Lesson 3 Genesis Creation Words

Lesson 3 
Creation: Bara, Asa, Yasar

                                    Genesis 1:1-26; 2:7 and 19

                   “In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth” (Gen.1:1).

In the Genesis account three different Hebrew words are used concerning God’s activity of the work. The Hebrew word in verse 1 translated “created,” is bara. Bara is used for “a new thing” - something which did not formerly have existence. Bara emphasizes the initiation of the object. Bara is used only of God’s activity. Only God could call into existence something which formerly did not have existence.

With His beginning, God marked out a period of eternity called “time” - a new thing. God had a purpose for His time. God brought the heavens into time - a new thing. God had a purpose to the space which He brought into existence from Himself. God had one other new thing. God brought the earth into existence - a new thing. God then had matter, dry land, and waters, for which He had a purpose.

God had all that He purposed for His period of time. He had a Covenant Plan. In the initiation of the heavens and the earth, everything He would need was brought into existence - one initiation - one creation of all that would be needed to bring His plan to the consummation of His purpose (see Is.45:5-46:11).

In the beginning, in the initiation of the heavens and the earth, all was in darkness. The earth was in the deep waters and darkness was upon the face of the deep. Darkness is absence of light. All had been brought into existence, but in the darkness and the deep waters all was chaos. Wanting or lacking was light and order. Light was needed to arrange and order that brought into existence.

“And the Spirit of God moved” - a back and forth movement - “upon the face of the waters” - live energy. “And God said, ‘Let there be light,’ and there was light” (Gen.1:2b-3).

God is light (1 Jn.1:5). The three personal beings - one God - began the work of putting the chaos in order in six days. One gave orders, one energized the work, and one furnished light from life (see Jn.1:1-4; Is.48:3-17).

And God saw the light was good. The light would divide the darkness into periods of darkness and periods of light. “And God called the light Day, and the darkness He called Night” (Gen.1:4b-5). The darkness of evening to morning would be night, and the morning of light to the evening of darkness would be day. His time would be divided into days, and the days would be divided into evenings and mornings. This was the work of the first day.

Time having been arranged, the waters would be placed in order. A “firmament” or an “expanse of space” was an important part of the Covenant Plan. God used the firmament to divide the waters. The firmament He called Heavens. Some waters God put above the firmament and some below the firmament. The firmament [the heavens] divided the vapors above which elasticized the firmament. Dividing the waters with the firmament was the work of the second day. The waters below were gathered together on the next day, the third day, and God named them Seas. And God called the dry land Earth. Also on the third day vegetation was brought forth.

“And God said, ‘Let the earth bring forth vegetation,’ sprout tender sprouts, ‘and the herb yielding seed, and the fruit tree yielding fruit after its kind, whose seed is in itself, upon the earth,’ and it was so. And the earth brought forth vegetation, and herb yielding seed after its kind, and the tree yielding fruit, whose seed was in itself, after its kind” (Gen.1:11-12).

The seeds were put in the earth in the original initiation of that given existence which before did not have existence. The seeds had been in the earth with the waters, germinating. Having put down roots, they could now seek the light above. This was the ordering of the third day, with the seed coat broken through for the plants to be raised up from the germ cell of life in the seed to bring forth the body of the plants and trees after their kind, and each bearing seed to keep reproducing after its kind (Gen.1:9-13).

“And God said, ‘Let there be lights in the firmament of the heavens to divide the day from the night. Let them be for signs [messages], and for appointed times [seasons], and for days [set aside as festive times], and years [sabbaticals]. And let them be for lights in the firmament of the heavens to give light upon the earth,’ and it was so. And God made two great lights: the greater light to rule the day, and the lesser light to rule the night, the stars also” (Gen.1:14-16). The firmament, with its heavenly luminaries, had been stretched around the earth (Job 9:8; Ps.104:2; Is.40:22; Jer.10:12; 51:15).

The light-holders in the firmament of the heavens were to give light upon the earth of a very special message (see Ps.19:1-6; Is.40:21-26). “And God set them in the firmament of the heavens to give light upon the earth, and to rule over the day and over the night, and to divide the light from the darkness, and God saw that it was good. And the evening and the morning were the fourth day” (Gen.1:17-19).

The light-holders were set in their ordered place on the fourth day to give light upon the earth. “Four” is the number of “earth.” All was then ordered and prepared for habitation. All is designed to serve God as figures of true heavenly realities.

God was then ready to bring forth living creatures. “And God said, ‘Let the waters swarm with the swarmers having a soul of life.’” The eggs with life after their kind having been in the waters at the initiation of the waters and earth in the beginning. “‘And let the birds fly over the earth in the expanse of the heavens.’ And God created [bara] the great sea animals, and all that creeps, a soul living, which swarmed the waters, according to their kind, and every winged bird, according to its kind, and God saw that it was good” (Gen.1:20-21).

Here is another new thing - living creatures, beings of soul of living flesh and blood. Each one living flesh. Fish flesh, all different kinds of fish flesh, and every winged bird after its kind of flesh and blood. All different kinds of bird flesh from the eggs given existence in the beginning creation. All living creatures of flesh life are introduced with the Hebrew bara, as flesh creatures are a new thing brought into existence.

The habitation of the seas and the heavens were ordered on the fifth day. On the fifth day God created, brought into existence, all the flesh and blood bodies of the sea creatures and the birds of the air, which formerly did not have existence. The fish of the sea and the birds of the air were brought forth a soul of life. Each one according to his kind. “And God blessed them, saying, ‘Be fruitful, and multiply, and fill the waters in the seas, and let birds multiply in the earth’” (Gen.1:22).

“And God said, ‘Let the earth bring forth the soul of life according to its kind, cattle and creepers, and  beasts of the earth , according to its kind.’ And it was so. And God made the animals of the earth according to its kind, and cattle after their kind, and every creeping thing of the ground according to its kind. And God saw that it was good” (Gen.1:24-25).

For the bringing into existence creatures of living flesh, the Hebrew word nephesh, meaning “soul,” is used for the creature, the being of the flesh. The life of the flesh is in the blood (see Gen.9:3-4). The being of flesh was in the seed.

When Jehovah God forms man, man also becomes a soul [nephesh] of life. However, the personal being of man in the body of flesh has life of the breath of God. God breathed into the nostrils of man His life of spirit being (Gen.2:7). Thus man came into being spirit. The personal being, invisible, immaterial, having come into being through breath [spirit of God’s life], will always be. His life in the flesh may be temporary, but his “being” is of God, not of seed, and will forever be.

In the original initiation of the earth in the beginning, the seed was in the earth for all the different kinds of the flesh and blood beasts of the field, that God might call them forth in their order and give existence to all beasts of the field which did not formerly have existence.

For beasts of the earth a new verb is used. “And God made the beasts of the earth.” The Hebrew verb used for “made” has the meaning “to fashion,” “to accomplish,” “the act of fashioning the objects of the whole creative process.” God accomplished the fashioning the beasts of the field through seed for souls of life of different kinds of flesh. The seeds were initiated in the creation of the earth.

In bringing forth the animals from the ground of the earth, where He had placed the seeds in the initiation of His creative process, God accomplished His purpose of having many different kinds of souls of life brought forth from the earth (see 1 Cor.15:37-39).

The beasts of the earth were brought forth to have existence on the sixth day (Gen.1:31). The animals in bodies of flesh and blood after their kind as a soul of life to animate the body would have ways and habits or traits characteristic of their particular species. And through the animating the body the animal would reveal the personality of the soul. In this way the animals would serve as a mirror to man of his ways as similar. If man chose to live for his own soul life, he could think of himself as coming from animal life. Man would then miss the purpose of the animals reflecting personal traits. Man must not think of himself as a mere animal. Man came into being with purpose - to become a son of God (Jn.1:12-13; 12:23-27).

The last of the objects of God’s creation brought forth on the sixth day was the soul of life brought forth  in the flesh body formed of the earth - man. As man is to have being forever, his creation is very personal to God. At his creation, God breathed the breath of life into his nostrils to bring him forth a soul of life (Gen.2:7). The only creation of which this is so - is man.

As all bodies of every living thing are reproduced through seed, the seed for the bodies of flesh for the animals, those of the fish of the sea and birds of the air and those that dwell on the land, could be put in the waters and the earth in the beginning initiation of the heavens and the earth to be brought forth from the seed in the earth. The souls of flesh of the animal kingdom do not have spirit. The breath of Jehovah God was not breathed into the nostrils of any flesh other than humankind.

Man was the climax of God’s activity in the creation process. All other objects had been purposed and brought forth and ordered and blessed as an environment for man’s habitation and for man’s dominion and blessing. The first man of the earth, earthy, was also created on the sixth day. “Six” is the number of “man.”

For man, God had a higher purpose. As was said, man was created to become a son of God and to live forever in a body raised up out from the dead - deathless and glorified (Rom.8:9-11, 28-30; 2 Tim.1:9-10; Tit.1:2; Jn.1:12-13; 3:16). Man was to be made in God’s image.

In eternity past, God had said, “Let Us make [asa] man in Our image” (Gen.1:26). “Let Us fashion man in Our image.” The primary emphasis of asa is upon the “shaping” or the “forming of the object involved.” “And God created [bara] man in His own image, in the image of God He created him, male and female He created them” (Gen.1:27).

Initially, in eternity past, it came into God’s mind to fashion man in the image of God - before God had an image. Man, who never had being, was brought into the mind of God before he was ever formed from the earth.

The first man was fashioned as the figure of the personal being of God, who would take the likeness of man and be born of the seed of human flesh to bring forth the begotten Son of God, the image of God (see Is.7:14; 9:6-7; Rom.5:14; 8:3; Col.1:12-22; Heb.1:1-3; 2:9-17). All was initiated in the mind of God and carried out in time with the fashioning of man in God’s image.

God brought into being mankind. Never before had there been any being of mankind. Mankind, created to become a son of God and bear God’s image, was very personal to God. He Himself would form  man from the dust of the ground. “And Jehovah God” - the personal God of the Eternal Covenant - “formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and man became a soul of life” (Gen.2:7).

Here, in the forming of the body for man, another Hebrew word is used. The Hebrew word translated “formed” in Genesis 2:7 is yasar, with the meaning “to fashion, form, frame.” Yasar occurs synonymous with asa in a number of passages. Its primary emphasis is upon the shaping and forming of the object involved. In Genesis 2:7 the Hebrew yasar is used, as the emphasis is upon the forming of the body from the dust of the ground.

In chapter 2, before Jehovah makes [asa] a helper for Adam, we read, “And out of the ground Jehovah God formed [yasar] every beast of the field, and every bird of the air, and brought them to Adam to see what he would call them. And whatsoever Adam called every living creature, that was the name of it” (v19). This is the same word used of God’s forming man. For man, the emphasis is upon the body actually being shaped and fashioned by Jehovah God.

In Genesis 1, in the ordering of the creation of the heavens and the earth in the six days, the record makes clear that the bodies of the flesh creatures were fashioned in a seed with life of its kind to bring forth the body - in the waters or from the earth.

In chapter 1 of Genesis we have been shown that the animals were brought forth from the earth in which they had been planted in the original initiation of the objects of the creation. In verse 25 of chapter 1 the verb asa [made] is used in the act of fashioning the animals. In chapter 2 the synonymous term yasar [formed] is used in the accomplishment of bringing into existence the object of that created in the beginning as a seed for a soul of life.

This ends this lesson.