A Work in Progress Bible Commentary
By: Chip Crush

GENESIS
CHAPTER 1

The Beginning

1 In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.
2 Now the earth was [1] formless and empty, darkness was over the surface of the deep, and the Spirit of God was hovering over the waters.

The word Genesis means “beginning.” Genesis 1-11 are foundational for understanding the rest of Scripture. We are to read it in a straightforward way, as historical narrative, unless otherwise obvious, while also allowing for the author, Moses, to use literary devices such as metaphors, anthropomorphisms, etc., within the narrative. The author, Moses, writes in his context of leading the Hebrew people out of Egypt with a purpose, to explain the beginning as they prepare for a new beginning. And every believer today needs to understand the beginning in light of their new beginning in Christ.

Genesis is foundational for understanding the identity of God as well as the identity of humans within His creation. We find, amazingly, that God is relational in this regard. The origin story is recorded as literal history, literally His Story. It has been said that if you can believe the very first verse of the Bible, then the rest of it should be no problem. So let’s take a look at the first verse in particular and see what we learn from the text.

Genesis 1:1 reveals that there was a beginning, denying the steady state and oscillating universe theories of secularism. We also learn from this verse that God – the Hebrew word is Elohim, the plural and magisterial form of God, which implies God’s triune deity – was already existent before the beginning. Caedmon’s Call has a song, Before There Was Time, that considers some of those things that God did before there was time. It’s not mere speculation, as the Scriptures reveal in other places these pre-time realities. Of course, we rely fully on God’s own trustworthy declaration of these truths, but they are also clearly perceived in our own realities. For example, we perceive that nothing comes from nothing. Therefore, it is not surprising that God, the One and Only, reveals Himself as relational and also as the uncreated Creator, the self-existent Great I AM. He is the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end. God simply is, always has been, and forever will be. As the Catholic prayer exclaims, “Glory without end. Amen!”

While we may not gather all of this information from this very first verse of the Bible, it is implied and parsed out in detail throughout the remainder of God’s word. Additional characteristics of God could be proclaimed forever in breadth and depth, but for now, we should also note that God is independent. He truly does not depend on anything. He has no needs of any kind; God needs nothing. He is not lonely, as some suspect; they might suggest that His reason for creation was due to His need for something interesting to watch. God, rather, is completely and perfectly self-sufficient and glorious, even overflowing with love as we see from His act of creation.

We also see here that God is the only God. This is an especially important fact that Moses includes, as the surrounding nations – and especially Egypt from which the people just departed – served multiple deities. Jeremiah 10 is an excellent summary of these realities. As noted above, the plural Elohim denotes majesty and implies the remarkable triune nature of the One God. We get additional input on this reality in the first two of the Ten Commandments: No other gods and No idols. God is all, and God is over all, and that brings me to the last point for now – God is sovereign (Psalm 135:6). As creator of all, God is ruler of all. He alone has authority and power over creation. It’s absolute and unlimited. He is Lord. And we see that particularly in the next word of v1 – created.

The Hebrew word “bara,” opposed to “asah,” is used here for “created,” which some declare means that God created ex nihilo, out of nothing. This by iteself is a form of communication. There’s even a creation science called baraminology, which attempts to better understand the specific creation work of God, even to categorizing what many scientists refer to as species into created kinds (Kingdom, Phylum, Class, Order, Family, Genus, Species). The Biblical kinds we will see later in Genesis 1 are likely more akin to the scientific designation called families. But the point here is “out of nothing.” God didn’t start with a ball of water to form the earth. He started with nothing, and that’s why we call the cosmos the universe, which literally means, “single spoken sentence.” And God said, “Let there be…”

As we consider what v1 says about God’s creation, it’s an all-encompassing “The heavens and the earth.” This is all-inclusive; there is nothing that God did not create, including material and immaterial things, time and space, matter, energy, light, logic, natural laws, etc. Without going too deep here, we do not intend to say that at the beginning of time itself, God created all things instantaneously. Rather, His eternal plan was instigated, and nothing would stop the ball from rolling according to His perfect intent from there on. God created agents to continue His creation, and while there are always instances of other agents creating something out of something, God Himself is the supreme and primary creator, exclusively capable of and here implementing ex nihilo creation. So verse 1 of the Bible is the big picture.

We will see in Genesis the themes of land, seed, and blessing, as Moses records for the Hebrew people of his time, and for us today, the intention of God to have His people in His place with His blessed rule of abundance. But first, let’s look at v2, which zooms in from the big picture to focus on the earth.

Now – this word appears in the NIV English translation, as well as in other less literal versions, but it is not in the more literal translations, such as the ESV, and most importantly, not in the original text. Proponents of the Gap Theory make great use of it to suggest a gap between v1 and v2 of Genesis 1; perhaps the NIV editorial team included “now” because of their own presuppositions about some gap in between the events of v1 and v2. Here is the place to explain some of the origins debates that rage between Christians and particularly atheists, but also within Christian circles.

First, beginnings matter. And each origin theory has a variety of opinions on the details, so any explanation of a given theory here will not be detailed. Rather, just to summarize varying viewpoints, let’s consider these: young-earth creationism, old-earth creationism, theistic evolution, and secularism. It has been said that Christians are against science when it comes to origins. But the battle is between the worldviews of Christianity and naturalism. God’s word never contradicts God’s world. We must rightly interpret both.

First, young earth creationism is often linked with fundamentalism in evangelical circles, and it’s the view that declares God’s word to be very literal in this creation account, making all of creation, including the universe and earth, less than 10,000 years old. It’s commonly held by organizations like Answers in Genesis (AIG) and the Institute for Creation Research (ICR). This view is often charged with neglecting science, as most secular scientists operate from an evolutionary perspective that requires billions of years to allow random chance the ability to bring about from a primordial sludge all that we observe today. You will hear young earth creationists deny the concept of macro-evolution, which requires Biblical kinds to turn into other kinds. Rather, young earthers will yield to the more observable concept of micro-evolution, often called speciation, which reveals changes within Biblical kinds to adapt to ever-changing environments. Proponents of this view suggest that secular dating methods are flawed with faulty assumptions, and they’ll acknowledge that a catastrophic worldwide flood changed the world to such a degree that we cannot really know much about the pre-flood world, in terms of scientific verification. Perhaps the biggest factor in this view is the theological necessity of no death before sin. Certainly, Scripture is clear that sin is the cause of death, and apart from sin there is no death. Therefore, any view that has death before sin cannot be valid. Finally in this category, we include anyone who believes in the literal timeline of Genesis but also recognizes an appearance of age within observable creation.

There is no doubt that when God formed Adam from the dust of the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, Adam was not in appearance mere seconds old. Rather, Adam was likely instantly a man, perhaps appearing 20 years old. Likewise, Jesus made wine from water and multiple fish and bread for people to enjoy. In these miraculous creations, surely the wine seemed perfectly aged and the fish and bread mature, though they were all only minutes old. Those who hold this version of a young earth view aren’t concerned with specific ages, because they simply grant an appearance of age.

Next we have the old-earth creation viewpoint. I’m lumping into this category all those Christians who uphold Scripture as inerrant and infallible while denying the young earth position as one that clearly pushes back too hard against what secular science has shown to be true. Those who hold the Gap Theory fit here. They suggest that a significant time lapse must be granted between Genesis 1:1 and Genesis 1:2 in order to account for what modern science has validated, namely that the universe is much older than what a normal reading of Scripture can accommodate. By including a gap, proponents of this view can allow for millions of years of evolution – including animal death and untold suffering – to bring about the age of modern man. Gap Theorists might suggest that angels were created and fell in this gap, and then at some point in the ape-to-human evolution history, God stepped in to declare one of these creatures to be human, rather than ape. Hugh Ross with Reasons to Believe is perhaps one of the more prominent Old Earth Creationists, but there are others less on the fringe who may just acknowledge some unknowns regarding the particular age of creation, especially in a plain reading of Scripture. They would say no gymnastics are required to read millions of years into the creation narrative of Scripture, primarily because they don’t see any intention of Moses or God to give specifics on ages of creation. Often the meaning of the word for day (yom) comes up.

Then we have the theistic evolution perspective. In this category, we can place any person (Christian or not) who believes there must be a higher power over all matter and energy, a being who, either purposefully or otherwise, allowed evolution to transpire and bring about all that is observed today. Theistic evolutionists do not uphold Scripture as inerrant and infallible, and even many in the Catholic faith might be found in this camp, as papal authority and church tradition largely override any authority that the Bible has. Proponents of Intelligent Design could be found in this group, as this perspective just requires some acceptance of a higher power’s involvement in the observable process that we see in evolution, as they acknowledge that without a higher power, there simply couldn’t be what we observe today. It’s the principle of irreducible complexity.

Finally, we briefly consider the secular models of origins. In this category is everyone who denies a supernatural cause to what is observed. These naturalists might hold to a multi-verse theory, but even that requires an origin. Some might say the universe is simply an everlasting steady state, or perhaps the opposite, eternally oscillating, constantly and forever expanding and collapsing. The Big Bang is said to have occurred some 13.8 billion years ago, but questions remain. Where did that combustible point of singularity come from? The answer is profound and requires faith. All of the other views on origins turn to a higher power, but the secular view is stubborn and won’t go there. Perhaps the worst thing about this secular view is that it leaves its proponents with no meaning or purpose, no source of moral good and no hope for a future. While some measure of morality and hope could be found in any of the other views, it is only with Biblical Christianity that you find glorious meaning and purpose in the hands of a benevolent Creator. If you are new to these considerations, take your time and consider the pros and cons of each view as you study. There’s no need to rush to a conclusion if you are trusting in Christ. If you are not a Christian, then “today if you hear His voice, do not harden your hearts” (Hebrews 3:15).

As we return to an examination of Genesis 1:2, we read, “The earth was formless and empty” or “without form and void.” The word translated “was” is “hayah,” which is the past tense of the verb “to be.” The image that comes to my mind is a blob of water, and I think this is corroborated with the next statement, “Darkness was over the face of the deep.” There’s chaos and no value. And that’s where the Spirit of God – literally “the wind” – appeared, hovering over the (face of the) waters. The word for “hovering” is used only three times in the Old Testament. Found here, as well as in Deuteronomy 32:11 and Jeremiah 23:9, it conveys excitement, as in having goose bumps over what’s about to take place. It can mean “shake,” “hover,” “move,” “relax,” “flutter,” “vibrate,” “brood,” or “soften,” and it specifically shows the feelings of tender love, as in “to cherish.” Perhaps simplistically, I picture a dove peacefully making a nest with great care. That’s what God was doing in the beginning.

We’ll elaborate on this brief breakdown as we work though Genesis, but this text has been scrutinized and butchered and explained in about as many ways as you could possibly conceive. Whenever I think about the beginning, my mind wanders to what happened before the beginning. Although not much is given us in the Bible, and although men have speculated with the ordering of pre-creation divine decrees, we will let the Scriptures reveal what God would have us know, revel in that for a moment, and move on to the detailed breakdown of Genesis 1-11. Here are just a few considerations: God is eternal, everlasting, with no beginning, and ultimate (Psalm 90:2; 102:25-26; Hebrews 1:10). Jesus was there (John 1:1-4; Colossians 1:15-20; 1 Peter 1:20-21; 1 John 1:1-3; 2:13-14; Revelation 22:13). God is sovereign and glorious (Isaiah 40:21-31; 41; 46:9-10; Jeremiah 17:12; Jude 1:25; John 17:5,24). Wisdom was there but hidden until Jesus came (Proverbs 3:19-20; 8:22-31; Matthew 13:34-35; 1 Corinthians 2:1-16). The beginning is beyond our understanding, but also worthy of investigation (Ecclesiastes 3:11; Jeremiah 31:37; Luke 1:1-4). There are greater things than the beginning (Deuteronomy 4:32-33). Many things have changed since the beginning (Matthew 19:3-9; Romans 8:18-25). People know the truth but deny it, deliberately forgetting it (Romans 1:18-32; 2 Peter 3:1-7). The Covenant of Redemption was in place, even before the beginning (Matthew 25:34; Ephesians 1:3-6; 2 Thessalonians 2:13-14; 2 Timothy 1:8-10; Titus 1:1-3; Revelation 13:8; 17:8).

These truths from Scripture help us keep perspective as we study the early chapters of Genesis. God’s specific revelation makes sense of what we discern from His general revelation (Psalm 19). One last thing needs to be mentioned before proceeding with our study. Presuppositions often get in the way of our understanding Scripture as it is intended. We come bringing baggage that influences what we are taught. For example, if you have learned that the universe and the earth are billions of years old, you will read Genesis 1-11 and have a hard time believing what it says. So perhaps you will use hermeneutics (principles of interpretation) to make your presuppositions fit with new information. Or maybe you will discard your presuppositions in favor of new ones. Often times, this is done subconsciously, but I bring it up, because we need to be conscious of the matter. A good book on this concept is Dr. Jason Lisle’s The Ultimate Proof of Creation. He notes that arguing over evidence for or against creation or evolution is futile, because all people – whether they acknowledge it or not – interpret evidence in light of their worldview, which is formed by presuppositions. So in light of this, let’s continue looking at Genesis 1-11.

3 And God said, "Let there be light," and there was light. 4 God saw that the light was good, and he separated the light from the darkness. 5 God called the light "day," and the darkness he called "night." And there was evening, and there was morning-the first day.
6 And God said, "Let there be an expanse between the waters to separate water from water." 7 So God made the expanse and separated the water under the expanse from the water above it. And it was so. 8 God called the expanse "sky." And there was evening, and there was morning-the second day.
9 And God said, "Let the water under the sky be gathered to one place, and let dry ground appear." And it was so. 10 God called the dry ground "land," and the gathered waters he called "seas." And God saw that it was good.
11 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. 12 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. 13 And there was evening, and there was morning-the third day.
14 And God said, "Let there be lights in the expanse of the sky to separate the day from the night, and let them serve as signs to mark seasons and days and years, 15 and let them be lights in the expanse of the sky to give light on the earth." And it was so. 16 God made two great lights-the greater light to govern the day and the lesser light to govern the night. He also made the stars. 17 God set them in the expanse of the sky to give light on the earth, 18 to govern the day and the night, and to separate light from darkness. And God saw that it was good. 19 And there was evening, and there was morning-the fourth day.
20 And God said, "Let the water teem with living creatures, and let birds fly above the earth across the expanse of the sky." 21 So God created the great creatures of the sea and every living and moving thing with which the water teems, according to their kinds, and every winged bird according to its kind. And God saw that it was good. 22 God blessed them and said, "Be fruitful and increase in number and fill the water in the seas, and let the birds increase on the earth." 23 And there was evening, and there was morning-the fifth day.
24 And God said, "Let the land produce living creatures according to their kinds: livestock, creatures that move along the ground, and wild animals, each according to its kind." And it was so. 25 God made the wild animals according to their kinds, the livestock according to their kinds, and all the creatures that move along the ground according to their kinds. And God saw that it was good.
26 Then God said, "Let us make man in our image, in our likeness, and let them rule over the fish of the sea and the birds of the air, over the livestock, over all the earth, [2] and over all the creatures that move along the ground."

27 So God created man in his own image,
in the image of God he created him;
male and female he created them.

28 God blessed them and said to them, "Be fruitful and increase in number; fill the earth and subdue it. Rule over the fish of the sea and the birds of the air and over every living creature that moves on the ground."
29 Then God said, "I give you every seed-bearing plant on the face of the whole earth and every tree that has fruit with seed in it. They will be yours for food. 30 And to all the beasts of the earth and all the birds of the air and all the creatures that move on the ground-everything that has the breath of life in it-I give every green plant for food." And it was so.
31 God saw all that he had made, and it was very good. And there was evening, and there was morning-the sixth day.

The word “Genesis” means “beginnings” and that’s what we’re just breaking into here in chapter 1. The foundational origins topic is loaded with critics and experts on all sides, and that makes it hard to teach on, but the fact that we come to these chapters with presuppositions – often times unknown to us, formed and held almost subconsciously – makes it all the more difficult to teach.

We considered the beginning, and what came before, as we studied Genesis 1:1-2 – “In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. 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.” The gap theory is this idea that God created “the heavens and the earth,” as in Genesis 1:1, and then there was a huge gap of time and all kinds of events, including the fall of Satan, the destruction of the universe as God had made it in v1, and even a cataclysmic flood, called the flood of Lucifer. Then beginning with v2 of Genesis 1, God kind of redoes the creation on top of what happened in v1. This is a highly speculative position, considered helpful to solve the appearance of age problem, especially the fossil record, all while maintaining Biblical inerrancy. It has many offshoots as well. But it is not the traditional or prominent view of the creation account, so we’ll say no more about the gap theory and move on to the specifics of the creation week.

What do you notice reading through the passage? Because of repetition, many theologians have concluded that this passage is sort of a poem, a “literary framework,” that doesn’t describe the historical chronology of what happened in the beginning, but rather glorifies God in an orderly way for His general creation. We can summarize this week with the following chart, showing how God forms and fills:

  1. Day 1 - LIGHT - corresponds to Day 4 - SUN, MOON, & STARS
  2. Day 2 - WATER BELOW & WATER ABOVE (SKY) corresponds to Day 5 - WATER ANIMALS (FISH & MORE?) & FLYING ANIMALS (BIRDS & MORE?)
  3. Day 3 - DRY LAND & PLANTS corresponds to Day 6 - LAND ANIMALS & PEOPLE

It gets much more complex than this. Days 1 (separating light from darkness) and 4 (setting lights to govern day and night) offer single creative acts; days 2 (made the expanse and separated the waters on either side of it) and 5 (made fish and birds and told them to be fruitful) show creative acts with 2 aspects; days 3 (made dry land and made plants) and 6 (made animals and made man) reveal two separate creative acts. As the complexity increases, the parallelism is more noticeable. The design for the sake of dominion (or rule) is obvious as well. Sun and moon over day and night / birds and fish over sky and sea / animals over land and vegetation / man over all animals and land…

Proponents of this framework hypothesis, such as Rob Bell of the Nooma videos, who pastored Mars Hill Bible Church in Michigan until 2012, suggest that this opening to Scripture is meant to paint a semi-poetic, symmetrical, and orderly picture of the Creator King giving various domains to His creation. R.C. Sproul, who later in his life abandoned this view to accept the traditional, straightforward, young-earth view, says, “For most of my teaching career, I considered the framework hypothesis to be a possibility. But [it arose out of an effort to avoid the old earth view that infiltrated theology with the rise of Darwinism, and] I have now changed my mind. I now hold to a literal six-day creation, the fourth alternative (old earth / gap theory / framework / young earth) and the traditional one. Genesis says that God created the universe and everything in it in six twenty-four–hour periods. According to the Reformation hermeneutic, which is the method of interpretation Calvin and Luther and the like used in refuting much of the tradition of Catholic Church, the first option is to follow the plain sense of the text. One must do a great deal of hermeneutical gymnastics to escape the plain meaning of Genesis 1–2.”

The Answers in Genesis website writes, “Most church fathers accepted the days of creation as ordinary days. It is true that some of the early church fathers did not teach the days of creation as ordinary days – but many of them had been influenced by Greek philosophy, which caused them to interpret the days as allegorical. They reasoned that the creation days were related to God’s activities, and God being timeless meant that the days could not be related to human time. In contrast to today’s allegorizers, they could not accept that God took as long as six days. Thus, the non-literal days resulted from extrabiblical influences, influences from outside the Bible, not from the words of the Bible.”

Dr. James Barr (Professor of Hebrew at Oxford University), who himself does not believe Genesis is true history, nonetheless admitted, as far as the language of Genesis 1 is concerned, “There is no professor of Hebrew or Old Testament at any world-class university who does not believe that the writer(s) of Genesis 1–11 intended to convey to their readers the ideas that (a) creation took place in a series of six days which were the same as the days of 24 hours we now experience; (b) the figures contained in the Genesis genealogies provided, by simple addition, a chronology from the beginning of the world up to later stages in the biblical story; (c) Noah’s Flood was understood to be worldwide and extinguish all human and animal life except for those in the ark.” In like manner, nineteenth century liberal Professor Marcus Dods, New College, Edinburgh, said, “If, for example, the word ‘day’ in these chapters does not mean a period of twenty-four hours, the interpretation of Scripture is hopeless.”

Likewise, Douglas Kelly, a professor at Reformed Theological Seminary in Charlotte, another recent convert to Biblical creation, has noted: “It is naive to suppose that such a far-reaching hermeneutical dualism could be stopped at the end of the second chapter of Genesis, and would not be employed in other texts that run contrary to naturalistic assumptions.” Finally, John Klotz addressed this point in Genes, Genesis, and Evolution: “It is hardly conceivable that anyone would question the interpretation of these as ordinary days were it not for the fact that people are attempting to reconcile Genesis and evolution.”

I’ve given a wide sampling of quotes on this, from liberals to conservatives, from theists to atheists, from theologians who are excited about the truth that a plain reading of Genesis 1 is the right reading to scholars who despise the fact that the text says what it says and means what it means. These quotes aren’t meant to be exhaustive. You could do some research and find a similar list favoring other views. But they all deal with something in common – the interpretation of the text. That’s a science called…

…Hermeneutics, or the study of principles of interpretation. … This is where the battle over Genesis is decided. And there are many factors in play here, but most scholars agree that the most prominent hermeneutic for explaining the Bible is the historical / grammatical principle. In other words, the author meant what he said to his audience in their cultural context, unless it is obvious that he was writing in some non-historical literary genre, such as poetry. If we get hermeneutics wrong, we can show the Bible to say anything we want it to say. It’s the difference between exegesis (letting the text speak) and eisegesis (reading into the text).

So without further study, having only read Genesis 1 and heard a few quotes, what do you think Moses meant? Here are some hermeneutical tidbits from Genesis 1:

  1. • Outside Genesis 1, yom [Hebrew “day”] is used with a number 359 times, and each time it means an ordinary day. Why would Genesis 1 be the exception?
  2. • In Genesis 1:5, yom occurs in context with the word “night.” Outside of Genesis 1, “night” is used with yom 53 times, and each time it means an ordinary day. Why would Genesis 1 be the exception?
  3. • There is a principle of Hebrew interpretation called the “waw consecutive.” When yom is followed by waw (55 times), which reads “day, then,” it is speaking of a historically consecutive day.
  4. • The plural of yom, which does not appear in Genesis 1, can be used to communicate a longer time period, such as “in those days.” Adding a number here would be nonsensical. Clearly, in Exodus 20:11, where a number is used with “days,” it unambiguously refers to six earth-rotation days.
  5. • There are words in biblical Hebrew (such as olam or qedem) that are very suitable for communicating long periods of time, or indefinite time, but none of these words are used in Genesis 1.
  6. • Outside Genesis 1, yom is used with the word “evening” or “morning” 23 times. “Evening” and “morning” appear in association, but without yom, 38 times. Each of those refers to an ordinary day. Again why would Genesis 1 be the exception?

Doesn’t it seem like God is going out of His way to say it that much more clearly for us? Are we really so afraid to be out of touch with the scientific community to hold to this position? Obviously, I favor the Biblical hermeneutic, or principle of interpretation, that leaves us with a young earth. And I think when we look at each day individually, you will see why even more clearly.

DAY 1

We call what God created the universe, which means “single, spoken sentence,” and “God said, HAYAH OWR” LIGHT! There is actually a new scientific effort in the field of sonoluminescence, which reveals how sound brings light, much as music / emotion (www.scienceprovescreation.com).

  1. - Light source for day 1-3? God’s Word / Jesus Christ / The Holy Spirit’s vibration
    1. o argument against this view is measuring a day, but the sun has little to do with the measurement of the earth’s rotation
    2. o there will be no sun in heaven, but we don’t expect darkness…
  2. - Darkness from v2 = no value (it’s origin is v1, but until formed, it’s worthless)
  3. - Light = life and value (immediate distinction between light and darkness)
  4. - Good = according to purpose (benevolence / glory); exactly as intended (wisdom)
  5. - Naming things, such as day and night, is a claim to sovereignty
  6. - Evening / morning (Hebrew order of day / ours is morning then evening)

DAY 2

  1. - ATMOSPHERE / SKY
  2. - “water above it” – water canopy? Proponents of a worldwide flood presume impossibility in estimating much of anything about the pre-flood world (climate, geography, etc…)
    1. o a greenhouse effect, allowing large sizes and long lives

DAY 3

  1. - Seas and Dry land
  2. - Vegetation (grass) = plants (seeds) and trees (fruits with seeds)
  3. - some have difficulty with plants pre-sun, but it’s only for one day, and keep in mind that we won’t have the sun in heaven, but trees of life will be there, so it’s not that plants need the sun, but that they need God.
  4. - Furthermore, this is God’s DECREE, and we’ll see in chapter 2, that immediate, mature plants did not pop up everywhere (ch.2) = And it was so (v11).
  5. - “according to their various kinds” – (Kingdom, Phylum, Class, Order, Family, Genus, Species)
  6. - BARA-MIN-OLOGY (Study of the created kind) ~ FAMILY

DAY 4

  1. - Sun and moon (pagan deities) go unnamed as a means of demoting them to mere servants of man, not gods of man
    1. o They “serve as signs to mark seasons and days and years” (man needs them)
    2. o They “give light on the earth,” which obviously will be necessary for life
    3. o Did the earth come before the sun and stars? Yes, according to Scripture.
    4. o Stars mentioned almost in passing, as in an aside (no big deal) – Planetarium!

DAY 5

  1. - Living creatures = nephesh (not applicable for plant life)
    1. o Body (plants) vs Body & Soul (animals) vs Body & Soul & Spirit (humanity)
      1. - Soul = mind, emotion, will
      2. - Spirit = image of God (spiritual life / dominion)
  2. - Water creatures (presumably fish & mammals, maybe some amphibians & reptiles)
  3. - Winged / Flying creatures (presumably birds, winged reptiles, and winged mammals)
    1. o Birds coming before land animals doesn’t fit with old earth evolution views
  4. - “The great creatures” (whales) = tanniyn – dragon, serpent, dinosaur, sea monster
  5. - “According to their kinds” – SO IMPORTANT!!! – doesn’t fit with evolution
  6. - “God blessed them” – God cares for animals, and we should too! (v30)

DAY 6

  1. - “Let the land produce living creatures… God made” = “Asah” (formed out of pre-existent material; in this case, and with man’s, God forms from dirt.)
  2. - LAND ANIMALS (insects?) “According to their kinds”
    1. o No cats produce non-cats (all cat-kinds are in the feline family)
    2. o Distinction between “livestock” / “wild animals” – domesticated vs untamed?
  3. - God said, “Let us make man…” = Trinity and majesty / asah / ADAM
  4. - “in our image, in our likeness” = SPIRIT
    1. o Dominion = stewardship (Man shows dominion by naming the animals (ch2)
    2. o Spiritual Life = everlasting fellowship / relationship / unity with God
      1. - V27 – poem within historical account; using bara, not asah, to show God’s wisdom, it previews chapter 2’s account of male / female (reflects God’s decree)
      2. - V28 – God blessed them (see genealogies)
      3. - V29 – ancient pagan myths were that man was created to feed the gods, but here, God feeds man and provides all he needs (vegetarian diet / no animal death!)
      4. - V30 – “The breath of life” does not include plants; vegetarian diet for animals too
      5. - VERY GOOD – exceedingly according to purpose (exactly as intended, wisdom)

DAY 7

  1. - This should have been included in chapter 1 (v4 of chapter 2 is the beginning of a new section)
  2. - “all their vast array” = nothing left out (wisdom) = completed / finished
  3. - STOP / CEASE / QUIT / REST (Sabbath = “Rest” Day = sanctified / HOLY)
  4. - No “evening” and “morning” – some use this fact to tie this passage to Hebrews 4, regarding God’s continuing Sabbath rest; but it’s a bad argument.
    1. o PAST TENSE W/ COMPLETION
    2. o God’s week of special creation (wisdom) came to an end (v1), and He rested.
    3. o Since that time, God has sustained all things according to the laws He put in place during this 6-day creation decree.
  5. - “Work of creating that He had done” = bara and asah together
  6. - Why did God take 7 days?
    1. o We measure a day by earth’s rotation (24+ hours)
    2. o We measure a month by the moon’s phases, and its revolution around the earth (as 30 days, though really less)
    3. o We measure a year by the earth’s revolution around the sun (365.25 days)
    4. o But why do we measure a week as 7 days? One secular philosopher said, “The day, the month, and the year are natural measures of time; the week is an arbitrary measure.” That’s not what God’s word says.
    5. o Maybe you’re not sure about this; maybe you can’t see how it matters. We’ll cover that as we go along. But I hope you can see that the only reason we have weeks is because God’s word from Genesis 1 is true. God established the week as a reminder of His work of creation. And we do everything we can to escape it.

That’s the historical prologue, the creation decree of God. And we see in these verses the amazing power of God’s Word, as He literally speaks all things into existence. Whatever God’s word says will come to pass. This should encourage us (Isaiah 55:11) and cause us to stand in awe of Him (Psalm 33:9-10; 2 Corinthians 4:4-6). Hebrews 1-4 revels in the work of God in creation, and Hebrews 11:3 reminds us that His work was ex nihilo, creating out of nothing (bara instead of asah). We also see in this chapter the clear authority of God’s rule. He sets boundaries and obedience is automatically guaranteed. The sun doesn’t rule the night; the waves don’t exceed their limits. The supreme wisdom of God is evident in His creation according to kind. We should gladly submit to God’s generously benevolent reign. And of course, we see the goodness of God’s creation. It’s no surprise that we read, “It was good,” seven times. Creation was completely good, and in v31, we see that it was very good. That comes with the slow down of the narrative to draw attention to the final work of creating humanity. Humans, of course, are created in the image of God as male and female to represent His presence and reflect His glory in the world. Because of humanity’s failure to do this, the whole of creation is groaning. As we know, sin has caused the creation to crumble, and that’s why we need a new creation that comes with Jesus. He is the perfect representation of God, and He displays the glory of God like none other.

What does it mean to be made in God’s image, to reflect His glory? How are we like God? That is seen in who we are and in what we do. We have capacities that correspond to actions, and there’s a direction and dignity for every person. We reason through interpretation rather than instinct. We understand the concept of morality and good versus evil, right and wrong. We are creative in terms of practical productivity and also in appreciating aesthetic beauty. We engage in relationships through complex language, and we have a purpose in relating to God and exercising dominion. Our role to fill the earth and subdue it. Now Genesis 2 doesn’t ease up, and if anything, it gives us more to chew on regarding God’s good creation. We’ll look at that next.

Footnotes

  1. 1:2 Or possibly became
  2. 1:26 Hebrew; Syriac all the wild animals

Bible text from Gospelcom.net.  Copyright 1973, 1978, 1984 by International Bible Society.

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