March, 1937
THE K I N G ' S BUS I NE S S
93
IN T E R N A T IO N A L L E S SO N Commentary Outline and Exposition Blackboard Lesson Children's Division Golden Text Illustration Object Lesson B y B, B. S utcliffe B y G retchen S ibley B y H elen G ailey B y A lan S. P earce B y E lmer L. W ilder Points and Problems B y A lva J. M c C lain , Dean, Ashland Theological Seminary, Ashland, Ohio
APRIL 4, 1937 GOD THE CREATOR G enesis 1:1 to 2:25
of the sea. Third, man’s creation was by God’s direct and immediate act: “ So God created man” (v. 27). Certainly this state ment is not the description of progressive development by natural or unnatural selec tion, until a climax is reached in the arrival of man. But it is a declaration of the cre ative act of God by which man came into being. The first man was a vegetarian (vs. 29, 30). There was no meat eaten until after the flood, and then restriction was made against eating meat with the blood (Gen. 9). “The life . . . is in the blood” (Lev. 17:11), and God would teach His people, in type and symbol, that it required the giving of life—the shedding of blood—to make atonement for the squl. Where sin dwells, meat is eaten by both man and beast; in the coming day, when sin shall be no more, all upon earth will be vege tarians. T o regard vegetarianism as a re ligion is heresy. The original creation—all things animate and inanimate—was good, even to the tree of the knowledge of good and evil (v. 31). Some teach that the tree of which man was commanded not to eat was somehow evil in itself. There was nothing inherently evil in the tree. It was man’s use of it which constituted the evil. Points and Problems “ And the earth was waste and void” (Gen. 1:2, R.V.). This cannot be a de scription of the original creation recorded in verse 1, but rather describes a later condition of ruin brought upon the earth by divine judgment, and from which it is rehabilitated by the creative work of verses 3-31. This view is supported by the fol lowing reasons: 1. If the terms “waste” and "void” de scribe the original creation of verse 1, as many argue, why should the writer of Genesis mention only the earth as being in that condition ? Why are not the “ heavens” also waste and void ? This omission is significant. 2. If God began by creating a universe in a “waste and void” condition, then cer tainly His work was highly imperfect. But we know the uniform teaching of the Bible is that God’s work is always perfect (cf. Deuteronomy 32:4: “ His work is perfect” ). For example, God did not create man in a sinful state. Man became a sinner. 3. As used elsewhere in the Bible, the Hebrew words rendered “waste and void” describe a condition clearly produced by a visitation of divine judgment. See Isaiah 34:11, where the same Hebrew words are translated “confusion” and “ emptiness.” See also Jeremiah 4:23, “without form, and void.” 4. A statement in Isaiah 45:18 is abso lutely conclusive. Here -God Himself de clares that He did not create the earth in
Lesson Text: Genesis 1:1-5, 26-31. Golden Text: “ In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth” (Gen. 1 : 1 ). Outline and Exposition I. C reation of the U niverse (1) G enesis 1:1 is perhaps the most stupen dous statement ever written, and if is the basis of all that follows in the Scriptures. “ In the beginning God . . The word translated “ God” is the word used for the Creator, Elohim. No proof is offered here concerning the existence of God. The Bible declares His existence, and leaves it to man’s instinct as a creature to rely upon God with trustfulness; to man’s conscience as a moral creature to acknowledge God with reverence; and to man’s reason as a ra tional moral creature to recognize God with obedience. God’s glory, handiwork, power, and diety are all revealed in creation (Psa. 19:1; Rom. 1:20); but His nature, which is love, and His character—expressed in His holiness, justice, and grace—are re vealed at the cross of Calvary. “ In the beginning God created . . .” The word “created” is one which means to orig inate, or to make something out of nothing, not out of existing material. “ In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth.” In other words, at a time which no one can determine definitely, a Being whom no one ever saw, took nothing and from it created the heaven and the earth. What a stupendous statement is Genesis 1:1! It is an appeal to faith, not to reason, although to accept it is a most reasonable procedure. II. T he R enovation of the R uin (2-5) , Elsewhere in the Word of God we are told that God did not create the world “ a void” (cf. Isa. 45:18). Hence, between the time represented in verse 1 and that men tioned in verse 2, some great catastrophe must have occurred, covering an indefinite period of time. What this occurrence was we are not told. Within that undescribed period, between verses 1 and 2, all the ages demanded by geology may be placed. In other words, the earth was created in the manner stated in verse 1. Later, the earth fell into the ruin described in verse 2, and [ These lessons are developed from out lines prepared by the Committee on Im proved Uniform Lessons of the International Council. The outlines are copyrighted by the International Council of Religious Edu cation and used by permission. — E ditor .]
God began to repair that ruin. The six days of labor cited in the first chapter of Genesis were not days of creation, but rather days of renovation. The word “create” as used in this chap ter is applied to three great mysteries for which science apart from the Word of God •has no explanation. First, How did matter come to be? Following the methods of sci entific research and yet failing to discover a satisfactory answer to this question, men are now saying that matter must be eternal, that it always existed. The Bible declares that God created matter. Second, How did life on this planet come to be? Kant says, “ Give me matter and I can explain the formation of the universe. But give me matter alone and I cannot explain the for mation of a caterpillar.” In substance, this is what such men as Pasteur, Huxley, Car penter, and others have said. The Bible as serts that God created life. Third, How did man come to be on earth? T o ascribe man’s existence to the process of evolution is perhaps the best answer that can he made by one who does not accept the Bible record, but evolution is itself merely an hypothesis, a guess, which needs to have its own mysteries explained. The Bible says plainly that God created man. We must learn to prove our science by the Bible, not the Bible by our science. Reason states that “every house is builded by some man” ; Faith understands that “ he that built all things is God” (Heb. 3:4). III. T he C reation of M an (26-31) First, man’s creation was the result of God’s decision: “Let us make man” (v. 26). There was no self-determination on man’s part, conscious or unconscious. Second, man’s creation was to fulfill God’s purpose: “Let them have dominion” (v. 26; cf. v. 28). Man was to be lord of all creation, but through sin he lost his lordship. When He was on earth, the Second Man, Jesus Christ, exercised man’s dominion, being obeyed by the forces of nature and even by the fish
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