Finally the creation of these land creatures gets a comment from God at the end of verse 25. Basically God saw that it was good. God has been saying this, by the way, all along. Verse 4 tells us that God saw the light was good. In verse 10 God saw that the dry land and the sea was good. Verse 12, the plants were good. Verse 18 the stellar bodies, that was good too. Verse 21, the creatures of the sea and the air, that was good. Verse 25 the land animals, that was good. And finally verse 31, after He made man, it was very good. Everything God made was good.
Now listen to this. No deformities, no deformities, no mutations, no inferiorities, no natural selection, the survival of the fittest, because there were no unfit animals, it was all good. There was no imperfection. There was no natural selection. There was no inferiority at all. It was very good. And we’ll say more about what very good means when we get to verse 31. At this point everything was good…it was good. There wasn’t even death in the world. There wasn’t even death in the world. Death wouldn’t come until man sinned in chapter 3. At this point the earth was ready for man…man who was to be the king of the earth and have dominion over it.
By the way, the Lord must have created all the animals in just the first part of day six because the rest of the day was for creating man. And it was somewhat involved. It doesn’t give all the involvement here in this chapter, but in chapter 2 it unfolds it and we’ll look at that later on.
But let’s look at verses 26 and 27, at least look at it very briefly. We come to the epitome of God’s creation, “Then God said, ‘Let us make man in our image, according to our likeness. Let them rule over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the sky and over the cattle and over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.’ And God created man in His own image, in the image of God He created him, male and female He created them.” Here it is, that’s the apex of creation, that is the reason for it all. And again you have the same formula. Verse 26, “Then God said…” Verse 27, a parallel statement, “And God created…and God created.” The very same formula. God speaks and creates, one in the same. This is what is called fiat creation…fiat because the Latin word fiat means let there be. God speaks it into existence.
Let there be…Let there be…we’ve heard that over and over and over…Let there be…Let there be…Let there be. But notice this, hmmm, verse 26, it doesn’t say “Let there be,” it says…what?…”Let us make man…” This is brand new, folks. This is brand new. This is a very important difference. This is a major shift in the language. All the way along, verse 3, verse 6, verse 9, verse 11, verse 14, verse 20, verse 24…let there be…let there be…let there be…let there be…that is an impersonal form of the Hebrew verb…let there be…let there be, almost as if God is not…is not intimately involved. Let there be…let there be…but here, “Let us make.” At this point God becomes personal. And listen, because God is a trinity when He introduces Himself personally, it is in the plural language. It is in the plural language.
I mean, in John chapter 1 it says that Jesus Christ created, all things were made by Him and without Him was not anything made that was made. Here it says God created. In John 1 it says Jesus created everything. Even the Spirit of God is said to have shaped the creation, earlier in Genesis 1. The whole trinity is engaged in this. And when God comes to the creation of the human race, He doesn’t employ the impersonal fiat terminology…let there be…but He uses language that reveals He is speaking within Himself…Let us…Let us make man in our own image.
You know what He’s letting us in on? He’s letting us in on a trinitarian plan. He’s in communion with Himself about this most important of all creatures. Now I believe that this is a clear and…actually it’s an unmistakable and inarguable reference to the trinity. I admit, I think any Bible student does, that the full clarification of the doctrine of the trinity awaits the New Testament, it’s in the New Testament where you get the full theology, the full clarification of the theology of the trinity. But certainly the trinity is evident in the Old Testament. You have the Spirit of God repeatedly referred to in the Old Testament. You have the angel of the Lord who is none other than the preincarnate Son of God. You have God Himself. You have an inner-trinitarian communication here, “Let us make man in our image.” You have the psalmist saying, “And the Lord said to my Lord,” the conversation between the Father, no doubt, and the Son.
There are a number of revelations of the trinity in the Old Testament. Psalm 2, the Father saying to the Son, “Today I’ve begotten You and given You the nations as an inheritance,” a messianic promise, a prophetic promise in Psalm 2.
There are a number of trinitarian references in the Old Testament. I don’t mean to imply that there are not, because there are. In fact, talking of Christ, the second member of the trinity, Psalm 45:7, “Thou hast loved righteousness, hated wickedness, therefore God, thy God has anointed thee with the oil of joy above thy fellows.” Well that is a…that is a statement directly attributed to the Messiah, the Lord Jesus Christ. That’s again an indication that God is communing with the Son. And there are a number of other passages like that, I hesitate to go to all of them, but just a couple might be good.
Psalm 1:10, I think it is, could be wrong but…yes, that’s the one, “The Lord says to my Lord, ‘Sit at My right hand till I make Thine enemies a footstool.’” Well that’s referred to even in the New Testament as applying to Christ. So you have God the Father communicating with God the Son in a conversation between the two.
So there are trinitarian references in the Old Testament. It’s important to acknowledge that. But the full understanding of the trinity really blossoms in the New. We understand why, don’t we? Because the second member of the trinity becomes…what?…becomes man, becomes incarnate.
Now what you have then…what do you have in “Let us” here? I confess to you that I could launch on this because I know to some degree what that discussion was about, or what it had been about. You say, “How in the world do you know that?” Well there’s only one way I know anything and that’s cause it’s in the Bible. But I know something of what that conversation was about. It was about redemption. It was about redemption because, listen to this, the earth had already been formed, right? Is that true? Okay. And according to the Bible, Revelation 13:8, Revelation 17:8, our names were written in the Lamb’s Book of Life when? Before the foundation of the earth, okay? So we know something of what that conversation was about before the shaping and the creating of the earth and before the creation of man. It was a conversation that had reached such a level that names were actually recorded in God’s book. Names…whose names were there? Mine, right? Yours, if you’re a believer.
“This article originally appeared here at Bible Bulletin Board.”
