Genesis 1

The Creation of the World

I am finding more and more as I study the Bible about how much deep theology is found in the very beginning of creation, and in the beginning of our Bibles. I first want to point out that there are many skeptics that say that the story of creation,or the great flood found in the Bible is nothing more than the Jewish version of many ancient tall tales about how the world began. And that this account is so similar to other stories told from different parts of the world that we are really foolish for actually believing that this is "God's Word". Here is my answer to those claims:

1. Jesus Christ talks about Adam, and Eve, and Noah and absolutely believes that this is God's word, and that this actually happened. Everything hinges on Jesus Christ and if he is not God, then none of this really matters. But because He is the King of Kings and Lord of Lords, then this absolutely enforces that our world came into being the way that Moses , under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit says that it did.

2. I believe as well that the very fact that other cultures had some thing similar happen to them is evidence that there was a great flood. Of course as the classic game "Telephone" goes, the more a story is told and retold, the more details get changed and left out. I believe that it is possible that somewhere in those other cultures as they talk about a great flood, it could be rooted in an element of truth, they just have details that were exaggerated, or changed over time. For example, one teaching is that the gods could not stand all the noise that humans were making, so they had not choice but to send a great flood to destroy mankind. We know this is not the reason for the flood we read about in Genesis, but again other cultures may have had knowledge of some kind of world wide flood, and then filled in details as they went.

Lets take a look at chapter one of Genesis.

vs 1

In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth.

The beginning obviously of human history. The Bible says in Colossians 1: 15-16

He(Jesus) is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation. 16 For by him all things were created, in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities—all things were created through him and for him.

So in the beginning Jesus Christ created the heavens and the Earth. Very important to hit this right off the bat that Jesus Christ is God. Everything that has been created has been created by and for Jesus. To our Jehovah's Witness friends this would be an issue of debate. Jesus was not a created being that became a god. He created everything that has been created. He is powerful and has authority and dominion over everything in the universe. These opening verses tell us of how vast and powerful our great God is. He answers to nothing because he has created everything that is in existence. Jesus is eternal and is fully God, as His Father and The Holy Spirit are fully God.

vs 2

The earth was without form and void, and darkness was over the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God was hovering over the face of the waters.

Here we see the first mention of The Holy Spirit. I could fill up every blog in the world to try and explain the great and awesome God that we love and serve. We serve one God, who has three distinct persons. It doesn't make mathematical sense but this is what the Bible teaches. We love the Father, the Son, and The Holy Spirit for who they are, and what They have done. They are not all the same, or all have the same function. It will never fully make sense in our human minds, or in our glorified minds necessarily either. But this is what the Old Testament teaches, the New Testament teaches and what Jesus taught to His disciples and by faith we believe that God is one, in Three distinct persons.

vs 3-5

And God said, "Let there be light," and there was light. ⁴And God saw that the light was good. And God separated the light from the darkness. ⁵God called the light Day, and the darkness he called Night. And there was evening and there was morning, the first day.

Here we see that God has the power to speak creation into existence. We serve a POWERFUL God. He is worthy of our worship and for us to fear and respect Him with our whole lives. He does not need anything, and is eternally powerful and awesome. We also see the beginning of His creation of environment and the daily cycles that will eventually be our days,weeks and years etc.

vs 6-8

⁶And God said, "Let there be an expanse in the midst of the waters, and let it separate the waters from the waters." ⁷And God made the expanse and separated the waters that were under the expanse from the waters that were above the expanse. And it was so. ⁸And God called the expanse Heaven. And there was evening and there was morning, the second day.

Another example of God's great power by merely speaking what he wishes to happen, and it becomes so. We will read all throughout this first chapter about God speaking all of his creation into being. When we read about God separating the waters from Heaven, this is speaking of what we would see when we look into the sky, not the Heaven that we will go to when we pass away.

vs 9-13
⁹And God said, "Let the waters under the heavens be gathered together into one place, and let the dry land appear." And it was so. ¹⁰God called the dry land Earth, and the waters that were gathered together he called Seas. And God saw that it was good.¹¹And God said, "Let the earth sprout vegetation, plants yielding seed, and fruit trees bearing fruit in which is their seed, each according to its kind, on the earth." And it was so. ¹²The earth brought forth vegetation, plants yielding seed according to their own kinds, and trees bearing fruit in which is their seed, each according to its kind. And God saw that it was good. ¹³And there was evening and there was morning, the third day.

God has had a plan from the very beginning. Every detail of life is in some way working out for the good, and working His ultimate plan of redemption out. In verse 11 I love how we see our great God not only speaking into life plants, but also that he desires that life produce life. When you stop to consider something as simple as an apple seed. And you think that inside that tiny seed is the chemical make up to not only give us apples, but also has another seed waiting to drop into the ground and the cycle goes on and on. This is how our relationship with Christ works as well. We plant seeds into non believers, they through faith in Jesus sprout up and not only become Christians, but also have that inward desire to drop seeds into others. As many have said, the fruit of an apple tree is not an apple, its another apple tree!

vs 14-19
¹⁴And God said, "Let there be lights in the expanse of the heavens to separate the day from the night. And let them be for signs and for seasons, and for days and years, ¹⁵and let them be lights in the expanse of the heavens to give light upon the earth." And it was so. ¹⁶And God made the two great lights—the greater light to rule the day and the lesser light to rule the night—and the stars. ¹⁷And God set them in the expanse of the heavens to give light on the earth, ¹⁸to rule over the day and over the night, and to separate the light from the darkness. And God saw that it was good. ¹⁹And there was evening and there was morning, the fourth day.

If you ever want to feel really really really small, study our amazing galaxy. Our planet is so small compared to the sun. The sun is small compared to many other stars. I mean if you put the Earth next to some of these stars, we are not even a speck on the picture! Our God is amazing, powerful creative and awesome! He spoke all of this into existence, and made everything perfect and good. In these verses we see that our God is a God of order. He has designed everything that exists to function in a certain way. He knew that we would use the sun, the stars and other things in our solar system to create calenders and to help us keep track of signs and seasons. And this is true for cultures that do not even know who God is! All throughout human history cultures have looked to the stars and the heavens to make schedules, calenders and many other functions as well. Sadly so many have chosen to worship God's creation rather than worship him.
I love reading about the beginning of creation because this is so powerful, God reveals so much of himself in creation.
Romans 1:19-20
“Because that which is known about God is evident within them; for God
made it evident to them. For since the creation of the world His invisible
attributes His eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly seen, being
understood through what has been made, so that they are without excuse.”

vs 20-25

²⁰And God said, "Let the waters swarm with swarms of living creatures, and let birds fly above the earth across the expanse of the heavens." ²¹So God created the great sea creatures and every living creature that moves, with which the waters swarm, according to their kinds, and every winged bird according to its kind. And God saw that it was good. ²²And God blessed them, saying, "Be fruitful and multiply and fill the waters in the seas, and let birds multiply on the earth." ²³And there was evening and there was morning, the fifth day.

²⁴And God said, "Let the earth bring forth living creatures according to their kinds—livestock and creeping things and beasts of the earth according to their kinds." And it was so. ²⁵And God made the beasts of the earth according to their kinds and the livestock according to their kinds, and everything that creeps on the ground according to its kind. And God saw that it was good.

Again if you want to build your faith, and get a glimpse of how great our God is, just look at the animal kingdom. What beauty, strength and diversity our God has! I had my daughter at the zoo the other day and I stand in awe of how awesome some of these creatures look and behave. I cannot wait for the New Earth, when we can go up to Lions and Bears and pet them!

vs 26-27

²⁶Then God said, "Let us make man in our image, after our likeness. And let them have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over the livestock and over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth."
²⁷So God created man in his own image,
in the image of God he created him;
male and female he created them.

Every human being that has ever lived has been created in the image of God. We are all equal in that sense.Men and Women both are created in Gods image and while there are different roles and functions between men and women(the same is true within the God head) each are image bearers of God. We don't have to "do" anything special to have the value and dignity that God has created us with. We are not animals. Humans were created to rule over God's creation. Now just because we are created in God's image does not mean that every human is forgiven by Christ or that everybody gets to go to heaven when they die. But this does mean that every body deserves to be treated with a certain respect and dignity. Some have asked me if I would torture a mass murderer or a terrorist for no other reason than for revenge. My answer to them is absolutely not, they are image bearers of God, and while I do believe that God grants us permission to put people to death for murder, it is to be done with dignity and respect for the fact that this person is created in God's image. A very hot topic some may totally disagree on a lot of different levels. This is what I believe the Bible teaches on people being created in God's image. In addition God here is giving us our first glimpse into the understanding of the Trinity. "Let Us make man in Our image..." This seems very clear that at least two persons are speaking to each other. We know that this could not possibly be chalked up to Mid Evil kingly speech as some have suggested as this totally predates when kings would give speeches saying "Let us make war with so and so". So again God is one, with three distinct persons.

vs 28-31

²⁸And God blessed them. And God said to them, "Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and subdue it and have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over every living thing that moves on the earth." ²⁹And God said, "Behold, I have given you every plant yielding seed that is on the face of all the earth, and every tree with seed in its fruit. You shall have them for food. ³⁰And to every beast of the earth and to every bird of the heavens and to everything that creeps on the earth, everything that has the breath of life, I have given every green plant for food." And it was so. ³¹ And God saw everything that he had made, and behold, it was very good. And there was evening and there was morning, the sixth day.

God expects his people to fill this planet with God fearing, Jesus loving children. I have seen many families with large numbers of kids and they have told me we are obeying God, we were fruitful and multiplied. Well thats only half true if your children don't know Jesus! Don't just multiply, BE FRUITFUL! We are to raise our children to love Jesus, know God , to worship and obey him! This was the first sermon from Pastor God to his people. We need to hear this and heed this today. God has given mankind dominion over all of creation. Its interesting that this type of "work" predates the fall of Adam and Eve. Its our responsibility to take care of this planet. I am not saying to become a "Green Activist", But we do need to be good stewards of this awesome planet that God has gifted to us.