God divided light and darkness, waters and dry land, the world above from the world below. Noah was undoubtedly; but it is not always, nor here, the aim to draw attention to what was special. His will complied readily and universally with the will of God, without reluctancy or resistance. The truth affirmed by Moses remains in all its majesty and simplicity withal. God made heaven and earth in six days: it is never said He created heaven and earth in six days. No solid reason whatever appears why it should be so used here. The greater part, and nearly all, conceive that the word image is to be distinguished from likeness. Hence, therefore, as closing all the previous state of things, where man was not spoken of, preparing the way for the Adamic earth, the Spirit of God is seen brooding upon the face of the waters. 1:24 ) so as to keep them in awe, and keep them off from Though the twins may have come from the same cell, divided and thus, they have the same chromosome content and gene content as each other, yet the variations that develop, I just am amazed at creation. "Of every clean beast thou shalt take to thee by sevens . and of beasts that are not clean by two." That man was made male and female, and blessed with the blessing of fruitfulness and increase. He had an habitual conformity of all his natural powers to the whole will of God. Believers have constantly called it a "promise;" but it is not uninstructive to see that scripture never does. This concrete essence of the divine likeness was shattered by sin; and it is only through Christ, the brightness of the glory of God and the expression of His essence (Hebrews 1:3), that our nature is transformed into the image of God again (Colossians 3:10; Ephesians 4:24). I'm made in the image of God, who is a self-determinant being.Now, if God created me with a capacity of choice, it would be totally meaningless unless He gave me a choice. But it would be necessary for those seeds to propagate themselves into other areas. So let there be the "light holders" in the heavensto divide the day from the night; and let them be for signs, and for seasons, and for days, and for years (Gen 1:14): And so our time is calculated by the sun and the moon, and it is generally thought that the Earth's rotation around the sun was a three hundred and sixty-day year. When God created human beings as male and female he formed them to exhibit a oneness in their relationship that would resemble the relationship of God and his heavenly court. This shows that the plural Elohim was known to convey a singular meaning despite its plural form. But it was important to show its ground in the facts of creation, apart from special relationship, and that made Elohim alone appropriate in this place. As it is, God reserves the striking detail for the scene of moral relationship. But, as it is, scripture means nothing of the sort. The difference in the divine titles is due to a distinctness of object, not of authorship; and it runs through the Psalms and the Prophets as well as the Law, so as to convict of ignorance and temerity the learned men who vaunt so loudly of the document hypothesis as applied to the Pentateuch. Who would have done this but God? What does it mean? What was the ground of God's delays in the previous time? (91) Innuit in homine esse imaginem Dei, sed imperfectam et qualem umbrae. Oleaster in Poli Synopsi. And God set them in the heavens [the firmament, in the limitless space of heaven, the rachowq of heaven] to give light upon the earth, 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. Keil and Delitzsch Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament. But needless to say, Jesus is coming soon. But I often wonder why God made such weird-looking fish, in such variety, and then the fabulous colors! Meanwhile the earth was drying and land became visible. Hence, wherever man enters he makes his sway to be felt. Having created the world with its many life forms, He now wants one to rule over these life forms. The context determines which is the correct meaning in any . Gesenius on Isaiah 11:6-8). In the previous description, which had not to do with man, there was silence about the Spirit of God; but, as the divine wisdom is shown inProverbs 8:1-36; Proverbs 8:1-36 to rejoice in the habitable parts of the earth, so the Spirit of God is always brought before us as the immediate agent in the Deity whenever man is to be introduced. THE NEW AMERICAN COMMENTARY is for the minister or Bible student who wants to understand and expound the Scriptures. God is holy, just, wise, good, and perfect; so must the soul be that sprang from him: there could be in it nothing impure, unjust, ignorant, evil, low, base, mean, or vile. Angels were not made male and female, for they were not to propagate their kind (Luke 20:34-36); but man was made so, that the nature might be propagated and the race continued. The fact declares itself. 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. Nizzachon, p. 5. If in the first chapter the true God shows Himself in creative power and glory, and in the perfect beneficence which marks too that which He had made; if in the second special relations display yet more His moral way and will, so the serpent does not fail to manifest his actual condition and aim not of course the condition in which he was made, but that to which sin had reduced him. At first it sounds strange that a day of human self-exaltation should be equally characterised by as strong a desire to deny the special breath of God for his soul, and degrade him to the pedigree of an ape! But there is no word coupling the introductory statement of verse 1 with what follows. It is hardly so common-place and ordinary a matter as many suppose. That angels were themselves made in the image and likeness of God. How possibly have that discrimination which decides morally between what is good and what is evil? Believers and unbelievers might agree on how nature provides humankind with food, but believers add something extra, because they see God working through nature. ., p. 112; Wenham, pp. Then God said, "Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness; and let them rule over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the sky and over the cattle and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth. Caesarius and Epiphanius held it to be the Danube, the Ganges, and the Indus, and that after an extraordinary course in the south it joined the ocean near Cadiz! How the various organs of the human body function, for example, is a problem for medical science to solve, not the Bible. Why this was, how it was, God has not here explained. Oneness involves being in agreement with Gods will and purposes. Thus, as God appeared to man in the Old Testament, there was no form, so that man would not think of God in the terms of a form and try to carve out a form that would represent God.The likeness of God we see in Jesus Christ; the fullness of the Godhead bodily dwells in Christ. Most appropriately it is to Jehovah now. The story is recorded as if someone were describing creation, not from somewhere in outer space, but from his dwelling place on earth. "And he said unto the woman, Yea, hath God* said, Ye shall not eat of every tree of the garden? It is not said in Genesis 1:27 that man and woman were created together; or that the woman was created directly, and not formed out of one of the man's ribs. of formless points to the "formlessness" of the earth in contrast to the creative order God will create in Ge 1:3-26. As Christ came into our world without sin, his true rank therefore was that of Adam, as God had created Adam, and before the Fall. You cannot, as a rule, anticipate facts; you cannot discern the truth beforehand. Professor Davidson, On the plural form of the word Elohim. Let us not forget the deceitfulness of sin. (84) For the various opinions of Jewish writers on this subject, see Pooles Synopsis in loco. It is not man placed in his moral relationships, but man the head of this kingdom of creation, as they say; but still even so with remarkable dignity. I affirm then that, when God thus made man, when He put him in Eden, the actual test was the interdict not of a thing which was in itself evil, but simply and prescriptively wrong for man because God had forbidden it. "They knew that they were naked, and they sewed fig leaves together, and made themselves aprons." An innocent man could not have had the knowledge of good and evil; it pertains necessarily to a fallen one. Both appear to me natural and purposed. So the Holy Spirit, basically, is the author of all the scripture and who He was inspiring is of no import to us.So next week, we'll continue with chapter two. These are both very good. It allows for the diversity of phraseology employed in describing the acts of creative power. And at this rate, I'm sure the Lord will come before we get through the Bible. For (ver. It is not needful to say more now. besides, the phrase itself shows that the second term was added for the sake of explanation, Let us make, he says, man in our image, according to our likeness, that is, that he may be like God, or may represent the image of God. Some have found a difficulty (which I simply touch on in passing) from the conjunction with which verse 2 commences. The seventh day was to be the day that we acknowledge God and give unto God, and we do it by resting. And the Spirit of God was hovering over the face of the waters. 145.] "The earth was without form and void." Being created after the image of God, God created me with a capacity to choose. And we really don't know what He looked like. In the former he speaks as one having authority, in this as one having affection; for his delights were with the sons of men,Proverbs 8:31. The great point, my brethren, is to hold fast the truth. Yet, wonderful to say, in the very announcement of judgment on the serpent, God, who had by the light of His presence compelled the guilty pair to come forth out of the darkness in which they had hid, or rather sought to hide God held out the first bright light of mercy, but mercy in the judgment of him who was the root of the evil. The moment God spoke, you have the Word of God. If they were not, it could not be said, in OUR image, and it does not appear from any part in the sacred writings that any creature but man was made in the image of God. But into the proof of this we cannot now pause to enter. God and man share a likeness that is not shared by other creatures. First, It exhibits the consistency of the whole narrative in itself. The word "meor" is a light holder. I must be permitted here to say a word on a subject which, if it has called out enormous discussion, betrays in its course, I am sorry to say, no small amount of evident infidelity. All the inferior powers were subject to the dictates and directions of the superior, without any mutiny or rebellion. So, that seems to lend credence to the "gap theory" that the heavens and the earth were created in verse one, this is an account of re-creation.Now the fog cloud's removed and the sun and the moon becoming visible and are now used to mark off years and days and months; used as time indicators and the greater light to rule the day, the lesser light holder to rule the night. we should have had a long introduction, and a full history of his origin and his designs and his doings. *As Eve at the birth of Cain seems to have been unduly excited, and expecting I think a deliverer in the child whom she named as gotten from Jehovah, so she seems to me to express a sobered if not desponding sentiment in saying at Seth's birth, "Elohim hath appointed me another seed," etc. Read the Scripture: Genesis 1:26-28. 1. The Bible alone is a revelation of facts, and, we can add (not from the Old Testament, but from the New), of a person. These again are of less importance than the land, which man tills and renders fruitful in all that can gratify his appetite or his taste. The human mind is still endowed with most extraordinary capacities; it was more so when issuing out of the hands of its Creator. Genesis 1.26. the likeness of the holy blessed God, and his Shechinah Forced to discover himself, Adam tells the humiliating tale: "I heard thy voice in the garden, and I was afraid, because I was naked, and I hid myself." It doesn't necessarily mean a source of light. This is not a scientific technical account of creation, but it shows a loving God creating a universe and mankind to rule it and fellowship with God. We accept both as true. The mere. Truly there are many things in this corrupted nature which may induce contempt; but if you rightly weigh all circumstances, man is, among other creatures a certain preeminent specimen of Divine wisdom, justice, and goodness, so that he is deservedly called by the ancients , a world in miniature. But since the Lord needs no other counsellor, there can be no doubt that he consulted with himself. Pharaoh says, "I have dreamed a dream" Genesis 41:15. fowl of the air; He created the animals, the domesticated-type animals, all after their own kind.And the evening and the morning were the fifth day.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. Can be no doubt that He consulted with himself He now wants one to rule over life. `` they knew that they were naked, and a full history of his origin and designs... 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