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Pastor Scott L. Harris
Grace Bible Church, NY
July 8, 2007
God Created Man
Genesis 2
Introduction
Last week I discussed the importance of believing the Genesis account for there are consequences to doubting God’s revelation. These range from uncertainty in knowing God and His message, to selectivity in believing the rest of the Bible, and even to believing in a false Jesus. Genesis is the foundation, and if the foundation is uncertain so will everything that is built upon it. That lack of confidence in believing God has spoken to us in the Bible will in turn lead to living in ways contrary to His will which brings about its own consequences. The most serious of these is ending up with a false Jesus who is contrary to the Jesus of the Bible, for a false Jesus cannot save you from your sins and God’s condemnation.
Building upon our initial study of Genesis 1, in which I showed that the text itself demands a literal interpretation and that it cannot be made compatible with Evolution, I went on to show that there is no need to try to reconcile it with Evolution since Evolution is not true. Evolution does not even qualify as science or a science theory. It is not observable, testable or repeatable. It can be used as a model, but the predictions of its model are contrary to what we discover in the real world from real science. If you were not here for any of those sermons, please pick up a copy of the sermon whether it be the written notes, the audio recordings or DVD of them.
This morning we are going to examine the creation of man. Turn in your Bibles once again to Genesis 1.
The Creation of Man
On the first day of Creation God made the heavens and earth and then separated the light from darkness and the sequence of evening and morning constitutes one day. On the second day God separated the waters above and the waters below the heavens. On the third day God gathered the seas allowing dry land to appear and created vegetation, seed plants and fruit trees. On the fourth day God created the Sun, Moon and stars and set them in order to be for signs, seasons, days and years. On the fifth day God made all the sea creatures and the birds of the air. On the sixth day God made cattle, creeping things and the beasts of the earth and then man. We pick up the account in verse 26.
Then God said, “Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness; and let them rule over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the sky and over the cattle and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.” 27 And God created man in His own image, in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them.” 28 And God blessed them; and God said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth, and subdue it; and rule over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the sky, and over every living thing that moves on the earth.” 29 Then God said, “Behold, I have given you every plant yielding seed that is on the surface of all the earth, and every tree which has fruit yielding seed; it shall be food for you; 30 and to every beast of the earth and to every bird of the sky and to every thing that moves on the earth which has life, [I have given] every green plant for food “;and it was so. 31 And God saw all that He had made, and behold, it was very good. And there was evening and there was morning, the sixth day.
Among the several very significant points made in this text are the origin of man, the nature of man, the purpose and responsibility of man and God’s evaluation of the Creation.
The Origin of Man is clearly stated as being created by God. There is nothing in this text or any other part of the Bible to suggest a pre-adamic race. Man has no common ancestry or relationship with apes. Human evolution is a fraud thrust upon the ignorant public by egotistical men and women that have few qualms about fudging the facts, spinning tales and making pronouncements about things for which there is no evidence. Among the more famous of their hoaxes are Nebraska man, a story fabricated based on a pig’s tooth, and Piltdown man, an outright fraud that fooled the “experts” on human evolution from 1915 until 1953. Then there are all the bones of homo sapiens that would be contemporary or older than their alleged ancestors if the same dating techniques were held valid, but of course, since evolutionist demand that their evolutionary tree be upheld, those dates are considered invalid and therefore the finds are considered unimportant. (See Bones of Contention, Marvin L. Lubenow for more on this subject). God made man.
The Nature of Man is also expressed in this passage for God made man in His image. This means that man reflects certain characteristics that belong to God. The first and foremost characteristic is that of personhood and the three qualities that make that up. Man has an immaterial aspect that separates him from the mere material world.
Man is Rational. This means that man has a mind and can think. Rocks, plants, water and fire cannot think. Animals have minds and can think in a limited sense according to their instincts. Many animals can be trained to do many wonderful things, but they are incapable of man’s ability to think in the abstract. Man can contemplate not only such concepts as beauty and logic, but he can also contemplate that which does not manifest itself in the material world and even imagine things that cannot exist except in his mind.
Man is Emotional. This means man can experience feelings caused by the thoughts of his mind. Things such as love, hate, compassion, anger, peace, anxiety, joy, depression, etc.
Man is Volitional. This means man can make choices based on his ability to think and experience emotion. Animals make choices based on instinct, but man can make choices based on abstract thought.
These three abilities give us what is commonly referred to as personhood, and that is a reflection of God. There are certain attributes that belong only to God such omnipresence, omnipotence, omniscience, immutability, eternal existence (past as well as future) and sovereignty. These separate God from man. However, there are other attributes that God does share with man. Theologians refer to these as His communicable or moral attributes and they include such characteristics as holiness, righteousness, love, goodness, kindness, justice, mercy, longsuffering, graciousness, etc. When God created the man and the woman they possessed these attributes in perfection and their rational, emotional, and volitional abilities were experienced in their fullness. Original man was far superior in both character and ability to what man is today.
The Purpose & Responsibility of Man are stated in verses 29-30. Man was to “be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth, and subdue it; and rule over” all the animals. The plants were given to man and the animals for food. Man’s purpose was to be God’s regent on earth and exercise dominion over it. Fulfilling that purpose and responsibility will be an underlying theme through the rest of the Bible.
It is important to note here that having dominion does mean that man has the freedom to do whatever he wants. It means that while the resources of the earth are there for his benefit, he is responsible to God for using them wisely. It is the difference between utilization and exploitation in the negative sense. For example, mining is a good thing, but it should be done in a way that it does not harm your neighbor or destroy the surrounding environment. Farming is necessary, but it should be done in a way so that the soil is conserved so that it can be used by future generations. Forestry is important, but seedlings should be planted to replace the trees that were harvested so that future generations will also have wood. At the same time, though it is good to set aside parks and refuges, it must be remembered that we worship God and not nature. Our hope is in Him and not “mother earth.” Scripture does not support the mindset and actions of environmental extremists that desire to give equal or even more rights to animals and eco-systems than to man.
God’s Evaluation of Creation is not just that it was good, but that it was “very good.” It was just the way that He wanted it and there was no sin at this point in time.
Let me add a footnote here that God reveals His plurality in verse 26. He said, “Let us make man in our image.” God is triune. He is three distinct persons in one eternal God-head. A careful study of scripture reveals that all three, Father, Son and Holy Spirit, are involved in the creation and the formation of man.
The Seventh Day
Genesis 2:1-3 complete the story of Creation week. “Thus the heavens and the earth, and all the host of them, were finished. 2 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. 3 Then God blessed the seventh day and sanctified it, because in it He rested from all His work which God had created and made.”
It is the events of Creation that set the pattern that humans still follow of a week lasting seven days. This is true around the world and not just those cultures affected by Judaism or Christianity. While seven days is 1/4 of a lunar month, there is nothing compelling about a week needed to equal that amount or that humans need to take a break from work and rest by the seventh day. That is a pattern humans follow because God set it.
The Sixth Day In Detail
Genesis 2:4-25 is the retelling of Creation with emphasis and more detail about the creation of man and woman. There are those that want to make this a second creation story from another author that Moses or some speculated later editor appropriated, but a detailed literary analysis of Genesis 1-11 shows that only one author wrote all of it (See – Before Abraham Was, Isaac. M. Kikawada & Aurthur Quinn). Moses’ style of writing includes a lot of parallelism including chiastic structures which is why there is so much repetition of information. This chapter can be briefly outlined as:
Description of earth prior to Adam – vs. 4-6.
Creation of Adam and the Garden of Eden – vs. 7-9.
Description of Garden of Eden & Adam’s responsibility – vs. 10-17.
Creation of Eve and her purpose – vs. 18-25.
Description of Earth Prior to Adam – vs. 4-6.
4 This is the account of the heavens and the earth when they were created, in the day that the Lord God made earth and heaven. 5 Now no shrub of the field was yet in the earth, and no plant of the field had yet sprouted, for the Lord God had not sent rain upon the earth; and there was no man to cultivate the ground. 6 But a mist used to rise from the earth and water the whole surface of the ground
This section begins with the phrase “this is the account” or “These are the generations” or something similar depending on your translation. This phrase will occur again throughout Genesis (2:4; 5:1; 6:9; 10:1; 11:10; 11:27; 25:12; 25:19; 36:1; 36:9; 37:2) marking the different sections of the book relating to a key person and possibly also the original source of the information contained. If so, then the material from which Moses complied the Book of Genesis under the direction of the Holy Spirit (2 Peter 1:21) originated in first hand witnesses including God, Adam, Noah, Shem, Abraham, etc. Within each section will be details leading to an understanding of the sections that will follow. In this section the key subject is the creation of the heavens and the earth by the Lord God.
The creation of the heavens and the earth on the first day is recounted in verse 4, then the events of the next four days are skipped going directly to the creation of man which occurs on day 6. However, verses 5 & 6 give us detail about how the earth was watered. This detail will be important to our understanding of what happens in chapters 6 & 7. At this point in time rain did not fall on the earth and instead a mist would water everything. How exactly this worked is somewhat speculative, but we know that God divided the waters on day two so that there was some sort of water canopy around the earth. Whatever it was it must have moderated the temperature differentials around the earth so that the weather patterns we know today did not exist then. We do have fossil evidence of sub-tropical plants in what are now the arctic zones so we know that the climate of earth was much warmer in the past than what it is in the present. (Evidence of massive glaciation tells us that it has also been much colder in the past. The current claims of man causing global warming are the pronouncements of people who claim their wild speculations as facts. The reality is that global temperature fluctuations correspond to variations in Sun activity which appears to be cyclical ). There was enough temperature variation due to the day & night cycles to cause local evaporation and condensation in the form of dew. The original creation was very different than the world we live in now for there was not yet any sin or the consequential curses because of it.
Creation of Adam and the Garden of Eden – vs. 7-9.
Verses 7-9 give us detail about the creation of Adam and the Garden of Eden. The creation of the various forms of animal life would have occurred earlier on that day.
7 Then the Lord God formed man of dust from the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living being. 8 And the Lord God planted a garden toward the east, in Eden; and there He placed the man whom He had formed. 9 And out of the ground the Lord God caused to grow every tree that is pleasing to the sight and good for food; the tree of life also in the midst of the garden, and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.
First, there is God’s formation of man out of the dust and then the breathing into that physical entity the life force. The animals also had this “breath of life” (cf. 6:17), but only Adam is recorded as receiving it in this direct manner. This is another area in which evolutionists get it wrong for their theory pre-supposes that the elements & chemicals have this capacity to organize and “live” in and by themselves. They do not. Life can only come from life. The living God who created Adam breathed into him life.
Now that Adam was a living soul, God prepared a special place on the earth for him to live. It was a garden filled with fruit trees located in a place called Eden, which means “delight” or “p
leasure.” Notice that Adam’s source of food would be these trees. He did not have to prepare the ground or sow seed or hoe weeds. All he had to do was reach and reap what he wanted to eat. The reference to it being “toward the East” means that it had been east of the location in which Adam was formed, for after God had planted it, He then put Adam in it. Among the various fruit trees were two special ones which will play an important role later in the chapter and in chapter 3. The tree of life was located in the center of the Garden. The tree of the knowledge of good and evil was the other special tree.
Description of Garden of Eden & Adam’s Responsibility – vs. 10-17.
10 Now a river flowed out of Eden to water the garden; and from there it divided and became four rivers. 11 The name of the first is Pishon; it flows around the whole land of Havilah, where there is gold. 12 And the gold of that land is good; the bdellium and the onyx stone are there. 13 And the name of the second river is Gihon; it flows around the whole land of Cush. 14 And the name of the third river is Tigris; it flows east of Assyria. And the fourth river is the Euphrates. 15 Then the Lord God took the man and put him into the garden of Eden to cultivate it and keep it. 16 And the Lord God commanded the man, saying, “From any tree of the garden you may eat freely; 17 but from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat from it you shall surely die.”
In this section we find a further description of the garden of Eden including a river which then divided into four rivers. Apparently this was a spring of some sort. There was gold and precious stones nearby. There has been much speculation about the location of Eden based on the names of these rivers, but it must be remembered that everything associated with Eden would have been destroyed in the flood which we are told about in chapters 7 & 8. This is a description of the pre-flood world. That two major rivers, the Tigris and Euphrates, exist today is simply because they were given the same names as the ones that had existed earlier. We Americans should especially be familiar with that practice since so many of the places in our nation have been given the names of places from where our ancestors came.
Adam was given the responsibility to “cultivate and keep” the garden. In a world that had not yet been cursed by sin this could hardly be considered “work” as we know it since there were no weeds to pull and nothing to cause sweat. It would have been a joy and pleasure to care for such a garden.
Adam was also given one command. He could eat of anything in the garden except for the fruit from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. God warned him that if he ate from it he would surely die. This gave Adam a moral choice of either loving God and obeying Him or disobeying God to do what he wanted in his own selfishness.
Creation of Eve and Her Purpose – vs. 18-25.
18 Then the Lord God said, “It is not good for the man to be alone; I will make him a helper suitable for him.” 19 And out of the ground the Lord God formed every beast of the field and every bird of the sky, and brought [them] to the man to see what he would call them; and whatever the man called a living creature, that was its name. 20 And the man gave names to all the cattle, and to the birds of the sky, and to every beast of the field, but for Adam there was not found a helper suitable for him. 21 So the Lord God caused a deep sleep to fall upon the man, and he slept; then He took one of his ribs, and closed up the flesh at that place. 22 And the Lord God fashioned into a woman the rib which He had taken from the man, and brought her to the man. 23 And the man 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.” 24 For this cause a man shall leave his father and his mother, and shall cleave to his wife; and they shall become one flesh. 25 And the man and his wife were both naked and were not ashamed.
When I was in college I met a man that did not believe the Genesis account could be taken literally because he did not believe anyone could do all that Adam had to do on one day, and only part of a day at that. Such is the nature of human pride that we think that somehow we are superior to those that were before us. There is no evidence that man is becoming more intelligent, but there are a lot of things that may suggest we are becoming less. While we have been able to improve technology in our time, all of our accomplishments rest on what those who were before us already accomplished. We build upon their foundations. Which is easier? To improve a musical instrument or to invent it? To improve a metal tool or to invent it along with the method of mining, smelting and forging it? To improve a wheel or to invent it?
Adam was without sin and able to operate in to his full capacity, so it should not be hard for us to believe that he could have named all the animals in one day especially in light of the facts that 1) It was God that was bringing each animal to him to see what he would call it. 2) The only animals listed as being brought were the “cattle,” “beasts of the field” and the “birds of the sky.” Not specifically included were the fish or the “creeping things.” 3) Adam would only be naming each kind and not every type we see today. For example, he would have named the dog kind, but the specific types with in that kind such as domestic dog, wolf, coyote, dingo, etc. would not have yet existed. (“Kind” would be closer to what is referred to as “family” or “genus” than to species within modern classification terminology). Naming the animals was also an act of authority over them which emphasized Adam’s responsibility to have dominion over them. (The animals and birds were already created, verse 19 only notes that they were also formed out of the ground – yet none of them were suitable for Adam – vs. 20).
What started this quest in naming all the animals was the first “not good” in creation. There was no helper suitable or corresponding to Adam. After naming all the animals, which may have come before him in pairs, male and female, there was still nothing found that corresponded to Adam. This is yet another contradiction for those who propose some sort of compatibility between the Bible and evolution. Those that suppose that man arose from Apes or that there was some sort of pre-Adamic humanoid stumble at this point because if they had existed they would have been close enough to Adam to correspond to him, but none of them were found. God directly intervened to do what He said in verse 18 that he would “make a helper suitable for him.”
God caused Adam to fall into a deep sleep and then took part of his side from him and then closed up the flesh. This was the first medical procedure and it was surgery. We would all agree that it is still good to be asleep when you have surgery. The flesh was then closed up for Adam to heal. God then used what he had taken from Adam to build or fashion Eve from it. The word translated as “rib” here would probably better translated as “side” since that is its meaning in its other Biblical usages, but it is interesting to note that the rib is the only bone in the human body that will grow back as long as you leave part of its sheath. Adam did not lose anything in the creation of Eve. His body would have replaced what had been removed, and what had been removed was redesigned into something that did correspond to him. She was indeed bone of his bone and flesh of his flesh. Adam called her woman. The name woman is simply the feminine form for the word for man. A woman is a female man.
It is often pointed out in wedding ceremonies that the material to form Eve was not taken from Adam’s head that she should be superior to him, nor from his feet that she should be inferior to him, but from his side that she would be an equal companion to him. It should also be noted that it was God that brought h
er to Adam.
It is God that instituted marriage, not man, and so He is the one that defines it as well as the roles of both the husband and the wife. Regardless of what governments may do in trying to redefine marriage in order to satisfy the sinful demands of depraved and perverted people, God’s definition does not change. When governments legalize sin, they only encourage people to do the things for which God will judge them, and their nation.
Verse 24 is quoted by Jesus and Paul in explaining marriage. “For this cause a man shall leave his father and his mother, and shall cleave to his wife; and they shall become one flesh.” Marriage begins a new family with the responsibility of the husband and wife to each other, not to the parents or extended family. We are to still honor our parents, but a husband and wife are a family separate and distinct from their parents. The two become one flesh signifying the sexual union which will produce children. How important was this? Up through the creation of animals everything was good. Man by himself was not good. After God fashioned Eve for Adam, it was very good.
Verse 25 is significant for it shows the terrible consequences in our own lives by explaining the nature of the relationship between Adam and Eve prior to the fall which is in complete contrast to the experience of marriage after the fall. “And the man and his wife were both naked and were not ashamed.” Most people miss what is really in this verse because they do not know Hebrew. While it is true that prior to the fall into sin they were not ashamed even though they did not have any clothes on, the word “naked” here is from the same root as “crafty” (subtle) in 3:1. It also speaks of a mind that is not covered or hindered. Adam and Eve could be completely open with each other on every level, physical, mental and emotional, because there was no sin present in any of it. The curse of sin causes married couples to hide from each other because there is sin in what they think and feel and the shame of being without clothes is a reminder of our disobedience to God. Only by walking with Jesus Christ can the Christian couple begin to overcome this and develop the type of marriage God intended. One that Paul described in Eph. 5 as reflecting Christ’s relationship with the church.
God made man and woman on the sixth day of creation. He created them to work together as His regents on earth. He was to do this by filling the earth with their offspring, subduing it and having dominion over all the animals (1:28). As the sixth day ended, God pronounced it “very good.”
KIDS CORNER
Parents, you are responsible to apply God’s Word to your children’s lives. Here is some help.
Young Children – draw a picture about something you hear during the sermon. Explain your picture(s) to your parents at lunch. Older Children – Do one or more of the following: 1) Write down all the verses mentioned in the sermon and look them up later. 2) Count how many times “man “is mentioned in the sermon. Talk with your parents the origin of man and his purpose .
THINK ABOUT IT!
Questions to consider in discussing the sermon with others. Could there have been humans prior to the creation of Adam? Why or why not? Can Genesis be reconciled with Evolution? Why or why not? What is the origin of man? What does it mean that man is made in God’s image? Explain. Man is rational, emotional and volitional. Explain what each of those mean and their importance. What are some of the characteristics that make God different from man? What are some God’s moral characteristics that he desires man to reflect? For what purpose did God create man? What responsibilities did He give to man? Why do human societies function within a seven day week? What was earth like prior to the creation of Adam? How was it watered? What was man made from? What characteristics does man share with animals? What makes him different from animals? What was Adam’s food source in the Garden of Eden? What two special trees were located there? Can we know where the Garden of Eden was located? Why or why not? What was man to do in the garden? What animals did Adam name? Is it reasonable that he could have done this in only part of a day? Why or why not? Why couldn’t Adam find a helper suitable for him? From what did God fashion Eve? What is the significance of its source and location? What was the purpose of making Eve? Who instituted marriage? What are the responsibilities of the husband and wife to one another? To their parents? To their extended family? How did the relationship of Adam & Eve prior to sin differ from the relationship of any married couple in the present? What was God’s evaluation of creation after making Eve?
Sermon Notes – July 8, 2007
God Made Man – Genesis 1:26-2:25
Introduction
Evolution is not true or science or a science theory. However, it can be used as a ____________
The Creation of Man – Genesis 1:26-31
The Origin of Man
Man has no common ancestry or relationship with _________
The Nature of Man – Made in God’s Image
Rational – this means man has a ___________ and can ______________
Emotional – this means that man can ____________ ________________
Volitional – this means that man can make __________________
Moral Characteristics
Attributes that belong only to God
Moral Characteristics that God shared with man at Creation
The Purpose & Responsibility of Man – vs. 29-30
Man was to be God’s ___________ on the earth. He was to be fruitful and __________, subdue the earth and have ______________ over the animals.
God’s Evaluation of Creation – vs. 31
The Seventh Day – Genesis 2:1-3
The Sixth Day in Detail – Genesis 2:4-25
(Book Recommendation: Before Abraham Was by Isaac M. Kikawada & Arthur Quinn)
The phrase, “These are the generations” occurs in Genesis 2:4; 5:1; 6:9; 10:1; 11:10; 11:27; 25:12; 25:19; 36:1; 36:9 and 37:2. It marks the _________________________________________________
Description of Earth Prior to Adam – vs. 4-6
There was no ____________. The earth was watered by a ____________
Creation of Adam and the Garden of Eden – vs. 7-9
Man is formed out of _____________ and God breathed into him the _______________________
Eden means ______________.
Two special trees in it were the Tree of _______ and the Tree of the knowledge of ______________
(Book Recommendation: Bones of Contention, Marvin L. Lubenow )
Description of Garden of Eden & Adam’s Responsibility – vs. 10-17
Adam was responsible to _______________ and _____________ the garden
Creation of Eve and Her Purpose – Vs. 18-25
Adam was without sin and able to operate in his ___________________. He was more intelligent that we.
Eve was made from Adam’s ___________. She was made to be a __________________ to Adam
God ______________ marriage and only He can define it and the roles of the husband and wife.
Adam & Eve could be completely open with each other physically, ____________ and ___________
Christian marriage is to be a reflection of _____________ and the __________ (Eph. 5)
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