We now come to the central points of God's restoration and further creation.
God needed to recover the earth for generating life and for dominion (Gen. 1:9, 26, 28). As long as the earth was under the death waters, there was no possibility to generate life or to have dominion. In order to have these two things, there was the need for the earth to be recovered.
The second central point was to have man as the expression of God Himself and to deal with God's enemy (Gen. 1:26-28). Later we will see more of this.
The third point was to generate life. This was necessary for the ability to express God and to have dominion for God. Remember these three central points: to recover the earth, to have man, and to generate life. Although the things created by God are numerous, in the record of Genesis 1 and 2 God only mentioned the matters of life and the items related to life, for His restoration and further creation were focused on life. All God's creation was focused on life. He recovered the earth, created man, and produced all kinds of life for the purpose of expressing Himself and dealing with His enemy.
Now we come to the purpose of God's restoration and further creation. This is extremely important.
The main purpose of God's restoration and further creation was to have man, a corporate man, to express God (Gen. 1:26-27). The man God created was a corporate man. God did not create many men. God created mankind collectively in one person, Adam. God created Adam and Adam was a corporate man, a collective man. When Adam was created, we were all created. If you are thirty years of age today, don't say that you were created thirty years ago. You were born thirty years ago, but you were created six thousand years ago. Although I might have been born forty years earlier than you, we were created at the same time. When Adam was created, we were all created because we were all created collectively in Adam. We were included in Adam. God did not create an individual man, but a corporate man to express Himself. In verse 26 God said, "Let them"—one man, but the pronoun is "them." This proves that this man is a corporate man. In this verse, as the pronoun "us" signifies that God is triune, so the pronoun "them" signifies that man is corporate. God created such a corporate man in His own image and after His likeness so that man might express God Himself.