TRANSCRIPT: Verse By Verse Study (Genesis 1:3 to 1:31 ): Zac Poonen

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Then we read in verse 4 that God saw that the light was good, and God separated the light from the darkness.

God is Light

Now the first message we read right there in the beginning of Genesis is God making light and seeing that the light was good. If you turn to the first epistle of John in the New Testament, he says there that we are proclaiming to you that eternal life, verse 2, which was with the Father, 1 John 1:2.

And verse 4, these things we write so that our joy may be made complete. And what is the first message he has to give? He says this is the message, and it’s very important to understand, the first message the Apostle John has to give to those to whom he’s writing is, “This is the message we have heard from Him and announce to you, that God is light, and in Him there is no darkness at all. If we say we fellowship with Him and we walk in darkness, we lie and do not practice the truth.”

For example, it goes on to say in chapter 2, verse 9, “The one who says he is in the light and yet hates his brother is in darkness,” because there is no such hatred in God. God is light. God hates sin, but He doesn’t hate people. God loves people. He hates sin. And so we see here that God is light, and in Him there is no darkness at all.

The Spiritual Symbolism of Light and Darkness

Having read those verses, we can come back to Genesis chapter 1 and see what is the spiritual symbolism here in verse 4 of Genesis 1. God saw that the light was good. Jesus once said to a rich young ruler, “Why do you call me good? There is no one good but God.” It is the life of God alone which is good. That is light.

And God separated the light from the darkness. It is very important to see that separation is not always brought by the devil. Division or separation is sometimes brought by God. We read here that right in the first paragraph of the Bible, God made a separation.

There has always been a separation that God has made from darkness to light. God saw the light was good, and the very next thing He did was He separated the light from the darkness.

Now we can say, according to God’s word, that that light is first of all, as we have just mentioned, God’s word itself. God’s word is a lamp to our feet and a light to our path. We also saw in John 1:4 that the life of Jesus, that is also a light. “In Him was life, and that life was the light of men.” So we can say that that light symbolizes two things. First of all, the written word of God, and secondly, the living word of God, that is Jesus, his life.

And those are the only two lights that we have in the world, the written word and the life of Jesus. And concerning both of these, God saw, God inspected it, and saw that it was good. He’s inspected His word and found that was good, He inspected the life of Jesus and said that was good. Now, the very next thing He does, after inspecting light and seeing that it’s good, is separating light from darkness.

Mixing Darkness with Light

What does that mean? We can say that when men add the traditions of the Church to the written word of God, it becomes a mixing of darkness with light. And what does God do? It says there in verse 4, He separates the light from the darkness.

When Jesus came to the earth, the Pharisees had mingled a lot of their traditions and the traditions of the elders that had been handed down for many, many centuries with the written Old Testament. So the people there in those days had a mixed message. It was the word of God, light, mixed with the darkness of human traditions. And what did Jesus do when he came there?

He separated the darkness from the light. And he rebuked the Pharisees in saying, he told them in Mark chapter 7, “You have cancelled the word of God by holding on to your traditions.” See that verse, in Mark’s Gospel chapter 7, verse 8: “Neglecting the commandment of God, you hold to the tradition of men.”

When you have traditions mixed with the word of God, the end result always is, Mark 7:8, the word of God tends to be neglected and the traditions of men tend to be exalted. You find that, for example, in the Roman Catholic Church. The word of God mixed with the traditions of men, the end result is the traditions of men have more importance than God’s word.

The second thing is, verse 9, “You nicely set aside the commandment of God in order to keep your tradition.” In other words, the next step is, because of tradition, they reject God’s word. The tradition of the Church is more important than God’s word. And Jesus said, verse 13, “You invalidate the word of God by your tradition.” They neglect it, verse 7, they set it aside, and finally, verse 13, cancel out the word of God altogether.

So there’s a tremendous danger when you mix human traditions with God’s word. And so what did God do? God separated the light from the darkness. Jesus came into the midst of that Jewish system and he separated the word of God from human traditions.

The Church as the Light of the World

And now, here is this, we said that God’s word is a light, we said that the life of Jesus was a light. And do you know that the word of God says there’s something else which is the light? What’s that? That’s us.

Jesus told his disciples in Matthew 5:16, “You are the light of the world.” Now that Jesus has ascended and gone up to heaven, and he himself is not here, but he has left the Church as a light. And what is the Church to do? The Church has to do the same thing that Jesus did, separate human traditions from God’s word.

Because God sees the light is good, and He doesn’t want a sort of a mingling of the light and the darkness together, and so there has to be a separation of the light from the darkness. It’s God who does it. He did it in Genesis 1 Himself, He did it in the Gospels through Jesus Christ, and He does it today through the Church. And through the ministries in the Church, exposing human tradition and throwing it into the garbage bin.

Picking up human traditions one by one and throwing them in the garbage bin. Picking up human traditions one after the other and throwing them all in the garbage bin. It’s the same ministry which God began in Genesis chapter 1. Because He sees the light is good, He does not want the light mixed up with the darkness.

And when this happens, then we find that the Pharisees are angry. Then the Pharisees were angry with Jesus, and today’s Pharisees are also angry with those who separate tradition from the word of God. And therefore, those who stand for that will face the same fate as Jesus faced, and that is hostility from religious rulers.

Separating Light from Darkness

I want to turn to 2 Corinthians now. We looked at this verse last time, 2 Corinthians 4:6: “For God who said, ‘Light shall shine out of darkness,’ this is quoting Genesis chapter 1, is the one who has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.” The first thing it says in 2 Corinthians 4, this is a commentary on Genesis 1, is shining into our hearts and giving us the revelation of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. What’s the next thing?

We turn over to chapter 6 and verse 14, and it says here, “Do not be bound together with unbelievers, for what partnership have righteousness and lawlessness, or what fellowship has light with darkness? Therefore, verse 17, come out from their midst and be separate, says the Lord. Light cannot mingle with darkness. Therefore, be separate.”

This is the commentary of the New Testament on Genesis 1:4. God separated Himself in Genesis 1. He separated it through Jesus, when Jesus was on earth, and He separates light from darkness today through the Church. First of all, as I said, the separation of the word of God from human traditions.

This is why, through the centuries, different groups of Christians have pulled out of some old religious system, some old Christian religious system, because they found that old Christian religious system was corrupt, mixed with traditions. So a few of them who wanted the pure light separated. After some time, this group that separated got its own traditions, and again this became a mingling of light and darkness. Another group came out of this, separating light from darkness.

And after a few, 50, 60, 100 years, this group has its own traditions, again mingles darkness with light, and so another group of wholehearted came out of that one. And in the history of Christianity, particularly in the last 400 years, that’s happened again and again and again, unfortunately. But in one sense, in a good way. It was a good thing, because there’s always been a pure testimony, because some people dared to come out of a mingling of light and darkness, because they saw right in the first page of the Bible that God saw the light was good, and He does not like a mingling of light and darkness, so they pulled out.

Wherever they found the word of God and tradition mixed up, they pulled out.

Fighting Against Human Traditions

Now, what can we learn from history? We can learn from Church history that the greatest danger that any group faces when they pull out of another is that after some time, they can form certain traditions of their own, and add it, and teach it, along with God’s word, as though this has equal importance. And that’s why, my brothers and sisters as a Church, we have to fight.

Fight human traditions. It’s a much greater battle to fight tradition than to fight sin, because sin everybody sees as evil. Traditions people don’t. For example, you try throwing Christmas out of some churches, and you’ll find opposition. And yet, can you find a single verse about Christmas in the entire New Testament? No. But you try throwing it out of some churches, and you’ll find opposition. Tradition is awful.

You can talk about sin, evil, adultery, and dirty thoughts, and anger. That’s okay. But tradition has such a power. It’s amazing. I’ve seen it in almost every group under the sun. Tradition, creeping in, and in some cases a little bit, some cases large. What is the battle that we must fight? The battle that we must fight is, if we don’t find it in God’s word, we’re not going to have it, even if generations of Christians have accepted it.

We say that’s got nothing to do with God’s word. And particularly, God’s word is revealed to us in the New Testament, which is an advance on the Old Testament, because the word of God says, the old is passed away, the new has come, Hebrews chapter 8. And particularly the word of God in the New Testament. We need to ask concerning everything we believe and stand for, do you have a foundation for that in the New Testament?

If not, be careful that it is not some tradition, maybe a good tradition, but a little bit of darkness, mingling with the light. There are so many things like this we have to fight for if we want to stand pure.

The Dangers of Worldliness

And the second thing is, this light, as I said, is not only God’s word, it is the life of Jesus. And there again, we can find a mixture where it may not be the matter of traditions, it may be the pure word of God, and yet, even though we hold the pure New Testament, there can be the mingling of worldliness with the life of Jesus.

That also is darkness. So we can say, just like the light is two things, God’s word, and the life of Jesus, darkness also is two things, the traditions of men, and worldliness. Both are equally dangerous. Sometimes we can take a strong stand against the traditions of men, say, I’ll have nothing of that in my life, and yet worldliness can come flooding into our lives, into our homes, and that has brought just as much darkness as a bunch of pharisaical traditions.

Sanctification: Separating Light from Darkness

So we need to always keep this in mind, that God is always separating the light from the darkness. He began in Genesis 1, and He won’t stop until Revelation 21, where we read about the New Jerusalem, crystal clear is light, and all the darkness has passed away. But all the way up till then, God’s separating the light from the darkness.

Do you know the meaning of sanctification? Sanctification is a very big word, but all it means is setting apart. What is God setting apart? Light from darkness. This is sanctification.

God sanctifies me means God is increasingly setting me apart from the darkness in my flesh. From the darkness of traditions that have got mingled up in my thinking, along with God’s word. You see, when we become Christians, we are born again, we’ve got a whole lot of God’s word and traditions mingled up in our thinking, and God accepts us like that. He loves us, He accepts us with this mixture of light and darkness.

All of us have been accepted with a mixture of light and darkness. And then God begins the work, this work of Genesis 1:4, of separating the light from the darkness. Separating the light from the darkness. In other words, He tells us, why do you hold on so tightly to that?

Do you find something in the New Testament for that? No. Get rid of it then. And you discover that you’ve got to get rid of another tradition that you’ve hung on to for so many years, that your fathers taught you, that your forefathers taught you.

And you’re keen about sanctification, and God separates you from some one tradition after another. And then, also God begins to speak to you about worldliness, about certain things which other people may not consider darkness, but which God considers darkness.

The Definition of Darkness

What is the definition of darkness? We saw that in 1 John chapter 1. God is light, and in Him there is no darkness at all. So we can say darkness is anything that is not compatible or agreeing with the life of God. Anything that does not agree with the divine nature, that is darkness. According to 1 John 1:5, in Him there is no darkness at all.

That’s the definition of darkness. Anything that cannot get along with God’s life, with the divine nature, anything that’s contrary to the divine nature, that’s darkness. And God is all the time cleansing out from our lives the things that are contrary to light. This is sanctification.

And this is the work we must allow God to do, and do, and do, and do, continuously, till the day Jesus comes back. And it must never stop. God saw that the light was good, and God separated the light from the darkness.

The Blind Man Receives Light

Now I want to show you another illustration of this, in John’s Gospel chapter 9. In John’s Gospel chapter 9, we read of a man who was in darkness and who came into the light, and that was a blind man. It says in John 9:1, he was blind from birth. And you know what blindness means? I saw an advertisement in an optician’s office once, “Shut your eyes to find out what blindness means.”

That’s what blindness is. You shut your eyes and you understand blindness. Everything becomes dark. Blindness is darkness. And then when Jesus opened this man’s eyes, he got light. And what could he testify after that? Verse 25, in the last part he says, “One thing I know. Whereas I was blind, now I see.” Once I was in darkness, now I have light.

The Pharisees’ Opposition

And then the Pharisees were very disturbed by this. The Pharisees were arguing with him. The whole section is dealing with the Pharisees arguing with him. And the next thing the Pharisees did was, verse 34, they put him out of their church. That’s what happens when a man gets light, he gets thrown out of the church he belongs to. Why? Because all the other people in that church are in darkness.

You see, if you are born again and your eyes are opened in the midst of a church where everybody else is in darkness, and you dare to open your mouth like this blind man and testify, “Once I was blind, all these years I was sitting in this church, I was blind, but now I see.” Then the leaders of the church will throw you out. Whether it is if you get light on being born again and preach that, or whether it is when you get light on water baptism and preach that, or whether it is when you get light on the baptism in the Holy Spirit, or Christ manifest in the flesh, or victory over sin, or the body of Christ, or anything. When we get light, the people who don’t have that light get disturbed by the fact we get light.

Then of course there are some people who when they get light are like the parents of this blind man. They were more diplomatic. When the Pharisees asked them, “Is this your son?” He said, “Yeah, he’s our son, but we don’t know how his eyes were opened.”

They said in verse 21, and in verse 22 it says, because they were afraid of the Jews. But this man was not afraid. He spoke the truth and he got thrown out.

Jesus Gives More Light

Now the interesting thing I want you to see is this. What’s the next verse after it says the Pharisees threw him out? See the next verse. Verse 35, Jesus heard it. He always hears it when somebody gets thrown out of somewhere. And came to him. He always comes to the person who gets thrown out of somewhere. And what did Jesus do? He gave him more light.

He says, “Now you only got your physical eyes open, now I’ll get your spiritual eyes open. Do you know the son of man?” He says, “Who is he Lord?” He didn’t even know who Jesus was.

And he says, “The one talking to you.” And it says he fell down, verse 38, and worshipped him. He got more light. And he said, “Lord I believe.” That’s always what happens. I get light, and I get thrown out, and Jesus hears it, comes to me, gives me more light. And when I stand up for that more light, I get thrown out of some other group, and Jesus hears it, comes back to me, gives me more light. Wonderful.

To have light. God saw the light was good, and separated the light from the darkness. We can say that God allowed these Pharisees to throw this man out, so that he wouldn’t rot away in that synagogue. God had something better for him.

And that’s the thing that God does for many of us. When we get light, God allows some people in mercy to throw us out of their wretched system, so that we don’t rot away in that system. It’s God who is doing that. He may use Pharisees to do it, He may use bishops to do it, He may use priests to do it, He may use pastors to do it, He can use anybody, but it is God doing the same old business that He did in Genesis 1:4 of seeing that this light is good, I must separate this light from the darkness.

The fellow doesn’t have enough discernment to get out himself, all right, I’ll get the other fellows to kick him out. And that’s God doing it, separating the light from the darkness. It started in Genesis 1. It’s been going on for centuries.

It’s gone on all the time, and it’s going on even today. So we see that God is doing that work even today, and we praise the Lord when He does it in our lives too.

Children of the Day and Children of the Night

In verse 5, God called the light day, and the darkness He called night. He gave two different names.

We read in 1 Thessalonians 5:5, “You are children of the day, not children of the night or of darkness.” You are children of the light, not of darkness. 1 John 3, John says “In this is manifest the children of God and the children of the devil.” Do you know that in the world, although all are human beings created by God, some are children of God and some are children of the devil?

That’s what John the Apostle said. That’s what Jesus said in John 8:44 to the Pharisees. He says “You people who are religious rulers, you are children of the devil.” Jesus said that to people, “You are children of the devil” in John 8:44.

And John the Apostle said the same thing. God calls people by different names. That’s what we see here too. He called the light day, and He called the darkness night. There are children of the day, and there are children of the night. For example, who are the people who love the night? Normal human beings are not people who are waiting for the night. Who are the people who wait for the night? The thieves, the adulterers, the fornicators, the evil people, because they want darkness to cover what they are doing.

Who are the children of the night? Those who love to do things that are wrong in secret. Those who tell lies, don’t want other people to know about it. Those who write false accounts, and cheat the government, and cheat other people. They can call themselves Christians, but God calls them children of darkness, children of the devil. He’s given different names. This is day, this is night, and even today.

Let’s not be deceived. Whatever we may call ourselves, whatever other people may call ourselves, and whatever other people may think we are, God has given different names to day and night. The important thing, my brothers and sisters, is what God calls you. Not what you call yourself, or what other people call you.

A lot of people who think themselves to be children of God, whom God calls children of the devil. A lot of people whom other people call children of God, whom God calls children of the devil.

The First Day of Creation

Now we see here, further, in verse 5, “And there was evening, and there was morning, one day.” That was 24 hours. And it began with the evening, that means, that’s how it has been in the Jewish system. The day begins at 6pm and finishes at 6pm, the evening first, and then the morning. That’s what we see here. There was evening and there was morning, one day.

Now, it’s quite likely that the earth was created many thousands and thousands and probably even millions of years ago, I don’t know. Because we don’t know when Genesis 1:1 took place. “In the beginning, God created heavens and the earth,” it could have been millions of years ago. But, when it comes to this remaking on the first day, that’s clearly 24 hours.

There are 6 days of 24 hours each, in which God completed that work. And then He created Adam, and we know from the ages given to us in the book of Genesis, which we have all the way down to our present time, that it’s about 6,000 years now since God made Adam. It was about 6,000 years ago that that first day on this earth took place, of remaking. Though the earth and the heavens themselves may have been created even millions of years ago, we don’t know when it took place.

Now, what did we see in the first day? Let’s just recapitulate. We saw a principle of resurrection, light coming out of darkness in the first day. We saw the principle of separation. We saw the principle of God naming light and darkness separately, separating good from evil. All this is an application for us because we read in Hebrews 5:14 about those who exercise their senses to discern between good and evil. What is discerning between good and evil? That’s the same old thing of God separating light from darkness.

This is sanctification, to discern between good and evil. Those are the mature, who are always separating human traditions from God’s Word, worldliness from the life of Jesus. That’s maturity. So we find that’s all there in a nutshell in the very first day.

The Second Day of Creation

Now the second day, God said, “Let there be an expanse,” or a firmament, “in the midst of the waters.” The whole thing was covered with waters, we don’t know to what great height. And this is an interesting thing. Can you imagine the earth, this sphere, called the planet earth, covered with water, maybe to many kilometers high, many, many kilometers high of water, covering the whole globe, not a sight of earth anywhere.

And then God says, “I’m going to make a separation in the middle of the waters. Some of the waters are going to pull out. There’ll still be waters underneath, but some of the top part of the waters, a few kilometers of water, are going to pull out. And between those few kilometers of water and this waters circling the earth will be what we call the heaven.”

That’s what we read in verse 6. “Let there be a firmament.” Later on we read in verse 8 that he called that expanse heaven. The heaven means the sky that we see, all of space that we can see.

The Waters Above the Heavens

God created it by pulling the waters up above the heavens. And He separated the waters, verse 7, which were below the expanse from the waters which were above the expanse. Waters above the heavens. The waters below the heavens we know are the seas on earth.

And what’s in between He called heaven. And the evening and morning were the first day. We can learn a little lesson from this. We don’t want to speculate what these waters above the heavens are. I’m not interested in knowing that. But again I see something here. What did we see in the first day? Verse 4, God separated.

What did we read in verse 7? God made the expanse and separated. There was a separation again. This principle of separation comes again and again and again in the first page of the Bible. He separated, we can say, the heavenly from the earthly. Those are heavenly, these are earthly. That’s the second lesson we learn on the second day. That God separates the heavenly from the earthly.

The heavenly minded from the earthly minded. God is doing that even today. And sanctification is to separate us from earthly mindedness to heavenly mindedness. For example, what does it mean in practical terms? To look at things from heaven’s standpoint. To look at money from heaven’s standpoint. To look at honour from heaven’s standpoint. To look at people from heaven’s standpoint.

To separate the heavenly from the earthly. That’s the second thing we can say, we see here. So putting the two days together, if you want a spiritual lesson, it’s like this. We can say the first day is the separation of that which is satanic and sinful from our lives, and the second day is the separation of that which is soulish and human from that which is spiritual.

You see how all this is pictured way back there in the first page of the Bible. God wants to separate us not only from evil, but also from that which is human and soulish, that which is earthly. And that’s what we see here. He separated that which is above the heaven from that which is below the heaven.

God Saw that It Was Good

There’s just one point I want you to notice here. At the end of every day, we find it says that God saw it was good. Notice the first day, verse 4, God saw it was good. The end of the third day, in verse 12, God saw it was good. And the end of the fourth day, verse 18, God saw it was good. And the end of the fifth day, verse 21, God saw it was good. And the end of the sixth day, verse 31, God saw it was very good. Have you noticed that one day is left out?

Have you noticed that at the end of the second day, God never said it was good? We don’t want to speculate again what the reason for that is, but I just want to mention one thing. That the second day is dealing with heaven. And we know from the New Testament that there are three heavens.

The first heaven is what we see, space. The third heaven, we read in 2 Corinthians 12, is paradise, the immediate presence of God. And in between the first heaven and the third heaven must be the second heaven. We read in Ephesians 6:12, the dwelling place of evil spirits.

When Satan was cast out of the third heaven, he ended up in the second heaven. We considered that in our last study. So, in the second heaven, Satan was there. Perhaps this was the reason why, when considering the heavens, God did not say that it was good.

All the other days, He did say it was good. That’s just something significant. We see something of the exactness of God’s word there.

Separation and Resurrection

Verse 9, and then God said, “Let the waters below the heavens be gathered into one place.” Or we can say, He separated into one place. Again, separation. It’s almost as though God’s only interested in separation. You see, it’s so interesting to see this because a lot of people today have the idea that when you ask some believers to separate out from other Christians, they think that you’re an agent of the devil.

“Only the devil brings separation, brother. Only the devil brings division.” When I say, turn to the first page of the Bible, and every day you find God separating. He’s separating, He’s separating, He’s separating. All the time He’s separating. He separated the light from the darkness, He separated the waters above the heavens from the waters below the heavens, and then He separated the dry land from the earth. That’s what we see here in verse 9. Separation, separation, separation.

And God said, “Let the waters below the heavens be gathered into the one place, and let the dry land be separated from the waters, appear.” And the dry land God called earth. And the gathering of the waters he called seas. And God saw that it was good.

He saw that the separation is good. We can also say that this is also a picture of resurrection. The earth coming up out of the waters is a picture of resurrection. And so we find that this separation, resurrection principle is there right in the very first page of scripture.

Let the earth come up out of the seas. The seas are a picture of judgment, a picture of God’s judgment on the earth, a picture of separation from God. That’s why you, it’s a very interesting thing, when you come, have you noticed this, that when you come to the new creation in Revelation 21:1, have you noticed this? 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 is no longer any sea.”

Do you know that in the new earth there won’t be any seas? There won’t be any seas. No, those seas are a picture of God’s judgment. And out of that judgment the dry land appeared a picture of resurrection.

And we see further. And the earth brought forth vegetation, verse 12, plants yielding seed after their kind, Genesis 1:12, trees bearing fruit with seed in them after their kind, and God saw that it was good. What do you learn from the seed? We learn from the seed what Jesus said about the seed.

“Except the seed falls into the ground and dies, it abides alone.” Again, death and resurrection. When God created those trees, He put into it seed that would have to die in order to grow up to be a tree again. I just want you to notice this, that this principle of separation and death and resurrection is there right from the first page of Scripture.

And that is why in the church we proclaim separation from human traditions, separation from worldliness, and dying and being raised up constantly. Because that is what the Bible is all about, right from the very first page.

The Lights in the Heavens

Verse 13, “And there was evening and there was morning a third day.” Verse 14, “And then God said, ‘Let there be light in the expanse of the heavens.'”

Again, we find the word to separate. You never seem to get away from this word. To separate the night from the day. It’s almost as though God is laboring the point to emphasize separation, separation, separation. God is light, there is no darkness in him. Separation, separation, separation. God saw, and He separated the day from the night, and He set light in the expanse of the heavens. “And let them be for signs for seasons, for days and for years.

And let them be for lights in the expanse of the heavens, to give light on the earth” and for so. And God made two great lights. The greater light, we know that is the sun, to govern the day. And the lesser light, to govern the night, we know that’s the moon.

And we can say the sun and the moon are a picture of Christ and the Church. It’s a very beautiful picture of Christ and the Church, because the sun has light in itself, like Jesus Christ, and the moon does not have light in itself, but reflects the light of the sun, just like the Church. And just like God has placed the sun to give light, He’s also placed the moon to give light. Jesus said, “I am the light of the world,” and he told the Church, “You are the light of the world.”

And the other thing we see here is the principle of rulership and authority. The sun was made to rule the day, and verse 16, and the moon was made to rule the night. Jesus Christ has been called to rule, and the Church has also been called to rule, in a lesser way, but also to rule. He made the stars also.

And God placed them in the expanse of the heavens to give light on the earth, a picture of Christ and the Church. Authority and separation again. Now verse 18, to govern the day and the night, to separate the light – again, the words separate. Very interesting to see, the emphasis to separate the light from the darkness.

The moon was placed to separate the light from the darkness. The sun was placed to separate the light from the darkness. Jesus Christ came to separate the light from the darkness, the Church has been placed to separate the light from the darkness, and God saw that it was good. The separation of light from the darkness, God saw that it was good.

The sun and the moon, they were good. And the evening and morning is the fourth day.

Living Creatures

Then God said, “Let the waters teem with swarms of living creatures, and let birds fly above the earth in the open expanse of the heavens.” And that’s how all the fish and the great sea monsters and the whales and all were created.

And here we find that word created. Till now it was made, made, made, made, made. We found created only in the first verse, “In the beginning God created.” But now we find that word again, “God created the great sea monsters and every living creature that moves, with which the waters swarmed after that kind every winged bird.”

God saw that it was good. Which possibly means that in that pre-Adamic world that we read in Genesis 1, there were no fish in all likelihood. But there were probably animals in that prehistoric earth. Because when it comes to the animals, it doesn’t say God created them, but He just made them, as we read in verse 25.

He made the beast, but He created the fish. Notice that distinction, that there would have been probably prehistoric animals who got buried under the flood of Lucifer. I mean, I wouldn’t be surprised if there were dinosaurs in that earth that was before the time of Adam, quite likely. But they all got buried and destroyed in that Luciferian flood.

But then when it came to the sea monsters, they were created 6,000 years ago. Every living creature that moves, with which the waters swarmed after that kind. The principle of fruitfulness. And every winged bird after its kind, and God saw that it was good.

God Blesses the Animals

And it’s a very interesting word here, I was very happy to see it. And God blessed them. God blesses animals. You know that?

If you’ve got an animal at home that’s sick, you can pray for it. It says here, God blesses the animals. He blesses the winged birds, and the fish. And he said, “Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the waters and the seas, and let birds multiply on the earth.” And there was evening, and there was morning, a fifth day.

Animals and Man Created on the Same Day

And then, God said, five days are over, and now there’s something very interesting. I don’t know whether you all know that, that God created animals and man on the same day. Did you know that?

Animals were created on the sixth day, man was also created on the sixth day, to teach man a lesson. If you don’t live by the Spirit, you’ll end up as an animal. And that’s what’s happened to man all over the face of the earth. Because they have not lived by the witness of the Spirit, they have ended up like animals.

The Distinction Between Animals and Humans

We can say there’s one characteristic of animals. They are only occupied with earthly things. No animal, no animal will kneel down and pray. You can never find an animal interested in things like that.

What’s an animal interested in? Food. And when a man is interested in food, that’s a big thing in his life. What’s the difference between him and an animal? It’s just like a dog running after a bone. Sex. Animals are interested. Men. Sleep. These are the things animals are interested in. And when men are interested in these things, take care of our little ones, my family. Take care of my family, feed them, nurture them.

Animals do that. In fact, many animals do a better job than many human beings. These are not the marks of a man of God. Never forget, God made animals and man on the same day, so that man will never forget. He can descend to the level of an animal in no time. It’s just a few hours that separate him from the animal, not even one day.

The Creation of Animals and Man

On the sixth day, God said, “Let the earth bring forth living creatures after their kind, and creeping things and beasts of the earth after their kind,” and it was so. And God made the beasts of the earth after their kind, and the cattle after their kind, everything that creeps on the ground after its kind.

And God saw that it was good. Then God said, on the same day, after He had made the animals, maybe He made the animals in the evening, and in the morning, after the night was over, the second part of the sixth day, it was evening and morning, you see, He makes man. “Let Us make man in Our image.”

Now comes a difference. When it comes to man, He doesn’t just say, “Let man be made.” There is a discussion in the Trinity, and you find this word “us,” not “let me,” showing us that God is plural, not singular. More than one person in the Godhead, “Let us.” There is a discussion going on in the Trinity, a council before man is made, showing the importance of man now.

Now God is coming to the crowning part of His creation. “Let Us make man in Our image, in the image of God. According to our likeness,” notice the emphasis there, “our image, our likeness.” “And let them rule.”

The Purpose of Man’s Creation

What do we see here? First of all, God created man so that he might be like God. And when I don’t make that the number one ambition in my life, I descend to the level of an animal. When I don’t make Christlikeness the number one goal in my life, I must remember that I was made on the same day as the animals.

It’s very easy to descend to that level. But between the animals and me, what do we read there? Between the making of the animals and verse 25, and again that word created, verse 27, God created man. Again, something created, never created before.

Creation means for the first time. The body was made from the dust, we know that. But the man, that living soul inside, was created. We can say the house in which the man lived was not created, that was made from the dust of the earth. But the man himself, who lives in that house, was created. And between the making of the animals, in verse 25, and the creation of man in verse 27, what do we read? There’s just one verse here, and it’s very important to see this, because this is what makes the difference between man and the animals.

It is only when we have revelation on this verse, and are gripped by it, that we understand how God has made us different from the animals. What is that? The animals were made in verse 25. Verse 27, God created man. But between them, we read this verse, “God said, ‘Let Us make man in Our image.'”

The Image of God in Man

It is that likeness to God in our spirit that makes us different from the animals. And unless we see this, we will not make this the primary thing in our Christian life. Are you gripped by the fact, my brothers and sisters, that the primary thing in the Christian life is not evangelism, it’s not speaking in tongues, it’s not doing this, that, and the other for God, but it is transformation into God’s likeness, into the likeness of Christ?

Unless I see this as the primary thing, it’s easy to descend to the level of the animals, even though I may be doing so many other good things.

If I think education and sport and all these things are the main things in life, it’s easy to descend to the level of the animals. These things are all right, but if I don’t make Christ’s likeness the primary thing, the primary goal of my life, then I shall descend to the level of the animals. It’s possible to engage in evangelism and be an animal as far as our behavior is concerned. It’s possible to speak in tongues and be an animal as far as our behavior is concerned.

No, God intends that sanctification, transformation into Christ’s likeness, should be the primary thing in our life. And we see here, God said in verse 26, “Let Us make man in Our image.” Notice “us,” the Trinity there, “our image,” and God has made man, God himself is plural, and man is plural in being man and woman. God said, “Let us make man,” but He made man and woman according to His likeness.

And then He said, “Let them rule.” “Let Us make man in Our likeness, and let them rule.” There are two things that God desired for man. One, that he should reflect the likeness of God, and the other, that he should rule as a king on behalf of God, in the sphere in which God had given him authority.

Authority and Likeness to God

There are two things that God desires for us, to become like Him, and to have authority in our life. And Jesus has come to redeem us from the pit into which Adam fell, and to bring us back to the original purpose that God had for man, and we see here what that is, to be like Him, and to have authority, to rule. And the measure in which we can rule and have authority is dependent on the measure in which we have the likeness of God in us. These two things are related.

They are proportionate to each other. I have authority in proportion as I have likeness to Christ in my character. Jesus had authority over everything. Everything was under his feet, because he was perfectly like his Father. And in the measure in which I become like Christ, in that measure, I will also have things under my feet. But we see something here, that this is God’s desire, that we might have everything under our feet.

Turn to Hebrews, in chapter 2, and see what we read there. Hebrews, chapter 2, we read, speaking about Jesus, “Thou hast made him a little while lower than the angels,” this man, and yet, verse 8, Hebrews 2:8, “Thou hast put all things in subjection under his feet.”

This was God’s original purpose for Adam. For in subjecting all things to him, he left nothing out that was not subject to him. But now, we do not yet see all things subjected to him. No, we see man not yet having all the authority that God intended him to have.

But we do see him, that is Jesus, who has been made for a little while lower than the angels, namely Jesus, because of the suffering of death. And everything is under his feet. And we are to be members of his body in the Church. And everything is to be under our feet.

God’s Desire for Man to Rule

It’s wonderful to see this. You know, my brothers and sisters, that it’s God’s desire that not only you should have His likeness, but having His likeness that you should rule, that you should rule over your circumstances, that you should never allow your circumstances to get on top of you and depress you and crush you and make you miserable and full of self-pity and gloomy. No, it is God’s will that you rule over your circumstances. It’s God’s will that you rule over sin.

It’s God’s will that you rule over fear. It is not the will of God that you should be a slave. You know that, brothers and sisters, it’s not God’s will that you should be a slave, that you should be a slave to sin, or to people’s opinions, or to fear, or to any dirty habit. No, see what we read here.

God said, “Let us make man and let them rule,” man and woman. God wants us to rule and to have authority over everything by faith, overcoming. This is God’s will. We see that way back in Genesis chapter 1 itself.

And we read, “God created man in His own image, in the image of God He created them, male and female He created them.” There is a partnership there. We shall think about it more as we come to chapter 2, that the image of God could not be reflected by a man alone, but by a man plus a woman. It’s good for husbands and wives to recognize that.

God’s Blessing and Command

And God blessed them. And God said to them, “Be fruitful.” God wants us to be fruitful in our days spiritually, and multiply, and to have spiritual seed. “Fill the earth and subdue it.”

Again, subdue means to rule over, and to crush, and put under your feet. “Rule over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the sky, over every living thing that moves on the earth.” And then God said, “Behold, I’ve given you every plant-yielding seed that is on the surface of all the earth.” God made man a vegetarian in the beginning. He became a non-vegetarian only in the days of Noah. “And every tree which has fruit-yielding seed, it shall be food for you, and to every beast of the earth, to every bird of the sky, and to everything that moves on the earth which has life, I’ve given every green plant for food.” And it was so. And God saw that all that He had made, and behold, it was very good.

And there was evening, and there was morning, the sixth day. I just want to mention one thing here in relation to verse 29, that when God, sorry, verse 28, when God said, “Be fruitful,” that was obviously through Adam and Eve coming together as husband and wife. And that teaches us that there is nothing wrong in the sexual function that God has given to man. That is perfectly good.

It was created by God, blessed by God, before sin ever came to the earth. And it’s very important for us to see it, because there’s so much of perversion and wrong understanding of this in the world today. And at the end of it all, including all these things we considered, it says here that God saw it was very good. Up to the fifth day it was good, but when God finally created man, that is man and woman in His image, it was very good.

And there was evening, and there was morning, verse 31, and the sixth day.

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