Bible Commentaries
Genesis 1

Verses 1-2

Introduction: God’s Nature to Create - The first two verses of the story of Creation tell us how empty and chaotic the earth was before God began to set it in order. Part of God's nature is to create. We are made in God's likeness, in His image. Man has natural desires to create and to organize. How would we feel in an empty, void environment? We go into a dirty house and we want to clean and organize it. Look at man’s achievements in science, technology, hobbies, and crafts that he has created from his imagination. Man is born in the image of God to also create. God is the Creator. None can create more gloriously than God Himself. You can walk down a sidewalk and you notice man's dry slabs of concrete, then you see God's trees and shrubs, grass and insects and we see God's creation compared to man's creativeness.

The Characteristics of the Heaven and Earth in the Beginning - While Genesis 1:1-2 tells us about the characteristics of the heavens and the earth in the beginning, we find the rest of the chapter explaining how the new characteristics came to pass through the Story of Creation. We then see in chapters 2-5 how mankind lived on earth with these characteristics. Then, the Story of the Flood in chapters 6-8 explains how the earth’s characteristics were altered because of this event. The new characteristics of the earth that were created as a result and will continue until God creates a new heavens and earth are listed in Genesis 8:22.

Genesis 8:22, “While the earth remaineth, seedtime and harvest, and cold and heat, and summer and winter, and day and night shall not cease.”

Genesis 1:1 In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth.

Genesis 1:1 Word Study on “God” The Hebrew word for “God” used throughout the Old Testament is אֱלֹהִים (H430). In Genesis 1:1 this word is used in its plural form with a singular verb. This is called the plural of majesty or plural of intensity so that it can be literally translated with intensity as “God, the very God.” This use of “elohim” stands in contrast to this same Hebrew word being used in many other passages, also in its plural form, and translated “gods,” but with a plural verb. The Enhanced Strong says the Hebrew word “elohim” is used a total of 260 times in the Old Testament, being translated in the KJV as, “God 2346, god 244, Judges 5:0, GOD 1, goddess 2, great 2, mighty 2, angels 1, exceeding 1, God-ward + 04136 1, godly 1.”

Word Study on “heaven” The Hebrew word שָׁמַ֫יִם is only found in the dual form in the Old Testament Scriptures. [78] This word is used to refer to both the physical heavens and to the celestial dwelling place of God ( TWOT).

[78] Ralph P. Martin, 2 Corinthians, in Word Biblical Commentary: 58 Volumes on CD-Rom, vol. 40, eds. Bruce M. Metzger, David A. Hubbard and Glenn W. Barker (Dallas: Word Inc., 2002), in Libronix Digital Library System, v. 2.1c [CD-ROM] (Bellingham, WA: Libronix Corp., 2000-2004), comments on 2 Corinthians 12:2.

Genesis 1:1 Comments - God’s Existence Before the Creation Story - Proverbs 8:22-26 tells us that there was a time when the heavens and earth did not exist, an era before they were created. Note:

Proverbs 8:22-26, “ The LORD possessed me in the beginning of his way, before his works of old. I was set up from everlasting, from the beginning, or ever the earth was . When there were no depths, I was brought forth; when there were no fountains abounding with water. Before the mountains were settled, before the hills was I brought forth: While as yet he had not made the earth, nor the fields, nor the highest part of the dust of the world.”

YLT translates this passage in Proverbs to state that there were former states of the earth.

YLT, “Jehovah possessed me--the beginning of His way, Before His works since then. From the age I was anointed, from the first, From former states of the earth .” (Proverbs 8:22-23)

The NIV reads, “The Lord possessed me at the beginning of his work, before his deeds of old; I was appointed from eternity, from the beginning, before the world began .” (Proverbs 8:22-23)

Therefore, according to the book of Proverbs, wisdom existed with God before He began to create anything. When God created, it was with wisdom.

Now note another verse in the Bible about what what/who existed with God in the beginning.

John 1:1, “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.”

Therefore, the Scriptures tell us that before anything existed, there was the wisdom of God and the Word of God, which were the elements that God used to create this universe.

Jesus is called the Word of God:

John 1:14, “And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us, (and we beheld his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father,) full of grace and truth.”

Revelation 19:13, “And he was clothed with a vesture dipped in blood: and his name is called The Word of God.”

All things were made by Him:

1 Corinthians 8:6, “But to us there is but one God, the Father, of whom are all things, and we in him; and one Lord Jesus Christ, by whom are all things, and we by him .”

Ephesians 3:9, “And to make all men see what is the fellowship of the mystery, which from the beginning of the world hath been hid in God, who created all things by Jesus Christ :”

Colossians 1:15-16, “Who is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of every creature: For by him were all things created , that are in heaven, and that are in earth, visible and invisible, whether they be thrones, or dominions, or principalities, or powers: all things were created by him, and for him:”

Hebrews 1:1-2, “God, who at sundry times and in divers manners spake in time past unto the fathers by the prophets, Hath in these last days spoken unto us by his Son, whom he hath appointed heir of all things, by whom also he made the worlds ;”

The Holy Spirit was there in creation also:

Genesis 1:2, “And the earth was without form, and void; and darkness was upon the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters.”

So, we see the Father, Son and Holy Spirit, with the wisdom of God involved in creation.

Genesis 1:1 Comments - God’s Divine Nature Revealed in the Creation Story - The phrase, “ In the beginning God created,” immediately tells us that God is eternal, that He is the source, or cause, of all things that are created. From Him, everything has its origin.

1. God is omnipresent because He created space.

2. God is eternal because He created time.

3. God is all-powerful (omnipotent) and all-knowing (omniscience and omniscient) because He created all things.

4. God is the source of all wisdom.

Proverbs 8:22-23, “The LORD possessed me (wisdom) in the beginning of his way, before his works of old. I was set up from everlasting, from the beginning, or ever the earth was.”

The more man learns about the heavens and the earth, the more clearly we see a God who is not bound by time or space, a God who is all-powerful. When man pierces into the most distance reaches of the universe with powerful telescopes, he declares that a star is a thousand, a million or a billion light-years away. Man declares that the image of light from that distance star is a million or billion years old. This means that we can see a light, which started a journey millions of years ago and is just now reaching earth. We are not looking at a star as it appears in the present, but as it appeared in the past.

This means that time is conditional to distance, or space. It means that time and space are relative to other factors. It means that time and space have been created, because they are not absolutely independent of creation. God created time and He created space. Therefore, God does not live in the realm of time and space as man does, since God was before time and space existed.

Genesis 1:1 Comments - The Creation of Time and Space - Genesis 1:1 reveals that two things existed at the start of creation: a void, formless earth, and a vast, empty heaven with no planets, stars, etc., nothing. Up until this time space did not exist. When God made the heavens and the earth, they were bound within the limits of space and distance. God would not create the element of time until the first day of Creation when He made the day and the night. Thus, before God made the heavens and the earth, time and space did not exist at we know it today.

Genesis 1:1 Comments - Eternal Verses Temporal - Substance is not eternal. Only God, His Word, and the spirits of men and of angels are eternal. This present heaven and earth, which is corrupted, will one day be destroyed (2 Peter 3:10-12), and a new one created (Revelation 21:1).

2 Peter 3:10-12, “But the day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night; in the which the heavens shall pass away with a great noise, and the elements shall melt with fervent heat, the earth also and the works that are therein shall be burned up. Seeing then that all these things shall be dissolved, what manner of persons ought ye to be in all holy conversation and godliness, Looking for and hasting unto the coming of the day of God, wherein the heavens being on fire shall be dissolved, and the elements shall melt with fervent heat?”

Revelation 21:1, “And I saw a new heaven and a new earth: for the first heaven and the first earth were passed away; and there was no more sea.”

Genesis 1:1 Comments - Numerology in the book of Genesis It is interesting to note that in the Hebrew text, Genesis 1:1 is made up of seven words using twenty-eight (28) Hebrew letters. Twenty-eight is essentially the number seven added together four times. “Seven” is the number of divine intervention. “Four” is the number of the earth. Thus, numerology reveals that the earth was created by divine intervention.

Genesis 1:1 Comments - God’s Plan of Redemption for Mankind - The Scriptures do not open with an explanation of who God is, for He is beyond man’s ability to explain. Neither do the Scriptures begin with a defense of Himself as the Creator, for He needs no defense. The author intends on developing the revelation of God and man’s need of redemption within the book of Genesis. The Pentateuch reveals that the God of Abraham, Isaac and Israel who led the people out of Egyptian bondage, is the same God who created the universe. For the people of Israel, He was the only true God whom they served in the midst of polytheistic cults and nations.

Genesis 1:1 sets the theme for the entire Bible, as well as setting the theme for the Pentateuch and for the book of Genesis. The God of Israel created a “promised land” called the Garden of Eden for mankind to find pleasure in their existence. After the Fall, God intervened in the lives of the patriarchs to create the nation of Israel, who were given the promised land of Canaan and drove out the Canaanites. God’s ultimate plan was to redeem mankind through the redemptive work on Calvary in order to give mankind a promised land called Heaven.

Genesis 1:2 And the earth was without form, and void; and darkness was upon the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters.

Genesis 1:2 “And the earth was without form, and void” Word Study on “without form” Strong says the Hebrew word תֹּהוּ (H8414) (without form) comes from an unused root verb meaning, “to lie waste,” and is used literally to mean, “a desolation (of surface), i.e. desert,” and is used figuratively to mean, “a worthless thing.” The Enhanced Strong says it occurs 20 times in the Old Testament, being translated in the KJV as, “vain 4, vanity 4, confusion 3, without form 2, wilderness 2, nought 2, nothing 1, empty place 1, waste 1.”

Word Study on “void” Strong says the Hebrew word “void” ( בֹּהוּ ) (H922) comes from an unused root meaning, “to be empty.” It is used three times in the Old Testament (Genesis 1:2, Is 4:11, Jeremiah 4:23).

Isaiah 34:11, “But the cormorant and the bittern shall possess it; the owl also and the raven shall dwell in it: and he shall stretch out upon it the line of confusion, and the stones of emptiness .”

Jeremiah 4:23, “I beheld the earth, and, lo, it was without form, and void ; and the heavens, and they had no light.”

Comments - Looking at a picture of planet earth, you note something unique about it than all the other planets in our solar system. All others are without form and void, but the earth has been set in order.

The same Hebrew words “without form” and “void” are used in Jeremiah 4:23, “I beheld the earth, and, lo, it was without form, and void; and the heavens, and they had no light.”

Genesis 1:2 “and darkness was upon the face of the deep” - Comments - Psalms 104:5-6 says, “Who laid the foundations of the earth, that it should not be removed for ever. Thou coveredst it with the deep as with a garment: the waters stood above the mountains.” This passage tells us that the “foundations of the earth” were covered by “the deep,” which appears to be the top primordial lay of soupy soil and water that covered the earth in Genesis 1:1-2. Thus, one popular interpretation of the phrase “the foundations of the earth” is to say it refers to the lower layers of earth’s crust that supports the top layer of soil and water that supports life on earth. This would suggest that the word “earth” ( אֶרֶץ ) (H776) in Job 38:4 and Psalms 104:5-6 to refers to soil rather than to the entire planet itself.

Job 38:4, “Where wast thou when I laid the foundations of the earth? declare, if thou hast understanding.”

Genesis 1:2 “And the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters” Word Study on “moved upon” Gesenius says the Hebrew word “moved upon” ( רָחַף ) (H7363) literally means, “to be moved, affected,” and in the Piel, “to brood over young ones.” This word is used three times in the Old Testament (Genesis 1:2 “moved upon,” Deuteronomy 32:11 “fluttereth over,” Jeremiah 23:9 “shake”).

Deuteronomy 32:11, “As an eagle stirreth up her nest, fluttereth over her young, spreadeth abroad her wings, taketh them, beareth them on her wings:”

Jeremiah 23:9, “Mine heart within me is broken because of the prophets; all my bones shake ; I am like a drunken man, and like a man whom wine hath overcome, because of the LORD, and because of the words of his holiness.”

Comments (1) - Just as an egg needs additional energy from the mother hen’s body in order to complete its development, so did the earth need the additional energy from the Holy Spirit to complete its development. We find a similar image of the Holy Spirit hovering over the tabernacle in Exodus 40:34, when the cloud covered the tent.

Exodus 40:34, “Then a cloud covered the tent of the congregation, and the glory of the LORD filled the tabernacle.”

Reinhard Bonnke notes that the Spirit of God could have hovered over the earth for eternity without causing any changes; but the minute the Word of God was joined with the power of God’s Spirit in verse three, then circumstances on earth began to conform to the spoken Word of God. [79] For us today, it is by speaking the Word of God in faith, and with the moving of God’s Holy Spirit in people’s lives, that our circumstances begin to change according to God’s Word.

[79] Reinhard Bonnke, interviewed by Benny Hinn, This is Your Day (Irving, Texas), on Trinity Broadcasting Network (Santa Ana, California), television program.

We also see the dove, a symbol of the Holy Spirit, hovering over the flood-waters in Noah's day. This dove flew until it found an olive leaf, which it brought back to Noah in the ark.

Genesis 8:10-11, “And he stayed yet other seven days; and again he sent forth the dove out of the ark; And the dove came in to him in the evening; and, lo, in her mouth was an olive leaf pluckt off: so Noah knew that the waters were abated from off the earth. And he stayed yet other seven days; and sent forth the dove; which returned not again unto him any more.”

Just as the Spirit of God came upon the virgin Mary and by the word of the angel she conceived the Son of God (Luke 1:35), so did the Spirit of God move upon the face of the earth so that it conceived God’s plan for it through the spoken Word of God.

Matthew 1:20, “But while he thought on these things, behold, the angel of the Lord appeared unto him in a dream, saying, Joseph, thou son of David, fear not to take unto thee Mary thy wife: for that which is conceived in her is of the Holy Ghost .”

Luke 1:35, “And the angel answered and said unto her, The Holy Ghost shall come upon thee, and the power of the Highest shall overshadow thee: therefore also that holy thing which shall be born of thee shall be called the Son of God.”

Comments (2) - The Holy Spirit filled the surface of the earth in a cloud of glory and perhaps abode there continuously throughout the creation days, even while Adam and Eve were dwelling in the garden (Note Psalms 104:30). This glory cloud could have lifted when they sinned revealing their nakedness. Throughout history, the Lord has attempted to provide a means by which His glory cloud could return and cover upon earth; first, in the tabernacle in the wilderness, then, in the temple and now in us and in the assembly of believers.

Psalms 104:30, “Thou sendest forth thy spirit, they are created: and thou renewest the face of the earth.”

However, there is no evidence in Scripture that the Holy Spirit has ever stopped moving upon the earth. If we do not sense His presence, it is because we have become dull in spirit. The presence of God is with His creation. In the fall, man's eyes were darkened so that he could not see as well, but the glory of God was still there.

Genesis 1:2 Comments - The Physical and Spiritual Characteristics of the Earth Before the Seven Days of Creation - Genesis 1:2 tells us the characteristics of the earth before it was set in order. The phrase “and the earth was without form, and void,” refers to its natural, physical properties and condition at that time before God set it in order with the seven days of creation. We know today that all matter exists in three forms, solid, liquid and vapor. The earth is described as having no order in its material makeup. The solids, liquids and vapors were all mixed together in a chaotic mass, in much the same way as we can imagine how the planet Jupiter looks today. God was about to separate the vapor, liquids and the solids into three different orderly masses.

The phrase “and darkness was upon the face of the deep,” refers to the earth’s spiritual condition. The presence of God was not on the earth to give it life and energy. We must understand that the spiritual always precedes the physical in God’s plan for creation and for our lives. Before the six days of creation, the earth was out of order and not fit for any use or purpose, but God has a purpose and a plan for it. It was created to serve mankind, who was at the highest order of His creation.

Comments - The Spirit of God will Move in these Last Days - As the Spirit of God moved across the face of the waters on the earth in the beginning of creation, He will again move across the chaos and disorder that covers the earth in these last days. The Holy Spirit will bring forth God's new creation out of the midst of this present darkness.

In a dream one night, it seems as if the Lord told me that when the Holy Spirit began to hover over the earth, His presence blew like a mighty wind, as in Acts 2:2 (August 5, 2003). This wind would have sent the ocean currents in motion and affected other changes.

Acts 2:2, “And suddenly there came a sound from heaven as of a rushing mighty wind, and it filled all the house where they were sitting.”

Comments - Speaking the Word of Faith in Our Lives to Make Order out of Chaos - Just as many people’s lives are without any shape and void, they can begin to speak, in faith, God’s word into their lives, so that their lives, too, can begin to take shape and become creative. The spoken word is the beginning of any dream or goal in our lives (John 1:1). God’s ways in creation are our examples.

John 1:1, “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.”

Verses 1-31

Introduction: The Story of Creation (Predestination) God’s Purpose and Order in Creation - The book of Genesis opens with an introductory passage giving the story of the creation of the heavens and the earth (Genesis 1:1 to Genesis 2:3). The Story of Creation in the book of Genesis tells us that God created the heavens and the earth in six days and rested upon the seventh day. Hebrews 11:3 reveals the central message in this genealogy that stirs our faith in God when it says, announcing that God created all things by the power of His spoken word, saying, “Through faith we understand that the worlds were framed by the word of God, so that things which are seen were not made of things which do appear.” While the Story of Creation reveals God’s plan for all of creation to be fruitful and multiply, particular emphasis is given to His charge to man to multiply and fill the earth. In this introduction, God commanded the plant kingdom to procreate (Genesis 1:11); He also commanded the creatures to be fruitful and multiply (Genesis 1:22); and He commanded Adam and Eve to be fruitful and multiply in order to take dominion over the earth (Genesis 1:28). God created life in a progression of higher order with each order receiving a more important command. Thus, God’s original destiny for each order of His creation was to be fruitful and to multiply with the lower orders serving the higher orders. The law of multiplication is still a fundamental law governing His eternal destiny for creation. One preacher said that if a person can believe the story of Creation, then he can believe the rest of the Bible.

Everything that God does, He does for a purpose. The calling and destiny of the plant kingdom was to procreate after itself (Genesis 1:11). The calling and destiny of the animal kingdom was to be fruitful and to multiply (Genesis 1:22). Man’s calling and destiny was to be fruitful, and to multiply and to take dominion over the earth (Genesis 1:28). It is interesting to note that God did not command the plant kingdom in the same way He did the animals and man plants do not have a mind and reasoning faculties as do the higher kingdoms. The next section of the book of Genesis called the Genealogy of the Heavens and the Earth (Genesis 3:1 to Genesis 4:26) will show how man failed in his calling and brought all of creation into vanity and travail. While each of the ten genealogies recorded in the book of Genesis open with a divine commission and end with the fulfillment of that commission, the divine commission that God gave Adam in the Story of Creation remains incomplete until the fulfillment of biblical prophecy and the new heavens and earth restore man to his original purpose and intent.

In addition, everything that God created was designed to give itself in divine service in order to fulfill its destiny and purpose. The sun serves the divine role of giving its light in order to sustain life on earth. The heavenly bodies were created to serve as signs and wonders in the sky. The land was created to serve as a habitat for creeping creature and the beasts of the earth. The waters were created to serve as a habitat for fish. The sky was created to serve as a habitat for birds. Thus, the sun, moon, stars, earth, seas, and sky were created to support life on earth. The plant kingdom was created to serve as food and shelter for animals and mankind. The animal kingdom was created to serve man. In fact, every plant species and animal species was created to serve mankind in a unique way. Finally, man was created to serve God.

In addition, life was created in order to produce life. Each plant was created to produce seed after its kind. Each animal was commanded to be fruitful and multiply. The flowers were created to give forth beauty. Mankind was created to give God fellowship. Thus, each form of life was created with a role to play in God’s overall creation.

Since Adam serves as a type and figure of Jesus Christ (Romans 5:14), the message of Genesis 1:1 to Genesis 2:3 to the New Testament Church is for the believer to be conformed unto the image of God’s Son (Romans 8:29). Every believer is predestined to become like Jesus Christ, and the writings of the New Testament take the believer on a spiritual journey in order to fulfill this divine destiny.

Romans 5:14, “Nevertheless death reigned from Adam to Moses, even over them that had not sinned after the similitude of Adam's transgression, who is the figure of him that was to come.”

The Triune God Revealed in Creation - In the Story of Creation (Genesis 1:1 to Genesis 2:3), we have the testimony of the Father’s role as the One who has planned all things. We have the testimony of the Son’s role in John 1:1-14 as the Word of God through whom all things were created. In Proverbs 8:22-31 we have the testimony of the role of the Holy Spirit in creation as the Wisdom and Power of God. Thus, Moses, the author of Genesis, received the greatest revelation of God the Father regarding His role in creation, while John the apostle, the author of the Gospel of John, received the greatest revelation of Jesus regarding His role in creation. Solomon, the author of Proverbs, received the greatest revelation of the Holy Spirit regarding His role in creation. Note that the book of Genesis is the foundational book of the Old Testament while the book of John is the foundational book of the New Testament.

The Power of the Holy Spirit in Creation When God spoke, He released the Spirit and power of His words. When He said, “Let there be…,” the Holy Spirit was released in power to perform those words. God created man with the gift of speech in order to participate in His creation. In the same way that we release the spirit of anger when we speak words of anger, or we release peace when we speak words of peace, so did God speak creative words to release the spirit of creation. Throughout the Scriptures we find that man’s spirit and his words work together.

Job 15:13, “That thou turnest thy spirit against God, and lettest such words go out of thy mouth?”

Job 26:4, “To whom hast thou uttered words ? and whose spirit came from thee?”

Proverbs 1:23, “Turn you at my reproof: behold, I will pour out my spirit unto you, I will make known my words unto you.”

Proverbs 17:27, “He that hath knowledge spareth his words : and a man of understanding is of an excellent spirit .”

Isaiah 59:21, “As for me, this is my covenant with them, saith the LORD; My spirit that is upon thee, and my words which I have put in thy mouth, shall not depart out of thy mouth, nor out of the mouth of thy seed, nor out of the mouth of thy seed's seed, saith the LORD, from henceforth and for ever.”

Zechariah 7:12, “Yea, they made their hearts as an adamant stone, lest they should hear the law, and the words which the LORD of hosts hath sent in his spirit by the former prophets: therefore came a great wrath from the LORD of hosts.”

John 3:34, “For he whom God hath sent speaketh the words of God: for God giveth not the Spirit by measure unto him.”

John 6:63, “It is the spirit that quickeneth; the flesh profiteth nothing: the words that I speak unto you, they are spirit , and they are life.”

1 Corinthians 2:4, “And my speech and my preaching was not with enticing words of man's wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power :”

The Order of Creation - God had an order to His creation. Note this order as we look at a summary of each day of creation:

Day 1 Light divided from darkness, called Day (Genesis 1:3-5)

Day 2 A firmament divided from waters, called Heaven (Genesis 1:6-8)

Day 3 Earth and Sea gathered waters - Grass herbs and seed, trees with fruit (Genesis 1:9-13)

Day 4 - Luminaries - to divide night and day, to lighten firmament (sun, moon, stars) (Genesis 1:14-19)

Day 5 Swarms in water, fowl in heaven, sea monsters, aquatic life. Life in water and air (Genesis 1:20-23)

Day 6 - Earth life cattle, creeping creatures, beasts, man (Genesis 1:24-31)

Day 7 - God rested (Genesis 2:1-3)

Day 1 - We can easily see that God first created light. Since the Scriptures tell us that God is Light (1 John 1:5), we understand that He was the source of this light as the Holy Spirit hovered over the surface of the earth, for the sun had not yet been created.

1 John 1:5, “This then is the message which we have heard of him, and declare unto you, that God is light, and in him is no darkness at all.”

Day 2 - As this light from the Holy Spirit penetrated the dark mass of elements on this chaotic earth, energy was emitted into this mass in the form of heat. Thus, the next step on day two was the separation of vapor and liquid creating what we call a firmament, or vast sky, between these two, as the energy from the light provided the motion for such activity. The Book of Jubilees (2.4) tells us that the division of the firmament divided waters above from below. It says that half of the waters ascended above the firmament and half of the waters descended below upon the face of the earth. We could say that as the light penetrated this earth, it created energy and heat. This began to separate the vapor from the liquid water. The water vapor rose into the atmosphere and formed a dense mass of cloud cover over the earth while the liquid water descended upon the landmass. Between the vapor and liquid is the air that we breathe, which the Scriptures call the firmament. The liquid water coming down upon the land would explain why God needed to divide the liquid water from the dry land on the third day of creation.

Day 3 - As this energy continued to build within this land mass, the next step on the third day were for the liquids to separate from the solids creating the sea and the dry land. It was this combination of light, water, and solids on earth that provided the conditions for plant life to emerge. It was the creative power of God’s Word through the power of the Holy Spirit and emanating as light that caused the creation of the plant kingdom.

Day 4 - Whether we understand at this time or not how this took place, it was this enormous energy at work on earth that began to be transferred into outer space, causing addition separations of vapors, liquids and solids. These heavenly bodies were thus formed taking the shapes of the sun, moon and stars. This seems to support an ancient Jewish tradition that the earth is the center of the Universe. Carl Baugh suggests that these stars and their planetary bodies were compacted much closer than they are today, and when the earth split open at the time of the Noahic Flood, the universe actually enlarged in size, and is continuing to expand today. [53] The force of this split, which was millions of times the strength of an atomic explosion, sent these heavenly bodies shooting through space away from the earth at the speed that scientists are discovering today through modern telescopes. This would have been the time of the “big bang” that secular scientists believe was the start of the universe.

[53] Carl Baugh, Creation in the 21 st Century (Glen Rose, Texas: Creation Evidence Museum) , on Trinity Broadcasting Network (Santa Ana, California), television program.

So, how did the plant life, which was created on the third day, receive enough light to grow without the sun, which was created afterwards on the fourth day? The best way to understand this is to see how God is going to create a new heavens and a new earth. This new earth will have no sun or moon, for God Himself will provide the light for His new creation.

Revelation 21:23, “And the city had no need of the sun, neither of the moon, to shine in it: for the glory of God did lighten it, and the Lamb is the light thereof.”

Revelation 22:5, “And there shall be no night there; and they need no candle, neither light of the sun; for the Lord God giveth them light: and they shall reign for ever and ever.”

It appears to be a mystery as to how and why God did not create the sun, moon, and stars first, but waited until the fourth day of creation, while creating the plant kingdom on the third day. We know that plants must have sunlight in order to live by photosynthesis. How does this order in the creation story make sense practically and scientifically, since science is simply the study of how God’s creation functions and operates. It appears that the light that God created on the first day was made for the purpose of creating life, while the sunlight was created to sustain that life which was already created. After the plant life was created on the third day, the sunlight was then created to sustain this plant life. We know that plants are sustained, or grow, through sunlight. Thus, These heavenly bodies were created to sustain life.

Days 5-6 - On the fifth and sixth days God created the lower and higher orders of the animal kingdom which are sustained by the plant life. They procreate, not by pollination as do plants, but by the higher order of copulation, by which they are able to become “fruitful and multiply.”

Day 7 On the seventh day God rested from His handiwork.

The Order of Each Day of Creation Another observation that we can make about the seven days of creation is that God began each day by speaking the Word and He ended each day by rejoicing in His day’s work by saying that it was good. This tells us to set our day in order by first listening to God in prayer to hear a word from Him as well as speaking the Word of God in faith each morning. This spoken word of faith sets the destiny for our day. It is how we set our day in order as God did with each day. We too are to learn to enjoy each day without becoming anxious about tomorrow; for this is God’s daily plan for our lives.

Just as God gave man the general dimensions of the Tabernacle, but He left the details up to men to create and design, so does God give us a plan and purpose for our lives, but He does not reveal the details to us, so that we can be creative and inspired and enjoy each day’s task of designing the details. God enjoyed His work of creation and He wants us to enjoy each day’s work.

The Witnesses in Creation to God’s Divine Character John 1:1-5 reveals to us the divine attributes of the Word of God. The Word is (1) eternal, (2) God Himself, (3) the medium of creation, and (4) the source of Life. Benny Hinn says that the “Word” within the context of this passage of Scripture means, “the Revelation of God.” [54] In other words, since the beginning of time, God has revealed Himself to mankind through His creation by the means of “the light,” or the revelation of Himself, that shines in the darkness of every man’s soul. Hebrew Genesis 3:1 tells us that there are two aspects to God’s being; His essence and His glory. John 1:1-5 tells us that the Word is an attribute of His essence, and Psalms 19:1 says creation reveals His glory. God’s glory is revealed to mankind through His creation, while His essence is revealed through the Word of God. God’s creation reveals to mankind a general revelation of Himself (Psalms 19:1-6), while the Word reveals specific details of God’s divine nature or essence (Psalms 19:7-10).

[54] Benny Hinn, “Fire Conference,” Miracle Center Cathedral, Kampala, Uganda, 5-6 June 2009.

Hebrews 1:3, “Who being the brightness of his glory, and the express image of his person, and upholding all things by the word of his power, when he had by himself purged our sins, sat down on the right hand of the Majesty on high;”

Psalms 19:1, To the chief Musician, A Psalm of David. The heavens declare the glory of God; and the firmament sheweth his handywork.”

No one with a heart who believes in God has any problem believing that He can make the heavens and the earth in six days, for an All-powerful God could have created the world in a second if He so chose to do so. All of creation declares that there is an omnipotent Creator. One preacher said that if a person can believe the story of Creation, then he can believe the rest of the Bible. Randy Ruiz said, “Science is our servant, not our master.” [55] God created all things, and science is a tool that can be used to testify of this fact. The Scriptures tell us that creation as a whole was designed to testify to the eternal power and divine character of the One who created it (Romans 1:19-20).

[55] Randy Ruis, “Sermon,” Panama City First Assembly of God, 3 July 2011.

Romans 1:19-20, “Because that which may be known of God is manifest in them; for God hath shewed it unto them. For the invisible things of him from the creation of the world are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even his eternal power and Godhead; so that they are without excuse:”

In God’s wisdom, we see passages scattered throughout the Scriptures revealing to us how every detail and tiny aspect of God’s creation was designed to testify of a particular aspect of God’s divine character, for this is exactly what Romans 1:19-20 is saying. We can learn of God’s ways of dealing with man by looking within the laws of nature. We see this comparison between God’s creation and our lives all the time in the form of sports and institutional logos, national emblems, etc, when they take the form of animals or other objects in nature. [56]

[56] Additional symbols of God’s divine character revealed in nature can be found in Frances Roberts, Come Away My Beloved (Ojai, California: King’s Farspan, Inc., 1973), 178-9; Rick Joyner, The Call (Charlotte, North Carolina: Morning Star Publications, 1999); and Sadhu Sundar Singh, At the Master’s Feet, trans. Arthur Parker (London: Fleming H. Revell Co., 1922) [on-line]; accessed 26 October 2008; available from http://www.ccel.org/ccel/singh/feet.html; Internet.

God’s Creation - Solomon must have seen the glory of God in His magnificent creation in order to write about trees, beasts, birds, creeping thing and fish (1 Kings 4:32-33).

1 Kings 4:32-33, “And he spake three thousand proverbs: and his songs were a thousand and five. And he spake of trees, from the cedar tree that is in Lebanon even unto the hyssop that springeth out of the wall: he spake also of beasts, and of fowl, and of creeping things, and of fishes.”

The book of Canticles uses figurative language of many aspects of God’s creation to symbolize our relationship with God.

As we go forth from our house each day, do not go with a closed mind, but look around you and behold the glory and majesty of our God.

We read in fifteenth chapter of 1 Corinthians about the resurrection of the dead. In this lengthy passage Paul the apostle uses the order of God’s creation to explain the resurrection of man. He tells us “there is one kind of flesh of men, another flesh of beasts, another of fishes, and another of birds. There are also celestial bodies, and bodies terrestrial: but the glory of the celestial is one, and the glory of the terrestrial is another. There is one glory of the sun, and another glory of the moon, and another glory of the stars: for one star differeth from another star in glory.” (1 Corinthians 15:39-41) Paul then states that in a similar way the resurrection of man will yield a different body of a different glory.

The Heavens - As we look up towards heaven or try to look beyond the horizon, we are reminded that God’s mercy and forgiveness is likened to the width and height of His creation.

Psalms 103:11-12, “For as the heaven is high above the earth, so great is his mercy toward them that fear him. As far as the east is from the west, so far hath he removed our transgressions from us.”

The Sun - The Jewish day began at dusk. Therefore, as the sun sets each day and rises in the morning, so was Jesus Christ crucified and resurrected to become the Light of the World. With each new day comes God’s mercy and compassion (Lamentations 3:22-23) just as our faith in Jesus brings God’s mercy into our lives.

The Stars - We read in E. W. Bullinger’s book The Witness of the Stars how the twelve constellations in the heavens serve as a witness to the redemptive work of Jesus Christ over all of creation. [57]

[57] E. W. Bullinger, The Witness of the Stars (London: E. W. Bullinger, c1893). A number of other books have been written on this subject, including Frances Rolleston, Mazzaroth (New York: Cosimo Classics, c1862, 2008); Joseph Seiss, A Gospel in the Stars (New York: Charles C. Cook, c1884, 1910); William D. Banks, The Heavens Declare (Krikwood, Missouri: Impact Christian Books, 1985); D. James Kennedy, and Nancy Britt, The Real Meaning of the Zodiac (Fort Lauderdale, Florida: Coral Ridge Ministries Media, c1989).

Day and Night The fact that we work during the daytime and rest at night testifies to the fact that we are to serve the Lord in this life, because after we die there is no way to undo what we have done while we were alive. We will be judged based upon the works we did in this life “while it was day.” Note John 9:4.

John 9:4, “I must work the works of him that sent me, while it is day: the night cometh, when no man can work.”

Regarding the brightness of the noontime sun, Peter tells us to if we will submit our hearts and lives to the Word of God and allow it to have supreme authority in our lives, then we will begin to grow in our revelation of its meaning. God’s Word will become brighter and brighter in our hearts day by day just as the sun brightens the day hour by hour.

2 Peter 1:19, “We have also a more sure word of prophecy; whereunto ye do well that ye take heed, as unto a light that shineth in a dark place, until the day dawn, and the day star arise in your hearts:”

The Mountains and Valleys When John the Baptist began to prophesy out of the book of Isaiah he cried, “Every valley shall be filled, and every mountain and hill shall be brought low.” Within this context, the mountains are figurative for those men who are high and proud and lift themselves up in this world. The valleys represent the lowly who have been pressed down in this world. Thus, the epistle of James tells us that God will humble the proud and exalt the lowly.

Luke 3:4-6, “As it is written in the book of the words of Esaias the prophet, saying, The voice of one crying in the wilderness, Prepare ye the way of the Lord, make his paths straight. Every valley shall be filled, and every mountain and hill shall be brought low; and the crooked shall be made straight, and the rough ways shall be made smooth; And all flesh shall see the salvation of God.”

James 1:9, “Let the brother of low degree rejoice in that he is exalted: But the rich, in that he is made low: because as the flower of the grass he shall pass away.”

The Elements of the Earth - Ecclesiastes 1:5-11 tells us that when we observe how the basic elements of the earth, which are heat, wind and rain, continually recycle themselves and return to their origin, we can learn that there is also nothing new in the way humanity behaves itself in society. As nature has cycles, so does human history.

The Precious Metals and Gems - When we consider that the most valuable treasures on earth, such as diamonds and gems, gold, silver and brass, even oil, all must be dug out from the depths of the earth, we cannot help but compare this to the fact that God’s treasures of wisdom and understanding must also be sought out in a similar way. How often have we sought out direction from the Lord much like a miners digs and makes great efforts to finding hidden mineral ores. Note:

Proverbs 25:2, “It is the glory of God to conceal a thing: but the honour of kings is to search out a matter.”

The Forces of Nature - His catastrophic acts in nature, such as floods, fires, earthquakes, tornados, hurricanes, volcanic eruptions, famines and pestilences all reveal His eternal judgment (Genesis 19:0 and Jude 1:7).

Jude 1:7, “Even as Sodom and Gomorrha, and the cities about them in like manner, giving themselves over to fornication, and going after strange flesh, are set forth for an example, suffering the vengeance of eternal fire.”

Lakes and Rivers - We are to draw deeply out of our spirit to know His fullness and peace just as the lakes hide their secrets in their depths. We are to move ever forward on this journey of life that He has ordained for us to walk just as the brooks flow ever onward towards the sea. We are to keep this channel of water free from obstructions and debris, to straighten is course so that our journey is not hindered. The intricate and wonderful details of His creation testify to His intricate and wonderful plan that He has ordained for each of our lives.

The Clouds and Rain In his book At the Master’s Feet Sadhu Sundar Singh gives many metaphors of nature as it reveals the divine principles of God. Here are some of them:

“Just as the salt water of the sea is drawn upwards by the hot rays of the sun, and gradually takes on the form of clouds, and, turned thus into sweet and refreshing water, falls in showers on the earth (for the sea water as it rises upwards leaves behind it its salt and bitterness), so when the thoughts and desires of the man of prayer rise aloft like misty emanations of the soul, the rays of the Sun of Righteousness purify them of all sinful taint, and his prayers become a great cloud which descends from heaven in a shower of blessing, bringing refreshment to many on the earth.” [58]

[58] Sadhu Sundar Singh, At the Master’s Feet, trans. Arthur Parker (London: Fleming H. Revell Co., 1922) [on-line]; accessed 26 October 2008; available from http://www.ccel.org/ccel/singh/feet.html; Internet, “III Prayer,” section 1, part 5.

The Wind - Frances J. Roberts says that God’s voice is heard in the blowing of the wind, in the rustling of the trees, in the tumbling of the flowing streams, in the breaking of the waves. [59]

[59] Frances J. Roberts, Come Away My Beloved (Ojai, California: King’s Farspan, Inc., 1973), 178.

The Plant Kingdom - In his book At the Master’s Feet Sadhu Sundar Singh makes comments on how plants and flowers declare God’s glory.

“In the same way as climate produces a change in form, colour, and the habits of growth in plants and flowers, so those who maintain communion with Me undergo a development of their spiritual nature in habit, appearance, and disposition; and putting off the old man they are transformed into My own glorious and incorruptible image.” [60]

[60] Sadhu Sundar Singh, At the Master’s Feet, trans. Arthur Parker (London: Fleming H. Revell Co., 1922) [on-line]; accessed 26 October 2008; available from http://www.ccel.org/ccel/singh/feet.html; Internet, “III Prayer,” section 3, part 6.

The Grass and Flowers of the Field - The flowers tell us not to worry about our clothing, for He will take care of His children. The beauty in His flowers tells us that He is concerned about the little things in our lives and His desire for us to prosper and have a happy life. Just as surely the rain and snow come down and water the earth and it brings forth seed to eat and seed to sow, so will God provide for us as we do His Word (Isaiah 55:10-13). Also, there are many passages in the Scriptures that compare our brevity in life to the grass and the flowers that flourish today and are gone tomorrow (1 Peter 1:24-25). The brief beauty of the flower can reflect man’s short-lived accomplishments in this life. For both quickly vanish away and are forgotten.

Trees - As the trees grow upwards towards the sun, ever dependent upon it for life, so do we ever look upward to our Heavenly Father as our source of life. A tree being cut down is used to describe how the Lord will cut down the nation of Israel.

Isaiah 6:13, “And though a tenth remains in the land, it will again be laid waste. But as the terebinth and oak leaves stumps when they are cut down, so the holy seed will be the stump in the land.” ( NIV)

As the trees sway in the wind, so do our hearts often sway to the circumstances that blow into our lives. Note:

Isaiah 7:2, “And it was told the house of David, saying, Syria is confederate with Ephraim. And his heart was moved, and the heart of his people, as the trees of the wood are moved with the wind.”

The budding of the trees symbolizes the changes of divine seasons as well as telling us of the changes of the seasons of nature.

Luke 21:29-31, “And he spake to them a parable; Behold the fig tree, and all the trees; When they now shoot forth, ye see and know of your own selves that summer is now nigh at hand. So likewise ye, when ye see these things come to pass, know ye that the kingdom of God is nigh at hand.”

The Animal Kingdom - The Lord revealed His majesty to Job by revealing the glories of His creation (Job 38-41), such as the mighty beasts. These four chapters in Job reveal a great amount of details of how creation declares the glory of God. The moth in the book of Job teaches us how frail our life really is without God’s divine hand of protection upon us (see Job 4:19). The animals described in the book of Proverbs reveal God’s wonders (Proverbs 30:18-19), His wisdom (Proverbs 30:24-28) and His beauty (Proverbs 30:29-31).

Creeping Animals and Florescent Light Note the following quote from Sadhu Sundar Singh regarding creeping animals and florescent light.

“There are little creatures far inferior to man, like the firefly, with its flickering light, and certain small plants among the vegetation in the Himalayas, which by their faint phosphorescent radiance illuminate as far as they can the dark jungle where they live. Tiny fish also that swim in the deep waters of the ocean give forth a glimmering light which guides other fish and helps them to elude their enemies. How much more ought My children to be lights in the world (Matt. v.14) and be eager in self-sacrifice to bring into the way of truth, by means of their God-given light, those who by reason of darkness are liable to become the prey of Satan.” [61]

[61] Sadhu Sundar Singh, At the Master’s Feet, trans. Arthur Parker (London: Fleming H. Revell Co., 1922) [on-line]; accessed 26 October 2008; available from http://www.ccel.org/ccel/singh/feet.html; Internet, “IV Service,” section 2, part 4.

Animals and Their Camouflage - Note the following quote from Sadhu Sundar Singh regarding animals and their camouflage.

“To pray is as it were to be on speaking terms with Me, and so by being in communion with and abiding in Me to become like Me. There is a kind of insect which feeds upon and lives among grass and green leaves and becomes like them in colour. Also the polar bear dwelling among the white snows has the same snowy whiteness, and the tiger of Bengal bears upon its skin the marks of the reeds among which it lives. So those, who by means of prayer abide in communion with Me partake, with the saints and angels, of My Nature, and being formed in My image become like Me.” [62]

[62] Sadhu Sundar Singh, At the Master’s Feet, trans. Arthur Parker (London: Fleming H. Revell Co., 1922) [on-line]; accessed 26 October 2008; available from http://www.ccel.org/ccel/singh/feet.html; Internet, “III Prayer,” section 3, part 1.

The Animal Kingdom and Its Sight - Note the following quote from Sadhu Sundar Singh regarding the animal kingdom and its sight.

“If they do not use these heaven-sent powers in the service of God and His creatures they are in danger of losing for ever those heavenly gifts. This is what has happened to certain fish that live in the deep waters of dark caves, also to some hermits in Tibet, for both have lived so long in darkness that they have entirely lost their sight. In like manner the ostrich, through not using its wings, has lost altogether the power of flight. Take heed, therefore, not to neglect whatever gifts or talents have been entrusted to you, but make use of them that you may share in the bliss and glory of your Master (Matt. xxv.14-30).” [63]

[63] Sadhu Sundar Singh, At the Master’s Feet, trans. Arthur Parker (London: Fleming H. Revell Co., 1922) [on-line]; accessed 26 October 2008; available from http://www.ccel.org/ccel/singh/feet.html; Internet, “IV Service,” section 2, part 5.

Bees and Honey - Note the following quote from Sadhu Sundar Singh regarding bees and honey.

“Just as the bee collects the sweet juice of the flowers and turns it into honey without injuring their colour or fragrance, so the man of prayer gathers happiness and profit from all God’s creation without doing any violence to it. As bees also gather their honey from flowers in all sorts of different places and store it in the honeycomb, so the man of God gathers sweet thoughts and feelings from every part of creation, and in communion with his Creator collects in his heart the honey of truth, and in enduring peace with Him at all times and in all places, tastes with delight the sweet honey of God.” [64]

[64] Sadhu Sundar Singh, At the Master’s Feet, trans. Arthur Parker (London: Fleming H. Revell Co., 1922) [on-line]; accessed 26 October 2008; available from http://www.ccel.org/ccel/singh/feet.html; Internet, “III Prayer,” section 3, part 4.

The Birds - In the Sermon on the Mount, the birds tell us that our heavenly Father will always provide our needs, so we are not to worry about food.

The Birds - Jeremiah tells us that as the stork knows it appointed times and seasons, so should we be able to observe them and understand that God has appointed times and seasons for man to know and to follow.

Jeremiah 8:7, “Yea, the stork in the heaven knoweth her appointed times; and the turtle and the crane and the swallow observe the time of their coming; but my people know not the judgment of the LORD.”

The Beasts - As we observe how the ox knows his owner and the ass his master’s crib, so should we see how we are to honor the Lord (Isaiah 1:3).

The Ram Daniel 8:1-27 gives us the vision of the ram and the he-goat butting heads in battle. It is the natural characteristic of these animals to butt heads. Thus, as we see battles fought in nature over territory, so do we understand that there a battles being fought in the heavenly realm.

The Human Body- 1 Corinthians 12:12-30 explains how the many parts of man’s physical body is a type and figure of the spiritual body of Christ, the Church.

God created man with a nature to hunger and thirst on a daily basis as a reminder of our daily need to be feed spiritually. Note:

1 Peter 2:2, “As newborn babes, desire the sincere milk of the word, that ye may grow thereby:”

Sadhu Sundar Singh writes:

“I have infused into man’s nature hunger and thirst, that he may not in sheer heedlessness regard himself as God, but that day by day he may be reminded of his needs and that his life is bound up with the life and existence of Someone who created him. Thus being made aware of his defects and necessities, he may abide in Me and I in him, and then he will ever find in Me his happiness and joy.” [65]

[65] Sadhu Sundar Singh, At the Master’s Feet, trans. Arthur Parker (London: Fleming H. Revell Co., 1922) [on-line]; accessed 26 October 2008; available from http://www.ccel.org/ccel/singh/feet.html; Internet, “III Prayer,” section 2, part 10.

Ecclesiastes 11:5 teaches us that the mystery of the forming of a child in the womb testifies to us that God’s ways are beyond our understanding.

Ecclesiastes 11:5, “As thou knowest not what is the way of the spirit, nor how the bones do grow in the womb of her that is with child: even so thou knowest not the works of God who maketh all.”

Mankind and His Inventions - Note these insightful words by Rick Joyner regarding the glory of God’s creation:

“Soon after, I awoke. For days afterward, I felt an energy surging through me making everything look glorious. I loved everything that I saw. A doorknob seemed wonderful beyond comprehension. Old houses and cars were so beautiful to me that I was sorry I was not an artist so that I could capture their beauty and nobility. Trees and animals all seemed like very special personal friends. Every person I saw was like a library of revelation and meaning, and I was so thankful for eternity so that I could get to know them all. I could not look at anything without seeing magnificence, hardly believing that I had walked through so much of my life and missed so much.” [66]

[66] Rick Joyner, The Call (Charlotte, North Carolina: Morning Star Publications, 1999), 33-4.

Human Trials The Scriptures tell us when we are tried and tested by God is it for the purpose of purifying our hearts.

Proverbs 17:3, “The fining pot is for silver, and the furnace for gold: but the LORD trieth the hearts.”

Human Calamities When Jesus Christ was asked about the tragedy of Pilate killing some Galileans He quickly responded by calling His hearers to repentance. Jesus then tells them a second story of human calamity when the tower of Siloam fell upon eighteen people killing them and again calls them to repentance. We learn from these two stories that refer to human calamities that such events are God’s call to repentance. God uses such tragedies to call men to repentance as Jesus Christ did so in this story.

Luke 13:1-5, “There were present at that season some that told him of the Galilaeans, whose blood Pilate had mingled with their sacrifices. And Jesus answering said unto them, Suppose ye that these Galilaeans were sinners above all the Galilaeans, because they suffered such things? I tell you, Nay: but, except ye repent, ye shall all likewise perish. Or those eighteen, upon whom the tower in Siloam fell, and slew them, think ye that they were sinners above all men that dwelt in Jerusalem? I tell you, Nay: but, except ye repent, ye shall all likewise perish.”

Comments on the Phrase “and God saw that it was good” We read throughout the story of Creation where God steps back at the end of each day to look at what He has just created and says that it was good (Genesis 1:10; Genesis 1:12; Genesis 1:18; Genesis 1:21; Genesis 1:25; Genesis 1:31). Joyce Meyer once asked the Lord why He took seven days in creation when He could have spoken it all into existence in one day. The Lord replied that it was because He wanted to enjoy each step of His beautiful creation. [67] In other words, it was because of enjoyment. This is why He ended each day with the words, “It was good.” Just imagine God enjoying each and every day of creation. Although on no single day was the work fully completed, God enjoyed each day’s accomplishments. In fact, Job 38:7 tells us that the angels of God took the time to rejoice with Him during each day of His creation.

[67] Joyce Meyer, Life in the Word (Fenton, Missouri: Joyce Meyer Ministries), on Trinity Broadcasting Network (Santa Ana, California), television program.

Job 38:7, “When the morning stars sang together, and all the sons of God shouted for joy?”

This insight into the story of creation teaches us that God wants us to learn to enjoy each day, for this is His divine plan for us. Thus, in a similar way, when I finish a project or job after a long, hard day of work, I take pleasure in standing back and spending time looking at the work I have just accomplished and beholding how good it looks. In a similar way, God stepped back with His creation and enjoyed His handiwork.

I once walked into a mechanic shop as a young man and observed a mechanic working skillfully with his hands. Since I did not have the same skills as he did, I just stood and watched him at work. I marveled and how he controlled and how swiftly he moved about the parts that he was working on. I was simply admiring the word of his hands. How much more marvelous is God’s handiwork.

God was not only referring to the goodness of His creation as He saw at that moment, because in this present age it appears as if His creation has fallen into vanity and decay. He was also referring to His creation when it reaches perfection in the final restoration of all things; for God does not dwell in the realm of time as we do, but He dwells in Eternity, and therefore, He sees all things from an eternal perspective. In the phrase, “God saw…,” He saw the fullness of His creation when all things would be fulfilled in the beauty described in Revelation 21-22. Note these insightful words from Sadhu Sundar Singh.

“In the book of nature, of which I also am the Author, I freely manifest Myself. But for the reading of this book also spiritual insight is needed, that men may find Me, otherwise there is a danger lest instead of finding Me they go astray. Thus the blind man uses the tips of his fingers as eyes, and by means of touch alone reads a book, but by touch alone can form no real estimate of its truth. The investigations of agnostics and sceptics prove this, for in place of perfection they see only defects. Fault finding critics ask, “If there is an Almighty Creator of the world why are there defects in it, such as hurricanes, earthquakes, eclipses, pain, suffering, death, and the like?” The folly of this criticism is similar to that of an unlearned man who finds fault with an unfinished building or an incomplete picture. After a time, when he sees them fully finished, he is ashamed of his folly, and ends by singing their praises. Thus too, God did not in one day give to this world its present form, nor will it in one day reach perfection. The whole creation moves onward to perfection, and if it were possible for the man of this world to see from afar with the eyes of God the perfect world in which no defect appears, he too would bow in praise before Him and say, ‘All is very good’ (Gen. i.31).” [68]

[68] Sadhu Sundar Singh, At the Master’s Feet, trans. Arthur Parker (London: Fleming H. Revell Co., 1922) [on-line]; accessed 26 October 2008; available from http://www.ccel.org/ccel/singh/feet.html; Internet, “I The Manifestation of God’s Presence,” section 2, part 6.

As we look at creation today, we only see it in the realm of time, and in this, we only see it from the perspective of the time in which we live. We see the earth in travail and decay. We see the suffering of humanity and of creation and we ask, “Why are all of these bad things happening? Should God try and stop them from taking place?” The eye of faith see as God sees, knowing that all things will be restored into the fullness of the glory for which it was created.

Comments on the Phrase “and the Evening and the Morning” At the end of each day of creation, the Scriptures place the evening before the morning. Alfred Edersheim tells us that as a result, the Jewish day begins at evening (6:00 p.m.) instead of at midnight, as is used in the modern Western civilization. [69]

[69] Alfred Edersheim says, “It is noteworthy that in Genesis 1:0 we always read, ‘And the evening and the morning were the first day,’ or second, or third day, etc. Hence the Jews calculate the day from evening to evening, that is, from the first appearance of the stars in the evening to the first appearance of stars next evening, and not, as we do, from midnight to midnight.” See Alfred Edersheim, The Bible History Old Testament (Grand Rapids, Michigan: William B. Eedmann Publishing Company, c1876-1887, 1984) 19.

The Meaning of the Word “Day” The development of modern science over the last few centuries have caused a number of differing views to emerge among Christian scholarship over the interpretation of the Hebrew word יום (H3117) in the Creation story. Gesenius says the word יום comes from an unused root meaning “heat,” so that יום literally means “the heat of the day.” Thus, it can refer to a 12-hour period, or a 24-hour period. Besides referring to a literally day, Gesenius says it carries the broader meaning of an event, such as a Jewish feast day, or a day of battle, or the coming judgment day of the Lord. The Scriptures also use the word יום within the context of prophecy. For example, one day ( יום ) is compared to “a thousand years” (Psalms 90:4. 2 Peter 3:8), and Daniel’s 72-week prophecy explains that one week represents seven years, so that a day represents a year (Daniel 9:24-27).

The argument surrounding the word ( יום ) in the Creation Story focuses upon whether the day should be interpreted as a literal 24-hour period of time, or as a vast expanse of time that allows the universe to be millions or billions of years old.

1. The 24-Hour Day Interpretation Conservative scholars believe the Creation Story must be interpreted as a literal six-day event. There appear to be three main arguments to support this view. Gordon Wenham says, “There can be little doubt that here ‘day’ has its basic sense of a 24-hour period. The mention of morning and evening, the enumeration of the days, and the divine rest on the seventh show that a week of divine activity is being described here.” [70]

[70] Gordon J. Wenham, Genesis 1-15, in Word Biblical Commentary: 58 Volumes on CD-Rom, vol 1, eds. Bruce M. Metzger, David A. Hubbard and Glenn W. Barker (Dallas: Word Inc., 2002), in Libronix Digital Library System, v. 3.0b [CD-ROM] (Bellingham, WA: Libronix Corp., 2004), in Libronix Digital Library System, v. 2.1c [CD-ROM] (Bellingham, WA: Libronix Corp., 2000-2004), 19.

a. The Description of Evening and Morning in the Creation Story - The description of evening and morning characterizing each day of creation supports the literal interpretation of a 24-hour day in the Creation Story. Stambaugh says the words “evening” and “morning” are used thirty eight times in the same Old Testament verse, and each time a literal day is understood (see Exodus 16:8; Exodus 18:13).

b. The Use of Numbers Combined with ( יום ) in the Creation Story - James Stambaugh believes the use of the word “yom” ( יום ) rather than the Hebrew word for “time” was intentional by the author of the Creation Story. [71] He argues that the Scriptures combine the Hebrew word ( יום ) with a number on three hundred fifty seven occasions outside the Creation Story, and on all of these occasions it refers to a literal 24-hour period of time. Therefore, he concludes that the word ( יום ) should refer to a 24-hour period within the context of Genesis 1:1 to Genesis 2:3.

[71] James Stambaugh, “The Meaning of ‘Day’ in Genesis,” Institute for Creation Research, October 1988 [on-line]; accessed November 15, 2008; available from http://www.icr.org/article/288; Internet.

c. The Sabbath Rest in the Creation Story - Stambaugh argues that God’s declaration that He created the earth and its inhabitants in six days and rested on the seventh supports a literal interpretation, since the context of this statement in Exodus 20:11 refers to literal days, and was intended to teach the Israelites to rest on the seventh day.

Exodus 20:11, “For in six days the LORD made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that in them is, and rested the seventh day: wherefore the LORD blessed the sabbath day, and hallowed it.”

d. The Sequence of Plant Life and Sunlight in the Creation Story - Carl Baugh explains that the sun and heavenly bodies were not created until the fourth day, while plant life was created on the third day. He says that 98% of plants are procreated by the intervention of birds and insects, yet the birds were not created until the fifth day. This leads him to the conclusion that the six days of creation could not have taken place over a long period of time, but must have taken place within a brief period; otherwise, the plants would have quickly become extinct due to lack of sunlight for photosynthesis, and due to lack of procreation from birds and insects. [72]

[72] Carl Baugh, Creation in the 21 st Century (Glen Rose, Texas: Creation Evidence Museum) , on Trinity Broadcasting Network (Santa Ana, California), television program.

2. The Day-Age Interpretation - Modern science has given weight to arguments that the earth is in fact ancient, and that the universe was created billions of years ago. This view has led many Christian scholars to form arguments for an ancient earth within the context of the Creation Story.

a. The Creation Story as an Evolutionary Scheme - Rich Deem believes the Creation Story reflects an evolutionary scheme. He says the universe is billions of years old, and explains how each day of the Creation Story actually describe the process of evolution and natural selection over a vast period of time. [73] He says the Spirit hovering over the primordial waters caused the creation of the first single-cell life in the oceans, and the progressive evolution of plant life, then lower and higher animal life in the Creation Story fit neatly into the evolutionary scheme. He believes the plants and trees of the third day of creation needed many seasons of years to grow and produce seeds. He believes the sun and moon and stars were not created on the fourth day, but rather, the cloud shrouding the earth was simply removed so that these heavenly bodies could light the earth. He also believes that unlike all other plant and animal life that came about through a process of evolution from a single cell, man was created by God on the sixth day, and did not evolve from an ape. He believes the fossil records of ancient ape-men are actually apes in the process of evolution. Deem’s argument weakens when he has to adjust the creation of the heavenly bodies from the fourth day to the beginning of time in order to accommodate his creation model. It is also weakened when he allows evolution and natural selection to play the leading role in determine the design of plant and animal life, meaning God took a more passive role in His creation. In contrast, those holding to the 24-hour day interpretation believe God created each plant and animal through the spoken word, as the biblical text literally states. Deem’s argument that God did make man instantly, while the beasts evolved, conflicts with the biblical text, which uses the same Hebrew word ( עָשָׂה ) for God making both man and beasts: “God made the beast of the earth,” (Genesis 1:25) and “Let us make man in our image,” (Genesis 1:26).

[73] Rich Deem, “Does Genesis One Conflict with Science? Day-Age Interpretation,” God and Science, March 3, 2005 [on-line]; accessed November 15, 2008; available from http://www.godandscience.org/apologetics/day-age.html; Internet.

b. The Delayed Creation of the Heavenly Bodies in the Creation Story - One proponent of the view that the Creation story covers billions of years of time is Hugh Ross. [74] He says a literal day is relative to the rotation of a planetary body; therefore, a day could not have a literal 24-hour relevance until the sun and moon and stars were created on the fourth day. Therefore, he believes each day represents a lengthy period of several million years.

[74] “The Earth's 24-hour day (Genesis 1:14-18) took on temporal significance only when the signs, the heavenly reference points (sun, moon, and stars), became visible. There is no a priori reason to assume that the Earth's day and each of God's creation days represent the same period of time....In the strictest sense, a day is the rotation period of a heavenly body. In the time of Moses people were familiar with only one such day. But, God had some 10 26 spinning bodies in the universe from which to choose. Based on scientific dating records, each of God's creation days is several hundred millions years long.” See Hugh Ross, Genesis 1:0 : A Scientific Perspective, Revised Edition, Sierra Madre, California: Wiseman Productions, 1983, 11.

c. The Use of ( יום ) Outside the Creation Story to Represent Vast Periods of Time - The Scriptures not only uses the word ( יום ) to refer to a literal 24-hour day, but it is also used outside the Creation Story to refer to a vast period of time. For example, the word ( יום ) refers to period of time of “a thousand years” in two verses (Psalms 90:4. 2 Peter 3:8). Daniel’s seventy-two week prophecy is interpreted by the angel, who says one week prophetically represents seven years, so that a day represents a year (Daniel 9:24-27). However, many scholars do not believe such correlations can be easily justified. Wenham says “ Psalms 90:4 indeed says that a thousand years are as a day in God’s sight. But it is perilous to try to correlate scientific theory and biblical revelation by appeal to such texts.” [75]

[75] Gordon J. Wenham, Genesis 1-15, in Word Biblical Commentary: 58 Volumes on CD-Rom, vol 1, eds. Bruce M. Metzger, David A. Hubbard and Glenn W. Barker (Dallas: Word Inc., 2002), in Libronix Digital Library System, v. 3.0b [CD-ROM] (Bellingham, WA: Libronix Corp., 2004), in Libronix Digital Library System, v. 2.1c [CD-ROM] (Bellingham, WA: Libronix Corp., 2000-2004), 19.

d. The Absence of Hebrew Definite Article in the Creation Story - The absence of the Hebrew definite article with ( יום ) for the first five days suggests a longer period of time than a literal day. Against this view, Stambaugh argues that the use of the definite article in the Old Testament has more than one way of being used, so that grammar alone is not a valid argument for interpreting ( יום ) as a long period of time. [76] He believes that numbers serve the place of definite articles in the Hebrew text. Also, the sixth and seventh day are used with the definite article.

[76] James Stambaugh, "The Meaning of ‘Day’ in Genesis," Institute for Creation Research, October 1988 [on-line]; accessed November 15, 2008; available from http://www.icr.org/article/288; Internet.

The Names of God in the Creation Story In Genesis 1:1 to Genesis 2:3 the Hebrew word used for the name of God is אֱלֹהִים (H430) (God) while the first genealogy of the Generations of the Heavens and Earth (Genesis 2:4 to Genesis 4:26) uses the double name אֱלֹהִים (H430) יְהוָֹה (H3068) (Lord God). Jerry Vine suggests the singular use of “God” emphasizes God’s “majesty and might” in the Creation Story, while the double use of “Lord God” reflects “His covenant relation to man” in the Genealogy of the Heavens and Earth. [77]

[77] Jerry Vines and Jim Shaddix, Power in the Pulpit (Chicago, Illinois: Moody Press, 1999), 118.

Parallel Accounts of the Creation Story in the Holy Scripture As we study the Scriptures we find that there are a number of other passages that reveal the events in the Story of Creation. As stated above, we have the testimony of the Father’s role in Genesis 1:1 to Genesis 2:4 as the One who has planned and foreknown all things. We have the testimony of the Son’s role in John 1:1-14 as the Word of God through whom all things were created. In Proverbs 8:22-31, we have the testimony of the role of the Holy Spirit in creation as the Wisdom and Power of God. Job 38:1 to Job 39:30 reveals the majesty and glory of God Almighty by describing the details of how His creation came into existence. 2 Peter 3:5-7 refers to the story of creation with emphasis upon God’s pending destruction of all things in order to judge the sins of mankind. Hebrews 11:3 tells us how it is by faith that we understand how the world was created by the Word of God. We can find many other brief references to the creation of the earth throughout the Scriptures.

Psalms 33:6-9, “By the word of the LORD were the heavens made; and all the host of them by the breath of his mouth. He gathereth the waters of the sea together as an heap: he layeth up the depth in storehouses. Let all the earth fear the LORD: let all the inhabitants of the world stand in awe of him. For he spake, and it was done; he commanded, and it stood fast.”

Psalms 119:89-91, “LAMED. For ever, O LORD, thy word is settled in heaven. Thy faithfulness is unto all generations: thou hast established the earth, and it abideth. They continue this day according to thine ordinances: for all are thy servants.”

Psalms 146:5-6, “Happy is he that hath the God of Jacob for his help, whose hope is in the LORD his God: Which made heaven, and earth, the sea, and all that therein is: which keepeth truth for ever:”

Proverbs 3:19, “The LORD by wisdom hath founded the earth; by understanding hath he established the heavens.”

Jeremiah 10:11-12, “Thus shall ye say unto them, The gods that have not made the heavens and the earth, even they shall perish from the earth, and from under these heavens. He hath made the earth by his power, he hath established the world by his wisdom, and hath stretched out the heavens by his discretion.”

Romans 4:17, “(As it is written, I have made thee a father of many nations,) before him whom he believed, even God, who quickeneth the dead, and calleth those things which be not as though they were.”

The Power of the Spoken Word in the Creation Story - In August 1988 I packed up my belonging in an old pick-up truck and left Panama City, Florida headed to Fort Worth, Texas. The Lord had laid on my heart that He had opened up a door for me to go back to school. I had stepped out of the Southern Baptism denomination and its largest seminary five years earlier in order to join a charismatic church. I did not understand much about these new teachings, but I knew that they seemed more powerful and anointed than the teachings I had been raised on. After a few dreams, the witness of my heart, and some obvious circumstances that confirmed this decision to go to Texas, I said good-by to my family and packed my few belongings. Therefore, here I was, on the road, headed to Fort Worth in an old pick-up for which I had paid $300.00. And my personal belongings easily fit in the bed, with plenty of room to spare. I had seen in a dream that my brother, who recently graduated from the Baptist seminary in Fort Worth, would soon leave this town. So, by faith, I drove out here and stayed with him and his wife for six months, at which time, they moved back to Florida, our home state. This had given me just enough time to find a steady job and rent a one-bedroom apartment.

I did not have much materially, but I had spent the last five years learning these new "full gospel" teachings, reading books by Kenneth Hagin, John Olsten and the Scriptures and I knew in my heart that I had faith in God. So, when the manager of the apartment complex asked me to work as a maintenance man, I was desperate for a steady job. I had to pick up the grounds in the morning, and work in apartments during the day. Fortunate, this manager was a Christian who believed as I did, so I joined her church.

After about six months, I came to her and suggested that we begin the workday with prayer and give all of the employees an opportunity to join us. We had both been thinking about doing this for several months prior to starting this early morning prayer. She was in agreement. So, I began leading prayer each morning for a few minutes before we began work. About three weeks into this commitment, I was praying along nice and normal so as not to offend some of the backsliders that would reluctantly join us each morning, when these words rolled out of my mouth, "Occupy 'till I come." I had not been thinking about this passage in Matthew when I prayed it, but had learned enough about the work of the Spirit to realize that the Lord was speaking to me by quickening this verse during prayer. As I went home later that night to re-read this passage, I picked up on the idea that the Lord was wanting me to take spiritual authority over that apartment complex and begin to break the devil's strongholds off of our work place. So I began to use Scriptures and pray more aggressively than just, "Lord, bless so-and-so," or, "Lord, help us have a good day at work."

Several months later, as I was waking up, these words came into my heart, "Prophesy what the men of God in the Bible prophesied and pray for us to be filled with the Holy Spirit." Of course, I did not know what it really meant. I had heard of gifted ministers who could prophesy and certain men in the Bible and in the church today who were filled with the Holy Spirit. As I simply began to do what I felt was a word from God, this morning prayer endeavor began to take on an entirely new meaning. He seemed to say to me, “Lay hands on others to be filled with the Lord,” and, “David and Samuel, see what they prophesied to those around them and do the same.” Also, study what other men of God prophesied.

As I begin to explain what began to happen, I pray that it will somehow change your life as dramatically as it has changed my life. I did not realize until later that the Lord was teaching me how to set this time of early morning prayer in order and how to pray effectively. I studied the Scripture passages where men of God would speak a blessing over others. I studied Jeremiah, where God set him over nations and kingdoms, to root out, and to pull down, and to destroy, and to throw down, to build, and to plant. All this was done simply by prophesying. All of a sudden, faith began to rise in my heart to speak the Scriptures in faith believing that they would also come to pass.

This teaching of the Scriptures began to open up to me unlike anything I had ever understood before. I began the workday calling things which were not as though they were. I began to call our apartment a delightsome land, a land flowing with milk and honey, and that nations were rising up and calling us blessed. How could I say this in faith? Because I was a tither and the Bible says that this would happen to those who tithe. Within a few months of praying this every day, the owners came and repaired and painted all of the buildings on the property. The apartment began looking like the Word of God said it should. Prospects would come into the office and comment on how nice this place was beginning to look (nations were rising up and calling up blessed). Out of Romans, chapter four, I began to call this apartment complex "filled with a multitude." I saw that the Lord began to call Abraham this name long before it came to pass, so I was doing the same.

Every time I would see a Scripture, I would add it to my list of confessions of faith. I knew that few people in our prayer group understood why I was praying like this, especially when the Christian manager and I would have to pray for months at a time with no one else joining in. I guess we looked and sounded pretty strange. However, I was on to something. I would find those passages where the priests in the Old Testament were to bless the children of Israel (Numbers 6:23-27), or where Boaz would begin the work day by saying to his workers, "The Lord be with you," and they would respond by saying, "The Lord bless thee," (Ruth 2:4). Or, out of Isaiah, I would call every desolate apartment inhabited. Where the Bible says, "there is none to say restore , " I began to prophesy restoration, for all of the years that this property had been under the curse and the locust, the cankerworm, the caterpillar and the palmerworm had consumed, I said, “Restore.” I would call to the north to give up, to the south to hold not back and to the east and west to bring good prospect from afar. I world rejoice when people would come from out of state to rent these apartments and they became filled with a multitude with high occupancy. During the mornings when I did not feel like prophesying, I would speak Joel 3:10, "Let the weak say, I am strong."

Also, I would pray for God to fill each of us with the spirit of wisdom and understanding, of counsel and might, and of the spirit of knowledge and of the fear of the Lord, for the spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of him... that we might know what is the hope of his calling, what is the riches of the glory of his inheritance in the saints, and what is the exceeding greatness of his power to us-ward who believe. I prayed for wisdom out of James 1:5. I prayed for days, weeks, months, even years before seeing some of these things come to pass. When we are filled with the spirit of God and his wisdom and strength, we can do a better job at work each day. We will have inspired ideas, health and the courage to have a good attitude.

About one year into this commitment, the Lord spoke to me two verses in order to help me understand why the things that I were praying for were coming to pass. He spoke to me John 1:1, "In the beginning was the Word." The Lord said to me that everything begins with the spoken word. And He gave me Genesis 1:2, "and the earth was without form, and void: and darkness was upon the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters. And God said..." The Lord began to say to me that this is what many people's lives are like, their lives are without form or purpose and their heart are void and empty, that they walk in darkness each day groping about trying to find peace. The Lord also said to me that He would not have asked me to do something that He Himself would not have had to do also. You see, no one has ever faced a worse world of circumstances that God. And the way He handled it was that He began to prophesy and say, "Let there be..." When God spoke, life and circumstances began to conform to the word of God, and life began to take on purpose and direction. We too, are created in the image of God, even down to our tongue and our words. I saw that I no longer had to be ruled in life by circumstances, but rather a confession on faith in God's word, when spoken in faith, would prevail over any circumstance.

For four years I called Brown Trail Apartments the head and not the tail, above and not beneath. Finally, our property won the "best-overall-property-of-the-year" award and the most-improved-property-of-the-year award. I saw those two awards as a testimony to the power of God's word mixed with faith. At that time, in May of 1993, I was given a promotion into the regional office where the Lord set me over ten properties to prophesy. Jeremiah 29:7 says, "...seek the peace of the city whither I have caused you to be carried away captive, and pray unto the Lord for it: for in the peace thereof shall ye have peace." I had sought and prayed for peace where I worked and was used to walking in that peace. I will never forget the change of atmosphere from a property where God's presence prevailed to a new office of honky tonk music, swearing and cigarette smoke. No believers worked in this office. So after hours, I would walk my new "city" and take authority over it. All but one of those employees are gone now, there is no worldly music, nor cigarette smoke here, because God's word prevails.

During the three years that I have been here, the Lord has continually given me favor with the president and vice-president of the company. God is teaching me how to be a Godly leader in this company and has given me much authority. I now have the authority to prophesy over every property in Texas. I have been calling DMJ Management Co. filled with a multitude of residents and new properties. This past year has seen the highest overall occupancies and income in history, and this coming year will be a time of buying more income properties.

I worked under two godly men who lift up my hands each day as I endeavor to lift up their hands. And this journey has taught me that there is nothing in my life that I cannot do or attain, if I base it on God's word mixed with faith in His word. I live in victory, and not defeat. I have more dreams and visions that I have time to pursue. Life and circumstances are not overcoming me, but rather I have learned to overcome life's circumstances. Praise be to the glorious name of Jesus.

Verses 3-5

The First Day of Creation Genesis 1:3-5 gives us the account of the first day of Creation. On the first day God created light. This light made a distinction between darkness and light, so that God called the light “day” and the darkness He called “night.” This is the beginning of the existence of time. Before the first day of Creation time did not exist, although space existed because the heavens and the earth were of a constant size. There was no beginning and no end. Now, God still dwells in this realm where time and space do not exist, although His creation was made subject to time and space.

The Creation Story in the Book of Jubilees - The Book of Jubilees (2.1-3) tells us that God created all of the angels of heaven on the first day of creation. This reflects an ancient Jewish tradition, although there is no Scriptural basis for this of which I am aware.

Genesis 1:3 And God said, Let there be light: and there was light.

Genesis 1:3 “ And God said ” - Comments - The phrase, “And God said,” occurs ten times in the Creation Story (Genesis 1:1 to Genesis 2:3). God created the heavens and the earth through the power of His spoken Word (John 1:1-5; John 1:14, 2 Peter 3:5), and He established its purpose and destiny when He charges man to take dominion over the earth (Genesis 1:26-30). Jesus is called “The Word of God” in the Gospel of John (John 1:1-14) and the book of Revelation (Revelation 19:13). That is why Romans 11:36 says, “For of him, and through him, and to him, are all things: to whom be glory for ever. Amen.”

Revelation 19:13, “And he was clothed with a vesture dipped in blood: and his name is called The Word of God .”

2 Peter 3:5, “For this they willingly are ignorant of, that by the word of God the heavens were of old , and the earth standing out of the water and in the water:”

In the first chapter of Genesis, the Hebrew verbs are in the imperative when God speaks to His creation (Psalms 33:9; Psalms 148:5, Isaiah 45:12). Thus, when God speaks, He literally commands the substance of His creation to conform to His Words.

Psalms 33:9, “For he spake, and it was done; he commanded, and it stood fast .”

Psalms 148:5, “Let them praise the name of the LORD: for he commanded, and they were created .”

Isaiah 45:12, “I have made the earth, and created man upon it: I, even my hands, have stretched out the heavens, and all their host have I commanded .”

God did not say it, “and then He create it”; rather, the saying was the act of creation. The saying and the creating were one and the same act. It is amazing to know that each aspect of Creation began in the heart of God, as a thought and a desire (Hebrews 11:3). He then spoke this world into existence according to His thoughts. One preacher said that a thought never expressed will die; but a thought spoken has the possibility of becoming a reality.

Hebrews 11:3, “Through faith we understand that the worlds were framed by the word of God, so that things which are seen were not made of things which do appear.”

Everything that had an origin began with the spoken word (John 1:1-3). This is why God prophesies, in order to set the event in motion through the tongue or spoken word. Illustration: In Genesis, God said, “Let there be...”, thus setting creation in motion.

John 1:1-3, “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. The same was in the beginning with God. All things were made by him; and without him was not any thing made that was made.”

“ Let there be light ” - Comments - Light was created before the sun, moon, and stars ever were formed. God will be the source of light in heaven, not the sun. Earth was created before God placed the sun, moon and stars in the heaven.

Why did light come first in the order of creation? Any scientist knows that the source of all life comes ultimately from sunlight. Light gives energy. All chemical reactions receive energy from light. However, the light mentioned in Genesis 1:3 does not refer to natural sunlight, because the sun, moon and stars were not created until the fourth day. This refers to the supernatural light that reveals the manifest presence of the Holy Spirit hovering over creation.

“ and there was light” - Comments - God’s light in the Creation Story still shines upon the earth today. Although God created the sun on the fourth day of Creation, He created light on the first day. This light has never ceased to exist, so that it still shines today. We can understand that the source of this divine light was from the presence of the Holy Spirit hovering over the earth in Genesis 1:2. However, today we see in the natural realm so that we only recognize natural sunlight, which sustains the life that is already created by God. This is why some ancient peoples worshiped the sun, because they recognized it as sustaining the life around them, yet they could not see the One who created the sun. This is why Paul prayed “for God, who commanded the light to shine out of darkness, to shine in our hearts.”

Now the light that God made on the first day is the same light that creates and gives life to us our spiritual walk today. It is the same source of power that keeps this present creation intact as God’s Word emanates over His creation (2 Peter 3:5-7). For example, when we see the supernatural take place in the Scriptures or in modern times, we can recognize the presence of God’s creative power, which takes place through this divine light, which shines on us still today. This is why Jesus Christ could say that He is the Light of the World, or the True Light, which lights every man. He was referring to the spiritual realm that we live in. He is the Creator and source of divine light, which still shines today in order to illuminate our hearts, or the spiritual realm that we live in. From our natural senses, we call this the supernatural, or the spiritual realm.

So, the creative power and light of God has never ceased to shine upon His creation since the first day. The divine light of God was the method that God used to create life on the third day, by the light that was emitted from the presence and mouth of God. The presence of the Holy Spirit hovering over the earth was the intermediary of this light. We know that heat was a physical manifestation of the presence of light. For example, when people are healed during crusades today, they often claim to feel a warmth or heat come over their bodies when they are touched by the presence of the Holy Spirit. It is this same heat that emanated from this divine light and divided the vapors and liquid elements on the second day of creation and this same heat that divided the solids from the liquid elements on the third day. It is this same heat that will one day intensify until the elements are burned up with a fervent heat.

2 Peter 3:10, “But the day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night; in the which the heavens shall pass away with a great noise, and the elements shall melt with fervent heat, the earth also and the works that are therein shall be burned up.”

The Scriptures bear witness to the fact that this divine light is still shining upon the earth since the first day of creation. It is the same divine light that shone upon the face of Moses after spending forty days in this divine realm.

Exodus 34:29, “And it came to pass, when Moses came down from mount Sinai with the two tables of testimony in Moses' hand, when he came down from the mount, that Moses wist not that the skin of his face shone while he talked with him.”

It is the same light that shone down upon the shepherds in their fields to announce the birth of our Saviour.

Luke 2:9, “And, lo, the angel of the Lord came upon them, and the glory of the Lord shone round about them: and they were sore afraid.”

It is the same light that shone down upon Jesus Christ on the Mount of Transfiguration.

Matthew 17:2, “And was transfigured before them: and his face did shine as the sun, and his raiment was white as the light.”

It is the same light that shone upon Paul on the road to Damascus.

Acts 9:3, “And as he journeyed, he came near Damascus: and suddenly there shined round about him a light from heaven:”

Acts 22:6, “And it came to pass, that, as I made my journey, and was come nigh unto Damascus about noon, suddenly there shone from heaven a great light round about me.”

Paul tells us that it is this same light that God commanded to shine out of darkness on the first day of creation that has now shone in our hearts.

2 Corinthians 4:6, “For God, who commanded the light to shine out of darkness, hath shined in our hearts, to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.”

Because the Holy Spirit dwells within us, Jesus tells us that we have become the light of the world.

Matthew 4:16, “The people which sat in darkness saw great light; and to them which sat in the region and shadow of death light is sprung up.”

Matthew 5:14, “Ye are the light of the world. A city that is set on an hill cannot be hid.”

Thus, the Scriptures use the word “light” figuratively in reference to our spiritual walk in this life.

Isaiah 60:1, “Arise, shine; for thy light is come, and the glory of the LORD is risen upon thee.”

Matthew 5:16, “Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father which is in heaven.”

Luke 1:79, “To give light to them that sit in darkness and in the shadow of death, to guide our feet into the way of peace.”

Luke 2:32, “A light to lighten the Gentiles, and the glory of thy people Israel.”

Ephesians 5:14, “Wherefore he saith, Awake thou that sleepest, and arise from the dead, and Christ shall give thee light.”

Jesus Christ told the Pharisees that they could discern the natural sunlight and heavenly signs so as to determine the weather, but that they could not discern the divine light (Matthew 16:1-4). The sun bears witness to the divine light of God the Creator since sunlight works in a similar way to God’s divine creative light. Because of sin, mankind has been blinded from the recognition of this divine light.

2 Corinthians 4:4, “In whom the god of this world hath blinded the minds of them which believe not, lest the light of the glorious gospel of Christ, who is the image of God, should shine unto them.”

We are called “children of light” in a dark and sinful world.

Ephesians 5:8, “For ye were sometimes darkness, but now are ye light in the Lord: walk as children of light:”

Genesis 1:4 And God saw the light, that it was good: and God divided the light from the darkness.

Genesis 1:4 Comments - Note that God did not create darkness, because it already existed. He did create light, which becomes the source of all life.

Genesis 1:5 And God called the light Day, and the darkness he called Night. And the evening and the morning were the first day.

Genesis 1:5 “And God called the light Day, and the darkness he called Night” Word Study on “night” Strong says the Hebrew word “night” ( לַיִל ) or ( לֵיל ) or ( לַיְלָה ) (H3915) means properly, “a twist (away of the light), i.e. night,” and figuratively, “adversary.”

Comments The earthly cycles of day and night become a covenant that God cannot break (Jeremiah 33:19-20). His covenant with day and night is reconfirmed after the flood with similar covenants of seedtime and harvest, cold and heat, and summer and winter (Genesis 8:22), in which God will hold Himself faithful so that He will no longer violate them by causing another flood.

Jeremiah 33:19-20, “And the word of the LORD came unto Jeremiah, saying, Thus saith the LORD; If ye can break my covenant of the day, and my covenant of the night, and that there should not be day and night in their season;”

Genesis 8:22, “While the earth remaineth, seedtime and harvest, and cold and heat, and summer and winter, and day and night shall not cease.”

Genesis 1:5 “And the evening and the morning were the first day” - Comments God ends the first day having fulfilled His purposes and plan for that day. God is at work in each of our lives, helping us fulfill daily plans. In other words, we are given a daily destiny to fulfill, upon which we should focus, so that we do not become anxious about tomorrow (Matthew 6:34).

Matthew 6:34, “Take therefore no thought for the morrow: for the morrow shall take thought for the things of itself. Sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof.”

Verses 6-8

The Second Day of Creation Genesis 1:6-8 gives us the account of the second day of Creation. We read how God separated the waters into two bodies; the lower body consisted of liquid and solid, while the upper body consisted of vapor. He called space between these two gathering of elements by the name “heaven.”

The Creation Story in the Book of Jubilees - The Book of Jubilees (2.4) tells us that the division of the firmament divided waters above from below. It says that half of the waters ascended above the firmament and half of the waters descended below upon the face of the earth. We could say that as the light penetrated this earth, it created energy and heat. This began to separate the vapor from the liquid water. The water vapor rose into the atmosphere and formed a dense mass of cloud cover over the earth while the remaining liquids and solids formed below. Between these two bodies that formed is the air that we breathe, which the Scriptures call the firmament. The liquids mixed with the solid below this firmament would explain why God needed to divide the liquid water from the dry land on the third day of creation.

Genesis 1:6 And God said, Let there be a firmament in the midst of the waters, and let it divide the waters from the waters.

Genesis 1:6 Word Study on “firmament” The BDB says that the Hebrew word “firmament” ( רָקִיעַ ) (H7549) means, “extended surface (solid), expanse, firmament, or an expanse (flat as base, support), firmament (of vault of heaven supporting waters above).” Strong says it comes from the primitive root word ( רָקַע ) (H7554), which means, “to pound the earth (as a sign of passion), to expand, to overlay.” We could say that a firmament was a vast expanse of area between the clouds and the sea. Today, we would call it the sky.

Comments - Genesis 1:6 tells us that there was a layer of water above the firmament, or sky, and a layer of water below the sky, which was called the seas in Genesis 1:10. Therefore, this fits with the picture of many scholars and creationists that believe that the entire earth was like a giant greenhouse, with the cloud covering blocking out ultraviolet rays from the sun.

The original earth must have looked something like the planet Jupiter in that it was a large mass of outer gases with increased density as one moved towards the interior of the planet. At some point, these gases would become liquid and finally form solid mass due to density. On the second day, God’s destiny for the earth was to make a separation between the gases and the liquids so that He would have a realm in which life could exist. This space created between the clouds and the open seas is now called the sky, or the atmosphere next to the earth. It is this atmosphere that most of life on earth lives in.

Genesis 1:7 And God made the firmament, and divided the waters which were under the firmament from the waters which were above the firmament: and it was so.

Genesis 1:8 And God called the firmament Heaven. And the evening and the morning were the second day.

Genesis 1:8 “And the evening and the morning were the second day” - Comments God ends the second day having fulfilled His purposes and plan for that day. God is at work in each of our lives, helping us fulfill daily plans. In other words, we are given a daily destiny to fulfill, upon which we should focus, so that we do not become anxious about tomorrow (Matthew 6:34).

Matthew 6:34, “Take therefore no thought for the morrow: for the morrow shall take thought for the things of itself. Sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof.”

Verses 8-13

The Third Day of Creation Genesis 1:8-13 gives us the account of the third day of Creation. On the third day, God divided the liquid and solid mixture that existed below the firmament into water and dry land. This created the seas, lakes and other bodies of water as well as one large land mass which He called the “earth.”

The Creation Story in the Book of Creation - On the third day, God also created the plant kingdom. The Book of Jubilees (2.5-8) tells us that it was on the third day of Creation that God also created the Garden of Eden. It says that these were the four acts of creation on the third day.

Genesis 1:9 And God said, Let the waters under the heaven be gathered together unto one place, and let the dry land appear: and it was so.

Genesis 1:10 And God called the dry land Earth; and the gathering together of the waters called he Seas: and God saw that it was good.

Genesis 1:11 And God said, Let the earth bring forth grass, the herb yielding seed, and the fruit tree yielding fruit after his kind, whose seed is in itself, upon the earth: and it was so.

Genesis 1:11 Comments - Note the progression of creation in the plant kingdom: grass, herbs or plants, and fruit trees. This progressive order of nature is recognized in science as beginning at the lower forms to more advanced forms of plant life.

Genesis 1:12 And the earth brought forth grass, and herb yielding seed after his kind, and the tree yielding fruit, whose seed was in itself, after his kind: and God saw that it was good.

Genesis 1:13 And the evening and the morning were the third day.

Genesis 1:13 Comments God ends the third day having fulfilled His purposes and plan for that day. God is at work in each of our lives, helping us fulfill daily plans. In other words, we are given a daily destiny to fulfill, upon which we should focus, so that we do not become anxious about tomorrow (Matthew 6:34).

Matthew 6:34, “Take therefore no thought for the morrow: for the morrow shall take thought for the things of itself. Sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof.”

Genesis 1:11-13 Comments - Plant Life Was Created Before Sunlight - Since the plant life was created on the third day and the sun was not created until the fourth day, how did the plants live without sunlight? They lived the same way that plants will live in heaven. Perhaps, the light of the glory of God shines brighter than the sun, both in the Garden of Eden and in heaven.

Verses 14-19

The Fourth Day of Creation Genesis 1:14-19 gives us the account of the fourth day of Creation. This passage tells us about the fourth day of Creation in which God created the heavenly bodies. What is interesting to note is that the earth was created first, before the sun, moon and stars were created. We see this same order of creation in Isaiah 48:13.

Isaiah 48:13, “Mine hand also hath laid the foundation of the earth, and my right hand hath spanned the heavens: when I call unto them, they stand up together.”

Illustration - In December 2009 I spend a few days in a small Texas town called Brady, Texas. I stayed out on a ranch far from the small town center. There were no lights at night, so the stars in the sky were extremely bright. I had not seen a clear sky in a place far from city lights since a youth. I was overwhelmed with the awesome display of the moon and the stars, as they displayed the glory of God. The Milky Way was stretched across the sky displaying billions of stars so close together that they faded into a milky image. Truly, the heavenly bodies were created to display God’s glory. Gordon Wenham notes that this passage is written in a way the demystifies the ancient worship of celestial bodies. He says this is done by describing God as their creator, by omitting the words the sun and moon and using the phrases “greater light” and “lesser light” in their place, and by giving these heavenly bodies “surrogate” roles to God as the creator. [80]

[80] Gordon J. Wenham, Genesis 16-50, in Word Biblical Commentary: 58 Volumes on CD-Rom, vol. 2, eds. Bruce M. Metzger, David A. Hubbard and Glenn W. Barker (Dallas: Word Inc., 2002), in Libronix Digital Library System, v. 2.1c [CD-ROM] (Bellingham, WA: Libronix Corp., 2000-2004), comments on Genesis 1:14-19.

Genesis 1:14 And God said, Let there be lights in the firmament of the heaven to divide the day from the night; and let them be for signs, and for seasons, and for days, and years:

Genesis 1:14 “Let there be lights in the firmament of the heaven to divide the day from the night” - Comments - Scientists estimate that there are two hundred twenty-five (225) billion galaxies in the universe. Each galaxy consists of five hundred (500) million stars. This means that there are 10 25 stars in the universe, yet God knows them all by number and by name. The farthest stars detected by astronomers are fourteen billion light years away from earth, or eighty-four (84) billion trillion miles away. [81] One light year is six trillion miles or ten trillion kilometers.

[81] Carl Baugh, Creation in the 21 st Century (Glen Rose, Texas: Creation Evidence Museum) , on Trinity Broadcasting Network (Santa Ana, California), television program.

Science is also learning with the modern telescope that each star is unique with its own beauty and design. This fact is also confirmed in Scripture. If God calls each star by a unique name (Psalms 147:4), it means that God sees each star as a unique creation. Today, man is calling stars and galaxies by numbers. This is because fallen man lacks the capacity to see each star's uniqueness and to create for it a name.

Also, 1 Corinthians 15:41 says that each heavenly body varies in its glory, or radiance. This also, confirms that each star is uniquely different.

Psalms 147:4, “He telleth the number of the stars; he calleth them all by their names.”

1 Corinthians 15:41, “There is one glory of the sun, and another glory of the moon, and another glory of the stars: for one star differeth from another star in glory.”

Genesis 1:14 “and let them be for signs, and for seasons, and for days, and years” Word Study on “signs” - Gesenius and Strong tell us the Hebrew word “signs” ( אֹות ) (H226) literally means, “a sign, signal.” However, BDB reveals a variety of figurative meanings, “a distinguishing mark, anner, remembrance, miraculous sign, omen, warning, token, ensign, standard, miracle, proof.”

Comments While mankind rules over the earth, God rules over the heavens. The Scriptures teach us that all of the heavenly bodies, the sun, the moon, the planets, and the stars are in the heavens for a purpose, one of which was to serve as signs to mankind. We can find this illustrated in the Scriptures. Examples of heavenly signs found in the Scriptures:

Joshua 10:12-14, “Then spake Joshua to the LORD in the day when the LORD delivered up the Amorites before the children of Israel, and he said in the sight of Israel, Sun, stand thou still upon Gibeon; and thou, Moon, in the valley of Ajalon. And the sun stood still, and the moon stayed, until the people had avenged themselves upon their enemies. Is not this written in the book of Jasher? So the sun stood still in the midst of heaven, and hasted not to go down about a whole day. And there was no day like that before it or after it, that the LORD hearkened unto the voice of a man: for the LORD fought for Israel.”

Isaiah 7:10-11, “Moreover the LORD spake again unto Ahaz, saying, Ask thee a sign of the LORD thy God; ask it either in the depth, or in the height above .”

Matthew 2:2, “Saying, Where is he that is born King of the Jews? for we have seen his star in the east , and are come to worship him.”

Matthew 24:30, “And then shall appear the sign of the Son of man in heaven: and then shall all the tribes of the earth mourn, and they shall see the Son of man coming in the clouds of heaven with power and great glory .”

Luke 21:11, “And great earthquakes shall be in divers places, and famines, and pestilences; and fearful sights and great signs shall there be from heaven .”

Acts 2:19-20, “And I will shew wonders in heaven above, and signs in the earth beneath; blood, and fire, and vapour of smoke: The sun shall be turned into darkness, and the moon into blood, before that great and notable day of the Lord come:”

This quote is from Joel 2:31, “The sun shall be turned into darkness, and the moon into blood, before the great and the terrible day of the LORD come.”

Revelation 8:10-11, “And the third angel sounded, and there fell a great star from heaven , burning as it were a lamp, and it fell upon the third part of the rivers, and upon the fountains of waters; And the name of the star is called Wormwood: and the third part of the waters became wormwood; and many men died of the waters, because they were made bitter.”

Revelation 12:1-3, “And there appeared a great wonder in heaven ; a woman clothed with the sun, and the moon under her feet, and upon her head a crown of twelve stars: And she being with child cried, travailing in birth, and pained to be delivered. And there appeared another wonder in heaven ; and behold a great red dragon, having seven heads and ten horns, and seven crowns upon his heads.”

The word “star” is also used figuratively of the Lord Jesus Christ:

Numbers 24:17, “I shall see him, but not now: I shall behold him, but not nigh: there shall come a Star out of Jacob , and a Sceptre shall rise out of Israel, and shall smite the corners of Moab, and destroy all the children of Sheth.”

Revelation 2:28, “And I will give him the morning star .”

Revelation 22:16, “I Jesus have sent mine angel to testify unto you these things in the churches. I am the root and the offspring of David, and the bright and morning star .”

“for signs” The Book of Jubilees says that God sent down angels from heaven, called “watchers,” to teach the children of men the ways of righteousness. It goes on to say that these angels taught men to read the signs in the heavens, which implies the ancient “Zodiac.”

“ Mahalalel took unto him to wife Dinah, the daughter of Barakiel the daughter of his father's brother, and she bare him a son in the third week in the sixth year, [A.M.] and he called his name Jared, for in his days the angels of the Lord descended on the earth, those who are named the Watchers, that they should instruct the children of men, and that they should do judgment and uprightness on the earth. And in the eleventh jubilee [512-18 A.M.] Jared took to himself a wife, and her name was Baraka, the daughter of Rasujal, a daughter of his father's brother, in the fourth week of this jubilee, [522 A.M.] and she bare him a son in the fifth week, in the fourth year of the jubilee, and he called his name Enoch . And he was the first among men that are born on earth who learnt writing and knowledge and wisdom and who wrote down the signs of heaven according to the order of their months in a book , that men might know the seasons of the years according to the order of their separate months.” ( The Book of Jubilees 4.15-18)

“In the twenty-ninth jubilee, in the first week, [1373 A.M.] in the beginning thereof Arpachshad took to himself a wife and her name was Rasu'eja, the daughter of Susan, the daughter of Elam, and she bare him a son in the third year in this week, [1375 A.M.] and he called his name Kainam. And the son grew, and his father taught him writing, and he went to seek for himself a place where he might seize for himself a city. And he found a writing which former (generations) had carved on the rock, and he read what was thereon, and he transcribed it and sinned owing to it; for it contained the teaching of the Watchers in accordance with which they used to observe the omens of the sun and moon and stars in all the signs of heaven . And he wrote it down and said nothing regarding it;” ( The Book of Jubilees 8.1-4)

Thus, the heavenly bodies are to be used as message bearers. We do find that the Scriptures support the ancient belief that certain stars formed into constellations (Isaiah 13:10).

Isaiah 13:10, “For the stars of heaven and the constellations thereof shall not give their light: the sun shall be darkened in his going forth, and the moon shall not cause her light to shine.”

Genesis 1:15 And let them be for lights in the firmament of the heaven to give light upon the earth: and it was so.

Genesis 1:16 And God made two great lights; the greater light to rule the day, and the lesser light to rule the night: he made the stars also.

Genesis 1:16 Comments - The sun, moon and stars were created after the earth was created. The poetic passage in Job 38:4-7 seems to imply that the stars sang as the earth was made. However, within this context of these verses the word “morning stars” most likely refers to angels, because it is set in apposition to the phrase “sons of God.”

Job 38:4-7, “Where wast thou when I laid the foundations of the earth? declare, if thou hast understanding. Who hath laid the measures thereof, if thou knowest? or who hath stretched the line upon it? Whereupon are the foundations thereof fastened? or who laid the corner stone thereof; When the morning stars sang together , and all the sons of God shouted for joy?”

Genesis 1:17 And God set them in the firmament of the heaven to give light upon the earth,

Genesis 1:18 And to rule over the day and over the night, and to divide the light from the darkness: and God saw that it was good.

Genesis 1:19 Comments The sun rules over the day in the sense that it is the most dominating force in nature. All life proceeds from sunlight. The plant kingdom uses sunlight to grow and reproduce; and the animal kingdom consumes plants to grow and reproduce. The sun is the single most dominate factor in determining the flow of nature during the day. The moon is the most dominating force affecting the natural world at night. It determines nocturnal animal behavior, and moves the tides of the oceans.

Genesis 1:19 And the evening and the morning were the fourth day.

Genesis 1:19 Comments God ends the fourth day having fulfilled His purposes and plan for that day. God is at work in each of our lives, helping us fulfill daily plans. In other words, we are given a daily destiny to fulfill, upon which we should focus, so that we do not become anxious about tomorrow (Matthew 6:34).

Matthew 6:34, “Take therefore no thought for the morrow: for the morrow shall take thought for the things of itself. Sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof.”

Verses 20-23

The Fifth Day of Creation Genesis 1:20-23 gives us the account of the fifth day of Creation. On the fifth day of creation God made the great creatures of the sea, the fish and the birds of the air.

Genesis 1:20 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.

Genesis 1:21 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.

Genesis 1:22 And God blessed them, saying, Be fruitful, and multiply, and fill the waters in the seas, and let fowl multiply in the earth.

Genesis 1:23 And the evening and the morning were the fifth day.

Genesis 1:23 Comments God ends the fifth day having fulfilled His purposes and plan for that day. God is at work in each of our lives, helping us fulfill daily plans. In other words, we are given a daily destiny to fulfill, upon which we should focus, so that we do not become anxious about tomorrow (Matthew 6:34).

Matthew 6:34, “Take therefore no thought for the morrow: for the morrow shall take thought for the things of itself. Sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof.”

Verses 24-31

The Sixth Day of Creation Genesis 1:24-31 gives us the account of the sixth day of Creation. On the sixth day of Creation, God created the land animals and He created man. Note that He did not create woman at this time, because His purpose was to create a man in His own image and after His likeness.

The Creation of Man Genesis 1:26-30 records the creation of mankind.

The Uniqueness of Man’s Creation - Man was the only part of creation in the book of Genesis that God did not say, “Let there be…,” and speak into existence. Instead, He shaped and moulded man from the clay of the earth into His own image and breathed into him the breath of life, a unique event in the Story of Creation.

God Gives Man Dominion Over the Earth In Genesis 1:26-30 we have the first divine commission that God gives to mankind. In this passage of Scripture God handed over to man the power to rule over the planet earth by giving him dominion. God’s creation on earth was designed to serve mankind in their pursuit of serving God. He gave man the plant life, the animal life, and the mineral wealth on this earth in order for each of us to prosper in His plan for our lives. When God blessed them and spoke to them, saying, “God blessed them, and God said unto them, Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth, and subdue it: and have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over every living thing that moveth upon the earth,” God was not just communicating with Adam and Eve; rather, He was empowering them with the same power that He used to create the heavens and the earth. We see the power of the spoken word in Daniel 10:19, “And said, O man greatly beloved, fear not: peace be unto thee, be strong, yea, be strong. And when he had spoken unto me, I was strengthened, and said, Let my lord speak; for thou hast strengthened me.” We see it again in John 18:6, “As soon then as he had said unto them, I am he, they went backward, and fell to the ground.” However, man yielded this dominion to demonic influence as a result of the Fall in the Garden of Eden. When Jesus Christ conquered death, hell, and the grave, He legally took back this authority and dominion because He too was a man. Jesus then handed this dominion back over to His Church again in the Great Commission when He said, “All power is given unto me in heaven and in earth. Go ye therefore…” (Matthew 28:18-20)

Man’s Dominion Was Not to Rule Over One Another - It is important to note that God did not give man dominion over one another. This form of man’s dominion and abuse and dictatorship over others is a result of the corruption of the earth under the influence of Satan, who is called the “god of this world” (2 Corinthians 4:4, and Ephesians 2:2), and those people who are oppressing others are simply imitating their master, who is Satan.

Man’s Dominion Was Limited to the Earth, and Did not Extend to the Heavens - Note also that man's dominion and authority was limited to the planet earth. This is confirmed in Psalms 115:16, which tells us that God rules over the heavens, but He has given the earth unto the children of men.

Psalms 115:16, “The heaven, even the heavens, are the LORD'S: but the earth hath he given to the children of men.”

At this time in God's plan, man has not been given dominion over the heavenly bodies. Today, man has struggled to inhabit and to have dominion over other heavenly bodies. The United States has landed on the moon and planted a flag in its soil; but in the six thousand years of man's life on earth, he has yet to live and take dominion of heavenly bodies because this is not God’s plan in this age; for man’s domain has been limited to planet earth and he is bound with this realm of space.

Man has tried to find out how to break through the realm of time and travel to the past and future. Albert Einstein’s theory of relativity gave us important insight into the relationship between time and space. [82] Again, man has failed to break out of the realm of time.

[82] Albert Einstein, et al., The Principle of Relativity, trans. M. N. Saha and S. N. Bose (Calcutta, India: University of Calcutta, 1920).

The Extent of God’s Commandment was to Take Dominion Over the Earth - God had commanded the plant kingdom to bear seed after its kind and began to do so in order to serve mankind. (Genesis 1:11). God commanded the animal kingdom to be fruitful and multiply and began to do so (Genesis 1:22; Genesis 1:24) in order to serve mankind. However, to man God gave a higher order. He was not only commanded to be fruitful and multiply, but to also take authority and dominion over the plant and animal kingdoms as well as the natural resources of the earth (Genesis 1:26-28). This commandment remains a “standing order” today for us to obey. Thus, the part of God's creation that was given to man became subject to man, which was the planet earth. It is important to note that God’s commandment to man in Genesis 1:26-28 was more extensive than just tending to the animal and plant kingdom, for he was given authority over the entire earth, which included its mineral wealth and natural resources. The earth was designed to serve mankind and life on earth would obey man as it recognizes the Creator's authority within man. Man could command animals and plants and they would obey him. Man could use its minerals and resources to benefit him and serve his needs.

The way that God planned for man to be able to take dominion was to be fruitful and multiply seeds of righteousness, or godly children. This implies not only having children, but also being able to train them up to fulfill God’s destiny in each one of their lives. Each person would find his or her calling on the earth and take dominion over that part. As this person exercised dominion over that part of the earth, God’s blessings would come upon it. Thus, man would subdue the earth in righteousness. God created Adam and placed him on earth as His seed (Genesis 1:27). He then gave mankind the principle of seedtime and harvest by telling them to be fruitful and multiplying (Genesis 1:28). Finally, God gives man seed to sow and tells him to eat the fruit of his harvest, but not the seed (Genesis 1:29). Had Adam eaten the seed, he would have no harvest.

Unfortunately, because of the Fall in the Garden of Eden, even the animal kingdom fell out of God’s divine order; for the beasts began to devour one another just as mankind has tried to destroy one another since the Fall. Thus, everything that God has placed under man’s dominion was affect by the Fall.

It is important to understand that every commandment given by God to mankind, which includes the Mosaic Law, the rest of the Old Testament, as well as the writings of the New Testament, were designed to guide mankind into the fulfillment of this first commandment, which was to be fruitful, multiply and take dominion over the entire earth. God created certain divine laws to govern the planet earth and His commandments were intended to help mankind follow these divine laws in fulfilling each of their destinies. The Church will fulfill this same commandment when it fulfills Jesus’ prophecy that the Gospel will be preached to all nations, and then the end will come (Matthew 24:14).

Matthew 24:14, “And this gospel of the kingdom shall be preached in all the world for a witness unto all nations; and then shall the end come.”

The Principle of Sowing and Reaping - The principle of sowing and reaping was the means by which mankind was ordained to fulfill His commandment to take dominion over the earth. Because of this God immediately placed man in the Garden to till the earth and sow seeds in the natural. In doing so he was to learn the divine principle of sowing and reaping. When man encountered his first need, which was for a helpmate, God did not immediately provide him with a wife. God first told Adam to take care of His need, which was to name the animals. When Adam took care of God’s need, then God took care of Adam’s need by making a woman from his rib. This followed the divine principle of sowing and reaping.

The woman’s role in taking dominion over the earth was not in tilling the soil, but in bearing children. We then see how man was working the land while woman was tending to children. This was God’s original divine order and plan for mankind to prosper and fulfill their destinies. This is reflected in the way in which God judged Adam and Eve in the Fall. The woman had her pain and sorrow increased in the area of childbearing while the man had his sorrow and pain increased in tilling the earth. God added travail and sorrow to each of their earthly journeys so that they would learn to turn to Him for their daily peace and rest. Revelation 21:4 mentions how God will one day remove us from this curse of death, sorrow, crying and travail.

Revelation 21:4, “And God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes; and there shall be no more death, neither sorrow, nor crying, neither shall there be any more pain: for the former things are passed away.”

Bearing Fruit - John 15:16 tells us that we have been called to bear fruit for the kingdom of God. If we go back to the beginnings, before the Fall of man, we find this same commandment given to mankind. In Genesis 1:28 God commanded man to be fruitful and to multiply. When we follow this plan for our lives, we begin to do those things that are pleasing in His sight and are in a position to ask whatever we want and we will receive from Him (1 John 3:22). Thus, the promise in John 15:16 that whatsoever we ask the Father in Jesus’ name will be given to us is only from fruit-bearers. Thus we are able to fulfill our individual destinies. Such promises as are found in this verse are not for the carnal-minded.

John 15:16, “Ye have not chosen me, but I have chosen you, and ordained you, that ye should go and bring forth fruit, and that your fruit should remain: that whatsoever ye shall ask of the Father in my name, he may give it you.”

1 John 3:22, “And whatsoever we ask, we receive of him, because we keep his commandments, and do those things that are pleasing in his sight.”

God Creates the Institution of Marriage The story of the creation of man in the Creation Story provides us with an amazing insight into the institution of marriage. Genesis 1:26-30 gives us God’s command to Adam and Eve, even though the creation of Eve is given later in the next chapter, because without Eve, Adam could not have multiplied. This passage of Scripture shows us a sequence of events in His divine plan for marriage. He places mankind as the highest order of all of creation, being created in the very image of God Himself (Genesis 1:26). He then makes them as male and female, which becomes the foundational design for a marriage (Genesis 1:27). God then gives the man and the woman a plan and purpose for their marriage. They are to fill the earth with righteous offspring (Genesis 1:28). This commandment will become the original purpose and intent for all of man’s endeavours in this life. Under the new covenant, the Great Commission of Matthew 28:28-30 is embedded within this original commandment at the time of Creation, in that the Church is given the task of taking the Gospel to the nations and discipling them out of corruption and sin and into a life of righteousness and integrity. After creating the institution of marriage and given mankind the overall plan, God then gives mankind the necessary provision, or resources, to fulfill this command. He gives them the plant and animal life upon the earth so that they can use life’s reproductive characteristics to bring them prosperity (Genesis 1:20-30). Embedded within this provision is the law of seedtime and harvest. God gave Adam and Eve some of every type of plant and animal life upon the earth, but it was their job to tend the Garden so that they could reap the harvest. They were to partake of a portion of each harvest to meet their needs, then sow the remaining plant seeds into the ground, and the remaining animals into the breeding flocks so that their prosperity was unending.

Genesis 1:24 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.

Genesis 1:24 Comments - How did earth bring forth life? God made life, including man, from the dust of the ground. See:

Genesis 2:19, “And out of the ground the LORD God formed every beast of the field, and every fowl of the air; and brought them unto Adam to see what he would call them: and whatsoever Adam called every living creature, that was the name thereof.”

Genesis 1:25 And God made the beast of the earth after his kind, and cattle after their kind, and every thing that creepeth upon the earth after his kind: and God saw that it was good.

Genesis 1:26 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.

Genesis 1:26 “And God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness” Comments - After having designed and created all other plants and animals with a unique shape within His creation, God now creates man after His own image and likeness.

Word Study on “image” - Strong says the Hebrew word “image” ( צֶלֶם ) (H6754) means, “a phantom, i.e. (fig.) illusion, resemblance; hence a representative figure.” The Enhance Strong says it comes from an unused primitive root verb that means, “to shade.” It is used 17 times in the Old Testament, being translated in the KJV as “image 16, vain shew 1.”

Word Study on “likeness” - Strong says the Hebrew word “likeness” ( דְּמוּת ) (H1823) means, “resemblance.” The Enhance Strong says it comes from the primitive root ( דָּמָה ) (H1819), which means, “to compare; by implication to resemble, liken consider.” It is used 25 times in the Old Testament. In the KJV, it is translated, “likeness 19, similitude 2, like 2, manner 1, fashion 1.”

Comments - Just as man was created in God's image, man will begat children in his own image and likeness. Note Genesis 5:3, “And Adam lived an hundred and thirty years, and begat a son in his own likeness, after his image ; and called his name Seth.”

Redemptive Message - Man is going to fall into sin in the third chapter of Genesis. He will then loose the image of God's glory. However, God's original plan for mankind will never change. In the new creation of man during the church age, man is recreated in the image of God in his inner man.

Ephesians 4:24, “And that ye put on the new man, which after God is created in righteousness and true holiness.”

Colossians 3:10, “And have put on the new man, which is renewed in knowledge after the image of him that created him:”

In the fullness of time in God’s redemptive plan for mankind and His creation, man will take on his glorified body again and be restored to the creature that God intended him to be in the Garden of Eden. Note 1 Corinthians 15:49, “And as we have borne the image of the earthy, we shall also bear the image of the heavenly.”

Scripture References - Note other Scriptures showing that God created man:

Job 33:4, “The Spirit of God hath made me, and the breath of the Almighty hath given me life.”

Job 35:10, “But none saith, Where is God my maker, who giveth songs in the night;”

Colossians 1:16, “ For by him were all things created , that are in heaven, and that are in earth, visible and invisible, whether they be thrones, or dominions, or principalities, or powers: all things were created by him, and for him:”

Genesis 1:26 “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” - Comments - God was the owner, the overlord, over the earth, but man became the landlord. In this granting of authority to man, God gave him as much right to fail as to succeed.

Once God establishes laws, they do not change or go away, even after man’s fall. God's plan for mankind is to reestablish him as the landlord, or ruler, over His creation, ruling and reigning as kings and priests unto God. God will restore His creation to its intended purpose and plan, where man again has dominion (Revelation 5:10).

Revelation 5:10, “And hast made us unto our God kings and priests: and we shall reign on the earth.”

Genesis 1:26 Comments - The fact that man was created in the likeness of God was a reflection of his divine duties. For example, a horse is shaped to run, an ox is designed to plow, a donkey and camel are designed to carry heavy loads, a fish was shaped to swim, and a bird is created to fly. Some birds are shaped with long beaks so that they can reach nectar deep within certain flowers. In other words, God created each animal for a particular duty and purpose in his overall design of creation. Man was created to be God’s representative here on earth, to watch over His creation and to care for it. Therefore, man was created in the image of God, as an illusion of God, since he was to walk in God’s authority here on earth. We read in Romans 8:29 that man was predestined to be conformed unto the image of His Son Jesus Christ. He was designed by God to be a “creator” on this earth.

Romans 8:29, “For whom he did foreknow, he also did predestinate to be conformed to the image of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brethren.”

Genesis 1:27 So God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him; male and female created he them.

Genesis 1:27 Comments - Genesis 1:27 is referred to in Matthew 19:4 and Mark 10:6.

Matthew 19:4, “And he answered and said unto them, Have ye not read, that he which made them at the beginning made them male and female,”

Mark 10:6, “But from the beginning of the creation God made them male and female.”

From the fact that we have been made in the image of God, we can understand why God said:

1. Men should not cover their head

1 Corinthians 11:7, “For a man indeed ought not to cover his head, forasmuch as he is the image and glory of God: but the woman is the glory of the man.”

2. Man should not have long hair

1 Corinthians 11:14, “Doth not even nature itself teach you, that, if a man have long hair, it is a shame unto him?”

3. Not to defile your bodies

1 Corinthians 3:17, “If any man defile the temple of God, him shall God destroy; for the temple of God is holy, which temple ye are.”

4. Do not make any cuts in your flesh. Many primitive tribes still practice this -

Leviticus 19:28, “Ye shall not make any cuttings in your flesh for the dead, nor print any marks upon you: I am the LORD.”

5. Do not make any marks upon you -

Leviticus 19:28, “Ye shall not make any cuttings in your flesh for the dead, nor print any marks upon you: I am the LORD.”

6. Do not cut the corners of your head and beard -

Leviticus 19:27, “Ye shall not round the corners of your heads, neither shalt thou mar the corners of thy beard.”

7. Do not murder (Genesis 9:6) because God created man for His glory (Isaiah 43:7). This also is our reason to understand the list of God’s commandments above.

Genesis 9:6, “Whoso sheddeth man's blood, by man shall his blood be shed: for in the image of God made he man.”

Isaiah 43:7, “Even every one that is called by my name: for I have created him for my glory, I have formed him; yea, I have made him.”

8. Not to curse other men -

James 3:9, “Therewith bless we God, even the Father; and therewith curse we men, which are made after the similitude of God.”

Genesis 1:28 And God blessed them, and God said unto them, Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth, and subdue it: and have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over every living thing that moveth upon the earth.

Genesis 1:28 “And God blessed them” - Comments - We must picture God’s creation as being perfect up to now. Adam will be placed in the Garden of Eden with eternal live, with no sickness and no problems to face. Kenneth Copeland asks the question, “Why did Adam even needed such a blessing.” [83] He goes on to explain that as perfect as the Garden of Eden was, it did not encompass the entire earth. Thus, the blessing was invoked upon Adam as a way of empowering him to fulfill God’s commandment to be fruitful and multiply across the earth. In other words, he was to finish what God has started. Man was to now bring God’s blessing upon the entire face of the earth by taking dominion over the entire earth.

[83] Kenneth Copeland, “Taking Back the Garden of God,” Believer’s Voice of Victory, February 2007, 4-7.

We see an example of the divine blessing being active in the lives of the patriarchs. Everywhere Abraham, Isaac and Jacob lived, the blessing of God settled upon that piece of ground. They were descendants of and partakers of this Adamic blessing. Copeland explains that this blessing passed from Adam to Abraham, from Abraham to Jesus, and from Jesus to us, the Church. He goes on to explain that this blessing does not automatically operate in our lives just because we are saved. We must mix faith with it and pronounce this blessing in our lives, in every area of our lives. We must decree what God’s Word says about us is true in order to walk in this divine blessing just as God decreed this blessing upon Abraham. It is this type of faith that Abraham learned to walk in. He serves as our example of how to walk in God’s blessings for our entire lives through faith and obedience. Jesus Christ became our prime example of walking in God’s blessing. He walked in the way that Adam was ordained to walk, in perfect peace, wisdom, health and prosperity.

Genesis 1:28 “and God said unto them” Comments - The question must be asked, “How did God bless Adam and Eve in Genesis 1:28?” The answer comes in the next phrase, “And God said unto them…” In other words, God spoke this blessing into existence as He spoke it over them.

Genesis 1:28 “Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth, and subdue it” Word Study on “replenish” - Strong says the Hebrew word “replenish” ( מָלֵא ) (H4390) is a primitive root word that means, “to fill, be full.” The meaning “fill” is shown in some modern English translations ( RSV). However, some have taken the English word “replenish” to suggest that there was a previous bio-system that existed on the earth that God destroyed before the Creation Story, so that the story of Creation is a “replenishing” of the earth with new forms of life to replace the old bio-system. However, this concept is not supported within the Hebrew text itself.

RSV, “And God blessed them, and God said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth and subdue it; and have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the air and over every living thing that moves upon the earth.”

Comments God could have created many men and women and filled the earth Himself, without giving this task to Adam and Eve. Instead, He created one man and one woman to accomplish this great task, and in doing so, God gave mankind a part of His power to create life. Man and woman can now create a new life after their own image. One reason God gave mankind a portion of His creative power is found in the joy that parents experience in childbirth and in raising children. If God created a world full of adults, the joy of having children would have never been experienced. A father and mother would never know these joys, nor understand the fact that God loves us as much as we love our children. Child rearing serves to teach parents that God has the same great love for us, His children. God also takes great delight in creating our children and watching them grow into adulthood as much as we delight in them.

Comments The original purpose and intent of filling the earth was so that righteousness will spread across the earth as godly men and women raised their children. Unfortunately, after the fall the earth was soon filled with violence (Genesis 6:11) rather than righteousness.

Genesis 6:11, “The earth also was corrupt before God, and the earth was filled with violence.”

Genesis 1:28 Comments The Order of Dominion - Genesis 1:28 gives us the order in which mankind is to dominate the earth. They are first to bear children, which will cause them to multiply. They will be able to fill the earth. When they populate the earth, they are able to subdue it and thus take dominion. The word “dominion” simply means the exercising of one’s authority, which comes when something or someone is put under subjection.

Genesis 1:28 Comments The Institution of Marriage - Genesis 1:28 reveals that one purpose of the institution of marriage is for procreation, and particularly to reproduce children of righteousness. A second purpose will be for the enjoyment of sex, as taught in the Song of Solomon. A third purpose is to maintain intimacy and unity between the husband and wife (1 Corinthians 7:2; 1 Corinthians 7:5, Genesis 2:24; Genesis 24:67).

Genesis 1:29 And God said, Behold, I have given you every herb bearing seed, which is upon the face of all the earth, and every tree, in the which is the fruit of a tree yielding seed; to you it shall be for meat.

Genesis 1:29 Comments - In Genesis 1:29 we see the principles of seed-faith revealed. God gave to man dominion over the plant kingdom, which kingdom operated on the principles of seed-faith. Man could now produce his harvest of food using the principles of sowing and reaping. God was teaching man that this principle of seed-faith was to operate in every area of his life.

Genesis 1:30 And to every beast of the earth, and to every fowl of the air, and to every thing that creepeth upon the earth, wherein there is life, I have given every green herb for meat: and it was so.

Genesis 1:30 Comments - The original design of the animal kingdom was for them to eat plant life to survive. It was not God’s plan for animals to be carnivorous and eat one another. We see in the book of Isaiah how the lion will one day in the new heavens and new earth return to this order and eat straw like the ox (Isaiah 11:7; Isaiah 65:25).

Isaiah 11:7, “And the cow and the bear shall feed; their young ones shall lie down together: and the lion shall eat straw like the ox.”

Isaiah 65:25, “The wolf and the lamb shall feed together, and the lion shall eat straw like the bullock: and dust shall be the serpent's meat. They shall not hurt nor destroy in all my holy mountain, saith the LORD.”

Genesis 1:31 And God saw every thing that he had made, and, behold, it was very good. And the evening and the morning were the sixth day.

Genesis 1:31 “And God saw every thing that he had made, and, behold, it was very good” - Comments - Six times God has looked at His creation and noted that it was good (Genesis 1:4; Genesis 1:10; Genesis 1:12; Genesis 1:18; Genesis 1:21; Genesis 1:25). In Genesis 1:31 God says that His creation was “very good.” This statement signifies God’s view of His creation collectively, with mankind as the highest order, pleased Him.

Genesis 1:31 “And the evening and the morning were the sixth day” - Comments God ends the sixth day having fulfilled His purposes and plan for that day. God is at work in each of our lives, helping us fulfill daily plans. In other words, we are given a daily destiny to fulfill, upon which we should focus, so that we do not become anxious about tomorrow (Matthew 6:34).

Matthew 6:34, “Take therefore no thought for the morrow: for the morrow shall take thought for the things of itself. Sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof.”