Only three creative acts of God are mentioned in the opening chapter of the Book of Genesis. First He created “The heaven and the earth” (verse 1), second He created all animal life (verse 21), and third He created human life (verses 26-27).
The word “Beginning” in the opening verse of the Bible carries us back to the dateless past when the un-created, self-existing, triune God of glory created “The heaven and the earth.” This first creative act of God brought into being a perfect heaven and a perfect earth. The Holy Spirit tells us that God created the earth “Not in vain (void)” but He “formed it to be inhabited” (Isaiah 45:18).
The First Inhabitants
of the earth were angels and not mankind. Carefully read the lamentation of Ezekiel to the “King of Tyrus” as recorded in the Book of Ezekiel, chapter 28 and verses 12 to 19. The “King of Tyrus” is only a type of the super-natural, super-terrestrial and super-human being who is addressed and described in this particular Scripture. This angelic being was using the king of Tyrus as one of his agents to secure world-power, but he, himself was more than a mere man. Study the following inspired description of this one with whom we still have to do.
“Thou sealest up the sum” (that is, ‘Thou art the finished pattern’), “Full of wisdom, and perfect in beauty” (verse 12). “Thou hast been in Eden, the garden of God” and “The workmanship of thy tabrets and of thy pipes was prepared in thee in the day that thou wast created” (verse 13). “Thou art the anointed cherub that covereth; and I have set thee so: thou wast upon the holy mountain of God; thou hast walked up and down in the midst of the stones of fire” (verse 14). “Thou wast perfect in thy ways from the day thou wast created, till iniquity was found in thee” (verse 15). “Thou hast sinned” (verse 16).
The Holy Spirit could never have used such language in the description of a mere man. The “King of Tyrus” was not “Full of wisdom and perfect in beauty,” he had never been “in Eden, the garden of God” and he was not “Created,” but was born. He was never set up as the “Anointed cherub” in the “Holy mountain of God;” neither was he ever “Perfect” in his ways.
These words of the Holy Spirit, spoken through Ezekiel in chapter 28, verses 12-16, may logically be applied in Biblical description of Satan from the day he was created until iniquity was found in him, but they could never, by any stretch of imagination, fit in with God’s description of a mere earthly king.
This “Anointed cherub” whom God created and set up in His “Holy mountain” was, undoubtedly, the ruler or governor of the angels which inhabited the perfect earth, with its garden of “Every precious stone” (Ezekiel 28:13) and just as it came forth from the creative hand of God. Very probably, the perfect earth was also inhabited by animal life, fowls and creatures of the sea; but it certainly was not inhabited by man. We are told in 1 Corinthians 15:45 that the “First man” was Adam, and we know from the Genesis account of creation that he did not come on the scene until after the perfect earth of Genesis 1:1 became “Without form and void” and was wrapped in “Darkness” (Genesis 1:2); and was then brought back to a state of habitation in six working days by the hand of the original Creator.
Divine Judgment
fell heavily upon the “Covering cherub” of Ezekiel 28:14-19. He is called “Lucifer, son of the morning” by the prophet Isaiah who gives us the divine record of his five-fold sin and God’s pending judgment in chapter 14, verses 12 to 15. Here we have the entrance of sin into the universe of God. Pride and egotism found a place in the heart of God’s highest angelic creature. This caused the creature to say to the Creator:
“I will ascend into heaven”
“I will exalt my throne above the stars of GOD”
“I will sit also upon the mount of the congregation, in the sides of the north”
“I will ascend above the heights of the clouds”
“I will be like the MOST HIGH”
The pronounced judgment upon this proud one, “Yet thou shalt be brought down to hell, to the sides of the pit,” is recorded in the closing verse of this reference. It reminds us of the inspired proverb: “Pride goeth before destruction, and an haughty spirit before a fall” (Proverbs 16:18). A comparison of 2 Peter 2:4 with Luke 10:18 and Revelation 12:3-4 will bring to our attention the fact that other angels followed Satan in his rebellion and were cast down with him.
We are led to believe that this same judgment which fell upon the angelic inhabitants of the perfect earth also brought about a cataclysmic change upon the earth which plunged it into the chaotic condition described in Genesis 1:2. As we follow God through the six working days of the remainder of this chapter, we find Him operating through the person of the Holy Spirit and His spoken Word (the second person of the Godhead). He restored light, He let the firmament appear, He gathered the waters together unto one place and let the dry land appear, He let the lights in the firmament of the heaven divide the day from the night, He created every living creature, and then He formed man in His own image. The judged earth was restored to a habitable place and thoroughly set in order for the livelihood of the human family before the first man and woman were created.
Mr. and Mrs. Adam
“This is the book of the generation of Adam. In the day that God created man, in the likeness of God made he him; male and female created he them; and blessed them, and called their name Adam, in the day when they were created” (Genesis 5:1-2). The name Eve was not given to the woman by the Creator. He called them both Adam. It was Adam who later called his wife’s name “Eve; because she was the mother of all living” (Genesis 3:20).
Let us remember that God Himself “Created man in His own image, in the image of God created He him; male and female created He them.” The method which God used in creating the man is found in Genesis 2:7: “And the Lord God formed man out of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a LIVING SOUL.” The method which God used in creating the woman is given in Genesis 2:21-22, where we are told that “The Lord God caused a deep sleep to fall upon Adam, and he slept, and He (God) took one of his (Adam’s) ribs and closed up the flesh instead thereof: and the rib which the Lord God had taken from man, made He a woman, and brought her unto the man.”
Both Adam and his wife came forth from the creative hand of God, full grown, thoroughly matured people. The fact that Adam was able to give names to all cattle and to the fowl of the air, and to every beast of the field as God had them brought before him (Genesis 2:19-20) is conclusive proof that he possessed mental faculties even above the average man of today.
This first pair were placed in the garden of Eden which the Lord God Himself had planted. “Out of the ground made the Lord God to grow every tree that is pleasant to the sight, and good for food; the tree of life also in the midst of the garden, and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil” (Genesis 2:9). We are told that the Lord God put the man into the garden of Eden “To dress it and to keep it” (Genesis 2:15). We call special attention to the expression “Keep it.” It means “To keep safe” or “To preserve.” It has the same meaning here as in chapter 3, verse 24, where we are told that a flaming sword was placed at the entrance of the garden of Eden to “Keep the way of the tree of life.” We know that God knew all about Satan’s subtle scheme to spoil the restored earth and its new inhabitants as he had spoiled the perfect earth with its angelic inhabitants. Therefore, God instructed Adam to keep the garden. That is, he was to keep it from Satan by living in strict obedience to God.
This brings us to the first of seven general dispensations which are clearly distinguished in the Word of God. A “dispensation” is a period of testing in respect of obedience on the part of mankind to some specific revelation of the will of God. It has the same meaning as the word “stewardship” and is so translated three times in Luke 16:2-4. This first period of testing is often designated as the “Dispensation of Innocence.”
