Welcome to EBible Fellowship’s Bible study in the Book of Genesis. This is study #4 of Genesis, chapter 2 and we are going to read Genesis 2:3:

And God blessed the seventh day, and sanctified it: because that in it he had rested from all his work which God created and made.

We saw in our last study how God speaks of entering into His rest in the sense of entering into salvation or the kingdom of heaven. We discussed how this is related to the work of faith performed by the Lord Jesus Christ for His elect as He took their sins upon Himself and died for them from the foundation of the world.

I just wanted to point out one other thing before we move on to verse 4. Many times when we read the Bible God will refer back to the creation account in the early chapter of Genesis in order to emphasize the seventh day Sabbath rest. But this is not always the case. For instance, let us look at Deuteronomy 5:12-13:

Keep the sabbath day to sanctify it, as JEHOVAH thy God hath commanded thee. Six days thou shalt labour, and do all thy work:

So far, this is exactly what we are reading about in Genesis when God worked six days and rested on the seventh day. It is also exactly how it was outlined in the Ten Commandments. You work six days and on the seventh day you rest because God worked six days to create the world. But, here, notice the reason given in Deuteronomy 5:14-15:

But the seventh day is the sabbath of JEHOVAH thy God: in it thou shalt not do any work, thou, nor thy son, nor thy daughter, nor thy manservant, nor thy maidservant, nor thine ox, nor thine ass, nor any of thy cattle, nor thy stranger that is within thy gates; that thy manservant and thy maidservant may rest as well as thou. And remember that thou wast a servant in the land of Egypt, and that JEHOVAH thy God brought thee out thence through a mighty hand and by a stretched out arm: therefore JEHOVAH thy God commanded thee to keep the sabbath day.

Here, God makes reference to bringing Israel out of Egypt and this is the reason they should keep the Sabbath day. Why would God do this? For one thing, it is to help us learn of the spiritual nature of the Sabbath rest. Whether it was six days of work and the seventh day of rest or whether it was the deliverance of the Israelites from Egypt, we have pictures of salvation and deliverance from sin and Satan. Spiritually, they are synonymous reasons, so the Lord can make that connection.

I just wanted to mention that because it is important for us to realize that even though God is giving us a factual historical parable of working six days and then resting the seventh day. God is teaching a deeper spiritual meaning that relates to the salvation program of God.

So let us go on to Genesis 2:4:

These are the generations of the heavens and of the earth when they were created, in the day that JEHOVAH God made the earth and the heavens,

There are a few things about this verse that are rather unusual. First, it says, “These are the generations of the heavens and of the earth,” and the word “generations” is Strong’s #8435. This particular word is not used that many times, but every other time this word is used it is always in relationship to people. For instance, it is used in Genesis 5:1:

This is the book of the generations of Adam…

It is used in Genesis 6:9:

These are the generations of Noah…

It says in Genesis 10:1:

Now these are the generations of the sons of Noah, Shem, Ham, and Japheth: and unto them were sons born after the flood.

Not only is this word always used in relationship to people, but it is used to recount their descendants or the ones that are begotten of them, so it is a word that would have relationship to a genealogy. So why is God speaking of the “generations of the heavens and of the earth” and using this word? Again, it goes back to the spiritual picture God is illustrating with the creation of the heavens and the earth. Remember what it said back in Genesis 2:1: “Thus the heavens and the earth were finished, and all the host of them.” Then verse 2 said that God ended His work and that related to Hebrews 4:3 that said the works were finished from the foundation of the world. So the work of God was performed in six days and God relates that to the work of faith Jesus performed in dying for the sins of His people and establishing their lives through salvation.

What is the connection? How do these elect (perhaps as many as 200 million) relate to the creation of the heavens and the earth? Jesus died from the foundation of the world before He created the world. God created the spiritual lights of the Gospel (the sun, moon and stars) and it was as if He had set the stars in the sky because He likens the body of believers to the stars of heaven. God told Abraham that his seed would be as the stars of heaven for multitude and the works that Christ finished at the foundation of world, it was as though a new heaven and new earth had been formed. God uses the elect as figures of the stars and also as figures of the New Jerusalem, which He ties into the new heavens and new earth. For example, let us go to Isaiah 65:17-18:

For, behold, I create new heavens and a new earth: and the former shall not be remembered, nor come into mind. But be ye glad and rejoice for ever in that which I create: for, behold, I create Jerusalem a rejoicing, and her people a joy.

The Lord relates the creation of a new heaven and a new earth to the creation of New Jerusalem. We know for a fact that New Jerusalem is a type and figure of the body of believers, the elect of God. We read in Revelation 21:1-2:

And I saw a new heaven and a new earth: for the first heaven and the first earth were passed away; and there was no more sea. And I John saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down from God out of heaven, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband.

God gave the Apostle John a vision concerning the new heaven and new earth. The chapter opens with that statement, but then it immediately talks of the New Jerusalem, which is likened to a bride. That is because she is the bride of Christ formed of all the people God had saved. As we read about this city in the rest of the chapter, we would expect to be reading about the new heaven and new earth. And we are, because the city is the new heaven and new earth. They are synonymous – the new heaven and new earth is the New Jerusalem. Jerusalem is a place, is it not? It is a city. It is a land and the word “land” is used in Isaiah 65 where God said He creates a new “earth.” It is the same word translated as “land” in many places. Earlier in the Book of Isaiah, God said in chapter 62 that He was married to the “land,” the new earth or the New Jerusalem.

I do not know how to carry that any further. Of course, we expect God to create a new creation. He told us that and God’s people will joyously experience that new creation for eternity future, but that does not mean that God is not making an association and linking the two things together; the body of believers are linked in a synonymous way with the new heaven and the new earth. Therefore, when God says, “These are the generations of the heavens and of the earth,” He is not speaking only of this present world, but He is speaking of that which will come forth from it, just as the generations of Adam are descendants that came forth from him. So, too, there will come forth from this present heaven and earth a new heaven and new earth that was established at the foundation of the world when the Lord Jesus Christ rose from the dead to be the Gospel light and to be the day of salvation. That is the “day” that JEHOVAH God made the earth and the heavens and that is another unusual thing in the second part of this verse in Genesis 2:4:

These are the generations of the heavens and of the earth when they were created, in the day that JEHOVAH God made the earth and the heavens,

It seems rather redundant, does it not? It is repetitious and does not appear to make much sense. We also notice that God reversed the word order. In the first part of the verse, the word “heavens” came first and in the second part of the verse, the word “earth” came first. Why would God reverse the word order? It is unusual to read these words in that order. It is far more typical for it to read “the heavens and the earth.” Yet, there is just one other place where we see this word order in which the word “earth” is placed before the word “heaven.” It is in Revelation 20:11:

And I saw a great white throne, and him that sat on it, from whose face the earth and the heaven fled away; and there was found no place for them.

What happens when the earth and the heaven flee away? It said back in Revelation 21:1:

And I saw a new heaven and a new earth: for the first heaven and the first earth were passed away; and there was no more sea.

When the Apostle John saw the great white throne from whose face the earth and the heaven fled away, then the new heaven and the new earth is coming. In other words, God arranged this word order very intentionally. Why? First of all, does God expect His people to study the Bible? Did He expect that His people would carefully go over every Word of Scripture? Of course, He did. God is the one that moves in His people to will and to do of His good pleasure. He is the one that commands us to study to show ourselves approved unto God, as “workman that needeth not to be ashamed.” He is the one that writes throughout the Bible these unusual verses where something seems “awkward” in order to highlight certain things He wants His people to know. So, as God authored this verse He intentionally changed the order of the words to draw attention to the fact that He has already “formed” His elect bride, just as he had already formed Eve in Adam. He had already formed the “woman,” although they were not formed in the sense of having yet been born. But, in essence, since Jesus paid for all their sins, God guaranteed that each one would be saved according to the timetable in God’s plan for each person. They would all come together by the end of time to form the complete body of Christ, the New Jerusalem or the new heaven and new earth. This is all a result of Jesus having died and risen again from the foundation of the world and in that “day” JEHOVAH God made the earth and the heavens.

That is something else that is unusual about our verse. In chapter 1 we were continually reading the word “God” and, as I mentioned before, it is “el-o-heem,” the plural name for God. He is one God, but three distinct Persons: the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit. Here in verse 4 we have word “God,” but we also have the Greek word “JEHOVAH.” In our King James Bible, when we see the word “LORD” in all capital letters, it is the Hebrew word “JEHOVAH.” This is the first time in the Bible that God identifies Himself as JEHOVAH and the name JEHOVAH particularly identifies with God as Saviour. In Isaiah 43:11, God said, “I, even I, am JEHOVAH; and beside me there is no saviour.” He is JEHOVAH the Saviour and the Lord selected this verse at the beginning of creation as He detailed His work of creation to identify Himself as JEHOVAH: “These are the generations of the heavens and of the earth when they were created, in the day that JEHOVAH God made the earth and the heavens.” You see, it is not out of place for God to introduce this name. God gives Himself many names in the Bible and each name teaches something about the Person of God and this is an excellent place for God to introduce the name “JEHOVAH” because in the day that JEHOVAH God made the earth and heavens it is teaching us of Christ rising from the dead to be the Light of the world and the Light that identifies with the “day of salvation.”

Yes, He created a physical world that has physical sun, moon and stars, and so forth, but He also created the spiritual kingdom of heaven that would be that new heaven and new earth comprised only all those He would save and, therefore, He uses the name JEHOVAH.