Foundational Themes in Genesis – Study 4

We are busy discussing themes in the opening book of the Bible, the book of beginnings or generations, called Genesis. Although God created a physical creation for all with physical senses to experience, the word of God is not bound by its physical application as there is so much more to see for those God is giving spiritual eyes to see:

2Ti 2:9 Wherein I suffer trouble, as an evil doer, [even] unto bonds; but the word of God is not bound.

The word of God has a physical interpretation for the natural man to receive firstly through ‘the spirit of the world’, but the spiritual meaning behind the outward letter is something only a few are given freely to see in this age:

1Co 2:12 Now we have received, not the spirit of the world, but the spirit which is of God; that we might know the things that are freely given to us of God.
1Co 2:13 Which things also we speak, not in the words which man’s wisdom teacheth, but which the Holy Ghost teacheth; comparing spiritual things with spiritual. 14 But the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God: for they are foolishness unto him: neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned.

This temporary creation of the heavens and the earth spiritually points to “the book” of the generations or family of “all in [the first man] Adam”. The Hebrew word “toledah” is related to the beginning and reproduction of a family:

Gen 1:1 In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth.

Gen 2:4 These are the generations (Hebrew: “toledah”; Greek: “genesis”) of the heavens and of the earth when they were created, in the day that the LORD God made the earth and the heavens,

Gen 5:1 This is the book of the generations (Hebrew: “toledah”) of Adam. In the day that God created man, in the likeness of God made he him;

We will stay with the theme of “the generations [of the heavens and of the earth] of Adam” in today’s study to show why the doctrine of the fall of this Adam is a false doctrine. The generations of the first man Adam are “imperfect” from the beginning and will always “in continuance” be formed in all in this first Adam with the same imperfection:

Psa 139:16 Thine eyes did see my substance, yet being unperfect; and in thy book all my members were written, which in continuance were fashioned, when as yet there was none of them.

The first Adam was never a perfect being because of the condition of his outward physical substance from the outset – he is out of the earth (earthy):

Gen 2:7 And the LORD God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul.

1Co 15:45 (MKJV) And so it is written (in Gen 2:7), “The first man, Adam, became a living soul,” the last Adam (Jesus) was a life-giving Spirit.
1Co 15:46 But not the spiritual first, but the natural; afterward the spiritual.
1Co 15:47 The first man was out of earth, earthy; the second Man was the Lord from Heaven.

That which is “out of the earth” (the spirit of the world) opposes that which is “from heaven” (the spirit of God) – the visible, temporary things versus the invisible, eternal things. However, the heaven and the earth of the first Adam work together as they relate to each other. Outward things are very important to our physical makeup (our earth) and our corresponding natural way of thinking (our heaven). But when we are given mercy to enter in beyond this natural veil, we walk circumspectly to redeem the time that we have left within the evil days of flesh:

Eph 5:15 See then that ye walk circumspectly, not as fools, but as wise,
Eph 5:16 Redeeming the time, because the days are evil.
Eph 5:17 Wherefore be ye not unwise, but understanding what the will of the Lord is.

We will not be distracted, especially by those who claim a gap of millions of years between verse 1 and 2 of Genesis 1. We will not follow and walk after them who suggest that it was a very hard task for God to create a physical creation within six days, and that He needed a long time to learn wisdom to do the things of a Creator. How absurd! We thank God that we can see that this outward creation process actually corresponds with the invisible things of God as they (“the [visible] things that are made”) serve as spiritual types of an inward spiritual process in us:

Rom 1:20 For the invisible things of him from the creation of the world are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even his eternal power and Godhead; so that they are without excuse:

With this in mind we are also given to see that the spoken Word of God “written for our learning”, is that spirit of God which makes the spirit life active to ourselves, if only in downpayment form (“earnest”) at this stage:

Mat 4:4 But he answered and said, It is written, Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God.

Joh 6:63 It is the spirit that quickeneth; the flesh profiteth nothing: the words that I speak unto you, they are spirit, and they are life.

Eph 1:13b …in whom (Christ) also after that ye believed, ye were sealed with that holy spirit of promise,
Eph 1:14 Which is the earnest of our inheritance until the redemption of the purchased possession, unto the praise of his glory.

Verse 2 in Genesis 1 links intimately and directly with verse 1:

Gen 1:1 In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth.
Gen 1:2 And the earth was without form, and void; and darkness was upon the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters.

When God created the earth and heavens we are given an explanation of its initial condition in verse 2. The earth did not become formless, void and dark over a period of time as many want it to say – it was created by God in that condition, and here is the proof for those who can receive the doctrine of Christ through His “precept upon precept, line upon line, here a little, there a little”, spiritual principle (ref. Isa 28:9-10):

Psa 51:5 Behold, I was shapen in iniquity; and in sin did my mother conceive me.

Rom 8:20 For the creature was made subject to vanity, not willingly, but by reason of him who hath subjected the same in hope,

In Genesis 1 we read how God created this physical creation through a process which includes an earth which was fully inhabited within six days. But this points us also to an inner spiritual process (in our heavens). God did not create anyone of us in this human condition to be forever in this formless, empty and vain state:

Isa 45:18 For thus saith the LORD that created the heavens; God himself that formed the earth and made it; he hath established it, he created it not in vain, he formed it to be inhabited: I am the LORD; and there is none else.

Even the darkness is part of God’s plan as it is associated with the earth from the beginning. This is all by God’s design and creation:

Isa 45:7 I form the light, and create darkness: I make peace, and create evil: I the LORD do all these things.

Spiritually darkness is always associated to a total lack of the Light of God. We know that God “formed” the Light which is Jesus Christ. But the first man Adam was not created with that spiritual light because he was created marred (“without form and void”) in the Potter’s hand:

Jer 18:4 And the vessel that he made of clay was marred in the hand of the potter: so he made it again another vessel, as seemed good to the potter to make it.

Php 2:6 Who (Jesus), being in the form of God, thought it not robbery to be equal with God:

Jesus was “equal with God” in the sense that He alone was given the spirit of the Father in full measure. The first Adam was not in this “form” or spirit. Flesh and blood cannot and has never been in the spiritual kingdom of heaven. “The generations [of the heavens and of the earth] of [the first] Adam” is from dust and to dust he (and all of us) will return to wait for the resurrection:

1Co 15:50 Now this I say, brethren, that flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God; neither doth corruption inherit incorruption.

Gen 3:19 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.

God, the Father, appointed Jesus as the Creator and God of this creation and to “mother” it from being initially “in iniquity…and in sin” (flesh) to be in spirit – like God. In all of this the spirit of God works all things in “the face of the deep” which relates very closely with “the face of the waters”. This “deep” is also an important theme in Genesis and it gives another witness to this “formless, void and dark” condition in us:

Gen 1:2 And the earth was without form, and void; and darkness was upon the face of the deep [Greek: “abussos”]. And the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters.

In the Greek Septuagint translation of the Old Testament (See the Apostolic Bible Polyglot with Strong’s dictionary – ABP+) the word for “the deep” is “abussos”. The apostle Paul used this Greek word to show us how this “abussos” is to be seen from the beginning which witness also to the first Adam’s spiritual state:

Rom 10:7 Or, Who shall descend into the deep? [Greek: “abussos”] (that is, to bring up Christ again from the dead.)

The darkness in all the generations of the first Adam relates to ‘the deep’ which is the condition of being spiritually dead. Anything in or coming from the earth is in a state of death and decay from the start. That is what the first man Adam is all about – he was made in a dying state (mortal) before he moved one finger. This is confirmed right through the Scriptures when we can see what “the deep” is all about:

Rev 17:8 The beast that thou sawest was, and is not; and shall ascend out of the bottomless pit [Greek: “abussos”], and go into perdition (ruin / to ”suffer loss”): and they that dwell on the earth shall wonder, whose names were not written in the book of life from the foundation of the world, when they behold the beast that was, and is not, and yet is.

This verse points out that “the beast” initially dwells in this “abussos” or “the deep” before he ascends or rises up later. Here is another verse that will help us see what this “deep” refers to spiritually:

Rev 13:1 And I stood upon the sand of the sea, and saw a beast rise up out of the sea, having seven heads and ten horns, and upon his horns ten crowns, and upon his heads the name of blasphemy.

“The sea” is another spiritual word to understand the “deep”, the “bottomless pit”, “the dead” in all the generations of the first man Adam. It is all the same situation of how our earth and its first heaven were created by God in the beginning:

Gen 1:2 And the earth was without form, and void; and darkness was upon the face of the deep [Greek: “abussos”]. And the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters.

This beast lives initially in darkness which is called spiritual death which is also symbolized by “the sea” and “the waters”. Now we also know much more about who this beast is:

Ecc 3:18 I said in mine heart concerning the estate of the sons of men (Hebrew: a^da^m), that God might manifest them (“all in Adam”), and that they might see that they themselves are beasts.

This beast in this condition describes “the estate of the sons of men” or the generations of the first man Adam. Everyone in flesh (from the first Adam) is in spiritual darkness from the beginning:

Rev 17:1 And there came one of the seven angels which had the seven vials, and talked with me, saying unto me, Come hither; I will shew unto thee the judgment of the great whore that sitteth upon many waters:

Rev 17:15 And he saith unto me, The waters which thou sawest, where the whore sitteth, are peoples, and multitudes, and nations, and tongues.

Even when the beast arises from the seas to a higher level of understanding, that is to the “dry land” (ref: Gen 1:9), he cannot see he is just a religious beast still under the control of the spiritual whore who rules the whole “abussos” – all in “the sea” and on “the dry land”. This beast on the dry land is still in a spiritual wilderness, although it is now in a higher (or second) heaven. He is now actually worse off even when he is convinced he has escaped his first estate. In this second heaven (or higher frame of mind) he actually blasphemes the name of God when he uses the name of the Lord while he despises the true doctrine of Christ and communion with His children:

Mat 7:22 Many will say to me in that day, Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in thy name? and in thy name have cast out devils? and in thy name done many wonderful works?
Mat 7:23 And then will I profess unto them, I never knew you: depart from me, ye that work iniquity.

Rev 13:6 And he (the beast on the “dry land”) opened his mouth in blasphemy against God, to blaspheme his name, and his tabernacle, and them that dwell in heaven.

Evil mankind was created evil and full of darkness from the beginning (ref: Isa 45:7, Pro 16:4), but this condition worsens with time, which is totally opposite to the belief of those who claim that mankind is improving all the time from primitive roots to a better generation or civilisation:

2Ti 3:13 But evil men and seducers (“all generations of heaven and earth…in Adam”) shall wax worse and worse, deceiving, and being deceived.