In today’s video, we discuss the sixth and seventh days of Creation.
On the sixth day of Creation, God created “the beasts of the field” (land animals) including the wild beasts, livestock and “creeping things” (insects). On the sixth day, God also created mankind in His Image, both male and female. God gave mankind DOMINION over the earth, including all of the animals and plants. Mankind was given authority and responsibility to bring the material world and all of its elements into the service of God. When God gave humanity dominion over the animals, it was in order to care for, tend to, and use those animals to their fullest potential in a just manner. At the time that God gave mankind dominion over the animals, humans did not eat meat (Genesis 1:29). Eating meat did not begin until after the Flood (Genesis 9:1–3), and it was at that time that animals started to fear humans. However, although God changed the way we interact with animals (livestock), in that they are now “meat,” we still bear a responsibility to treat animals humanely. Human rule over animals does not mean we have the right to mistreat or misuse those animals. Any misuse or mistreatment of God’s creation is the result of sin, not the result of following God’s original command.
At the end of the sixth day, God declared His entire Creation to be “very good“, meaning that it was working exactly as DESIGNED. In God’s entire creation, from the smallest subatomic particle to the largest galaxy spinning in space, everything worked exactly as He planned.
In his book, Not the Way It’s Supposed to Be, Cornelius Planting defines shalom (the state of being which mankind had prior to “THE FALL”) as:
The webbing together of God, humans, and all creation in justice, fulfillment, and delight…Shalom means universal flourishing, wholeness and delight – a rich state of affairs in which natural needs are satisfied and natural gifts fruitfully employed, Shalom, in other words, is the way things ought to be.… The full flourishing of human life in all aspects, as God intended it to be.
On the sixth day of Creation, God was glorified by His Creation that worked exactly as He had designed it. There was no evolution necessary to complete God’s Creation. God created everything “according to its kind” in six twenty-four hour days. On Day 6 of Creation, there was perfect shalom so God RESTED on the seventh day.
Genesis 1:24 Then God said, “Let the earth produce living creatures according to their kind: livestock and crawling things and animals of the earth according to their kind”; and it was so. 25 God made the animals of the earth according to their kind, and the livestock according to their kind, and everything that crawls on the ground according to its kind; and God saw that it was good.
26 Then God said, “Let Us make mankind in Our (Father/Son/Holy Spirit) image, according to Our likeness; and let them rule over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the sky and over the livestock and over all the earth, and over every crawling thing that crawls on the earth.” 27 So God created man in His own image, in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them. 28 God blessed them; and God said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth, and subdue it; and rule over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the sky and over every living thing that moves on the earth.”
29 Then God said, “Behold, I have given you every plant yielding seed that is on the surface of all the earth, and every tree which has fruit yielding seed; it shall be food for you; 30 and to every animal of the earth and to every bird of the sky and to everything that moves on the earth which has life, I have given every green plant for food”; and it was so. 31 And God saw all that He had made, and behold, it was very good. And there was evening and there was morning, the sixth day.
The pinnacle of God’s Creation is mankind who is made in the IMAGE of GOD. Mankind was created to be God’s image on the earth, His tzelem.
H6754 צֶלֶם tṣelem: A masculine noun meaning an image, a likeness, a statue, a model, a drawing, a shadow.
Mankind is the image or tzelem of Elohim (Triune God – Father/Son/Holy Spirit) on the earth. In Hebrew thought, this isn’t only about one’s appearance, rather it one’s purpose and actions. YHWH (God the Father) placed within mankind (both male and female) a shadow or likeness of His character and will. We are YHWH’s representatives in the earth, His image or shadow bearers. In all of God’s creation, only mankind was to resemble God and was given the purpose of ruling over the earth as God’s Tzelem.
Genesis 1: 27 So God created man in His own image, in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them. 28 God blessed them; and God said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth, and subdue it; and rule over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the sky and over every living thing that moves on the earth.”
As God’s tzelem (image/shadow) on this earth, mankind has been given great responsibility and infinite worth. Our words, deeds and actions are supposed to glorify the God who created us; however, when we rebel against God, setting up idols or walking according to our own ways, we tarnish God’s tzelem. Our fallen condition tarnishes the tzelem of God.
In Psalm 73, the Psalmist asks God the question “Why do the wicked seem to prosper”? God’s response lets us know that the wicked only prosper for a short while. Eventually, they will disappear because they have tarnished the image (tzelem) of God. To God, they have become like the beast that they worship…the devil (satan).
Psalm 73:19: How they are destroyed in a moment!
They are utterly swept away by sudden terrors!
20 Like a dream when one awakes,
Lord, when stirred, You will despise their image. (tzelem)
- Mankind is created to be God’s tzelem (Gen 1:26-27).
- Dominion over all living and nonliving things arises from being the tzelem of God (Gen 1:26, cf Psalm 8:4-8)
- The tzelem is passed from father to son (Gen 5:3); however, “the fall” has caused God’s tzelem to be marred and tainted by the sin nature.
- To murder a person is anathema to God because the murdered person is God’s tzelem (even in the fallen condition). This also includes speaking curses over people who are made in the image of God. (James 3:9)
- Only the blood of Jesus Christ can wash away all sin and restore God’s tzelem to HIS original purpose and design. (Hebrews 9:22)
- A disordered tzelem leads to a life without thought or purpose and constitutes a recipe for disaster. (Psalm 39:6)
- God judges people by how they lived out their lives as HIS tzelem (Psalm 73:20). The only way to have HIS tzelem restored TO US is through the shed blood of Jesus Christ. When we receive God’s forgiveness of sin, only then can God TRANSFORM our HEARTS and LIVES so HIS tzelem can be restored.
God created Adam from the dust of the earth and then breathed the BREATH of LIFE into his nostrils. With the rest of creation, God had simply spoken things into existence, but God does things differently with man who is made in YHWH’s image. What was will be again…What happened at the beginning happens at the end. There is nothing new under the sun. God is RESTORING His Creation, He is making ALL THINGS NEW THROUGH HIS WORD (JESUS CHRIST).
Genesis 2:7: Then the Lord God formed the man (Adam is the Hebrew word for “man”) of dust from the ground (Adama), and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and the man became a living soul.
John 20:21: So Jesus (Resurrected Jesus) said to them again, “Peace be to you; just as the Father has sent Me, I also send you.” 22 And when He had said this, He breathed on them and *said to them, “Receive the Holy Spirit. 23 If you forgive the sins of any, their sins have been forgiven them; if you retain the sins of any, they have been retained.”
God created mankind out of MIREY CLAY (dust of the earth)…and breathed HIS BREATH of LIFE into us. 🕊️ Today (in these last days), when we RECEIVE Jesus Christ as our SAVIOR and LORD, God again BREATHES His Breath (RUACH/HOLY SPIRIT) into us…and our spirits that had died because of the fall…RESURRECT and come to LIFE. Eventually, our bodies will also come to LIFE as we change from mortal to immortal in an instant, in the twinkling of an eye, at the LAST TRUMP. This is the Blessed Hope!🥰
NEW FINDING BACKS IDEA THAT LIFE STARTED IN CLAY RATHER THAN SEA
“Scientists in California yesterday reported a major discovery that supports the emerging theory that life on earth began in clay rather than the sea.“
“Dr. Cairns-Smith argued that inorganic ”proto-organisms” in clay were not only precursors of the building- block molecules of life, such as amino acids but also may have provided a transitional evolutionary structure for it. That is, the synthesis of later living organisms based on organic compounds, consisting primarily of the element carbon could have been initially directed by an inorganic pattern, or template, developed in clay.“
Because mankind is created in the IMAGE OF YHWH, we have HUMAN DIGNITY. We, as Christ followers, are called to treat all of humanity with kindness and love…even our enemies and those who seek our lives.
The Biblical story that comes into my mind that expounds on this thought can be found in 1 Samuel, Chapters 24 – 29. In this story, Israel’s King Saul had gone completely mad with hatred and jealousy towards David, and was seeking to take David’s life. As a matter of fact, David spent several years running from King Saul, who sought to kill him. But… there is a point in the story where David is given the opportunity to take the life of his pursuer, and refuses to do so. One would think that David would be happy to remove the threat from his life. However, David refused to kill King Saul when given the chance because at one time been Saul had been anointed by God. David understood that even though the evil, wicked King Saul had FALLEN from God’s Grace, he had at one time (in the past) been anointed by God.😲
1 Samuel 26: 1: Then David said to Ahimelech the Hittite and to Abishai the son of Zeruiah, Joab’s brother, saying, “Who will go down with me to Saul in the camp?” And Abishai said, “I will go down with you.” 7 So David and Abishai came to the people by night, and behold, Saul lay sleeping inside the circle of the camp with his spear stuck in the ground at his head; and Abner and the people were lying around him. 8 Then Abishai said to David, “Today God has handed your enemy over to you; now then, please let me pin him with the spear to the ground with one thrust, and I will not do it to him a second time.”
9 But David said to Abishai, “Do not kill him, for who can reach out with his hand against the Lord’s anointed and remain innocent?” 10 David also said, “As the Lord lives, the Lord certainly will strike him, or his day will come that he dies, or he will go down in battle and perish. 11 The Lord forbid that I would reach out with my hand against the Lord’s anointed!
So it is with mankind. Sometimes hard to grasp…even evil people, at one time, were made in the image of YHWH…just as we are also. Although they have chosen evil, we should not let our hearts be hardened toward them resulting in anger (rage), hatred, or evil actions. Jesus Christ taught us to love our enemies and pray for those who persecute us. We need to do this because our enemies were also made in the image of YHWH. They have tarnished His image, for sure (as have we because all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God)....but somehow this story from the book of Kings is on my heart as to how we are to treat and and care about evil people…even when they are totally UNLOVEABLE and seek to KILL US. This is like the mark of Cain and not being allowed to kill an evil person (hate is like killing)…Evil begets more evil.
Genesis 4:9: Then the Lord said to Cain, “Where is Abel your brother?” And he said, “I do not know. Am I my brother’s keeper?” 10 Then He said, “What have you done? The voice of your brother’s blood is crying out to Me from the ground. 11 Now you are cursed from the ground, which has opened its mouth to receive your brother’s blood from your hand.
12 When you cultivate the ground, it will no longer yield its strength to you; you will be a wanderer and a drifter on the earth.” 13 Cain said to the Lord, “My punishment is too great to endure! 14 Behold, You have driven me this day from the face of the ground; and I will be hidden from Your face, and I will be a wanderer and a drifter on the earth, and whoever finds me will kill me.” 15 So the Lord said to him, “Therefore whoever kills Cain, vengeance will be taken on him seven times as much.” And the Lord placed a mark on Cain, so that no one finding him would kill him.
Genesis 4 tells us that evil multiplies, and so does its punishment. God put a mark on Cain, the first murderer, so that whoever took vengeance out on him would receive seven times the punishment! Evil truly does beget evil. When we see evil in the world and our hearts become angry to the point of hatred and desiring revenge, then we also become evil. Jesus grants us the solution to this problem. We are to love our enemies (seek what is best for them) because in doing so we honor and respect the name and image of our FATHER in HEAVEN…YHWH, and His Beautiful Son Jesus Christ….our YAHshua. 💕 The Bible tells us that by our obedience in loving our enemies, we heap “burning coals onto their head”…we have now handed their judgment to God…and believe me, if fully understood and grasped, they would far rather have had to deal with human vengeance than with God’s judgment.
Romans 12: 19 Never take your own revenge, beloved, but leave room for the wrath of God, for it is written: “Vengeance is Mine, I will repay,” says the Lord. 20 “But if your enemy is hungry, feed him; if he is thirsty, give him a drink; for in so doing you will heap burning coals on his head.” 21 Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good.
Be assured….God tells us what will happen to wicked people who choose evil and refuse to repent. As Saul was eventually killed in battle because of his wickedness and sin, evil people will eventually be JUDGED BY GOD and disappear like dust on the threshing floor. God says vengeance is HIS…He will repay. It is a terrifying thing to fall into the hands of the LIVING GOD.😲
In the end, sin and it’s ugly cousin death will be eliminated and cease to exist. God’s Kingdom on earth will be a sinless, everlasting (eternal) kingdom. The end is like the beginning. The Kingdom of God > Garden of Eden. In the beginning of God’s creation, there was no sin, sickness or death. Men and women were created in God’s image…to be God’s tzelem on this earth, and that is what we SHALL be.
God fashioned man’s body out of clay and then breathed the breath of life into his nostrils. God then took a “rib” from Adam’s side and fashioned Eve (ḥaûâ (Havah), means LIFE). A primary purpose of the rib is to protect the heart. 💕When the woman was brought to Adam, the man said,
“This is now bone of my bones
and flesh of my flesh;
she shall be called ‘woman,’ (isha/wife)
for she was taken out of man” (verse 23).
God wrote His love story for mankind in the beginning, in His creation of Adam and Eve. First there was Adam, and he did not have a companion like the animals did. This is a picture of God, how He did not have a companion suitable for HIMSELF.
Genesis 2:20 And the man gave names to all the livestock, and to the birds of the air, and to every animal of the field; but for Adam there was not found a helper [that was] suitable (a companion) for him.
The woman made of Adam’s rib was designed to be Adam’s companion and “helper suitable” for Adam (Genesis 2:18). Eve, formed from a physical part of Adam, was truly his complement, an integral part of who he was. As such, she was a perfect companion.
Genesis 2:24: For this reason a man shall leave his father and his mother, and be joined to his wife; and they shall become one flesh. 25 And the man and his wife were both naked, but they were not ashamed.
Satan recognizes the message that God is conveying in the way that He created Adam first and then Eve from Adam’s rib. This is why satan despises women so much. As we will see in the next video, satan directly targets Eve, not Adam…in his wicked plan to destroy mankind. And it was Eve who was DECEIVED.😯
Genesis 3:15: “And I will put enmity (open hostility)
Between you (satan) and the woman,
And between your seed (offspring) and her Seed;
He shall [fatally] bruise your head,
And you shall [only] bruise His heel.”Daniel 11:37: He (antichrist) will have no regard for the gods of his fathers or for the desire of women, nor will he have regard for any other god, for he shall magnify himself above them all.
In the story of creation, Adam is a picture or “type” of God’s position and Eve represents man, whom God created in His image to be a suitable companion to Him. God created us male and female and gave us marriage in order to give us a picture of the kind of relationship that God wants to have with us. God uses marriage as a metaphor for the relationship between God and Israel and also between Christ and the church.
Jeremiah 31:32 not like the covenant which I made with their fathers in the day when I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt, My covenant which they broke, although I was a husband to them,” says the Lord.
Revelation 19:7: Let us rejoice and shout for joy! Let us give Him glory and honor, for the marriage of the Lamb has come [at last] and His bride (the redeemed) has prepared herself.”
The COVENANT of marriage is supposed to be a relationship where there is deep love and a desire to share life together, in a life long companionship. Unfortunately, very few of us have come to this understanding and have chased after Jesus with our whole heart, like a bride who chases after the one she loves, in hopes that he will choose her for his bride. Those who have chased after Jesus’ heart💕 in this way are His bride.
God created both males and females to be His image bearers on the earth. The purpose of mankind is to be fruitful and multiply and subdue (rule) the earth as YHWH’s tzelem. In order to accomplish this, God established the COVENANT of marriage in the Garden of Eden. The manner of Eve’s creation is “why a man leaves his father and mother and is united to his wife, and they become one flesh.” The unity of a married couple and the “one flesh” principle is based on the fact that God used one of Adam’s ribs to make the woman. Adam and Eve literally began as “one flesh”, and in the Covenant of marriage, they return to being “one flesh” spiritually. When a person believes in Jesus Christ, they receive His Holy Spirit, a foretaste of the feast to come. When you are a believer in Christ, you are no longer a “me”, you are a “we”. The two become one flesh. At the marriage supper of the Lamb, this will become evident in a very powerful way.
John 14:20: At that day you will know that I am in My Father, and you in Me, and I in you.
John 14:23: Jesus answered and said to him, “If anyone loves Me, he will follow My word; and My Father will love him, and We will come to him and make Our dwelling with him.
God uses the marriage covenant between one man and one woman (love) as the prescribed vehicle for bringing new life into the world (children). Union with Jesus Christ brings LIFE. Marriage is important to God because He is glorified through it. However, when we pervert the marriage covenant through fornication, adultery, or homosexuality, God’s image is tarnished and He is not glorified. Of course satan loves it when mankind tarnishes YHWH’s image, which is why he PROMOTES sexual sin, calling it “good”. Just look at movies, TV shows, and even commercials. The airways are FULL of subliminal messages tempting man to sin. The enemy’s desire is to tempt mankind into sin and then accuse us before a Holy God in order to grieve God, who LOVES mankind and to bring about the ultimate destruction of mankind. The soul that sins will die. Satan knows this very well, but keeps this truth hidden from man. In-fact, satan has also managed to deceive the vast majority of mankind into believing that there is no such thing as “sin”. It’s easier to get people to sin if they don’t believe that sin exists, that there is no moral absolute, that truth and morality are relative. Think about that for a moment. The one who is convincing everyone that ‘homosexuality is a perfectly normal, valid lifestyle”…is right now (as we speak), at the Throne of YHWH, ACCUSING those who believed his lies so that they will be destroyed.
Sadly, so much of mankind is falling right into satan’s trap…that leads to death.😥
However, in the beginning there was no sin. God placed Adam and Eve in “Eden” (unspoiled paradise). The Lord gave Adam and Eve every delicious plant to be their food. The Lord also placed two important trees in the Garden of Eden:
- The Tree of LIFE🌳
- The Tree of the knowledge of good and evil.💀
Why were both of these trees present in the garden? The Bible is not clear on that; however, we will soon discover (next video) that these trees are an integral part of will soon happen next. (THE FALL OF MANKIND)
There was also a great river that flowed out of the Garden of Eden that divided into 4 rivers – Pishon, Gihon, Tigris, and Euphrates. The Tigris and Euphrates still exist today and are in the Middle East.
Genesis 2:10: Now a river flowed out of Eden to water the garden; and from there it divided and became four rivers. 11 The name of the first is Pishon; it flows around the whole land of Havilah, where there is gold. 12 The gold of that land is good; the bdellium and the onyx stone are there as well. 13 The name of the second river is Gihon; it flows around the whole land of Cush. 14 The name of the third river is Tigris; it flows east of Assyria. And the fourth river is the Euphrates.
The first river was called PISHON, which means INCREASE. It encircled the territory of Havillah where 3 precious stones were produced; Gold, Bdellium and Onyx.
God declares the end out of the beginning. Notice how there was a RIVER flowing out of the Garden of Eden, and at the time of the end, there is CRYSTAL, CLEAR water flowing out of God’s Throne which will be set up in Jerusalem when Jesus returns to earth.
Revelation 22: 1: And he showed me a river of the water of life, clear as crystal, coming from the throne of God and of the Lamb (Jesus Christ), 2 in the middle of its street. On either side of the river was the tree of life, bearing twelve kinds of fruit, yielding its fruit every month; and the leaves of the tree were for the healing of the nations
A sister in Christ who has dreams and visions of the Lord and of Heaven described the water that flows from the Throne of God.
“As I looked down, it literally looked like a massive tree, a massive living tree of water.”
In Revelation 22, the “water of life” does not have to be considered merely physical water as we know it. Rather, the water flowing from the throne is also symbolic of the water of eternal life, crystal clear to reflect the glory of God in a dazzling, never-ending stream. The fact that the stream emanates from the throne tells us that eternal life flows from God to His people all over the earth.⛲ Perhaps this is why our sister in Christ saw (in a vision) the living water flowing from God’s Throne and branching out as almost another representation or metaphor for the Tree of Life.🌳
Psalm 46:4: There is a river, ⛲the streams whereof shall make glad the city of God, the holy place of the tabernacles of the most High.
Psalm 36:8: They shall be abundantly satisfied with the fatness of your house; and you shall make them drink of the river of your pleasures.⛲
Jeremiah 2:13: For my people have committed two evils; they have forsaken me the fountain of living waters⛲, and hewed them out cisterns, broken cisterns, that can hold no water.
The Living waters were present in the beginning — before all things. In Hebraic tradition, time doesn’t run on some infinite straight line, it is a circle or a cycle according to what we see in the creation. What is happening in the beginning will also happen at the end, completing the divine pattern or cycle. What do we see at the end?
Rev. 7:17 for the Lamb in the center of the throne will be their shepherd, and will guide them to springs of the water of life⛲; and God will wipe every tear from their eyes.”
Rev. 21:6 Then He said to me, “It is done. I am the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end. I will give to the one who thirsts from the spring of the water of life ⛲without cost.
Rev. 22:1 Then he showed me a river of the water of life⛲, clear as crystal, coming from the throne of God and of the Lamb,
The River of Life (like Messiah) was, is, and is to come. It has always been there flowing from the Throne of YHWH.
Imagine the River of Life as the source or center branch, fueling or feeding the outer six branches, giving them Life. The rivers are given to us in the following order in Genesis chapter two: Pishon, Gihon, Tigris, and Perat (Euphrates). Imagining the menorah, Pishon would be on the first (outside) branch, Gihon on the second, the Tigris on the third, and the Euphrates (inside) on the fourth branch. Since four represents the whole or seven, the first three rivers connect chiastically to their counterpart on the other side of the menorah. Notice how one and seven mirror one another as do two and six and three and five. Moreover, you can trace with your finger how they are indeed connected at the base; yet the source for them all is the Messiah or the River of Life. By the way, this “mirroring” or chiastic structure is also true for the seven days of creation, the seven Spirits of God, the seven feast days, and the many sevens found in the Book of Revelation.
Genesis 2:2: And so the heavens and the earth were completed, and all their heavenly lights. 2 By the seventh day God completed His work which He had done, and He rested on the seventh day from all His work which He had done. 3 Then God blessed the seventh day and sanctified it, because on it He rested from all His work which God had created and made.
On the seventh day, God rested. The Hebrew word (šāḇaṯ)“rested” in Genesis 2:2 lets us know that God did not rest because He was tired. God does not get tired. God rested because His work was complete and perfect, everything functioning exactly as it had been designed. Living Water was flowing to His Creation from the River of Life. So God declared His Creation to be “very good”, and He rested. God was establishing the principal of the Sabbath (Shabat) which would ultimately point to our Messiah Yahushua (Jesus) who IS our Sabbath Rest. Mankind is to work for 6 days and rest on the seventh. Seven is the number of completion. On the Cross, Jesus Christ said “It is Finished” (tetelestai), and then He gave up His Spirit. Our work will never be enough to obtain a right relationship with God. God, Himself, completed all of the work necessary for both creation and salvation. Mankind is commanded to REST from our work and TRUST that Jesus Christ, who IS our Sabbath’s rest, is enough. (Hebrews 4:1-13).
Ultimately we will find perfect REST from sin, from satan’s attacks, from death and suffering…in the KINGDOM OF GOD.
Hebrews 4: 7 He again sets a certain day, “Today,” saying through David after so long a time just as has been said before,
“Today if you hear His voice,
Do not harden your hearts.”8 For if Joshua had given them rest, He would not have spoken of another day after that. 9 Consequently, there remains a Sabbath rest for the people of God.
