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Genesis 2:7 The LORD GOD formed man of dust from the ground and breathed into his nostrils, the breathe of life; and man became a living being.

Verse 7 describes man being formed like that of an artist or a potter. God’s divine plan fashioned man. Man was made from the earth, he was to subdue and rule over it. He was given stewardship and was to care for the earth. Animals were made from the earth, but we are different in that we are made in the image of God. Part of us was made out of existing material and part of us was made out of non-existing material. Could the non-existing material be the breath of God? Could it be that God breathed into man and where there was nothing, then there was something? Something that was Spirit, after the image of God. Now, I do not know about this. It is something to think about. Now God is Spirit, and man has a spirit, man can serve and fellowship with God. With the fall of man, that spirit was marred. That is why we need the Holy Spirit to breathe in us. The Holy Spirit will help us to fellowship with God once again. No animal has the uniqueness of after God’s own image. Also, I believe, that we have spiritual DNA that we pass down to our children upon conception just like the DNA for a physical body. This is when the sin nature is passed down. Also, I believe that there is not some room up in heaven filled with spirits waiting to come to earth to quickly jump in a baby’s body when they are born. I believe all of these things happen at conception.

I do not know when a pre-born baby becomes self-conscious, but they do. Some mothers-to-be complain about a baby kicking when they go to bed. Of course, they do. They do not hear their mother’s voice which brings them comfort. They do not hear your music. If your little one keeps you up, listen to your music or read scripture aloud.

I was told that during an abortion, a baby may try to escape the vacuum, which ripes a baby apart. This is not only self-aware but self-preservation.

So we are made in the image of God of great importance to God with intelligence and self-awareness. We may have a relationship with God and have a fulfilling relationship with Him, but even with the Holy Spirit within us, our image is still blurred. We will not reflect God I’m the way He intended until we join Jesus Christ in heaven in our glorified bodies.

We have emotions like God, but for now, they have a relationship with sin too. We can grow in emotions like God. We can love like Him, but not fully. We can delight in working for Him. We can enjoy His peace by being secured in His care. These are just a few of the emotions we share in our personalities.

One thing we have in our emotional personality is free will. We may choose to obey or disobey God. This affects not only us as individuals but all of earth. Romans 8:19-22 talks about the whole creation groans and suffering because of sin. The earth will be freed when man is set free to the glory of the children of God.

Verse 4: This is the account of the heavens and the earth when they were created, in the day that the Lord God made earth and heaven.

Verse 4 takes us back to creation when it says, “in the day” and adds who in that day, “the Lord God” did what, “made the heaven and earth”. A self-existent intelligent One with a word created. With a word, a finished creation. We are not talking about a blob of unorganized cells, then finding form. The word produced form.

Verse 5: Now no shrub of the field was yet in the earth, and no plant of the field had yet sprouted, for the Lord God had not sent rain upon the earth; and there was no man to cultivate the ground.

Verse 5 is probably a continuation of the latter part of verse 4. “At the time” no shrub of the field as of yet was in the field. God made all the plants on the third day. But man was not there to gather the seeds, organize the seeds, cultivate a field, plant the seeds, and care for them. This verse tells us that there was no rain that fell upon the earth.

Verse 6: But a mist used to rise from the earth and water the whole surface of the ground.

Verse 6 tells us how God watered the plants. The plants were watered by evaporation which caused condensation. This happened because of the change in temperature from day to night. It did not rain until the flood (Genesis 7).

Verse 1: Thus the heavens and the earth were completed, and all their host.

The word host in this verse is the same word in Nehemiah 9:6 which to me could mean stars or angels. Please read the Nehemiah verse.

Verse 2: And by the seventh day God completed His work which He had done; and He rested on the seventh day from all His work which He had done.

God was not tired or exhausted from his work in creating. God was finished in the work of creating. The emphasis in this verse is the word seventh. This adjective, seventh, is represented as the Sabbath on Mt. Sinai as God’s covenant.

Verse 3: Then God blessed the seventh day and sanctified it because in it He rested from all His work which God had created and made.

God made this day holy. As to what we should do in response to this is debated. Sanctified means to be set apart. So this day is to be different than any other day. Since God made it holy and is set apart to be holy, we who are His children should do things that are holy on that day. For example, worship God, be thankful, praise Him, and do what causes the Holy Spirit to respond to the point we feel the presence of God. Share Him with your children. Teach your child more deeply than you do throughout the hurried week. There are many books written that can help you. Pray about this and allow the Holy Spirit to lead you to that book and the next, and the next.

God knew that man needed a day of rest from all his toil. Man’s body needed a rest. Man’s mind needed a rest. When you are at rest, you can hear that still small voice of God. In that still small voice, God gives strength, and instructions on how to solve your problems that you are having or ones to come in the week to come. Praise God that He does not leave us alone.

Genesis 2 gives more detail about a few things in chapter one. Chapter one is a condensed version of creation.

To me, the main difference is how God refers to Himself. In chapter one, Elohim is the God of power. Who else could create all that is in its complexity? God has infinite wisdom.

In chapter 2, we have Jehovah Elohim. We have all that Elohim is, plus Jehovah, the covenant God. This is used when dealing with His relationship with people.

God created all things in perfection for one purpose. It was to be for man. It was to give us food. We were to enjoy its beauty, subdue it, and have dominion over it (Genesis 1:28).

Can you imagine this world before the fall of man? Before its beauty was marred by sin. When the Shekinah glory must have still radiated throughout all things. But even with creation marred by sin, God still had Paul tell us this in Romans 1:20, “For since the creation of the world His invisible attributes, His eternal power, and divine nature, have been clearly seen, being understood through what has been made, so that they are without excuse.” So Beloved, all creation reveals to all men of the divine nature, power, might, orderliness, love, control of all things, and so forth, of the one true God. So when one rejects this truth, they are without excuse before God. People try to create gods they can control instead of submitting to God who controls all things.

In Revelation when God creates a new earth, creation before sin may be restored. Beloved, may we be together praising Him forever?

Jonah repented, as did Nineveh after God confronted them with His power and Holiness…”God have mercy on me, a sinner.”

Over time, the Holy Spirit transforms a believer’s heart, attitudes, and motives. Love for God along with a longing for His righteousness grows within the believer. The path of spiritual growth involves ongoing repentance as God continues to purify our desires and actions. Until final glory, we must repent over and over again. We continue striving for holiness in dependence upon God’s compassionate grace. Thanks be to God that His mercies are new every morning.

This is from Bible Study Fellowship, Kingdom Divided, Page 183.

This is one of the best Bible studies around. You go to class once a week during the school year. You are off when the school is out of session. Some areas have a children’s program. Go to bsf.org

Genesis 1:28-31

And God blessed them; 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, over every living thing that moves on the earth.

This verse is a command. It shows that man was exalted above all things on the earth. Our intelligence is above all creation on earth. But our relationship with the animals is really unknown. Everyone and everything was at peace with one another. The lamb did lay down with the lion and we walk among all the animals in peace. All we really know is that the fall of,man changed our relationship with all animals and that the earth groans because of our sin. (Genesis 3: 17-18: Romans 8:22)

Before the fall, we could commune with God. Our personality was complete through loving God. We learned to love what God loved. Also the part of us, that was made in the image of God is not the same. So we are less than what we were. It may be less, but there is some of that image of God within each of us. When we accept Jesus Christ as our Savior, it is on the road to being fully restored.

I believe our spiritual DNA is received at the moment of conception, like our physical DNA. The seat of our personality, emotions, and that image of God is placed. This is why life is so precious. This is why life in the womb is so valuable to God and should be to us.

I will let you read verses 29-31. My comments are that verse 29 is a promise but after the fall not every plant is good. Some plants are poisonous. We did not eat meat until after the flood. Look at Genesis 9:3

Genesis 1:26-27

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 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.

Remember my comment for verse 2 about the word “moving” or Hovering,” which was a verb denoting an action with emotion. It would be like us preparing a nursery for a child of ours. Well, the Lord God Almighty, has now finished preparing mankinds nursery with more love than we can ever have for our own children. And with all His knowledge of the future, God still loved us and created us. This was His divine purpose.

Verse 26 is confusing to some when they read the words, “Let Us,” and “Our image: and “Our likeness.” When you study the Bible, you will find that the Holy Spirit, Jesus Christ and God created the world. We are introduced to the Triune God.

Elohim is a Hebrew word for God which is plural. Plural and singular words may be used together. For example, Deuteronomy 6:4 says, “O Israel, the Lord (Jehovah) our God (Elohim – Plural) is our Lord (Jehovah).” It is not until the New Testament that we really begin to understand the Trinity.

Then the Bible says, “make man in Our image.” God Is Spirit. We Are Not a spirit. So, what is God’s divine purpose here. I believe He wanted us to have the capacity for spiritual fellowship with Him. We were to communicate with Him with a moral likeness, truth, wisdom, love, holiness, justice, and God’s other attributes.

If man had not sinned, we would have known about only God’s goodness and could have recognized sin by it not being good. We would have had dominion over the earth. As a result, we will not have dominion over the earth until Jesus’ second coming.

In Genesis 1:22, we have God’s first blessing, the fertility of life. God blessed them when He spoke the words, “Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the waters in the seas, and let the birds multiply on the earth.” God goes on to bless all sentient life.

Bless can mean different things, but here it means fruitfulness, the power of reproduction. They became life-giving. God gave them life and now they are able to pass on that life. That is a divine blessing from a divine origin.

My heart saddens for those who want children, but can not have their own. But maybe, God has put an extra amount of love in your heart to adopt. There are so many children that need a deeper love. And should this love stop with just one child?

In Psalm 127:5 these words appear; “How blessed is the man whose quiver is full of them (children); They shall not be ashamed when they speak with their enemies at the gate.”

I heard a sermon in the 1980’s, that there would be five arrows in a quiver. So that is five children. Now, a respectable woman would not be at the gate, so I assume, this would be the sons. So five sons plus whatever daughters you had before or between the five sons. I failed here. I had five daughters.

Who was at the gate? Sons, who were judges. Judges were at the gate and they defended people. So the sons were to defend their father (parents) from their enemies.

How do we apply this to today’s world? Could it mean, we need to fill our quiver with enough children to care for us in our old age. Then the burden would not be on just one or two children. Now having one doctor and one lawyer in the children would be an added blessing.

I am so blessed that my children would fight over who would take care of me. They all want to do so. For the present though, my Lord Jesus Christ and my husband will take care of me.

Then God said, “Let the waters teem with swarms of living creatures, and let birds fly above the earth in the open expanse of the heavens.”

And God created, the great sea monsters, and every living creature that moves, with which the water swarmed after their kind; and God saw that it was good.

And God blessed them, saying, “Be fruitful and multiply and fill the waters in the seas, and let birds multiply on the earth.”

And there was evening and there was morning, a fifth day.

Then God said “Let the earth bring forth living creatures after their kind; cattle and creeping things and beast of the earth after their kind” and it was so.

And God made the beasts of the earth after their kind, and everything that creeps on the ground after its kind; and God saw that it was good.

On the fifth day, God created the creatures of the sea and the air. Creatures of the deep were worshiped in the ancient world. Even the beast of the air and land as in Egypt. We can marvel at God’s creation for it shows a dim version of His glory, but we are never to worship the creation. We are only to worship the Creator.

In verse 24, God had the earth bring forth living creatures. This is the second creative act in which God finished creating the animals. Here the word create is sometimes translated soul which implies having a conscious life. Now plants do not have a conscious life, although they respond to music, fertilizer, and so forth.

Many years ago, I heard a pastor say that the soul is “the seat of emotions”. To me, that is logical. Animals have fear, happiness, contentment, and so forth. This, I am thankful for. I love my dog and horses and our interaction with each other.