There can be some confusion in God's first book of the Bible and we do not have to go too far along in our reading before questions may pop up; therefore, I believe it would be profitable for us to examine what God has said in this foremost book of the Bible. Genesis is at the top of my favorite books in the Bible and is one which I never tire of reading, mainly because God reveals the end from the beginning. I hope that if it is not already a favorite of yours, it will soon become one. From these pages we will lead up to our main focus in this study which will be who is made in God's image and how God goes about doing this work.
And as God himself created us, so He also knows how best to teach us; it is just as we teach our very children. He takes us by the hand and holds us up as we take our first steps, talking to us and teaching us things all the while He is walking with us. As parents to our own young children we see how quickly they learn by reading to them from picture books. This is also how our heavenly Father teaches us many spiritual things, using 'pictures'. Sometimes these 'pictures' in the Bible are called 'types or shadows' of things to come.
In this study from the book of Genesis, I have tried to write very carefully and simply. As we are God's children, we will proceed cautiously, as with children.
For those who do not have their Bibles close at hand, I will place below the verses we will focus on as we go along. Let us pay close attention as the Lord speaks to our hearts through his Spirit.
1 "In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth."
We take note the first mentioned-heaven, the second-earth.
2 "And the earth was without form, and void; and darkness was upon the face of the deep."
God gives to us the description of the earth. His Word is true. It was "WITHOUT FORM"
(w/o an essential nature) and "VOID"
(vain and useless.) The first mention of 'darkness' is seen here. It was upon the "face of the deep". God does not add anything to this darkness "upon the face of the deep", but we take a cue here as it is mentioned right after God describes the earth.
"And the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters."
Now we have something new! It is 'waters.' We have now so far been introduced to three things, heaven, earth and waters. Right now God does not mention just where the waters are. We note it is in the plural form. We are told, "And the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters." So now, we associate God's Spirit with the 'waters'. His Spirit is "moving upon the face of the waters."God is active here.
3 "And God said, Let there be light: and there was light."
Now, what we already had was: God's Spirit moving upon the waters. God next says, "Let there be light." God's Spirit is now moving upon the waters, and we also have light.
4 "And God saw the light, that it was good: and God divided the light from the darkness."
God saw the light was good. It has already been connected to God's Spirit moving upon the waters. We note that there was no work done with the 'darkness' at all, only that these two are divided.
5 "And God called the light Day, and the darkness he called Night. And the evening and the morning were the first day."
Light-Day Darkness-Night Evening & Morning = Day One
We note that God first gave a name to the light (day) then a name to darkness (night), but that each day will begin the opposite way, first with the evening then morning.
6 "And God said, Let there be a firmament in the midst of the waters, and let it divide the waters from the waters."
Now we come back to something God talked about earlier, the 'waters'. They are to be divided. By what? Something called a 'firmament'!
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."
Here God makes the firmament. Now He divides the 'waters'( under/above the firmament). It was so.
8 "And God called the firmament Heaven. And the evening and the morning were the second day."
It is now that God reveals to us what this firmament is . . . Heaven! So we now have an idea just where God's Spirit was as He moved upon the waters in the light. We also know where this separation of waters occurred; it was all done above, in heaven. Evening and Morning = Day 2.
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."
Now we begin to see a picture forming. The waters that were under the heaven were gathered together and the dry land appeared. (In our minds we will probably see a picture forming of the earth with the oceans/seas, all as one.) But wait. . . !!
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." Please Note . . .
It was the DRY land only that God called EARTH! The gathering together of the WATERS, (those that were from the heaven) he called SEAS. These are separate.
"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:" 2 Peter 3:5
Now that we have an idea what God has said in his Word from chapter One, verses 1-10 we can proceed cautiously:
"And the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters." Gen. 1:2
We remember at that point, these waters were all yet above, with God's Spirit, in heaven. We saw:
God's Spirit, Moved upon the face of the Waters, & Light.
From these three, mentioned above, we should start to see a picture (or shadow) forming of the child of God. One who is born of God's Spirit from above, from water as we are in His light.
Let us turn to John 5:4 (For a thorough review, start at John 5: verses 1 through 9).
"For an angel went down at a certain season into the pool, and troubled the water: whosoever then first after the troubling of the water stepped in was made whole of whatsoever disease he had."
Does the above sound familiar? Yes, from these verses in John we see the same picture we saw from the very beginning in Genesis 1:1-10. God reveals to us the beautiful 'picture' of salvation.
For an angel (Spirit of Christ) went down (to world) at a certain season (in the day of salvation) into the pool (picture of the gathering together of the waters or "seas") and troubled the water (moved in our lives): whosoever then first (Christ is the firstfruits . . . we are found in him)after the troubling of the water stepped in (that work he continues to do in our lives) was made whole of whatsoever disease (set free from sin/bondage) he had.
That above pool of water is where all God's children are gathered, we live in it. We should realize that this pool of water is 'the washing of water' through God's Word:
"That he might sanctify and cleanse it with the washing of water by the word." We are sanctified (set apart, made Holy) through the washing by God's word.
Let us look at another picture of this same healing . John the Baptist was in prison when he heard the works of Christ,
See Matthew 11:4-6
"He sent two of his disciples to ask: Art thou he that should come, or do we look for another?" Jesus answered and said unto them:
" Go and shew John again those things which ye do hear and see:"
"The blind receive their sight and the lame walk, the lepers are cleansed, and the deaf hear, the dead are raised up, and poor have the gospel preached to them."
"And blessed is he, whosoever shall not be offended in me."
This is a spiritual picture of the healing that God does in the life of each of his children. For we were all blind, lame, as lepers, deaf, dead! The blindness he heals are the scales from our eyes; he opens them anew whereby we can see those things spiritual. The lame now walk in his light. "Thy word is a lamp unto my feet, and a light unto my path." (Psalms 119:105) Sin is pictured as disease (leprosy). It is for this reason Christ came into the world. He came to save us from sin and its bondage. This is the healing he came to do described throughout the Bible in many different pictures. We are no longer servants to sin, but servants unto God. The deaf can now hear and fully understand. The "dead are raised up' and become new creatures (creations) in Christ, whereas we were once considered dead to God when we followed after our own lusts and desires. We are raised up in newness of life and have Christ's promise of eternal life. God's children are those 'blessed' who will not be offended at the Gospel of salvation through Christ. It is to those 'poor' that the gospel message reaches. This 'poor' God equates with the spirit. The poor in spirit are humble before God. They repent of their wicked ways and follow after him. (Repent means to 'turn from', it is a turning away from sin and a turning to God). The opposite of those 'poor' are the 'rich' in spirit who believe they have no need of a Savior and will think they are doing just fine in themselves. In the Bible they are likened to the Pharisees.
We need not look any further than our own baptisms to see a picture of this new life, as we follow the example that Christ set before us in Matt. 3:13-17.
"And Jesus answering said unto him, Suffer it to be so now: for thus it becometh us to fulfil all righteousness. Then he suffered him.
"And Jesus, when he was baptized, went up straightway out of the water: and, lo, the heavens were opened unto him, and he saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove, and lighting upon him." Matthew 3:14-17
We read in Exodus 2:10 She (Pharaoh's Daughter) called his name Moses, "because I drew him out of the water."
Two more:
"He sent from above; he took me; He drew me out of many waters." 2 Samuel 22:17
David repeated the same prayer in Psalms 18:16, "He sent from above, he took me, he drew me out of many waters.
We were told by Christ himself, we would be 'fishers' of men (Matt. 4:19). Here again Christ is talking of water ('seas'). The fish Christ is talking about are the poor, the humble to whom the gospel message is preached and will reach. There are numerous pictures in the Bible where water is used in connection to washing and to make someone (or something), such as clothing or vessels clean (holy). We are washed by water through the reading of his Word.
"Jesus answered verily, verily, I say unto thee: Except a man be born of water and of the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God. John 3:5
God's children are born from the Spirit. The 'woman' who was taken from man's side (rib) was then reborn (or born again) from Christ's pierced side, of water and blood. In her is pictured the elect or chosen of God. Once again, the water is the washing through his word and the blood, that which Christ shed for his children.
"But one of the soldiers with a spear pierced his side, and forthwith came there out blood and water." John 19:34
"That which is born of the flesh is flesh; and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit. Marvel not that I say unto thee, you must be born again." John 3:6-7
"Ye are all the children of the light, and the children of the day: we are not of the night, nor of darkness." 1 Thessalonians 5:5
God's spiritual food (his Word, his truth) is often times seen as rain. 'Manna' was also a picture of this bread of life which was rained down from Heaven to Israel.
The opposite is seen of the earth. A lack of God's word in the earth is seen as drought or famine, or darkness and 'no sun'.
After sin, God said that the serpent (Satan) would be upon his belly and eat dust. Man is formed from the dust of the ground.
"Because thou hast done this, thou art cursed above all cattle, and above every beast of the field; upon thy belly shalt thou go, and dust shalt thou eat all the days of thy life." Gen. 3:14
From all of the above we should be able to see the distinction that God makes in those who are born of the Spirit and those who are of the earth. It is the spirit which lives on, the physical body will disintegrate.
"In the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread, till thou return unto the ground; for out of it wast thou taken: for dust thou art, and unto dust shalt thou return." Gen. 3:19
Christ's promise to his own:
"And I give unto them eternal life; and they shall never perish, neither shall any man pluck them out of my hand." John 10:28
"And when the Gentiles heard this, they were glad, and glorified the word of the Lord: and as many as were ordained to eternal life believed." Acts 13:48
"In hope of eternal life, which God, that cannot lie, promised before the world began. Titus 1:2
We see from the start of Genesis, that when God's Word is spoken, it is as good as done!
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