The Creation Of The Man And The Woman
The Word Of God - Lesson II C
The Creation Of The Man And The Woman
Having looked at the subject of who angels are, we will now turn to the subject of humanity.
Who Humanity is
We learn from God’s Word that God is the Creator of all things. We can read the story of creation in Genesis 1.
Let us read Genesis 1:1-25
In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. Now the earth was formless and empty, darkness was over the surface of the deep, and the Spirit of God was hovering over the waters. And God said, “Let there be light,” and there was light. God saw that the light was good, and He separated the light from the darkness. God called the light “day” and the darkness He called “night”. And there was evening and there was morning –the first day. And God said, “Let there be an expanse between the waters to separate water from water.” So God made the expanse and separated the water under the expanse from the water above it. And it was so. God called the expanse “sky”. And there was evening and there was morning –the second day. And God said, “Let the water under the sky be gathered to one place, and let dry ground appear.” And it was so. God called the dry ground “land”, and the gathered waters He called “seas”. And God saw that it was good. Then God said, “Let the land produce vegetation: seed-bearing plants and trees on the land that bear fruit with seed in it, according to their various kinds.” And it was so. The land produced vegetation: plants bearing seed according to their kinds and trees bearing fruit with seed in it according to their kinds. And God saw that it was good. And there was evening, and there was morning –the third day. And God said, “Let there be lights in the expanse of the sky to separate the day from the night, and let them serve as signs to mark seasons and days and years, and let them be lights in the expanse of the sky to give light on the earth.” And it was so. God made two great lights –the greater light to govern the day and the lesser light to govern the night. He also made the stars. God set them in the expanse of the sky to give light on the earth, to govern the day and the night, and to separate light from darkness. And God saw that it was good. And there was evening, and there was morning –the fourth day. And God said, “Let the water teem with living creatures, and let birds fly above the earth across the expanse of the sky.” So God created the great creatures of the sea and every living and moving thing with which the water teems, according to their kinds, and every winged bird according to its kind. And God saw that it was good. God blessed them and said, “Be fruitful and increase in number and fill the water in the seas, and let the birds increase on the earth.” And there was evening and there was morning – the fifth day. And God said, “Let the land produce living creatures according to their kinds: livestock, creatures that move along the ground and wild animals, each according to its kind. And it was so. God made the wild animals according to their kinds, the livestock according to their kinds, and all the creatures that move along the ground according to their kinds. And God saw that it was good.
God next turned His attention to the creation of a man and a woman as we can read in:
Genesis 1:26-28
Then God said, “Let us make man in Our image, in Our likeness, and let them rule over the fish of the sea, and the birds of the air, over the livestock, over all the earth, and over all the creatures that move along the ground.” So God created man in His own image, in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them. God blessed them and said to them, “Be fruitful and increase in number, fill the earth and subdue it. Rule over the fish of the sea and the birds of the air and over every living creature that moves on the ground.”
We learn further details of the creation of the man and the woman in Genesis 2.
Let us read Genesis 2:7-9
The Lord God formed the man from the dust of the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living being. Now the Lord God had planted a garden in the east, in Eden, and there He put the man He had formed. And the Lord God made all kinds of trees grow out of the ground – trees that were pleasing to the eye and good for food. In the middle of the garden were the tree of life and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.
We’ll continue reading in Genesis 2:15-25.
The Lord God took the man and put him in the Garden of Eden to work it and take care of it. And the Lord God commanded the man, “You are free to eat from any tree in the garden, but you must not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, for when you eat of it you will surely die.” The Lord God said, “It is not good for man to be alone. I will make a helper suitable for him.” Now the Lord God had formed out of the ground all the beasts of the field and all the birds of the air. He brought them to the man to see what he would name them; and whatever the man called each living creature, that was its name. So the man gave names to all the livestock, the birds of the air and the beasts of the field. But for Adam no suitable helper was found. So the Lord God caused the man to fall into a deep sleep, and while he was sleeping he took one of the man’s ribs (or side) and closed up the place with flesh. Then the Lord God made a woman from the rib (or side) He had taken out of the man, and He brought her to the man. The man said, “This is now bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh; she shall be called woman, for she was taken out of man. For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and they will become one flesh.The man and his wife were naked and they felt no shame.
Every time God had created something He had called it “good” but after He had created the man and the woman He called His creation “very good”.
We can read that in:
Genesis 1:31
God saw all that He had made and it was very good….
When we read through the creation account we notice a number of things. They are as follows:
1. Only the man and the woman were made in the image and likeness of
God which means:
a. They were created as spiritual beings who were able to have a
relationship with God.
b. They were created with the ability to develop a relationship with others.
c. They were given a free will.
d. They were able to know right from wrong.
e. They were created with the ability to think and to reason with others.
2. Only the man and the woman were told by God to rule over creation. We
can be certain that they did indeed rule over creation in exactly the way
God intended for them.
One day, the man and the woman encountered a creature named the serpent, as we can read in:
Genesis 3:1
Now the serpent was more crafty than any of the other wild animals the Lord God had made. He said to the woman, “Did God really say, “You must not eat from any tree in the garden?”
Another name for the serpent is Satan as we can read in:
Revelation 12:9
The great dragon was hurled down – that ancient serpent called the devil, or Satan, who leads the whole world astray. He was hurled to the earth, and his angels with him.
Satan in the form of the serpent had entered the world of the first man and the first woman and we will find out what happened during that encounter in the next study.