Welcome to EBible Fellowship’s Bible study in the Book of Genesis. This is study #25 of Genesis, chapter 1 and we are going to read Genesis 1:27-28:

So God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him; male and female created he them. And God blessed them, and God said unto them, Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth, and subdue it: and have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over every living thing that moveth upon the earth.

We have already talked about how the command to have dominion over the fish, fowl and creeping things points to the Lord Jesus Christ who has rule or dominion over the people of the earth and it is through the sending forth of the Gospel. God’s people are in Him, ruling with Him, so all these commands to “be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth, and subdue it” relate to the Gospel.

I want to go back, again, to where God said “And God blessed them.” We know that it was on the sixth day of creation that God created Adam; He had not yet created Eve. God did not say that He created Eve, but He says He created “man” in His own image and then it says, “Male and female created he them.” But, remember, we looked in Genesis, chapter 5 and it said in Genesis 5:1-2:

This is the book of the generations of Adam. In the day that God created man, in the likeness of God made he him; Male and female created he them; and blessed them, and called their name Adam, in the day when they were created.

Here, God is speaking of creating Adam, alone, but He called “their name Adam,” so God is very definitely counting Eve as “in Adam” in the day that God created the man. Since the rib from which He made Eve was already in Adam, God recognizes it as if Eve were present at the same time.

Of course, there is a very important spiritual reason why God does this and it relates to the Lord Jesus being slain from the foundation of the world. Let us think about this again. The Bible tells us that God is the father of Adam. It said in Luke 3:38:

Which was the son of Enos, which was the son of Seth, which was the son of Adam, which was the son of God.

God created Adam and he was the son of God. Remember how the Lord Jesus became the Son of God when He was declared to be the Son of God, according to Romans, chapter 1. It was through the resurrection from the dead that Jesus was declared to be the Son of God and that took place from the world’s foundation. Christ bore the sins of His elect people that would become His bride and they were “in” Him when He suffered under the weight of the wrath of God and experienced death as He paid for their sins. He was the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world. They, the woman, were in the Lord Jesus Christ and then He arose from the dead and was declared to be the Son of God via the resurrection from the dead. It was at that point that He first became the Son of God, the firstborn son from the dead and the “woman” is within Him in the sense that He paid for the sins of every one predestinated to become saved. Even though you could not see the “woman” at that point, when He rose from the dead at the foundation of the world, Jesus became the Son of God and the woman was “in” Him. Then it would necessitate the creation of the world and the unfolding of history over thousands of years before the “woman” became more and more in evidence as people became saved. As the elect became saved it was forming the bride of Christ until, as we read in Revelation, chapter 19, “she has made herself ready,” but she was already in Him at the foundation of the world. When Jesus successfully endured the wrath of God and died and rose from the dead, God called Him His Son.

Notice what it says in Genesis 5:2:

Male and female created he them; and blessed them, and called their name Adam, in the day when they were created.

It is significant that the language of “called their name” is used because when we go through the genealogies of Genesis 5 and Genesis 11 we are going to find that there is a clue phrase that will indicated an immediate father/son relationship. It is the Hebrew “kaw-raw shem” and “kaw-raw shem” means “called the name.” In this case, it is plural because it says “called their name Adam” but just as we read in Luke 3, verse 38 Adam was the son of God. The fact that God uses the clue phrase “kaw-raw shem” to refer to Adam reinforces that God is the father of Adam. God is the one that is counted as Adam’s father and also as Eve’s father, because He “called their name Adam.” It just ties in with Christ rising from the dead and declared to be the Son. Creating him from the dust of the ground, God formed him and God “calls their name Adam.” This is a figure of Christ being the first born of many brethren. The elect were in Christ so the creation of Adam is really a wonderful picture of Christ rising from the dead, having successfully accomplished the payment for sin on behalf of those that would later become saved throughout history to become the bride of Christ. The “woman” was in Him.

Here, in Genesis, chapter 5 notice that it says in Genesis 5:3:

And Adam lived an hundred and thirty years, and begat a son in his own likeness, after his image; and called his name Seth:

There is the clue phrase that reveals that Adam was the immediate father of Seth. Sometimes when we read in the Bible that someone “begat” another person, it is not an immediate father/son relationship. It could be a grandson or even a great grandson or later descendent, but when “kaw-raw shem” is used it indicates a direct father/son relationship.

Let us go back and let us keep this in mind when we are reading of Adam. We know that God says in Romans 5:14:

Nevertheless death reigned from Adam to Moses, even over them that had not sinned after the similitude of Adam's transgression, who is the figure of him that was to come.

Adam was a figure of Christ and Jesus was called “the second Adam” when He entered into the world. The first Adam was of the earth and the second Adam was spiritual, having come down from heaven above. In the figure of the earthly Adam (the man God created on the 6th day) we see the Lord Jesus and God’s magnificent salvation program already being described in a beautiful way in verse, after verse, in Genesis, chapter 1 at the very beginning of the Bible.

Let us go on to Genesis 1:29:

And God said, Behold, I have given you every herb bearing seed…

This is referring to Adam, but God is really speaking to the woman (in Adam) or to mankind, but, spiritually, He is speaking of Christ and the bride of Christ, the elect.

Again, it says in Genesis 1:29:

And God said, Behold, I have given you every herb bearing seed, which is upon the face of all the earth, and every tree, in the which is the fruit of a tree yielding seed; to you it shall be for meat.

Here, God tells us that the herb bearing seed tree yielding seed is for “meat.” The word “meat” is also translated as “eat.” It says in Exodus 16:14-15:

And when the dew that lay was gone up, behold, upon the face of the wilderness there lay a small round thing, as small as the hoar frost on the ground. And when the children of Israel saw it, they said one to another, It is manna: for they wist not what it was. And Moses said unto them, This is the bread which JEHOVAH hath given you to eat.

Here in Genesis, chapter 1 God is indicating the herb bearing seed and the fruit of a tree yielding seed are for “meat.” In the Bible, Jesus said, “I have meat to eat that ye know not of.” Also, the bread of heaven that was identified as “manna” was spiritually defined as the Lord Jesus – He is the bread that came down from heaven. It all relates to the spiritual nourishment of the Word of God, the Gospel of the Bible. All throughout history those that would become saved were given, spiritually, the “herb bearing seed.”

We had looked at the word “herb” back in Genesis 1:11:

And God said, Let the earth bring forth grass, the herb yielding seed, and the fruit tree yielding fruit after his kind, whose seed is in itself, upon the earth: and it was so.

We saw that these things relate to God’s program of “times and seasons.” Remember what it said in Deuteronomy 32:1-2:

Give ear, O ye heavens, and I will speak; and hear, O earth, the words of my mouth. My doctrine shall drop as the rain, my speech shall distil as the dew, as the small rain upon the tender herb, and as the showers upon the grass:

Our word is translated here as “grass.” It is Strong’s #6212 and it is actually the word translated as “herb” in verses 11 and 29. God says His doctrine is “like the rain” and it drops as rain upon the herb and the grass. It is the herb and the grass that provide meat for animals and for man and it points to “meat” for those that are the elect of God. The Gospel went forth to find the lost sheep of the house of Israel. That was the objective for the Gospel and the Word did not return void. It accomplished the task that God sent it forth to do and that was to save the lost sheep, those that were in Christ. The “woman” that was in Adam typified this.

There is another interesting verse that contains the word “herb” in Psalm 104:13:

He watereth the hills from his chambers…

This is similar to Deuteronomy, chapter 32 where God spoke of His doctrine dropping like the dew. In Isaiah 55, He likens His Word to the rain that comes down. It goes on to say in Psalm 104:13:

He watereth the hills from his chambers: the earth is satisfied with the fruit of thy works. He causeth the grass to grow for the cattle, and herb for the service of man: that he may bring forth food out of the earth;

The “water” from God’s chambers provides grass for the cattle and, remember, cattle are used to typify men. God’s program of “times and seasons” of rain (the early righteous rain, the early rain and the Latter Rain) are used to produce crops. They cause the grass and herbs to grown and the herb is said to be “for the service of man.” It is Strong’s #5656 and the word “service” is overwhelmingly used to describe service performed to God, whether it be service in the tabernacle or service in the feast days. Again, and again, you will read of service performed to God. The “herb” was given by God “for the service of man.” Again, in the Hebrew the word “man” is pronounced as “adam.” The word “man” is Strong’s #120 and “adam” is Strong’s #121. If you were to place the Hebrew word for “adam” and the Hebrew word for “man” side by side, the Hebrew letters would be identical. Even if you looked at the vowel points, which were added later, they are also identical, which means that they are identical words. It is just that sometimes it is obvious God is referring to the man He called “Adam” and, elsewhere, it may be referring to “man” in general, so the translators took their cues from the context.

But, here, God’s program of sending forth the waters caused the grass to grow and caused “herb for the service of man.” Who does man (Adam) typify? He was the figure of Him that was to come, Christ. So, God’s sending forth of the water that fell from heaven upon the earth produced the grass and the herbs and it does service to Adam or to man. Again, that word “service” ties in to service performed to God and the word “adam” or “man” identifies with Christ, so it is pointing to service to the Lord Jesus Christ through the sending forth of the Gospel. The Gospel was expanded in the days of the church age, as Christ had commanded: “Go ye therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost.”

Of course, this was a command to go to the nations of the elect. It was not a command to go to the nations of the world, but in order to obey the command it was necessary to go to the nations of the world. We know it is referring to the nations of the elect because Christ said to baptize them in the name of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit. The nations of the world were not baptized, but the nations of the elect were baptized into Christ in salvation. They were baptized with the baptism that Jesus was baptized with and that is not true of the vast majority of people in the world, so the Great Commission would have been a failure if it had been a command to go to the earthly nations and baptize them because only a small percentage of them were reached. However, it was a tremendous success when we recognize that it was the sending forth of the Gospel to the nations of the elect (wherever they were found) and 100% of the nations of the elect were found and baptized in the Holy Spirit. God completed the Great Commission when He saved the last one of those elect. It was all in relationship to the rains which produced the grass and the herbs, the spiritual food. So the herb performed service to “Adam” as the Word of God performed service to the Lord Jesus Christ in the sending forth of the Gospel.