This book has a peculiar interest. It has been called the seed plot of the Bible, and contains the germs of all the relationships between God and man excepting perhaps the law; though as we know there was one given to Adam in innocence, and Hagar is a type of Sinai. We have in this book, (so fiercely assailed by skeptical critics, so universally referred to throughout Scripture) Creation, Satan, God's promises, God's call, God's judgment, God's redemption, God's covenant, God's people, their position in the earth, resurrection, Israel in the land, the blessings of all nations, the promised seed; all, even the church itself, is foreshadowed here.
This book moreover though containing the only true account we have of well-nigh half the stream of time (about 2400 years) mainly consists of incidents more or less grouped around seven men, four of them evidently types of Christ corresponding in the main to the four Gospels, and three typical of the Christian. The four are Adam, the typical man, corresponding with Christ in the Gospel of Luke; Isaac, the typical son corresponding with the teaching of John; Jacob (in part of his life at any rate) the typical servant, as Christ is presented in Mark; and Joseph, the typical ruler, as Christ is seen in Matthew. It is worthy of notice also that we get the marriage recorded of each of these, the bride doubtless foreshadowing in each case the glorious bride of the great Antitype as spoken of in. Revelation. We can only glance at these now. In Eve we get the bride of the second Man, her distinctive characteristic being that she is part of His body, a part of Himself. In Rebecca we see the bride of the Son, fetched from earth and led to heaven by the Holy Ghost, while the Son is hidden in the Father's house. In Rachel, the bride of the Servant won by his hard toil, which seemed but a few years for the love he had towards her (Eph. 5) In Asenath, the bride of the Ruler, seated on the throne, and in a nearer place to the Ruler than His earthly brethren. The three characters representing the believer, are Enoch, the saint walking with God, Noah witnessing against the world, and Abraham, the believer in all his varied experiences and life of faith.
But we must pass on to look at the chapters in order.
Chapter 1. -We have here the work of God; in Chapter 2 the rest of God. This account is not a history of all God has done, but only what is needful and profitable for us to know. We shall know all things, but this revelation of the beginning is but partial. The Bible nowhere gratifies men's curiosity, only that which directly concerns man is here told us. Hence we have no account of angels, good or bad, no history of their creation. Nor indeed have we any account of the creation of this world. We have the bare fact, however all important in its meaning. " In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth." What follows is no account of how this was done, making ver. 1 a summary of the chapter. We are told nothing of what may have occurred on this earth between its creation and ver. when all was without form and void.
Morally the world was again in this state 4000 years later, when God once more began to work, and out of the darkness to bring the new creation, saying again " Let there be light " and there was light.
It is interesting to note that the word "moved" or " brooded " in verse 2 is stated to be wonderfully descriptive of the undulations of ether that transmits what we call light. The same word is used in Deut. 32:11. Comparing the old with the new creation we may link together Gen. 1:3 and 2 Cor. 4:6; Gen. 1:4 and 2 Cor. 6:14. In the first four days God brings light and order out of darkness and confusion. Before God formed man, He filled sea earth and air with life, the proof of His power, in that to matter He could communicate living energy.
Observe in 1:5, the " evening" before the " morning." So in the new creation the evening of the cross, and the morning of the resurrection compose its first day.
1:6, 7. -The division of the waters in the air from those on the earth, is important, and forms one chief difference between Egypt and Canaan, Deut. 11:10, 11.
1:8. -Heaven. There are three spoken of in Scripture, 1st. (Deut. 4:19) the firmament above us, where the birds fly, and the clouds gather, 2nd. (Matt. 24:29) the whole of space where the stars, the sun, and moon are, and 3rd. (Psa. 2:4; 2 Cor. 12) the dwelling-place of God, the "heaven of heavens" or third heaven. Observe, God brings forth generally light, water, and the earth on the first three days and then deals with each again particularly in the same order in the last three.
1:14 "Lights" or " lightbearers," not the sources of light, or light itself.
1:15 These lights were all made by God (it does not say when), and on the fourth day they were brought into relation with the earth to give light, and to mark the course of time. The object of their existence is specially stated, because they so soon became the objects of idolatry. "Sun," and "moon," and "stars." In the new creation, Christ is the Sun, Christians looked at collectively are the moon, (Matt. 5) reflecting Christ's glory in His absence, and Christians individually are the stars (Phil. 2:15).
And now in the midst of the prepared scene man is placed. He did not spring out of matter by the mere will of God as did the beasts. God formed man out of the dust. He was not "brought forth" by the earth, but "made" by God.
But though the " image" of God on the earth as being the head and center of creation, and ruler over it all and in His " likeness" in the absence of evil, we cannot go further, and say of the first man of the old creation, as of those in the new that he was created in " righteousness and true holiness," Eph. 4:24.
1:26. In the new creation and concerning the Second Man read Col. 1:15. " Us" means the Trinity, for it was not then a kingly expression as now. Kings formerly said " I" not " we" Gen. 12:18;19 Ezra 6:8 Sc.
1:27. Eve is here seen blessed in Adam before her actual creation, just as the Church is in Christ.
1:28. Observe here we get the dominion of the earth and all in it in the hand of the first man. He failed, but the book does not close till the government is in the hand of him who is the most remarkable type in the Old Testament of the Second Man, dead and risen, and reigning in glory.
1:29, 30. The fruit of the earth is for man, grass for the beast. No animal food till Gen. 9:3.