Genesis 2:1

THE COMPLETED WORK

‘Thus the heavens and the earth were finished, and all the host of them.’

Genesis 2:1

The heavens and the earth were finished when God created man in His own image. Then the universe was what He designed it to be; then He could look, not upon a portion of it, but upon the whole of it, and say, ‘It is very good.’

I. We are told: (1) ‘God made man in His own image; male and female created He them’; and (2) ‘He made man out of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life.’ The two accounts are distinct. If we had the first only, we should have the description of an ideal man, without being told that there was an actual man. The Creation in the highest sense must mean the bestowing, under whatever limitations, of a portion of God’s own life, that which corresponded with His own being. It must denote, not what we understand by putting together a material thing, but the communication of that inward power and substance without which matter is but a dream.

II. When we hear of the earth bringing forth grass, the herb yielding seed, the fishes or beasts being fruitful and multiplying we are told of living powers which were imparted once, but which are in continual exercise and manifestation; the creative word has been uttered once, it is never for a moment suspended; never ceases to fulfil its own proclamation. Creation involves production. (1) Creation is not measured by the sun. The week was especially meant to remind the Jew of his own work and God’s work; of God’s rest and his own rest. (2) It was to bring before him the fact of his relation to God, to teach him to regard the universe not chiefly as under the government of sun or moon, or as regulated by their courses, but as an order which an unseen God had created, which included sun, moon, stars, earth, and all the living creatures that inhabit them.

III. From the first chapter of Genesis we are taught more clearly than any words can teach us what man becomes when he is a centre to himself and supposes that all things are revolving around him. But, most of all, these Chapter s prepare us for the announcement of that truth which all the subsequent history is to unfold, that the Word who said, ‘Let there be light,’ and there was light, who placed the sun, and moon, and stars in their orbits and called all organised creatures into life; and who is, in the highest sense, the Light of men—the Source of their reason, the Guide of their wills—is the Head of all principalities and powers, the upholder of the whole universe.

Rev. F. D. Maurice.

Illustration

‘Man has much in common with the lower animals, like them he was made of “dust,” but he differs from them all in form, and in the infinite variety of work his body is adapted to perform. Beyond this he has some likeness to God in his mental and moral powers, he has reason, speech, and, above all, will. He is as God in the power to know and choose between good and evil, to understand the qualities and relations of lower things and bear rule over them. Illustrate from the use of tools, the employment of animals, the making of ships, steam-engines, telescopes, microscopes, the writing of books, etc. Man’s spiritual powers seen in religion. Animals never go wrong when they follow their appetites and instincts. Man is ruined by these, unless ruled over by the reason and will. He alone in nature is required to say No to himself, but in proportion to his self-control is subduing the earth.’