Study 1 – Creation and Adam and Eve by Fay Berry

Study 1 – Creation and Adam and Eve

The creation story is as follows:

“And the earth was without form, and void, and darkness was upon the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God moved upon the face of waters (Gen 1:2), and God said, Let there be light: and there was light (Gen 1:3), and God saw the light, that it was good, and God divided the light from the darkness (Gen 1:4) and God called the light Day, and the darkness he called Night (Gen 1:5). And God made two great lights; the greater light to rule the day, and the lesser light to rule the night: he made the stars also ( Gen 1:16). And God set them in the firmament of the heaven to give light upon the earth (Gen 1:17) to rule over the day and over the night, and to divide the light from the darkness. And God saw that it was good (Gen 1:18).”

This was the state of the heavens and the earth immediately after creation. Then followed the forming of Adam from the dust of the earth, and Eve from his side, and their subsequent disobedience to the one Law that God imposed on them. Their disobedience saw them consigned to “outer darkness” to a place where there was no “light.” They were removed from Eden to that place “East of Eden” where there was only spiritual darkness. But this was not just the original darkness that existed before creation, which was simply “an absence of light,” but the earth was now plunged into a “a horror of great darkness,” into an “Egyptian” darkness, a darkness “that could be felt,” (Ex 10:21).

If God had not been merciful all that would have remained for Adam and Eve would be to live out their lives, eating and drinking with hard labour, imprisoned by sin, to be finally absorbed back into the dust from whence they had been formed. But God was merciful, he gave them a hope, a hope that one day, the firment would be filled with “light” once more. One day they would be able to communicate with God “with open face beholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord,” and be “changed into the same image from glory to glory, as by the Spirit of the Lord.” (2 Co 3:18).

This was also God’s hope; this was God’s great desire. He wanted the earth to be filled with light because he did not wish to “dwell in thick darkness” forever (1 Kgs 8:12), yet, dwell in thick darkness he must, because God can not look upon sin, and no man can look upon God and live. Adam and Eve’s disobedience, meant that they could not walk with God “in the cool of the day,” sharing “sweet communion together” as they had previously done (Gen 3:8). Until a way was found to break the power of sin, it would always be necessary for God to veil his face or cover himself with a thick cloud, whenever he wanted to communicate with man.

And so the earth was created, when the spirit of God moved upon the waters making the deep to boil like a pot. The things of God are known by no man but by the Spirit of God and the natural man does not receive the things of the Spirit of God, therefore, unless the Spirit of God dwells in man and he is led by the Spirit of God then he can only grieve the Holy Spirit. And how does a man know if the Spirit of God dwells in him? “Every spirit that confesses that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh is of God.”