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<2021.03> Shadows in Genesis of the True Originals

2004 European Bible Study Meeting
Shadows in Genesis of the True Originals
April 11th, 2004, Afternoon
For of Him and through Him and to Him are all things, to whom be glory forever. Amen.  Romans 11:36
God, who Created Man and Gave Commandments
 Last time, we read in Romans chapter 8 that all the things God has made are waiting for the day when they will be transformed along with the sons of God. We also thought about the meaning of the signs referred to in the conversation between Nicodemus and Jesus in John chapter 3. By examining various verses in the Old Testament, we were able to see that Jesus, who walked the land of Israel in New Testament times and carried out His work there, was God who had spoken to the Israelites in Old Testament times. Jesus was born on this earth on the basis of many passages in the Old Testament, beginning with the book of Genesis, and He was crucified and died in accordance with what had been written. Also, He rose from the dead three days later in accordance with what had been written. 
 In Hebrews chapter 4 verse 12, it says that the word of God is sharp enough to pierce to the division of soul and spirit, and joints and marrow. This power of God’s word will appear on this earth once more when the history of man on earth comes to an end, and the new heaven and new earth are established. In Second Peter chapter 3, it says the elements will melt with fervent heat, and we look for new heavens and a new earth (see verses 10-13). In other words, the tiny units of the elements will melt away, and be changed into something new. It is by the power of that same word of God that Jesus rose from the dead in a body that had been transformed and would never die. In the letter to the Hebrews, it says that even now the risen Jesus is actually in front of God, showing Him that all our sins are now forgiven through His blood (see 7:25).
 When Jesus was alive on this earth, He said that unless a person is born again he cannot see the kingdom of God (see John 3:3). The birth of a person on this earth through his mother’s womb is a shadow of the spirit being born again. Our birth into this world had nothing to do with our own will. In the same way, being born again does not come about through our own efforts; it comes about completely through the word of God. You are born again the moment God’s word passes through your spirit and soul, and is planted in your heart. 
 The passage in the book of Genesis that we will be studying now, however, is not about living, but how we came to be destined to die.
 Genesis chapter 2 begins with the words, “Thus the heavens and the earth, and all the host of them, were finished,” and goes on to say that God, having created the world in six days, rested on the seventh day. Yet, in verse 5, it says,
Before any plant of the field was in the earth and before any herb of the field had grown. For the Lord God had not caused it to rain on the earth, and there was no man to till the ground; but a mist went up from the earth and watered the whole face of the ground.  verses 5-6
 In the account in Genesis chapter 1 of the third day of the creation, it says that God divided the waters from the dry land, and He called the dry land Earth, and the gathering together of the waters He called Seas. He also commanded that the earth bring forth “grass, the herb that yields seed according to its kind, and the tree that yields fruit, whose seed is in itself according to its kind.” Then the Bible says, “and it was so.” Then in chapter 2, it says there were no plants or other vegetation.
 We need to remember all this. When the Bible says that God finished His work of creation, it does not mean it was like you see in animated movies when there is a sudden burst of little stars and a fruit tree suddenly grows up in that very place. Everything God said was accomplished in order as time passed. Everything God said was like a seed; His words were living and continued to bear fruit. 
 All the many things we see in Genesis appear like shadows of the many historical incidents that would occur later through Israel. Also, the many incidents that occur in Genesis have a role like that of a seed of the whole of history through which mankind would pass. 
And the Lord God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living being.  Genesis 2:7
 Some people may think that since God made man of the dust of the ground, it must have taken a very long time for the dust to be formed into a person, but the creation of man was accomplished right away on that day.
 In Genesis chapter 1, it says clearly that God created man, and He blessed him and gave him a command. He said, “Be fruitful and multiply; fill the earth and subdue it; have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the air, and over every living thing that moves on the earth” (verse 28). This command of God was living and stood over Adam, the progenitor of all mankind. God was pleased with all the things He had made; the Bible says several times, “God saw that it was good.” Particularly, on the day when God created man, it says that God saw that it was very good.
 The Bible says that God breathed into man’s nostrils the breath of life. This is different from the breath of life that God gave to the animals. From the books of Job and Psalms, we can see that the breath of life that God breathed into the nostrils of man is directly related to the spirit. Since God breathed into man’s nostrils the breath of life, man became a living being. 
Then God said, “Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness; let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the air, and over the cattle, over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.”  Genesis 1:26
 God had said, “Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness.” Just as God is a trinity, there are also three parts to man. First, man has a physical body, composed of joints and marrow and the like. Nutrients are supplied to the body through the blood, and the body is controlled from the head, the brain. Then, as we read in Hebrews chapter 4 verse 12, there are the soul and the spirit. The Bible clearly makes a division between the soul and spirit. There is the flesh that is controlled by the brain; the soul; and contained within the flesh and soul, there is the spirit. This spirit is also referred to as the conscience.
 We say that God is a trinity and since He created man in His image, according to His likeness, there are also three parts to man: spirit, soul, and flesh. Yet, in the Bible, God says clearly, “in Our image”; here we have an expression that is related to something physical. Also, in Hebrews chapter 1 verse 3, it says that Jesus, the Son of God, was the express image of the person of God. In Philippians chapter 2 verse 6, it says, “who [Jesus], being in the form of God.” At the end of Ezekiel chapter 1, we find a description of the tremendous throne of God, and it says that on the throne there was a likeness with the appearance of a man (see verse 26). This is an image of God the Son.
 There is no way that God, who fills the heavens and the earth, can be seen with the human eye. Yet, God the Son, who has been speaking to man in the course of history, through the Old Testament, clearly has a physical form. It is simply that He is not visible to man who, as it says in the book of Ecclesiastes, lives “under the sun.” Nevertheless, there was a time when this God definitely appeared so that man might see Him. Before He came to the world in the form of the Man by the name of Jesus, He appeared to four people, namely Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and, four hundred years later, Moses.
 If you read carefully through Genesis, you will see it says that God appeared to Abraham in a vision (see 15:1), while elsewhere it just says that God appeared to him (see 12:7, 17:1, 18:1). It also says that  when God had finished talking with Abraham, He went up from him (see 17:22). Then, we find that three men appeared before Abraham when he was sitting in his tent door, and one of them is distinguished from the other two who are referred to as angels (see 18:22). God also clearly appeared to Isaac as the Bible tells us, “the Lord appeared to him [Isaac]” (see 26:2), and He appeared to Jacob in a dream when Jacob was in Luz, before he changed the name of that place to Bethel (see 28:10-19). Later, God appeared directly before Jacob and spoke to him (see 35:9). When God had finished speaking on this occasion, the Bible tells us He went up from Jacob right before his eyes (see 35:13).
 When Moses asked God what he should say when the Israelites wanted to know the name of God, He answered, “The Lord God of your fathers, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob, has sent me to you” (see Exodus 3:13-15). In the book of Deuteronomy, we read of “Moses, whom the Lord knew face to face” (34:10). God appeared to these four people in this way within the history of Israel. Yet, we find in Genesis chapters 2 and 3 that before God appeared to these people, He clearly also appeared to the first man, Adam.
 Moses said to the Israelites, “Take careful heed to yourselves, for you saw no form when the Lord spoke to you at Horeb out of the midst of the fire,” and he told them that they were in no way to make for themselves any image of anything on the earth or in the heavens (see Deuteronomy 4:15-19). God ordained that the worship of idols is a huge sin. 
 God the Son definitely has a form that enables Him to converse with man. The New Testament expresses this with the words, “who, being in the form of God” (Philippians 2:6) and, “being the . . . express image of His person” (Hebrews 1:3). As a seed, this God entered the body of a woman living in Israel at a certain point in time. In connection with this, it says in Hebrews chapter 2 that for a short time He was made a little lower than the angels (see verse 7). 
 God made man in the image of His Son, God the Son. So when we think about our bodies and the blood that flows through them, we need to give the matter a little more deeper consideration. Everything in this world is a shadow of all the perfect originals that exist above in the third heaven. In John’s Gospel, it says, “That was the true Light which gives light to every man coming into the world” (1:9). 
 When we look up at the sun, we come to think about the fact that there is a true light that is more perfect than the light of the sun. When we look at the many different waters—drinking water, the waters of the ocean, the waters in the flowing streams—we come to think of the river of living water that is above. In the same way, our own physical form that we look at every day in the mirror is a shadow that has been formed in the image of God the Son.
 Man was created in this way, but by committing just one sin, he became a sinner. For this reason, Jesus said that a person must be born again. He was saying that man, who has been created in the image of God the Son and as a shadow of that image, needs to be born again, this time, as a son of God.
 Let’s turn to Genesis chapter 2 verse 8. 
The Lord God planted a garden eastward in Eden, and there He put the man whom He had formed.
 Let’s think about the beginning of the universe. The universe came into being after the rebellion of the archangel called Lucifer. As it says in Second Peter chapter 3, this world in which we are now living was formed out of water and by water (see verse 5). 
 God designated this little earth that is like a tiny dot in the vast universe in order to accomplish His will. On this earth, He developed an environment in which man would be able to live, and He designated one small area on this earth, and He gave it the name of Eden. This is also the name of the garden of God that existed when God created the heavens and the earth, and before these events occurred in the garden of Eden (see Ezekiel 28:13, 31:9). 
 God also designated a place in the midst of the garden of Eden where He put two different trees: the tree of life and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.
And out of the ground the Lord God made every tree grow that is pleasant to the sight and good for food. The tree of life was also in the midst of the garden, and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.  Genesis 2:9
 It is as though He was penetrating from a vast expanse down to a very small place. Two trees that were able to determine the fate of mankind were in the midst of the little garden of Eden. In a similar way, hidden somewhere deep down inside of man there the spirit of man that is also able to determine man’s fate. 
 God gave a command to the man who was in the garden of Eden.
Then the Lord God took the man and put him in the garden of Eden to tend and keep it. And the Lord God commanded the man, saying, “Of every tree of the garden you may freely eat; but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die.”  Genesis 2:15-17
 God intended man to tend and keep the garden. From whom was he to keep it? We are not able to understand this if we just read through the Bible without giving it much thought.
 If you read the beginning of Genesis very carefully, you will notice that on the second day of the creation, when God made the firmament, it does not say God saw that it was good. Also, on the first day it says that God saw the light and it was good, but it does not say that He saw that the darkness was good. We do not know exactly why this is, but one point we need to remember here is that we can be sure that this world began at some time and in some place, and now it is going through a certain process. Also, this world will someday return once more to a world very similar to its original state. 
For of Him and through Him and to Him are all things, to whom be glory forever. Amen.  Romans 11:36
 This is saying that all things are of the Lord and through the Lord and return to the Lord. This earth and everything in the universe is returning to the Lord through the process of the history of mankind. When this world returns in this way, the church—the bride of Jesus Christ, who was in the form of God and was God the Son—will be given to God. Then, on the earth, the nation by the name of Israel that will continue forever in the flesh will be given to God. 
 In the book of Ecclesiastes it says, “The sun also rises, and the sun goes down, and hastens to the place where it arose. The wind goes toward the south, and turns around to the north; The wind whirls about continually, and comes again on its circuit.” (1:5-6). In the same way, our lives are continually on their way back somewhere. This in itself is like a miniature image of the entire history of mankind. In Isaiah chapter 55, it says that all the words that proceed from the mouth of God return to Him, having achieved the purpose for which He sent them out (see verse 11). When all things return to God, the cherub who first rebelled against Him—the powers of evil that began in Eden, the garden of God—will meet his final end in the eternal lake of fire.
 At first, there was a clash between the light and the darkness. This is why, when the universe was formed, the earth was without form and void, and darkness was on the face of the deep. Then God said, “Let there be light,” and there was light, and the light was divided from the darkness. This is just like when Jesus appeared before the Israelites when they were tainted with sin, and suffering as they were trampled under foot by the Romans. Following the same principle of dividing the light from the darkness, God put the tree of life and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil in the garden of Eden. If you are aware of this as you are reading the Bible, you will no longer ask the question, “Why did God make the tree of the knowledge of good and evil?”
 God said to Adam, “Of every tree of the garden you may freely eat.” God said Adam was free to eat as he pleased. There was a garden in the central area of the world, and man was given the right to choose between including the tree of life and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil that were in the center of that garden. Now, we, too, are definitely given the same choice. But God said, “of the
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