Deepening the Well

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Deepening the Well

• Book of Genesis
• Session Eight

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The Book of Genesis

• Chapter 124-31
• Land Animals and Humankind

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Land Animals and MankindDay Six
Then God said, "Let the earth bring forth living
creatures after their kind cattle and creeping
things and beasts of the earth after their kind"
and it was so. And God made the beasts of the
earth after their kind, and the cattle after
their kind, and everything that creeps on the
ground after its kind and God saw that it was
good. Genesis 124-25
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Land Animals and MankindDay Six
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." And God created man in His own image,
in the image of God He created him male and
female He created them. Genesis 126-27
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Land Animals and MankindDay Six
And God blessed them and God said to them, "Be
fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth, and
subdue it and rule over the fish of the sea and
over the birds of the sky, and over every living
thing that moves on the earth." Then God said,
"Behold, I have given you every plant yielding
seed that is on the surface of all the earth, and
every tree which has fruit yielding seed it
shall be food for you and to every beast of
the earth and to every bird of the sky and to
every thing that moves on the earth which has
life, I have given every green plant for food"
and it was so. And God saw all that He had
made, and behold, it was very good. And there was
evening and there was morning, the sixth day.
Genesis 128-31
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Framework for Discussion

• Creation of the Animals
• Types
• Their nature and significance
• Creation of Humankind
• Let Us make
• In His image and likeness
• Gods blessing
• Mans commission to rule over

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Creation of Land AnimalsTypes, Nature, and
Significance
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Land AnimalsTypes and Nature
Living Creatures chay nephesh (living souls)

• Behemah domesticated animals
• Remes creeping, crawling, things that scurry
  possibly includes reptiles
• Chay (generic name for animals) wild animals,
  always linked to phrases of the field or of
  the earth

Whats this soul business?

• Nephesh breath and life, longing (desires),
  emotions, the will, the person
• People naively mistake soulish characteristics
  in animals to mean that they are not much
  different than humans

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Land AnimalsTypes and Nature
God and scripture clearly differentiate

• No blessing on the land animals they will be
  ruled over by man
• Not reasoning or self-conscious like humans

Then I was senseless and ignorant I was like a
beast before Thee. - Psalm 7322 (NAS)
God Who teaches us more than the beasts of the
earth, And makes us wiser than the birds of the
heavens?' - Job 3511 (NAS)
..But these, like unreasoning animals, born as
creatures of instinct to be captured and
killed - 2 Peter 212 NAS
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Land AnimalsTypes and Nature
God and scripture clearly differentiate (contd)

• Have desire, but lack what man is blessed with
  hunger for God

As the deer pants for the water brooks, So pants
my soul for You, O God. - Psalm 421 (KJV)
Why are animals created on same day as humans?

• Life in the earth is being created
• Modern science and culture equates man and
  animals (evolution)
• An immediate distinction becomes evident at
  mans creation
• After their kind not used

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Land Animals Types and Nature
Behemoth the greatest of all beasts
Behold now, Behemoth, which I made as well as
you He eats grass like an ox. "Behold now, his
strength in his loins, And his power in the
muscles of his belly. He bends his tail like a
cedar The sinews of his thighs are knit
together. "His bones are tubes of bronze His
limbs are like bars of iron. "He is the first
of the ways of God Let his maker bring near his
sword. Surely the mountains bring him food,
And all the beasts of the field play there. - Job
4015-20
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Creation of HumankindLet Us Make
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Creation of HumankindLet Us Make
A whole new game!

• The entire scope of this creative act shifts
• Language shifts from Let there be to Let
  Us
• Occurs With man only Immediate indicator
  this is significant
• Distinguishes man from all the rest of creation
  and implies special endorsement

Who is Us? two possibilities

• Trinity the plurality of God in a unified
  Godhead (Father, Word, Spirit)
• Explains shift between singular and plural (bara
  Elohim)
• Some scholars dismiss the Lord is One
  (Deuteronomy 64)
• Three parts to God well known in ancient world
  and perverted (more in Ch. 10-11)

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Creation of HumankindLet Us Make
Who is Us? two possibilities

• Heavenly Court / Angels
• The idea that angels helped in the creative act
  (Job 387)
• Times when God addresses the heavenly court (1
  Kings 2219-22 Job 16 Luke 28-14)
• Same logic used for Elohim throughout ch. 1
• Problem Man made in their image

A freebie

• Nachmonides Us the earth and God together
• man formed from the dust of the earth
• Image bears physical representation of the earth
  and the spiritual representation of God

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Creation of HumankindHis Image and Likeness
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Creation of HumankindIn His Image and Likeness
Image and likeness (tsehlem and demuwth)

• Implies characteristics and representation
• A plural unity Man is spirit, soul, and body
  (more in ch. 2)

Now may the God of peace Himself sanctify you
entirely and may your spirit and soul and body
be preserved complete, without blame at the
coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. - 1
Thessalonians 523

• Created male and female (indwelt by the Spirit
  of God)
• They become one (Genesis 224)

A cord of three strands is not quickly torn
apart. - Ecclesiastes 412
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Creation of HumankindIn His Image and Likeness
Image and likeness (tsehlem and demuwth)

• Man is His duly appointed representative
  (ambassador) in the earth

Therefore, we are ambassadors for Christ, as
though God were entreating through us we beg you
on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God. - 2
Corinthians 520 (NAS)

• Image possesses the life of the One represented

Or do you think that the Scripture speaks to no
purpose "He jealously desires the Spirit which
He has made to dwell in us"? - James 45 (NAS)

• Ancient idols were said to posess the presence
  of the god. False gods are graven images or
  false man-made representations with no life or
  presence of God

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Creation of HumankindIn His Image and Likeness
Image and likeness (tsehlem and demuwth)

• Our position of authority comes from being His
  representative
• We derive our value and purpose from Him.
  Without revelation of this, we become confused
  and depreciate ourselves. (James 39, Genesis
  96)
• Cultural strategy denigrate humanity scourge
  of the planet
• Science-fiction wavers between degrading man
  and elevating him to godhood

• Our destiny is linked to Who God IS not who we
  are alone
• This existence should produce a race of people
  who learn to choose God
• New Age innumerable individuals projecting
  will on the world
• Conflict inevitable

We bear his image, we are not Him
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Creation of HumankindHis Blessing
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Creation of HumankindAnd He Blessed Them
What is a blessing? (barak)

• Action of pronouncing good things
• Not an impotent wish empowering and
  transforming word that allows us to accomplish
  His purpose
• Blessing is an enabling power that helps people
  transcend their fears and discover a new source
  of strength in the depths of their being
  (Waltke)
• Gods first words to mankind are a blessing

The blessing involved

• Be fruitful be productive
• Multiply reproduce (Thomas Malthus war
  against population)
• fill the earth self-explanatory
• Subdue it rule over it and bring it under
  dominion

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Creation of HumankindHis Authority Established
in Man
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Authority Endorsed by God

• Adam given awesome authority
• The fall (Genesis 3) stained that authority and
  plunged the earth into chaos
• Jesus is the second Adam (1 Corinthians 15)

Let every person be in subjection to the
governing authorities. For there is no authority
except from God, and those which exist are
established by God. Therefore he who resists
authority has opposed the ordinance of God -
Romans 131-5 (NAS)
Submit therefore to God. Resist the devil and he
will flee from you. - James 47 (NAS)

• Divert our resistance energies to the enemy
  and not our leaders

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Authority Endorsed by God
The High Example
Submit yourselves for the Lord's sake to every
human institutionFor you have been called for
this purpose, since Christ also suffered for you,
leaving you an example for you to follow in His
steps, who committed no sin, nor was any deceit
found in His mouth and while being reviled, He
did not revile in return while suffering, He
uttered no threats, but kept entrusting Himself
to Him who judges righteously - 1 Peter 213,
21-23
the Lord knows how to rescue the godly from
temptation, and to keep the unrighteous under
punishment for the day of judgment, and
especially those who indulge the flesh in its
corrupt desires and despise authority. Daring,
self-willed, they do not tremble when they revile
angelic majesties, whereas angels who are
greater in might and power do not bring a
reviling judgment against them before the Lord.
But these, like unreasoning animals, born as
creatures of instinct to be captured and killed,
reviling where they have no knowledge, will in
the destruction of those creatures also be
destroyed - 2 Peter 29-12
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Authority Endorsed by God
Obey those who rule over you, and be submissive,
for they watch out for your souls, as those who
must give account. Let them do so with joy and
not with grief, for that would be unprofitable
for you. - Hebrews 1317 (NKJ)

• Obey Greek word peitho yield to, trust,
  place confidence in,
• Key to submission is yielding in humility, not
  blind obedience
• Iron sharpens iron vs. two swords battling

You younger men, likewise, be subject to your
elders and all of you, clothe yourselves with
humility toward one another, for God is opposed
to the proud, but gives grace to the humble. - 1
Peter 55
Rebellion murmurs, complains, and accuses.
Submission weighs, discusses, and challenges!
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Authority Endorsed by God
Matters of conscience and in violation of Gods
directive
And when they had summoned them, they commanded
them not to speak or teach at all in the name of
Jesus. But Peter and John answered and said to
them, "Whether it is right in the sight of God to
give heed to you rather than to God, you be the
judge for we cannot stop speaking what we have
seen and heard." - Acts 418-20 (NAS)
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For Next Week

• Read Chapter 2