Genesis
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So pastor started a series on Wednesday night but I don’t know were that book is and I would rather let him teach that the way he wants to. So I am going to do a little bit teaching Genesis. I have been wanting to do this as I took my family through the book to understand it a bit better and maybe just maybe get a little more appreciation and love for the book and for the bible in general because there is a lot we just read in the bible and when you read the bible you can’t just read the bible you have to read the bible. And maybe this will lead right into a small group or something. Who knows. Let’’s pray and get started. So here is how it will work. Someone will have to read. I will tell you when to stop. Then we get the next person to read. So who wants to start?
Ok so let us first establish who wrote the book of Genesis. Moses wrote Genesis. In fact he wrote the first 5 books of the bible called the Pentateuch. They were given to him after the exodus from Egypt as they were walking around in the desert. If you remember while in Egypt the israelites were exposed and even forced to learn about and even worship other gods. They were polytheistic. The egyptians had sun gods and moon goods they gods of water etc. What they really did was worship nature or worship the creation. So what God through moses is going to attempt to do is remove that influence and get his people back to belief in only one God. This first verse seems so simple or childish but it really isnt. It isn’t shallow at all.
Think about the toughest questions of life. Who am I? Where did I come from? and Why am I here? Moses answers these in Genesis and it starts with the very first line.
1 In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.
Stop. Ok this verse right here. It will preach all by itself. In fact just the first 4 words. There were no light to be seen. No stars in the sky. No moon. God was still god. Before the earth took its first spin or its very first revolution. God was still God. Before the sun of the morning Angels sang he is God. They didn’t make him God he was always God. All three Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Were God. Until you understand that. You will stumble over everything else. In the beginning God.
God just is. He does not justification or explanation. He just is. When moses aked who shall i tell them. I am. He just is. I am not trying to be fixing to be wanting to be I am. In the beginning God.
Sitting all by himself standing on nothing God. In the beginning God. This is given to us to explain God’s plan to salvation. It is not giving to authenticate God as though he would have a competitor. Until we believe that we are locked out of the very conversation. If you find yourself locked out waiting on God to prove himself to you, who are you? Just like he said to Job. Where were you when I put the stars in the sky. Can you control leviathan? Can you fight behemoth. I don’t have to explain to you.
In the beginning God. He Created. He had no materials. He had no recipe. He stepped out on to nothing and it became something because He is God. He just created. He is a creator. He is able to be creative because he is the creator. He created time, space and matter all at the same time. He had to create all three because he in the beginning he created matter and had to have place to put it.
So here is the very first thing Moses wants you to know. God Created it all. God is established in the very first line. That is where it all starts. With Him. Moses doesn’t beat around the bush at all. So that is verse 1. This is how this is about to go. Lol stay with me. Who has next read?
2 The earth was without form, and void; and darkness was on the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God was hovering over the face of the waters.
3 Then God said, “Let there be light”; and there was light.
4 And God saw the light, that it was good; and God divided the light from the darkness.
5 God called the light Day, and the darkness He called Night. So the evening and the morning were the first day.
Stop! Now here is where I am going to lose some of yall but I pray that you stay with me because in the grand scheme of scripture this is not a hill to die on. It is not a salvation issue. Please have your opinions. Believe they are right. Do your study to prove them. But WE DON’T KNOW how old the earth is. We do not know the length of the gap between Genesis 1:1 and Genesis 1:2. I will not argue with you about it. We can talk about it. I can tell you what I believe to be true but i wasn’t there neither were you. So we are going to discuss the different theories out there and when we all get to heaven, God can tell us.
But before we get there, I want again to attempt to take the bible a little bit deeper into your spirit. Ok? Is it ok if I get a little bit preachy in some of this teachy?
What he is saying in verse two when we read that the earth was without form and void and darkness covered the deep that it was chaotic. There was confusion. God took nothing and created everything but then he had to put some order to it. God operates in Chaos. He does not need everything to be nice and neat and put together for him to work. God is operating in the midst of chaos. God is creative in chaos. In truth, God created the chaos so that he could orchestrate the creation. No body else likes to work in chaos. No chef wants to work in a messy kitchen. No builder wants unreadable plans. But God gets down in the muddy chaotic mess where mud and water were mixes together and indistinguishable. The earth was without form and void meaning empty and darkness was there and he says let there be light. Some of yall need to hear that because you have had a year of complete udder chaos and God is not scared of that. Mess does not bother him. Darkness does not bother him and he is big enough to fill any emptiness. He looks best in a mess. Your weakness is his strength. He steps right into chaos and doesn’t need anything in the chaos to make it straight. He moves in the midst of wavering children. He moves in the midst of cancer. He moves in the midst of doubt. He moves in the midst of chaotic governments. He steps in and sits down and says watch me work.
The first thing he does is says let there be light. He says because i am light i need there to be light for me to work. So the darkness flees. Because he spoke and the light shown. He set boundaries. Darkness you can only go this far. Darkness you can be there but you are only going to be where i tell you. The boundary to the darkness is light. God in which darkness covered said no more shall you cover but you will be governed. So he starts just separating things. Putting things in there place. Right in the middle of your mess he says you go over there. You go over there. You stay right here. You belong over there.
Ok so let’s get back to the theories.
Because I am going to have to make it through this chapter lol
So they are. Again not salvation issue. You believe young earth fine. We will find out in heaven. You believe old earth. Fine we find out in heaven. Fun to discuss but you cannot make a salvation issue out of it and if you get to that point in which you are, it has become an idol to you.
How long creation took there are 6 theories but I am only going to talk about 3. Kind of the 3 main ones that have taken hold and most people believe.
6 literal 24 hrs days. God only took 144 hrs. Could God do that. Absolutely. Is that what he did. I don’t know. I think so. That is where I fall, but up to this point, we haven’t had a day and night cycle because the sun and moon haven’t been created. All we have is night and day.
Punctuated Activity View meaning that it was still 6 days 24 hrs but it wasn’t 6 days in a row. There could have been years in between the days. So this would be to those who lean toward old earth.
Gap view. God created angels before human beings. There is a gap between verse 1 and 2. We don’t know the gap. The rebellion of lucifer had happened in between 1 and 2. So when verse 3 happens it is a reawakening of the earth after the rebellion.
Day age view. Means that the days do not stand for 24 hrs. It is geological ages. So we don’t know how long the days were.
Framework view: creation is story is figurative in that the day we just can’t really know what the time frame is. “the other day”
Analogical view. God works in his own time and we don’t really know what that is but they get really fired up about the psalmist and 2 peter tells us one day is like a thousand years.
Just remember the whole point of this is to deprogram the Israelite children. Just like the plagues. Every single one of the plagues represented a god that the Egyptians worshipped. So that God was saying your gods cannot stop me.
Now verse 3 what is the light. We said there is not sun and moon so what light and darkness is he separating there. What do yall think?
For me what about the concept of light being his glory and darkness being the evil from the fallen angels? The darkness of this place will have my glory to shine upon it and it shall be redeemed. When we go to new heaven and new earth there will be no sun or moon. There will never be night. SO what is the light?
Ok who is next?
6 Then God said, “Let there be a firmament in the midst of the waters, and let it divide the waters from the waters.”
7 Thus God made the firmament, and divided the waters which were under the firmament from the waters which were above the firmament; and it was so.
8 And God called the firmament Heaven. So the evening and the morning were the second day.
So here he goes again separating things that had become inseparable. All mixed up jumbled together and yet he says enough is enough. He calls the firmament heaven meaning the sky. So there was water up here and there was water down here. Next
9 Then God said, “Let the waters under the heavens be gathered together into one place, and let the dry land appear”; and it was so.
10 And God called the dry land Earth, and the gathering together of the waters He called Seas. And God saw that it was good.
11 Then God said, “Let the earth bring forth grass, the herb that yields seed, and the fruit tree that yields fruit according to its kind, whose seed is in itself, on the earth”; and it was so.
12 And the earth brought forth grass, the herb that yields seed according to its kind, and the tree that yields fruit, whose seed is in itself according to its kind. And God saw that it was good.
13 So the evening and the morning were the third day.
Ok so then he tells the waters on the earth here is your place. And separates land from water. We do not have to worry about land erosion becuase God controls the borders. He set it up.
Then he says grass and seed and fruit and it all produced after its kind. DO YOU HEAR THAT? After its kind. An apple seed is not going to produce a banana tree. Ok. Next
14 Then God said, “Let there be lights in the firmament of the heavens to divide the day from the night; and let them be for signs and seasons, and for days and years;
15 and let them be for lights in the firmament of the heavens to give light on the earth”; and it was so.
16 Then God made two great lights: the greater light to rule the day, and the lesser light to rule the night. He made the stars also.
17 God set them in the firmament of the heavens to give light on the earth,
18 and to rule over the day and over the night, and to divide the light from the darkness. And God saw that it was good.
19 So the evening and the morning were the fourth day.
NOW we have sun and moon and stars. This is not the creation of light. This is the creation of what we use to give us signs. You wanna know what is going on in the world and on the earth and how things are looking. Look where? What is one thing that is going to happen in the end. Stars gonna fall from the sky and moon and sun turn to blood. What happened at the cross. Sun darkened. Glory left. What happened when Jesus was born. Star in the sky. So you see even right now in Genesis one we are pointing to Jesus. These will be used for signs.
Now again what he is doing, is putting the sun and moon and stars in their proper place. creation not creator.
20 Then God said, “Let the waters abound with an abundance of living creatures, and let birds fly above the earth across the face of the firmament of the heavens.”
21 So God created great sea creatures and every living thing that moves, with which the waters abounded, according to their kind, and every winged bird according to its kind. And God saw that it was good.
22 And God blessed them, saying, “Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the waters in the seas, and let birds multiply on the earth.”
23 So the evening and the morning were the fifth day.
24 Then God said, “Let the earth bring forth the living creature according to its kind: cattle and creeping thing and beast of the earth, each according to its kind”; and it was so.
25 And God made the beast of the earth according to its kind, cattle according to its kind, and everything that creeps on the earth according to its kind. And God saw that it was good.
26 Then God said, “Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness; let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the air, and over the cattle, over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.”
27 So God created man in His own image; in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them.
28 Then God blessed them, and God said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply; fill the earth and subdue it; have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the air, and over every living thing that moves on the earth.”
29 And God said, “See, I have given you every herb that yields seed which is on the face of all the earth, and every tree whose fruit yields seed; to you it shall be for food.
30 Also, to every beast of the earth, to every bird of the air, and to everything that creeps on the earth, in which there is life, I have given every green herb for food”; and it was so.
31 Then God saw everything that He had made, and indeed it was very good. So the evening and the morning were the sixth day.