01 - You've Got Mail 2010

“In the Beginning…God”

Genesis is a book of beginnings—the origin of the world, human history, families, sin, and the plan of redemption—all begin in Genesis.

Genesis begins with the vastness of the universe and ends with the intimacy of family relations.

The book’s first eleven chapters contain four epochal events in the primeval history of the world—the creation, the fall of man into sin, the universal flood of Noah, and the ill-advised tower of Babel.

Chapter 12-50 cover the lives of four patriarchs called by God to be the ancestors of His special people: Abraham, Isaac, Jacob and Joseph.

POWER POINT: Genesis boldly and unapologetically declares that God created and is involved in every detail of human existence.

The author of Genesis was Moses who was used of God to pen not only Genesis but the first five books of the Bible known as the Pentateuch.

Jesus clearly accepted the Mosaic authorship of the Pentateuch. He called the first five books “the law of Moses” (Luke 24:44).

The Pentateuch was originally intended to be read as one complete book by a specific target audience. That target audience was the generation of Israelites who were ready to enter the Promised Land under Joshua’s leadership.

God’s people had never been confronted with such an awesome challenge. Though the Promised Land had been deeded to them by God through Abraham, they still would soon face giants, dangers, and troubling unknowns.

So under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, Moses answers questions like “Who is God? Who am I? Where did I come from? Where am I going? What promises can I stand on? Where can I find ultimate meaning in life?”

Moses sought to prepare his people by providing for them a history and a future—both roots and shoots. The first portion of Genesis provided them with an understanding of roots—I was created by God both to have dominion over the earth, and to fellowship with Him.

The second portion of Genesis biographically tracks the lives of the four great patriarchs and provides an understanding of shoots—God’s calling of Abraham and His redemptive purpose for his descendants, namely, the appearance of Messiah to redeem the world.

Without question, Genesis gives every indication that Moses intended to write history and that he meant for his book to be read realistically.

In the Beginning

IMPORTANT NOTE: The opening two chapters of Genesis actually include two complementary stories of creation.

The first, Gen 1:1-2:3, is a systematic account of the creation of the world. The second, Gen.2:4-25, focuses on the creation of people and their responsibilities in the Garden of Eden.

Genesis 1:1 “In the beginning God (prepared, formed, fashioned, and) created the heavens and the earth.”

The Bible begins with God. It does not explain God’s existence, nor does it start with God then set Him aside. Rather, the Bible opens up unapologetically and deliberately with the amazing statement, “In the beginning God created…”

The first word used for God in the whole Bible is Elohim (El-o-heem’) meaning “Supremely powerful, omnipotent, and sovereign mighty God; It is always used to refer to God Almighty, the Creator.”

It is in the plural form which points to the existence of the Trinity. Just before the creation of man, Genesis quotes God as saying, “"Let us make man in our image, in our likeness…”—1:26 (Italics mine)

This clearly signifies the existence of the Godhead—God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit.

Elohim created the heavens (sky) and earth (land). Everything above includes endless space filled with universes, galaxies, planets and stars.

POWER POINT: The word “create” means to shape or to form.

Original Hebrew word for create: bara' (baw-raw’) signifies that God did not create the universe from existing material like we might take Play-Doh and shape it into something. He created something out of nothing. Creatio Ex Nihilo—creation from nothing.

This opening phrase marks the beginning of time and closes with the vastness of the universe.

1:2 “The earth was formless and empty, and darkness covered the deep waters. And the Spirit of God was hovering over the surface of the waters.”

The earth as described by Moses in verse 2 was characterized in three ways. It was:

“without form and void,”

“darkness was upon the face of the deep,” and

“the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters.”

This suggests the earth was in a pristine state, not yet ready for human

habitation. What God is about to do is prepare earth for that very thing.

The Hebrew words translated “without form and void” elsewhere describes an “empty” land or “wasteland” (Isa.34:11; Jer. 4:23)—a land uninhabitable, like the wilderness through which Moses led the Israelites.

“He found them in a desert land, in an empty, howling wasteland. He surrounded them and watched over them; he guarded them as he would guard his own eyes.” (Deut. 32:10)

Moses evidently chose to describe the pristine earth as a desert to help wandering Israel understand that just as God had prepared the entire earth for human habitation, so He was also leading them out of a desert and into a specially prepared homeland.

The phrase “the face of the deep” and “the face of the waters” similarly describe a world unsuitable for human habitation. But rather than expressing the meaning of too little water as in a desert, this condition is one of too much water.

And finally in verse 2, we are introduced to an aspect of God’s character that becomes more fully developed as the Bible unfolds. Moses notes that the “Spirit of God” hovered over the face of the waters.

The Holy Spirit of God hovered over and protected the yet-to-be finished earth. Just before the creative act, the Spirit of God was present.

Amazingly this completes the picture of the entire Godhead’s involvement in creation. We know that God the Father (Elohim) was there. But John also makes it clear that Christ Jesus was involved.

“In the beginning the Word already existed. The Word was with God, and the Word was God. 2 He existed in the beginning with God. 3 God created everything through him, and nothing was created except through him.”—John 1:1-3

God the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit were all active and flowing in perfect unity at the creation of the cosmos.

Francis Schaeffer wrote, “The universe had a personal beginning—a personal beginning on the high order of the Trinity” (Genesis in Space and Time).

Summary:

God made everything out of nothing.

The first stage of creation was a world not yet suitable for human life.

The Six Creative Days (1:3-31)

The six creative days of creation are described from a terrestrial viewpoint, as if someone were standing on the earth watching God at work. Under the Holy Spirit’s direction (2 Peter 1:21), Moses involved his audience as literary spectators of God’s amazing creative activity.

Each day’s activity begins with “God said, ‘Let there be…’” And each day ends with “And it was so…God saw that it was good.”

This reveals the orderliness and care with which God created. Each phrase reveals something about God and His plan for the world.

First we see that God created effortlessly, with a word. Each element of creation was an expression of Himself. In fact, His creation is an undeniable proof of His existence. Paul wrote:

”For since the creation of the world God's invisible qualities—his eternal power and divine nature—have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that men are without excuse.”—Romans 1:20

The creation is also a reflection of the goodness of God. Following each creative act, God declared that it was “good.”

James tells us that, “Every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of the heavenly lights, who does not change like shifting shadows.”—1:17

God’s declaration that “it was good” is also evidence that everything necessary for proper human life was in place. Only after the creation of man did God say it was “very good” (1:31).

In the first three days, God also named what He created. We are told that God “called” the light "day," and the darkness he called "night." And “God called the expanse "sky." And “God called the dry ground "land," and the gathered waters he called "seas."

Granting someone or something a name in ancient times implied ownership and hence control. By naming things such as light, darkness, sky, water, and dry land, God was declaring His ownership over the forces of nature.

This is why we so often find in scripture that God changes the name of a person to whom He had revealed Himself and subsequently called. Saul became Paul, Jacob became Israel, Peter became “the rock,” and so forth. In other words, now you belong to Me!

The account of each creative day ends with the phrase, “And there was evening and there was morning, ____ day.” Moses clearly intended for his readers to understand creation in terms of the days of a week.

For the Jews the twenty-four-hour period called “day” begins in the evening, at sundown. They understood Moses’ words to mean that God created His universe in twenty-four hour segments.

The six creative days are grouped as follows:

Day 1—light

Day 2—waters beneath, waters above (sky)

Day 3—dry land, seas and plants

Day 4—sun, moon, and stars

Day 5—fish, birds

Day 6—animals, people

Interestingly, during the first three days, God made the arenas into which the actors of days four through six were placed. The galaxies needed the vast expanse of sky (the heavens), the birds, animals and fish needed the land and sea in which to dwell.

Each day built on the previous one, providing what was necessary to sustain life created on the days that followed.

On day one, God created LIGHT.

“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.”--vs. 3, 4

Interestingly, God doesn’t create the sun until day four. So where does the light come from? Scientifically, this cannot be explained as there was no natural source from which the light shone. But spiritually this is not difficult at all. We are told repeatedly in scripture that God is light.

”This is the message we have heard from him and declare to you: God is light; in him there is no darkness at all.”—1 John 1:5

Paul said that God “...alone is immortal and who lives in unapproachable light, whom no one has seen or can see. To him be honor and might forever. Amen.”—1 Tim. 6:16

And the Apostle John in the Book of Revelations describes heaven as, “The city does not need the sun or the moon to shine on it, for the glory of God gives it light, and the Lamb is its lamp.”—Rev. 21:23

As the earth began with God Himself providing the light needed to dispel darkness, so earth will end with a heaven in which God is once again the light that shines.