O death, where is thy sting? O grave, where is thy victory?
Today, I want to look at Genesis One to examine the purpose and some of the intent found
within the Six Days and culminating with the Seventh Day Sabbath Rest. We want to view and
flesh out what John Walton has called an Ancient Near East Temple creation inauguration. We
also want to look at the six individual Days of creation to determine what correlation they may
have to the unfolding of God’s Temple Creation. I will state up front that my premise is that
Genesis One can be called a Temple Creation account but it is also a Covenant Creation account
establishing God’s people and not a material universe or physical Earth account. I believe that
Genesis lays out the entirety of the first heaven and earth that we find under consideration at the
end of the Bible in Revelation 21. The first heavens and earth that John sees passing away is
found in the entire scope of Genesis 1, and therefore is an exalted story of God’s people from
beginning to consummation. We see that indeed, this is the ending theme found at the conclusion
of the six Days of Creation when the author brings us to this finale.
Gen 2:1 Thus the heavens and the earth were finished, and all the host of them.
If this was a Temple creation process, then indeed, it makes all the sense in the world to declare
that God’s works of creating his people (the host) were ready along with Him for the eternal
Sabbath Rest. This mimics the conclusion found in Hebrew 4 in which the Sabbath Rest is about
to be obtained by the people.
Heb 4:4 For he has somewhere spoken of the seventh day in this way: "And God rested
on the seventh day from all his works."
Heb 4:10 for he who did enter into his rest, he also rested from his works, as God from
His own.
We will attempt to look at what does each Day means and relates to. I believe that what it relates
to is found in scriptures extensively because it is about the establishment of God’s people, and if
this is true, then we should find these six Days have correlating periods of time matching
throughout the OT story.
This brings me to the introduction of Augustine’s ideas about the Six Days and what he believed
they represented. I’m going to read an excerpt from one of Augustine’s writings detailing his
thoughts on Genesis One’s Days. Augustine was a significant thinker for his age. He was still
close enough to some of the earliest Hebrew ideas giving the impression that there were
remnants of them still about in his time. However, we know Augustine was a futurist, and so the
understanding of the consummated Parousia eluded him, as well as many others for centuries to
come. Here is what he has to say:
6. … In the beginning God made the heaven and the earth. Genesis 1:1 Thence down to the time in
which we are now living ARE SIX AGES, this being THE SIXTH, as you have often heard and know.
The FIRST AGE is reckoned from Adam to Noah;
THE SECOND, from Noah to Abraham;
THE THIRD, from Abraham to David;
THE FOURTH, from David to the carrying away into Babylon;
THE FIFTH, from the carrying away into Babylon to John the Baptist;
THE SIXTH, from John the Baptist to the end of the world.
Folks, what I have just read to you is simply this. Augustine was presenting the Days of Genesis
as prophetic ages detailing the Biblical story of the Beginning of Israel with Adam until Christ,
the Messiah, arrived. What we Preterist may find amusing is that just like our current futurist
brethren, Augustine thought he was still in the sixth Day millennium period waiting for its
consummating event. However, I digress, because the point of referencing Augustine is to
demonstrate this idea that a figurative application of the Days of Genesis still existed three
centuries after Christ. Now, the question is where did he appropriate these ideas from? I would
suggest these came from the first Christian writings and from the second Temple Judaism period
writings pointing toward Christ, the Messiah. Enoch, Jubilees and the Barnabas Epistle would
be the most prominent of written works.
Read the full article hereSix%20Days%20of%20Creation[1].pdf
Comments are closed for this blog post
Doug,
Hebrew has two words that are commonly translated man. Ish and Adam. I highly recommend you use the Blue Letter Bible or some other means, find every incidence where Adam is translated man or mankind, and write Adam.
You'll find that Adam and the sons of Adam are different from ish. For example, both ish and the sons of Adam are liars, but God only expects the sons of Adam to repent. That is, only the sons of Adam have a relationship (fellowship, covenant) with God.
Only Adam and the sons of Adam were given law law from God. God promised the sons of Adam that if they did the law, that the ish would take notice and praise the sons of Adam for their God/law/righteousness. (Deut. 4, see also Deut. 32:1, 8, 18)
Blessings,
Jeff
Doug,
I think you are taking the animal metaphor further than intended. Jesus died on the cross for both the clean animals [sheep and oxen] and the unclean animals [wild animals]. Peters vison clarifies that both groups are considered clean now so the past usage in the OT is a means of identifying covenant people and non covenant people. He healed the Cananite woman whom He classified as dogs.
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