Genesis Chapter 3: The Curse of Unbelief and the Promised Seed

The time I spent studying and learning and meditating on the words of Scripture in preparation for this study was an [I looked on a thesaurus site and could not find a word to express the delight I had in learning these lessons]. Genesis three contains the entire gospel in one chapter. I literally could go and sit down, look up verses all day that relate to this chapter, and end up writing a book about it. Unfortunately, I didn't have time to do that this weekend, so I included what I could. Just in case you don't see it in the study, you can search for clues to the gospel of God through Jesus Christ preached in this chapter. You will find everything from the knowledge of all temptation and evil in the serpent, all sinful desire in Eve, and behavior in the woman and the man, the secret of all false religion, the reason people generally view God so negatively, the righteous standard of God's law, the insufficiency and failure of all human efforts in covering guilt, God's glorious plan for reconciliation, the death and resurrection, as well as the second coming, final salvation and judgment of Jesus Christ, Satan's demise, the solution to man and woman's greatest problem, God's love, mercy and grace, Paradise lost and restored, God with man together again - to name a few! Enough said, now dig in:

Genesis Chapter 3: The Curse of Unbelief and the Promised Seed

Intro:
Now, we remember that in chapter one, God had made the heavens and the earth and called them "very good." We learned that creation is about God, and it puts His glory on display. In chapter two, we took a closer look at God's wonderful design for man and woman, and the beautiful home they were given in the garden. We also briefly understood that God placed Adam in a position of authority over all the earth - over the plants for growing food, and over the animals as he imitated God by naming them. Man's authority over God's creation was a result of Adam and Eve bearing the image of God. They were given so much in the Paradise of God, and they had a wonderful union and relationship with each other in marriage. Do you remember what words chapter two ended with? "And the man and his wife were both naked and were not ashamed." There was nothing for them to be ashamed of, since they were God's creatures, and everything God had created was very good.

In the next chapter, we are going to learn about how Adam and Eve sinned and fell in the garden. But this story is really not only about man's fall into sin and rebellion against God, it isn't even about Satan, as we will see, it is really about Jesus Christ, the Son of God. This chapter of the Bible shows us the first time God promised redemption through the sacrifice of our Lord and Savior, Jesus.

Chapter 3:

Verse 1
Now the serpent was more crafty than any other beast of the field that the LORD God had made.

What was the serpent more than other beasts of the field? What does it mean to be crafty? Who made the serpent? God made the serpent, even giving him qualities that the other animals did not have. It tells us this "serpent was more crafty than any other beast of the field that the LORD God had made." Crafty means to be skilled in a subtle way; prudent; slick, sly; able to craft schemes; wise in dealing with others. The short answer would be that this serpent was smart. He knew how to get what he was out to accomplish. We get an idea from this verse that this is no ordinary animal, but a creature of God who can rationally act to accomplish its task. Since we know from other parts of the Bible that this is Satan acting here ( Rom. 16:20; 2 Cor. 11:3), then we know that Satan had already fallen by way of sinning against God. We can see from these verses that Satan was using the serpent in order to deceive Adam and Eve, because somehow this serpent began to talk in verse 2!...

Verse 2
He said to the woman, "Did God actually say, 'You shall not eat of any tree in the garden'?

In what form did the serpent speak? It was a question. Who was he questioning? The woman. What was the question about? He questioned the woman about what God 'actually' said concerning eating from the trees of the garden? Look how subtly the question was asked; was it an accurate question? No, what did God actually say? Back in Genesis 2:16-17 it says, "And the LORD God commanded the man, saying, "You may surely eat of every tree of the garden, but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die." And what was the serpent's question again? The serpent said, "Did God actually say, 'You shall not eat of any tree in the garden'?" What did the serpent change about what God said? This shows how crafty and deceitful the serpent is, he was subtly changing God's words so that Eve would question the truth about what God had really said. He was casting confusion in Eve's mind about God's Word, and tempting her to doubt God's Word.

Verse 3
And the woman said to the serpent, "we may eat of the fruit of the trees in the garden, but God said, 'You shall not eat of the fruit of the tree that is in the midst of the garden, neither shall you touch it, lest you die.'"

(Eve had already begun to step away from God when she said this). Doesn't it seem odd that Eve saw a serpent walk up to her and start talking? Now, it is even more odd that she didn't run to her husband and tell him that the serpent was speaking to her! Instead, what did she do? She started talking back to the serpent. She already began acting independently of her husband, whom God had wedded together as one flesh; they were no longer two, but one (Gen. 2:24). The serpent was getting in between the two of them and was beginning to separate them from one another on the most important matter, which is God's truth.

Who did God originally give the command to about the trees in the garden? It was to Adam (Gen. 2:16-17), so he must have told his wife what God had told him. Since Satan was talking to her about God's Word, then it would have been the right thing for her to go to her husband and refer to him to check what God had said. But what did she say to the serpent? She corrected the serpent by saying, "we may eat of the fruit of the trees in the garden..." But did she get it all correct? No. She began to listen to the serpent, and so she started doing what he was leading her to, which was to change what God had said. Did God say the tree in the midst of the garden was not to be touched? No. He simply commanded them not to eat from it. And notice also how Eve quoted it by saying, "lest you die." It's almost as if she was softening the command from "you shall surely die," to "lest you die."

What do you think God's original command was intended to do – to kill or to keep alive? If they kept God's command to not eat that fruit, they would not die. So we see it was intended to keep them living if they obeyed. But Satan wanted to take life away from Adam and Eve by twisting the Words of God, casting doubt in Eve's mind about God's goodness, and causing Eve herself to begin to distort the truth. It began by listening to the wrong person. Instead of listening to God's Word by listening to what Adam was really told, Eve fell right into Satan's trap by listening to a distortion of the truth right from the mouth of the devil, who was disguised as a serpent.

Verses 4-5
But the serpent said to the woman, "You will not surely die. For God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil."

How did Satan tempt Eve with these words? What words did he use to help Eve reject God's Word altogether? First, he said, "You will not surely die." What had God said? God had said to Adam that if they ate of that tree, they would "surely die." Satan turns it around and flat out lied to Eve by saying the very opposite, "You will not surely die." Right here, Satan is calling God a liar. It was as if God did not tell them the whole truth, and that it would not go as God had said if they ate, so here is this serpent to tell them the real truth about what would “actually happen”.

The serpent told Eve that death was not the result of eating the forbidden fruit. He also tempted Eve by saying that they would be enlightened and would be like God if they ate it, knowing good and evil. He was telling Eve that God did not have her best interests in mind and that God was trying to hide something really good from her. That being made in the image and likeness of God was somehow not good enough, so she had to eat from this fruit to really become like God. This is idolatry in its worst form. Satan tempted Eve with the very same sin that made him fall. In Isaiah 14:12-15, God told Isaiah what they would say concerning the King of Babylon (who in this context seems to be referring also to Satan). He goes on to quote him as saying, "I will make myself like the Most High.'" (Isaiah 14:14). Here, the devil was tempting Eve by telling her she could make herself like the Most High, and in that way it is as if she could become a god.

Now Eve was faced with the choice of who to listen to and who to believe. Either believe God - whom she knew to be good, faithful and true, as her Creator and Provider - or she could believe a talking serpent who was twisting Scripture and telling her lies. Jesus spoke to the Jewish leaders about Satan in John 8:44, "You are of your father the devil, and your will is to do your father's desires. He was a murderer from the beginning, and has nothing to do with the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he lies, he speaks out of his own character, for he is a liar and the father of lies."

Verse 6
So when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was a delight to the eyes, and that the tree was to be desired to make one wise, she took of its fruit and ate, and she also gave some to her husband who was with her, and he ate.

What did Eve see about the tree? What was appealing about it to her? What did she do after she saw those things? Where was her husband when she gave some to him? Eve saw three things that were appealing to her about the tree God commanded them not to eat from: 1) it was good for food, 2) it was beautiful and looked good to her eyes, 3) it was desired for gaining knowledge and wisdom. These three things are at the heart of all temptations to sin. 1 John 2:15-17 says, "Do not love the world or the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For all that is in the world - the desires of the flesh and the desires of the eyes and pride in possessions - is not from the Father but is from the world. And the world is passing away along with its desires, but whoever does the will of God abides forever." All temptations is rooted in the desire to please the flesh, the desire for what looks good, and the desire to take pride in what one has in this life. That is what Eve was tempted with. She wanted to do what her body felt like doing, thinking it would taste or feel good. She wanted to have what looked so outwardly appealing to her eyes. She wanted what would make her wise so she could have put confidence in what she could know and have for herself. So these sins can be categorized as 1) sinful pleasures (not the good pleasures, but those that are forbidden), 2) lust after beauty, 3) pride in self.

After Eve was tempted, and her heart began to lust for what was forbidden, she took the fruit and ate it. James 1:1-16 says about this, "Let no one say when he is tempted, "I am being tempted by God," for God cannot be tempted with evil, and he himself tempts no one. But each person is tempted when he is lured and enticed by his own desire. Then desire when it has conceived gives birth to sin, and sin when it is fully grown brings forth death. Do not be deceived my beloved brothers." Her desire for what Satan tempted her with grew so strong that she had to have it. She grabbed for it, wanting to "get her own." She got it and devoured it, thinking it was going to be so satisfying, forgetting that in the end it leads to DEATH! Proverbs 16:25 says, "There is a way that seems right to a man, but its end is the way to death." That was the way Eve took.

It then says, "She also gave some to her husband who was with her, and he ate." Adam was right there with her when all this was going on! He said nothing to protect her from the serpent's deception! He did not even try to stop her from eating what he knew God had forbidden. They had all kinds of beautiful, amazing, pleasing things in the garden to enjoy, but they went for the one thing they were not aloud to have. Adam, instead of being the head over his wife and leading her in the ways of God, he became the weak one and he followed his wife into sin. This act marked their utter rejection of God and their fall into irreversible guilt. It was Adam's sin to let Eve speak with a lying serpent and not even do anything to try to lead her in the truth. That is why (as we'll see in the following verses) God spoke first to Adam and held him accountable.

Verse 7
"Then the eyes of both were opened, and they knew that they were naked. And they sewed fig leaves together and made themselves loincloths."

What happened immediately after they ate from the tree God commanded them not to eat from? The eyes of them both were opened. And what did that cause them to know? They knew they were naked. And what did they do to themselves after that? They made themselves loincloths out of fig leaves.

Here are the immediate results of their sin: 1) they did receive knowledge of good and evil, because their eyes were opened; 2) they knew something about themselves that they did not realize before - that they were naked - and this knowledge brought shame; 3) they tried to do something to cover up their nakedness and shame. Okay, now you know where everything from the fashion industry to every philosophy and religion originated. It all started with Adam and Eve trying to cover themselves in the garden. Remember how chapter 2 ended by saying, "And the man and his wife were both naked and were not ashamed." In this scene, they were both naked and they WERE ashamed.

All false religion is an attempt to cover man's shameful nakedness. False religions and philosophies do not want to admit that people are as bad as we are. So they make up a way to cover our true condition by saying we are good, or that we do wrong things but are still able to make up for our faults by following certain rules or ceremonies or ordinances or philosophical ideas. Right here in the garden, false religion started with Adam and Eve, and it was a human works/efforts based religion. It was man-centered, trying to cover up their shame.

Proverbs 28:13 puts it in a clear light, "Whoever conceals his transgressions will not prosper, but he who confesses and forsakes them will obtain mercy." And 1 John 1:8-9 also says, "If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness." Sin is a serious matter that we have to admit, because to hide it (as Adam and Eve attempted to do) is the same as saying we don't have it. But as we'll see, there is another way to get free from the guilt. The verses we just looked at both mentioned confession of sin as a very important part of being relieved from the guilt of it. However, confessing our sin to God is only one part of being forgiven, it does not earn us forgiveness. Going around admitting our guilt all the time will not help us find forgiveness, it only helps us realize we have a NEED to be forgiven. If Adam and Eve had not tried to cover their guilt and shame, but would have openly confessed their sin, they still would have died. God's law would continue to be just, holy and true. It said, "in the day you eat of it you will surely die." No confession could take away that penalty - neither could covering themselves with leaves. Nothing could hide it, yet nothing they did could bring them forgiveness either. So by realizing that, we are directed now to look to God for an answer.

Verses 8-11

And they heard the sound of the LORD God walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and the man and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the LORD God among the trees of the garden. But the LORD God called the man and said to him, “Where are you?” And he said, “I heard the sound of you in the garden, and I was afraid, because I was naked, and I hid myself.” He said, “Who told you that you were naked? Have you eaten of the tree of which I commanded you not to eat?”

God was walking in the garden – this would have been Jesus Christ appearing to them even before He was incarnated through the virgin Mary, because John 1:18 says, “No one has ever seen God.” So it must have been what we call a “pre-incarnate” appearance of God. This happens often throughout the book of Genesis, where God appears to people, but he looks like a man, and it is actually God the Son, Jesus appearing to them. This happened a number of times with Abraham.

What did Adam and Eve do when they heard God walking? They hid themselves. What did God say to Adam? “Where are you?” Did God not know where Adam was? Of course He knew, God knows everything, but perhaps He was helping Adam see something about himself. It's like when a little kid hides, and we say, “Where's little Jenny? I don't know where she went?” And then little Jenny pops out and says, “Here I am!” However, in this case, Adam was hiding because of real shame. So what caused Adam to be afraid? “I heard the sound of you...” he was afraid of God seeing him naked. God answered by saying, “Who told you that you were naked? Have you eaten from the tree of which I commanded you not to eat?”

Verses 12-13

The man said, “The woman whom you gave to be with me, she gave me fruit of the tree, and I ate.” Then the LORD God said to the woman, “What is this that you have done?” The woman said, “The serpent deceived me, and I ate.”

How did Adam answer God? He shifted the blame away from himself unto the woman whom God had put there with him. It's like he was saying, “Uh, this woman that you put here to be with me, she made me do it.”

When God asked the woman about it, how did she answer? She shifted the blame to the serpent. “It was the serpents fault for deceiving me.” This was the first instance of “the blame game.” Neither of them confessed themselves to be guilty, but instead kept hiding their shame by emphasizing the faults of others. We still do this today, we don't want to feel bad about ourselves so we blame the government, or the doctors or the teachers, or the parents, or our brother or sister. I am guilty of doing this... we all are.

Verses 14-15

The LORD God said to the serpent, “

Because you have done this, cursed are you above all livestock and above all beasts of the field; on your belly you shall go, and dust you shall eat all the days of your life. I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and her offspring; he shall bruise your head and you shall bruise his heel.”

This is where we first see a ray of hope for Adam and Eve. God spoke to the serpent, and didn't even question him, but just declared, “Because you did this, cursed are you...” What was the curse about that God pronounced on the serpent? It was cursed above all livestock and beasts of the field; it was to crawl on its belly and eat dust. What else would happen? God said He would put enmity between the serpent and the woman, and between their offspring. What would the woman's offspring do to the serpent? He would bruise the serpent's head. And what would the serpent do to him? The serpent would bruise his heel.

This curse on the serpent contained the first promise of a redeemer who would come to destroy the devil. That redeemer is Jesus. The rest of the Old Testament is focused on showing us how that redeemer was going to come, and what ways He would come, and who He would be. The New Testament is then the declaration of good news, that this man (the promised “seed”) has come and has fulfilled all the prophecies of His coming, and His name is Jesus, and He came to save everyone who repents and believes in Him, and He will come again a second time to judge the world and to restore all things back to Paradise with God.

If this chapter of the Bible wasn't here, then we would not have a Bible at all, because this is the very foundation that all of the Bible is built on.

Verse 16

To the woman he said,

“I will surely multiply your pain in childbearing; in pain you shall bring forth children. Your desire shall be for your husband, and he shall rule over you.”

What did God say to curse the woman? She was cursed in her relationships. She was cursed in relation to her children, because she would have pain in bringing them forth; and she was cursed in relation to her husband, because her desire would be for him [or against him], but he would rule over her (She would desire a loving husband, but he would rule over her, and she would also desire to be against her husband as the feminist movement so proudly endorses – she would desire to rule over him instead).

Verse 17-19

And to Adam he said,

“Because you have listened to the voice of your wife and have eaten of the tree of which I commanded you , 'You shall not eat of it,' cursed is the ground because of you; in pain you shall eat of it all the days of your life; thorns and thistles it shall bring forth for you; and you shall eat the plants of the field. By the sweat of your face you shall eat bread, till you return to the ground, for out of it you were taken, for you are dust, and to dust you shall return.”

What did God say to curse Adam? Because he listened to Eve, his wife, and transgressed God's command by eating, God cursed his labor. The ground was cursed so that it would be painful to work to produce food; it would also have thorns and thistles to make it hard, so that by “the sweat of your face” man would eat bread until he died.

What a curse!... A serious consequence for not listening to God. And that is exactly what the serpent wanted to happen to Adam and Eve, which is why Jesus called him a “murderer” in John 8:44.

But it doesn't end there either...

Verses 20-21

The man called his wife's name Eve, because she was the mother of all living. And the LORD God made for Adam and for his wife garments of skins and clothed them.

This story isn't ending, it is just beginning. What did Adam name his wife and why? Adam had faith, that is why he called his wife's name Eve, because she was to be the mother of all the living (I have been using her name Eve all along, but the Bible doesn't give her that name until now in verse 20). God just cursed man and woman and told them they would die, yet they must have believed they would have descendants who would be “living.” The only reason I can think of for this is that they must have believed the promise God said to the serpent, “I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and her offspring; he shall bruise your head, and you shall bruise his heel.” They believed that promise, and that promise was about Jesus, so they believed in Jesus Christ as God's chosen Redeemer.

What else did God do for them in verse 21? He made clothing for them from animal skins. Many people, including myself, believe that God killed the first lamb and used its skin to make coverings for Adam and Eve. This was to symbolize that Jesus would be the “Lamb who was slain,” and the “Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world!” (Revelation 5:12; John 1:29).

Verses 22-24

Then the LORD God said, “Behold, the man has become like one of us in knowing good and evil. Now, lest he reach out his hand and take also of the tree of life and eat, and live forever--” therefore the LORD God sent him out from the garden of Eden to work the ground from which he was taken. He drove out the man, and at the east of the garden of Eden he placed the cherubim and a flaming sword that turned every way to guard the way to the tree of life.

What did God do with the man in this passage? He sent him out of the garden, so that he wouldn't eat from the tree of life and live forever, and so that he would have to work in the ground from which he came. What was put in place to guard the garden of Eden? Cherubim and a flaming sword – cherubim are like the most amazing heavenly creatures the Bible speaks about, they are often seen standing around God's throne.

So we see that sin has banished man from the Paradise garden God had originally place him in. Mankind has no right anymore to eternal life, because God cursed him. Every single one of us is related to each other through these two people. We all come from Adam and Eve, who because they listened to the serpent and sinned, were cursed and banished from the presence of God. We are born into this curse, until God changes that. And that is what our study is meant to turn us to, the amazing good news of how God, in His great love, sent His own Son into the world, not to condemn the world, but that the world might be saved through Him (John 3:16-17).

(Genesis is known for looking like all is going to end badly, but then God does something and turns it all around so that everything bad works out for good to fulfill God's ultimate purpose and plan).

Genesis Chapter two: Man and Woman

Man and Woman Married in the Garden

This Bible study may be lengthy, but as I read through it over and over again, I didn't feel like I could eliminate any more information. There is plenty more I could add, but that would not be convenient to the Bible study group we have Sunday evenings. I usually teach, asking questions and looking closely at the Scripture verses for about 50 minutes. The text itself only takes about 5 to 10 minutes of reading. For anyone who would take the time to read this lengthy post, just know that the study of man and woman in the Garden from Genesis chapter two, really is enormously beneficial to our faith. Especially for helping us understand better what a fall they took when they chose to listen to the serpent and eat from the forbidden fruit in Genesis chapter three.

And now, enjoy God's amazing Design for man and woman at your own delight:

Verses 1-3

Thus the heavens and the earth were finished, and all the host of them. And on the seventh day God finished his work that he had done, and he rested on the seventh day from all his work that he had done. So God blessed the seventh day and made it holy, because on it God rested from all his work that he had done in creation.

What is so significant about the seventh day? What did God do on the seventh day? It says, "all the host" of the heavens and earth were finished, and that "God rested from all his work that he had done in creation" on the seventh day. Was God tired, so that he needed to rest and take a break? No way! God never sleeps. He doesn't ever get weary (Psalm 121:3-4). So how did He rest? It says twice that God "finished" all the work of creation, and twice that He "rested" from his work that He had done in creation. So the rest God spoke of was not to recover energy, but He was resting from His work and no longer creating anything. It was all finished in six days, and now the seventh day marks it as being complete. This is why we have seven day weeks. And when God gave the Ten Commandments to Moses, He set apart Saturday as the Sabbath, because He said, "For in six days the LORD made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that is in them, and rested on the seventh day. Therefore the LORD blessed the Sabbath day and made it holy." (Exodus 20:11). The Christian finds true rest in Christ alone - in Him we find the fulfillment of man's Sabbath rest (Hebrews 4:1-13). Those who enter God's rest, rest from their own works, yet whoever does not believe is cursed and will never find rest (Hebrews 3:11-12).

Verse 4

These are the generations of the heavens and the earth when they were created, in the day that the LORD God made the earth and the heavens.

This is sort of a summary verse. It leads into the next verses that describe some of the things God did when He prepared the garden and put man in it. So we are backing up in time here, back to the six days of creation, here described as "in the day that the LORD God made the earth and the heavens." This was before the day God rested from His work...

Verses 5-6

When no bush of the field was yet in the land and no small plant of the field had yet sprung up - for the LORD God had not caused it to rain on the land, and there was no man to work the ground, and a mist [a spring] was going up from the land and was watering the whole face of the ground -

What was not yet in the land or field? What was missing from the garden? Here it is telling us that this was before there were any field shrubs and small plants for man to cultivate and grow in the ground (such as wheat, barley, oats, and other types of food that we grow on farms in fields). And the reason it gives for this, is that "God had not caused it to rain on the land." There was also a key figure missing from the scene. Man had not been created yet, but we see God setting the stage for man's appearance. There was also a "mist" (and here the translators put the word "spring" in the footnote, because the original word means "flow"). So what could have been a spring instead of a mist, or more literally "flow," was going up from the land... and what was it doing? [It was "watering the whole face of the ground"]. It seems to me that this gives us the idea that there was a flow of water running up from the earth, and as it flowed out across the land, it caused everything to be watered all over the ground. Water was just flowing over all of the land and watering it abundantly. Psalm 104 confirms this when it says about creation, "You make springs gush forth in the valleys; they flow between the hills;..." (Psalm 104:10). So this water would have caused the garden to be beautiful and lush. It was literally Paradise.

Verse 7

then the LORD God formed the man of dust from the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living creature.

What did God form? From what did He form the man? How did the man become a living creature? This verse makes it very clear that God is the source of life. It is the "breath of the Almighty" that gives life (Job 33:4). Otherwise, how do you explain life? Scientists are still trying to figure out how amino acids formed billions of years ago to become living cells. I read a news article [http://www.livescience.com/strangenews/070822_gm_life_origins.html] that asked the question to a bunch of the world's leading scientists about where life originated. All of them gave fancy answers in scientific language for "We don't know." Some suggested that maybe life originated on another planet and came here by an asteroid. But that leaves another question of "How did life originate on that other planet?" None of the scientists knew the answer. Some basically said that it would take a miracle for life to begin, yet they didn't know if they would ever learn what that miracle was. You know what... they aren't ever going to figure it out, not unless they can acknowledge that God is the one who makes things live.

Notice again how God made the man come to life - He "breathed into his nostrils the breath of [air?]... no, the breath of life." What is this "breath of life"? It seems to me that this is the spirit in man that makes him a living being. Without the breath of life, man would be a lump of flesh formed out of dirt. But God took a lump of dirt, formed it into human flesh, and then breathed life into the man. This is more than making the man of living cells. There are living cells in every living creature, in our brains, in our skin, making up every part of our bodies. This is probably more than that, and may also refer to what makes the man conscious, not just a well built functional body. Job 33:4 says, "The Spirit of God has made me, and the breath of the Almighty gives me life."

And the man became a living what? [A creature]. Man is a creature, which means that he is a creation of God. Since God is the Creator of man, then man belongs to God. God is the one who determines what is right and wrong for man, man does not determine for himself. This is very important for us to realize about ourselves.

Verses 8-9

And the LORD God planted a garden in Eden, in the east, and there he put the man whom he had formed. And out of the ground the LORD God made to spring up every tree that is pleasant to the sight and good for food. The tree of life was in the midst of the garden, and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.

What did the LORD God plant? Where did He plant this garden? [God planted the garden in Eden, in the east - this would have been somewhere in the Middle East.] What was the purpose of this garden that God planted? ["...and there he put the man whom he had formed." The Paradise garden was man's original home.] What was in the garden? [Remember that God made a spring to flow with water everywhere, so this garden was well-watered, lush, very beautiful. There were trees there. Trees that were "pleasant to the sight and good for food." Also there were two trees in the midst of the garden - "the tree of life" and "the tree of the knowledge of good and evil."]

These next verses tell us a little about what the garden in Eden was like...

Verses 10-14

A river flowed out of Eden to water the garden, and there it divided and became four rivers. The name of the first is the Pishon. It is the one that flowed around the whole land of Havilah, where there is gold. And the gold of that land is good; bdellium and onyx stone are there. The name of the second river is the Gihon. It is the one that flowed around the whole land of Cush. And the name of the third river is the Tigris, which flows east of Assyria. And the fourth river is the Euphrates.

What flowed out of Eden, and what was it doing? Here we learn of this flowing river that watered the garden in Eden. It divided into these four rivers: 1) the Pishon, where the best gold in the world was found, as well as other precious stones and gems; 2) the Gihon, which flowed all around the land of Cush; 3) the Tigris, which was east of Assyria; and 4) the Euphrates (the Tigris and Euphrates in our time runs through Iraq and empties into the Persian Gulf in Kuwait). These four rivers all started from the river in Eden where the garden was. Together they cover a lot of land, probably all of what we now call the Middle East.

Verse 15

Then the LORD God took the man and put him in the garden of Eden to work it and keep it.

What did the LORD do with the man in verse 15? What job did He give the man to do? So we see that God originally designed man to be a gardener, to do work, to care for the garden that He made for the man to enjoy. God first prepared the garden, then He made the man and put him in the garden to do what God had designed him to do.

Verses 16-17

And the LORD God commanded the man, saying, "You may surely eat of every tree of the garden, but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die."

What was the command that God gave to the man? God has always given commands from the beginning. He does not give suggestions, or advice. No, God is not like us, all authority belongs to Him as the Almighty Creator. So He gave the command that the man "may surely eat of every tree in the garden." He commanded the man to freely eat (in Hebrew it says, "eat eat," with the repetition emphasizing that he may freely and surely eat of all the trees to his enjoyment).

But that was not where the command ended. What was he not allowed to eat? What would happen in the day he ate? God said that of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil "you shall not eat." That is a direct, clear and negative command. So here is this tree, the one tree God forbids man to eat from. No big deal... right? The man had all kinds of other gorgeous looking trees to eat from. And so God told him why he must not eat from this tree of the knowledge of good and evil, and the reason was "for in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die." And what is death? It is to be separated from the source of life. Death is the opposite of living. If the man ate from this tree, he would be cut off from the life that God had breathed into his nostrils, and so he would perish. So death is the fate of all who disobey God's commands, "For the wages of sin is death..." (Romans 6:23a). Death was absolutely sure for disobedience to God's commandment. So the command implies that he would keep living if he did not eat of that one tree.

Verses 18-20

Then the LORD God said, "It is not good that the man should be alone; I will make him a helper fit for him. Now out of the ground the LORD God had formed every beast of the field and every bird of the heavens and brought them to the man to see what he would call them. And whatever the man called every living creature, that was its name. The man gave names to all livestock and to the birds of the heavens and to every beast of the field. But for Adam there was not found a helper fit for him.

What did God say "is not good"? What was God going to make for him? God said he would make a suitable helper for Adam, so God brought all the animals and birds to Adam and had him name them. But God also showed him something: Among all the animals, was there a single one like him? Adam was created in the image and likeness of God (Gen. 1:27). None of the animals were made like him. None of them could correspond to Adam, since he was a human and they were not. There was no suitable helper found for the man. Adam was missing his mate, his "helper fit for him."

Verses 21-22

So the LORD God caused a deep sleep to fall upon the man, and while he he slept he took one of his ribs and closed up its place with flesh. And the rib that the LORD God had taken from the man he made into a woman and brought her to the man.

The LORD God had just shown man all the animals and the man gave them names, however, none of the animals were fit to be his helper in the garden. So what did God do with the man? God operated on Adam! He anesthetized him, so the man was knocked out - in a deep sleep. Adam didn't feel a thing while God cut him open. And what did God take out of him? He took one of his ribs (or in Hebrew it could mean "side"), so God took flesh and bone from Adam and fashioned a woman from it. God also healed Adam like a skillful surgeon, closing up his wound with flesh. So here we see God operating on the man, he takes some flesh and bone from his side, heals the wound, and then fashions from it a woman for the man. (This was not only the first operation, but the first miraculous healing we read about in Scripture - and what God made from Adam's side was certainly a real miracle!) It then says He "brought her to the man." Can you imagine Adam's reaction when he saw this woman?

I can... look what he said next:

Verse 23

Then the man said, "This at last is bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh; she shall be called Woman, because she was taken out of Man."

This was the first love poem in the world... and it was about a woman! I think Adam was a bit excited to name this new creature of God. He called her Woman, which in Hebrew is similar to the word for Man (Hebrew: 'Ish and 'Ishah, sometimes literally 'husband' and 'wife'). Why did he call her Woman? It says, "because she was taken out of Man." She was literally close to his heart. God made woman in a very special way. Instead of forming her from the dust of the ground as He did with all the animals as well as the man, God fashioned her from the very flesh and bone that came from Adam's side. He made her for the man. She came from him, and only together with her was he complete. They were literally of the same flesh and bone. It's as if Adam was saying, "This is the part of me that was missing... here she is at last!" ["At last..." after he had waited a whole day without her :)]

In the sense of being of the same 'flesh and bone', man and woman are both created equal as counterparts. Do you understand what that means? Does saying they are 'created equal' mean that they both can bear children? If not, then what does it mean? Does it mean they are both the same physically? Does it mean they were both created to fulfill the same roles? No, no, no. The answer is, they are created equal in their humanity and value before God, but not in their purpose and function. Do you know what the words "counterpart" or "complimentary" mean? It means they are two different parts that fit together to make a whole. That is how God created man and woman, to both fit together as one, to both compliment each other in perfect union. That is also the meaning of marriage as we'll find out...

Verse 24

Therefore a man shall leave his father and his mother and hold fast to his wife, and they shall become one flesh.

This verse is about marriage. Marriage is given by God as a picture of His love for His elect Church. Paul said in Ephesians 5:32 that marriage is a profound mystery which refers to Christ and the church, so this is very important in God's design.

What does it say a man shall leave? To leave father and mother is to be separated from them. From childhood on up, a son is united to his parents and family. What does he do when he leaves them? He leaves them to "hold fast to his wife." To hold fast, means he clings to her. They stick together like glue. What do they become? That glue forms a bond between them and they become "one flesh." This means they are no longer two, but one in body. They are united, completed, and fulfilled with each other. This is the way God designed marriage. They cling to each other for life, holding fast.

When Jesus was asked whether it is okay to divorce after being married, this was his answer: "Have you not read that he who created them from the beginning made them male and female, and said, 'Therefore a man shall leave his father and his mother and hold fast to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh'? So they are no longer two but one flesh. What therefore God has joined together, let not man separate." (Matthew 19:4-6). So Jesus claimed that Genesis 2:24 are God's words, God said "the two shall become one flesh." That is the way God made man and woman for each other in marriage. Any other way is to sin against God. We break God's will for man and woman when we try to "hook up" apart from "holding fast" to one wife or husband. This is also why homosexuality, and all other sexual sin is clearly an act of rebellion against God's good design for man and woman in marriage.

Marriage was created to communicate God's love for His church (see Ephesians 5:22-33). Christ loves His bride, His people, the Church. He came to her from Heaven, leaving His Father in Heaven to get a hold on her. He took her pain on Himself, her sorrows, her evil sin was placed on His shoulders to carry. He suffered and died for her upon the cross. He loved her to the death. (He loved his Church more than Romeo loved Juliet). He died and rose again, so that as Ephesians 5 says, "Husbands, love your wives, as Christ loved the church and gave Himself up for her, that He might sanctify her, having cleansed her by the washing of water with the word, so that he might present the church to Himself in splendor [that means magnificent, glorious beauty], without spot or wrinkle or any such thing, that she might be holy and without blemish." (Ephesians 5:25-27). He gave her His engagement ring of the gift of the Holy Spirit (Eph. 1:13-14). This is to guarantee that Jesus will come back to her at the appointed time, and will rescue her from this evil world, and will take her to be with Himself forever in a perfect bond of Heavenly delight and love that far surpasses what earthly marriage can only dimly represent. Paul said, "This mystery is profound, and I am saying it refers to Christ and the church."

We don't have time to talk more about Biblical manhood and womanhood and the different roles they have together, but let's end by looking closer at the last verse:

Verse 25

And the man and his wife were both naked and were not ashamed.

What were the man and his wife dressed like? Were they ashamed? What did they have to be ashamed of?

What was there to be ashamed of? They were stripped down to the skin, and they were not ashamed. They had nothing to be ashamed of. What is shame? Shame is what we feel when we have done something seriously wrong and feel guilty. Shame is a testimony against us that we have guilt, sin, that we are unclean, defiled and unholy. Adam and Eve were together in the garden, God had united them together in marriage, and they were not ashamed. There was no sin, and so there was no reason to be ashamed. God created marriage, and everything God created was good.

(In our day, sin has corrupted the world and everything in it since Adam and Eve fell, but sin has especially corrupted sexuality and marriage). Hebrews 13:4 says, "Let marriage be held in honor among all, and let the marriage bed be undefiled, for God will judge the sexually immoral and adulterous." And you know that we are all guilty, since Jesus said that to look with lustful intent is adulterous and immoral (Matthew 5:28). But you know what, the Bible promises that for those who are saved and rescued by the blood of Jesus, all their shame is removed and God is pleased to give them far more than what Adam and Eve experienced in the garden. I'm not kidding; some of us here may not live long enough to get married. We often imagine it, thinking it is going to be so good, but like I've shared before, I know someone who died at age 23. Others die at 18, 20, 21, some die at 15 or 16. None of us is guaranteed a fulfilled life here on earth, since we are all sinners and deserve to die (Rom. 6:23). The only reason we enjoy any life on earth at all is because of God's abundant mercies. But know this, Psalm 34:5 says, "Those who look to him [to Christ] are radiant, and their faces shall never be ashamed." That is our hope, that in looking to Jesus, our shame is removed at the cross, death is defeated at the empty tomb, and Christ is going to return to give those who are saved an eternal inheritance with Him, experiencing the love of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit forever and ever. And although marriage is a picture of that, it cannot ultimately satisfy, since it is a relationship tainted by sin. But those who are saved, are satisfied forever. We all want to be married, but do we all want to live eternally in joyful communion with the living God? Ask yourself that.

The Miracle of Creation, part 2

Here is a fascinating fact about our incredible world, which I read from John MacArthur's sermon on this chapter:

The earth is 25 thousand miles in circumference. It weighs six septillion, five-hundred and eighty-six, six trillion tons. Hangs in empty space. Spins at a thousand miles an hour with perfect balance and that's important so that you're not just jumping every time the earth moves. At the same time that it's spinning at a thousand miles an hour, it is moving through space around the sun at a thousand miles a minute in an orbit of 580 million miles and does so at a perfect angle set to create the seasons which provide all the crops, which feed its inhabitants."
- John MacArthur, Sermon Transcript: Creation Day 5.

That is what we learned God was doing when we read the first half of this chapter last week. This time, we are going to look at the second half of Genesis chapter 1, and how God created all the living things on earth, including man and woman.

Genesis 1:20-2:3 ESV

Study Notes:
Verse 20
And God said, "Let the waters swarm with swarms of living creatures, and let birds fly above the earth across the expanse of the heavens."

What is the first thing God did here in this verse? ["And God said..." He spoke.] What did God say? What were the waters to be filled with? [Living creatures that swarm in the waters.] And what did He say should be in the expanse of the heavens? [Birds that fly above the earth across the sky.]

Here we read of the first mention of life on earth. This really amazes me, because only God can make things live. These creatures were to be living creatures. They were not like the lifeless globe that God formed to be the world, or like the galaxies of stars and other planets; or like the water, the land, or even like the plants He made to grow on the earth. None of the things God made on earth before verse 20 were living. [It is possible that He had already created living angels and heavenly creatures, but Genesis 1 does not give us an account of that]. So here is the first sign of life on earth. God gave the command and the waters swarmed with swarms of living creatures.

Do you know what lives in the oceans? All kinds of living creatures: from fish to whales, crabs to sea horses. There are coral reefs, turtles, shrimp, krill, giant squid, eels, sea serpents, sponges, and countless schools of fish (some even with glowing lanterns deep in the dark of the oceans). I once saw a school of small fish swimming around the city of Pittsburgh. I was standing on the point where the three rivers meet, and I looked down into the water, and all the way around the point there were thousands of small fish swimming right up next to the wall. They were swarming, just as God commanded, and the waters of the earth are full of creatures that swarm and swim. Literally full of them! Does any one know how many different kinds of aquatic creatures there are in the earth? Does any one know how many different kinds of birds and flying creatures there are on the earth? [Nobody knows, the earth is simply full of them.]

Verses 21-23
So God created the great sea creatures and every living creature that moves , with which the waters swarm, according to their kinds, 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 in the seas, and let birds multiply on the earth." And there was evening and there was morning, the fifth day.

Do you remember what this means when it says, "according to their kinds..."? Well, we already learned that God created plants bearing seed each according to their kinds, back in verse 11. Do you remember what is in the seed? What is needed in order to reproduce? Well, I asked if you understood what DNA was last week. All of you either have learned about it in biology or will if you go to college. DNA contains the genetic information stored within the cells of all living organisms. It is the information that gives exact instructions for every detail that makes up a living thing. So when God created each creature in the sea and in the air according to their kinds, He coded each different kind with specific information that can only reproduce more creatures of exactly the same kind. Hummingbirds produce more hummingbirds, because they have the same DNA and genetic information that gives instructions to build every part of their little bodies - from the color of their feathers to the structure of their wings, every part is built exactly as the DNA is coded for. You know what is really interesting about birds and fish? Something they both have in common? They both have an incomprehensible built-in navigation system that allows them to find their way to certain parts of the world no matter what. You know how Salmon can swim from the ocean all the way to your back yard out in the middle of nowhere, in order to get to the right breeding ground where they were born. There is a certain bird that is hatched in Alaska. As soon as it breeds and lays eggs, it begins eating like a pig. It eats and eats and eats, until it gains all this weight (about 7.5 grams... nothing to worry about, its a small bird). Once a certain time of the year comes around, it has to have all its weight gained at the right time, then it takes off along with all the other little guys. They have to weigh just the right amount of grams, or they can't make the non-stop straight flight from Alaska to Hawaii. That's right, they fly across the Atlantic Ocean all the way to Hawaii without stopping. They all have to fly together or they won't make it, because when they fly in groups one gets behind the other and that saves on gas, you know :). They'll die if they don't eat enough food, or if they don't stick with the crowd. When they get to Hawaii, they all know exactly where to go and they land on the exact shore all the other birds have landed before them, even though they've never been to this place and they don't know what a map is! Their offspring do the same thing, same travel route, same time, same place. No scientist knows how they have this knowledge. Well, its easy to explain, God put it in them when He created them for His own good pleasure.

And how did God see all that He had made in the sea and in the air (end of verse 23) ? ["And God saw that it was good."] Notice again that these creatures were living. This amazes me. God created the stars and galaxies in the billions and billions. He even made other planets in the universe. Some with a blend of cosmic gases and heat, some ice cold, some desert rock and wastes, others contain cosmic storms that never seem to end, but the earth was created for life to dwell on it. It is the only one of its kind. That is very profound when you think about it. Notice how God blessed the living creatures? God's blessing was that they would multiply and fill the earth. Did they do what God said? The earth as we know it, is literally filled with creatures in the sea, in lakes, rivers and water everywhere. There are all types of birds that fly in all kinds of amazing ways, and you see them all over. They're all real, live, breathing, eating, swimming and flying creatures. Like I said, amazing! What day was all of this on? [Thursday is the fifth day.]

Verses 24-25
And God said, "Let the earth bring forth living creatures according to their kinds - livestock and creeping things and beasts of the earth according to their kinds." And it was so. And God made the beasts of the earth according to their kinds and the livestock according to their kinds, and everything that creeps on the ground according to its kind. And God saw that it was good.

This is another day. The day before this, God had already made living creatures in the waters and the birds of the air. What types of living creatures are mentioned here, and where do they live? ["Let the earth bring forth... livestock... and creeping things... and beasts of the earth according to their kinds."]. God made living creatures to occupy every sphere of the planet earth - fish and creatures in the sea, flying birds and creatures in the air, and finally, living creatures on the earth (on land). Again, "each according to their kinds." This would include every type of giant dinosaur to all the tiny insects. They all reproduce after their kinds (according to the precoded DNA information structure within each kind of animal... no evolution supported here). Evolution says they change from one kind (i.e. a fish) into a completely different kind (i.e. an amphibian, then a lizard, then a mammal and so on). That is not at all what the Bible teaches. The Bible teaches that God created them according to each kind from the beginning. Did you know that science can prove this is true? No one has ever been able to find an animal that changed kinds, they only change traits within their kinds when genes get mixed around after breeding. No lizard has the ability to grow feathers and become a bird. That does not happen, and it is not possible, since there is no built-in genetic info (DNA) to make it happen. However, you can get a variety of dogs from Great Danes to Chihuahuas, from wolves to poodles, but they are all within the dog family.

Again, God said it. It came to be, and now the whole earth is populated with every kind of land animal, beast and creeping thing (which includes insects, lizards and even animals that crawl low to the ground.

How did God see what He had made this time? [v25, "And God saw that it was good."] As we read these miracles of creation, do you get the idea that everything God does is good? :)

Verses 26-27
Then God said, "Let us make man in our image, after our likeness. And let them have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over the livestock and 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.

Who is being created in verse 26? What did God say He created man like? Notice how God referred to Himself when He said, "Let us make man in our image, after our likeness." This is a clear reference to the plural (or triune) nature of God - that He is Father, Son and Holy Spirit - One God, yet three. The Trinity is a mystery. We have a hard time grasping the idea that God is one, not many, and that God is clearly Father, Son and Holy Spirit. This is a very deep mystery to us in many ways. (God is hard for us to explain outside of what the Bible says about Him).

There are a number of ways in which God created man after His own image and in His own likeness. (First of all, we should note who created man. Since God created man, then man is a creature, a creation of God. We are creatures, which means we are created beings, we are not self-existent. Only God is because He is. We are because God made us who we are. We did not exist from all eternity, but came into being by the power of God when He made living land creatures on day six. You may say, "We already know God made us." That's good, but we need to remind ourselves often, so that we give glory to God and not to ourselves for who we are).

What are some ways God made us in His image and different from everything else He created? [We have the abilities to speak, communicate, skills in building, constructing, making complex tools and instruments, the ability to think rationally, logically, and meaningfully, and so on.] What did God give man dominion over? [God gave man dominion over every living thing on earth, and even over all the earth.] This is one way that God made man in His own image and likeness. He gave man the authority and responsibility to rule over God's creation on earth. He gave no other creature this responsibility and authority, and the reason He gave it to man to have dominion, is because man is made in God's image - that is, to reflect God's governing and ruling glory. We were originally created for the glory of God - to reflect His glory in caring for all that is in the earth.

In verse 27, how did God make mankind? What two people does it say He created? [Male and female.] So we see from the very beginning that God created man to be male and female. This is the relationship that we were created to have. This is where we get the definition for marriage. It is a man and a woman, not a man and many women, not a man and a man or a woman with a woman, not a woman with many men (those are all unnatural relationships) - no, it is one man with one woman. God designed marriage. The government did not invent marriage, God did. The government does not have the right to redefine what God has created to be good. Sexual sin violates the way God created us. You were made to be with one mate of the opposite sex for life, and if you try to go against that, you mess with the way God designed you to be. Again, we've all sinned horribly in this area, and we really need to turn from the way we think about it back to God's original design.

Verse 28
And God blessed them. And God said to them, "Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and subdue it and have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over every living thing that moves on the earth."

What did God do for them? What did He say to them? [God blessed them. God blessed them as His creatures, which He had made for His own glory, and He blessed them in their relationship to each other as husband and wife. He also blessed them by telling them to multiply and fill the earth and to have complete rule and dominion over all of it.]

Verses 29-30
And God said, "Behold, I have given you every plant yielding seed that is on the face of all the earth, and every tree with seed in its fruit. You shall have them for food. And to every beast of the earth and to every bird of the heavens and to everything that creeps on the earth, everything that has the breath of life, I have given every green plant for food." And it was so.

What did God give as food? And who did He say could have this food? [Every green plant was given for food to every living thing with the breath of life in them.] Notice, that God created us to be dependent. Do you know what the word dependent means? Dependent means to rely on something or someone else for aid, support or to have needs met. God created all living things to be dependent on food for life, and He provided that food in every green plant. Now, there are a huge variety of plants in the world, so right here God has provided a vast source of nutrition as well as a variety of taste. But not only that, why were they able to have plants and fruit as food? [The answer is because God gave it to them.]

Verse 31
And God saw everything that he had made, and behold, it was very good. And there was evening and there was morning, the sixth day.

Now how did God describe all that He had made? ["It was very good."] What day did all the creation of every land creature, as well as man and woman take place? [Day six, which is Friday.]

Okay, let's end by looking at the first 3 verses of Genesis chapter 2:
Genesis 2:1-3
Thus the heavens and the earth were finished, and all the host of them. And on the seventh day God finished his work that he had done, and he rested on the seventh day from all his work that he had done. So God blessed the seventh day and made it holy, because on it God rested from all his work that he had done in creation.

That ends the brief story of when God created the heavens and the earth in the beginning, as verse 1 had said. Next time, we want to look closer at the creation of man and woman in chapter 2. This will all set us up for a big fall in chapter 3 when Adam and Eve listened to the serpent and sinned against God. Then, going back to Romans chapter 5, we will see clearly that this is the reason death is in the world, it is the result of one man's sin. And that leads us to the fascinating miracle of the birth of Christ who came to be the Savior of mankind. Jesus truly is the Lord of all the earth. He became a man, in order to save mankind from our own sin. He died on the cross, taking our fallen-ness on Himself, and He freely gives His perfection to all who come to Him as their resurrected and living High Priest, Prophet and King.

The Bible teaches us that Jesus made all things. John 1:1-3 says, "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things were made through him, and without him was not anything made that was made." And Colossians 1:15-16 says about Jesus, "He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation. For by him all things were created, in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities - all things were created through him and for him."

Little Bird... Amazing Traveller!

The Miracle of Creation, part 1

Genesis 1:1-19

The Miracle of Creation, part 1

The definition of the term "miracle"
What is a miracle? A miracle has been defined as a work wrought by a divine power for a divine purpose by means beyond the reach of man. The general idea is that it is something wonderful or unusual - an event, experience, or discovery, so singular and strange as to awaken in one the feeling of awe. Phenomena in nature and events in history are labeled "miracle."
- Herbert Lockyer, All the Miracles of The Bible.

Verse 1
In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth.

Here we can find a lot of information about everything. First it says, "In the beginning." So there was a beginning, which means that things did not always exist the way they do now. There was a time when it all began. Second, "God created." What does that tell us about God? God existed. God caused new things to come into existence. What did God create? This phrase includes everything there is. God created all of it. Some dumb person will always say, "But who created God?" Here's my answer: if God had to be created, then would he be God? Now, this verse is ascribing glory to God. It is telling us that there is a God, that He created everything in the beginning, and so everything must point back to God and say, "It is because of Him that I am." Only God can say what He said to Moses, "I AM THAT I AM." (Exodus 3:14). God is because He is. There is no cause for Him, He simply is. "I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the ending, says the Lord, who is, and who was, and who is to come, the Almighty." (Revelation 1:8).

Verse 2
The earth was without form and void, and darkness was over the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God was hovering over the face of the waters.

Here we have a picture described of formlessness, emptiness, and darkness. But the Spirit of God was there, hovering over the face of the waters. That is, the Spirit of God was moving over the water to begin to make something that was unformed, empty and dark, begin to take shape. It is by God's Spirit that things come into being and are formed (like a pot is formed from a lump of clay).

Verse 3
And God said, "Let there be light," and there was light.

What did God do? He spoke. (Now we have the Word of God introduced. This is Jesus Christ speaking here - John 1:1-3). What did He say? And what happened? This shows us that the power of God is in His Word. When He wants to make something happen. To make something begin to exist when it doesn't exist, He speaks. When God saves a person, it is a miracle just like when He spoke light into being (2 Corinthians 4:6).

Verse 4
And God saw that the light was good. And God separated the light from the darkness.

What did God do in this verse? He stepped back and looked at what He had made. He saw that the light was good. What did God do with the light? He separated it from the darkness. Now this is getting deep. Light and darkness do not mix. They are opposites. 1 John 1:5 says, "God is light, and in him is no darkness at all." God cannot dwell with evil. God will not allow darkness to dwell with light. He will not allow sin and evil to dwell with righteousness and holiness.

Verse 5
God called the light Day, and the darkness he called Night. And there was evening and there was morning, the first day.

What did God do in this verse? He named the light and the darkness. What did He call them? Light He called Day, and darkness He called Night. Notice something, who called them by these names? This is the beginning of language. Language did not start with apes who developed speech in their brains when they became human (that is not even naturally possible). It didn't begin with humans. Language began with God. It is His original way of communicating, and we should be careful never to defile His design. In other words, don't mess with what God originated. Don't misuse what He designed to be used rightly. We are all guilty of this, and oh, how we need grace for how we have stolen God's good way of communicating and tried to do with it what we pleased! Jesus said, "By your words you will be justified, and by your words you will be condemned." Therefore, speech is very important to God. It is He who named light and dark, day and night.

Notice also what happened next - "And there was evening and there was morning, the first day." What is the first day of the week? Sunday is the first day. It is the day God created light, and separated it from dark, and named it.

[Some people have a problem with the length of the days in this chapter. However, if God was weak, and He could become tired, then He might not have had the strength and energy to finish all that He set out to do in one day? In that case, we might have to say, "Well, God needed a little more time to do some of these things in one day. So let's say it took Him a lot longer to do it." The Bible says, "Is anything too hard for the LORD?" (Genesis 18:14). and "With God all things are possible." (Matthew 19:26). Do you think God could ever run out of power? We cannot see God because of our sin, but does that mean that we cannot see from nature and the universe that He is very powerful? So if God wanted to create in a day, He could have. Isaiah 40:28 says, "Do you not know? Have you not heard? The LORD is the everlasting God, the Creator of the ends of the earth. He does not faint or grow weary. He gives power to the faint, and to him who has no might he increases strength." We must understand this by faith, since we were not there to see it all happen. Hebrews 11:3 says this, "By faith we understand that the universe was created by the word of God, so that what is seen was not made out of things that are visible." God has told us what happened here in the book of Genesis. It is by faith that we believe God's word].

Verses 6-7
And God said, "Let there be an expanse in the midst of the waters, and let it separate the waters from the waters." And God made the expanse and separated the waters that were under the expanse from the waters that were above the expanse. And it was so.

What did God do again at the beginning of verse 6? He "said," God spoke. What did He say? Now, verse 7 says, "And God made." So, when God says something, and it happens, it is because He made it happen. So what did He do? God made an expanse (firmament, foundation - in this case I believe it refers to the separation of water on earth and water in clouds above the sky). Now, when we look at a river, a lake, or an ocean, we can see clearly that there is a lot of water there. When we look into the sky on a cloudy day, how much water can we see? Well, to put it simply, you might see something around 100,000 gallons of water floating above you in a cumulus cloud. That would be weighing about 400 metric tons. So on day two, God did something really cool, He separated water on earth from water that can fly around over the earth at up to 50,000 feet above us!


I love the ending phrase in verse 7, "And it was so." God said it, it happened, and there it is. We now have weather, evaporation, condensation, clouds, mist, rain (which began after the flood), and all the amazing stuff that goes along with that. Job 26:7-8 says, "He stretches out the north over the void [emptiness] and hangs the earth on nothing. He binds up the waters in his thick clouds, and the cloud is not split open under them." And verse 14 says, "Behold, these are but the outskirts of his ways, and how small a whisper do we hear of him!"

Verse 8
And God called the expanse Heaven. And there was evening and there was morning, the second day.

Again, what did God do here? He called the expanse Heaven, or Sky; He named it. We see God creating things by the power of His Word, and then He is naming what He has done. God creates and God gives names to what He creates.

And what day was that on? Notice the "evening" and "morning." The world is turning, God has already established time. There is light and dark, day and night. This was done on Monday.

Verses 9-10
And God said, "Let the waters under the heavens be gathered together into one place, and let the dry land appear." And it was so. God called the dry land Earth, and the waters that were gathered together he called Seas. And God saw that it was good.

What did God say this time? Did the waters listen? Yes! When God speaks, they obey! Luke 8:25 says, "He [Jesus] said to them [to His disciples after He had just calmed the storm], "Where is your faith?" And they were afraid, and they marveled, saying to one another, "Who then is this, that he commands even winds and water, and they obey him?"

Again God names what He just made. What did He call what He made? Earth [or Land] and Seas. Before this, the world was covered with water. 2 Peter 3:5 says about unbelievers, "For they deliberately overlook this fact, that the heavens existed long ago, and the earth was formed out of water and through water by the word of God." [The emphasis here is that everything exists and was made by the Word of God].

What else did God do? "And God saw that it was good." He stepped back and looked at what He just made. He was satisfied with it, and saw it to be good.

Verses 11-13
And God said, "Let the earth sprout vegetation, plants yielding seed, and fruit trees bearing fruit in which is their seed, each according to its kind, on the earth." And it was so. The earth brought forth vegetation, plants yielding seed according to their own kinds, and trees bearing fruit in which is their seed, each according to its kind. And God saw that it was good. And there was evening and there was morning, the third day.

Verses 9-13 described a number of things God did in one day. What day was it? The third day, that would make it Tuesday. What are some of the things that He did on this day? Back in v9-10, He made dry land appear, and divided it with the sea. What else did He do after that? God commanded plants with seed, fruit trees, and all kinds of vegetation to sprout up from the ground. Notice that He made them "each according to its kind" (v12). This means God originated plants from different kinds, i.e. fruit and nut trees, vines and bushes, etc.. We know we can produce hybrid plants, but only plants that are from the same kind originally mix together. For example, it is not possible to get a conifer to mix with a daisy. They are both plants, they are just completely different kinds. The seed God made plants produce contains DNA, which is the most complex information system we know of in the universe. DNA contains all the information necessary for plants to reproduce more plants exactly after their kind.

We also see in these verses that God began with water, moved the water to form land, miraculously spoke seed into being planted in the ground, made them grow, and they produce fruits and oxygen. That prepares the world for the next thing God would make on earth - living creatures. But before He did that, He made some things higher up to prepare the earth for life.

Verses 14-19
And God said, "Let there be lights in the expanse of the heavens to separate the day from the night. And let them be for signs and for seasons, and for days and for years, and let them be lights in the expanse of the heavens to give light upon the earth." And it was so. And God made the two great lights - the greater light to rule the day and the lesser light to rule the night - and the stars. And God set them in the expanse of the heavens to give light on the earth, to rule over the day and over the night, and to separate the light from the darkness. And God saw that it was good. And there was evening and there was morning, the fourth day.

First, we notice this is the fourth day, which is Wednesday. On this day, God made "lights in the expanse of the heavens," and He tells us specific reasons why. What are some of those reasons? God made the heavenly lights to separate day from night, to be for signs and seasons, and mark days and years, and to give light upon the earth. The light shining on the earth is necessary for plants to grow and produce oxygen. God made two very specific and close lights to the earth. What were they? They were the sun and the moon. Only the sun contains its own light source, the moon reflects light on the earth at night. It also pulls on the earth's gravity to make waves and tides in the ocean, and performs some other amazing tasks for the earth. What is the third light source mentioned? The stars. Stars truly are wonderful. Have you ever gone to a place where there is very little light from streets or houses, and you can see multitudes of stars! Well, the universe contains billions of galaxies with billions of stars in each galaxy. And God says they are to give light to the earth. Amazing! Psalm 147:4 tells us how carefully God created the stars, "He determines the number of the stars; he gives to all of them their names. Great is our Lord, and abundant in power; his understanding is beyond measure."

Conclusion:
This is a brief look at the wonders of God's creation of all that exists. God was in the beginning. God is because He is God. God chose to make things exist out of nothing. Creation displays His glorious power. God created the heavens and the earth by His Word. Everything was made by God in the beginning. God the Father was working, God the Son was working, and God the Holy Spirit was working when He made everything, so we see that God is triune. This is why we say God is a Trinity - He is three in ONE. This is our Maker, our Creator and our God. The one we must worship and listen to and love. I want to encourage every one of you to make it an interest of yours to study the works of God's creation, and to think about these things whenever you see the beauties and wonders of nature. Next week, we will finish reading chapter one of Genesis, and learn about when God created life on earth, as well as man and woman. Please make it your ambition to come learn these lessons, and read your Bibles, because I can only point you to the well, where there is an abundance of living waters for your everlasting enjoyment if you believe in the Son, through whom all things were made (John 1:1-3).

[See Psalm 86:8, "There is none like you among the gods, O Lord, nor are there any works like yours."; Psalm 92:5, "How great are your works, O LORD! Your thoughts are very deep!"; Psalm 104:24, "O LORD, how manifold are your works! In wisdom have you made them all; the earth is full of your creatures."; Psalm 111:2, "Great are the works of the LORD, studied by all who delight in them."].