Bible Commentaries
Genesis 2

V

CREATION – PART TWO

Origin of Man

Genesis 1:26-2:3

"And God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness" (Genesis 1:26). The creation of man is the last and highest stage in the production of organic life. Every step in creation so far is a prophecy of his coming and a preparation fee it. This wonderful world is purposed for a higher being than fish or fowl or beast. Not for them were accumulated the inexhaustible treasures of mineral and vegetable stores. What use have they for lignite, stone, coal, peat, iron, copper, oil, gas, gold, silver, pearls, and diamonds? They have no capacity to enjoy the beauty of the landscape, the glorious colorings of sea and sky. They cannot measure the distances to the stars nor read the signs of the sky. They cannot perceive the wisdom nor adore the goodness of the Creator. The earth as constituted and stored prophesied man, demanded man, and God said, "Let us make man." When he wanted vegetable life, he said, "Let the earth put forth shoots." When he wanted sea animals, he said, "Let the sea swarm." When he wanted land animals, he said, "Let the earth bring forth." But when the earth was prepared for its true lord and master, he said, "Let us make man in our image, after our likeness." "Thou hast made him but little lower than God" (Psalms 8:5). (The Hebrew word here is Elohim, the same as in Genesis 1:1.)

When we contrast the language which introduces the being of man with that which introduces the beast, and consider the import of "image and likeness," and the dominion conferred on man, we are forced to the conviction than between man and the highest order of the beast there is an infinite and impassable chasm. And this view in confirmed by the divine demonstration that no beast could be man’s consort (Genesis 2:18-20) ; and the divine law (Exodus 22:19).

THE IMAGE OF GOD
"God is a spirit." (John 4:24). "The father of spirits" (Hebrews 12:9). "The Lord formeth the spirit of man within him" (Zechariah 12:1). "The spirit of a man is the candle of the Lord" (Proverbs 20:7). "And Jehovah God breathed into man’s nostrils the breath of life: and man became a living soul" (Genesis 1:27). "The spirit retumeth to God who gave it" (Ecclesiastes 12:7). We may say, then, in one word that the spirituality of man’s nature is the image of God. Man is a rational, moral, spiritual being.

But this image of God involves and implies much more:

(a) Intuitive knowledge and reason. Colossians 3:10; Genesis 2:19-20.

(b) Uprightness and holiness. Ecclesiastes 7:29; Ephesians 4:24.

(c) Conscience. Romans 2:15.

(d) Will, or determinate choice, free moral agency.

(e) Worship of and communion with God.

(f) Dignity of presence. 1 Corinthians 11:7; Genesis 9:2.

(g) Immortality of soul, and provision for immortality of body by access to the tree of life. Genesis 3:22.

(h) Capacity for marriage, not like the consorting of beasts.

(i) Capacity for labor apart from the necessary struggle for existence.

(j) Speech, itself an infinite chasm between man and beast.

The dual nature of man will be considered in the next chapter on the second chapter of Genesis, which supplies details of man’s creation not given in this general statement.

UNITY OF THE RACE
"Male and female made he them." Multiply and fill the earth. There is one, and only one human race. The earth’s population came from one pair. There was no pre-Adamite man. There has been no post-Adamite man, unless we except Jesus of Nazareth. The unity of the race is a vital and fundamental Bible doctrine. Its witness on this point is manifold, explicit, and unambiguous. (Genesis 9:19; Genesis 10:32; Acts 17:26.) The whole scheme of redemption is based on the unity of the race (Romans 5:12-21). When we speak of the Caucasian, Mongolian, Malay, African, and North American Indian as different races, we employ both unscientific and unbiblical terms if we mean to imply different origins. There was no need for another race. This one pair could fill the earth by multiplication. There was no room for another race, for all authority of rule was vested in this one.

MAN’S COMMISSION
Multiply. Fill the earth. Subdue it. Man was to range over all zones and inhabit all zones. The sea was to be his home as well as the land. The habitat of each beast or bird or fish was of narrow limit.

Man was endowed with wisdom to adapt himself to all climates, protect himself from all dangers and surpass all barriers. There was given to him the spirit of intervention and exploration. He would climb mountains, descend into caves, navigate oceans, bridge rivers, cut canals through isthmuses. To subdue the earth was a vast commission which called out all of his reserve powers. Upon this point we cannot do better than quote the great Baptist scholar, Dr. Conant:

"If we look at the earth, as prepared for the occupancy of man, we find little that is made ready for use but boundless material which his own labour and skill can fit for it.

“The spontaneous fruits of the earth furnish a scanty and precarious subsistence, even to a few; but with skilful labour it is made to yield an abundant supply for the wants of every living thing."

On its surface, many natural obstacles are to be overcome. Forests must be leveled, rivers bridged over, roads and canals constructed, mountains graded and tunneled and seas and oceans navigated.

Its treasures of mineral wealth lie hidden beneath its surface; when discovered and brought to light they are valueless to man till his own labor subdues and fits them for his service. The various useful metals lie in the crude ore and must be passed through difficult and laborious processes before they can be applied to any valuable purpose. Iron, for example, the most necessary of all, how many protracted and delicate processes are required to separate it from impurities in the ore, to refine its texture, to convert it into steel before it can be wrought into the useful ax or knife, with the well-tempered edge!

What an education for the race has been this labor of subduing the earth! How it has developed reflection, stimulated invention and quickened the powers of combination, which would otherwise have lain dormant!

Nor are the collateral and remote less important than the direct and immediate results. He who takes a piece of timber from the common forest and forms it into a useful implement thereby makes it his own and it cannot rightfully be taken from him, since no one can justly appropriate to himself the product of another’s skill and labor. So he who originally takes possession of an unappropriated field and by his labor prepares it for use thereby makes it his own and it cannot rightfully be taken from him. Hence arises the right of property, the origin and bond of civil society; and thus all the blessings of society, and of civilization and government, are due to the divinely implanted impulse, “fill the earth, and subdue it." Every institution of learning is but a means to this one great end.

THE DOMINION OF MAN
The dominion of man is as broad as his commission: "Have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens, and over every living thing that moveth upon the earth" (Genesis 1:28). For thou hast made him but little lower than God, And crownest him with glory and honour. Thou makest him to have dominion over the works of thy hands; Thou hast put all things under his feet; All sheep and oxen, Yea, and the beasts of the field, The birds of the heavens, and the fish of the sea, Whatsoever passeth through the paths of the seas. 0, Jehovah, Our Lord, How excellent is thy name in all the earth. – Psalms 8:5-9

The exceeding great sweep of our dominion cannot be estimated until in the New Testament we study its exercise by the Second Adam, our Lord Jesus Christ (Hebrews 2:5-11). The fullness of it is even yet future.

TITLE TO THE EARTH
And herein is man’s title to the earth:

(a) He must populate it.

(b) He must develop its resources to support that population.

In God’s law neither man nor nation can hold title to land or sea and let them remain undeveloped. This explains God’s dealings with nations. The ignorant savage cannot hold large territories of fertile land merely for a hunting ground. When the developer comes he must retire. Spain’s title to Cuba perished by 400 years of non-development. Mere priority of occupancy on a given territory cannot be a barrier to the progress of civilization. Wealth has no right to buy a county, or state, or continent and turn it into a deer park. The earth is man’s. Wealth has no right to add house to house and land to land until there is no room for the people. "Woe unto them that join house to house, that lay field to field, till there be no room, and ye be made to dwell in the midst of the land" (Isaiah 5:8).

THE PERIODS OF CREATION
The discussion of the days of creation has been designedly reserved until now, on account of their relation to the last creative institution. When the text says: "There was evening and there was morning, one day," or a second day, the language is that of the natural day as we now have it. But this does not necessarily mean that the earth was only 144 hours older than man. But it does imply:

That God chose to conduct his processes of earth formation by alternatings of activity and rest.

That he intended these periods of alternative activity and rest to constitute a prototype of time division for man not suggested by the revolution of the earth or any heavenly body. And that this division of time into a week should punctuate the institution of the sabbath, which was made for man, not for God, and that through it man’s allegiance to God might be perpetuated.

We thus come to the crowning act of creation:

THE INSTITUTION OF THE SABBATH

"And the heavens and the earth were finished, and all the host of them. And on the seventh day God finished his work which he had made; and he rested on the seventh day from all his work which he had made. And God blessed the seventh day and hallowed it; because that in it he rested from all his work which God had created and made" (Genesis 2:1-3). It has already been observed that the seven periods of creation called days, whatever their duration, were designed to be a prototype of a division of time not suggested by nature. Our natural day results from one revolution of the earth on its own axis; our month from the moon’s revolution around the earth; our year from the earth’s revolution around the sun. But the week is of divine appointment. A New Testament scripture goes to the root of the matter: "And he said unto them, The sabbath was made for man, and not man for the sabbath; so that the Son of man is Lord even of the sabbath" (Mark 2:27-28).

God condescends to represent himself as man’s archetype and exemplar. The sabbath was not made for God: "The Almighty fainteth not, neither is weary."

Among the reasons for the institution of the sabbath we may safely emphasize these:

Man’s Mind Is Finite and His Memory Imperfect. Some means must be provided to stir up the finite mind of man to remember the significance of the mighty acts of creation. And what is the significance of creation? It is a declaration of these great truths: (1) That the material universe and all it contains had an origin. (2) That it was brought into being by the creative act of an intelligent, almighty, beneficent being. (3) That this being is God. (4) That he is the only rightful proprietor and sovereign of the universe. (5) That his will is the supreme law of its occupants. (6) That the knowledge of his will is by his revelation.

It is a negation of these great untruths: (1) It denies atheism by assuming the being of God. (2) It denies polytheism by the assertion of his unity. (3) It denies deism by making a revelation. (4) It denies materialism in distinguishing between matter and spirit, and in showing that matter is neither self-existent nor eternal. (5) It denies pantheism by placing God before matter and unconditioned by it. (6) It denies chance by showing that the universe in its present order is not, in whole or in part, the result of "a fortuitous concourse of atoms," or of the action of elementary principles of matter, but of an extraneous intelligent purpose. (7) It denies fatalism by asserting God’s freedom to create when he would and to control how he would. (8) It denies blind force by its revelation of beneficence intelligently directing and adapting all things to good ends. (9) As a revelation it denies that man by searching can find out God, and denies that all the myths of the heathen, or the speculations of philosophy, or the observations of naturalists, can dissipate the profound darkness concerning the origin and nature and end of the world and of man.

Man’s Body Is Mortal. Some means must be provided to guard its health and preserve its powers. His powers of endurance and of persistent application are limited. He cannot work unceasingly. He will need regular periods of rest for his body and mind. He must also have stated periods of enjoyment and worshiping God, that his soul may be fed and nourished. Man has a marvelous commission of labor, progress and development in subduing the earth. But five things must never be forgotten:

(1) Labor that is continuous will destroy both mind and body. Hence the necessity of regular periods of rest.

(2) The higher nature must not be subordinate to the lower. The soul must not wander too far from God. Communion with him is its nourishment and health. Man must not live by bread alone. God must be loved and adored.

(3) God is earth’s proprietor and man’s sovereign. His supreme jurisdiction must ever be acknowledged and accepted with complete submission.

(4) Man is social by the very constitution of his being. The unit of the family must not be broken. But there can be no permanent circle unless God is its center. And no tie will permanently bind unless it is sacred.

In subduing the earth, man has authority not only to lay under tribute the forces of nature which are without feeling, but to use the strength of the lower animals. These get weary. They cannot labor continuously. For their faithful service they need not only good food and shelter, but regular periods of rest.

(5) Not only animals need certain regular off-days, when they are to do no work, but all mechanical and scientific implements need it in order to reach maximum usefulness. It has been demonstrated that a steam engine, an ax, a hand-saw, will do more and better work in the long run with regular days of absolute rest.

Man’s Spirit Finds Its Health in Communion with God. Some means must be provided that will keep up this communion regularly and thereby prevent alienation from God. All man’s springs of joy are in God. Moreover, the creative week is a type of the earth’s history and presupposes the fall and redemption of man. Therefore as one day is with the Lord as a thousand years, we may say:

The Sabbath Foreshadows the Millennium; of the thousand years of gospel triumph on the earth before the final judgment, and the final rest and glory of a completed redemption of both earth and man, greater than the original creation. The question then becomes momentous: What provision can a Heavenly Father make that will effectually secure these great ends? That will secure adequate rest for mind and body and soul? That will nourish and heal the spirit? That will tend to recognition of and submission to the divine sovereignty and proprietorship? That will make communities and nations cohere? That will provide mercy and rest for overtaxed machinery and beasts and children and women and slaves? That will prevent total departure from God? That will be a barrier against greed and avarice and tyranny?

O Lord God, our Redeemer, Maker, our Preserver, Thou hast answered in the text: "The sabbath was made for man." In the beginning thou didst ordain it, thou didst bless it and hallow it. It is one of the three holy things that man, though fallen and accursed, was permitted in mercy to bring with him from the lost bowers of Eden; majestic labor, the holy institution of marriage and the blessed and hallowed sabbath. Inestimable jewels! Time has never dimmed your luster, nor change nor circumstance depreciated your value. The experience of six thousand years bears witness to your divine origin. As types you have illumined time; as antitypes you will glorify eternity.

And throughout the world, wherever the sabbath in its purity has been disregarded, there marriage, in its true and holy sense) has been disregarded, and there idleness and cheating and fraud and gambling have taken the place of honest toil. There avarice and greed and tyranny have oppressed the poor, and there immorality and vice and polytheism and pantheism and deism and chance and fatalism and materialism and atheism have erected their standards. Yes, it is true in its ultimate and logical outcome: no sabbath, no God.

The sabbath or atheism, which? Why try to narrow this question to Jewish boundaries? The sabbath was made for man; for man, as man; for all men. Was Adam a Jew? Was he a son of Judah, or of Heber, or of Abraham, or of Shem? The sabbath was made for the first man, the progenitor of all the nations, and for him even in paradise as a primal law of man’s primal, normal nature.

Why talk of Mount Sinai and the tables of stone? The sabbath marked the fall of the manna, that type of Jesus, the bread from heaven, before Sinai ever smoked or trembled or thundered. Why talk of Moses? The sabbath was twenty-five centuries old when Moses was born. It is older than any record or monument of man. Before the flood it was more than an institution. It was a promise of redemption from the curse pronounced in Eden. Pious hearts looked daily for the coming of the rest that remaineth for the people of God. Hence Lamech named his son "Noah," which means rest, saying: “This same shall comforet us concerning our work and the toil of our hands, because of the ground which the Lord hath cursed."

The sabbath was here before sin ever mantled man’s face with the flush of shame. The sabbath antedates all arts and sciences. It was here before Enoch built a city, or Jabal stretched a tent, or Jubal invented instruments of music, or Tubal-Cain became an artificer in brass and iron. It is older than murder. Cain walked away from its altars of worship to murder his brother Abel. Its sunlight flashed into the face of the first baby that ever cooed in its mother’s arms. It was a companion in Eden of that tree of life whose fruit gave immortality to the body. And its glory enswathes the antitypical tree of life in the Paradise of God, as seen in the apocalyptic visions of John the revelator. Yes, it will survive the deluge of fire as it survived the deluge of water. When the heavens are rolled together as a scroll, and the material world shall be dissolved, the sabbath will remain. The thunders of the final judgment shall not shake its everlasting pillars. It came before death, and when death is dead it will be alive. The devil found it on his first visit to earth, and its sweet and everlasting rest will be shoreless and bottomless after he is cast, with other sabbath-breakers, into the lake of fire. Yea, as it commenced before man needed a mediator between himself and God, so it will be an eternal heritage of God’s people when the mediatorial kingdom of Jesus Christ is surrendered to the Father, and God shall be all in all. Thou venerable and luminous institution of God! Time writes no wrinkle on thy sunlit brow, Such as creation’s dawn beheld, thou shinest now.

It was made for man; man on earth, and man in heaven. And mark you: The sabbath was made for man, so that the Son of man is lord even of the sabbath. Mark the force of that "so." It is equivalent to therefore or wherefore. That is, since it was made for man, the Son of man, not of Abraham, the Son of man is its Lord. Because Jesus was more than a Jew, because of his touch with all humanity, Luke, writing not for Jews but for Greeks, never stops, like Matthew, at Abraham, but traces his descent from Adam, the first man.

And as, in his humanity, he was the ideal man who should be the ensign of rallying for all nations, Paul applies to him the glorious, prophetic psalm: "But one in a certain place testified, saying, What is man, that thou art mindful of him? or the son of man that thou visitest him? Thou madest him a little lower than the angels; thou crownest him with glory and honour, and didst set him over the works of thy hands: Thou hast put all things in subjection under his feet. For in that he put all in subjection under him, he left nothing that is not put under him. But now we see not yet all things put under him. But we see Jesus, who was made a little lower than the angels for the suffering of death, crowned with glory and honour; that he by the grace of God should taste death for every man." As the God-man he is the Lord of the sabbath. To his cross may be nailed a seventh day. But from his resurrection may come a first day. One in seven is essential – which one is as the Lord of the sabbath may direct.

GENERAL REFLECTIONS
The reader will observe the formula expressing the divine fiat which introduces each successive step in the progress of the earth’s formation:

"And God said" – Genesis 1:3.

"And God said" – Genesis 1:6.

"And God said" – Genesis 1:9.

"And God said’ – Genesis 1:11.

"And God said" – Genesis 1:14.

"And God said" – Genesis 1:20.

"And God said" – Genesis 1:24.

"And God said" – Genesis 1:26.

"And God said" – Genesis 1:28.

“And God said” – Genesis 1:29.

In simple and sublime language his will or decree is expressed and the result follows like an echo. He created the world by the word of his power. He spake and it stood fast. To the first word, light responds; to the second, atmosphere; to the third, dry land; to the fourth, vegetable life; to the fifth, light holders; to the sixth, animal life in sea and air; to the seventh, animal life on earth; to the eighth, human life; to the ninth, provision for life. Though the formula does not recur, the sabbath decree (Genesis 2:1-3) completes the ten words.

Primal institutions, (a) Marriage. "And he answered and said, Have ye no? read, that he who made them from the beginning made them male and female, and said, For this cause shall a man leave his father and mother, and shall cleave to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh? So that they are no more two but one flesh. What therefore God hath joined together, let no man put asunder. They say unto him, why then did Moses command to give a bill of divorcement, and to put her away? He saith unto them, Moses for your hardness of heart suffered you to put away your wives; but from the beginning it hath not been so. And I say unto you, whosoever shall put away his wife, except for fornication, and shall marry another, committeth adultery; and be that marrieth her when she is put away, committeth adultery" (Matthew 19:4-9).

(b) Labor. "Subdue the earth."

(c) Sabbath for rest and worship.

(d) Dominion.

(e) Man’s title to the earth on condition that he populate and subdue it.

There is no evidence that matter has received addition or loss since its original creation. Nor that any additions have been made to the species of life organisms, vegetable or animal.

There is no necessary discord between the Mosaic order of creation and the best settled teachings of natural science. In his Manual of Geology, Dana thus summarizes his understanding of the Mosaic account:

I. Inorganic era:

First Day – Light cosmical.

Second Day – The earth divided from the fluid around, or individualized.

Third Day – (1) Outlining of the land and water. (2) Creation of vegetation.

II. Organic era:

Fourth Day – Light from the sun.

Fifth Day – Creation of the lower order of animals.

Sixth Day – (1) Creation of mammals. (2) Creation of man.

Yet the Bible was given to teach religion, and not science.

Trinity in creation, (a) The Father. Genesis 1:1; Acts 17:24. (b) Holy Spirit. Quickening matter with the several results of light, order, life. Job 26:13; Psalm 10-30; Genesis 2:7; Zechariah 12:1; Hebrews 12:9; Proverbs 20:27; Ecclesiastes 12:7.

(c) The Son. Proverbs 8:22-31; John 1:1-3; 1 Corinthians 8:6; Ephesians 3:9; Colossians 1:16; Hebrews 1:8.

Theological definition of creation: "By creation we mean that free act of the Triune God by which in the beginning for his own glory he made, without the use of pre-existing materials, the whole visible and invisible universe." – A. H. Strong.

For whom was creation? Colossians 1:16.

For what? The divine glory.

Creation reveals what? Order, correlation, benevolent design: Genesis 1:14; Genesis 8:22; Job 38:1-33; Psalms 19:1-14; Matthew 5:45; Acts 14:17; Romans 1:19-20.

Addison’s paraphrase of Psalm 19.

QUESTIONS
1. Eighth product of Spirit energy?

2. How did the creation prophesy man’s coming?

3. In what does the image of God consist?

4. What does it involve and imply?

5. State the Bible teaching on the unity of the race.

6. Importance of the doctrine?

7. Into what five races did our old geographies divide men?

8. State man’s commission.

9. State some details of the magnitude of this commission.

10. How did this lead to the rights of property?

11. How does it necessitate schools and promote arts, sciences, etc.?

12. What conditions man’s title to the earth?

13. How does this explain God’s dealings with the nations?

14. Apply the principle to the Indian tribes of America, and Spain’s title to Cuba.

15. How does it limit the purchasing power of the wealthy?

16. What name was given to the periods of creation?

17. Does this language necessarily imply that the earth was only 144 hours older than man?

18. What three things does it imply?

19. The crowning institution of the creative week?

20. First reason for the sabbath?

21. Creation an affirmation of what truths?

22. Negation of what untruths?

23. Second reason?

24. Third reason?

25. Relation of sabbath to marriage, society, worship?

26. What formula introduces each degree of creation?

27. What were the great primal institutions?

28. Has there been any addition to matter since creation?

29. To the species of the life organisms?

30. Is there substantial accord between the Bible account of the order of creation and the teaching of science?

31. Cite Scripture proof of the Trinity in creation.

32. Cite Dr. Strong’s theological definition of creation.

33. For whom was creation?

34. For what?

35. It reveals what?

Verses 4-25

VI

MAN IN PARADISE

Genesis 2:4-25

We commence with the fourth verse which begins the new division of the analysis, to wit: "These are the generations of the heavens and of the earth," and that division extends to the close of Genesis 4, but our present chapter will discuss so much of it only as is found in the second chapter.

In reading this chapter one is impressed, even in the translation, by a marked difference in style between it and the first chapter of Genesis. How, then, do we account for this great difference in style? A sufficient and simple answer is that in every chapter the style corresponds to the subject matter. Some of you will recall a paragraph from Alexander Pope with this couplet:

When Ajax strives some rock’s vast weight to throw, The line too labours, and the words move slow.

This essayist on style then goes on to show that in describing the nimble-footed Camilla there is no labor in the line, and no slow motion in the words. The first chapter of Genesis consists of terse, abrupt, sententious sentences, each as rugged as a granite mountain. The nature of the subject calls for that style. The second chapter, following the usual method of Genesis, takes up certain items tersely stated in the first chapter and enlarges or expounds the statement. This calls for a smoother and more flowing style.

A thinking reader will also note another change in the second chapter. The first chapter uniformly uses the word, "God," but the second chapter, "Jehovah God," and this change from the name of "God" to "Jehovah God" appears a number of times, not merely in Genesis, but in many succeeding books, and is just as marked in the psalms as it is in Genesis. The word "God" is employed when the Deity is spoken of in the abstract. The words, "Jehovah God," are employed when there is a revelation of the Deity spoken of in covenant relation. The name, "Jehovah," is always used when you want to show God’s covenant relation with man, and you find both of these names, or titles, of God oftentimes in the same verse (see Genesis 7:16; 1 Samuel 17:46-47; 2 Chronicles 18:31). God in the abstract is Elohim, or just "God," but God in covenant relation is "Jehovah Elohim," or "Jehovah God."

As we look over this second chapter at first glance, there seems to be on the face of it another diversity from the first chapter in the order of creation. In the first chapter the chronological order is strictly followed, man coming last; in the second chapter the mind is fastened on the man who came last in the first chapter, first in dignity, and the other things and beings are discussed in their relation to him without intending to convey the idea that this is the chronological order of their creation. The radical critics have been accustomed to claim that these three marked changes between the first and second chapters indicate different authors and different documents. There is no convincing reason for accepting this explanation. The book of Genesis is not a patchwork of different documents by different authors crudely and artificially joined together; one purpose runs through the book. Whoever wrote one part of it wrote all the parts of it, from whatever source his materials were derived.

Just here it is important to call your attention to the uniform method of historic treatment in the book of Genesis. From the first sentence to the end of the book there is a designed descent from the general and comprehensive to the particular. For example, the first verse, in a few words, states that in the beginning God created the universe. The second verse descends to this particular: the condition of the created earth matter as being without form and void, and darkness over the face of the deep. The author does not attempt to state how much interval of time passed from the creation of the matter of the universe to this particular state of the chaos of the earth matter. Having thus shown what the chaotic state was he then shows the several steps by which this chaos, under the mighty energy of the Holy Spirit, is changed into order.

The first eleven chapters are a race history. Then there is a descent to a particular man and a family and a nation. Another uniform method of the book of Genesis is, that in tracing the kingdom of God all of the families of whom the elect line does not come are first given and then sidetracked. It gives the generations of Ishmael before it gives the generations of Isaac, and the generations of Esau before it gives the generations of Jacob.

In this second chapter, as has been said, following the methods of a descent from the general to the particular, the author takes up certain brief statements of the first chapter and sup- plies details that are not given in the first. Among the examples are these: In the first chapter, following a chronological; order, there is the bare statement that God commanded the earth to bring forth grass and the herb yielding seed, and the fruit tree yielding fruit. But the second chapter supplies a detail that at first there was no rain but only a mist that went up from the earth and watered the face of the ground, and caused the seeds of things which had been created to germinate; then the first chapter states in general terms that God made man, male and female, without detail. This second chapter tells us how man’s body was made from the dust of the ground, and how the spirit of man was communicated, and then it shows how the female was derived from the man. This is a detailed elaboration) or explanation, of the brief statement in the first chapter.

The second chapter then goes on to supply the detail of how God provided a garden for the man, and how he came under covenant law to God, and the stipulations of that covenant. This detailed information of the second chapter is very important as showing the dual nature of man, how that his body was formed from the dust of the earth. Here it is clear that the teaching is that man’s body was not evolved from any lower form of animal life. There is an evolution clearly taught in the Bible, but it is an evolution of each seed according to its kind, and not the transformation of one kind into another kind. Whatever potentiality has been previously involved in any seed may be evolved out of that seed. From a seed of wheat there is first the blade and then the stalk and then the ear, and then the full or ripened ear, but barley is not evolved from a wheat seed. Each one is according to its own kind. No research of man has ever found an example of one kind being evolved from a different kind. It would destroy all law and take away from man the value of his reason in observing nature’s course, or the course of the God of nature so as to profit by it. This second chapter is equally clear as to the origin of man’s spirit. The spirit of the first man was not by any process of evolution derived from any spirit of beast or demon, but a direct creation of God, an impartation from God. Marcus Dods, in his book on Genesis, exceedingly lucid and brilliant, though many times tending to the theory of the radical critic, asks a question: "Was the first man a rude and ignorant savage or a highly civilized man?" You may rest assured that the first man was the highest and noblest of his kind, fresh from the hands of his Creator, created upright, in righteousness, knowledge and true holiness, wonderfully dowered and commissioned. He was superior not only to the rude and ignorant savage, but to the highest type of present civilization.

This leads to another thought, viz.: that the savage tribes to today are not merely ascending from a primeval degradation in the scale of beings, but are examples of a degeneration from a previous higher type. On this point the whole theory of Darwinian evolution is hopelessly at war with revelation and common sense, and also with all of the clearly proved facts gathered by man’s research. This thought is further carried out by the fact that race memory has embodied in tribal and I national myths proofs that man has not ascended from a primeval cave dweller or a remote stone age to the present golden age of civilization, but that there has been, according to the teachings of history time and again, a descent from the primeval golden age to a silver, then a brazen, and then an iron and then a stone age. As an instance, take Ovid’s "Metamorphoses" as embodying the classical idea of first a golden, then a silver, then a brazen and then an iron age, and this is in harmony with the myths and legends preserved among all people. By a kind of race memory they all look back to & higher and nobler position than that now occupied. This erroneous evolution theory goes a long way back and finds first, cave dwellers, or troglodytes, and an evolution from the cave dweller of the stone age to the present civilized time. But the Bible itself, as well as present history, shows that troglodytas or cave dwellers existed contemporaneously with higher types. The Horites mentioned in Genesis were troglodytes living in caves. This evolution theory begs the question and contradicts the facts as well, in demanding almost infinite periods of time between these several generations. Not long ago the phosphate beds of Ashley, South Carolina, were discovered, and in excavating for these phosphates there were found all mingled together the bones, skeletons of animals including man, that, under this theory, must have been separated in countless ages of time from each other.

We have in this second chapter a description of a garden, or paradise, in the district of Eden. I need not cite the words of this description, for you have the book before you. Captain Mayne Reid, in the Desert Home, describes a fertile, well watered valley, mountain locked on every side, full of flowers and fruits, that may convey to you some idea of paradise in a valley of the mountains. Or you may get some idea of paradise in a valley of the mountains from Johnson’s Happy Valley of Rasselas. The record says that this park was fertilized by a river system, which, in leaving the garden, parted into fear beads that became mighty rivers. Two of these rivers -- the Euphrates and the Tigris – are easy to locate, and the other two may be easily inferred. In the Armenian mountains is yet to be seen a beautiful valley in which, from the same water system, four famous rivers rise, not far from each other. The springs of these rivers are not many miles apart. The Euphrates, leaving this valley, flows, in general terms, south, reaching the Indian Ocean through the Persian Gulf. The Tigris flows east and then south until it unites with the Euphrates before it reaches the sea. The Halys and the Araxes also rise in the same valley, one of them flowing northwest into the Black Sea, and the other, east into the Caspian Sea.

There were two remarkable trees in this garden, the tree of life and the tree of death. From what is said in the third chapter, and indicated by its own name, the object of the tree of life was to furnish the fruit that would ultimately eliminate the mortality of man’s body so that long continuance in the use of this fruit would make his body as immortal as his soul. On the other hand, the tree of the knowledge of good and evil fruited unto death. Many of the commentaries have found in this story of the garden of Eden a mere allegory. All subsequent references to it in the Bible clearly prove that this account is strictly historical. By following out your marginal references abundant proof texts are to be found in both Testaments that the memory of this famous garden lingered long lathe minds of the race. In the New Testament, at the very close of it, paradise regained, with its water of life and the tree of life, is set forth as the antitype of the earthly garden of Eden. It is quite important to note that the man had duties in this garden. He was to tend the garden and, as in the commission stated in the first chapter of Genesis, he must subdue the earth. This shows that labor preceded sin and has in it a natural dignity not to be despised.

It is well to note that this man in this garden, without being at all startled, had direct communication with God; without fear or shame he met and communed with his Creator. The biblical account clearly shows that this man stood in covenant relations with his God. The very fact that some things are prescribed and other things proscribed is an evidence of a covenant relation, the Creator freely permitting some things, sharply prohibiting other things with severe penalties attached to disobedience. The prohibition not to eat of the tree of the fruit of knowledge of good and evil, except on a penalty of death, is a stipulation of this covenant. Some have questioned the propriety of such a moral test. But a test in this form is more excellent than one like an ordinary law of nature demonstrating its own consequences.

Men have had some difficulty in locating the garden of Eden from the description given in this second chapter, but their difficulties arise from supposing there has been no change since primeval times. For example, the Hiddekel, or Tigris, is said to compass all the land of Cush, and commentators, keeping in mind the territory of Cush in Africa, experience a difficulty in locating this river. They should notice that the descendants of Cush first occupied the very territory which the Tigris compasses, and later some of them settled in Arabia and others of them in Africa. A passage in Ezekiel, which the reader must find, tells us that the garden of Eden was destroyed. By which is meant not the annihilation of its mountains and its rivers, but such a change as, were you now to see the location, you could not identify it from the description given in Genesis. Several curious theories of the location of the garden of Eden have been inflicted upon the people. A Methodist bishop is quite sure that it was near where Charleston, South Carolina, now is. Another says that it was at the North Pole and that the aurora borealis is still a reflection of its pristine glory, and that there is an opening into the hollow of the earth at the North Pole and paradise went down into that hole, and only the aurora borealis outshines and that God had hedged it about with impassable ice. The discovery of the North Pole, if it was a discovery, clearly disproves the existence of such a stake as the north pole.

One of the most suggestive thoughts in this chapter is the way in which God made the man sensible of his need of a companion, and of the kind of a companion that he must have. The animals in pairs passed before the man and he noticing that they were all in pairs – a lion and a lioness, a tiger and a tigress, and so on – thus suggesting the thought to him that these lower creatures had mates, and he had none, but further suggesting that because of his difference in nature, he being in God’s image and infinitely above any lower animal, he could not find a mate among them. Having thus prepared man’s mind to see the necessity of a companion, God, by a spiritual anesthetic, brings man’s body into a state of painless insensibility, and while in that state takes from him a part of himself near his heart, and out of that fashions man’s companion.

Here arises an important question: "Was the spirit of Eve a direct creation like Adam’s, or was her spirit derived from him as well as her body?" This brings up two theological theories, one called the theory of direct creation of spirits, and the other the theory of derivation by traduction. It has always seemed to the author that the common theory, that the souls of men are all of them, each in its turn, a direct creation of God, is utterly incompatible with biblical facts. It would disprove hereditary depravity or the necessity of regeneration. Education only would be needed. When the companion was presented to man, Adam said, Isha, which means woman, and woman means derived from man. When she was presented to him she was presented to him in her entirety --body and soul – and he called her woman – i.e., derived from man. So that Eve was as much a descendant of Adam as you are. In other words the man, when created was the whole race in potentiality, and every other human being, including Eve, was derived from him. A very important doctrine will be seen to be dependent upon this when we come to the next chapter, when we come to the fall of man. If Eve was a descendant of Adam, race responsibility did not rest upon her. Her sin might bring death to her but only to herself, but Adam’s sin would bring it to all to be derived from him.

God himself married this first pair, and our Lord, in the nineteenth chapter of Matthew, indicated the ceremony by the words which he quotes. In looking upon this first pair, we come upon a somewhat startling statement prefaced by "therefore": "Therefore shall a man leave his father and mother, and shall cleave unto his wife." The usual idea seems to be that the right of the matter is that a man shall take her to his father’s and mother’s house, but the Bible says that a man shall leave his folk, and all the wives can understand why this is so. They cannot go to the father-in-law and mother-in-law and feel at home under the dominion of those who are practically strangers. She wants her home. She is willing enough to receive counsel in the home life from her mother, but not so well from his mother. So he should not always be telling her how well his mother could make biscuits and pies and coffee and desserts. Let her tell him how her mother used to do it. The truth is, when they marry, they had better go off to themselves.

In two of the finest passages of Milton’s Paradise Lost is the poet’s conception of the man’s first consciousness after his creation and how Eve awoke and found herself. I once took the passage about Eve waking and finding herself, and made it the theme of an address before a college of young ladies. I suggest that every reader read these two passages.

When we come to the New Testament we find proof corroborating the Genesis account of the origin of the woman. It distinctly affirms that Adam was first formed, then Eve, and that the woman was made for the man and not the man for the woman, and that the man is the head of the family, from which are also derived some beautiful lessons about Christ the Second Adam, and the church derived from him; that as the first Adam slept while the woman was taken from his side so Christ died that from his death might come his companion, his spouse, his church; that Christ also loved the church and gave himself for it.

QUESTIONS
1. How do you account for the difference of style between the first and second chapters of Genesis?

2. What says Alexander Pope on the variation of style?

3. What is the style in the first chapter? The second?

4. What variation in the use of the names of God, and how do you account for it?

5. 1s this peculiar to the Pentateuch?

6. Why, in this section, is man’s formation placed before vegetable and other animal life?

7. Does the first chapter or the second present the chronological order?

8. Is the second chapter an independent and conflicting account of creation?

9. What is the uniform method of historic treatment in the book of Genesis?

10. Of what do the first eleven chapters of Genesis consist?

11. What details are supplied in the second chapter not found in the first chapter?

12. Give an account of the origin of the first man’s dual nature.

13. Was he, either in body or soul, developed from lower animals?

14. Was the first man a rude and ignorant savage, or the highest type of his kind?

15. Are the savage tribes of today merely ascending from primeval degradation in the scale of being, or are they examples of a degeneration from an original higher type?

16. Does race memory, as embodied in the tribal and national myths, indicate that man has ascended from cave dwellers of a remote stone age, or has descended from a primeval golden age to silver, brass, iron, and stone conditions?

17. Give a classic myth on this point.

18. Give Bible proof that troglodytes (cave dwellers) were not separated in incalculable periods of time from highly developed and civilized types, but were contemporaries.

19. What bearing have the phosphate beds of Ashley, South Carolina on the theory that immensely long periods of time separated the several forms of lower animal life from each other and from man?

20. What ideal homes in fiction may possibly represent how the garden of Eden was enclosed and safeguarded?

21. Locate and describe it. What curious theories about it?

22. How was this park fertilized?

23. What two remarkable trees were there?

24. The use or purpose of the tree of life?

25. Of the tree of death?

26. Is this garden story allegory or history?

27. Cite Old Testament proofs that the memory of this real garden lingered long in the minds of the race. (See Genesis 13:10; Isaiah 51:3; Ezekiel 28:13; Ezekiel 36:35; Joel 2:3.).

28. Cite scripture proving its destruction. (See Ezekiel 31:9; Ezekiel 31:16; Ezekiel 31:18.)

29. Man’s duties in the garden?

30. Nature of his communion with God?

31. Scripture proof of Adam’s covenant relations with God? (Hosea 6:7.)

32. Was it a covenant of grace or of works?

33. What prohibition expressed its stipulation on man’s part?

34. What is the excellency of this moral test?

35. How did God make man sensible of his need of a companion?

36. Origin of the woman’s body?

37. Was her soul a direct creation as Adam’s, or was it derived from Adam?

38. Who married the first pair, and what New Testament scripture indicates the ceremony?

39. The deep sleep that fell upon Adam and the woman’s derivation from him therein were typical of what? New Testament proof?

40. If either be done, why should the man leave his folk for his wife rather than the wife her folk for the husband?

41. In their antitype show that both leave their folks.

42. Where in Paradise Lost do you find Milton’s conceptions of how the man first consciously found himself and the woman herself? Sir Egerton Bridges Edition, pp. 297-8 and 205-6.

43. Cite New Testament corroboration of the Genesis account of the origin of woman.

VII

THE ANGELS

We have seen in the second chapter of Genesis the happy estate of the man and woman in paradise. We learn in the third chapter about the fall of man and his expulsion from that garden. No more fundamental subject can be considered by a Bible student, and we are not going to leave it until you are thoroughly grounded in the significance of the fall of man. But we are not prepared to commence the study of the fall until we consider somewhat the origin, nature, office, and history of another very distinct class of created beings called angels, through one of whom man was seduced to sin against God. So you see that the subject of this chapter is the creation of the angels, their relation to God and to man and the use of the serpent as an instrument in the temptation. Many Bible words of general signification take on by special usage a particular and official meaning; for example, the words, "apostle," "deacon," "church," or "angel." Primarily "apostle" means one sent. In this original meaning one sent by another is an apostle. Jesus was an apostle; so was Barnabas. But by special use the term is restricted to the highest office in the earthly church, and confined to the twelve apostles and to Paul. So "deacon" means primarily a servant. In this original sense any one who serves is a deacon. Jesus was a deacon. But by usage the term is restricted to a particular office in the apostolic church. The Greek New Testament term rendered "church" means primarily an official assembly called out for the transaction of secular business, but later designates a particular congregation of Christians. In like manner "angel" primarily means a messenger of any kind. Any one bearing a message from another is in this original sense an angel. Many passages in the Old Testament use the phrase, "angel of Jehovah," to designate a preliminary manifestation of the Son of God before his incarnation. In this original sense the pastors of the seven churches in Asia are called the angels of the churches. Yet this general term "angel" by abundant usage, designates a special class of created beings, neither human nor divine – above the one, below the other – appointed unto a distinctive office. These constitute the hosts of the heavens.

When, then, were they created? There was but one creative period, and that period is set forth in the first chapter of Genesis and in the second chapter down to the third verse. In that time were finished not only the heavens and the earth, but "all the hosts of them" (Genesis 2:1). Now the hosts of the earth are the created beings that inhabit the earth. The hosts of the heavens are the angels. The order in which the earth’s hosts – that is, the animals of sea, air, and land, culminating in man – were brought into being, has been set forth in previous chapters. But a consideration of the origin of "the hosts of the heavens" has been deferred until their contact with man brings them prominently into the earth history.

In the Psalm 148 all the creation, including the angelic hosts, are invoked to praise Jehovah, their Creator:

Praise ye him, all his angels:

Praise ye him, all his hosts. . . .

For be commanded, and they were created.

Here the creation of the angels is associated in time with the rest of creation. Even more particularly in this association set forth and attributed to Jesus Christ in Colossians 1:16: "In him were all things created, in the heavens and upon the earth, things visible and things invisible, whether thrones or dominions, or principalities or powers; all things have been created through him and unto him." It is true that the Son of God, by his incarnation, was subsequently made a little lower than the angels whom he created (Hebrews 2:7), but after his resurrection and ascension he was again exalted above them: "Who is on the right hand of God, having gone into heaven; angels and authorities and powers being made subject unto him" (1 Peter 3:22).

The hosts of heaven met Jacob at a later day (Genesis 32:1) and are an innumerable company. "The Lord came from the myriads of holy ones" (Deuteronomy 33:2). "The chariots of God are twenty thousand, even thousands upon thousands" (Psalms 68:17). "Thousands of thousands ministered unto him, and ten thousand times ten thousand stood before him" (Daniel 7:10). "Innumerable hosts of angels" (Hebrews 12:22). "I heard the voice of many angels) . . . and the number of them was ten thousand times ten thousand and thousands of thousands" (Revelation 5:11).

The creation of the angels preceded that of the universe matter, and of course, that of man. In other words, the first creation was when the angels were made. We know this to be the case, because in the Psalms 104:4-5, these angels were employed in bringing the chaotic earth matter into order. From the passage, Job 38:7, we are told that the sons of God watched it, had participated in it, and when it was completed shouted for Joy over the world when it was created. They rejoiced over the beautiful consummation.

By nature the angels were incorporeal, i.e., pure spirit (Psalms 104:4; Hebrews 1:14; Ephesians 6:12), and sexless (Matthew 22:30), and immortal (Luke 20:36), possessed of superhuman and yet finite wisdom and power (2 Samuel 14:20; 2 Peter 2:11; Matthew 24:36; 1 Peter 1:12; Ephesians 3:10). Angels are not a family, but a company. They are without ancestry or posterity. Each stands or falls in his own individuality. As they could not fall through a progenitor, nor become corrupt through hereditary law, they cannot, when fallen, become subjects of redemption through a second federal head (Hebrews 2:16). Of angels, therefore, we may say: They are created and therefore finite beings; by origin they are called the sons of God (Job 1:6; Job 2:7); by nature they are spirits (Psalms 104:4) ; by character they are called "holy ones" or "saints" (Job 5:1; Psalms 89:5-7; Daniel 8:13; Judges 1:14). Later we shall find them ministrators of the law (Galatians 3:19), heralds of the gospel (Luke 2:9-13), and servants of Christ’s people (Hebrews 1:14).

ORIGIN OF SIN
Now we come to the origin of sin. From the most ancient times the origin of evil has baffled the inquisition of proud human philosophy. The Bible account of it is both simple and satisfactory. It originated with the angels. These angels were created free, moral agents, under law, on probation, with power to determinate choice, hence liable to fall. The greater number of them stood the test. In 1 Timothy 5:21, those who stood the test are called the elect angels. But many fell from their state of innocence. See 2 Peter 2:4, and Judges 1:6: "The angels which kept not their first estate." The leader and chief among them was Satan, who "stood not in the truth" (John 8:44), falling through pride (1 Timothy 3:6). He was first called Lucifer, which means "son of the morning." He loses that name and takes the name Satan. This chief of the fallen angels has many Bible names. As expressive of his primacy and supremacy over other evil spirits he is called Beelzebub. As indicative of his hostility to man he is called Satan, which means adversary. As descriptive of his methods of malignity against man his name is devil. In this word is the idea of one who sets at variance. Those whom he seeks to set at variance are God and man. When he approaches man he slanders God; when he approaches God he accuses man. Hence, in his work of variance he is both an accuser and a slanderer. When he approaches Eve he slanders God. When he approaches God he accuses Job. In view of the result of his work he is called Apollyon, the destroyer. He is never a constructionist, but eminently a destructionist. He does not build; he demolishes. Because of the form he assumed in the temptation of man, he is called the Serpent, the Dragon. Very sinuous, tortuous, slimy, and subtle are his ways. On account of his rage and predatory character he is compared to a roaring lion. He is called the tempter because he incites to evil. He is called the receiver because he tempts by lies. That he may deceive he comes as an angel of light, and that he may trap the unwary he sets cunning traps as a fowler who ensnares birds. But all the time he is a liar and a murderer, and the father of lies and murders. He is the father of all false religions. He uses the lusts of the flesh, the pride of life, and the course of the world in turning men away from God. He first blinds, then binds and then stupefies, and so he keeps his goods in peace. He is an awful and hideous reality, apart from God the most stupendous factor in the universe. He is limited in power and in the time allotted him to work his evil deeds. Now, as I stated, the angels, like man, were on probation. The best statement of that case that I have ever seen is in Milton’s Paradise Lost, fifth book, commencing at the 520^th line: Raphael said to Adam:

“Son of heaven and earth, Attend: that thou art happy, owe to God; That thou continuest such, owe to thyself, That is, to thy obedience; therein stand. This was that caution given thee; be advised. God made thee perfect, not immutable; And good he made thee; but to persevere He left it in thy power; ordained thy will By nature free, not over-ruled by fate Inextricable, or strict necessity: Our voluntary service he requires, Not our necessitated; such with Him Finds no acceptance, nor can find; for how Can hearts, not free, be tried whether they serve Willing or not, who will but what they must By destiny, and can no other choose? Myself, and all the angelic host, that stand In sight of God, enthroned, our happy state Hold, as you yours, while our obedience holds; On other surety none: freely we serve, Because we freely love, as in our will To love or not; in this we stand or fall.”

Now comes a much more serious question. What was the occasion that led the devil to sin? God did not make a devil; he created him a good angel, but created him free to act, to stand or fall. Now, the devil sinned, and we find his sin to be pride or ambition, but we have not yet found the occasion for that sin. If you are familiar with Paradise Lost you will see that Milton says the occasion was this: That God introduced his Son to the angels, and announced that from that time he was to be king of the angels and that they were to serve him. Milton bases his statement on the passage in the first chapter of Hebrews, "When he bringeth his only Begotten into the world again he said, Let all the angels of God worship him." Now, Milton makes that take place before there was any universe. A fair interpretation of that scripture is that when Jesus died and rose again – that was bringing his Begotten into the world again – God said, "Let all the angels worship him." That is the true explanation, that they were to worship not the Son of God in original divinity, but the Son of God in raised humanity. So Milton was mistaken about the occasion. Jesus Christ made the angels, all of them. He made the one that became the devil, and I don’t suppose that the devil’s pride or ambition would ever have led him to rebel against the one who created him through any desire to succeed him. The question is, What was the occasion that excited the pride of the devil? Now, the Bible does not say, but I am going to give you my own opinion, and you can take it as an opinion. My opinion is that, in one of those meetings in heaven like that described in Job at which all the angels at stated times come up into the presence of God, he announced to them that he was going to create this world and make man in his image and likeness, and that this man through obedience, – if he observed the commandments of God and should eat of the tree of life, – would become immortal and be lifted up above the angels, and that it should be the office of the angels to serve this man. Now I think there is where the devil protested. He was willing enough for God to be over him, but he was unwilling for a creature, made originally lower than himself, to have a destiny that would one day put any being above him. Every saved soul will be far above any angel. That is my opinion. If I had time I believe I could show you inferentially, of course not specifically, for I would then have to give you scriptures.

Now, in the second book of Paradise Lost Milton tracks the Bible out much more clearly about how sin originated. When the devil, after being cast out of heaven, is leaving hell to go back to find on earth this people that were to be created below him and one day were to be above him, he meets at the gate of hell Sin and Death, both horrible. And Just as he and Death are about to fight, Sin intervenes. Sin is a beautiful woman from the waist up, and a snake from the waist down. She says to Satan: "Death is thy son. I am Death’s mother. I am not only Death’s mother, but I am thy daughter. Don’t you remember that time in heaven when your pride was excited, that fearful pain came in your head and it was opened and out I leaped full grown like a beautiful woman? And every angel said, ’Sin, Sin, Sin.’ But, looking at my beauty, they became enamoured of me, and especially thou, and thy espousal to Sin produced the progeny, Death, and Death’s espousal to Sin produced the progeny of the hellhounds of remorse." That is Milton’s idea, powerfully set forth, marvelous. That coincides with what we were discussing in the New Testament about sin. There is first enticement, then desire, then will, then sin) and sin when it is full grown bringeth forth death. That part of Milton’s work is true.

We are now compelled by the facts of the Bible story about to be considered to take some note of a great mystery. And that is the power of spirit over matter and over less powerful organisms of life. "Unquestionably, when permitted, Satan can stir up a cyclone, or electric storm that leaves death in its path (Job 1:16-19); or incite to robbery and murder (Job 1:15-17 and 1 John 3:12). He can hypnotize inferior animals (Matthew 8:30-32), and make them obey his will. He can, by consent of the subject, take possession of man’s mind and make it his servant. Hence, the demoniacal possessions of the New Testament. One of the clearest revelations of Scripture is the immediate influence of spirit over matter and the immediate impact of spirit on spirit. We could not otherwise understand Genesis 1:2; Genesis 2:7; Psalms 104:30; 1 Peter 1:21; John 3:3; Luke 1:55; John 8:27; Acts 5:3, and many other passages. The formation of the earth, the communication of man’s soul, the incarnation of our Lord, the quickening of regeneration, the resurrection, inspiration, demoniacal possession, the preparation of dying infants for heaven, the stampeding of cattle, panics in armies, mesmerism, hypnotism and a thousand other mysteries find their only explanation in the doctrine of immediate impact of spirit on matter or on another spirit.

The account of Genesis speaks of the serpent, the instrument, only. But fairly interpreted it implies what is elsewhere so forcibly taught, that the serpent was merely the instrument of a mighty spiritual power in the temptation of Eve. That grandest of all epics, Paradise Lost, reveals throughout a profound study of the whole Bible. It thus sets forth a possible method of the entrance of Satan into the serpent:

So saying, through each thicket dank and dry, Like a black mist low creeping, he held on His midnight search, where soonest he might find The serpent: him, fast sleeping soon he found In labyrinth of many a round self-rolled, His head the midst, well stored with subtle wiles: Not yet in horrid shade or dismal den, Nor nocent yet; but, on the grassy herb, Fearless unfeared he slept: in at his mouth The devil entered; and his brutal sense, In heart and head, possessing, soon inspired With act intelligential; but his sleep Disturbed not, waiting close the approach of morn.

Just as the devil can take possession of a man and make him demoniac, so the devil took possession of the serpent. The use of the serpent as a means, and the most suitable means, arises out of his power and his cunning. I will quote what Richard Owen says about the serpent: "He out climbs the monkey, out swims the fish, out leaps the zebra, outwrestles the athlete, and crushes the tiger." In Ruskin’s "Queen of the Air" we find: "There are myriads lower than the serpent, and more loathsome in the scale of being . . . but it is the strength of the base element that is so dreadful in the serpent; it is the very omnipotence of the earth. . . . It is a divine hieroglyph of the demoniac power of the earth, of the entirely earthly nature. As the bird is the clothed power of the air, so this is the clothed power of the dust; as the bird is the symbol of the spirit of life, so this is the grasp and sting of death."

You will notice that after the curse was pronounced upon him, because of what he had done, the serpent was condemned to crawl, evidently implying that he had not crawled before. In two or three books of the Bible we have an account of fiery, flying serpents, and beyond all question the particular serpent that tempted Eve was a flying serpent. That only shows that his power was greater then than it has been since. He was condemned to crawl and clipped off his wings. Nataerialists will tell you that there were serpents with wings, and all tradition represents the dragon with wings. So that the Bible, nature and tradition agree in the representation that the serpent employed for the temptation of Eve was winged so that he had power in the air as well as power on the land. EP After the curse was pronounced upon him he must crawl and ’ pick his food up from the ground as I have seen them do. I have seen a rattlesnake swallow a mule-eared rabbit. He licks him all over and covers him with saliva, rolls him over in the sand and then swallows him whole with the dust that is on him. That is how the serpent eats dust.

SUMMARY
We have seen the creation of the angels. We have seen that a part of these angels kept not their first estate. We have seen the sin which they committed, pride, and we have seen that Satan is the chief of the fallen spirits that were cast out. We have seen why he came to earth, to slander God and accuse man, to make them sin, to keep them from attaining to the position that they would be above him and bring them to the position that they would be under him. But, "Know ye not," says Paul, "that the saints shall Judge angels?"

QUESTIONS
1. Why defer to this connection the account of the angels?

2. Illustrate the special or official meaning of the several Bible words of general signification.

3. What the literal or etymological meaning of the term "angel"?

4. What the special meaning?

5. Scriptural proof of their creation and by whom?

6. Before or after man’s creation?

7. Why the Bible account of their creation less particular than that of man’s?

8. What can you say of their number?

9. What their work in the creation of the earth?

10. The nature of the angels as distinguished from man?

11. Why may not sinning angels have a savior?

12. Give statement of these beings from the following viewpoints:

(1) As to creation;

(2) As to origin.;

(3) As to nature;

(4) As to character;

(5) As to service.

13. With what beings did sin originate?

14. With which one of the angels did sin originate?

15. According to the New Testament, what was his particular sin?

16. Give several names of this chief of the fallen angels, and their meanings.

17. What Milton’s misconception of the occasion of sin?

18. What probably the real occasion?

19. What Milton’s conception of the origin of sin?

20. Give Bible proof of the impact of spirit on spirit, and the influence of spirit over matter.

21. What was the instrument of the temptation, and Milton s description of the entrance of Satan into it?

22. What was the state of the serpent at first, and what the change in that state in the curse?

23. New Testament proof of the nature and extent of their punishment?

24 Why delay the final punishment of the angels!

25. Scripture proof that the angels good and bad must report then work regularly to God?