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Preface Introduction Chapters Chapter 1 Chapter 2 Chapter 3 Chapter 4 Chapter 5 Chapter 6 Appendices Appendix I Appendix II Appendix III Appendix IV Appendix V Appendix VI Appendix VII Appendix VIII Appendix IX Appendix X Appendix XI Appendix XII Appendix XIII Appendix XIV Appendix XV Appendix XVI Appendix XVII Appendix XVIII Appendix XIX Appendix XX Appendix XXI Indexes References Names Biblical References General Bibliography |
APPENDIX XX(Reference: p.98) The Meaning of Exodus
20.11. It is very frequently
argued that the wording of Exod. 20.11, "For in six days the Lord made
heaven and earth, the sea, and all that in them is, and rested on the
seventh day....", excludes the possibility of a gap between Gen. 1.1
and 1.2 because the whole process of creation was completed
within these six days. Those who argue thus assume that the days are
literal days - and in this, I think they are quite correct. But it is of tremendous importance in
studying the Word of God to observe the
precision with which words are used, especially where some
important doctrine or institution is involved. What we are told here is
that God in six days "made" (
the heavens and the
earth. It does not say that He
created ( bara) them in six days. I have seen it argued that
these verbs are interchangeable because they are used sometimes in
successive verses with what appears to be identical meaning. For
example, in Gen. 1.26 it is written, "And God said, Let us make
man in our image after our likeness....", and in verse 27, "So God created
man in His image, in the image of God created He him". Superficially, the two verbs do appear to
be equated here. But as
Origen and other early commentators noted, by carefully observing
what is said and what is NOT said in these two verses, there is an
important lesson to be learned, and the lesson hinges upon the difference
in meaning between these two governing verbs, 'asah and bara. It is often found that
light is shed upon the fundamental meaning of a word by noting the
way in which it is first used in Scripture. The verb 'asah appears
significantly in this respect in Gen. 1.16: "And God made two great
lights...." It seems unlikely that the sun and the moon were not created until
the fourth day since green things would hardly be brought into
being before the sun was created. The ref- erence in Gen. 1.16 seems
more likely to refer not to a creation but rather to the appointment
of the sun and moon as rulers of the Day and Night: they were
appointed as markers of time ("signs" - verse 14), precisely as Psa.
104.19 indicates; "He appointed the moon for seasons", If we allow that the basic meaning of the Hebrew verb pg
1 of 4 'asah is not creation but
rather the giving of a new role to something already in existence, then
we have plenty of illustrations throughout Scripture of the use of
this verb in this sense. In the New Testament we
are told that Jesus was made a High Priest after the order of
Melchizedec (Heb. 6.20). This illustrates the sense in which
"made" means "appointed". In I Ki. 12.51 we have a quite exact
parallel where we are told that Jeroboam appointed ('asah) priests of
the lowest of the people. In Amos 3.6 the question is asked, "Is there
evil in any city and God hath not appointed ('asah) it?" In the Old Testament where
the word 'asah forms part of a personal name, it is most
appropriately rendered by the English "appointed". Thus we have in II
Sam.2.18 the name Ahasel, meaning "God has appointed". In II Ki.
12.14 we have the name Asahiah which means "Jah has
appointed". Inl Chron. 4.35 we have Asihel, which means "appointed of
God". The word is used of
dressing a calf for a meal, ie., preparing it (Gen. 18. 7,8; Jud.
13.15). It is used of trimming a beard (II Sam. 19.25). In Deut.21.12 it is used of trimming one's
nails! And in Esther 1.5 it is used
of preparing a feast for the court. Strong's exhaustive Concordance
of the Bible gives a number of meanings to the verb,
including the word "appoint", but never the meaning "to
create". The word is employed
in speaking of the clothes which God made for
man (Gen. 3.21), and of clothing which man makes for himself
(Exod. 28.2 f.). It always involves working over something which
already exists, and usually with a view to changing its form. Sometimes it has more precisely the idea
of appointment in the sense
that the making is in the future: a multitude of descendants, for
example (Gen. 13.16). And it may
have the meaning of appointment in
a more abstract sense as when a covenant is made between God and
Israel (Gen. 9.12). At least within
biblical usage it never means the
creation of something out of nothing. In Isa.45.18 we find a whole series of verbs setting forth God's plan for the earth in
which He is said to have created it (bara), fashioned it (yatsar),
appointed it ('asah), and established it (kun). Each word has a specific
meaning, and it is not merely re-iteration. Allowing the word, then,
to bear the sense of appointment rather than assuming that it is a
synonym for creation, we may observe in Gen. 1.26 that God
appointed for man that he should bear His image and His likeness:
but that when the plan was put into effect and man is spoken of as
having been created, reference is made only to the image - and significantly,
no reference is made to the
likeness. We may gather from this that while both
image and likeness were appointed
('asah), only the image itself was created (bara) by God, the
achievement of the likeness being left as some- thing to be wrought out by
experience. Origen noted, rightly,
that while God intended that man should bear both His image and
His likeness, He created only the image, whereas the likeness was
something which was "appointed", some- thing to be achieved, to be
wrought out in life by the individual who therefore has a
responsible part to play in the achieving of it. A number of passages
indicate that the image has to do with relation- ship, in fact with
sonship, and as a consequence of this relationship involves also in a certain
sense ownership. As Jesus said of
the coin (Lu. 20.24), the
image which was stamped upon it signified that it belonged to
Caesar. The image, when it is
stamped upon man, signifies likewise that he
belongs to God, and not only that he belongs to God as something
possessed but rather that he belongs to God as a son belongs to his
father. Hence it is common to find in the New Testament that when a man
by new birth becomes a son of God (Jn. 1.12), he is at the same
moment re-created in the image of God, to restore the image lost
in the Fall. The image, therefore,
is something which God
creates, and it gives to the individual his unique relationship with his
Creator. God is not the father of His creatures merely because He created
them, for He created the cattle also but this does not make Him their
father. But unlike all other creatures, man was created at first,
and is re-created, in the "image of God" and thereby achieves his
sonship. But as to the likeness, it
is appointed for man but it is not created, it is something to be
achieved through experience but it is not imposed. The force of Satan's
initial temptation was that man might achieve this likeness (Gen. 3.5:
"Ye shall become like God") by the wrong means. David said he would only be satisfied when
he awoke with His likeness
(Psa.17.15). When John wrote his
first Epistle he said (I Jn.3.1,2):
"Behold, what manner of love the Father hath be stowed upon us that we should
be called the sons of God.... Be- loved, now are we the sons
of God, and it doth not yet appear what we shall be: but we know
that, when He shall appear, we shall be like Him...." Our
assurance is that we are, right now, sons, for by an act of God we have
had His image stamped upon us: but we do also have the assurance
that the appointed likeness will yet be achiev- ed, being brought to
perfection when He comes. Thus by taking care to
distinguish between words which super- ficially seem to be
indistinguishable, Scripture sheds a new light upon the original purposes
of God and how they will be fulfilled. The word 'asah does not
mean "to create", but rather "to make" in the English sense of
"appointing". I do not suggest that the
meaning of appointment is the only meaning of 'asah. It has other meanings which come close to
the common English word "make"
in the sense of doing or working at something. But the fact is that the
meaning of appointment, in the sense of working upon something
which already exists in order to effect a change in it until it
becomes something further is commonly involved. So that when we are told
in Exod.20.11 that God made heaven and earth in six days, we are
not called upon to assume that this has reference to the original
creation. We may be quite justified
in reading this as a
reference to the re-working of something which is already in existence, just
as the sun and the moon and the stars may very well have been in
existence long before they were appointed to mark the times and the
seasons for man who was about to be intro- duced. Exod.20.11 surely refers to the work of
these six: days not as a time of creation ex
nihilo but as a time in which a ruined cosmos was re-ordered as a
fit habitation for man. And when this re-ordering was completed,
God rested. * * * Copyright © 1988 Evelyn White. All rights reserved
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