In the Beginning (Genesis 1-2:3)

Introduction

This morning we’re starting a new series on the book of Genesis, which essentially lays the foundation for the rest of Scripture. This book was written probably around 1440 BC by Moses through inspiration of the Holy Spirit. Most scholars assume that the Holy Spirit worked in Moses to write it after the events of Exodus. And the purpose of its writing is rather simple—it was written to give us a record of the beginnings and I say beginnings (as in plural) because it not only tells us of the start of all things through creation, but it tells us of the start of sin, of the start of God’s promise to save mankind, of the start of God’s covenant with Abraham, and so on and so on.

The purpose of Genesis is to give us a record of how things started and in doing so, it shows us how things were meant to be and the point of all things before showing us how sin had marred all of mankind. It then traces God’s promise to save mankind from sin through the covenants that He makes.

Again, Genesis lays the foundation for the entire Bible and without it, the rest of Scripture doesn’t really make sense.

Now, as we work through Genesis, here’s a very basic outline for you to use.

Genesis 1-11, which is the part of Genesis that we’ll be working on until just before Resurrection Sunday is what we call Primeval History. All the word primeval means is that it is the earliest era or age that we have. In this Primeval Period of the Bible we have:

Creation (Gen 1-2:3)

The Garden and the Fall (2:4-3:24)

The Growth of Evil in the World and The Flood (4-8:14)

Rebuilding of the World (8:15-10:32)

Tower of Babel (11)

Genesis 12-50 then follows a man by the name of Abram, whom God makes a covenant with; and his family, whom God renews his covenant with multiple times. We can break that down a little more, but we’ll wait until we get there to do so.

This morning, we’re focused on Genesis 1-2:3, which records the historical account of creation. We’ve already read the passage during our Scripture Reading, so let me just explain how we’ll break down that passage before jumping in. As we study this passage, we’re going to break it into three parts: (1) The Creation of Celestial Beings (1-19), which records the creation of the earth, moon, stars, and really what we refer to as the heavens; (2) The Creation of Animals and then Mankind (20-31), notice the distinction, it’s animals and then man (not at the same time); and (3) A Day of Rest (2:1-3).

Now, as we work through this passage, we could be tempted to work through every issue that exists concerning this passage—we could talk about all the different theories that exist concerning how exactly creation occurred whether that’s the day-age theory, gap theory, or whatever else you can think of.

We’re not going to focus a ton of time doing that—we’re going to take this passage exactly how it spells everything out, which means that we understand creation to be an event through which God directly spoke all things into existence within six literal days and rested on the seventh, which is exactly what our doctrinal statement as a church says we believe.

And if you happen to have questions concerning the day-age theory, gap theory, narrative theory, or whatever other theory you might have heard about concerning creation, let me just briefly explain why those theories exist. Every theory that tries to explain away the literalness of the creation account found in Genesis 1, does so for the purpose of integrating secular ideas into the Bible—in this case, it has to do with integrating evolution into the Bible and we’re not going to do that as a church. Now, I will say, that what you believe concerning evolution doesn’t necessarily effect whether you genuinely believe in Jesus, but if you refuse to believe the literal account of creation found in Genesis 1, it introduces all sorts of logical issues later on, but all these issues, we can talk about at a later time, if you so desire.

Truthfully, what this passage actually teaches is far less about creation as it is about God—that God is a creative God who is powerful enough to make all things out of nothing by His very voice. This simple truth ought to compel us to worship Him, praise Him, and truthfully, it ought to cause us to trust Him—because if He says He will do something, He absolutely will because He most assuredly can.

Prayer of Illumination

The Creation of Celestial Beings (1-19)

Our text, and really, the entire Bible, starts with a simple sentence with profound meaning, “In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth.” This alone tells us three things about God: first, that He existed before the beginning of time, second, He existed before creation, and third, that He created all things.

First, God existed before the beginning of time—this is something that I think a lot of people miss, but it’s clearly evident not just in v. 1, but also in v.14.

We base our conception of time on movement of the earth—its rotation, and its position in space. What v. 1 says is that God existed before that rotation and that position in space because v. 14 tells us that God didn’t create the “lights in the expanse of heavens to separate the day from the night” until the fourth day of creation.

This teaches us that God is not limited by our linear time frame because He is outside of our time frame—in fact, He created our conception of time, which explains how Peter can say, “do not overlook this one fact, beloved, that with the Lord one day is as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day.”

God is not confined by time, He exists outside of time itself. He has always been, which is why when Moses asks God who he should say sent him, God’s response is simply, “I AM” or “I Am that I am,” the implication is that He always has been.

Second, God existed before creation—for God to be the creator of all things, He had to have existed before the creation itself.

This shouldn’t be a controversial thing, but it is something that we struggle to understand—most of us struggle to understand how exactly this works because in our minds, logically, we assume that in order for something to exist, something else had to have created it.

And yet, remember God’s response to Moses, that He simply has always been. That’s part of what makes Him God.

And third, God created all things—I can’t help but to think of Colossians 1:16–18 “16 For by him [meaning Jesus] all things were created, in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities—all things were created through him and for him. 17 And he is before all things, and in him all things hold together. 18 And he is the head of the body, the church. He is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, that in everything he might be preeminent.”

From the beginning of the Old Testament throughout the New Testament, it is abundantly clear that God created all things—and it is the fact that God created that partly gives Him the authority to tell us what we ought to believe and how we ought to live.

In other words, who better to tell us what’s right and what’s wrong than the God who created not just us, but all things?

The first sentence of Genesis 1 informs us that God is beyond time, that He isn’t a created being, but everything that was created was created by Him. Meaning the One Creator God created all things out of nothing—what is sometimes referred to as ex nihilo.

The text then shifts our focus from the Creator to the creation, starting with the earth itself and then it shifts to the different days of creation.

In v. 2 we see the start of Day 1 (3-4), “The earth was without form and void, and darkness was over the face of the deep.”

What’s described is something that we can’t really picture—the earth being without shape is hard for us to understand.

Personally, based on v. 6, it seems to me that there’s a blob of something—and it seems to be some sort of fluid, maybe water.

We do know, that at this time, there was no light yet, and everything was in darkness.

It’s not until v. 3, when we see God create light with His very voice, “God said, ‘Let there be light,’ and there was light.” And God saw that the light was good. And God separated the light from the darkness. God called the light Day, and the darkness he called night.”

Note that God has yet to create any sort of celestial body like a star or the sun—the implication being that the light comes from God, Himself.

It’s also noteworthy, that in creating the day and night—God states that the passing of time seen in the day and night transition, is a good thing.

Day one ends with a very clear statement that “there was evening and there was morning, the first day.”

Day 2 starts in v. 6 and continues into v. 8 and in it, the Bible describes a situation that is worded unusually, “God said, ‘Let there be an expanse in the midst of the waters, and let it separate the waters from the waters.’ And God made the expanse and separated the water that were under the expanse from the waters that were above the expanse. And it was so.”

The confusion in this is found in the terminology itself. When describing the division between waters that are above and below, it provides a very weird mental image—one that has sometimes caused people to believe that there’s some sort of hard shell or dome over the earth that has water on both sides.

Part of that confusion was amplified in the KJV’s translation here that there was a firmament, which is a sheet of metal that’s been beaten and flattened around the earth that separated the waters from the waters.

Rather, what’s described here is the atmosphere itself, which divides the waters from the waters.

We then see God calling the expanse itself “heaven,” which can also be translated as the heavens or the sky before the author telling us there was another evening and morning, the second day.

On Day 3 (9-13), we then see God bring forth dry land on the earth. He brings forth the dry land and calls it earth and the waters are then called seas—and God calls it again, good, before we see Him create plant life, v. 11, “Let the earth sprout vegetation, plants yielding seed, and fruit trees bearing fruit in which is their seed, each according to its kind, on the earth.’ And it was so.”

Note that instantaneous nature of how this all went down—God said that the earth ought to sprout vegetation and plants, and it was so.

This is the opposite of what modern-day naturalistic thinkers who subscribe to an evolutionary mindset believe—they believe that all plant-life evolved over millions of years from algae.

But the Bible says that God created all plant-life simultaneously, it happened, it was good, and then there was evening and there was morning.

Day 4 (14-19)—then tells us about the creation of all the rest of the celestial beings—God starts by creating what the Bible calls lights in the expanse of the heavens.

We know them as stars and planets—the Bible speaks of “two great lights” that rule the day and night—we call them the sun and the moon.

What we’ve seen thus far, is a timeless God who existed before all things, who created all things, who literally spoke light, the earth, the stars, and sun and the moon into existence; but He isn’t done yet. Thus, our text continues from shifting from His creation of celestial beings to His creation of animals and even mankind.

The Creation of Animals and then Mankind (20-31)

Our text continues with Days 5 and 6.

In vv. 20-23. In these verses, we see God again, using His voice to create all these creatures. “And God said, ‘Let the waters swarm with swarms of living creatures, and let birds fly above the earth across the expanse of the heavens.” And the Bible then tells us that all these things were created according to their own kinds, “And God saw that it was good.”

Again, there’s no delay in the creation of these animals—God simply says that He will create them, and then they come into existence.

Though you’ll notice that the sea creatures were created on Day 5 and all the other animals and mankind are created on Day 6.

Note that there is no hint at any sort of evolutionary process or any sort of delay—He says it and then it happens.

Note also the emphasis on how all these sea and air creatures were created according to their own kind, which implies a diversity in creatures created.

The same idea is given in vv. 24-25, when God creates all the rest of the animals, “God said, ‘Let the earth bring forth living creatures according to their kinds—livestock and creeping things and beasts of the earth according to their kinds.’ And it was so. And God made the beasts of the earth according to their kinds and the livestock according to their kinds, and everything that creeps on the ground according to its kind. And God saw that it was good.”

Again, there’s no delay in the creation of these animals—God simply says that He will create them, and then they come into existence.

Again, note that there is no hint of any sort of evolutionary process or any sort of delay—He says it and then it happens.

Note also the emphasis on how all these land creatures were created according to their own kind, which implies a diversity in creatures created.

So, up to this point in history—God has created the earth, moon, stars, other planets, the atmosphere, plants, sea creatures, air creatures, and land creatures.

And up to this point, though the creation of all things shows His power, His glory, and His ability to do wondrous things, none of these creatures are really given any special purpose or role in all creation.

Beyond telling the sea and air creatures to be fruitful and multiply, none of these creations of God were really given any special role in the creation account until you get to the last bit of creation left in vv. 26-31.

God turns his attention to one last bit of creation, which in and of itself shows us a difference in what He is about to create. In the last bit of Day 6, God makes mankind. He says, “Let us make man in our image, after our likeness. And let them have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over the livestock and over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.”

The timing of the creation of man and the fact that God created man in His image adds significant emphasis to the importance of who man is.

God saved the creation of mankind for last and while we can’t tie too much importance based on timing, I do think it does make an implication—that the creation of mankind was different than everything else that He created.

Again, we can’t make that assertion purely off timing, but we can make that assertion based on the fact that God created man in His own image.

Now, there has been all sorts of confusion over what it means to be created in the image of God and there have been all sorts of false teachings by the health, wealth, and prosperity preachers who utilize this idea to claim that we are mini-gods despite the Bible’s statement in the psalms that we are not like God.

The idea of being created in the image of God is more than just being able to think rationally or coherently. It’s more than just being able to share in God’s communicable attributes—His holiness, His righteousness, His justice.

The idea of being created in the image of God is that we as humans are what we could call imagers of God or in a sense, mankind is supposed to represent God.

This is why God creates mankind in His own image and then immediately gives mankind dominion or authority over the rest of creation. Who better to give authority over creation than the One who created all things?

We call this the dominion mandate—and the idea is rather simple. God has granted mankind all things pertaining to creation to not destroy or abuse, but rather to steward or to manage ethically.

It is God who gives mankind the authority to do such things, but we’ll come back to that idea in a few minutes.

After this statement of authority or dominion given to mankind, we then see the actual creation of mankind in v. 27, “So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them.”

Note that this was written as a poem wedged into what is narrative—while we don’t necessarily want to read too much into the change from narrative to poem, I would argue it’s to infer importance in what is said in v. 27.

In particular, in poetic form, the Hebrew language has what’s called chiastic form, which means that the middle of the poem is the most important part of the poem—in this case, it’s the statement “in the image of God he created him.”

Note also the firm statement that God created mankind male and female in his own image, which speaks to the complementary nature of human sexuality and mankind in general.

Vv. 28-31, then reiterate that dominion mandate, but in this instance, God speaks directly to them, “Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and subdue it, and have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over every living thing that moves on the earth . . . Behold, I have given you every plant yielding seed that is on the face of all the earth, and every tree with seed in its fruit. You shall have them for food. And to every beast of the earth and to every bird of the heavens and to everything that creeps on the earth, everything that has the breath of life, I have given every green plant for food.”

There are a lot of different details that we could draw over this, but I think you can tell what the primary details are.

God created all things and then gave the authority to care for creation to mankind—that includes the flora and fauna of the world around us, the earth itself, and the space that surrounds us.

All of the created world around us—the plants, the animals, and really everything that wasn’t created in the image of God is for us to steward appropriately.

Which implies that we have the opportunity to enjoy creation, which has been given to mankind to steward.

And just a side-note, just in case you’re wondering, every creature and even mankind at this moment had a vegetarian diet—the carnivorous diet doesn’t come until after the fall of man in sin.

And the Bible says at the end of v. 30, “it was so. And God saw everything that he had made, and behold, it was very good.”

All that God had created up to this point in history was very good.

And then there was evening and morning, the sixth day, which rounds out chapter one. Now, we could stop here because technically that encompasses the whole of the work of creation done by God, but the last day of the creation day ends with a day of rest that’s found in vv. 1-3 of ch. 2 and it’s important for us to see it for a number of reasons. Let’s read these last three verses:

A Day of Rest (2:1-3)

Genesis 2:1–3 ESV

1 Thus the heavens and the earth were finished, and all the host of them. 2 And on the seventh day God finished his work that he had done, and he rested on the seventh day from all his work that he had done. 3 So God blessed the seventh day and made it holy, because on it God rested from all his work that he had done in creation.

V. 1 tells us that all of creation was finished after Day 6 and we’re told in v. 2, that on the seventh day God finished His work and He rested.

It’s important to say that God definitely didn’t need to rest—He’s an omnipotent God—meaning, He has all power.

He chose to rest that day and it isn’t until we see the Law iterated that we understand that God’s choosing to rest on the seventh day was to provide a pattern for mankind to work and toil for six days and then take a day of rest.

It’s worth noting that the word translated as rest is the Hebrew Word Sabbat, which we get the word sabbath from.

It is not the idea of not doing anything, it’s not the idea of just sitting around and being lazy. It’s the idea of achieving something and then intentionally choosing to rest and recuperate.

Derek Kidner, “God’s finished task is sealed in the words he rested (2, 3; literally ‘ceased’; from s̆ābat, the root of ‘sabbath’). It is the rest of achievement, not inactivity, for he nurtures what he creates; we may compare the symbolism of Jesus ‘seated’ after his finished redemption (Heb. 8:1; 10:12), to dispense its benefits.” (Derek Kidner, Genesis: An Introduction and Commentary, Tyndale Old Testament Commentaries (Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 1967), 57.

God chooses to rest on the seventh day after creating everything; and then He chooses to bless “the seventh day and [make] it holy, because on it God rested from all his work that he had done in creation.”

Now, there is one last side-point that I want to make before we jump into our application and its this. Creation is an act of the Trinity—the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit all acted in creation,..

V. 1 says that God meaning the Father created the heavens and the earth.

V. 2 says that the Holy Spirit was hovering over the formless void of the earth.

Col 1 tells us that Jesus, Himself participated with the creation of all things and He still holds all things together.

And there’s the simple fact that as He creates everything, He says, “Let us” do these things, which is definitely an indication of the plurality of the Trinity—that there are three persons acting as one being to create all things.

Tied in with the fact that the noun translated as God here is also in the plural, it’s pretty clear that we’re meant to understand that the work of creation in the first chapters of Genesis was a Trinitarian act done by the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit and it shows both the unity of the Trinity and His incomparable power, glory, and majesty.

Which leads us this morning into our application. And it can be rather difficult to read a passage like this and figure out what exactly our application is, especially if we’re more used to the Epistles in the New Testament, where Paul or Peter or John outrightly give us commands that show us how exactly we are to live. It can be rather easy to read a passage like this and think, “wow, that’s nice” and close our Bibles and not really think anything else of it. So, let me help with some specific application concerning this passage. And I want us to look at this passage in two ways: (1) how would a Jewish person understand a passage like this, which I would argue is the primary purpose of this text, and (2) how can we look at this Christologically—in light of Jesus, Himself? Or, in other words (1) what is the main point of the text and (2) how does this tie in with Jesus?

Application

What is the original point of Genesis 1-2:3?—I think it’s rather clear what the original purpose of this account of creation is. It’s literally here to provide a record of the beginning of all things and the Jewish people would’ve understood this to be exactly that—a record of God creating all things by His very word, we see tastes of how exactly this mindset plays out for the Jewish people in passages of Scripture like Psalm 19 that views creation as a literal event done by God exactly how Genesis 1 shows it. For the Jewish people reading or hearing Genesis 1, the whole point of the passage is as simple as it sounds. It is a record of God creating all things in six days with His very voice and when the Jewish people would reflect on creation and how God created all things, their response is that of David’s in Psalm 19:1-6, which I’m going to read you just so you have a strong understanding of the response that we should have when we remember that everything was created by Him.

Psalm 19:1–6 “1 The heavens declare the glory of God, and the sky above proclaims his handiwork. 2 Day to day pours out speech, and night to night reveals knowledge. 3 There is no speech, nor are there words, whose voice is not heard. 4 Their voice goes out through all the earth, and their words to the end of the world. In them he has set a tent for the sun, 5 which comes out like a bridegroom leaving his chamber, and, like a strong man, runs its course with joy. 6 Its rising is from the end of the heavens, and its circuit to the end of them, and there is nothing hidden from its heat.” (ESV)

Do you catch what the whole idea is? Genesis 1:2:3 exists to provide a record of the beginning, which should cause us to reflect on creation and then praise God for creating.

The idea is really this, that when we read a passage like Genesis 1, we ought to think not just of how amazing creation is, but we should think about how amazing the God who created all things is.

Think of what I said when we worked through the first two verses of the chapter. These verses teach us: first, that He existed before the beginning of time, second, He existed before creation, and third, that He created all things.

In addition, just think of God’s power, His glory, His majesty, and His creativeness in creating all things—our God has all power, and all of creation points at His glory and His majesty. The clear diversity in creation shows us how creative He is.

If we read a passage like Genesis 1 and not simply offer praise and worship to God for what He has done in creation, we’ve completely missed the point—our God is all-powerful and He has the ability to create all things by His very word.

Just consider how this reads for a Jewish person who lives surrounded by pagan people.

They’re surrounded by people that are absolutely against them, absolutely against the God that they worship, and they’re surrounded by other nations that are worshiping false gods—gods whom they claim to control the earth, the heavens, and the creation around them.

Genesis 1 is a reminder that even though the gods around them claim to do all these different things, it’s the God of the Bible that actually created all things and it is the God of the Bible that holds all things together, and it is the God of the Bible that sustains all things.

First and foremost, Genesis 1 exists to show you who God is and to cause you to break out in praise and worship of the One true God who created all things. Thus, our first bit of application is this—you need to worship and praise the Creator God.

Part of that’s done by looking at all He has created and simply praising Him and thanking Him for it.

Part of this is done by doing what He says in the creation or dominion mandate and stewarding well what He has created.

Regardless, you need to worship and praise the God who created all things.

Now, we’re left with the question of how does Creation tie in with Jesus?—and let’s take it a step beyond just repeating Colossians 1, that Jesus was involved with the creation of all things. Likewise, we can take it a step beyond just reminding ourselves that Jesus has always been in existence and the suggestion that I want to make ties into Derek Kidner pointing out how Jesus sitting at the right hand of God after His resurrection and God taking His day of rest after His work of creation correlate. And the correlation is actually rather simple, but it has a profound implication.

In Genesis 1, we see the Trinitarian God—the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit—working together to create all things.

They create all things in such a way that brings glory and honor to who they are before giving mankind the authority to steward God’s creation.

This is the same Trinitarian God—the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit that then did an amazing work in offering salvation through Jesus and His death, burial, and resurrection.

This is the same Trinitarian God—the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit who providentially led you to Him for your own salvation.

This is the same Trinitarian God—the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit who then provides assurance to those who do believe that He will hold you in His hands and seal you until the day of redemption.

Do you catch where I’m going with all this?

If God is powerful enough to create all things by His very word, which is what Genesis 1 says and what we claim to believe.

Then He is powerful enough to recreate you through your salvation and He is powerful enough to sanctify you, and He is powerful enough to eventually glorify you and finish the work that He has started in you by His very word.

Or, in other words, God, through His written Word has promised salvation to anyone who confesses belief in Him and repents of their sins.

We can doubt this, we can worry that it isn’t true, we can doubt what God has said; or we can trust the God who created all things by His very voice to do what He has said concerning our salvation, our sanctification, our justification, and our eternal security.

The second bit of application is this—you can and should trust the God to do what He says He will do because He has proven through creation that His Word is powerful enough to do exactly what He wants it do to.

Put simply, what we learn in Genesis 1 by reflecting on creation and the creation week is that our God is powerful and mighty, and worthy of our worship and praise. Thus, we need to worship Him and praise Him whenever we have the opportunity to reflect on Him as our Creator; and we need to trust that our God is powerful enough to do exactly what He says He will do.

Our God is absolutely amazing and awe-striking. Let’s worship Him for all He has done through creation and all that He has promised to do in the future. Genesis 1 has introduced us to the One, True God who has created all things—the God who the rest of the book is all about.

Pastoral Prayer