Welcome to EBible Fellowship’s Bible study in the Book of Genesis. This is study #5 of Genesis, chapter 2 and we are going to read Genesis 2:4-7:

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, And every plant of the field before it was in the earth, and every herb of the field before it grew: for JEHOVAH God had not caused it to rain upon the earth, and there was not a man to till the ground. But there went up a mist from the earth, and watered the whole face of the ground. And JEHOVAH God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul.

I will stop reading there. Before we begin, I would like to make a correction concerning something I said when we talked about verse 4 in a recent study. Let me read, again, 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,

God said the same thing twice, but the second time He said “the earth and the heavens.” He reversed the order and I said the only other place you read of this reversed order is in Revelation, chapter 20, verse 11, which is a verse that brings us to Judgment Day and the time when God will destroy the present earth and heavens and create the new heaven and new earth. I was incorrect. The conclusion was correct in that God has in view the creation of a new heaven and new earth when He doubled this statement in the way that He did, but I was incorrect in stating that it was the only other place in the Bible where “earth” is mentioned before “heaven.” We had a listener who sent me some verses where the word “earth” is in a position before the word “heaven.” There are four of them. It says in 1Chronicles 21:16:

And David lifted up his eyes, and saw the angel of JHEOVAH stand between the earth and the heaven, having a drawn sword in his hand stretched out over Jerusalem…

Let them praise the name of JEHOVAH: for his name alone is excellent; his glory is above the earth and heaven.

The third place is in Ezekiel 8:3:

And he put forth the form of an hand, and took me by a lock of mine head; and the spirit lifted me up between the earth and the heaven…

The fourth place is in Zachariah 5:9:

Then lifted I up mine eyes, and looked, and, behold, there came out two women, and the wind was in their wings; for they had wings like the wings of a stork: and they lifted up the ephah between the earth and the heaven.

In these four verses the word “earth” is used before the word “heaven” and this corrects what I said about it being found only in Genesis 2:4 and Revelation 20:11. It was actually a careless statement for me to make, so I am very glad that a listener sent in these verses so I could correct it. Please make note of these other verses that I just read.

Now we are going to continue in Genesis, chapter 2. We saw that God had created the world, but He also spent some time focusing on the atoning work of the Lord Jesus Christ when Christ died and rose from the dead, which formed the basis of this world and of the world to come. Of course, it was the work that saved the elect people of God that would result in God creating the new heaven and new earth for them to inhabit. Christ was the Lamb slain before the foundation of the world and that is a major reason for the awkward language we found in verse 4, where it says, “These are the generations of the heavens and of the earth.” The word “generations” is translated as “birth” in one place, so these are the generations or the beginnings of the heaven and of the earth. As I mentioned before, in every other place the word “generations” is used it involves the descent of people from one generation to the next. Here, it also involves people, from the people of this earth to the people of the new heaven and new earth, God’s elect. God’s elect will inherit that earth. In a sense, they will be the ones that descend from mankind that lived upon this (first) earth.

Again, it says 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,

The “day” points to Christ when He rose from the dead and became Light, as light identifies with salvation. He is the Light of the world and God created the sun to typify that light and He formed the “day” in order to illustrate the spiritual reality that Christ is the essence of salvation due to His completed atoning work at the foundation of the world.

Again, it says in Genesis 2:4-5:

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, And every plant of the field before it was in the earth, and every herb of the field before it grew: for JEHOVAH God had not caused it to rain upon the earth, and there was not a man to till the ground.

Verse 5 also seems awkward and unusual. It is fairly odd that God says, “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,” and we could read this as the day that God made every plant of the field. Then it adds, “before it was in the earth,” and this is the idea God has been stressing; before the world was made God established the Gospel; Christ finished the work. Before the world was created God made the world and not only this world but the new heaven and new earth through the finished work of Jesus who became the “foundation” of the world.

Now God says something about plants, as He says that in the day God made every plant of the field before it was in the earth. How do you make a plant before it is in the earth or before it was made? If it is in the earth, then it is made – it is a bush or a shrub that is on planet earth. We understand that God made that plant, but God says that in the day He made the earth and the heavens He made every plant of the field before it was in the earth; He made the plant before He made the plant. Basically, God is stressing that salvation was completed in the finished work of Christ. What do plants and growing things represent in the Bible? God likens vegetation to those He has saved. The Gospel goes forth and produces life or vegetation. It is a picture of the Word of God in salvation. It says in Isaiah 35:1:

The wilderness and the solitary place shall be glad for them; and the desert shall rejoice, and blossom as the rose.

The growing of plant life is a picture of salvation. You can continue reading in Isaiah, chapter 35 and you will see that God is speaking of His Gospel and He likens His Word to the rain which causes it to grow and flower and bring forth fruit. Remember the Word of God is like a seed. The seed falls on the hearts of men. In that parable in Matthew 13, the seed sometimes fell on good ground and brought forth fruit. The Bible also says the kingdom of heaven is like a “mustard seed,” another plant, and in this case it points to Jesus. The Bible is full of illustrations of husbandry and plant life as a picture of the Gospel of salvation.

When God says, “In the day that JEHOVAH made the earth and the heavens,” it reminds us of the verse in Psalm 118:24:

This is the day which JEHOVAH hath made; we will rejoice and be glad in it.

I used to see this verse written on an egg carton when we would buy a certain brand of eggs. We would open the carton and there was this verse. A lot of people take this verse literally and it gives them positive encouragement and they have in mind the present 24-hour period. There is nothing wrong with that. God did make each day and we should be glad and rejoice in it, but the spiritual meaning is that Christ is “the Day.” The day refers to the day of salvation. When Christ rose from the dead from the foundation of the world, it was the day of victory for the resurrection of the dead. It was the formation of the Gospel Light. The light penetrates the darkness and brings the sinner out of darkness into the light. Remember that we looked at several verses where God likened “light” to salvation. In Psalm 118, God says, “This is the day which JEHOVAH hath made,” and that is what God says in Genesis 2:4: “in the day that JEHOVAH God made the earth and the heavens.” So, we could understand Psalm 118:24 to say that we will rejoice and be glad in Christ because He is the Day.

That “day” is also in view in Hebrews 1:5:

For unto which of the angels said he at any time, Thou art my Son, this day have I begotten thee? And again, I will be to him a Father, and he shall be to me a Son?

When was Christ declared to be the Son of God? It was through the resurrection from the dead, but not in 33AD. He died from the foundation of the world and rose again, declared to be the Son of God. It was at a point in eternity past. When we say “the foundation of the world,” a lot of people think of the precipice of the world, but “the foundation of the world” is Christ’s resurrection from the dead. He is the foundation. When He successfully made payment for the sins of His people and rose from the dead, He was declared to be God’s Son because He was the firstborn from the dead. At that point, it became the “day,” the day God made in eternity past. It is a useless thing to try to speak of eternity past as some point in time. Our minds want to think, “It was the day before God created the world,” but there is no “time” in eternity past. Christ’s work was done in eternity past, so we cannot think of it as happening “the day before” the world was created. When Jesus rose He became the world’s “foundation” and that was the point of the foundation of the world in eternity past and before there was “time.” It was before there was a sun, moon and stars. We also discussed how God made the light in Genesis, chapter 1 before He made the light bearers, the celestial bodies. On day four of creation He would attach the light to the light bearers and from that point on the movement of the celestial bodies would govern time and light would be connected to their movement. However, the light was already made first and this points to Jesus dying and rising from the dead before the world was created.

The more we study the Bible and look into these things the more we see how central the doctrine that Christ made payment for sin at the foundation of the world really is. We would be struggling with verses already, if we did not know that. God plainly says in Revelation 13, verse 8 that Christ was the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world and once we have grasped that Biblical truth, we have a basis for understanding why God created light before He created the sun, moon and stars and why He formed Adam and counted Eve as already being in Adam. It helps us to understand why God made the plants of the field before they were in the earth, just as He made Eve before she was formed out of Adam’s rib. That is why He said He called them “Adam,” because Eve (representing the elect) was “in” Adam.

And in the day God made the earth and the heavens, He made the plants of the field which, spiritually, represent God’s elect. They would be the “fruit” that would come forth once the Gospel was sent forth into the world. They would experience the blessing of God’s salvation program. Once we have this firmly in our minds, we see that God is continually looking at things as being “finished” before He created them and the reason is that He is continually directing our attention to this wonderful truth.

It is really sad that there are some people that continue to insist that Christ died for sins in 33AD and shed His blood and God, in principal, applied that blood to all the Old Testament saints before the blood had actually been shed. The Bible does not teach the shedding of blood being done “in principal.”

The Bible also says that Christ is the firstborn from the dead, but when we look at the Old Testament we see that Moses died. Moses appeared on the Mount of Transfiguration along with Elijah and they were talking with Jesus, but Jesus had not yet died on the cross. Moses had to be resurrected in order to appear on the Mount of Transfiguration. Since he had died, then he had to be resurrected. Is that not being raised or born from the dead? This happened prior to Christ dying in 33AD and rising from the dead, so this is another contradiction. But the theologians say, “Well, it was in principal that Christ was firstborn from the dead.” Everything is in principal, even though the Bible says in two places in the Book of Revelation that Christ died from the foundation of the world. That is an easy thing to do for theologians to ponder things and, since they cannot explain them, they come up with a statement that it was “in principal.” However, they are continually contradicting the Bible with this idea of it being “in principal.” The Bible does not say that Christ was the Lamb slain “in principal” or that Jesus was the firstborn from the dead “in principal.” It does not say that without the shedding of blood “in principal” there can be no remission of sins.

There are all kinds of difficulties until you see the proper order of things. Yes, it is true that God waited until the time of the end of the world to open up this information and to reveal to us the proper order of things concerning the atoning work of Christ. I do not know why the Lord did this, but He did. All you have to do is examine church history and the writings of theologians and you will see how they stumbled in this matter all throughout history, but some would say, “Well, all through history the churches have taught that Christ died (for sin) in 33AD.” Yes, but they stumbled on this subject all through their history, so that is no reason to maintain a doctrine that cannot answer these questions except to say that Christ died “in principal” from the foundation of the world. That is not a sufficient answer. You have to harmonize the Word of God and we have been seeing great harmony.

We do not have a problem with there being first the need for the shedding of blood before the remission of sins because Christ shed His blood from the foundation of the world. We do not have a problem with Christ being the firstborn from the dead because He died from the foundation of the world before there were any people, so, of course, He is the firstborn from the dead. Everything fits very easily, does it not? We do not have to jam it into place, like forcing a square into a circle. It all fits very well because of this one bit of information. It is a humbling bit of information and it is the reason why many refuse to submit to it because it is very humbling if you thought that you knew what took place at the cross in 33AD and then you came to the realization that you did not know anything about it. It was only a demonstration or tableau; Christ was showing forth what He had done from the foundation of the world. It is very humbling and that is the nature of the Bible. It makes us come to the point where our pride has to be sacrificed and we have to bow the knee and submit ourselves to the Bible’s teachings. It is different for different people, but some refuse to bow the knee on different points of doctrine. They refuse to humble themselves before the Word of God. It is God’s Gospel. It is God’s Bible. It is God’s doctrine that Christ was slain from the foundation of the world and at that point payment was made in deed. It was made in actual work and not in principal.