I typed these up as my random thoughts from my quiet time this morning and will try and do this daily (maybe not to this extent since I had more time having the day off being new years day and all lol). Please put your comments and thoughts below so we can mutually encourage one another!
Genesis was written by Moses around 1688 BC either while a sheep herder with Jethro or at Sinai as an introduction to the law. It is a book of beginnings and explains the origin of the: world, creation, man, sin, and redemption.
1:1-3
- From the dateless past until the end of the 7 days of 1:3-2:25 can be called the Ante-chaotic Age or the “Age of Angels” as I call it because the angels were created along with the heavenly host prior to the six days. They ruled various planets (Isaiah14:12-14; Ezek. 28:11-17; Col. 1:15-18- called “stars of God” many times).
- Gen. 1:1 is creation of the original heavens and earth. “Created” is in Hebrew “bara” which means created out of nothing, it was an original creation. Only used of the original creation and man/animals on day six. The angels rejoiced in this creation (Job 38). Isaiah 45:18 says the earth was created to be inhabited. Angels or a pre-adamic race may have originally inhabited the earth of vs. 1.
- Gen. 2:2 is destruction. The earth was now “formless” and “empty” (could be translated “vain” and “chaos”). A flood had deluged the world. Many scholars believe as do I that there is a gap of time between verses 1 and 2 of billions of years. The earth was created originally in perfection, yet in verse two darkness is now here meaning some sin occurred. Ezekiel 28:11-17 and Isaiah 14:12-14 teach us that Satan who was originally an angel (Cherub) sinned during this time by leading the angels and pre-adamic race astray and filling them with violence and also by pride in his heart in trying to invade heaven to take the throne of God. God cast him out of heaven and the earth became a waste land. This is when dinosaurs roamed and death and destruction became the norm. Our fossil record proves this to be true. Any “human-like” bones (ie Neanderthal) are not human but creation from the original earth that was led astray as the Bible teaches Adam is the first God-breathed human. The earth was finally destroyed with a flood (Satan’s flood- this is why the story of Noah assumes the earth had been flooded before).
- Gen. 3:3 – is restoration/re-creation. Death and destruction had now existed for millions of years and the water that deluged the world froze since the light had gone out. (Jeremiah 4:23-26 chronicles this event). This is where the ice-age took place. God says “let there be light”. This is a permissive word, not one of creation. The Light is allowed back and the Spirit hoovers (Hebrew- “broods”) over the water/ice. Science shows the earth warmed up around this same time 6000 years ago. Besides man and land animals, from this point on the word for create is “made” which in Hebrew is “assa”. This word means it was already in existence and not an original creation. The six days then show the restoration or recreation of the world. Not it’s original creation. If disciples and people understood this, it would clear up any apparent contradiction with science.
- SIX DAYS OF CREATION
- It is important to point out that sin was already in the world from Satan, not Adam yet. Adam would bring sin into the new world and to humanity with the consequence of spiritual death (Romans 5).
- God’s creation always had a purpose. I like how the lights in the sky were created to govern the time. Does what we do as disciples have a purpose?
- God’s word spoke creation and sustained it. Do we have the same kind of faith God has to speak into existence?
- I thought the expanse in the sky was interesting. In the KJV it is called a
firmament and is called “Heaven”. Gen. 1:1 shows us God created “heavens” plural. Jews have always believed there were three heavens and the bible confirms this in 2 Corinthians 12:2. The first heaven is the sky in our atmosphere. The second heaven is space (were the galaxies/stars exist). The third heaven is God exist and the heavenly host. “Expanse” can be translated “vault”, “firmament”, “dome,” etc. We see the sun and the moon were put in it as well. - I believe this “expanse” was put as a block between the third heaven and Satan & his fallen angels. This expanse is called “The Sea” else places in the Bible and is before the throne of God. See. Ps. 148:14, Rev. 4:6; 21:1. Notice, it is removed when the New Earth and New Heavens begin after Jesus returns.
- Some have tried to say there is a contradiction between chapter 1 and 2 because of some of the ordering. This is cleared up when one understand “earth” should be translated land in chapter 2 and refers to the garden in most cases not the whole earth and creation as chapter 1.
- Adam was made from the dust of the earth. Science shows we have the same particles as dust. Then God breathed into him his soul/spirit which was who Adam was.
- Man was created in God’s image. “Let us make” shows the divine Trinity (God the father, Jesus, and the Holy Spirit) were at work to make man. Man is a triune being like God having a body, soul, and spirit. It also shows us that each member of the trinity has a body, soul, and spirit. We will see God has a bodily form later in Genesis (yet is Spirit and omnipresent).
- Adam was created to do what Satan failed to do, rule over the earth and have dominion.
- The genesis of marriage is found in chapter 2. The goal was pro-creation and unity. Notice homo-sexuality was not apart of God’s original plan.
- The mission was to fill the earth (Heb: “replenish” this implies there was a prior creation before as stated earlier).
- The tree of knowledge of good and evil I don’t believe was created by God since God can’t author evil, but put there by the serpent which we will talk about more tomorrow.
- The tree of life was met to give them eternal life. Adam and Even had natural bodies but would be kept alive for eternity.
PRACTICALS:
- Physically man was to fill the earth in the physical Eden. God now desires the kingdom to be an Edenof sorts and we are to fill the earth with spiritual children (making disciples!). For 2012 make some goals of how you plan to fill the earth with disciples!
- God’s faith was that what He spoke happened! With your faith goals pray them into existence today expecting them to happen.
- Please share what you got out of Genesis 1 and 2.
Mike Patterson Ministries 
From reading Chapters 1-2 in Genesis. I can see the very nature of God come into play. First he created the earth; for example, the resources we still use today; the times between each day, and what pattern we should live in. Second, before he created man in chpt. 1 v. 27, this scripture shows that he is a God of relationships. God is like a parent to us, he even gives us the opportunity to think like he thinks! The pure motive for having a child is love. When God created us he showed us unconditional love. I think that God couldn’t express his love to animals, and thats why he created man! In addition, when God created man expressing his love to “Adam”. Adam was left to spread his love to Eve, because Adam couldn’t express his love to animals. With this in mind, in v.27 he created the opposite gender, Adam positioned to be in a situation to express his love as well. Since it was the opposite Gender, they became married ( Chpt 2: v. 23-25). While reading this verse I questioned why God created the woman? Having already read chapter 3 in v. 1-16. The scripture reveals God’s challenge to Adam of dealing with the nature of a woman, which offered patience, love, obedience, and leadership from her ingratitude of God’s command. This is a prime example of the very nature of God.
Question:
In Chapter 1 v 26, “Let us make man in our image” ! One day on campus their was this non-denominational group that used this scripture to say that their was a “she involved in the creation. What do you think about that?
Jamalie Mal! Great insights man, it challenged me to really show and express love and see the importance of relationships. The group you are talking about believes there is a ‘Mother God’. This of course is no where supported by the bible. They take some allegorical scriptures and say it is a literal woman from Jeremiah, Isaiah, and Revelation. Since the Hebrew word for ‘God’ in this chapter of Genesis (Elohim) means ‘gods’ plural, they reason the mother God was there and they begot children. Elohim just shows us the divine trinity (God, Jesus, Holy Spirit) all worked together in unity as ‘God’ to create the universe. Hope that helps.
Bro this is straight cranking! I admire your style of study. As I go through this quiet time with you I will be taking notes on how to take notes. The information and the insight behind it was Awesome bro. Donʻt stop cranking! Now to the good stuff.
The question I had was about in chapter 1:1 and 2. So in the beginning God had already created earth sometime ago right? and you were talking about a billion years between these two verses? Because verse two starts “Now the earth was formless and empty” thus Satan screwed up. And now God had to restart things, new slate?
Overall Chapter one and two is very interesting because Iʻve never sat down to dissect. God created unity. He created Man and Woman. He made us rulers of this place(Gen1:28) God said “fill the earth and subdue it.” We were originally made to rule and I was thinking no wonder as children we have this want to rule the world. Itʻs almost just like when people say God set eternity on our hearts.
Yes exactly! Even the word ‘was’ in Gen 1:2 should be translated ‘became’ (NIV 84 bibles note this at the bottom). It shows the earth became formless and empty. Something catastrophic happened to the earth. I believe it involved Satan’s rebellion and deceit of the creatures of the earth of that day.
I love how we see a baptism pattern. John 3:1-7 says you must be born of the water and Spirit to enter into the kingdom of light. Genesis 1:1-3 parallels baptism. In Gen 1:1-3, you have first creation (birth/being a kid), then darkness (age of accountability), then water and the Spirit (baptism) and next light (walking in light now as a disciple)! I thought that was cool.
I love how we see a baptism pattern. John 3:1-7 says you must be born of the water and Spirit to enter into the kingdom of light. Genesis 1:1-3 parallels baptism. In Gen 1:1-3, you have first creation (birth/being a kid), then darkness (age of accountability/sin), then water and the Spirit (baptism) and next light (walking in light now as a disciple)! I thought that was cool.
Yeah I like that too. I also like the fact that the first 7-9 words, eliminates any other religion. And it also includes time, space, and mass. “In the beginning” (time), “God” (religion), “created the heavens “(space), “and the earth” (mass).
I think its neat that scientists say life originated in the ocean, and we get life when we are baptized: life through water.
Mike, sounds fun and very informative… I’ll be reading along. Love ya bro
I take verses 1 and 2 at face value, pre-Adam stuff is possible but its hard for me to say with confidence. (if verse 2 was the ice age, what was Noah’s flood?) I think in verse 1 and 2 he summarize then gets more specific in the rest of chapter 1, than more focused on mans part in chapter 2.
I’m curious about the order of Genesis 1. Its clear that the bible isn’t chronological, even looking at how Genesis 2 retells parts of Genesis 1 we can see this. (I’ve heard ancient historians weren’t that interested in chronology) Plants were created on the third day and the sun on the fourth day; days were created on the first day and the sun, moon and stars on the fourth day. The emphasis seems to be on the fact that God created it. Its like God lists off everything he made, grouping it for us by the “days”.
Anyways, I always thought it was cool that God made sea life, then animals, than man. That sounded really similar to the evolution they teach in schools, how sea life was first, then it crawled on land, and people came from those animals. And how Adam was a hunter gatherer, and his sons were farmers and pastoralists. This made me wonder if Adam people were just representative of the groups of people as they progressed and representative of human nature. (keeping the emphasis on how God created them of coarse)
I think its really special how much attention God gives us, making us like him in the world, even to rule over it. He then went on to give Adam everything he could desire. We should live very grateful for the grace he shows us by creating us to be like him. This reminds me of the most challenging scriptures in the Bible, “Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect.” Mat 5:48 and “Be holy because I, the LORD your God, am holy.” Lev 19:2. The world was so pure, we didn’t even eat animals, everything ate plants according to Gen 1:29-30. That’s the level of peace and purity God created it for. He said his creation was very good. Think how far we fell to the point where Jesus tells the guy that no one is good except God. He gave the world to us, and we wanted more. Lets not be so retarded, but grateful.
Awesome stuff guys! The pre-adamic stuff is based off scriptures in Ezekiel 28 and Isaiah 14. It shows that Satan ruled over nations before he was cast down! Also 2 Peter 3:5 talks about the “world that was” referring to the pre-Adamic world. Jesus refers to it in Mark 13:19. Hope that helps.