God’s Grand Design | Genesis 1 & 2

INTRODUCTION

We are embarking on a new series from the first book of the Bible, Genesis. which begins with God’s design for the world.

The Bible is an unfolding story of the beginning, creation, fall, and God’s plan to restore the broken world that we live in through the redemptive work of Jesus, his Son. The Bible is relational, it is God’s unfolding his plan to us from beginning to end.

HF: Today, we are going to look at:

• The creation
• The creation of the first man and woman.
• God’s plan and design for gender.
• God’s plan and design for marriage.

Introduction to Genesis

The OT is divided into 4 sections: Law or Torah (TANAK Hebrew), Historical books, Poetic Books, & Prophets.

Genesis – Means beginning.

• Genesis 1-2: The relationships within which the whole of the Bible operates: God, Man, & Earth
• Genesis 3: Fall
• Genesis 4-11: The Spread of Sin.
• Patriarchal History: Genesis 12-5

AUTHORSHIP

The age-old Hebrew and Christian tradition is that Moses composed Genesis out of ancient documents that existed in his day. Scholars attribute the authorship to Moses not because he wrote the entire book but because he is the main figure in these 5 chapters of the Bible. However, scholars believe that Genesis 1-11 was written later by Hebrew scribes in the post-exilic period.

The Creation – God’s Design

Genesis 1:1-2

 ¹In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. ²Now the earth was formless and empty, darkness was over the surface of the deep, and the Spirit of God was hovering over the waters.

We find God in three persons – Father, Son, & Holy Spirit active at the creation.

John 1:1

In the beginning, was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.

In creation, days 1, 2 and 3 is presented as God creating environments, creating homes, creating habitats and on days 4, 5 and 6, he filled what he had created.

He created the heavens and filled it with sun, moon and stars.

When he created the skies and waters he filled it with those creatures to inhabit.

By day 6, he created the land animals and of course finally man.

So we notice the pattern of God’s activities during the creation week was to form and then to fill.

You also notice a consistent rhythm as you read. The rhythm is “and God said” such and such and “God saw that it was good” repeatedly. If you paid attention but you read that in verses 3, 6, 9, 11, 14, 16, 20, 24, and 25. It is quite a rhythm, it kept happening over and over again.

Did you notice the rhythm change in verse 26, it is different. “Then God said let us make man in our image in our likeness” very different.

It marks a clear shift in rhythm, and, for the first time in scripture, it brings us into the sacred chamber of thought where the Godhead vocalizes their intention for the next part of creation. We are invited to listen and gain insight into this divine process.

The next part of creation is creating man in the image of God, “let us create him in our image.” It is from this we gain our understanding that man has an elevated worth over the rest of creation. We are the only part of God’s creation actually fashioned in his image.

Genesis 1:26-28

²⁶Then God said, “Let us make mankind in our image, in our likeness, so that they may rule over the fish in the sea and the birds in the sky, over the livestock and all the wild animals, and over all the creatures that move along the ground.” ²⁷So God created mankind in his own image, in the image of God he created them; male and female he created them. ²⁸God blessed them and said to them, “Be fruitful and increase in number; fill the earth and subdue it. Rule over the fish in the sea and the birds in the sky and over every living creature that moves on the ground.”

Creation Of Man:

• We are formed in the image of God. We are image bearers of God. God’s imprint is upon us.
• Man has dominion over the earth, fish, birds, livestock, every creeping thing.
• Adam and Eve were vegetarians, 1:29-30. This is going to change in a few chapters.
• God created them male and female. God created mankind; male and female and were created complimentary to one another.
• Gender is not transpositional according to the Bible.

But a perfect summary for chapter 1 we find at the end:

Genesis 1:31

 God saw all that he had made, and it was very good. And there was evening, and there was morning – the sixth day.

Now come to Genesis 2:

Genesis 1:1-2:2 is a creation account.

Again Genesis 2:3-2:25 it’s the same creation account said differently.

Genesis 2:7

 Then the LORD God formed a man from the dust of the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living being.

Lord God

The first thing that we notice is the word ‘Lord God’ and this is new. This marks a significant difference between chapter 1 and chapter 2. Because chapter 1 was sort of a flyover of all of creation and it said 32 times “and God said” or you read the word ‘God’ which is the word Elohim, that name for God which describes his majesty and his greatness.

Elohim means – “supreme one,” “mighty one.”

But now in chapter 2, 9 times it is going to be “the LORD God.” LORD written in all capital letters in the Bible. This is the personal name of Israel’s God.

LORD

We learn the meaning of this name of God in the story of Moses and the burning bush in the book of Exodus 3. God appears to Moses and he commissions him to liberate the Israelites from slavery. So Moses wonders, “What if people ask the name of the God who has sent me?” God responds, “Tell them EHYEH has sent me to you.” That Hebrew word EHYEH means ‘I will be.’ In other words, God’s name means that ‘He is the one who is and who will be.’ God’s existence does not depend on anyone or anything else, this God simply is.

It was strange for Moses to go say to the Israelites, “I will be has sent me to you.’ So in the next sentence, God tells Moses the version he should say out loud to the people. YAHWEH – the God of our ancestors, He has sent me to you.’ YAHWEH means HE WILL BE. This is the personal name of the God of Israel, it appears 6500 times in the OT.

Now over the centuries Israelites wanted to honour the sacred nature of this divine name. So as they read their Hebrew Bible aloud and they came to this name, they stopped saying, YAHWEH and instead started saying the Hebrew word for LORD which is Adonai. This practice has been continued throughout the centuries. So later when people started translating the Bible into English, they adopted the same practice. Instead of spelling out the divine name, they translated it as LORD spelt in all capital letters.

The name LORD here is his covenant name Jehovah or YAHWEH.

A covenant is something that is not a person’s identity, it is something between people. It describes relationship, it describes communion between 2 people. So now as we get the details in chapter 2 of the formation, the creation of man and woman there is a different name. He says now this covenant God did this. So we have Jehovah and the implication is obvious that God created us with the intention of a covenant relationship between himself and us built on the foundation of communion.

Genesis 2:7

 Then the LORD God formed a man from the dust of the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living being.

Formed

The next word we see in that verse is the word ‘formed’. The Lord God formed and that is also different than so many times in the first chapter ‘and God said let there be.’

Formed is personal, it is God’s design, active and it generates a picture in our mind maybe of God even bending down into the dust he formed. It is definitely not a passive thing. I think it is put plainly into the scripture for us to see and marvel at the personal aspect, of how God was involved in the creation of man.

We learn that Adam was formed from the dust of the ground or earth (Adamah). As mankind, we are formed from and tethered to the earth that God created for us. The intention was to be that we would have dominion and rule and reign over this earth, but you know that will change in the next chapter.

Now the implications of us being tethered to this earth are we die and we go back to it. Our bodies die and we go back to the dust from which we came. We go back to the ground from which we came. Now Jesus is the one who came and took on the same body and when he died his body did not go back to the dust, his physical body went to heaven. He is the only one, the one who conquered death. It was He who broke that and so his physical body went to heaven.

Our bodies will return to the dust but God has made provision for us to get a new body like Jesus.

LORD (YAHWEH) breathed into his nostrils the breath of life

No other creation received God’s breath of life, only man. God formed him and then he imparted something of himself into him, ‘the breath of life’.

I love the songs we sing, ‘it’s your breath in my lungs so we pour out our praise.’ We owe God praise because it is his breath in our lungs. We owe him that. How sad it is to use the breath that we have to rebel against God or curse God, or demand our rights.

In John 20 we see the connection when Jesus imparted his breath to the disciples.

John 20:19-22

 ¹⁹On the evening of that first day of the week, when the disciples were together, with the doors locked for fear of the Jewish leaders, Jesus came and stood among them and said, “Peace be with you!” ²⁰After he said this, he showed them his hands and side. The disciples were overjoyed when they saw the Lord. ²¹Again Jesus said, “Peace be with you! As the Father has sent me, I am sending you.” ²²And with that he breathed on them and said, “Receive the Holy Spirit.

On the resurrection day, Jesus breathed on them and said, “Receive the Holy Spirit.” How lovely it is for us when we study God’s word and see that Jesus breathed out the Holy Spirit to them that we go back to the beginning and see when God formed man he breathed into him the breath of life.

The habitat that God created for Adam & Eve

Genesis 2:8-17 we have the details of the specific home or habitat that God created for Adam which is the garden of Eden.

God’s Design For Man

Genesis 2:15

The Lord God took the man and put him in the Garden of Eden to work it and take care of it.

Work was created by God and it was a good thing.

So one interesting point here is that work is not a result of sin, we might think it is but no. Look that was God’s intention for man, to work the garden and to keep it. It was a good thing. Work is a good thing for how we are designed and man was given great liberty in the garden with one limitation of liberty and that was the tree of life and the tree of the Knowledge of good and evil. God created man with the ability to lead and provide.

God’s Design For Woman

Genesis 2:18

 The Lord God said, ”It is not good for the man to be alone. I will make a helper suitable for him.”

Other translations might say companion suitable. It was being equal to him yet complimentary to him.

In verse 18, God observed that the solitary characteristic of man is not what He intended for His creation. It was not a mistake, but rather, it was not yet good. Creation remained incomplete because God aimed for a greater depth of dimension, desiring His people to reflect His image more profoundly.

This describes the purpose of a woman in general. That is women are specifically designed to complement, to complete, to fill in what is lacking. It also illuminates the man’s lack, and it is the woman who completes it and this God’s design for the women.

So the word in here that is translated helper is the Hebrew word Ezer.

Ezer is someone who helps complement, and completes to bring to the human experience what is lacking. There is a striking similarity in this word to the Holy Spirit because first of all, it is the same word that God uses to describe his help of Israel. Him coming to help Israel, but also Jesus in John called the Holy Spirit, the helper multiple times.

John 14:26

 But the Advocate (helper), the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, will teach you all things and will remind you of everything I have said to you.

So is it not fair for us to say that Adam seems to reflect the image of God. He seems a little bit like Jesus Christ and woman seems to reflect the image of God a little bit like the Holy Spirit even to the point of the word that is used to describe her formation. So when I told to you earlier we reflect God’s image differently, that is what I meant.

Also woman was not formed from the dust of the ground like Adam was. God did not bend down and reach down to the dust again and say “I am going to form a woman to give to you.” What did he do? He caused Adam to slumber and extracted something from him. Utilizing this extracted element, he fashioned a companion, shaping a woman who originated from Adam himself. The Holy Spirit also is sent by Christ to dwell in God’s children.

John 15:26

 “When the Advocate comes, whom I will sent to you from the Father the Spirit of truth who goes out from the Father he will testify about me.

God put Adam to sleep, he took a bone out, and he fashioned a woman. Jesus came into this world and died for humanity so that who may believe in him might be his bride. His perfect body invaded so that he might receive a bride. There is great similarities there.

Recap

Genesis 1 & 2:

• God is the creator of all things.
• God created man in his own image and likeness.
• God created man and woman with a relational aspect.
• God created man as Male & Female
• With regard to gender, God made them male and female.
• They were made uniquely and differently from each other to be complimentary.
• Both males and females are created in the image of God, but they reflect the image of God differently. Men and women reflect the image of God differently.
• Both are created with equal value and rights but distinct and complimentary in their purpose and in their design.

If we follow the culture, confusion will result. Our culture is trying to erase the differences between males and females so that we might think that men and women are basically the same or interchangeable, and the people experience maybe a variation of male or femaleness that goes along a spectrum. This is not supported by biology or the Bible or really by science.

If you happen to believe that gender is irrelevant or transpositional, then you want to come to scripture with an open mind and just see what it says.

Is it possible that some people even Christians have a real struggle with sexuality and gender the way it is described in God’s word, the way it has been revealed as his design? Absolutely. Sin has corrupted everything, of course, it is possible to have thoughts, desires, and those that are outside of God’s plan for design. Here is what the Apostle Paul said to Romans in Chapter 7

Romans 1:18-32

 ¹⁸The wrath of God is being revealed from heaven against all the godlessness and wickedness of people, who suppress the truth by their wickedness, ¹⁹since what may be known about God is plain to them, because God has made it plain to them. ²⁰For since the creation of the world God’s invisible qualities—his eternal power and divine nature—have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that people are without excuse.

²¹For although they knew God, they neither glorified him as God nor gave thanks to him, but their thinking became futile and their foolish hearts were darkened. ²²Although they claimed to be wise, they became fools ²³and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images made to look like a mortal human being and birds and animals and reptiles.

The exchange of God’s design for a lie

²⁴Therefore God gave them over in the sinful desires of their hearts to sexual impurity for the degrading of their bodies with one another. ²⁵They exchanged the truth about God for a lie, and worshiped and served created things rather than the Creator—who is forever praised. Amen.

²⁶Because of this, God gave them over to shameful lusts. Even their women exchanged natural sexual relations for unnatural ones. ²⁷In the same way the men also abandoned natural relations with women and were inflamed with lust for one another. Men committed shameful acts with other men, and received in themselves the due penalty for their error.

²⁸Furthermore, just as they did not think it worthwhile to retain the knowledge of God, so God gave them over to a depraved mind, so that they do what ought not to be done. ²⁹They have become filled with every kind of wickedness, evil, greed and depravity. They are full of envy, murder, strife, deceit and malice. They are gossips, ³⁰slanderers, God-haters, insolent, arrogant and boastful; they invent ways of doing evil; they disobey their parents; ³¹they have no understanding, no fidelity, no love, no mercy. ³²Although they know God’s righteous decree that those who do such things deserve death, they not only continue to do these very things but also approve of those who practice them.

Romans 7:15-23

¹⁵ I do not understand what I do. For what I want to do I do not do, but what I hate I do.¹⁶And if I do what I do not want to do, I agree that the law is good. ¹⁷As it is, it is no longer I myself who do it, but it is sin living in me. ¹⁸For I know that good itself does not dwell in me, that is, in my sinful nature. For I have the desire to do what is good, but I cannot carry it out. ¹⁹For I do not do the good I want to do, but the evil I do not want to do this I keep on doing.

²⁰Now if I do what I do not want to do, it is no longer I who do it, but it is sin living in me that does it. ²¹ So I find this law at work: Although I want to do good, evil is right there with me. ²²For in my inner being I delight in God’s law; ²³but I see another law at work in me, waging war against the law of my mind and making me a prisoner of the law of sin at work within me.

Struggles against God’s Design

So the struggle regarding gender is real for some people. But just because someone has those inclinations, we cannot wage war against God’s design and God’s plan. I have to war against what my mind, what my body, what these thoughts that are there through the power of the Holy Spirit. That is the Christian life, to allow the Holy Spirit to come in and invade us and have victory over areas that are the members of our body like Paul calls them, wage war against God’s design and God’s plan.

Should a Christian woman confine herself to the traditional rules of femininity?

I would say yes and no, depends on what your traditional roles of femininity are and if they are biblical roles of femininity. There is nothing more virtuous about a woman cooking food than a woman working as a doctor or a computer programmer. Nether there is nothing wrong for a man to cook and be the house’s breadwinner.

We need to put on that thinking that we need to use the gifts, the capacity, the natural and spiritual gifts that God has given us to serve him, to serve his kingdom to the extent that they line up with what has been revealed in scriptures, see those are our boundaries, nothing about being a computer programmer or baking bread in the word. We line up to the extent of our revelation in scripture.

Once we recognize that gender identity and expression exist along a spectrum, why should we cling to the rigid characterization of men and women?

The ultimate goal surely is to let all people define themselves as human beings, to break out of the assigned categories and to challenge received wisdom.

I thought it was fascinating that they used the word to break out of assigned categories. I want you to hear what David said when he wrote Psalm 2.

Psalm 2:1-3

¹Why do the nations conspire

and the peoples plot in vain?

²The kings of the earth rise up

and the rulers band together

against the Lord and against his anointed, saying

³“Let us break their chains

and throw off their shackles.”

David understood this centuries ago that this is the heart of man, this is the rebellion to break out against what God has designed and it has never changed. It is just part of sin.

God has made just two Genders according to the Bible – Male and female.

• Marriage Is God’s Design For Mankind

When considering the subject of marriage, whether you’re single, widowed, or divorced for any reason, let’s explore scripture for a broader understanding. Beyond individual relationships, we aim to uncover the bigger implications and the profound meaning of marriage, as well as the relational aspects that God has ordained. Despite never being married, Jesus played a crucial role in introducing that relational aspect into the church and people’s lives. So if you are single, widowed, or divorced you have an amazing opportunity you to pour out into the lives of people.

God instituted marriage at creation. Marriage is a symbol of the union of the church and Christ. The Bible ends in its second last Chapter in Revelation of the marriage between Christ and the church. Marriage has endured for all of these centuries as a symbol, so we need to hold that tight in our hearts and minds and realize that God gave it to us for that purpose.

Genesis 2:23-25

The man said, “This is now bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh; she shall be called ‘woman,’ for she was taken out of man.” ²⁴That is why a man leaves his father and mother and is united to his wife, and they become one flesh. ²⁵Adam and his wife were both naked, and they felt no shame.

Malachi gives us a little insight that I want to read to you, the Lord says

Malachi 2:15

¹⁵Has not the one God made you? You belong to him in body and spirit. And what does the one God seek? Godly offspring. So be on your guard, and do not be unfaithful to the wife of your youth.

APPLICATION

If you look at God’s design for procreation and you either have no children or you have struggled with infertility, you don’t have to take the blame on yourself. Our society looks down on such couples but the Bible has always dealt with such couples and has elevated them.

Procreation in marriage is not everything, but it is a lot because God loves people and God loves life. He is our relational God. Adam was given a charge.

But I want to add also that we New Testament Christians have been given a specific charge to make disciples, to go out into all the earth and to make disciples. So I think that there are two thoughts there that we have to keep in mind and hold intention so that we don’t get too far off on either one but Marriage is a big deal in the Bible and I think that is why the enemy hates marriage so much and tries to confuse us.

Does this mean that men & women only have value if they are married?

Absolutely not. The parade of history has given us all kinds of examples of men and women who show us Amy Carmichael, Corrie Ten Boom, Fanny Crosby, and John Stott.

I feel like the satisfying distinction for a man or a woman who is never married would be for her to serve God’s kingdom in the same general rather than specific capacity of bringing life, speaking life, helping, nurturing, complimenting and we should applaud that in our Christian communities.

A majority of us married people will go through our lives having periods of time when we do not have the specific task of being a husband or wife or the specific task of being a father or a mother. What do we do outside of those periods of time? We take on the general characteristics and we serve with how God has fashioned us in God’s kingdom. I watch a lot of you do that really well and I think it is beautiful for us to be able to celebrate God’s design, God’s intention. If you are married today, it’s evident that you have the intention to help and complete your specific spouse. However, there is a much broader application in terms of serving the kingdom of God

CONCLUSION

In summary I want to encourage us that the people in our lives that have been led astray by our culture on creation, gender, and marriage. The answer to all this is the gospel of Christ. We believe what the Bible says about life. This is the answer, sound doctrine.

Titus 1:1-3

¹Paul, a servant of God and an apostle of Jesus Christ to further the faith of God’s elect and their knowledge of the truth that leads to godliness— ²in the hope of eternal life, which God, who does not lie, promised before the beginning of time, ³and which now at his appointed season he has brought to light through the preaching entrusted to me by the command of God our Savior,

Titus 2:1

You, however, must teach what is appropriate to sound doctrine.

They need the gospel of grace and forgiveness. The people who are purposefully and rebelliously and actively breaking out from God’s design and encouraging other people to do the same thing need the gospel of grace and forgiveness, and we are bearers of that gospel.

We know the gospel, and God’s design, and understand rebellion. It’s clear that God will rescue us and redeem us and there is a creator God who is relational and wants to reach out and to draw us in to be his own.

The first two chapters of Genesis reveal the creation narrative, exposing God’s relational character through the union of one man and one woman He created. Next week, everything takes a turn as humanity rebels, ushering in a new era. This rebellion introduces death and struggle into our world for the first time in history. Before Genesis 3, before humanity’s rebellion, death and struggle were nonexistent. Join us on this journey through Genesis as we witness the unfolding of God’s plan, from creation to the challenges humanity faces, and the promise of redemption through Jesus

LIFE APPLICATION POINTS

• God Is The Creator Of All Things.
• God Created Us With The Intention Of A Covenant Relationship Between Himself And Us Built On The Foundation Of Communion.
• Man Has An Elevated Worth Over The Rest Of Creation.
• God Created Mankind As Male & Female
• Work Was Created By God And It Was A Good Thing.
• Marriage Is God’s Design For Mankind