The first chapter of Genesis is a study of the ordering of the earth and the progressive order of the 6 creative days to prepare the earth for man, and then at the very end of the 6th day, the creation of man and woman.
Genesis 1:31 [And God saw every thing that he had made, and, behold, it was very good. And the evening and the morning were the sixth day.]
But there earth was not finished, it will not be finished until the end of the Millennial Age.
God finished only a little garden in Eden, just big enough for Adam to take care of. A perfect home for earths king and queen.
Evening and morning Day 6, at its close, 42,000 years after the “WORK” began, found the earth ready for the creative process to continue.
In our study of the creative process it is apparent that the sequence was always upward.
The 1st 2 days were devoted to getting the earth ready for vegetable life.
The next 2 days brought forth vegetable and lowest forms of animal life.
The 5th and 6th epoch – days brought forward living creatures that move, in land and sea. Always progressing upward, preparing for the introduction of man, the earthly image of the Creator, crowned with glory and honor, to be king of earth.
Also keeping in mind that the number 7 implies completion and perfection, we would naturally expect the 7th Epoch – day to be more marvelous than its predecessors.
And so it is: the only thing is that its importance is for a time hidden by the general statement in Genesis 2:2 [And on the seventh day God ended his work which he had made; and he rested on the seventh day from all his work which he had made.]
How strange that God should rest from His creative work at a point where it seemed just ready for completion.
Like a builder preparing all the materials for a structure and then bringing the work to a stop when the building is nearly completed.
Fortunately the whole matter opens grandly before us when we see that Jehovah God, rested from His work of creation because in his wisdom He saw His divine program could best be executed by another way.
There were several things to be accomplished during this last creative epoch. In Genesis 1:28 [And God blessed them, and God said unto them, Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth, and subdue it: and have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over every living thing that moveth upon the earth.] They and their children were to fill the earth with perfect human beings according to the plan of God. This work still continues.
A little later Adam and Eve fell under temptation into sin and the penalty of sin, death. The final recovery of the human race will depend on their experience with good and evil during this last creative epoch.
God also saw it best for man to have a part of the subduing of the earth. If man was to have dominion of the earth forever, it would be well for him to have a part in the ordering of it. A part of the finishing the earth. Getting to really know and love this earth of ours.
Using the soil – the same soil we will use forever, the water supply, experimenting with the natural resources.
Experimenting with our needs. What is the best kind of shelter for us to live in. Caves? Grass huts? Tepees? Castle? House? Cities? Farms? Settlements?
What kind of cooking is best? Italian, Chinese, Polish, Mexican. We go to a chinese restaurant and most of the clientele is mexican.
Up to about a hundred years ago you ate the food that was available in the country where you were born. Now we are able to enjoy cooking from all over the world. I am personally involved in this research!
Experimenting, learning to know how to build a nearly perfect city, self contained – using solar energy – all waste would be recycled.
This earth can be made a better, more beautiful place. Dams are being built, creating lovely lakes. Forests are being replanted and the birds and animals are returning to them.
A splendid example of what man can do is the Hula Valley is Israel. The swamps which for centuries had produced only mosquitoes have been reclaimed and now is some of the best farmland in the world.
God saw best to permit us, mankind, to do a part of subduing the earth! to bring it as a whole toward its foretold Paradise condition.
However, one of the chief reasons for Jehovahs resting or ceasing of the creative work was that it might be accomplished by another, by His Only Begotten, in a manner that would not only glorify the Son, but would glorify the Father also, by displaying the perfections of the Divine attributes as no other course could do.
The giving of His Son to be mans redeemer demonstrated Gods great Love, how much He really cared for us, even in our fallen, sinful condition. Divine Justice, Wisdom and Power will also be exhibited in every feature of GOD’s Plan when completed.
Its true that the Son, called the Logos, the Word of God and Wonderful in his prehuman existence was made, but in all these creations the Son simply acted for Jehovah, using powers and energies now in any since his own.
But now in this grand work to be accomplished he will be using a power and authority that are his own, which he received through his obedience unto death, culminating in his crucifixion.
By that transaction, which the Fathers’ wisdom and love planned for him, he buys the world, buys Father Adam and all his descendants and his estate, the earth with all his title to it as its monarch, in the likeness of God.
The Father delighted to honor the “First Begotten” so this is the way he planned it. The Father rested, or ceased from the creative work, that the Son might finish it and in so doing might thus honor the Father and be honored by him.
God rested, not because he was tired or weary, but in the since of ceasing to create.
Adam had violated the Law of God through sin and the penalty was death, everlasting death, everlasting destruction, and it was impossible for the Supreme Judge of the universe to reverse His own righteous decree, therefore it was impossible for the Creator to become directly the restorer of the race, or in any since or degree to continue His creative work in the condemned man or in his estate, the earth.
The Fathers plan for the redemption of our race is perfect. He foresaw the best means for mans assistance was through a Mediator. He saw that this 6000 year period of the reign of Sin and Death is none too long for the bringing forth by births of race sufficient to fill the earth.
None too long to give all a lesson in the “exceeding sinfulness of sin” and the severe wages it pays.
It was 4000 years after the fall before Our Lords first advent when he came to provide a ransom price for the world, nevertheless the Scriptures declare it was in Gods due time “In due time God sent forth His Son.”
At just the right time, the due time according to the divine purpose that the most wonderful creative work was to be accomplished by our Lord Jesus during this 7th creative day, for it was God’s purpose to call and gather and polish a New Creation, the elect Church to share with the Redeemer in the great work of blessing the world.
God foreseeing that it would require the entire Gospel Age for this election sent His Son just long enough in advance to accomplish it. God’s timetable is set and it is perfect.
It was the plan of the Almighty God that this New Creation would be partakers of the divine nature, partakers of His own “glory, honor and immortality.”
This being the case each member of this New Creation must first have a trial, and must prove their loyalty to their Creator and to the principles of His righteous government, absolutely before they could be exalted to this high estate.
Why? Because a most important element of the divine nature is immortality, a death – proof condition. If their loyalty to God was not absolute they could later become immortal transgressors who could not be destroyed.
Remember, He who was once called “Son of the Morning” became the prince of the “rulers of darkness.” His name was once Lucifer, the shining one, was changed to Satan, meaning the hater, accuser, but Satan is mortal, he wil be destroyed!
We are able then to understand the deep wisdom of the plan that God has adopted in respect to this most favored class of all his creatures, in testing them severely, critically while they are still mortal, and then after they have been proven, honor them with a new nature.
Naturally the First Begotten would come promptly to the Fathers mind as the one who was already the highest, the chiefest of all his sons, already next to himself; the god, the mighty one through whom he had created all things, and who, in every particular had shown his fidelity and loyalty to his Father and Creator.
To him first would be granted the opportunity of attaining the divine nature and its glory, honor and immortality. It pleased the Father that in him should all fullness dwell, “that in all things he might have the preeminence.”
The Son already had preeminence above all others and having used it faithfully, he was naturally first in the order of advancement to whatever higher honors and dignities the Father had to give.
“To him that hath shall be given, and he shall have more abundance.” Faithfulness will have its reward even though this means the faithful one must be subjected to trials, experiences and disciplines of the most crucial kind.
Even though a son, a most loyal son, a most devoted son, he could not be granted a share in the divine nature unless, first of all, his faith and loyalty be put to the most crucial tests.
Before the plan unfolded God knew man would fall and come under the sentence of death and he had prearranged that the test he would impose on his Only Begotten would be that he should, of his own free will, become the Redeemer of mankind, and by so great a trial and sacrifice show his loyalty to the Father and his faith in him.
Thus, in the divine plan Jesus was the “Lamb slain from the foundation of the world.”
Jesus was not forced to be our Redeemer, by his sufferings he was prepared by the Father for great exaltation, far above angels, principalities and powers, and every name that is named, as a partaker of Gods’ own nature and a sharer of God’s own throne.
Hebrews 12:2 [Looking unto Jesus the author and finisher of our faith; who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is set down at the right hand of the throne of God.]
Nevertheless, we notice in our Redeemers prayer to the Father while passing through the trials, that with humility and modesty he merely asked to be resurrected and restored to his previous position in heaven.
Jesus apparently felt he had been honored enough by being chosen of the Father as his agent to carry out the work of the 7th creative day. His simple words were “Father, glorify me with the glory that I had with thee before the world was.”
The Father had purposed in himself that the New Creation should consist not merely of one individual, but that he should have brethren and because sin and its penalty, death, would be illustrated in mankind, he determined to select the remainder of the New Creation from amongst men.
Not only would the testing of the Only Begotten One be in connection with humanity and the sin and death prevailing amongst men, but similarly all who would be joint-heirs with him, in the New Creation would have like opportunities, experiences and testings.
Therefore the Only Begotten, called Jesus subsequently the Christ, the Anointed, the Messiah would become a pattern, an example for the other members of the New Creation, all of whom would be required to conform to his character-likeness, to become copies of the likeness of the son.
The grand work accomplished during the first 6000 years of the seventh Epoch – day has been three fold. Mankinds experience with sin and death will prove priceless, also man has learned much about his eternal home here on earth and has had a part in subduing it. The experiences of man has also been a great object lesson for the Angels.
But the crowning work has been the selection, development, polishing and testing of the New Creation.
Thus did Jehovah God manifest his confidence in his own great plan of the ages, and in his Only Begotten Son whom he has committed its full execution.
If we ad believers, like God, have perfect confidence in Christs ability and willingness to carry out all of Jehovahs’ great projects we can also trust our every interest and concern to him, as respects ourselves, family, friends and the world of mankind in general.
The Apostle’s declaration is “We who have believed do enter into rest….he that is entered into his rest, he hath also ceased from his works, as God did from his”
Brother Detzler