God speaks through the prophets about creation, it is with the purpose of reminding the people that He is King, that He is Almighty. that man is his covenant servant and son by his grace. And that's very important to keep in mind. And so in Isaiah, he's speaking to an Israel under discipline who has forgotten their king. And if you notice how he uses creation, I think this is very important to keep in mind as we're reading scripture, how God reveals himself as the creator king in the prophets, as the prophets are calling the people of God back to God. It says in Isaiah 45 verse 4, For the sake of my servant Jacob and Israel my chosen, I call you by your name. I name you, though you do not know me. And so the naming, it reminds us of Adam's naming of the animals, or that authority that only a king has in naming, or the authority that a father has in naming a son. He's showing his authority over his creatures, and particularly those he's called to himself, though they don't know him. He says, verse 5, I am the Lord that is the covenant Lord. and there is no other. Besides me there is no God. I equip you though you do not know me." that people may know from the rising of the sun and from the west that there is none besides me. I am the Lord and there is no other." So, one of the most important things about creation that is found in the prophets, particularly here in Isaiah, is that God would be known throughout the whole cosmos as the God, the only God, the covenant God, the King. And so he says in verse 7, I form light and create darkness. I make well-being and I create calamity. I am the Lord who does all these things. Here, he's asserting his sovereignty, that he is king, that he is the all-wise and good ruler king. And again, the reason for this theme in the prophets, and particularly in this passage of Isaiah, is that he brings up creation to remind the people that he is the king. that he deserves to be served and obeyed and loved and honored. Then he says below that note, verse 12, I made the earth and I created man on it. It was my hands that stretched out the heavens and I commanded all their hosts. I have stirred him up in righteousness and I will make all his ways level. Then he says, Verse 15, truly you are a God who hides himself, O God of Israel, the Savior. All of them are put to shame and confounded. The makers of idols go in confusion together. But Israel is saved by the Lord with everlasting salvation. You shall not be put to shame or confounded to all eternity. And then verse 18, of Isaiah 45, for thus says the Lord who created the heavens, He is God. He formed the earth and made it. He established it. He did not create it empty or void. He formed it to be inhabited or full or filled. I am the Lord and there is no other. So the purpose we see that is exegeted by the prophets, it's brought to our attention with regard to the theme of creation is what we'll look at today, is that the reason, the primary reason for the creation account in Holy Scripture is the self-revelation of God Almighty as King, as King of all, as the Glorious One, and as man who was formed to fill the earth and bring glory and honor to the King. And that's a very important theme that goes all the way throughout scripture. In fact, the Bible begins with the account of creation. And how does the Bible end? The Bible ends with a new creation, a more glorious creation. And between these two accounts of creation and new creation is the drama or the story of redemption. Between these two accounts of creation and new creation, between Genesis 1 through 2 and Revelation 21 and 22 is the story of redemption, the drama of how God makes himself known and redeems a people. Isn't that wonderful? So today we're going to look at the theme of creation. This is our first cycle of going through creation, talking about first things. Then next time we'll talk about the fall or sin. Then the next week, Lord willing, we'll talk about redemption or the study of salvation, salvation history. And then finally, we'll do new creation as the end of our first cycle, the new creation or the new heaven and new earth that shows us God's purpose for creation in the first place. OK, so creation, fall, redemption, new creation, that's the drama. And as we go through the drama in our first cycle in these four parts, we will look at certain topics and then hopefully by God's grace, we'll be able to trace those topics throughout scripture and get a better understanding of scripture. And of course, a deeper knowledge of God's love for his people. A better understanding of who God is and his love for his people. So let's pray. And one thing I'm going to pray, and I want you to hear me pray it, is that there is so much we can talk about with regard to creation, isn't there? There's a lot packed in in two chapters of Genesis. So it's to be wise as to what not to say today that is so needed. So pray. that what we have are the basics or the focused summary, okay? Because there's so many other things we could talk about. And we will when we get to Genesis in our third cycle. And as we talk about covenants, we'll be coming back to Genesis. So this is not the last word. All right, let's pray. Our Father, our God, we're grateful for you. We're thankful that you're the living God, the triumphant God. the perfect God, the beautiful God, the glorious God, the orderly God, the God who brings order to this creation and order to our lives. We thank you for your word. We thank you that we're your images and we're here to glorify and serve, reflect you, to show forth to the world your beauty and your glory. And we're fallen creatures in need of your spirit, the spirit that has been purchased for us as our own possession by the blood of Jesus Christ. So that Jesus Christ, as our shepherd king, gives us his Holy Spirit, his own anointing, so that we might know you better. And so, Father, we pray as we come to you today, we humble our hearts before you, knowing we're finite creatures, we're sinful creatures, We know that we need you and we humbly ask that you would help us to understand these first things that scripture teaches us so that we might better understand your word and thus come to know you better because you've given us your word so that we might know you. We pray that you would help all of us to pay attention, to not be distracted. We pray for your servant as he teaches that you would help him to edit and focus well that he would decrease and you would increase so that you would be glorified and we would be well-fed and we'd grow. We pray these things in Jesus' name. Amen. And so just a look at what's coming. We're going to look at the kingdom created today, talking about creation or protology. And then, Lord willing, we're going to talk about the kingdom lost or sin. Then we're going to talk about the kingdom redeemed or redemption. Then we're going to talk about the kingdom consummated or the kingdom, the new creation, the new and final kingdom that God brings to us in his goodness and his grace. So those are the next four weeks, Lord willing. Today, we're going to look at creation. Protology. You know, when you're thinking about making up a theological book, you're going to put protology. It means first things. Protology. Proto, protos, and then logos. So it's the study of first things. If you're making a theological book, you're going to necessarily put protology before eschatology. You're going to put the first things before the last things, right? But when we consider the story of redemption, we want to do it the other way around. We want to put eschatology before protology. We even want to put the eschatology before soteriology, before the study of salvation. Why would we do that? Why is it necessary, according to scripture, to put eschatology, the last things, before the first things when we're considering the drama of redemption? Somebody tell me. Now, in theology, again, you open the book and chapter one should be protology, the last chapter should be eschatology, no doubt. But when we're talking about the storyline having to do with God, why would we put eschatology first? Yes. Absolutely. It is so that we see that God has always had a plan and a purpose. for history and humanity. So the last things were in God's holy mind and plan and purpose. Before he said, let there be anything, he had a purpose and plan. The persons of the triune God had an end purpose, a plan. The fall is not plan B that God says, oh, I didn't see that coming. It's built into the story, the drama. And it's from that drama, that story that we draw all things. So when we're talking about the story, we go to the end. and we read the end in the beginning and we understand the beginning better. It's why it's so necessary to have the end of the story, okay, so that we can better understand the beginning. It is, again, to extenuate, beloved, why it's so special that we live at the end of the ages where the canon is completed. We have the fourth volume. We have the final act. So we know the ending and we can look at the ending and look back to the beginning. They say that all good writers start with the ending and then move back to the beginning. Well, that's exactly how God has shown us, is that when He reveals, He begins to say, let there be light. He begins to create. When God does this creation, it is with a purpose and a plan in mind, which is what we mean when we're talking about eschatology, as you remember last week, perhaps. Well, the theme of creation that is a variation on other teachers, and actually a variation even on Goldsworthy. And by the way, I keep wanting to call him Golden Gay. There is another wonderful Old Testament scholar named Golden Gay, and I keep wanting to call Goldsworthy Golden Gay. I love Goldsworthy much more. That's why I signed the book, okay? So when I say Golden Gay, you can read him at your own convenience, but know that I'm talking about Goldsworthy, all right? Why did there have to be two Golds? But the theme that we're going to look at today, the primary theme I want you to remember, that is the creation theme or the first thing about creation that we see throughout the scriptures all the way to the end, is that God's power over His people in His holy presence. And so we see this from the very beginning, that we see God's power through His word, through creation, through His rule over His people, beginning with Adam and Eve, in His holy presence. where he creates a garden. He creates a garden in which to be, in a special way, intimate with his subjects, with his sons, with his children. There's something I want to tell you that Michael Horton says, and I think it's very helpful for remembering why we're doing what we're doing, is Michael Horton breaks down his systematic theology in a biblical theological manner. It's very, very helpful, I think. And he uses all Ds, and that's right up my alley. It perhaps is right up yours, the alliteration. But he talks about it like this so that we understand why we're studying creation protology, why we're studying first things. Protology is about first things, beloved. There's another word that's similar that has nothing to do with this. This is protology. Your word program tries to put a C in that. I kept trying to fix it. It's protology. Anyway, my word machine didn't want to say this is my word. I had to add it to my dictionary. He shows four parts of the story that I think are helpful and why we're doing this. So this first point is just to say, why are we looking at Old Testament biblical theology? And Horton starts with the drama. He reminds us that the meta-narrative, as we've learned, the big storyline of the Bible is God's story, that God gave us stories when he wanted to reveal himself. So he starts with the story of creation. And out of drama comes our doctrine. And what he's saying here that's most important, especially you young people who are living in this generation that are growing up into college life, this will take on more and more importance, I think. It's important to remember that God didn't just give us a systematic theology. It is from the drama we draw our doctrine. In other words, God gave us stories and songs in order, out of that, we would get our doctrine of who He is. But it's His choice. He could have given us a philosophical textbook on systematic theology. He didn't. He gave us a story. He gave us songs. And so a doctrine is drawn from that. And that's what we're doing when we're looking at these overviews or we're looking at the themes of Scripture. The drama doctrine is then leads to doxology, the whole purpose of our being for worship and service of the Triune God. And so everything we're learning is not just to know our Bibles better, it's so our Bibles would be the means through which we know God better. And then doxology leads to discipleship. the growth and maturity in Jesus Christ. And so it's just a reminder that the drama is told. The reason why we're looking at this drama is so that we might draw the doctrine, the teaching that would then bring us to worship and service as we were created to then be discipled in and through it by the Holy Spirit to grow into the beings we were created to be. Amen. That's very helpful, isn't it? And it's basically what we've talked about before. I had come upon this a while back, but recently I came across it again and I thought, you know, I'm going to share that because I think that's very helpful in seeing why we're doing what we're doing and just being reminded of it, right? The theme of creation or first things I want you to keep in mind, the theme that I want to look at today to keep us focused, because we really need to do this with creation, is the God, the king creator, the garden, place the glory of humanity and the goal of history. All right, all that summarizes, I think that summarizes well the purpose of Genesis 1 and 2. The Genesis 1 and 2 is revealing the God who is, who is self-existent, who needs nothing or no one else, but who in his sovereign kindness and wisdom and goodness decided to create a beautiful place for humans to live, who would reflect Him. And so the theme of creation, when you think of creation, and you can trace this throughout scripture, if you memorize this theme, you could think the God, the garden, the glory of humanity, the goal of history. As you're reading through scripture, remember, put that under the major theme of creation. I think that will help you as you're looking through how God's telling the story about himself as king, creator, how the garden is one day going to become a great city, that the whole purpose of the garden was to become a new heavens and a new earth. where his presence would dwell with his people. That's what we see at the end of the Bible, Revelation 21 and 22. And that the glory of humanity was to worship and serve God. And that the goal of history was to exalt God. And so let's look, get your Bibles out and let's look at Genesis 1 and 2. We're going to look at several sections in here. Can't read it all, but I will highlight certain things for you that I think will help us draw doctrine, draw teaching for dexology and discipleship that will reveal the God, the garden, the glory of humanity, and the goal of history. That's the main point I want to get across. Protology, if I had a formal definition, I'd want you to remember. Protology would mean first things that point forward and upward to last things. First things that point upward and forward and upward to last things. So first things could be the first altar that you see in Bible, and you ask yourself, how is that important? And you say, well, this altar that's built You would look back to creation and the purpose of God and the purpose of humanity and worship. You'd say, well, this is an altar built to worship and offer up to God. But this altar is going to become a tabernacle. The tabernacle is going to become a temple. The temple is going to become an incarnation. And the incarnation is going to bring in a new heavens and new earth. You see? And that's how you do it. You just see the altar. You see the one thing and you look at that and you look forward and upward because it's pointing to something heavenly yet historical. Heavenly yet historical. And that's contra Plato right there. And I'll talk more about the difference between Plato and redemptive history. But Plato's not taking place in real space and time, his thoughts. And it's not in God's world. And so his philosophy can be helpful. But we don't live in his cave. We live in God's world. And that's a major difference in the philosophy when you're reading Plato. Remember, his cave is not God's world. And so it's a false starting point. And secondly, Plato's ideal realm that sounds a lot like what I'm saying, upward and forward, is not in history. It's ah, historical. It's anti-material. So the Genesis account is everything against any kind of Platonism. And so we'll talk more about that, OK? But I just want to say that. That doesn't mean don't read Plato. You've got to read Plato. He's wonderful. Wonderful. You've got to read Plato. The Republic. Oh, read the Republic. No, the Republic. First things that point forward and upward to last things. All right? That's proctology. All right. Now, the first thing we see in the Bible in verses 1 through 2, in the beginning, in the beginning reminds us that there's a goal of history because in the beginning implies an end. All right? It implies a purpose. All right? It implies, it tells us of a starting point that God created. the heavens and the earth. And the heavens and the earth, they're two words, two extremes that are talking about one thing, the cosmos. So when you see heavens and the earth, it's to be understood as all things, physical and spiritual. So heavens and the earth is a merism. Literarily speaking, it means everything. God created everything in the heavens and the earth. And notice the earth was without form and void, and darkness was over the face of the deep. And here, we have to understand that this is not an accident. These are not forces of chaos that are allied against the Almighty. There's no conflict the Almighty has, as in the Babylonian account, the Enuma Elish. There's no battle that the gods have to take. There's no battle that Yahweh has to engage himself in. He simply created everything. And the reality was that there was formlessness. It's formless and it's unfilled. Everything was formless and unfilled and darkness was there, but it wasn't some darkness that existed apart from God. Okay, so no dualism here whatsoever. It is, let me put it this way, ready? An eschatological darkness. There's a purpose in God allowing there to be a time of formlessness and unfilledness for His glory and part of His plan and purpose. There's a reason why there's darkness here. that is part of his purpose. So darkness is not an entity or an existence apart from God. That's very important, right? That'll undo everything with regard to dualism. By the way, if you read Genesis like that, you'll see all kinds of wonderful polemics against false, perverted creation accounts or false philosophies like dualism. Notice that God here sees the formlessness and the unfilledness, I'll put it that way, and darkness is over the face of the deep, and the Spirit of God was hovering over the face of the water. So here is what God wants to show us. He wants to show us his kingly, sovereign power in bringing form to formlessness, in filling that which was unfilled. So there's not only a inspired content here, there's an inspired form. It's to cause us to stop and say, look at what God has done. Look at the beauty that he's created, the order out of chaos. The order out of chaos. And all he does in verse three, there's no conflict, as in many of the false creation accounts between you know, Baal and Yam, between Marduk and Tiamat, there's none of that. There's no sea monster that in any way, a Leviathan that brings, or a chaos monster that in any way has to be destroyed. No. In fact, verses 10 and later, 21, tells us that God created the sea monsters. He created the Leviathans. They were for His pleasure and His good, though they are symbolic of evil. There's more of that coming. But what happens is the Spirit of God is moving in order to take the formless and form it, to take the unfilled and fill it. And that's a major theme throughout Scripture, is the form, the order, the beauty, the goodness of God and His creation. the beauty of God and His creation. And so right away we say, it just says God spoke. All He did was say something. There was no conflict. If you can remember two things as you study mythological accounts of creation, all other creation stories are very similar. And they are copies of the original. But what the original inspired account tells us, there's two things. And we'll look at these more in full as we go through. And there's actually a class I'll dedicate to this. But if you can remember these two things with ka-ka, I remember things with alliteration, ka, sees. One, there's no conflict. And that's what makes it dissimilar. to all the other accounts. There's no conflict between the God or the gods and creation. It's just that he spoke. The second is, we'll talk about it more, there's covenant. There's always implied covenant. That God has sought a relationship. That he's made the world for a relationship with man. Covenant. Very simply. We'll look at that more. But if you can remember those two things, it'll always help you when you're reading through. any other creation myths or stories. And so we see here a few things. I want to show you in four steps, notice what we see as this covenant word is spoken. We're just told in verse three, and God said, let there be light and there was light. Now, there's this pattern that shows us how God is taking that which is formless and forming it. How so? Let's notice. Number one, there's an announcement. There's four parts you want to note in chapter one of Genesis that shows the formless becoming formed by God's Spirit and the empty becoming filled. All right? There's four steps. You ready? Number one is an announcement is repeated. And beloved, whenever you're looking at a historical narrative, look for things like these. Look for repetition. Because what is repeated? And God said. And God said. Very important. And God said. That's to emphasize that God speaks into nothing by the word of His power and creates everything in the cosmos, spiritual and immaterial. You know, I mean, yeah, immaterial, spiritual and material things. And God said, notice chapter 1, verse 3, 6, 9, 11, 14, 20, 24, 26. And God said, no conflict. God speaks. Repetition is very important. That's like God's highlighting it for you to say, don't miss this. I am a God who speaks by the word of my power. I rule by my word. Number two, there's a command. Notice over and over, let there be. Let there be. Let there be. Genesis 1, 3, 6, 9, 11, 14, 20, 24, 26, a command. So God speaks. That's the first thing. The second, He commands, let there be. And nothing resists His power. Amen. Then there's a report. And it was so. And it was so. Nothing, no conflict. God spoke by the word of his power there. He said, let there be commanded. And then he reports the author, Moses, inspired by the spirit reports. And it was so. Genesis one, three, seven, nine, eleven, fifteen, twenty four and thirty. Amazing, right? Much repetition here. And then finally, evaluation. And it was good. And it was good. So you see, out of this drama, we're to draw our doctrine, our teaching. All right? And God saw that it was good. Genesis 1, 4, 10, 12, 18, 21, 25, and 31. That's a lot, right? So out of these, you've got God speaks, God commands, report, evaluation. So out of the drama that we have in Genesis 1, what are we to take from that? One thing about God, tell me. This is how you should always read your Bibles. OK, let's learn this. What would you say about God now? How? Who is he? What's he like? All powerful. What else? He's sovereign. He's king. What else? He's good. Oh, one of my favorite ways of prayer is saying kind king, kind king, sovereign, kind king. He's a kind king. He's given us all things for our enjoyment. He saw it was good. And so this, when we look at this pattern here, we realize that God is emphasizing from the drama the teaching about himself, the God, the king, the creator who speaks by his word. What does it tell us about the word of God? Powerful. He's created us. We're being created by His power. His word sustains everything that is. Moses, the wisdom that comes from this is to know that we're to fear God and keep His commandments. It's the final conclusion, to fear God and keep His commandments. Very good. Very good. That's how we see. We also see order. We see beauty. We see fullness. Out of this passage, we also see that God brings form and fullness to that which was formless and empty. He brings form and fullness. He brings beauty. It's a beautiful kingdom to enjoy God and his gifts. He forms from the fullness. He forms from chaos with a purpose, the kingdom to be filled with creatures. And then he makes... You get this inspired form and content when you consider the days of creation. And when we think of the days of creation, these are the...you note how that's repeated. There is, in verse 5, the first day, then in verse 8, the second day, and then in verse 10, or actually the verse 13, the third day. So all these are given in a particular order. We sometimes forget, though, that the order that's given is not just the content that we should draw from it. We should do that. That's why it's there. But we should also consider the form in which it's given. And if you notice the days, and I'll put the days up like this. You had the situation in the beginning of formlessness or void, right? And emptiness. So what he does is he forms and then he fills. So days one through three are God's form, and days four through six are his filling. So days one through three are God's form, Going back to his thesis statement in verse 2, that everything was without form and void. And so by the power of his great spirit, the Father, through Jesus Christ, by the Holy Spirit, brought form and filled. And on the days of the kingdoms, what you have is, on day one, what is it that God creates? What is it he speaks into existence? Light. Very good. And the fourth day, these days correspond to one another. That's what you should see. On day four, what is it that he creates? Excellent. The sun, the moon, the stars. All right. So that which was light, he brought in light bearers. What's second day? What's the second day? Good. Skies and sea. What is created on the fifth day? Birds and sea creatures, right? Is that correct? So, sky and sea, birds and sea creatures. Three, what does He create? What does He form? Land. And on day six, what does He give on the land? So what we have here is that God is forming, right here, Kingdoms, beloved, kingdoms. The light is a place. The sky and the sea are kingdom animals, and then one that consummates his creation activity, man who will rule over all on behalf of God, man who will rule over all on behalf of God. So when you see the form and the filling, then you see the kingdoms and the kings. And you realize that God is showing, even in the creation account, a beautiful narrative, inspired narrative, historical picture of His form and beauty in all things. That it's not just He's forming the outward world, the external world, and the spiritual world, but He in literary form is beautiful. There's form and beauty to Genesis 1 that we can often overlook. Don't ever let your modern time, any time, cause you to read into something that may not be there. Try to understand what the Bible is saying and see all you can. It's very hard to do that. I realize that. But we want to consider. So kingdoms and kings, and you're going to see this throughout, so God has made a place now for his for his sovereign kingship to be revealed in true history, in space and time, with a purpose of bringing in a new heavens and a new earth. But the culmination day that's separate from all the others is what day? Sabbath. This is most important. The Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath. This Sabbath day points us to eschatology and purpose. This tells us that God had a rest in mind that man was to enter into. And as we study, what we'll realize is that the rest that man was to enter into was through obedience to his covenant that we see in chapter 2. But man broke the covenant. He didn't do what God told him to do. He didn't follow his holy, most lovely word. And so man didn't enter into the Sabbath that he was destined for. That's why the New Testament will tell us that there still remains a Sabbath rest for the people of God. That's why in the Ten Commandments, God will root, in the Exodus account, He'll root the Sabbath in creation as a very important creation account for all humanity to enjoy, not just believers. And why in the Deuteronomy account, he roots it in redemption to heighten the importance of the Sabbath for believers. So what he's saying is the Sabbath is made for all creatures. All creatures are to have one day in seven to be an analog or to set the same rhythm or time as one's creator. And all creatures are made for, the Sabbath is made for all creatures. And that the Sabbath is heightened as a believer, that it's kept one day and seven, because you're saying, you're confessing that you've entered into that rest already in Christ, and you're going to live like it through worship and work. That your work will have the same days as God, six days, and your worship will be primarily on one day. So even in the beginning, we see this throughout the scriptures, when the prophets want to show God's people that they have failed the covenant, the one commandment they go to most often, especially in Jeremiah and Isaiah, is that they are breakers of the Sabbath. Because he's saying, you're totally, you're acting inhuman when you break the Sabbath. You're not just disobeying God, you're disobeying his order that he was fixed in creation. So it's inhuman to break the Sabbath. And that's why the Sabbath is separate. That's why the Sabbath is separate and why it points to an eschatological Sabbath rest. Let's look at chapter 2, verses 1 through 3. In chapter 2, verses 1 through 3, we're told, thus the heavens and the earth were finished. And thus begins what we call providence now, beloved. You know, God's providentially sustaining and ordering. So the work originally has been done. The heavens and the earth were finished. And all the host of them, and the seventh day God finished his work that he had done. You notice the work? And he rested on the seventh day from all his work that he had done. So God blessed the seventh day and made it holy because on it God rested from all his work that he had done in creation. Now, if we think about this in ancient Near Eastern context, when a king would complete his holy temple, the place in ancient world that would represent his rule and reign, the king in the ancient world would put images of himself all over that temple and all over the land that he possessed. And after that temple was built to his glory, he would sit down enthroned in glory to appreciate all that he's done in order to receive worship. And that's what's happening here, is that the true God, the true triune God has created this temple garden, this place for his people to honor and worship him. And he's sitting down in Sabbath rest. This is more than just taking a, you know, just going to read a magazine now and get some rest. No, no. It's to suggest his enthronement. So again, it emphasizes God the king. God, the king and creator. So let's go now to Garden. And I'm going to have to go quick, aren't I? I have notes I'll give you for further things. But chapter 2 of Genesis, if chapter 1 is a widescreen lens that's being used, it's a panoramic view, chapter 2 is more intimate focus. It's a close-up lens. And so I'm just going to summarize some things that God does. When he makes man out of dust, he forms him. And then he intimately breathes life into him. At the end of Genesis 1, which we'll look at, Lord willing, more next week with the fall, he creates man as an image bearer. And it's strikingly different than everything else in chapter one. In chapter one, as he says, let there be, when he comes to man, he sets man apart in the way that he phrases it. He said, let us make man in our own image, in our likeness. And so that focus, that close-up focus in chapter 2, beginning in verse 7, reveals more intimacy. Because in chapter 2, verse 7, what we're told is, the Lord God formed the man of dust from the ground, breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living creature. So God, by his holy lips, breathes into man and makes him a creature. So again, there's a covenantal context to all this. There's a relationship. In ancient Near Eastern mythology and creation stories, basically the gods create man to run a sacred nail salon and spa. So man's to come in and pamper the gods, or the gods are to come in and get pampered by their little servants. That's true. They're to be pampered and they're to get tipped now and then. But these are mean, mean gods, generally speaking. They're sinful. They're made in man's image, not God's image. And it's very simple. Just think about it. Whenever you pass a nail salon, say that this is what all other creation stories are telling me, is that the gods come down and they created man to serve them, to just be servants, and to pamper them, and to appease their ungodly wrath at times. All right, so contrastly, God creates man in covenant. I'll tell you so how. Let's look at chapter 2. Look at verse 4, how it's a summary statement. We're going to look at this summary statement more in full as we progress when we get to cycle 2 with the covenants. But for now, notice this, verse 4, these are the generations of the heavens and the earth. Remember, heavens and the earth, the Meroism, it means cosmos. When they were created, in the day that, notice this, first time in the Bible, Lord God made the heavens and the earth. So He's revealed here, very importantly, as the Covenant Lord. All right? In Chapter 1, He's Elohim, which is God's self-revelation of Himself as Creator, but here as particularly as it gets close up to man, the emphasis is on covenant relationship. Lord, L-O-R-D, capital L, capital O, capital R, capital D. That's the covenant name, Yahweh. And so what the people of God would have read that we should read in verse 4 at the end is that the Lord God, not a distant God, Yes, a transcendent one, but one who's imminent through His covenant. He's Yahweh. He's the covenant God. He's the God who has created, has also redeemed me, you see. The God who's created all things is a God who wants a relationship with me. He didn't just create me to work in a nail salon or spa to pamper Him. I've got purpose. I've got dignity. I've got honor. You see, so there's that covenant importance. And notice what he does here. We're told in verse eight of chapter two, then the lad, he planted a garden in Eden, though he had created all the heavens and the earth, though all creation was special. This was his and he's going to give them everything. His kindness and love would. And identity, very good. And so the Lord God planted a garden, verse 8. Again, eschatology points to purpose and plan. A river flowed out of Eden to water the garden. And there it divided and became four rivers. And the name of the first is Pishon. It is the one that flowed around the whole land of Havilah where there's gold. And the gold of that land is good. But Delium and Onyx Stone are there. The name of the second river is the Gihon. It is the one that flowed around the whole land of Kush. And the name of the third river is the Tigris, which flows east of Assyria. And the fourth river is the Euphrates. The Lord God took the man and put him in the garden. One of the things that I ask you to memorize as a movement of the drama in scripture is not only the creation, fall, redemption, and new creation, but it's Eden, Megapolis, and Metapolis. Eden was the place where God's special presence dwelled. And it was to focus us on a mega city, a megapolis. Zion, Mount Zion. And Mount Zion would point forward and upward to what great city? Two. So garden throughout the Bible is very important. When you see the garden, you're wanting to always connect in your mind. Land. Zion. Jerusalem. New Jerusalem. Garden. land, Zion, Jerusalem, New Jerusalem. And as you go through the Bible, you'll see the garden theme over and over. In fact, when Israel is under a curse, the prophet uses the warning to Israel that I will, Jeremiah 4, that it will be formless and void again. I will de-create. You'll live as if this whole world has been de-created and disordered like it was before the forming and filling of creation if you keep up sinning. If you keep on sinning, it's going to be like the opposite of Eden, a desert of wilderness. And then when he promises that he's going to make, because of grace, he's going to bring in a garden of beauty. That's his language. He's going to make the land flowing with milk and honey. But most of all, when you're thinking of garden and you're thinking of Zion and you're thinking of Jerusalem, you're thinking of New Jerusalem, what is it you want to be thinking of most of all? His presence. His presence. So garden, let that presence, let that connect immediately because you're seeing God's power or rule over His people in His presence. That's the main theme. of Holy Scripture, or the God, the garden, the glory of humanity, and the goal of history. So let me trace for you a couple of ways that you can see the garden. OK, you ready? And you might wait on my notes later to write this down. If you can write quick, you can go for it. But let me just go over a few things. In the beginning is a garden to cultivate. In the end is a glorious city. In the beginning, there's a river from Eden. In the end, there's the river of life flowing from the throne of God. In the beginning, there's the tree of life. At the end is the tree of life. In the beginning is gold, onyx, and precious stones. At the end are golden streets and precious stones that make up the holy city. At the beginning, a call to rule and dominion and serve and guard. As we learned in 2.15, the Lord God took man to work it and keep it. At the end, man is serving his priest kings over the new heavens and new earth. In the beginning, you have one man and one woman. At the end, you have believers of all nations. At the beginning, you have a throne, especially established in God's Sabbath rest. At the end, you have a throne that is revealed with God the Father, God the Son at the right hand, and the Holy Spirit imaged or symbolized through the river that flows from the throne in the new heavens, new earth, that has the trees of life for the healing of the nation. It's incredible, isn't it? That the creation first things theme goes all the way through the Bible, all the way to the end. And so when you're thinking as you're studying your Bible in order to know God better, in order to know your Bibles better, don't always be thinking God's power over his people in God's holy presence. That was the purpose in the beginning, first things. And that's the purpose at the end. Because it's ultimately the purpose for why he created. was that His powerful rule might be over a particular people and they might enjoy His wonderful, good, kind presence. Beautiful, huh? And it's all one story. You see so much unity, but so much beauty and thought and image throughout. Well, man's made in God's image. It would be better to say a couple of things about this and then save that for next week when we talk about the fall. because it's helpful, I think, to talk about what it means to image God and then contrast that with what man becomes through sin, all right? So the God, the garden, the glory of humanity, the goal of history, we've looked at all of them. Let's look at the glory of humanity, particularly right now, just for a couple of minutes, and then, Lord willing, we'll do more of this next week, okay? You ready? We're told that man is made in God's image, chapter 1, verses 26 to 28. And I want you to see something very important that let us make man in our image after our likeness. Verse 26. Let's just focus on that today. Image and likeness are synonymous. This is a synonymous parallel. Very important, whether you understand this or not, it's important for me to say this because this has been disputed throughout church history, especially with the medieval church. And I don't have time to go into how and why, but let me just say that it is the Reformation consensus up to today and of most Orthodox believers to understand that the image and likeness are speaking of the same thing, just two different ways of saying the same thing, image, likeness. All right? So image and likeness are synonymous parallels. So you might say, God said, let us make man in our image. What's more after our likeness? A, what's more? B. That's parallelism, very simply put. And that's the glory of humanity, is that in distinction from the other kings of creation, the sun, moon, and stars that rule over the seasons, rule over the days and the nights. By the way, did you catch that they rule when we read Genesis 1? He put the greater light for the day, the lesser light to rule over the night. He uses ruler imagery. Isn't that wonderful? And the stars, they're to order the seasons. That's also in Genesis 8.22 that we'll look at later when we talk about redemption. But the rulers, the birds and the sea creatures, they're glorious creatures. Unbelievable diversity in creation. Similarities and yet diversity, beautiful color everywhere you look. Animals, oh, wonderful, wonderful animals. But one thing that is unique about mankind that we get in form and content in Genesis 1 is in form, we're stopped. He doesn't say, let there be man. He speaks as trying God that will be revealed more clearly later, let us make man. Very intimate, very intimate. And no other creatures are put with the particular purpose in the garden, with the particular purpose of working it and guarding it or keeping it, you see. So man, you could say, in God's image, very clearly from scripture, in its form is unique, but in its content, the image and likeness means that they are distinct from all other creatures. Man is. Man, male and female. And they are to serve God and work the garden in a way that's distinct from all other creatures. You know, if you get down to it, some people will say, what is it? And I find it's very helpful to think about image of God as, of course, reflecting God to some degree. But that gets confusing. How much? And, you know, do we reflect God? I find it's better to focus on man's purpose and function. Because that comes right after. Man's purpose and function. is that he's to receive as a kingship gift this purpose, this calling in verse 26b, let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the heavens, over the livestock, over all the earth, every creeping thing that creeps on the earth. And then we have verse 27, so God created man in his own image. In the image of God, he created him. Male and female, he created them. So there's the distinction or diversity in unity. And then verse 28, God blessed them and God said, be fruitful and multiply. So in other words, to some degree, though they're not going to create in the same way he did, by the way, that verb bara in Hebrew, create, is only used of God in the Bible. The verb make and the verb form is used of man. And unfortunately, idols. But man is, yes indeed, to make and to form, to be creature kings who have dominion over all other creation and who make things, who form things. But if you boil it down, what the image of God means as function from the heart in a way that knows of worshipping and serving God, So if nothing else you remember about the image of God, I think you should always remember that man's purpose was to worship and serve God. The image of God means that he's made as a particular creature, the height of creation, really, to worship and serve God. And was that the final act? No. To enter in through obedience to the eschatological Sabbath. You see how this is going to come undone with the fall? Worship is going to become idolatry. Service is going to become self-centered laziness, greed, theft. So man is covenant king. The term we remember is vice regent, but the correct term is vice gerent. You may know that. But the proper term is vicegerent. I'm not sure how it got changed to viceregent. Of course, we know regency is king from Latin. It must have something to do with that. But vicegerency is the call and purpose of man to be God's prime minister, to be God's worshipful servant. But here's the difference between all other false creation accounts. a worshipful servant who is, you ready? Covenantal Son. Covenantal Son. You'll never see that in any of the other creation accounts, beloved. Covenantal Son. Covenantal Son. And you see how it broke God's heart to speak this against Him after such powerful goodness displayed. You ready? Let's do this. I always want to end here because I don't want us to forget Let me summarize what we've learned. We've learned that there's a sacred place that God's given. There's a sacred time. Time in history has purpose. There's a sacred means through covenant. And there's God's sacred rule over all. All right? So this is what we learn about creation. There's a sacred place, Eden, that points forward to another sacred place, sacred time, and that God's time has purpose. A sacred means that God's going to covenant relate to man, that therefore he will bring about man to man's glorious end as he's purposed, even though the fall is going to occur, and a sacred rule over heaven and earth. and be the sovereign Holy One. One thing I don't want to ever leave is, who is God? Who would you call God now? How would you go out and worship and serve Him right now? Who is God, after you've listened to this? Who is God? He's the King. Always try to do this. It gets your heart all ready for service. Fall in condition focus. What are you going to be concerned about with your own heart today? Fall in condition focus, FCF. What is it about your own heart you want to look out for? You're going to watch that your kingship is always subjected to the king. Okay. Idolatry. All right. All right. Humility and submission. What else? That's what we're created for. True joy is found in realizing the Sabbath rest already now in Christ, as we await the Sabbath rest to come. That's what true joy is found. It's not found in our own calculations, our own considerations, apart from God's Word. It's always through God's Word, by the means of God's Word. So listen, wise people, listen. Wise people fear God. OK, pastoral application. How are you going to live? How then are you going to live in light of creation? How are you going to live? What's that? Humbly. And as we'll learn more next week about the image, the image of God also means we're social creatures. We're not made to be alone. We'll find out more about that. Just so much you can say in one. Apologetics, the two C's I reminded you of, remember? The two C's that make creation distinct from all other creation accounts, what are they? There's no conflict with God. He just speaks by the word of his power in the space of six days into nothing and all is very good. Okay. All right. And what? Covenantal relationship. Okay. You can remember those two things. You can always read in a healthy manner. I might also add apologetically. This can be my favorite part, but I will behave myself. But it is in the creation account that you find God to be distinct from creation. He's not emanating himself or his being in creation. It's not pantheisms. It's not panentheism. It's not like the sun and its rays. God is distinct from. He self-exists apart from creation. He's distinct from but never separate. He is transcendent and He's also imminent through covenant relationship. But He's distinct from. And evil is not in existence. Dualism is wrong. And Platonism is wrong ultimately because it denies real materiality, goodness, and history. And so when Plato speaks, he sounds like he's using eschatological categories, but he's not. Because he doesn't believe in real history or good things that can happen in real history. And his cave is not the created place that God has created. He's starting on the wrong foundation. I love his cave, by the way. I love the parable of the cave. But when you read it, start with the understanding that he's talking about a place that doesn't exist. The real world is God's world and it's full of God. Romans 1 would meet Plato's cave and say, the Apostle Paul would read Plato's cave and say, can't work. Why? Because we're looking around us, not just through blindness, but we're seeing the power and glory of God and we're refusing to worship and serve him with gratitude as we were created to. That's the problem with Plato's cave. All kinds of good apologetics with regard to this. Can't go into them all, but boy, isn't it fun? All right, so next week, let's do fall. OK, so next week will be the fall or harmatology, the doctrine of sin. We're going to go through. So today's main point, the God, the garden, the glory of humanity and the goal of history. All right. That's what we want to take with us.