GENESIS CHAPTER 1

CREATION

Day 5 and 6 - creation of four kinds of flesh - I Cor. 15:39.

(1)               man

(2)               beast

(3)               fish and

(4)               fowl.

Day 5 is made up of two events:

(1)               creation of water life

(2)               creation of fowls

I.    Verse 20, And God said, Let the waters bring forth abundantly the moving creature that hath life, and fowl that may fly above the earth in the open firmament of heaven. - a whole new type of life - it breathes and moves - not like plants.

A.     Bring forth abundantly - swarm (like a school of fish - this is a descriptive term.) (Verb) there are many of these, but the waters are not "full".

B.     Moving - teeming things

C.     Creature - a swarming creature (noun).  The waters are not the source of life of fish and fowls, as evolution teaches.

D.     Fowl - birds

E.      Whale - sea monster - "Tennim" also translated "dragon".

F.      V.21,22, And God created great whales, and every living creature that moveth, which the waters brought forth abundantly, after their kind, and every winged fowl after his 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 fowl multiply in the earth. - first blessing by God.

1.      Not just one pair, but swarms (V.20)

2.      Not just a wish of well being, but a command they will be able to fulfill by God's help.

Day 6 - Two creations:

1. beasts of the earth.
2. man.

Verse 24,  And God said, Let the earth bring forth the living creature after his kind, cattle, and creeping thing, and beast of the earth after his kind: and it was so.

bring forth - to cause to go out - relates to 1:11 works of the 3rd day.

Compare of creation of man and creation of animals.  There is a difference.

Three classes of beasts

1. Cattle - domestic animals (behemah)
2. creeping thing - (remes) small animals, insects, so forth.
3. beasts of the earth (chaiyah, cheva) wild beasts of the earth.

26, 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. - God making man - God made only a couple, not swarms. (V. 20)

I.    Who is God counseling with?

A.     Not counseling with the angels. - God never counsels with angels.  He talks with them as in Job 1 and 2

B.     Is. 6:8 - "Whom shall I send?"  God speaking with Himself.

C.     Man is created in image of God, not in the image of angels.

II.    "In our image, after our likeness".

A.     Man is closely patterned after his maker.

B.     Sets man apart from animals, as they are not patterned after God. All these physical features are absent in animals.

1.      Man's bearing (standing upright) which allows him to direct his gaze upward.Animals look down to the ground.

2.      A capacity for varying facial expressions.

3.      A sense of shame or embarrassment - blushing.

4.      speech - especially Rom. 8:26,27 - Spirit communication  with God.

C.     "Image" - (tselem) - to carve or cut off - a concreted. similarity to God.

D.     "Likeness" - (demuth) - a more abstract similarity to God.

1.      Gen. 5:1 - Adam created in likeness of God.

2.      Gen. 5:3 - Seth begotten by Adam in his (Adam's) likeness.

E.      Comparing God's body and man's body (image)

1.      We can hardly say that man's body is patterned after God's body, because God doesn't have a physical body.  He is Spirit - John 4:24.

2.      But it is a suitable receptacle for the spirit of man and of the Spirit of God.  (When we're saved, the Spirit of God inhabits our bodies.)

3.      Many times God and angels chose to appear in human form.

a.       Judges 13:2-6 - An angel looking like a "man of God" talked to Samson's mother.

b.      Gen. 19 - two angels appear before Lot.  The men of Sodom and Gomorrah thought they were men.

4.      These things men and God are said to have in common: eyes, hands, fingers, feeling, feet, hair, heart, ear, etc.,

F.      Comparing God's body and man's body (likeness)

1.      Man is immortal - like God (at least in living forever - someplace)  Animals aren't immortal.

2.      Intellectual - man has the ability to reason and know there is a God.  Rom. 1:18-20.  Animals don't have this ability.

3.      Man is spiritually inclined to morals - animals aren't.  We know adultery is wrong - animals don't believe in marriage, much less adultery.

G.     Saved people strive to be more like God.

1.      Phil 2:6, 7 - Christ in form of God before He came into the world.

2.      Col. 1:15 - Jesus is image of invisible of God.

3.      Col. 3:10 - new man renewed in knowledge after image of God.

4.      Eph. 4:24 - put on new man, created in righteousness and true Holiness.