Genesis – The Book of Beginnings
Chapter 1: 26-27
God creates man and woman! In these verses we see four
astounding revelations:
- God uses the pronoun “us.” This is the first glimpse we get
of the triune God. God is one person, yet is more than one
in His action and unity. In Acts 4:24, we see God the
Father. In John 1:1-2; and Colossians 1:15-17, we see the
Son, Jesus Christ. And in Psalm 104:30 we see the Holy
Spirit. These are just some of the verses in which we see
further evidence of the three persons through which God
reveals Himself to us. - When God “makes” man, it is clearly distinct from His
creation of the other animals. While He made a multitude of
other animals, He created only one man and (later) one
woman. - God created man in His image. We know from the Bible
that God is a Person with identity and individuality. We see
that He has emotions and values, appreciates beauty,
demonstrates creativity, distinguishes between right and
wrong, loves, and even sacrifices Himself for the sake of
others. God created us just like that! We have attributes not
shared by other animals. We have a moral consciousness,
the ability to think abstractly and create, an understanding of
beauty and emotion, and most of all, the capacity to love a
loving God. - God separates man and woman from other parts of creation
by giving them dominion over creation.
Verses 28-31
In these verses, God repeats his charge to man to have dominion
over creation. God also commands man to be fruitful and to
multiply. Some scholars have suggested that Adam and perhaps
Eve, until the fall actually had dominion over the forces of
nature; weather, for instance. An interesting thought, but I don’t
see any direct evidence of that myself.
God is the first to bring up the subject of sex. He intended man
and woman to have sex for the purpose of procreation. Later we
see the sanctioning by God of sex between husband and wife.
In short, Man was put here with purpose. Can you name
some of our purposes?
God shows His love further by the provisions he made for us in
verse 29. Man and the other animals were given all they needed
to eat and sustain themselves. It is clear that at this point in
creation that man was a vegetarian.
Careful reading of the King James Version of the Bible reveals
an interesting use of a word in verse 28. God tells man to
“replenish” the earth. What do you think of when you use the
word “replenish?” The idea is restoring something to its
original, full state. This gives the idea that the earth was
inhabited before man, and that something happened that caused
their destruction. Many who hold the “Gap” theory we
discussed when we first began our study of Genesis hold this
view. However, it is also interesting to note that other
translations of the Bible (New International, English Standard,
New King James) do not interpret the Hebrew text as
“replenish.” These versions interpret this word to be “fill.” This
interpretation does not carry the same implication as
“replenish.”
God saw everything He had created and it was “very good.”
This completes the Sixth Day