The Creation of All Things

Transcript

GRS 2F
January 19, 1986
Genesis: Chapters 1-2
Genesis 1-2
Gil Rugh

In our study together last time, I attempted to set something of the overall framework of the Old Testament and in that survey, I gave you some dates for the beginning and ending of the Old Testament books. Those dates were approximate dates within a year or two or three or so. But there’s one date that you need to correct and that’s on the book of 2 Samuel. I believe I told you that 2 Samuel began somewhere around 1011 and ended somewhere around 1004. Now if you subtract those two, you’ll find out you have a hard time putting David’s forty-year reign in 2 Samuel. It should be beginning around 1011 and then 2 Samuel closes somewhere around 972 B.C. – 971, 972 B.C. So, you might make that note in your notes, so that you see it fits together a little more accurately.

I want to turn our attention today to the book of Genesis. And begin a survey of this book, looking into the opening chapters of the book. Our pattern will be to survey the book of the Old Testament in five chapter blocks, but in this opening five chapter section, we’re going to do it in two pieces – the first two chapters and then the next three. The opening chapters of Genesis are foundational to everything that is unfolded through the rest of the Old Testament and New Testament alike. So we want to be sure that we have a good grasp of what is being revealed in this opening section. The book of Genesis is the book of beginnings. That summarizes what the book is all about. It’s the book of beginnings or origins. It tells us how things got started. Back in the Hebrew, the title of the book is ‘In the Beginning’ – Bereshith, ‘In the Beginning’. We get our title, Genesis, from the Greek translation of the Old Testament, which comes over into English as ‘Genesis’, which means origin. So, it’s the book about the origin of things. We find out about the origin of the world, about the origin of the human race, about the origin of the various nations, about the origin of the nation Israel, which will be the focal point. Along with that, we found out about the origin of sin. What’s wrong with this world. It was written by Moses. It was written somewhere between 1400-1500 B.C. The book and material in there go back much earlier, but Moses would have written it about that period of time.

Two major divisions in the book. The first eleven chapters are about the nations. Then chapter twelve through chapter fifty are about the nation. The nations and the nation. The first eleven chapters and then chapters twelve through fifty. Let’s look at just a general breakdown of the book to get an idea of how it moves along before we look into the chapter.
The first two chapters are about creation.
Creation – Chapters 1 and 2
The Fall – Chapters 3 through 5
The Flood – Chapters 6 to 9
Babel – the Tower of Babel – Chapters 10 and 11
Again, we have tied the chapters together around significant events – Creation, the Fall, the Flood, the Tower of Babel. The last two of these connected with judgment – the Flood and the Tower of Babel. That covers the first eleven chapters.

Then, beginning with chapter twelve, we move into specifics regarding the nation Israel and there are four key people:
Abraham – Chapters 12 to 24
Isaac – Chapters 25 to 27
Jacob – Chapters 28 to 36
Joseph – Chapters 37 to 50
Now let me run over all of those then. You have Creation, chapters 1 and 2. The Fall, chapters 3 to 5. The Flood, chapters 6 to 9. The Tower of Babel, chapters 10 and 11. Four events. Then you have four key people: Abraham, chapters 12 to 24; Isaac, chapters 25 to 27; Jacob, chapters 28 to 36; and Joseph, chapters 36 to 50. So, it’s relatively easy to think your way through the book of Genesis.

Genesis, chapter 1. You could summarize chapter 1 by saying it’s the Creation of the world. The Creation of the world, generally, is the focal point of chapter 1. And what chapter 1 does is highlight what God did in creating the world and something of the procedure in a day by day development. We begin in the first verse – “In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth.” I understand that to be an absolute statement of creation. This is the time when the world as we know it, this earth and its surrounding heavens, were called into existence by God. I see no prior existence of the created world before Genesis chapter 1. God alone is eternal. He has no beginning. So, He has always existed – no beginning and no ending. But, now, the God, who is the God of Israel and remember that’s crucial, because Moses is writing this. And he’s writing this for the benefit of the nation Israel, whom He is involved in leading out of Egypt as a deliverer. Important for them to realize that the God, who is the God of Israel, is the sovereign, creating God, who is Lord of all. And what and encouragement that would be to Israel, to be reminded of that fact. That their God is the God who brought all things into existence. You know, that first verse of Genesis answers and resolves a lot of issues. You can’t be an atheist, a pantheist or polytheist of any other ‘ist’ or ‘ism’ if you believe Genesis chapter 1. That a personal God created the world – the heavens and the earth.

Then, verse two. “The earth was formless and void and darkness was over the surface of the deep. The Spirit of God was moving over the surface of the waters.” I take it verse two is an expansion of verse one. When God created the heavens and the earth, here is what they were like. I do not understand to be any gap to be in existence between verses 1 and 2. I do not think that there is any indication that verse two is a result of judgment on the initial creation. In fact, I see there some real problems with that and I’ll mention those in a little while. When it says the earth was formless and void that simply describes its condition before God proceeds, step by step to arrange it in the order He wants it to have for man’s existence. So, He created the heavens and the earth. He brought them into existence and they are there, but they are without form and void. And this expression, ‘without form’, is used a number of times in the Old Testament, not in connection with judgment. So, it doesn’t always mean that judgment has occurred. It doesn’t always refer to something evil. The same thing with the word ‘darkness’. Sometimes people say darkness was there. Well, that’s something gloomy and evil and wicked. But, remember the darkness we’re talking about is going to be part of what God says is good, because by the time you get to the end of chapter 1 and verse 31, “God saw all that He had made and it was very good.” So the darkness is good as well as the light, because God has a purpose in bringing the darkness for man’s benefit and man’s good. So, I see no need to put any judgment in there. And we’ll talk about some of the problems with that as we move along. If you do put judgment there, you have destruction, sin, and death being the foundation upon which the world was created in Genesis chapter 1, which brings some serious problems if sin were already there and death had already occurred. By the time we get to the book of Romans, chapter 5, we’re going to be told that by one man sin entered the world and death by sin. So I have a hard time that accepting that perhaps judgment and destruction had come before Adam’s sin. I don’t think you gain anything then to say that that’s when all the dinosaurs and all the prehistoric creatures and individual men or pre-men lived. To bring them under the condemnation of death before Adam’s sin would seem to run contrary to what the Word has revealed.

Now, following Genesis 1 and 2, the initial creation, God calls it into existence, here’s its state, now God’s going to take us through day by day how he brings order and arrangement as a place for man to live into the world that He has created. And there are going to be seven days of creation. Six days of creation and a seventh day of rest. Now, there’s discussion about these days. Are they days of days? Are they periods of revelation? Very simply, I understand the days in Genesis chapter 1 to be 24-hour days. Let me give you several reasons for that – why are the days of Genesis 24-hour days? Number 1 – the expression morning and evening used after each day would seem to indicate that we’re talking about days as we know them. That would be the natural expectation. When He says at the end of verse 5, “There evening and there was morning, one day.” The natural way to grasp that would be that he’s talking about a day as we know it. Secondly, every time ‘day’, the Hebrew word here is yom, is used with a number connected with it, it refers to a 24 hour day. So, it’s true the word day can mean more than a 24-hour day in the Old Testament. But, every time it is used with a number in the Old Testament, it refers to a 24-hour day. And here, we have day one and day two and so on. Three, there’s a close parallel drawn between the seventh day and the Sabbath day in Exodus chapter 20 and verse 11. And in Exodus chapter 20 and verse 11, we read, “for in six days the Lord made the heavens and the earth, the sea and all that is in them and rested on the Sabbath. Therefore the Lord blessed the Sabbath and made it holy.” This is being incorporated into the law that God is giving Israel. Well, again, it would seem as Israel heard this – in six days God made the heaven and earth and in the seventh day he rested – now, I want you to rest on the seventh day. It would seem that the natural implication is that it was a 24-hour day as we’re familiar with. And fourth, I think that would be a summary of what I’ve been saying, normal interpretation would lead you to believe that we’re talking about a normal 24-hour day. Keep in mind Moses is writing to the nation Israel or for the benefit of the nation Israel and from what we know of them and their period of time, the natural way for them to understand this would be of a 24-hour day. Again, I see nothing to be gained by trying to make these long periods of time. Simply, what we’re trying to do is fit in all the geological time periods that seem to be have existence and need a place to belong. And if we can’t put them between chapters 1 and 2, then maybe we can stretch every day out to be an age. Well, again I have a problem, because I don’t see how you can put death into any of this prior to the sin of Adam. To have Adam being created on a graveyard just seems to be out of sync with what the Scripture reveals and unfolds. And I take it that if you took the Bible and read the Bible, you would never come to that kind of conclusion. But, it’s feeling the pressure of trying to fit something, some extended periods of time here. I really don’t believe that’s necessary, although we’re not going to be going into that.

Let’s go overview these days and see what God did each day without going into any great detail on the days and what was created there. The first day, verses 3 to 5. That’s day one. God creates light and darkness. God calls light into existence. Now, darkness was present at the beginning in verse 2, because God had not yet created light. And so until He brings light into existence there will be darkness. That’s the point. So, it seems to be a natural follow-through that when he created the heavens and the earth, there would be darkness, because then, in verses 3 through 5, He’ll call light into existence. God called in verse 5, “the light day and the darkness, He called night.” This principle that we’ll see throughout this section on creating and will also go into chapter 2 with Adam naming the animals, this ability to call something or give it a name in the Ancient East pictures power over something. When you named it, you knew it. You had power over it. So, when someone named something, it’s a demonstration of sovereignty. Now you have pictured here, God’s sovereignty over His creation. He calls it into existence and gives it a name: Light and Darkness. Now, you note, He does not abolish darkness. If darkness is in and of itself evil, it should be abolished. Because God’s going to say this creation in verse thirty-one is very good. And yet, if darkness is evil, we’ve got evil in the creation and the environment in which Adam will be placed. So, we can’t make any case for darkness, in verse 2, depicting evil, because God’s not going to annihilate darkness. He is going to subdue it and put it in proper balance with light to arrange days as we know them. Light and darkness – Day One, verse 3 to 5.

The second day. We’re going to have the sky and the water in verse 6 to 8. And what God does in verses 6 to 8 is separate the waters on the earth from the waters above the earth. Puts a great expanse between the waters on the earth and the waters above the earth. And evidently before this, there was dense moisture enshrouding the world, the earth. Now, God is going to put a great expanse, a firmament, the sky, as we know it, between the waters on the earth and the waters above the earth. Now, those waters above the earth may be part of what inundated the world in the Mosaic flood in chapters 6 to 9 of Genesis. But here, it stressed that God separated them and created the sky. That’s the second day.

The third day – verse 9 to 13. He creates land and vegetation. So, He gathers the waters now on the earth into one place, the dry land appears. Then, the vegetation is created. So you have land and vegetation in verses 9 to 13. And, we’re told in verse 10, at the end of the verse, “God saw that it was good.” That’s going to be said a number of times throughout the section. “It was good”, meaning it was esthetically pleasing, it was beautiful and it also fit God’s purposes. So, it accomplished what He wanted it to. And you see how God is taking us with Him through each step of creating? Now, He’s brought the land and the waters – land and the vegetation into existence. And He said they’re beautiful and they fit the purpose I have for them. It was good.

The fourth day – verses 14 to 19. You have the heavenly lights. Lights in verse 14 “in the expanse of the heavens.” This will include the sun and the moon as the great lights in verse 16. “The greater light to rule the day; the lesser light to rule the night.” And the other lights and stars in association with them. And you note here, that the heavenly lights are created in relation to the earth. The earth is the center of creation. I don’t mean that it is the physical center, but it is the center of God’s purposes. Everything in the universe is created in light of God’s purposes for the earth. That helps put things in proper perspective on life on other planets and evolution and all these kind of things. God is going to accomplish His purposes on this planet. It will be here that He will place the man that He creates. It will be here that He works out His plan and program of redemption by having His Son come and be the Savior. The heavenly lights are created. Three purposes are mentioned for these heavenly lights: They divide the night and the day; secondly, they divide time – the seasons and the years and so on are arranged by these lights; and thirdly, they give light and we noted the difference on that. When you go out at night, there are lights unless it is very cloudy and there’s a marked difference then in how dark it is when the sun gives light by day. Now, the heavenly lights are created here on the fourth day. God called light into existence back on the first day. I take it He called light into existence and now He arranges that light to be controlled and governed by certain heavenly bodies. The light is a principle called into existence on the first day. Now, it is centered in certain heavenly bodies to govern the days, the seasons and so on.

The fifth day (verses 20 to 23), you have air and water creatures. Air and water creatures, the creatures of the air: the birds, the insects, the creatures that fly in the air. And also you have the water creatures, those that live in the oceans and the waters: the fishes, the great sea monsters that are called here and so on. That’s on the fifth day.

The sixth day, you’re going to have the land creatures. The land creatures are animals that live on the land and man as a creature who will inhabit the land; not land animals, but land creatures, because the land creatures include land animals and it includes man on the sixth day.

Let me draw a parallel for you on these days before we talk about this sixth day. If you just note what was created on day 1, 2, and 3 and then parallel that which is created on days 4, 5, and 6. On day one, light is created. On day 4, the heavenly lights are created. So, day one, light. Day four, the lights. Day two, air and water. Day five, the creatures of the air and the creatures of the water. So, the creatures that will fly in the air, the sky that was created and the creatures that will live in the water that were separated. Day three, land and plants. Day six, the creatures that will live on the land with the plants, the land animals and man. So, there is a parallel in what happens in the first three days and then, the last three days sort of parallel those first three days in the creation.

Day six. This is the climactic day of God’s creation, because it is here that man will be created. The land animals are created, verses 24 to 31, cover day six. The land animals created and then in verse 26, “God said, Let us make man in Our image, according to our likeness; and let them rule over the fish of the sea, the birds, the cattle, everything.” God created man in verse 27, “in His own image, in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them. God blessed them; God said to them, Be fruitful, multiply, fill the earth, subdue it, rule over it, over everything that lives on the earth.” Here man is created in the image of God. God said “Let us make man in Our own image.” Perhaps here a plural of majesty, although it does make provision for the Trinity. The Doctrine of the Trinity is unfolded later in God’s revelation. Let’s make man in Our image. And man is going to be different from all other creation. Because man will share in the image of God. He will be created as a personal being as God is created. He will reflect the character of God. The spiritual qualities that characterize God will characterize man. We have the capacity for self-consciousness, for speech and communication, for making moral decisions. We are the reflection of the character of God. We are made in His image – doesn’t refer to a physical existence. He is a spirit being. That’s unfolded clearly in Scripture, that God is a spirit.

Now, what is developed here is not primarily what the image consisted in, but what the purpose in being in the image of God was so that man might rule God’s creation. You note that stress – “let’s make man in our image and let them rule” over in verse 26. Verse 28, “God blessed them, told them to be fruitful, multiply, fill the earth, subdue it and rule over it.” So man is made in God’s image to rule the creation. And that’s the particular stress here. When he says in verse 28, “to subdue the earth”, it pictures sovereignty here, control over God’s creation. And what man is to do is to reflect the character of God in ruling under God over creation. So you note here, man is like God, but he is distinct from God, because God has created man. So there’s a great chasm between God and man, because I have been brought into existence by God. He is eternal. So I am a created being. He is an eternal being. But He made to be like Him in certain ways. One of those ways was to rule and be a sovereign in the creation that he has brought into creation. So, man’s presence on earth is to reflect God’s existence. He is God’s representative in ruling the creation that God has brought into being.

In verse 31, God summarizes. “God saw all that He had made and behold, it was very good. There was evening and there was morning, the sixth day.” He’s pronounced “good” in verse 4, verse 10, verse 12, verse 18, verse 21, verse 25 and now summarizes it all as “very good”. You can back through and mark those verses; verse 4, verse 12, verse 18, verse 21, verse 25, then verse 31 summarizes it all: “very good”. The totality of God’s creation is very good. I take it then we can find no evil, no imperfection in any aspects of what God has called into being. This statement here causes some even to believe that angels, Lucifer and other angels, did not fall until sometime after this, because they are created beings and some would attempt to place angels within the framework of the six days of creation. There’s no clear evidence of that. Although, the Bible does indicate in Hebrews that they are ministering spirits sent to serve those who are the heirs of salvation. If that is the case and that is the prime function of angels, then there would be no necessity for angels to be brought into existence until those who are going to be the heirs of salvation are brought into existence; until God had created the world and human beings. So it may be that the fall of Lucifer will occur after the statement of verse 31. It depends on how broad you want to make everything that God created very good. Angels aren’t mentioned specifically here. They might be outside the framework that God is talking about.

Into chapter two, the first three verses really connect with chapter one because we have the seventh day of creation and we just have an unfortunate chapter break there. The seventh day is a day of rest. God ceased from His creating activity. That didn’t mean God was tired. And I need rest. I’ve been working for six days straight now, it’s time for me to sit back and relax. God’s not weary. He rested from the standpoint, He stopped creating. Each of the six days He had been bringing things into existence. Now, things are as He desires them to be. Everything is very good. It is complete and as God intends it to be. So the seventh day is a day where no creating activity is going on. This will become a pattern that we noted in Exodus, when God establishes the law; that men are to work six days and rest the seventh day. We’re a little bit out of sync with that in our society. We think men ought to work four or five days and rest several. You’re going to come to the Word to find that you have to work on your days off anyway. But the pattern is you need a day of rest. I think we ought to recognize that as well. God does not intend a man to go seven days a week. He intends for man to take a break and rest. He establishes the pattern.

Now, what Genesis 2 does is back up and focus in on what was mentioned in verses 26 to 28 of chapter one. In verses 26 to 28, God spoke of creating in His own image. That is obviously the epitome of His creation. Here is a created being that reflects the very being of God. Now, what He is going to do now is go back in chapter two and move through some details of that which is the most important aspect of His creation. It’s not a different account. Some say that Genesis 1 is one account and Genesis 2 is a totally different account. And I received a letter from someone on this issue a little while ago. He was telling me that I choose to believe the Genesis 1 account of creation and not believe the Genesis 2 account. There is only one account of creation and that’s Genesis 1 and 2. Genesis 2 unfolds for you the details that are summarized in such a compact way in Genesis chapter 1.

Verses 4 to 7 of chapter 2 give you man’s creation; the creation of Adam. We will just jump down to verse 7; “Then the Lord God formed man from the dust of the ground, breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, man became a living being.” God formed man of the dust of the ground. That word to form is used a number of times in the Old Testament. It pictures a craftsman or a potter shaping and molding and making something. That’s the picture here. That God is the skilled craftsman, bringing into existence the man. He is just like, and it will be used in other places of Scripture, the potter over the clay. The potter is sovereign in making out of that lump of clay what he chooses to make. So, God is the potter here now taking the dust of the earth and forming into a man. He breathes into him the breath of life. Now, I take it involved here would be the image of God, because the image of God is not in the physical appearance that was made out of the dust of the earth; God has no physical appearance. So, He breathes into him, directly the breath of life I take it that He communicates with this lump of clay, this pile of dirt, His very image. And the image involving some of those things that we have already taken note of.

The environment of man in verses 8 to 14 is a beautiful garden. In verse 9 we’re told that God caused “every tree that is pleasing to the sight to grow, good for food. The tree of life in the midst of the garden.” A beautiful garden. I take it splendid beyond what we can probably imagine with the deterioration that has continued over the millenniums from the fall. A very beautiful environment for man to live. Man has a responsibility in this environment in verses 15 to 17. He needs to cultivate that garden. You note, even before the fall God intended man to work; man to be doing something. I think that’s significant, because we sometimes wonder what are we going to do in eternity? I mean how many reruns of past Super Bowls will we be able to watch? What am I going to do in eternity? Will I be bored in eternity? No, because God created us to be active. Now, what the fall will be bring into this dimension is the work that God intended us to do becomes toil and a burden and we begin to grind it out. That’s a result of the fall, but even before the fall God intended for man to be busy. He put him in the garden and told him to tend the garden, to cultivate the garden and keep it. Remember he’s to be ruling over the creation, subduing it, acting as God’s representative and keeping things in order and accomplishing God’s purposes with His creation. With that he is warned not to eat of one tree in the garden. Remember that it’s one tree he’s not to eat of; the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. God never tells him he can’t eat of the Tree of Life. There’s two trees mentioned; the tree of life and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. He can’t eat of one tree. We’ve been told, we didn’t read of the details, but in verses 8 to 14, God placed particularly in verse 9 every tree that is pleasing to the sight is good for food. Every tree that is beautiful, every tree that is desirable for food is put in that garden. And Adam had the freedom to eat of any and all of them except there’s one you can’t. Now, he has the responsibility to cultivate the garden and don’t eat of that tree.

Verses 18 to 25, chapter two, concludes with the creation of man’s partner. And man’s partner will be the woman. Now in Genesis chapter one, we just said God created man in His own image, male and female He created them. Now, when you come to chapter two you find out how God created a man and a woman. So you have a summary in Genesis one. He created a man in His own image. Man as mankind, humanity. He created a male and a female. How did he do that? Come to Genesis chapter two. He took the dust of the earth and as a potter or a craftsman, He built a man and breathed into that man the breath of life. Then verse 18, “God said it is not good for the man to be alone. I will make a helper suitable for him.” Now, you note, we’ve seen in chapter one that repeatedly it is good, it is good, it is good, it is good. Now, we’re told in verse 18 that it is not good for man to be alone. Now, God didn’t sit back and say, ‘You know, I’ve had a thought. This isn’t a good idea just to have a man. We’ve ought to have a woman too’. We’ve already been told in chapter one that He’s going to make a man and a woman. We’re seeing how He unfolded. It wasn’t complete yet. God never intended just to create one man. That was partial and it’s not good until God creates the woman and completes His purpose. You note, it was very good in chapter 1, verse 31, when He created man and woman. So, we’re just told that it is not good for man to be alone, because God didn’t intend it. It won’t accomplish His purpose for man to be alone. I will make a helper suitable for him. The word helper in no way denotes someone inferior. It’s a word used repeatedly of God Himself. God is spoken as out helper, the Helper of Israel. That doesn’t mean that God is inferior, That God is beneath me, that God was beneath Israel. There is no idea of inferiority here. It’s simply one who will correspond to him. A helper suitable for him. One that will be his counterpart, so that when you have man and woman together, you have that which is good or very good as God declares it in verse 31 in chapter one. Because man and woman together are what God intended when He did the original creation.

We’re told that Adam names the animals in verse 19 and verse 20. And again, we’ve seen that man, male and female, would rule over the creation. Here you see man naming the animals; a picture of his sovereignty over creation. It also indicates that there is a great chasm between man and animals. That man is made in the image of God and he cannot find a counterpart suitable for himself among the animal world. God did not make any of the animals in His own image. So there is nothing for Adam as a suitable counterpart and that would make clear to Adam that God made him to rule in His own image; the tremendous mental capacities to perceive something of these animals’ very nature and so name them. Then, we’re told in verse 21 and 22 that God put Adam into a deep sleep and He took the rib, the side part and He fashioned a woman and brings her to the man. Now, you note, it’s not a separate creation here. It’s a creation out of the man, out of the side part of the man. So, it’s not the little toe and it’s not another part, it’s out of the side part. I take it here, it’s the counterpart for Adam. He recognizes that. In verse 23, he says, “This is bone of my bone, flesh of my flesh, She shall be called woman because she was taken out of man.” See the perception that Adam has in recognizing something of the reality of the situation and the basic nature of the ones involved and naming the woman accordingly. The picture here of sovereignty, the very fact that he names the woman would indicate something of the preeminence that he would have over the woman. That does not have a negative connotation at all, but nonetheless it is there. Paul will develop in the New Testament, that in God’s arrangement and order of things, even in the creation, it was intended that the man be the leader. Now, the woman would be with the man in ruling, but within their relationship the man would be the leader over the woman. “For this cause, a man shall leave his father and mother, shall cleave to his wife and the two shall become one flesh.” God is established what will be the basic human relationship; husband and wife. The two form a unity. They are one in substance, because the woman was made out of the man and they are one in being. I take it it doesn’t refer primarily to a physical, sexual union here. The sexual union is to be an expression of the oneness that God has bonded them together in. This cause a man shall leave his father and mother. You see here the man, as the leader, taking the initiative in making a break. That will be God’s pattern. You see, the fall hasn’t occurred, but God has already told them to multiply and fill the earth; His plan for them that they would produce offspring. It’s God’s intention that this beautiful creation be filled with human beings in His image; the result of the relationship and union of Adam and Eve. They shall become one flesh. Leave, forsake, abandon. Strong idea here. Man is responsible to leave and abandon his parents and cleave to his wife. Cleave to his wife, be glued to her. They become one, inseparable. They have been joined together as a unit of one by God. That’s foundational to the rest of the marriage relationship throughout the New Testament. Verse 25 says, “They were both naked, were not ashamed.” There’s no guilt or no shame at this point. Perfect, complete openness. They’re perfectly at ease in one another’s presence, because there is no sin.

The opening two chapters of Genesis, very crucial. God unfolds the basic. He reveals His own character. He is the sovereign creator, designer of all that exists. He’s omnipotent. He has power over everything. He is distinct from His creation, yet He is involved in it. And He has a purpose for man who was created in His own image. Man, he is the epitome of God’s creation. He is a personal being, created in God’s own image as a reflection of God’s being and God’s character. Now, because of the fall, sin has marred this image, but the Scripture through Old and New Testament, it is clear that man is still in the image of God. But the clarity of that image has been marred by sin. God has created man. He is sovereign over man. Thus, man is responsible to God. He created him. He named him. He has absolute authority over him as the creator over His creation. The man is created mankind as male and female to be complimentary to one another in reflecting the beauty of the character of God. A tremendous section. Resolves a lot of questions and a lot of the issues. You simply believe what God has said. He brought everything into existence, chapter one. Then He unfolds the details of the epitome of His creation, the man as male and female in chapter two.