Chapter 2

Understanding God’s Original Design

Chapter 2 Text

What exactly is God’s original design for men and women? How did He create the male and the female to work together? He clearly revealed His plan and intention in Genesis 1:27, 28: “So God created man in His own image; in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them. Then God blessed them, and God said to them, ‘Be fruitful and multiply; fill the earth and subdue it; have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the air, and over every living thing that moves on the earth.’”

From these verses, we can see that male and female were originally designed and created to express God’s image on earth. They were to be fruitful, multiply, subdue the earth, and take dominion over it. Through them God intended to manifest Himself—His nature and His character, and His authority, displaying His indisputable power over the works of darkness, thus subduing His archenemy, Satan.

What Does This Mean?

The idea of “being fruitful and multiplying” is often applied strictly to the realm of marriage and family; while it does apply, it goes far beyond physical reproduction. To multiply means: “to be in authority, to enlarge, to increase.” It is about the increase and multiplication of God’s life and authority in us, individually and corporately—and it is about the will of heaven being brought forth on earth.

Note that God blessed the man and the woman. The meaning of the word bless extends far beyond our modern-day usage of it. The fact that God blessed them does not simply mean He wanted them to be happy and fulfilled and to enjoy their lives together. God was setting His structure in place, declaring His purpose, and revealing His heart intent toward mankind.

Let’s take a closer look at this word. The word blessing means: “increase, fruitfulness, multiplication” and “prosperity.” However, we must understand that it also means victory over our enemies. God spoke this word of blessing over the male and female. Through these two, Adam and Eve, God’s intention was to establish His Kingdom on earth—to bring heaven to earth, to reveal Himself and to make Himself known in the earth. The word blessing is a very strong word, and as I have mentioned, it is an indicator of God’s intent for them as a man and a woman. They were to walk in victory over their enemies, subduing and taking dominion over every foe that would arise against God’s revealed plan. This is a thread that runs throughout the Word of God. It was set in place from the beginning.

We see the word blessing also spoken a little later over each of the patriarchs Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, who represent the founding of the Nation of Israel. Therefore, we know that the word blessing is an important, strong word with great significance. Even as Adam and Eve were the “founding place” of God’s creation, these men were a new beginning place of God, establishing for Himself a people on the earth to be His voice of authority, thus bringing heaven to earth. Because they were foundational to the establishing of “a people for God,” this blessing typifies a spiritual principle that we, too, enter into as the descendants of Abraham. This principle of authority and dominion is woven throughout the Bible, beginning in the Book of Genesis through to Revelation.

Let’s take a closer look at the words subdue and dominion. The word subdue means: to conquer, tread down, force, keep under, and bring into subjection. The word dominion means: to prevail against, to take or to rule over. Clearly, mankind was made to walk in authority. This was the word given to God’s first “image bearers,” the man and woman together. Satan had already fallen like lightning from heaven (see Luke 10:18). This was the enemy they were being instructed to guard against, to subdue. Satan was the one who had boldly declared that he intended to “exalt [his] throne above the stars of God” and “be like the Most High” (Isaiah 14:13, 14). God had already declared war on His enemy. Satan’s rebellion was to be dealt with. God would use mere humans to subdue the one who had formerly officiated in the heavenly realms.

Psalm 8:2, 6 underscores this fact: “Out of the mouth of babes and nursing infants You have ordained strength, because of Your enemies, that You may silence the enemy and the avenger. You have made him [humans] to have dominion over the works of Your hands; You have put all things under his feet.”

Declaring War

From the time Lucifer rose up against God, declaring his intent to exalt himself above God, God’s response was swift and very direct.

“Your pomp is brought down to Sheol.” . . . How you are fallen from heaven, O Lucifer, son of the morning! How you are cut down to the ground, you who weakened the nations! . . . “Yet you shall be brought down to Sheol, to the lowest depths of the Pit.” Those who see you will gaze at you, and consider you, saying: “Is this the man who made the earth tremble, who shook kingdoms, who made the world as a wilderness and destroyed its cities, who did not open the house of his prisoners?”’ . . . “The LORD of hosts has sworn, saying, ‘Surely, as I have thought, so it shall come to pass, and as I have purposed, so it shall stand: that I will break the Assyrian [a type of anti-Christ spirit] in My land, and on My mountains tread him underfoot. This is the purpose that is purposed against the whole earth, and this is the hand that is stretched out over all the nations. For the LORD of hosts has purposed, and who will annul it? His hand is stretched out, and who will turn it back?’ Isaiah 14:11, 12, 15–17, 24–27

God had declared war on His enemy. Satan would be trodden underfoot. The eyes of God’s people were to be opened to who he really is: the one who made the world a wilderness and brought destruction to its cities.

In Donald Barnhouse’s book, The Invisible War, the events of Ezekiel 28:14–19 are described this way:

The great governing cherub had become the malignant enemy. Our God was neither surprised nor astonished, for, of course, He knew before it happened that it would happen, and He had His perfect plan ready to be put into effect. Although the Lord had the power to destroy Satan with a breath, He did not do so. It was as though an edict had been proclaimed in heaven: We shall give this rebellion a thorough trial. We shall permit it to run its full course. The universe shall see what a creature, though he be the highest creature ever to spring from God’s word, can do apart from Him. We shall watch this experiment, and permit the universe of creatures to watch it, during this brief interlude called time. In it the spirit of independence shall be allowed to expand to the utmost. And the wreck and ruin which shall result will demonstrate to the universe, and forever, that there is no life, no joy, no peace apart from a complete dependence upon the Most High God, Possessor of Heaven and Earth.1

The earth has been made for humanity to rule over on God’s behalf.

“It Is Not Good . . .”

Genesis 1:31 tells us that when God finished the work of creation, He “saw everything that He had made, and indeed it was very good” (emphasis mine). Obviously, He was pleased with the work of His hands. When the natural world was in place, we read that “the LORD God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living being” (Genesis 2:7). God gave this man, Adam, the job of tending and keeping the Garden of Eden, with this instruction: “Of every tree of the garden you may freely eat; but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it, you shall surely die” (2:16, 17). In the next verse, God said, “It is not good that the man should be alone; I will make him an help meet [suitable] for him” (2:18, KJV, emphasis mine). Until this point, as God observed His creation, He pronounced it “very good.” But now, something is “not good.” What exactly was not good and why?

Adam’s being alone seems to be the key thought in what God is expressing here as “not good.” The Hebrew word translated alone literally means “separation.” Man was not merely lonely; his “separation” was of a spiritual nature. To me, it speaks of an inner aloneness. George Berry’s The Interlinear Literal Translation of the Hebrew Old Testament translates Genesis 2:18 this way: “Not good is being the man to his separation.”2 The question then becomes, separated from what or whom? At this point, the only other beings present with him were the animals. Could it be that this statement by God was not a mere observation of Adam’s “loneliness,” as some have assumed? Rather, far more seriously, it was addressing Adam’s relationship with God Himself.

Adam had not yet been joined to God in His “divine life.” For Adam to fulfill the purpose of God, to walk in authority over the enemy, He had to become a partaker of divine life. He was, at this point, merely a created being. God could not thrust divine life upon Adam; Adam would have to choose to receive it. But the future of God’s plan depended on it.

Watchman Nee states in his book, Messenger of the Cross:

Of all the edible trees, this one (the tree of life) is the most important. This is what Adam should have eaten first. Why is this so? The tree of life signifies the life of God, the uncreated life of God. Adam is a created being, and therefore he does not possess such uncreated life. Though at this point he is still without sin, he nevertheless is only natural since he has not received the holy life of God. The purpose of God is for Adam to choose the fruit of the tree of life with his own volition so that he might be related to God in divine life. And thus Adam would move from simply being created by God to his being born of Him as well.3

When God said that Adam’s aloneness was “not good,” He meant it really was not good. There was a problem in paradise and God purposed to resolve it. Help was on the way.

Summary

• Male and female were originally designed and created to express God’s image on earth. Because God blessed them, they were to be fruitful, multiply, subdue the earth, and take dominion over it.
• Mankind was created to walk in authority.
• Satan was the enemy the male and female together were to guard against and subdue.
• God uses mere humans to subdue the one (Satan) who had officiated in the heavenly realm.
• Adam’s aloneness was not good.