Heavenly Pictorial in
the Seven Days of Creation
Genesis 1
God’s love and plan
is seen everywhere. The seven days of
creation picture it.
In God’s cosmos, numbers
are foundational powers. The creation
record shows that the created world is based on mathematical relationships. No doubt exists about the weights, measures
and numbers pertaining to the universe, often referred to as the laws of nature.
This begs these
questions: Could mathematical knowledge
and research have originated without numerical relationships? Could intellect alone weigh, measure, and
number? Can matter know the complex properties
of space, time and numbers to obey them in the wondrous way it does without
outside assistance?
The answer to these
questions is no. No human creativity or
big bang theory could accomplish this feat.
Only a Divine Creator creates a universe ruled by mathematical equations.
God reveals His use
of numbers in His symmetrical design and imagery of symbolism within the seven days
of creation. Because each day is a
pictorial, the number of the day symbolizes a truth. For example, an octave or musical scale
includes seven different notes with the eighth note beginning anew a series of
seven in another key. Seven numbers are
fundamental in the pictorial of the creation each number symbolizes a truth concerning
the pictorial of creation.
The Lord created the heavens
and the earth in six days; He rested on the seventh day. In the six days of the creation, God shows
forth His intelligence as a Designer, His persona as the Creator and His
purposed plan for His creation. God’s
creation provides a habitation for His creation of man. God’s purpose for His creation of man is to have
man in His image and after His likeness - a son of God.
During the six days
of the creation, God divides or separates.
The division in the creation cannot be changed; creation will not work
in any other order.
The first three days
and the first three numbers have definite reference to the persons of the
eternal spirit being of Deity; distinct within the three days of creation we
see the fullness of the love, the light and the life of God.
In the numerical
structure, the ordinal “one” is “first”
– the true beginning of all. The number one
in whatever way it applies excludes difference. The imagery of the symbolism or picture truth of
number one is that God, One Spirit of Deity, is the true beginning of all.
Three things were
absent in the creation – light, order and life. Darkness is the absence of light. Everything begins with light. Without light, there is no life. In darkness, the reality of light is not
present – there is only darkness.
God began with darkness
– God began with disorder and absence of life; He did so deliberately. God has purpose and design in everything He
does. In the imagery of God’s symbolism,
light is reality. Without light, there
is no life.
On the first day of
creation, the spirit of God hovered – trembled over the surface of the deep and
God called forth the light, dividing it from the darkness. Hovered is an intransitive verb meaning to
float or flutter in the air without moving far from one spot. The spirit of God is the power - the breath - the life force. The Light was the calling forth of the Living
Eternal Word. The light brought order to
God’s universe.
The picture truth is
this: When one is born into this world,
he is in the dark to God born dead in trespasses and sins (Ephesians 2:1).
Light, order, and life
are wanting. God is light and in Him is
no darkness (I John 1:5). God said, “Let
there be light” and there was light. God
is not present in darkness. Light is a person
– the Person of God. God foreknew that
His work of redemption and regeneration would begin with man in darkness. When the reality of the Person of Christ is
not dwelling in man – man is in darkness concerning the things of God.
The first step in the
creation is to bring order to the darkened creation with the spirit of God,
which was followed by the breaking in of the light upon the darkness. It is the same for the soul of man. Light must first be given. Light provided by the Word in whom is Life and
the Life is the Light of men (John 1:14). All is the work of God.
Two is the number that divides and separates. However, when two or more agree, the number speaks
of the witness of a true testimony.
On the second day, God
divides the waters above and below with the creation of heaven. God dwells in the heaven. The realm is separate from earth - man’s
dwelling place.
In eternity past, the
eternal God was willing for the separation that God only knows. God, the One Spirit of three personal beings
of Deity, is the speaker, his word, and the spirit. They made a transaction for a creation of
sons of God that required one of the beings to take the likeness of man.
This transaction forever
changed that which was peculiar to God. One
of the personal beings needs a body in which to dwell and abide in forever. For God to have His creation of sons of God in
His image and after His likeness - God would provide a forever-living body for
His sons of humanity - the meeting place - the dwelling place between God and
man. This provision involves two bodies.
God initiated His
provision “but when the fullness of the time was come God sent forth His Son,
made of a woman…” (Galatians 4:4). “And
the angel answered and said unto her (Mary, the mother of Jesus), the Holy
Ghost shall come upon thee, and the power of the Highest shall overshadow thee:
therefore also that holy thing which
shall be born of thee shall be called the Son of God …” (Luke 1:35). “…thou shall call His name Jesus” (Luke
1:31).
The blood of Jesus ratifies
or validates the agreement of the transaction (Hebrews 13:20) – the shed blood
of Jesus satisfied the transaction negotiated in eternity past. Jesus in very essence God, clothed in
flesh, became the servant of Jehovah – the retainer of the transaction for
a creation of sons of God.
“For
God sent not His Son into the world to condemn the world; but that the world
through Him might be saved” (John 3:17). “… Christ Jesus: who, being in the form of God, thought
it not robbery to be equal with God: but
made Himself of no reputation, and took upon himself the form of a servant, and
was made in the likeness of men” (Philippians 2:5-7).
The number three speaks of reproduction and
resurrection. On the third day, God
divides dry land from the seas with the creation of earth and the seed life. The
creation brings forth the grass, the herb, the fruit, and each bearing seed
after its kind, whose seed is in it. In
the bearing of seed after its kind, God pictures the creation of sons of God.
The birthed Son of
God, Jesus, is the Life that God is, the life of Spirit Being - Deity. The life of flesh that Jesus was clothed in was blood. The flesh body of Jesus was a seed body (the
process initiated), the incorruptible Seed, the Life of Spirit Being enlivening
the body.
The seed body of
flesh “fell into the ground” and died (the validation of the transaction) that
He abide not alone. On the third day the
first begotten Son of God was resurrected bearing Seed after His kind, the Seed
body (the fulfillment) of Life everlasting (John 12:24).
Remembering that the
number One excludes difference, God’s one and only begotten Son of God was raised
the Seed body of Life everlasting to reproduce seed after His kind. God’s raised Son is His image and is after His
likeness - a forever-living body.
Within the next set
of days and numbers, we see the creation itself. The number four speaks of the four corners of the earth. On the fourth day, God divides the day from
the night with the creation of the light
holders in the heaven.
The division of light from the darkness occurred on the first evening and morning. Light and darkness and day and night are not synonymous. When God placed the light holders in the
heavens, the nighttime entered His creation.
Before the fourth day, the light was supplied by the Presence of the
Word, who had been called forth on the first day. The light is now in the luminaries.
In the light holders
of the heaven, God declares His glory “…To give light upon the earth” (Genesis
1:17). The light holders shine to the
four corners of the earth for signs and for seasons, and for days and years.
God uses the light
holders, the luminaries of the heavens for a prophetic revelation. With “days and years,” we understand the
astronomical bodies measure time. The word
“signs” in the Hebrew means “a mark.” A
sign is a mark of something other than itself. “Signs and seasons” were ordained of God to
indicate events in the life of the coming Seed - the coming Redeemer-Deliverer.
The signs and the appointed events are
not seen in the patterns of the stars themselves. The meaning was revealed and the figures were
drawn around the constellation on star charts.
Darkness, disorder
and death are in man’s world. Light and
order and life are absent. Man’s very
soul is in a state of chaos and wanting.
His life is without form and is empty; darkness is upon the surface of
the waters of the wisdom of this world - the source of his thinking.
God’s picture truth is
that God shines the Light of the knowledge of the gospel of the glory of Christ
into a heart to dispel the darkness. The
Holy Spirit is hovering over, bearing witness to the truth - the reality of the
gospel of Christ, which is the power of God unto salvation. The person who has been in the dark – with no
reality of the Person of Jesus - sees the Light shined in to dispel the
darkness. Everyone makes a choice to
receive the Light and unite himself to Christ or to not receive the Light and
remain as he is, having no hope, without God in the world (Ephesians
2:12).
The number five is the number of grace. On the fifth day, God divides the water-life
from the winged-life with the creation of the fish and fowl.
In the typology of
scripture, the fish speak of the sea of humanity and the fowl speak of the
emissaries of the evil one - two kinds of people. Five reveals a people called out - a people
redeemed from death and saved from trespasses and sins, a people who walk with
God in newness of life.
Within the symbolism
of the imagery is service – the offering of one’s self in obedience in the
service of his master. Pictured are those
who are willing to receive the grace of God offered in Christ Jesus (the fish
of the sea of humanity) and those who willingly refuse and serve the
evil one (the fowl who type the emissaries of the evil one).
God’s picture truth
is that man is not his own; he is a creation of God with freedom of choice. God created man because He desired a
relationship with him. To those who
receive God’s grace of Light and Life, God begins to work in that soul - working
to will and to do of His good pleasure. He
is the master of that soul. Theirs is a
love life of service. Love is not
servitude.
As that one walks in
the Light, the soul becomes rightly adjusted – that soul has a right sense of
self – God’s reality (Philippians 2:13).
With a right sense of self, God is in His proper place. When God is in His proper place, man
recognizes his proper place as a creation of God.
The number six is the number associated with man
because it is the day of his creation; moreover, God appoints six days to him
for his physical labor. On the sixth day,
God divides the living creatures, animals from man. The animals that inhabit the earth come forth
out of the earth. God forms the
image of the man from the dust of the ground – mankind, male and female.
God brings forth the
animals from the earth to serve mankind - the reason for their creation. While animals do have a soul – mind, will and
emotions, they are not spirit in being.
Their purpose is limited to an earthly existence. God has design and purpose in everything He
does.
God’s picture truth is
that God’s sole purpose for man is
that he becomes a son of God - the highest good that God could bestow upon His
creation. Man’s sole purpose for being is that he chooses to become a son of
God – man’s goal in life.
The extended meaning
of the number six is that it speaks of sin in its full intention, yet limited
and controlled by God. In the number of
the beast (Revelation 13:17), we find six in three successively higher powers
of the decimal scale – evil in its fullest, nonetheless its feebleness ever apparent.
Thus God’s highest
good for man – life everlasting is set in contrast to man’s living apart from
God — the lowest of low.
The number “seven” is used as no other number is in
the scripture. Seven and its compounds
occur in multiples in the scripture. The
number expresses perfection or completeness – as is expressed by the words
“ending and resting, blessing and sanctifying.”
On the last day of
creation, the seventh day, God ends his work; He rests from all
His work that He created and made; He blesses the seventh day and He sanctifies
it. The word ended means to consummate or complete; rest means abstaining from labor; bless, to kneel, salute or greet; and sanctify, set apart as holy.
God’s picture truth
is that everything that is begins and ends with God. When God is given His supremacy, submission to
and dependence upon God in true faith results; man is blessed of God and
sanctified as holy, order is restored to the end that God had in mind – that
Christ be our life, man fulfills his purpose – to image God.
By faith we
understand God is dependable. He says
what He means and He means what He says.
God does not hide His purposes; He has no secret agenda.
The seven days of creation
are an earthly pictorial of a heavenly reality.
The stars are a heavenly pictorial of an earthly reality; each bears
witness of God’s testimony of Himself to make known to us our Beloved
Sovereign. God wants us to know who He
is and what His plan is. God set the
lights in the expanse of the heavens to give light of the knowledge of His
glory - man must receive Life to become a Son of God.
This “Life” is faith
in the Son of God. Faith is seeing with
the eyes of our understanding those things having not yet appeared, things not
yet made visible to physical eyesight but true and real nonetheless.
Let us therefore by
faith lay hold of that for which we have been laid hold of, forgetting those
things which are behind, and reaching forth to those things which are before,
let us press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Jesus
Christ (Philippians 3:12-14).
Let us not be
distracted by the counterfeit story in the stars . . . RATHER, Let us mind the
Glory that the stars reveal - the revelation of Himself, the hope of Life
everlasting.
And let us be changed
from glory to glory as we look in the face of Jesus Christ. (2Corinthians 3:18, 2Corinthians 4:6).
God’s first man,
Adam, exercised this faith. Consideration of Adam’s “Life” follows.
Glossary for the Seven Days of Creation
Number
One
is “first” – the true beginning of all.
Number Two divides and separates. However, when two or more agree, the number
speaks of the witness of a true testimony.
Number
Three speaks
of reproduction and
resurrection.
Number
Four speaks
of the four corners of the earth.
Number
Five speaks
of grace.
Number
Six is
the number of man as it is the day of his creation
Number Seven and its compounds occur in multiples of
seven in the scripture. Thus, the number
expresses perfection or completeness – as is expressed by the words “ending and
resting, blessing and sanctifying.”
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