The Purpose and Plan for Man Handout

The Purpose and Plan for Man The Purpose and Plan for Man Dr. S. Fredrick Roberts / General Practical Studies in Genesis / Marriage; Stewardship; Creation / Genesis 2:4–25 Lesson two in Genesis, Creation of man and woman Introduction God has finished His work of creation. Genesis 1:1-2:3 gave us a brief overview of God’s creative acts during the week. Now, God is going to focus in on the sixth day of creation when He created man and woman. We are introduced to two great doctrines in this section of Genesis, and . It is here in Genesis 2:4-25 that we find God’s purpose and plan for man. Man was created to have with God, to love and worship God, but, God also had more in mind for man, He formed man with a and a . We are not the product of chance, a random event that happened, God has a purpose for each of us. Jeremiah 29:11 tells us For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, saith the LORD, thoughts of peace, and not of evil, to give you an expected end. Man is not a random chance accident that occured during eons of time, Man was in the mind of God before He spoke the world into existence. Before Genesis 1:1 God had a purpose and plan for man including man’s redemption. This section begins with the generations of the heavens and the earth and ends with man in a garden. Verses 4-6 and 8-14 tell us about a , and verses 7 and 15-25 tell us about the . Page 1. Exported from Logos Bible Software, 10:16 AM August 5, 2020. I) The Generations of the Heavens and the Earth (Genesis 2:4-6) Genesis 2:4 begins with these words, These are the generations of the heavens and of the earth… There are ten records of generations listed in Genesis, each one marks in the Genesis narrative. Here in Genesis 2:4 we have the generations of the heavens and the earth. In Genesis 5:1 we have the generations of . Genesis 6:9 records the Generations of and Genesis 10:1 records the generations of In Genesis 11:10 God narrows it down to the generations of Noah’s son through whom would come. In Genesis 11:27 we read of the generations of Abraham’s father and in Genesis 25:12,19 we read about the generations of and . Genesis 36:1,9 give the generations of and lastly, Genesis 37:2 gives the generations of . Each of these generations follow the family of and beginning at creation. , , Here in Genesis two we have the first of these 10 generation accounts, the generations of the and the . God has given us a history, an overview of creation in Genesis 1:1-2:3 and in Genesis 2:4-6 He concludes the creation account with a brief synopsis, God made the heavens, the earth and the plants. Here we see a habitation, the land, the sky, and the plants. The creation account was brief, God spoke and creation happened, but suddenly in Genesis 2:7 things slow down and God begins to give the details of His crowning glory of creation, . II) The Creation of Adam and Eve (Genesis 2:7, 18-23) Page 2. Exported from Logos Bible Software, 10:16 AM August 5, 2020. Adam is portrayed in these verses as the height, the crowning glory of God’s creation work. This act of creating man was a unique event. If we look back to Genesis one we see the words “and God said” repeated over and over. 1. Gen 1:3 And God said, Let there be light 2. Gen 1:6 And God said, Let there be a firmament 3. Gen 1:9 And God said, Let the waters... 4. Gen 1:11 And God said, Let the earth... 5. Gen 1:14 And God said, Let there be lights 6. Gen 1:20 And God said, Let the waters bring forth... 7. Gen. 1:24 And God said, Let the earth bring forth... In Genesis 1:26 something unique takes place, in all of the other places in Genesis one where God spoke, creation happened, God said… and it was so. But suddenly in Genesis 1:26 we read, And God said, Let us man in our image, and in verse 27 instead of “and it was so” we read, So man in his own image, in the image of God created He him; male and female created He them. The creation of man was a event, set apart from all the other creative works of God. This is most clearly seen in Genesis 2:7 where we read, And the Lord God man… and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul. (emphasis added) Look at this verse again closely and notice that one word “ .” God formed man, God breathed into man life, no where else in the creation account does God take such a approach to what He is creating. All of creation with the exception of man was created by God speaking and creation appearing. The plant life, the fish and fowl, the beasts and creeping things, nowhere else in the creation account do we read of God forming anything. This act of forming man into His own image shows the personal touch that God has given to man. God did not simply speak man into being, God reached down and took the dust of the ground and formed man into being. The word gives the Page 3. Exported from Logos Bible Software, 10:16 AM August 5, 2020. idea of a potter forming a vessel out of clay. The creation of man was a unique event during the creation week. God formed man in His own , Genesis 1:26-27, 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. So God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him; male and female created he them. And again in Genesis 5:1, This is the book of the generations of Adam. In the day that God created man, in the likeness of God made he him; This thought of man being created in God’s image is carried through into the New Testament. 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. (emphasis mine) In James 3:9 speaking of the tongue, James writes, Therewith bless we God, even the Father; and therewith curse we men, which are made after the similitude of God. (emphasis added) What does it mean when we are told that man is made in the image of God? We have to first understand that this statement was made about the first man, Adam, before the fall in Genesis 3. In Genesis 5:3 we read that Adam lived an hundred and thirty years, and begot a son in his own likeness, after his image; and called his name Seth. Man was originally created in God’s image, and that is why Genesis 9:6 tells us Whosoever sheddeth man’s blood, by man shall his blood be shed: for in the image of God made he man. Man, in his original state was created in God's image, but subsequent generations after the fall was born after the likeness of . So, again, what does it mean when we are told that God created man in His own image? Some have proposed that it means that man is a triune being just like God, man having a body, soul, and spirit. Others have said that it is man’s emotional, intellectual and spiritual capacities that make him the image of God. To be honest, we could debate this subject all day and never come to a definite Page 4. Exported from Logos Bible Software, 10:16 AM August 5, 2020. conclusion as to what it means by God creating man in His own image. What we do know is that God created man from any other part of creation. Warren Wiersbe writes, Unlike the angels and the animals, humans can have a very special relationship with God. He not only gave us personality—minds to think with, emotions to feel with, and wills for making decisions—but He also gave us an inner spiritual nature that enables us to know Him and worship Him. The image of God in men and women has been marred by sin (Eph. 4:18-19), but through faith in Christ and submission to the work of the Holy Spirit, believers can have the divine nature renewed within them (2 Peter 1:4; Eph. 4:20-24; Col. 3:9-10; Rom. 12:2; 2 Cor. 3:18). One day when we see Jesus, all of God's children will share in the glorious image of Christ (1 John 3:1-3; Rom. 8:29; 1 Cor. 15:49). Warren Wiersbe, Be Basic (Genesis 1-11), (Colorado Springs, CO: Victor, 2003), WORDsearch CROSS e-book, 18. In his unfallen state, man was created in the image of God. God created man with the ability and the to both and to God. John Phillips asks the question, What animal can transmit accumulated achievements from one generation to another? What animal experiences a true sense of guilt when it does wrong or has a developed consciousness of judgment to come? What animal shows any desire to worship? What animal has hope of immortality beyond the grave? What beast can exercise abstract moral judgment or show appreciation of the beauties of nature? (When did we ever see a dog admiring a sunset or a horse standing breathless before the rugged grandeur of a mountain range?) What animal ever learned to read and write, to act with deliberate purpose, and set goals and achieve long-range objectives? What animal ever learned to cook its food, to cut cloth and make clothes, or invent elaborate tools? What animal ever enjoyed a hearty laugh? What animal has the gift for speech? John Phillips, Exploring Genesis: An Expository Commentary, (Chicago, IL: Moody Press, 1980; repr., Grand Rapids, MI: Kregel Publications, 2001), WORDsearch CROSS e-book, 45. Page 5. Exported from Logos Bible Software, 10:16 AM August 5, 2020. So to be made in God’s image may be one of the great mysteries of the Word of God. We may never know the breadth and depth of that statement because God’s thoughts are not our thoughts and our ways are not God’s ways. The one thing that we can be sure of is that man was a , made for a , created to know and have fellowship with God, and although sin has marred that image, that capacity for fellowship, God still desires that all men come to Him through Jesus Christ. That all men be to that place of fellowship with their creator just as the first man Adam had before the fall. In Colossians 3:10 Paul tells us to put on the new man, which is renewed in knowledge after the image of him that created him: It is through that man can once again experience the he had with God in the garden when man was first created in the image of God. As I have already said, man was a special creation, the crowning glory of God’s creative works. Man is not a product of random chance or acts. He is not the results of evolution or a higher animal. Man was created in God’s image, formed by the hand of God, given life by the very breath of God and all for a purpose. God has a plan for mankind. III) The Stewardship of Man (Genesis 2:817) The first major theme in this section of Genesis is the . This is a theme that we see carried on throughout the Old Testament through the nation of and on into the New Testament through the . his Here in Genesis 2 we read of God’s plan and purpose of man in of creation. We begin with the description of the garden of Eden in Genesis 2:8-14, and end with the stewardship of man in verse 15. There has been much speculation on where the garden of Eden was located, but I believe Ken Ham best explains why we can not with any certainty know where it was located. Ham begins by stating, Page 6. Exported from Logos Bible Software, 10:16 AM August 5, 2020. Most Bible commentaries state that the site of the Garden of Eden was in the Middle East, situated somewhere near where the Tigris and Euphrates Rivers are today. This is based on the description given in Genesis 2:8-14: The location of Eden, according to most commentators, is located near the modern Tigris and Euphrates rivers, but as Ham explains, The worldwide, catastrophic Flood of Noah’s day would have destroyed the surface of the earth. If most of the sedimentary strata over the earth’s surface (many thousands of feet thick in places) is the result of this global catastrophe as creationists believe, then we would have no idea where the Garden of Eden was originally located—the earth’s surface totally changed as a result of the Flood. Therefore, no one can logically suggest that the area where the present Tigris and Euphrates Rivers are today is the location of the Garden of Eden, for this area is sitting on Flood strata containing billions of dead things (fossils). The perfect Garden of Eden can’t be sitting on billions of dead things before sin entered the world! Ham goes on to ask the question of why there are rivers named Tigris and Euphrates in the Middle East today and goes on to answer this question: In my native country of Australia, one will recognize many names that are also used in England (e.g., Newcastle). The reason is that when the settlers came out from England to Australia, they used names they were familiar with in England to name new places/towns in Australia. Another example is the names given to many rivers in the United States. There is the Thames River in Connecticut, the Severn River in Maryland, and the Trent River in North Carolina—all named for prominent rivers in the UK. In a similar way, when Noah and his family came out of the ark after it landed in the area we today call the Middle East (the region of the Mountains of Ararat), it would not have been surprising for them to use names they were familiar with from the pre-Flood world (e.g., Tigris and Euphrates), to name places and rivers, etc., in the world after the Flood. Page 7. Exported from Logos Bible Software, 10:16 AM August 5, 2020. Ham’s conclusion is that ultimately, we know where the Garden of Eden was located. The geography of this earth was changed by the flood, rivers before the flood may have become lakes or rerouted to other areas. New rivers and bodies of water were left behind, so to use names of rivers as they were located before Genesis 6 and attempt to use them to pinpoint locations after the flood is futile at best. After a brief description of the garden of Eden, attention is turned to man and God’s plan for him. In Genesis 2:15 we read, And the Lord God took the man, and put him into the garden of Eden (why?) to dress it and to keep it. (emphasis added) God’s plan for man was that he would live in a garden paradise and be a steward of what God had given him, namely the garden. This is the first great theme in this section, The Stewardship of Man. Since the beginning it has been God’s plan and purpose for man to be a steward of the things that God has given him. This is seen in the Old Testament through Israel as a steward of the and of God. In Romans 3 Paul asks the question, What advantage then hath the Jew? or what profit is there of circumcision? (Romans 3:1) Paul then answers his own question, Much in every way: chiefly, because that unto them were committed the oracles of God. Here Paul is talking about the , what we consider the Old Testament. The Word of God and the covenant of God was commited to the Jew, that is, Israel was to be the steward of the Word of God. While Israel was the steward of God’s Word in the dispensation of the age of , the Church today is the Steward of the Word of God in this dispensation of . Just as it was the responsibility to keep and share God’s Word, namely the Law, with those around her, it is the responsibility of the Church and even more specifically, every christian, to keep and to share the Word of God with others, telling others of the God has entrusted man down through the ages with His message of salvation, in the Old Testament it was Israel entrusted with the Law and the Oracles of God; in this age of grace, this New Testament time, it is the Church, both individually Page 8. Exported from Logos Bible Software, 10:16 AM August 5, 2020. and corporately who has been entrusted, been made stewards, of the of Jesus Christ. In 1 Corinthians 4:1-2 Paul writes, Let a man so account of us, as of the ministers of Christ, and stewards of the mysteries of God. Moreover it is required in stewards, that a man be found faithful. (emphasis added) And Peter, in 1 Peter 4:10 writes, As every man hath received the gift, even so minister the same one to another, as good stewards of the manifold grace of God. (emphasis added) You and I are called to be stewards of the and the of God and Paul said that one thing is required of a steward, that a man be found . (1 Corinthians 4:2) Faithful to his Lord, Faithful to his call, Faithful to his charge, Faithful to his testimony. In our Christian life we are called upon to do one thing, be faithful. What was the words Jesus said the master said to the faithful servant in Matthew 25, Matthew 25:2021 And so he that had received five talents came and brought other five talents, saying, Lord, thou deliveredst unto me five talents: behold, I have gained beside them five talents more. His lord said unto him, Well done, thou good and faithful servant: thou hast been faithful over a few things, I will make thee ruler over many things: enter thou into the joy of thy lord. (emphasis added) The faithful servant increased the talents he was given, he was faithful to use the talents in such a way that they increased in number. How are you using what God has given you? Is the grace of God that God gave you being increased as you share it with others? Are others finding forgiveness in Christ because you are telling them about the forgiveness you recieved. Are you being a faithful steward of the mysteries and manifold grace of God? Moreover it is required in stewards, that a man be found faithful. (1 Corinthians 4:2) The first great theme we find in this section of Genesis is the theme of the stewardship of man, God created man to be a steward of what God has given to him. The second great theme in this chapter is: IV) The Institution of Marriage (Genesis Page 9. Exported from Logos Bible Software, 10:16 AM August 5, 2020. 2:24-25) In Proverbs 18:22 we read these words, Whoso findeth a wife findeth a good thing, and obtaineth favour of the LORD. Now one thing we have to remember is that Proverbs gives us general rules not absolute rules. It is possible to find a wife and it not be a good thing, but if we allow God to bring the right one then this rule does apply. After each day of creation God looked at what He had done and declared that the days events were . But when we get to Genesis 2:18 God finds something in creation that He says is good. Genesis 2:18 tells us, And the LORD God said, It is not good that the man should be alone; I will make him an help meet for him. John Phillips said that Adam’s wife was in the mind of God long before she was ever in the arms of Adam. God looked out over all of creation and the one thing that was not good was man’s . So God determined to do something about it. God causes Adam to go to sleep, during that time God takes a rib from Adam’s side and out of it He fashions woman. Matthew Henry said that the woman was taken from Adam’s side - not from his head to over him, not from his feet to be on, but from his side to be with him, from under his arm to be , from close to his heart to be . It is important to note a couple of things about this first marriage. 1. It was God who Adam his wife. It is important that we teach single Christians to seek God’s guidance in who they marry and also to wait on the Lord to lead them to the right husband or wife. Remember what I said about proverbs, they teach general truths and while finding a wife is a good thing, finding the wrong wife (or husband) has ended in disaster for many Christians. been 2. God’s design for marriage has always and for . That was God’s design. 3. The of Marriage. God intended marriage to be one man and one woman, period. It is not one man, one woman, and his or her parents. When Page 10. Exported from Logos Bible Software, 10:16 AM August 5, 2020. a man and woman get married their devotion and loyalty is toward one another. 4. The of Marriage. Marriage is meant to be pure and undefiled. One man, one woman, joined as one flesh for life. The loyalty and purity of marriage has been left behind in our day, but God intended purity in marriage. Just like stewardship, this theme of the marriage covenant is carried throughout both the Old and New Testaments. In the Old Testament we see portrayed as the bride of , many times portrayed as an adulterous wife as she strays from God and cleaves to other loves. This is seen most strikingly in the book of Hosea where God instructs His prophet to take a wife who will commit adultery. When her lovers forsakes her, we see Hosea at the slave market giving all he has to purchase back his beloved Gomer. What a wonderful picture of redemption. In the New Testament we see portrayed as the bride of . The Bridegroom has gone to the Father’s house to prepare a place for His bride, soon the trumpet will sound, announcing the coming of the Bridegroom and He will snatch away His bride, carry her to the prepared place, and there the marriage supper will commence. What a wonderful picture, the Bridegroom and the bride, a marriage covenant that will last for eternity. The Bride, chosen from the foundation of the world, presented in purity, made one in the Bridegroom. My, my, my what a wonderful truth. Conclusion We have looked at , , and a and purpose and plan for earth, but man was a God an , , . God had for man from the beginning of creation, and God has a today. God created the heavens and the and creation, of man it is said that man, in that word formed is a sense of creation. We are also told that man was made in Page 11. Exported from Logos Bible Software, 10:16 AM August 5, 2020. the of God. other creature has the faculties to fellowship with the creator. Only can know God intimately. What a wonderful thing, the creator took such care to create man into a unique and special creation that is capable of and fellow-shipping with and worshipping God. The Psalmist said in Psalm 139:14 I will praise thee; for I am and made: marvellous are thy works; and that my soul knoweth right well. Page 12. Exported from Logos Bible Software, 10:16 AM August 5, 2020.