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It will be observed that the word `generation' is used in the plural of
each except the last. The generations refer to the descendants, as may be
seen by an isolated generation like that of Ruth 4:18 -22, the generation of
Jesus Christ however, refers to His human ancestry not to His descendants,
for He had none.
In the generations of the heaven and the earth, are recorded the
following features:
(1)
The forming of man from the dust, and his becoming a living soul.
(2)
The planting of the garden eastward in Eden.
(3)
The prohibition concerning the tree of the knowledge of good and
evil.
(4)
The naming of the animals and Adam's conscious loneliness.
(5)
The formation of the woman as a help meet for him.
(6)
The temptation and the fall, the curse and sorrow.
(7)
The promise of the seed of the woman and ultimate victory.
(8)
The return of man to the dust from whence he had been taken.
(9)
The expulsion from Eden and the placing of the Sword and
Cherubim.
(10)
The two seeds as manifested in Abel and Cain.
(11)
The appointment of Seth `instead' of Abel.
Fuller details could, of course, be included, and the reader must
remember that there is no significance in the number that we have indicated.
In view of the balancing feature in the book of the Revelation we can write
over this period the words `Paradise Lost', without borrowing any ideas from
Milton, even as we can write over the closing chapter of the Revelation
`Paradise Restored'.
Two main themes commence in Genesis 3, that continue to the end of
time, and which constitute the conflict of the ages. These are (1) the
promise of the woman's seed, (2) the continuous enmity between the two seeds
until ultimate victory is achieved. (See The Book of Job). The loss
sustained as a consequence of the fall is symbolized in the expulsion from
the garden, with the consequent loss of access to the tree of life, but
restoration is pledged by the placing of the Cherubim together with a flaming
sword `to keep' the way of the tree of life. (See Cherubim1). In the
sequel, when the intervening gap is filled by the fruits of redemption, we
are taken by a series of steps back to Eden and its blessedness, as is made
manifest by the following extract from the close of Revelation: