After this he could estimate and know things himself as good or evil; whilst innocent this could not be. He rested just from His creation. 11 Then God said, "Let the earth bring forth grass, the herb that . They take off over the thousands of miles without suitcases, without spare gas tanks, without compasses or navigational equipment. Like the other animals, they were so made that they could feed themselves from what grew on the earth and reproduce their own kind. To me it is perfectly clear how speedy was the fall after the creation of man. Ed. And the evening and the morning were the fourth day. That man's creation was a more signal and immediate act of divine wisdom and power than that of the other creatures. The grand question to be tried we have afterwards. The intention of Almighty God in the creation of man is revealed to have been the placement of man over the earth and all that is in it, an intention frustrated in part by man's rebellion in Eden, but finally realized despite all hindrances and delays in the era of the "new heavens and the new earth." The text we are studying for Sunday, September 16 is Genesis 1:26-31 + 2:4-7.This is that portion of the creation story or stories in Genesis 1 & 2 that deals with the creation of adam, which is variously translated (in the NRSV, anyway) as "humankind" (Genesis 1:26 & 27) and as "man" (Genesis 2:7).This means we're skipping over the institution of the Sabbath (Genesis 2:1-3), and . "God said: 'Let us make man in our image.'". 163. I have no doubt that, besides this, Enoch is the type of the portion of those who look to be with the Lord above, just as Noah shows us (as is too well known to call for a delay upon it) those who pass through the judicial dealings of God, and nevertheless are preserved. Lastly, in the fifth chapter, without making any mention of image, he puts likeness in its place, (Genesis 5:1.) It is the beauty and the blessedness of scripture that it is as much above man's science as above his ignorance. Never was there a moment when man was verging more evidently towards apostacy from the truth, and that not merely as to redemption, but even as to creation, as to himself, and above all as to his relationship with God. I spoke to the fact that this mutual act of submission only makes sense and therefore . We can see afterwards how verified the curse was, as it will be yet more. He was gone from God. The teaching of Scripture, that death entered the world through sin, merely proves that the human race was created for eternal life, but by no means necessitates the assumption that the animals were also created for endless existence. It may be well to glance at it just to show the importance of heeding the word of God, and all His word. United as one humanity, male and female are one with God and his heavenly court. (86) Some here distinguish, and say the image is in what is natural, the likeness in what is gratuitous. Here indeed the principle of reserve does apply, not in withholding from man's soul the deepest blessing of grace for his deepest wants, but in furnishing no more than that which was suitable for man to learn about the matter. That angels could assist in a work of creation. All the delays of God now proceed on the fact that the first man is in sin. Psalms 8:5. And let them rule. He created him male and female, Adam and Eve--Adam first, out of earth, and Eve out of his side, Genesis 2:21-23; Genesis 2:21-23. He appears most consistently and in season, when man's earth is about to be brought before us. What are the ten numerations? Professor Davidson, On the plural form of the word Elohim. Now comes the first mention of evening and morning, and of days. *How this agrees with the dispensational dealings of God with Israel needs no argument. Of the trillions of snowflakes that fall every year, God just likes variety so much. Let them have dominion.The plural here shows that we have to do not with Adam and Eve, but with the human race generally. It was not till after the flood, that men received authority from God to employ the flesh of animals as well as the green herb as food (Genesis 9:3); and the fact that, according to the biblical view, no carnivorous animals existed at the first, may be inferred from the prophetic announcements in Isaiah 11:6-8; Isaiah 65:25, where the cessation of sin and the complete transformation of the world into the kingdom of God are described as being accompanied by the cessation of slaughter and the eating of flesh, even in the case of the animal kingdom. Answer (1 of 4): > 26 Then God said, "Let us make man in our image, according to our likeness. The difference in the divine titles is due to a distinctness of object, not of authorship; and it runs through the Psalms and the Prophets as well as the Law, so as to convict of ignorance and temerity the learned men who vaunt so loudly of the document hypothesis as applied to the Pentateuch. last, and beside me there is no God: and three jods (yyy) testify concerning him, that Nebuchadnezzar, "I have dreamed" Daniel 2:3. Tela ignea, vol. We pray, Give us this day our daily bread (Matthew 6:11), but we do not expect God to work instantaneously and drop food from heaven on to our plates. In judgment as in grace God is always wise. Infidelity takes increasingly an apostate form, and those that used to revere both Old Testament and New are abandoning the truth of God for the dreamy but mischievous romances of so-called modern science. This elementary truth is of immense importance at the present moment. It is not hard to conceive both that they had a common source before they parted, and that the garden of Eden may have been of considerable extent. Observe another thing too. And 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 fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth. They who would define the subject briefly, say that in the image are contained those endowments which God has conferred on human nature at large, while they expound likeness to mean gratuitous gifts. 9-54, for a discussion of the subject.]. He contemplates the objects around him, marks their qualities and relations, conceives and resolves upon the end to be attained, and endeavors to make all things within his reach work together for its accomplishment. The strict import of the term is that which to my mind is most suitable to the context; the week in which God made the heaven and earth for man seems alone appropriate in introducing the revelation of God. to the Son and Holy Ghost, who were each of them concerned in the May one not say again who beforehand would have thought of ways so truly and self-evidently divine? Man, made in the image of God is an inferior trinity. We see the clock winding out. God is the fountain whence this spirit issued, hence the stream must resemble the spring which produced it. Here we have the general review and approval of everything God had made, at the close of the six days work of creation. Certainly this is not mere creation in view, but special dealings of a moral sort. But into the proof of this we cannot now pause to enter. 10 million Ukrainians without power because of Russia. (f) Vet. MAKE MAN IN OUR IMAGE Man. Had the crime depended on man's retaining the likeness of God, murder might have been denied or justified, because if a man were not like God the unlikeness might be urged in extenuation of killing him. Let me particularly ask those who have not duly considered the matter to weigh God's word. Chapter 12 Abram moves to Canaan by faith and fails in Egypt. Now God is honored when I follow Him, and I love as He loves. But when God's word is humbly and prayerfully studied, the evidence will not be long withheld by the Spirit of God, that there is a divine depth in that word which no mere man put into it. You may form opinions; but for the truth, and even for such facts as the world's history before man had an existence in it facts as to which there can be no testimony from the creature on the earth, we find the need of His word who knew and wrought all from the beginning. The mere. the formation of him; not because of any difficulty attending it, May we seek to be taught more and more His truth, leaning on His grace! God made but one male and one female, that all the nations of men might know themselves to be made of one blood, descendants from one common stock, and might thereby be induced to love one another. And this honour, put upon man at first, is a good reason why we should not speak ill one of another (James 3:9), nor do ill one to another (Genesis 9:6), and a good reason why we should not debase ourselves to the service of sin, and why we should devote ourselves to God's service. God created the rest of the universe in the first five days, and, "Then God said". [It's your food.] An innocent man could not have had the knowledge of good and evil; it pertains necessarily to a fallen one. Journal of the Evangelical Theological Society 30:1 (March 1987):67, 66. But still it is well to take note that we have thus a grand basis of things as they really are a divine communication to us of facts of the utmost moment, and, at the same time, of the deepest interest to the children of God. It outlines how he brought the universe through various stages till his creative activity reached its climax in Adam and Eve. So here God states the great truth of creation; for what is more important, short of redemption, always excepting the manifestation of the person of the Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of God? "And let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon earth." First, that interpretation only is valid which is true to the meaning of the author. How is this image of God upon man defaced! And it is able to take out of the soil just the necessary chemicals to support that particular plant; able to tell the difference between the chemicals, knows just the chemicals that it needs out of the soil to feed the particular plant that it's coming from, to bring the moisture up out of the soil and all. The third chapter is indeed a continuation of the second properly enough made into a separate chapter, but still its sequel simply. Genesis 2:1-25. assumes Genesis 1:1-31, but adds moral elements of the utmost importance and interest. You say, "oh, they remember the way they flew out. There is no real courage with a bad conscience, and guile will soon be apparent where God brings His own light and makes guilt manifest. However this is merely by the way, for it is evidently a matter of no great importance in itself, save that we should hold the entire account of Paradise to be historical in the strictest and fullest sense. - Genesis 1:27. Flesh and spirit, heaven and earth, must be put together in him, and he must be allied to both worlds. Thus we see how the simple truth is after all the deepest wisdom. ." This passage has intrigued Bible students for millennia. First of all (verse 3) light is caused to be or act. 145.] A large inheritance: Replenish the earth; it is this that is bestowed upon the children of men. So God is a superior trinity. It is not the fact that Genesis 2:7; Genesis 2:19, represents man as created first of all living creatures before the birds and beasts; any more than that man created in God's image (Genesis 1:27) contradicts the statement ofGenesis 2:7; Genesis 2:7, that he was formed of the dust of the ground. 26-28 Man was made last of all the creatures: this was both an honour and a favour to him. And you know, teeth, and mouth, chin, cheeks and so forth. Psalm 19:1-6 tells us the heavens contain a message from God. Although we are a "little lower than the angels" it is the angels who have the job of ministering to the people who will inherit salvation. That any one is capable of meeting the character of God in an unfallen state is another matter. "And in the beginning was the Word, the Word was with God, the Word was God. The phrase "image of God" is found four times in the OT-Genesis 1:26, 27 and 9:6. , over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers, Keil and Delitzsch Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament. The difficulty could never arise had they seen and remembered what is stated in the very first chapter of Genesis, and the indelible habit graven thereby on the Jew. The word "meor" is a light holder. Mankind was the only form of life created "after our likeness" and Does not Moses directly exclude all creatures in express terms, when he declares that Adam was created after the image of God? For example, the Bible speaks of the four corners of the earth (Isaiah 11:12) and of the pillars, bases and cornerstone of the earth (Job 9:6; Job 38:4-6); but if people use those statements to deny that the earth is a globe, they misuse the Bible. But they were different from all other animals and were given power over them; for they alone, of all Gods creatures, were made in Gods image (24-31; sixth day). And hence we infer what was the end for which all things were created; namely, that none of the conveniences and necessaries of life might be wanting to men. Journal of the Evangelical Theological Society 53:3 (September 2010):601-17.]. And God saw the light, that it was good; and God divided the light from the darkness. This chapter is also to be read with wonder and adoration by man; as he finds himself to be constituted lord of the earth, next in rank under the Creator of all, formed in the image of his Maker, and therefore capable not only of studying the works of nature, but of contemplating and reverently communing with the Author of nature. By will we choose, determine, and resolve upon what is to be done. Oneness in marriage is essential if husband and wife are to fulfill Gods purposes for humankind. Men have fancied contradictions; they have fallen back on the old resource of opposed documents put together. Thirdly, it seems unlikely that mans dignity above the rest of the animals (Genesis 9:5 f.; James 3:7-9) is due to his slight physiological differences from them. (Generally speaking, women feel a marriage is working if they talk about it, but men feel it is working if they do not talk about it. They are able to go down and each little root is a chemical laboratory. But there is not an object within the ken of man which he does not aim at making subservient to his purposes. Genesis 47:1-50:26 Chapter 47 1 So Joseph went in and told Pharaoh, "My father and my brothers, with their flocks and herds and all that they possess, have come from the land of Canaan; they are now in the land of Goshen." 2 And from among his brothers he took five men and presented them to Pharaoh. In the latter she only saw a child given of God naturally. p. 237; Boice, 1:77-79; Mathews, pp. Here then we only hear of pairs which enter. The environmental conditions have been placed here for man, the trees, the vegetables have been placed here for his food. Genesis 1:26. The very absurdity that God is a sexual being renders this interpretation highly unlikely. Proud member The highest, the holiest, the only suitable way, once it is laid before us, evidently is what God Himself has employed in His word. Man alone, as deriving that which gave him the breath of life not from his body but from the breath of Jehovah-Elohim, gives an account to God. A fly, you hate them, but yet what fabulous design! Now, when God created our bodies, He created ears so that we could hear, designed them so that they would pick up sound vibrations that would bounce or vibrate the little incus stapes, and bones in there and send these vibrations into the brain that my brain would interpret as words and sounds and make it intelligible to me. He may not be able perhaps to meet objections. For a summary gives in a few words that which is opened out afterwards; whereas the conjunction "and" introduced in the second verse excludes necessarily all notion of a summary here. Was it with himself, and does he here simply use the plural of majesty? Such was not the usual style of monarchs in the ancient East. In chapter 2, we have a flash-back and more explanation about the events on the sixth day. Man, as well as other things, was very good when he came from his Makers hand; but good as yet untried, and therefore good in capacity rather than in victory over temptation. Does he have sexual organs, and if so, which? Man, the race, became simply outcasts morally nothing else from that day till after the flood. Yes, Jehovah is in question. Darius the Mede, "I make a decree" Daniel 6:26. It is false that scripture does not leave room for his investigation. The infinite God, who created this universe and all the life forms within it remains unformed in our own mind. And so, even the tri-unity of God is expressed in the first verse, "in the beginning God," Elohim. What scripture gives here or elsewhere seems to me altogether at variance with such a thought. The end of this chapter shows that the man in whose person the principle of human government was set up could not govern himself. These words are directed not to the earth, out of which man was made, as consulting with it, and to be assisting in the formation of man, as Moses Gerundensis, and other Jewish writers F6, which is wretchedly stupid; nor to . And so you get the feeling, an irritation in your ankle, and you reach down and pull that seed out and throw it down. A numerous lasting family, to enjoy this inheritance, pronouncing a blessing upon them, in virtue of which their posterity should extend to the utmost corners of the earth and continue to the utmost period of time. Angels were not made male and female, for they were not to propagate their kind (Luke 20:34-36); but man was made so, that the nature might be propagated and the race continued. How infinite His wisdom! In Genesis 7:1-24 we have another order of facts. It assigns to the words heavens, earth, expanse, day, no greater latitude of meaning than was then customary. It is another statement added to what had just preceded, and by the Hebrew idiom not connected with it in time. Sermon Bible Commentary. There was also a wonderful type of deliverance through Christ in the ark happily so familiar to most. For, to reply to the last objection first, geology has offered no conclusive evidence of its doctrine, that the fossil remains of beasts of prey and bones with marks of disease belong to a pre-Adamite period, but has merely inferred it from the hypothesis already mentioned of successive periods of creation. We come at length to him in whom God brings in wholly new principles in His own grace to meet a new and monstrous evil idolatry. )Gods rest after the creation of the first human couple signified not that he had become tired or inactive (for he continues to care for what he has created), but that he had brought his work to its goal. Please enter your email address associated with your Salem All-Pass account, then click Continue. I love to go snorkeling over in Hawaii. If you are speaking in the intimacies of the family, you do not adopt the same language towards your parents, wife, child, or servant, still less towards a stranger outside. Both fallen, they were both ashamed. "And God blessed them, and said Be fruitful and multiply and replenish the earth " The procreation and nurture of the continuing generations of mankind upon earth is a God-ordained privilege and commandment.
genesis 1:26 explanation