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In the Beginning…
Genesis 1
We are going to discover God through the book of Genesis. Through the many stories we will encounter, we will meet the God that makes our eyes open wide in amazement and our jaws drop in wonder. We live in an age in which we need to rediscover this astounding God.
The book opens with the creation account. This does not read like a science textbook—it’s much more beautiful than that. Science seeks only to explain only so much—it attempts to be
descriptive, explaining the “what” and “how” of what is around us. Genesis is concerned with something more profound: it is
prescriptive, answering the questions of “who” and “why,” and “what ought to be.” Genesis expert Bruce Waltke was correct when he wrote,
“The narrator of the creation account is not particularly concerned with the questions a scientists asks; rather, he wants to provide answers to the questions science cannot answer—who has created this world and for what purpose?”
So, since the first rule of proper biblical interpretation is to always determine the purpose of the original writer for the original hearers, we won’t go into all the modern sidetracks concerning what Genesis says about how old the earth is, or whether or not Darwinistic Evolution is right or wrong, etc. etc. When we focus on all that, we miss the point of this story. That is not the primary purpose of why this account was written.
The purpose is this: We are to watch in astonishment as God creates the world. And as we watch, we must be sure to pay careful attention to the
process and the progress. We can learn who God is by paying attention to the details of the
process of creation, and learn what is very important to him by observing the
progress of creation. And as we are attentive to these things, we will discover the things that are really important to know about God, about humankind, and about how humankind is related to this creator-God.
“In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.” (Genesis 1:1)
This is the summary statement of all that is coming in the story. And when you stop and think about what it is saying, it is a bold claim: It is God, and only God, who created everything. In the age and place in which this was written, there were a lot of adherents to the idea that there are a number of gods (what is called polytheism), each with dominion over different things. They also believed that all matter was eternal. In light of that, Genesis boldly states that there was a time when everything did not exist, but that there was a time when this God created it all. In our age, we have a lot of adherents to the idea that God is actually a part of the heavens and the earth, that God is in all and is all (what is called pantheism). This verse is bold in its statement in regard to this as well: God
created everything. In some way, he is separate and above that which has been created—not merely a part of the creation.
And here in the first verse of the Bible, we get our first glimpse into the personality of God. He is the God who creates! Before we skip on to the next verses, let’s pause at that thought. God is creative! He has an
 inexhaustible imagination; He has made everything, from the humming bird clothed in iridescent colors, flapping its wings 22 to 78 times per second, to the planet Saturn with its 100,000 magnificent rings. Anybody who has ever created anything—a painting, a sculpture, a poem, a song, a garden, a table, even something out of your kid’s Leggos—knows the joy of making something that you can look at and know that nobody else could have created that. When you go to the Art Gallery, you are in awe of the creations there. People walk into the room in which Rembrandt’s self-portrait is displayed in the National Art Gallery in hushed tones. There is a reverence as people look upon the painting. There is the face of Rembrandt there in the painting; when you look at his creation, you get a glimpse of the creator. When I go for a walk, and look up at the clouds turning fuchsia as the sun goes down, as I look at the intricate details inside the petals of a flower, as I gaze up at mountains or down into the Grand Canyon, I am looking at God’s Art Gallery. And he has painted himself into each work of art—I can see him in what he has created. And it makes me say, “Whoa! Wow!” And I worship.
At this point, we are whisked into our private screening room, where we can actually watch the artist at work. Imagine getting to watch your favorite artist as he or she composes his or her greatest masterpiece. I love VH1’s “Behind the Music” documentaries—you get to actually watch the artist in the studio, creating that which you have always enjoyed. Here we go: “God, Behind the Music.”
Day One:
“Now the earth was formless and empty, darkness was over the surface of the deep, and the Spirit of God was hovering over the waters.
And God said, ‘Let there be light,’ and there was light. God saw that the light was good, and he separated the light from the darkness. God called the light ‘day,’ and the darkness he called ‘night.’ And there was evening, and there was morning—the first day.”
(Genesis 1:2-5)
As we watch this creation happen, we should pay careful attention to the process. God speaks,
“And God said…” and there it is. When God says, “Let there be...,”
that is exactly what there is! What God says, goes! In each of these days, God creates through his verbal expressed will. In other words, God creates through his Word, and God’s Word is irresistible. God’s Word has immense power—to bring into existence that which was not in existence before.
We previously looked in-depth at the
Gospel of John, and it is no coincidence that John’s Gospel begins the way it does. Look again at the opening verses of John:
“In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was with God in the beginning. Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made. In him was life, and that life was the light of men. The light shines in the darkness, but the darkness has not understood it… The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the One and Only, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth.” (John 1:1-5, 14)
The New Testament reveals that the Creative Word of God is Jesus Christ! Through the Word, “all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made.” God’s Word is irresistible. When we meet Jesus, he draws us to himself with irresistible love, and when he proclaims “Let there be a new creation…,” making you a child born from above of God through salvation, that is exactly what there is going to be!
If you are struggling with doubts about your personal salvation, know this: What Jesus says is so, is so. Your being made a new creation is not through your own power—it is through the power of God. When we think about it, it is silly for the creation to think it had any power to make itself—we are completely dependent on the
creator. Your being made new by God is not your doing—and you can take comfort in that, for if it is not of your own doing, it is not of your own undoing. What God has made he has made, and nothing can change that. So when you are wondering if you have slipped too far out of God’s grace, know that you were created by God, and then re-created by God through salvation in Christ. And it is not the
subject of faith, in other words, the amount of faith you have that determines if you are saved, it is the
object of faith that determines if you are saved—and the object of faith is Jesus Christ.
As we work through the creation account, we notice that each creation event is marked off by the words,
“And there was evening, and there was morning” and then the number of the “day.” While there has been a lot of speculation about whether these are either 24-hour days or extended ages, I will not get bogged down in these arguments here. That, once again, takes us off the main point of why this account in here in our Bibles. What we do learn from these words is that God wants us to understand something about himself here: that when he created everything, he did it in an orderly way. The successive days are there to teach us something theologically, not just scientifically. God did not need to take six days, he could have created everything
instantaneously—he is, after all, God! But he takes it one step at a time—in order for us to watch the
process and the progress.
So the process of day one is this:
God speaks—God’s Word is the means of creation.
God evaluates—He says light is good. Light symbolizes purity and life and blessing.
God brings
order—He separates light from the darkness. What does not belong together, God puts in there proper place. God is the God of order, and when we creatures seek to collapse the order that God has put into place through our disobedience, is it any wonder that the results or catastrophic?
God names—the only one who can name something or someone is the being that has dominion over that object being named. God is the King of both the light and the darkness, which means that even when we are scared to death of what dark things could harm us in this world, be it Cancer, or terrorists, or the stock market, God is still over it all, and we can find some measure of comfort in that.
As you watch the rest of the creation days, watch for this process to repeat itself—God speaking, God pronouncing his evaluation, God bringing order by separating things, God naming things to show he is their Lord. We will discover the progress as we move along the days.
Day two:
“And God said, ‘Let there be an expanse between the waters to separate water from water.’ So God made the expanse and separated the water under the expanse from the water above it. And it was so. God called the expanse ‘sky.’ And there was evening, and there was morning—the second day.” (Genesis 1:6-8)
Again, God
speaks, and there it is!
On the second day, we see the creation of the “expanse between the waters.” In other words, up to this point, there was one mass of wateriness, and God
separates
again—creating
order. The water that he forms below is the planet covered with water; the water above is the clouds.
God again shows his dominion over this by naming the expanse “sky.”
Interestingly, God does not say that it is “good” here; Waltke jokes, “Even God did not say that Mondays are good!” It is not good yet, it will serve for the good when rain can fall onto land, but land isn’t made yet.
Day three:
“And God said, ‘Let the water under the sky be gathered to one place, and let dry ground appear. And it was so. God called the dry ground ‘land,’ and the gathered waters he called ‘seas.’ And God saw that it was good. Then God said, ‘Let the land produce vegetation: seed-bearing plants and trees on the land that bear fruit with seed in it, according to their various kinds.’ And it was so. The land produced vegetation: plants bearing seed according to their kinds and trees bearing fruit with seed in it according to their kinds. And God saw that it was good. And there was evening, and there was morning—the third day.”
(Genesis 1:9-13)
In day three, we hear God speak TWICE!
The first time, God produces the dry ground by gathering all the water on the planet into what he
names “seas.” The dry ground he names “land.”
God calls this good. Why? Because that land is going to be the place where what he speaks into existence next will live: the vegetation that will sustain life. It is good because life is good.
The Bible reveals to us what we need to know above all else, or  our understanding of the world and ourselves in it is severely warped. Without getting this basic foundation of how we view everything, we are lost even before we start our journey to try to discover spiritual reality. Just like we cannot read without first understanding the alphabet, just like we cannot move on to Calculus without first learning how to add and subtract, this is the first thing we must get into our heads:
God is the One who created everything.
You might be thinking, “Uh, yea, we got it, Bob. That’s pretty basic.” But more and more, many do not get it! Watch a nature documentary, and the glory of the creation is given to…the creation itself! Go for a walk, and talk with someone about the beauty around you and you find yourself in awe of the creation without a thought to the creator. Day 3 makes us stop and realize that when we deify nature by giving it the glory of creative power in and of itself (like when we say, without really thinking, “Isn’t Mother Nature amazing?”), we are giving the
created the glory that only the creator should receive. It would be like looking at the Rembrandt painting and talking to those around us about the painting, but never giving the credit to Rembrandt himself. The painting just didn’t pop into existence and hang itself there in the Art Gallery. Somebody
created that! When we are struck with awe at some sort of art—a poem, a painting, music, architecture—we are often driven to find out about the artist. We buy biographies; we watch the “Behind the Music” documentaries. We are intrigued by the creator. Day 3 tells us who the creator of all this incredible beauty around us is. And here in the Bible, we have his biography. Our love of the art should drive us to want to know the artist!
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