Verse

Notes

2 And the earth was waste and void; and darkness was upon the face of the deep: and the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters. 

The Creative week is divided into four parts. Three parts are fourteen thousand years long. The fourth part is seven thousand years long. (Matthew 1:17)*

GOD'S NAME

First subdivision of Genesis (Chapter One and the first three verses of Chapter Two uses the term, Elohim. From Verse four of Chapter Two to the end of Chapter Three YHWH (Jehovah) is used. Chapter Four returns to the use of the term Elohim.*

Our first text will be from Bro. Paul, the greatest reasoner and greatest theologian of the Bible. "Concerning therefore the eating of things sacrificed to idols, we know that no idol is anything in the world, and that there is no God but one. For though there be [those] that are called gods, whether in heaven or on earth; as there are gods many and lords many; yet to us there is ONE GOD, the Father; (of whom are all things, and we unto him,) and one Lord,—Jesus Christ, (through whom are all things, and we through him)."—1 Cor. 8:4-6, Revised Version.

In the Hebrew language in which the Old Testament was written, there is a word [Adon,] which means in English lord or master. Thus, Sarah called Abraham lord. So Abraham, the angels, Gen. 19:2; and Ephron, Abraham, 23:11; and Jacob, his brother Esau, 32:4. Joseph was lord of the treasures of Egypt, 45:9. God is Lord of lords, Deut. 10:17.Young's Concordance will show you many other cases.

The title, God, was applied by the heathen to their idols and Gods of their imagination, but in Scripture it always refers to our Heavenly Father except in a few places where it is used of the children of God; and in the case of Jesus our Lord, who is the first born SON OF GOD, and inheritor of his Father's nature and name.

Our first text shows us, that while our Lord Jesus and his brethren—all children of God, may sometimes be called by their Father's name, yet strictly there is but "one God, the Father." His name as made known to his ancient people, the Israelites, is Jehovah. This name is unfortunately covered up in most places in our English Bibles by the translators rendering it "the LORD" and "Lord God." Still, you can find it by noticing that it is printed in small capital letters, as LORD or GOD. When printed simply "Lord" it is from some other Hebrew word. [Adon, Baal, etc.] Young's Concordance will make this plain. In the Revised Version Exod. 6:2-3 reads:—

"And God spake unto Moses, and said unto him, I am JEHOVAH; and I appeared unto Abraham, unto Isaac, and unto Jacob as God Almighty; but by my name JEHOVAH I was not known to them."

On one occasion, Ex. 3:14, He calls himself by another name, I AM THAT I AM," Yet it is scarcely another name, being from the same root as Jehovah. Read verses 13 to 18 and notice notes in margin of Revised Version. Jehovah means He who is, or He who will be. That is, the self-existent one; the one who has immortality or life in himself. This, God only possessed. It is his nature. He has since given this nature to our Lord Jesus, and will in the resurrection give it to all the overcomers of the Gospel age; that is, to every member of the Body of Christ, to those who in this age receive the privilege of becoming "Sons of God." Read carefully 1 Tim. 6:16; John 5:26; 1 John 3:1-2.

Now read Deut. 4:39. "Know therefore this day, and lay it to thine heart, that Jehovah he is God in heaven above and upon the earth beneath; there is none else" [none other]. Read this again carefully as if God himself spoke it to you personally, for so he does. Read also Deut. 32:39; 2 Sam. 7:22. We will read also Isa. 44:6-8. "Thus saith Jehovah, the King of Israel, and his [Israel's] redeemer, Jehovah of hosts; I am the first and I am the last; and beside me there is no God...Is there a God beside me?...I know not any." Again, Isa. 45:18-22, "For thus saith Jehovah that created the heavens; he is God that formed the earth and made it; he established it, he created it not in vain, [to be burned up, as some ignorantly think,] he formed it to be inhabited; I am Jehovah; and there is none else, there is no God else beside me; a just God and a Saviour; there is none beside me. Look unto me and be ye saved, all the ends of the earth; for I am God and there is none else."

God spoke this long before he had sent Jesus to be our saviour and redeemer, so that he was then the only redeemer and saviour; and really it was true after our Lord came, because only God can save, and he does save only in his own way,—through the death of "the Lamb of God" (John 1:29) which he himself also provided. There is no other way. (John 14:6.) Paul says, "There is one God, and one Mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus, who gave himself a ransom for all."

Paul generally says things very clearly. Could he be any plainer than he is here? Paul does not say, "Now there are three Gods; and as Satan had upset their plans in Eden by leading Adam and Eve astray, they three put their heads together and thought out a plan to try to outwit Satan. One was to remain in heaven and profess to be the superior one, and to be angry with mankind. One was to come and live on earth and call himself the SON [R1053 : page 2] of God, and profess to do the will of the one in heaven. Why should he if he was also a God, equal in power, knowledge and wisdom with the other? Or, as some put it, really the same one who was in heaven all the time? Then the third God was to come down at the beginning of the public work of the second one, in the form of a Dove, and appear to fill him with the necessary power to do the first one's will. If these are three Gods of equal power, such a pretence would seem foolish and wrong to me; if all three apparent Gods were not three, but really the one God, appearing to be three, how much worse? Then again the pretense of one of them dying and appearing to be dead for three days, and being raised up by another, when there was not another but only one; and if that one had died, the universe would have been without a God for three days; rather forever; for that which is dead cannot make itself alive. But worse confusion than all, those who teach these absurd ideas say that the God nature cannot die,—which is true. How foolish all this appears when we compare it with Paul's plain statement. "There is one God, and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus." A mediator is a mutual friend who seeks to make peace and harmony between two persons who are outwith each other.

Our Lord Jesus himself usually called himself the Son of man, that is, the Man; the man promised in Eden who was finally to destroy Satan and deliver both Israel and the rest of mankind. He also and often called God his Father (which we will study by and by,) but never spoke of himself either as one of three Gods, or as the one God. On the contrary, he says in harmony with all the prophets: "This is life eternal, [will lead to endless life,] that they should know thee the only true God, and him whom thou didst send, Jesus Christ."—John 17:1-3.

In our next we will study that wonderful one who came to tell us about God, our Lord Jesus, the Anointed.

PAPA,—W. I. M. R1052

Jehovah

4 And God saw the light, that it was good: and God divided the light from the darkness. 

5 And God called the light Day, and the darkness he called Night. And there was evening and there was morning, one day. 

8 And God called the firmament Heaven. And there was evening and there was morning, a second day. 

The Hebrew word for Earth is Strong's 776 Erets. It means land or earth. Earth is used to represent the whole earth (as opposed to a part),  the earth (as opposed to heaven),  and the inhabitants thereof. Land is used to as country, territory, region, a piece of ground, a city-state, Sheol, the and without return, and the ground surface.

The Hebrew word for Seas is Strong's 3220 Yam. It is from an unused root meaning to Roar.

14 And God said, Let there be lights in the firmament of heaven to divide the day from the night; and let them be for signs, and for seasons, and for days and years:

Moon Represents the Jewish Law Covenant

Sun Represents the New Covenant*

VERSES 26-30. "And God said, We will make man in our image, after our likeness," etc. The plural form of the pronoun used here calls to mind the statement of John with reference to "the only begotten Son of God," "the beginning of the creation of God," "the first born of every creature," that "he was in the beginning [of creation] with God;" that "all things were made by him, and without him was not any thing made that was made"—1 John 4:9; Rev. 3:14; Col. 1:15,16; John 1:2,3.

Man was created in the image and likeness of God, having mental and moral faculties corresponding, so that he could appreciate and enjoy communion with his maker, for whose pleasure he was created. "Male and female created he them," not only for the propagation of the race, but also that the twain might find their happiness complete in their mutual adaptability to each other and to God. Their dominion was to be the whole earth, with all its products and resources and all its lower forms of life—a wide and rich domain affording ample scope for all their noble powers. R1609

The vegetarian idea respecting what would constitute the proper food for the perfect man is clearly set forth in verse 29, the Lord declaring that he had given his creatures the herbage and fruitage of the earth for their meat—their food. It was not until after the flood, and the peculiar changes of conditions resulting therefrom (which we cannot here take time and space to discuss) that the Lord specially sanctioned the eating of animal food. (Gen. 9:1-4.) We understand the reason to have been that the conditions were so changed as not only to shorten human longevity but to greatly impair human strength, making necessary the nerve strength obtainable from animal food. Since animal food was thus sanctioned by the Lord it behooves the Lord's people not to become erratic and dictatorial upon this question of vegetarianism, nor to condemn those who find, or think they find, that animal food is necessary to the maintenance of their physical strength: on the other hand, let them remember that whatever was originally intended, and whatever may be the order of things in the Millennial age, there is no Scriptural sanction for condemning the eating of animal food in the present time. Whoever, therefore, advocates it, let him take heed that he does not make another gospel of it, and permit time and thought and voice and energy to be thus estranged from the service of the gospel truths committed to us [R2837 : page 207] by our Lord; let such, on the contrary, remember that our Lord ate meat and fish, both before and after his crucifixion, and that the apostles ate meat, and that in no sense of the word was the eating of it condemned or evil spoken of; and that none of the Lord's people today have any higher authorities or examples than these.  And let those who eat meat not mock those who eat "vegetable only," believing this course to be more healthful for them.

The fact that for beast and for fowl the Lord originally provided the same vegetarian diet, is in perfect accord with some of the prophetic statements which seem to imply that under the new conditions of the Kingdom even the lower animals will return to vegetable diet, when "The lion shall eat grass like the ox," and when "Nothing shall hurt or destroy in all God's holy mountain [kingdom]." (Isa. 11:6,7; 65:25.) Thus we learn that the animals which at present are carnivorous (flesh-eaters) are not now in their original condition, but have been sharers with mankind in the results of the catastrophe which came upon our earth in the flood; likewise that they will be sharers with man, their king, in the great uplift which will come to him and to all nature when God's Kingdom, in the hands of the Sons of God, shall be established, and shall bless the groaning creation.—Rom. 8:19-22. R2834