness; let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the air, and over the cattle, over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.” 27 So God created man in His own image; in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them. 28 Then God blessed them, and God said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply; fill the earth and subdue it; have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the air, and over every living thing that moves on the earth.” 29 And God said, “See, I have given you every herb that yields seed which is on the face of all the earth, and every tree whose fruit yields seed; to you it shall be for food. 30 Also, to every beast of the earth, to every bird of the air, and to everything that creeps on the earth, in which there is life, I have given every green herb for food”; and it was so. 31 Then God saw everything that He had made, and indeed it was very good. So the evening and the morning were the sixth day.
Well folks today we start in the beginning of our bibles. In fact the name ‘Genesis’ means ‘Beginning’ with our Holy God the Creator and Originator of all things. As we start our study I want to let you know that I am going to look at Genesis from a non-technical standpoint by comparing Scripture with Scripture. That is by examining how the story unfolds as it is easier to see things clearly when the pattern is repeated elsewhere.
1 In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. 2 The earth was without form, and void; and darkness was on the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God was hovering over the face of the waters. 3 Then God said, “Let there be light”; and there was light.
In Genesis verse 1 we have the beginning of the story in which God creates all time [beginning], space [heavens], and matter [earth].
The phrase - ‘In the beginning’- is signifying the beginning of existence as we know it, the beginning of our universe, the heavens above and the earth beneath. The writer who is Moses is considering the beginning as it relates to man. It does not refer to the creation of God, Who has no beginning, nor necessarily to the creation of the angelic or spiritual world which is outside the scope of the universe as we know it. This was the point at which God began His exercise of creation of the world which would lead to the creation of man. Thus it is not the beginning of all things, but of all things physical, of all things as far as man was concerned.
The ‘heavenly world’ was already in existence. It comes out later in that God speaks to heavenly beings in 1.26; 3.22, and calls on the cherubim in 3.24. God did, of course, create that heavenly world too, and we may read it into the words ‘created the heavens’. The writer certainly did believe that all things that are were created by God. But that is a spiritual world, not a physical one, and not prominently in mind here. Here action is concentrated on the physical heavens and the earth and its environs. But in the end it is indicating that all things came from God.
Moses then makes a statement ‘God’. The word is ‘elohim’ which is in the plural signifying three or more. It is the plural of El (or strictly ‘eloah’), the Hebrew word for a divine or supernatural being. Take this thought into your memory for we will see as we progress our Holy Triune God make statements in their awesome unity such as, ‘let us’.
Next we need to mention the word ‘Created’ - the word is ‘bara’. It is never used in connection with creative material, and there is no suggestion in the account of any such material. In this form it is only ever used of the divine workmanship, and always indicates the production of something new. It never has an accusative of material. While it is not directly stated it thus implies creation from nothing, but that is not its main emphasis. Its main emphasis is the sovereign activity of God. It is used three times in this account, - of the first creation of the ‘world’, of the creation of animal life and of the creation of man ‘in the image of God’. These were seen as three unique beginnings, where what was added was totally new and not obtained from what already existed. But the stress is on the fact that they were created by God.
God first creates the Universe - ‘the heavens and the earth’. From then on He will act upon the earth and adjust it and shape it so that it produces a world suitable for life, bringing in the activity of the heavens in the fourth day.
Have you ever played with ‘play dough’ or to some more venturous clay molding projects? You would get some clay add some water and make a big glob. From this you would then begin to mold it into something. The only difference here is that our Amazing Creator started without the clay [nothing] then started making something.
‘The heavens and the earth’ - is not to be seen as including ‘the heaven of heavens’ (1 Kings 8.27; Nehemiah 9.6) or the ‘third heaven’ (2 Corinthians 12.2), which are spiritual realms, but has in mind the heavens in relation to the earth, the whole physical cosmos.
Please take note of the words, - ‘and the earth’ - the connecting ‘and’ really excludes the suggestion of a gap between verses 1 and 2. Moses could not have made the connection any closer (there are no verse divisions in the original) - ‘ha aretz we ha aretz’ - ‘---the heavens and the earth, and the earth was ---’. Having spoken of the creation of heavens and earth he is now turning his attention directly to ‘the earth’s’ condition as created. It should be noted that what is now immediately described is therefore limited to ‘the earth’.
The earth stuff was ‘tohu wa bohu’ - ‘without form and devoid of anything positive’. Try pronouncing the Hebrew quickly and deeply (pronouncing toe - hoo wah boe -hoo). Like many Hebrew words it conveys its meaning by its sound as well as by its interpretation. This is the condition in which God created the earth stuff. He had made it formless that He may give it form. He had made it empty that He might fill it. He had made it intermingled with water that from that He might produce what is, as altered by His hand. There is no thought that it had ‘become’ this way, or was naturally so or that forces of chaos were at work against which God had to fight. It was as He had determined it to be. God had created the earth stuff intermingled with water and now He began His work upon it. No conflict is involved.
‘Tohu’ is used in both Hebrew and Arabic to indicate a waste place. The meaning of ‘bohu’ is uncertain, but in Arabic it means ‘to be empty’. In the Old Testament it is only used in connection with ‘tohu’ (three times). Thus the idea here is of uninhabitable, lifeless and empty, water-covered earth stuff.
Connected with the earth stuff was liquid stuff which was in total darkness. The point is that without God’s word there is no light. Darkness is seen as negative. It is God’s positive action that brings light. Unless God acts the universe such as it is will remain forever dark. So the primeval world is seen as formless, empty and dark, as without shape or evident light. It is immersed in moisture. Note that all that was outside of God and was visible was described as ‘the deep’, that mysterious dark world of which man knew almost nothing. But the fact that he speaks of ‘the face of the deep’ demonstrates that it is not part of God. It is distinct from Him. This dark, unshaped, mass is not God; it is not everything that is. It has a ‘surface’ (face), and over that surface God waits and is about to act.
A big charge by skeptics is then why the words ‘the deep’. ‘The deep’ - ‘tehom’ means ‘the deeps’, thus later usually were referring to the oceans and seas. To the Israelite the deep itself was a mystery. It was dark, impenetrable, shapeless and forever fluid. It formed nothing solid or specific. Thus it indicated that which was impenetrable, and beyond man’s sphere, that which was shapeless, dark and fluid. It had no form or shape, was ever changing and temporary, and was suitable as a description of ultimate formlessness and barrenness. Here in the beginning it was dark and unformed because light and shape and form and all significance had yet to come from God and He had not yet acted. There is no suggestion of a struggle. It is impersonal. We may speak of ‘chaoses as long as we do not read in ideas that are not there. It is chaos in the sense of being unshaped and unformed and not controlled, utterly waste and shapeless and void. -As being ‘empty’.
‘And the Spirit of God hovered over the face of the waters’. Either way the idea is of God hovering over earth ready for action. He Who Is light Is ready to act on darkness. He Who Is all that is significant would bring significance to this shapeless mass.
As light was positive and darkness was absence of light, so ‘earth stuff’ was positive and ‘waters’ or ‘deeps’ represented absence of earth stuff, in other words here there was the absence of the means of creaturely existence and absence of shape and form. The deeps were fluid, unshaped, dark and mysterious. They had no form. There was no atmosphere. They were therefore to the writer a perfect symbol of unformed existence.
But while ‘the deep’ was formless and shapeless and fluid, the sphere of hovering was outside of this emptiness, outside the beginnings of creation as we know it. God was not a part of the stuff of creation. He was there ready to act upon it. This deep was the incomprehensibly mysterious described in terms of what was indescribable, that which was formless and shapeless and waiting for God to give it shape, and form, and significance. And God is pictured as by His Holy Spirit waiting apart from it to act on it from the outside. What was needed in order to alter the picture was for light (electromagnetic waves?) to permeate the whole.
The production of light was God’s first ‘action’. It comes by His word out of nothing. Moses is brief and to the point. God speaks and light is. That which was without form and empty now experiences that which make it spring into positive existence. That which was permanently lacking light, now receives light. And as light (electro-magnetic waves) is the basic essential of the universe we recognize that it was also necessary in the bringing into usefulness of the earth stuff. It is separate from Him and yet provided and sustained by His word. Let Him say, ‘Let light not be’ and the universe would collapse into itself. So by His word God produces positive out of negative.
We know that when God spoke He acted through His Word, Jesus Christ (John 1.1-3), Who created all things and upholds the universe through His powerful word (Hebrews 1.3). It is through His sustaining that the universe continues as an inhabitable cosmos.
It is significant that what is positive in the world is seen as not initially there in what was created, but produced from it by His word, a reminder that the whole universe and the whole of life on earth depends upon His continual sustenance (Colossians 1.17). As a side please note that pantheism, which believes that everything is part of God, is excluded by all this. His work of creation was separate from Himself, although He remained intimately connected with it. He acted on it from ‘outside’ and it was by His word of command that the means of it being held together came into being.
Look with me at an amazing fact which will occur again - ‘And God said.’ Our Wonderful Holy Triune God Father, The Son, and The Holy Spirit to a large degree all imparted, ‘Let Us Begin.’ This phrase introduces each phase in God’s creative activity. It is the creative word indicating God’s transcendence and demonstrating that all is done in accordance with His will and command and through His power, or shapes with His hands.
I want you to memorize what I am about to say, ‘God but speaks and His will is accomplished’. It is God’s world and only He has a say in it. This stresses that all that takes place results from God’s word. We may investigate a hundred scientific hypotheses, but behind the outworking of them all we hear the words, ‘God said’.
We are going to now look at eight actions which will now be detailed in a ‘six period’ framework suggesting that the six period framework is deliberate in order to fit into a working week. This is God’s working week.
o 1 The establishment of light and darkness (of night and day).
o 2 The establishment of water below and above the atmosphere and therefore of the atmosphere itself.
o 3 The establishment of land and sea.
o 4 The formation of plant life.
o 5 The establishment of the seasons by means of sun and moon, controlling light and darkness.
o 6 The creation (bara) of fish and birds to inhabit water and atmosphere.
o 7 The formation of animals to inhabit land and sea and to partake of the plant life.
o 8 The creation (bara) of mankind.
The point being made here is that in each case God made provision for what was to come, and that that provision is from Him. We may complicate the process by our theories, we cannot evade the fact.
4 And God saw the light, that it was good; and God divided the light from the darkness. 5 God called the light Day, and the darkness He called Night. So the evening and the morning were the first day.
God saw the light, that it was good’. It is not that God was in any doubt about the outcome of His word. These words are just to confirm that His word achieved what He wanted to achieve. He saw that it was as good as He knew it would be. His creation was in perfect harmony with His desires. He was satisfied with what He had done.
Now He separates light from darkness so that there will be periods of both, and the periods of light He calls ‘yom (‘day, light period)’ and the periods of darkness He calls ‘night’. We note here that night is seen as following day, and not vice versa. The naming of both ‘night’ and ‘day by God is significant. It indicates His control and mastery over both.
God now proceeded to make an atmosphere. There are no further creative acts at this point, although God continues to act by His word. Now it is a word of power. The Spirit of God, hovering over the waters (1.2), now proceeds to separate the waters in response to God’s word in order to provide an atmosphere which is necessary for what was to follow.
6 Then God said, “Let there be a firmament in the midst of the waters, and let it divide the waters from the waters.” 7 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. 8 And God called the firmament Heaven. So the evening and the morning were the second day.
Up to this time there has been no atmosphere, for creation is seen as being one mass of ‘primeval water’. All is ‘liquid’; all is primeval, unshaped, formless matter, but now given body by ‘light’. And now God acts to produce an atmosphere with ‘water’ below and clouds above.
Thus Moses is not suggesting that there is a physical dome somehow holding up the water. He is using a vivid metaphorical description to describe a reality, water held above by something ‘stretched out’ by God, and water below. He does not pretend to understand the mechanics of it, he does not try to explain it. He simply describes what he sees. He just knows that God has made some way of holding the water up. He sees that it is so, and He knows that it is so at the behest of God.
We must not over-literalize the descriptions of poetic minds and make them hold views that they did not hold, however simple minded we make them to be. They saw things as an artist sees them, not a scientist. Their very ‘simplicity’ and practicality of mind prevented them from trying to formulate scientific theories, but that did not prevent their ideas from being profound. This writer was not investigating world phenomena; he was taken up with what God was doing. He was not analyzing ‘how’, he was asking ‘Who?’ and ‘Why?’. The ‘how’ he left to God.
From out of the waters below the atmosphere God causes dry land to appear. This is made up of the ‘earth stuff’ created in verse 1. It is already there but God causes it by His word to come up from the waters and produce dry land. And from this dry land, in a second activity, He produces vegetation. It will be noted that neither of these is seen as an act of ‘creation’. They come forth from what is already there.
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. 10 And God called the dry land Earth, and the gathering together of the waters He called Seas. And God saw that it was good.
God is here causing dry land ‘to appear’ in preparation for animals and man. It was already there but comes out of the sea. The birds too will benefit, as will many river fish. Again we see that Moses expresses satisfaction with the situation by saying that God sees it as good. He is satisfied with the provision He has made for man. Thus we should be filled with praise at His wonderful provision.
Please note the awesome Power of God in that the dry land is seen as already being under the waters. It is intrinsic within the waters. This is not a new act of creation, but a shaping by His word of what is already there. From the formlessness He produces form. From the shapelessness He produces shape.
11 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. 12 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. 13 So the evening and the morning were the third day.
Again God commands and then what He commands takes place. Now God provides the sustenance that animals and man will require. Notice the stress on the diversity of what He produces. There is to be plenty of choice. When we enjoy our varied diets we need to be grateful for the way in which He made provision for us.
Furthermore the sustenance is self-sustaining. The world is self-propagating. The verb ‘brought forth’ indicates that what comes forth is already an essential part of what God has already created. As far as the writer is concerned the earth produces it through the activity of God. This is not a new creation, but the outworking of what is already intrinsically there in God’s first creation. This is seen by some as indicating the process of evolution, but again it must be noted that if this is so it was at God’s command. There is no place here for a blind process, it was specifically a process taking place under God’s designing hand. We may read what we like into it. We may fit in our pet theories. But behind all is God.
There is no suggestion that vegetation is ‘created’. It comes forth from the earth by natural process under the hand of God. It is a part of the first three days, preparation for the introduction of life. Unlike the Canaanites, who saw vegetation in terms of dying and rising again, the Israelite saw it as part of a continual process with its idiosyncrasies of growth and adaptation and production of further growth as being controlled by the hand of God. We are not to see here ‘forced growth’. Time is given for the vegetation to spring forth and grow, producing after their kinds. The picture is of steady progress from wonderful beginnings.
So after three ‘time periods’ the world has been made ready for its essential function, the production of life. From the first ‘day’ there have been periods of darkness and light, but the very fact that controllers are needed demonstrates that those periods did not originally appear in the controlled way necessary for man’s full benefit. If ‘days’ were ‘normal’ at this stage there would have been no need later for a controller. Land has risen from the sea, and atmosphere has been instated. There is water above as well as water below, an essential for the propagation of plant life. The plants have been brought forth by the earth, and are reproducing themselves on the earth. All has been prepared. Now we move into the second phase.
The emphasis throughout is that God has acted in order to control light and darkness through secondary means, by setting lights in the skies (sun, moon and stars), rather than directly by His word. The fourth period is thus of one which prepares the way for living creatures and for men, by establishing a time pattern for life activity. Time did not have to be controlled when God was acting. But it does have to be controlled now, for it is essential for man’s wellbeing.
14 Then God said, “Let there be lights in the firmament of the heavens to divide the day from the night; and let them be for signs and seasons, and for days and years; 15 and let them be for lights in the firmament of the heavens to give light on the earth”; and it was so.
From now on periods of light and darkness will be determined by the action of sun and moon. No longer will darkness permanently threaten, for it is controlled by God’s lights. It is these lights which will now determine the length of nights and days, and days and years. To ancient man his ideas of time were ruled by the heavenly lights. They were the signs that guided his thoughts on the passage of time. From them he knew the seasons. Days and months and years resulted from their activity. And it was they under God which ensured that permanent, enveloping darkness did not prevail.
They were also the signs to men of God’s continued provision for them. While vegetation has been able to grow without these cycles, it will be better for man that these functions are systematized. No more definite statement could be made that before this act days, years and seasons had not existed as we know them. But now those seasons will be the guarantee of the means of existence.
Furthermore these lights will give light to the inhabitants of earth. The sun will enable them to go about their daily round. At night the moon will guide the hunter and the shepherd. But the main occurrence and emphasis of the fourth period is that the ‘lights’ are called on to establish the times and seasons. Time and provision is systematized and guaranteed.
16 Then God made two great lights: the greater light to rule the day, and the lesser light to rule the night. He made the stars also. 17 God set them in the firmament of the heavens to give light on the earth, 18 and to rule over the day and over the night, and to divide the light from the darkness. And God saw that it was good. 19 So the evening and the morning were the fourth day.
Please take special notice that the lights are deliberately unnamed. This is in contrast with what has gone before. They are but tools for God’s purposes, inanimate objects not worthy of a name. And the stars are but an afterthought hardly worthy of mention. This is deliberate. In the light of the worship of Sun, Moon and stars by the surrounding nations, Moses wants their position to be made quite clear. People had already begun in worshiping the creation not the Creator. These things are but ‘lamps’ in the sky.
It is significant with regard to this that ‘naming’ occurs in the first three preparatory days, and that in days five and six what is made is ‘blessed’ as living and reproductive, but the ‘lights’ are neither named nor blessed. God does not give them names indicating their background nature. They control from afar. They are not actively involved, nor are they living. They are ‘formed’ not ‘created’. All thought of their divinity, or importance except as devices, is deliberately excluded.
It is noteworthy that the bringing forth of the living creatures, unlike in the case of vegetation, involved a new act of creation (bara). ‘Life’ in vegetation did not involve an act of new creation, life in living creatures did. This was something that neither adaptation, nor evolution could accomplish.
20 Then God said, “Let the waters abound with an abundance of living creatures, and let birds fly above the earth across the face of the firmament of the heavens.” 21 So God created great sea creatures and every living thing that moves, with which the waters abounded, according to their kind, and every winged bird according to its kind. And God saw that it was good. 22 And God blessed them, saying, “Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the waters in the seas, and let birds multiply on the earth.” 23 So the evening and the morning were the fifth day.
We note here a remarkable fact. First of all is that God commanded the creatures to be ‘bought forth’ by the waters, and secondly that He ‘created’ them.
Thus there would appear to be a twofold process.
. Adaptation from what was in the waters,
. Creation of something from nothing.
The creatures are to be seen as a part of that from which they come, and yet also to be seen as being distinctive. Thus the life of living creatures is distinguished from plant life. It is new and unique. They receive their life from God. As with the vegetation God determines that there will be many ‘kinds’ so as to provide diversity. These ‘kinds’ are the result of God’s activity.
We want to focus first on ‘The great sea monsters’. The writer was aware, as all men were, of huge creatures in the sea. To many they must have seemed terrifying. But he knew that they were creatures of God. Many ancient myths spoke of semi-divine sea monsters (tannin) who caused distress and chaos. They are made by God and they are under His control and will.
They are ‘Brought forth abundantly’ from the root ‘to swarm’, thus things which appear in swarms. The waters were filled with swarming things. Watch National Geographic when they have a special of the ocean and you will see this fact.
Then our God brought forth ‘and every winged bird.’ The fish filled the waters and the birds the area under the firmament (verse 7).
Then Moses saw our Great God stand back and look over so far His Great work and remarked - ‘And God saw that it was good.’ This brings out God’s personal interest in what He has produced. He Is, as it were, making sure that the world into which man will come is a good place for him to be. Yes, even the sea-monsters are good in His eyes. They are no enemy to Him.
Then our Holy God blesses the creatures. Again this is new, stressing that a new distinctive beginning has been achieved. The vegetation was not ‘blessed’. The heavenly lights were not blessed. The creatures are seen as in some special way distinctive and personal. The main blessing is that those who have received life can pass on life. They can be fruitful, and multiply. Sexual functions, rightly used, are blessed by God to the furtherance of life. A clear distinction is made between animate life and inanimate life. Animism, the belief that inanimate objects have souls, is here rejected by God. Such objects are not ‘blessed’ for they have no ‘life’.
On the final day of formation and creation God produces land creatures, and creates man. Man is the ultimate aim of His creative activity. He is to have within him not just life, but heavenly life. He is the crown of creation, and set over the rest of creation.
24 Then God said, “Let the earth bring forth the living creature according to its kind: cattle and creeping thing and beast of the earth, each according to its kind”; and it was so. 25 And God made the beast of the earth according to its kind, cattle according to its kind, and everything that creeps on the earth according to its kind. And God saw that it was good.
We note here that God is not said to ‘create’ these living creatures. Thus their created life must in some way be derived from the previously mentioned living creatures (v.21). This shows a continuity of a process which began with the latter.
Again it is stressed that God planned a diversity of creatures, each according to its kind. Diversity in creation is not blind chance, but results from the purpose of God. Also take note that His plan included both animals that would later be domesticated, and what we would call ‘wild animals’. Man’s good is clearly in mind.
In addition the creation includes ‘everything that creeps’, including the tiny scavengers that clean up the world. All have their place in God’s creation.
Now we come to the moment that it was all previous actions by our Holy God was leading up to the creation of man who was made in God’s image. Everything that has gone before was subordinate to this. It is for man that the world has been made.
Are you aware that we can prove from Scripture that our Majestic Holy God was thinking of men and women before His Creation began? Angels were created before our Great God started His Creation process. In the book of Ezekiel we find out that one of His Cerebrum angels was that of a man, and one of the 4 beasts that was around the throne of God as we read in Revelation 4 says, “The first living creature was like a lion, the second living creature like a calf, the third living creature had a face like a man, and the fourth living creature was like a flying eagle”
26 Then God said, “Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness; let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the air, and over the cattle, over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.”
He we see our Awesome Blessed Holy Trinity have a conversation with each other - ‘Let us make man.’ The thought is intimate and personal, and carefully considered. The human beings created in God’s Image are to have dominion which is not limited to just the living creatures. He is to dominate the earth for its good.
27 So God created man in His own image; in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them.
Now man’s privilege is stressed. He is created in God’s own image. Notice the stress on the fact that he is ‘created’, deliberately repeated three times in the verse. Three represents completeness [as each One in The Holy Trinity testifies]. Again this is something totally new which does not come from what existed before. While his body is of the earth, his essential being is made in the likeness of God.
28 Then God blessed them, and God said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply; fill the earth and subdue it; have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the air, and over every living thing that moves on the earth.”
Like the living creatures man is ‘blessed’. They are to produce young and populate the earth. This again brings out that sexual functions, rightly used, are blessed by God. The verb ‘subdue’ is strong, as is the term ‘have dominion’. The latter means ‘trample down’. There is no suggestion that man’s task will be easy. The subjugation of the animal world will be hard and demanding. But man has been given what is necessary for victory and control.
29 And God said, “See, I have given you every herb that yields seed which is on the face of all the earth, and every tree whose fruit yields seed; to you it shall be for food. 30 Also, to every beast of the earth, to every bird of the air, and to everything that creeps on the earth, in which there is life, I have given every green herb for food”; and it was so.
God reminds man that He has made full provision for them, providing a storehouse that will propagate itself. Man may eat of the seeds of plants and of fruit. They are God’s provision for them, and are provided in abundance for their enjoyment. They will not have to be fought for or toiled for, for they reproduce themselves. These two verses are the purpose to which the whole narrative leads up. They are God’s covenant with man around which the context is built.
The suggestion is also here that God’s ‘intention’ was that the world would progress without bloodshed. Both animals and man could live from the fruit and vegetation of the earth. ‘Nature red in tooth and claw’ is therefore seen as an aberration from God’s purposes. What caused such a change of situation is the horrible result of sin.
31 Then God saw everything that He had made, and indeed it was very good. So the evening and the morning were the sixth day.
The world has been prepared for man and man can be satisfied because God is satisfied with it from start to finish. His final day of work is over. Evening has fallen and He has now completed His work satisfactorily and can leave it in man’s hands. Whatever happens it will not be His fault. Up to now things have been ‘good’. Now it is all ‘very good’. This stress clearly has in mind the following chapters when that ‘goodness’ will be marred by the effects of the fall.
