Genesis and Man: Part Three of Series of Three
Genesis 1:2b - 2:3 outlines how God restored the earth making it functional or operational once again after the catastrophe that rendered it tohu va bohu, without form and void. The record summarizes God’s work by each night and day.
Genesis 1:1 teaches us that God created the heavens and the earth. Ten times between Genesis 1:3 and 2:3, we are told, “God said. . . .” and so it became.
After each day’s work in Genesis 1, God notes that it was “good”. Genesis 1:31 states that everything God made was, “very good”. All that God did to reorganize the earth was for man’s benefit. It was not only well ordered and functional; it was beautiful, fragrant and abundant.
Man wants to discover why our world exists. He wants to discover his purpose. The spiritual light of God’s Word answers these questions in Genesis.
Why did God create the heaven and the earth? He gave us the answer in both Genesis and Isaiah. He created it to be inhabited by man.
Why are there lights in the firmament of heaven such as sun, moon and stars? The answer is, “to give light upon the earth” and “for signs and seasons” and so we can distinguish time. The reason for the universe is the earth.
Why did God make the earth such a beautiful, magnificent store of treasures?
Why did He make the Garden of Eden or paradise?
Why did He populate the earth with multiple genera and species of living creatures that function on the land, in the air, and in the waters?
Why is there such an abundance and variety of edible plant life?
Why is there such valuable mineral wealth on the earth? Why is there beauty?
The reason that God provided all of these aspects was to prepare the earth for His man. He was furnishing his home, not only with the essentials, but for his enjoyment.
Why did He create Adam in His image? When you consider this record and the third heaven and earth in Revelation 21 and 22, it becomes obvious. God wanted a family. He loves man. He wanted to have fellowship with people who could love Him. The reason for man is God.
There was no sickness, fear, death, sorrow, pain, condemnation, etc. Adam knew nothing of evil. All that God provided in Paradise was “very good”; it was very well arranged and abundantly supplied with treasure after treasure.
Genesis 2:1-3 AV
Thus the heavens and the earth were finished, and all the host of them. And on the seventh day God ended his work which he had made; and he rested on the seventh day from all his work which he had made. And God blessed the seventh day, and sanctified it: because that in it he had rested from all his work which God created and made.
This concludes God’s restoration of the second heaven and earth. The seventh day God rested from His achievement.