Genesis 2.4-7-Creation of Man on the Sixth Day

Sunday August 14, 2005

Genesis: Genesis 2:4-7-The Creation of Man on the Sixth Day

Lesson # 9

Please turn in your Bibles to Genesis 2:4.

This morning we will study Genesis 2:4-7, which gives us more details concerning the third and sixth days of restoration that are recorded in Genesis 1.

Genesis 2:4, “This is the account of the heavens and the earth when they were created, in the day that the LORD God made earth and heaven.”

“This is the account” is `elleh tholedhoth (hL#a@tw{dl@w{T) which is always used in a transitional sense meaning it is never used as a conclusion to what precedes but rather it is used as an introduction to what follows.

Therefore, the phrase “this is the account of the heavens and the earth” does not mean “this is how the heavens and the earth came to be” but “these are the events, which happened after the creation of the heavens and the earth.”

Therefore, the phrase “when they were created” should be translated “after they were created” because of this Hebrew expression `elleh tholedhoth, “this is the account,” thus, the events recorded in Genesis 2:4:7 took place “after” the creation of the heavens of the earth.

In Genesis 1, the noun Elohim, “God” was used alone emphasizing God’s omnipotence in creation and restoration but in Genesis 2, it is used with Yahweh, “Lord” emphasizing God’s personal attention to the creation of man.

“Created” is the verb bara (arB), which is used in relation to the following “creative” activities of God during the six days: (1) “Creating out of nothing” the souls of those living creatures whose habitat would be in the sea, in the air and on the land (Gen. 1:20-21). (2) “Creating out of nothing” the soul of mankind, both male and female (Gen. 1:26-27).

“In the day” is the prepositional phrase be yom (+sw{yB+), which should be translated “during the period of time” since the noun yom, “day” does “not” refer to a literal 24 hour period as it did in Genesis 1, but rather, it refers to a “duration of time,” since it refers to the six days of restoration recorded in Genesis 1:3-31.

“Made” is the verb `asah (hc#u) and is used in contrast with the verb bara (arB*), “created” and means, “to restore,” since it is used of God’s “restorative” activities during the six days and includes everything that God did in Genesis 1:3-31 that did not involve creation.

“Creation” means that God brings into existence something that did not exist prior.

Romans 4:17, “God…calls into being that which does not exist.”

“Restoration” means that God returned the entire creation to its original condition prior to His judgment of the Satanic rebellion, which was responsible for the earth being an empty desolation, enshrouded in darkness and flooded with water.

Genesis 1:1 records the original creation.

Genesis 1:1, “In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.”

Genesis 1:2a records the aftermath of God judging Satan and the angels for their rebellion and the presence of the Holy Spirit in Genesis 1:2b indicates God’s desire to restore the earth from this judgment.

Genesis 1:2, “The earth was formless and void, and darkness was over the surface of the deep, and the Spirit of God was moving over the surface of the waters.”

Corrected translation of Genesis 2:4: “These are the events proceeding after the heavens and the earth were created out of nothing and during the period of time the Lord God restored the heavens and the earth.”

Genesis 2:5-6 gives us more details concerning the third day, which is recorded in Genesis 1:9-13.

Genesis 1:11-12 tells us that on the third day God caused the earth to produce vegetation.

Genesis 1:11, “Then God said, ‘Let the earth sprout vegetation: plants yielding seed, and fruit trees on the earth bearing fruit after their kind with seed in them’; and it was so.”

Genesis 1:12, “The earth brought forth vegetation, plants yielding seed after their kind, and trees bearing fruit with seed in them, after their kind; and God saw that it was good.”

Genesis 2:5-6 reveals that God caused the earth to produce vegetation by causing a mist to come up from the earth that watered the earth, which in turn caused the vegetation to grow.

Genesis 2:5, “Now no shrub of the field was yet in the earth, and no plant of the field had yet sprouted, for the LORD God had not sent rain upon the earth, and there was no man to cultivate the ground.”

Genesis 2:6, “But a mist used to rise from the earth and water the whole surface of the ground.”

Genesis 2:7 gives us more details concerning the creation of man on the sixth day, which is recorded in Genesis 1:26-27.

Genesis 1:26, “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.’”

“Make” is the verb ‘asah, “to model,” thus indicating that the Lord Jesus Christ “modeled” the soul of mankind after God’s invisible essence or in other words, the soul of man is a “copy” of God and is “patterned” after God’s invisible essence, thus man as to his essence is the shadow image of God who is invisible.

Genesis 1:27, “God created man in His own image, in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them.”

“Created” is the verb bara, “to create out of nothing,” and is used with reference to the soul of man since man was created in the image of God who is invisible and the human soul is invisible.

The verb `asah, “model” in Genesis 1:26 and the verb bara, “create out of nothing” in Genesis 1:27 indicate that Moses under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit is referring specifically to the soul of man and “not” to his physical body.

Genesis 2:7 gives us more details concerning the creation of mankind and specifically concerning his physical body and this is indicated by the use of the verb yatsar, “to construct or form out of existing material” and the phrase “from the ground.”

Genesis 2:7, “Then the LORD God formed man of dust from the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living being.”

“Formed” is the verb yatsar (rx^y*), “to construct something out of existing material,” which is used in reference to the physical body of Adam and indicates that the Lord designed the appearance and function of the human body.

Psalm 139:14, “I will give thanks to You, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made.”

“From the ground” indicates that the Lord constructed from the elements of the ground, Adam’s physical body.

Psalm 103:14, “For He Himself knows our frame; He is mindful that we are but dust.”

The physical body of Adam was “not” created in the image of God but rather his soul since Genesis 1:27 states that Adam was created in the image of God and this is not said of his physical body.

Furthermore, according to John 4:24, God is spirit and thus invisible therefore, the human body could not be formed in the image of God but rather the soul of man, which is invisible.

“Breathed into” is the verb naphach (jp^n*) (naw-fakh), which has as its subject, the Lord, thus teaching that He is responsible for human life and not man.

Job 33:4, “The Spirit of God has made (`asah) me, and the breath of the Almighty gives me life.”

“Breath of life” means that God produces the human soul life.

The human soul contains: (1) Volition: Enables us to make decisions (2) Self-consciousness: We are aware of who we are (3) Conscience: Where our norms and standards reside (4) Mentality: Where we do our thinking (5) Emotion: Where we respond to what is in the mentality of the soul.

Genesis 2:7 teaches that Adam did “not” become a living soul until God imputed soul life to his biological life, thus, indicating that life does “not” begin until God imputes soul life to the physical body.

The Lord is the Creator of every human soul-past, present and future but Adam is the only human being to have his physical body personally formed by the Lord since the physical bodies of every human being since Adam have been produced by the sexual union between men and women.

The Lord Jesus Christ is the only human being to be born with a human spirit, thus demonstrating further His uniqueness and everyone else in the human race receives a human spirit with eternal life imputed to it the moment they accept the Lord Jesus as their Savior.

1 Corinthians 15:45, “So also it is written, ‘The first MAN, Adam, BECAME A LIVING SOUL.’ The last Adam became a life-giving spirit.”

1 Corinthians 15:46, “However, the spiritual is not first, but the natural; then the spiritual.”

1 Corinthians 15:47, “The first man is from the earth, earthy; the second man is from heaven.”