- Alright, Genesis, the
foundation book of the Bible, lesson number ten. I'm gonna talk about the creation
of man here, in a minute. Alright, just a little
review, as we do every lesson. So far, Genesis has recorded
two essential acts of creation. Number one, the creation
of the inanimate world. And in the inanimate world,
of course, matter, atmosphere, vegetation, so on and so forth. Inanimate world. No consciousness. And then the creation
of the animate world. Fish, birds, animals ... conscious life. It's interesting, you know,
when you break it down, you see there's a pattern to this. So in verse 26, we're still
in chapter one of Genesis. Moses begins to record
the third act of creation, and that is the creation
of spiritual life. So inanimate, animate, spiritual life. And we read, in verse 26, it says, "Then God said, let Us
make man in Our image, according to Our likeness." Some scholars refer to this
verse as "The Divine Council." The Divine Council. This was not the first such council. Many other things have happened
before time was created, before the creation of the
world, which had been decided by the Godhead. For example, the decision
to sacrifice Jesus for the sins of the world; that decision was made before the world was made. If you look at 1 Peter 1:20, it says, "For He was foreknown before
the foundation of the world, but has appeared in these last
times for the sake of you." So before the world, the decision for salvation has been made. Another example, the names of those who would receive Christ,
written in the Book of Life. Revelation 17:8. "The beast that you saw
was, and is not, and is about to come up out of the
abyss and go to destruction. And those who dwell on
the earth whose name has not been written in the book of life from the foundation of the world, will wonder when they see the beast, that he was and is not and will come." In other words, the ones
who are not Christians; they're gonna wonder about the beast. They're gonna not
understand what's going on. Not so for those who know the truth, for those who are written
in the book of life, the names that God has known from before the beginning of the world. I know we can get into
predestination here, and so on and so forth, I don't want to get into that discussion. Suffice to say that this is an example of God's foreknowledge. Meaning that God knows
what's going to happen before it happens because He's outside of the time continuum. Okay? He's outside of time. So He knows what's going to
happen before it happens. That doesn't necessarily
mean that He decides what's going to happen. Man still has free will. It's simply that God knows
what man will choose. Because He's outside of time. Alright? So note that the dialogue
does not address the angels. The Godhead, the Divine Council,
never talks to the angels because the angels are not
made in the image of God. Man is made in the image of God. So the exchange within the
Godhead appears in other places. When I talk about the Divine Council, I'm talking about an
exchange between the Godhead. Very interesting concept. For example, in Psalm
110, a familiar passage, "The LORD said to my
Lord, sit at My right hand until I make Your enemies
a footstool for Your feet." The LORD said to my Lord. He wasn't talking to himself. In Isaiah 48, it says, "Come
near to Me, listen to this: From the first I have
not spoken in secret, from the time it took place, I was there. And now the Lord God has
sent me, and His Spirit." See? Different characters, different persons. John 17:24, "Father," Jesus is saying, "Father," talking to the Father. "I desire that they also,
whom You have given Me, be with Me where I am, so
that they may see My glory which You have given Me, for You loved Me before the foundation of the world." Jesus is talking to God. Jesus is God, He's talking to the Father. You and me, that's two, Divine Council. Divine Council. So this is one of the
earliest glimpses that we have of the nature of God. I mean, not John 17, but Genesis, is what I'm talking about here. From these verses, we learn
several things about God. For example, we learn
that God communicates. God is communicative in
the sense that ideas are part of His nature, and the
exchange of them is possible, and He has recorded in the Bible His exchange of ideas not only with man, but
within the Godhead itself. Ya know, gods of other religions are, many times, simply a force. There's no idea that comes out, there's no idea that's communicated. It's just kind if a force. Non-personal type of force. We also find out that God
has a multi-person nature. In other words, God is a
multi-person nature because the verse refers to one
God, and yet, there is an exchange within the Godhead. So this is where the idea
of the Trinity comes in. I hear people say, sometimes, "The Trinity, well, try to find the word Trinity in the Bible." Well, you won't find it;
it's not in the Bible. But the concept is there, the
explanation of it is there. The reality of it is there. It's talking about God. Jesus is God, and He's
talking to the Father, and then He's talking about
the Spirit, who is also God. So ... we're limited as
human beings, simply because the language limits us, and our ability to bring in a concept. So the best way that we
have found to describe this, is we call God the
Godhead, and three in one, that's how we try to explain it. Another thing we find out
is that man's creation is a result of design. Because it says before
the creation of the world, this happened and that happened,
and so on and so forth. So the creation of man was designed, and not an outgrowth
of existing creatures. God had a concept of what man would be. He's not simply the result of
some evolutionary development. Now, the terms 'image' or 'likeness.' "we'll make them in our
image and in our likeness." There terms mean, among other things, 'resemblance, figure, model, shape.' The Hebrew word used there to translate. So man is made to resemble
or modeled after God. Alright, some of the things that we note about man's creation. For example, the term 'man'
is the same as 'adam,' and is related to the earth. In Hebrew, adamah means earth. So, this is given to the first human made, because he is essentially
created from the same elements that the other creatures are created from. The elements that have
already been created. Basically, the earth. He created man from the
elements of the earth, that's why He calls him
Adam, 'of the earth.' Also, the term Adam is
used as a formal way, as the actual name of the first man. But it's only used there in Genesis 2:19, but the two terms are interchangeable. Okay? Another thing we learn, is
that Adam has a triune nature that reflects the triune
nature of the Godhead. He has, first of all, a body
formed like the bodies of the inanimate creation. He's made of matter. Then, we find out he has consciousness, like the animate creatures. In other words, like
the inanimate creation, the earth and so on, his physical body is made out of the same things. What is it, our body's 80%
water or something like that? I need someone who knows
more about that than I do, but something like that. How much? Is it 90%? But we're made of the same elements. That's why when someone
is buried into the ground, eventually, given enough time,
you can't tell any more that someone was there, it'll just
disintegrate into the earth. But he also has consciousness
like the animate creatures, such as birds and animals. So he is aware of himself. That's called the soul,
some people refer to that self-awareness, that
consciousness, that sentient life, as 'the soul.' And then, he also possesses
the spiritual character of God, which encompasses qualities
like his willpower, a sense of morality, right,
wrong, the ability to communicate with every aspect of creation as well as other human
beings, as well as God. So man can communicate
with an inanimate object, in other words, a man can
work the soil to grow things, and he can move the rocks
around to build a road, and he can harness the energy
of the earth to do things, so he can communicate, if you
wish, with inanimate matter. He can also communicate
with animate matter, in other words, he can
train his dog to do tricks, and ride a horse, and
tame animals, and ranch, and so on and so forth,
he can raise animals, so he can communicate with animals. But then, in addition to
that, he can also communicate with other human beings, and
he can communicate with God. So there you have his triune nature. He is made in the image of God. He has a multiple
personality, if you wish. Now, that animals
communicate with each other in various ways, that they
communicate with human beings in limited ways, that's true. That doesn't prove anything. I mean, my cat used to
communicate with me. He was happy to see me, why? I represented food. Right? Your dog, "Oh, I'm happy! I'm happy, happy, happy you're here!" What does he want? He wants you to play with
him, he wants you to feed him. But her never asks you what time is it. And he doesn't say, "How was your day?" "No, no no, I don't want to bark; you tell me about your day first." No. But only man is able to perceive God. And only man is able to
communicate with God. This is the witness of
his spiritual nature. Now, an important idea here
is that the spirit of man is in the image of God. Among other things
mentioned, it is eternal. Unlike, the life of an
animal, which is temporal. When a man dies, his
body goes to the dust, and his spirit goes to God for judgment. When an animal dies,
his body goes to dust, and his consciousness ceases. And I bring up an
interesting passage here, that people always bring up-
Animal lovers, many times. Ecclesiastes 3:21, where Solomon says, "Who knows that the breath
of man ascends upward and the breath of the beast
descends downward to the earth?" What he's doing here, he's
not stating something, he's asking a question. He's asking, 'how do we know
what happens after life? How do we know for sure that
human beings somehow go on, and animals go down to the ground?' You know, how do we know that? Well, remember, Ecclesiastes
was written by someone who was skeptical. "Vanity of vanities," he
says, "life is vanity." He was skeptical, he was doubting. 'How do I know what happens after life?' of course, we know, don't we? We have the revelation of Jesus Christ. We know what happens after life. Hebrews, ya know? It is given to man to die once,
and then comes the judgment. So we know what happens
after life; the judgment. So don't get bamboozled
when somebody pulls out Ecclesiastes 3:21 to prove that Fido is in Dog Heaven somewhere. 'Cause that's not a good
support scripture for that. So before the world was created, God knew what it would be like. He knew how it would function, and He also knew of the fall
of man, and planned for it, as well as having decided
the manner of sacrifice, and who would offer that sacrifice, and who would receive that sacrifice. He knew all of this before. Which brings up an interesting question that people normally
bring up at this point. All of this, God knew in advance, but He went ahead and created
man anyway, on the sixth day. Why did he do that? I mean, all the suffering, and the sin. Why did He do that? The answer is partly in Ephesians 1:9. It's longer than this, but I
just quote this verse here. Here, Paul's talking about God. "He made known to us
the mystery of His will, according to His kind intention
which He purposed in Him." In other words, God, through the Gospel, has allowed us to know what His will was. And what was His will? That eventually Jesus would
come and save man from sin. That's what he's saying here. But notice when he says,
"the mystery of His will." God has willpower. He decides. " I have an option, I choose
this, or I choose that." Okay- with me so far? So now, before the
foundation of the world, God knows in advance what's gonna happen. So He has a choice of three things. Number one, He doesn't create. He doesn't go ahead and do it. Nah, too much trouble, it's a headache. Sin, destruction- Ugh!- The flood ... The Jewish people, have to
put up with them for a couple a thousand years, ya know,
hard hearted, stubborn ... And then my Son's gonna
have to die on the cross. Who wants this kind of grief? So maybe just shut it down. We don't create anything,
we just stay the way we are. That's one choice. Choice number two, Well
let's create mankind, but let's create him in a
way that he can't disobey. When I look at him, and
I say, "Do you love me?" He will always say, "I love you." And when I say, "will you obey me?" He will always obey me. And whenever there's a
test, or anything like that, he will always obey. I'm just gonna program it into him, there's no way he can disobey. I think we call that a 'zombie.' Or, number three, I've tried, I've asked people to
give me a fourth thing, but the third thing is, well, I create him with free will, and what happens, happens. So someone says, "Well how do we know he
made the right decision?" And the answer to that is, "Can
God make a wrong decision?" No. So the fact that we
live now, in a time when we can look back and see the creation, the history of the Jewish
nation, sin, the fall, all of that, Christ died,
resurrect, the church, all the way into the 21st century ... We know that because this
is what God has chosen, we know that that was the correct choice. That was the mystery of His will. His will was expressed
perfectly in Jesus Christ. 'Cause the other two options
would not have been perfect. To create man with free will; that was the perfect
decision in that context. How do we know? That's the decision He made. Alright, so let's look at
man's position, verse 26b. We go back to the original,
Genesis, chapter 1, it says, "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." So we see here that man is
not just another animal, evolved from lower animals. He has a distinct nature
apart from animals, and his position in creation
is not something that occurs as a result of
survival of the fittest. It is a position naturally
given to him, by God. God says, "Go forth and
multiply, and have dominion over the birds, and over the
animals, and over the fish," and so on and so forth. He has a position. The term dominion means "to
reign," or "to rule over." Now, this rulership is
less like a king who rules. More like the idea that the
creation is in cooperation with man to support him
and to see to his needs. In other words, man is God's partner in the management of the creation. Verse 27, the actual act
of creation, it says, "God created man in His own image, in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them." So verse 26 is the preamble that describes what God is about to do, and the nature of man, once he is created. This is the only part of
creation that has this feature. So in the creation, there's
another feature described, and that is the dual nature of mankind. I want you to note the
same pattern is followed in creating man. The generic, or the essence
of the new creation is formed. Right? So, previously, that would
be inanimate or animate. Then, the variation is made. So in the inanimate and animate fields, you have the creation of
the essential matter first, and then matter is then
formed into vegetation, and fish, and birds,
and so on and so forth. Now, in the creation of
man, God forms the spiritual essence of man, and that is, he is made in the likeness of God. Then, He creates the
variation of that essence, and that is male and female. So at the beginning, He creates
the essence, just matter. And then He energizes it,
and then He gives it form, you know, various things. Well, in creating man, He
creates the essence of man, which is what? That he's in the likeness of God. And then, He creates
varieties of that essence, male ... female. I want you to note: only two varieties. Not three, or four, or six. Two. Okay? Alright, so an important
point here, is that both make and female share
this similar essence. As spiritual beings. Higher than animals. Eternal, like God. There will be some differences,
as to form and role, which will be given later, but the essence is the same. So you know when they talk
about women's rights ... With men ... Why? Sure, of course. Why? Because in essence, they're
exactly the same as man. They're made in the image of God. They're spiritual beings,
eternal creatures. Now, their role, and their function, and their psychology
is different than man. But the essence is the same. So this is the general description of the creation of man that we have
at this point in Genesis, and the placement of
where this act fits into the sequence of the six days of creation. Now, later, Moses will
kinda telescope in to the details of this
creation and what actually happens to man once he's created. No more explanations about the birds. No more explanation about the stars. After this description of
the six days of creation, the narrative will shift
to tell the story of man, his fall, and then how God saves him. And that's exactly- That's
the entire story of the Bible. Somebody says to you,
"What's the Bible about?" Well, it's about the creation of man, the beginning of Genesis. Then his fall, the next
couple of chapters of Genesis. And then, how God worked to save him. From Genesis nine, or ten, or something, all the way to the end of Revelation. It's just how God worked
through history to save man. Very simple, three steps. So now, we'll look at verse 28 to 31. We'll read that in a
minute, and this is now God's charge to man. He's created the essence, He's formed the variations,
male and female, now He's gonna charge them. Now, we need to realize that
there are two worlds here, that are very different for
us to imagine and understand, because they're not like
the world we live in. One is the world to come, the
New Heaven, and the New Earth. They describe it, somewhat, in the book of Revelation, symbolically. It's just hard to get our mind around what that world will be like. Like, no natural light;
God will be the light. You know? Nobody sick, nobody tired,
nobody dying, no hunger, none of that, no physical
needs, no need for marriage, so different than the
existence that we have here. 'Cause those are all things
we so depend on, I mean, let there be a blackout, we
lose electricity, oh, my! For a day, or two days, it's terrible! Well, there's not going to be any of that. So that's, the New Heavens and Earth, it's hard to imagine what
that place will be like. But there's also another world that's hard for us to imagine, and that's the pre-sin
world of Adam and Eve. That, also, was very different than the world that we live in today. So keep that in mind when we talk about, especially in these chapters of Genesis, we're talking about the pre-sin world. Very different physical
environment that we live in today. This is why some of the
explanations seem strange to us, because they explain
another world, of which ours only bears a resemblance. So let's read verses 28 to 31, it says, "God blessed then, 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.' 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, 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." Alright, so ... After the general
description of the creation, and the creation of man
and woman, God gives them instructions about what they're to do. It's a charge; He charges them. Some interesting notes about that charge, and that world are the following. I'm sorry, I forgot to read 31. And it says, "God saw all
hat He had made, and behold, it was very good. And there was evening
and there was morning, the sixth day." Now, God's charge to man. First charge, only one man
and one woman are created. Now, it seems that there are
many pairs of animals created, since it says that swarms were made, and they abundantly filled the earth. So lots of animals. Only one of each, man and woman. And there was to be only
one of each, man and woman. That's where we go to
to find our base model, our template for marriage. Number two, and I make a kind of parenthetical statement here, the laws of the land can legalize a union and give legal rights to
a union between two men or two women, or three women and one man, or any combination. The law can give them
certain rights, if you wish, legal rights, and they
can call it marriage, and we seem to be going in
that direction in our society, but, I mean, fighting it
from a legal perspective, sometimes seems futile. The thing we need to remember
is the template for marriage is not found in the Constitution,
it's found in the Bible. Sometimes they say, "Well, how
can you not call it marriage, if the Supreme Court calls it marriage?" My answer to that, without
disrespecting the Supreme Court, is simply to say, my
template for marriage is what the Bible teaches what marriage is. Regardless of what society
does or does not do. It's great for us that
society confirms the template that we've always looked to. That's terrific, we
were in the good times. But if we go through
a bad time in society, where society moves away from a Christian perspective, legally, we're, sometimes, powerless to stop that. So what do we do in the meantime? Well, we stay with the template. Maybe the Supreme Court can,
kinda, honor your relationship, but the Bible doesn't. So, as Christians, that's
where we need to stick to. Anyway, I don't want to
get off on that tangent. Secondly, He says, "Fill the earth." So the first command is to
fill the earth with mankind. God made this command with
the full knowledge of the earth's ability to sustain mankind. Overpopulation, believe
it or not, is not due to God's lack of planning,
but, rather, poor management and distribution of resources
and wars, and greed. Bad land management was the reason for the Dust Bowl in Oklahoma back in the 30s. Not because God didn't send
enough rain, or whatever, if you study that, you
find that the people who were managing the land
here, did things which, you should not have done with the land. Remove the trees, or so on and so forth. And you find that a lot of
times, when people are starving in a certain nation, it's not
because there's not enough food in the world, it's because
some government is using that as a tactic for political reasons. There's plenty of food. I mean, there was a time
we were burning food and throwing it away in
order to keep the prices up. And even that, man's greed ... Okay? Overpopulation not due
to lack of planning. The earth can sustain
its present population with its technology and resources. It's the sin in the world
that creates the problems of misery, not God. Don't blame God for that. Number three, manage the creation. To subdue and have dominion doesn't mean to exploit, ruthlessly, the environment. It means to understand
and manage the creation for the good of all its inhabitants. We have to find ways to
get oil out of the ground, the way we need it, without
destroying the ground. 'Cause we also live here. And surely there's a way to do that. A lot of times we don't do it, why? Money. Ya know?
Money. Greedy companies will find
the fastest, cheapest way to exploit for the greatest profit. But sometimes, what's
profitable to a company, is not profitable for the
inhabitants of the actual land. And the right, just, thing to
do, the Biblical thing to do, is to find that balance. Exploiting the resources
without destroying the creation. Science to understand,
technology to develop, and use the resources for
the benefits of everyone. In that perfect world, the
order was evident and open to understanding. The creation was also
compliant for development and exploration. There were not issues of survival. They were an exercise
of joy and discovery. Exploiting the creation for
food, and so on and so forth was a joyful thing ... Before sin. The creation cooperated with man. Number four, He gives them a diet. Man was originally given
the vegetation to eat. The suggestion is that,
before sin, they ate no meat. Now, it's not clear if the
same was true for animals, although, it seems that the two were given the vegetation to eat. I mean, it specifically
stated, all the greenery, all the vegetation was yours
to eat, for the animals, and for the people. Now, men may have begun to eat
meat after the sin of Adam, in disobedience to God. In other words, it says Jabal
introduced cattle raising, in Genesis 4:20. God gave man permission to eat meat, we know for sure, after
the flood, Genesis 9. He actually specifies that, "I've given you, now, the animals to eat." A lot of reasons for that. Animals may have been kept
under population control in the pre-sin world by
God, in order to avoid any predatory cycle. After the sin of Adam, or after the flood, animals began to be
meat eaters, themselves. One thing that I read said,
"Well, they needed the protein, because now the climate was changed. It was cold, it was hot, it was cold, and so on and so forth, no control. So if God can create
the world, He may have kept it in balance without
the need for killing or meat eating. These activities may have
come after the curse, certainly came after the flood. Just give me another minute,
I'm almost done here. And then, He sees that all is good. He sees that every single thing
He had made was very good. So if He sees that every
single thing that He has made is very good, then that
suggests certain things. Number one, there's no
death, because death is the result of sin and
everything, He says, is good, so there's no dying. It also suggests there are no fossils because these are the result of death. We can explain the fossil
records through the flood, through the consequences of the flood. And we'll talk about that later. Another interesting thing, no devil. No devil. The Bible says that He
looked at everything that He had made. That includes the angels, because the angels were made by God, and they were present when
God created the world. So if God saw that everything
He made was very good at this point, it may mean
that everything is good and without sin, and
that includes Lucifer. He also rejoiced, at this point. His rebellion, then, must
have come later along in his fall, along with his fall. Like I said, he may have been jealous of man's creation in God's likeness, and his role, along with
other angels, in serving man. Bible says that they're our messengers and they're also our servants. Let's separate speculation
here, so I'm speculating, I'm just saying maybe, what happened was Satan left his position. His position was that he was
to serve man on behalf of God. Maybe he didn't want to do that, he wanted to rise above
that, and because of that, he was cast down. And so we see his everlasting enmity between himself and man. Just speculation, things to think about. So the final act is the creation of man, and the charge to inhabit the earth, to learn about, and manage the
creation for the good of all. This is his responsibility
towards the creation. That's man's responsibility. Next time we come back, we'll
look at his responsibility toward God, and the
details of the Sabbath, and man and woman's foundation- In other words, more details,
as far as that's concerned. That's it for this time. Thank you for your attention.
