GENESIS - CHAPTER # 1 - 1:28

GENESIS  -  CHAPTER  #  1

1:1  > Elohim ( sometimes El or Elah ), English form "God" the first of the three primary name of Deity, is a uni-plural noun formed El = strength, or the strong one, and Alah, to swear, to bind oneself by an oath, so implying faithfulness. This uni-plurality implied in the name is directly asserted primarily the Strong One it is fitly used in the first chapter of Genesis. Used in the Old Testament about 2500 times. See Genesis  2:4, note 2:7;  24:18, note;  15:2, note;  17:1, note,  21:33,  note,  1  Samuel  1:3,  note. 
But three creative acts of God are recorded in this chapter: ( 1 ) the heavens and the earth,  Verses  1;  ( 2 ) animal life, verse  21; and ( 3 ) human life, verses  26__27. The first creative act refers to the dateless past, and gives scope for all geologic ages. 

1:2  > Jeremiah  4:23__26,  ISAIAH  24:1 and 45:18, clearly indicate that the earth had undergone a cataclysmic change as the result of a divine judgment. The face of the earth bears everywhere the marks of such a catastrophe. There are not wanting intimations which connect it with a previous testing and fall of angels. See EZEKIEL  28:12__15 and ISAIAH  14:9__14, which certainly go beyond the kings of Tyre and Babylon.

1:3  > Neither here nor in verses 14__18 is an original creative act implied. A different word is used. The sense is, made to appear; made visible. The sun and moon were created "in  the beginning." The "light" of course came from the sun, but the vapour diffused the light. Later the sun appeared in an unclouded sky.

1:5  > The word "day" is used in Scripture in three ways: ( 1 ) that part of the solar day of twenty-four hours which is light ( GENESIS  1:5,  14;  JOHN  9:4;  11:9 ); ( 2 ) such a day, set apart for some distinctive purpose, as, "day of atonement" ( LEVITICUS  23:27 ); "day of judgment" ( MATTHEW  10:15 );  ( 3 ) a period of time, long or short, during which certain revealed purposes of God are to be accomplished, as "day of the Lord."
1:5  > The use of "evening" and "morning" may be held to limit "day" to the solar day; but the frequent parabolic use of natural phenomena may warrant the conclusion  that each creative "day" was a period of time marked off by a beginning and ending.

1:11  > It is by no means necessary to suppose that the life-germ of seeds perished in the catastrophic judgment which overthrew the primitive order. With the restoration of dry land and light the earth would "bring forth" as described. It was animals life which perished, the traces of which remain as fossils. relegate fossils to the primitive creation, and no conflict of science with the Genesis cosmogony remains. 

1:16  > The "greater light" is a type of  Christ, the "Sun of righteousness" ( MALACHI  4:2 ). He will take this character at His second advent. Morally the world is now in the state between Genesis  1:3 and  1:16  ( EPHESIANS  6:12;  ACTS  26:18;  1  PETER  2:9 ). The sun is not seen, but there is light. Christ is the light ( JOHN  1:4__5,  9 ), but "shineth in darkness," comprehended only by faith. As "Sun of righteousness" He will dispel all darkness. Dispensationally the Church is in place as the "lesser light," the moon, reflecting the light of the unseen sun. The stars ( GENESIS  1:16 ) are individual believers who are "lights" ( PHILIPPIANS  2:15__16 ).
( A ) Type is a divinely purposed illustration of some truth. It may be: ( 1 ) a person ( ROMANS  5:14 );  ( 2 ) an event ( 1  CORINTHIANS  10:11 );  ( 3 ) a thing ( HEBREWS  10:20 );  ( 4 ) an institution ( HEBREWS  9:11 );  ( 5 ) a ceremonial ( 1  CORINTHIANS  5:7 ). Types occur most frequently in the Pentateuch, but are found, more sparingly, elsewhere. The antitype, or fulfillment of the type, found, usually, in the New Testament. 

1:21  > The second clause, "every living creature," as distinguished from fishes merely, is taken up again in verse  24, showing that in the second creative act all animal life is included.

1:24  > "Creature," Hebrew nephesh, translated soul in 2:7 and usually. In itself nephesh, or soul, implies self-conscious life, as distinguished from plants, which have unconscious life. In the sense of self-conscious life animals also have "soul" ( See  verses  26,  27 ).

1:26  > ( 1 ) Man was created, not evolved. This is ( a ) expressly declared, and the declaration is confirmed by Christ ( MATTHEW  19:4;  MARK  10:6 ); ( b ) "an enormous gulf, a divergence practically infinite" ( Huxley ) between the lowest man and the highest beast, confirms it; ( c ) the highest beast has no trace of God-consciousness__the religious nature; ( d ) science and discovery have done nothing to bridge that "gulf."
( 2 ) That man was made in the "image and likeness" of God. This "image" is found chiefly in man's tri-unity, and in his moral nature. Man is "spirit and soul and body" ( 1  THESSALONIANS  5:23 ). "Spirit" is that part of man which "knows" ( 1  CORINTHIANS  2:11 ), and which allies him to the spiritual creation and gives him God-consciousness. "Soul" as applied to beast life. It is the seat of his emotions, desires, affections ( PSALM  42:1__6 ). The "heart" is, in Scripture usage, nearly synonymous with "soul." Because the natural man is, characteristically, the soulual or psychical man, "soul" is often used as synonymous with the individual, Genesis  12:5. The body, separable from spirit and soul, and susceptible to death, is nevertheless an integral part of man, as the resurrection shows ( JOHN  5:28__29;  1  CORINTHIANS  15:47__50;  REVELATION  20:11__13 ). It is the seat of the senses ( the means by which the spirit and soul have world-consciousness ) and of the fallen Adamic nature ( ROMANS  7:23__24 ).

1:28  > ( heading ) A dispensation is a period of time during which man is tested in respect of obedience to some specific revelation of the will of God. Seven such dispensation are distinguished in Scripture.
1:28  > The First Dispensation: Innocency. Man was created in innocency, placed in a perfect environment, subjected to an absolutely simple test, and warned of the consequence of disobedience. The women fell through pride; the man, deliberately ( 1  TIMOTHY  2:14 ). God restored His sinning creatures, but dispensation: Conscience ( GENESIS  3:23 ); Human Government ( GENESIS  8:20 );  Promise ( GENESIS  21:1 );  Law  ( EXODUS  19:8 );  Grace  ( JOHN  1:17 );  Kingdom  ( EPHESIANS  1:10 ).

1:28  > The Edenic Covenant, the first of the eight great covenants of Scripture which condition life and salvation, and about which all Scripture crystallizes, has seven elements. The man and woman in Eden were responsible:
( 1 ) To replenish the earth with a new order__man; ( 2 ) to subdue the earth to human uses; ( 3 ) to have dominion over the animal creation; ( 4 ) eat herbs and fruits; ( 5 ) to till and keep the garden; ( 6 ) to abstain from eating of the tree of knowledge of good and evil; ( 7 ) the penalty__death. See, for the other seven covenants: Adamic ( GENESIS  3:15 );  Noahic ( GENESIS  9:1 );  Abrahamic  ( GENESIS  15:18 )  Mosaic  ( EXODUS  19:25 );  Palestinian  ( DEUTERONOMY  30:3 );  Davidic  ( 2  SAMUEL  7:16 );  New  ( HEBREWS  8:8 )