Genesis chapter 1. Genesis chapter 1. A few weeks ago we introduced the book of Genesis, then we looked at verses 1 and 2, and then last week we looked at verses 3 to 25, the six days of creation. We're still on the sixth day as we take up the creation of man tonight in verses 26 to 31.
But I'll begin reading in verse 1. In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth. The earth was without form and void, and darkness was on the face of the deep, and the Spirit of God was hovering over the face of the waters. Then God said, Let there be light, and there was light.
And God saw the light, that it was good, and God divided the light from the darkness. God called the light day, and the darkness He called night. So the evening and the morning were the first day. Then God said, Let there be a firmament in the midst of the waters, and let it divide the waters from the waters.
Thus God made the firmament, and divided the waters which were under the firmament from the waters which were above the firmament, and it was so. And God called the firmament Heaven. So the evening and the morning were the second day. Then God said, Let the waters under the heavens be gathered together into one place, and let the dry land appear.
And it was so. And God called the dry land earth, and the gathering together of the waters He called seas. And God saw that it was good. Then God said, Let the earth bring forth grass, the herb that yields seed, and the fruit tree that yields fruit according to its kind, whose seed is in itself on the earth.
And it was so. And the earth brought forth grass, the herb that yields seed according to its kind, and the tree that yields fruit, whose seed is in itself according to its kind. And God saw that it was good. So the evening and the morning were the third day.
Then God said, let there be lights in the firmament of the heavens to divide the day from the night. And let them be for signs and seasons and for days and years. And let them be for lights in the firmament of the heavens to give light on the earth. And it was so.
Then God made two great lights, the greater light to rule the day and the lesser light to rule the night. He made the stars also. God set them in the firmament of the heavens to give light on the earth, and to rule over the day and over the night, and to divide the light from the darkness. And God saw that it was good.
So the evening and the morning were the fourth day. Then God said, let the waters abound with an abundance of living creatures, and let birds fly above the earth across the face of the firmament of the heavens. So God created great sea creatures and every living thing that moves, with which the waters abounded, according to their kind, and every winged bird according to its kind. And God saw that it was good.
And God blessed them, saying, Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the waters and the seas, and let birds multiply on the earth. So the evening and the morning were the fifth day. Then God said, Let the earth bring forth the living creature according to its kind, cattle and creeping thing, and beast of the earth, each according to its kind. And it was so.
And God made the beast of the earth according to its kind, cattle according to its kind, and everything that creeps on the earth according to its kind. And God saw that it was good. Then God said, let us make man in our image, according to our likeness. Let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the air, and over the cattle, over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.
So God created man in His own image. In the image of God, He created him. Male and female, He created them. Then God blessed them, and God said to them, Be fruitful and multiply, fill the earth and subdue it.
Have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the air, and over every living thing that moves on the earth. And God said, See, I have given you every herb that yields seed, which is on the face of all the earth, and every tree whose fruit yields seed. To you it shall be for food. Also, to every beast of the earth, to every bird of the air, and to everything that creeps on the earth in which there is life, I have given every green herb for food.
And it was so. And God saw everything that he had made, and indeed it was very good. So the evening and the morning were the sixth day. Thus the heavens and the earth and all the host of them were finished.
And on the seventh day God ended His work which He had done, and He rested on the seventh day from all His work which He had done. Then God blessed the seventh day and sanctified it, because in it He rested from all His work which God had created and made. Well, as I said, last week we took up the six days of creation in verses 3 to 25, but certainly on day six, more occurs than just the creation of the land creatures. We also see the creation of man.
And as I said last week, everything in the narrative is leading up to this point. Man truly is the pinnacle of God's creation. Man is truly the vice regent of the created order operating or functioning under God, and the narrative itself drives us to that conclusion. And tonight, as we move through this particular section, we'll see that verses 26 to 31 repeatedly call attention to that fact that man is the pinnacle of the creating work of God Most High.
So I want to look at four things tonight. First, the creation of man in verses 26 and 27. Secondly, the vocation of man in verse 28. Thirdly, the provision for man in verses 29 to 30.
And then the summation of the creation account in verse 31. But as we move to the creation of man,
The Creation of Man: Deliberation
notice in the first place this deliberation that's involved. There's a change in the narrative. Throughout the days of creation, we see this continual formula. God said, and then He says, let there be whatever it is He's going to create.
So, there's this statement concerning God said, and then there's a statement concerning the particular that he's going to create. Here we see divine deliberation in verse 26. Then God said, let us make man in our image. There's deliberation or consultation going on.
The change here does not reflect any difficulty in creating man, but rather it highlights the dignity of the creation of man. In other words, God consults with who, we'll find out in just a moment, or deliberates in order to show and stress and highlight the reality that what follows is most glorious and is most wonderful. Again, the whole narrative is driving us to this particular place where we see that God made man specifically in his own image. Calvin said, hitherto God has been introduced simply as commanding.
Now when he approaches the most excellent of all his works, he enters into consultation. God certainly might hear command by his bare word what he wished to be done. but he chose to give this tribute to the excellency of man, that he would, in a manner, enter into consultation concerning his creation. This is the highest honor with which he has dignified us." So this convention, let us make man in our image, again underscores not the difficulty of the creative aspect in terms of man, but the dignity of the object that is under consideration in terms of creation. Now, when it says, let us make man in our image, it's obviously a plural form there.
God is deliberating with someone. And there's three basic explanations or interpretations of this sort of deliberation. The first refers to a heavenly court, inclusive of angels. In other words, God consulted with this sort of divine council, this heavenly court, of which angels were a part.
Now, this breaks down obviously because when we move to verse 27, it says specifically God created man in his own image, not in the image of angels. Angels did not participate in creation. Angels do not have that prerogative. They are not the sort of beings that can do such a thing.
Calvin says, to ascribe the least portion of a work so exquisite to angels is a sacrilege to be held in abhorrence. So this divine counsel or heavenly court view is simply untenable. The second position or the second interpretation refers to a plural of majesty wherein kings use that convention to elicit subjection or rather reverence out of their subjects. Now, studies have shown that this sort of convention wasn't utilized by monarchs until the time of the Persians, which came much further along than when the time or at the time that Moses wrote the book of Genesis.
And then, of course, the third interpretation, the correct interpretation, is that this is a reference to the persons of the Trinity. Then God said, let us make man in our image, according to our likeness. Now, one of the arguments against this position is, well, would the original audience have understood this? Paul tells us in the book of Romans that Adam was a type of Christ.
Would the original audience have understood that in all of its details and particularities when they simply had Genesis chapters 1 to 3? Probably not. The issue isn't what would the original audience have thought. The issue is, what did God intend?
Now, we don't have a fully developed doctrinal treatment or treatise of the Trinity in Genesis chapter 1, but we certainly see it here. We see this reference that God says, let us make man in our image. Now, when we reflect further on Scripture, we note that the three persons are, in fact, involved in the work of creation. We see a reference to Father and Son in the book of Hebrews.
We see a reference specifically to Jesus and creation in John chapter 1, and then again in Colossians chapter 1. We see a reference to the Holy Spirit here in Genesis chapter 1 at verse 2, and then again in the book of Job. So all three persons are indeed active in the account of creation or in the act of creation. And so when we see here that God says, let us make man in our image according to our likeness, it is reflective of this trinity of persons in the divine essence.
Psalm 33, you can turn there. I know we've turned there. I think each of the studies so far in the book of Genesis, but I think this particular verse does shed light on this subject. Notice in Psalm 33 at verse 6, Now we know from John 1 that Jesus is the Word of God.
So when we read, by the word of Yahweh the heavens were made, it's not a stretch to see father and son referenced in Psalm 33, 6. As well, when it says, all the host of them by the breath of his mouth. Breath translates or is translated from the same Hebrew word where we get the word spirit. So we see all three persons referenced here in Psalm 33, verse 6.
By the word of Yahweh the heavens were made, and all the host of them by the breath of his mouth." So again, when we go back to Genesis chapter 1, it's not a fully developed Ephesians 1, 2 Corinthians 13, or Council of Nicaea treatment on the doctrine of the Trinity, but it's certainly the doctrine of the Trinity. Let us make man in our image according to our likeness. John Calvin commenting on the several options. opts for this Trinitarian position. He says, Christians, therefore, properly contend from this testimony that there exists a plurality of persons in the Godhead.
John Gill concurs when he says, but they, the words of deliberation, are spoken by God the Father to the Son and Holy Ghost, who were each of them concerned in the creation of all things and particularly of man. So Genesis chapter 1 verse 26 is indeed a reference to the Trinity. Those who do not agree, in fact, one of the commentators says that in other places where we see this plurality or this plural form used, it can't speak of the Trinity. I would argue just the opposite.
In each of those other instances, it most certainly does speak of the Trinity. So this is a great time for us to stand and wonder and in awe at the glory of our great God and Father of the Lord Jesus Christ. We ought to praise God for what our confession says. Remember when I cited that when we did a bit of the theology of creation.
It pleased God, and then it indicates the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. That's God. When we read Genesis 1-1, in the beginning, God. That's the same God that we read of in Revelation 22.
It's not a different God. It's not a new sort of conception of God. all of the stuff that the Trinitarian sort of development in the New Testament, it reaches back into the Old Testament. It's not that the doctrine wasn't there, it maybe wasn't as brightly shone upon as it is in the New Testament, that quote by Warfield, but nevertheless it is present. And we have this divine deliberation in verse 26.
It's not a heavenly council. It's not a consultation with the angels or with the earth. It's not a consultation among those who are not fellows of God. It is not a divine or a plural majesty.
Rather, it is a reference to our Trinitarian God, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. So that's the deliberation in verse 26. The Trinity not only says, let us make man in our image according to our likeness, but then specifies the task that man will have. Let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the air, and over the cattle, over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.
So you have that deliberation, then verse 27 indicates the actual creation. So we move from that deliberation to execution, or to the actual act of creation. And notice, so God created man in his own image. That initially should alert us that something is going on here.
Not only the reference to in his own image, which is absolutely huge, but also in verses 21, 24, and 25, these creatures of the land are each created according to their kind. Man is not created here according to their kind, rather man is created according to, or in the likeness of, or in the image of God. Now with reference to the two words used, image and likeness, older commentators saw a distinction way back into the church fathers. I think it's best to understand these terms as used synonymously.
They're used interchangeably. Likeness and image don't mean something, you know, absolutely different. But when we see that we're made in the likeness of God or in the image of God, the end result or the net result is the same. So know that older interpreters did see a bit of a distinction between image and likeness.
I think it's safer to say the terminology is used synonymously. But if we ask the question, what does it mean to be created in the image of God? I'm sure that we all have at least a basic understanding of what that means. Certainly, rationality is something that sticks out.
Not that animals are, you know, ignorant of all things, but they operate by instinct. They operate by, you know, a certain amount of data given to them by God. But I've noticed that my dog doesn't read her Bible in the morning. She doesn't have that mental equipment or facility or competence or, dare I say, image-bearing capability in order to do such a thing.
But when we look at this statement that God made man in his own image, if we look at other passages that use that language, it really doesn't shed any light. When we see, for instance, in Genesis chapter 5, with reference to Adam, in verse 3, Adam lived 130 years and begot a son in his own likeness after his image and named him Seth, we're still not a whole lot closer to what does it mean to be created in the image of God. So, we look at other portions of scripture to try and flesh out for us. In other words, we look at later revelation to try and shine a light upon this concept or doctrine of the Imago Dei.
I don't want to say Dei because that would be a James White-ism. Imago Dei is the Latin phrase for image of God. Sorry, it's just a little joke. Imago Dei, image of God.
Ecclesiastes 7.29 tells us that God made man upright. That doesn't mean he's not hunched over like a gorilla. It probably means, in an ethical sense, God made man morally upright. In other words, at the hand of his creator, Adam was a morally upright man.
The problem comes in Genesis 3, when he sought after many devices. But image of God, at least according to Ecclesiastes 7.29, tells us that Adam was an upright man. Now, in the New Testament, we get some light concerning this Imago Dei. If you turn to the book of Ephesians, for instance, the book of Ephesians, where the apostle is highlighting that we have been renewed.
We have been recreated, we have been regenerated, we have been born again, and as new creatures in Christ Jesus, we see that there are certain aspects or elements held out to us in these passages that flesh out what is involved in being created in the image of God. So notice in Ephesians chapter 4 at verse 23, "...and be renewed in the spirit of your mind, and that you put on the new man which was created according to God in true righteousness and holiness." That's consistent with Ecclesiastes 7.29, God made man upright, again, not standing, not that he's not a knuckle-dragger, but he's morally upright. And here we see that same sort of thing, true righteousness and holiness. And then again in Colossians 3, Colossians chapter 3 at verse 10, and have put on the new man who is renewed in knowledge according to the image of him who created him.
So, this idea of knowledge and righteousness and holiness, these sort of ideas that are associated with the rebirth and our new creation in Christ Jesus and our having been remade and conformed onto the image of Jesus, who is ultimately the image of God, these are the sorts of elements that are true of what it means to be created imago Dei. The confession of faith, our confession of faith, when it highlights the creation of man in chapter 4, it says, We need to understand that. Reasonable, rational. and a mortal soul. So it's not a mortal in an underrived sense.
It is a derivative immortality. It is given us by God. God is immortal, but that's not derived. He is in and of himself.
There's not this sort of thing added to God, but for man, he's equipped us in this particular way. And then it goes on to say, rendering them fit unto that life to God for which they were created. being made after the image of God in knowledge, righteousness, and true holiness. You see, those are the elements there from Ephesians 4 and Colossians chapter 3. This whole idea of knowledge, righteousness, and true holiness.
The Westminster Shorter Catechism asks, how did God create man? God created man, male and female, after his own image and knowledge, righteousness, and holiness, with dominion over the creatures. We'll see that whole vocation, rather, or that whole idea of dominion over the creatures with reference to vocation in verse 28. But then notice what it says in verse 27.
He created them in His own image, or He created man in His own image. In the image of God He created him. Male and female He created them. So male and female are highlighted in this particular section.
Now, unbeknownst to me, there was a particular Jewish view that man was a hermaphrodite when he was originally created or a sort of back-to-back creature that was rent asunder. John Gill obviously would have known about this because he just knew about everything and of course Jewish sort of interpretation on Bible. He says, not that man was created as a hermaphrodite or with two bodies back to back united together and afterwards cleaved asunder as the Jews fabulously say. I just bring that out to say there's a lot of different views on what's happening in Genesis chapter one.
In many respects, jumping into this book, it's kind of like trying to, not that I've known how to do this or would ever know how to do this, but to break a wild horse. I'm not suggesting Genesis is a wild horse, but you have to subdue in order to try to get your arms wrapped around it. I haven't got to that point yet with the book of Genesis. Each new Wednesday I'm struck afresh at why in the world did I ever choose Genesis to go through.
Now thus far it's been very encouraging and quite a blessing, but there's just so much data, and there's just so much to consider, and really there's so many other things that we could go off on in terms of excurses and that sort of thing. But I just want to bring out a few of these along the way just so you kind of have an idea that there's a whole lot of different things that people have seen going on here. As I said last week, it's not written like a science textbook. It's written for simple men and women so that we can understand how God did what He did.
And in that, we can rejoice and we can worship Him and adore Him as a result of that. But in terms of this reference to male and female, the image refers to the plurality of male and female within the unity of humanity. Now, in 1 Corinthians 11, the apostle says that man is the glory of God and woman is the glory of man. And Paul there is not depreciating or denigrating or suggesting that women are not created in the image of God.
He's not doing that. He's speaking in 1 Corinthians 11 in terms of functia. in terms of relationship, with reference to, in that context, relationship in the church, in terms of male headship, in the context of local worship. In fact, Calvin says, Paul there only refers to the domestic relation. But here the question is respecting that glory of God, which peculiarly shines forth in human nature, where the mind, the will, and all the senses represent the divine order.
Now, if you remember last week, I drew out some of the polemical ramifications of Genesis chapter 1. In other words, Moses is writing at the time that the children of Israel most likely are wandering in the wilderness. Well, they're wandering about. Moses found a terebinth tree. sat down, and under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, he wrote out the Pentateuch, and he gave us this particular account.
But there's a polemical thrust. Remember that the children of Israel, having left Egypt, going into Canaan, are surrounded by these false deities. And there's so much of this that continues in a polemical manner. And this whole idea of women being inferior or subordinate or not real human beings is absolutely positively not true.
They're created in the image of God, male and female. When we get to the whole idea of being fruitful and multiplying, again, the narrative is going to continue to show us what that looks like. That would function for the children of Israel entering into a pagan arena that was surrounded with these deities or false deities, many of which were fertility cults. This was their marching orders in terms of how they needed to conduct themselves under the true and living God that created the heavens and the earth.
Don't go join yourselves to Asherah. Don't go join yourselves to Baal. The end of life or the goal of life is in copulation. The goal of life is the glory of God.
Certainly the multiplication of children and procreation is an aspect to arrive at the glory of God, but there's a specific way that God calls His children to function. Just about every step of the way is polemical. It is an attack upon the gods of Egypt and upon the gods of the Canaanite nations that had all these different deities. This is the true and living God, the creator of the heavens and the earth, the creator of man.
As well, in the ancient Near Eastern world, Assyria specifically, it was only the king that bore the image of God. It was only the king that bore the image of God. Not according to Genesis chapter 1. Man, from the hand of God, bears the image of God, whether he's a king in terms of his relationship to a body politic or not.
So you see, there's some fundamental differences between the religion of Yahweh and the religion of the heathens around Israel at that particular time. So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him, male and female he created them.
The Vocation of Man
Now, that brings us to the vocation of man in verse 28. Note the blessing. Then God blessed them and God said to them. Now, that's similar to verse 22.
If you go back to verse 22, God blessed them saying, be fruitful and multiply and fill the waters in the seas and let birds multiply on the earth. There's a bit of a difference. It's a subtle difference, but it's a difference nonetheless. God blessed them saying.
But verse 28, then God blessed them and God, notice, said to them. This is an absolute polemic against evolution theory, evolutionary theory. What does evolution teach? Man is, initially, a knuckle-dragging Neanderthal.
He grunts, and then he makes sounds, and then he possibly forms words, and then he builds sentences and paragraphs. Adam, from the hand of God, was able to hear God, was able to understand God, and was able to respond to God. He was able to distinguish between the tree he was supposed to eat from and the tree he wasn't supposed to eat from. There wasn't this evolutionary sort of a span wherein man began to furnish himself with the necessary intellectual equipment.
From the hand of God, God's creature, man, is able to correspond with God. And that is precisely what we find. He said to them, be fruitful and multiply, fill the earth and subdue it, have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the air, and over every living thing that moves on the earth. Now, the narrative will continue to demonstrate that the first, male and female, are joined in marriage and to multiply.
Sexual relations are sanctioned, but in their proper context. Again, remember, you're a child of Israel, one of the children of Israel. Moses is your leader. He's writing these things.
They're getting circulated. This is a powerful tonic for you to not go to a bail service. This is a powerful tonic for you not to bow to Asherah, or for you to copulate with a pagan in order to get Baal to furnish the land with fertility. This is what God says.
Male and female are for this reason, or one of the aspects of their creation, and they're bringing one, having brought them one together, one another together, is for procreation. Gordon Wenham says, here then we have a clear statement of the divine purpose of marriage. Positively, it is for the procreation of children. Negatively, it is a rejection of the ancient oriental fertility cults.
You are not supposed to be sexually profligate if you are a child of Israel. You are supposed to heed what God says in verse 28. Again, sexual relations aren't bad, they're not icky, they're not nasty, they're not terrible. They're good in the proper context.
God's people have never been anti-sex. God's people have always been anti-sex, apart from the covenantal boundaries wherein God calls us to operate. That's what this narrative is doing. It's telling us how God made the earth.
It's telling Israel how God made the earth. But this indicative is also imperative in nature. This is also how we are supposed to function. when it comes to our conduct here on earth. And then one of the purposes, and I hope that we'll have time to deal with Genesis chapter 2 with reference to the Garden of Eden.
The Garden of Eden, as I think I mentioned last week, was a temple. First and foremost, Adam's vocation was not one of farming. Certainly he farmed and certainly cultivated and certainly knocked back brush and did the sorts of things that farmers do, but his activity was priestly in nature. Eden was a temple.
God called Adam to expand that garden temple to encompass the entirety of the earth. If there was a Garden of Eden, outside of it were those uncultivated regions, those unhaving-been conquered dominions. And Adam's job was to fill the earth with image bearers and to expand the garden temple to increase the knowledge and the worship of God Almighty. That's his primary vocation.
Again, I hope that time will allow that we can investigate that in more detail. But that's precisely what's happening. the command to multiply the image of God through procreation and expand the garden temple to fill the earth, in this original setting. Obviously, verse 28 applies to us, that when we get married, we have babies, we procreate. But as we move through the Bible, we'll notice that procreation is not the only reason for the marriage union.
This is faulty. This is Roman Catholic. And unfortunately, Protestants have gotten sucked into this. The only reason for the sexual relations is to have children.
That's one of the reasons, but there's also the joy and the happiness reason that God does not begrudge his creatures. As well, there's the prevention of uncleanness. As well, there is the basic fundamental reason why God brought Eve to Adam, and that was for companionship. It's a blessed thing when God gives us a companion to walk arm-in-arm with over the face of this globe.
And we ought to praise God for His goodness and for His kindness. Now, with reference to His dominion over the creatures. Remember, again, I know this is, if I wink at you, I'm not trying to be frisky. I got a problem with my contact lens and it's just about making me want to tear my eye out.
So if I do that, it's just, that's unfortunate as to what's happening here. But if you remember last week, I mentioned that there's a particular order in the creation account that drives us to the creation of man. The first three days describe realms. The last three days describe rulers over those particular realms.
And on day one, we have light. Day four, we have light bearers. In fact, the two great lights are said to rule over the day, rule over the night. So you've got the realm and then you've got the ruler.
On day two, you have sea and sky. On day five, you have fish and birds. The fish rule the sea and the birds rule the sky. And then on day three, you have land. and then you have land creatures.
Now it's noted that the land creatures are not told to fill the earth and subdue it. That's man's job. You know, man exercises rule over all the realms. Now birds still fly and in a special way have, you know, the sky. birds, fish swim, and they have, in a special way, rule in the sea.
But man is the ruler over all. That is his dominion. That's the particular mandate that God has given it. Subdue it, have dominion over the fish, over the birds, and over every living thing that moves on the earth.
So that sort of realm ruler thing brings us to this place of God's chief ruler, which is man. And if we look at the two texts, verses 27 and 28, there is a close relationship. The reason why man can and does do verse 28 is because of verse 27. He is able to subdue and He is able to rule because He is in the image of God.
If He is not in the image of God, He is not going to effectively carry out His vocation or His calling or His mandate in verse 28. G.K. Beal says Genesis 127 provides the means by which the commission and goal of verse 28 was to be accomplished. Humanity will fulfill the commission by means of being in God's image.
The direct connection between verses 27 and 28. God made man in his own image Therefore, man is now to subdue the earth, and he is to exercise dominion or rule over it. He's always subject or subordinate to God. He's not God, but he's God's vice regent.
He is God's chief of staff. He is God's earthly representative, and he functions in the way to make God's will known to creation. To offer up creation unto God and to be that one who does in fact rule over it for the glory of God. He is to exercise responsible dominion.
Responsible dominion. Gordon Wenham again says, because man is created in God's image, he is king over nature. He rules the world on God's behalf. This is, of course, no license for the unbridled exploitation and subjugation of nature.
Again, this doctrine shouldn't promote people that abuse the creation. Not that we worship the creation, we don't hug trees and just eat berries and sing weird songs in the woods. That's not what we're supposed to do, but on the other hand, we're not supposed to abuse the created order either. It's a responsible exercise of dominion under God, realizing the reality of Psalm 24.
The earth is the Lord's and all its fullness. In other words, we are stewards of the earth that God has given us. We are not to exploit. Wenham goes on to say, mankind is here commissioned to rule nature as a benevolent king, acting as God's representative over them, and therefore treating them in the same way as God who created them.
Psalm 8: Doxology of Dominion
Now turn to Psalm 8 for some doxological reflection on this particular vocation that God has given to man. As a result of having been created in the image of God, God has made man this ruler, this one to subdue, and this one to exercise dominion over the earth. This leads the psalmist in Psalm 8 to say, O Lord, our Lord, how excellent is your name in all the earth, who have set your glory above the heavens. Out of the mouth of babes and nursing infants you have ordained strength.
Because of your enemies that you may silence the enemy and the avenger. When I consider your heavens, the work of your fingers, the moon and the stars which you have ordained, what is man that you are mindful of him and the son of man that you visit him? For you have made him a little lower than the angels and you have crowned him with glory and honor. You have made him to have dominion over the works of your hands.
You have put all things under his feet, all sheep and oxen, even the beasts of the field, the birds of the air and the fish of the sea that pass through the paths of the seas. O Lord, our Lord, how excellent is your name in all the earth." It's good to praise God for the vocation that was entrusted to man. It's a beautiful thing, the way God has structured this created order. There is form, there is function, and there is order.
The earth truly is, or the universe truly is a cosmos. It's not chaos. God has shaped it in such a way as to provide maximum benefit for his creatures, man being at the helm. It's not the case that any monkey or any dog or any cow is going to read Genesis 1 and feel slighted.
They're not going to feel that we're species prejudice or bigoted or whatever. It is what it is. God made man in His image, and we have the ability to rationally communicate with God, not to denigrate the lower creatures. They all serve a purpose, they all have their function, and they all ultimately bring glory to God.
But man is the apex, the pinnacle of his creative activity. Now notice, thirdly, the provision for man. Again, verses 29 and 30 reflect the wisdom and the goodness of God. Remember, God's already prepared the land.
He doesn't plant Adam and Eve in the land and then say, well, I don't know what you're going to eat. I hope it all works out for you. I don't know what your sort of gastrointestinal system can handle. No, it's all been taken care of.
God's already got that under control. Day three, as God prepares the land, in verse 11, it says, let the earth bring forth grass, the herb that yields seed, and the fruit tree that yields fruit according to its kind, whose seed is in itself on the earth. And it was so. And the earth brought forth grass, the herb that yields seed according to its kind, and the tree that yields fruit, whose seed is in itself according to its kind.
And God saw that it was good. So the evening and the morning were the third day." Now, back to verse 29, God said, "'See, I have given you every herb that yields seed, which is on the face of all the earth, and every tree whose fruit yields seed. To you it shall be for food.'" Again, this is not evolutionary. This isn't Neanderthal man biting a rock to see if that's going to provide sustenance and nourishment.
He understands what God means. He knows what God is saying. He's able to identify herbs, and he's able to identify fruits, and he's able to identify vegetables. God made man. in His own image.
That means we're hardwired. We're already ready for action. There's already a sense of deity. There's already that knowledge of God according to Romans chapter 1.
Not only of His eternal power and Godhead, but according to Romans 1.32, We know that it's righteous with God to punish evildoers. There's a lot that people that don't have Bibles actually know about God. So don't get into some debate whether or not there is a God. They know there's a God.
The problem is they're suppressing the truth and unrighteousness, and our task is to show them that. Our task is not to try to reason them into the kingdom, but to preach the gospel to them and tell them their problem isn't a lack of evidence, but it's a hardened, sinful, rebellious heart that suppresses truth. They need to flee to the Lord Jesus Christ. You see, Adam trapped.
Adam followed. Adam went and ate. When God said, I have given you all of this, he probably munched a big piece of fruit at that particular time. If he wasn't hungry then, he would have been in a few hours.
Isn't that how we function? We get hungry, right? This is good for God to do this. Order, functionality, preparation, everything's in place so that when God places man in this context, man doesn't have to shake the trees and eat rocks and, you know, look at dirt.
He has the apparatus to be able to interpret properly and he has the revelatory Word of God instructing him on how to function as God's creator in this new place. It's a beautiful and a wonderful thing. God's also going to take care of the animals according to verse 30. Also to every beast of the earth, to every bird of the air, to everything that creeps on the earth in which there is life.
I have given every green herb for food and it was so.
Summation: Very Good
And then that brings us finally to the summation of the creation account. Verse 31. Notice then God saw everything that he had made. Now, brethren, God sees all things.
We need to remember that the Bible accommodates itself for us. As Calvin said, it's like a nurse who lisps to the baby. In other words, you don't speak to a baby in full sentences with subjects and predicates. You typically say, goo-goo, ga-ga, and things of that nature.
You can't read Shakespeare to a baby and have them say, yeah, that's awesome. I mean, if you get hop on pop with them or green eggs and ham, you're doing great. You accommodate yourself to the two-year-old. You accommodate yourself to the five-year-old.
All of the Bible is accommodation. Remember the statement, probably every time we've met concerning Genesis. There's a difference, a fundamental distinction between creator and creature. It's not that it's God, man, angel, God.
God's not a super man. God isn't man writ large. God isn't a better version of man. God is in a different class of being.
God is God, creator. We are creature. And so the Bible, God accommodates himself to us. So when it says, then God saw everything that He had made, it's not the way that you and I see everything that we have made, but rather it's speaking to us in the manner of men.
This is the way the old boys spoke of this accommodation. It's spoken to us in the manner of men to cause us to reflect upon God's reflection upon His created order. Again, even saying his reflection upon is not fully the same or is not exactly the same as our reflection upon. You ever complete a chore and then you look at it and you go, wow, I can't believe I did that.
That's not how God reflects. He always can believe he does that. He has absolute actuality. He is pure. pure actuality.
There's no potency. There's no possibility. There's no becoming with God. He doesn't reflect.
He doesn't think through a particular, you know, proposition. He doesn't learn the way that you and I learn. He always knows everything there is to know all the time. And so when the text says God saw everything that he had made, that's for our benefit.
It's to help us. Gil says, such a survey is attributed to him after the manner of men to show the completeness of his works and the excellency of them. And then notice, verse 31, there's a bit of a difference in terms of the report versus what we see on the other days. Notice, and indeed it was very good.
Everything up to this point has been good. Now it's very good. Now I think the reason for that is because of the state of completeness, because of the state that it's been brought together, because of the state that we are presently in. Wenham, I think, describes this beautifully.
He says, the harmony and perfection of the completed heavens and earth express more adequately the character of their Creator than any of the separate components can. So when he sees this all completed, it's very good. Again, it's all very good always to God, but it's instructive for us to see that progression in the narrative and to see God's reflection on that and to realize that what we've come from in terms of the earth was without form and void, the various stages on the various days have now been brought to that state of very goodness. And then verse, or rather, day six and day seven also show a little bit of a difference from days two to five.
And that's with the little word, the. Look at the end of verse 31. So the evening and the morning were the sixth day. Now, in every other one of the days, in the English translation, we have the first day, the second day, the third day, the fourth day, the fifth day.
Those aren't present, the thus aren't present in the Hebrew text. That's called a definite article. A definite article is the folder. An indefinite article is a folder.
It's not a particular folder, but the definite means the folder. So when we use the word the, we are underscoring something specifically about a noun. And so the text does that with only days 6 and 7. It doesn't do that with days 2 to 5.
Again, not saying 2 to 5 aren't important, but what the author is saying is that day 6 and day 7 are extra important as the creatures of God who are studying this for yourself. Again, the special character, this is Wenham, of the sixth day, the day on which creation was complete, is perhaps hinted at by the grammar of the concluding formula, the sixth day. For days two to five always use the same formula, day, and then whatever the number. But here the definite article is added to the ordinal, day, the sixth.
Phraseology also used in connection with the Sabbath. For example, in two, three, day, the seventh. So by that simple technique, Moses is highlighting, or showing, or setting apart something significant about days and six. Now, not the whole thing's significant.
I mean, that God says, let there be light, and there's light. That God, you know, is able to separate the waters below and above the firmament is amazing. That God creates the land and separates land from sea. That God, you know, makes fish, and He makes birds, and He makes these sea creatures, and He makes land creatures.
That's all amazing. But again, in terms of narrative, what the author is trying to highlight for us is the special creation of man and the Sabbath rest of God. And he does that by using that little article, the, on days six and seven. Well, real quickly, let's just conclude with a few thoughts.
First, we ought to appreciate the glory of our triune God. The fact that in the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. I've not listened to Sam Renahan's lectures on the book of Genesis. Josh has listened to them and he said in the first one, Sam Renahan says that Genesis 1, I can relate to this, it's kind of like this big ornate sort of gazebo or hallway that leads you into a room.
And that room, obviously, is the book of Genesis that deals with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob and, you know, somewhat sort of mundane things like finding a wife and all that stuff. But before you get to that room, you're walking through this bedazzled, you know, bejeweled, glorious sort of hallway. That's how Genesis 1 is. It is sublime.
It is incredible. The fact that, you know, we can just read, God created man. I mean, come on, that right there is huge. Brethren, we are not random atoms just floating in space.
We are, according to the purpose and the plan, and according for the goal of the glory of our triune God. Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, who are from everlasting to everlasting, it was pleasing to Him to create this world and all things in it by the word of His power in the space of six days, and all very good. We ought to stand amazed at our great triune God. Secondly, the dignity of man is showcased in a whole host of ways.
First, the structure of the passage. The whole realms ruler motif with man being the ruler of all the realms under God. The creation of man in the image of God. You know, I think Genesis 1, 26 and 27 ought to really cause us to reflect on our place in Christ.
We are image-bearers of God. This is Paul's point in Ephesians 4, certainly Paul's point in Colossians chapter 3. Why in the world, as image-bearers of God, as those who have been renewed, as those who have been redeemed by Christ, why in the world can't you get along together in the context of the local church? Why in the world would you present your members as instruments of unrighteousness in sexual sin?
Why, as image bearers of the true and living God, having been renewed, remade, why would you conduct yourself as if you were just some lost wretch? You see, this idea of image of God ought to exert its pressure upon us and cause us to function as the image of God. You see, it's not only an indicative, it's not only a true statement, but it's also imperatival. That means there's a command sort of embedded.
I think Meredith Klein explains this well. He says, man's likeness to God is a demand to be like God. The indicative here has the force of an imperative. Formed in the image of God, man is informed by a sense of deity by which he knows what God is like.
Not merely that God is. In other words, we know what God is, but bearing the image of God, having the law of God written on our hearts, we also know what He's like, and we certainly ought to function in a manner that is consistent with that. as well, the emphasis on male slash female in the creation of man. That's another detail that again highlights the special character of the creation of man. Presumably when God made fish and birds, he made them male and female too.
But he doesn't tell us that. He tells us that with reference to man. Why? Because it's like Moses is saying, okay, I really want you to pay attention.
If this hall is bedecked and bejeweled, this is the shiniest portion of it all. When we walk through this understanding of how God made man. And then the specific task of dominion. The monkeys weren't given this, the cats weren't given this, the dogs weren't given this.
Man was given this task. That reflects the special character of God's creation of man. As well, we ought to appreciate the rationality of man. Never let it be thought that man went through these various stages of learning.
He came from the hand of God, ready to learn. ready to understand, at the apex of his learning. He didn't have all the sin to deal with it. You and I do. He didn't have the darkness of mind.
When God said, that's an avocado, or that's a cantaloupe, or that's a whatever, it was just rich enjoyment to the man. There was no temptation to ruin them or throw them at Eve or anything like that. It was just appreciation. This was the highest point for man, not the lowest.
Evolution teaches we went from the very lowest of the low to this highest of the high. Well, the biblical narration seems to go just the opposite. We've gone from the highest to arguably the lowest. in terms of our ability to rationally conduct ourselves in a world of ideas. I mean, we just can't function without crying or hiding or running if somebody ever disagrees.
No! Be able to rationalize and think. Calvin says, thus the chief seat of the divine image was in his mind where it was eminent. And then, finally, the ethical implications for man.
Man belongs to God. We're always God. He always owns us. He's always the creator.
We're always the creature. There is no change in status with reference to that reality. We should embrace it, and we should be very happy about it. Secondly, man owes obedience to God.
Not only are we his, but we are his to do as he commands. We don't have the right to run off the reservation. We don't have the right to say no to God. And as well, man must show regard for other men.
Genesis 9, 6. Another place where this image of God is invoked. It's in an ethical context. Whoever sheds man's blood, by man his blood will be shed.
Why? For in the image of God he made man. If we understand Genesis 1, if we understand the special creation of God in terms of man the image bearer, we ought never, ever to say that abortion or euthanasia or any form of murder is somehow okay. It is the fact that man bears God's image that validates that principle of execution for those who would slay that image.
Brethren, we need to treat man with respect, and we need to treat man as having come from the hand of God. Well, let us close in a word of prayer. Father, thank you for your word, and thank you for this wonderful and rich passage of Holy Scripture. I feel like we only very much touched the surface of it.
It's certainly glorious. It certainly does ascribe glory and power and majesty to our great God. We thank you that you spoke these things into being. We thank you for the demonstration of your power and of your order and of the fact that you put together a cosmos, that you made man in your image, that you gave man a specific calling and vocation.
And I pray that as we continue in this great book, it would encourage our hearts and that as we learn more about you, we would worship you in spirit and truth. Go with us now, we pray, through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.