More Than Medicine
More Than Medicine
DWDP: Genesis 1:31-2:4 - God Rested
Witness the awe-inspiring power of creation as we journey through the profound narrative of Genesis 1:31 to 2:4. Explore the breathtaking moment when God declared His creation "very good," a testament to its original perfection and harmony. With insights from S. M. Lockridge, we're reminded of the divine majesty that fashioned the universe from nothing, challenging us to reflect deeply on God's omnipotence. We also engage with Dr. Henry Morris’s perspectives from "The Genesis Record," which offers a biblical lens on the fossil record, suggesting a world before death or disease, and contrasting this with conventional geological theories.
Join us as we unravel the significance of the Toledoth subscripts in Genesis, tracing the genealogies of the patriarchs and the universe itself. This exploration highlights the divine revelation of creation completed by the sixth day, setting a clear distinction from evolutionary theories. As we conclude, take a moment to connect with the Jackson Family Ministry, where spiritual guidance and community await. Don't miss the chance to stay spiritually enriched and inspired for the week ahead, with more enlightening discussions promised in our next session.
https://www.jacksonfamilyministry.com
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Welcome to More Than Medicine, where Jesus is more than enough for the ills that plague our culture and our country. Hosted by author and physician, Dr Robert Jackson.
Speaker 2:Papa, can you tell me a story? Do you really want me to tell you a story? Well, you go, get your brother and your sisters and I will tell you a story. Well, you go, get your brother and your sisters and I will tell you a story. Welcome to Devotions with Dr Papa. Gather around, grab your Bibles and let's look into the written Word that reveals to us the living Word, which is our Lord Jesus Christ.
Speaker 2:Today, I want us to look at Genesis, chapter 1, the last verse in chapter 1, and the first four verses in chapter 2. Actually, I believe that chapter 1 should conclude with the first four verses in chapter 2. Genesis 1, verse 31,. God saw all that he had made and, behold, it was very good. And there was evening and there was morning. The sixth day, chapter 2, verse 1. Thus, the heavens and the earth were completed, and all their hosts. By the seventh day, god completed his work which he had done, and he rested on the seventh day from all his work which he had done. Then God blessed the seventh day and sanctified it because in it he rested from all his work which God had created and made. This is the account of the heavens and the earth when they were created, in the day that the Lord God made earth and heaven. May God add His blessing to the reading of His Word. Now go back to verse 31 in chapter 1. If you notice that six times before this, when a day of creating and making were completed, God said that he saw that it was good. But here, at the end of this particular day, God saw that it was very good. Literally, it means exceedingly good. God surveyed the work of his hands and declared it to be very good. Every part of the heaven and the earth had been perfectly formed and existed in perfect harmony with one another, including the abundant inhabitants of planet earth.
Speaker 2:Allow me to repeat to you a statement that I shared with you in lesson one of Genesis 1 and verse 2, verses 1 and 2, a statement made by S M Lockridge when he was commenting on Habakkuk, chapter 3 and verse 3, and he entitles this comment God came from teman. Teman means nothing and nowhere. God came from nothing because there was nothing to come from. Coming from nothing, he stood on nothing because there was nothing to stand on. Standing on nothing, he reached out for which there was nothing to reach, and reaching out for nothing, he caught hold of something and hung something on nothing and told it to stay. He took the hammer of his will and struck the anvil of his omnipotence, and sparks flew therefrom and he caught them in the tips of his fingers and flung them out into space, bedecking the heavens with stars. And nobody said a word because there was nobody to say anything. Then God said that's good. I have that statement hanging in the wall in my house so I can look at it and ponder it over and over, because it's such a truthful statement that when God created the heavens and the earth, that nobody said a word Because there was nobody there to say anything, except for God himself. And he said that's good, except for on the last day, when he said that it's exceedingly good. Now, if you will notice the formula, there was evening and there was morning. The sixth day is repeated, except in this instance the definite article, the word the, appears for the very first time. Instead of saying a fifth day or a fourth day fourth day the scripture says the sixth day, thus stressing the completion of God's work.
Speaker 2:Now let me ask you a question how do the various geological ages, these geological theories, theories, fit into this one verse where God declares His work to be very good. For you, understand these theories of geological ages that last for millions of years, that include death and destruction and the survival of the fittest? How do those theories fit into this one verse where God declares His work to be very good? Truthfully, they don't, and they can't, because a perfect and exceedingly good creation cannot include death or disease or a struggle for existence. There could be nothing that was not good in all of God's creation. At this point, even Lucifer was still good and leading God's angels in the worship of God. His rebellion and fall had to come much later in time. Let me read a quote to you from Dr Henry Morris from his book the Genesis Record.
Speaker 2:Fossils of course speak of death, often of violent and sudden death. They also speak of disease and injuries, of storms and convulsions. In short, a world like the present world. In fact, the scripture says the whole creation groans and travails in pain together. Since death only entered into the world when sin came in through man and since the whole creation was very good before man sinned, it is as obvious as anything could be that the fossil record now found in the sedimentary rocks of the earth's crust could only have been formed sometime after man sinned. The fossils could not have been deposited either before the six days of creation, as in the gap theory, or during the six days of creation, as according to the progressive creation day age type of theory.
Speaker 2:How could God have possibly looked upon a world of struggle and travail and looked into the rocks to see the remains of billions of dead animals as well as human-like creatures, and then described it all as exceedingly good? Such a suggestion, in effect, makes God out to be a monster. Not the God of all grace who cares for every sparrow. Not the God of love and mercy, therefore too kind to create a world by such a process, as suggested in the geological age concept. Not the God of perfect wisdom, therefore certainly able to devise a better way than that. Not the God of omnipotence, thus fully able to devise a better way than that. Not the God of omnipotence, thus fully able to create by such a better way. And the God of infinite order. Not the author of confusion and of wasteful inefficiency which is implied, if the fossil record is indeed a record of pre-human earth history as revealed in the Bible, as we will see later, the cataclysmic events of the great flood in the day of Noah are quite sufficient to account for all the phenomena of the sedimentary rocks in the fossil record. At the time of man's creation, however, the whole universe was a beautiful, perfect creation, the finest that the mind and heart of God himself could devise for mankind. Those are the words of Dr Henry Morris in his book the Genesis Record.
Speaker 2:Chapter 1 should conclude in the middle of verse 4 in chapter 2 with the word this is the account of, or the generations of, as the King James Version says. Now, this is called a Toledoth subscript and there are 10 other Toledoths in the book of Genesis that describe the life of a patriarch. There's another one in Genesis, chapter 5. In verse 1. That says this is the book of the generations of Adam. And there's another one In Genesis, chapter 10. In verse 1. That goes like this one. It says Now these are the records of the generations of Shem, ham and Japheth, the sons of Noah. And there's another one in chapter 25 of Genesis. It says this I'm sorry, verse 12, genesis 25 and verse 12. Now these are the records of the generations of Ishmael, abraham's son. Now those are what we call a Toledoth and it's a subscript and it describes the life of a patriarch.
Speaker 2:Now, this Toledoth, here in Genesis, chapter 2, has no human author, since no human author was present as God spoke the heavens and the earth into existence, just as SM Lockridge described in his little paragraph that I read to you before, nobody was there to say a word, because no one was there. However, this Toledoth, this account, tells us the genealogy of the universe itself. And how do we know these things? Only by the grace of divine revelation. Now, now let's look at verses 1 through 3 in chapter 2. Multiple times in these three verses, god rested from all the work that he had done. Past tense, he was finished completely with all the work of creating and making. Nothing else would be made or created. Now let me ask you, why is that important? Why is it so important that God emphasized repeatedly and in the past tense that he was finished with the work of creating? Well, here's the reason. It's important because you and I have to understand that the processes of the world in which we live today, the processes in the world around us, are not those of creating and making, as the evolutionists theorize. That work has been completed. Those processes have been finished. And how do we know that Only by divine revelation, only because God emphatically informed us that the work of creating and making was completed by the end of the sixth day.
Speaker 2:Both the ancient pagan idol worshipers and the modern atheistic evolutionists repeat the same in saying that there is no God, there's no outside influence that is operative in the world in the very beginning. They repeat the same folly in saying that there is no God, in asserting that this universe is a self-contained, closed system without outside input. The psalmist has it correctly when he says why are the nations in an uproar and the peoples devising a vain thing? The kings of the earth take their stand and the rulers take counsel together against the Lord and against his anointed saying Let us tear their fetters apart and cast away their cords from us. And how does God respond to that? The next verse tells us he who sits in the heavens laughs, the Lord scoffs at them. And you see, those who profess themselves to be wise become fools. Indeed, why do the people say that there is no God? It is only those who are spiritually blind or willfully ignorant who cannot perceive that the processes active in the world today are those of conservation or disintegration, as dictated by the universal laws of thermodynamics. There is no further creating and making process underway in our fallen world. That understanding can only be acquired by divine revelation.
Speaker 2:1 Corinthians 2.14 says that the natural man cannot receive the things of the Spirit of God because they are foolishness to him. Neither can he understand them because they are spiritually discerned. There are so many highly intelligent scientists in this world that simply cannot understand this basic truth because they are spiritually blind or willfully ignorant. Now this verse goes on to tell us in chapter 2 in Genesis, talking about the host of heaven. Theologians believe that this refers either to the stars or perhaps the angels, whose residence could be among the stars. And then, lastly, this chapter tells us that God rested. He rested. He's not resting, but he rested.
Speaker 2:Exodus 31 and 17,. Verse 17 says that on the seventh day he rested and was refreshed. But very soon after that, god undertook the great work of redemption. Even in the garden, god was at work, redeeming Adam and Eve. He began the work of redemption when he had to kill probably a lamb to clothe them and cover their nakedness because of their sin in the garden. And the scarlet thread began to weave its way all the way through the Old Testament, always pointing to the cross, always revealing to His chosen people, and to you and me, that God would provide a Lamb, he would provide for Himself a Redeemer, and that there would be for you and me one who would take our place, one who would bear our sin, one on whom God would lay our iniquity, and one who would purchase our redemption.
Speaker 2:Jesus told us in John chapter 4, verse 34, when he said to them my food is to do the will of Him who sent Me, and to accomplish His work. He also told them in John chapter 5 and verse 17,. My Father is working until now, and I Myself am working, you see, working out our redemption. Jesus was always working. The Heavenly Father was always working. He was not permanently resting. He was working for your and my redemption. And then Jesus completed that work.
Speaker 2:In John 17, four, he told us that he glorified the father, having completed the work that his Father had given him to do, and then, when he was on the cross, he gave that triumphant cry it is finished. He had finished the work that God had given him to do, the work of redeeming all of mankind. And then, once again, god rested. And then, once again, god rested On the Sabbath day after the cross, he rested in Joseph's tomb until the dawning of the first day of a new week and the beginning of a new age, the church age in which you and I now live. Glory, glory, hallelujah. What a wonderful Savior, what a wonderful Redeemer.
Speaker 2:God rested on the seventh day, but he didn't rest forever, because he very soon began the work of redeeming you and me. What a wonderful Savior, what a wonderful God. What a wonderful book that we have to study that always points us to the cross, to the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ. Taking treasure of that book, that written Word that reveals to us the living Word, our Lord Jesus Christ. Well, thank you for listening to Devotions with Dr Papa. We'll be back again next week and I pray the Lord will bless you. Real good.
Dr. Robert Jackson:Thank you for listening to this edition of More Than Medicine. For more information about the Jackson Family Ministry, dr Jackson's books, or to schedule a speaking engagement, go to their Facebook page, instagram or their webpage at jacksonfamilyministrycom. This podcast is produced by Bob Slone Audio Production at bobslone. com.
