Genesis: Creation Week, Part One

 Sermon: FCC Afton March 12, 2023 Genesis: The Creation Week, Part 1 Scripture: Genesis 1:3-19 We continue this morning in our survey of the Book of Genesis, seeking to identify what the Bible says about our beginnings and to securely understand the roots of what we believe as Followers of Christ. Creation is not a side issue, it is not something we can shrug off and ignore; our understanding of Creation reveals how we view and understand everything else within Scripture. Because we are each called to be a minister of the varied grace of God and are commissioned to communicate our faith to others, we must be equipped with a foundational knowledge of the truth of who our God is, what He has done, and how what He has done shows us how much He loves us and His purpose for our lives. Here is the truth: if we cannot trust what God has to say about the beginnings of man and the universe, then how can we trust anything He says about His plans for humanity or His desire for us to come to salvation and right relationship with Him? Creation is not something we can gloss over- we must have a good understanding of what God did to be able to understand who He is and what He continues doing now. We ended last week halfway through Day One of creation- I think I may have said noon last week, but that is inaccurate because, at this point, neither the sun nor the day/ night cycle has been created. But halfway through Day One, we were left with this picture of God's love on our behalf- of God hovering over the surface of the water sphere that He had created in the midst of the dark, empty universe. Remember, at this point in creation, the only things created are the dimensional bounds of time and space- "in the beginning;" the heavens- the empty space of the universe; no stars or other planets have been formed, no chaos, no black holes or exploding stars, because everything is still perfect; and the earth- still empty and formless, simply a ball of water, with no land formations and no atmosphere. And we find God there, hovering over the water, examining His work at that point, possibly reviewing whether any alterations needed to be made, preparing to lay the foundations of the world, and all the while considering you and me, formulating whom He would create you and me to be. We examined how David asked the question in Psalm 8: "What is man compared to the beauty of God's creation?" and we know the answer: we are those for whom God created all of this- God went through the creation process on our behalf, to give us a home to live in and to show us how much He loves us and desires us to love Him in return. The whole point of creation was to create someone to love, who would love Him in return. Everything up to that point, halfway through Day One, and everything about what we are going to discuss today and over the next several weeks, was done to leave no doubt about His love for us, His intentional plan to show us His love. Consider: if creation had simply been about God's desire for worship, He could have done things in any number of ways- He could have even created the rocks to cry out His worship, and not worried about creating man with all the potential for sin, chaos, and heartbreak. He could have created man and said, 'You'll be fine on a barren sphere of water with nothing beautiful around you; all you need to worry about is worshipping Me,' and then just left us there floundering in the dark with nothing but water below us and space above us. But I doubt any of us would have readily loved Him had He simply dropped us into the dark expanse of space into a sphere of water with no atmosphere; creation wasn't ready for His masterpiece, for His beloved creation, so God got to work. Pray here. In preparing for this sermon this week, I stumbled across one commentary that stated that "creation began when God imposed order on chaos." I take issue with this statement. It presents God as having authority over the chaos of the universe, but it makes a very similar supposition as evolutionists make: that somehow there was chaos that existed before God began the creation story. Chaos did come about until sin entered the world; before the chaos caused by sin, everything about creation was good- before creation, nothing but God existed- no universe existed for there to be chaotic particles floating around and banging into each other. God is eternal, but this dimension, this universe, and the planet are not eternal. But where I will concur with this statement is this: God imposed His order on the potential chaos of darkness by calling light into existence. Day One: "Then God said, 'Let there be light,' and there was light. God saw that the light was good, and God separated the light from the darkness. God called the light 'day,' and He called the darkness 'night.' Evening came and then morning: the first day." (Genesis 1:3-5) Day One continues in darkness. Remember, at this point of Day One, the universe was completely dark. In the absence of a light source, darkness was the neutral setting for the universe. But then something happened- God spoke and things changed. The Psalmist described it this way in Psalm 33: "The heavens were made by the Word of the Lord- He spoke, and it came into being; He commanded, and it came into existence." This God of ours spoke and light was created. Science tells us that when God said 'Let there be light,' light came out of the mouth of God traveling 186,000 miles per second (or 5.88 trillion miles/ year)- meaning that light from our star, which 93,000,000 miles away, takes only 8 minutes to cross the expanse of space between us. And yet, the universe was still void of anything we would call a light source- God Himself becomes our light source. We see this reflected in Revelation 21 when the universe, stars, and earth pass away, and the new Heaven and new earth are formed: "The city does not need the sun or the moon to shine on it, because God's glory illuminated it, and its lamp is the Lamb. The nations will walk in its light." Before the stars were formed and after the stars are gone, God is our source of light. When Jesus says in John 8, "I am the light of the world," He was not speaking metaphorically. He literally is the source of light for our universe. He is our light, and He is the source by which light came into being. Even if the sun were to be extinguished tomorrow, we would remain because we are sustained by the light of our Creator-God, which was present before the stars were ever created. God rounds out Day One by separating the light from the darkness and creating the day/ night cycle, still without any of the heavenly bodies that we typically associate with the day/ night cycle. Day Two: "Then God said, 'Let there be an expanse between the waters, separating water from water.' So, God made the expanse and separated the water under the expanse from the water above the expanse. And it was so. God called the expanse 'sky.' Evening came and then morning: the second day." (Genesis 1:6-8) The morning of Day Two rolls around and we find God already at work in preparing the planet for you and me: God undertakes the formation of the planet's atmosphere. This can get confusing since we use the same word in English for many things, but God separates the waters to create the heavens, called the sky, between the waters of the earth and the firmament (the atmosphere); but above the heavens and the firmament is the heavens (the stellar heavens- still empty at this point- or space) and the heavenly realm where God's throneroom is located. So, the earth's atmosphere at this point of creation is water that is above the expanse of the sky. At creation, there was a different atmosphere than we have today. Today, we have an atmosphere made up of layers of gases, mostly nitrogen and oxygen, that are held in place by earth's gravity, but at creation, our atmosphere was a thick layer of water. So, what changed? Creation scientists have examined the creation account, these verses describing this separation of waters, and introduce the Canopy Theory. The Canopy Theory asserts that the earth was surrounded by this thick veil of water from Day Two of creation until the waters came crashing down at the beginning of the Flood. We'll dig deeper into this theory in a few weeks when we get to Genesis 8, but suffice it to say, at creation, the world was surrounded by a thick atmosphere of water that covered the firmament. The canopy of water would have kept everything in a much warmer, more humid state, meaning there would have been no ice caps formed until after the flood, and would have provided much more protection of the earth than our thin atmosphere of gases provides for us today- just more evidence that our God was perfectly preparing this planet for His beloved creation, for us, to have life abundantly and to be able to walk with Him, love Him, and worship Him in perfection. Day Three: "Then God said, 'Let the water under the sky be gathered into one place, and let the dry land appear.' And it was so. God called the dry land 'earth' and He called the gathering of the waters 'the sea.' And God saw that it was good. Then God said, 'Let the earth produce vegetation: seed-bearing plants and fruit trees on the earth bearing fruit with seed in it according to their kinds.' And it was so. The earth produced vegetation: seed-bearing plants and trees bearing fruit with seed in it according to their kind. Evening came and then morning: the third day." (Genesis 1:9-13) Day Three begins with God causing the waters of the earth to be gathered together and for dry land to appear for the first time. Day Three marks the beginning of God's development of a home for His creation to live in. While the Word tells us that dry land appears and that the seas were gathered into one place, that is the extent of what we know. No further details are shared. Many creationists believe that this indicates the concept of Pangea, or that all of the dry lands were massed together in one super-continent, which then became separated at the flood when the waters of the deep burst forth, causing tremendous earthquakes and the beginning of the shifting tectonic plates, and as the surface of the earth was covered in chaotic flood waters. The concept of Pangea before the flood allows for the gathering of all the animals into the ark, much more easily than if the earth had its current continental state. But more than simply dry land being drawn forth from the seas, leaving barren rock and soil, Day Three also marks the beginning of vegetation and the fruits and vegetables that would feed God's creation. This Scripture does, of course, bring us the first definition of what makes a fruit: a seed-bearing plant with seeds in it according to their kind, meaning that tomatoes, cucumbers, and peppers are all fruits, not vegetables. Not only does God craft for us a home, and a perfect place where we could worship and walk with Him, but He also provides for us all the sustenance that His beloved creation would need for life. Day Four: "The God said, 'Let there be lights in the expanse of the sky to separate the day from the night. They will serve as signs for festivals and for days and years. They will be lights in the expanse of the sky to provide light on the earth.' And it was so. God made the great lights- the greater light to have dominion over the day and the lesser light to have dominion over the night- as well as stars. God placed them in the expanse of the sky to provide light on the earth, to dominate the day and the night, and to separate light from the darkness. And God saw that it was good. Evening came and then morning: the fourth day." (Genesis 1:14-19) Day Four sees the introduction of stars and other celestial bodies filling the universe for the first time. Again, there is some confusing language in English, because now we see lights in the expanse of the sky, not referring to within our atmosphere but in the expanse of space that can be seen through the expanse of the sky. We see in this part of the creation process that from the beginning God planned for man to use the stars and planets for signs, to use them to mark calendars, and to use them, not to worship but as tools to worship their creator. God created the greater light, the sun, our star, to now be the main source of light and warmth and to have dominion over the daytime. And God created the lesser lights, the moon and the distant stars, to have dominion over the night. At the end of Day Four, we get this last statement where God tells us that His work during this day of creation, especially in creating the sun to provide a source of light to have dominion over the day and to be the manager of the day/ night cycle, that it is good. Having already created light and having been our source of light, God now provided another source, another of these essential necessities for life on this planet- light, warmth, vitamin D- in order to give us the most perfect world to live on and to walk beside Him in harmony and worship. As we read through this history of Creation, remember to examine it through the lens of God showing His love for us, and seeing God's tendency to provide for us not just the basic necessities that we need but going out of His way to give us everything, and more, that we need. There are so many other ways that God could have handled creation, other ways that would have simply given us the basics for life but not provided for us the lush paradise of perfection that He did provide. Over and over, we get this picture of our good, amazing God looking down us and reminding us that He loves us and created us for a purpose. Not only do we see it in the care in which He designed and crafted this world for us to live on, but He tells us- in Jeremiah 31:3, He says, "I have loved you with an everlasting love. I have drawn you with unfailing kindness." Yet this God, who is so big and powerful that He can speak things into existence, who sustains us simply with His being, and who showed us His love in creation and in every day since, when He calls far too many of us ignore Him; He offers forgiveness and to draw us back into perfect relationship with Him and yet we turn away and snub our nose at Him. Our humongous, star-breathing God desires that you would know His love for you today- He sent His Son 2,000 years ago to die on your behalf so that you could know Him; and He calls today, saying, 'Whom shall I send into this world to tell others about My love?' Will you respond today? Days One through Four of creation are now complete. Next week, we will finish out creation week with the two busiest days. We get to watch while our God forms and shapes humanity for the first time and then while He demonstrates to us the necessity for rest. Closing Prayer: