Thus the heavens and the earth were finished, and all the host of them.
Ch. Gen 2:1-4 a. The Seventh Day: ( a) The Cessation from Work; ( b) The Hallowing of the Day
1. were finished ] In these verses the repetition of the words “finish,” “work,” “seventh day,” “made,” is probably intended to heighten the solemnity connected with the seventh day; see also note on Gen 1:27, and Introduction, on the characteristics of P.
and all the host of them ] The word “host” is noteworthy. The Hebrew is b, “army,” the plural of which is the word “Sabaoth” (= ’bth = “hosts”) familiar to us in the Te Deum. Here, as applied to the countless forces of the universe, its use is metaphorical. In the ancient world a great army represented the ideal of an organized multitude: and the designation of “host” ( b) is often given in the O.T. to the heavenly bodies (e.g. 2Ki 17:16). The LXX , = “their order, beauty, or array,” is reproduced in the Lat. ornatus eorum = “their splendour,” missing the significance of the original. Upon this error of the Vulgate St Thomas Aquinas based his division of the works of Creation into “ opera distinctionis ” and “ opera ornatus.”
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
NOTE ON THE SABBATH
In connexion with the Institution of the Sabbath recorded in Gen 2:1-3 the following points deserve to be noticed.
1. The writer gives the reason for the sanctity among the Hebrews of the Seventh Day, or Sabbath. As, in chap. 17, he supplies an answer to the question: What is the origin of the Hebrew sacred rite of circumcision? so, here, he gives an answer to the question: What is the origin of the observance of the Sabbath?
2. Whereas the Hebrew rite of circumcision is described as having its origin in the command of God delivered to Abraham, the Father of the Chosen People, the origin of the Sabbath is treated as more ancient and uniquely sacred. As an institution, it follows at once upon the work of Creation. Whatever its import, therefore, may be, it is regarded by the writer as universal in its application. The Divine rest from Creation, like the Divine work of Creation, was a pledge of Divine Love, not to the Jew only, but to the whole world.
3. From the first, God is said to have “blessed” and “sanctified” the seventh day. In other words, he invested the seventh day with the quality of highest value and advantage to those who observed it; stamped its observance with the seal of Divine approbation; and “set it apart,” as distinct from the other six days, for sacred purposes.
4. The account of the origin of the Sabbath, given in this passage, is followed in the legislation, Exo 31:17 (P), and seems to have supplied the appendix to the primitive form of the Fourth Commandment as found in the Decalogue of Exodus (Gen 20:11).
In the Deuteronomic Decalogue (Deu 5:12-15) the observance of the Sabbath is enjoined, without any reference to the days of Creation, but with an appendix explaining its humanitarian purpose. “And thou shalt remember that thou wast a bondman in the land of Egypt, and the Lord thy God brought thee out thence by a mighty hand and by a stretched out arm: therefore the Lord thy God commanded thee to keep the sabbath day.”
A similar explanation for the observance of the Sabbath is found in the so-called Book of the Covenant (Exo 20:22 to Exo 23:33 E), which contains the earliest collection of Hebrew laws: “Six days thou shalt do thy work, and on the seventh day thou shalt rest: that thine ox and thine ass may have rest, and the son of thy handmaid, and the stranger, may be refreshed” (Exo 23:12). In the old ritual laws of Exo 34:10-28, the observance of the seventh day is commanded as a duty with which no pressure of field labour is to interfere: “Six days thou shalt work, but on the seventh day thou shalt rest; in plowing time and in harvest thou shalt rest” ( Gen 2:21).
What relation exists between the Hebrew institution of the Sabbath and Babylonian usage is a question which has been much discussed in recent years. It has sometimes been too hastily assumed that the Hebrew ordinance has been directly imported from Babylonia. For a full discussion, see Driver ( D.B. s.v. Sabbath); Gordon, Early Traditions of Genesis, pp. 216 223; the Commentaries by Driver and Skinner; Meinhold, Sabbath u. Woche im A.T. The following points may here be noticed:
( a) The Assyrian word shabattu appears in a cuneiform syllabary (ii Rawlinson 32, 16 a, b) with the equivalent m n libbi ( ilni), i.e. “day of resting (satisfying or appeasing) the heart of the gods.”
( b) In a tablet, discovered in 1904 by Pinches, the word shapattu appears to have been applied to the 15th day, or full-moon day, of the month ( P.S.B.A. xxvi. 51 ff.).
( c) There is evidence which shews that the 7th, 14th, 21st and 28th days, and also the 19th (i.e. the 49th = 7 7th, from the commencement of the preceding month) were in certain, if not in all, of the Babylonian months, regarded as “unlucky” days. The following quotation is from a calendar of the intercalated month of Elul. “On the 7th day, supplication to Marduk and Sarpanitum, a favourable day ( sc. may it be). An evil day. The shepherd of many nations is not to eat meat roasted by the fire, or any food prepared by the fire. The clothes of his body he is not to change, fine dress (?) he is not to put on. Sacrifices he is not to bring, nor is the king to ride in his chariot. He is not to hold court, nor is the priest to seek an oracle for him in the holy of holies. The physician is not to be brought to the sick room. The day is not suitable for invoking curses. At night, in the presence of Marduk and Ishtar, the king is to bring his gift. Then he is to offer sacrifices so that his prayer may be acceptable” (M. Jastrow’s Religion of Babylonia and Assyria, pp. 376, 377).
( d) It is only on the side of prohibition that we can here see any resemblance between the Babylonian treatment of the seventh day and the Hebrew Sabbath of every seventh day. Of course it is possible that if the use of the Babylonian word shapattu for “full-moon” day is sustained, it may be a survival of Semitic lunar sacred days, the observance of which, though dropped by Babylonian usage, was retained by Hebrew legislation and given a new religious significance.
( e) In the pre-exilic writings of the O.T. (2Ki 4:23; Isa 1:13; Hos 2:11; Amo 8:5) we notice the joint mention of the New Moon and the Sabbath as sacred festivals observed by the people; but the conjecture of Meinhold, that the Sabbath was originally the Hebrew name of the Full Moon Festival, seems very improbable. That there is some underlying connexion between the Babylonian shabattu and the Hebrew shabbath is highly probable. At present, there is no evidence to shew that the Hebrew usage is borrowed from Babylonian. Nor does the language of the post-exilic writers suggest that the Hebrew observance of the Sabbath was one which they associated with Babylonian religion.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
– The Seventh Day
1. tsaba’ a host in marching order, a company of persons or things in the order of their nature and the progressive discharge of their functions. Hence, it is applied to the starry host Deu 4:19, to the angelic host 1Ki 22:19, to the host of Israel Exo 12:41, and to the ministering Levites Num 4:23. kosmos.
2. chashebyy. Here hashshy is read by the Samaritan Pentateuch, the Septuagint, the Syriac, and Josephus. The Masoretic reading, however, is preferable, as the sixth day was completed in the preceding paragraph: to finish a work on the seventh day is, in Hebrew phrase, not to do any part of it on that day, but to cease from it as a thing already finished; and resting, in the subsequent part of the verse, is distinct from finishing, being the positive of which the latter is the negative.
shabat rest. yashab sit.
3. qadsh be separate, clean, holy, set apart for a sacred use.
In this section we have the institution of the day of rest, the Sabbath shabat, on the cessation of God from his creative activity.
Gen 2:1
And all the host of them. – All the array of luminaries, plants, and animals by which the darkness, waste, and solitude of sky and land were removed, has now been called into unhindered action or new existence. The whole is now finished; that is, perfectly suited at length for the convenience of man, the high-born inhabitant of this fair scene. Since the absolute beginning of things the earth may have undergone many changes of climate and surface before it was adapted for the residence of man. But it has received the finishing touch in these last six days. These days accordingly are to man the only period of creation, since the beginning of time, of special or personal interest. The preceding interval of progressive development and periodical creation is, in regard to him, condensed into a point of time. The creative work of the six days is accordingly called the making, or fitting up for man of the skies and the land and the sea, and all that in them is (Exo 20:10 (Exo 20:11)).
Gen 2:2
Then finished. – To finish a work, in Hebrew conception, is to cease from it, to have done with it. On the seventh day. The seventh day is distinguished from all the preceding days by being itself the subject of the narrative. In the absence of any work on this day, the Eternal is occupied with the day itself, and does four things in reference to it. First, he ceased from his work which he had made. Secondly, he rested. By this was indicated that his undertaking was accomplished. When nothing more remains to be done, the purposing agent rests contented. The resting of God arises not from weariness, but from the completion of his task. He is refreshed, not by the recruiting of his strength, but by the satisfaction of having before him a finished good Exo 31:17.
Gen 2:3
Thirdly, he blessed the seventh day. Blessing results in the bestowment of some good on the object blessed. The only good that can be bestowed on a portion of time is to dedicate it to a noble use, a special and pleasing enjoyment. Accordingly, in the forth place, he hallowed it or set it apart to a holy rest. This consecration is the blessing conferred on the seventh day. It is devoted to the rest that followed, when Gods work was done, to the satisfaction and delight arising from the consciousness of having achieved his end, and from the contemplation of the good he has realized. Our joy on such occasions is expressed by mutual visitation, congratulation, and hospitality. None of these outward demonstrations is mentioned here, and would be, so far as the Supreme Being is concerned, altogether out of place. But our celebration of the Sabbath naturally includes the holy convocation or solemn meeting together in joyful mood Lev 23:3, the singing of songs of thanksgiving in commemoration of our existence and our salvation (Exo 20:11 (Exo 20:10; Deu 5:15), the opening of our mouths to God in prayer, and the opening of Gods mouth to us in the reading and preaching of the Word. The sacred rest which characterizes the day precludes the labor and bustle of hospitable entertainment. But the Lord at set times spreads for us his table laden with the touching emblems of that spiritual fare which gives eternal life.
The solemn act of blessing and hallowing is the institution of a perpetual order of seventh-day rest: in the same manner as the blessing of the animals denoted a perpetuity of self-multiplication, and the blessing of man indicated further a perpetuity of dominion over the earth and its products. The present record is a sufficient proof that the original institution was never forgotten by man. If it had ceased to be observed by mankind, the intervening event of the fall would have been sufficient to account for its discontinuance. It is not, indeed, the manner of Scripture, especially in a record that often deals with centuries of time, to note the ordinary recurrence of a seventh-day rest, or any other periodical festival, even though it may have taken firm hold among the hereditary customs of social life. Yet incidental traces of the keeping of the Sabbath are found in the record of the deluge, when the sacred writer has occasion to notice short intervals of time. The measurement of time by weeks then appears Gen 8:10, Gen 8:12. The same division of time again comes up in the history of Jacob Gen 29:27-28. This unit of measure is traceable to nothing but the institution of the seventh-day rest.
This institution is a new evidence that we have arrived at the stage of rational creatures. The number of days employed in the work of creation shows that we are come to the times of man. The distinction of times would have no meaning to the irrational world. But apart from this consideration, the seventh-day rest is not an ordinance of nature. It makes no mark in the succession of physical things. It has no palpable effect on the merely animal world. The sun rises, the moon and the stars pursue their course; the plants grow, the flowers blow, the fruit ripens; the brute animal seeks its food and provides for its young on this as on other days. The Sabbath, therefore, is founded, not in nature, but in history. Its periodical return is marked by the numeration of seven days. It appeals not to instinct, but to memory, to intelligence. A reason is assigned for its observance; and this itself is a step above mere sense, an indication that the era of man has begun. The reason is thus expressed: Because in it he had rested from all his work. This reason is found in the procedure of God; and God himself, as well as all his ways, man alone is competent in any measure to apprehend.
It is consonant with our ideas of the wisdom and righteousness of God to believe that the seventh-day rest is adjusted to the physical nature of man and of the animals which he domesticates as beasts of labor. But this is subordinate to its original end, the commemoration of the completion of Gods creative work by a sacred rest, which has a direct bearing, as we learn from the record of its institution, on metaphysical and moral distinctions.
The rest here, it is to be remembered, is Gods rest. The refreshment is Gods refreshment, which arises rather from the joy of achievement than from the relief of fatigue. Yet the work in which God was engaged was the creation of man and the previous adaptation of the world to be his home. Mans rest, therefore, on this day is not only an act of communion with God in the satisfaction of resting after his work was done, but, at the same time, a thankful commemoration of that auspicious event in which the Almighty gave a noble origin and a happy existence to the human race. It is this which, even apart from its divine institution, at once raises the Sabbath above all human commemorative festivals, and imparts to it, to its joys and to its modes of expressing them, a height of sacredness and a force of obligation which cannot belong to any mere human arrangement.
In order to enter upon the observance of this day with intelligence, therefore, it was necessary that the human pair should have been acquainted with the events recorded in the preceding chapter. They must have been informed of the original creation of all things, and therefore of the eternal existence of the Creator. Further, they must have been instructed in the order and purpose of the six days creation, by which the land and sky were prepared for the residence of man. They must in consequence have learned that they themselves were created in the image of God, and intended to have dominion over all the animal world. This information would fill their pure and infantile minds with thoughts of wonder, gratitude, and complacential delight, and prepare them for entering upon the celebration of the seventh-day rest with the understanding and the heart. It is scarcely needful to add that this was the first full day of the newly-created pair in their terrestrial home. This would add a new historical interest to this day above all others. We cannot say how much time it would take to make the parents of our race aware of the meaning of all these wondrous events. But there can be no reasonable doubt that he who made them in his image could convey into their minds such simple and elementary conceptions of the origin of themselves and the creatures around them as would enable them to keep even the first Sabbath with propriety. And these conceptions would rise into more enlarged, distinct, and adequate notions of the reality of things along with the general development of their mental faculties. This implies, we perceive, an oral revelation to the very first man. But it is premature to pursue this matter any further at present.
The recital of the resting of God on this day is not closed with the usual formula, and evening was, and morning was, day seventh. The reason of this is obvious. In the former days the occupation of the Eternal Being was definitely concluded in the period of the one day. On the seventh day, however, the rest of the Creator was only commenced, has thence continued to the present hour, and will not be fully completed till the human race has run out its course. When the last man has been born and has arrived at the crisis of his destiny, then may we expect a new creation, another putting forth of the divine energy, to prepare the skies above and the earth beneath for a new stage of mans history, in which he will appear as a race no longer in process of development, but completed in number, confirmed in moral character, transformed in physical constitution, and so adapted for a new scene of existence. Meanwhile, the interval between the creation now recorded and that prognosticated in subsequent revelations from heaven Isa 65:17; 2Pe 3:13; Rev 21:1 is the long Sabbath of the Almighty, so far as this world is concerned, in which he serenely contemplates from the throne of his providence the strange workings and strivings of that intellectual and moral race he has called into being, the ebbings and flowings of ethical and physical good in their checkered history, and the final destiny to which each individual in the unfettered exercise of his moral freedom is incessantly advancing.
Hence, we gather some important lessons concerning the primeval design of the Sabbath. It was intended, not for God himself, whose Sabbath does not end until the consummation of all things, but for man, whose origin it commemorates and whose end it foreshadows Mar 2:27. It not obscurely hints that work is to be the main business of man in the present stage of his existence. This work may be either an exhilerating exercise of those mental and corporeal faculties with which he is endowed, or a toilsome labor, a constant struggle for the means of life, according to the use he may make of his inborn liberty.
But between the sixfold periods of work is interposed the day of rest, a free breathing time for man, in which he may recall his origin from and meditate on his relationship to God. It lifts him out of the routine of mechanical or even intellectual labor into the sphere of conscious leisure and occasional participation with his Maker in his perpetual rest. It is also a type of something higher. It whispers into his soul an audible presentiment of a time when his probationary career will be over, his faculties will be matured by the experience and the education of time, and he will be transformed and translated to a higher stage of being, where he will hold uninterrupted fellowship with his Creator in the perpetual leisure and liberty of the children of God. This paragraph completes the first of the eleven documents into which Genesis is separable, and the first grand stage in the narrative of the ways of God with man. It is the keystone of the arch in the history of that primeval creation to which we belong. The document which it closes is distinguished from those that succeed in several important respects:
First, it is a diary; while the others are usually arranged in generations or life-periods.
Secondly, it is a complete drama, consisting of seven acts with a prologue. These seven stages contain two triads of action, which match each other in all respects, and a seventh constituting a sort of epilogue or completion of the whole.
Though the Scripture takes no notice of any significance or sacredness inherent in particular numbers, yet we cannot avoid associating them with the objects to which they are prominently applied. The number one is especially applicable to the unity of God. Two, the number of repetition, is expressive of emphasis or confirmation, as the two witnesses. Three marks the three persons or hypostases in God. Four notes the four quarters of the world, and therefore reminds us of the physical system of things, or the cosmos. Five is the haIf of ten, the whole, and the basis of our decimal numeration. Seven, being composed of twice three and one, is especially suited for sacred uses; being the sum of three and four, it points to the communion of God with man. It is, therefore, the number of sacred fellowship. Twelve is the product of three and four, and points to the reconciliation of God and man: it is therefore the number of the church. Twenty-two and eleven, being the whole and the half of the Hebrew alphabet, have somewhat the same relation as ten and five. Twenty-four points to the New Testament, or completed church.
The other documents do not exhibit the sevenfold structure, though they display the same general laws of composition. They are arranged according to a plan of their own, and are all remarkable for their simplicity, order, and perspicuity.
Thirdly, the matter of the first differs from that of the others. The first is a record of creation; the others of development. This is sufficient to account for the diversity of style and plan. Each piece is admirably adapted to the topic of which it treats.
Fourthly, the first document is distinguished from the second by the use of the term Elohiym only for the Supreme Being. This name is here appropriate, as the Everlasting One here steps forth from the inscrutable secrecy of his immutable perfection to crown the latest stage of our planets history with a new creation adapted to its present conditions. Before all creation he was the Everduring, the Unchangeable, and therefore the blessed and only Potentate, dwelling with himself in the unapproachable light of his own essential glory 1Ti 6:15. From that ineffable source of all being came forth the free fiat of creation. After that transcendent event, He who was from everlasting to everlasting may receive new names expressive of the various relations in which he stands to the universe of created being. But before this relation was established these names could have no existence or significance.
Neither this last nor any of the former distinctions affords any argument for diversity of authorship. They arise naturally out of the diversity of matter, and are such as may proceed from an intelligent author judiciously adapting his style and plan to the variety of his topics. At the same time, identity of authorship is not essential to the historical validity or the divine authority of the elementary parts that are incorporated by Moses into the book of Genesis. It is only unnecessary to multiply authorship without a cause.
Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
Gen 2:1
Thus the heavens and the earth were finished, and all the host of them
The completed creation
I.
THE CREATION WAS A GRADUAL PROCESS. The reasons might be–
(1) To show that Gods works were not the offspring of hasty impulse, but planned from everlasting, and executed with minute and lingering care;
(2) To discover the variety of methods which a God infinitely rich in resources can employ in effecting His great purposes.
II. THE CREATIVE PROCESS AT LAST CAME TO A POINT IN MAN. (G. Gilfillan.)
Lessons from the Mosaic account of creation
1. That the universe as it exists now is different from the universe as it existed once.
2. That the creation of the world was not the work of many gods, but of One.
3. That it was a Person that effected this vast work, and not some law of the universe gradually educing all things from a power that was inherent in matter.
4. Respecting the character of the Creator, the Israelite was taught that He had formed all things good.
5. The Israelite was taught also the divinity of order: that it is the law of mans existence; that the unregulated or unruly heart is like the ship with an insubordinate crew which is wrecked on the ocean; that order is to pervade the church, to rule the state, to regulate the family, to influence mans personal happiness, his affections, his desires.
6. The Israelite was taught also this: that it was gradation that regulated Gods creation, to be traced not only in this that the more perfect forms of life were created last, but also in the fact that more work was done at the close than at the beginning of the creative period. And this is true of every work which will stand the test of time. It must not be hastily done, but thoughtfully planned and carried out with steady and increasing energy. God who works for eternity lays His foundations deep, He does not extemporize. It matters not whether it be in things great or small: quick, mere outside work is done for time; meant for show, it falls speedily to nothing, there is in it nothing belonging to eternity. If then a man would follow God, he must be content to toil and toil to the last.
7. Once more, the principle of the providence of the Almighty emerges from the history of the creation. We read of mans creation and the creation of the beasts. The vegetables He did not create till the earth was dry; the animals not till the vegetables were prepared for their sustenance; and man not till the kingdom was put in order which man should rule. Now this is what we call providence in God, foresight or prudence in man. Thus we see how a mere earthly virtue may in another sense be a spiritual excellence, and it is the duty of man to rise into this higher view. (F. W. Robertson, M. A.)
The second account of creation
This is, observe, a second account, not a continuation of the first. Yet let us not suppose for one moment that these are two separate accounts thrown together with no object. They are manifestly linked together, each is supplemental to the other. In the first, we have these spiritual truths–the unity of God, His personality, His order: in the second, His dealings with nature and with the mind of man. God gives man law, and annexes to his obedience and disobedience reward and punishment. We make three remarks on this second account.
1. The first is with reference to the reason given for mans creation, that there was a man wanted to till the ground. We should not have said that of man. We should have held another view, and looked upon ourselves as the rulers of this world for whom all things were created, were it not for this verse which teaches us the truth. In the order of creation man is the highest; but the object for which man is created is that he should, like all the rest, minister to the advance of all things. That is our position here; we are here to do the worlds work.
2. The next thing we have to observe is the unity of the human race. All that we are told in the first account is that God, in the beginning, created them male and female. All that we are told in the second is that He placed Adam and Eve in paradise. Theologically, the unity of the human race is of great importance. Between the highest and the lowest animals there is an everlasting difference, but none between the highest and lowest men; and it is only as this is realized that we can ever feel the existence of our common humanity in Jesus Christ.
3. The next thing to observe is this, that we have here a hint respecting immortality. It must have struck every attentive reader of the Scriptures, that in the Old Testament there is so little allusion to futurity. We are told, in a phrase that declares the dignity of mans nature, that God breathed into his nostrils the breath of life. And when the mind of the Israelite began to brood on this he would remember that there was also a sad, dark intimation, Dust thou art, and unto dust thou shalt return, apparently a denial of immortality. But then there were aspirations in the soul that never could be quenched; and this yearning aspiration would bring him back again to ask: Dust is not all; the breath of God, what has become of that? (F. W. Robertson, M. A.)
Creation
First, God says, I made all these earthly treasures which you see; value them for My sake, and do not misuse them. A child on its birthday finds a present on its plate at breakfast time. Who could have put it there? Presently, the father says, I put it there, my child: it is my gift to you. Has not that gift, however small it be, a value over and above its intrinsic worth as bought in a shop? And still more, if the father says, I did not buy it, I made it for you myself. Let us all so regard Gods gifts to us! Secondly, God says, I made you: I made that wonderful body of yours out of the material elements, the dust of the ground, and I breathed into it that living soul which makes the body alive. So says Gen 2:7. But look also at Gen 1:26. There God seems to say, I did more than this: I made you in My image, like Myself; are you like Me? No, indeed, we are not; but then comes in the new creation in Christ Jesus. Christ is the image of the invisible God, and He took our human nature. If we yield ourselves to Him, He will make us partakers of the Divine nature 2Pe 1:4), and hereafter we shall be like Him, for we shall see Him as He is. (E. Stock.)
The theology of creation
I. THAT CREATION IS AN EXPRESSION OF GODS MIND. It is the embodiment of an idea; the form of a thought. Theology says that creation had a beginning, and that it began at the bidding of God.
II. THAT CREATION, BEING AN EXPRESSION OF GODS MIND, MAY FORM THE BASIS FOR THE CONSIDERATION OF GODS PERSONALITY AND CHARACTER. If we see something of the artist in his work, we may see something of the Creator in creation.
1. The works of God proclaim His eternal and incommunicable sovereignty. Man cannot approach the dignity of having himself created anything. He is an inquirer, a speculator, a calculator, a talker–but not a creator. He can reckon the velocity of light, and the speed of a few stars. He can go out for a day to geologize and botanize; but all the while a secret has mocked him, and an inscrutable power has defied the strength of his arm. The theologian says, that secret is God–that power is Omnipotence.
2. There is more than sovereignty, there is beneficence. Thou openest Thine hand; they are filled with good. He giveth to the beast his food, and to the young ravens which cry. This is a step downwards, yet a step upwards. Over all is the dread sovereignty of God–that sovereignty stoops to us in love to save our life, to spread our table and to dry our tears; it comes down, yet in the very condescension of its majesty it adds a new ray to its lustre. The theologian says, This is Gods care; this is the love of the Father; this bounty is an expression of the heart of God. It is not a freak of what is called nature; it is not a sunny chance; it is a purpose, a sign of love, a direct gift from Gods own heart.
III. THAT GODS WORD IS ITS OWN SECURITY FOR FULFILMENT. God said, Let there be–and there was. He spake, and it was done; He commanded, and it stood fast. By the word of the Lord were the heavens made; and all the host of them by the breath of His mouth. This is the word which alone can ultimately prevail. This is of infinite importance–
(1) As the hope of righteousness;
(2) As the inevitable doom of wickedness.
IV. THAT THE WORD WHICH ACCOUNTS FOR THE EXISTENCE OF NATURE ACCOUNTS ALSO FOR THE EXISTENCE OF MAN. Know ye not that the Lord He is God? It is He that made us, and not we ourselves. O Lord, Thou art our Father; we are the clay, and Thou our potter; and we are the work of Thy hand. Have we not all one Father? hath not one God created us? We are the offspring of God: In Him we live, and move, and have our being. See what a great system of unity is hereby established. He who made the sun made me!
V. ALL THINGS CONTROLLED BY THE CREATOR.
VI. ALL THINGS JUDGED BY THE CREATOR. (J. Parker, D. D.)
The work of creation
I. We are to consider WHAT THINGS GOD DID CREATE IN THE PERIOD OF SIX DAYS.
II. THAT THOSE THINGS, WHICH WERE CREATED AT THAT ONE PERIOD OF TIME, COMPRISED, OR INCLUDED ALL THINGS THAT EVER WERE CREATED.
1. There is reason to think that when God began to create, He would not rest, until He had completely finished His whole work of creation. This Moses represents Him to have done in the text.
2. All the works of God must compose but one whole, or perfect system. This we may safely conclude from the perfect wisdom of God. He could not consistently begin, or continue to operate, before He had formed a wise and benevolent design to be answered by creation.
3. Those things which we know God did create in six days, compose a whole, or form a complete system. The lower heaven is intimately connected with the earth. The sun, the moon, the stars, the firmament, the atmosphere, the heat, the cold, the clouds and the rain, were all made for the service and benefit of mankind; and are so necessary, that they could not subsist without the kindly influence of these things, which belong to the lower heaven. And it is no less evident that there is a constituted connection between the inhabitants of the upper heaven and the inhabitants of this lower world.
4. Those things which were created in six days, not only form a whole, or system, but the most perfect system conceivable. All the parts, taken together, appear to be completely suited to answer the highest and best possible end that God could propose to answer by creation.
5. It appears from the process of the great day, that angels and men are the only rational creatures who will then be called to give an account of their conduct.
Improvement:
1. It appears from what has been said, that the enemies of Divine revelation have no just ground to object against the Bible because it does not give a true and full account of the work of creation.
2. If angels and men are all the intelligent beings that God created in six days, then there is no reason to think that this world, after the day of judgment, will be a place of residence for either the happy or miserable part of mankind.
3. If God acted systematically in the work of creation, and formed every individual in connection with and in relation to the whole, then we may justly conclude that He always acts systematically in governing the world.
4. If God created all things at once, and as one whole connected system, then He can remove all the darkness which now rests, or ever has rested, on His providence. It is only to bring all His intelligent creatures together, and show them their relations to and connection with each other; and that will discover the various reasons of His conduct towards every individual, and convince them all that He has been holy, wise, and just, in all the dispensations of His providence and grace. When they see the same reasons that He saw for His conduct, it will carry irresistible evidence to every created being, that He has treated him perfectly right.
5. If God created all things at once, to answer a certain great and good purpose, then that day will be a glorious day, when this purpose shall be completely accomplished. And it will be completely accomplished at the end of the world. So that the end of the world will be a far more glorious day than the day of creation.
6. If the end of the world will exhibit such a blaze of perfect light, then we may be sure that it will fix all intelligent creatures in their final and unalterable state. Those who are happy in the light of the last day, must necessarily be happy forever; and those who are unhappy in Chat light, must be unhappy and completely miserable forever. (N. Emmons, D. D.)
The form of the record of creation
The first narrative commences, In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth: and then follows the detail of Gods work through the six days of creation, concluding with His rest on the Sabbath of the seventh. This carries us to the third verse of the second chapter. But with the fourth verse we make a new commencement. These are the generations of the heavens and of the earth when they were created: words which appear to refer solely to what follows them, and to contain no recognition of the narrative which has just preceded. This second account traverses a new and more deeply interesting field, as far as the end of the fourth chapter. But with the fifth chapter again we seem to encounter a third commencement: This is the book of the generations of Adam; a clause which is followed up, after a very brief summary of creation containing no direct allusion to the fall, by the genealogy of the earliest line of Patriarchs.
1. The first chapter, as contrasted with the others, relates especially to the physical aspect of creation. It deals more with powers than with persons: more with the establishment of law, than with the gift of will.
2. But the second narrative at once enters on the moral record. Man is now charged with personal duties, and holds individual relations to the Personal Jehovah. There is a moral law, a moral probation, a punishment which it would need a moral principle to understand. While mans dominion is defined and explained, as the beasts are summoned to their master to receive their names, yet he is taught that he must obey as well as rule: that if he is higher than the brute creation, there is a law, again, which is higher than himself; which he cannot break without descending from his sovereignty, and submitting to the forfeiture of death. And then follows the minute history of his fatal trial, fall, expulsion from Eden. To this division belongs the whole fourth chapter, which does but lead us from that point of expulsion, through the original quarrel between Abel and Cain, up to the actual establishment of a Church, and the consequent establishment, by exclusion, of an ungodly world, when men began to call upon the name of Jehovah, and so again to recognize a personal God.
3. Then this scene also closes. It had unveiled relations which exist upon this world no longer. It had spoken of higher communion, and of purer glory, than the fallen mind can maintain, or than the eyes of the fallen can behold. Adam now stands only as the highest term in these our mortal genealogies. There is no further notice of the innocence which he had lost; of that open intercourse with God which he had forfeited; of the mode in which sin had found an entrance into this world; of the establishment of a Church, as defining and completing the separation, between those who were satisfied with their evil, and those who were struggling to recover their good. And this is the account of creation, which especially connects it with our present history.
(1) The object of revelation is to deal with mans moral and religious, but not with his material interests. It is obvious, therefore, that the physical account of creation must come first, though it was not necessary that we should be told more about it than would be sufficient to mark mans precise place in the creation, of which he forms so prominent a part. This, and no more than this, is the duty discharged by the first of these narratives. Next, the necessity of explaining how man fell, that is, how Gods image came to be defaced, how mans eye came to be darkened, and his will corrupted, governs the arrangement of the second narrative. This is pursued simply to its natural completion; and then it gives place to the record of succeeding history. No order could be more perfect, none could more accurately follow out the very course which a clear view of the needs of the narrative would have led us to anticipate, than the precise order in which these chapters are arranged.
(2) The same is evident if we regard the subject from the other side. Gods revelations of Himself have always been gradual. Ever since the fall this has been the law of His communications. We can trace it throughout the sacred records, through every point in which the Old Testament furnished any type or prophecy or symbol which had to wait for its explanation in the New. Now the Divine names which are used in these chapters furnish the strongest confirmation of the account which I have given, and of the propriety of the order on which the record proceeds. In the first narrative, the Creator describes Himself only as Elohim, that is, God. We can conceive that He might even here have been spoken of as Jehovah. He bears that name in other parts of Scripture in reference to this very act of creation: and the nearest name, when we know it, must surely be applicable even to His grandest operations. But the name of power, rather than the name of individuality, seems to have been intentionally chosen, for the very same reason that placed first the merely physical narrative of creation, and thus gradually introduced us to the moral attributes of God. In the next section, in perfect conformity with what might have been looked for, we read of Jehovah, the Lord: or rather we find the compound expression, Jehovah Elohim, the Lord God. The Personal Jehovah appears to us, with all His moral attributes, as soon as the personal Adam is disclosed. But that man may no more doubt His power than His goodness, the name of creation is retained, in combination with this nearer and more personal name. (Archdeacon Hannah.)
Observations
I. IT MUST BE OUR CARE TO OBSERVE, NOT ONLY WHAT GOD WORKS, BUT WITHAL HOW HE DISPOSETH, AND ORDERETH THAT WHICH HE HATH WROUGHT.
1. Because the excellency and perfection of every work is in the end whereunto it is directed and applied.
2. Because the wisdom of God is most discovered in the ordering and disposing of His works, as His power is most seen in creating of them: as usually the workmans skill is more commended in the use of an instrument than in the making and framing of it.
II. THE CREATURES THAT GOD HATH MADE ARE TO BE LOOKED ON AS AN ARMY ARRAYED IN AN EXCELLENT AND WELL COMPOSED ORDER.
1. Let all men carefully search into the order, mutual correspondence, and scope, whereunto all the ways of God, in the administration of the creatures, tend.
(1) Judging of His works, in and by them, not apart, but laid all together.
(2) Looking to, and waiting for, the end of the work which He hath in hand, as we are advised to do (Psa 27:37).
2. Tremble before that God, and trust in Him that hath power in His hand to command all the creatures in heaven and earth, and to arm them at His pleasure for the defence of those that fear Him, and against such as hate Him.
III. GOD PERFECTETH AND FULLY FINISHETH EVERY WORK THAT HE TAKES IN HAND.
1. In their measure, which is proportioned to the end, whereunto they were appointed.
2. And in their time, for they are brought to perfection by degrees, as David professeth of the framing of His own body (Psa 139:16).
(1) Let us in imitation of God, work till we bring things to perfection; as Naomi assures Ruth that Boaz would do (Rth 3:18). Especially in the works that more immediately concern Gods honour and our own salvation; not contenting ourselves with laying the foundation, but labouring to go on to perfection (Heb 6:1). Adding still one grace to another (2Pe 1:5), and growing strong in every grace, that we may perfect holiness (2Co 7:1). And abounding in every good Heb 13:21). Lest we prove like the foolish builder Luk 14:30), or the ostrich (Isa 39:14-15).
(2) Let it be a means to strengthen our hearts, in the assurance of the perfecting the work–
(a) Of sanctification. God, according to His promises, will not leave purging us till He have made us without spot or wrinkle (Eph 5:17-20).
(b) Of our salvation (Php 1:6). He that suffered for us, till all was finished (Job 19:30), will not leave till He have brought us into thefull possession of the glory which He hath purchased for us. (J. White, M. A.)
The completed creation
God now proclaims the completion of His creation work. It was no mere sketch or outline: it was no half-finished plan: it was a finished work. A goodly and glorious work! Not merely on account of what we see and touch in it, but on account of what we cannot see or touch. For creation is full of secrets. Science, in these last days, has extracted not a few, but how many remain secrets still! What a multitude of hidden wonders does each part of creation contain! Outwardly, how marvellous for the order, beauty, utility of all its parts; inwardly, how much more marvellous for the secret springs of life, motion, order, health, fruitfulness, and power! Each part, how wondrous in itself, as perfect in its kind; yet no less wondrous, as wrapping up within itself the seeds of ten thousand other creations, as perfect, hereafter to spring from them! God proclaims the perfection of His works, not as man does, in vainglory, but that He may fix our eye on their excellency, and let us know that He, the Former of them, is fully satisfied, and that His work is now ready for its various functions and uses. The great machine is completed, and now about to begin its operations. (H. Bonar, D. D.)
Fuente: Biblical Illustrator Edited by Joseph S. Exell
CHAPTER II
The seventh day is consecrated for a sabbath,
and the reasons assigned, 1-3.
A recapitulation of the six days’ work of creation, 4-7.
the garden of Eden planted, 8.
Its trees, 9.
Its rivers, and the countries watered by them, 10-14.
Adam placed in the garden, and the command given not
to eat of the tree of knowledge on pain of death, 15-17.
God purposes to form a companion for the man, 18.
The different animals brought to Adam that he might
assign them their names, 19, 20.
The creation of the woman, 21, 22.
The institution of marriage, 23, 24.
The purity and innocence of our first parents, 25.
NOTES ON CHAP. II
Verse 1. And all the host of them]. The word host signifies literally an army, composed of a number of companies of soldiers under their respective leaders; and seems here elegantly applied to the various celestial bodies in our system, placed by the Divine wisdom under the influence of the sun. From the original word tsaba, a host, some suppose the Sabeans had their name, because of their paying Divine honours to the heavenly bodies. From the Septuagint version of this place, , all their ornaments, we learn the true meaning of the word , commonly translated world, which signifies a decorated or adorned whole or system. And this refers to the beautiful order, harmony, and regularity which subsist among the various parts of creation. This translation must impress the reader with a very favourable opinion of these ancient Greek translators; had they not examined the works of God with a philosophic eye, they never could have given this turn to the original.
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
All the creatures in heaven and earth are called their
hosts, for their multitude, variety, order, power, and subjection to the Lord of hosts. Particularly the host of heaven in Scripture (which is its own best interpreter) signifies both the stars, as Deu 4:19; 17:3; Isa 34:4; and the angels, as 1Ki 22:19; 2Ch 18:18; Luk 2:13; who from these words appear to have been created within the compass of the first six days, which also is probable from Col 1:16-17. But it is no wonder that the Scripture saith so little concerning angels, because it was written for the use of men, not of angels; and God would hereby take us off from curious and impertinent speculations, and teach us to employ our thoughts about necessary and useful things.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
1. the heavensthe firmamentor atmosphere.
hosta multitude, anumerous array, usually connected in Scripture with heaven only, buthere with the earth also, meaning all that they contain.
were finishedbroughtto completion. No permanent change has ever since been made in thecourse of the world, no new species of animals been formed, no law ofnature repealed or added to. They could have been finished in amoment as well as in six days, but the work of creation was gradualfor the instruction of man, as well, perhaps, as of higher creatures(Job 38:7).
Ge2:2-7. THE FIRSTSABBATH.
Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
Thus the heavens and the earth were finished,…. Perfected and completed in the space of six days, gradually, successively, in the manner before related; by the word and power of God they were on the first day created out of nothing, but they were not perfected, beautified, and adorned, and filled, until all the creatures in the were made:
and all the host them, of the heavens and the earth; the host of heavens are the sun, moon, and stars, often so called in Scripture, and also the angels; see Lu 2:13 wherefore this may be considered as a proof of their creation within the above space of time, probably on the first day, though the Jews commonly say on the second; for if all the host of heaven were made at this time, and angels are at least a part of that host, then they must be then made, or otherwise all the host of heaven were not then and there made, as here affirmed: and the host of the earth, or terraqueous globe, are the plants, herbs, and trees, the fowls, fishes, animals, and man; and these are like hosts or armies, very numerous, and at the command of God, and are marshalled and kept in order by him; even some of the smallest of creatures are his army, which are at his beck, and he can make use of to the annoyance of others, as particularly the locusts are called, Joe 2:11.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
The Sabbath of Creation. – “ Thus the heavens and the earth were finished, and all the host of them.” here denotes the totality of the beings that fill the heaven and the earth: in other places (see especially Neh 9:6) it is applied to the host of heaven, i.e., the stars (Deu 4:19; Deu 17:3), and according to a still later representation, to the angels also (1Ki 22:19; Isa 24:21; Neh 9:6; Psa 148:2). These words of Gen 2:1 introduce the completion of the work of creation, and give a greater definiteness to the announcement in Gen 2:2, Gen 2:3, that on the seventh day God ended the work which He had made, by ceasing to create, and blessing the day and sanctifying it. The completion or finishing ( ) of the work of creation on the seventh day (not on the sixth, as the lxx, Sam., and Syr. erroneously render it) can only be understood by regarding the clauses Gen 2:2 and Gen 2:3, which are connected with by consec. as containing the actual completion, i.e., by supposing the completion to consist, negatively in the cessation of the work of creation, and positively in the blessing and sanctifying of the seventh day. The cessation itself formed part of the completion of the work (for this meaning of vid., Gen 8:22; Job 32:1, etc.). As a human artificer completes his work just when he has brought it up to his ideal and ceases to work upon it, so in an infinitely higher sense, God completed the creation of the world with all its inhabitants by ceasing to produce anything new, and entering into the rest of His all-sufficient eternal Being, from which He had come forth, as it were, at and in the creation of a world distinct from His own essence. Hence ceasing to create is called resting ( ) in Exo 20:11, and being refreshed ( ) in Exo 31:17. The rest into which God entered after the creation was complete, had its own reality “in the reality of the work of creation, in contrast with which the preservation of the world, when once created, had the appearance of rest, though really a continuous creation” ( Ziegler, p. 27). This rest of the Creator was indeed “the consequence of His self-satisfaction in the now united and harmonious, though manifold whole;” but this self-satisfaction of God in His creation, which we call His pleasure in His work, was also a spiritual power, which streamed forth as a blessing upon the creation itself, bringing it into the blessedness of the rest of God and filling it with His peace. This constitutes the positive element in the completion which God gave to the work of creation, by blessing and sanctifying the seventh day, because on it He found rest from the work which He by making ( faciendo : cf. Ewald, 280 d) had created. The divine act of blessing was a real communication of powers of salvation, grace, and peace; and sanctifying was not merely declaring holy, but “communicating the attribute of holy,” “placing in a living relation to God, the Holy One, raising to a participation in the pure clear light of the holiness of God.” On see Exo 19:6. The blessing and sanctifying of the seventh day had regard, no doubt, to the Sabbath, which Israel as the people of God was afterwards to keep; but we are not to suppose that the theocratic Sabbath was instituted here, or that the institution of that Sabbath was transferred to the history of the creation. On the contrary, the Sabbath of the Israelites had a deeper meaning, founded in the nature and development of the created world, not for Israel only, but for all mankind, or rather for the whole creation. As the whole earthly creation is subject to the changes of time and the law of temporal motion and development; so all creatures not only stand in need of definite recurring periods of rest, for the sake of recruiting their strength and gaining new power for further development, but they also look forward to a time when all restlessness shall give place to the blessed rest of the perfect consummation. To this rest the resting of God ( ) points forward; and to this rest, this divine (Heb 4:9), shall the whole world, especially man, the head of the earthly creation, eventually come. For this God ended His work by blessing and sanctifying the day when the whole creation was complete. In connection with Heb. 4, some of the fathers have called attention to the fact, that the account of the seventh day is not summed up, like the others, with the formula “evening was and morning was;” thus, e.g., Augustine writes at the close of his confessions: dies septimus sine vespera est nec habet occasum, quia sanctificasti eum ad permansionem sempiternam . But true as it is that the Sabbath of God has no evening, and that the , to which the creature is to attain at the end of his course, will be bounded by no evening, but last for ever; we must not, without further ground, introduce this true and profound idea into the seventh creation-day. We could only be warranted in adopting such an interpretation, and understanding by the concluding day of the work of creation a period of endless duration, on the supposition that the six preceding days were so many periods in the world’s history, which embraced the time from the beginning of the creation to the final completion of its development. But as the six creation-days, according to the words of the text, were earthly days of ordinary duration, we must understand the seventh in the same way; and that all the more, because in every passage, in which it is mentioned as the foundation of the theocratic Sabbath, it is regarded as an ordinary day (Exo 20:11; Exo 31:17). We must conclude, therefore, that on the seventh day, on which God rested from His work, the world also, with all its inhabitants, attained to the sacred rest of God; that the and of God were made a rest and sabbatic festival for His creatures, especially for man; and that this day of rest of the new created world, which the forefathers of our race observed in paradise, as long as they continued in a state of innocence and lived in blessed peace with their God and Creator, was the beginning and type of the rest to which the creation, after it had fallen from fellowship with God through the sin of man, received a promise that it should once more be restored through redemption, at its final consummation.
Fuente: Keil & Delitzsch Commentary on the Old Testament
| The Creation. | B. C. 4004. |
1 Thus the heavens and the earth were finished, and all the host of them. 2 And on the seventh day God ended his work which he had made; and he rested on the seventh day from all his work which he had made. 3 And God blessed the seventh day, and sanctified it: because that in it he had rested from all his work which God created and made.
We have here, I. The settlement of the kingdom of nature, in God’s resting from the work of creation, Gen 2:1; Gen 2:2. Here observe, 1. The creatures made both in heaven and earth are the hosts or armies of them, which denotes them to be numerous, but marshalled, disciplined, and under command. How great is the sum of them! And yet every one knows and keeps his place. God uses them as his hosts for the defence of his people and the destruction of his enemies; for he is the Lord of hosts, of all these hosts, Dan. iv. 35. 2. The heavens and the earth are finished pieces, and so are all the creatures in them. So perfect is God’s work that nothing can be added to it nor taken from it, Eccl. iii. 14. God that began to build showed himself well able to finish. 3. After the end of the first six days God ceased from all works of creation. He has so ended his work as that though, in his providence, he worketh hitherto (John v. 17), preserving and governing all the creatures, and particularly forming the spirit of man within him, yet he does not make any new species of creatures. In miracles, he has controlled and overruled nature, but never changed its settled course, nor repealed nor added to any of its establishments. 4. The eternal God, though infinitely happy in the enjoyment of himself, yet took a satisfaction in the work of his own hands. He did not rest, as one weary, but as one well-pleased with the instances of his own goodness and the manifestations of his own glory.
II. The commencement of the kingdom of grace, in the sanctification of the sabbath day, v. 3. He rested on that day, and took a complacency in his creatures, and then sanctified it, and appointed us, on that day, to rest and take a complacency in the Creator; and his rest is, in the fourth commandment, made a reason for ours, after six days’ labour. Observe, 1. The solemn observance of one day in seven, as a day of holy rest and holy work, to God’s honour, is the indispensable duty of all those to whom God has revealed his holy sabbaths. 2. The way of sabbath-sanctification is the good old way, Jer. vi. 16. Sabbaths are as ancient as the world; and I see no reason to doubt that the sabbath, being now instituted in innocency, was religiously observed by the people of God throughout the patriarchal age. 3. The sabbath of the Lord is truly honourable, and we have reason to honour it–honour it for the sake of its antiquity, its great Author, the sanctification of the first sabbath by the holy God himself, and by our first parents in innocency, in obedience to him. 4. The sabbath day is a blessed day, for God blessed it, and that which he blesses is blessed indeed. God has put an honour upon it, has appointed us, on that day, to bless him, and has promised, on that day, to meet us and bless us. 5. The sabbath day is a holy day, for God has sanctified it. He has separated and distinguished it from the rest of the days of the week, and he has consecrated it and set it apart to himself and his own service and honour. Though it is commonly taken for granted that the Christian sabbath we observe, reckoning from the creation, is not the seventh but the first day of the week, yet being a seventh day, and we in it, celebrating the rest of God the Son, and the finishing of the work of our redemption, we may and ought to act faith upon this original institution of the sabbath day, and to commemorate the work of creation, to the honour of the great Creator, who is therefore worthy to receive, on that day, blessing, and honour, and praise, from all religious assemblies.
Fuente: Matthew Henry’s Whole Bible Commentary
GENESIS – CHAPTER TWO
This chapter is a summary and amplification of God’s activity of creation. It is not the account of the creation of another human pair. The last part of this chapter explains chapter 1:27, 28. And it records the first human institution of Divine origin: the Home.
Verse 1-3:
“Finished were the heavens and the earth,” with emphasis on the verb. The creation of man on Day Six marked the termination of God’s creative work. “Finished” is calah, and denotes both cessation and perfection. God did not merely pause in His activity. His idea of the universe was fully realized. All was now arranged, embellished, and filled with plants, animals and man. All was established according to orderly laws. And all the universe shined forth before the Creator, who proclaimed it to be “very good.”
“The host of them” includes not only terrestrial life, but the hosts of angelic beings, and the celestial bodies, Luk 2:13; 1Ki 22:19; 2Ch 18:18; Psa 148:2; Mat 14:29; Isa 34:4; Dan 8:10; Neh 9:6.
The “day” originally consisted of “evening and morning.” In today’s world the day begins and ends at midnight. But to the Hebrews, the day began at sunset, and ended the following sunset. Thus, at sunset on Day Six, all God’s creative work, ceased, and He began the “seventh day” of rest.
“Rested” is shabath, “to keep sabbath,” with the primary thought to sit still and assume a posture of quiet repose. This is a principle of life operative today, which God established by His own personal example. God does not grow weary, nor does He need rest. He did not establish the sabbath-principle for His own need. He did it for man’s benefit. Man today has a physiological and psychological and spiritual need to rest one day out of seven. Physiologically he needs to allow his body to rest from the rigors and stress of his daily occupation. Psychologically he needs release from the stress and tension of his job. And spiritually he needs time to focus upon the Word and will of God without distractions. To fail to observe this rest-principle results in stress and conflict and physical debility.
God incorporated the Law of the Sabbath into His commandments for Israel, and specified the seventh day of the week as the day of rest. Men today are not under that seventh-day law (Col 2:14-17; Eph 2:15). However, the principles behind Israel’s written law hold good today. One cannot ignore this Divine principle and escape the consequences.
Fuente: Garner-Howes Baptist Commentary
1. Thus the heavens and the earth were finished (100) Moses summarily repeats that in six days the fabric of the heaven and the earth was completed. The general division of the world is made into these two parts, as has been stated at the commencement of the first chapter. But he now adds, all the host of them, by which he signifies that the world was furnished with all its garniture. This epilogue, moreover, with sufficient clearness entirely refutes the error of those who imagine that the world was formed in a moment; for it declares that all end was only at length put to the work on the sixth day. Instead of host we might not improperly render the term abundance; (101) for Moses declares that this world was in every sense completed, as if the whole house were well supplied and filled with its furniture. The heavens without the sun, and moon, and stars, would be an empty and dismantled palace: if the earth were destitute of animals, trees, and plants, that barren waste would have the appearance of a poor and deserted house. God, therefore, did not cease from the work of the creation of the world till he had completed it in every part, so that nothing should be wanting to its suitable abundance.
(100) The three verses at the commencement of this chapter evidently belong to the first, being a summing up of the preceding history of the creation, and an account of the sabbatical institution on the seventh day. The remark of Dathe is, “ Male capita hoc loco sunt divisa. Tres versus priores ad primum caput sunt referendi.” — Ed.
(101) “ Copiam,” a questionable rendering, surely of the word צבאם. The Septuagint gives the word κόσμος, and the Vulgate, ornatus; the meaning of both words is “ornaments,” or garniture. The other versions in Walton translate it exercitus, host or army. Fagius, in Poli Synopsi, seems the chief maintainer of Calvin’s interpretation. The words of Poole are, “ Alii, virtus, copia eorum, quia eis declarat Deus (sicutrex copiis suis,) potentiam et sapientiam.” — Ed
Fuente: Calvin’s Complete Commentary
THE DAWN OF HISTORY
Gen 1:1 to Gen 11:9.
IN beginning this Bible of the Expositor and Evangelist, I am keenly sensible of the seriousness of my task. The book to be treated is the Book of Books, the one and only volume that has both survived and increasingly conquered the centuries, and that now, in a hoary old age, shows no sign of weakness, holds no hint of decay or even decrepitude; in fact, the Book is more robust at this moment than at any time since it came to completion, and it gives promise of dominating the future in a measure far surpassing its influence upon the past.
The method of studying the Bible, to be illustrated in these pages, is, we are convinced, a sane and safe one, if not the most efficient one. Years since, certain statements from the pen of Dr. James M. Gray, superintendent of the Moody Bible Institute, fell under our eyes, and those statements have profoundly influenced our methods of study.
Five simple rules he suggested for mastering the English Bible:
First, Read the Book.
Second: Read it consecutively.
Third: Read it repeatedly.
Fourth: Read it independently.
Fifth: Read it prayerfully.
Applying these suggestions to each volume in turn, if ones life be long continued, he may not hope to master his English Bible, but he will certainly discover its riches increasingly, and possess himself more and more of its marvelous treasures,
It was on the first Sunday of July, 1922, that I placed before myself and my people the program of study that produced these volumes. To be sure, much of the work had been done back of that date, but the determination to utilize it in this exact manner was fully adopted there and then. It was and is my thought that the greatest single weakness of the present-day pulpit exists in the circumstance that we have departed from the custom of our best fathers in the ministry, namely, Scriptural exposition. If, therefore, these volumes shall lead a large number of my brethren in the ministry, particularly the young men among them, to become expository preachers, and yet to combine exposition with evangelism, my reward will be my eternal riches.
Stimulated by that high hope, I turn your attention to the study itself, and begin where the Book begins and where all true students should begin, with Gen 1:1, but in thought, an eternity beyond the hour of its phrasing, for by the opening sentence we are pushed back to God. In the beginning
GOD.
That is the starting point of all true studies. The scientist is compelled to start there, or else he never understands where he is, nor yet with what he deals. God, the One of infinite wisdom, infinite power, infinite justice and of infinite goodnessIn the beginning God.
Having heard that name and having understood the One to whom it is applied, we are prepared for what follows,created the heavens and the earth marvelous first verse of the Bible!
All in this first chapter is wrapped up in that first sentence; that is the explanation of all things; what follows is simply the setting forth of details.
I agree with Joseph Parker that the explanation is simple. No attempt at learned analysis; that the explanation is sublime because it sweeps in all of time, all of material suggestions, all of power and illustrates all of wisdomthe heavens declare the glory of God and the firmament showeth His handiwork; day unto day uttereth speech and night unto night showeth knowledge, and it is a sufficient explanation, the only one that satisfies the mind of man.
Infidel evolutionists cannot account for the beginnings. The geologist who does not believe, digs down to a point where he says, Who started all of this? and waits in sadness while the dumb rocks are silent; but for the Christian student no such mystery makes his work an enigma.
Everywhere he sees the touch of God; in the plants, the animals, the birds and in man,God. Where the unbeliever wonders and questions to get no reply, the believer admires, saying, This is my Fathers hand, the work of my Fathers word. Through faith we understand that the worlds were framed by the Word of God, so that things which are seen were not made of things which do appear (Heb 11:3), and he joins with the Psalmist, Let all nations praise the name of the Lord for He commanded and they were created (Psa 108:5).
Competent scholars have called attention to the careful use of words in the Bible, a use so painstaking and perfect as to give a scientific demonstration of the verbal inspiration theory. When it is said that God created the heavens and the earth, the Hebrew verb bara is employed, and it means to create something from nothing, so that God gave the death blow to the evolution theory some thousands of years before that unprovable hypothesis was born! The same word bara is also used in the 21st verse (Gen 1:21) concerning the creation of mammals, and three times in the 27th verse (Gen 1:27) concerning the creation of man, while a kindred word asah (neither of which convey any such thought as growth or evolution) is employed concerning His making man in His own image in Gen 1:26.
God, then, is not a mechanic; He is a Creator. He did not come upon the scenes of the universe to fashion what existed independent and apart from Him, but to create and complete according to His own pleasure.
In later chapters we shall show how these creative acts are confirmed by science itself, and argue the utter folly of trying to find incompatibility between Gods Work and Gods Word.
So for the present we may pass from God the Creator, as revealed in the first chapter, to
ADAM THE MAN
of the second chapter. An infinite decline, somebody says. But let us be reminded that it is not so great as appears at this present hour. The only man God ever made outright was not what you and I see now. The man He made was in His own image, after His own likeness, only as far below
Him as the finite is below the infinite; as the best creation is below the best Creator.
The man God made was good. The man God made was great. The man God made was wise. The man God made was holy. The men we see now are not His children, but the children of the fallen Adam instead, for Eve, fallen, brought forth after her kind; and what a fall was that!
When man disobeyed, he brought on himself and all succeeding ages sin, and its wretched results. There are those who blame God for the fall of man and say, He had no business to make him so he could fall. But everything that is upright can fall, and the difference between a man who could not fall and a man who could fall is simply the difference between a machine and a sentient, intelligent, upright, capable being.
There was but a single point at which this man could oppose Providence. Situated and environed as Adam was, the great social sins that have crushed the race could make no appeal to him. It is commonly conceded that the Decalogue sweeps the gamut of social, ethical and even religious conduct. Adam had no occasion to bow down before another God, for Jehovah, his Creator, was his counsellor and friend, and of other gods he knew nothing nor had he need of such. There was no provocation that could tempt him to take the name of that God in vain. There was no Sabbath day, for all days were holy, and the condemnation to labor was not yet passed. There was no father and mother to be honored. To have committed murder was unthinkable; first because there was no provocation, and second, such an act would have left him in the world alone, his heart craving, unsatisfied, and his very kind to perish. The seventh commandment meant nothing to the man whose wife was in the image of God, and the only woman known. Theft was impossible, since all things belonged to him. False witness and covetousness against a neighborhe had no neighbor.
But when God selected for Himself a single tree, leaving the rest of the earth to Adam, and he proved himself unwilling to let the least of earthly possessions be wholly the Lords, he gave an illustration to the unborn millenniums that man, in his almost infinite greatness, would not abide content that God Himself should be over and above him; and from that moment until this, that very thing has been the crux of every contention between the Divine and the human. If we may believe the Prophets, it was that very temptation that caused Lucifers fall and gave us the devil and hell!
All talk of shallow minds that God condemned the race because one man happened to bite into an apple, is utterly wide of the mark. Condemnation rests upon the race because every man born of the flesh has revealed the same spirit of rebellion shown by our first parentswe will not have God rule over us even to the extent of keeping anything from us. The wealth of His gifts should shame and restrain against His few prohibitions.
But, alas for mans guilt and godlessness! Equally wide of the mark is that other superficial reasoning that it is unjust of God to condemn me because some one of my forefathers misbehaved! Why charge God with injustice concerning something He has never done and will never do? Why not let
Him speak for Himself in such matters, and listen when he declares, The soul that sinneth, it shall die. The son shall not bear the iniquity of the father, neither shall the father bear the iniquity of the son. The righteousness of the righteous shall be upon him, and the wickedness of the wicked shall be upon him (Eze 18:20).
If, therefore, Adam with a body, mind and spirit unsullied, never having been weakened by an evil act or habit, did not stand, what hope for any man in his own merit. Are we better than they? No, in no wise, for we have before proved both Jews and Gentiles that we are all under sin. As it is written, There is none righteous, no not one. There is none that understandeth. There is none that seeketh after God. They are all gone out of the way. They are altogether become unprofitable (Rom 3:9-12).
You say that the temptation was a subtle one. I answer, Yes, that is Satans way to this hour. You say, The desire was for wisdom. I answer, Yes, that is still Satans appeal; you need to see and to know more than you do, hence you had better try this sin.
Over one of the most palatial but wicked doorways of all Paris there used to be an inscription, Come in; nothing to pay, and so far as mere entrance to that place was concerned, that was true. But those who entered found when they had come out that they had visited the place at the cost of character, not to speak of that meaner thing money.
In passing, we call your attention to the justice of Gods judgment upon this sin. Its heaviest sentence fell upon the serpent, Satans direct agent; that wisest of all beasts of the field. He was accursed above all cattle, and brought down from his upright, manly-appearing position to go upon his belly and to eat dust all his days, and to be hated and killed by the seed of the woman with whom he had had such influence.
The second sentence in weight fell upon the woman who listened to this deception and led the way in disobedience. The man did not escape. The associate in sin never does. His love for the principal may in some measure mitigate Gods judgment, but the justice of God would be called in question, and even His goodness, if He permitted any sin to be unpunished.
EVE, THE PRINCIPAL PERSON
in this third chapter must have been in her unfallen state Adams equal, mentally and morally. We have had great women, beautiful women, women worthy the admiration of the world, but I have an idea that the worlds greatest woman was not Cleopatra, the beautiful but selfish; nor Paula, that firmest of all friends; nor Heloise, the very embodiment of affection; nor Joan or Arc, heroism incarnate; nor Elizabeth, the wonderful queen; nor Madam De Stael of letters; nor Hannah Moore of education; but Eve, our first mother.
When I think on her and look at the frail, feeble, sickly, sinful sister of the streets, I feel like weeping over the fact that our first mother fell; and today among her daughters are those so far removed from Gods ideal.
THE FAMILY
of the fourth chapter had its beginning in sin, and it is a dreadfully dark picture that is here presented. Envy, murder and lust appear at once. Abel is murdered, Cain made a criminal, polygamy introduced and all social vices which curse the sons of God. The picture would incite despair, but for the circumstance that in the third chapter God had made a promise which put Grace instead of Law.
There was need, for unless the womans seed should bruise the serpents head, that serpents venom will not only strike the heel of every son, but send its poison coursing to his heart and head; without God, without hopedead indeed!
Truly, as one writer has said, We lose our life when we lose our innocence; we are dead when we are guilty; we are in hell when we are in shame.
Death does not take a long time to come upon us; it comes on the very day of our sin. In the day when thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die. Before that sentence there is no hope, except in these words spoken of the seed of woman against that old serpent, Satan; It shall bruise thy head the first prophecy of the wonderful gift of Gods Son.
Of
CAIN AND ABEL
we appreciate the contrast! The self-righteousness on the part of one; self-abasement on the part of the other. Cains saying, The fruit of mine own hands shall suffice for my justification before God; Abel saying, Without the shedding of blood there is no remission, and that spirit of Cain dominates the early society, as we have already seen; for while the population grew rapidly, sin kept pace, and even seemed swifter still. From self-righteousness they rushed to envy, to murder, and to lust.
The Pharisee may thank God that he is not as other men are, but history is likely to demonstrate the want of occasion for his boasting, for pride goeth before destruction, and a haughty spirit before a fall.
The most dangerous man is the man who recognizes no dependence upon another than himself; and the man most likely to be an extortioner, to be unjust, the man most apt to be an adulterer, yea, even a murderer, is this same Cain who says, See the fruit of my hands. The youthful Chicago murderers thought their fine family connections and their university educations would save them from suspicion and condemnation! I tell you, it is the humble man who is justified in Gods sight!
The man who cries, God be merciful to me a sinnerrather than the man who wipes his lips and says, I am clean, and is offended when you talk to him of the necessity of purifying Blood in which to baptize his soulhe is the man who is justified in Gods sight.
THE FIFTH CHAPTER
covers a period of about 1,500 years, and contains but one great name, not introduced in the other chapters, and this is the name of Enoch. Note that his greatness consisted in the single fact that he walked with God.
Dr. Dixon said, He did not try to induce God to walk with him. He simply fell in with Gods ways and work.
Some one asked Abraham Lincoln to appoint a day of fasting and prayer that God might be on the side of the Northern Army. To this that noble President replied, Dont bother about what side God is on. He is on the right side. You simply get with Him.
Enoch was an every-day hero! Walking patiently, persistently, continuously is harder than flying. They that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings as eagles; they shall run and not be weary; they shall walk and not faint. Like Enoch of old, they shall not see death, for God shall take them, and before their translation they shall have this testimony that they please God.
We have said that this fifth chapter covers 1,500 years. I call you to note the fact that it contains a multitude of names; names that even the best of Bible students do not, and cannot call. Nobody has ever committed them to memory; nobody cares to. They are not worth it. They were given to no noble deeds; they lived and died. The only wonder we have about them is that God let some of them live so long, unless it be that we also wonder how they managed to live so long and accomplish so little. Yet these nonentities have a part in Gods plan. They were bringing forth children; grandchildren came, and great grandchildren, and the children of great-grandchildren until Enoch was born, and by and by Noah; then the whole line was noble from Seth, Adams better of the living sons, down to these great names. It is worth while for a family to be continued for a thousand years, if, at the end of that time, one son can be born into the house who shall bring things to pass; one Enoch who shall walk with God; one Noah who shall save the race! There are people who are greatly distressed because their parents were neither lords, dukes nor even millionaires. They seem to think that the child who is to come to much must descend from a father of superior reputation at least. History testifies to the contrary, and shows us that the noblest are often born into unknown houses. The most gifted sons, the most wonderful daughters have been bred by parents of whom the great world never heard until these children, by their fame, called attention to their humble fathers.
The multiplied concessions that advocates of the evolution theory are obliged to make by facts they face at every turn, excite almost tender pity for them. Professor Conklin, in his volume The Direction of Human Evolution puts forth an endeavor in splendid defense of this hypothesis worthy of a better cause, and yet again and again he is compelled to say the things that disprove his main proposition. Consider these words. Think of the great men of unknown lineage, and the unknown men of great lineage; think of the close relationship of all persons of the same race; of the wide distribution of good and bad traits in the whole population; of incompetence and even feeble-mindedness in great families, and of genius and greatness in unknown families, and say whether natural inheritance supports the claims of aristocracy or of democracy.
When we remember that most of the great leaders of mankind came of humble parents; that many of the greatest geniuses had the most lowly origin; that Shakespeare was the son of a bankrupt butcher and an ignorant woman who could not write her name, that as a youth he is said to have been known more for poaching than for scholarship, and that his acquaintance with the London theatres began by his holding horses for their patrons; that Beethovens mother was a consumptive, the daughter of a cook, and his father a confirmed drunkard; that Schuberts father was a peasant by birth and his mother a domestic servant; that Faraday, perhaps the greatest scientific discoverer of any age, was born over a stable, his father a poor sick black-smither, his mother an ignorant drudge, and his only education obtained in selling newspapers on the streets of London and later in working as apprentice to a book-binder; that the great Pasteur was the son of a tanner; that Lincolns parents were accounted poor white trash and his early surroundings and education most unpromising; and so on through the long list of names in which democracy glories when we remember these we may well ask whether aristocracy can show a better record. The law of entail is aristocratic, but the law of Mendel is democratic.
Quaint old Thomas Fuller wrote many years ago in his Scripture Observations,
I find, Lord, the genealogy of my Saviour strangely checkered with four remarkable changes in four immediate generations:
1. Roboam begat Abia, that is a bad father and a bad son.
2. Abia begat Asa, that is a bad father a good son.
3. Asa begat Josaphat, that is a good father a good son.
4. Josaphat begat Joram, that is a good father a bad son.
I can see, Lord, from hence that my fathers piety cannot be entailed; that is bad news for me. But I see also that actual impiety is not always hereditary; that is good news for my son.
It is not so much a question as to your birth, or to the line in which you are, as to the nobleness of the family tree, as it is what sort of a branch you are; what sort of a branch you may become.
The Duke of Modena flung a taunt at a Cardinal in a controversy, reminding him that his father was only a swineherd of the Dukes father. The Cardinal calmly replied, If your father had been my fathers swineherd, you would have been a swineherd still.
In the race of life it does not make so much difference where we start as how we end.
I do not mean to despise the laws of heredity. They are somewhat fixed, wise and wonderful. The child of a good father has the better chance in this world, beyond doubt. But our plea is that no matter who the fathers are, we may so live that our offspring shall be named by all succeeding generations. I call attention to Enoch in illustration.
About
NOAH
four chapters or more enwrap themselves. Gods man has a large place in history. It is hard enough for Him to find one who is faithful, but when found He always has an important commission for him.
The most important commission ever given to any man was given to this man; namely, that of saving the race. Noah did his best, but when he saw that he was not succeeding with the outside world, he turned his hope to himself as the last resort; to his family as his possible associates. That is always the last resort. Man must save himself, or he can save no one else. The man who saves himself by letting God save him, stands a good chance of being accepted by his own family, and his faith will doubtless find its answer in their salvation as well. Even if it fail with the outside world, that world will be compelled to remember, when Gods judgment comes, that this commissioned one did what he could for them.
In Hebrews we read, By faith Noah moved with fear prepared an ark to the saving of his house. The fear of man bringeth a snare. The fear of God effects salvation. The fear of man makes a coward; the fear of God incites courage. The fear of man means defeat; the fear of God accomplishes success. Be careful whom you fear! I like the man who can tremble before the Father of all. I pity the man who trembles before the face of every earthly foe.
The story is told that two men were commissioned by Wellington to go on a dangerous errand. As they galloped along, one looked at the other, saying, You are scared. Yes, replied his comrade, I am, but I am still more afraid not to do what the commander said. The first turned his horse and galloped back to the Generals tent and said, Sir, you have sent me with a coward. When I looked at him last his face was livid with fear and his form trembled like a leaf. Well, said Wellington, you had better hurry back to him, or he will have the mission performed before you get there to aid. As the man started back he met his comrade, who said, You need not go. I have performed the mission already.
It was through Noah that the Lord gave to humanity a fresh start. God is always doing that. It is the meaning of every revolutionGod overrules it for a fresh start. That is the meaning of wars they may be Satanic in origin, but God steps in often and uses for a fresh start. That is the meaning of the wiping out of nationsa fresh start, and man is always doing what he did at the firstfalling again.
Noah was a righteous man; with his family he made up the whole company of those who had been loyal to God, and one might vainly imagine that from such a family only deeds of honor, of valor, acts of righteousness would be known to earth. Alas for our hope in the best of men!
He has scarcely set foot upon dry ground when we read, (Gen 9:20-21), Noah began to be a husbandman and he planted a vineyard, and he drank of the wine, and was drunken, and he was uncovered in his tent, and down the race went again! Man has fallen, and his nakedness is uncovered before God, and the shame of it is seen by his own blood and bone. Truly, by the deeds of the law no flesh shall be justified in His sight, because our deeds are not worthy of it. Faith becomes the only foundation of righteousness. That is what the eleventh chapter of Hebrews was written to teach us. As a man thinketh in his heart, so is he, and when once a man has fixed his faith in the living God, and keeps it there, the God in whom he trusts keeps him, and that is his only hope. For by grace are ye saved through faith and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God, not of works, lest any man should boast (Eph 2:8-9).
NIMROD
the principal personage in the tenth chapter has his offices given. He was a mighty hunter before the Lord, and he was a king. The beginning of his kingdom by Babel and Erich, and Accad and Calneh, in the land of Shinar.
Our attention has been called to the fact that before this chapter, nations are unknown, but now established government appears. Chapter 9:6 is the basis of it, and in Rom 13:2-4 we see that God set the seal of His approval upon it. Nimrod comes forth as the first autocrat and conqueror. One can almost hear the marches to and fro of the people in this chapter; cities are going up and civilization doubtless thought it was making advance, but how far it advances we shall speedily see.
The things in its favor were dexterously employed. Some wise men suddenly remembered that they all had one speech and said, We ought to make the most of it. True, as Joseph Parker says, Wise men are always getting up schemes that God has to bring to naught. Worldly wise men have been responsible for the most of the confusion our civilization has seen. Men who get together in the places of Shinar and embark in real estate, and lay out great projects and pull in unsuspecting associates, and start up tremendous enterprises, and say, under their breath, in their secret meetings, We will get unto ourselves a great name. We will exalt ourselves to heaven, and after the world has done obeisance to us, we will walk among the angels and witness them bow down; but God still lives and reigns. The men who count themselves greatest are, in His judgment, the least; and those that reckon themselves most farseeing, He reckons the most foolish; and those who propose to get into Heaven by ways of their own appointment, He shuts out altogether and drives them from His presence, and they become wandering stars, reserved for the blackness of darkness; for we must learn that self-exaltation brings Gods abasement. He that exalteth himself shall be humbled, and he that humbleth himself shall be exalted. God is willing that man shall come to Heaven but, as some one has said, If we ever get to Heaven at all, it will not be by the dark and rickety staircases of our own invention, but on the ladder of Gods love in Christ Jesus.
God is willing that we should have a mansion, but the mansion of His desire is not the wooden or brick structure that would totter and fall, but the building of God, a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens. God is willing that we should dwell in towers, but not the towers of pride and pomp, but those of righteousness wrought out for us in Christ Jesus.
Fuente: The Bible of the Expositor and the Evangelist by Riley
CRITICAL NOTES.
Gen. 2:2. Rested] Kept sabbath, i.e. observed a sacred, festive quiet. A good worker does his work well, and leaves off when he has done. The very crown of his work is the pleasure he takes in it when complete. Such is Gods rest; and hence He graciously seeks for intelligent companionship therein: Hebrews 3-4.
Gen. 2:3. Created and made] Made creatively, i.e., perh. by making it anew out of chaos (Dav.).
MAIN HOMILETICS OF THE PARAGRAPH.Gen. 2:1-3
THE DIVINE SABBATH
The Divine Artificer with intelligence and delight completes his work. In the calm majesty of His repose He contemplates it. What a scene must have spread before his eye! The created minds who could comprehend but a part, would be overwhelmed at the splendour, variety, and order. How perfect must it have shone forth before the Divine eye that saw all arrangements, and knew the relations of the universe! As none but He could paint such a picture, so He must have been alone in his delight. This was Gods Sabbath. See in it:
I. The Divine completion of His creative work. The heavens and the earth were finished and all the host of them. The Bible teaches that creation ended with the sixth days work. As it was itself a series of separate, distinct acts, so in itself the series was complete. According to this cosmogony there were no further creations. Individuals may be born and die. According to the laws impressed upon the vegetable and the animal worlds there may be the development of the individual from the parent, but it will be after the parents kind. Races and species may die, become extinct; but, if so, they go to a grave whence there is no resurrection. Whatever may be the truth underlying the words of the ancient record, it certainly is not development of species, either by natural or any other selection. Science and Bible are not opposed, but the peculiar form of the present days theory is not that of the Scriptures. This fact is in harmony with:
1. The disclosures of science in its history of the earths crust. The evidence, as yet, is beyond comparison in favour of no resurrection of an extinct species, nor post-Adamic creation of a new species.
2. The history of the world as the record of moral and religious special acts on the part of God. Human history is not that of a physical world. Events since the creation have ethical meaning. The theatre for the great drama of human life was completed in creation. Since that Gods action has been the working out of the successive scenes.
3. The brief references in the other sacred writings to the physical activity of the Creator. He is not represented as creative, but as destroying, and purifying by fire. Thus we find corroborative evidence that Divine interference in the physical world is not in the form of creation.
II. The Divine contemplation of His creative work. At the close of His work all things pass before the eye of God. Everything was now complete. Everything was in subordination. Everything was ready for the higher and more glorious exercise of the divine activity in providence and grace. All was prepared for the kingdom of probation, by which the last created of the world was to be tried, disciplined, and perfected. We may learn here:
1. Evil has no natural place in the universe.
2. Matter is not necessarily hostile to God. The Bible, in this picture of Divine contemplation, cuts away the ground from certain forms of false religion and philosophy. Divine life is not the destruction of matter, nor the rising out of the region of the sensuous; but so restoring the harmony, that God may again look upon the world, and say it is very good.
3. The present condition of things, so changed from that which God first looked upon, must be the result of some catastrophe.
III. The Divine Rest after His Creative Work. The rest began when the work was done. The contemplation was a part of the Sabbatic blessedness. The Sabbath:
1. It was a season of rest. It does not imply that there was weariness, but cessation from creative activity.
2. The rest was blessed by God. As He saw His work good, so He saw His rest good.
3. There was an appointment of a similar blessed rest for His creatures. He sanctified the seventh day. It is not for us to discuss the relations of God to labour and repose. The fact may be beyond our comprehension. It has lessons for us:
1. There is a place and time for rest.
2. The condition on which rest may be claimed is that men work.
3. This rest should be happy. Much of the modern idea of a Sabbath is not that which God would say was blessed. The Sabbath is not a time of gloom.
4. This rest should be religious.
5. This rest is unlimited to any particular portion of the race. (Homilist.)
SUGGESTIVE COMMENTS ON THE VERSES
Gen. 2:1-3. The Sabbath:
1. A day of rest.
2. A day for contemplation.
3. A day of peculiar sanctity.
4. A day Divinely set apart for the moral good of man.
The Sabbath:
1. Its antiquity.
2. Its utility.
3. Its prophecy.
The finished Creation:
1. Should attract our attention.
2. Should excite our admiration.
3. Should evoke our praise.
4. Should lead us to God.
The host of them:
1. As an army Creation is large.
2. It is orderly.
3. It is independent.
4. It is triumphant.
5. It is well commanded.
6. Let no man be found in conflict with its laws.
Were finished:
1. The work of God is progressive.
2. Concentrated.
3. Productive of result.
4. Completive.
5. Learn to finish the good works we commence, to bring them to perfection.
The Sabbath:
1. Just in its command.
2. Beneficial in its results.
3. Imperative in its delegation.
Though God ceased from His works of creation, He ceaseth not from His work of Providence.
The worship of God ought to be mans first care.
God desires His Sabbath to be sanctified:
1. By secret communion.
2. By study of the Scriptures.
3. By public worship.
The law of the Sabbath:
1. Beneficial.
2. Universal.
3. Perpetual.
Rest:
1. Not indolence.
2. Not culpable.
3. It should be contemplative.
4. It should be sacred.
5. It is Divinely warranted.
Absolute and perfect is the frame of heaven and earth, as it cometh out of the hand of God.
Jehovah hath His hosts in heaven and earth, many and mighty.
Gods hosts should keep order in every part, and be subject to their Lord.
The seventh day bringeth Gods perfect work to the well-being of creation.
The seventh day is Gods creature.
God rested from creation of kinds, not from propagation and providence.
Reasons for the Sabbath:
1. Gods rest.
2. Gods blessing.
3. Gods contemplation.
4. Gods sanctification.
ILLUSTRATIONS
BY THE
REV. WM. ADAMSON
Six Days! Gen. 2:1. Conceive of six separate pictures, in which this great work is represented in each successive stage of its progress towards completion. As the performance of the painter, though it must have natural truth for its foundation, must not be considered or judged of as a delineation of mathematical or scientific accuracy; so neither must this pictorial representation of the creation be regarded as literally and exactly true. As these few verses are but a synopsis or conspectus of Gen I., so the pictures in that chapter are but a brief description under the symbol of days of a work stretching over thousands of years
While earth throughout her farthest climes imbibed
The influence of heaven.
Sabbath! Gen. 2:2. Six days had now elapsed since the work of creation was commenced, but the dawn of Sabbath was the first which had shone upon the earth as finished, and occupied by man. This completes the pictures of the young world. God hangs this on the palace walls of truth as the seventh painting; and on its imperishable canvas, traced with indelible hues, one sees man keeping a Sabbath in Paradise. What an image of blessed tranquility and rest! This was the great day of the earths dedication to the service of God. The earth became holy ground, and must not be polluted by any profane act. And thus paradise and the Sabbath are coeval. They stand together on the same page of the Bible. They are seen shining like twin stars in the morning sky of the worldblending their lights in one like those binary stars in the material heavens.
There is no day so glad as that,
Gods holy day of rest.
There is no day so sad as that,
Unhallowed and unblest.
Sabbath! Gen. 2:2. Some one has said that a world without a Sabbath would be like a man without a smilelike a summer without flowerslike a homestead without a garden. It is the joyous day of the whole week. And yet, if there is to be the Sabbath joy in the day, there must be the Sabbath spirit in the heart. It is the heart at rest which makes the Sabbath a joy; and there can only be a true Sabbath gladness in those hearts
Where Gospel light is glowing
With pure and radiant beams,
And living waters flowing,
With soul-refreshing streams.Wordsworth.
Sabbath! Gen. 2:2. On the sides of an English coal mine, limestone is in constant process of formation, caused by the trickling of water through the rocks. This water contains a great many particles of lime, which are deposited in the mine, and, as the water passes off, these become hard, and form the limestone. This stone would always be white, like white marble, were it not that men are working in the mine, and as the black dust rises from the coal it mixes with the soft lime, and in that way a black stone is formed. Now, in the night, when there is no coal-dust rising, the stone is white; then again, the next day, when the miners are at work, another black layer is formed, and so on alternately black and white through the week until Sabbath comes. Then if the miners keep holy the Sabbath, a much larger layer of white stone will be formed than before. There will be the white stone of Saturday night, and the whole day and night of the Sabbath, so that every seventh day the white layer will be about three times as thick as any of the others. But if the men work on the Sabbath they see it marked against them in the stone. Hence the miners call it the Sunday stone. How they need to be very careful to observe this holy day, when they would see their violation of Gods command thus written down in stonean image of the indelible record in heaven!
Heaven here: man on those hills of myrrh and flowers;
A gleam of glory after six days showers.Vaughan.
Sabbath-symbol! Gen. 2:3. It is, writes Chalmers, a favourite speculation of mine, thatif spared to sixtywe then enter upon the seventh decade of human life; and that this, if possible, should be turned into the Sabbath of our earthly pilgrimage, and spent sabbatically, as if on the shores of an eternal world, or in the outer court (as it were) of the temple that is abovethe tabernacle in heaven. For
Sabbaths are threefold, as St. Austin says,
The first of time, or Sabbath here of days;
The second is a conscience trespass free;
The last the SABBATH of ETERNITY.Herrick.
Sabbath-rest! Gen. 2:3. Like the pilgrim, the Christian sits down by this well in the desertfor what to him is the Sabbath, but a fountain in a land of drought, a palm-tree in the midst of the great wildernessand as he drinks of the refreshing waters of this palm-shaded fountain, he is reminded of that rest which remaineth for the people of God. When, as Cumming says, that last Sabbath comesthe Sabbath of all creationthe heart, wearied with tumultuous beatings, shall have rest; and the soul, fevered with its anxieties, shall have peace. The sun of that Sabbath will never set, nor hide his splendours in a cloud. Our earthly Sabbaths are but dim reflections of the heavenly Sabbath, cast upon the earth, dimmed by the transit of their rays from so great a height and so distant a world. They are but
The preludes of a feast that cannot cloy,
And the bright out-courts of immortal glory!Barton.
Fuente: The Preacher’s Complete Homiletical Commentary Edited by Joseph S. Exell
Day Seven: Rest Gen. 2:1-3
And the heavens and the earth were finished, and all the host of them. And on the seventh day God finished his work which he had made; and he rested on the seventh day from all his work which he had made. And God blessed the seventh day, and hallowed it; because that in it he rested from all his work which God had created and made.
Thus ends what has rightly been called the sublime Hymn of Creation.
1. God finished His work, on the seventh day. Does this mean that God, in some fashion, worked on the seventh day. To avoid such an interpretation, the Septuagint and certain other ancient versions insert the sixth day in the text instead of the seventh. Others have translated it, had finished. Still others take the passage to mean that God declared His creative work finished. The Creation evidently was completed, as it had already been pronounced very good. Could it be that on the seventh day God fitted up Eden to serve as mans temporary abode in his first state of innocence and placed him in it?
2. God rested from His work. (1) But we are told that Jehovah fainteth not, neither is weary (Isa. 40:28). Does God need to rest because of fatigue? Surely not. This is obviously an anthropomorphic expression indicating simply that God ceased from His labor of creating, or, as Skinner puts it, desisted from His creative activity. (Since the Creation was finished and pronounced very good, what more was there to do?) Murphys suggestion is that Gods rest arises from the joy of achievement rather than from the relief of fatigue. Moreover, even though God rested from His works of physical creation, He certainly did not rest from works of benevolence (redemption). (2) Heaven is eternal rest, that is, rest from any kind of physical or corporeal activity (surely, however, a principal aspect of the activity of Heaven will be growth in spiritual knowledge). God came out of His timelessness to create the heavens and the earth, in six successive epochs; this Creation having been completed, and Eden prepared for mans first state, God returned back into the timelessness of pure Spiritual Being. Hence the Fathers rest continues, and therefore we have no formula, as at the end of each of the first six days, that there was evening and there was morning, a seventh day. All preceding periods had begun and ended; not so the seventhit is still going on. This is evidently what Jesus meant (Joh. 5:17) in answering the Jews who were criticizing Him for healing on their week-day Sabbath. My Father worketh even until now, and I work, said Jesus. That is to say, You Pharisees criticize me for doing a work of benevolence on your little twenty-four-hour Sabbathbut why? My Fathers Sabbath has been going on throughout all these intervening centuries from the time He ceased from the creating of the world, yet through all this time He has been doing works of benevolence continuously. Why, then, should you literal-minded hypocrites find fault with me for doing a work of benevolence on your little week-day Sabbath?
3. Pro-lepsis: Resting and Hallowing. (1) Note that to bless is to wish something for that which is blessed (someone has said, infinite multiplication of the something wished); and to hallow is to remove that which is hallowed, out of its secular relations and to devote it to God. (2) This is obviously a pro-lepsis: and who was in a better position to understand this than Moses under whom the observance of the week-day Sabbath was established? Now a pro-lepsis is a connecting together, by the writer of the narrative, of two widely separated events in point of years, in an explanatory way, so that it appears as if they might have happened at one and the same time. Remember that Moses is writing this narrative long after the Creation. This means that God rested on the seventh epochal (aeonic) day, after finishing His Creation (of the physical universe). But He did not sanctify the seventh solar day of the week as the Jewish Sabbath until many centuries later, to be specific, when the Hebrew people under Moses were in the Wilderness of Sin, previous to their arrival at Sinai. In the sixteenth chapter of Exodus we have the account of the institution of the Jewish Sabbath. Moses, however, in giving us the Creation Narrative, connects the resting on the seventh aeonic day (after Creation) and the sanctification of the seventh solar day in the Wilderness of Sin, in such an explanatory way that it appears that the two events happened following the Creation, and at the same time, when in reality they were separated by many centuries. He does this, evidently, for the purpose of teaching the Jewish people why it was that Yahweh selected the seventh day of the week, instead of the first, second, third, fourth, fifth, or sixth day, as a day of rest for them, but especially as a memorial of their deliverance from Egyptian bondage (Deu. 5:15). (3) Another example of pro-lepsis occurs in Gen. 3:20And the man called his wifes name Eve, because she was the mother of all living. (Eve means Living or Life.) When Adam named her Eye, as far as we know, she was not the mother of anyone; but she was the mother of the entire human race when the Mosaic Cosmogony was written. Hence, Moses appended the explanatory clause, because she was the mother of all living, to show why Adam, with prophetic insight, named her Eve. (4) Pro-lepsis occurs in the New Testament, as in Mat. 10:2-4, in the enumeration of the twelve apostles. Matthew, in giving their names, concludes with the statement, and Judas Iscariot, who also betrayed him. The clause, who also betrayed him, is merely explanatory on Matthews part, to make clear the identity of Judas. Yet the calling of Judas to the Apostleship and the betrayal of Jesus by Judas were events separated in time by some three years, although it might seem, from the wording of this passage from Matthews account, that they occurred at one and the same time. There can be little or no doubt that in Gen. 2:1-3, we have another pro-lepsis: only on this basis can the passage be harmonized with the teaching of the Bible as a whole.
(5) A. Campbell (CS, 139), takes the position that the Sabbath was observed from the Creation. However, there is no evidence whatever to support this view. There is not the slightest suggestion of an observance of the Sabbath prior to the time of Moses: the term does not even occur in the book of Genesis. There are intimations of a division of time into cycles of seven days (weeks) here and there in Genesis (e.g., Gen. 8:10-12; Gen. 29:16-30; Gen. 50:10), but there is no necessary connection between these and the observance of the seventh day as the Sabbath; moreover, there is not even an intimation of Sabbath observance associated with them. (6) It is crystal clear that the first observance of the week-day Sabbath occurred in the wilderness of Sin, as related in the sixteenth chapter of Exodus. It is inconceivable that the Procession under Moses would have been on the march from Elim to the wilderness of Sin, as we are told expressly that it was, on the first day of the eight-day period described here, for this would also have been a Sabbath had the institution been in effect at that time. The Law of the Sabbath forbade the people to do any work whatever, even to kindle a fire or to leave their habitations on that holy day (Exo. 16:29; Exo. 31:14-15; Exo. 35:2-3; Num. 15:32-36); hence, marching on that first day into the wilderness of Sin would have been a flagrant violation of the Sabbath Law. Now, as the story is given, throughout the six days that followed the first day of marching, the people, at Gods command, gathered manna (bread from heaven) each day, and, again at Gods command, they gathered a double portion on the sixth day. Why so? Because the day that followedthe last day of this eight-day periodwas the first observance of the Jewish Sabbath. The Scripture makes these facts too clear for misconception (Exo. 16:21-30). Not too long after this, the Procession reached Sinai, and there the positive law of the Sabbath was incorporated into the Decalogue (Exo. 20:8-11). (7) The Sabbath was a provision of the Mosaic Law, given to one people only, a people living in a part of the world where it could be properly observed (e.g., without the kindling of a fire, Exo. 35:2-3, Num. 15:32-36) without working a hardship on them (cf. the words of Jesus, Mar. 2:27-28). The wording of Exo. 20:8, Remember the sabbath day to keep it holy, does not necessarily imply a previous observance; remember means, evidently, keep in memory, or do not forget the Sabbath day, thus having reference primarily to their future observance of the day. If it be contended that the word remember here has reference to past observance, I answer simply that the Hebrew people had already observed the Sabbath at least a few times, from the occasion of its institution in the Wilderness of Sin (Exodus 16). The language of this sixteenth chapter makes it too obvious for question that what is described here was the first observance of the seventh day of the week as the Jewish Sabbath.
(8) Finally, the Sabbath was an integral part of the Decalogue, and the Decalogue was the heart of the Mosaic Covenant. In Deu. 5:4-22, we find Moses repeating the Ten Commandments, including the command to keep the seventh day as the Sabbath, In Deu. 5:1-3 of the same chapter, we find him stating expressly that God had not made this Covenant with their fathers (the Patriarchs), but with the generation that had been present at Horeb (another name for Sinai), and with their descendants to whom he, Moses, was speaking on that occasion (just before his own death and burial). (Cf. Gal. 3:19. Here the Apostle tells us that the Law (Torah) was added, that is, codified, because of the growing sinfulness of the people under no restraint but that of tradition and conscience). Moses then goes on to tell the people, no doubt to remind them (Deu. 5:12-15), that the seventh-day Sabbath was set apart by Divine ordinance to be observed by the Children of Israel as a memorial of their deliverance from Egyptian bondage, (Cf. Neh. 9:13-14). It necessarily follows that the observance must have been inaugurated after that deliverance had taken place, that is, after the Exodus. All these Scriptures account for the fact that we find no mention of the Jewish Sabbath in Genesis, that is, throughout the Patriarchal Dispensation. What, then, was the purpose of the inspired writer (Moses, cf. Mat. 19:7-8; Luk. 16:19-31; Luk. 24:27; Luk. 24:44; Joh. 1:17, etc.) in correlating the observance of the week-day Sabbath by the Jewish nation with the day of Gods rest from His creative activity? The answer is obvious: it is to explain why the seventh day was selected to be memorialized instead of any one of the other six days. We have in Genesis the reason why the particular day of the week was chosen; we have in Deuteronomy what the day was chosen for, that is, what it was Divinely intended to memorialize. (There is no need whatever for assuming two contradictory accounts here, nor even for assuming two different accounts.) In a word, the Genesis narrative is to inform us that the seventh day of each ordinary week was sanctified as a memorial for the Jewish nation because that was the great aeonic day on which God rested from His creative activity in the beginning. Thus it may be contended legitimately that the extent of the time involved in these two instances is not any necessary part of the exegetical parallel.
(9) The seventh-day Sabbath was a sign between Yahweh and one people only, the Children of Israel (Exo. 31:12-17). It was divinely appointed a memorial of their deliverance from the bondage of Egypt (Deu. 5:12-15), and as such never had any significance whatever for a Gentile. Moreover, it was to cease with the abrogation of the Old Covenant and the ratification of the New by the death of Christ on the Cross (Hos. 2:11, Joh. 1:17, Col. 2:13-17, 2Co. 3:3-15, Gal. 3:23-27; Heb. 8:6-13; Heb. 9:23-28; Heb. 10:8-14; 1Pe. 2:24). In our Dispensation, the observance of the seventh day would, of course, as stated above, have no meaning, especially for Gentiles. Hence, in the New Testament writings, whereas Jesus, the Apostles, and the early evangelists often went into the synagogues on the Sabbath (the seventh day) to preach the Gospel to the Jews wont to be assembled there, all Christian assemblies, however, were held on the first day of the week, the day on which the Lord was raised from the dead (Mar. 8:31; Mar. 16:9, Act. 4:10-12; Act. 20:7; 1Co. 16:1-2), which came to be known as the Lords Day (Rev. 1:10). There is no particular connection between the Jewish Sabbath and the Christian Lords Day. There is, however, a kind of analogy: that is, as the Sabbath was ordained a memorial of the deliverance of ancient or fleshly Israel from the bondage of Egypt (Deu. 5:15), and as Egypt is, in Scripture, a type of a state of sin, so the Lords Day is a memorial of the deliverance of spiritual Israel (Gal. 3:29) from the bondage of sin and death, through the resurrection of Christ.
(10) Note allusions to the six days of Creation in other parts of the Bible, especially Exo. 20:11 and Exo. 31:15-17. Do these passages require us to accept the days of the Genesis Cosmogony as days of twenty-four hours each? On this point Tayler Lewis (Lange, CDHCG, 135136) writes with great clarity, as follows: The most clear and direct allusion is found in the Fourth Commandment, Exo. 20:11, Six days shalt thou labor and do all thy work, for in six days the Lord made heaven and earth. This language is held to be conclusive evidence of the latter having been ordinary days. They are of the same kind, it is said, or they would not have been put in such immediate connection. There could not be such a sudden change or rise in the meaning. This looks plausible, but a careful study shows that there is something more than first strikes us. It might be replied that there is no difference of radical ideawhich is essentially preserved, and without any metaphor in both usesbut a vast difference in the scale. There is, however, a more definite answer furnished specially by the text itself, and suggested immediately by the objectors own method of reasoning. Gods days of working, it is said, must be the same with mans days of working, because they are mentioned in such close connection. Then Gods work and mans work must also be the same, or on the same grade for a similar reason. The Hebrew word is the same for both: In six days shalt thou labor and do all thy work; for in six days the Lord made (wrought) heaven and earth. Is there no transition here to a higher idea? And so of the resting: The seventh day shall be to thee a sabbath (a rest), for the Lord thy God rested on the seventh daywords of the same general import, but the less solemn or more human term here applied to Deity. What a difference there must have been between Gods work and mans workabove all, between Gods ineffable repose and the rest demanded for human weariness. Must we not carry the same difference into the times, and make a similar ineffable distinction between the divine working-days and the human working-daysthe God-divided days, as Augustine calls them, and the sun-divided days, afterwards appointed to us for signs, and for seasons, and for days, and for years of our lower chronology? Such a pointing to a higher scale is also represented in the septennial sabbath, and in the great jubilee period of seven times seven. They expand upwards and outwards like a series of concentric circles, but the greatest of them is still a sign of something greater; and how would they all collapse, and lose their sublime import, if we regard their antitype as less than themselves, or, in fact, no greater than their least! The other analogy, instead of being forced, has in it the highest reason. It is the true and effective order of contemplation. The lower, or earthly, day is made a memorial of the higher. We are called to remember by it. In six (human) days do all thy work; for in six (divine) days the Lord made heaven and earth . . . It is the manner of the Scriptures thus to make times and things on earth representatives, or under-types, of things in the heavens, hypodeigmata ton en tois ouranois (Heb. 9:23). Viewed from such a standpoint these parallelisms in the language of the Fourth Commandment suggest of themselves a vast difference between the divine and the human days, even if it were the only argument the Bible furnished for that purpose. As the work to the work, as the rest to the rest, so are the times to the times.
(11) Thomas Whitelaw (PCG, 12, 13) comments in similar vein: The duration of the seventh day of necessity determines the length of the other six. Without anticipating the exposition of ch. Gen. 2:1-4, it may be said that Gods sabbatic rest is understood by the best interpreters of Scripture to have continued from creations close until the present hour; so that consistency demands the previous six days to be considered as not of short, but of indefinite, duration. The language of the fourth commandment, when interpreted in accordance with the present theory, confirms the probability of its truth. If the six days in Exo. 20:11 are simply natural days, then the seventh day, in which God is represented as having rested from his creative labours, must likewise be a natural or solar day; and if so, it is proper to observe what follows. It follows (1) that the events recorded in the first five verses of Genesis must be compressed into a single day of twenty-four hours, so that no gap will remain into which the short-day advocates may thrust the geologic ages, which is for them an imperative necessity; (2) that the world is only 144 hours older than man, which is contrary to both science and revelation; (3) that the statement is incorrect that God finished all his work at the close of the sixth day; and (4) that the fossiliferous remains which have been discovered in the earths crust have either been deposited there since mans creation, or were created there at the first, both of which suppositions are untenable. But now, if, on the contrary, the language signifies that God laboured in the fashioning of his cosmos through six successive periods of indefinite duration (olamim, aeons), and entered on the seventh day into a correspondingly long period of sabbatic rest, we can hold the opposite of every one of these conclusions, and find a convincing argument besides for the observance of the sabbath in the beautiful analogy which subsists between Gods great work of olamim and mans little work of sun-measured days. (Perhaps I should emphasize the fact here that the Pulpit Commentary, although first published about the turn of the century and recently re-issued, is still one of the sanest, most comprehensive, and most scholarly of all Biblical Commentaries. Perhaps the most erudite of all such sets is the Critical, Doctrinal, and Homiletical Commentary, co-edited by Dr. John Peter Lange and Dr. Philip Schaff, first published in 1868; the volume on Genesis, by J. P. Lange, is translated from the German, with essays and annotations by Dr. Tayler Lewis. The general content of these Commentaries has been affected very little by recent scientific discoveries and hypotheses. I should say that this is a mark of their true greatness, their reliability.)
(12) Some additional evidence concerning the days of the Creation is in order here, if for no other reason, to demonstrate the general ambiguity with which the Hebrew yom is used in the Old Testament. For example, Gen. 1:5 (here Day refers to daylight); Gen. 2:4 (here yom takes in the whole Creative Week); Gen. 2:17 (here the word indicates an indefinite period); Gen. 35:3the day of my distress; Ecc. 7:14the day of prosperity, the day of adversity; Psa. 95:8the day of temptation in the wilderness (Did not this day last forty years?); Deu. 9:1here day means in a short time; Psa. 2:7here we have an eternal day, a day in Gods Eternal Purpose), etc. Note also in the New Testament the Greek equivalent, hemera, Joh. 8:56my day here takes in Christs incarnate ministry and probably His entire reign as Acting Sovereign of the universe (Act. 2:36, Php. 2:9-11); Heb. 3:15in this text to-day takes in the present season of grace, that is, the entire Gospel Dispensation. Thus it will be seen that by the same word yom, and its Greek equivalent hemera, the Scriptures recognize an artificial day (Gen. 1:5), an eternal day (Psa. 2:7), a civil day (Lev. 23:32), a millenial day (2Pe. 3:8), a judgement day (Act. 17:31), a solar day (Exo. 16:4-5, Rom. 14:5), a day-period (Gen. 2:4, Joh. 8:56, Heb. 3:8, Rom. 13:12), etc. Certainly, the sheer elasticity with which these Hebrew and Greek words are used for our word, day, throughout the Bible forbids the dogmatic assumption of a single fixed meaning!
It is worthy of note here that Gleason L. Archer, Jr., whose fidelity to the Scriptures can hardly be questioned, in his outstanding book, published recently, A Survey of Old Testament Introduction, after rejecting the concepts of a twenty-four-hour day and of a revelational (special prophetic visional) day, presents the view which I have adopted here, namely, that in the Genesis Cosmogony each of the seven Creative Days must have been a period of indefinite duration (that is, as man measures time). He writes (pp. 176177): According to this view the term yom does not necessarily signify a literal twenty-four-hour day, but is simply equivalent to stage. It has often been asserted that yom could not bear this meaning, but could only have implied a literal day to the Hebrew mind according to Hebrew usage. Nevertheless, on the basis of internal evidence, it is the writers conviction that yom in Genesis 1 could not have been intended by the Hebrew author to mean a literal twenty-four-hour day. I fail to see how any other interpretation can be validated on the basis of the content of the Genesis Cosmogony as a whole.
4. The Mosaic Hymn of Creation is especially meaningful in one respect: in v. 31 it sets the sublime optimistic motif of the entire Bible. This verse reads: God saw everything he had made, and behold, it was very good. What a burst of exultation and benediction to be called forth from the inmost being of Elohim at His contemplation of His own handiwork in its entirety! What order, what beauty, what glory there was, to elicit such Divine exultation! Yetdoes not this verse strike the note of optimism that pervades the Bible from beginning to end? Does it not impress the truth upon us that Gods work can never be destroyed, indeed can never be ultimately marred, much less ruined (Act. 3:21); that Good will never be overcome by Evil, but will in fact overcome Evil, in the consummation of the Divine Plan of the Ages? This crescendo of moral victory reaches its height in the New Testament. Even in the midst of the Great Tribulation which man will bring upon himself at the end of the present Dispensation, the spread of evil in all its formsgreed, lust, violence, war, utter preoccupation with earthly thingswhen the saints see these iniquities becoming world-wide , Jesus Himself tells us, they shall lift up their eyes and see the Son of man coming in the clouds of heaven with power and great glory (Mat. 24:29-30; Mat. 16:17-18; Mar. 13:19-26; Luk. 21:20-28). Never is there the slightest intimation anywhere in Scripture of the possibility of Satans triumph over the Creation of God! On the contrary, it is expressly affirmed again and again that Satan and his rebel host (of both angels and men) are doomed; that their proper habitation is the pit of the abyss, that is, segregation in Hell, the penitentiary of the moral universe (Mat. 25:41, 2Pe. 2:4, Jud. 1:6), and that to this ultimate destiny they are bound to be consigned by the Sovereign Will that decrees and executes Absolute Justice. (Mat. 25:31-46; Joh. 5:28-29; Heb. 2:14-15; Php. 2:5-11; 1Co. 15:20-28; Rom. 2:2-11; Act. 17:30-31; Rev. 20:11-15).
5. The Correspondence with Present-day Science of the main features of the Genesis account of the Creation is little short of amazing. (1) On the basis of the panoramic interpretation of the Genesis Cosmogony, the one which we have adopted here, largely on the ground that it does not require any far-fetched applications of the various parts, that is to say, any unjustified stretching of the meaning of the Scripture text, the whole Creation Narrative, in its essential features, parallels the fundamental theories of the physical sciences of our day. On the basis of this panoramic view, there is no need to postulate any post-cataclysmic reconstruction theory (based on the notion of a gap between Gen. 2:1-2) to provide a. way of escape from the difficulties of modern geology. Certainly the stretch of time between the first brooding of the Spirit over the primeval deep and the Divine consilium in which it was decreed that man should be created in Gods image, was eminently sufficient to allow for the developments claimed by such sciences as astronomy, physics, paleontology, archeology, anthropology, etc., and, as we shall see later, for those aspects of the biological and physiological sciences which truly can be designated scientific. Besides, the notion of the building of a new cosmos on the ruins of a former one, without even a suggestion, in the Scripture text, ,of any natural or moral reason for such wholesale changes, makes the reconstruction theory a purely arbitrary one on mans part, (2) Again, the oft-heard cyclical theory of cosmic history is usually, either in its origin or in its adoption, a case in which the wish is father to the thought on the part of atheistically and agnostically motivated scientists who would attempt to avoid the problem of Creation by zealously affirming what they choose to designate the eternity of matter. (In passing, it should be noted that the correlation of the word eternal (which most certainly signifies timelessness) with the nature of what man calls matter is per se an obvious contradiction.) Evidently, even though the theory of cycles of catastrophes and reconstructions might reasonably allow for the view that, as Hoyle puts it, matter is infinitely old (a view which he himself rejects), any such cyclical theory deprives cosmic being and history of any meaning whatsoever, and certainly ignores the fact of the Intelligence and Will which, on the basis of the theory of cycles, necessarily establishes and sustains the successive periods of cosmic order that are supposed to emerge from respective prior cataclysms. (Let us not forget that cosmos is order.) As a matter of fact, these cyclical theories have little or nothing to support them, apart from the human imagination which conjures them up.
(3) Again, the Genesis account of the Creation is in strict accord with the nuclear physics of our time in presenting radiant energy (light), of some kind, as the first and ultimate form of physical energy. This, as stated heretofore, is a commonplace of present-day physical science.
(4) Especially, however, is the Order of the Creation as presented in the Genesis Narrative in the closest harmony with present-day scientific thinking, and indeed with the facts of human experience. And the amazing thing about this correspondence is that it is true, despite the fact that the Mosaic Cosmogony can certainly be proved to have had its origin in pre-scientific times, that is, before the sciences, as we think of them, had begun to be developed. In the Genesis Narrative the word good, as We have noted heretofore, signified the order that prevailed as a result of the ordinations of the Word and the broodings of the Spirit; hence, at the end of the creative process God is said to have looked out on the whole and pronounced it very good, that is to say, the order was perfect, perfection signifying wholeness, Obviously, energy, especially the different kinds of radiant energy (light), were necessarily the first physical existents; hence, we are told that these were created on Day One. This was the necessary physical beginning of the cosmos, insofar as human experience and science can determine. (The Primal Energy is, of course, the Divine Intelligence and Will.) Again the creation of both light and atmosphere necessarily preceded the appearance of all forms of life: without light and atmosphere plants could not perform the mysterious process of photosynthesis, the process by which solar energy is captured, so to speak, and converted into stored food energy for beast and man. Without photosynthesis no form of animal life, the human body included, could exist. Morrison (MDNSA, 2627): All vegetable life is dependent upon the almost infinitesimal quantity of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere which, so to speak, it breathes. To express this complicated photosynthetic chemical reaction in the simplest possible way, the leaves of the trees are lungs and they have the power when in the sunlight to separate this obstinate carbon dioxide into carbon and oxygen. In other words, the oxygen is given off and the carbon retained and combined with the hydrogen of the water brought up by the plant from its roots. By magical chemistry, out of these elements nature makes sugar, cellulose, and numerous other chemicals, fruits and flowers. The plant feeds itself and produces enough more to feed every animal on earth. At the same time, the plant releases the oxygen we breathe and without which life would end in five minutes. Let us then, pay our humble respects to the plant . . . Animals give off carbon dioxide and plants give off oxygen . . . It has recently been discovered that carbon dioxide in small quantities is also essential to most animal life, just as plants use some oxygen. Hydrogen must be included, although we do not breathe it. Without hydrogen water would not exist, and the water content of animal and vegetable matter is surprisingly great and absolutely essential. Oxygen, hydrogen, carbon dioxide, and carbon, singly and in their various relations to each other, are the principal biological elements. They are the very basis on which life rests. There is, however, not one chance in millions that they should all be at one time on one planet in the proper proportions for life. Science has no explanations to offer for the facts, and to say it is accidental is to defy mathematics.
And, finally, in this connection, without the subhuman orders to provide for man the means of food, shelter, clothing, medicines, etc., he simply could not exist in his present natural state. (Moreover, according to the Divine Plan, mans natural state as a person created in Gods image is the necessary pre-condition to growth in holiness which is the very essence of the Spiritual Life, just as the Spiritual Life is the necessary preparation for the Life Everlasting (1Co. 15:44-49, Rom. 8:18-25, Mat. 5:8. Heb. 12:14, 2Pe. 3:18).
To summarize: the general order of the Creation as set forth in Genesis was, briefly, as follows: energy, light, atmosphere, lands and seas, plants, water and air animals (and it is a commonplace of biology today that animal life had its beginning in the water), land animals, and finally man and woman. This, as we have noted, was an order determined by the very nature of things as they are known by present-day science; hence, it presupposes a directing Intelligence and ordering Will. (Surely Order, anywhere, or of any kind, presupposes an Orderer.) Again, this universal order consisted in the harmony (hence, unity) of all natural non-living and living processes. Every created class of things was fulfilling the function, and attaining the end, for which the Creator-God had brought it into existence; in a word, there was perfect harmony and unity of all the component parts of the whole natural Creation. This universal order prevailed, of course, until sin entered the world. Sin is transgression of the law of God; it is lawlessness (1Jn. 3:4) and this is disorder.
It is of the utmost importance to emphasize here the fact that the order in which the various parts, non-living and living, of the natural Creation are said to have been brought into existence, in the account given us in the first chapter of Genesis, is precisely that which is claimed by modern science. Yet the Genesis Cosmogony was written, as we all know, long before men knew anything about radiant energy, atomic processes, cellular processes, plant photosynthesis, psychosomatic entities, etc., or their sequential inter-relationships. This is a fact, I contend, which can be accounted for only on the ground of the special Divine inspiration of the Mosaic Cosmogony.
I consider it a privilege to present here the following conclusive paragraphs from the pen of Dr. Unger (IGOT, 184186): In the first two chapters of Genesis in an account unique in all ancient literature, the Pentateuch catalogues the creation of the heavens and earth, and all plant, animal and human life. Other nations have their creation stories. But these are important only by sheer contrast in accentuating the sublimity and grandeur of the inspired record. Purged of the gross polytheistic perversions of the numerous non-inspired creation legends by virtue of its advanced monotheistic point of view, only the Genesis account arrives at the great First Cause in that incomparably magnificent opening word: In the beginning God created . . . (Gen. 1:1). Lifting the reader with one stroke out of the morass and confusion of the polytheistic accounts, in which primitive peoples in their naive efforts to explain the origin of the universe attributed each different phenomenon to a separate cause in the form of a deity, the Pentateuch conducts us at once to that which was totally beyond the grasp of the natural mind, the concept of the universe as a whole as the creative act of one God. By inspiration the author of the Pentateuch has the secret which the polytheistic writers of ancient Mesopotamia blindly groped after, the unifying principle of the universe. In an age grossly ignorant of causation, Genesis stands out all the more resplendently as a divine revelation. The discovery of secondary causes and the explanation of the how of creation in its ongoing operation is the achievement of science. How cause produces effect, how order and symmetry prevail, how physical phenomena and organic life are interdependentthese and similar questions science has answered. But science can go only so far. The elements of the universe, matter, force, order, it must take for granted. Revelation alone can answer the why of creation. The Bible alone discloses that the universe exists because God made it and brought it into being for a definite purpose. The account of the origin of the cosmos in Genesis, moreover, is not only incomparably superior in every respect to ancient cosmogonies and creation accounts, but what is all the more amazing in the light of the utterly unscientific age in which it was produced, is its scientific precision even when judged by the standards of our modern scientific age. Commenting on the account of creation which we find in Chapter I of Genesis, W. F. Albright calls the sequence of creative phases which it outlines as so rational that modern science cannot improve on it, given the same language and the same range of ideas in which to state its conclusions. In fact, modern scientific cosmogonies show such a disconcerting tendency to be short-lived that it may be seriously doubted whether science has yet caught up with the Biblical story. (This excerpt from Albright occurs in the article, The Old Testament and Archeology, in the Old Testament Commentary, H. C. Alleman and E. E. Flack (Philadelphia, 1948), p. 135).
6. Unscriptural Notions of God and Creation. (1) Atheism, means literally, no god. The term is applied generally to any theory that the universe is the product of blind chance; of fortuitous concourses of atoms, etc. (2) Agnosticism, which means literally, without knowledge. As Robert G. Ingersoll once put it: I do not say that there is no GodI simply say that I do not know. I do not say that there is no future lifeI simply say that I do not know. It has been rightly said that an agnostic is a man who wants to be an atheist. It is so much easier to profess agnosticism than to defend atheism. (3) Pantheism, meaning literally, all is God. Pantheism identifies God with the world, nature, the universe, etc. Objections: Pantheism is self-contradictory in that it tries to attribute infinity to God, yet shuts Him up within a finite process; moreover, it contradicts our intuitions as intelligent creatures that we are not particles of God, but unique self-conscious entities; and finally, it makes God include within Himself all evil as well as good, or takes the only possible alternative of regarding evil as illusion. But an illusion cannot be an illusion of nothing. Pantheism denies Gods transcendence. (4) Deism, the view that there is a God, that He created the world and set it going, and then withdrew from all further intercourse with it, much as a man winds a clock and then expects it to run forever of its own accord. Objections: (a) Deism came into existence in the age in which Newtons concept of the rigidity of the laws of nature dominated all science. As someone has put it, Having brought God into the picture to account for these laws of nature, it then bowed Him out with thanks for His provisional services. (b) To accept deism is to reject special providence, prayer, miracle, redemption, inspiration, revelation, resurrection, immortality, etc., in short, the entire Plan of Redemption that is revealed in the Bible. (c) The concept of an infinite God who would create and then take no further interest in His Creation simply makes no appeal to mans spiritual consciousness. Such a concept of God has nothing to offer in the way of meeting human aspiration and human need. Such a God is not, cannot be, a God of Love. Deism denies the immanence of God. (5) Materialism, the theory that all phenomena of human experience are traceable ultimately to matter in motion. Objections: (a) Our only means of knowing matter is through the instrumentality of mind; hence, in knowing matter, mind proves itself to be of a higher order than the matter which it knows. (b) The attributes (powers) of mind are of a higher rank than the attributes of matter. Perception, consciousness, self-consciousness, meaning, the sense of values, and the like, simply cannot be explained on the ground of any powers inherent in matter. (c) Mind, rather than matter, proves itself to be the eternal and independent principle. It must continue to be so regarded until it can be scientifically demonstrated that mind is to be identified with the activity of brain cells. But all attempts to explain the psychical from the physical are failures: psychology cannot be reduced to sheer physiology. (d) Matter was never known to generate per se thought, feeling, or will. The sensible man knows intuitively that he is essentially spirit, although in this present life tabernacled in a body. (e) We must accept the eternity of spirit or find ourselves without any explanation of the noblest phenomena of our own being, viz., consciousness, personal intelligence, intuitive ideas, freedom of choice, moral progress, our beliefs in God and immortality, etc. Man simply refuses to believe what the materialist tries to tell himnamely, that he is of no higher order of being than the brute. (f) Modern research in the area of the phenomena of the subconscious supports conclusively, the spiritualistic interpretation of man, that is, the conviction that the person is essentially imperishable soul or spirit which the ultimate dissolution of the body cannot affect. (6) Dualism, the theory of two eternal self-existent principles, namely, Mind and Matter, or God and Energy-Matter. Objections: (a) It is unphilosophical to assume the existence of two unoriginated and unending principles , when one self-existent First Cause is sufficient to account for the facts. (b) Those who hold this view usually admit that matter is an unconscious, hence imperfect, substance, and therefore subordinate to the Divine Will; obviously, this is equivalent to admission of the priority of God as Eternal Spirit, Mind, etc. (c) If matter is inferior to mind it belongs in the realm of secondary causation. But this leaves us where the doctrine of Creation begins. This doctrine does not attempt to dispense with the First Cause; it ascribes adequate Efficient Causality of all things to God. (d) Creation without the use of pre-existing matter is in harmony with what we know of thought-power, and is, therefore, more reasonable than the notion of the eternity of matter, (Cf. recent research in the phenomena of extrasensory perception and psychokinesis. See Vol. I, pp. 9398, of my Survey Course in Christian Doctrine.)
(7) Emanationism, the theory according to which the universe is the product of successive emanations from the being of God (variously designated Unity, The One, The Monad, etc.). This view is untenable because it denies the infinity and transcendence of God, because it makes the Deity include within Himself all evil as well as Good, and because it leads logically to pantheism, hence is subject to the same objections that are valid against pantheism. (8) Naturalism. Atheists and agnostics of our day prefer to be known as naturalists. However, because of the ambiguity of the word nature, so-called naturalismwhatever form it may takeis little more than denial of the supernatural, the superhuman, etc., especially what is known in Bible teaching as a miracle.
(9) Humanism is another favorite facade behind which modern-day atheists and agnostics hide. (a) Humanism may be what is roughly described as humanitarianism; for example, the humanism of the late Clarence Darrow. This type of humanism is rooted in extreme pessimism. In essence it is personal commitment to the task of ameliorating for our fellows the tragedy of living in this present evil world: to victims of this insatiable pessimism, the idea of a future life is not even entertained, nor is such a life even considered desirable. (b) Again, humanism may, and often does, take the form of the deification of man; subjectively, it is a chest-thumping philosophy, well exemplified in the poetry of Walt Whitman, William Henley, et al. (c) True humanism, however, is the humanism of the Bible, the humanism based on the two Great Commandments (Mat. 22:34-40; Mat. 5:1-12; Mat. 25:31-46; Gal. 5:22-25). This is the humanism that flows spontaneously out of the heart that is filled with love for God and for ones fellow-men. In our world, selfish and sinful as man may be, there is still altruism as well as self-seeking, co-operation as well as conflict. (See Pico della Mirandolas famous Oration on the Dignity of Man.)
(10) Polytheism is the name given to belief in many gods. Practically all the nations of antiquity invested every natural object with its protecting god or goddess, nymph or naiad. These polytheistic deities were, generally speaking, personifications of the forces of nature, and in particular of the Sun-Father and the Earth-Mother. (11) Monotheism, is the name given, to belief in one God only. Biblical monotheism is properly designated a self-revelation of the living and true God. The greatest spiritual struggle that the ancient Children of Israel faced continually was that of retaining the monotheistic self-revelation of Yahweh-Elohim, communicated to them, through the mediatorship of Moses, instead of drifting into the idolatrous polytheism of the tribes by which they were surrounded on all sides. (12) Henotheism is belief in one god, accompanied, however, by recognition of the existence of other deities. (13) What is known as monotheism (belief in one God) in religion is that which is known as monism (belief in one First Principle) in philosophy. Ethical monism is the designation which has been used at times to signify, from the viewpoint of philosophical terminology, the essence of Biblical religious theory and practice.
7. Theism (from the Greek theos (god): Latin equivalent, deus). The theistic God is the God of the Bible. Theism is the doctrine of the living God, the I AM (HE WHO IS), the Creator, Preserver, and Sovereign of the universe, both natural and moral (Exo. 3:14, Psa. 42:2, Hos. 1:10, Deu. 6:4, Mar. 12:29, Mat. 16:16, Act. 14:15, Rom. 9:26, 1Th. 1:9, Heb. 10:31). The God of the Bible is not personificationHe is pure Personality (Exo. 3:14). The God of the Bible is Pure Actuality; in Him all potentially is actualized; hence He is the living and true God. He is Wholeness, that is, Absolute Holiness, For the theist, God is transcendent in His being and immanent in His power. Thompson (MPR, 253): It is in theism that the concept of God comes alive, that rational thought can echo something of what religion finds God to be. It is in theism that the ultimates of existence and value are more than mere abstractions. It is in theism that religious thought can, for the first time, advance beyond myth and symbol and make rational contact with the objects of religion. No philosophical theism, however, can do justice to the objects of faith. It is true only so far as it can go, and it cannot go far. Yet it can go far enough to underwrite faiths affirmation that Goodness and Truth are one Being. (Job. 11:7, Heb. 11:6).
FOR MEDITATION AND SERMONIZING
The Fools Decision
Psa. 14:1The fool hath said in his heart, There is no God. Note the phrase, in his heart, that is, that which is primarily emotional in man. One simply cannot logically think his way into atheism: the fact is that there must be a First Cause or First Principle who is sui generis (self-existent), that is, without beginning or end (Rev. 1:17-18); the only possible alternative would be that at some time, somewhere, and somehow, nothing created something. This, of course, would be absurd: as the ancients put it, ex nihilo, nihil fit. This Power which we call First Cause or First Principle in philosophy, we think of as God in Christian faith and practice, Atheism, therefore, is not a product of intelligence; it is, rather, the result of an emotional imbalance of some kind. I am convinced that the majority of atheists are professed atheists primarily because they want to be known as atheists. A perverted will is more often the source of unbelief and irreligiousness than ignorance or any other cause. (We are reminded of the Russian astronaut who said that he looked throughout the stratosphere, throughout the stretches of celestial space, but he failed to see any God anywhere. What stupidity! The living and true God is Spirit, not to be apprehended by the physical eye (Joh. 4:24). But of course it is practically certain that this astronaut had never looked into the Biblethe fact that accounts for his stupidity!) Essentially we are what our thoughts make us to be.
We call attention here to three commonplace evidences of God in the world which are incidental to everyday experience, so much so in fact that, like the shining of the sun, we are prone to overlook their eternal significance. These are as follows:
1. Life. With the coming of every spring, as the poet has put it so exquisitely,
Whether we look or whether we listen,
We hear life murmur or see it glisten;
Every clod feels a stir of might,
An instinct within that reaches and towers,
And, groping blindly above it for light,
Climbs to a soul in grass and flowers.
(1) This profound mystery called lifeso elementary, so pervasive, so wonderfulwhat is it? The only answer issilence. This Stream of Life flows out from Someone, Somewhere, Somehow: it rises through the vegetable psyche and through the animal psyche, reaching its height in the rational psychein self-conscious personality (man). (2) We are born, not made; we were born of our parents, our parents were born of their parents, and so on and on and on. The first human parents were obviously the handiwork of previous Life. Life is generated, not created. The red River of Life (physical life is in the blood, Lev. 17:11) has been flowing out from Somewhere, Someone, for ever and ever. This Someone is the living God (Mat. 22:32; Mat. 16:16; Act. 14:15; 1Th. 1:9; 1Ti. 4:10; Heb. 10:31) who breathed into the lifeless creature whom He had formed of the dust of the ground the Breath of Life (Gen. 2:7); hence, man is said to be the image of God (Gen. 1:27), (Note that the Source of this River of Life is the I AM, HE WHO IS, the Living One (Exo. 3:14; Rev. 22:1; Rev. 1:17-18) whose very essence is to be: in our God of the Bible existence and essence are one.) (3) Lifein whatever form, physical, spiritual, eternalis the gift of God (Act. 17:24-25; Joh. 1:4-5; Joh. 3:16; Joh. 11:25-26; Rom. 6:23; 1Jn. 5:11-12). If there is no God, no eternally Living One (Rev. 1:17-18), there is no explanation of life. Science still stands mute before the mysteries of being, What is energy: What is life? What is consciousness? What is self-consciousness? Man simply does not know: he can only imagine and speculate. As Tennyson has written
Flower in the crannied wall,
I pluck you out of the crannies,
I hold you here, root and all, in my hand,
Little flowerbut if I could understand
What you are, root and all, and all in all,
I should know what God and man is.
2. Law. (1) Our world is a world of order; otherwise, there could never be a science, because science is mans effort to discover and to describe the order he finds in the various realms of being. (2) We hear so much about the laws of nature. But what are they? They are descriptions of the processes which take place in naturenothing more, nothing less. These laws may tell us how things act in their various interrelationships, but they do not tell us why they act as they do. (Two atoms of hydrogen, for example, unite with one atom of oxygen to form a molecule of water: this is how the process takes place. But why does it do so, in just these proportions? Science cannot answer this question. Faith alone can answer itbecause the answer is God, the Will of God.)
(3) Every effect in nature has its cause. M. M. Davis (HTBS, 15): A caravan was crossing the desert. An early riser reported that a camel had been walking about the tent during the night. He was asked how he knew it, and he pointed to the tracks in the sand, saving that nothing but a camel made such tracks. And when we look about us, we see the tracks of Jehovah. We see them in the hills and mountains, in the valleys and plains, in the rivers and oceans, in the flowers and trees, in the birds and fishes, in the sun, moon, and stars, in the covenant of the day and night, in the coming and going of the seasons, and, most of all, in man himself. With all his splendid achievementsand they are splendidman has not been able to make things like these. (4) It is just as true today as it ever was that design presupposes a designer. Titus, (LIP, 436), writing from the viewpoint of an evolutionist, in stating the teleological argument, has this to say: Take, for example, the long process of development leading to the human brain and mind of man. The process has produced minds which begin to understand the world, and it has produced thought and understanding. This is unintelligible unless the course of evolution is directed. (5) The most famous argument from design for the existence of God is that of William Paley, in Chapters I-VI of Paleys Evidences of the Existence and Attributes of the Deity, a book first published in 1802. The argument is as sound as it ever was: nothing has ever been discovered that would negate it. In crossing a heath, writes Paley, suppose I pitched my foot against a stone, and were asked how the stone came to be there; I might possibly answer, that, for anything I knew to the contrary, it had lain there forever: nor would it perhaps be very easy to show the absurdity of this answer. But suppose I had found a watch upon the ground, and it should be inquired how the watch happened to be in that place: I should hardly think of the answer which I had before given, that, for anything I knew, the watch might have always been there. Yet why should not this answer serve for the watch as well as for the stone? Why is it not as admissible in the second case, as in the first? For this reason, and for no other, viz., that when we come to inspect the watch, we perceive (what we could not discover in the stone) that its several parts are framed and put together for a purpose, e.g., that they are so formed and adjusted as to produce motion, and that motion so regulated as to point out the hour of the day; that if the different parts had been differently shaped from what they are, or of a different size from what they are, or placed after any other manner, or in any other order than that in which they are placed, either no motion at all would have been carried on in the machine, or none which would have answered the use that is now served by it . . . This mechanism being observed (it requires indeed an examination of the instrument, and perhaps some previous knowledge of the subject, to perceive and to understand it; but being once, as we have said, observed and understood), the inference, we think, is inevitable; that the watch must have had a maker; that there must have existed, at some time, and at some place or other, an artificer or artificers who formed it for the purpose for which we find it actually to answer; who comprehended its construction and designed its use. (I have reproduced here only a small fraction of Paleys complete argument. I urge every Bible student to secure a copy of Paleys book and read the argument as a whole; it is thoroughgoing, completely logical, and in my humble opinion, incontrovertible, that is, by any person with an unbiased attitude.) The application is obvious: The Cosmos, Universe, World, etc., like a great watch, is so replete with evidence of order and design, that the presupposition of a Supreme Architect or Designer is unavoidable. (6) As thought presupposes a thinker, as adaptation presupposes a being to adapt, as behavior presupposes a being to do the behaving, as love presupposes a lover, so law presupposes a lawgiver. Scientists, in their use of the term law, pay tribute, whether wittingly or unwittingly, to the Supreme Lawgiver. (It should be remembered that science borrowed this term from jurisprudence, not jurisprudence from science.) (7) Where there is law, there is the lawgiver. This is true in the natural world: the Will of God, expressed through the Word, and actualized by the Spirit, created the cosmos, and sustains it in its various processes. But will belongs to the person and personality; hence, the orderly natural processes which men describe in terms of laws are but the methods by which the Divine Person expends His energy. Science admits the fact of law; to be consistent, it must admit the fact of the Lawgiver whose Will is the constitution of the cosmos.
Back of the loaf is the snowy flour,
And back of the flour the mill;
And back of the mill is the wheat and the shower,
And the sun, and the Fathers will.
(Maltbie B. Babcock)
(8) Not only in the vast reaches of outer space, nor in the complexities of the submicroscopic atom, are we brought face to face with the Primary Intelligence and Will, but in the moral realm as well. The distinction between good and bad, right and wrong, rests eternally in the Will of our God, the God who is Absolute Justice (Psa. 89:14; Psa. 85:10). All moral norms emanate from God, either implanted in man by creation or communicated to him by revelation (Rom. 7:7). (9) The same is true in the spiritual realm. The law of Moses was Gods Will for the Jewish Dispensation (Joh. 1:17). The Gospelthe law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus (Rom. 8:1-4)is Gods power unto salvation to all obedient believers throughout the present Dispensation (Rom. 1:16-17; Rom. 2:12-16). Why so? Because it is the Will of God with respect to human redemption. God wills that all men shall believe, repent, confess Christ, be baptized into Christ, and continue steadfastly thereafter in the Spiritual Life (Act. 16:31; Act. 2:38; Rom. 10:9-10; Gal. 3:27; Act. 2:42; Gal. 5:22-25), and He promises eternal redemption on these terms and conditions (Heb. 9:11-12). If the Bible does not have its source in the Will and Love of God, it is a miserable hoax. If it is not all that it claims to be, it is the greatest imposture ever perpetrated on humanity.
3. Love. (1) This master passion which has inspired innumerable hymns, songs, poems, works of art, and deeds of sacrificial service, is an ever-present energy flowing out from Someone, Somewhere, even as life and law. Those who concern themselves so much with the problem of evil and its origin, need give attention also to the fact of good and its source: for Love is the Highest Good, the Summum Bonum. (2) What is love? It is not sensuality. It is attraction to an object combined with the desire for oneness with that object. The nobility of the love is determined by the nobility of its object. (3) As the essential principle of life is growth, and of law is authority, so the essential principle of love is sacrifice. He who loves much will give much. One will inevitably espouse the interests of the object of ones love: for example, the mutual love of sweethearts, the love of parents for their children, the love of a patriot for his country, the love of the man of true piety for his God. So when our God looked out upon the world and saw His moral creatures in danger of perishing forever, He incarnated Himself as their Savior (1Jn. 4:8, Joh. 3:16, Mat. 1:23; Heb. 2:14-18; Heb. 4:14-16). Love is the greatest force on this earthit is far mightier than the sword. It will be the sole motivating force in Heaven: there faith will become knowledge; hope will attain fruition, but love will be all in all, imperishable, and sovereign (1Co. 13:13).
The night has a thousand eyes,
And the day but one;
Let the light of the bright world dies
With the dying sun.
The mind has a thousand eyes,
And the heart but one;
Yet the light of a whole life dies
When love is done.
(Francis W. Bourdillon).
Strange, yet powerful, echoes of Godlife, law, and loveforces of Heaven, universal in scope, without beginning Or end. Man is here today and gone tomorrow, but life, law, and love are for ever. Life presupposes a personal God, law a sovereign God, and love a compassionate God. Only a fool says in his heart, There is no God. Practical atheism is, of course, far more common than theoretical atheism. The practical atheist takes no account of God in his life; he lives as if there were no God; he is altogether heedless of the outcome of his ways, of the inevitability of. inflexible Justice.
Are you a practical atheist? Then you are foolish. Are you a theoretical atheist? Then you, too, are foolish, Atheism is foolishness, the essence of which is stupidity. The denial of God is the most stupid decision a person can make, because it. not only consigns him to the complete loss of God as his eternal destiny, but it also enslaves him to a warped and twisted outlook on his life and its meaning in this present world. Turn ye, turn ye, before it is everlastingly too late (Jas. 4:8).
The Living God
Act. 17:22-31. Joh. 4:24. Who-or whatis God? What does the word signify? Whoor whatis its true referent?
Let us approach this question, first, negatively:
1. God is not just an idea in the human mind. (There are those who insist that instead of God having created man in His image, man has in fact created God in his imagination.) To this we object that any group of men capable of fabricating by sheer imagination a God of Justice, Love and Grace such as the God of the Bible, or of a Revealer of God such as Jesus of Nazareth claimed to be, would themselves have to be gods. If Jesus had not lived at all, the writers of the Gospels would have been as great as He by virtue of their ability to imagine such a Personage and to put on His lips such a Teaching as that revealed in their biographies of Him. Jesus Himself declared expressly: He that hath seen me hath seen the Father (Joh. 14:9). It is the contention of this writer that the conclusive proof of the existence of God is to be foundbut only by honest and good hearts, of course (Luk. 8:15, Mat. 13:14-15, Isa. 6:9-10, Act. 28:25-28)-in the life and teaching of the Lord Jesus Christ (Joh. 17:1-5, Heb. 1:1-4). If Jesus was not all that He claimed to be, then He was the rankest imposter who ever appeared in the world.
2. God is not just a projection of the father-image, as the Freudians would have us believe: religion, they say, is essentially belief based on wish, that is, wish-fulfilment, In reply to this rather subtle deception, it will be noted (1) that it tends to lead to a gross idolatry of Man, (2) that Freud exemplified his own wish-fulfilment notion by his bitterness and dogmatism about religion, that is, his extremism exemplifies his own inner desire, not just to explain religion, but to explain it away; (3) that his writings show that he had not the faintest conception of what genuine religious experience is, and little or no understanding of the essential unity and spirituality of the content of the Bible (a characteristic of many so-called learned men); (4) that his basic thesis is flatly contradicted by the fact that religious conviction has led innumerable believers to suffer persecution and even martyrdom for their faith (wish-fulfilment and vicarious sacrifice cannot be reconciled); (5) and finally, the Freudian, and indeed all atheistic arguments, simply ignore the fact of the Mystery of Being, the explanation of which mans history shows to have been always his most universal and profound concern. The various arguments for the existence of God are hardly affected by the Freudian hypothesis.
3. God is not a material object or idol, not a likeness of anything in the heavens above or on the earth below. In the ancient Greek temple the statue of the god or goddess occupied the main room known as the cella, e.g., the statue of Athena Parthenos (Athena the Virgin) in the cella of the Parthenon on the Athenian Acropolis. To devotees of pagan temple worship, the statue was, literally, the god or goddess. Idolatry is expressly forbidden throughout Scripture (Exo. 20:4-6, 1Jn. 5:21, 1Co. 10:14, 1Th. 1:9). (Are not artistic representations of Jesus, in sculpture, statuary, portraiture, etc., under the ban of this same Divine prohibition of idolatry in any form, and hence evidences of human profanity?)
4. God is not nature nor is He anything in nature. Some wag has facetiously suggested that the pantheist (who identifies God with nature) could well perform his daily devotion each morning simply by kissing his pillow before arising to the duties of the day. God is not natureHe is the Author of nature. (Gen. 1:1, Act. 17:24, Col. 1:16-17, Heb. 1:1-4.) God is not anything in nature: hence He is not to be worshiped as sun, moon, stars, earth, or any created thing. The religious experience reaches far beyond the esthetic, that is to say, from nature itself to the God of nature, from the created to the Creator.
5. God is not a personification of anything whatsoever, The old pagan deities were all personifications of natural forces (such as Zeus, of the sun, or Athena, of wisdom), but the living and true God is not personification in any senseHe is pure personality (Exo. 3:14).
6. God is not an impersonal energy, influence, or principle. He is not of the order of electricity, the atomic process, the life process, and the like. He is not just an impersonal principle, such as Mind, for example. God has mind, to be sure, but we only create confusion when we say that God and Mind are identical. Nor is God some abstract impersonal influence. Of course, God is good; but God is not to be identified with the abstract moral influence, Good. God is love, too; but this does not mean that God and Love are one and the same: it means that our God is the God of Love (Joh. 3:16, 1Jn. 4:7-21). In the sense, of course, that He is the Creator-God, He may properly be designated philosophically the First Principle (from principium, source, origin, from princeps, the first in line when a Roman military company (centuria, century) numbered off.) This does not mean, however, that God is an impersonal abstraction of some kind. Principle is the first thing in nature, law the second, and matter, as we know it, is third.
Approaching the subject, then, affirmatively, who is God?
It will be noted that Jesus used two designations for God, (1) Spirit (Joh. 4:24), and Heavenly Father (Mat. 6:26; Mat. 6:9; Joh. 17:11). The former gives us insight into the nature or type of being of God; the latter designates Gods special relationship with His Covenant children. By these two terms Jesus has given us a clearer insight into the meaning of the word, God, than can be gotten from all the sophisticated names coined by the philosophers. By these two designations Jesus has made God intelligible, that is, congenial to man.
1. God is Spirit. God is the one and only infinitely perfect Spirit, the Creator and Ruler of all things, and the Author of all good. This is to say that God as to nature is personal, having understanding, affection, and free will, but not having a body. (Rom. 11:34, Joh. 3:16, Luk. 22:42, Isa. 46:10, Eph. 3:11). Where there is spirit, there is personality, uniqueness, otherness, vitality, and sociality. Therefore, our God who is a Spirit is a personal God, a living God, a loving God. In the sense that God is personal, we too are personal: we have been created in His image (Gen. 1:26-27). Strong (ST, 250): God is not only spirit, but He is pure spirit. He is not only not matter, but He has no necessary connection with matter. Again: When God is spoken of as appearing to the patriarchs and walking with them, the passages are to be explained as referring to Gods temporary manifestations of Himself in human formmanifestations which prefigured the final tabernacling of the Son of God in human flesh.
2. God is Heavenly Father. A distinction is essential here: In a universal sense God as Creator is the Father of all spirits (Heb. 12:9; cf. Gen. 2:7). It is as Redeemer, however, that God is to His Covenant-elect, their Heavenly Father. There is no evidence in Scripture that the natural, the unregenerate, person, the one who has never accepted the terms of Covenant relationship, has any right to address God by. this special relational Name. (1Co. 2:14; Eph. 2:1-10; Rom. 8:14-17; Joh. 14:6; Joh. 14:13-14; 2Co. 6:18) (Note especially Luk. 15:3-7; Luk. 15:11-32. What we have here is not the Narrative of the Prodigal Son, as it is commonly designated; what we have here in fact is the Narrative of the Forgiving Father. There is no portrayal of God which compares with this in all the literature of man.)
To summarize (according to Knudson, RTOT, 65): God is no blind force in nature, no vague spiritual presence, no abstract principle, but a living personal being, who distinguishes himself from the world which he has made, freely communicates himself to his children, and by his sovereign will guides the course of nature and history.
What should we learn from these truths about God? We should learn (1) that our God is always yearning for us to draw near to Him (Jas. 4:8); (2) that true worship is the communion of the human spirit with the Divine Spirit, according to the means and appointments of the Word of truth (Joh. 4:24; Joh. 8:31-32; Joh. 17:17); (3) that our chief end in life is to love and serve God here, that we may enjoy unending fellowship with Him hereafter (Rom. 6:23, 1Jn. 1:1-4, Mat. 25:34).
The Living Word
Heb. 4:12-13, 1Sa. 15:22. Nothing is so displeasing to God as disregard for His Word. Yet the world is full of persons todaymany of them church-memberswho talk ignorantly and glibly about what they call the mere Word. (There are no meres in the Divine vocabulary.) The Word has been from all eternity, from before the foundation of the world and the creation of man. To trifle with the Word is to commit heinous sin (Mat. 24:35, Mar. 8:38, 1Th. 2:13).
Note the following matters of profound importance:
1. Practically all the confusion (sectism) in Christendom is directly traceable to mans presumption: that is, caused by his adding to, subtracting from, or substituting for, the Word.
2. Exaltation of feelings, experience, the inner consciousness, etc., as authority in religious faith and practice, over the plain teaching of the Word, is mysticism. For eighteen centuries the Church has been loaded down with all forms of mysticism, every one of which effectively nullifies the power of the Word.
3. Exaltation of institution above the plain teaching of the Word results in literalism, legalism, and especially in traditionalism. Traditionalism exalts ecclesiasticism, hierarchism, and church dogma and decree, above the authority of the Scriptures, whereas the Bible is our all-sufficient Book of Discipline, fully adequate to furnish the man of God completely unto every good work (2Ti. 3:16-17). If a creed contains more than the Bible, it contains too much; if it contains less than the Bible, it does not contain enough; if it contains the same as the Bible, it is unnecessary, because we have the Bible. Let us endeavor, therefore, to speak where Scripture speaks, and to keep silent where Scripture is silent.
4. The Word of God cannot be resisted by material things: when God speaks, all nature obeys (Joh. 1:1, Heb. 1:3, 2Pe. 3:5, Psa. 33:9). The only power on earth that can resist or neglect Gods Word is mans free will (Joh. 5:40, Rom. 13:1-2, Heb. 2:1-4, and the man who does either nullifies Gods power to redeem him. Cf. Rom. 1:16note the qualifying phrase, to every one that believeth.
5. There will be just two classes in the Day of Judgment: those who have done, and those who have not done, what is commanded in the Word (Mat. 7:24-27, Heb. 5:9). The supreme question is not, What must I feel to be saved? but is always, What must I do to be saved (Act. 2:38; Act. 16:30; Act. 22:10). Men must do something to be saved: they must do what God requires them to do to enter into Covenant relationship with Him. They must believe on the Lord Jesus Christ (Act. 16:31); they must repent, turn from sin (Act. 2:38; Act. 17:30, Luk. 13:3); they must confess Christ (Mat. 10:32-33, Rom. 10:8-10); they must be buried with Christ in baptism and raised to walk in newness of life (Act. 2:38, Gal. 3:27, Rom. 6:3-5); they must continue steadfastly in the essentials of Christian faith and worship (Act. 2:42, 2Pe. 1:5-11); they must bring forth in their lives the works of faith and the fruit of the Spirit (2Pe. 3:18, Jas. 2:14-26, Gal. 5:22-25). Note especially, in closing, the solemn warnings in Heb. 4:12-13, and in 1Sa. 15:22.
Fuente: College Press Bible Study Textbook Series
PART SEVEN: THE LAST THREE DAYS OF THE COSMIC WEEK OF BEGINNINGS
Gen. 1:20-31
The heart of the Genesis Cosmogony is that all things have been brought into existence by the Supreme Creative Will, acting either directly (primary causation) or through the agency of forces and materials of His own creation (secondary causation). God created, God said, God called, God saw, God made, God blessed, etc. The name of God, Elohim, occurs forty-six times in the first two chapters of Genesis. The facts that God wills it means that He is Absolute Sovereign over what He has created; that He rules, determines, and brings to their pre-determined ends all the ages (Isa. 44:6); that He is sovereign over all aspects of the cosmos, including life, man, society, peoples, and even the destinies of individuals and nations (Act. 17:24-28, Jer. 18:5-10). God before all, God back of all, God over all: Gods creative Word is the Efficient Cause of the existence, and continuance in existence, of all things. God Himself is without beginning or end, the First and the Last, the Alpha and the Omega, the Self-existent Living One.
Every process of the cosmos is divinely willed; every good end is divinely designed and ordained. Hence the living and true God is personalan Other to all other persons. He is the sovereign God, transcending the cosmos and independent of it. He is the personal, sovereign, rational and moral Divine Being. He is over all, and through all, and in all (Eph. 4:6). There is not the slightest room here for pantheism or deism. This is theism in its most exalted form. Deu. 6:4Yahweh our God is one Yahweh, that is, the only Yahweh (I AM, Exo. 3:14). I am God, and there is none like me (Isa. 46:9). I am the first, and I am the last: and besides me there is no God (Isa. 44:6; Rev. 1:8; Rev. 1:17-18). This is monotheism of the highest order.
The sublime facts to which the Genesis account of the Creation points directly is that the Eternal God, who is Spirit (Joh. 4:24), is the God of creation, of revelation, of conscience, of judgment, of redemption, of the ultimate restoration of all things (Act. 3:21).
When Elohim began the Creation, He made things, one might well say, in the rough. He created the heavens and the earththe ancient Hebrew way of saying the entire cosmos. The Spirit of God moved in the darkness of the great deep, preparing it for all that was to follow. One basic truth of the entire Genesis account is that in the six great days of creative activity, this activity pointed unfailingly to the crown of the Divine handiwork, man; in them all things necessary to human existence were marvelously wrought. How long it was from the first stirring in the primordial deep until God said, Let us make man in our image, we do not know. We can readily see, however, that the account allows for the vast ages, and the processes taking shape throughout, as envisioned by present-day geological science.
Perhaps it should be added here, parenthetically, that the geological theory of uniformitarianism, namely, that early geological processes were the same as those now empirically discernible (or, as Hutton put it, that the present is the key to the past, and that, if given sufficient vastness of time, the processes now at work could have produced all the geological features of our planet) simply could not apply, in any great detail, to the first beginnings of the lands and seas that go to make up our earth. It seems obvious that the elements had to be brought into existence in their proper interrelationships in order to effect planetary beginnings and to establish the more advanced planetary processes and changes.
As we have noted, Day One of the Hebrew Cosmogony witnessed the first manifestations of energy, of matter-in-motion, and the creation of light. On Day Two the firmament was brought into being, giving us such necessities of human existence, as the surface waters, the intervening atmosphere, and the sky above with its clouds. On Day Three, earth and water, apparently one conglomerate mass up to this point, became separated, so that the earth took its proper form, with continents and seas being formed, and with vegetation beginning to clothe the hitherto bare land. On Day Four it seems that the vapors enveloping the newly formed planet were gradually dissipated, so that sun, moon and stars became visible, to be divinely appointed as standards for human measurement of time. Cornfeld (AtD, 5): Thus God made the worlds time, which is the framework of history, for He is the Lord of history.
Throughout the rest of the Genesis Cosmogony, the writer, while noting that there are divinely graded kinds of living beings, puts supreme emphasis on the moral and spiritual character of the cosmos, and its dependence upon its Creator (God saw that it was good, Gen. 1:4; Gen. 1:10; Gen. 1:12; Gen. 1:18; Gen. 1:21, etc.) and especially upon the towering significance of man as a moral agent and the lord tenant of the whole Creation.
It seems significant indeed that in Gen. 1:21, we find the Hebrew verb bara used the second time (cf. Gen. 1:1) in the account of the Creation. We have noted heretofore that this verb denotes a real primary beginning: it means that something new, some new increment of power, is being introduced into the creative process. Hence, we find in the section we now take up (Gen. 1:20-23) the account of the advance from the unconscious being of the plant to the conscious being of the animal, the awareness that comes from sense-perception and locomotion, the powers that specify the entire animal creation. Because of this fact, I have chosen to make this the breaking point between the two sections of the Creation narrative.
REVIEW QUESTIONS ON PART SEVEN
1.
What is said, in this text, to be the heart of the Genesis Cosmogony?
2.
Distinguish between primary and secondary causes.
3.
Cite Scriptures which teach theism and monotheism in their purest forms.
4.
What is the theory of imiformitarianism? Why is this theory not applicable to the creation of lands and seas?
5.
Review what happened on Days One, Two, Three, and Four of the Creative Week.
6.
What was created on Day Five?
7.
What advance in the Creation is indicated in Gen. 1:20-23?
8.
According to Genesis in what environment did animal life begin? What does biology teach about this?
9.
On what ground does Lange account for the beginning of animal life in the water and in the air?
10.
What are the two characteristics in particular which distinguish animal life from plant life?
11.
List the principal events of Day Six of the Creation.
12.
Explain the import of the metaphor, River of Life.
13.
Explain what is meant by the mystery of the Life Movement.
14.
Name and define the cellular processes.
15.
List Skinners threefold classification of animals.
16.
What are the two naturalistic theories of the Origin of Life?
17.
Explain what is meant by abiogenesis. How did the Church Fathers regard this theory? What is the status of the theory today?
18.
State Augustines theory of seminal reasons (seminal causes).
19.
Explain what is meant by the Will to Live.
20.
State clearly Aristotles theory of the Hierarchy of Being.
21.
What particular still unsolved problems are pointed up by Aristotles theory?
22.
What was the Great Chain of Being theory? In what great poem is it set forth?
23.
What change in the formula of the Divine decree occurs in Gen. 1:26? What does this change emphasize?
24.
State the theories of Creation suggested, by Cuvier and Lotze.
25.
What theories have been suggested as explanations of the us in Gen. 1:26?
26.
What is the only explanation of the us which harmonizes with the teaching of the Bible as a whole?
27
What is the special significance of the credo of Deu. 6:4?
28.
By what Names is the tripersonality of God indicated in the Old Testament? What is the full revelation of these Names as given in the New Testament?
29.
What is the significance of the use of the verb bara in Gen. 1:27?
30.
What is the meaning of the term, creation absolute?
31.
What are the phenomena which mark off the successive levels in the Totality of Being?
32.
What is the significance of the metaphor, the Breath of Life?
33.
What is the special import of Gods very good in Gen. 1:31?
34.
Why cannot the terms image and likeness of God refer to corporeal likeness?
35.
What is, in all likelihood, the specific import of the phrase, image of God, as descriptive of man?
36.
In what special sense was Jesus the very image of God?
37.
Does the phrase image of God indicate that man is in some sense deity?
38.
In what sense is man the representation of God in the Creation?
39.
What special significance has personality with reference to God?
40.
What is the significance of the distinction between the Oriental doctrine of absorption, and the Biblical doctrine of fellowship, as the destiny of the person? Which of these is the doctrine of personal immortality?
41.
What is the import of the terms male and female as used in Gen. 1:27?
42.
What was the twofold Divine blessing pronounced upon mankind at the beginning (Gen. 1:28)?
43.
What evidence have we that God does not look with favor on concentration of population?
44.
What is meant by the statement that God vested man with lord tenancy over the whole of nature?
45.
How is this lord tenancy connected with mans stewardship?
46.
What are the three categories of truth?
47.
On what ground do we assert that human science is the fulfilment of Gods command that man should multiply, and replenish the earth, and subdue it?
48.
By what five fundamental truths does the Genesis Cosmogony affirm the glory and dignity of the person?
49.
What reasons do we have for asserting that all subhuman orders were created for mans use and benefit?
50.
What general objections to this view are urged by skeptics?
51.
Would you not agree that if our conviction is not true (that the world was created for mans use and benefit), the only alternative view would have to be that all existence is meaningless? Explain your answer.
52.
Restate the argument presented herein, in answer to the question, Why a Creation at all?
53.
Explain the significance of the teaching of Jesus in Mat. 25:41.
54.
Would you say that Gen. 1:29-30 indicates that God originally intended only a vegetable diet for man?
55.
What conclusion do you reach by comparing these verses with Gen. 9:3?
56.
What is the meaning of good as used in these verses?
57.
What is the special significance of Gods very good in Gen. 1:31?
58.
State the various explanations of the Scripture which tells us that God finished his work on Day Seven.
59.
In what sense, evidently, did God rest on Day Seven?
60.
What is the probable significance of the absence of the customary formula (used in preceding verses to indicate the termination of each Days activity) from the story of Day Seven?
61.
How do the words of Jesus in Joh. 5:17 throw light on this problem of Gods rest?
62.
What is a prolepsis? Cite Scripture examples of prolepsis.
63.
Show how Gen. 2:2-3 is obviously a case of prolepsis.
64.
What is the reason given for Gods hallowing of the seventh day of the week instead of some other day?
65.
What special event was the Jewish Sabbath appointed to memorialize (according to Deu. 5:15)?
66.
Where in the Pentateuch do we find the account of the first observance of the Jewish Sabbath?
67.
Explain the significance of the sequence of events of the eight-day period described in the sixteenth chapter of Exodus.
68.
Why, evidently, do we find no record of the observance of the Sabbath in the book of Genesis?
69.
Why does the Sabbath have no significance for Christians?
70.
What day do Christians observe and why? What is it called in Scripture?
71.
What analogies exist between the Jewish Sabbath and the Christian Lords Day?
72.
Summarize the arguments for the general interpretation that Day Seven of the Creative Week is one of indefinite duration.
73.
Show how Tayler Lewis correlates the language of the Fourth Commandment with this interpretation.
74.
Show how Whitelaw effects the same correlation. Cf. Rotherhams view (as given earlier in this text) and that of Archer (as stated directly above).
75.
List other evidences of the ambiguous use of the Hebrew yom throughout the Old Testament.
76.
Show how Gen. 1:31 sets the optimistic motif which runs throughout the entire Bible.
77.
List the correspondences between the Hebrew Cosmogony and present-day science.
78.
Explain how this correspondence is especially true of the order of Creation as given in Genesis and as held by the most recent science.
79.
What bearing do these facts have on the doctrine of the special Divine inspiration of the Genesis Narrative of the Creation?
80.
Show how the Order of the Creation as given in Genesis harmonizes also with the facts of human experience.
81.
Restate our objections to the reconstruction and cyclical theories, respectively, of the cosmos as applied to the Genesis Cosmogony.
82.
Explain what is meant by plant photosynthesis and why the process is of such great importance.
83.
Review the general Order of the Creation, Day by Day, as set forth in Genesis 1.
84.
What is the special significance of this Order? To what does it necessarily point?
85.
Explain the difference between theoretical atheism and agnosticism. Is there any practical difference between the two views?
86.
What is pantheism, and what are the main objections to it?
87.
Define deism, and state the objections to it.
88.
Define materialism and state the objections to it.
89.
Define dualism and state the objections to it.
90.
Explain what is meant by emanationism. State the objections to it.
91.
What, in a general sense, is naturalism?
92.
Distinguish between humanitarian humanism, egoistic humanism, and Biblical humanism.
93.
Define polytheism. What was its most fundamental characteristic?
94.
Define monotheism. How is it related to monism?
95.
Define henotheism.
96.
State the fundamental characteristics of theism. What are the chief attributes of the Biblical theistic God?
Fuente: College Press Bible Study Textbook Series
II.
THE SABBATH.
(1) Were finished.The first three verses of this chapter form part of the previous narrative, and contain its Divine purpose. For the great object of this hymn of creation is to give the sanction of the Creator to the Sabbath. Hence the ascribing of rest to Him who wearies not, and hence also the description of the several stages of creation as days. Labour is, no doubt, ennobled by creation being described as work done by God; but the higher purpose of this Scripture was that for which appeal is made to it in the Fourth Commandment, namely, to ennoble mans weekly rest. Among the Accadians, Mr. Sayce says (Chald. Genesis. p. 89), the Sabbath was observedso ancient is its institutionbut it was connected with the sun, moon, and five planets, whence even now the days of the week take their titles, though the names of Scandinavian deities have been substituted in this country for some of their old Latin appellations. Here every idolatrous tendency is guarded against, and the Sabbath is the institution of the One Almighty God.
The host of them.The word translated host does not refer to military arrangement, but to numbers gathered in crowds. This crowded throng of heaven sometimes means the angels, as in 1Ki. 22:19; oftener the stars. Here it is the host both of heaven and earth, and signifies the multitudes of living creatures which people the land, and seas, and air.
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
EXCURSUS B: ON THE NAMES ELOHIM AND JEHOVAH-ELOHIM.
Throughout the first account of creation (Gen. 1:1 to Gen. 2:3) the Deity is simply called Elohim. This word is strictly a plural of Eloah, which is used as the name of God only in poetry, or in late books like those of Nehemiah and Daniel. It is there an Aramaism, God in Syriac being Aloho, in Ohaldee Ellah, and in Arabic Allahuall of which are merely dialectic varieties of the Hebrew Eloah, and are used constantly in the singular number. In poetry EJoah is sometimes employed with great emphasis, as, for instance, in Psa. 18:31 : Who is Eloah except Jehovah? But while thus the sister dialects used the singular both in poetry and prose, the Hebrews used the plural Elohim as the ordinary name of God, the difference being that to the one God was simply power, strength (the root-meaning of Eloah); to the other He was the union of all powers, the Almighty. The plural thus intensified the idea of the majesty and greatness of God; but besides this, it was the germ of the doctrine of a plurality of persons in the Divine unity.
In the second narrative (Gen. 2:4 to Gen. 3:24), which is an account of the fall of man, with only such introductory matter regarding creation as was necessary for making the history complete, the Deity is styled Jehovah-Elohim. The spelling of the word Jehovah is debatable, as only the consonants ( J, h, v, h) are certain, the vowels being those of the word Adonai (Lord) substituted for it by the Jews when reading it in the synagogue, the first vowel being a mere apology for a sound, and pronounced a or e, according to the nature of the consonant to which it is attached. It is generally represented now by a light breathing, thusYhovah, donai. As regards the spelling, Ewald, Gesenius, and others argue for Yahveh; Frst for Yehveh, or Yeheveh; and Stier, Meyer, &c, for Yehovah. The former has the analogy of several other proper names in its favour; the second the authority of Exo. 3:14; the last, those numerous names like Yehoshaphat, where the word is written Yeho. At the end of proper names the form it takes is Yahu, whence also Yah. We ought also to notice that the first consonant is really y; but two or three centuries ago j seems to have had the sound which we give to y now, as is still the case in German.
But this is not a matter of mere pronunciation; there is a difference of meaning as well. Yahveh signifies He who brings into existence; Yehveh He who shall be, or shall become; what Jehovah may signify I do not know. We must further notice that the name is undoubtedly earlier than the time of Moses. At the date of the Exodus the v of the verb had been changed into y. Thus, in Exo. 3:14, the name of God is Ehyeh, I shall become, not Ehveh. Had the name, therefore, come into existence in the days of Moses, it would have been Yahyeh, Yehyeh, or Yehoyah, not Yahveh, &c.
The next fact is that the union of these two namesJehovah-Elohimis very unusual. In this short narrative it occurs twenty times, in the rest of the Pentateuch only once (Exo. 9:30); in the whole remainder of the Bible about nine times. Once, moreover, in Psa. 1:1, there is the reversed form, Elohim-Jehovah. There must, therefore, be some reason why in this narrative this peculiar junction of the two names is so predominant.
The usual answer is that in this section God appears in covenant with man, whereas in Gen. 1:1 to Gen. 2:3 He was the Creator, the God of nature and not of grace, having, indeed, a closer relation to man, as being the most perfect of His creatures (Gen. 1:26), but a relation different only in degree and not in kind. This is true, but insufficient; nor does it explain how Jehovah became the covenant name of God, and Elohim His generic title. Whatever be the right answer, we must expect to find it in the narrative itself. The facts are so remarkable, and the connection of the name Jehovah with this section so intimate, that if Holy Scripture is to command the assent of our reason we must expect to find the explanation of such peculiarities in the section wherein they occur.
What, then, do we find? We find this. The first section gives us the history of mans formation, with the solemn verdict that he was very good. Nature without man was simply good; with man, creation had reached its goal. In this, the succeeding section, man ceases to be very good. He is represented in it as the object of his Makers special care, and, above all, as one put under law. Inferior creatures work by instinct, that is, practically by compulsion, and in subjection to rules and forces which control them. Man, as a free agent, attains a higher rank. He is put under law, with the power of obeying or disobeying it. God, who is the infinitely high and self-contained, works also by law, but it comes from within, from the perfectness of His own nature, and not from without, as must be the case with an imperfect being like man, whose duty is to strive after that which is better and more perfect. Add that, even in the first section, man was described as created in Gods image, after His likeness. But as law is essential to Gods naturefor without it He would be the author of confusionso is it to mans. But as this likeness is a gift conferred upon him, and not inherent, the law must come with the gift, from outside, and not from himself; and it can come only from God. Thus, then, man was necessarily, by the terms of his creation, made subject to law, and without it there could have been no progress upward. But he broke the law, and fell. Was he, then, to remain for ever a fallen being, hiding himself away from his Maker, and with the bonds of duty and love, which erewhile bound him to his Creator, broken irremediably? No. God is love; and the purpose of this narrative is not so much to give us the history of mans fall as to show that a means of restoration had been appointed. Scarcely has the breach been made I before One steps in to fill it. The breach had been caused by a subtle foe, who had beguiled our first parents in the simplicity of their innocence; but in the very hour of their condemnation they are promised an avenger, who, after a struggle, shall crush the head of their enemy (Gen. 3:15).
Now this name, Y-h-v-h, in its simplest form Yehveh, means He shall be, or shall become. With the substitution of y for v, according to a change which had taken place generally in the Hebrew language, this is the actual spelling which we find in Exo. 3:14 : namely, Ehyeh sher hyeh, I shall be that I shall be. Now, in the New Testament we find that the received name for the Messiah was the coming One (Mat. 21:9; Mat. 23:39; Mar. 11:9; Luk. 7:19-20; Luk. 13:35; Luk. 19:38; Joh. 1:15; Joh. 1:27; Joh. 3:31; Joh. 6:14; Joh. 11:27; Joh. 12:13; Act. 19:4; Heb. 10:37); and in the Revelation of St. John the name of the Triune God is, He who is and who was, and the coming One (Gen. 1:4; Gen. 1:8; Gen. 11:17). But St. Paul tells us of a notable change in the language of the early Christians. Their solemn formula was Maran-atha, Our Lord is come (1Co. 16:22). The Deliverer was no longer future, no longer He who shall become, nor He who shall be what He shall be. It is not now an indefinite hope: no longer the sighing of the creature waiting for the manifestation of Him who shall crush the head of his enemy. The faint ray of light which dawned in Gen. 3:15 has become the risen Sun of Righteousness; the Jehovah of the Old Testament has become the Jesus of the New, of whom the Church joyfully exclaims, We praise Thee as God: we acknowledge Thee to be Jehovah.
But whence arose this name Jehovah? Distinctly from the words of Eve, so miserably disappointed in their primary application: I have gotten a man, even Jehovah, or Yehveh (Genesis 41). She, poor fallen creature, did not know the meaning of the words she uttered, but she had believed the promise, and for her faiths sake the spirit of prophecy rested upon her, and she gave him on whom her hopes were fixed the title which was to grow and swell onward till all inspired truth gathered round it and into it; and at length Elohim, the Almighty, set to it His seal by calling Himself I shall be that I shall be (Exo. 3:14). Eves word is simply the third person of the verb of which Ehyeh is the first, and the correct translation of her speech is, I have gotten a man, even he that shall be, or the future one. But when God called Himself by this appellation, the word, so indefinite in her mouth, became the personal name of Israels covenant God.
Thus, then, in this title of the Deity, formed from the verb of existence in what is known as the future or indefinite tense, we have the symbol of that onward longing look for the return of the golden age, or age of paradise, which elsewhere in the Bible is described as the reign of the Branch that shall grow out of Jesses root (Isa. 11:4-9). The hope was at first dim, distant, indistinct, but it was the foundation of all that was to follow. Prophets and psalmists were to tend and foster that hope, and make it clear and definite. But the germ of all their teaching was contained in that mystic four-lettered word, the tetragrammaton, Y-h-v-h. The name may have been popularly called Yahveh, though of this we have no proof; the Jews certainly understood by it Yehvehthe coming One. After all, these vowels are not of so much importance as the fact that the name has the pre-formative yod. The force of this letter prefixed to the root form of a Hebrew verb is to give it a future or indefinite sense; and I can find nothing whatsoever to justify the Assertion that Jehovahto adopt the ordinary spellingmeans the existent One, and still less to attach to it a causal force, and explain it as signifying He who calls into being.
Finally, the pre-Mosaical form of the name is most instructive, as showing that the expectation of the Messiah was older than the time of the Exodus. The name is really mans answer to and acceptance of the promise made to him in Gen. 3:15; and why should not Eve, to whom the assurance was given, be the first to profess her faith in it? But in this section, in which the name occurs twenty times in the course of forty-six verses, there is a far deeper truth than Eve supposed. Jehovah (Yehveh) is simply the coming One, and Eve probably attached no very definite idea to the words she was led to use. But here He is called Jehovah-Elohim, and the double name teaches us that the coming One, the future deliverer, is God, the very Elohim who at first created man. The unity, therefore, and connection between these two narratives is of the closest kind: and the prefixing in this second section of Jehovah to Elohim, the Creators name in the first section, was the laying of the foundation stone for the doctrine that mans promised Saviour, though the womans seed, was an Emmanuel, God as well as man.
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
SEVENTH DAY SABBATH, Gen 2:1-3.
1. All the host of them That is, all the things, animate and inanimate, which made up the several works of creation .
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
‘Thus the heavens and the earth were finished and all the host of them.’
This use of the word ‘host’ is unusual. Here it signifies the totality of creation, including sun, moon and stars, the different types of vegetation, fish, creatures and animals, and man, everything contained therein. Nothing remains unfinished. Every part has its place and it is completed to the last dot.
Note that ‘the heavens and the earth’ refers back to verse Gen 1:1. Thus what has been described is the detail of the fulfilment of that verse. This would seem to confirm that ‘heavens’ in Gen 1:1 primarily meant the material heavens
Fuente: Commentary Series on the Bible by Peter Pett
The Seventh Day of Rest Gen 2:1-3 describes how God finished His creation in six days and rested on the seventh day. He ceased from His own works in order to enter into rest. One purpose of this rest was to allow His principles of faith that were made a part of the fabric of His creation to take effect and operate in His creation, particularly in mankind. We read in Heb 4:10 that we, too, enter into rest when we cease from our own works and serve the Lord.
Heb 4:10, “For he that is entered into his rest, he also hath ceased from his own works, as God did from his.”
The Number Seven in the Holy Scriptures – The number seven will play an important role throughout the Scriptures as God uses it to bring to pass His divine plan and purpose of creation and redemption for mankind. It will appear in Genesis, in the Law of Moses, all the way until it plays a vital role in the book of Revelation. In the Law of Moses, the Sabbath was the day of rest for man. The seventh year was the Sabbath year where the land rested. The seventh Sabbath year was the year of Jubilee, when everything was to be restored to the rightful owner. The millennial thousand-year reign will be a rest from the evils of Satan, which is the seventh millennial since man was created.
Gen 2:1 Thus the heavens and the earth were finished, and all the host of them.
Gen 2:1
Gen 2:2 And on the seventh day God ended his work which he had made; and he rested on the seventh day from all his work which he had made.
Gen 2:2
Gen 2:2 Comments – Why did God rest on the Sabbath, since He was Almighty and needed no physical rest? I believe that He stopped and rested in order to see His Glory, the glory of His handiwork.
While teaching on the Creation story, I asked my little 5-year old daughter what God did on the seventh day. She quickly said, “He went to sleep.” (October 27, 2003) Well, not exactly. He simply ended the work required to fulfill His office and plan. When I finish building something, I do not go to sleep. Rather, I stand back and admire the work of my hands. I enjoy watching something word that I put together. In the same way, God has stepped back in order to enjoy His creation.
When God entered into rest, He did so fully satisfied with His creation. His rest was eternal because He found full contentment in the creation of man and the heavens and earth. God loves us so much that He is fully satisfied with us. He need not look for another being to love, for He has rested forever with us in His mind.
Gen 2:2 Old Testament Quotes in the New Testament – Gen 2:2 is quoted in Heb 4:4.
Heb 4:4, “For he spake in a certain place of the seventh day on this wise, And God did rest the seventh day from all his works.”
Gen 2:2 Scripture References – Note a similar verse:
Exo 20:11, “For in six days the LORD made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that in them is, and rested the seventh day: wherefore the LORD blessed the sabbath day, and hallowed it.”
Note other biblical references to the Creation Story:
Neh 9:6, “Thou, even thou, art LORD alone; thou hast made heaven, the heaven of heavens, with all their host, the earth, and all things that are therein, the seas, and all that is therein, and thou preservest them all; and the host of heaven worshippeth thee.”
Psa 33:6, “By the word of the LORD were the heavens made; and all the host of them by the breath of his mouth.”
Psa 102:25, “Of old hast thou laid the foundation of the earth: and the heavens are the work of thy hands.”
Isa 45:12, “I have made the earth, and created man upon it: I, even my hands, have stretched out the heavens, and all their host have I commanded.”
Gen 2:3 And God blessed the seventh day, and sanctified it: because that in it he had rested from all his work which God created and made.
Introduction: The Story of Creation (Predestination) God’s Purpose and Order in Creation – The book of Genesis opens with an introductory passage giving the story of the creation of the heavens and the earth (Gen 1:1 to Gen 2:3). The Story of Creation in the book of Genesis tells us that God created the heavens and the earth in six days and rested upon the seventh day. Heb 11:3 reveals the central message in this genealogy that stirs our faith in God when it says, announcing that God created all things by the power of His spoken word, saying, “Through faith we understand that the worlds were framed by the word of God, so that things which are seen were not made of things which do appear.” While the Story of Creation reveals God’s plan for all of creation to be fruitful and multiply, particular emphasis is given to His charge to man to multiply and fill the earth. In this introduction, God commanded the plant kingdom to procreate (Gen 1:11); He also commanded the creatures to be fruitful and multiply (Gen 1:22); and He commanded Adam and Eve to be fruitful and multiply in order to take dominion over the earth (Gen 1:28). God created life in a progression of higher order with each order receiving a more important command. Thus, God’s original destiny for each order of His creation was to be fruitful and to multiply with the lower orders serving the higher orders. The law of multiplication is still a fundamental law governing His eternal destiny for creation. One preacher said that if a person can believe the story of Creation, then he can believe the rest of the Bible.
Everything that God does, He does for a purpose. The calling and destiny of the plant kingdom was to procreate after itself (Gen 1:11). The calling and destiny of the animal kingdom was to be fruitful and to multiply (Gen 1:22). Man’s calling and destiny was to be fruitful, and to multiply and to take dominion over the earth (Gen 1:28). It is interesting to note that God did not command the plant kingdom in the same way He did the animals and man plants do not have a mind and reasoning faculties as do the higher kingdoms. The next section of the book of Genesis called the Genealogy of the Heavens and the Earth (Gen 3:1 to Gen 4:26) will show how man failed in his calling and brought all of creation into vanity and travail. While each of the ten genealogies recorded in the book of Genesis open with a divine commission and end with the fulfillment of that commission, the divine commission that God gave Adam in the Story of Creation remains incomplete until the fulfillment of biblical prophecy and the new heavens and earth restore man to his original purpose and intent.
In addition, everything that God created was designed to give itself in divine service in order to fulfill its destiny and purpose. The sun serves the divine role of giving its light in order to sustain life on earth. The heavenly bodies were created to serve as signs and wonders in the sky. The land was created to serve as a habitat for creeping creature and the beasts of the earth. The waters were created to serve as a habitat for fish. The sky was created to serve as a habitat for birds. Thus, the sun, moon, stars, earth, seas, and sky were created to support life on earth. The plant kingdom was created to serve as food and shelter for animals and mankind. The animal kingdom was created to serve man. In fact, every plant species and animal species was created to serve mankind in a unique way. Finally, man was created to serve God.
In addition, life was created in order to produce life. Each plant was created to produce seed after its kind. Each animal was commanded to be fruitful and multiply. The flowers were created to give forth beauty. Mankind was created to give God fellowship. Thus, each form of life was created with a role to play in God’s overall creation.
Since Adam serves as a type and figure of Jesus Christ (Rom 5:14), the message of Gen 1:1 to Gen 2:3 to the New Testament Church is for the believer to be conformed unto the image of God’s Son (Rom 8:29). Every believer is predestined to become like Jesus Christ, and the writings of the New Testament take the believer on a spiritual journey in order to fulfill this divine destiny.
Rom 5:14, “Nevertheless death reigned from Adam to Moses, even over them that had not sinned after the similitude of Adam’s transgression, who is the figure of him that was to come.”
The Triune God Revealed in Creation – In the Story of Creation (Gen 1:1 to Gen 2:3), we have the testimony of the Father’s role as the One who has planned all things. We have the testimony of the Son’s role in Joh 1:1-14 as the Word of God through whom all things were created. In Pro 8:22-31 we have the testimony of the role of the Holy Spirit in creation as the Wisdom and Power of God. Thus, Moses, the author of Genesis, received the greatest revelation of God the Father regarding His role in creation, while John the apostle, the author of the Gospel of John, received the greatest revelation of Jesus regarding His role in creation. Solomon, the author of Proverbs, received the greatest revelation of the Holy Spirit regarding His role in creation. Note that the book of Genesis is the foundational book of the Old Testament while the book of John is the foundational book of the New Testament.
The Power of the Holy Spirit in Creation When God spoke, He released the Spirit and power of His words. When He said, “Let there be,” the Holy Spirit was released in power to perform those words. God created man with the gift of speech in order to participate in His creation. In the same way that we release the spirit of anger when we speak words of anger, or we release peace when we speak words of peace, so did God speak creative words to release the spirit of creation. Throughout the Scriptures we find that man’s spirit and his words work together.
Job 15:13, “That thou turnest thy spirit against God, and lettest such words go out of thy mouth?”
Job 26:4, “To whom hast thou uttered words ? and whose spirit came from thee?”
Pro 1:23, “Turn you at my reproof: behold, I will pour out my spirit unto you, I will make known my words unto you.”
Pro 17:27, “He that hath knowledge spareth his words : and a man of understanding is of an excellent spirit .”
Isa 59:21, “As for me, this is my covenant with them, saith the LORD; My spirit that is upon thee, and my words which I have put in thy mouth, shall not depart out of thy mouth, nor out of the mouth of thy seed, nor out of the mouth of thy seed’s seed, saith the LORD, from henceforth and for ever.”
Zec 7:12, “Yea, they made their hearts as an adamant stone, lest they should hear the law, and the words which the LORD of hosts hath sent in his spirit by the former prophets: therefore came a great wrath from the LORD of hosts.”
Joh 3:34, “For he whom God hath sent speaketh the words of God: for God giveth not the Spirit by measure unto him.”
Joh 6:63, “It is the spirit that quickeneth; the flesh profiteth nothing: the words that I speak unto you, they are spirit , and they are life.”
1Co 2:4, “And my speech and my preaching was not with enticing words of man’s wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power :”
The Order of Creation – God had an order to His creation. Note this order as we look at a summary of each day of creation:
Day 1 Light divided from darkness, called Day (Gen 1:3-5)
Day 2 A firmament divided from waters, called Heaven (Gen 1:6-8)
Day 3 Earth and Sea gathered waters – Grass herbs and seed, trees with fruit (Gen 1:9-13)
Day 4 – Luminaries – to divide night and day, to lighten firmament (sun, moon, stars) (Gen 1:14-19)
Day 5 Swarms in water, fowl in heaven, sea monsters, aquatic life. Life in water and air (Gen 1:20-23)
Day 6 – Earth life cattle, creeping creatures, beasts, man (Gen 1:24-31)
Day 7 – God rested (Gen 2:1-3)
Day 1 – We can easily see that God first created light. Since the Scriptures tell us that God is Light (1Jn 1:5), we understand that He was the source of this light as the Holy Spirit hovered over the surface of the earth, for the sun had not yet been created.
1Jn 1:5, “This then is the message which we have heard of him, and declare unto you, that God is light, and in him is no darkness at all.”
Day 2 – As this light from the Holy Spirit penetrated the dark mass of elements on this chaotic earth, energy was emitted into this mass in the form of heat. Thus, the next step on day two was the separation of vapor and liquid creating what we call a firmament, or vast sky, between these two, as the energy from the light provided the motion for such activity. The Book of Jubilees (2.4) tells us that the division of the firmament divided waters above from below. It says that half of the waters ascended above the firmament and half of the waters descended below upon the face of the earth. We could say that as the light penetrated this earth, it created energy and heat. This began to separate the vapor from the liquid water. The water vapor rose into the atmosphere and formed a dense mass of cloud cover over the earth while the liquid water descended upon the landmass. Between the vapor and liquid is the air that we breathe, which the Scriptures call the firmament. The liquid water coming down upon the land would explain why God needed to divide the liquid water from the dry land on the third day of creation.
Day 3 – As this energy continued to build within this land mass, the next step on the third day were for the liquids to separate from the solids creating the sea and the dry land. It was this combination of light, water, and solids on earth that provided the conditions for plant life to emerge. It was the creative power of God’s Word through the power of the Holy Spirit and emanating as light that caused the creation of the plant kingdom.
Day 4 – Whether we understand at this time or not how this took place, it was this enormous energy at work on earth that began to be transferred into outer space, causing addition separations of vapors, liquids and solids. These heavenly bodies were thus formed taking the shapes of the sun, moon and stars. This seems to support an ancient Jewish tradition that the earth is the center of the Universe. Carl Baugh suggests that these stars and their planetary bodies were compacted much closer than they are today, and when the earth split open at the time of the Noahic Flood, the universe actually enlarged in size, and is continuing to expand today. [53] The force of this split, which was millions of times the strength of an atomic explosion, sent these heavenly bodies shooting through space away from the earth at the speed that scientists are discovering today through modern telescopes. This would have been the time of the “big bang” that secular scientists believe was the start of the universe.
[53] Carl Baugh, Creation in the 21 st Century (Glen Rose, Texas: Creation Evidence Museum) , on Trinity Broadcasting Network (Santa Ana, California), television program.
So, how did the plant life, which was created on the third day, receive enough light to grow without the sun, which was created afterwards on the fourth day? The best way to understand this is to see how God is going to create a new heavens and a new earth. This new earth will have no sun or moon, for God Himself will provide the light for His new creation.
Rev 21:23, “And the city had no need of the sun, neither of the moon, to shine in it: for the glory of God did lighten it, and the Lamb is the light thereof.”
Rev 22:5, “And there shall be no night there; and they need no candle, neither light of the sun; for the Lord God giveth them light: and they shall reign for ever and ever.”
It appears to be a mystery as to how and why God did not create the sun, moon, and stars first, but waited until the fourth day of creation, while creating the plant kingdom on the third day. We know that plants must have sunlight in order to live by photosynthesis. How does this order in the creation story make sense practically and scientifically, since science is simply the study of how God’s creation functions and operates. It appears that the light that God created on the first day was made for the purpose of creating life, while the sunlight was created to sustain that life which was already created. After the plant life was created on the third day, the sunlight was then created to sustain this plant life. We know that plants are sustained, or grow, through sunlight. Thus, These heavenly bodies were created to sustain life.
Days 5-6 – On the fifth and sixth days God created the lower and higher orders of the animal kingdom which are sustained by the plant life. They procreate, not by pollination as do plants, but by the higher order of copulation, by which they are able to become “fruitful and multiply.”
Day 7 On the seventh day God rested from His handiwork.
The Order of Each Day of Creation Another observation that we can make about the seven days of creation is that God began each day by speaking the Word and He ended each day by rejoicing in His day’s work by saying that it was good. This tells us to set our day in order by first listening to God in prayer to hear a word from Him as well as speaking the Word of God in faith each morning. This spoken word of faith sets the destiny for our day. It is how we set our day in order as God did with each day. We too are to learn to enjoy each day without becoming anxious about tomorrow; for this is God’s daily plan for our lives.
Just as God gave man the general dimensions of the Tabernacle, but He left the details up to men to create and design, so does God give us a plan and purpose for our lives, but He does not reveal the details to us, so that we can be creative and inspired and enjoy each day’s task of designing the details. God enjoyed His work of creation and He wants us to enjoy each day’s work.
The Witnesses in Creation to God’s Divine Character Joh 1:1-5 reveals to us the divine attributes of the Word of God. The Word is (1) eternal, (2) God Himself, (3) the medium of creation, and (4) the source of Life. Benny Hinn says that the “Word” within the context of this passage of Scripture means, “the Revelation of God.” [54] In other words, since the beginning of time, God has revealed Himself to mankind through His creation by the means of “the light,” or the revelation of Himself, that shines in the darkness of every man’s soul. Hebrew Gen 3:1 tells us that there are two aspects to God’s being; His essence and His glory. Joh 1:1-5 tells us that the Word is an attribute of His essence, and Psa 19:1 says creation reveals His glory. God’s glory is revealed to mankind through His creation, while His essence is revealed through the Word of God. God’s creation reveals to mankind a general revelation of Himself (Psa 19:1-6), while the Word reveals specific details of God’s divine nature or essence (Psa 19:7-10).
[54] Benny Hinn, “Fire Conference,” Miracle Center Cathedral, Kampala, Uganda, 5-6 June 2009.
Heb 1:3, “Who being the brightness of his glory, and the express image of his person, and upholding all things by the word of his power, when he had by himself purged our sins, sat down on the right hand of the Majesty on high;”
Psa 19:1, To the chief Musician, A Psalm of David. The heavens declare the glory of God; and the firmament sheweth his handywork.”
No one with a heart who believes in God has any problem believing that He can make the heavens and the earth in six days, for an All-powerful God could have created the world in a second if He so chose to do so. All of creation declares that there is an omnipotent Creator. One preacher said that if a person can believe the story of Creation, then he can believe the rest of the Bible. Randy Ruiz said, “Science is our servant, not our master.” [55] God created all things, and science is a tool that can be used to testify of this fact. The Scriptures tell us that creation as a whole was designed to testify to the eternal power and divine character of the One who created it (Rom 1:19-20).
[55] Randy Ruis, “Sermon,” Panama City First Assembly of God, 3 July 2011.
Rom 1:19-20, “Because that which may be known of God is manifest in them; for God hath shewed it unto them. For the invisible things of him from the creation of the world are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even his eternal power and Godhead; so that they are without excuse:”
In God’s wisdom, we see passages scattered throughout the Scriptures revealing to us how every detail and tiny aspect of God’s creation was designed to testify of a particular aspect of God’s divine character, for this is exactly what Rom 1:19-20 is saying. We can learn of God’s ways of dealing with man by looking within the laws of nature. We see this comparison between God’s creation and our lives all the time in the form of sports and institutional logos, national emblems, etc, when they take the form of animals or other objects in nature. [56]
[56] Additional symbols of God’s divine character revealed in nature can be found in Frances Roberts, Come Away My Beloved (Ojai, California: King’s Farspan, Inc., 1973), 178-9; Rick Joyner, The Call (Charlotte, North Carolina: Morning Star Publications, 1999); and Sadhu Sundar Singh, At the Master’s Feet, trans. Arthur Parker (London: Fleming H. Revell Co., 1922) [on-line]; accessed 26 October 2008; available from http://www.ccel.org/ccel/singh/feet.html; Internet.
God’s Creation – Solomon must have seen the glory of God in His magnificent creation in order to write about trees, beasts, birds, creeping thing and fish (1Ki 4:32-33).
1Ki 4:32-33, “And he spake three thousand proverbs: and his songs were a thousand and five. And he spake of trees, from the cedar tree that is in Lebanon even unto the hyssop that springeth out of the wall: he spake also of beasts, and of fowl, and of creeping things, and of fishes.”
The book of Canticles uses figurative language of many aspects of God’s creation to symbolize our relationship with God.
As we go forth from our house each day, do not go with a closed mind, but look around you and behold the glory and majesty of our God.
We read in fifteenth chapter of 1 Corinthians about the resurrection of the dead. In this lengthy passage Paul the apostle uses the order of God’s creation to explain the resurrection of man. He tells us “there is one kind of flesh of men, another flesh of beasts, another of fishes, and another of birds. There are also celestial bodies, and bodies terrestrial: but the glory of the celestial is one, and the glory of the terrestrial is another. There is one glory of the sun, and another glory of the moon, and another glory of the stars: for one star differeth from another star in glory.” (1Co 15:39-41) Paul then states that in a similar way the resurrection of man will yield a different body of a different glory.
The Heavens – As we look up towards heaven or try to look beyond the horizon, we are reminded that God’s mercy and forgiveness is likened to the width and height of His creation.
Psa 103:11-12, “For as the heaven is high above the earth, so great is his mercy toward them that fear him. As far as the east is from the west, so far hath he removed our transgressions from us.”
The Sun – The Jewish day began at dusk. Therefore, as the sun sets each day and rises in the morning, so was Jesus Christ crucified and resurrected to become the Light of the World. With each new day comes God’s mercy and compassion (Lam 3:22-23) just as our faith in Jesus brings God’s mercy into our lives.
The Stars – We read in E. W. Bullinger’s book The Witness of the Stars how the twelve constellations in the heavens serve as a witness to the redemptive work of Jesus Christ over all of creation. [57]
[57] E. W. Bullinger, The Witness of the Stars (London: E. W. Bullinger, c1893). A number of other books have been written on this subject, including Frances Rolleston, Mazzaroth (New York: Cosimo Classics, c1862, 2008); Joseph Seiss, A Gospel in the Stars (New York: Charles C. Cook, c1884, 1910); William D. Banks, The Heavens Declare (Krikwood, Missouri: Impact Christian Books, 1985); D. James Kennedy, and Nancy Britt, The Real Meaning of the Zodiac (Fort Lauderdale, Florida: Coral Ridge Ministries Media, c1989).
Day and Night The fact that we work during the daytime and rest at night testifies to the fact that we are to serve the Lord in this life, because after we die there is no way to undo what we have done while we were alive. We will be judged based upon the works we did in this life “while it was day.” Note Joh 9:4.
Joh 9:4, “I must work the works of him that sent me, while it is day: the night cometh, when no man can work.”
Regarding the brightness of the noontime sun, Peter tells us to if we will submit our hearts and lives to the Word of God and allow it to have supreme authority in our lives, then we will begin to grow in our revelation of its meaning. God’s Word will become brighter and brighter in our hearts day by day just as the sun brightens the day hour by hour.
2Pe 1:19, “We have also a more sure word of prophecy; whereunto ye do well that ye take heed, as unto a light that shineth in a dark place, until the day dawn, and the day star arise in your hearts:”
The Mountains and Valleys When John the Baptist began to prophesy out of the book of Isaiah he cried, “Every valley shall be filled, and every mountain and hill shall be brought low.” Within this context, the mountains are figurative for those men who are high and proud and lift themselves up in this world. The valleys represent the lowly who have been pressed down in this world. Thus, the epistle of James tells us that God will humble the proud and exalt the lowly.
Luk 3:4-6, “As it is written in the book of the words of Esaias the prophet, saying, The voice of one crying in the wilderness, Prepare ye the way of the Lord, make his paths straight. Every valley shall be filled, and every mountain and hill shall be brought low; and the crooked shall be made straight, and the rough ways shall be made smooth; And all flesh shall see the salvation of God.”
Jas 1:9, “Let the brother of low degree rejoice in that he is exalted: But the rich, in that he is made low: because as the flower of the grass he shall pass away.”
The Elements of the Earth – Ecc 1:5-11 tells us that when we observe how the basic elements of the earth, which are heat, wind and rain, continually recycle themselves and return to their origin, we can learn that there is also nothing new in the way humanity behaves itself in society. As nature has cycles, so does human history.
The Precious Metals and Gems – When we consider that the most valuable treasures on earth, such as diamonds and gems, gold, silver and brass, even oil, all must be dug out from the depths of the earth, we cannot help but compare this to the fact that God’s treasures of wisdom and understanding must also be sought out in a similar way. How often have we sought out direction from the Lord much like a miners digs and makes great efforts to finding hidden mineral ores. Note:
Pro 25:2, “It is the glory of God to conceal a thing: but the honour of kings is to search out a matter.”
The Forces of Nature – His catastrophic acts in nature, such as floods, fires, earthquakes, tornados, hurricanes, volcanic eruptions, famines and pestilences all reveal His eternal judgment (Genesis 19 and Jud 1:7).
Jud 1:7, “Even as Sodom and Gomorrha, and the cities about them in like manner, giving themselves over to fornication, and going after strange flesh, are set forth for an example, suffering the vengeance of eternal fire.”
Lakes and Rivers – We are to draw deeply out of our spirit to know His fullness and peace just as the lakes hide their secrets in their depths. We are to move ever forward on this journey of life that He has ordained for us to walk just as the brooks flow ever onward towards the sea. We are to keep this channel of water free from obstructions and debris, to straighten is course so that our journey is not hindered. The intricate and wonderful details of His creation testify to His intricate and wonderful plan that He has ordained for each of our lives.
The Clouds and Rain In his book At the Master’s Feet Sadhu Sundar Singh gives many metaphors of nature as it reveals the divine principles of God. Here are some of them:
“Just as the salt water of the sea is drawn upwards by the hot rays of the sun, and gradually takes on the form of clouds, and, turned thus into sweet and refreshing water, falls in showers on the earth (for the sea water as it rises upwards leaves behind it its salt and bitterness), so when the thoughts and desires of the man of prayer rise aloft like misty emanations of the soul, the rays of the Sun of Righteousness purify them of all sinful taint, and his prayers become a great cloud which descends from heaven in a shower of blessing, bringing refreshment to many on the earth.” [58]
[58] Sadhu Sundar Singh, At the Master’s Feet, trans. Arthur Parker (London: Fleming H. Revell Co., 1922) [on-line]; accessed 26 October 2008; available from http://www.ccel.org/ccel/singh/feet.html; Internet, “III Prayer,” section 1, part 5.
The Wind – Frances J. Roberts says that God’s voice is heard in the blowing of the wind, in the rustling of the trees, in the tumbling of the flowing streams, in the breaking of the waves. [59]
[59] Frances J. Roberts, Come Away My Beloved (Ojai, California: King’s Farspan, Inc., 1973), 178.
The Plant Kingdom – In his book At the Master’s Feet Sadhu Sundar Singh makes comments on how plants and flowers declare God’s glory.
“In the same way as climate produces a change in form, colour, and the habits of growth in plants and flowers, so those who maintain communion with Me undergo a development of their spiritual nature in habit, appearance, and disposition; and putting off the old man they are transformed into My own glorious and incorruptible image.” [60]
[60] Sadhu Sundar Singh, At the Master’s Feet, trans. Arthur Parker (London: Fleming H. Revell Co., 1922) [on-line]; accessed 26 October 2008; available from http://www.ccel.org/ccel/singh/feet.html; Internet, “III Prayer,” section 3, part 6.
The Grass and Flowers of the Field – The flowers tell us not to worry about our clothing, for He will take care of His children. The beauty in His flowers tells us that He is concerned about the little things in our lives and His desire for us to prosper and have a happy life. Just as surely the rain and snow come down and water the earth and it brings forth seed to eat and seed to sow, so will God provide for us as we do His Word (Isa 55:10-13). Also, there are many passages in the Scriptures that compare our brevity in life to the grass and the flowers that flourish today and are gone tomorrow (1Pe 1:24-25). The brief beauty of the flower can reflect man’s short-lived accomplishments in this life. For both quickly vanish away and are forgotten.
Trees – As the trees grow upwards towards the sun, ever dependent upon it for life, so do we ever look upward to our Heavenly Father as our source of life. A tree being cut down is used to describe how the Lord will cut down the nation of Israel.
Isa 6:13, “And though a tenth remains in the land, it will again be laid waste. But as the terebinth and oak leaves stumps when they are cut down, so the holy seed will be the stump in the land.” ( NIV)
As the trees sway in the wind, so do our hearts often sway to the circumstances that blow into our lives. Note:
Isa 7:2, “And it was told the house of David, saying, Syria is confederate with Ephraim. And his heart was moved, and the heart of his people, as the trees of the wood are moved with the wind.”
The budding of the trees symbolizes the changes of divine seasons as well as telling us of the changes of the seasons of nature.
Luk 21:29-31, “And he spake to them a parable; Behold the fig tree, and all the trees; When they now shoot forth, ye see and know of your own selves that summer is now nigh at hand. So likewise ye, when ye see these things come to pass, know ye that the kingdom of God is nigh at hand.”
The Animal Kingdom – The Lord revealed His majesty to Job by revealing the glories of His creation (Job 38-41), such as the mighty beasts. These four chapters in Job reveal a great amount of details of how creation declares the glory of God. The moth in the book of Job teaches us how frail our life really is without God’s divine hand of protection upon us (see Job 4:19). The animals described in the book of Proverbs reveal God’s wonders (Pro 30:18-19), His wisdom (Pro 30:24-28) and His beauty (Pro 30:29-31).
Creeping Animals and Florescent Light Note the following quote from Sadhu Sundar Singh regarding creeping animals and florescent light.
“There are little creatures far inferior to man, like the firefly, with its flickering light, and certain small plants among the vegetation in the Himalayas, which by their faint phosphorescent radiance illuminate as far as they can the dark jungle where they live. Tiny fish also that swim in the deep waters of the ocean give forth a glimmering light which guides other fish and helps them to elude their enemies. How much more ought My children to be lights in the world (Matt. v.14) and be eager in self-sacrifice to bring into the way of truth, by means of their God-given light, those who by reason of darkness are liable to become the prey of Satan.” [61]
[61] Sadhu Sundar Singh, At the Master’s Feet, trans. Arthur Parker (London: Fleming H. Revell Co., 1922) [on-line]; accessed 26 October 2008; available from http://www.ccel.org/ccel/singh/feet.html; Internet, “IV Service,” section 2, part 4.
Animals and Their Camouflage – Note the following quote from Sadhu Sundar Singh regarding animals and their camouflage.
“To pray is as it were to be on speaking terms with Me, and so by being in communion with and abiding in Me to become like Me. There is a kind of insect which feeds upon and lives among grass and green leaves and becomes like them in colour. Also the polar bear dwelling among the white snows has the same snowy whiteness, and the tiger of Bengal bears upon its skin the marks of the reeds among which it lives. So those, who by means of prayer abide in communion with Me partake, with the saints and angels, of My Nature, and being formed in My image become like Me.” [62]
[62] Sadhu Sundar Singh, At the Master’s Feet, trans. Arthur Parker (London: Fleming H. Revell Co., 1922) [on-line]; accessed 26 October 2008; available from http://www.ccel.org/ccel/singh/feet.html; Internet, “III Prayer,” section 3, part 1.
The Animal Kingdom and Its Sight – Note the following quote from Sadhu Sundar Singh regarding the animal kingdom and its sight.
“If they do not use these heaven-sent powers in the service of God and His creatures they are in danger of losing for ever those heavenly gifts. This is what has happened to certain fish that live in the deep waters of dark caves, also to some hermits in Tibet, for both have lived so long in darkness that they have entirely lost their sight. In like manner the ostrich, through not using its wings, has lost altogether the power of flight. Take heed, therefore, not to neglect whatever gifts or talents have been entrusted to you, but make use of them that you may share in the bliss and glory of your Master (Matt. xxv.14-30).” [63]
[63] Sadhu Sundar Singh, At the Master’s Feet, trans. Arthur Parker (London: Fleming H. Revell Co., 1922) [on-line]; accessed 26 October 2008; available from http://www.ccel.org/ccel/singh/feet.html; Internet, “IV Service,” section 2, part 5.
Bees and Honey – Note the following quote from Sadhu Sundar Singh regarding bees and honey.
“Just as the bee collects the sweet juice of the flowers and turns it into honey without injuring their colour or fragrance, so the man of prayer gathers happiness and profit from all God’s creation without doing any violence to it. As bees also gather their honey from flowers in all sorts of different places and store it in the honeycomb, so the man of God gathers sweet thoughts and feelings from every part of creation, and in communion with his Creator collects in his heart the honey of truth, and in enduring peace with Him at all times and in all places, tastes with delight the sweet honey of God.” [64]
[64] Sadhu Sundar Singh, At the Master’s Feet, trans. Arthur Parker (London: Fleming H. Revell Co., 1922) [on-line]; accessed 26 October 2008; available from http://www.ccel.org/ccel/singh/feet.html; Internet, “III Prayer,” section 3, part 4.
The Birds – In the Sermon on the Mount, the birds tell us that our heavenly Father will always provide our needs, so we are not to worry about food.
The Birds – Jeremiah tells us that as the stork knows it appointed times and seasons, so should we be able to observe them and understand that God has appointed times and seasons for man to know and to follow.
Jer 8:7, “Yea, the stork in the heaven knoweth her appointed times; and the turtle and the crane and the swallow observe the time of their coming; but my people know not the judgment of the LORD.”
The Beasts – As we observe how the ox knows his owner and the ass his master’s crib, so should we see how we are to honor the Lord (Isa 1:3).
The Ram Dan 8:1-27 gives us the vision of the ram and the he-goat butting heads in battle. It is the natural characteristic of these animals to butt heads. Thus, as we see battles fought in nature over territory, so do we understand that there a battles being fought in the heavenly realm.
The Human Body- 1Co 12:12-30 explains how the many parts of man’s physical body is a type and figure of the spiritual body of Christ, the Church.
God created man with a nature to hunger and thirst on a daily basis as a reminder of our daily need to be feed spiritually. Note:
1Pe 2:2, “As newborn babes, desire the sincere milk of the word, that ye may grow thereby:”
Sadhu Sundar Singh writes:
“I have infused into man’s nature hunger and thirst, that he may not in sheer heedlessness regard himself as God, but that day by day he may be reminded of his needs and that his life is bound up with the life and existence of Someone who created him. Thus being made aware of his defects and necessities, he may abide in Me and I in him, and then he will ever find in Me his happiness and joy.” [65]
[65] Sadhu Sundar Singh, At the Master’s Feet, trans. Arthur Parker (London: Fleming H. Revell Co., 1922) [on-line]; accessed 26 October 2008; available from http://www.ccel.org/ccel/singh/feet.html; Internet, “III Prayer,” section 2, part 10.
Ecc 11:5 teaches us that the mystery of the forming of a child in the womb testifies to us that God’s ways are beyond our understanding.
Ecc 11:5, “As thou knowest not what is the way of the spirit, nor how the bones do grow in the womb of her that is with child: even so thou knowest not the works of God who maketh all.”
Mankind and His Inventions – Note these insightful words by Rick Joyner regarding the glory of God’s creation:
“Soon after, I awoke. For days afterward, I felt an energy surging through me making everything look glorious. I loved everything that I saw. A doorknob seemed wonderful beyond comprehension. Old houses and cars were so beautiful to me that I was sorry I was not an artist so that I could capture their beauty and nobility. Trees and animals all seemed like very special personal friends. Every person I saw was like a library of revelation and meaning, and I was so thankful for eternity so that I could get to know them all. I could not look at anything without seeing magnificence, hardly believing that I had walked through so much of my life and missed so much.” [66]
[66] Rick Joyner, The Call (Charlotte, North Carolina: Morning Star Publications, 1999), 33-4.
Human Trials The Scriptures tell us when we are tried and tested by God is it for the purpose of purifying our hearts.
Pro 17:3, “The fining pot is for silver, and the furnace for gold: but the LORD trieth the hearts.”
Human Calamities When Jesus Christ was asked about the tragedy of Pilate killing some Galileans He quickly responded by calling His hearers to repentance. Jesus then tells them a second story of human calamity when the tower of Siloam fell upon eighteen people killing them and again calls them to repentance. We learn from these two stories that refer to human calamities that such events are God’s call to repentance. God uses such tragedies to call men to repentance as Jesus Christ did so in this story.
Luk 13:1-5, “There were present at that season some that told him of the Galilaeans, whose blood Pilate had mingled with their sacrifices. And Jesus answering said unto them, Suppose ye that these Galilaeans were sinners above all the Galilaeans, because they suffered such things? I tell you, Nay: but, except ye repent, ye shall all likewise perish. Or those eighteen, upon whom the tower in Siloam fell, and slew them, think ye that they were sinners above all men that dwelt in Jerusalem? I tell you, Nay: but, except ye repent, ye shall all likewise perish.”
Comments on the Phrase “and God saw that it was good” We read throughout the story of Creation where God steps back at the end of each day to look at what He has just created and says that it was good (Gen 1:10; Gen 1:12; Gen 1:18; Gen 1:21; Gen 1:25; Gen 1:31). Joyce Meyer once asked the Lord why He took seven days in creation when He could have spoken it all into existence in one day. The Lord replied that it was because He wanted to enjoy each step of His beautiful creation. [67] In other words, it was because of enjoyment. This is why He ended each day with the words, “It was good.” Just imagine God enjoying each and every day of creation. Although on no single day was the work fully completed, God enjoyed each day’s accomplishments. In fact, Job 38:7 tells us that the angels of God took the time to rejoice with Him during each day of His creation.
[67] Joyce Meyer, Life in the Word (Fenton, Missouri: Joyce Meyer Ministries), on Trinity Broadcasting Network (Santa Ana, California), television program.
Job 38:7, “When the morning stars sang together, and all the sons of God shouted for joy?”
This insight into the story of creation teaches us that God wants us to learn to enjoy each day, for this is His divine plan for us. Thus, in a similar way, when I finish a project or job after a long, hard day of work, I take pleasure in standing back and spending time looking at the work I have just accomplished and beholding how good it looks. In a similar way, God stepped back with His creation and enjoyed His handiwork.
I once walked into a mechanic shop as a young man and observed a mechanic working skillfully with his hands. Since I did not have the same skills as he did, I just stood and watched him at work. I marveled and how he controlled and how swiftly he moved about the parts that he was working on. I was simply admiring the word of his hands. How much more marvelous is God’s handiwork.
God was not only referring to the goodness of His creation as He saw at that moment, because in this present age it appears as if His creation has fallen into vanity and decay. He was also referring to His creation when it reaches perfection in the final restoration of all things; for God does not dwell in the realm of time as we do, but He dwells in Eternity, and therefore, He sees all things from an eternal perspective. In the phrase, “God saw,” He saw the fullness of His creation when all things would be fulfilled in the beauty described in Revelation 21-22. Note these insightful words from Sadhu Sundar Singh.
“In the book of nature, of which I also am the Author, I freely manifest Myself. But for the reading of this book also spiritual insight is needed, that men may find Me, otherwise there is a danger lest instead of finding Me they go astray. Thus the blind man uses the tips of his fingers as eyes, and by means of touch alone reads a book, but by touch alone can form no real estimate of its truth. The investigations of agnostics and sceptics prove this, for in place of perfection they see only defects. Fault finding critics ask, “If there is an Almighty Creator of the world why are there defects in it, such as hurricanes, earthquakes, eclipses, pain, suffering, death, and the like?” The folly of this criticism is similar to that of an unlearned man who finds fault with an unfinished building or an incomplete picture. After a time, when he sees them fully finished, he is ashamed of his folly, and ends by singing their praises. Thus too, God did not in one day give to this world its present form, nor will it in one day reach perfection. The whole creation moves onward to perfection, and if it were possible for the man of this world to see from afar with the eyes of God the perfect world in which no defect appears, he too would bow in praise before Him and say, ‘All is very good’ (Gen. i.31).” [68]
[68] Sadhu Sundar Singh, At the Master’s Feet, trans. Arthur Parker (London: Fleming H. Revell Co., 1922) [on-line]; accessed 26 October 2008; available from http://www.ccel.org/ccel/singh/feet.html; Internet, “I The Manifestation of God’s Presence,” section 2, part 6.
As we look at creation today, we only see it in the realm of time, and in this, we only see it from the perspective of the time in which we live. We see the earth in travail and decay. We see the suffering of humanity and of creation and we ask, “Why are all of these bad things happening? Should God try and stop them from taking place?” The eye of faith see as God sees, knowing that all things will be restored into the fullness of the glory for which it was created.
Comments on the Phrase “and the Evening and the Morning” At the end of each day of creation, the Scriptures place the evening before the morning. Alfred Edersheim tells us that as a result, the Jewish day begins at evening (6:00 p.m.) instead of at midnight, as is used in the modern Western civilization. [69]
[69] Alfred Edersheim says, “It is noteworthy that in Genesis 1 we always read, ‘And the evening and the morning were the first day,’ or second, or third day, etc. Hence the Jews calculate the day from evening to evening, that is, from the first appearance of the stars in the evening to the first appearance of stars next evening, and not, as we do, from midnight to midnight.” See Alfred Edersheim, The Bible History Old Testament (Grand Rapids, Michigan: William B. Eedmann Publishing Company, c1876-1887, 1984) 19.
The Meaning of the Word “Day” The development of modern science over the last few centuries have caused a number of differing views to emerge among Christian scholarship over the interpretation of the Hebrew word (H3117) in the Creation story. Gesenius says the word comes from an unused root meaning “heat,” so that literally means “the heat of the day.” Thus, it can refer to a 12-hour period, or a 24-hour period. Besides referring to a literally day, Gesenius says it carries the broader meaning of an event, such as a Jewish feast day, or a day of battle, or the coming judgment day of the Lord. The Scriptures also use the word within the context of prophecy. For example, one day ( ) is compared to “a thousand years” (Psa 90:4. 2Pe 3:8), and Daniel’s 72-week prophecy explains that one week represents seven years, so that a day represents a year (Dan 9:24-27).
The argument surrounding the word ( ) in the Creation Story focuses upon whether the day should be interpreted as a literal 24-hour period of time, or as a vast expanse of time that allows the universe to be millions or billions of years old.
1. The 24-Hour Day Interpretation Conservative scholars believe the Creation Story must be interpreted as a literal six-day event. There appear to be three main arguments to support this view. Gordon Wenham says, “There can be little doubt that here ‘day’ has its basic sense of a 24-hour period. The mention of morning and evening, the enumeration of the days, and the divine rest on the seventh show that a week of divine activity is being described here.” [70]
[70] Gordon J. Wenham, Genesis 1-15, in Word Biblical Commentary: 58 Volumes on CD-Rom, vol 1, eds. Bruce M. Metzger, David A. Hubbard and Glenn W. Barker (Dallas: Word Inc., 2002), in Libronix Digital Library System, v. 3.0b [CD-ROM] (Bellingham, WA: Libronix Corp., 2004), in Libronix Digital Library System, v. 2.1c [CD-ROM] (Bellingham, WA: Libronix Corp., 2000-2004), 19.
a. The Description of Evening and Morning in the Creation Story – The description of evening and morning characterizing each day of creation supports the literal interpretation of a 24-hour day in the Creation Story. Stambaugh says the words “evening” and “morning” are used thirty eight times in the same Old Testament verse, and each time a literal day is understood (see Exo 16:8; Exo 18:13).
b. The Use of Numbers Combined with ( ) in the Creation Story – James Stambaugh believes the use of the word “yom” ( ) rather than the Hebrew word for “time” was intentional by the author of the Creation Story. [71] He argues that the Scriptures combine the Hebrew word ( ) with a number on three hundred fifty seven occasions outside the Creation Story, and on all of these occasions it refers to a literal 24-hour period of time. Therefore, he concludes that the word ( ) should refer to a 24-hour period within the context of Gen 1:1 to Gen 2:3.
[71] James Stambaugh, “The Meaning of ‘Day’ in Genesis,” Institute for Creation Research, October 1988 [on-line]; accessed November 15, 2008; available from http://www.icr.org/article/288; Internet.
c. The Sabbath Rest in the Creation Story – Stambaugh argues that God’s declaration that He created the earth and its inhabitants in six days and rested on the seventh supports a literal interpretation, since the context of this statement in Exo 20:11 refers to literal days, and was intended to teach the Israelites to rest on the seventh day.
Exo 20:11, “For in six days the LORD made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that in them is, and rested the seventh day: wherefore the LORD blessed the sabbath day, and hallowed it.”
d. The Sequence of Plant Life and Sunlight in the Creation Story – Carl Baugh explains that the sun and heavenly bodies were not created until the fourth day, while plant life was created on the third day. He says that 98% of plants are procreated by the intervention of birds and insects, yet the birds were not created until the fifth day. This leads him to the conclusion that the six days of creation could not have taken place over a long period of time, but must have taken place within a brief period; otherwise, the plants would have quickly become extinct due to lack of sunlight for photosynthesis, and due to lack of procreation from birds and insects. [72]
[72] Carl Baugh, Creation in the 21 st Century (Glen Rose, Texas: Creation Evidence Museum) , on Trinity Broadcasting Network (Santa Ana, California), television program.
2. The Day-Age Interpretation – Modern science has given weight to arguments that the earth is in fact ancient, and that the universe was created billions of years ago. This view has led many Christian scholars to form arguments for an ancient earth within the context of the Creation Story.
a. The Creation Story as an Evolutionary Scheme – Rich Deem believes the Creation Story reflects an evolutionary scheme. He says the universe is billions of years old, and explains how each day of the Creation Story actually describe the process of evolution and natural selection over a vast period of time. [73] He says the Spirit hovering over the primordial waters caused the creation of the first single-cell life in the oceans, and the progressive evolution of plant life, then lower and higher animal life in the Creation Story fit neatly into the evolutionary scheme. He believes the plants and trees of the third day of creation needed many seasons of years to grow and produce seeds. He believes the sun and moon and stars were not created on the fourth day, but rather, the cloud shrouding the earth was simply removed so that these heavenly bodies could light the earth. He also believes that unlike all other plant and animal life that came about through a process of evolution from a single cell, man was created by God on the sixth day, and did not evolve from an ape. He believes the fossil records of ancient ape-men are actually apes in the process of evolution. Deem’s argument weakens when he has to adjust the creation of the heavenly bodies from the fourth day to the beginning of time in order to accommodate his creation model. It is also weakened when he allows evolution and natural selection to play the leading role in determine the design of plant and animal life, meaning God took a more passive role in His creation. In contrast, those holding to the 24-hour day interpretation believe God created each plant and animal through the spoken word, as the biblical text literally states. Deem’s argument that God did make man instantly, while the beasts evolved, conflicts with the biblical text, which uses the same Hebrew word ( ) for God making both man and beasts: “God made the beast of the earth,” (Gen 1:25) and “Let us make man in our image,” (Gen 1:26).
[73] Rich Deem, “Does Genesis One Conflict with Science? Day-Age Interpretation,” God and Science, March 3, 2005 [on-line]; accessed November 15, 2008; available from http://www.godandscience.org/apologetics/day-age.html; Internet.
b. The Delayed Creation of the Heavenly Bodies in the Creation Story – One proponent of the view that the Creation story covers billions of years of time is Hugh Ross. [74] He says a literal day is relative to the rotation of a planetary body; therefore, a day could not have a literal 24-hour relevance until the sun and moon and stars were created on the fourth day. Therefore, he believes each day represents a lengthy period of several million years.
[74] “The Earth’s 24-hour day (Gen 1:14-18) took on temporal significance only when the signs, the heavenly reference points (sun, moon, and stars), became visible. There is no a priori reason to assume that the Earth’s day and each of God’s creation days represent the same period of time….In the strictest sense, a day is the rotation period of a heavenly body. In the time of Moses people were familiar with only one such day. But, God had some 10 26 spinning bodies in the universe from which to choose. Based on scientific dating records, each of God’s creation days is several hundred millions years long.” See Hugh Ross, Genesis 1 : A Scientific Perspective, Revised Edition, Sierra Madre, California: Wiseman Productions, 1983, 11.
c. The Use of ( ) Outside the Creation Story to Represent Vast Periods of Time – The Scriptures not only uses the word ( ) to refer to a literal 24-hour day, but it is also used outside the Creation Story to refer to a vast period of time. For example, the word ( ) refers to period of time of “a thousand years” in two verses (Psa 90:4. 2Pe 3:8). Daniel’s seventy-two week prophecy is interpreted by the angel, who says one week prophetically represents seven years, so that a day represents a year (Dan 9:24-27). However, many scholars do not believe such correlations can be easily justified. Wenham says “ Psa 90:4 indeed says that a thousand years are as a day in God’s sight. But it is perilous to try to correlate scientific theory and biblical revelation by appeal to such texts.” [75]
[75] Gordon J. Wenham, Genesis 1-15, in Word Biblical Commentary: 58 Volumes on CD-Rom, vol 1, eds. Bruce M. Metzger, David A. Hubbard and Glenn W. Barker (Dallas: Word Inc., 2002), in Libronix Digital Library System, v. 3.0b [CD-ROM] (Bellingham, WA: Libronix Corp., 2004), in Libronix Digital Library System, v. 2.1c [CD-ROM] (Bellingham, WA: Libronix Corp., 2000-2004), 19.
d. The Absence of Hebrew Definite Article in the Creation Story – The absence of the Hebrew definite article with ( ) for the first five days suggests a longer period of time than a literal day. Against this view, Stambaugh argues that the use of the definite article in the Old Testament has more than one way of being used, so that grammar alone is not a valid argument for interpreting ( ) as a long period of time. [76] He believes that numbers serve the place of definite articles in the Hebrew text. Also, the sixth and seventh day are used with the definite article.
[76] James Stambaugh, “The Meaning of ‘Day’ in Genesis,” Institute for Creation Research, October 1988 [on-line]; accessed November 15, 2008; available from http://www.icr.org/article/288; Internet.
The Names of God in the Creation Story In Gen 1:1 to Gen 2:3 the Hebrew word used for the name of God is (H430) (God) while the first genealogy of the Generations of the Heavens and Earth (Gen 2:4 to Gen 4:26) uses the double name (H430) (H3068) (Lord God). Jerry Vine suggests the singular use of “God” emphasizes God’s “majesty and might” in the Creation Story, while the double use of “Lord God” reflects “His covenant relation to man” in the Genealogy of the Heavens and Earth. [77]
[77] Jerry Vines and Jim Shaddix, Power in the Pulpit (Chicago, Illinois: Moody Press, 1999), 118.
Parallel Accounts of the Creation Story in the Holy Scripture As we study the Scriptures we find that there are a number of other passages that reveal the events in the Story of Creation. As stated above, we have the testimony of the Father’s role in Gen 1:1 to Gen 2:4 as the One who has planned and foreknown all things. We have the testimony of the Son’s role in Joh 1:1-14 as the Word of God through whom all things were created. In Pro 8:22-31, we have the testimony of the role of the Holy Spirit in creation as the Wisdom and Power of God. Job 38:1 to Job 39:30 reveals the majesty and glory of God Almighty by describing the details of how His creation came into existence. 2Pe 3:5-7 refers to the story of creation with emphasis upon God’s pending destruction of all things in order to judge the sins of mankind. Heb 11:3 tells us how it is by faith that we understand how the world was created by the Word of God. We can find many other brief references to the creation of the earth throughout the Scriptures.
Psa 33:6-9, “By the word of the LORD were the heavens made; and all the host of them by the breath of his mouth. He gathereth the waters of the sea together as an heap: he layeth up the depth in storehouses. Let all the earth fear the LORD: let all the inhabitants of the world stand in awe of him. For he spake, and it was done; he commanded, and it stood fast.”
Psa 119:89-91, “LAMED. For ever, O LORD, thy word is settled in heaven. Thy faithfulness is unto all generations: thou hast established the earth, and it abideth. They continue this day according to thine ordinances: for all are thy servants.”
Psa 146:5-6, “Happy is he that hath the God of Jacob for his help, whose hope is in the LORD his God: Which made heaven, and earth, the sea, and all that therein is: which keepeth truth for ever:”
Pro 3:19, “The LORD by wisdom hath founded the earth; by understanding hath he established the heavens.”
Jer 10:11-12, “Thus shall ye say unto them, The gods that have not made the heavens and the earth, even they shall perish from the earth, and from under these heavens. He hath made the earth by his power, he hath established the world by his wisdom, and hath stretched out the heavens by his discretion.”
Rom 4:17, “(As it is written, I have made thee a father of many nations,) before him whom he believed, even God, who quickeneth the dead, and calleth those things which be not as though they were.”
The Power of the Spoken Word in the Creation Story – In August 1988 I packed up my belonging in an old pick-up truck and left Panama City, Florida headed to Fort Worth, Texas. The Lord had laid on my heart that He had opened up a door for me to go back to school. I had stepped out of the Southern Baptism denomination and its largest seminary five years earlier in order to join a charismatic church. I did not understand much about these new teachings, but I knew that they seemed more powerful and anointed than the teachings I had been raised on. After a few dreams, the witness of my heart, and some obvious circumstances that confirmed this decision to go to Texas, I said good-by to my family and packed my few belongings. Therefore, here I was, on the road, headed to Fort Worth in an old pick-up for which I had paid $300.00. And my personal belongings easily fit in the bed, with plenty of room to spare. I had seen in a dream that my brother, who recently graduated from the Baptist seminary in Fort Worth, would soon leave this town. So, by faith, I drove out here and stayed with him and his wife for six months, at which time, they moved back to Florida, our home state. This had given me just enough time to find a steady job and rent a one-bedroom apartment.
I did not have much materially, but I had spent the last five years learning these new “full gospel” teachings, reading books by Kenneth Hagin, John Olsten and the Scriptures and I knew in my heart that I had faith in God. So, when the manager of the apartment complex asked me to work as a maintenance man, I was desperate for a steady job. I had to pick up the grounds in the morning, and work in apartments during the day. Fortunate, this manager was a Christian who believed as I did, so I joined her church.
After about six months, I came to her and suggested that we begin the workday with prayer and give all of the employees an opportunity to join us. We had both been thinking about doing this for several months prior to starting this early morning prayer. She was in agreement. So, I began leading prayer each morning for a few minutes before we began work. About three weeks into this commitment, I was praying along nice and normal so as not to offend some of the backsliders that would reluctantly join us each morning, when these words rolled out of my mouth, “Occupy ’till I come.” I had not been thinking about this passage in Matthew when I prayed it, but had learned enough about the work of the Spirit to realize that the Lord was speaking to me by quickening this verse during prayer. As I went home later that night to re-read this passage, I picked up on the idea that the Lord was wanting me to take spiritual authority over that apartment complex and begin to break the devil’s strongholds off of our work place. So I began to use Scriptures and pray more aggressively than just, “Lord, bless so-and-so,” or, “Lord, help us have a good day at work.”
Several months later, as I was waking up, these words came into my heart, “Prophesy what the men of God in the Bible prophesied and pray for us to be filled with the Holy Spirit.” Of course, I did not know what it really meant. I had heard of gifted ministers who could prophesy and certain men in the Bible and in the church today who were filled with the Holy Spirit. As I simply began to do what I felt was a word from God, this morning prayer endeavor began to take on an entirely new meaning. He seemed to say to me, “Lay hands on others to be filled with the Lord,” and, “David and Samuel, see what they prophesied to those around them and do the same.” Also, study what other men of God prophesied.
As I begin to explain what began to happen, I pray that it will somehow change your life as dramatically as it has changed my life. I did not realize until later that the Lord was teaching me how to set this time of early morning prayer in order and how to pray effectively. I studied the Scripture passages where men of God would speak a blessing over others. I studied Jeremiah, where God set him over nations and kingdoms, to root out, and to pull down, and to destroy, and to throw down, to build, and to plant. All this was done simply by prophesying. All of a sudden, faith began to rise in my heart to speak the Scriptures in faith believing that they would also come to pass.
This teaching of the Scriptures began to open up to me unlike anything I had ever understood before. I began the workday calling things which were not as though they were. I began to call our apartment a delightsome land, a land flowing with milk and honey, and that nations were rising up and calling us blessed. How could I say this in faith? Because I was a tither and the Bible says that this would happen to those who tithe. Within a few months of praying this every day, the owners came and repaired and painted all of the buildings on the property. The apartment began looking like the Word of God said it should. Prospects would come into the office and comment on how nice this place was beginning to look (nations were rising up and calling up blessed). Out of Romans, chapter four, I began to call this apartment complex “filled with a multitude.” I saw that the Lord began to call Abraham this name long before it came to pass, so I was doing the same.
Every time I would see a Scripture, I would add it to my list of confessions of faith. I knew that few people in our prayer group understood why I was praying like this, especially when the Christian manager and I would have to pray for months at a time with no one else joining in. I guess we looked and sounded pretty strange. However, I was on to something. I would find those passages where the priests in the Old Testament were to bless the children of Israel (Num 6:23-27), or where Boaz would begin the work day by saying to his workers, “The Lord be with you,” and they would respond by saying, “The Lord bless thee,” (Rth 2:4). Or, out of Isaiah, I would call every desolate apartment inhabited. Where the Bible says, “there is none to say restore , ” I began to prophesy restoration, for all of the years that this property had been under the curse and the locust, the cankerworm, the caterpillar and the palmerworm had consumed, I said, “Restore.” I would call to the north to give up, to the south to hold not back and to the east and west to bring good prospect from afar. I world rejoice when people would come from out of state to rent these apartments and they became filled with a multitude with high occupancy. During the mornings when I did not feel like prophesying, I would speak Joe 3:10, “Let the weak say, I am strong.”
Also, I would pray for God to fill each of us with the spirit of wisdom and understanding, of counsel and might, and of the spirit of knowledge and of the fear of the Lord, for the spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of him… that we might know what is the hope of his calling, what is the riches of the glory of his inheritance in the saints, and what is the exceeding greatness of his power to us-ward who believe. I prayed for wisdom out of Jas 1:5. I prayed for days, weeks, months, even years before seeing some of these things come to pass. When we are filled with the spirit of God and his wisdom and strength, we can do a better job at work each day. We will have inspired ideas, health and the courage to have a good attitude.
About one year into this commitment, the Lord spoke to me two verses in order to help me understand why the things that I were praying for were coming to pass. He spoke to me Joh 1:1, “In the beginning was the Word.” The Lord said to me that everything begins with the spoken word. And He gave me Gen 1:2, “and the earth was without form, and void: and darkness was upon the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters. And God said…” The Lord began to say to me that this is what many people’s lives are like, their lives are without form or purpose and their heart are void and empty, that they walk in darkness each day groping about trying to find peace. The Lord also said to me that He would not have asked me to do something that He Himself would not have had to do also. You see, no one has ever faced a worse world of circumstances that God. And the way He handled it was that He began to prophesy and say, “Let there be…” When God spoke, life and circumstances began to conform to the word of God, and life began to take on purpose and direction. We too, are created in the image of God, even down to our tongue and our words. I saw that I no longer had to be ruled in life by circumstances, but rather a confession on faith in God’s word, when spoken in faith, would prevail over any circumstance.
For four years I called Brown Trail Apartments the head and not the tail, above and not beneath. Finally, our property won the “best-overall-property-of-the-year” award and the most-improved-property-of-the-year award. I saw those two awards as a testimony to the power of God’s word mixed with faith. At that time, in May of 1993, I was given a promotion into the regional office where the Lord set me over ten properties to prophesy. Jer 29:7 says, “…seek the peace of the city whither I have caused you to be carried away captive, and pray unto the Lord for it: for in the peace thereof shall ye have peace.” I had sought and prayed for peace where I worked and was used to walking in that peace. I will never forget the change of atmosphere from a property where God’s presence prevailed to a new office of honky tonk music, swearing and cigarette smoke. No believers worked in this office. So after hours, I would walk my new “city” and take authority over it. All but one of those employees are gone now, there is no worldly music, nor cigarette smoke here, because God’s word prevails.
During the three years that I have been here, the Lord has continually given me favor with the president and vice-president of the company. God is teaching me how to be a Godly leader in this company and has given me much authority. I now have the authority to prophesy over every property in Texas. I have been calling DMJ Management Co. filled with a multitude of residents and new properties. This past year has seen the highest overall occupancies and income in history, and this coming year will be a time of buying more income properties.
I worked under two godly men who lift up my hands each day as I endeavor to lift up their hands. And this journey has taught me that there is nothing in my life that I cannot do or attain, if I base it on God’s word mixed with faith in His word. I live in victory, and not defeat. I have more dreams and visions that I have time to pursue. Life and circumstances are not overcoming me, but rather I have learned to overcome life’s circumstances. Praise be to the glorious name of Jesus.
The Sabbath of Creation
v. 1. Thus the heavens and the earth were finished and all the host of them. v. 2. And on the seventh day God ended His work which He had made; and he rested on the seventh day from all His work which he had made. v. 3. And God blessed the seventh day and sanctified it, because that in it He had rested from all His work which God created and made. EXPOSITION
Gen 2:1
Thus the heavens and the earth were finished. Literally, and finished were the heavens and the earth, the emphatic position being occupied by the verb. With the creation of man upon the sixth day the Divine Artificer’s labors were brought to a termination, and his work to a completion. The two ideas of cessation and perfection are embraced in the import of calais. Not simply had Elohim paused in his activity, but the Divine idea of his universe had been realized. The finished world was a cosmos, arranged, ornamented, and filled with organized, sentient, and rational beings, with plants, animals, and man; and now the resplendent fabric shone before him a magnificent success”lo! very good.” This appears to be by no means obscurely hinted at in the appended clause, and all the host of them, which suggests the picture of a military armament arranged in marching order. Tsebaam, derived from tsaba, to go forth as a soldier (Gesenius), to join together for service (Furst), and applied to the angels ( , Luk 2:13; 1Ki 22:19; 2Ch 18:18; Psa 148:2) and to the celestial bodies ( , Mat 24:29. Isa 34:4; Isa 40:26; Dan 8:10), here includes, by Zeugma, the material heavens and earth with the angelic and human races (cf. Neh 9:6). If the primary signification of the root be splendor, glory, like tsavah, to some forth or shine out as a star (T. Lewis), then will the LXX. and the Vulgate be correct in translating and omnis ornatus eorum, the conception being that when the heavens and the earth were completed they were a brilliant army.
Gen 2:2
And on the seventh day God (Elohim) ended his work which he had made. To avert the possibility of imagining that any portion of the seventh day was consumed in working, which the English version seems to favor, the LXX; the Samaritan, and Syriac versions insert the sixth day in the text instead of the seventh. Calvin, Drusius, Le Clerc, Rosenmller, and Kalisch translate had finished. Others understand the sense to be declared the work to be finished, while Baumgarten and Delitzsch regard the resting as included in the completion of the work, and Von Bohlen thinks “the language is not quite precise.” But calah followed by min signifies to cease from prosecuting any work (Exo 34:33; 1Sa 10:13; Eze 43:23), and this was, negatively, the aspect of that sabbatic rest into which the Creator entered. And he rested on the seventh day from all his work which he had made. Shavath, the primary idea of which is to sit still, depicts Elohim as desisting from his creative labors, and assuming a posture of quiescent repose. The expression is a pure anthropomorphism. “He who fainteth not, neither is weary” (Isa 40:28), can be conceived of neither as resting nor as needing rest through either exhaustion or fatigue. Cessation from previous occupation is all that is implied in the figure, and is quite compatible with continuous activity in other directions. Joh 5:17 represents the Father as working from that period onward in the preservation and redemption of that world which by his preceding labors he had created and made.
Gen 2:3
And God blessed the seventh day. The blessing (cf. Gen 1:22, Gen 1:28) of the seventh day implied
1. That it was thereby declared to be the special object of the Divine favor.
2. That it was thenceforth to be a day or epoch of blessing for his creation. And
3. That it was to be invested with a permanence which did not belong to the other six daysevery one of which passed away and gave place to a successor. And sanctified it. Literally, declared it holy, or set it apart for holy purposes. As afterwards Mount Sinai was sanctified (Exo 19:23), or, for the time being, invested with a sacred character as the residence of God; and Aaron and his sons were sanctified, or consecrated to the priestly office (Exo 29:44); and the year of Jubilee was sanctified, or devoted to the purposes of religion (Le Gen 25:10), so here was the seventh day sanctified, or instituted in the interests of holiness, and as such proclaimed to be a holy day. Because that in it he had rested from all his work which God had created and made. Literally, created to make, the exact import of which has been variously explained. The “}n h!rcato o( qeo&j poih=sai” of the LXX. is obviously incorrect. Calvin, Ainsworth, Bush, et alii take the second verb emphatice, as intensifying the action of the first, and conveying the idea of a perfect creation. Kalisch, Alford, and others explain the second as epexegetic of the first, as in the similar phrases, “spoke, saying, literally, spoke to speak” (Exo 6:10), and “labored to do” (Ecc 2:11). Onkelos, the Vulgate (quod Dens creavit ut faceret), Calvin, Tayler Lewis, &c. understand the infinitive in a relic sense, as expressive of the purpose for which the heavens and the earth were at first created, viz; that by the six days’ work they might be fashioned into a cosmos. It has been observed that the usual concluding formula is not appended to the record of the seventh day, and the reason has perhaps been declared by Augustine: “Dies autem septimus sine vespera eat, nee habet occasum, quia sanctificasti eum ad permansionem sempiternam” (‘Confess.,’ 13:36). But now what was this seventh day which received Elohim’s benediction? On the principle of interpretation applied to the creative days, this must be regarded as a period of indefinite duration, compounding to the human era of both Scripture and geology. But other Scriptures (Exo 20:8; Exo 23:12; Deu 5:12, &c.) show that the Hebrews were enjoined by God to observe a seventh day rest in imitation of himself. There are also indications that sabbatic observance was not unknown to the patriarchs (Gen 29:27, Gen 29:28), to the antediluvians (Gen 8:6-12), and to Cain and Abel (Gen 4:3). Profane history likewise vouches for the veracity of the statement of Josephus, that “there is not any city of the Grecians, nor any of the barbarians, nor any nation whatsoever, whither our custom of resting on the seventh day hath not come” (‘Contra Apionem,’ 2.40). The ancient Persians, Indians, and Germans esteemed the number seven as sacred. By the Greeks and Phoenicians a sacred character was ascribed to the seventh day. The Assyrians, Babylonians, Egyptians, and other nations of antiquity were acquainted with the hebdomadal division of time. Travelers have detected traces of it among the African and American aborigines. To account for its existence among nations so widely apart, both chronologically and geographically, recourse has been had to some violent hypotheses; as, e.g; to the number of the primary planets known to the ancients (Humboldt), the division of a lunar month into four nearly equal periods of seven days (Ideler, Baden Powell, &c.), Jewish example (Josephus). Its true genesis, however, must be sought for in the primitive observance of a seventh day rest in accordance with Divine appointment. Precisely as we reason that the early and widespread prevalence of sacrifice can only be explained by an authoritative revelation to the first parents of the human family of such a mode of worship, so do we conclude that a seventh day sabbath must have been prescribed to man in Eden. The question then arises, Is this sabbath also referred to in the Mosaic record of the seventh day? The popular Belief is that the institution of the weekly sabbath alone is the subject spoken of in the opening verses of the present chapter; and the language of Exo 20:11 may at first sight appear to warrant this conclusion. A more careful consideration of the phraseology employed by Moses, how ever, shows that in the mind of the Hebrew lawgiver there existed a distinction between God’s seventh day and man’s sabbath, and that, instead of identifying the two, he meant to teach that the first was the reason of the second; as thus”In six days God made . and rested on the seventh day; where fore God blessed the (weekly) sabbath day, and hallowed it.” Here it is commonly assumed that the words are exactly parallel to those in Gen 2:3, and that the sabbath in Exodus corresponds to the seventh day of Genesis. But this is open to debate. The seventh day which God blessed in Eden was the first day of human life, and not the seventh day; and it is certain that God did not rest from his labors on man’s seventh day, but on man’s first. We feel inclined then to hold with Luther that in Gen 2:3 Moses says nothing about man’s day, and that the seventh day which received the Divine benediction was God’s own great aeonian period of sabbatic rest. At the same time, for the reasons above specified, believing that a weekly sabbath was pre scribed to man from the beginning, we have no difficulty in assenting to the words of Tayler Lewis: “‘And God blessed the seventh day.’ Which seventh day, the greater or the less, the Divine or the human, the aeonian or the astronomical? Both, is the easy answer; both, as commencing at the same time, so far as the one connects with astronomical time; both, as the greater including the less; both, as being (the one as represented, the other as typically representing) the same essence and idea.” It does not appear necessary to refute the idea that the weekly sabbath had no existence till the giving of the law, and that it is only here proleptically referred to by Moses. In addition to the above-mentioned historical testimonies to the antiquity of the Sabbath, the Fifth Tablet in the Chaldean Creation Series, after referring to the fourth day’s work, proceeds:
“On the seventh day he appointed a holy day, thus apparently affirming that, in the opinion of the early Babylonians, the institution of the sabbath was coeval with the creation.
HOMILETICS
Gen 2:3
The two sabbaths: the Divine and the human.
I. THE SABBATH OF GOD. A period of
1. Cessation from toil, or discontinuance of those world-making operations which had occupied the six preceding days (Heb 4:4). Never since the close of the creative week has God interfered to fundamentally rearrange the material structure of the globe. The Deluge produced no alteration on the constitution of nature. Nor is there evidence that any new species have been added to its living creatures.
2. Holy delight. On the seventh day Elohim rested and was” refreshed” (Exo 31:17); which refreshment consisted partly in the satisfaction he experienced in beholding the cosmosa satisfaction prefigured and anticipated by the solemn pauses intervening at the end of each creative day, accompanied by the “good,” “lo! very good,” of Divine approbation; and partly in the pleasure with which he contemplated the peculiar work of blessing his creation which lay before him, a work which also had its foreshadowings in the benedictions pronounced on the living creatures of the fifth day, and on man on the sixth.
3. Beneficent activity. Even man, unless where his intellectual and moral faculties are dormant, finds it difficult to rest in indolence and inactivity. Absence of motion, with complete negation of effort, may constitute the refreshment of the physical system. The mind seeks its rest in change of occupation. Still less can the supreme Intelligence, who is pure Spirit, rest in absolute inaction; only the Divine energy is now directed towards the happiness of his creatures (Psa 145:9). Having finished his creative labors, what else could Elohim do but outpour his own blessedness upon his creatures, in proportion to their capacities to receive it? His nature as God necessitated such communication of good to his creatures (Psa 34:8; Jas 1:5, Jas 1:17). The capacities of his creatures for such blessing required it. Hence God’s rest may be said to have been man’s birthright. He was created in that rest, as the sphere of his existence.
4. Continuous duration. That which secures its perpetuity is the Divine resolution to bless it, i.e. constitute it an era of blessing for man, and in particular to sanctify it, or devote it to the interests of holiness. And in this Divine determination lies the pledge of man‘s salvation. Without it God’s rest might have been broken into by man’s sin, and the era of blessing ended. But, because of it, man’s sin could not change the character of God’s seventh day, so as to prevent it from dropping down gifts and exercising holy influences on the creature for whose sake it was appointed. The security of the world as a cosmos may also be said to be involved in the permanence of God’s sabbath. So long as it continues nothing shall occur to resolve the present goodly framework of this globe into another lightless, formless, lifeless chaos, at least until the Divine purpose with the human race has been fulfilled.
II. THE SABBATH OF MAN.
1. Of Divine institution (Exo 20:8; Le 19:30; Psa 118:24). That God had a right to enact a weekly sabbath for man is implied in his relation to man as Creator and Lawgiver. For man, therefore, to withhold the seventh portion of his time is to be guilty of disobedience against God as a moral Governor, ingratitude towards God as Creator and Preserver, robbery of God as the original Proprietor of both man’s powers and time’s days. As an institution of God’s appointing, the sabbath deserves our honor and esteem. To neglect to render this God counts a sin (Isa 58:13).
2. Of sacred character. Among the Israelites its sanctity was to be recognized by abstinence from bodily labor (Exo 20:10; Exo 34:21, &c.) and holy convocations (Le Gen 23:3). That this was the manner of its observance prior to the giving of the law may be judged from the regulations concerning the manna (Exo 16:22). That from the beginning it was a day of rest and religious worship may be reasonably inferred. That it was so used by Christ and his apostles the Gospels attest (Luk 4:16). That the same character was held to attach to the first day of the week after Christ’s resurrection may be deduced from the practice of the apostolic Church (Act 20:7). The sanctity of the sabbath may be profaned, positively, by prosecuting one’s ordinary labors in its hours (Isa 58:13; Jer 17:24); negatively, by neglecting to devote them to Divine worship and spiritual improvement (Eze 44:24). Christianity has not obliterated the distinction between the sabbath and the other days of the week; not even by elevating them to the position of holy days. An attempt to equalize the seven days always results in the degradation of the seventh, never in the elevation of the other six.
3. Of beneficent design (Mar 2:27). The sabbath is adapted to the wants of man physically, intellectually, socially, politically. Innumerable facts and testimonies establish the beneficial influence of a seventh day’s rest from toil upon the manual laborer, the professional thinker, the social fabric, the body politic, in respect of health, wealth, strength, happiness. It is, however, chiefly man’s elevation as a religious being at which it aims. In the paradisiacal state it was designed to hedge him round and, if possible, prevent his fall; since the tragedy in Eden it has been seeking his reinstatement in that purity from which he fell.
4. Of permanent obligation. Implied in the terms of its institution, its permanence would not be affected by the abolition of the Decalogue. The Decalogue presupposed its previous appointment. Christianity takes it up, just as Judaism took it up, as one of God’s existing ordinances for the good of man, and seeks through it to bring its higher influences to bear on man, just as Judaism sought, through it, to operate with its inferior agency. Till it merges in the rest of which it is a shadow by the accomplishment of its grand design, it must abide.
III. THE CONNECTION OF THE TWO. God’s rest is
1. The reason of man’s sabbath. The Almighty could have no higher reason for enjoining a seventh day’s rest upon his creature than that by so resting that creature would be like himself.
2. The pattern of man’s sabbath. As God worked through six of his days and rested on the seventh, so should man toil through six of his days and rest on the seventh. As God did all his work in the six creative days, so should all man’s labor be performed in the six days of the week. As God employs his rest in contemplation of his finished work and in blessing his creature man, so should man devote his sabbath to pious meditation on his past life and to a believing reception of God’s gifts of grace and salvation.
3. The life of man’s sabbath. Whatever blessing comes to man on his weekly day of rest has its primal fountain in the rest of God. As man himself is God’s image, so is man’s sabbath the image of God’s rest; and as man lives and moves and has his being in God, so does man’s sabbath live and move and have its being in God’s rest.
4. The end of man’s sabbath. The reinstatement of man in God’s rest is the purpose at which man’s sabbath aims, the goal towards which it is tending. God’s rest remains on high (Heb 4:9), drawing men towards it. Man’s weekly sabbath will ultimately lose itself m God’s eternal rest.
HOMILIES BY R.A. REDFORD
Gen 2:1-3
Rest and Light.
The finished heavens and earth and their host prepare the day of rest. God ended his work as an interchange of darkness and light.
I. THE REST OF THE SABBATH IS NOT INACTION, BUT THE CESSATION FROM THE LOWER ORDER OF WORK FOE THE HIGHER. The idea of the first proclamation seems to be that creation was perfectly adjusted through the six days into a settled harmony which puts heaven and earth in their abiding relation to one another.
II. Then THERE IS NO MORE SAID OF EVENING AND MORNING. The seventh day is only light. God’s rest is complacency in his works. The blessing on the seventh day which hallowed it is the blessing on that which the day representsperfect peace between heaven and earth, God satisfied in his creation, and inviting his intelligent creatures to “enter into his rest” by communion with him. It seems quite unnecessary to vindicate such a sanctification of the seventh day from the insinuations of critics that it was a late addition made by the Jewish legislator to support the fourth commandment. In that case the whole cosmogony must be renounced. Such an observance of a day of rest seems a natural antecedent to the patriarchal as well as the Mosaic economy. We have already intimated that the whole account of creation is placed at the commencement of revelation because it has a bearing upon the positive ordinances of religion. It is not either a scientific or poetic sketch of the universe; it is the broad, fundamental outline of a System of religious truth connected with a body of Divine commandments. The sabbath is thus described in its original breadth. The sanctification of it is
1. Negative. It is separation from the lower conditions of work, which in the case of man are the characteristics of days which are sinful daysdays of toil and conflict, of darkness and light mingled.
2. Positive. It is the restful enjoyment of a higher life, a life which is not laboring after emancipation from bondage, but perfect with a glorious liberty; the true day, “sacred, high, eternal noon,” God and man rejoicing m one another, the creature reflecting the glory of the Creator.R.
Gen 2:1. Host of them All the creatures in the heavens and the earth are called their hosts, for their multitude, variety, order, power, and subjection to the Lord of hosts. Nothing remained farther to be done; the whole was finished to the utmost perfection, and regulated in the exactest order.
See Gen 1:1 ff for the passage quote with footnotes for Gen 2:1-3
12. Gen 2:1-3. The Divine Sabbath. Gen 2:1. Thus the heavens and the earth were finished.A solemn retrospect introducing the sabbath of God.And all their host.A concrete denoting of the universe from the predominant terrestrial stand-point. The host has reference to the heaven, so far, at all events, as the stars are meant. As the host of the earth, however, denotes its inhabitants (Isa 34:2), so the thought, moreover, gives an intimation of the inhabitants of the heaven. The passage in the book of Nehemiah (Gen 9:6) that treats of the creation supposes correctly that in the host of heaven () the angels are included. Delitzsch. When he says farther: The stars, according to the more ancient representation (Babylonian, Assyrian, Persian) are set forth as a host for battle, or that together with the angels they are assigned a portion in the conflict of light with darkness whose theatre is the earth created within the surrounding sphere of the luminous heavenly bodies,all such remarks may be taken as Parsic rather than purely Biblical.1
Gen 2:2. And on the seventh day God ended His work.The difficulty that arises from the mention here of a completion of Gods work on the seventh day, as before it seemed to have been on the sixth, has given occasion to the Septuagint, the Syriac, and many exegetes to put the sixth day in place of the seventh. Others (Calvin, Drusius, etc.) have read as pluperfect (had finished) contrary to the grammar. Knobel explains the word with Tuch and others: God let it come to an end on that day. Delitzsch in a similar manner. Richers wrongly places a completion of the creation on the seventh day. Kurtz speaks of a heptmeron. It seems to us, however, that the rest of God does not denote a remaining inactive merely, or a doing nothing. The perfecting of the work on the seventh is likewise something positive: namely, that God celebrated His work (kept a holy day of solemn triumph over it) and blessed the sabbath. To celebrate, to bless, to consecrate, is the finishing sabbath-worka living, active, priestly doing, and not merely a laying aside of action. The Father worketh hitherto, says Christ in relation to His healings on the sabbath (Joh 5:17). The doing of God in respect to the completed creation is of a festive kind (solemn, stately, holy), a directing of motion and of an unfolding of things now governed by law, in contrast with that work of God which was reflected in the pressure of a stormy development, and in the great revolutions and epochs of the earths formation. His (His work) was the completion of a task which He had proposed. Delitzsch. God rests2 now and triumphs in that last finish of His work, the paradisaical man; Gods great festival is reflected in Adams holy-day. In accordance with his supposition that the creative days were not numbered from evening to morning, but in the contrary order (which is opposed to the text), Delitzsch holds that not the evening of the sixth day, but the morning of the seventh, was the real beginning of the sabbath (p. 127). But the evening of the sixth day lies back before the sixth day, whilst of an evening and a morning of the seventh day there is no mention at all. Had we taken the creative days as periods generally, or the evenings as merely remissions of the creative activity, the question about the evening and the morning of the seventh day would have had no right sense. If we truly take the evenings as denoting creative crises, then may it be asked: did not a crisis follow upon the creation of Adam? and this may we find intimated (Gen 2:21) in the deep sleep of Adam. Still must we suppose that the completion of Adams creation took place towards the evening or decline of the sixth day.
Gen 2:3. And God blessed the seventh day.The blessing of the seventh day may of itself denote primarily that it was appointed for rest and re-creation, which is a blessing for the laboring man and beast (Exo 20:10; Deu 5:14). But the earlier blessings say: Be ye fruitful and multiply, and to bless means to wish for, and to promise one infinite multiplications in the course of life, as to curse means to wish for one an infinite multiplication of evilthat is, to imprecate, or pray against him. The blessing of the sabbath must consist in this, that it gives birth to all the festivals (or rests) of God, and all the festivals of menthat it endlessly propagates itself as a heavenly nature above the self-propagating earthly nature, until it has become an everlasting sabbath. Its most distinct birth is the New Testament Sunday. But this Sunday must mediate the heavenly Sunday. It makes it to be an inexhaustible fountain of re-creation (or new life). Delitzsch.And hallowed it.To hallow is to take an Object out of its worldly relation, and to devote it to God. There is, indeed, nothing before us here of a worldly relation in a profane sense, and so far can the negative force here have no place in the hallowing. Without doubt, however, the contrast is this: he withdraws it from labor for the sake of the world, and establishes it as the festival for God. In six days work had God condescended and given Himself up to live for the world; on the sabbath, He ordains that the world must live for God. He blessed and hallowed it, because He rested thereinthat is, He appointed His own rest, as a ground and rule for the rest of man, and of the creatures, on the seventh day (see Exo 20:11; Exo 31:17). According to the author God made this appointment at the creation, but He leaves its execution to a time after Moses, when, in the desert of Sin, He practically leads Israel to the festival of the seventh day, and thereupon makes publication of the law of the sabbath on Sinai (Exo 31:12; Exo 35:1). There is nothing known of any observation of the sabbath before the time of Moses. Knobel. This holds good only of the legal establishment of the sabbath, for the custom of keeping a day of rest was not confined to the Jews only. Concerning the name , which the creative account does not contain, see Delitzsch, p. 130. Derivations: 1. From , an old name of Saturn; 2. from () , the seventh day (Lactantius); 3. contracted from , the time of holy rest, which is the most likely.Which He had created and made (marginal reading in English Bible: created to make). Grammatically the infinitive construct is rendered by the Latin faciendo. Still the explanation: which God being active (that is, by doing, or by an effort) had created, would be quite idle, were it not that one would find in the language the recognition of an antithesis to the doctrines of emanation, or generally, to the supposed heathenish pathological and fatalistic modes of creation. Delitzsch thus modifies the faciendo (or ): the creating is fundamental, whilst the making, or the forming, is consequential. Then there would be denoted thereby the continuing of the divine activity beyond the time of the creative work.3 In respect to the four verses that follow, which Delitzsch, too, as well as Ewald and others, would make the subscription of the previous section, not the superscription of the one that follows (as Tuch, De Wette, and others), compare Delitzsch, p. 133. Knobel says (p. 7): The Elohist has a superscription before every principal section in Genesis, and so much the more must he have had such a superscription placed before his first narration. Ilgen, Pott, and Schumann have rightly found the same (Gen 2:4) in the words: these are the origines of the heaven and the earth, etc. The word tholedoth, then, must have suffered a misplacement. According to Delitzsch it is a closing formula. We hold it to be the superscription to what follows, because the word tholedoth must otherwise have regularly preceded, and because our text regards the tholedoth, or generations of the heavens and the earth, as conditioned in its principles through the creation of the earth and the heavensthat is, the earth, and especially Adam as the principal4 point of view for the whole.
DOCTRINAL AND ETHICAL5
1. The contrast which is at once drawn between heaven and earth, and whose symbolical significance cannot be ignored, proves, in the first place, that the whole period before us, from Genesis 1-12, is to be considered under the point of view of the history of primeval religion. Secondly, the constitution of man in the image of God, the history of Adam, of Abel, of the Sethites, etc.; and, further, the contrast openly appearing at the close of this section between the uniting and separating of the peoples on the one hand, and the budding theocracy on the other. Thirdly, all periods lying in the middle between these two extreme points. Within this section, which presents the contrast between the primeval religion and the patriarchal religion of Abraham, now appear individual contrasts: 1. The contrast between the paradise-world and the sin-world; 2. the contrast between the anomism of the human race before the flood, and the heathenism of man after the flood. And to these add the more special contrasts which are to be brought out by the separate sections.
The primitive religion is to be distinguished from the religion of Abraham by the following points: 1. In the primitive religion, the symbolical sign is first, and the word second; in the patriarchal religion, the word of God is first, and the symbolical sign is second. (See Gen 12:1; Gen 12:7.) 2. In the primitive religion the continuance of the living faith in God is sporadic. This, it is true, is in connection with genealogical relations (Seth, Noah, Shem), as the appearance of Melchisedek especially proves (comp. Heb 7:3); and, as a gradually fading twilight, it goes on through the times until the days of Abraham, forming continually, as natural religion, the background of all the heathenism of humanity. The faith of Abraham, on the contrary, forms with the patriarchal religion a genealogical and historical sequence. The aurora of the morning in Abraham contrasts with the twilight of the evening in Melchisedek. Melchisedek looks, with the faithful of the heathen world, back to the lost Paradise; Abraham looks forward to the future city of Godhis religion is the religion of the future. 3. The symbolical primitive religion is yet, in its exterior, overgrown with mythological heathendom. While it forms the bright side of the primal religious world, its dark side arises from the mythologizing of the symbols (Rom 1:19-23). With the patriarchal religion, however, the contrast between the theocratic faith and heathendom has become fixed. 4. With the historic form of this contrast, it is at the same time conclusive that heathendom maintains its relative light side in the history of humanism, and the theocratic popular history its relative dark side, which increases to the rejection of the Messiah and the death on the cross. The material development of salvation among the Jews, and the formal development of the human form of salvation among the heathen (Greeks and Romans), are for each other, just as the evil tendencies of heathendom and Judaism unite with each other in the crucifying of Christ.
2. Within our division appears the beautiful contrast that the creation of the world is once represented in the genetic order as an ascending development of life, so that man seems the aim () of all things; then, from Genesis 2, 3, onward, in principial order, according to which man, as a divine idea, is the principle with which, and for which, the world, and especially Paradise, was created. The first view is universalistic, and hence Elohistic; the latter is theocratic, and hence Jehovistic.
3. The form of the account of the creation: religious symbolical chronicle; its source: a revealed word or image effected by the vision of a prophecy looking backwards (see Introduction). The objections of Delitzsch against the mediation of the knowledge of creation to men through divine revelation in human vision (see 79 sqq.), rest on a want of appreciation of the scriptural idea of vision, as already indicated. Delitzsch, with the more ancient catholic supernaturalism, explains our account from a divine teaching, which is defined as the interposing voice of the Spirit of God, and the guidance, through it, of mans own spirit. To this ultra-supernaturalistic view of Delitzsch and Keil is opposed the rationalistic one of Hofmann, namely, that the account of the creation is the transposed impression in history which the world made on the first-created man reflecting on its origin. To the purely historical conception of a wonderfully preserved or regenerated (Delitzsch) tradition of revelation or legend, is contrasted the mythical conception in various forms, effected through the allegorical interpretation of Philo; which is followed by many church Fathers, and by Herder in his adoption of a parabolic hieroglyphic. a. Moral myth as a ground for the commandment of the sabbath (Paulus). b. Philosophical myth, especially the natural philosophical (Eichhorn and others). We have already shown in the Introduction why we cannot join in either the purely historical or the mythical view, but must insist on the specific of a religious symbolical history. The vision might be designated as intuition, in so far as we carry back the respective knowledge to the unfallen man.
4. In our section the world is represented according to its four different relations: 1. As creation; 2. as nature; 3. as cosmos; 4. as on (see Langes Dogmatics, p. 222 sqq.). The idea of creation is expressed by the word , as well as by the going forth ten times of the Omnific Word of God. God said, Let there be, and there was. The account of nature, 1. through the great contrasts, separations, and combinations: heaven and earth, darkness and light, atmospheric waters and terrestrial waters, firmament and terra firma, land and water, sky and earth. 2. Through the designation of plants, that they should bear seed, each according to its kind. 3. Through the blessing on animals: be fruitful and multiply, and the distinction of various kinds of animals, as also finally the blessing on men. 4. Through the relation of the various creatures to the sphere of birth or life corresponding to them (especially water and earth), through their coming forth from these spheres at the creating word. Especially belong here the picturesque expressions: Thohu, Vabhohu. 5. The six days work itself.The idea of the cosmos. It appears distinctly in all the solemn pauses of the creative work, as they are marked with the sevenfold repetition of the words: and God saw that it was good. The celebration of the sabbath also belongs here, as it points back to the beautiful completion of the universe.But the idea of the on appears with the fact that man is made the end and aim of all days of creation, by which it is clearly pronounced that he is the real principle in which the world and its origin is comprehended. The history of the earth is thus made the lifetime of humanity. Its profoundest principle of development and measure of time is the support of man.
5. The Creation.On the dogmatic doctrine of the creation, see Hase, Hutter, Hahn: Doctrine of Faith, and Langes Positive Dogmatics. Here comes especially into consideration 1. the relation of the doctrine of the creation to the Logos, Joh 1:1-3. The first verse of Genesis clearly forms the ground presupposed in that passage, God spake; through His word He created the world, says Genesis; His word is a personal divine life, says John, and the New Testament in general, especially Col 1:15-19; Gen 2:3-9. According to Genesis everything is created through the idea of man in the image of God with a view to this man; according to the New Testament it is through the idea of Christ, who is the principal of humanity, with a view to Christ. As Adam was the principle of the creation, so is Christ the principle of humanity. Therefore it reads: God hath chosen us in him before the foundation of the world (Eph 1:4; comp. Joh 17:5). The creation is, in its most essential point, the production of the eternal God-Man in the eternal to-day. In man nature has passed beyond itself, from the relative, symbolical independence, to the perfected and real, to freedom; it has in him the mediator of its redemption, of its glorification. The beautiful cosmos, this unity of all varieties, which combines in it an endless complex of unities, to the production of external harmony and beauty, has, in Christ, the most beautiful of the children of men, its middle point, the centre of its ideal beauty. Finally, the first on, which is fixed by the life of Adam, has for its core, its root, and its aim, the second on fixed by Christ. 2. The relation to the Holy Ghost. The spirit is the living, self-impelling unity of spiritual life, the breath of the soul, as the wind forms the spirit of the earth, the vital, ever-active unity of its varieties. The Spirit of God hovering over the waters, is the divine, creative, living unity, which rules over the fermenting process of the Thohu Vabhohu; hence, as the peripheral principle of formation (at one with the central principle of formation, the Logos), it effectuates the separations and the combinations by which the formation of the earth is determined. In the New Testament, however, it appears in its personal strength, as the unity of all works of revelation of the Father and the Son, and as the absolute, spiritual principle of formation which effects the glorification of the world through the separation of the ungodly and the godly, and through the combination of everything godly in the church and the kingdom of God. 3. The relation of the creation to the Divine Being. In the creation, God appears as the creator, who calls forth things as out of nothing. But from the genesis out of the pure nothing, are distinguished the creative things as proceeding from the life or breath of the creators word, with which they come forth into existence (Psa 104:30); and finally man stands complete with the features of divine affinity, proceeding from the thought of His heart, from His counsel, as created in His image, and intended to be His visible administrator on earth. In the New Testament, however, the paternal feature of the Divine Being has unvailed itself as a paternity, from which all paternity in heaven and on earth proceeds, but which, in the most special sense, refers to Christ, the image of the Divine Being. By the relation of the work of creation to the coming Christ, the whole creation becomes an advance representation, a symbol of Christ in a series of symbolical degrees, of which each represents in advance the next following one. Through the relation of Christ to the Father, the whole creation receives the mark of the human, especially of revelation, or of the wonderful (as denoted by the lion), of resignation, or of sacrifice (as denoted by the ox), and of the reflection of light, that is, the idea (as denoted by the eagle).6 But the spirit, as the unitary life of the revelation of the Father and of the Son, is reflected as creative wisdom in all creative movements of the world, and, indeed, in the fundamental forms of separation and combination, of centrifugal and centripetal force, of repelling and attracting operations.The account of the creation, Gen. Genesis 1, is not a dogma of the trinity of God; the completed creation, however, as a work of God and revelation, is a mirror of the trinity, and a prophecy of the revelation of its future (see Langes Positive Dogmatics, p. 206 ff. 4. The relation of the creation to revelation. The most general sphere of the revelation of God, that which forms the basis of all future revelations, is the creation of heaven and earth as the objective revelation of God, which corresponds with the subjective revelation of God in his image, Man 1:5. The relation of the doctrine of the creation to the heathen and post-heathen view of the world. It denies polytheism, for the creator of all things appears as the only one, and if his name stands in the plural (Elohim), the element of truth in polytheism (in contrast to Judaism) is therewith recognized, namely, the variety of the revelation of the one God in the variety of his strength, works, and signs, and the variety of the impressions which he thereby produces.
It denies pantheism, for God distinguishes himself by his creation of the world; he creates the world through his conscious word, consequently freely, and stands in personal completion before his work and over it, so that the world is neither to be regarded as an emanation of his divine being, nor especially as a metamorphosis of the divine being, (the second form of it,) or, vice versa, God as the emanation of the world. But it emphasizes also the true in pantheism (in contrast to deism): the animating omnipresence and revelation of God in the world, with his creating word, with his spirit hovering over the formation of the world, with his image in the dispositions and destination of man. It denies dualism, for God appears as the creator of all things directly. He is also the originator of the Thohu Vabhohu of fermenting elements; he finds in the creation no blame, and, at the end of the sixth day, everything is very good. The true in dualism is, however, also retained (against fatalism), namely, the contrast between the materials and the formative power, between the natural degrees and the natural principles, between nature and spirit. But the doctrine of creation denies much more the antichristian polytheism, that is, atomism, even to its most modern form of materialism, as such materialism rejects not only the truth of the spirit, of personal life, of the Godhead, of the immortality of the soul, and of liberty, consequently all ethical principles, but also the physical principia of crystal formation, of the formation of plants and animals. It does this by making matter regarded as devoid of all visibility, and in so far thoroughly hypothetical and abstract, or rather the infinity of feigned abstract substances (with which the Thohu Vabhohu, as a living fermentation of appearing elements, is not to be confounded), the sole God-resembling factor of all phenomena of life, such phenomena consisting of two classes, of which the physical and abstract spiritual is to be in accordance with the play of matter, the ethical, on the contrary, a bare appearance, having no conceivable or comprehensible reality. The living God here stands in contrast with the multitude of these dark idols of a feigned deity, and he places opposite the subordinate elements of life the superordinate vital principles, which give the elements their cosmical form, whilst over all he places the ruler man, with his godlike, spiritual nature.
The only thing that endures as an element of truth in materialism is the infinite and subtle conformity to law that is found in material things, a fact which spiritualism nowadays far too much disregards. The doctrine of creation also denies with increased emphasis the intensified pantheism, i.e., the most modern pantheism as opposed to personalitythe pantheism which makes everything proceed from an impersonal thought, in order to let everything again disappear through continual metamorphoses (morphologism) in impersonal thoughts; for the scriptural doctrine makes all thoughts of creation proceed from an unconditioned personality, pass through fixed forms, and culminate in a conditioned personality. The truth that lies in such self-deification is recognized in this, that all works of the absolute thinking are themselves thoughts. He has spoken thoughts which have become works of creation. Finally, it denies the dynamical dualism (or the dualism of power), i.e., that hierarchical absolutism which holds as evil not only the material world, but still more the entire realm of spirit and spiritual life regarded as something to be controlled with infinite care, and with the infinite art and power of an abstract authority; for it testifies for the word of God as immanent in the world, and thereby holds fast the element of truth in that hierarchism, according to which the spirit of God hovers over the waters, and man as the administrator of God is commanded, with reference to all animal life in the world: Rule over them, and make them subject to you.
At the very first verse and word of Genesis, it clearly steps over that impure sink of dualism beyond which the entire heathen and philosophical view of the world could never go. It does this, by contrasting God in his eternal self-perfection to the creation which arose with time. The doctrine of the creation is the first act of revelation and of faith in the history of the kingdom of God. It would lead too far, should we attempt to show how the three heathen errors of religion are ever present with each other, although at one time polytheism, at one time pantheism, and at another time dualism, prevails. We make this observation, however, to indicate thereby that we do not ignore the pantheistic basis of Gnosticism, even when it plays with polytheism, since we present it according to its prevailing characteristic as dualism. But not only are the coarse ground-forms of the ancient and modern darkening of the doctrine of the creation to be judged by the first chapter of Genesis, but also the more subtle, Christianly modified forms, as, on the one hand, they present themselves in Gnosticism, (with which we also reckon Manichism and its later shoots, extending to our time: Priscillianism, Paulicianism, Bogomiles, Albigenses, dualistic theosophs of Jacob Bhm), and, on the other hand, in Ebionitism, as it has found its continuation in the later Monarchianism, and still more modern deism. The Gnostics ground their opposition to the Old Testament on a paganistic misinterpretation of the New, and thus they may be ranged according to their more or less hostile attitude to the Old Testament, and as representing various heathenish views of the world which, after the manner of old Palimpsests, placed one upon the other, appear through the overlying Christianity. Among such Palimpsests, on which a form of Christianity has been overwritten, may be reckoned the Samaritan (Simon Magus), Syrian (Saturninus, etc.), Alexandrian (Basilides), old-Egyptian (Ophiten), Hellenic (Karpocrates), Ponto-Asiatic (Marcion), and Persian Gnostics (Manes). Finally, in Mohammed, the Arabian Gnosticism and Ebionitism ran together, as the again broken forms of Subordinatianism and Monarchianism ran together in Arianism. Through the manifold modifications which Christian dualism experienced immediately, and especially in the course of time, one must not be led astray in respect to the Unity of the genus. Just so, pure Ebionitism, whose naked image is Jewish Talmudism (as it is to be recognized throughout by its oblique position to the New Testament and the New Testament elements in the Old), has passed through various mutations whose ground-thought remains the same: namely, a fatalistic, eternalized, ontological divorcement between God and the world, through the law of religion or nature, whether the form of the change be called deism, naturalism, or rationalism. And, finally, the mixed form of gnostic Ebionitism, which was prepared through the Alexandrian system of Philo, and whose naked image is the Jewish Kabbala, has remained unchanged, through all mutations, in its ground-thoughts, whether they appear as Montanism, Donatism, or pseudo-Dionysian, medival and modern ultra-supernaturalism, as inflexible baptismism, or yielding spiritualism. Together with the true difference between God and the world, the doctrine of creation expresses also the true combination between both, and finds the living mediation of this contrast in the man created in the image of God; whereas, dualism makes the difference a separation, while pantheism makes the combination a mixture, and the still observable, polytheistic reminiscence in Christendom vacillates, in its love of fables, between creature deification and creature demonizing. 7. In the significant number ten, the number of actual historical completion, the account is repeated: God said, Let there be, and there was. The speaking of God now certainly indicates the thinking of God, and it thence follows that all works of creation are thoughts of God (idealism). But it indicates also a will, making himself externally known, an active operation of God, and thence it follows that all the works of creation are deeds of God (realism). Both, however, thinking and operating, are one in the divine speaking, the primal source of all language, his personally making himself known, although we cannot bring up the thought of this speaking to the conception (personalism). Through creating, speaking, making, forming, the world is ever again and again denoted as the free deed of God. 9. The Relation of the Mosaic Account of the Creation to the Mythological Legends of the Creation.The cosmogonies of the heathen are confounded with their theogonies, as their gods with primeval man. See Lcken: The Traditions of the Human Race, or the Primitive Revelation of God among the Heathen, Mnster, 1856. These cosmogonies are all very similar to each other. At first chaos is placed at the head as a disordered mass (chaos alone?). This chaos develops or forms itself into the world-egg. This egg, which plays a certain part in the cosmogonies, is only a conception called forth by the apparent form of the earth,8 so that the sky presents itself as the shell and the earth as the yolk of this great egg. With this shaping of chaos into a world-egg, or earth-sphere, arises then, according to the representation of these cosmogonies, the first being, the first-born, or the first man. This first man originating with (out of) the world-egg, the father and founder of all life, is now, according to the popular conception, a giant-like being. As the present man, according to primitive conception, is a microcosm, so is that first being, in heathen conception, the macrocosm itself, originating all life in nature by developing from himself the various parts of the world-organism, heaven and earth, sun and moon, mountains and rivers. Now by dividing or killing this macrocosmic being, or by mingling its generating parts with earthly things (especially fertilizing water, as in the story of Chronos), the lower life of nature begins, and things can multiply in sexual division and separation. This is the whole nucleus of all cosmogonies. And we would here observe, how frequent it is in heathen conceptions that all primitive generating being is imagined under the form of a great world-animal (as an immense ox or goat, for example), and as such worshipped. Thus the first being of the Persians is the ox Abudad, and the Egyptians worshipped it as a goat under the name of Mendes. Here, however, the following is to be observed: 1. Behind, beside, or over the chaos, or the disordered matter, usually stands a mysterious form of the highest divinity: Brahma among the Indians, Fimbultyr among the Teutons, Ormuzd among the Persians. 2. With the Hesiodic Gaia, which proceeds from chaos (i.e., from boundless empty space), there is also Eros; so in the Chinese legend the first macrocosmic man or giant (Panku) is formed with the earth. In like manner Brahma with the Indians, and Ymer with the Teutons, become, by the division of their limbs, the foundation of the world. 3. Matter is always fixed with the divinity, or the divinity with matter. But matter is coherent with God in the predominantly pantheistic systems of emanation. According to the Indo-Brahmic, Platonic, and Alexandrian system of emanation, matter emanates with the world from divinity; according to the Egyptian and mythologico-Grecian system, divinity emanates from the world, from chaos, or the ocean. According to the predominantly dualistic systems, the world arises from a mixture in the conflict between the emanations of the predominantly spiritual, light, good God, and the emanations of the predominantly material, dark, wicked Godsometimes in a decidedly hostile position of the two powers, as in the Persian mythology, sometimes in a more peaceful parallelism, as in the Slavonian. For the various cosmologies, compare the quoted work of Lcken, p. 33; Delitzsch, pp. 81, 83, and 609; Hahn: Compendium, p. 374, with reference to Wuttke: The Cosmogonies of the Heathen Nations before the Time of Jesus and the Apostles, Hague, 1850. The Chaldean myth of the creation, as given by Berosus, is found in Eusebius: Chronicles, i. p. 22; Syncellus, i. p. 25; the Phenician myth as given by Sanchoniaton in Eusebius: Prparatio Evangelica, i. p. 10; the Egyptian myth in Diodorus Siculus, i. 7 and 10; a Grecian myth in Hesiods Theogony, Gen 2:1-16 sqq.; the Indian myths in P. von Bohlen: Ancient India, i. p. 158; Lassen: Indian Antiquities, iii. p. 387 (at the beginning of the code of Manu); the Zend myth in Avesta, the Etrurian myth in Suidas under Tyrrhenia (see the Commentary of Keil and Delitzsch, p. 8); the Scandinavian myth in the Edda, etc.
According to the older conceptions of the days of creation as combined with biblical chronology, one could speak of a date of the creation. Starke is satisfied with the correctness of the date: 23d of October, 4004 before Christ. Schrder makes the date the 1st or 17th of September, 4201, but adds; The Son of Man knew not the day nor the hour when heaven and earth should pass away, but the child of man would know the year and the day when heaven and earth arose. The autumn seems to have been chosen on account of the ripe fruits, without reflecting that on the entire earth it must ever be autumn somewhere. The Hegelian philosophy sought at first to meet this difficulty in its own interest. In order to make the earth the sole arena of the evolutions of mind, which was to reach the full glory of its self-consciousness in the Hegelian system, the whole starry world was declared to be destitute of spirits and in the main spiritlessmere films of light, etc. (see Langes Positive Dogmatics, p. 279). The effort was made to render this barren view agreeable to theology with the pretence that it was in accordance with the Bible, and favored the faith (Land of Glory, p. 12 ff.). Against this insinuation the author wrote the articles which are collected in the work: The Land of Glory (Meurs), Bielefeld, 1838, with reference to the work of Pfaff: Man and the Stars. The results of modern astronomy (according to Struve, Mdler, Schubert, etc.), viz., that the other planets of our solar system have not, in the first place, the same plastic consistency nor the same planetary relations as our earth, and secondly, that the stellar world is divided into a solar planetary region like our solar system, and a solar astral region (the world of double stars, of eternal sunshine), were applied to the biblical Christian view of the world as recognizing (in its conception of various places of discipline and punishment) a place beneath the world on the one hand, and a place above it on the other; consequently the contrast of a region of growing and a region of perfected life, of the church militant and the church triumphant, of the earthly and the heavenly, of the earthly-human and the angelic life. Above all, it was observed that with the doctrine of the ascension of Christ the existence of a land of glory, in contradistinction to the earthly sphere of day and night, birth and death, or the sphere of the creative, was settled. This work was followed by the work of Kurtz: Bible and Astronomy, 1st ed. 1842. In the meanwhile there sprung up a third representation of cosmology, which was again to fix the geocentric stand-point in a spiritual respect. This was mainly induced by A. von Schaden, but diligently prosecuted by Dr. Ebrard, recently in his work: The Results of Natural Science, Knigsberg, 1861. With respect to our planetary system, the said work endeavors to prove that the earth is its teleological centre, and to that end, farther, that the other planets could be either not at all or only partly inhabitable; that they are only accretions to the planetary nature, having their places there simply on account of the earth; and that considered under any other point of view they could only appear as caricatures of the planetary nature.
Delitzsch (p. 614) is in general inclined to this view. He permits, however, a natural philosopher by profession (Prof. Franz Pfaff), to speak for him, who nevertheless acknowledges (after a severe criticism of the plant-family) that there may be imagined elsewhere such beings as are organized in correspondence to the prevailing relations on other heavenly bodies. But one cannot see how the conceptions in question can be called creatures of fantasy.
We consider the view of the pure unreality of the extra-earthly planetary world as neither cosmologically grounded, nor of wholesome tendency in aid of a biblical view of the world. As respects the first point, one must clearly distinguish between an inhabitability of the planets of our solar system for beings of our earthly organization, and a similar inhabitability for spiritual beings in general. If the earthly organization of man is to fix the measure for the habitableness of supra-terrene bodies, then must we also apply the analogy to the most beautiful and brilliant stellar-world. And what must become of the departed human souls, separated from their bodies? How shall there be found a native region for angelic spirits? But it would redound little to the glorification of the living God of Holy Writ to consider the whole planetary group of our sun, the earth alone excepted, as spiritless wastes. Whatever in this respect is true of the Hegelian system in general, in its relation to the stellar-world, is true of the said view in special reference to our planetary system. So far, however, as this presents a difficulty to revelation and Christianity, it is not due to modern science alone, or even mainly. The inhabitability of the planets, and the plurality of worlds, are as much a priori thoughts, that is, rising of themselves to the musing meditative mind, as they are the results of any scientific or inductive reasoning. In both cases, imagination is the chief power of the mind employed, though modern science has furnished it with its stronger stimulants. As such a priori or independent thought, the notion of a plurality, or even an infinity, of worlds, was very ancient. It was, however, larger than the modern notion, being rather a plurality of , or mundi (that is, total visible universes) than of worlds used, as the name is now used, of planetary or stellar bodies. It was the old question of the soul demanding a sufficient reason for the non-existence, the absence of which reason seemed to be itself a proof of the actual existence. Why not? If one world, why not twothreemorenumberless? See Plutarch: De Placitis Philosophorum, vol. v. p. 239, Leip. ed., where among other statements and arguments he quotes the saying of Metrodorus: , , it is absurd (incredibly strange) that there should be but one head of wheat in a great plain, and no less so, that there should be but one cosmos in infinite space. The other idea of the planets inhabitability appears also in the Greek poetry. See especially the fragment given by Proclus:
, , .
Another land of vast extent, The objection to revelation to which Lange here alludes as drawn from the modern astronomy is itself simply anthropopathic. They who make it imagine Deity to be just such a one as themselves. If He has two worlds to take care of, it is incredible that His providence should be as particular, and His interest as near, as though He had but one to govern. Such a mode of thinking makes worth, too, and rank, wholly quantitative and numerical, banishing, in fact, all intrinsic quality, and intrinsic value, from the world of things and ideas. The bigger the universe in space, the less the worth in each part, as a part, and this without any distinction between the purely physical or material to which such a quantitative rule of inverse proportion might apply, and the moral and spiritual, which can never be measured by it.
The force of this objection comes from the fact of the imagination overpowering the reason. The lower though more vivid faculty impedes or silences for a time the higher. Reason teaches intuitively, or as derived from the very idea of God, that His care and providence towards any one rational and moral agent cannot be diminished by the number of other rational and moral agents, or be any less than it would be if such agent had been alone with Deity in the universe. The light and heat of the sun are the same whether the recipients are few or many. The case, therefore, may be thus stated: If a certain manifestation of the divine care for, and interest in, our world and race (namely, such as is revealed in the Bible) would not be incredible on the supposition of their being but one such world or race, then such credibility is not at all diminished by the discovery that there are others, few or many, to any extent conceivable. We must hold firmly to this as a pure rational judgment against the swaying imagination invading the reason, and even assuming to take its place. If the interest revealed by Christianity could be pronounced credible before the discoveries of astronomy (and this is assumed as the ground of the argument), then such measure is equally credible now, or we are convicted of judging God anthropopathically, however we may dignify the feeling with the name of an enlarged and liberal philosophy. The cosmology of the Bible is geocosmic in its practical point of view. After it has presented to us the creation of the heavens and the earth, it lets us conclude from the development of the earth the development of the heavens, namely in respect to the creation of light and of man. From the spirit-world of earth we are to conclude a spirit-world of heaven. But it superabundantly indicates a development of the earthly solar system parallel with the development of the earth (Gen 1:14). That heaven is an inhabited region, appears from many passages, e.g., Gen 28:12; and also that this region is divided into a rich multitude of various departments. And the question is not only of heaven, but also of the heaven of heavens (1Ki 8:27). Christ teaches us too: In My fathers house are many mansions (Joh 14:2). But finally the Holy Writ informs us clearly, that notwithstanding the changeability, and necessity for rejuvenation, of the entire universe (Psa 102:27; Isa 51:6), there is yet a contrast between the regions of growth on this side, and of perfection on the other (Eze 1:21; 1Pe 1:4; 2Pe 3:13, etc.). In this respect the newest and purest astronomical view of the world corresponds entirely to this biblical distinction between the regions of growth here, and of perfection beyond. But the Bible also promises for the form of the world, even on this side, a new structure and perfection. Once all was night; but in the present order of things day and night alternate; in the future the new world shall be raised beyond the contrast of day and night (Revelation 21). Formerly all was sea; the present order consists in the contrast of land and sea; in the new world the sea shall be no more.
b. The Idea of Nature in the Bible. The Bible and the Investigation of Nature.We have shown in passing that the Scriptures fully recognize the idea of nature, i.e., of the conditioned going forth of the fixed life of nature from a fundamental principle peculiarly belonging to it. Every creative word becomes the ideal dynamical basis of a real principle. At first appear the principles of the separation. The separation of heaven and earth has the more general signification of universe on the one side, and of a special world-sphere on the other as represented by the earth, of which we now speak. At the second separation (light and darkness) the co-operation of the spirit of God is brought out, i.e., of the creative formative activity of God; at the third separation (water and land) the co-operation of light is presupposed. The natural law set up by Harvey (see Langes Positive Dogmatics, p. 259): omne vivum ex ovo, has been again brilliantly restored in modern times by the exact investigation of nature in opposition to the theory of generatio quivoca, which natural philosophy had taught (see Sobernheim: Elements of General Physiology, Berlin, 1844). In Delitzsch also the conception of the generatio quivoca plays a part in the account of the creation (p. 111), because he has not sufficiently considered that the creative words, in the ideal they carry, form the foundation of the actual principles of nature.
From the last-quoted principle it appears as follows: 3. By the new principle of the higher grade of nature, the natural law of the preceding grade is modified in accordance with the new and higher life. The plant modifies the natural law of gravity, the animal modifies the local attachment of the plant; in man the animal instinct is effaced. 5. But what is true of the laws of nature, is also true of the matter of nature. Principle is the first thing in nature, law is the second, matter, as we know it, is the third. For through the intervention of a new and higher natural principle in the world by means of the creative word supporting it, the life of the preceding grade is reduced to the grade of matter. Thus by the appearance of the vegetable principle, the elementary world becomes matter for new formations; so, too, the animal reduces the vegetable world to the grade of material, and in like manner does man change the grade of the animal world. But the man from heaven makes from the elements of the Adamic world the matter for a new world. The materialists of our day have ridiculed the idea of a life-power which should be different from the supposed fundamental matter of the world. Instead of the life-power, there should have been opposed to them something more real: the life-principle. The life-principle is fundamentally distinguished in the contrast of plastic formative power and material substratum. They are both mutually established each with the other, but above them stands the principle. The materialist, therefore, as he explains everything from a force of matter, which no man has ever yet seen (see Langes Miscellaneous Writings, 1st vol. p. 54), does not only deny the existence of the human soul and its ethical nature and highest causality, the Godhead, but he is also the antagonist of the genuine zoologist who believes in the reality of the animal principle, as he is of the genuine botanist who does not consider the vegetable formations a shadowy play of matter on the wall, and of the crystallographer who connects imponderable forces and polarityyea, of the genuine chemist too, who has perceived that the relations of elective affinity in substances extend beyond the atomistic conceptions. May it not possibly be explained, that as the material side of the natural principle is formed by the creating word, so is the reference of the origin of matter to a pure thought of God something else than the reference to the difficult enigma of a creative matter; and experience proves that the coarser matter everywhere, as outside or precipitate, proceeds from finer formations. It is a radical contradiction that matter should generate spirit, and, nevertheless, be everywhere subjected to spirit, even to the disappearance of its original nature.
6. The ascending line of natural principles is an ascending line of acts of creation, with which the principles always the more strengthen, deepen, generalize, and individualize themselves, and with which, at the same time, new forms of the natural law and new combinations of substances appear. a. The Development of the Creation of the World in general.Through the analogy of the development of the earth, the Scripture permits us to infer also a development of heaven. The heavens are created (Gen 1:1; 1Ch 17:26; Neh 9:6; Psa 33:6; Psa 136:5; Pro 3:19); the heavens grow old and pass away (Psa 102:27; Isa 51:6); the heavens are renewed (2Pe 3:13; Rev 21:5). Astronomy also teaches a continuous growth, and in the same way recognizes indications of passing away in the stellar world. But there is a difference between the various celestial regions. The old Jewish and Mahommedan tradition, and the Christian Apocryphas know seven heavens (the Koran, the Kabbala, the Testament of the Twelve Patriarchs). But the Hebrews admitted in general three heavens as in accordance with the Scripture (Paul also 2Co 12:2-4; the third heaven the paradise): 1. The heaven of the air (the clouds, birds, changes of the atmosphere); 2. the heaven of the stellar world, the firmament; 3. the heaven in which God dwells with His angels, paradise. Of the latter heaven it must be observed that it is a symbolico-religious idea, and by no means excludes the stellar world (see Langes work: The Land of Glory). The Scripture recognizes also the distinction between an earlier heavenly stellar world and the system to which this earth belongs, as we find it indicated in the fourth days work. When the earth was founded the morning-stars sang together, and all the sons of God shouted for joy (Job 38:7). Consequently before the foundations of the earth those morning-stars were there. Also the Heaven of heavens, as well as the ascension of Christ, point to a heavenly region which lies beyond the cosmical sphere of the world, to a region of eternal sunshine. See the above quotations.
b. The Development of our Solar System.Although on the fourth day of the creation the whole stellar world is introduced into the circle of vision of the earth, nevertheless the cosmical completion of the system belonging to the earth is especially indicated. Special allusion is made to this system when the New Testament biblical eschatology treats of the end of the heavens and the earth, and their renewal (Joe 3:4; Mat 24:29; 2Pe 3:10).
[Note on the Scriptural Heavens and Earth.We think Dr. Lange carries too far what may be called the cosmological view of the Mosaic account. It either gives the writer too much science, or, in order to get a ground of interpretation independent of his conceptions, makes him to be a mere automatic mediumthus taking away the human, or that subjective truthfulness which is so precious in any view we may take of this narrative. Hence the tendency to regard the Bible heavens as the astronomical heavens of modern science, instead of the heavens of the earth, nearly connected with the earth, and in which the sun, moon, and stars appear as lights, whatever may be the near or remote causes of those appearances. See remarks in note on the Hebrew plural , pp. 162, 163. The symbolic contrast of the heavens and the earth, with which Dr. Lange starts in the interpretation, has all the value he attaches to it; but it is not at all lost in what he might regard as the narrower view. The optical heavens, with the appearances in it, was all the writer knew, or was inspired to know, or describe. It was to him the cosmos. As this enlarges, by science, or otherwise, the conception of the heavens enlarges with it, but only as a conception. The idea remains as in the beginning. In keeping up this contrast, however, we are not to regard the scientific bodies discovered in the remoter spaces, as the heavens in distinction from our own home, as though the heavens were simply all that is off, and away from, the earth. The planet Mars is no more a heaven, or heavens, to us than we are a heavens to it. As knowledge lifts up the everlasting gates, the conception of the mundus enlarges to take in other earth-like bodies in space; but the old idea travels forth unchanged. The great symbolic contrast yet remains. The heavens, too, enlarge their scale, and the peculiar divine residence, once thought to be in the near sky just above us, is carried farther off, beyond the sky of clouds, beyond the sphere of the moon, the sun, the planets, the solar system. Science adds the stellar bodies; the heavens, the great symbolic, or rather symbolized, heavens, are still beyond, high over all, embracing all. Who hast set Thy glory above the heavens, (compare as used Gen 1:20; Gen 19:23, -); Who stoopeth down to behold the things that are in the heavens (the lower heavens) and the earth, Psa 113:6. Solomons language, The heaven and heaven of heavens cannot contain Thee, may, or may not, be surpassed in its local conception, but no science, it may be repeated, will ever transcend it in idea. Whatever the number of spheres, real or imaginary, the , the heaven of heavens, is still the great heaven above them all.T. L.]
c. The Spherical Development of the Earth, or the Six Days Work.As was above indicated, the six days work have been represented in the sequence of a twofold ternary, in which is mirrored the significance of the number three. We construct these ternaries in the following manner: 1. Light and the lights; 2. water and air, and the animals of water and air; 3. the solid land and over it the vegetable world; the land-animals and over them man. As to the strict consistency of these days works, the most celebrated naturalists, as Cuvier, have expressly acknowledged it. Now we find these days works construed in the most manifold way; in part purely according to the Scriptures, in part purely according to natural science, and partly in distinct comparison, whereby the harmony between the Bible and natural science is contested or maintained.Scriptural representations of the six days work. Here the 104th Psalm exceeds all. First day, Gen 2:1-2; second day, Gen 2:3-4; third day, Gen 2:5-18; fourth day, Gen 2:19-20. The fifth day and the first half of the sixth are freely inlaid into the picture from the fourteenth verse. The sixth day also from Gen 2:14; but in Gen 2:23 man appears more distinctly in his rule. Here follows an accurate picture of the whole creation from Gen 2:24. The creation of the new world, which is the aim of the Apocalypse, passes also through a sevenfold stage. Here an accord in the order of the six days work is not to be misunderstood. 1. The seven congregations as the seven candlesticks of the earth, Christ in a figure of light in their midst, with seven stars in His handsan allusion to the creation of light of the first day (Genesis 1-3). 2. The seven seals. The council in heaven and the seven seals or decrees of sorrow on earthan allusion to the creation of the firmament between the waters above (Gen 4:6, the sea of glass; comp. Gen 7:17) and the waters beneath (the blood of the lamb,9 Gen 7:14), Genesis 4-7. The seven trumpets. Decrees of judgment on the earth preaching repentance (Gen 8:7) and on the sea (Gen 2:8)allusion to the separation of land and sea (see also Gen 10:2), Gen 8:1 to Gen 10:2. The seven thunders (voices of awaking whose speech had been sealed). The angel who had awakened the seven thunders, raises his hand to heaven and swears that hereafter time shall be no more.10 Episodes from the stage of the seven thunders: the swallowed scroll, the measuring of the temple of God, the two olive trees, the woman in heaven clothed with the sun, the moon under her feet, and a crown of twelve stars on her headan allusion to the lights created to mark the seasons (Gen 10:3 to Gen 12:2). 5. The seven heads of the dragon. The (flying) dragon in heaven, the woman with eagles wings, and the beast out of the sea with seven heads, the earthly anti-Christ representative of the seven heads of the dragonallusion to the birds of the heavens and the beasts of the sea (Gen 12:3 to Gen 13:10). 6. The seven last plagues or vials of wrath. Introduction: the animal out of the earth, the number 666 (with reference to the significance of the number 6; perhaps also the sixth day); the lamb on Mount Sion, the image of God with the 144,000 virgins who bear on their foreheads the name of the lamb and the name of the father, i.e., are images of God; the announcement of the judgment, of the seven last plagues; the judgment on the earth; the whore, her counterpart the bride and her bridegroom, heroes and deliverers, judges of spirits and associates in the apostasyallusion to the animals of the earth and to man created in the image of God, with the command: Rule over them and make them subject to you, Gen 13:11 to Gen 19:21).11
7. The great Sabbath of God (Genesis 20, 21). It is, of course, understood that so original a creation as the Apocalypse could not be an allegorical copy of the six days work. In the Epistle of Barnabas (among the writings of the Patres apostolici) we find Genesis 15 the incorrect literal interpretation of the passages Psa 90:4 and 2Pe 3:8 (according to which a thousand years of earth should make one day of God, consequently six thousand years of history the great spiritual week of God which is to precede the divine millennium sabbath). This became later a standing presumption of the chiliastic computations. One of the first patristic representations of the hexameron with polemical references to the heathen view of the world, we find in the apology of Theophilus of Antioch: Ad Autolycum, lib. ii. cap. 12 sqq. Many others have followed these (see Introduction). Among the modern biblio-theological representations of the six days work, that of Herder (Oldest Record of the Human Race) occupies a prominent place. It rejects all combinations of the scriptural text with natural science. It traces back the account to the teaching of God; but it arose by means of human observation of the rising sun, as in this the picture of creation is ever unrolled to the eyes of the observer. The representation itself he calls a hieroglyphe for the instruction of man in the great pictures of creation, as presented to his contemplation in the order of life, first work, then rest (the sabbath-law), and in the numbering of days (with reference to the week) as given to him in language, etc. He finds in the account the symbols of the first religion, natural science, morality, politics, chronology, writing, and language. In his poetic diction there is much that is beautiful; but the picture he gives us of the terror of the Orientals in respect to darkness and labor is very partial and exaggerated. The same may be said of many other things in his book. The ignoring of the reality of the six days work is rationalistic. The construction is as follows:
I. Light.
II. Firmament.
III. Terra firma.
IV. Lights.
V.
Water }
of heaven.
VI. Creatures of earth.
VII. Sabbath.
In the spirit of Herder, but independent in its view, and determination of the individual parts, is the representation in F. A. Krummachers Paragraphs on Sacred History (p. 22 ff.). The six days, as such, and in themselves understood, are to him divine days. Zahn also falls back on Herder in animated representation (History of the Kingdom of God, p. 1 ff.). Grubes delineation of the six days work is very comprehensive and full of meaning (Features from Sacred History, p. 11 ff.Scientific representation of the six days work. On the historical development of the doctrine of the cosmos, see Alex. von Humboldt, iii. p. 3 ff. Steffens: Polemical Sheets for the Advancement of Speculative Physics. Second number, on Geology, Berlin, 1835 (here are quoted, p. 6, the respective geological works of Cuvier, Bou, Brogniart, Elie de Beaumont, De la Beche, and Von Leonhard). Merleker: Cosmography, Leipzig, 1848, p. 3. There is also the historical part of Lyells Principles of Geology, and Vogts Compendium of Geology (Braunschweig, 1854, 2 vols.); Reusch: Bible and Nature, p. 71.Here belong Quenstedt: Then and Now. A popular treatise: Harting: The Antemundane Creations compared with the Present. From the Dutch, Leipzig, Engelmann, 1859. See, moreover, the preliminary literature. We must distinguish those treatises which regard the Hexameron of Moses, and those which do not. And further, we must distinguish the systems which assume the formation of the earth by radical revolutions in a steady sequence of new creations (Cuvier), and those which assume a gradual transformation with partial revolutions. Harting belongs to the latter. We must, however, certainly maintain that a seed or germ of creation (for the transformation) must have passed through the catastrophes out of the earlier stage into the later, analogous to the process at the flood, but transformed in a creative way during the metamorphosis of the earth. But the doctrine of the great catastrophes is not therewith excluded. In respect to those who deny the existence of any harmony between the Bible and natural science, it may be said, that a few theologians in Germany, with shallow scientific acquirements, have undertaken the work; such as Ballenshedt (in the notorious book: The Primitive World), Bretschneider, and Strauss. In England recently Goodwin (in the Essays and Reviews). Schleiermacher has also in this respect expressed anxieties which prove that he was not well posted on the point (Studies and Criticisms, 1829, p. 489). Most recently has this assumed opposition become a special dogma of the Hegelian school of Tbingen, which has its main altar in Eastern Switzerland. On the side of natural science the harmony has been mainly contested by French authors; in Germany, by Vogt and Burmeister. On the side of the naturalists, who at the same time were scientifically learned and Bible-believing men, stand Copernicus, Kepler, Newton, Pascal, Haller, and Euler; at a later period the Frenchmen Cuvier, Brogniart, Deluc, Biot, Ampre; in Germany, Steffins, H. von Schubert, A. Wagner, and others. (See Reusch, p. 63 ff.) To these add also the Bible-believing cosmologiststhe Frenchmen Marcel de Serres, de Blainville, the Belgian Waterkeyn, and especially many Englishmen and North Americans (Reusch, p. 67; see especially also Delitzsch, p. 609). A significant position is taken by the already quoted work of Buckland: Geology and Mineralogy, etc., as given by Werner, in the German edition of the well-known Bridgewater Treatises, vol. v., with which compare the valuable criticism of it by W. Hoffmann, in Tholucks Literary Advertiser, 1838, Number 44. The conditions on which the great geologist treats with his timid brothers in the theological world are (according to W. Hoffmann) the following: 1. Geology has evidently proved that the surface of our planet has not been from eternity in its present condition, but has passed through a series of creative operations, which followed each other in long, fixed periods of time. 2. There is an exposition of natural phenomena which stands so little in contrast with the Mosaic history that it even throws light on dark parts of it, and thereby confirms it. 3. The authenticity of the Scriptural text must remain unscathed, but the exposition demands concessions from the literal expositor; the reader must make this, and indemnify himself therefor by the accession which geology supplies to natural theology. 4. The Bible does not aim to give solutions of geological and other questions of natural science. Else, God would have found it necessary to endow man with omniscience, because he was obliged, at the same time, to impart to him all degrees and kinds of human knowledge, if the revelation were not to remain an insufficient one. In several points Hoffmann has corrected the author with a free and large survey, namely, in the endeavor of Buckland to transfer all the periods of the geologically determined earth-formation into the undefinable beginning before the first day of the creation, although to those geological periods the long biblical day-periods are still to be added. Hoffmann, on the contrary, alleges that then the eyes of the trilobites, for example, must have existed before the creation of light. The same is true of the first vegetable and animal world throughout. The same untenable view, however, that will transfer the geological periods, with their relation to each other, into the time of the Thohu Vabhohu, meets us also now in various forms. It is represented by Andreas Wagner and Kurtz (see, on the contrary, Delitzsch, p. 112). The more defined combination of geological results and the biblical account appears in a form sometimes mainly scientific, and again mainly theological; but the two series cannot be strictly separated from each other. Reusch places here Marcel de Serres, Waterkeyn, Andreas Wagner, Wiseman, Nicolas: Philosophical Studies of Christendom, Sorignet (La Cosmogonie de la Bible devant les sciences perfectiones, Paris, 1854), Pianciani, Kurtz: Bible and Astronomy, Keerl and Westermeyer, whose work, in his view, is without scientific value. So also Mutzl, Michelis, Ebrard, and a series of Essays in the Periodicals: Nature and Revelation (Mnster, 1855 ff.), and The Catholic (Mentz, 1858 sqq.). We also enumerate here, La Cosmogonie de la Rvlation, par Godefoy, Paris, 1841, the previously quoted works of O. Reinsch, Fr. von Rougement, and Bhner (with respect to the cosmogonal theory of Kant and La Place). The newest commentary on Genesis, by Keil, shows no progress. Keil insists on regarding the account of creation as an historical record in the strictest sense; he opposes the division of the six days work according to ternaries, he sets the act of creation in excluding contrast with the idea of the natural process, boldly questions the evidence of the various periods of the creation, and contends that the days of the creation are simple earth-days. With this continued darkening of the present view of the state of the case, it is a small merit that the theosophic view of the Thohu Vabhohu seems sets aside (p. 16).
The six days works are above all things to be comprehended as six consecutive acts of creation, in which, every time, a new creation is placed as a new appearance of the cosmos. For the world is to be regarded throughout as being, in respect to its foundation, the act of God, or creation (in the stricter sense); according to its development, nature, whilst, according to its appearance, cosmos, and, according to the plastic life-principle lying at its base (the future of man and the God-Man), it is on. The creation is, in the first place, and in general, represented as creation of heaven and earth; then the history of the earth is specially brought out with reference to its relation to heaven, and also to give an idea of the cosmical creation beyond the earth in our planetary system. The characteristic traits are the following:
The First Day.The separation of darkness and light, i.e., of dark and light matter. We must here preserve the text from the terrifying pictures of darkness in Herder, and the conceptions of darkness, approaching dualism, of certain theologians of the present day. The Scripture speaks also of a smiting of the sun (Psa 121:6; Jon 4:8), and of a sacred obscurity, also of a beneficent shade, as Christendom recognizes a holy night; it knows also a higher unity of day and night (Rev 20:21; see The Land of Glory, p. 150; Novalis: Hymns to the Night). Nothing is more dangerous to life than the commingling of physical and ethical darkness (see Isaiah 45). God did not make physical darkness in so far only as it is privative, mere absence of light, but he made it in so far as he made the earth, the darkness in general, and the order of life: day and night. With respect to light and its effects, comp. Schubert: Mirror of Nature, p. 457 ff.; also F. A. Krummachers poem: The Light, and Miltons Salutation to Light. The light is in the Scripture as an image of the Godhead, or of its indwelling (1Ti 6:16). It is Gods garment (Psa 104:2), an image of the being and life of Christ and of its efficacy. Not without reason have some designated light as the first creature of God, and distinguished between latent light = material darkness, and free light-matter. Comp. what Hoffmann has observed, in his quoted criticism, about the visible creation proceeding from the invisible sphere of the creative powers, the imponderable substances dynamically regarded. (Comp. Heb 11:3) The unity of the contrast of centripetal and centrifugal power (sympathy and antipathy), attraction (gravity) and repulsion (motion), warmth and light, appears to lie in something beyond the relative contrast of electricity, where warmth predominates, and that of magnetism, where light predominates (although in both one is set with the other); which remoter principle we may designate as a breath of life, whose material product is an inconceivably minute, fundamental form of the luminous world-body which is to spring from it, as the cell or the fundamental form of organic life, in an element of growing light, that is, which becomes light, or an ether, which as earth-matter has attractive power, and, as a medium of light, repulsive power. With respect to the evenings and the mornings, it is to be observed that Kurtz has also effaced their optical reality. By the evenings is meant the going out or departure of the separate visions. The permanent reproduction of the word, Let there be light, is not so much the rising of the sun, according to Herder, as rather the electric spark, the lightning proceeding from the dark thunder-cloud, the northern light of the long polar night, just as every meteoric revelation of the light-nature of the earth. For this is clearly intimated, that the earth, until its arrangement into cosmical dependence on the sun, found itself in a condition of self-illumination, like that towards which it ever strives to rise in the polar night. Physical darkness is undoubtedly made by the Scriptures an image of ethical darkness, for it is the comparatively imperfect. But we again distinguish the black night, which may be in measure illuminated by every spark; the gray night of mist, which is in positive opposition to the light, and the white night, or blinding light, by which the light is corrupted into the worst darkness, or the most evil night.
Second Day.About the upper waters, see the Exegesis. The allusion they contain to the matter of the distant world-space, the space of heaven, is found also in mythology (see Delitzsch, p. 614). But it is questionable whether, along with the upper waters, there is also presupposed here a world-matter out of which the lights are formed on the fourth day of creation (A. Guyot, with the addition of the mist theory of La Place; Fr. de Rougement, translated from Fabarius, p. 61, with distinct reference to our planetary system; Bhner, p. 158, a clear and instructive representation). But it is to be observed that the lights of the fourth day clearly refer to the light of the first day, consequently not to the upper waters of the second. The rakia, as firmament, indicates the boundary line behind which water, air, and ther, flow together. Consequently, this firmament indicates, at the same time, the boundary line between the centripetal and centrifugal force of matter, between its impulse to become earth, and its impulse to become light. But this is just what makes the rakia a symbol of the real heaven: it is the equator which spirits pass in their passage to the home in light. The second day is therefore the separation of the atmosphere and the element of liquid earth (dividing the substance of light and the substance of darkness), and probably still glowing hot. With the firmament, between the coldness of the ther and the warmth of the earth, as between light and gravity, are built the first formations of the earth as the vessel of its liquid nucleus; neither Plutonic nor Neptunian, because fire and water are not yet separated. For the contest between Plutonism and Neptunism, see Delitzsch, p. 609. The contrast of both systems does not begin till the third day of the creation, with the separation of water and land. The beginning of the third day of creation (the evening) probably marks the period of the actual water-formation from the precipitates of the recent atmosphere, with which the entire new surface of the earth is overflowed. In the transition from light days, and rain-storms, and hurricanes, is mirrored the creation of the second day. The crystals and precious stones children of night. On the second day God made nothing, says Rougemont, he only caused a separation. But such a separation was a creation.
Third Day.Separation between land and water. In accordance with this, the development of fire, which brings forth the earth, and combines with water, to continue the formation of the earth. The first appearance of plants on points of earth in insular dispersion. Remains of the general flood: deserts, sandbanks. (Question, whether the plants throughout were created before coal, or whether coal is not mainly to be considered as pre-existing as a formative substance of the plants.)
Fourth Day.The cosmical combination of the lights of heaven and the earth. Cosmico-atmospheric and chemical completion of the earth for the conditions of a higher life. Ecliptic. Beginning of the relations of the zones. Continued operation: the zones, the seasons, the periods. The metals children of light.
Fifth Day.Animals of the waterbirds. The conclusion of this period and the first half of the following; the main period of the strata-formation and the petrifactions, although this period begins with the end of the third day.
Sixth Day.The catastrophe introducing this closes, with its completion not manifest before the appearance of man, or the cycle of the great general revolutions, and introduces the world which is intended to be Adams home. The natural law, in its central effect as a law of necessity, is abolished in the destination and freedom of man.
Seventh Day.God reposes and rests in man. Man reposes and rests in God. Gods sabbath is reflected in the sabbath of the world. Just as the geology of the first day represents the cosmogony through the universality of light, so the firmament of the second day represents the heaven above and the earth beneath. Then the fourth day, in contrast to the third, points up again to the cosmos. On the fifth day of creation the birds of heaven must at least indicate the cosmical relation; on the sixth day man, the special representative of the spirit-world.
d. The Gradual Development of the Individual Life on Earth.The idea of the natural life is the idea of a relative independence communicated by God to the world, which passes through the stages of symbolical independence to actual independence, or that freedom of man in which nature is abolished. We distinguish, accordingly, the following degrees of independence in an ascending line: 1. The element: or dependent self-existence to be annulled (through chemistry); 2. the chemical combination: or the mutual relation of the one element to the other, i.e., to its related opposite; 3. crystals: self-formation in forms and colors; 4. plants: self-production, reproduction; 5. animals: self-motion inwardly (self-perception), outwardly (motion in the narrower sense); 6. man: self-consciousness and power of self-control; 7. the power denoted points to the man from heaven, the God-man: or complete self-control in complete self-comprehension in the unity with God, nature, and humanity (see Langes Positive Dogmatics, p. 247).
In respect to the classification, we remark, 1. That every lower grade reappears in all higher grades in a continually modified form; 2. that it is the coming grade as a symbol and actual prophecy; and 3. that it takes the lower place of a serving and supporting substance for the higher grade. In man all grades are combined and subordinated to spirit. As he is an image of God, so also is he an image of the earth; so also of the universe. Microcosm. The idea of the lower grade is not so to be understood as if the stamp of divine authority were wanting to it. 5. Every grade comprises again lower and higher formations; with the lowest it reverts to the preceding grade, but with the highest it presents, in its solemn pauses of formation, a preliminary or provisional completion which becomes the symbol of the completion of life in general. Through those relapsing or bastard-like formations arise the poisons, according to H. von Schubert and K. Snell (see Langes Dogmatics, p. 266), which are an allegory of moral discord and relapse into sin. The completed types of a fixed grade of nature are, on the contrary, the precious stone, the palm, the rose, the eagle, the dove, the lamb, etc., becoming with their transient completion symbols of the highest life. The period which is peculiar to each grade, appears with it in full power; hence in the element, the obscure, enigmatical, apparently isolated existence; in chemistry, the whole irresistible power of physical elective affinities; in the crystal, the stately play of the sternest forms and the most beautiful colors; in the plant, the whole power of reproduction (through root, seed, and branch), and of growth high into space, and far into time; in the animal, the motion in all kinds and in all grades; in man, finally, the self-consciousness in that perfected intensity which makes it the most peculiar characteristic of his being. 7. The individual formation appears in every grade in greater power. Hence the elements have mostly lost themselves in chemical combinations, and these again submit to the most manifold separations. Hence crystals are mostly altered, arrested, or distorted through disturbing influences or checks, and seldom appear pure. Hence plants are capable of greater degeneracy in their kinds than animals, and the metamorphoses of the subordinate animals greater than those of the higher. This disposition to degeneracy and to variety has lately become an inducement to dispute the idea of fixed species, as we see it in the work of the English naturalist Darwin, on the origin of species in the animal and vegetable world by natural generation, translated into German by Bronn, Stuttgart, 1860. This work, doubtless, will only be able to induce more exact formulas as to the grade of the individuality of the species and the susceptibility of modification in their pure ground-types through antagonistic or favoring influences.
e. The Natural Development of the Individuals themselves.It passes through a regular series of stages or metamorphoses in which the metamorphoses of growth to maturity, of the transition from one ground-form into another (analogous in the insect-world to the passing through various natural grades) are to be distinguished from a higher state of perfection. It has indeed been doubted whether from the beginning our nobler grains have not been distinguished from the wild species, and also the tame domestic animals from the wild. The Scripture seems to speak in this tone in the distinction appearing in the very beginning between cattle and wild animals, and farther on in the distinction of certain plants of Paradise (see Delitzsch, p. 622 and Genesis 2).
f. The Development of Nature at large.1. Apart from man. That nature waits patiently for man appears from the fact that left to itself it grows wild, and in boundless luxuriance threatens to overwhelm and smother itself, as is proved by the primitive forests, the marshes, and the miasmas. 2. In reference to man. Nature is intended to develop itself in accord with man. It therefore sympathizes in his fall (Gen 3:17 ff; Gen 19:28; Deu 28:15 ff; Isa 13:6 ff; Rom 8:19 ff), and in his resurrection (Deu 28:8; Psalms 77; Isaiah 35; Isa 65:66; Rom 8:21; 1Co 15:45 ff; 2Pe 3:13; Rev 20:21). See De Rougemont, pp. 2 and 3.
Therefore also has man in his individual form, and man in his totality, his natural side; and therefore it is that the most sublime idea of nature (for the idea of nature, see the quotation from Aristotle in Langes Dogmatics, p. 258), or the idea of an inceptive founding, of a gradual development, and a final completion of animal life, does, for that very reason, present itself to us in the history of the kingdom of God, as the miraculous tree, which continues to grow from the beginning to the end of the world, with its crown reaching into eternity. And especially in the history of the God-Man, does it thus appear as a tree whose roots go back into the foundation of creation, and whose boughs, branches, blossoms, and fruits spread throughout the new humanity. The natural sciences have not yet attained to the greatness of the scriptural idea of nature.
Of the Relation of the Account of the Creation and of the Holy Writ in general to the Natural Sciences.In this relation a fourfold collision may be conceived: 1. An incorrect exegesis of the Scripture may clash with an incorrect exegesis of nature (the investigation of nature is indeed only exegesis, and its teachings are to be distinguished from the objective facts themselves). 2. An incorrect scriptural exegesis can contradict the ground-text of the life of nature. 3. A false exegesis of nature can come in conflict with the text of the Scripture. The fourth case, that the sense of the Scripture itself, or the text of nature itself, might be in contradiction with each other, could only be imagined on the ground that Scripture and nature were not, both of them, books of revelation of the same God. The thorough, scientific, and theological investigation confirms more and more their harmony.Pretended incongruities in the account of creation itself are: 1. Light before the lights or illuminating bodies. This is thoroughly removed (see Exegesis). 2. The earth proceeding from the water in contrast to Plutonism. This objection reposes on the misunderstanding of the waters Gen 2:2 and Gen 2:6, and exaggeration of the demands of Plutonism. 3. The firmament on the fourth day. See the Exegesis and the fundamental thoughts. 4. The days of creation: Also removed by the correct exposition which makes them peculiar days of God. When, however, naturalists fill their mouths with millions of years as a necessity for the formation of the earth, they fall into contradiction with the spirit and the laws of nature itself. It is a law of nature that the subordinate formations arise more rapidly than the higher ones. And further, that life in the glowing, warm moments of its origin, moves more rapidly than in its development. If man continued to grow in the same proportion as in the maternal womb, he would increase beyond the highest trees. 5. The relation between the heliocentric and the geocentric view, see above.Pretended collisions between the scriptural miracles and nature. See Bible-Work, Matthew; Life of Jesus, ii. p. 258; Philosophical Dogmatics, p. 467. On the prophetic-symbolical parallel-miracles, see more particularly in the Bible-Work, Exodus.
11. The World as Cosmos.The idea of the cosmos, i.e., of the regulated, unitary, beautiful appearance of the world, makes itself known, at first, through the sevenfold verdict: God saw that it was good. In this we must bear in mind that, with the good, the adjective means also the appropriate, the agreeable, the beautiful. But when it is said for the seventh time, after the creation of man, and with enhanced emphasis: Behold everything was very good, there lies therein a reference to the fact that the great world, the macrocosmos, has reached in man, as the microcosmos, its living point of unity. A variety, however, which with its appearance rises into an ideal unity, forms the very idea of the beautiful. But here this idea is, at the same time, in its completeness, the idea of the good; for in man the finite world has reached its unending eternal aim. And then there is what may be called the poetical account of man affirming his appearance in that parallelism of phrases, Gen 2:27, of which it has been observed, it is the first example of religious poetry, as the song of Lamech, Gen 4:23, is the first example of secular. The solemnity of the cosmical appearance of the world is then again specially expressed in the delineation of the rest of God on the seventh day. The sabbath of God is the primitive picture of the human days of rest and festivity, in which the adorning of the world appears in the reflection of human adornment, and human worship endeavors to unite in itself all forms of the beautiful, of art, as it also unites with the most beautiful periods of the life of nature in the course of the year. The Holy Writ retains also this view of the world especially in the appreciation of the beautiful, even of female beauty, and in the reverence of the sublime and beautiful nature (Psa 8:19 and Psalms 104; Isaiah 40, etc.), in the glorifying of the beautiful service of Jehovah (who Himself is adorned with light, Psalms 104), and in its own festal robes of beauty. It may be observed, in passing, that the Jewish Rabbinism has discovered strange reasons why, in the account of the second day, there does not also stand the expression: He saw that it was good; it was because, say they, on that day the apostate angels fell, because on it God created hell, or because the waters brought the flood over the world. It is generally assumed that the sentence of approbation of the firmament on the second day is comprised with that pronounced on the formation of the land on the third day, and on the firmament on the fourth. This is pursued farther in the preceding exegetical illustration.It is known that the Grecian idea of beauty and of the cosmos is elevated far above that of the Chinese, satisfied as it is only with the delicately formed, the variegated, and the cheerful, and whilst it detests the shadows in the picture. Certain representations respecting the darkness and night in the treatment of the six days work remind us of the Chinese or Persian views; for instance, in Herder, Delitzsch, Rougemont (p. 11), and in Christianus (Gospel of the Kingdom, p. 5). In one respect, again, is there presented a similar difference between the Grecian and the scriptural idea of the cosmical. The former throws the obscure into the background, because it cannot resolve it into higher unities. For the Hebrew, that which is the ugly in a smaller unity is only the picturesque shadow in a general higher unity (see Psa 104:20; Psa 148:7-8). The obscurity of the cosmos, originating with sin, is quite as well to be regarded subjectively, according to which the world meets the sinner in an uneasy threatening form (Ecc 1:8), as objectively, according to which the creature, as suffering, must, in reality, with fallen man, sigh for redemption (Rom 8:19).
12. The World as on.That the world also in its truest and most inward principle of life and development is comprised in man, appears already from the strong emphasis with which man is introduced in the first chapter of Genesis as end or aim of the creation, but still more from his principial position at the head of things, which is given to him in the second chapter. The idea of the on is a development and a developing period of life placed with the power of life in the principle of life. The world as on has also the principle of its life-power, its duration, form, and development in man. And thus is it explained that with the distinction of universal history into the history of the first and second man, or Adam and the Messiah, there is also distinguished a twofold on. But it is in accordance with the idea of the on, that the new on of Christ can have principially begun with His appearance and redemptory act, whilst the old on still externally continues. The life-development of the on starts from the beginning and appears, at first, gradually, but not perfectly, until the close. Just so it is explained that the world in the course of its development depends on the bearing of man, and that the history of man is the history of the earthly cosmos. The sinless man and Paradise, Adam and the field burdened with the curse, the rain of the first race and the flood, Noahs generation and the rainbow, the people of promise and the promised land, the renewal of humanity, through Christ, and the renewal of the earth, the judgment, and the end of the world, these are only the principal epochs of a chain of events which are expressed in the most manifold separate pictures and traits (see Langes Life of Jesus: the Baptism of Jesus, the natural events at His death and ascension).
13. That the Scriptures neither know nor will know of pre-Adamites (see Hahn: Compendium of Faith, ii. p. 24), nor of various primitive aboriginal races, appears not only from Genesis 1, 2, but also from the consistent presumption and assertion of the entire Holy Writ; for example, Mat 19:4; Act 17:26; 1Co 15:47. Here we can bring out only the following points: 1. The original unity of the human race coincides with the doctrine of the unity of the fall of man in Adam, and the unity of the redemption in Christ. It also accords with the biblical and Christian idea of the unitary destination of the earth. 2. The autochthonic doctrine of the ancients stands in intimate connection with their polytheism; the special race of any certain land corresponds with the special gods of said land, as the speech of Paul in Athens clearly shows (Act 17:25-26). 3. The greatest naturalists have mostly declared themselves against the originality of different human races, see Langes Dogmatics, p. 330; the greater part of the earlier defenders of said view belonged to the department of natural philosophy. With the distinction of the various ground-types, which are formed from the one human species, the most serious difficulties are banished, though not solely by reference to climatic relations; and so in regard to the alleged fruitfulness of sexual combinations among the various races, the proof of such fruitfulness is justly pronounced one of the strongest proofs of unity. 5. The autochthonic theory has never been able to harmonize itself in relation to the ground-forms to be presented; and it can also, 6. not deny the fact that the origin of the various types of men points back to a common home in Asia.
14. As to the doctrine of the original image, compare the dogmatic works. The following distinctions need special attention: 1. and , image and likeness. The Greek expositors referred the first to the dispositions of man, and the latter to his normal development; thus also the scholastics referred the former to the sum-total of the natural powers of man (reason, liberty), and the latter to his pious and moral nature. This distinction appears again in another form in the older Protestant dogmatics, when it distinguishes between an image that man has not lost by sin (Gen 9:6; Jam 3:9), and such a one as he, in fact, has lost, although this Protestant distinction does not refer itself back to those words image and likeness. Image has already been made to refer to the similitude to God in man (the so-called ), likeness to man as microcosm in so far as he unites the whole world in himself and presents it in a reduced scale, because the world is a likeness of God on a grand scale (A. Feldhoff: Our Immortality, Kempten, 1836). We maintain rather that the image designates the principle in accordance with, and with a view to which, man has been createdconsequently, the dynamic-plastic idea of the God-Man (which view is supported by the fact that man, according to Genesis 3, wished arbitrarily to realize this idea). We maintain, therefore, that the image denotes the primitive image, as in Christ alone is it plainly so called,12 and comes in Him to its realized appearance. Therefore is it said in the image, that is, the determinable similitude of man in proportion to the image of Christ. The likeness, on the contrary, is the real appearance of the copied similitude, as it was peculiar to the first man in the condition of innocence from the beginning. The older Protestant dogmatics distinguished, as said (without reference to the words image and likeness), the substantial human affinity, to God, especially in spiritual powers, reason, etc., and the image in the narrower sense, the justitia originalis, the status integritatis with its separate attributes (especially impassibility, immortality). They laid the emphasis on the fact that the image in this stricter sense was lost. Thereby has this opinion, for its part, represented the glory of the first man in various ways as too much developed, whilst the Socinians, contrary to the nature of the spirit, would consider it as a mere abstract power (see Langes Positive Dogmatics, p. 304). 2. To say nothing now of the Encratites and Severians, who denied to the female sex a share in the similitude, there may be farther noted the strange contrast between such as would find the image merely in the bodily appearance of man (The Audians, and lately Hofmann), or merely in his spiritual nature (Alexandrians, Augustine, Zwingli), since here the simple observation suffices, that the body of man is above all an image of his peculiar spiritual nature. In accordance with this the similitude can naturally be understood only of man in his totality. Its root is the spiritual nature or the divine affinity, its appearance is the bodily form in which man effects his dominion over nature, and although this does not fulfil the idea of his similitude, it certainly appears as the first and most common realization of it. Man is the administrator of God on earth. The similitude, i. e., the disposition and designation of man to the image, has remained to him; the image in its integrity () he has lost. Still, an obscure outline of it, especially of the likeness, has remained to him, as is proved by the remains of the manifoldly evil administration of men on earth. The distorted image of the divine assumes various forms in sinful man, even to the image of evil spirits. One must make the distinction between the primitive image, Christ, and the copy, human nature, but not so as if the primitive image were the exclusive Godhead, or the copy pure creature. See also the article Image in Herzogs Real-Lexicon.
15. Man () indicates here collectively humanity according to its origin in the first human pair, or in the one man in general, who was certainly the universal primitive man and the individual Adam in one person. Adam, referring to Adamah; the red one, from the red earth taken. Or is it, in fact, as Starke maintains, the beautiful, the brilliant? It is true, in Arabic may also mean to be beautiful, to shine, and Gesenius remarks: solent Arabes duplex genus hominum distinguere, alterum rubrum, quod nos album appellamus, alterum nigrum. If the earth had the name of Adam, Adamah, as might be inferred from the first appearance of the word in Gen 2:7, the conception of Adam had a good sense, as brilliant, beautiful, analogous to the commendatory appellations of man in other nations. But it is clear that Adam is named according to Adamah, Gen 2:7, and so Paul has comprehended him as the (1Co 15:47). On the word Adam, comp. Delitzsch, pp. 141 and 619. The Scripture indicates by this name that it is in unity with the wonderful fact, that man was created by God, though he went forth from the earth in the form of a natural growth under an inspiration of the earth, as Steffens expresses himself.
16. The Sabbath. The view set up by Schrder and Gerlach of the late origin of the sabbath in the giving of the law, finds a contrast in the exaggerated importance of the significance of the word sabbath in Delitzsch (p. 131 ff.), where he says, Sunday has a churchly solemnization, but the sabbath remains the blessed and hallowed day of days, etc. The sense of these and similar words is not entirely clear, especially when one considers that under the days of creation Delitzsch does not understand real days but periods. Also the beautifully expressed parallel, in Delitzsch, of the creative Friday when everything was finished, and the Friday of the redemption, when Christ died with the words: It is finished; that is, the sabbath of creation and the day of rest of Christ in the grave, as bringing up with the resurrection of Christ the now prominent and deep significance of that first Sunday, when God said: Let there be light. For historical particulars, see Winer, article Sabbath; Hengstenberg: The Day of the Lord. See especially the article Sabbath by Oehler in Herzogs Real-Encyclopdia, where the existence of a clearly marked pre-Mosaic solemnization of the sabbath among the Jews, and the analogous existence of a heathen, that is, an Egyptian weekly festival, is decidedly questioned. That the heathen nevertheless, from time immemorial, have known certain festive periods, appears from their mythological systems.
17. As significant figures, as signs of a future sacred symbol of numbers already appearing in our section, are to be observed the number two, appearing in the various contrasts (heaven and earth, etc.) as the number of nature or of life; the number three in the contrast of the two ternaries; the number four as number of the world in so far, as on the fourth day the cosmos in the whole was completed; the number six as the number of labor, and seven as the sacred number of the divine labor concluded and perfected in the solemn rest of God. The number seven appears besides in the sevenfold, solemn expression: God saw that it was good. But the number ten also is seen in the tenfold introduction of the creative word: God spake: Let there be. 19. The first chapter of Genesis clearly contains the germs of all fundamental doctrines of theology in the stricter sense, as well as of anthropology; that is, it is the basis for the doctrine of God (the first article of the apostolic Confession of Faith), of His attributes and His personality, of the world, of the religious and earthly-real side of the world; finally of man, his nature, dignity, and destiny. With the image of God, in which man is created, is also expressed the future of Christ, as it lay in its ideal destination in the divine counsel from eternity (see Langes Dogmatics, p. 211). The possibility of sin is, moreover, alluded to in the words: Rule over them and make them subject to thee. It appears, however, more clearly in the second chapter.
HOMILETICAL AND PRACTICAL
(Kleist: Hymn to God; Gellert: God is my Song; Klopstocks Odes to Creation; Fr. Ad. Krummacher: The Days of Creation).Homily on the six days work from Gen 1:1 to Gen 2:3. Point of view: The creation as a revelation of God: 1. His omnipotence (Let there be!); 2. His wisdom (means and end, the grades of nature and the image of God); 3. His goodness (the living beings and their movement and nourishment); His love (man).The creation as a future of man (the preparation of the house of God for man and man for the house of God).The creation as the advent of the God-Man: 1. The days works of God a prophecy of Man 1:2. the perfected man on the sabbath of God a prophecy of the God-Man.The first creation a prefiguration of the second creation or the redemption.The week of God: 1. Gods work in nature; 2. Gods rest in man.The sabbath of God a prophecy of the divine Sunday.The week of God in the history of the world.The appointment of the whole course of the world as a work of God: 1. The Chiliastic error therein: the chronological computation, etc.; 2. the truth therein: the expectation of the divine period of rest (Revelation 20).The world according to its various forms: 1. As creation; 2. as nature; 3. as cosmos; 4. as on.The work of God and the work of man. What is different, and what is common to both: a. The order; b. the constancy; c. the gradual progression; d. the aim.The account of the creation contrasted with ancient and modern errors (see Doctrinal and Ethical).The account of the creation in its truth and sublimity.The basis of all the days works: Heaven and earth.The contrast of heaven and earth running through the entire Holy Writ as a symbol of religion.Heaven as the home of man whilst on the earth: 1. The sign of his origin; 2. the direction of his prayer; 3. the goal of his hope.The first three days work as the preparation of the last three.The word of God as the word of power in the creation.The spirit of God as the formative strength of all Gods works.Creation as a mirror of the Trinity.The creation a revelation of life from God: 1. The foundations of life in the elementary world; 2. the symbolical phenomena of life in the animal world; 3. the reality and truth of fife in the human world.The glory of the Lord in the work of creation: 1. The co-operation of all His qualities (omnipotence, omnipresence, omniscience, etc.); 2. the unity of all His attributes.Separate Sections and Verses. Gen 2:1 : In the beginning. The birth of the world also the birth of time. 1. The fact that the world and, time are inseparable; 2. the application: a. the operations in the world are bound to the order of time, b. time is given for labor. To-day, to-day!The relation of worldly time to the eternity of God (Psa 90:1).The beginning of the Scriptures goes back to the beginning of the world, as the end of the Scriptures extends to the end of the world.The outline of creation: Heaven and earth: 1. Heaven and earth in union; 2. earth for heaven; 3. heaven for earth.The primary form of the earth and the creation of light a picture of the redemption: 1. The redemption of mankind in general, 2. of the individual man.Waste and void the first form of the world.Laying the foundations of the world (Eph 1:4, and other passages).The spirit of God the sculptor of all forms of life.The word of God: Let there be: 1. How the growth of the world points back to the eternal existence of the word; 2. how the eternal word is the foundation for the growth of the world.The wordlet there bein its echo through time as the word of the creation, of the redemption and glorification.The first clearly defined creation: the light.The significance of light; its physical and religious significance.Gods survey of light.Light a source of life: 1. Its good as existing in its ground; 2. its beauty as disclosed in its appearing.The creation of light at the same time the creation of physical darkness (see Isaiah 45).How carefully we must guard against the commingling of natural and spiritual darkness.The natural darkness as it were a picture of the spiritual.But also a picture of the shadow of His wings.Evening and morning, or the great daily phenomenon of the alternation of time.The creation of light a days work of God: 1. The first days work; 2. a whole days work; 3. a continuous days work; 4. a days work rich in its consequences.The first day. Gen 2:6-8 : The second days work, or the firmament of heaven.The firmament in its changing phenomena a visible image of the invisible heaven.
Gen 2:9-10 : Land and sea. The beauty of the land, the sublimity of the sea. The symbolical significance of the land: the firm institutions of God; of the sea: the wave-like life of nations.The second day of God. Gen 2:9-13 : The earth and the vegetable world. The green earth a child of hope.The plant the prelude and symbol of all life (of animal, human, and spiritual).The providence of God in the creation of the vegetable world before the creation of animals and man.This providence a picture of the same providence with which he thought and commanded our salvation from eternity.The storehouses of the earth supplied before the appearance of man, according to the Scriptures and natural science (coal, minerals, salts, etc.).The third day. Gen 2:14-19 : The creation of the heavenly lights for the earth.The sun. The moon. Sun and moon (Psa 8:19). The stellar world.A glance of faith into the stellar world.The office of the stars for the earth: 1. Gods sign for faith; 2. sacred signs for the festive periods of the solemnization of the faith; 3. spiritual watchers and guides for the spiritual life of Man 1:4. homes of life for creature-life.The fourth day. Gen 2:20-23 : The life of the fishes in the sea and the birds under the heaven a sign of the possibility of an endlessly diversified existence of spiritual beings.The blessing of God on the animal world (in every climate and sea).The fifth day. Gen 2:24-25 : The animals of the earth as the forerunners of man: 1. The first signs and pictures of human life; 2. its most intimate assistants; 3. its first conditions.
Gen 2:2631: The creation of man: 1. A decree of God; 2. an announcement of the image of God; 3. the last work of God.The office of man: 1. Gods image in his power and perfection; 2. Gods likeness in his appearance.The perfect fulfilment of this destiny.The one divine similitude in the contrast of man and woman.The blessing of God on man: 1. His future; 2. his calling; 3. his possessions and his sustenance.The institution of marriage (see Genesis 2).The calling of man, throughout, a call to dominion: 1. In representing God; 2. in ruling over the beasts; 3. in the free self-control.The purity of the first creation.The verdict of God: Very good.
Gen 2:24-25 The sixth day.The completion of the world, the sabbath of God.The significance of the rest of God on the seventh day.The sabbath of God, the sabbath of man: 1. Man a sabbath of God; 2. God the sabbath of man.The contrast between struggling creation and joyful labor, also in the life of man.The blessing of God on the sabbath.The sabbath in its significance: 1. Its source in the heart of God, like the life of man (the bliss of God); 2. its signs: the solemn pauses (God saw that it was good), like the evening-rest, preludes of the Sunday; 3. its fruitfulness: the festivals of the Old Covenant, the Sunday of the New Covenant, the eternal sabbath-rest, and celebration of the Sunday in eternity.The festal demeanor according to the pattern of God: 1. Reposing; 2. blessing; 3. hallowing.The first completion of the world a presage of its final completion.
Starke, Gen 2:1 : The question what God did before the creation. He chose us (Eph 1:4), He prepared for us the kingdom (Mat 25:34), He gave us grace in Christ (2Ti 1:9), He made the decree of the creation.Some understand by the beginning the Son of God (Col 1:16; Rev 1:8), at which also the Chaldaic translation aims by rendering it: in wisdom (comp. Wisdom of Solomon Gen 9:4; Psa 104:24; Pro 8:22); but because the Son of God is nowhere13 absolutely called the beginning (see, however, Colossians 1, ), and Moses, besides, intends to describe the origin of the world, the first explanation is reasonably preferred to the second (namely, from the beginning of the creation).Moses, with these words: in the beginning, overthrows all the reasons of the heathen philosophers and atheists with which they maintain the eternity of the world, or that it perchance has arisen from numberless atoms (see Rom 1:19-20).That the world is not eternal may be seen from the following passages: Psa 90:2; Pro 8:22; Pro 8:24-25; Isa 45:11-12; comp. Gen 2:13; Mat 13:35; Mat 24:21; Mat 25:34; Mar 10:6; 2Ti 1:9; 2Pe 3:4; Joh 17:24; Eph 1:4; 1Pe 1:20.The spirit of God (Psa 33:6).
Gen 2:3 : Of the speaking of God. Although God did not speak as we do, nevertheless the speaking of God was a real genuine speech, in a higher but also more appropriate sense than speaking is said of man. For as God really and properly, although not in a natural manner, generates like man, so also is it with divine speech.
Gen 2:5 : God created light on a Sunday, and on that day the children of Israel passed through the Red Sea, etc.God is a father of lights (Jam 1:17), of the external light, of the internal, natural light of reason, of the spiritual light of grace, and the eternal light in yonder world of glory.
Gen 2:11 : The herbs not only a house of supply, but also a store for healing.To this third day belong also the subterranean treasures, as precious stones, metals, and other minerals.
Gen 2:29: We cannot say that they had not the liberty of eating flesh. Whether they really used this or preferred to eat fruits and herbs, we can reasonably refer to its proper place.(Gen 2:31: Since God could have created everything in a moment, no reasonable cause can be given why He preferred six days, unless we reflect that it had perhaps a reference to the six great changes in the church, to which will finally succeed the sabbath of the saints. Thus the first day is a prefiguration of the time from Adam to Noah, etc.)A Christian can use the creatures, but he must not misuse them (1Co 7:31) that they groan not against him (Rom 8:19).Gen 2:3 : Discussion whether the first men were bound to respect the sabbath. On the contrary: 1. Every service of God connected with certain times and places had a view to man after the fall; 2. man in a state of innocence has served God at all times and in all places; the sabbath was first instituted in the wilderness: God gave the sabbath only to the Jews. Reasons for it: Appeal to the contents of our passage, etc.The sabbath-day a favor of God.
Schrder to Gen 2:3 : Then spake God, says Chrysostom, let there be light, and there was light, but now He has not spoken it, but Himself has become our light.From Valerius Herberger: But it is much more that the Lord Jesus will finally transport us, after this temporal light, into the eternal light of heaven, where we shall see God in His light face to face, and praise Him in the everlasting heavenly light and glory.From Luther: He utters not grammatical words, but real and material things. Thus sun, moon, heaven, earth, Peter, Paul, I and thou are scarcely to be reckoned words of God, yea, hardly a syllable and letter (?) in comparison to the entire creation.From Michaelis: Moses endeavors in the whole history of the creation to present God not merely as almighty, but at the same time as perfect, wise, and good, Who considers all His works and has created the best world.
Gen 2:6-8 : The conclusion of the first days work was an actual prophecy of the work of the second day of creation. It was on the basis of the light shining into and separating the moist chaos of the world, that God made the division.From Calvin: We well know that torrents of rain arise in a natural manner, but the flood sufficiently proves how soon we can be overwhelmed by the violence of the clouds, if the cataracts of heaven are not stayed by the hand of God.God named. The subsequent naming on the part of man is only the prophetic fulfilment of the naming of God here and elsewhere.
Gen 2:9-13 : The first (rather the second) division (Gen 2:6-8) is followed by a second, both closely and intimately clinging to and antithetically conditioning each other, for which reason some would even reckon Gen 2:9-10 to the preceding day.Valentin Herberger: Is it not a miracle? We take a handful of seed and strew them on one earth and soil, where they have the same food, sap, and care, nevertheless they do not commingle, but each produces its kind: the one white, the other yellow, the fruit sweet and sour, brown and black, red and green, fragrant and offensive, high and low. Thus we, though, like the seeds, buried in one consecrated ground (Sir 40:1), will nevertheless at the day of judgment not be confounded with each other, but each will go forth in his flesh, yet incorruptible (1Co 15:38).
Gen 2:14-19. From Luther: He maintains the same order as in the three preceding days, in that He first adorns the heavens with lights and stars, and afterwards the earth. Even the heathen philosopher Plato says, that eyes are especially given to men that, by the observation of the heavenly bodies and their movements, they may be to them as guides to the knowledge of God. It is by the heavenly bodies that men judge of the weather; by their help they find their way on the water and on the land. So, too, a star led the wise men to the manger, etc.Michaelis: They (the stars) are the great and almost infallible clock of the world, ever moving at the same rate.From Luther: Hereby is developed and shown to us the immortality of the soul, from the fact that, with the exception of man, no creature can understand the movement of the heavens, nor measure the heavenly bodies. The hog, the cow, and the dog cannot measure the water that they drink, but man measures the heavens and all their hosts. Therefore there shows itself here a spark of eternal life.From Calvin: Moses paid more attention to us than to the stars, precisely as became a theologian.The true morning-star is Christ (Rev 22:16), the sun of righteousness (Mal 4:2).The animals of the water are in marked contrast with the animals of the air. Water and air. The latter is as it were the embodied liquid light, the former embodied darkness; in its depths there is neither summer nor winter, it is the heavy melancholy element, whilst the air, light and cheerful, gives life and breath everywhere. The inhabitants of the former are opposed to those of the latter, the fish to the birds, as water and air, darkness and light. The fish is cold, stiff, mute; the bird warm, free, and full of melody. Yet not without reason were both created on one and the same day. They have many things in common, and are in structure and movement closely and intimately allied; the variegated scaly mail of the fish points to the colored feathery coat of the bird, and what the wings are to the latter, the fins are to the former. Water and air once lived together, and do so now; as the air descends into sea and earth, and vivifyingly penetrates the water, the latter, for its part, rises into the air, and mingles with the atmosphere to its remotest border.That God blesses the animals, expresses the thought, that God creatively endows animals with the power of propagating their kind, and also points to the work of preserving the world. Here we see what a blessing really means, namely, a powerful increase. When we bless we do nothing more than to wish good; but in Gods blessing there is a sound of increase, and it is immediately efficacious; so again, His curse is a withering, and its effect in like manner immediately consuming. Luther.Only the largest water-animals are introduced, because from them the greatness, omnipotence, and glory of the creator most clearly shine forth. The land-animals a product of the earthwith heads bent downwards.Various views as to the time of the creation of the angels (p. 20).The Redeemer rests also through the seventh day in the grave.In divinely solemn stillness lay the young world, a mirror of the Godhead, before the eyes of the still unfallen first human pair, as with Him they kept holy day, representing in their divine similitude the sabbath of God in the creation, and the sabbath of the creation in God, harmoniously joined in one.Of a sabbath-law, there is nothing said in the text. Israels later sabbaths (as the whole law was to awaken a sense of sin) were reminding copies of this sabbath of God after the creation, and unfulfilled prophecies not only of the completion of the theocracy of the Old in the Christocracy of the New Covenant, but also of the final consummation of the present order of things, especially on the last great sabbath, etc.The ancient allegorizing of the days of creation according to the periods of the kingdom of God (p. 23).Six days, says Calvin, the Lord occupied in the structure of the world, not as if He needed these periods, before whom a moment is a thousand years, but because He will bind us to the observing of each one of His works. He had the same object in His repose on the seventh day. (Augustine had already expressed himself in the same way. There lies at the base of this an abstract comprehension of the divine omnipotence, and a great ignoring of the idea of nature. Luthers conjecture: The fall occurred on the first day of creation, about noon.)
Lisco: Death is nothing in the creation. Everything lives, but in very manifold modification.Man is created in the image of God, i. e., so that all divine glory shines forth in him in a reduced scale. He has a nature allied to God, and therein lies the possibility and capability of becoming ever more like God.The whole human race is one great family. All are blood-relations.The dominion of man over nature obtains, in progressive development and extension, by the arts and sciences, by investigation of natures laws, and by using its powers (of course, under the conditioning of life in the spirit through community with God).
Gerlach: The whole subsequent history is written only for men (i. e., according to the human stand-point); therefore sun, moon, and stars, the host of heaven (Gen 2:1), appear merely as lights in the firmament of heaven, and nothing is told us of the inhabitants of heaven, although even in this book the angels frequently appear, and the fall of some is already in Genesis 3 presupposed, etc.All things have had a beginning.The world was to develop itself in the contrast of heaven and earth, which repeats itself on a small scaleon earth, in spirit and nature, and in man, in spirit and flesh.It is self-evident, therefore, that Gods speaking is not the production of an audible sound, but the realization of His thoughts through an act of His will.The naming is equivalent to determining something in accordance with its nature or its appearance. There is thereby indicated the power of God as ruling and thinking all things. (The naming here is not meant as a creative calling, but as an expression of the divine adaptation.)The upper firmament from which descend light and warmth and fertilizing moisture, casting blessings on the earth, attracting with its wonderful moving and fixed lights the observation of the rudest man, and drawing forth the anticipation of, and longing for, a higher home than this earthly one, is, the visible pledge, yes, perhaps the distant gleam, of a heavenly world of light. It bears with it, therefore, a name which is the same with the kingdom, where in undimmed light our Father in heaven reveals Himself.As originally everything was sea, thus in the glorified earth there will be no more sea.It is absurd to suppose, because fruit-trees only are here spoken of, that the others, as thorns and thistles, did not appear until after the fall of man. (Only the fact that they at a later period burdened the field, is alluded to by Augustine as a punishment.) A very fitting distinction of a similitude of man, which cannot be lost, and of such a one as has been lost.The reader must carefully guard against the Jewish fables which have also found their way among Christians, namely, that man was at first created as man and woman in one person, and afterwards both sexes were separated from it.God rested, etc. Perfect rest and the greatest activity are one in Him (see Joh 5:17).Whether a fixed observance of the seventh day was ordered with the revelation of the history of creation, or whether this was first given to the people of the law with the other laws, presents an obscure question, but the latter view is the more probable; in Genesis, at least, there is found no trace of the observance of the sabbath, and still less among heathen nations; the division of weeks, as found among some, might have been made according to the quarters of the moon. (The knowledge of the week, and the religious consecration of this knowledge, forms, indeed, the patriarchal religious basis of the sabbath-law, which no more came into the world abruptly than any other religious institution.)
Calwer Bible Exposition: The number seven, important through the whole Old Testament, reminds one of the year of jubilee and the rest of the sabbath which is allotted to the people of God above, whither Jesus has gone before to prepare a place for His own.Bunsen: The days of creation go from light to light, from one (outstreaming) of light to another. Man as the real creature of light is the last progressive step.Fruits of trees above the earth in contrast with bulbous plants, which are included in the herbs (?).Signs. Sun, moon, and stars; especially sun and moon are to be signs for three important points: for festive periods (new moons and sabbaths), for days of the month, and for the new year (beginning of the solar and lunar year).The week has its natural basis in the approximate duration of the four phases or appearances of the moons disk, whose unity forms the first measure of time, or the month, according to the general view of all Shemites. Astronomically the number seven has in the ancient world, and especially among the Shemites, its representation in the seven planets, or wandering stars, according to the view of the senses (?): the moon, Mercury, Venus, the sun, Mars, Jupiter, and Saturn. Thence comes also the series of our week-days.Arndt (Christ in the Old Covenant): As long as there is a world there is an advent.The birth of the world is the great moment of which it is declared: God said: Let there be light, and there was light.
[Note on the Creation-Sabbath.The question of the sabbath in all its aspects stands wholly clear from any difficulty as to the length of the creative days. We have already shown that there is not only a bare consistency but a beautiful scriptural harmony in the less being made a memorial of the greater. See Introd. to Genesis 1 pp. 135, 136. Gods great rest, or ceasing from His work of creation, commences with the first human consciousness following the inspiration that makes the primus homo. Then the heavens and the earth are finished. Nature and the world are complete in this crowning work, and the divine sabbath begins. This is blessed and hallowed. Time, as a part of nature, is now proceeding in its regular sun-divided order, and from this time a seventh returning part is also blessed and hallowed for man, as a season in which he is to rest from his works, and contemplate that now unceasing sabbath of God, which, from the very nature of the case, can have no such shorter recurring intervals. Hence the force of our Saviours words that the sabbath, the weekly solar sabbath, was made for man. They who contend that the divine sabbath is simply the first twenty-four hours after creation is finished, make it unmeaning, as predicated of God and His works. In this sense God no more rested on that solar day than on every one that follows until a new creative on, or a new creative day, arises in the eternal counsels. Such a view destroys the beautiful analogy pervading the Scripture, by which the less is made the type of the greater, the earthly of the heavenly, the temporal of the eternal. It makes the earthly human sabbath a memorial of something just like itself, of one long-past solar day, of one single transient event, instead of being the constantly recurring witness of an onian state, an eternal rest, ever present to God, and reserved for man in the unchanging timeless heavens.
But the question with which we are most concerned is in regard to the sabbath as established for man. Does this seventh day, or this seventh portion of time, which God blessed and hallowed, have thus an eternal and universal ground as a memorial of the creative work with its sevenfold division, or does it derive its sanction from a particular law made long after for a particular and peculiar people? The question must be determined by exegesis, and for this we have clear and decisive, if not extensive, grounds. It demands the close consideration of two short passages, and of a word or two in each. And God blessed the seventh day, Gen 2:3. Which seventh day? one might ask, the greater or the less, the divine or the human, the onian or the astronomical? Both, is the easy answer; both, as commencing at the same time, so far as the one connects with astronomical time; both, as the greater including the less; both, as being (the one as represented, the other as typically representing) the same in essence and idea. The attempt to make them one in scale, or in measure, as well as in idea, does in fact destroy that universality of aspect which comes from the recurring, moving type as representing the standing antitype. Take away this, and all that we can make out of the words, as they stand in Gen 2:3, is that God blessed that one seventh day (be it long or short), or, on the narrower hypothesis, that one day of twenty-four hours which first followed His ceasing to create, and left it standing, sacred and alone, away back in the flow of time. But blessing the day means blessing it for some purpose: it is the expression of Gods love to it as a holy and beneficent thing among the things of time, as carrying ever with it something of God, some idea of the Blesser, and of the love and reverence due to Him as the fountain of all blessedness and of all blessed things. So the blessing upon man looks down through all the generations of man. No narrower idea of the blessing of the sabbath can be held without taking from the word all meaning. And hallowed it, , and made it holy. This also is a very plain Hebrew word, especially in its Piel form, as any one may see by examining it with a concordance. We have given to the word unholy (the etymological opposite) too much the vague sense of wickedness in general, to allow of its fairly representing the opposite in idea. The holy throughout the Old Testament is opposed to the common, however lawful in itself it may be. To hallow is to make uncommon. To hallow a time is to make it a time when things which are common at other times, and peculiar to other times, should not be done, but the time so hallowed should be devoted to other and uncommon uses. Of course, things essential and necessary at all times are not included, or excluded, in such distinction. Neither will it hold of days or times that mere human authority thus devotes to any separate uses. Such devotion may be as partial, or as indefinite, as the authority chooses to make it. But when God hallows a time it is for Himself. Not simply whatever man does, but whatever he does for himself, or for his individual worldly interest, at other times, that must he not do on the times that God has hallowed for His own special remembrance; but he must, on the contrary, do other things which are more immediately connected with that special remembrance. Anything less than this as a general principle leaves the word to hallow or make holy, as used by God, and of God (unless specially limited to some partial application), an unmeaning utterance. It is the portion of time which the Creator of time keeps for Himself, out of the time He has given to man. It is elevating a portion of the human time to the standard, or in the direction at least, of Gods own eternal sabbath. There can be no hallowed time to God alone; there can be no hallowed time in itself irrespective of any agents in time. Therefore, the expression, He hallowed it, must be for men, for all men who were to be on the earth, or it is a mere blank. It is Gods day in which men should live specially for Him. It is sometimes said, we should live every day for God. If it be meant that there should be no special times in which we live to God as we do not, and cannot, at all times (when God permits us, in living for Him, to live also for ourselves), then is it a hyper-piety which becomes profanity in claiming to be above the need of a provision instituted by the divine wisdom and grace. Like to this is the plea, that, if there be a sabbath at all, it should be spent, not in religious acts, so called, but in the study and the contemplation of nature. This cavil has a high sound, but it would soon be abandoned, perhaps, by many that use it, if the contemplation of nature spoken of were what it ought to be, a contemplation of the very sabbath of Godnature itself being that holy pause in which God rests from His creative energies, that ineffable repose in which, though superintending and preserving, He provides for man through law that he can comprehend, and an executing Word that he can devoutly study.
If we had no other passage than this of Gen 2:3, there would be no difficulty in deducing from it a precept for the universal observance of a sabbath, or seventh day, to be devoted to God, as holy time, by all of that race for whom the earth and its nature were specially prepared. The first men must have known it. The words He hallowed it, can have no meaning otherwise. They would be a blank unless in reference to some who were required to keep it holy. After the fall, the evil race of Cain, doubtless, soon utterly lost the knowledge. In the line of Seth it may have become greatly dimmed. Enoch, we cannot hesitate to believe, kept holy sabbath, or holy seventh day (whether the exact chronological seventh or not), until God took him to the holy rest above. It lingered with Noah and his family, if we may judge from the seven-day periods observed in the ark. Of the other patriarchs, in this respect, nothing is directly told us. They were devout men, unworldly men, confessing themselves pilgrims on earth, seeking a rest. Nothing is more probable, prima facie, than that such men, as we read of them in Genesis, and as the Apostle has described them to us, should have cherished an idea so in harmony with their unearthly pilgrim-life, even though coming to them from the faintest tradition. To object that the Bible, in its few brief memoranda of their lives, says nothing about their sabbath-keeping, any more than it tells us of their forms of prayer and modes of worship, is a worthless argument. The Holy Scripture never anticipates cavils; it never shows distrust of its own truthfulness by providing against objectionsobjections we may say that it could have avoided, and most certainly would have avoided, had it been an untruthful book made either by earlier or later compilers. The patriarchs may have lost the tradition of the sabbath; it may not have come to them over the great catastrophe of the flood; or they may have lost the chronological reckoning of it; but, in either case, it would not affect the verity of the great facts and announcements in Genesis 1, 2, however, or by whatever species of inspiration, the first author of that account obtained his knowledge. For all who believe the Old Scriptures, as sanctioned by Christ and supported by the general biblical evidence, there it stands unimpaired by anything given or omitted in the subsequent history.
But there is another passage which shows conclusively that, through whatever channel it may have come, such a knowledge of the sabbath was in the world after the time of the patriarchs. The language of the fourth commandment (Exo 20:8), to say nothing of Exo 16:22-27, cannot be interpreted in any other way. Remember the sabbath-day, . The force of the article is there, though omitted, in the Hebrew syntax, because of the specifying word that follows. It is just as though we should say in English: Remember sabbath-day. Take the precisely similar language, Mal 3:22, : Remember the law of Moses, or, Remember Moses law. As well might one contend that this was the first promulgation of the Pentateuch, as that Exo 20:8 was the first setting forth of the sabbatical institution. There was no call for such language had that been the case. It would have been in the style of the other commands: Thou shalt have no other gods; Thou shalt not take the name, etc.; Thou shalt keep a sabbath, or rest, etc. We dwell not upon the distinct reference that follows to the creation-sabbath, and the perfect similarity of reason and of language. The artless introduction is enough to show that those to whom it was addressed are supposed to have known something of the ancient institution, however much its observance may have been neglected, or its reckoning, perhaps, been forgotten. The use of the word (remember) would seem to point to some such danger of misreckoning, as though the Lawgiver meant to connect it back chronologically, by septennial successions, with the first sabbath, or the first day of the conscious human existence. Or he may have had in view future reckonings. The old law of a seventh day, or a seventh of time, being preserved as an immutable principle, there might have been a peculiar memorial reckoning for the Jewish people, as there afterwards was for the Christian church when the resurrection of Christ was taken for the initial day of reckoning, as being, in a most solemn sense, to the church, what the creative finishing had been to the world. So that, in this respect, the Christian seventh day may have been no more a substitution than the Jewish.
A seventh part of time is holy for man. God blessed it and hallowed it. Such is the deduction from the language of Gen 2:3. There are other questions relating to the sabbath, its adaptation to the human physical constitution, and the change of reckoning as between the Jewish and Christian dispensations, but they would come more in place in commenting on some other parts of the sacred volume, to which they may be, therefore, referred. The religious aspect appears more in the universal hallowing in Genesis than in the more national establishment among the Jews, where mere rest from labor seems more prominent than religious worship, or that holy contemplation of the divine which is the living thought in the creative account, and which comes out again so emphatically in the Christian institution as more suggestive, than the Jewish, of the eternal rest. It is a great, though very common, mistake, that the Jewish aspect of the sabbath is the more severely religious, as compared with the Christian, which is sometimes claimed to be more free in this respect. Strict as the Jewish institution was, in its prohibitions of labor, it was in fact the less religious; it had less of holy contemplation; it had no worship prescribed to it; it was, in a word, more secular than the primitive or the Christian, as being enjoined more for secular ends, namely bodily rest and restoration for man and beast, and even for the land. These, indeed, are important ends still remaining. The connections between the sabbath and the physical constitution of man form a most valuable part of the general argument, but as they bear upon the biblical view as collateral confirmation rather than as connected with its direct sanctions, we would simply refer the reader to some of the more instructive works that have been written on this branch of the subject.
James Aug. Hessey: Sunday, its Origin, History, and Present Obligation (Bampton Lectures preached before the University of Oxford), London. 1860; James Gilfillan: The Sabbath viewed in the Light of Reason, Revelation, and History, with Sketches of its Literature, Edinburgh, 1862, republished by the N. Y. Sabbath Committee and the American Tract Society, New York, 1862; Philip Schaff: The Anglo-American Sabbath (an Essay read before the National Sabbath Convention, Saratoga, Aug. 11, 1863), New York, 1863 (republished in English and in German by the American Tract Society); Mark Hopkins: The Sabbath and Free Institutions (read before the same Convention), New York, 1863; Robert Cox: The Literature on the Sabbath-Question, Edinburgh, 1865, 2 vols. On the practical aspects of the sabbath-question, comp. the Documents prepared and published by the N. Y. Sabbath Committee from 1857 to 1867.T. L.]
Footnotes:
[1][We get the best order of senses in the root and its cognate , by regarding, as the primary, the idea of splendor, or glory, as it remains in the noun . See its use, Isa 4:2, where it seems synonymous with , Isa 13:19, and a number of other places. The secondary sense of host, orderly military array (comp. Son 6:10), comes very easily and naturally from it. Or we may say that along with the idea of hosts, as in the frequent , Jehovah of hosts, it never loses the primary conception. Thus the earth and the heavens were finished and all their glory, or their glorious array. Compare the Syriac , decus, ornamentum, where the servile tau has become radical. The LXX. and Vulgate translators seem to have had something of this idea: omnis ornatus eorum. There is a grand significance in the Greek and Latin mundus as thus used for the world or the array (artistic unity) of the worlds. is the Hebrew for , and thus there is a most sublime parallelism presented by its two expressions: and Lord of the worlds in space, King of the worlds in time: , Psa 145:13; Isa 26:4; 1Ti 1:17. The Hebrew far transcends the Greek.T. L.]
[2][The Scriptures, says Delitzsch in his comment on , p. 129, do not hesitate to speak anthropopathically of Gods entrance into rest. As far as the word is concerned, there is no anthropathism here except as all human language, and all human conception, in respect to Deity, is necessarily suchthat is, necessarily representing him in space and time. The primary sense of the word is simply to cease, cease doingas the LXX. render it, not which carries the idea of recreation or refreshment after fatigue, like , or the Hebrew Niphal . When joined with this latter verb, as in Exo 31:17, the whole language may be called anthropopathic, but the added word shows that the idea expressed by it is not in the first. If ceasing from creation, wholly or partially, implies mutability, it is no less implied in the emanation-theory, unless we suppose an emanation, or necessary creation, of every possible thing, everywhere, always, and of the highest degreein other words, an unceasing and unvaried filling of infinite space and infinite time with infinite perfection of manifestation. But waiving all such inconceivable subtleties, it may be truly said that rest, of itself, is a higher and more perfect state than outward actionif we may speak of anything as higher and lower in respect to God. Rest is not inertia. Rest in physics is the equilibrium of power, and so the maximum of power (re-sto, re-sisto). Motion is the yielding, or letting out, of power, necessary, indeed, for its manifestation or patent effect, yet still a dispersing or spending of that static energy which was in the quiescence. Absolute rest in the kosmos (the bringing it into, or keeping it in, that state) would be the highest exercise of the divine might; but as it would preclude all sensation, and all sentiency, both of which are inseparable from change or motion of some kind, it would be an absence of all outward manifestation; that is, it would be non-phenomenal or non-appearing. So also rest is the highest power (activity) of mind or spirit, and thus its highest state. This is Aristotles dictum, Ethic. Nichomach. x. 8, Genesis 7 : , the perfect blessedness is a contemplative energy; so that (sec. 8) that energy of God which excels all in blessedness must be contemplative (or theoretical), and, of human things, that which is most akin to this must be most blessed (). In this way, too, may we strive to obtain a conception of the sabbath or rest of the saints. The Scripture thought of this would seem to be as much opposed to torpor or inertia, on the one hand, as it is, on the other, to that busy doing which enters so much into some modern conceptions of the future life. They that believe have entered into rest. There can be no doubt, too, that the idea of holy contemplation, or sabbath-keeping in the festal sense of the word, on which Lange so much insists, enters into the idea of here in Genesis, although derived, perhaps, from its subsequent use. In this sense, there is something of a sabbath whenever there come the words: and God saw (surveyed, contemplated), saw that it was good. It is a solemn pausing to behold the divine ideas in their outward appearingnot as a change in Deity, as though with him this took place at intervals, but as a presentation, for the time, of that constant, immutable aspect of the divine character as it comes forth at intervals for us. This eternal rest of God is the sun ever shining calmly above the clouds, yet now and then revealing itself through them as they break away over our changing world of nature and of time. It is such a timeless sabbath that is intended by Rabbi Simeon, as quoted by Raschi in his comment. on the words seventh day, Gen 2:2. Flesh and blood has need to add the common to the holy time (to reckon them by passing intervals) but to the Holy One, blessed be He, it is as the thread that binds the hair, and all days appear as one. Compare it with the , the bundle of life, or lives, 1Sa 25:29, and which is so often referred to by the Rabbinical writers.T. L.]
[3][The simplest rendering of the Hebrew here would give the easiest and the plainest sense. It is that presented in our marginal reading, taking , not as a gerund (faciendo), but literally, as an infinitive of purpose: which God had created to make. It suggests nearly the distinction given by Delitzsch between the fundamental and that which followsthe ground-laying and the finishing, the material-gathering and the architectural arrangement of the structure. So the Vulgate: Quod Deus creavit ut faceret, and Onkelos: .T. L.]
[4][This word is not to be found in any English dictionary, but we are compelled to Latinize here, and form a word, from principium principia, to correspond to Langes word prinzipielle. Our principal is too vague, and used in too many senses, to answer the purpose.T. L.]
[5]With respect to dogmatical literature on the account of the Creation, examine Bretschneider: Systematical Development of Dogmatic Ideas, p. 450.
[6][For this thought of Lange, which some might regard as pure fancy, there is an etymological ground in the Hebrew language. The words for light, and for the motions of light, have a close affinity to those for flying, compare , volare, , vibrare, rendered tenebr, but which strictly means the earliest twilight or twinkling of the morning, and that beautiful word, , palpebr auror, Job 3:9; Job 41:10 , Soph. Antig. 103, the eye-lids, the opening wing of the morning. Compare also , volavit, Jer 48:9, and , splenduit, micavit, shone, glistened, glimmered, , a flower, etc. It is something more than a mere poetical image when we speak of light as having wings, especially as the conception is applied to the faint gleaming, glimmering, fluttering, we may say, just waving up out of the darkness. How natural the order of the images: to fly, flutter, palpitate, vibrate, quiver, twinkle, glimmer, gleam, shine. Comp. Engl.: fly, Hare, flash; Latin: volo (volito), flo, flare, flamma. So spiritually, idea and reflection support the same analogy. It may be the piercing eye of the eagle that represents the idea, but the other view has the best philological grounds.T. L.]
[7][We have placed this sentence in italics as containing a truth of vast importance, transcending all science on the one hand, and all theology that places itself in antagonism to science on the other. If it contains truth in respect to the world, then, a fortiori, is it true in respect to man, who is the final cause, or the spiritual core of the world, as Lange elsewhere styles him. There is an eternal ground for the world; much more is there an eternal ground for humanity (Adam-ity); beyond all, is there an eternal ground for the new humanity (Christ-ianity). Chosen in Him before the foundation of the world.T. L.]
[8] [This conception seems to be sanctioned by Lange, but there is no proof of it. Instead of being suggested by the figure of the mundus (which is not like an egg, or the earth like its yolk, unless we make very ancient the knowledge, or notion, of the earths sphericity), this so common feature of the old cosmogonies came most probably from the idea of a brooding, cherishing, life-producing power, represented in Genesis by the , the throbbing, pulsating, moving spirit-from , primary sense in Piel, palpitare, secondary sense, yet very ancient in the Syriac, to love warmly, or with the strongest affection. Hence in the Greek cosmogony the first thing born of this egg was , the primitive love, which shows that the egg had nothing to do with the figure of the earth, either real or supposed. See the Birds of Aristophanes, 697, where the poet calls it , the egg produced without natural impregnation:
,
From which sprang Love the all desired, [9][Dr Langes fancy here seems altogether too exuberant. The parallelism with the Mosaic account in the 104th Psalm is too striking to be mistaken. It was doubtless, too, in the mind of the writer of the Apocalypse, as it is also evident in the beginning of the Gospel of John, but many of the resemblances here traced by Dr. Lange altogether fail to satisfy.T. L.]
[10][Dr. Langes rendering here is that of Luther, and is the same with our English translation. But there can be hardly a doubt of its being erroneous. It should be, that there shall be no more delaythat is, in what is to follow. See Bloomfield.T. L.]
[11][It may seem strange that Dr. Lange, while laying so much stress on these remoter, if not altogether fanciful, parallelisms with the creative account which he finds in the Apocalypse, should have overlooked the much more distinct reference in the beginning of the Gospel of John. Whether the principium there is the same with that in Genesis, may admit of discussion, but there can be no doubt of the parallelism, and the mention of light and life immediately following makes it unmistakable. It is a higher light, indeed, for the darkness overtakes it not, as it should be rendered. There is no night following that new and eternal day, and so there are no mornings and evenings to succeed. It is a new creation, and a new chronology, but this idea only makes more clear the reference to the old Mosaic creation and the Mosaic days.T. L.]
[12][Compare Heb 1:3, where Christ is called the express image, which is a poor translation of the Greek , the impression, stamp, or image of the substance. Compare, also, Coloss. Gen 1:15 : image of the invisible God.T. L.]
[13][Unless it be Pro 8:22, , which can only be rendered Jehovah possessed me, or begat me, the beginning of his way. This probably was the ground of the translation in the Jerusalem Targum, and there would seem to be something in it, if we would in any way connect the creation of the world with the eternal beginning, as Lange does in respect to the creation of the churchchosen in Him, created in Him. The expressions seem parallel.T. L.]
Thus the heavens and the earth were finished, and all the host of them.
This Chapter is remarkable for the events recorded in it, which took place immediately after creation-work was finished. In it is contained, also, the first institution of the sabbath, the blessings God pronounced upon it, and the sanctification of it. A description of the garden of Eden; of the tree of life; and of the tree of knowledge of good and evil. A more particular account of the formation of the first woman; and of the sacred institution of marriage.
The Creator Explained By the Creation
Gen 2:2
Given the Creation, to find the Creator, at least to conjecture about Him.
Given the house, to discover something about the builder of it, or the owner or the occupant. It is a large house; very well, then the man behind it, who made it, or is responsible for it, must be a man of some substance and property. It is an artistically furnished house; every piece of furniture has been set down by the hands of love just in the right place and in the right light and in the right relation to every other piece: then the man who made all this arrangement must, of necessity, have the mind, the instinct, or the training of an artist. No house ever made itself, therefore I think the heavens and the earth cannot have made themselves; no candle ever lighted its own wick, therefore I should be surprised if the stars were their own lamplighters.
I. I begin to feel that if any man suggested to me that all this creation-house was built by an Infinite Power and an Infinite Intelligence, I should believe him. In very deed it seems like it; all the pieces are so vast; arithmetic endeavoured to calculate their distances, and having written an endless line of ciphers, it threw down the chalk and ran away, because it could not express in words its own discoveries. God is as great in detail as He is in the totality and massiveness of things. I read in the first chapter of the book of Genesis a most astounding thing: that God said ‘Let there be light,’ and He made the grass, and there is no sense of anticlimax or retrocession in the action of Divine power. God is furnishing a house for some one, and He will not leave that some one to find the grass; if God undertakes to furnish a place it will be well furnished and completely furnished, and not only will there be great lights and great spaces, but man will not be asked to create one blade of grass, it shall all be done for him.
II. God came nearer still to us in the work which He made and which He ended. He incarnated Himself, He infleshed Himself, He embodied Himself. There stands the incarnation! What is his name? Adam ‘God created man in His own image, in the image and likeness of God created He him’. That is the daring solution of the great problem of human existence as given by the Bible.
III. In all the work which He wrought did He ever speak? He spake all the time. Sometimes I think there is a sound as of subdued singing, a suppressed psalm running through all the action of the Creation. ‘God said’ then He spake? Yes; all things start in the word. Did not man make words? No; all the words were made before man came upon the scene at all. They were such great words that the first Speaker used in the making of His heaven-and-earth house.
God not only said, God blessed; so to say, He laid His gracious right hand upon the things and said to each, Very good; take thy place, work out the purpose which I have written in the psalm of thine heart. God not only said, and blessed, God called: gave names to things, gave names to great spaces and left some little small pieces of things which we might name, but all the great broad names, names of comprehension, names that grasp the totality and the destiny of things, He Himself made.
IV. We are invited, by a meditation like this not to go into eternity, the metaphysical and unthinkable eternity, to find God; we are invited to stand before the first molehill, before the first time-written rock that tells its tale in facial moss; we are invited to go out into the twilight and to ask, Who did this, who built this, who keeps this in order, who guarantees that these planets will not fall on this head? Surely the argument upon which the Christian faith is built is eminently reasonable, it is an argument which we apply along the whole line of our experience; then when we come into the deeper mysteries, the great spiritual verities, we are prepared to enter the holy of holies just in the degree in which we have carefully, intelligently, and lovingly walked along the line of what may be called natural creation and natural phenomena. If we have been reverent along that line we shall hear greater mysteries still.
We are asked in the New Testament to believe that God redeemed man. In very deed redemption is implied in creation. Never forget that words have not only a superficial meaning but an implied meaning, an enfolded and concealed meaning, which must be taken out and allowed to develop in all the fulness of their beauty and poetry. So read, created means redeemed, as the beginning means the end.
Joseph Parker, City Temple Pulpit, vol. vii. p. 8.
References. II. 3. F. Corbett, Preachers’ Year, p. 41. R. S. Candlish, The Book of Genesis, p. 18. II. 4. F. W. Robertson, Notes on Genesis, p. 16.
Gen 2:7
When? If you look in the margin of your Bible you will see ‘4004 years before Christ’. Is that right? It is no part of the original book. It is only a marginal note which was made there by those who calculated according to the genealogies of those men who, generation by generation, succeeded Adam. But it will not do.
I. Age by Age. We read this morning of the Creation of the world. We read to-night a continuation of the story and of that time when the Lord God formed man out of the dust of the ground. Have we here in this book of Genesis an account of seven actual days of twenty-four hours? ‘And the evening and the morning were the first day,’ ‘and the evening and the morning were the second day,’ and so on. Surely not. What is it that science has revealed to us about all this? It has revealed to us that the Creation as we now hold it must have taken something like 4000 million years at least. God works very slowly, and when we read of God working day by day we know that he who wrote these words meant ‘age by age’. ‘And the evening and the morning were the first day.’ Why, the very expression suggests to us the length of time the long night of God’s creation. From the little to the greater; from the twilight to the dawn. Thus God worked. It is very important that we should remember this: otherwise we should be so staggered in the matter of our religion; otherwise we should find ourselves face to face with such tremendous difficulties. Science has revealed so much to us that we did not know when man wrote in the margin ‘4004 years’.
II. The Identity of Science and the Bible How has God been working then? Science teaches us so much, and if we do not believe science we shall become very unsettled in our minds, and we shall say to ourselves, What about this book? is it true? can it be trusted? And then we recall to mind that our Lord Jesus Christ took this book for true and quoted from it, and we shall say to ourselves, Was He too mistaken? But we must not do that. Whatever science teaches us accurately and fairly we must face, and we need never be afraid if we do so that the truth of science will clash with God’s holy word. What is it we really find in this book of Genesis? We find most accurate scientific language. We find the one who writes this book to say that through long ages God created a world, and we find that He first created that which is inorganic to speak popularly the earth next vegetable life, then animal life, then man’s life. And that is just what science says was done. If you can read and understand the Hebrew you will find four words used to express this creation by God. The first is to form, and the next is to breathe into, and the next is to make, and the last is to create. And this is actually scientific language. But between the first and the second and the third and the fourth science finds gaps. Science has no means of explaining how the step was made from one to the other how it was from earth to vegetable life, from vegetable to animal life with its consciousness, how from animal life with its consciousness came man with his intellectual powers and, as most scientists admit, with his spiritual being. To us as believers in the one true God, to us as Christians, the followers of the Holy One the Son of God, it comes quite simply. God worked through the long ages, beginning at inorganic matter, then by His creating power gave life which made the vegetable, then by His creating power breathed into that life that which made the animal life with its consciousness, and then created the spiritual being of man. Through the long, long ages man, if you will, was evolved by the power of God. Why, it is scriptural language! ‘The Lord God formed man out of the dust of the ground.’ Then what does it matter to us if scientific men find fossil remains of man which must have been in existence long ages before the 4004 years ago mentioned in the margin? We expect them to find that. So God has been working, so God has been evolving, if you will from the dust of the ground by His almighty power the creature who now is man.
III. Man’s Relation to God. You are not a bit of earth, you are not a vegetable, you are not merely an animal conscious of your being you are a man created by God, you are the outcome of God’s almighty working, God has breathed into you the breath of life and you have become a living soul. You are eternal, a son of God created in God’s image and having spiritual powers. Oh, it is a wonderful ancestry! Oh, it is a wonderful dignity to have arrived at by the power of God! Are we living as if only earth? Are we living only as vegetables in this world? Are we living only as animals, conscious of animal pleasure or animal pain? Or are we living as we may live as sons of God, conscious, living, real the children of God in whom is eternity?
Little Souls
Gen 2:7
I. Little Souls. We hear people spoken of as good souls, poor souls, and the like, let us think now of those who may be called little souls.
It was the custom in old-fashioned gardens to cut back the shrubs and trees, which were intended by Nature to grow large and luxuriant, till they became stunted and dwarfed, even grotesque. People treat their souls in the same way. They do not let them grow as God plans, but keep cutting them back, as it were. There is no development, no growth, and therefore no beauty in their lives; they have merely stunted souls. God intends our souls to grow and develop as our body does. A Christian is meant to grow, to advance. His watchwords are, go up higher, excelsior, amplius, higher, wider, till we come to a perfect man, to the measure of the stature of Christ.
II. Marks of a Little Soul.
1. People with little souls take narrow views of religion.
2. Small souled people take narrow views of duty.
3. People with little souls are wanting in sympathy.
III. The Duty of Taking a Wider View. Let us try to take a wider view of things, of life, of religion, of duty, of our responsibilities. Let us cultivate a wider sympathy with others’ needs, instead of sitting down upon our own little bundle of thorns.
H. J. Wilmot-Buxton, Notes of Sermons for the Year, pp. 114-20.
Gen 2:7
The nature of man was that in which God was at last to give His crowning revelation, and for that no preparation could seem extravagant. Fascinating and full of marvel as is the history of the past which science discloses to us; full as these slow-moving millions of years are in evidences of the exhaustless wealth of nature, and mysterious as the delay appears, all that expenditure of resources is eclipsed, and all the delay justified when the whole work is crowned by the Incarnation, for in it we see that all that slow process was the preparation of a nature in which God could manifest Himself as a Person to persons.
Marcus Dods.
References. II. 7. J. Keble, Sermons for Septuagesima, p. 108. J. Budgen, Parochial Sermons, vol. ii. p. 40; Sermons for the Christian Tear, vol. iii. p. 108. J. Aspinall, Parish Sermons, p. 250. J. Laidlaw, The Bible Doctrine of Man, p. 48. R. W. Evans, Parochial Sermons, p. 293. II. 8. H. J. Wilmot-Buxton, Bible Object Lessons, p. 203. C. Perren, Revival Sermons, p. 301. W. L. Watkinson, The Blind Spot, p. 183. R. Fetherston, A Garden Eastward, p. 1. II. 9 J. Keble, Sermons for the Holy Week, p. 446. A. Ainger, Sermons Preached in the Temple Church, p. 283. II. 12. W. L. Watkinson, The Ashes of Roses, p. 165. II. 15. R. E. Hutton, The Crown of Christ, p. 265.
Gold and Onyx Not Enough
Gen 2:12
Gold and bdellium and onyx what more did it need? Is not this a sufficing inventory of the land? It needed a river. Land without river is sand, nothingness, a great ghastly image of fruitlessness and despair. But if it have gold and bdellium and onyx, is it not fruitful? No; no more is your life. You have gold and gum and grey onyx and precious stones, but no river; write yourself poor, make out yourself a bankrupt in the court of heaven.
You may use this metaphor of the river in many senses. The emblems of God are capable of being broken up into various aspects and driven along various lines of practical application. The metaphor is not confined to water only; there are other things that may stand for water in the elaboration of this great argument.
I. Here is a man who has great capacity. He is a man of insight and foresight, he balances things well, his judgments are sound, his talents are somewhat even brilliant. Then why does he not succeed in life? For want of the river. What is that river? Capital. He is abler than many, full of resource, very quick in sight and very sure in calculation, but you might as well attempt to sail a great American liner in a basinful of water as to carry forward all the possibilities of his talent when he is in want of capital, gold, and bdellium and onyx. The Divine grace utilizes all our powers, gives them scope, causes them to grow, satisfies their aspirations, ennobles their uses, and we may have everything but the wealth of God, the wealth of grace, the wealth of character, ability enough, even splendour of intellect enough, but no river of grace, no river of the true gold, no river of spiritual capital. What, then, does it all mean? Ruin. There is no way for splendour to find its road into heaven.
II. Here is a man who has capital, gold, and bdellium and onyx, and his balances pecuniary are so great that he hardly cares to count them; and yet he is to be pitied. Why so? Want of the river. What river? Health! Health turns stones into gold, deserts into gardens; health creates stars for the midnight, and revels in the splendour of the planets; health is a continual miracle, health clears a way for itself; and the man who is being pictured by my fancy at this moment has everything but health. If God would send that Pison, that stream, that member of the great fourfold Eden river into his life, the man would stand up a king.
III. Here is a very remarkable life: the man has learning and great intellectual capacity and many attributes that other men might covet or envy; and yet, oh how dismal is that life! What does it want? The river. What river? Sunshine, the light-river.
IV. And another figure which comes to my fancy is that of a man in sore loneliness. He could do much under given circumstances, but under the circumstances which now crush him he can do nothing. What does he want? The river. What river? The river of a strong friend. Some of us were nothing till the strong friend got hold of us, and then we expanded into something, and were accounted of repute and influence. There is a Friend that sticketh closer than a brother, there is a Friend accessible to all, the name, unchangeable, is Jesus of Nazareth, whom the Jews murdered, but whom God offered up in sacrifice: He is the Friend of all.
Joseph Parker, City Temple Pulpit, vol. i. p. 69.
The Standard of Righteousness
Gen 2:16-17
‘Sin is the transgression of the law.’ Before we can understand the consequences of sin we must try to understand the nature of the law. If religious fatalism is dead, scientific fatalism does not lack its prophets. We are told that environment is everything. You cannot choose what you will think, or say, or do. There is no will in man to master the sovereign impulses of Nature.
I. The first point that strikes us is that if this is true the whole government of the world is a monstrous injustice. If there is no vice to be punished it is nothing short of a scandal that punishment should be inflicted. The fact of the matter is that the theory breaks down before the actual consciousness of men. The moral nature of man is a special communication of God.
II. We have reached the point where the problem of revelation begins to face us. If it is true, as we feel, that we can obey or disobey the will of God, what is that will? How has it been revealed to man? The education of the conscience is a great historical process. In this second chapter of Genesis, and indeed throughout the whole Bible, revelation is represented as being of two kinds inward and outward. In the very spirit and nature of a man made in the likeness of God there is a certain elementary revelation of the will of God. There are in every conscience certain broad lines of right and wrong. To walk as we are sometimes encouraged to do by the light of nature, as if that were enough, is simply to court degeneration and decay. The spirit life needs, like every other life, to be kept alive by a friendly spiritual environment. To live in God, to absorb His quickening, vitalizing power, to hearken to His commandment, and be refreshed and strengthened by His grace these are no fables of Scripture but living experiences of men. Revelation is from without as well as from within.
III. Commandment without example, without illustration, is morally of very little effect. ‘How can you define in words where legitimate indulgence ends and where positive vice begins? What is lawful for me may not be expedient because of my brother.’ Ages ago in response to human need the Ten Commandments were given. The Ten Commandments grew into a whole system and government of life. The Rabbis said ‘thus and thus you should live.’ But yet they could not teach the world in words the will of God.
IV. God has explained and defined. But the mind of man could not comprehend. There remained one way and only one. It was that God Himself should take in hand the task of life, and live it out before the world. He is the end and crown of revelation.
C. Silvester Horne, Christian World Pulpit, vol. xxxix. p. 78.
Reference, II. 16-17. A. W. Momerie, The Origin of Evil, p. 1.
Satan in History
Gen 2:18 And between these two voices the education and discipline of man have been conducted from the first day until now. Never let us shut our eyes to facts. There is a temptation to avoid unpleasant subjects; such temptation is one of the devil’s tricks.
I. ‘And the Lord God said…’ ‘And the serpent said…,’ and they both spoke practically on the first page of the first book in the Bible; the devil was nearly as instantaneously present as was God. ‘And God said…’ ‘And the serpent said…,’ and sometimes they are blended and interblended, and you can hardly discriminate between one tone and the other.
If I look abroad upon the earth so far as it is accessible to my observation, I cannot but find proofs enough that there is an enemy, call him by what name you please, account for him as you like, deny him if you will; I can not account for certain broad facts, events, collisions, tragedies, woes, losses, apart from the suggestion that there is an unslumbering enemy; I cannot trace everything to a good parent. I am not able yet to say that all things are pure, sweet, beneficent, healing, and full of blessedness. On the contrary, I can say, There is an enemy here, or there, or yonder; God never dug a grave, God never inflicted pain; there must be behind all the pain which He inflicts a reason or a suggestion which refers to some other and alien and antagonistic and most cruel force.
II. It is wonderful how the Bible from beginning to end, from almost the first page to the last, broadly, definitely, recognizes the personality and ministry of an evil one. The slime of the serpent is upon every page, his fang thrusts itself through all the rose leaves and summer beauty of life and time.
Until we get back to fundamental facts we cannot preach the Gospel; in fact, we shall have no Gospel to preach. It was not until ‘the serpent said’ that another voice replied, ‘The seed of the woman shall bruise the head of the serpent’. The serpent speech is the first page, the first sentence, in the Christian theology.
III. Now as visibly in the one case as in the other there is certainly a good spirit abroad, a holy redeeming spirit, a gentle, tender, sympathizing spirit, a benign power that will not leave us until the red wound has been skinned over and until that skin has grown into a sufficient and permanent security. The Bible does not create God; I see God in providence, I see Him in my own life, I see Him in the family life of all my friends; He wants time for the development of His personality and the full revelation of His design and the complete outlining and outspher-ing of His beneficent purpose.
(1) Remember that the power of the serpent is limited. He is chained, he cannot add one link to his chain; he cannot stretch it, it is not an elastic chain, it is inflexible.
(2) And the ministry of the evil one is educational if properly received. It teaches us what we are, what we may become, it teaches us our need of redeeming love, it teaches us the vanity of love, the transitoriness of the things upon which we lavish our affection.
(3) And the power of the devil is revelatory. It will help us to understand the larger and fuller side of things; it will help us to account for some things which otherwise would distress our faith. Satan can only do a certain amount of mischief; the amount of mischief shall return upon his own head; and one day, far off, we shall see how it was that without knowing it the enemy was one of our friends.
Joseph Parker, City Temple Pulpit, vol. vii. p. 21.
References. II. 18. G. Bainton, Christian World Pulpit, vol. xxxviii. p. 163. J. Aspinall, Parish Sermons (1st series), p. 250. C. J. Ridgeway, The King and His Kingdom, p. 20. II. 21, 24. Archbishop Bourne, Sermons in Westminster Alley, p. 96. II. 22 J. C. M. Bellew, Sermons, vol. iii. p. 344. S. Leathes, Studies in Genesis, p. 31.
Eve the Unfolded
Gen 2:23
The second chapter of Genesis is an attempt to paint not the making but the marriage of woman. It is an effort to delineate the day not of her birth but of her emergence. There are three periods indicated in the development of this primitive woman a period of innocence or unconsciousness, a period of conscious expansion, and a period of conscious or voluntary self-repression. The picture of Eve is an unfolding of these stages. She begins, so to speak, underground. She is at first invisible in the garden. It is her period of unconsciousness, of spontaneity, of existence that has never seen itself in the mirror nor stood before the bar of its own judgment-seat.
The second period of female development. Eve has become the mistress of Adam’s ground. Spontaneity is dead, artlessness is dead, simplicity is dead. It is she and not Adam that wakens first to the glories of the garden. The first conviction of being beautiful may impart to her a thrill of awe. Her gifts have ordained her to a ministry that must render her less and not more free. But there is another way in which the woman may be affected by her looking-glass pride. It is this latter experience and not the former which is the case of Eve. The charm of her new-found possession dazzled her. Her satisfaction has its root in unblushing egotism. She is tempted by the offer of wisdom to be a God. The temptation of the woman in Eden is not a temptation to disobey, but a temptation to get possession of something which can only be got through disobedience. What is this sin of the woman extravagance.
The third stage conscious contraction. The typical woman of the world generally settles down. The scene of her empire narrows. It is not a stooping of her pride. It is the taking pride in something new, something nobler. There has come to Eve motherhood.
G. Matheson, Representative Women of the Bible, p. 29.
Adam, Eden, and Eve
Gen 2:1-3
Simple and honest is this as the speech of a little child! A child tells you things in lumps and mouthfuls, and hurries on to conclusions in a manner quite its own and not despicable. But was Moses a child? Exactly that and nothing more in book-writing. He had no forerunners to study, no models to copy, no high grammatical authorities to consult. Strange that men should be hard upon him in matters literary, when they have been so long at school and he was never at school at all!
But was he not inspired? Certainly he was an inspired child, or he never would have written as he did. There is a Divine grace in his style which makes men ask, Whose image and superscription is this?
He says God rested. Is not that a sweet child’s notion? He knew no other term, no long-syllabled emptiness, and he thought the term just the right one for the place. So it is. It is a word that touches our sympathy and makes us rest too. I feel that I need rest after reading the first chapter of Genesis; it is so energetic, so full, so urgent! It is really beautiful after you have seen the foam and heard the roar of Niagara to go away into one of the quiet green spots near at hand; we seem to rest the stunned ear. And what a cataract is this first chapter of Genesis! How suns, and stars, and firmaments, and seas, and mighty living things move in quick and even terrible succession! And God rested, says Moses. Not that God was tired, but his work was done the last beauty glowed tenderly on the picture like a smile of contented love. If Moses had said that “The Infinite having caused this emanation called the universe to settle into harmonic proportions,” and so forth, I should have turned away from him in disgust, for it would have been the strut of the peacock, and I have no liking for that air. It is best as it is. It even brings God near to us in a kind of human sympathy: commanding, creating, setting fast the orbs and rocks; he is far enough away from us; but when he rests he seems to be close at hand and to know what our own weariness is.
And he blessed the seventh day. And long afterwards Jesus blessed the bread. The work of each was done. Jesus died before he was nailed to the Cross; no man took his life from him; he laid it down of himself. You remember when? When he said in Gethsemane, “Not my will, but thine be done”; then he died. The remainder was but a Jews’ murder, a highwayman’s conquest. God saw everything that he had made, and, behold, it was very good; and Jesus, too, shall see of the travail of his soul and be satisfied. Thus the end shall be good; the process may be rugged and severe, but the end will be bright and tenderly calm.
“These are the generations of the heavens and of the earth when they were created, in the day that the Lord God made the earth and the heavens, and every plant of the field before it was in the earth, and every herb of the field before it grew: for the Lord God had not caused it to rain upon the earth, and there was not a man to till the ground. But there went up a mist from the earth, and watered the whole face of the ground. And the Lord God formed man of the dust of the ground (signifying man’s feebleness), and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life (a direct gift from God); and man became a living soul.
“And the Lord God planted a garden eastward in Eden (Paradise is a Persian name for an enclosed park); and there he put the man whom he had formed. And out of the ground made the Lord God to grow every tree (the ancients admired trees rather than landscapes) that is pleasant to the sight, and good for food; the tree of life also in the midst of the garden, and the tree of knowledge of good and evil. And a river went out of Eden (Eden means pleasure ground) to water the garden; and from thence it was parted, and became into four heads. The name of the first is Pison: that is it which compasseth the whole land of Havilah, where there is gold; and the gold of that land is good: there is bdellium and the onyx stone. And the name of the second river is Gihon: the same is it that compasseth the whole land of Ethiopia. And the name of the third river is Hiddekel: that is it which goeth toward the east of Assyria. And the fourth river is Euphrates. And the Lord God took the man, and put him into the garden of Eden to dress it and to keep it” ( Gen 2:4-15 ).
Here begins that great system of Divine and human cooperation which is still in progress. There were trees, plants, herbs, and flowers, but a gardener was wanted to get out of the earth everything that the earth could yield. By planting, and transplanting, and replanting, you may turn a coarse tree into a rare botanical specimen you may refine it by development. So man got something for his own pains, and became a sort of secondary creator! This was almost too much for him. He began to think that he had done nearly everything himself, quite forgetting who gave him the germs, the tools, the skill, and the time. It is so easy for you junior partners in old city firms to think that the “house” would have been nowhere if you had not gone into partnership! But really and truly, odd as it may seem, there was a “house” before you took it up and glorified it.
What a chance had man in beginning life as a gardener! Beginning life in the open sunny air, without even a hothouse to try his temper! Surely he ought to have done something better than he did. The air was pure, the climate was bright, the soil was kindly: you had but to “tickle it with a spade and it laughed in flowers.” And a river in the grounds! Woe to those who have their water far to fetch! But here in the garden is the stream, so broad that the moment it is liberated from the sacred place it divides itself into four evangelists, carrying everywhere the odours of Eden and the offer of kindly help. Surely, then, man was well housed to begin with. He did not begin life as a beggar. He farmed his own God-given land, without disease, or disability, or taxation to fret him; yet what did he make of the fruitful inheritance? Did the roots turn to poison in his mouth, and the flowers hang their heads in shame when his shadow fell on them? We shall see.
“And the Lord God commanded the man, saying, Of every tree of the garden thou mayest freely eat: but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat of it: for in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die” ( Gen 2:16-17 ).
There need not, I think, be any reasonable difficulty in finding out the meaning of these trees. Make the statement historical, or make it parabolical, and it comes much to the same thing. It means that there is a permanent line separating obedience from disobedience; that all created life is limited; and that whoever breaketh through a hedge a serpent shall bite him. These trees were not traps set to catch the man; they were necessities of the case. They showed him where to stop. Wonderful, truly, that if he touched the tree of mystery he should die ! Yes, and it is grandly and solemnly true. It is so with life. Let life alone if you would live. Receive it as a mystery, and it will bless you; degrade it, abuse it, and it will slay you in great wrath. It is the same with light. Pluck the sun, and you will be lost in darkness; let the sun alone in his far-off ministry, and you shall never want day and summer. It is the same with music. Open the organ, that you may read its secret, and it will fall into silence; touch it on the appointed keys, and it will never tire in answering your sympathetic appeals. It is so difficult to be satisfied with the little we have and the little we know. We want to see over the hedge. We long to withdraw the screen that is everywhere trembling around us. We torture these little pulses of ours to tell us what they are, and how they were set a-ticking in their warm prisons. No man ever saw his own heart! There it is, knocking in his side, as if it wanted to come out; but if you let it out, it can return to its work no more! It seems to be only the skin that covers the pulse; but, though seemingly so near, it is really so far!
” In the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die” said the Almighty. This is not a threat. It is not a defiance or a challenge. It is a revelation; it is a warning! When you tell your child not to touch the fire or it will be burned, you do not threaten the child: you warn it in love, and solely for its own good. Foolish would the child be if it asked why there should be any fire; and foolish are we, with high aggravations, when we ask why God should have set the tree of life and the tree of knowledge in Eden. These trees are in every family. Yes; they are in every family, because they are in every heart! How near is death! One act, and we cease to live. This is true physically, morally, socially: one act one step between us and death!
“And the Lord God said, It is not good that the man should be alone; I will make him an helpmeet for him. And out of the ground the Lord God formed every beast of the field, and every fowl of the air; and brought them unto Adam to see what he would call them: and whatsoever Adam called every living creature, that was the name thereof. And Adam gave names to all cattle, and to the fowl of the air, and to every beast of the field; but for Adam there was not found an helpmeet for him. And the Lord God caused a deep sleep to fall upon Adam, and he slept: and he took one of his ribs, and closed up the flesh instead thereof; and the rib, which the Lord God had taken from man, made he a woman, and brought her unto the man. And Adam 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. Therefore shall a man leave his father and his mother, and shall cleave unto his wife: and they shall be one flesh. And they were both naked, the man and his wife, and were not ashamed” ( Gen 2:18-25 ).
God has always been thinking what would be for the man’s good. How, then, does God propose to meet loneliness? By making another man? Why, when he made a man to keep Cain company, Cain killed him! It would seem to be one of the deepest laws of human nature that man must kill man, and that the only chance of keeping society together is by the marvellous influence of woman. For man to be alone means suicide; for two men to be together means homicide; woman alone can keep society moving and healthful. The woman and the little child are the saviours of social order at this day all over the world. For woman to be alone is as bad as for man to be alone. Safety is in contrast, and in mutual complement.
Reverence for womanhood will save any civilisation from decay. Beautiful and very tender is this notion of throwing man into a deep sleep to take a rib from him as the starting-point of a blessed companionship. So much is always being done for us when we are in states of unconsciousness! We do not get our best blessings by our own fussiness and clever contrivance: they come we know not how. They are sweet surprises; they are born of the spirit, and are as untraceable as the veerings of the wind. This is the course of true love, and of marriages that are made in heaven. You cannot by searching, and advertising, and scheming find out a companion for the lonely soul. She will come upon you unconsciously. You will know her by a mark in the forehead which none but yourself can read. The moment you see her the soul will say, “Behold the bride!” and you, leaving your father and your mother, shall cleave unto your own wife, and you shall be one for ever. “A good wife is from the Lord.” He who made the lock will also make the key. “This also cometh forth from the Lord of hosts, which is wonderful in counsel and excellent in working.”
God rested from all his work on the seventh day, and yet he had not made woman! In making her he seems to have begun again. Can Omniscience have afterthoughts! Could this deed not have been brought within the seven days? Better think of it as a deed which makes a space for itself so special as to have a separate numbering in the list; nay, as to be itself the beginning of a list, illustrious and immortal. O woman, love thy Maker! Thou art the most wonderful instrument he made in the earth; see to it that the music of thy life be all given to his holy praise.
V
CREATION PART TWO
Origin of Man
Gen 1:26-2:3
“And God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness” (Gen 1:26 ). The creation of man is the last and highest stage in the production of organic life. Every step in creation so far is a prophecy of his coming and a preparation fee it. This wonderful world is purposed for a higher being than fish or fowl or beast. Not for them were accumulated the inexhaustible treasures of mineral and vegetable stores. What use have they for lignite, stone, coal, peat, iron, copper, oil, gas, gold, silver, pearls, and diamonds? They have no capacity to enjoy the beauty of the landscape, the glorious colorings of sea and sky. They cannot measure the distances to the stars nor read the signs of the sky. They cannot perceive the wisdom nor adore the goodness of the Creator. The earth as constituted and stored prophesied man, demanded man, and God said, “Let us make man.” When he wanted vegetable life, he said, “Let the earth put forth shoots.” When he wanted sea animals, he said, “Let the sea swarm.” When he wanted land animals, he said, “Let the earth bring forth.” But when the earth was prepared for its true lord and master, he said, “Let us make man in our image, after our likeness.” “Thou hast made him but little lower than God” (Psa 8:5 ). (The Hebrew word here is Elohim, the same as in Gen 1:1 .)
When we contrast the language which introduces the being of man with that which introduces the beast, and consider the import of “image and likeness,” and the dominion conferred on man, we are forced to the conviction than between man and the highest order of the beast there is an infinite and impassable chasm. And this view in confirmed by the divine demonstration that no beast could be man’s consort (Gen 2:18-20 ) ; and the divine law (Exo 22:19 ).
THE IMAGE OF GOD “God is a spirit.” (Joh 4:24 ). “The father of spirits” (Heb 12:9 ). “The Lord formeth the spirit of man within him” (Zec 12:1 ). “The spirit of a man is the candle of the Lord” (Pro 20:7 ). “And Jehovah God breathed into man’s nostrils the breath of life: and man became a living soul” (Gen 1:27 ). “The spirit retumeth to God who gave it” (Ecc 12:7 ). We may say, then, in one word that the spirituality of man’s nature is the image of God. Man is a rational, moral, spiritual being.
But this image of God involves and implies much more:
(a) Intuitive knowledge and reason. Col 3:10 ; Gen 2:19-20 .
(b) Uprightness and holiness. Ecc 7:29 ; Eph 4:24 .
(c) Conscience. Rom 2:15 .
(d) Will, or determinate choice, free moral agency.
(e) Worship of and communion with God.
(f) Dignity of presence. 1Co 11:7 ; Gen 9:2 .
(g) Immortality of soul, and provision for immortality of body by access to the tree of life. Gen 3:22 .
(h) Capacity for marriage, not like the consorting of beasts.
(i) Capacity for labor apart from the necessary struggle for existence.
(j) Speech, itself an infinite chasm between man and beast.
The dual nature of man will be considered in the next chapter on the second chapter of Genesis, which supplies details of man’s creation not given in this general statement.
UNITY OF THE RACE “Male and female made he them.” Multiply and fill the earth. There is one, and only one human race. The earth’s population came from one pair. There was no pre-Adamite man. There has been no post-Adamite man, unless we except Jesus of Nazareth. The unity of the race is a vital and fundamental Bible doctrine. Its witness on this point is manifold, explicit, and unambiguous. (Gen 9:19 ; Gen 10:32 ; Act 17:26 .) The whole scheme of redemption is based on the unity of the race (Rom 5:12-21 ). When we speak of the Caucasian, Mongolian, Malay, African, and North American Indian as different races, we employ both unscientific and unbiblical terms if we mean to imply different origins. There was no need for another race. This one pair could fill the earth by multiplication. There was no room for another race, for all authority of rule was vested in this one.
MAN’S COMMISSION Multiply. Fill the earth. Subdue it. Man was to range over all zones and inhabit all zones. The sea was to be his home as well as the land. The habitat of each beast or bird or fish was of narrow limit.
Man was endowed with wisdom to adapt himself to all climates, protect himself from all dangers and surpass all barriers. There was given to him the spirit of intervention and exploration. He would climb mountains, descend into caves, navigate oceans, bridge rivers, cut canals through isthmuses. To subdue the earth was a vast commission which called out all of his reserve powers. Upon this point we cannot do better than quote the great Baptist scholar, Dr. Conant:
“If we look at the earth, as prepared for the occupancy of man, we find little that is made ready for use but boundless material which his own labour and skill can fit for it.
“The spontaneous fruits of the earth furnish a scanty and precarious subsistence, even to a few; but with skilful labour it is made to yield an abundant supply for the wants of every living thing.”
On its surface, many natural obstacles are to be overcome. Forests must be leveled, rivers bridged over, roads and canals constructed, mountains graded and tunneled and seas and oceans navigated.
Its treasures of mineral wealth lie hidden beneath its surface; when discovered and brought to light they are valueless to man till his own labor subdues and fits them for his service. The various useful metals lie in the crude ore and must be passed through difficult and laborious processes before they can be applied to any valuable purpose. Iron, for example, the most necessary of all, how many protracted and delicate processes are required to separate it from impurities in the ore, to refine its texture, to convert it into steel before it can be wrought into the useful ax or knife, with the well-tempered edge!
What an education for the race has been this labor of subduing the earth! How it has developed reflection, stimulated invention and quickened the powers of combination, which would otherwise have lain dormant!
Nor are the collateral and remote less important than the direct and immediate results. He who takes a piece of timber from the common forest and forms it into a useful implement thereby makes it his own and it cannot rightfully be taken from him, since no one can justly appropriate to himself the product of another’s skill and labor. So he who originally takes possession of an unappropriated field and by his labor prepares it for use thereby makes it his own and it cannot rightfully be taken from him. Hence arises the right of property, the origin and bond of civil society; and thus all the blessings of society, and of civilization and government, are due to the divinely implanted impulse, “fill the earth, and subdue it.” Every institution of learning is but a means to this one great end.
THE DOMINION OF MAN The dominion of man is as broad as his commission: “Have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens, and over every living thing that moveth upon the earth” (Gen 1:28 ). For thou hast made him but little lower than God, And crownest him with glory and honour. Thou makest him to have dominion over the works of thy hands; Thou hast put all things under his feet; All sheep and oxen, Yea, and the beasts of the field, The birds of the heavens, and the fish of the sea, Whatsoever passeth through the paths of the seas. 0, Jehovah, Our Lord, How excellent is thy name in all the earth. Psa 8:5-9
The exceeding great sweep of our dominion cannot be estimated until in the New Testament we study its exercise by the Second Adam, our Lord Jesus Christ (Heb 2:5-11 ). The fullness of it is even yet future.
TITLE TO THE EARTH And herein is man’s title to the earth:
(a) He must populate it.
(b) He must develop its resources to support that population.
In God’s law neither man nor nation can hold title to land or sea and let them remain undeveloped. This explains God’s dealings with nations. The ignorant savage cannot hold large territories of fertile land merely for a hunting ground. When the developer comes he must retire. Spain’s title to Cuba perished by 400 years of non-development. Mere priority of occupancy on a given territory cannot be a barrier to the progress of civilization. Wealth has no right to buy a county, or state, or continent and turn it into a deer park. The earth is man’s. Wealth has no right to add house to house and land to land until there is no room for the people. “Woe unto them that join house to house, that lay field to field, till there be no room, and ye be made to dwell in the midst of the land” (Isa 5:8 ).
THE PERIODS OF CREATION The discussion of the days of creation has been designedly reserved until now, on account of their relation to the last creative institution. When the text says: “There was evening and there was morning, one day,” or a second day, the language is that of the natural day as we now have it. But this does not necessarily mean that the earth was only 144 hours older than man. But it does imply:
That God chose to conduct his processes of earth formation by alternatings of activity and rest.
That he intended these periods of alternative activity and rest to constitute a prototype of time division for man not suggested by the revolution of the earth or any heavenly body. And that this division of time into a week should punctuate the institution of the sabbath, which was made for man, not for God, and that through it man’s allegiance to God might be perpetuated.
We thus come to the crowning act of creation:
THE INSTITUTION OF THE SABBATH
“And the heavens and the earth were finished, and all the host of them. And on the seventh day God finished his work which he had made; and he rested on the seventh day from all his work which he had made. And God blessed the seventh day and hallowed it; because that in it he rested from all his work which God had created and made” (Gen 2:1-3 ). It has already been observed that the seven periods of creation called days, whatever their duration, were designed to be a prototype of a division of time not suggested by nature. Our natural day results from one revolution of the earth on its own axis; our month from the moon’s revolution around the earth; our year from the earth’s revolution around the sun. But the week is of divine appointment. A New Testament scripture goes to the root of the matter: “And he said unto them, The sabbath was made for man, and not man for the sabbath; so that the Son of man is Lord even of the sabbath” (Mar 2:27-28 ).
God condescends to represent himself as man’s archetype and exemplar. The sabbath was not made for God: “The Almighty fainteth not, neither is weary.”
Among the reasons for the institution of the sabbath we may safely emphasize these:
Man’s Mind Is Finite and His Memory Imperfect. Some means must be provided to stir up the finite mind of man to remember the significance of the mighty acts of creation. And what is the significance of creation? It is a declaration of these great truths: (1) That the material universe and all it contains had an origin. (2) That it was brought into being by the creative act of an intelligent, almighty, beneficent being. (3) That this being is God. (4) That he is the only rightful proprietor and sovereign of the universe. (5) That his will is the supreme law of its occupants. (6) That the knowledge of his will is by his revelation.
It is a negation of these great untruths: (1) It denies atheism by assuming the being of God. (2) It denies polytheism by the assertion of his unity. (3) It denies deism by making a revelation. (4) It denies materialism in distinguishing between matter and spirit, and in showing that matter is neither self-existent nor eternal. (5) It denies pantheism by placing God before matter and unconditioned by it. (6) It denies chance by showing that the universe in its present order is not, in whole or in part, the result of “a fortuitous concourse of atoms,” or of the action of elementary principles of matter, but of an extraneous intelligent purpose. (7) It denies fatalism by asserting God’s freedom to create when he would and to control how he would. (8) It denies blind force by its revelation of beneficence intelligently directing and adapting all things to good ends. (9) As a revelation it denies that man by searching can find out God, and denies that all the myths of the heathen, or the speculations of philosophy, or the observations of naturalists, can dissipate the profound darkness concerning the origin and nature and end of the world and of man.
Man’s Body Is Mortal. Some means must be provided to guard its health and preserve its powers. His powers of endurance and of persistent application are limited. He cannot work unceasingly. He will need regular periods of rest for his body and mind. He must also have stated periods of enjoyment and worshiping God, that his soul may be fed and nourished. Man has a marvelous commission of labor, progress and development in subduing the earth. But five things must never be forgotten:
(1) Labor that is continuous will destroy both mind and body. Hence the necessity of regular periods of rest.
(2) The higher nature must not be subordinate to the lower. The soul must not wander too far from God. Communion with him is its nourishment and health. Man must not live by bread alone. God must be loved and adored.
(3) God is earth’s proprietor and man’s sovereign. His supreme jurisdiction must ever be acknowledged and accepted with complete submission.
(4) Man is social by the very constitution of his being. The unit of the family must not be broken. But there can be no permanent circle unless God is its center. And no tie will permanently bind unless it is sacred.
In subduing the earth, man has authority not only to lay under tribute the forces of nature which are without feeling, but to use the strength of the lower animals. These get weary. They cannot labor continuously. For their faithful service they need not only good food and shelter, but regular periods of rest.
(5) Not only animals need certain regular off-days, when they are to do no work, but all mechanical and scientific implements need it in order to reach maximum usefulness. It has been demonstrated that a steam engine, an ax, a hand-saw, will do more and better work in the long run with regular days of absolute rest.
Man’s Spirit Finds Its Health in Communion with God. Some means must be provided that will keep up this communion regularly and thereby prevent alienation from God. All man’s springs of joy are in God. Moreover, the creative week is a type of the earth’s history and presupposes the fall and redemption of man. Therefore as one day is with the Lord as a thousand years, we may say:
The Sabbath Foreshadows the Millennium; of the thousand years of gospel triumph on the earth before the final judgment, and the final rest and glory of a completed redemption of both earth and man, greater than the original creation. The question then becomes momentous: What provision can a Heavenly Father make that will effectually secure these great ends? That will secure adequate rest for mind and body and soul? That will nourish and heal the spirit? That will tend to recognition of and submission to the divine sovereignty and proprietorship? That will make communities and nations cohere? That will provide mercy and rest for overtaxed machinery and beasts and children and women and slaves? That will prevent total departure from God? That will be a barrier against greed and avarice and tyranny?
O Lord God, our Redeemer, Maker, our Preserver, Thou hast answered in the text: “The sabbath was made for man.” In the beginning thou didst ordain it, thou didst bless it and hallow it. It is one of the three holy things that man, though fallen and accursed, was permitted in mercy to bring with him from the lost bowers of Eden; majestic labor, the holy institution of marriage and the blessed and hallowed sabbath. Inestimable jewels! Time has never dimmed your luster, nor change nor circumstance depreciated your value. The experience of six thousand years bears witness to your divine origin. As types you have illumined time; as antitypes you will glorify eternity.
And throughout the world, wherever the sabbath in its purity has been disregarded, there marriage, in its true and holy sense) has been disregarded, and there idleness and cheating and fraud and gambling have taken the place of honest toil. There avarice and greed and tyranny have oppressed the poor, and there immorality and vice and polytheism and pantheism and deism and chance and fatalism and materialism and atheism have erected their standards. Yes, it is true in its ultimate and logical outcome: no sabbath, no God.
The sabbath or atheism, which? Why try to narrow this question to Jewish boundaries? The sabbath was made for man; for man, as man; for all men. Was Adam a Jew? Was he a son of Judah, or of Heber, or of Abraham, or of Shem? The sabbath was made for the first man, the progenitor of all the nations, and for him even in paradise as a primal law of man’s primal, normal nature.
Why talk of Mount Sinai and the tables of stone? The sabbath marked the fall of the manna, that type of Jesus, the bread from heaven, before Sinai ever smoked or trembled or thundered. Why talk of Moses? The sabbath was twenty-five centuries old when Moses was born. It is older than any record or monument of man. Before the flood it was more than an institution. It was a promise of redemption from the curse pronounced in Eden. Pious hearts looked daily for the coming of the rest that remaineth for the people of God. Hence Lamech named his son “Noah,” which means rest, saying: “This same shall comforet us concerning our work and the toil of our hands, because of the ground which the Lord hath cursed.”
The sabbath was here before sin ever mantled man’s face with the flush of shame. The sabbath antedates all arts and sciences. It was here before Enoch built a city, or Jabal stretched a tent, or Jubal invented instruments of music, or Tubal-Cain became an artificer in brass and iron. It is older than murder. Cain walked away from its altars of worship to murder his brother Abel. Its sunlight flashed into the face of the first baby that ever cooed in its mother’s arms. It was a companion in Eden of that tree of life whose fruit gave immortality to the body. And its glory enswathes the antitypical tree of life in the Paradise of God, as seen in the apocalyptic visions of John the revelator. Yes, it will survive the deluge of fire as it survived the deluge of water. When the heavens are rolled together as a scroll, and the material world shall be dissolved, the sabbath will remain. The thunders of the final judgment shall not shake its everlasting pillars. It came before death, and when death is dead it will be alive. The devil found it on his first visit to earth, and its sweet and everlasting rest will be shoreless and bottomless after he is cast, with other sabbath-breakers, into the lake of fire. Yea, as it commenced before man needed a mediator between himself and God, so it will be an eternal heritage of God’s people when the mediatorial kingdom of Jesus Christ is surrendered to the Father, and God shall be all in all. Thou venerable and luminous institution of God! Time writes no wrinkle on thy sunlit brow, Such as creation’s dawn beheld, thou shinest now.
It was made for man; man on earth, and man in heaven. And mark you: The sabbath was made for man, so that the Son of man is lord even of the sabbath. Mark the force of that “so.” It is equivalent to therefore or wherefore. That is, since it was made for man, the Son of man, not of Abraham, the Son of man is its Lord. Because Jesus was more than a Jew, because of his touch with all humanity, Luke, writing not for Jews but for Greeks, never stops, like Matthew, at Abraham, but traces his descent from Adam, the first man.
And as, in his humanity, he was the ideal man who should be the ensign of rallying for all nations, Paul applies to him the glorious, prophetic psalm: “But one in a certain place testified, saying, What is man, that thou art mindful of him? or the son of man that thou visitest him? Thou madest him a little lower than the angels; thou crownest him with glory and honour, and didst set him over the works of thy hands: Thou hast put all things in subjection under his feet. For in that he put all in subjection under him, he left nothing that is not put under him. But now we see not yet all things put under him. But we see Jesus, who was made a little lower than the angels for the suffering of death, crowned with glory and honour; that he by the grace of God should taste death for every man.” As the God-man he is the Lord of the sabbath. To his cross may be nailed a seventh day. But from his resurrection may come a first day. One in seven is essential which one is as the Lord of the sabbath may direct.
GENERAL REFLECTIONS The reader will observe the formula expressing the divine fiat which introduces each successive step in the progress of the earth’s formation:
“And God said” Gen 1:3 .
“And God said” Gen 1:6 .
“And God said” Gen 1:9 .
“And God said’ Gen 1:11 .
“And God said” Gen 1:14 .
“And God said” Gen 1:20 .
“And God said” Gen 1:24 .
“And God said” Gen 1:26 .
“And God said” Gen 1:28 .
“And God said” Gen 1:29 .
In simple and sublime language his will or decree is expressed and the result follows like an echo. He created the world by the word of his power. He spake and it stood fast. To the first word, light responds; to the second, atmosphere; to the third, dry land; to the fourth, vegetable life; to the fifth, light holders; to the sixth, animal life in sea and air; to the seventh, animal life on earth; to the eighth, human life; to the ninth, provision for life. Though the formula does not recur, the sabbath decree (Gen 2:1-3 ) completes the ten words.
Primal institutions, (a) Marriage. “And he answered and said, Have ye no? read, that he who made them from the beginning made them male and female, and said, For this cause shall a man leave his father and mother, and shall cleave to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh? So that they are no more two but one flesh. What therefore God hath joined together, let no man put asunder. They say unto him, why then did Moses command to give a bill of divorcement, and to put her away? He saith unto them, Moses for your hardness of heart suffered you to put away your wives; but from the beginning it hath not been so. And I say unto you, whosoever shall put away his wife, except for fornication, and shall marry another, committeth adultery; and be that marrieth her when she is put away, committeth adultery” (Mat 19:4-9 ).
(b) Labor. “Subdue the earth.”
(c) Sabbath for rest and worship.
(d) Dominion.
(e) Man’s title to the earth on condition that he populate and subdue it.
There is no evidence that matter has received addition or loss since its original creation. Nor that any additions have been made to the species of life organisms, vegetable or animal.
There is no necessary discord between the Mosaic order of creation and the best settled teachings of natural science. In his Manual of Geology, Dana thus summarizes his understanding of the Mosaic account:
I. Inorganic era:
First Day Light cosmical.
Second Day The earth divided from the fluid around, or individualized.
Third Day (1) Outlining of the land and water. (2) Creation of vegetation.
II. Organic era:
Fourth Day Light from the sun.
Fifth Day Creation of the lower order of animals.
Sixth Day (1) Creation of mammals. (2) Creation of man.
Yet the Bible was given to teach religion, and not science.
Trinity in creation, (a) The Father. Gen 1:1 ; Act 17:24 . (b) Holy Spirit. Quickening matter with the several results of light, order, life. Job 26:13 ; Psalm 10-30; Gen 2:7 ; Zec 12:1 ; Heb 12:9 ; Pro 20:27 ; Ecc 12:7 .
(c) The Son. Pro 8:22-31 ; Joh 1:1-3 ; 1Co 8:6 ; Eph 3:9 ; Col 1:16 ; Heb 1:8 .
Theological definition of creation: “By creation we mean that free act of the Triune God by which in the beginning for his own glory he made, without the use of pre-existing materials, the whole visible and invisible universe.” A. H. Strong.
For whom was creation? Col 1:16 .
For what? The divine glory.
Creation reveals what? Order, correlation, benevolent design: Gen 1:14 ; Gen 8:22 ; Job 38:1-33 ; Psa 19:1-14 ; Mat 5:45 ; Act 14:17 ; Rom 1:19-20 .
Addison’s paraphrase of Psa 19 .
QUESTIONS 1. Eighth product of Spirit energy?
2. How did the creation prophesy man’s coming?
3. In what does the image of God consist?
4. What does it involve and imply?
5. State the Bible teaching on the unity of the race.
6. Importance of the doctrine?
7. Into what five races did our old geographies divide men?
8. State man’s commission.
9. State some details of the magnitude of this commission.
10. How did this lead to the rights of property?
11. How does it necessitate schools and promote arts, sciences, etc.?
12. What conditions man’s title to the earth?
13. How does this explain God’s dealings with the nations?
14. Apply the principle to the Indian tribes of America, and Spain’s title to Cuba.
15. How does it limit the purchasing power of the wealthy?
16. What name was given to the periods of creation?
17. Does this language necessarily imply that the earth was only 144 hours older than man?
18. What three things does it imply?
19. The crowning institution of the creative week?
20. First reason for the sabbath?
21. Creation an affirmation of what truths?
22. Negation of what untruths?
23. Second reason?
24. Third reason?
25. Relation of sabbath to marriage, society, worship?
26. What formula introduces each degree of creation?
27. What were the great primal institutions?
28. Has there been any addition to matter since creation?
29. To the species of the life organisms?
30. Is there substantial accord between the Bible account of the order of creation and the teaching of science?
31. Cite Scripture proof of the Trinity in creation.
32. Cite Dr. Strong’s theological definition of creation.
33. For whom was creation?
34. For what?
35. It reveals what?
Gen 2:1 Thus the heavens and the earth were finished, and all the host of them.
Ver. 1. All the host of them. ] His upper and nether forces, his horse and foot, as it were, all creatures in heaven, earth, or under earth; called God’s host, for their (1) number, (2) order, (3) obedience. These the Rabbins a call magnleh cheloth, and matteh cheloth, the upper and lower troops ready pressed.
a Kimchi
Genesis
THE VISION OF CREATION
Gen 1:26 – Gen 2:3 We are not to look to Genesis for a scientific cosmogony, and are not to be disturbed by physicists’ criticisms on it as such. Its purpose is quite another, and far more important; namely, to imprint deep and ineffaceable the conviction that the one God created all things. Nor must it be forgotten that this vision of creation was given to people ignorant of natural science, and prone to fall back into surrounding idolatry. The comparison of the creation narratives in Genesis with the cuneiform tablets, with which they evidently are most closely connected, has for its most important result the demonstration of the infinite elevation above their monstrosities and puerilities, of this solemn, steadfast attribution of the creative act to the one God. Here we can only draw out in brief the main points which the narrative brings into prominence.
1. The revelation which it gives is the truth, obscured to all other men when it was given, that one God ‘in the beginning created the heaven and the earth.’ That solemn utterance is the keynote of the whole. The rest but expands it. It was a challenge and a denial for all the beliefs of the nations, the truth of which Israel was the champion and missionary. It swept the heavens and earth clear of the crowd of gods, and showed the One enthroned above, and operative in, all things. We can scarcely estimate the grandeur, the emancipating power, the all-uniting force, of that utterance. It is a worn commonplace to us. It was a strange, thrilling novelty when it was written at the head of this narrative. Then it was in sharp opposition to beliefs that have long been dead to us; but it is still a protest against some living errors. Physical science has not spoken the final word when it has shown us how things came to be as they are. There remains the deeper question, What, or who, originated and guided the processes? And the only answer is the ancient declaration, ‘In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth.’
2. The record is as emphatic and as unique in its teaching as to the mode of creation: ‘God said . . . and it was so.’ That lifts us above all the poor childish myths of the nations, some of them disgusting, many of them absurd, all of them unworthy. There was no other agency than the putting forth of the divine will. The speech of God is but a symbol of the flashing forth of His will. To us Christians the antique phrase suggests a fulness of meaning not inherent in it, for we have learned to believe that ‘all things were made by Him’ whose name is ‘The Word of God’; but, apart from that, the representation here is sublime. ‘He spake, and it was done’; that is the sign-manual of Deity.
3. The completeness of creation is emphasised. We note, not only the recurrent ‘and it was so,’ which declares the perfect correspondence of the result with the divine intention, but also the recurring ‘God saw that it was good.’ His ideals are always realised. The divine artist never finds that the embodiment of His thought falls short of His thought.
‘What act is all its thought had been?
What will but felt the fleshly screen?
4. The progressiveness of the creative process is brought into strong relief. The work of the first four days is the preparation of the dwelling-place for the living creatures who are afterwards created to inhabit it. How far the details of these days’ work coincide with the order as science has made it out, we are not careful to ask here. The primeval chaos, the separation of the waters above from the waters beneath, the emergence of the land, the beginning of vegetation there, the shining out of the sun as the dense mists cleared, all find confirmation even in modern theories of evolution. But the intention of the whole is much rather to teach that, though the simple utterance of the divine will was the agent of creation, the manner of it was not a sudden calling of the world, as men know it, into being, but majestic, slow advance by stages, each of which rested on the preceding. To apply the old distinction between justification and sanctification, creation was a work, not an act. The Divine Workman, who is always patient, worked slowly then as He does now. Not at a leap, but by deliberate steps, the divine ideal attains realisation.
5. The creation of living creatures on the fourth and fifth days is so arranged as to lead up to the creation of man as the climax. On the fifth day sea and air are peopled, and their denizens ‘blessed,’ for the equal divine love holds every living thing to its heart. On the sixth day the earth is replenished with living creatures. Then, last of all, comes man, the apex of creation. Obviously the purpose of the whole is to concentrate the light on man; and it is a matter of no importance whether the narrative is correct according to zoology, or not. What it says is that God made all the universe, that He prepared the earth for the delight of living creatures, that the happy birds that soar and sing, and the dumb creatures that move through the paths of the seas, and the beasts of the earth, are all His creating, and that man is linked to them, being made on the same day as the latter, and by the same word, but that between man and them all there is a gulf, since he is made in the divine image. That image implies personality, the consciousness of self, the power to say ‘I,’ as well as purity. The transition from the work of the first four days to that of creating living things must have had a break. No theory has been able to bridge the chasm without admitting a divine act introducing the new element of life, and none has been able to bridge the gulf between the animal and human consciousness without admitting a divine act introducing ‘the image of God’ into the nature common to animal and man. Three facts as to humanity are thrown up into prominence: its possession of the image of God, the equality and eternal interdependence of the sexes, and the lordship over all creatures. Mark especially the remarkable wording of Gen 1:27 : ‘created He him male and female created He them .’ So ‘neither is the woman without the man, nor the man without the woman.’ Each is maimed apart from the other. Both stand side by side, on one level before God. The germ of the most ‘advanced’ doctrines of the relations of the sexes is hidden here.
NASB (UPDATED) TEXT: Gen 2:1-3
1Thus the heavens and the earth were completed, and all their hosts. 2By 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. 3Then God blessed the seventh day and sanctified it, because in it He rested from all His work which God had created and made.
Gen 2:1 the heavens Here this term (BDB 1029) refers to the atmosphere above the earth. In some contexts it refers to the starry heavens beyond the atmosphere. See SPECIAL TOPIC: Heaven
and the earth were completed, and all their hosts God’s physical creation had reached maturity (BDB 477, KB 476, Pual IMPERFECT, Gen 2:1 and Piel IMPERFECT, Gen 2:2). It was now ready for human habitation. Each level of creation has its proper inhabitants (i.e. hosts BDB 838). This does not specifically refer to the creation of angels (unless Gen 1:1 includes it). This text is dealing with physical creation.
The Hebrew term hosts, in some contexts, refers to (1) Mesopotamian idolatry connected to the heavenly lights (i.e. sun, moon, planets, comets, constellations, cf. Deu 4:19) or (2) YHWH’s angelic army (cf. Jos 5:14), but here to all the different kinds of created life.
Gen 2:2 By the seventh day God completed His work This is very anthropomorphic but does not imply that God was tired or that He ceased permanently from His active involvement with creation and mankind. This is a basic pattern set for mankind who needs regular rest and worship.
He rested This is the same Hebrew root as Sabbath (BDB 991, KB 1407, Qal IMPERFECT, cf. Exo 20:11; Exo 31:12-17). Deu 5:15 gives another reason for the Sabbath for sociological reasons, not theological reasons as in Exo 20:8-11.
This term is used in several different ways, particularly in the NT book of Heb 3:7 to Heb 4:11 and its interpretation of Psa 95:7-11. In Hebrews this term rest applies both to the Sabbath rest, the Promised Land, and fellowship with God (heaven). God sets the example for His special creation, mankind. Regular fellowship between God and mankind is the unstated, but contextually central, purpose of creation!
the seventh day Days 1-6 begin with evening and close with morning (cf. Gen 1:31), but the seventh day’s morning is never mentioned. Therefore, the rabbis and also the NT author of Hebrews ( Heb 3:7 to Heb 4:11) use this to conclude that God’s rest is still available (cf. Psa 95:7-11). See Special Topic: Symbolic Numbers in Scripture.
Gen 2:3 Then God blessed the seventh day and sanctified it The term sanctified means made holy (BDB 872, KB 1073, Piel IMPERFECT). This term is used in the sense of setting something apart for God’s particular use. Very early God established a special, regular day for Himself and humanity to commune. This does not mean that all days do not belong to God, but one is uniquely set aside for communion, worship, praise, and energizing rest.
The origin of the seven day week is shrouded in antiquity and mystery. One can see how the month is related to the phases of the moon and how the year is related to seasonal changes, but a week has no obvious source. However, every ancient culture that we know of seems to have known about it when their written history began. See SPECIAL TOPIC: Worship, below.
SPECIAL TOPIC: WORSHIP
made This is literally making. God’s creative acts continue (BDB 793 I, KB 889, Qal INFINITIVE CONSTRUCT). God created organic creatures to develop. The repeated phrase be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth reflects God’s design and plan. God created living creatures (including mankind) which reproduce themselves after their kind. The very act causes variations.
the heavens and the earth = “which are now” (2Pe 3:7), see Structure on p. 1. Hence without Hebrew Particle ‘eth. See note on Gen 1:1 and Deu 4:26.
Thus the heavens and the earth were finished, and all the host of them. And on the seventh day God ended his work which he had made; and he rested on the seventh day from all his work which he had made. And God blessed the seventh day, and sanctified it: because that in it he had rested from all his work which God created and made (Gen 2:1-3).
So we find the creation of the earth in chapter one; the placing of man upon the earth, and then the declaration that on the seventh day God rested. Not that He was tired, because of all of the energy that had been expended in the creating of the earth because God is omnipotentthat means He can’t get tiredbut He had finished His work, and so He just rested from His work.
In other words, there’s nothing more to create. It’s all been created. If God really took the day off and just kicked back and did nothing, the earth would go to pieces, because the Bible says not only was all things, were all things created by Him, but by Him all things are held together. And so God rested from His creative works, all that have been created. All that is to be created was created in that span. Nothing new is now being created. We’re now in sort of a closed-in system. Nothing new is being created.
There has been since that day a gradually, a gradual deterioration of everything; the second law of thermodynamics. Everything is now gradually wearing down and slowing down and in the process of decay. Sir Jean said that the universe is like a giant clock that was wound up and is slowly running down. And so God ceased from His creative forces and from the creation of anything new. Now God rested and from creation, so He sanctified or set apart that seventh day as a day of rest.
And God established with Israel a covenant that they should keep that Sabbath day through all their generations. Someone said, “Well when did the church start worshipping on Sunday?” And those of the church who still enjoy worshipping on Saturday try to blame Constantine for the change to Sunday worship. But there are indications; even in the book of Acts that they were gathering together on the first day of the week to break bread. Also in the letter to the Corinthians, Paul talks about when they gathered together on the first day of the week, to bring their offerings in so that there’ll be no collections taken while he was there. Tertulian, one of the early church fathers, who antedates the Constantine and the whole development under Constantine, said that there were many Christians in that day who felt that the only day, really in which they should take communion was the first day of the week because that was the day that marked the resurrection of Jesus Christ.
Now it is interesting that the number of Jesus, in a numeric sense is the number eight, which is the number of new beginning. Seven is the number of completeness. Six is the number of man, imperfection. But when you hit the full cycle of seven, you have seven notes to the scale, seven basic colors, seven is a, seven days in the week and it’s a number that speaks and has a connotation of completeness in a Biblical sense. So when you have finished the seven, you start a new cycle. Number eight then is the number of new beginning. It’s starting over anew. So that in numeric structures and all, the number of Jesus is eight and all of the names for Jesus in Greek are divisible by eight, the number of new beginning.
And so it seemed like the early church met many of them on the first day of the week which would be the eighth day, the day that is the number for Christ. But there really shouldn’t be any hang-up on it because Paul said in Romans fourteen, “One man esteems one day above another: another man esteems every day alike. Let every man be fully persuaded in his own mind” (Rom 14:5). In Colossians chapter two he said, “Don’t let any man judge you in respect to holy days, new moons, Sabbath days: Which are all a shadow of things to come; for the substance is of Christ” (Col 2:16-17).
In other words, the Sabbath days were just a shadow of things to come. They aren’t the substance. A shadow is not substance. Substance creates a shadow. The substance is Jesus. The shadow that Jesus cast on the Old Testament was the Sabbath day, the day of rest. So that Jesus has become our Sabbath as Christians.
He is our rest. We have ceased from our labors; we enter into His rest. And so Christ is our Sabbath. He is our rest. And the Sabbath days of the Old Testament were all looking forward to Jesus Christ who would bring rest. No longer is there a righteousness of works or of the law, but the righteousness now is by faith resting in Jesus Christ. And the one mark about those people who make such a big deal over a particular day to worship is they really don’t have any rest. They’re still seeking to achieve a righteousness before God by keeping the law. And they have not entered into the substance, into Christ and into that rest that is in Jesus Christ.
The Sabbath law was given according to Exodus chapter twenty-two to the nation Israel and to those who would proselytize into the nation becoming Jews as a proselyte. Then they were forced to keep the Sabbath day or to the strangers that were in Israel. They also were forced to keep the Sabbath day, but the Sabbath day was never a regulation that was laid upon the Gentile church.
In fact, in the book of Acts when certain brethren came to the Gentile church of Antioch and began to trouble the brethren saying that you cannot be saved except you keep the law of Moses and be circumcised, Paul and Barnabas came down to the church in Jerusalem in order to settle the issue once and for all. Peter testified of his call unto the Gentiles by God and of that initial work of the Holy Spirit when he went to them. But then Peter suggested that we not put on them a yoke of bondage, referring to the law, that neither we nor our fathers were able to keep.
Paul and Barnabas testified of the marvelous work of the Holy Spirit among the Gentiles throughout the world where they were not keeping the law. And finally, James said, “Well I suggest that we not put on them any greater burden than to write to them and give them Christian greetings and tell them to keep themselves from things that are strangled, from fornication, and if they do this, they do well”. And so they wrote the letter to the church at Antioch saying, “Greetings unto you, and we just suggest that you keep yourselves from idols, from things strangled, and from fornication. And if you do this, you do well, the Lord be with you and bless you.” But there was never any reference to the Gentile church of the Sabbath day or any of the rest of the law and the ordinances.
Now even that business of keeping yourself from things strangled and things offered to idols, Paul even modified that when he wrote to the Corinthians. He said, Now when you are buying your meat in the butcher shop, don’t ask him if it’s been offered to an idol. Just buy it and go home and eat it. Give God thanks for it. For all things are to be received with thanksgiving. And if you don’t ask, then you’ll have no problems. But if you ask him, “Was this offered to as a sacrifice to an idol?” And he says yes, then you’re liable to have a hang up with your conscience when you eat it.
So for conscience sake, just don’t ask any questions. When you’re invited out to eat at somebody’s house, don’t say, “Was this meat offered to an idol?” He said just eat what’s set before you asking no questions. That is for your conscience sake. For we know that all things are to be “received with thanksgiving” (1Ti 4:3). There’s nothing unclean in itself. So Paul had a glorious liberty in Christ Jesus and he said, “Happy is the man whose heart condemns him not in the things that he alloweth” (Rom 14:22). So I imagine Paul ate pork chops and had great freedom in these things though he was a Pharisee of the Pharisees at one time.
So God having rested established, sanctified the seventh day and made it as a covenant with the nation Israel. But God also established a pattern. “Six days shall thou labor and do thy work and the seventh day you’re to rest, a day unto the Lord” (Exo 35:2). Now it would be extremely healthy for all of us if we would take one day a week off and just kick back and do nothing. The Sabbath was made for man because man needs one day off out of seven. The reason why we have so much mental strain, the reason why we have so many heart attacks and all, is because people haven’t been following God’s law of the seventh day. We keep going all the time. We don’t stop to take a day off, and my wife says, “Yeah, you don’t and I’ve been telling you to do it”. But it would be healthy. It wouldn’t make you any more spiritual, it’d just be good for you. You’ll live longer if that’s your goal.
So now as we enter into verse four, we are going to enter in now to a sort of a recapitulation of certain aspects of creation as we now amplify some of the aspects of creation. As we enter into this next section beginning with verse four, we’re going to find that God is not referred to as just “Elohim” as in chapter one; but now He is “Jehovah” or “Yahweh Elohim”, because now we are going to see God relating to man. And whenever God begins to relate to man, He relates to man through this marvelous name of “Yahweh” or “Jehovah”. As God seeks to become to man what man needs.
And it is because of this now being an amplification of the creation of man and all, there are some people who see it as a second account and see it foolishly as contradictory to the first account, and they call the first chapter the “Elohistic” and then they call this the “Jehovahistic” and then we get into a further account they call the “priestly”. And so you have the “J.E.P.” theories of whether or not it was the Jehovahistic or the Elohistic or the priestly writings and they get things so confused; that we’re going to leave them with their confusion and just go on and study what God has to say.
Now these are the generations of the heavens and of the earth when they were created, in the day that the LORD God made the earth and the heavens (Gen 2:4),
So now the LORD God, and whenever you find LORD in all capital letters as it is in this case, that means that it is that name for God that the Jews revered so highly, revered so highly, that they would not pronounce it. They would not write the vowels but only the consonants in the manuscripts. JHVH; try and pronounce that. You can’t, you know, it’s unpronounceable. So we don’t know what vowels were there. So the general consensus of opinion is that the name was to be pronounced “Yahweh”. But somewhere along the line the pronunciation of Jehovah came along or Jehovah and it has become more popular. But Yahweh is probably the correct pronunciation though we do not know for sure.
But it is the name by which God has sought to relate to man as it is the name that speaks of God’s desire to become to you all that you may need. So whenever you find this all capitals LORD, it stands for that name of God. You will also find capital L, small -o-r-d, and that means that it’s the translation of the Hebrew Adonai, which means Lord as a title. But the all capitals means that it’s a translation of the Yahweh, Lord as a name, the name of God, the Yahweh.
So here is the first use of it in the Bible, “in the day that the LORD God made the earth and the heavens.”
And every plant of the field before it was in the earth, and every herb of the field before it grew: for the LORD God had not caused it to rain upon the earth, and there was not a man to till the ground. But there went up a mist from the earth, and watered the whole face of the ground (Gen 2:5-6).
Now it would seem that there was not a rain until the time of Noah. Prior to that in the evening, a mist would arise out of the ground and the earth would be watered with this dew or with this mist. Now it is interesting that even though there was not rain, there were rivers, four rivers that proceeded out from the Garden of Eden. How could you have rivers without rain? Creates an interesting problem that you can speculate on.
But it is very possible that there were subterranean caverns of, with tremendous volcanic heat and forces and water coming in from the sea through the subterranean caverns into this steam generator, so to speak, the volcano. The steam going up, and of course, then condensing and flowing as water, and you could have a water supply that way. You could have had at that point a lot of subterranean water. And of course, with this tremendous moisture blanket around the atmosphere, it could have provided a humidity, and of course, at night the mist going up, the earth was watered by this way prior to the flood.
And the LORD God formed man of the dust of the ground, and he breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul (Gen 2:7).
And so we are told that God in chapter one said, “Let us make man in our image, after our likeness”(Gen 1:26). “And God formed man out of the dust of the ground, and he breathed into man’s nostrils; and man became a living soul”, created in the likeness of God with the ability to worship God and the ability to fellowship with God.
And the LORD God planted a garden eastward in Eden (Gen 2:8);
So eastward would have been east of where He had created Adam. There is no way to really know directions. We don’t know where the Garden of Eden was. There is no way of finding out where the Garden of Eden was because since that time, there have been several cataclysmic changes of the earth’s geography which have changed the courses of rivers and mountains and the whole thing.
There’s a very interesting book by Emmanuel Villakoski, entitled “Earth’s in Upheaval”, in which he shows that the Himalayas and the Andes have both been formed in actually very recent years. There are indications that Lake Titicaca, that there were civilizations around the lake when the lake was at a much lower altitude down about seven thousand feet or so. But in the last five thousand years, there has been a thrust upwards of the Andes, and thus the lake now being at around a ten thousand-foot elevation. But the book is quite interesting and quite challenging mentally. But all it is basically declaring is that there have been many changes of the earth’s surface during the time of man’s history. The flood, no doubt, altered the whole geographical face of the earth.
And there is one interesting little scripture that we know very little about but there’s just sort of a side comment concerning the time of Peleg, that it was in his time that the earth was divided. Now there aresome of the latest theories are concerning the continental drifts, that at once everything was connected together but the continents have drifted and they are still drifting. If that theory is correct, it would be very interesting, this little sidelight, When did that happen? How long ago? What happened at the time of Peleg, and it’s justit really just sort of thrown in there just as a little grabber, and something to create an area for people to speculate about.
God doesn’t say anymore about the earth being divided, except that one little remark and we’ll get to it in awhile here in Genesis as it gives the genealogies, as it gives his genealogy it just gives that little addition to it. “And it was in his days that the earth was divided” (Gen 10:25).
So “the LORD planted a garden eastward in Eden;”
and there he put the man whom he had formed (Gen 2:8).
And so God made really a special place for Adam. He formed this garden or He planted this garden. And then He placed man in it.
And out of the ground made the LORD God to grow every tree that is pleasant to the sight, and good for food; the tree of life also in the midst of the garden, and the tree of knowledge of good and evil (Gen 2:9).
So here was a beautiful garden, blossoming trees and fruit bearing trees. All there for man to just enjoy. It must have been absolutely, fabulously beautiful. God planted a garden, put in it all these beautiful flowering trees and fruit bearing trees. And in the middle of the garden, there were two trees: one, the tree of life; and the other, the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.
And a river went out of Eden to water the garden; and from there it was parted, and became into four rivers. The name of the first is Pison: that is it which compasseth the whole land of Havilah, where there is gold (Gen 2:10-11);
Now if you can only figure out where that is, you could go prospecting. Havilah, where is it? I don’t know. But as I say, the whole structure of the earth has been so changed that there’s no way of knowing really.
The gold that is of that land is good: there is also bdellium and onyx stone. And the name of the second river is Gihon: the same is it that compasseth the whole land of Ethiopia (Gen 2:12-13).
But no doubt a different location than where it is today. Some believe that this perhaps is the reference to the Nile River but there is really very little relation between the Nile and the Tigris and Euphrates which the next two rivers,
a third river the Hiddekel [is actually the Tigris river]: that is it which goeth toward the east of Assyria. And the fourth river is the Euphrates (Gen 2:14).
So two of the rivers, the Tigris and Euphrates and some believe that these other two rivers were actually sort of channels that connected the Tigris and the Euphrates there in the Babylonian plain. And they have, most of them, tried to locate the Garden of Eden somewhere there in the Babylonian plain between the Tigris and the Euphrates River. They say that that is the cradle of civilization.
And the LORD God took the man, and put him into the Garden of Eden to dress it and to keep it (Gen 2:15).
Now notice it wasn’t that man didn’t have anything to do. God put him there to dress the garden and to keep it. Some people picture heaven as, you know, sitting on a cloud and playing a harp and twiddling your thumbs in between numbers. Like you know, there’s going to be nothing to do. Not so. God placed man in the garden to dress it and to keep it. Life would be awfully boring if there were nothing to do.
But the labor that man expended in the garden wasn’t sweating kind of labor. That didn’t come until after his sin that he was going to earn his bread by the sweat of his brow. Up to then it was just a matter of taking care of it, a caretaker and dressing it and keeping it. Far from the concept that the modern ecologists are trying to throw a guilt onto the Bible, saying that the man’s raping of nature comes from the Bible because God said to have dominion over the earth, and thus man just feels that he can just do anything he wants and destroy it. And thus, the Bible is to blame for all of the ecological damage in the world. Oh how stupid can people get!
God didn’t say to Adam, Just go and you know, mess it all up. Destroy it. Cut down the trees. He said, No, “dress it and keep it”. Really I believe that only a child of God has a true appreciation of nature, a far greater appreciation of nature than a humanist. They are the ones who through greed have not cared for the world that God created and have so destroyed it by greed, but not by a Christian or Biblical principle at all. That’s so much foolishness. But there are people who like to blame God and blame Christians for any problems, for in doing that they are pointing attention from themselves and their own guilt. God said, “Dress it, keep it”.
And the LORD God commanded the man, saying, Of every tree of the garden you may freely eat: But of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat of it: for in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die (Gen 2:16-17).
So here is man placed in an ideal environment, under ideal conditions. Couldn’t ask for it any nicer, any better, placed in this beautiful garden that God had planted, all kinds of fruit trees, all kinds of luscious fruits to eat of. And man is given only one restriction, that tree that is in the midst of the garden, you’re not to eat of it. And then as though God knew that he was going to, He said, “For in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die.” Literally dying, “thou shalt surely die.” In other words, death processes will begin the day you eat of that fruit.
Now it was really a twofold death; it was a spiritual death but it was the beginning of physical death for man. It doesn’t really seem that God’s requirements were too stringent. But why would God put that tree there anyhow? Of all the trees that God planted in the garden, why would He plant that tree? Just think. Had He not planted that tree we wouldn’t have all of the problems that we have in the world today. And if God knew that man was going to eat of it, why would He put it there? And surely God did know if He indeed is omniscient, which I am confident that He is.
God created man after His image and God, being self-determinate, created man also self-determinate, giving to man a free will. One of the most awesome things that you have is the power of choice. You can choose your own destiny. You can choose whether or not you want God to have a part in your life. You can choose to obey God or disobey God. You can choose to love God or hate God. You can choose to serve God or serve your own flesh. God has given to you the capacity of choice.
Now it is interesting to me wherever the Christian gospel has gone, there has been a very high respect for the power of choice, freedom, the freedom to choose. And whenever there is a waning of the gospel in any area, what is the consequence? A slavery of man. The loss of freedoms. Look at those nations ruled by Communism today. How they have taken away the freedoms of choice and made them very restricted and very restrictive. And as we see in this country, more and more governmental controls we realize that with each new law there comes a confining of the freedom of choice. But always where the Christian gospel has gone, it has taken with it a respect for the freedom of choice because God gave to us the freedom of choice. And we respect it as a God-given capacity.
But what value would it be to have a freedom of choice if there was nothing to choose. It would be totally meaningless that God gave to me the power to choose, but I don’t have anything to choose. It’s all there. It’s all laid out. There is no law, there is no restriction, there is nothing; therefore, I have no choice to make, therefore my power of choice is really meaningless. So in order that the power of choice be meaningful, God had to give a choice. God had to make a restriction. In order that man’s obedience to God might be meaningful, God had to give the opportunity to disobey and the choice to disobey.
The power of choice is the thing that makes man something other than a robot. God could have made us all robots with no choices, every decision coming from a superior mind that is controlling every action, every decision of my whole life and my body and everything else. But God didn’t want a bunch of robots, because you could never receive meaningful love or meaningful fellowship from a robot. For love to be meaningful, the power of choice must be there. For obedience to be meaningful, the power of choice must be there. And so that my worship of God, my love for God might be fully meaningful to God, He gave to me the capacity of choice. I don’t have to worship Him. I don’t have to love Him. I can choose to do it or not to do it; that’s my choice.
But when I choose to love God, then my love for God becomes meaningful unto God because it’s a choice. I’m not a robot, I’m not just responding in a preset condition that God has built into my mental apparatus where He pushes a button in heaven and there are certain little flashes that go across my brain and my body responds automatically to these impulses from God and I say, “I love You, God”. It doesn’t turn anybody on. God wants our love to be meaningful. He gave us power of choice, but then He had to give us something to choose.
But in order that the power of choice be meaningful, not only must there be something to choose but then God must respect the choice that I make. In other words, He can’t force me to choose. It isn’t an arm-twisting God that has you in a hammer hold and says, “Say, Praise the Lord! Say, Praise the Lord! Praise the Lord!” If He forced me to choose, than it’s no longer meaningful. So He respects the choice that I make.
If I make a choice and oh no, you can’t do that, than what’s the value of having a choice? So God has given me the free will, the power to exercise that free will and then He respects the choices that I have made. Woo, that’s awesome! For that means that I have the capacity to choose my own destiny, to be with God or not to be with God. And when I make my choice, God respects the choice that I make. And if I choose not to be with God, He honors that choice.
Now this is why it is so ridiculous to say, well, how can a God of love send a man to hell? He doesn’t. He never did, He never will. Man goes there by his own choice, which God respects and honors. If you choose to go to hell, God will respect your choice; otherwise, giving you the power of choice would be meaningless. And then so it’s very awesome to realize that capacity of God, that God-like capacity that I have of choosing, choosing my destiny. Now God calls upon us to make a choice and God does seek to influence our choices. But when you come to the bottom line, the choice is yours.
Satan is also seeking to influence your choice. But the bottom line is that neither God nor Satan makes the choice for you. You make the choice for yourself. Every man is responsible for his own destiny. God has created us that way. And so He placed the tree. He gave the warning. And then He left man for his own choice.
And the LORD God said, It is not good that man should be alone (Gen 2:18);
Now that is God’s recognition of man’s basic incompleteness by himself. God when He looked at man said,
It is not good that man should be alone (Gen 2:18);
Man is incomplete by himself. God said,
I will make a help meet for him. Now out of the ground the LORD God had formed every beast of the field, and every fowl of the air; and he brought them unto Adam to see what he would call them: and whatsoever Adam called every living creature, that was the name thereof (Gen 2:18-19).
Now imagine that. What a mind God must have given to Adam. As He brought to Adam all of the animals and everything and he said, “That’s cow, that’s a horse, that’s a dog, that’s a cat”.
And he named all of the animals, and all of the birds; but in all of the animal kingdom there wasn’t found [a companion or] a help meet for Adam. And so the LORD God caused a deep sleep to fall upon Adam, and as he slept: he took one of his ribs (Gen 2:20-21),
Now just, He opened up his side and He tookand a rib is not probably quite correct here. There is another Hebrew word for rib and just what this particular Hebrew word means is ambiguous. We can’t be sure, but God took something out of Adam, perhaps even a blood transfusion or maybe a cell, maybe God cloned him. Who knows?
Interesting concept this cloning bit, realizing that the cell is far more complex than we originally thought, that there is the design pattern for the whole body in just a cell in your arm. So where this particular passage used to create a lot of problems to some of the problemed people, all of a sudden it looks like something out of science fiction that man has just about come to the place where we can clone, they think. And they’re talking a lot today, in fact there is quite an interesting book that’s created quite a controversy on cloning.
When God took out of Adam’s side, and we’ll say ribs just because we don’t know what it is.
and he closed up the flesh instead thereof; And the rib, which the LORD God had taken from man, made he a woman, and brought her unto the man (Gen 2:21-22).
Now as I said, this has caused a lot of problems. People say, well, they don’t believe the Bible can be the Word of God because man has the same number of ribs that a woman has. Well, that sure isn’t very logical thinking by the person who presents that kind of an argument; is it? Because say if you lost your arm in an accident, it doesn’t mean your child is going to be born without an arm; does it? Or you’ve chopped a finger off, it doesn’t mean if you have a little boy he’s going to be missing his index finger. So if God took a rib out of Adam, it wouldn’t mean that his child would be minus that rib. You’d have to go find Adam’s skeleton someplace to see if there was a missing rib. You couldn’t, you know, look at man today and say, well man has the same number and all because that would not follow. We know better than that.
But there is that deep intimate relationship between man and woman. So deep that,
Adam said, This is now bone of my bones, and flesh of my flesh: and she shall be called ishshah, because she was taken out of iysh. Therefore shall a man leave his father and his mother, and shall cleave unto his wife: and they shall be one flesh. And they were both naked, the man and his wife, and were not ashamed (Gen 2:23-25).
So now we have God establishing the basic relationship between a man and a woman in marriage. “Therefore a man shall leave his mother and father, and cleave unto his wife: and the two become one flesh.” That’s God’s basic establishment of marriage. The two become one. The deepest, the most intimate bond, the two becoming one in marriage. The man cleaving to his wife. This is basic, this is the beginning of things, this is how God started it, this is how God intended it to be.
Now man had difficulty living up to God’s plan and to God’s intentions. When Jesus came, He sought to bring man to God’s basic design and purpose; and thus, Jesus was teaching the sacredness of the marriage vows and the endurance of the marriage vows. And the Pharisees, recognizing now a difference between what Jesus was saying and what the law of Moses said, were seeking to trap Jesus, showing that He was teaching other than the law of Moses.
And so they said to Him, “Is it lawful for a man to put away his wife for any cause?” And Jesus said, “If a man puts away his wife and marries another, except it be for fornication, he causes her to commit adultery and whoso marries her commits adultery”. Oh ho ho, trap is shut. “How is it then that Moses said, Let him give her a writing of a bill of divorcement”. We caught You! You’re saying something contrary to Moses’ law. We know that God gave the law to Moses. There’s no question about that. We’ve trapped You. We’ve caught You. You’re contrary to Moses’ law.
What did Jesus do? He went back and antedated Moses’ law. Jesus said, “In the beginning it wasn’t so. For in the beginning, God made them male and female, and for this cause shall a man leave his mother and father and shall cleave to his wife and they two become one flesh. And it was because of the hardness of your hearts that Moses said, Let him give her a writing of divorcement”. Because man’s heart was hard and would not come to God’s divine ideal, the law of divorce was established but that was never God’s original plan.
In the beginning it was not so. We’ve come back now to the beginning, that which Jesus came back to, the basic purposes of God in marriage. That once for life, a man leaving his mother and father cleaving to his wife and the two of them becoming one flesh. And because of the hardness of man’s hearts, his inability to obtain or to obey God’s best, we look at our society and our world today and we see the multitude of problems that have arisen out of the hardness of our hearts, leaving the basic beginning purposes of God in marriage.
There’s something wrong today with our whole concept of love. I get so tired of hearing a husband or a wife say, “Well I never really loved them. I don’t think I loved them. I don’t think I ever loved them”. Listen, if you don’t love, don’t get married. Where is your head? What are you thinking about? That’s a terrible thing to say to your mate, “Well, I don’t think I ever really loved you”. It’s tragic.
So there isthere’s a basic problem in our whole dating system. And one of the basic problems of the whole dating system is the couples are getting deeply involved physically without even knowing each other emotionally. That is, in the true deep sense, the relationship is predicated too much upon the physical aspects and there’s not enough just getting acquainted and knowing. You see, one of the characteristics of true love is that it is patient and it will wait for that God-ordained time.
And any guy that tries to hustle you along into bed before you’re married doesn’t really love you with the kind of love that you want your husband to love you. Get rid of him. That’s the whole problem, you see. Couples are getting married without really knowing each other or without really loving each other because too much emphasis has been on the physical aspects which is not true love. True love will wait.
Beautiful openness in marriage, there should be. They were both naked, they weren’t ashamed. They shouldn’t be. The two are one flesh.
Gen 2:1-8. Thus the heavens and the earth were finished, and all the host of them. And on the seventh day God ended his work which he had made; and he rested on the seventh day from all his work which he had made. And God blessed the seventh day, and sanctified it: because that in it he had rested from all his work which God created and made. These are the generations of the heavens and of the earth when they were created, in the day that the LORD God made the earth and the heavens, And every plant of the field before it was in the earth, and every herb of the field before it grew: for the LORD God had not caused it to rain upon the earth, and there was not a man to till the ground. But there went up a mist from the earth, and watered the whole face of the ground. And the LORD God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul. And the LORD God planted a garden eastward in Eden, and there he put the man whom he had formed.
Everything was ready for mans use, every fruit-bearing tree for his nourishment, every creature to do his bidding, for it was the will of God that he should have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth. God did not place the man formed in his image, after his likeness, in an unfurnished house or an empty world, and leave him to provide for himself all that he required but he prepared everything that man could possibly need, and completed the whole plan by planting a garden eastward in Eden; and there he put the man whom he had formed.
Gen 2:9. And out of the ground made the LORD God to grow every tree that is pleasant to the sight, and good for food; the tree of life also in the midst of the garden, and the tree of knowledge of good and evil.
That tree of life in the midst of the earthly paradise was to be symbolic of another tree of life in the paradise above, from which the children of God shall never be driven as Adam and Eve were driven out of Eden.
Gen 2:10-14. And a river went out of Eden to water the garden, and from thence it was parted, and became into four heads. The name of the first is Pison: that is it which compasseth the whole land of Havilah, where there is gold; And the gold of that land is good: there is bdellium and the onyx stone. And the name of the second river is Gihon: the same is it that compasseth the whole land of Ethiopia. And the name of the third river is Hiddekel: that is it which goeth toward the east of Assyria. And the fourth river is Euphrates.
That river in Eden also reminds us of the pure river of water of life clear as crystal, proceeding out of the throne of God and of the Lamb, of which we read almost at the end of the Revelation that was given to John in Patmos. Thus the beginning and the end of the Bible call our attention to the tree of life and the river of life in the paradise below and the better paradise above.
Gen 2:15. And the LORD God took the man, and put him into the garden;of Eden to dress it and to keep it.
There was to be occupation for man even in paradise, just as they who are before the throne of God in glory serve him day and night in his temple. Idleness gives no joy, but holy employment will add to the bliss of heaven.
Gen 2:16-17. And the LORD God commanded the man, saying, Of every tree of the garden, thou mayest freely eat: But of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat of it: for in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die.
Apparently, Adam was not forbidden to eat of the fruit of the tree of life, though, after his fail, he was cast out of Eden, as God said, lest he put forth his hand, and take also of the tree of life, and eat, and live for ever. He might freely eat the fruit of every tree in the garden except one: of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat of it. It was a slight prohibition, yet the test was more than man, even in a state of innocence, was able to endure, and, alas! his failure involved all his descendants, for he was the federal head of the human race, and by one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin, and so death passed upon all men. Happily, there is another federal Head, and therefore we read, For if through the offense of one many be dead, much more the grace of God, and the gift by grace, which is by one man, Jesus Christ, hath abounded unto many.
This exposition consisted of readings from Gen 2:1-17; and Revelation 22.
This chapter gives us a fuller account of man. Three distinct movements are chronicled in the brief but comprehensive account.
First, “Jehovah God formed man of the dust.” The Hebrew word “formed” suggests the figure of the potter, molding to shape, material already existing. It is a scientific fact that all the elements in man’s physical life are found in the dust of the ground.
Second, “Jehovah God breathed into his nostrils the breath of life.” This is the final divine act, mysterious and incomprehensible, indicating the communication to the dust, of the very life of God.
Finally, “man became a living soul.” The word nephesh, here translated “soul,” refers to complete personality. This being is now placed in an environment which demands his care and cultivation. His relationship as subject to the sovereignty of God is sacramentally symbolized for him in a tree. He can only fulfil the highest function of his being only as he is living and acting within the will of God. By supernatural action, the man is completed in the woman. Here the declaration is most significant. “God created man in His own image, in the image of God created He him; male and female created He them” (Gen 1:27). In God are fatherhood and motherhood, parenthood and childhood. This great chapter on human nature ideally reveals it in its relationship with God in being and in purpose. The ultimate meaning of this is not revealed here and will be known only in the ages to come, when, beyond all failure, the divine thought and purpose are fulfilled.
Man in Eden, Innocence
Gen 2:1-17
The first paragraph belongs to the previous chapter, as is clear from the use of the same term for God-Elohim. Gods Rest was not from weariness, or exhaustion, but because His work of Creation was finished. He is ever at work, remember Joh 5:17. We enter into His rest, when we cease to worry, and trust Him in all and for all. In Gen 2:4, Moses incorporates another of those wonderful God-given narratives, which had been handed down from the lips of the patriarchs. It is marked by the use of another term for God-Jehovah Elohim. Every man is entrusted with a garden, that he may keep it. Gods goodness is no excuse for idleness. Whether your heart and life shall produce weeds, or flowers and fruits, depends on yourself. Ponder Pro 4:23; Pro 24:30-31.
Gen 2:1
The heavens and the earth were finished when God created man in His own image. Then the universe was what He designed it to be; then He could look, not upon a portion of it, but upon the whole of it, and say, “It is very good.”
I. We are told: (1) “God made man in His own image; male and female created He them;” and (2) “He made man out of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life,” The two accounts are distinct. If we had the first only, we should have the description of an ideal man, without being told that there was an actual man. The Creation in the highest sense must mean the bestowing, under whatever limitations, of a portion of God’s own life, that which corresponded with His own being. It must denote, not What we understand by putting together a material thing, but the communication of that inward power and substance without which matter is but a dream.
II. When we hear of the earth bringing forth grass, the herb yielding seed, the fishes or beasts being fruitful and multiplying, we are told of living powers which were imparted once, but which are in continual exercise and manifestation; the creative word has been uttered once, it is never for a moment suspended; never ceases to fulfil its own proclamation. Creation involves production. (1) Creation is not measured by the sun. The week was especially meant to remind the Jew of his own work and God’s work; of God’s rest and his own rest. (2) It was to bring before him the fact of his relation to God, to teach him to regard the universe not chiefly as under the government of sun or moon, or as regulated by their courses, but as an order which an unseen God had created, which included sun, moon, stars, earth, and all the living creatures that inhabit them.
III. From the first chapter of Genesis we are taught more clearly than any words can teach us what man becomes when he is a centre to himself, and supposes that all things are revolving around him. But, most of all, these chapters prepare us for the announcement of that truth which all the subsequent history is to unfold, that the Word who said, “Let there be light,” and there was light, who placed the sun, and moon, and stars in their orbits and called all organised creatures into life; and who is, in the highest sense, the Light of men-the Source of their reason, the Guide of their wills-is the Head of all principalities and powers, the upholder of the whole universe.
F. D. Maurice, The Patriarchs and Lawgivers of the Old Testament, p. 33.
References: Gen 2:1.-Christian World Pulpit, vol. iii., p. 136, Clergyman’s Magazine, vol. xviii., p. 79. Gen 2:1-3.-S. Cox, Expositions, 1st series, p. 366; Parker, vol. i., p. 127; A. Pott, Sermons for the Festivals and Fasts, p. 1. Gen 2:2.-Parker, Hidden Springs, p. 369; G. Dawson, The Authentic Gospel, p. 176; Clergyman’s Magazine, vol. xii., p. 76. Gen 2:2, Gen 2:3.-E. Irving, Collected Writings, vol. iv.,p. 515; G. Moberly, Parochial Sermons, p. 61.
Gen 2:3
I. Whether the patriarchs were or were not commanded to keep the Sabbath is a thing which we can never know; it is no safe foundation for our thinking ourselves bound to keep it, that the patriarchs kept it before the Law was given, and that the commandment had existed before the time of Moses, and was only confirmed by him and repeated. For if the Law itself be done away in Christ, much more the things before the Law. The Sabbath may have been necessary to the patriarchs, for we know that it was needed even at a later time; they who had the light of the Law could not do without it. But it would by no means follow that it was needed now, when, having put away the helps of our childhood, we ought to be grown up into the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ. So that the words of the text neither prove us right in keeping the Sunday, nor would they prove us wrong if we were to give up the observance of it.
II. The real question, however, is, Are we right in keeping the Sunday, or are we not right? We are bound by the spirit of the fourth commandment to keep holy the Sunday because we are not fit to do without it. As the change of the day from the seventh to the first shows us what God designed for us, shows us the heavenly liberty to which we were called, so the long and unvaried practice of the Church in keeping the first day holy shows us their sad feeling and confession that they were not fit for that liberty; that the Law, which God would fain have loosed from off them, was still needed to be their schoolmaster. The bond of the commandment broken through Christ’s spirit was through our unworthiness closed again. We still need the Law, we need its aid to our weakness; we may not refuse to listen to the wisdom of its voice because the terror of its threatenings is taken away from the true believer.
T. Arnold, Sermon, vol. iii., p. 184.
An allegory lies in this history. Every week has its Sabbath, and every Sabbath is to be a parenthesis between two weeks’ work. From the beginning of the world a seventh of time was set apart for rest. The command to keep it holy was embodied in the ceremonial law, and began with the retrospective word “Remember!” The rest of the Sabbath must be (1) real, (2) worthy, (3) complete. It must be refreshment to body, mind, and soul; it must not infringe upon the rest of others. The rest of a holy peace must be combined with the loving energies of an active body and an earnest mind.
J. Vaughan, Fifty Sermons, 10th series, p. 204.
References: Gen 2:3.-R. S. Candlish, The Book of Genesis, p. 18; H. F. Burder, Sermons, p. 369. Gen 2:4.-F. W. Robertson, Notes on Genesis, p. 16. Gen 2:4, Gen 2:5.-H. Macmillan, Bible Teachings in Nature, p. 130. Gen 2:5.-Expositor, 1st series, vol. vii., p. 465. 2:4-3:24.-J. Monro Gibson, The Ages before Moses, p. 77.
Gen 2:7
I. We see from this text that it was the will of God that there should be between man and the other creatures He had formed an enormous gulf; that men were intended to be raised above the beasts altogether in kind; that they were to be not merely superior but different, as having a likeness which no other creature had, as being the image of God.
II. There can be no doubt that one great gift which Adam received from God was a highly intelligent mind, a mind capable of very great things; for we know what wonders the human mind is capable of now, and we cannot suppose that the mind which was given to the first man was of a lower order than that with which his fallen children have been blest. Adam also received from his Maker a heart pure and spotless, a heart which loved what was good because it was good; and in this respect his mind would be a reflection of the pure, holy mind of God.
III. Adam’s spiritual life appears to have been supported by communion with God. His natural life, too, seems to have been continued by supernatural means. Man lost by sin those supernatural means of support which he had enjoyed before. The tree of life may have been the sacramental means of preserving man from decay; so that as long as Adam and Eve were sinless and had access to the tree of life, so long, though not by nature immortal, death had no power over them. Adam held all that he possessed upon a certain condition, and that condition was obedience to God. The command was simple and easy to obey, and yet Adam broke it and lost those blessings with which he had been endowed, and that life which God had breathed into him.
Bishop Harvey Goodwin, Parish Sermons, 2nd series, p. 83.
Gen 2:7
(with Gen 1:27).
In studying these chapters carefully, we find some degree of difficulty in the form of the sacred story itself. There appear to be, and in a certain sense there are, three different narratives, three distinct records of creation. We have one in the first, one in the second, and one in the fifth chapter. Why is the narrative of the creation repeated three times over?
Because man needs an account of the creation from a physical, from a moral, and from a historical point of view. The physical account we find in the first chapter of Genesis. It tells us that matter is not eternal-that, go back as far as you will, at last the world which God created came from its Maker’s hand. It stands alone in its sublimity, alone in its impressive greatness, alone in its Divine and miraculous reserve. We must cling to the truth contained in the text: (1) for the answer it gives to the questions which are pressed upon every one of us by the mystery of existence; (2) for the solid hope which it gives to every one of us of a distinct, a personal and individual immortality; (3) in order to guard ourselves from the great peril of desecrating that nature which God Himself gave to us.
Bishop Alexander, Man’s Natural Life (“Norwich Cathedral Discourses,” 4th series, No. 1).
References: Gen 2:7.-S. R. Driver, Oxford and Cambridge Undergraduates’ Journal, Oct. 25, 1883; J. Keble, Sermons for the Christian Year, vol. iii., p. 108; J. Laidlaw, The Bible Doctrine of Man, p. 48; J. Van Oosterzee, The Year of Salvation, vol. ii., p. 323; B. Waugh, Sunday Magazine (1887), p. 134; H. J. Van Dyke, The Reality of Religion, p. 49; R. W. Evans, Parochial Sermons, p. 293; Bishop Walsham How, Plain Words to Children, p. 29; J. E. Vaux, Sermon Notes, 3rd series, p. 76. Gen 2:8.-T. Chamberlain, Sermons for Sundays, Festivals and Fasts, 2nd series, vol. i., p. 265; W. E. Boardman, Sunday Magazine (1876), p. 676; Homiletic Quarterly, vol. i., p. 406.
Gen 2:8-9
(with Gen 3:22-24)
I. Our first parents are discovered in a state of innocence, beauty, and blessedness, which is broken up utterly by the transgression of the Divine command. (1) To Eden, as the first condition of human existence, all hearts bear witness. Two hymns are babbled by the echoes of the ages-“the good days of old,” “the good days to come.” They are the work-songs of humanity; the memory of a better, and the hope of a better, nerve and cheer mankind. That memory, Genesis explains; that hope, the Apocalypse assures. (2) We shall err greatly if we treat Adam’s history in Eden as nothing more than a fabled picture of the experience of man; rather is it the root out of which your experience and mine has grown, and in virtue of which they are other than they would have been had they come fresh from the hand of God. We recognise the law of headship which God has established in humanity, whereby Adam, by his own act, has placed his race in new and sadder relations to Nature and to the Lord. (3) The origin of evil may still remain a mystery, but this history of Eden stands between it and God. Eden is God’s work, the image of His thought; and man’s spirit joyfully accepts the history, and uses it as a weapon against haunting doubts about the origin of evil. (4) The sin of Adam is substantially the history of every attempt of self-will to counterwork the will of God. Every sin is a seeking for a good outside the region which, in the light of God, we know to be given us as our own.
II. This narrative presents to us the Father seeking the sinful child with blended righteousness and tenderness, assuring him of help to bear the burden which righteousness had imposed on transgression, and of redemption out of the spiritual death, which was the fruit of sin.
III. God not only, fatherlike, made wise disposition for the correction of His child, but He cast in with His child’s lot of toil and suffering, His own sympathy and hope; He made Himself a partaker in man’s new experience of pain, and, that He might destroy sin, linked the sufferer by a great promise to Himself.
J. Baldwin Brown, The Divine Life in Man, p. 1.
Gen 2:9
In the second of the three accounts of the creation we have an answer to the questions which would naturally be put by an inquiring mind, as to man’s present moral state and original moral constitution. Man, though created sinless, was, from the very fact of his creaturely existence, not self-sufficing, but dependent both in body and soul, and thus the two trees of which we read in the text corresponded to those two wants in man’s constitution. The tree of life is nowhere forbidden to our first parents. As long as man was able to repair his physical constitution by approaching to and eating of the fruit of the tree of life, so long he remained deathless. We may safely conclude that the tree of life was a natural means of sustaining natural life (and probably also a sacramental means of grace), and that from the act of tasting the other tree there would result a premature familiarity with the knowledge of good and evil.
I. A mere speculative knowledge of that which is good need not be good after all. Knowledge may be a merely barren knowledge-the knowledge which speculates and admires, but does not lead on to action.
II. Much more truly is this the case with the knowledge of moral evil. People speak of the narrative of the fall-of the temptation by means of the tree of knowledge of good and evil-as a mere myth. But it lives over again in the history of individual souls. The knowledge of evil is an irreparable thing. It lives on, and springs up again and again in the memory and the conscience.
III. Creation lies under a law of suffering. Christianity strives, and not all in vain, to alleviate this primeval curse. The universe is a grand and solemn but at present a darkened temple of the Lord God. The day is coming when we shall see it lighted up, when the Gospel of Christ will bring to this earth of ours something more precious than social improvement, great and blessed as that may be.
Bishop Alexander, Norwich Discourses, 4th series, No. 2.
Gen 2:9
I. We call the Scriptures a revelation; in other words, an unveiling. The Bible records were given to us to take away the veil which hung between heaven and earth, between man and God. Their purpose is to reveal God. The actual revelation which has been made to us is of God in His relation to the soul of man. We are not to demand, we are not to expect, any further revelation. Of the secrets of God’s power and origin we are told not a word. Such knowledge is not for us. But it does concern us to know of God’s moral nature-to know that He is all-powerful, all-good, all-loving; and of God’s power, goodness, and love, the Bible is one long and continuous revelation. The self-declared object of the Scriptures is that men should know God and know themselves.
II. But the condition on which such an object may be accomplished is this: that the Book of God should appeal to men in a form not dependent for its appreciation upon any knowledge which they may have obtained-independent, that is, of the science of any particular age or country. The setting forth of scientific truth in the pages of the Bible would have been as much a difficulty and stumbling-block to some former ages of the Church as what we call its unscientific account of natural phenomena has been to some at the present day.
III. “The tree of knowledge of good and evil.” Here, so early in the sacred books, is revealed the fact of the two opposing forces of right and wrong. Take away the reality of this distinction, and the Bible and all religion falls for ever. Make its reality and importance felt in the soul of man, and you have at once whereon to build. Righteousness is the word of words throughout all Scripture. The righteousness which the Scriptures reveal is the knowledge of a communion with God. When our earth has played its part in the economy of the universe, and is seen by the few spheres which are within its ken to pass away as a wandering fire, right and wrong will not have lost their primeval significance, and the souls which have yearned and laboured for rest in the home of spirits will find that rest in Him who was and is and is to be.
A. Ainger, Sermons preached in the Temple Church, p. 280.
References: Gen 2:9.-E. H. Plumptre, Sunday Magazine (1867), p. 712; J. Keble, Sermons for the Christian Year (Holy Week), p. 446; J. Hamilton, Works, vol. ii., p. 147. Gen 2:10.-C. A. Fowler, Parochial Sermons, p. 151.
Gen 2:10-14
Attempts have been made to find out what rivers are here spoken of by Moses, and where they are to be found. But the description in Genesis was purposely intended to baffle and defy any geographical identification. Paradise was never meant to be trampled by the feet of them that travel for pleasure or write for gain. There is no river on earth that parts itself into four heads. Are these words, then, but solemn trifling with the natural curiosity of man, affecting to tell him something, yet really telling nothing? What are we taught by this mixture of the straightforward and matter-of-fact with the (geographically speaking) impossible?
I. They teach us by a very simple parable that Paradise is real, most real; that it is intimately connected with earthly realities, but that it is not to be realised itself on earth, not to be discovered by worldly knowledge or inherited by flesh and blood.
II. The myths of the nations, entangled with false ideas of cosmogony, are broken against the hard facts of modern lore: the record of Genesis, shaking itself free from a merely earthly geography, retains its spiritual teaching and consolation for all generations. To the simple Christian this region is very real and very clear: it is his own inheritance in Christ-not, indeed, to be sought on this earth, but to be expected in that better world.
R. Winterbotham, Sermons and Expositions, p. 1.
Reference: Gen 2:10-14.-Expositor, 3rd series, vol. v. p. 201.
Gen 2:12
I. If men so willed, gold might be won and no soul lost. And therefore we must take care to distinguish between gold and the thirst for gold. Gold is like the rest of God’s gifts, a good thing or a bad thing, according to the use made of it. And so it is no wonder that Scripture has recorded that near to Paradise was a land of gold. The land of Havilah may exist still; the fine gold and the bdellium and the onyx stone may now lie buried deep beneath its surface, or perhaps may yet be lying disregarded, like the treasures of California or Australia not many years ago.
II. Be this as it may, there is another land whose gold is good, a land farther off than the far West and the islands of the sea, and yet ever close at hand, approachable by all, attainable by all, where no rust corrupts and no thieves break through and steal. The gold of that other land is good, simply because, though the words sound like a contradiction, it is not gold. It has been changed. In the world above, that which stands for gold is more precious than gold itself, for even gold cannot purchase it, though gold may serve it.
III. The treasure of heaven is love. Love is the true gold. All else will tarnish and canker and eat into the souls of them that covet it; but Love never. It is bright and precious here in this world: fraud cannot despoil us of it; force cannot rob us of it; it is our only safe happiness here, and it is the only possession we can carry with us into the world beyond the grave.
F. E. Paget, Sermons for Special Occasions, p. 167.
References: Gen 2:15.-B. Waugh, Sunday Magazine (1887), p. 486. Gen 2:16, Gen 2:17.-A. W. Momerie, The Origin of Evil, p. 1; B. Waugh, Sunday Magazine (1887), p. 136.
Gen 2:17
These words comprehend the whole of humanity in their application; every man and woman that ever has existed or shall exist on the face of the earth. This was not a positive law, but a negative one; the law of which Adam and Eve were transgressors was a prohibition, and to that prohibition was attached a penalty.
I. Look first at the prohibition: “Thou shalt not eat of it.” It is perfectly obvious, from God’s character and conduct with man up to this time, that the intention of this prohibition was somehow to confer a great benefit on man himself; otherwise, why should God have given the prohibition? In the case of all perfect beings a test is necessary if they are to attain the highest possible state of perfection. This test was put before Adam and Eve, and the prohibition was enforced and was in order to that result.
II. Look next at the penalty: “In the day thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die.” (1) We must determine death by the nature of the subject to which it is applicable. Death is not necessarily the mere cessation of existence. Man’s life is physical, intellectual, moral, and spiritual; death is the converse of life in regard to each of these particulars. Life implies the giving up of the whole man to God; death is exactly the reverse, it is the man losing all this-becoming dead, as we read, “in trespasses and sins.” (2) It is said, “In the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die.” Adam and Eve died by becoming subject unto death. The elements of mortality were introduced, and they died spiritually by being estranged from God. In view of the redemption, in view of that Lamb who should come to die for man’s sins, the curse was thrown into abeyance, the execution was necessarily deferred. It was deferred in order that an opportunity might be given to man to become acquainted with Christ, and that Christ might accomplish the work of redemption.
C. Molyneux, Christian World Pulpit, vol. iii., p. 136.
These words were fulfilled at the time they were spoken; they have been fulfilled ceaselessly thereafter. We live in a universe of death. The phenomenon is common to us, but no familiarity can rob it of its dreadfulness; for the dead, who are the more in number, have kept their awful secret unrevealed, and the child who died yesterday knows more than can be guessed at by the thousand millions of living men. Yet this death is the least and the least dreaded part of that other, that second, that spiritual death which God meant in the warning of the text.
I. Notice first the certainty of that death. Let us learn to be early undeceived about the tempter’s falsehood, “Ye shall not surely die.” If a man will serve his sin, let him at least reckon upon this, that in one way or other it will be ill with him; his sin will find him out; his path will be hard; there will be to him no peace. The night of concealment may be long, but dawn comes like the Erinnys to reveal and avenge its crimes.
II. Not only is this punishment inevitable, but it is natural; not miraculous, but ordinary; not sudden, but gradual; not accidental, but necessary; not exceptional, but invariable. Retribution is the impersonal evolution of an established law.
III. Retribution takes the form which of all others the sinner would passionately deprecate, for it is homogeneous with the sins on whose practice it ensues. In lieu of death God offers us His gift of eternal life. While yet we live, while yet we hear the words of invitation, the door is not shut, and we may pass to it by the narrow way. To Eve was given the dim promise that her seed should bruise the serpent’s head; for us Christ has trampled sin and Satan under His feet.
F. W. Farrar, The Fall of Man and other Sermons, p. 27.
References: Gen 2:17.-Bishop Woodford, Sermons preached in Various Churches, p. 50; Parker, The Fountain (May 9th and May 23rd, 1878), Hidden Springs, p. 275; H. J. Stephens, Literary Churchman Sermons, p. 621. Gen 2:18.-A. Monod, Select Discourses from the French and German, pp. 17, 47; B. Waugh, Sunday Magazine (1887), p. 421; G. Calthrop, Words Spoken to my Friends, p. 163. Gen 2:23, Gen 2:24.-J. E. Vaux, Sermon Notes, 2nd series, p. 84.
Gen 2:24
I. The gift of speech to Adam was in itself a sublime prophecy that man was not to remain alone and without a companion in the garden where God had placed him. Glorious as man’s condition was, there was yet a want-the shadow of some yearning hung upon his brow. The sleep that fell upon Adam was no common sleep, like that of wearied humanity; it was something higher. The old Greek translation has it “an ecstasy.” It was a prophetic sleep. While he slept, the Lord God built for him a woman,-like some great architect, before whom the ideal of a glorious building has floated, until at last the time comes to pile it up visibly, and to rejoice in its exceeding beauty. When Adam awakes his language swells into a hymeneal first, and then into a prophecy.
II. The idea of wedded life involves three things: unity, companionship, subordination.
III. In the old classical world, woman was incredibly degraded; but corruption and false principles on this point were directly attacked by the Gospel of Christ. The tender ties of home and family were not for Him who moved in His loneliness among the sons of men; and yet He breathed with that infinite purity of His upon the flushed and passionate cheek of woman in her home, until it grew pure again. Our homes themselves repose upon the idea of marriage, which was given to man in Eden and renewed by Jesus Christ, the Second Adam.
Bishop Alexander, Norwich Discourses, 4th series, No. 3.
References: Gen 2:24.-Clergyman’s Magazine, vol. viii., p. 77. Gen 2, Gen 3.-S. Leathes, Studies in Genesis, p. 31.
Thus: Gen 2:4, Gen 1:1, Gen 1:10, Exo 20:11, Exo 31:17, 2Ki 19:15, 2Ch 2:12, Neh 9:6, Job 12:9, Psa 89:11-13, Psa 104:2, Psa 136:5-8, Psa 146:6, Isa 42:5, Isa 45:18, Isa 48:13, Isa 55:9, Isa 65:17, Jer 10:12, Jer 10:16, Zec 12:1, Act 4:24, Heb 4:3
host: Deu 4:19, Deu 17:3, 2Ki 21:3-5, Psa 33:6, Psa 33:9, Isa 34:4, Isa 40:26-28, Isa 45:12, Jer 8:2, Luk 2:13, Act 7:42
Reciprocal: Exo 6:26 – armies 1Ki 18:15 – of hosts liveth Psa 102:25 – General Psa 148:2 – all his hosts Amo 9:6 – troop Joh 5:17 – My Heb 4:4 – God Heb 11:3 – faith
THE COMPLETED WORK
Thus the heavens and the earth were finished, and all the host of them.
Gen 2:1
The heavens and the earth were finished when God created man in His own image. Then the universe was what He designed it to be; then He could look, not upon a portion of it, but upon the whole of it, and say, It is very good.
I. We are told: (1) God made man in His own image; male and female created He them; and (2) He made man out of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life. The two accounts are distinct. If we had the first only, we should have the description of an ideal man, without being told that there was an actual man. The Creation in the highest sense must mean the bestowing, under whatever limitations, of a portion of Gods own life, that which corresponded with His own being. It must denote, not what we understand by putting together a material thing, but the communication of that inward power and substance without which matter is but a dream.
II. When we hear of the earth bringing forth grass, the herb yielding seed, the fishes or beasts being fruitful and multiplying we are told of living powers which were imparted once, but which are in continual exercise and manifestation; the creative word has been uttered once, it is never for a moment suspended; never ceases to fulfil its own proclamation. Creation involves production. (1) Creation is not measured by the sun. The week was especially meant to remind the Jew of his own work and Gods work; of Gods rest and his own rest. (2) It was to bring before him the fact of his relation to God, to teach him to regard the universe not chiefly as under the government of sun or moon, or as regulated by their courses, but as an order which an unseen God had created, which included sun, moon, stars, earth, and all the living creatures that inhabit them.
III. From the first chapter of Genesis we are taught more clearly than any words can teach us what man becomes when he is a centre to himself and supposes that all things are revolving around him. But, most of all, these chapters prepare us for the announcement of that truth which all the subsequent history is to unfold, that the Word who said, Let there be light, and there was light, who placed the sun, and moon, and stars in their orbits and called all organised creatures into life; and who is, in the highest sense, the Light of menthe Source of their reason, the Guide of their willsis the Head of all principalities and powers, the upholder of the whole universe.
Rev. F. D. Maurice.
Illustration
Man has much in common with the lower animals, like them he was made of dust, but he differs from them all in form, and in the infinite variety of work his body is adapted to perform. Beyond this he has some likeness to God in his mental and moral powers, he has reason, speech, and, above all, will. He is as God in the power to know and choose between good and evil, to understand the qualities and relations of lower things and bear rule over them. Illustrate from the use of tools, the employment of animals, the making of ships, steam-engines, telescopes, microscopes, the writing of books, etc. Mans spiritual powers seen in religion. Animals never go wrong when they follow their appetites and instincts. Man is ruined by these, unless ruled over by the reason and will. He alone in nature is required to say No to himself, but in proportion to his self-control is subduing the earth.
Creation Scenes
Gen 1:11-31; Gen 2:1-2
INTRODUCTORY WORDS
In Gen 1:11 and Gen 1:12, we find the story of God’s command to the earth to bring forth grass, the herb yielding seed, and the fruit tree yielding fruit. In all of this there is a wonderful depth of meaning affecting our spiritual lives.
1. The call of God to us is for fruitfulness. Whether it be in the natural earth or in the lives of saints, the great heart of God desires fruit.
We remember how Christ said on one occasion, “I am the True Vine, and My Father is the Husbandman.” Then He said that every branch that did not bear fruit was taken away, and that every branch that bore fruit He purged it that it might bring forth more fruit. For this cause the Lord invites us to abide in Him, that we may become fruit-bearers; lest, otherwise we be cast forth as a branch, and be withered. Our Lord does not only want fruit, and more fruit, but He wants much fruit. It is herein that His Father is glorified.
When we think of the fruitful Christian we are liable to think of the Christian who is active in the varied “branches of Christian service. Fruit-bearing, however, carries with it a deeper significance. Preeminently, the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, etc. These are the things which bring glory to our Lord.
2. The deeper meaning of “after its kind.” God said, “The herb yielding seed, and the fruit tree yielding fruit after his kind.” Later on when God created the fish and the fowl and the beast of the earth, in each instance, they were commanded to bring forth after their kind. This was God’s command, and it has been an irrevocable law, since God spake.
Every effort of man to change God’s creative fiat has utterly failed. Species may be developed, and correlated species may be merged, but distinctive species cannot be altered. Seed sown, always brings forth the same kind of herb, or fruit, as the plant from which the seed is grown. The same thing is true in animal life-kind begets its kind. How foolish of men to lift themselves up against God, and to imagine that they can undo or make void His eternal decree!
3. The deeper meaning of “Whose seed is in itself.” Here is another irrevocable law-a law that establishes the omnisciency of God. God only hath inherent life. Life only can beget life, and as we have already said, God placed in each variety of life which He created, the power to beget a life after its own kind.
How wonderful that in every grain of wheat there lies hidden a power to beget other grains of wheat! Nobody can dissect the wheat and point out the life-giving germ, and yet it is there. Men of the world may fabricate something that imitates, to the human eye, a grain of wheat, or of corn, or a portion of fruit, but all the scholarship of earth, and all the scientific minds of the ages, have never been able to implant into anything the power to propagate itself.
I. THE TWO GREAT LIGHTS (Gen 1:14-18)
God said, “Let there be lights in the firmament of the heaven.” God was not at all dependent upon the sun and the moon and the stars to give light to the earth, for when God’s Spirit moved upon the face of the waters, God said, “Let there be light: and there was light.” However, the placing of lights in the firmament of heaven was for the dividing of day, from night; and also for signs, and for seasons; for days, and for years. Herein is the wisdom of God marvelously manifested.
1. The objective of the two great lights. We might imagine that the sun and the moon were exclusively for light, and heat, but not so. The heavenly bodies are for signs by which man may guide his course by day and by night. They are for seasons, Summer, and Autumn, and Fall, and Winter. These were arranged by the sun moving to the north, or to the south of the equator. They were for days, because the sun rises each morning and sets each night. They were for years, both solar and lunar.
In all of the above, we see the eternal accuracy of the Almighty. The sun, and the moon, and the stars, all move with such minute exactness that we can truly say, “With God there is not a shadow of a turning.”
2. The spiritual significance of the two great lights. The greater light was to give light by day, the lesser light was to rule the night. Jesus Christ Himself is the greater light. Our God is a sun. When He came to earth He was a light that shone in the darkness. How striking are the words, “The people that sat in darkness saw great light; and to them which sat in the region and shadow of death light is sprung up.”
When Christ died, darkness was upon the face of the earth. The Sun of Righteousness had gone down. The age in which we are now living is Scripturally called the age of this darkness. It is night. The world, however, is not left in total eclipse. There is the lesser light which rules the night; that lesser light is the Church. We are luminaries shining in the night.
It is said that the moonlight is a reflected light. We know that the light of the Church is reflected. It is He who shines into our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.
II. THE FISH AND BIRDS AND BEASTS (Gen 1:24-25)
When we consider the earth bringing forth the living creature after its kind, cattle, creeping thing, and the beast of the earth, we think, perhaps, of two things.
1. The heart of God providing for man’s need. Over this animal kingdom, God placed man in authority, giving him dominion. All created animal life was given to serve man, and all created vegetable life was given man for meat.
Until this good hour, God provides for every human necessity. Did not Christ say, “Take no thought * * what ye shall eat”? God has known that we had need of these things, and He has provided for us.
2. The heart of God providing for the beasts and the fowls. None of these can sow, nor reap, nor gather into barns. Yet, God has provided for them. To every living creature upon the earth, God gave the green herb for meat. Likewise, gave He to every fowl of the air. Not this alone, but God hath beautifully clothed the grass of the field, and the lily of the valley.
God is thoughtful of all things which He created. To Jonah, He said, “Should I not spare Nineveh, that great city?” and then He gave as His plea, not only the “little ones” who were there, but also, the “much cattle.”
It was God who sent out the wild ass free, and loosed its bands. It was He who made the wilderness his dwelling and the range of the mountains his pasture.
The Lord loves nature, loves it as it was before it was made subject to the curse for man’s sake; loves it as it is in its present groanings and travailings; and, thank God, the time is soon coming when under Divine deliverance the earth shall be restored and blest and all nature, putting on its new dress, shall shout for joy.
III. THE CREATION OF MAN (Gen 1:26-30)
1. God’s supreme creation. When God created man, He created him in His own image. Man was made in God’s image in various senses. We believe that he was also made physically in the image that Christ was destined to bear, when He came forth from the Father, made of a woman. There is a verse which says, “As we have borne the image of the earthy, we shall also bear the image of the Heavenly.” When Christ comes again, and the saints are raised and raptured God will change these mortal and corruptible bodies into the likeness of Christ’s resurrection body. Thus, twice shall we be made like Him, once as He was in His natural body, and yet again as He is in His Heavenly body.
In Heaven, we shall be like Him in a marvelous manner. We shall know as we are known; we shall be heirs of God, and joint heirs with Christ. We shall be made higher than the angels.
2. God’s preparation for His creation of man. Observe that it was after God had created all things for man’s provision and comfort that He afterward created man. Man opened his eyes upon an earth fully equipped for his every temporal need. Nothing was lacking. It was a wonderful Garden of Eden which man beheld when he first lifted up his eyes.
No fond mother ever made such preparation for the expected advent of an offspring, as God made for the coming of Adam and Eve. God crammed earth with every conceivable blessing, all for man’s happiness and contentment.
3. Man’s dominion. God placed all things in subjection to man. Man was therefore the climax of creation. Supreme in his position and dominion, even as he was superior in the personality, with which he was Divinely endowed.
When sin entered the world, man lost his full dominion. He holds no more than a semblance of, his former glory. However, all that was lost in the sin of the first Adam, will be more than regained in the full and complete redemptive work of the Last Adam.
We see not yet all things put under His feet, but we see Christ exalted to the Father’s right hand, and we soon shall see His supremacy fully established, and all thing’s made subject to Him.
IV. THE COMPLETED TASK AND REST (Gen 2:1-2)
The seventh day marked God’s rest. As the six days passed, God, in review of each day’s work could say, “It is good.” With the creation completed, God rested on the seventh day from all His work which He had created and made.
1. That day of rest was soon broken by the advent of sin. Jesus Christ said, “My Father worketh hitherto, and I work.” When Satan entered in, the world which was so glorious and perfect was spoiled. God at once set about to recover man’s lost estate. Not in a day was this to be accomplished. However, in the Garden when God pronounced the curse, He also pronounced the cure. He proclaimed that the Seed of the woman should bruise the serpent’s head. When Christ died upon the Cross, He cried, “It is finished,” So did He complete the task that the Father had given Him to do.
With His work accomplished Christ went up to the Father’s right hand and sat down. The far-reaching results of Christ’s substitutionary sacrifice remains to be told, and to be seen, in the ages to come when Christ shall have put down all things under His feet, having redeemed all men who come to the Father through Him.
2. That first day of rest was prophetic of future rest. When Israel was saved out of Egypt God made known unto them His holy Sabbath Day, because they had obtained rest from their enemies, the Egyptians, The Sabbath, therefore, was given unto Israel for a sign between God and them, throughout all of their generations. Both they and the stranger that was in their gates were commanded to keep His Sabbath.
The Sabbath Day, however, had more than a backward look for Israel. The time is coming when Israel shall no longer, say, The Lord liveth who brought us up out of the land of Egypt, but, The Lord liveth who brought us out of all lands whither He hath driven them. Out of the land of the North, out of Russia, and Russian Poland, shall they come back home once more. They shall also come from the South, and from the East, and from the West, and from all nations whither they have been scattered. In that day shall Israel keep her Sabbaths, for “There remaineth therefore a rest (Sabbath keeping) to the people of God.”
When Israel went into apostasy, the nation, wearied of the bondage of Sabbath keeping, said, “When will the new moon be gone, that we may sell corn? and the Sabbath, that we may set forth wheat?” It was gone in the day that the sun went down at noon, and the earth was darkened even in the clear day (Amo 8:5, Amo 8:9).
V. SHOULD CHRISTIANS KEEP THE SEVENTH DAY? (Col 2:16-17)
1. There is a need for one day of rest in seven. The Sabbath was made for man, because man needs rest. This is also true of land and beast-all need one day’s rest.
2. The Jewish Sabbath was the seventh day. It was given to Israel as a command, and is grouped among the Ten Commandments. All of those Commandments were given to Israel and not to the nations round and about. A casual reading of Exo 20:1-17 will show this. Under Grace, and to the Church, all of the Ten Commandments in one form or another (with the exception of the fourth) is restated. The fourth never is given to the Church.
3. The Epistles plainly state this: “One man esteemeth one day above another: another esteemeth every day alike. Let every man be fully persuaded in his own mind” (Rom 14:5-6).
The Epistles also say, “How turn ye again to the weak and beggarly elements, whereunto ye desire again to be in bondage? Ye observe days, and months, and times, and years. I am afraid of you” (Gal 4:9-11).
The Sabbath Day was never changed to the first day of the week. The Sabbath was given to Israel as a memorial. The First Day of the week was early set aside as a memorial day of the Lord’s resurrection. It was then that the saints came together to break bread; it was then that they laid by them in store as the Lord had prospered them.
AN ILLUSTRATION
How wonderful is God in His creation!
“When God would reveal to man the perfection of the minutest detail of His creation not even visible to the naked eye, He furnished him with ability to produce the microscope. With this the silky substance on the wing of the butterfly was found in reality to be beautiful feathers. Nothing new had taken place so far as the butterfly was concerned but an almost unbelievable fact was revealed to humanity concerning God’s creation.
“When God would reveal His infinite power in the creation of things so vast as to baffle man with their immensity, He gave him wisdom to put on the market the telescope; and things never before dreamed of in human history were revealed. As we consider the vast dimensions of the sun, and its course of travel, how our little earth fades away into nothingness. Yet no change took place in the universe with the discovery of the telescope, rather another of His secrets was revealed.
“Excavations have been made in every land by all men of all ages, but when God found it necessary to prove the Divine authority of His Word to those who would not accept the Bible as final, without further evidence, things began to be unearthed that had escaped all the pick-axes and spades throughout the centuries. What priceless treasures have been discovered through archological research! And yet there they lay buried deeply in the ground for thousands of years. One only wonders why men are not all on their faces before Him who is infinite in power, wisdom, and majesty. It seems at every fresh manifestation we would sink to our knees in deep humiliation mingled with adoration, acknowledging Him as the One who alone is worthy to receive power and riches and wisdom and strength and honor and glory and blessing.”
THE GARDEN OF EDEN
GODS SABBATH (Gen 2:1-3)
The first three verses of this chapter belong to the preceding as a summary of its contents. Of what day do they treat? What did God do on that day? How did He regard it? In the light of the fourth commandment, these verses seem to countenance the thought of creative days of twenty-four hours each; that is, Gods Sabbath seems to be set over against mans Sabbath, but the two should not be confounded. The latter was made for man and fitted to his measure (Mar 2:27). Therefore while the proportion of time may in some sense be the same, the actual time may be different.
MANS NATURE (Gen 2:4-7)
The generations of in Gen 2:4, frequently repeated in this book, forms the dividing line between the various sections of it, or as Dr. Urquhart puts it, the heading of the various natural chapters into which the whole book was divided by its author. It refers not to what goes before but what comes after. In this case it is not the story of the heaven and the earth which we are to have repeated, but an account of the transactions of which they were to be the scene, the things which followed their creation.
Notice the new name of God used here: Lord God. The first of these words printed in capitals translates the Hebrew Jehovah, while the second translates Elohim. Elohim is the far-off name, that which distinguishes God as creator, hence its uniform employment until now. But Jehovah is the nearby name which distinguishes God in relation with man, the covenant-making and covenant-keeping God, hence its employment here where man is to be especially considered. Later on when both Jehovah and Elohim are used in connection with human affairs, the former seems to be generally reserved for Gods dealing with His own people as distinguished from the unbelieving nations.
Gen 2:5 should be read in the Revised Version, where a certain condition is described and the reason is given. What were the condition and the reason? What interesting fact of natural history is stated in Gen 2:6? It will be especially interesting to recall this when we reach the first mention of rain at the flood. Of what was the body of man formed? What did the Lord God do with the formation He had made? And what was the production of these two elements according to the last clause? Here is the starting-point of the psychology of the Bible, which seems to speak of man as a trichotomic being having body, soul and spirit (compare 1Th 5:23; Heb 4:12). Tertullian, one of the early church fathers, used to call the flesh the body of the soul and the soul the body of the spirit, an opinion which has maintained among psychologists to the present. Others have called the body the seat of our sense-consciousness, the soul the seat of our self-consciousness, and the spirit the seat of our God-consciousness.
Before leaving this verse note:
(1)that the word formed in Hebrew is practically the same as potter (Job 10:9; Jer 18:1-6; Rom 9:20-21); that the word for ground is adamah, which means red earth, and that from it the proper name Adam is derived; and
(2)that the reference to the spiritual life which man received by Gods inbreathing is that which is the common property of all men, and which should be distinguished from the new life in Christ Jesus which becomes the possession of those who, as fallen creatures, receive the Holy Spirit to dwell in them through faith in His name. For the common spiritual life see Job 32:8; Pro 20:27; 1Co 2:11; and for the life of the Holy Spirit in the believer see Eze 36:26-27; Psa 53:1-6; Joh 14:16-17; 1Co 6:19.
THE GARDEN LOCATED (Gen 2:8-14)
What name is given to the locality of the garden? In which section of that locality was it planted? What expression in (Gen 2:9 shows Gods consideration for beauty as well as utility? What two trees are particularly named? Where was the tree of life planted? What geographical feature of (Gen 2:10 accentuates the historical character of this narrative? Observe how this is further impressed by the facts which follow, viz: the names of the rivers, the countries through which they flow, and even the mineral deposits of the latter.
Note:
(1)the use of the present tense in this description, showing that the readers of Moses period knew the location; it must have been an elevated district, as the source of mighty rivers; and
(2)it could not have been a very luxuriant or fruitful locality, else why the need of planting a garden, and where could there have been any serious hardship in the subsequent expulsion of Adam and Eve? It used to be thought that Eden was a Hebrew word meaning pleasure, but recent explorations in Assyria indicate that it may have been of Accadian origin meaning a plain, not a fertile plain as in a valley, but an elevated and sterile plain as a steppe or mountain desert. Putting these things together, the place that would come before the mind of an Oriental was the region of Armenia where the Euphrates and the Tigris (or Hiddekel) take their rise. There are two other rivers taking their rise in that region, the Kur and the Araxes, thence uniting and flowing into the Caspian Sea, but whether these are identical with the Pison and Gihon of the lesson cannot yet be determined. Science now corroborates this location of Eden in so far as it teaches that the human race has sprung from a common center and that this center is the table-land of central Asia.
THE MORAL TEST (Gen 2:15-17)
For what practical purpose was man placed in the garden (Gen 2:15)? What privilege was accorded him (Gen 2:16)? And what prohibition was laid upon him (Gen 2:17)? With what penalty? Some test must be given a free moral agent by which his determination either to obey or disobey God may be shown, and it pleased God, for reasons He has not been pleased to entirely reveal, to select this test. It was an easy one in the light of Adams condition of sinlessness and the bountiful privileges otherwise bestowed upon him: The forbidden tree was doubtless called the tree of the knowledge of good and evil because through the eating of it mankind came to the experience of the value of goodness and of the infinite evil of sin.
The phrase Thou shalt surely die is translated a little differently in the margin. The nature of this death was twofold. It was a spiritual death, for in the day Adam ate thereof he was cast out from the garden and cut off from the communion with God theretofore enjoyed. It was physical death, for in the end Adam returned unto the dust whence he was formed. It would seem from the ensuing record that it was his exclusion from the tree of life in the midst of the garden which ultimately resulted in death: It seems to have existed to confer the gift of immortality, perhaps to counteract sickness, repel bodily ills of every kind, and keep the springs of activity and enjoyment preserved in abounding fullness.
MANS HELPMATE (Gen 2:18-25)
What further evidence of Gods consideration is in Gen 2:18? What occurred as a preliminary to its expression (Gen 2:19)? How does Gen 2:20 illustrate the intelligence of Adam and in so far disprove the theory of mans ascent from a lower level than the present? Note the five steps on Gods part before the helpmate is introduced to Adam (Gen 2:21-22). How does Adam express his recognition of the helpmate? What name is given to her, by whom is it given, and why? Do you suppose Gen 2:24 is the record of an expression of Adam, or a later one of Moses, the human author of this book? Of course, in either case, it is God speaking through the human agent, but which agent is it? (Compare also Eph 5:22-23, but especially Eph 5:30-31.) Speaking of the formation of Eve from Adam, one of the older commentators has remarked that she was not made out of his head to surpass him, nor from his feet to be trampled on, but from his side to be equal to him, and near his heart to be dear to him.
The last verse of the chapter indicates that in their state of innocence modesty did not require clothing as a covering for shame and that the climate of the garden did not require it for protection. Of God it is said, Thou coverest Thyself with light as with a garment (Psa 104:2), and some have thought that in mans state of innocence a similar shining may have served him in the same way, an outer light which he lost when sin robbed him of the inner one.
QUESTIONS
1.What relation do the first three verses of chapter 2 bear to the preceding chapter?
2.What significance attaches to the phrase the generations of?
3.How would you distinguish the names of God in this lesson?
4.What is the nature of man, threefold or twofold?
5.Give some evidences of the historicity of Eden?
6.Where may it have been located, and what reasons are there for so thinking?
7.What made Adams moral test an easy one?
8.Why was the tree of the knowledge of good and evil probably called by that name?
9.In what two ways was the penalty executed on Adam?
10.What shows that Adam was not a savage but rather the noblest type of the race?
Man Is Different
Until man’s creation, everything was spoken into existence. Man was different ( Gen 1:26 ; Gen 2:7 ). God took of the dust of the earth and made man in his own image. Man’s likeness to God cannot be physical since God is a spirit ( Joh 4:24 ). Instead, man is a being comprised of body and spirit ( Jas 2:26 ; 2Co 4:16 ).
God commanded man to be fruitful and multiply. He also instructed him to subdue the earth and have dominion over all the other living things ( Gen 1:27-28 ). Man was placed in the garden to dress and keep it, or care for the things it contained (2:15). He could eat of every tree except the fruit of the tree of knowledge of good and evil (2:16-17). Here we find man’s first job and restriction.
A Day of Rest
A Bible school teacher once told the story of creation. One of her four year old students then said, “On the seventh day God went to jail.” When asked to explain, he said, “You said that on the seventh day God got arrested.” Actually, God made a special day for rest (2:1-3). Later, he made it a law that the Jews would rest on that day ( Exo 20:8-22 ). Here we see the principle that man needs to rest one day out of seven to recover his physical strength. He also needs time for worship, fellowship with God and spiritual development.
Conclusion
Creation was a six day display of the power of our almighty God. Man was the only being God created which had a soul. Woman was the crowning glory of creation, being specially suited to man’s needs. God rested on the seventh day, thus showing man the need to pause at the end of a week’s work.
Gen 2:1. The host of them That is, the creatures contained therein. The host of heaven, in Scripture language, sometimes signifies the stars, and sometimes the angels. But, as Moses gives us no intimation, in the preceding chapter, that the angels were created at this time, and as Job 38:6-7, evidently implies that they had been created before, they do not appear to be here included.
Gen 2:1. By host is meant, not the angels, as some have thought, but the starry heavens. Psa 33:6.
Gen 2:2. On the seventh day God ended his work. The Samaritan Pentateuch reads, the sixth day. The variation is accounted for by the variation in reckoning the hours at which the sabbath began.On the sabbath, see Eze 20:12; Eze 20:20.
Gen 2:6. A mistwatered the whole face of the ground, the rainy season of the climate not being then come. Deu 11:14.
Gen 2:7. And man became a living soul. The Hebrew is chajaim, souls, lives, &c., designating the ever-living spirit which is in man. It is applied to all the living beings of the creation. Gen 1:20.
neshomah is another name for the soul, designating its intellectual powers, which elevate it above the brute creation. Deu 20:16. Job 27:3. The word is derived from shemaim, heaven, because the soul came from God, and is heavenly and divine in its nature: for this reason, the name is never given to the brutes, but is restricted solely to man.
nephesh is the third and common name given to the soul in the Hebrew Scriptures, and is applied to the brute creation, as possessing a kind of vegetative life to grow and increase. Gen 1:24.
ruach, he breathed, is a fourth name given to the soul, because like wind it moves in all the actions of life, and is endowed with all the sensations, the instinct, and sagacity of the animal world.
But the fifth and most excellent name given to the soul is Jechida; that is, ONE, simple in essence, and uncomposed in structure: on this account, like neshomah, it is never given to the brute creation, but is wholly appropriate to man.
Gen 2:8. Eden; that is, paradise, pleasure, delight.
Gen 2:9. The tree of life also he put in the midst of the garden. The rabbins, and apparently in succession, affirm, that this tree of life was the vine! But they fail to say whether their assertions are founded on tradition, on revelation, or on their own imagination.
Gen 2:11. The name of the first river is Pison. Josephus, who is followed by St. Jerome, calls this the Gangs, the greatest river of Asia. He filleth all things with wisdom, as Phison and the Tigris, in the time of new fruits. Sir 24:25. This river forms the boundary of the ancient land of Havilah, son of Cush. Gen 10:7. Its most valued productions in the time of Moses were gold and precious stones. Geology confirms this account, that in various parts of Asia there are extensive veins of yellow earth, abounding with grains of gold. The bdellium is the lachrym pellucid, or waterdrop of Pliny, and of Hay, a celebrated naturalist of France. The onyx-stone is a gem of the chalcedony class, of a dark colour, with beautiful variegations.
Gen 2:13. The second river is Gihon, the Nile, whose sources are in Ethiopia, and whose western branch drains the centre of Africa.
Gen 2:14. The third river Hiddekel, the ancient name of the Tigris, which joins the Euphrates above the ruins of the ancient city of Bassora. It is called the Irack in the Arabic, no doubt from the city of Erech. Gen 10:10.
The fourth river is the Euphrates, called the Parach in Hebrew, to designate the fertility of its vales. What can we infer from the wide extent of these four rivers, but that Moses regarded the whole earth as a paradise, and Eden as the favoured spot, the first abode of man?
Gen 2:16. Of every tree, &c. Dr. Anselm Bayly, in his Hebrew Grammar, prefers reading, Of the fruits of all the trees of the garden, thou mayest eat, except of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.
Gen 2:23. Woman, the abbreviate of wombman: so is the etymon of Verstegan, a learned German, who flourished in London more than two centuries ago. The Hebrew Ishah, designates woman-wife, or female. She was made of Adams substance, that he might cherish her as his own flesh. What delightful sentiments must have inspired his breast to see the mother of all living sleeping by his side. Milton puts these words into his mouth;
Oh fairest of Creation, last and best
Of all Gods works; creature in whom excelled
Whatever can to sight or thought be formed;
Holy, divine, good, amiable, or sweet.
Awake, My fairest, my espoused, my latest friend,
Heavens last best gift, my ever new delight, Awake.
Gen 2:24. Therefore shall a man leave his father and mother, and shall cleave to his wife. The woman being flesh and bone of the man before her formation, remains so after marriage. She is his friend, his consort, his wife till death. The marriage covenant had its origin in paradise. Nothing but adultery can fully vitiate it, and nothing but death can dissolve it. Rom 7:1-2. A man does not divorce his limbs, except when menaced with mortality, and he treats his sight and his hearing with delicacy when they become dull. So he should treat his wife in times of affliction, for she is still the wife of his bosom; and the Lord hates putting away.
REFLECTIONS.
On a calm review of this wonderful chapter, containing a portrait of man in a state of innocence, we see that the Creators first care was over the moral happiness of our first parents. He gave them knowledge, and the law of life for an heritage. He gave them a covenant surpassing in excellence all that has come down to us. He gave them his sabbaths, as a sign of that covenant. Let posterity then regard the day as the hallowed pledge of immortality and eternal rest. And if the sabbath was so glorious in a state of innocence, how gratefully should we now value and improve it, as the best institution of heaven, to aid our fallen nature in regaining our pristine felicity.
We learn that God having given man a body far surpassing that of the beasts, and allied him by knowledge and holiness to angels, he should not be the slave of passion, of appetite, and of animal delights; but cherish sentiments becoming the dignity of his nature, and all the adoration he owes to his Maker.
The cares of heaven over the body of man are not less conspicuous than those which regarded his mind. God placed him in a garden full of fruits, enjoining only the mild and salubrious efforts of labour to dress and keep it. The same gracious and ever-living Father will still bless our efforts of labour with bread to eat and raiment to wear.
But did the Lord give one restriction to Adam, not to touch the forbidden tree, not to taste of its fruits? This was surely no severe prohibition, especially when he had a paradise of the most delicious fruits. Let us therefore learn to revere and obey the law to the utmost of our power; and at the same time be fully aware, that whatever vice is forbidden, the opposite virtue is enjoined. We must not kill, but love our neighbour.
How high and holy is the marriage state! The Lord honoured the first marriage by his presence at the nuptials. It is strengthened by the daily interchange of good offices, and returns of mutual love; by the increase of lovely children, which win and gain the parents affections, as the hopes of future life, and the comfort of their declining years. The man and his wife so joined are as one soul in two different bodies, and their union is a figure of Christ and the church, which he has loved, and washed in his own blood. Surely, bonds so sacred should never be defiled; for fornicators and adulterers shall not inherit the kingdom of God.
Genesis 2
The chapter introduces to our notice two prominent subjects, namely, “the seventh day” and “the river.” The first of these demands special attention.
There are few subjects on which so much misunderstanding and contradiction prevails as the doctrine of “the Sabbath.” Not that there is the slightest foundation for either the one or the other; for the whole subject Is laid down in the word, in the simplest possible manner. The distinct commandment, to “keep holy the Sabbath day” will come before us, the Lord permitting, in our meditations on the book of Exodus. In the chapter now before us, there is no command given to man, whatever; but simply the record that, “God rested on the seventh dray.” “Thus the heavens and the earth were finished, and all the host of them. And on the seventh day God ended his work which he had made; and he rested on the seventh day from all his work which he had made. and God blessed the seventh day, and sanctified it; because that in it he had rested from all his work which God created and made.” There is no commandment given to man, here. We are simply told that God enjoyed His rest, because all was done, so far as the mere creation was concerned. There was nothing more to be done, and, therefore, the One who had, during six days, been working, ceased to work, and enjoyed His rest. All was complete; all was very good; all was just as He Himself had made it; and He rested in it. “The morning stars sang together; and all the sons of God shouted for joy.” The work of creation was ended, and God was celebrating a Sabbath.
And, be it observed, that this is the true character of a Sabbath. This is the only Sabbath which God ever celebrated, so far as the inspired record instructs us. After this, we read of God’s commanding man to keep the Sabbath, and man utterly failing so to do; but we never read again the words, “God rested;” on the contrary, the word is, “My Father worketh hitherto, and I work.” (John 5: 17) The Sabbath, in the strict and proper sense of the term, could only be celebrated when there really was nothing to be done. It could only be celebrated amid an undefiled creation – a creation on which no spot of sin could be discerned. God can have no rest where there is sin; and one has only to look around him in order to learn the total impossibility of God’s enjoying a rest in creation now. The thorn and the thistle, together with the ten thousand other melancholy and humiliating fruits of a groaning creation, rise before us, and declare that God must be at work and not at rest. Could God rest in the midst of thorns and briers? Could He rest amid the sighs and tears, the groans and sorrows, the sickness and death, the degradation and guilt of a ruined world? Could God sit down, as it were, and celebrate a Sabbath in the midst of such circumstances?
Whatever answer may be given to these questions, the word of God teaches us that God has had no Sabbath, as yet, save the one which the 2nd of Genesis records. “The seventh day,” and none other, was the Sabbath. It showed forth the completeness of creation work; but creation work is marred, and the seventh day rest interrupted; and thus, from the fall to the incarnation, God was working; from the incarnation to the cross, God the Son was working; and from Pentecost until now, God the Holy Ghost has been working.
Assuredly, Christ had no Sabbath when He was upon this earth. True, He finished His work – blessedly, gloriously finished it but where did He spend the Sabbath day? In the tomb! Yes, my reader, the Lord Christ. God manifest in the flesh, the Lord of the Sabbath, the Maker and Sustainer of heaven and earth, spent the seventh day in the dark and silent tomb. Has this no voice for us? Does it convey no teaching? Could the Son of God lie in the grave on the seventh day, if that day were to be spent in rest and peace; and in the full sense that nothing remained to be done? impossible! We want no farther proof of the impossibility of celebrating a Sabbath than that which is afforded at the grave of Jesus. We may stand beside that grave amazed to find it occupied by such an one on the seventh day; but, oh! the reason is obvious. Man is a fallen, ruined, guilty creature. His long career of guilt has ended in crucifying the Lord of glory; and not only crucifying Him, but placing a great stone at the mouth of the tomb, to prevent, if possible, His leaving it.
And what was man doing while the Son of God was in the grave? He was observing the Sabbath day! What a thought! Christ in His grave to repair a broken Sabbath, and yet man attempting to keep, the Sabbath as though it were not broken at all! It was man’s Sabbath, and not God’s. It was a Sabbath without Christ – an empty, powerless, worthless, because Christless and Godless, form.
But some will say, “the day has been changed, while all the principles belonging to it remain the same.” I do not believe that scripture furnishes any foundation for such an idea. Where is the divine warrant for such a statement? Surely if there is scripture authority, nothing can be easier than to produce it. But the fact is, there is none; on the contrary, the distinction is most fully maintained in the New Testament. Take one remarkable passage, in proof:” In the end of the Sabbath, as it began to dawn towards the first day of the week.” (Matt. 28: 1) There is, evidently, no mention here of the seventh day being changed to the first day; nor yet of any transfer of the Sabbath from the one to the other. The first day of the week is not the Sabbath changed, but altogether a new day. It is the first day of a new period, and not the last day of an old. The seventh day stands connected with earth and earthly rest; the first day of the week, on the contrary, introduces us to heaven and heavenly rest.
This makes a vast difference in the principle; and when we look at the matter in a practical point of view, the difference is most material. If I celebrate the seventh day, it marks me as an earthly man, inasmuch as that day is, clearly, the rest of earth – creation rest; but if I am taught by the Word and Spirit of God to understand the meaning of the first day of the week, I shall at once apprehend its immediate connection with that new and heavenly order of things, of which the death and resurrection of Christ form the everlasting foundation. The seventh day appertained to Israel and to earth. The first day of the meek appertains to the Church and to heaven. Further, Israel was commanded to observe the Sabbath day; the Church is privileged to enjoy the first day of the week. The former was the test of Israel’s moral condition; the latter is the significant proof of the Church’s eternal acceptance. That made manifest what Israel could do for God; this perfectly declares what God has done for us.
It is quite impossible to over-estimate the value and importance of the Lord’s day, (e kuriake emera,) as the first day of the week is termed, in the first chapter of the Apocalypse. Being the day on which Christ rose from the dead, it sets forth, not the completion of creation, but the full and glorious triumph of redemption. Nor should we regard the celebration of the first day of the week as a matter of bondage, or as a yoke put on the neck of a Christian. It is his delight to celebrate that happy day. Hence we find that the first day of the week was pre-eminently the day on which the early Christians came together to break bread; and at that period of the Church’s history, the distinction between the Sabbath and the first day of the week was fully maintained. The Jews celebrated the former, by assembling in their synagogues, to read “the law and the prophets;” the Christians celebrated the latter, by assembling to break bread. There is not so much as a single passage of scripture in which the first day of the week is called the Sabbath day; whereas there is the most abundant proof of their entire distinctness.
Why, therefore, contend for that which has no foundation in the Word? Love, honour, and celebrate the Lord’s day as much as possible; seek, like the apostle, to be “in the spirit” thereon; let your retirement from secular matters be as profound as ever you can make it; but while you do all this, call it by its proper name; give it its proper place; understand its proper principles; attach to it its proper characteristics; and, above all, do not bind down the Christian, as with an iron rule, to observe the seventh day, when it is his high and holy privilege to observe the first. Do not bring him down from heaven, where he can rest, to a cursed and bloodstained earth, where he cannot. Do not ask him to keep a day which his Master spent in the tomb, instead of that blessed day on which He left it. (see, carefully, Matt. 28: 1-6; Mark 16: 1-2; Luke 24: 1; John 20: 1, 19, 26; Acts 20: 7; 1 Cor. 16: 2; Rev. 1: 10; Acts 13: 14; Acts 17: 2; Col. 2: 16.)
But let it not be supposed that we lose sight of the important fact that the Sabbath will again be celebrated, in the land of Israel, and over the whole creation. It assuredly will. “There remaineth a rest (sabbatismos) for the people of God.” (Heb. 4: 9) When the Son of Abraham, Son of David, and Son of man, shall assume his position of government over the whole earth, there will be a glorious Sabbath rest which sin shall never interrupt. But now, He is rejected, and all who know and love Him are called to take their place with Him in His rejection; they are called to “go forth to Him without the camp, bearing his reproach.” (Heb. 13: 13) If earth could keep a Sabbath, there would be no reproach; but the very fact of the professing church’s seeking to make the first day of the week the Sabbath, reveals a deep principle. It is but the effort to get back to an earthly standing, and to an earthly code of morals.
Many may not see this. Many true Christians may, most conscientiously, observe the Sabbath day, as such; and we are bound to honour their consciences, though we are perfectly warranted in asking them to furnish a scriptural basis for their conscientious convictions. We would not stumble or wound their conscience, but we would seek to instruct it. However, we are not now occupied with conscience or its convictions, but only with the principle which lies at the root of what may be termed the Sabbath question; and I would only put the question to the Christian reader, which is more consonant with the entire scope and spirit of the New Testament, the celebration of the seventh day or Sabbath, or the celebration of the first day of the meek or the Lord’s day?*
{*This subject will, if the Lord permit, come before us again in Exodus 20; but I would, here, observe, that very much of the offence and misunderstanding connected with the important subject of the Sabbath, may be justly traced to the inconsiderate and injudicious conduct of some who, in their zeal for what they termed Christian liberty, in reference to the Sabbath, rather lose sight of the claims of honest consciences and also of the place which the Lord’s day occupies in the New Testament. Some have been known to enter upon their weekly avocations, simply to show their liberty, and thus they caused much needless offence. Such acting could never have been suggested by the Spirit of Christ. If I am ever so clear and free, in my own mind, I should respect the consciences of my brethren: and, moreover, I do not believe that those who so carry themselves, really understand the true and precious privileges connected with the Lord’s day. We should only be too thankful to be rid of all secular occupation and distraction, to think of having recourse to them, for the purpose of showing our liberty. The good providence of our God has so arranged for His people throughout the British Empire, that they can, without pecuniary loss, enjoy the rest of the Lord’s day, inasmuch as all are obliged to abstain from business. This must be regarded, by every well-regulated mind, as a mercy; for, if it were not thus ordered, we know how man’s covetous heart would, if possible, rob the Christian of the sweet privilege of attending the assembly, on the Lord’s day. And who can tell what would be the deadening effect of uninterrupted engagement with this worlds traffic? Those Christians who, from Monday morning to Saturday night, breathe the dense atmosphere of the mart, the market, and the manufactory, can form some idea of it.
It cannot be regarded as a Good sign to find men introducing measures for the public profanation of the Lord’s day. It, assuredly, marks the progress of infidelity and French influence.
But there are some who teach that the expression e kuriake emera, which is rightly enough translated, “the Lord’s day,” refers to “the day of the Lord” and that the exiled apostle found himself carried forward, as it were, into the Spirit of the day of the Lord. I do not believe the original would bear such an interpretation; and, besides, we have in 1 Thess. 5: 2, and 2 Peter 3: 10, the exact words, “the day of the Lord,” the original of which is quite different from the expression above referred to, being not e kuriake emera, but e emera kurion. This entirely settles the matter, so far as the mere criticism is concerned; and as to interpretation, it is plain that by far the greater portion of the Apocalypse is occupied, not with “the day of the Lord” but with events prior thereto.}
We shall now consider the connection between the Sabbath, and the river flowing out of Eden. There is much interest in this. It is the first notice we get of “the river of God” which is, here, introduced in connection with God’s rest. When God was resting in His works, the whole world felt the blessing and refreshment thereof. It was impossible for God to keep a Sabbath, and earth not to feel its sacred influence. But alas, the streams which flowed forth from Eden-the scene of earthly rest – were speedily interrupted, because the rest of creation was marred by sin.
Yet, blessed be God, sin did not put a stop to His activities but only gave them a new sphere; and wherever He is seen acting, the river is seen flowing. Thus when we find Him, with a strong hand, and an outstretched arm, conducting His ransomed hosts across sterile sand of the desert, there we see the stream flowing forth, not from Eden, but from the smitten Rock – apt and beautiful expression of the ground on which sovereign grace ministers to the need of sinners! This was redemption and not merely creation. “That rock was Christ,” Christ smitten to meet His people’s need. The smitten rock was connected with Jehovah’s place in the Tabernacle; and truly there was moral beauty in the connection. God dwelling in curtains, and Israel drinking from a smitten rock, had a voice for every opened ear, and a deep lesson for every circumcised heart. (Ex. 17: 6)
Passing onward, in the history of God’s ways, we find the river flowing in another channel. “In the last day, that great day of the feast, Jesus stood, and saying, If any man thirst, let him come unto me, and drink. He that believeth on me, as the Scripture said, out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water.” (John 7: 37, 38.) Here, then, we find the river emanating from another source, and flowing through another channel; though, in one sense, the source of the river was ever the same, being God Himself; but, then, it was God, known in a new relationship and upon a new principle. Thus in the passage just quoted, the Lord Jesus was taking His place, in spirit, outside of the whole existing order of things, and presenting Himself as the source of the river of living water, of which river the person of the believer was to be the channel. Eden, of old, was constituted a debtor to the whole earth, to send forth the fertilising streams. And in the desert, the rock, when smitten, became a debtor to Israel’s thirsty hosts. Just so, now, every one who believes in Jesus, is a debtor to the scene around him, to allow the streams of refreshment to flow forth from him.
The Christian should regard himself as the channel, through which the manifold grace of Christ may flow out to a needy world; and the more freely he communicates, the more freely will he receive, “for there is that scattereth, and yet increaseth; and there is that withholdeth more than is meet, and it tendeth to poverty.” This places the believer in a place of sweetest privilege, and, at the same time, of the most solemn responsibility. He is called to be the constant witness and exhibitor of the grace of Him on whom He believes.
Now, the more he enters into the privilege, the more will he answer the responsibility. If he is habitually feeding upon Christ, he cannot avoid exhibiting Him. The more the Holy Spirit keeps the Christian’s eyes fixed on Jesus, the more will his heart be occupied with His adorable Person, and his life and character bear unequivocal testimony to His grace. Faith is, at once, the power of ministry, the power of testimony, and the power of worship. If we are not living “by the faith of the Son of God, who loved us, and gave himself for us” we shall neither be effectual servants, faithful witnesses, nor true worshippers. We may be doing a great deal, but it will not be service to Christ. We may be saying a great deal, but it will not be testimony for Christ. We may exhibit a great deal of piety and devotion, but it will not be spiritual and true worship.
Finally, we have the river of God, presented to us in the last chapter of the Apocalypse.* “And he showed me a river of water of life, clear as crystal, out of the throne of God and of the Lamb.” “There is a river, the streams whereof shall make glad the city of God, the holy place of the tabernacles of the Most High.” This is the last place in which we find river. Its source can never again be touched – its channel never again interrupted. “The throne of God” is expressive of eternal stability; and the presence of the Lamb marks it as based upon the immediate ground of accomplished redemption. It is not God’s throne in creation, nor in providence; but in redemption. When I see the Lamb, I know its connection with me as a sinner. “The throne of God,” as such, would but deter me; but when God reveals Himself in the Person of the Lamb, the heart is attracted, and the conscience tranquillised.
{*Compare also Ezek. 47: 1-12; Zech 14: 8.}
The blood of the Lamb cleanses the conscience from every speck and stain of sin, and sets it, in perfect freedom in the presence of a holiness which cannot tolerate sin. In the cross, all the claims of divine holiness were perfectly answered; so that the more I understand the latter, the more I appreciate the former. The higher our estimate of holiness, the higher will be our estimate of the work of the cross. “Grace reigns, through righteousness, unto eternal life, by Jesus Christ our Lord.” Hence the Psalmist calls on the saints to give thanks at the remembrance of God’s holiness. This is a precious fruit of a perfect redemption. Before ever a sinner can give thanks at the remembrance of God’s holiness, he must look at it by faith, from the resurrection side of the cross.
Having thus traced the river, from Genesis to Revelation, we shall briefly look at Adam’s position in Eden. We have seen him as a type of Christ; but he is not merely to be viewed typically, but personally; not merely as absolutely shadowing forth “the second man, the Lord from heaven,” but also as standing in the place of personal responsibility. In the midst of the fair scene of creation, the Lord God set up a testimony, and this testimony was also a test for the creature. It spoke of death in the midst of life. “In the day that thou eatest thereof, thou shalt surely die.” Strange, solemn sound. Yet, it was a needed sound. Adam’s life was suspended upon his strict obedience. The link which connected him with the Lord God* was obedience, based on implicit confidence in the One, who had set him in his position of dignity – confidence in His truth – confidence in His love. He could obey only while he confided. We shall see the truth and force of this, more fully, when we come to examine the next chapter.
{*My reader will observe the change in the second chapter from the expression “God” to Lord God.” There is much importance in the distinction. When God is seen acting in relation with man, He takes the title Lord God,” – (Jehovah Elohim;) but until man appears on the scene, the word “Lord’: is not used. I shall just point out three out of many passages in which the distinction is very strikingly presented. “And they that went in, went in male and female of all flesh, as God (Elohim) had commanded him; and the Lord (Jehovah) shut him in (Gen. 7: 16) Elohim was going to destroy the world which He had made; but Jehovah took care of the man with whom He stood in relation. Again, “that all the earth may know that there is a God (Elohim) in Israel. And all this assembly shall know that the Lord (Jehovah) saveth,” &c. (1 Sam. 17: 46, 47) All the earth was to recognise the presence of Elohim; but Israel was called to recognise the actings of Jehovah, with whom they stood in relation. Lastly, “Jehoshaphat cried out, and the Lord (Jehovah) helped him; and God (Elohim) moved them to depart from him.” (2 Chr. 18: 31) Jehovah took care of His poor erring servant; but Elohim, though unknown, acted upon the hearts of the uncircumcised Syrians.}
I would here suggest to my reader the remarkable contrast between the testimony set up in Eden, and which is set up now. Then, when all around was life, God spoke of death; now, on the contrary, when all around is death, God speaks of life: then the word “in the day thou eatest thou shalt die;” now the word is, “believe and live.” And, as in Eden, the enemy sought to make void God’s testimony, as to the result of eating the fruit, so now, he seeks to make God’s testimony as to the result of believing the gospel. God had said, “In the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die. But the serpent said, Ye shall not surely die.” And now, when God’s word plainly declares that “he that believeth on the hath everlasting life,” (John 3: 16) the same serpent seeks to persuade people that they have not everlasting life, nor should they presume to think of such a thing, until they have, first, done, felt, and experienced all manner of things.
My beloved reader, if you have not yet heartily believed the divine record, let me beseech you to allow “the voice of the Lord” to prevail above the hiss of the serpent. “He that heareth my word, and believeth on him that sent me, hath everlasting life, and shall not come into condemnation; but is passed from death unto life.” (John 5: 24)
Gen 1:1 to Gen 2:4 a. The Priestly Story of Creation.This section belongs to the Priestly Document (P). This is shown by the use of several of its characteristic terms, by the constant repetition of the formul, and by the formal arrangement. Ps interest in the origin of religious institutions is displayed in the explanation of the origin of the Sabbath. The lofty monotheism of the section is also characteristic of his theological position.
The story rests upon a much older tradition, mainly, it would seem, Babylonian in its origin. There are several striking parallels with the Babylonian creation legend. The deep or watery chaos (tehom) (Gen 1:12) corresponds to the Babylonian Tiamat. Darkness is over this chaos. There is a rending of sky and earth from each other, and the creation of a solid expanse or firmament which divides the upper waters from the waters of the earth, and in which the heavenly bodies are placed. There are also serious differences, due largely to the absence of the polytheistic and mythological element from the Biblical account (p. 51). Even if the Spirit of God that broods over the abyss is a remnant of mythology, yet the Hebrew account represents God as existing before the creative process begins, and as willing and controlling it, whereas in the Babylonian legend the gods come into existence during the process. Nor is there any trace of opposition between the abyss and the creative power in Genesis; though it is not said that chaos was created by God, it rather seems to have an independent existence beside Him. The Phnician cosmogony presents striking parallels, such as the existence at first of chaos and spirit, and the egg, from which the universe was produced, which seems to be implied in the Hebrew narrative in the reference to the brooding of the Spirit. It is probable, in spite of the striking differences, that the Biblical account has its ultimate origin in the Babylonian mythology rather than that both are, as Dillmann thinks, independent developments of a primitive Semitic myth. Gunkel has argued forcibly that the work of creation was explained by analogy from the rebirth of the world in spring after the winter, or in the morning after the night, and that the phenomena depicted can have been suggested only in an alluvial country like Babylonia. But it has derived elements from other sources, especially Phnician and possibly Egyptian. It appears to have been formed in Palestine, for the purification of the story would involve a long process, and one which would be complete only at a late point in the pre-exilic period. In its present form it is probably not earlier than the exile, and was presumably written on Babylonian soil. But it is most unlikely that the Priestly writer, belonging, as he did, to the rigid school of Ezekiel, should have borrowed consciously from Babylonian mythology.
At what time this myth reached Israel is much disputed. Some think the Hebrews brought it with them from Mesopotamia; others place it in the period known to us from the Tell el-Amarna tablets (about 1450 B.C.) when Babylonian culture exerted great influence on Western Asia and Egypt; others again think of the period of Assyrian rule over Judah. It is unlikely that the Hebrews, even if they brought the Babylonian legend with them from Mesopotamia, would preserve it through all their subsequent experiences. More probably they derived it from the Canaanites, who may have learnt it from the Babylonians in the Tell el-Amarna period (see p. 51). We can thus account for the Canaanite elements that appear to have been incorporated. Some scholars hold that the Hebrews elaborated the creation doctrine at a late period. This does not at all follow from the silence of the earlier prophets, even if, as is not unlikely, the creation passages in Amos are a later addition (pp. 551, 554). For these prophets had little occasion to speak of it. And there are references in the other literature which seem to be early. This is specially true of the creation story in Genesis 2. And in Solomons dedication words at the consecration of the Temple, restored by Wellhausen from the LXX (p. 298), we read Yahweh hath set the sun in the heavens. So also in Exo 20:11, which, even if a later addition to the Decalogue, is probably pre-exilic, we read that in six days Yahweh made heaven and earth. It would be strange if, when the surrounding peoples had creation narratives, Israel had none.
Whether the Priestly writer himself originated the division into six days is uncertain. It is clearly later than the enumeration of the works as eight. For in order to get eight works into six days it has been necessary to put two works on the third and two on the sixth day; and in neither case is the pair well matched; in the former we have the separation of land and water combined with the creation of vegetation, in the latter land-animals and man are created on the same day, though from the lofty position assigned to man, we should have expected his creation to have taken place on a day reserved for it. But the six days work and the seventh days rest are probably not due to the Priestly writer. The Sabbath rest for God is so anthropomorphic an idea, that P, who does not represent God as subject to human limitations and affections, must have borrowed it from an older source. Both the six days work and seventh days rest are found in Exo 20:11. If this is dependent on our passage, it yields no evidence for an earlier origin of the six days scheme. But although it does not occur in the Deuteronomic version of the Decalogue, the reason for the commandment substituted in Deu 5:15 probably had its origin in the humane spirit of the Deuteronomic legislation. The differences between Exo 20:11 and Gen 2:2 are also of a kind to exclude the dependence of the former on the latter. It may, therefore, be assumed that not only the division of creation into eight works but the period of six days lay ready to the authors hand. As it is not found in the Babylonian or Phnician cosmogonies, it seems probable that the six days scheme is of Israelitish origin. The eight works may have been borrowed ultimately from a foreign source.
Those who are interested in the once burning question as to the relation between this narrative and modern science should consult the very thorough discussion in Drivers Commentary. Here it must suffice to say that the value of the narrative is not scientific but religious; that it imperils faith to insist on literal accuracy in a story which can only by unjustifiable forcing be made to yield it; that it was more in harmony with the method of inspiration to take current views and purify them so that they might be fit vehicles of religious truth than to anticipate the progress of research by revealing prematurely what men could in due time discover for themselves; and finally that even if this narrative could be harmonised with our present knowledge, we should have the task of harmonising the very different narrative in the second chapter both with the present story and with modern science, (See further p. 12.)
THE SEVENTH DAY
The first three verses here are directly connected with chapter 1. “Thus the heavens and the earth, and all the host of them, were finished.” The work of the first creation occupied six days. “All the host of them” evidently refers to the innumerable host of stars and planets which are set by God in the heavens for the benefit of man on earth.
Number 7 is the number of completeness, and on that day God rested from all His work. In this case only we read of His blessing the day, as well as sanctifying it. It is set apart from all the others as having a far superior significance, “because in it He rested from all His work which God had created and made.” Creating is bringing into existence from nothing, but making is modeling something from what had already been created. God’s literal rest on that day is significant of something much more important.
As to the personal application, this indicates the completeness of God’s work in a believer. God rests and the believer rests in the calm satisfaction of God’s sufficiency. This corresponds to what is said of “fathers” in 1Jn 2:13-14, “I have written unto you, fathers, because you have known Him who is from the beginning.” In speaking to fathers, nothing is added in the way of exhortation (as for young man and little children), for fathers are looked at as mature in the knowledge of the Lord Jesus and calmly at rest because of His sufficiency.
The dispensational application of the seventh day takes us beyond time “unto all the generations of the ages of ages” (Eph 3:21 – J.N.D.trans.). Though in the first six days we read of the evening and the morning, yet there is no mention of this on the seventh day, for there is no reckoning of time in eternity. God has worked and will work until the thousand years of peace is completed and the judgment of the great white throne takes place. Then He will rest with a rest unbroken by morning and evening. His rest after the six days of work in connection with the first creation was broken by Adam’s sin, and since that time, until sin is totally banished from God’s creation, God has worked, as the Lord Jesus said, “My Father has been working until now, and I have been working” (Joh 5:17 – NKJV).
There is also another application of the seventh day to the nation Israel. The millennium will be a comparative rest to the nation as such, after centuries of trouble and sorrow. As to this time, Zep 3:17 tells us, “Jehovah thy God is in thy midst, a mighty one that will save: He will rejoice over thee with joy; He will rest in His love; He will exult over thee with singing.” Yet this is only a partial fulfilment of the truth of the seventh day rest, for it is not God’s final rest, but a foreshadowing of it.
THE GRACE OF THE LORD GOD IN CREATION
Up to the end of Chapter 2:3 the name God appears 35 times. Beginning with verse 4 there is a change, however. No longer is the name God used alone, but “the Lord God” or “Jehovah Elohim,” used 11 times in chapter 2. The reason is simply that in the first section the great power of God is seen in creating and making. In the second section the creation is looked at from the viewpoint of God’s gracious relationship with mankind. The name “Jehovah” is significant of the kindness of God in drawing near to mankind in blessing. Thus it is used consistently in regard to God’s covenant relationship with Israel (Exo 6:2-8).
Creation therefore did not come into being merely as a display of God’s power, but as a sphere in which God’s tender interest in man is wonderfully evident.
Beginning with verse 4 is “history of the heavens and the earth when they were created,” and expanded view of what has been told us in Chapter 1. The Lord God made the earth and the heavens before plant life of any kind existed. Then even when He had introduced vegetation there was no rainfall, but a mist that went up from the earth to water the face of the ground (v.6). This is another evidence of God’s authorship of the Bible, for this is something that man would never have imagined. Though there were “waters above,” God did not use them as rainfall. How the earth produced the mist we do not know. However, plants were made to grow in the earth — grass, herbs and trees — only three days before God created man to care for them.
While we are told of God’s creating man on the sixth day, now we are told the means of His doing this (v.7). Nothing like this is said of the fish, animals or birds. But “the Lord formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul.” It is man’s body that is formed of dust. This is certainly intended to keep us from being proud of ourselves! But on the other hand, man is given a dignity far above the animal creation. God’s breath in his nostrils separates him completely from the rest of earthly creation. This should make us both thankful and serious in realizing that such a dignity brings the responsibility of representing the God who has breathed into us.
Though fish and animals are also said to be “living souls” (Chapter 1:21,24 – J.N.D.trans.), yet man differs from the entirely in the say in which he became a living soul. We learn later in scripture that man has a spirit and soul and body (1 Thess 5:32), but in his present state he is characterized more by his soul than he is by his spirit, therefore is called “a living soul.” Yet when God breathed into him there is no doubt that he received a spirit as well as a soul, for the very word “breath” is the same Hebrew word as “spirit.” Elihu says, in Job 32:8 : “But there is a spirit in man, and the breath of the Almighty gives him understanding.”
Man’s soul gives him feelings, emotions, desires and even intuition, similar to what is seen in animals. But his spirit gives him intellect, understanding, reasoning power that can lift him above the level of his feelings and desires. Also, now that sin has entered creation, his spirit gives him a conscience to discern between good and evil, and which warns him against evil.
Men have planted and developed magnificently beautiful gardens in our day, but when the Lord planted a garden in Eden before sin caused the curse to affect the ground, before weeds, thorns and thistles did their unsightly damage, the beauty of that garden must have been wonderful. The place was ideal in every way for the comfort and blessing of man. Every variety of fruit tree was there, beautiful to the sight and its fruit edible and good.
The tree of life is singled out as being “in the midst of the garden,” but in spite of this is was evidently ignored by Adam and Eve. Its great significance, however, is brought into sight again in the book of Revelation (ch.2:7 and ch.22:2), while in between the shadow of death broods over the whole history of man.
But there was another tree in the garden, “the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.” This was a fruit tree also, its fruit good, its appearance pleasant (ch.3:7). This tree and the tree of life stand in direct contrast to one another. Both were put there as a test for man. Which would he choose? The tree of life speaks of Christ. But man naturally will ignore the blessed Christ of God and choose that which has been forbidden by God.
A river is also mentioned, flowing out of the garden, evidently having its source by a spring from the earth, but watering the garden as it flowed. This speaks of the blessing of God by His word and Spirit, as does also the “river of water of life, clear as crystal, proceeding from the throne of God and of the Lamb,” described in Rev 22:1. This river from the garden of Eden, however, was parted into four different rivers, indicating increasing blessing as the waters flowed. The last two rivers, Tigris and Euphrates, are prominent rivers today, though the contour of the land will have been so changed by the flood that their courses cannot be the same.
There was work for Adam to do in cultivating and caring for the garden (v.15), though it would not require the same toil that became necessary after the ground was cursed with thorns and thistles, etc. (ch.3:17-18). Then the Lord gave full permission to Adam to use all the trees of the garden as food, with only one exception. Of course there was great abundance to more than meet all human need, so that having one tree kept from them was certainly no hardship at all. God told Adam that this tree was “the tree of the knowledge of good and evil,” and plainly forbid his eating of it, adding too that eating of it would certainly incur the penalty of death (v.17).
Though in Chapter 1:27 we read of the creation of both the man and the woman, in Chapter 2:7 we are told how man was created, and in Chapter 2:18-24 we are given an explanation as to how the woman was made as a complement for man. The words of the Lord God in verse 18 must surely be willingly agreed to by every man, “It is not good for the man to be alone.” Man has been so created as to crave company. Also, there is a higher spiritual reason for this. The Lord Jesus, in becoming Man, has a nature that is not satisfied without the companionship of one who has the closest relationship to Him, that is, the church of God, the bride who is dear to His heart and who shares in the position and blessings that are His.
The God who created within man the desire for company has also fully desire: “I will make him a helper suitable for him.” Just so, the church provision of a helper for the Son of Man. However, in verses 18 and 19 reminded of the animals and birds having been formed by God out of the ground. Though God brought them to Adam, who was able to give names to all of them (a monumental project!), yet none of them could provide the companionship that Adam required.
Certainly God could have created a wife for Adam in a different way if it were His will to do so. But He chose to do this in a way that man would never have imagined, and exhibit a wisdom that is far higher than man’s. He caused a deep sleep to fall upon Adam, and removed one of his ribs, closing up the wound (without sutures!). “And Jehovah Elohim built the rib that He had taken from Man into a woman, and brought her to Man” (v.22 – J.N.D.trans.).
Why did the Lord God go to such pains in the case of the woman’s creation? Does it not show that He is not merely displaying His power in this matter, but rather His great love that works in accomplishing proper results in individual souls and in the church of the living God? This is the first time the word “built” is used in scripture (see a Hebrew concordance), for it speak of the patient labor of the Lord in building up the church as a suitable companion for Himself. The Lord Jesus says in Mat 16:18, “on this Rock I will build My church.” God’s building has permanency in view. Men may build their huge edifices and cities, but all will come to ruin, while that which God builds will remain.
Adam’s sleep speaks of the death-sleep of the Lord Jesus in His great sacrifice of Calvary, for it was from this great sorrow that the church was born. She is the direct result of the work of the cross. She is taken from His side, not from His head, to take a place over Him, nor from His feet to be a mere slave under Him, but from His side, to be a suitable companion beside Him.
More than this, Adam speaks of Eve as “bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh” (v.23). She was actually of his body before she became his wife. Similarly, today the church is seen by God as “His (Christ’s) body, the fulness of Him who fills all in all” (Eph 1:23), and in glory will be presented to Him as His bride and wife (Eph 5:17).
As well as God’s seeking to impress on us the reality of the relationship of Christ and the church, however, He is showing how close is the unity of husband and wife in God’s sacred ordinance of marriage. Today this has been terribly violated by the selfish independence of both men and women, but God’s word is plain, “For this cause a man shall leave his father and his mother, and shall cleave to his wife, and they shall become one flesh” (v.24). Thus God established marriage as the first of human relationships, and He makes it clear for all succeeding generations that a man should leave his father and mother and cleave to his wife. It is just as evident that the woman should leave her parents to become fully devoted to her husbands. The word “cleave” is beautiful here. It involves the reality of love, of devotedness and of faithfulness.
From the beginning God’s thought of marriage was one wife for one man. The man was to cleave to his wife, not to his wives. Its true that many Old Testament believers had more than one wife, but this was contrary to God’s word, though He bore with it because of the hardness of men’s hearts. Only in the New Testament was this corrected by the Lord Jesus, together with the question of divorce (Mat 19:9). Of course in the world today bigamy, polygamy, adultery and divorce are widespread. Only among Christians can we expect the true character of marriage to be maintained, and this should surely be the case since believers have known the living reality of the grace of God revealed in the person and work of their Lord and Savior, though too many believers also have succumbed to the attacks of the enemy in this matter, sadly failing in their Christian testimony.
In their innocent state it was perfectly normal for Adam and Eve to be naked. When by sin they acquired a conscience, however, God implanted within them a sense of shame in being naked. Animals do not have this, but even in the lowest type of human culture, conscience speaks.
2:1 Thus the heavens and the earth were finished, and all the {a} host of them.
(a) That is, the innumerable abundance of creatures in heaven and earth.
4. The seventh day 2:1-3
"Gen 2:1-3 echoes Gen 1:1 by introducing the same phrases but in reverse order: ’he created,’ ’God,’ ’heavens and earth’ reappear as ’heavens and earth’ (Gen 2:1) ’God’ (Gen 2:2), ’created’ (Gen 2:3). This chiastic pattern brings the section to a neat close which is reinforced by the inclusion ’God created’ linking Gen 1:1 and Gen 2:3." [Note: Wenham, p. 5.]
The mood of the narrative also returns to what it was in Gen 1:1-2. Silence and calm prevail again. [Note: Michael Fishbane, Text and Texture, p. 9.]
Moses probably meant everything that existed above the earth and on the earth when he wrote "their hosts." The "host" of heaven usually refers to the stars in the Old Testament (e.g., Deu 4:19) more than the angels (e.g., 1Ki 22:19), so the sun, moon, and stars are probably in view here.
THE CREATION
Gen 1:1-31; Gen 2:1-25
IF anyone is in search of accurate information regarding the age of this earth, or its relation to the sun, moon, and stars, or regarding the order in which plants and animals have appeared upon it, he is referred to recent textbooks in astronomy, geology, and palaeontology. No one for a moment dreams of referring a serious student of these subjects to the Bible as a source of information. It is not the object of the writers of Scripture to impart physical instruction or to enlarge the bounds of scientific knowledge. But if any one wishes to know what connection the world has with God, if he seeks to trace back all that now is to the very fountain-head of life, if he desires to discover some unifying principle, some illuminating purpose in the history of this earth, then we confidently refer him to these and the subsequent chapters of Scripture as his safest, and indeed his only, guide to the information he seeks. Every writing must be judged by the object the writer has in view. If the object of the writer of these chapters was to convey physical information, then certainly it is imperfectly fulfilled. But if his object was to give an intelligible account of Gods relation to the world and to man, then it must be owned that he has been successful in the highest degree.
It is therefore unreasonable to allow our reverence for this writing to be lessened because it does not anticipate the discoveries of physical science; or to repudiate its authority in its own department of truth because it does not give us information which it formed no part of the writers object to give. As well might we deny to Shakespeare a masterly knowledge of human life, because his dramas are blotted by historical anachronisms. That the compiler of this book of Genesis did not aim at scientific accuracy in speaking of physical details is obvious, not merely from the general scope and purpose of the Biblical writers, but especially from this, that in these first two chapters of his book he lays side by side two accounts of mans creation which no ingenuity can reconcile. These two accounts, glaringly incompatible in details, but absolutely harmonious in their leading ideas, at once warn the reader that the writers aim is rather to convey certain ideas regarding mans spiritual history and his connection with God, than to describe the process of creation. He does describe the process of creation, but he describes it only for the sake of the ideas regarding mans relation to God and Gods relation to the world which he can thereby convey. Indeed what we mean by scientific knowledge was not in all the thoughts of the people for whom this book was written. The subject of creation, of the beginning of man upon earth, was not approached from that side at all; and if we are to understand what is here written we must burst the trammels of our own modes of thought and read these chapters not as a chronological, astronomical, geological, biological statement, but as a moral or spiritual conception.
It will, however, be said, and with much appearance of justice, that although the first object of the writer was not to convey scientific information, yet he might have been expected to be accurate in the information he did advance regarding the physical universe. This is an enormous assumption to make on a priori grounds, but it is an assumption worth seriously considering because it brings into view a real and important difficulty which every reader of Genesis must face. It brings into view the twofold character of this account of creation. On the one hand it is irreconcilable with the teachings of science. On the other hand it is in striking contrast to the other cosmogonies which have been handed down from prescientific ages. These are the two patent features of this record of creation and both require to be accounted for. Either feature alone would be easily accounted for; but the two co-existing in the same document are more baffling. We have to account at once for a want of perfect coincidence with the teachings of science, and for a singular freedom from those errors which disfigure all other primitive accounts of the creation of the world. The one feature of the document is as patent as the other and presses equally for explanation.
Now many persons cut the knot by simply denying that both these features exist. There is no disagreement with science, they say. I speak for many careful enquirers when I say that this cannot serve as a solution of the difficulty. I think it is to be freely admitted that, from whatever cause and however justifiably, the account of creation here given is not in strict and detailed accordance with the teaching of science. All attempts to force its statements into such accord are futile and mischievous. They are futile because they do not convince independent enquirers, but only those who are unduly anxious to be convinced. And they are mischievous because they unduly prolong the strife between Scripture and science, putting the question on a false issue. And above all, they are to be condemned because they do violence to Scripture, foster a style of interpretation by which the text is forced to say whatever the interpreter desires, and prevent us from recognising the real nature of these sacred writings. The Bible needs no defence such as false constructions of its language bring to its aid. They are its worst friends who distort its words that they may yield a meaning more in accordance with scientific truth. If, for example, the word “day” in these chapters, does not mean a period of twenty-four hours, the interpretation of Scripture is hopeless. Indeed if we are to bring these chapters into any comparison at all with science, we find at once various discrepancies. Of a creation of sun, moon, and stars, subsequent to the creation of this earth, science can have but one thing to say. Of the existence of fruit trees prior to the existence of the sun, science knows nothing. But for a candid and unsophisticated reader without a special theory to maintain, details are needless.
Accepting this chapter then as it stands, and believing that only by looking at the Bible as it actually is can we hope to understand Gods method of revealing Himself, we at once perceive that ignorance of some departments of truth does not disqualify a man for knowing and imparting truth about God. In order to be a medium of revelation a man does not need to be in advance of his age in secular learning. Intimate communion with God, a spirit trained to discern spiritual things, a perfect understanding of and zeal for Gods purpose, these are qualities quite independent of a knowledge of the discoveries of science. The enlightenment which enables men to apprehend God and spiritual truth has no necessary connection with scientific attainments. Davids confidence in God and his declarations of His faithfulness are none the less valuable, because he was ignorant of a very great deal which every schoolboy now knows. Had inspired men introduced into their writings information which anticipated the discoveries of science, their state of mind would be inconceivable, and revelation would be a source of confusion. Gods methods are harmonious with one another, and as He has given men natural faculties to acquire scientific knowledge and historical information, He did not stultify this gift by imparting such knowledge in a miraculous and unintelligible manner. There is no evidence that inspired men were in advance of their age in the knowledge of physical facts and laws. And plainly, had they been supernaturally instructed in physical knowledge they would so far have been unintelligible to those to whom they spoke. Had the writer of this book mingled with his teaching regarding God, an explicit and exact account of how this world came into existence-had he spoken of millions of years instead of speaking of days-in all probability he would have been discredited, and what he had to say about God would have been rejected along with his premature science. But speaking from the point of view of his contemporaries, and accepting the current ideas regarding the formation of the world, he attached to these the views regarding Gods connection with the world which are most necessary to be believed. What he had learned of Gods unity and creative power and connection with man, by “the inspiration of the Holy Ghost,” he imparts to his contemporaries through the vehicle of an account of creation they could all understand. It is not in his knowledge of physical facts that he is elevated above his contemporaries, but in his knowledge of Gods connection with all physical facts. No doubt, on the other hand, his knowledge of God reacts upon the entire contents of his mind and saves him from presenting such accounts of creation as have been common among polytheists. He presents an account purified by his conception of what was worthy of the supreme God he worshipped. His idea of God has given dignity and simplicity to all he says about creation, and there is an elevation and majesty about the whole conception, which we recognise as the reflex of his conception of God.
Here then instead of anything to discompose us or to excite unbelief, we recognise one great law or principle on which God proceeds in making Himself known to men. This has been called the Law of Accommodation. It is the law which requires that the condition and capacity of those to whom the revelation is made must be considered. If you wish to instruct a child, you must speak in language the child can understand. If you wish to elevate a savage, you must do it by degrees, accommodating yourself to his condition, and winking at much ignorance while you instil elementary knowledge. You must found all you teach on what is already understood by your pupil, and through that you must convey further knowledge and train his faculties to higher capacity. So was it with Gods revelation. The Jews were children who had to be trained with what Paul somewhat contemptuously calls “weak and beggarly elements,” the A B C of morals and religion. Not even in morals could the absolute truth be enforced. Accommodation had to be practised even here. Polygamy was allowed as a concession to their immature stage of development: and practices in war and in domestic law were permitted or enjoined which were inconsistent with absolute morality. Indeed the whole Jewish system was an adaptation to an immature state. The dwelling of God in the Temple as a man in his house, the propitiating of God with sacrifice as of an Eastern king with gifts; this was a teaching by picture, a teaching which had as much resemblance to the truth and as much mixture of truth as they were able then to receive. No doubt this teaching did actually mislead them in some of their ideas; but it kept them on the whole in a right attitude toward God, and prepared them for growing up to a fuller discernment of the truth.
Much more was this law observed in regard to such matters as are dealt with in these chapters. It was impossible that in their ignorance of the rudiments of scientific knowledge, the early Hebrews should understand an absolutely accurate account of how the world came into being; and if they could have understood it, it would have been useless, dissevered as it must have been from the steps of knowledge by which men have since arrived at it. Children ask us questions in answer to which we do not tell them the exact full truth, because we know they cannot possibly understand it. All that we can do is to give them some provisional answer which conveys to them some information they can understand, and which keeps them in a right state of mind, although this information often seems absurd enough when compared with the actual facts and truth of the matter. And if some solemn pedant accused us of supplying the child with false information, we would simply tell him he knew nothing about children. Accurate information on these matters will infallibly come to the child when he grows up; what is wanted meanwhile is to give him information which will help to form his conduct without gravely misleading him as to facts. Similarly, if any one tells me he cannot accept these chapters as inspired by God, because they do not convey scientifically accurate information regarding this earth, I can only say that he has yet to learn the first principles of revelation, and that he misunderstands the conditions on which all instruction must be given.
My belief then is, that in these chapters we have the ideas regarding the origin of the world and of man which were naturally attainable in the country where they were first composed, but with those important modifications which a monotheistic belief necessarily suggested. So far as merely physical knowledge went, there is probably little here that was new to the contemporaries of the writer; but this already familiar knowledge was used by him as the vehicle for conveying his faith in the unity, love, and wisdom of God the creator. He laid a firm foundation for the history of Gods relation to man. This was his object, and this he accomplished. The Bible is the book to which we turn for information regarding the history of Gods revelation of Himself, and of His will towards men; and in these chapters we have the suitable introduction to this history. No changes in our knowledge of physical truth can at all affect the teaching of these chapters. What they teach regarding the relation of man to God is independent of the physical details in which this teaching is embodied, and can as easily be attached to the most modern statement of the physical origin of the world and of man.
What then are the truths taught us in these chapters? The first is that there has been a creation, that things now existing have not just grown of themselves, but have been called into being by a presiding intelligence and an originating will. No attempt to account for the existence of the world in any other way has been successful. A great deal has in this generation been added to our knowledge of the efficiency of material causes to produce what we see around us; but when we ask what gives harmony to these material causes, and what guides them to the production of certain ends, and what originally produced them, the answer must still be, not matter but intelligence and purpose. The best informed and most penetrating minds of our time affirm this. John Stuart Mill says: “It must be allowed that in the present state of our knowledge the adaptations in nature afford a large balance of probability in favor of creation by intelligence.” Professor Tyndall adds his testimony and says: “I have noticed during years of self-observation that it is not in hours of clearness and vigor that [the doctrine of material atheism] commends itself to my mind-that in the hours of stronger and healthier thought it ever dissolves and disappears, as offering no solution of the mystery in which we dwell and of which we form a part.”
There is indeed a prevalent suspicion, that in presence of the discoveries made by evolutionists the argument from design is no longer tenable. Evolution shows us that the correspondence of the structure of animals, with their modes of life, has been generated by the nature of the case; and it is concluded that a blind mechanical necessity and not an intelligent design rules all. But the discovery of the process by which the presently existing living forms have been evolved, and the perception that this process is governed by laws which have always been operating, do not make intelligence and design at all less necessary, but rather more so. As Professor Huxley himself says: “The teleological and mechanical views of nature are not necessarily exclusive. The teleologist can always defy the evolutionist to disprove that the primordial molecular arrangement was not intended to evolve the phenomena of the universe.” Evolution, in short, by disclosing to us the marvellous power and accuracy of natural law, compels us more emphatically than ever to refer all law to a supreme, originating intelligence.
This then is the first lesson of the Bible; that at the root and origin of all this vast material universe, before whose laws we are crushed as the moth, there abides a living conscious Spirit, who wills and knows and fashions all things. The belief of this changes for us the whole face of nature, and instead of a chill, impersonal world of forces to which no appeal can be made, and in which matter is supreme, gives us the home of a Father. If you are yourself but a particle of a huge and unconscious universe-a particle which, like a flake of foam, or a drop of rain, or a gnat, or a beetle, lasts its brief space and then yields up its substance to be moulded into some new creature; if there is no power that understands you and sympathises with you and makes provision for your instincts, your aspirations, your capabilities; if man is himself the highest intelligence, and if all things are the purposeless result of physical forces; if, in short, there is no God, no consciousness at the beginning as at the end of all things, then nothing can be more melancholy than our position. Our higher desires which seem to separate us so immeasurably from the brutes, we have, only that they may be cut down by the keen edge of time, and wither in barren disappointment; our reason we have, only to enable us to see and measure the brevity of our span, and so live our little day, not joyously as the unforeseeing beasts, but shadowed by the hastening gloom of anticipated, inevitable, and everlasting night; our faculty for worshipping and for striving to serve and to resemble the perfect living One, that faculty which seems to be the thing of greatest promise and of finest quality in us, and to which is certainly due the largest part of what is admirable and profitable in human history, is the most mocking and foolishest of all our parts. But, God be thanked, He has revealed himself to us; has given us in the harmonious and progressive movement of all around us, sufficient indication that, even in the material world, intelligence and purpose reign; an indication which becomes immensely clearer as we pass into the world of man; and which, in presence of the person and life of Christ, attains the brightness of a conviction which illuminates all besides.
The other great truth which this writer teaches is, that man was the chief work of God, for whose sake all else was brought into being. The work of creation was not finished till he appeared: all else was preparatory to this final product. That man is the crown and lord of this earth is obvious. Man instinctively assumes that all else has been made for him, and freely acts upon this assumption. But when our eyes are lifted from this little ball on which we are set and to which we are confined, and when we scan such other parts of the universe as are within our ken, a keen sense of littleness oppresses us; our earth is after all so minute and apparently inconsiderable a point, when compared with the vast suns and planets that stretch system on system into illimitable space. When we read even the rudiments of what astronomers have discovered regarding the inconceivable vastness of the universe, the huge dimensions of the heavenly bodies, and the grand scale on which everything is framed, we find rising to our lips, and with tenfold reason, the words of David: “When I consider Thy heavens, the work of Thy fingers: the moon and the stars which Thou hast ordained; what is man that Thou art mindful of him, or the son of man that Thou visitest him?” Is it conceivable that on this scarcely discernible speck in the vastness of the universe, should be played out the chiefest act in the history of God? Is it credible that He whose care it is to uphold this illimitable universe, should be free to think of the wants and woes of the insignificant creatures who quickly spend their little lives in this inconsiderable earth?
But reason seems all on the side of Genesis. God must not be considered as sitting apart in a remote position of general superintendence, but as present with all that is. And to Him who maintains these systems in their respective relations and orbits, it can be no burden to relieve the needs of individuals. To think of ourselves as too insignificant to be attended to is to derogate from Gods true majesty and to misunderstand His relation to the world. But it is also to misapprehend the real value of spirit as compared with matter. Man is dear to God because he is like Him. Vast and glorious as it is, the sun cannot think Gods thoughts; can fulfil but cannot intelligently sympathise with Gods purpose. Man, alone among Gods works, can enter into and approve of Gods purpose in the world and can intelligently fulfil it. Without man the whole material universe would have been dark and unintelligible, mechanical and apparently without any sufficient purpose. Matter, however fearfully and wonderfully wrought, is but the platform and material in which spirit, intelligence, and will may fulfil themselves and find development. Man is incommensurable with the rest of the universe. He is of a different kind and by his moral nature is more akin to God than to His works.
Here the beginning and the end of Gods revelation join hands and throw light on one another. The nature of man was that in which God was at last to give His crowning revelation, and for that no preparation could seem extravagant. Fascinating and full of marvel as is the history of the past which science discloses to us; full as these slow-moving millions of years are in evidences of the exhaustless wealth of nature, and mysterious as the delay appears, all that expenditure of resources is eclipsed and all the delay justified when the whole work is crowned by the Incarnation, for in it we see that all that slow process was the preparation of a nature in which God could manifest Himself as a Person to persons. This is seen to be an end worthy of all that is contained in the physical history of the world: this gives completeness to the whole and makes it a unity. No higher, other end need be sought, none could be conceived. It is this which seems worthy of those tremendous and subtle forces which have been set at work in the physical world, this which justifies the long lapse of ages filled with wonders unobserved, and teeming with ever new life, this above all which justifies these latter ages in which all physical marvels have been outdone by the tragical history of man upon earth. Remove the Incarnation and all remains dark, purposeless, unintelligible: grant the Incarnation, believe that in Jesus Christ the Supreme manifested Himself personally, and light is shed upon all that has been and is.
Light is shed on the individual life. Are you living as if you were the product of blind mechanical laws, and as if there were no object worthy of your life and of all the force you can throw into your life? Consider the Incarnation of the Creator, and ask yourself if sufficient object is not given to you in His call that you be conformed to His image and become the intelligent executor of His purposes? Is life not worth having even on these terms? The man that can still sit down and bemoan himself as if there were no meaning in existence, or lounge languidly through life as if there were no zest or urgency in living, or try to satisfy himself with fleshly comforts, has surely need to turn to the opening page of Revelation and learn that God saw sufficient object in the life of man, enough to compensate for millions of ages of preparation. If it is possible that you should share in the character and destiny of Christ, can a healthy ambition crave anything more or higher? If the future is to be as momentous in results as the past has certainly been filled with preparation, have you no caring to share in these results? Believe that there is a purpose in things; that in Christ, the revelation of God, you can see what. that purpose is, and that by wholly uniting yourself to Him and allowing yourself to be penetrated by His Spirit you can participate with Him in the working out of that purpose.
Fuente: Everett’s Study Notes on the Holy Scriptures
Fuente: Everett’s Study Notes on the Holy Scriptures
Fuente: The Popular Commentary on the Bible by Kretzmann
And to cease from all business he commanded.
Then arose the sun in the horizon of heaven in (glory).”
Fuente: The Complete Pulpit Commentary
Fuente: Commentary on the Holy Bible by Thomas Coke
6. The relation of the temporal creation to the eternity of God. It is quite as wrong to transfer gnostically the origin of the real world to the eternity of God, to fix the existence of God according to theogony by speaking of a becoming of God, or of an obscure basis in God (Bhm), or of an origin of the material contemporary with the self-affirmation of God (Rothe), as it is to declare, with scholastic super-naturalism, that God indeed might have left the world uncreated. Against the first view, there is the declaration that the world had a beginning, which, a little farther on, is fixed as the beginning of time. Against the latter, there is the declaration that God chose believing humanity from eternity in Christ, as it is also indicated in our text, by the decree of God at the creation of man, and by the image of God. The world rests therefore, as an actual and temporal world, on an eternal ideal ground.7 Its ideal preparation is eternal, but its genesis is temporal, for it is conditioned by the gradual growing, and the beautiful rhythm of growth is time.
8. Theological definitions of the creation. The creatio is distinguished as a single act and as a permanent fact. A third period is, however, at the same time pointed out, namely, the continuance of the doing in the deed, so that the world would not only fall to pieces, but would pass away, if God withdrew himself from it. The thought that he cannot withdraw from it in his love, should not be confounded with the untenable thought that he might not be able to withdraw from it in his omnipotence. The absolute dependence of the world on God is at all times the same (see Psa 104:30; Col 1:17; Heb 1:3). On the relation of the creation to the trinity, compare Hase, Hutter, p. 149, and Langes Positive Dogmatics, p. 206 ff.The expression, creation from nothing, is borrowed from the apocryphical word, 2Ma 7:28 : ; comp. Heb 11:3. It denies that an eternal material, or indeed that anything, was present as a (material) substratum of the creation. One can, however, misinterpret the expression by making the act of creation one of abstract will, absolved from any divine breath of life (Gntherianism). On determining the creatio ex nihilo we distinguish the nihil negativum, by denying the eternity of matter as substratum of the creation, and the nihil privativum, by assuming that God at first created matter as nihil privativum, then the forms in the hexameron. This the modus creationis: first, matter; then, the form. This idea of a matter as something before form, does not correspond, however, to the idea of a quickening or life-giving activity in creation. With the beginning of creation there is immediately established the contrast of heaven and earth, i.e., different spheres, which as such are not mere matter; and with the Thohu Vabhohu of the first earth-form there is immediately established the constructive activity of the spirit of God. The demiurgic conception presupposes an eternal world-matter, whether regarded according to the Persian idea as evil, or according to the Greek as blind, heterogeneous, and antagonistic, or according to the Indian idea as magically mutable, which eternal world-matter must, in all cases, make the demiurgic formation a thing of mere arbitrary sport. The true idea of the work of creation lies between this and the theurgo-magical, according to which God had made the universe, in abstract positiveness, a pure material contrast of His divine being. This is a conception in which the creating word, the spirit of God hovering over the waters, the image of God, or even the omnipresence of God in the world, do not receive their just due. As the aim of the creation finally (finis creationis), there have been distinguished the highest or last aim, Gods glorification, and the intermediate aim, the welfare of his creatures and the happiness of man. But it must be observed that God glorifies himself in the happiness of men, and that the latter should find their happiness in contemplating the glory of God.
10. The World as Nature. a. The Ancient View of the World, that of the Bible and of Modern Times.The world-view of the ancients was based on appearance, according to which the earth formed a centre reposing under the moving, rolling starry world; this geocentric view received a scientific expression in the well-known Ptolemaic system. This system was abandoned in the time of the Reformation for the helio-centric system of Copernicus. But because the Bible, with respect to astronomical matters, speaks the language of common life, which is yet authorized in accordance with appearances (the sun rises, sets, etc.), it was supposed that the Copernican system contradicted the teaching of Holy Writ, and not only the papal council imagined that in its treatment of Galileo, but even Melancthon was of the same opinion, and to the present day such protests, even on the Protestant side, have not entirely died away (see the attacks on Dr. Franz in Sangerhausen in Diesterwegs Astronomy, p. 104; also p. 20, especially p. 325). These prove how often a contracted Bible belief can injure more than profit the faith. The Copernican theory was especially supposed to be in contradiction with the passage in Jos 10:12-13. While men were torturing themselves with this difficulty springing from a blind adherence to the literal rendering, a much greater one was gradually stepping forth out of the background. The consequences of the Copernican system were developed, according to the discoveries of Herschel, in this wise: the sun among its planets is only a single star of heaven, and the earth is one of its smallest planets. Since now the fixed stars of heaven are nothing but suns, and these suns are all, according to the analogy of ours, surrounded by planetary groups, there appear to be countless numbers of planets, of which very many are larger than our earth. How shall we now retain the thought, that the earth is the sole scene of the revelation of God, as Holy Writ declares: the scene of the incarnation of God, and the centre of a reconciliation, dissolution, and glorification of the world, embracing heaven and earth.
[Note on the Astronomical Objection to Revelation.The question of the planets inhabitability, especially in its religious and biblical bearings, has been very ably and scientifically discussed in a work entitled The Plurality of Worlds by Prof. Whewell of Oxford. The author maintains a view similar to that of Dr. Ebrard, that the earth is the advanced planet of the system, and that the most scientific evidence goes to show that the others (especially the largest, or those of least density) are in a rudimentary or inchoate state. The same may be true of all the visible bodies of the stellar spaces. The only reasoning against it is simply the question, why not, pourquoi non, as Montaigne employs it, without any inductive evidence. This author employs also the modern view in geology with great pertinence and force: Immense times without life or with only the lowest forms of life! If this is not inconsistent with the divine wisdom and goodness, then immense spaces without life, or with only the lowest forms of life, for a certain time, is no more inconsistent.
Immortals call Selene, men, the moon,
A land of mountains, cities, palaces.
The Bible is charged with narrowness in its space conceptions, but how narrow is that science, or that philosophy, which while vaunting itself, perhaps, on its superior range of view, has no idea of any higher being than man, and sometimes would seem to reject any other conception of deity than that of a developed humanity, slowly becoming a god, an tre suprme, to the nature still below. How glorious the Scripture doctrine appears in the contrast, as starting with an all-perfect personal being: Jehovah Tzebaoth, Jehovah of Hosts, with cherubim and seraphim, , , living principles, ruling energies, angels, archangels, thrones, dominions, principalities, and powers. If not in space conceptions, yet how sublimely in the higher idea of ascending ranks of being do the Scriptures surpass the low and narrow views of Herbert, Comte, and Darwin. After a past eternity of progress, nature and the cosmos have just struggled up to man! This is the highest limit yet reached after a movement so immeasurably long, yea, endless in one direction; and that, too, not man as the Scripture represents him, a primus homo, an exalted being, so constituted by the inspiration that gave him birth, and signed him with the image of the eternal God, but man just rising above the ape, just emerging from that last growth of nature that preceded him in this interminable series of chance selections at last falling into some seeming order, and of random developments that never came from any preceding idea. Man as he now appears on earth, and whom Scripture pronounces a fallen being, the highest product of an endless time! Such is the positive philosophy, so boastful of its discoveries in width and space, but so exceedingly low and narrow in respect to the other and grander dimension! It discards theology and metaphysics as belonging to a still lower stage of this late-born child of nature, but alas for man if all the glory of his being, all his higher thinking, has already thus passed away! We may thank the Living God for giving to us an ideal world, as in itself a proof of something above nature, and of a higher actual even now in nature than our sense and our science ever have drawn, or may ever expect to draw, from it.
Besides, there is no end to the argument until it banishes all providence, all government, all divine interest conceivable in the cosmoseverything, in short, which distinguishes the divine idea from that of a wholly impersonal nature. On a certain scale of the universe the Old Testament becomes incredible. On a wider sweep Christianity, the old Christianity of the Church, can no longer be believed. The incarnation and the atonement must be thrown out; God could not have cared to that extent for this petty world. Turn the telescope, so as to enlarge the field, or, through its inverted lenses, behold the objects still farther off, and liberal Christianity disappears. Even that has too much of divine interest for the new view. Draw out the slide still farther, and the very latest and faintest phase of faith departs. Everything resembling a providence or care of any kind for the individual becomes incredible in this time and space ratio. Prayer is gone, and hope, and all remains of any fear or love of God. Farther on, and races are thrown out of the scale as well as individuals; even a general providence of any kind becomes an obsolete idea. Not only the earth but solar and stellar systems become infinitesimals, or quantities that may be neglected in the calculus that sums the series. There is no end to this. We have no right to limit it by the present size or power of our telescopes. The present visible worlds of astronomy may be no morethey probably are no moreto the whole, than a single leaf to the forests of the Orinoco. The false idea must be carried on until every conception of every relation of a personal deity to finite beings, of any rank, utterly disappears, and a view no better than blank atheismyea, worse than atheism, for that does not mock us with any pretense of theismtakes the place of all moral fear as well as of all religion.
And this raises the farther question: If such be the diminishing effect on the religion, what must it be on the science and the philosophy? If human sins and human salvation become such small things when seen through this inverted glass, what becomes of all human knowledge, human genius, and human boasting of it? We do not find that the men who make these objections, as drawn from the magnitude of the universe, are more humble than others; but surely they ought to be so, after having thus shown their own moral and physical nothingness, and, along with it, the utter insignificance of their science.
In one aspect, his mere physical aspect, man is indeed insignificant. The Scripture does not hesitate to call him a worm. It pronounces all nations vanitythe small dust of the balance, unappreciable physically in the great cosmical scalesless than nothing and emptiness. Such is its view of man in one direction, whilst in the other his value is to be estimated by the incarnation of Christ, and the very fact that the Infinite One condescends to make a revelation of Himself to such a being.T. L.]
1. Every grade of nature is fixed by a corresponding principle of nature, the natural principle of the plant, etc.
2. By its unfolding, this principle brings to light the standard of its development as the natural law of its grade. The natural principle is the first, the natural law is the second.
4. With each new life-principle God creates a new thing. The creation of the new is however the most general idea of the miracle, as the announcement of what is new is the most general idea of prophecy. Consequently, each new natural principle is to the preceding surpassed grade of nature as a miracle. The animal is a miracle for the vegetable world (Hegel). From this relation of the new natural principles, as they form the new degrees of nature, it follows that all nature is a symbolical support and prophecy of the ethical miracle of the kingdom of God. For as the first man, Adam, miraculously changes the natural law of the animal world, that is, changes instinct into human freedom, thus does Christ, as the new man from heaven, as the completed life-principle and miracle, change the Adamic laws of life into fundamental laws of the kingdom of God. It is in accordance with his nature to perform miracles within the Adamic sphere (1 Corinthians 15).
7. The finished lower sphere of nature does not produce the newly appearing principle of the higher sphere, but it is, however, its maternal birth-place. And because the lower sphere prepares for the higher, in order to serve as its basis, it is full of indications of it, and becomes throughout a symbol which represents in advance the coming new world-form.
8. With respect to the development of the nature-principles into the realization of the conditioned self-generation of nature, we must distinguish the following kinds of development: a. The development of the world-creation in general; b. the development of our solar system; c. the spherical development of the earth; d. the gradual development of the individual life on earth; e. the natural development of the individuals themselves; f. the development of nature in the narrower and the broader sense, or 1. apart from human life, and 2. in connection with it.
Air
18. The so-called anthropomorphisms of the present chapter: God spake, God saw, God made, God rested, form the foundation of the whole anthropomorphic and anthropopathic style of delineation in Sacred Writ. We must here observe that the anthropopathic expression may not be understood as literal-dogmatic (anthropopathists) neither as mythical (spiritualists), but as religio-symbolical, representing the divine ideal-doing under the figure of human action, not, however, in the sense as if human life, action, and image were the original that shadows itself in the similarities of divine action, but in the sense that the divine speaking, working, and resting form the foundation for the analogous, comparative doings of man (see Bible-Work, John); just as Gods day is the original image for the day of man, but not vice-versa.
only the Greeks, as usual, inverted the primitive idea, and made the generating cause itself the effect. Eros then produced the human race, etc. In other respects the heathen cosmogonies are very fairly given here by Lcken; but what a contrast do these monstrosities present to the pure, harmonious, monotheistic grandeur of the Bible account! If the Mosaic cosmogony was derived from the heathen, as is contended, how very strange it is, and counter to what takes place in all similar derivations, that the Hebrew mind (a very gross mind, they say) should have taken it in this impure and monstrously confused state, and refined it back to that chaste and sublime consistency which the Bible narrative, whatever may be thought of its absolute truth, may so justly claim.T. L.]
Fuente: A Commentary on the Holy Scriptures, Critical, Doctrinal, and Homiletical by Lange
Fuente: Hawker’s Poor Man’s Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
Fuente: Expositor’s Dictionary of Text by Robertson
Fuente: The People’s Bible by Joseph Parker
Fuente: B.H. Carroll’s An Interpretation of the English Bible
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
Fuente: Expositions Of Holy Scripture by Alexander MacLaren
Fuente: You Can Understand the Bible: Study Guide Commentary Series by Bob Utley
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
Fuente: Through the Bible Commentary
Fuente: Spurgeon’s Verse Expositions of the Bible
Fuente: An Exposition on the Whole Bible
Fuente: F.B. Meyer’s Through the Bible Commentary
Fuente: The Sermon Bible
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
Fuente: Church Pulpit Commentary
Fuente: Neighbour’s Wells of Living Water
Fuente: James Gray’s Concise Bible Commentary
Fuente: Gary Hampton Commentary on Selected Books
Fuente: Gary Hampton Commentary on Selected Books
Fuente: Joseph Bensons Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
Fuente: Sutcliffe’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
Fuente: Mackintosh’s Notes on the Pentateuch
Fuente: Peake’s Commentary on the Bible
Fuente: Grant’s Commentary on the Bible
Fuente: Geneva Bible Notes
Fuente: Expository Notes of Dr. Constable (Old and New Testaments)
Fuente: Expository Notes of Dr. Constable (Old and New Testaments)
Fuente: Expositors Bible Commentary