Genesis Bible Study -

Genesis 1:7 “And God made the expanse and separated the waters that were under the expanse from the waters that were above the expanse. And it was so.”

Genesis 1:8 “And God called the expanse Heaven. And there was evening and there was morning, the second day.”

ALRIGHT SO - Day 1 - Light and Darkness - light was good - not darkness

Day 2 - Th heavens - water from water - likely firmament, which fell during the flood.

three heavens - sky - space - heaven itself (the dwelling place of the host)

DAY 3 - Genesis 1:9 “And God said, “Let the waters under the heavens be gathered together into one place, and let the dry land appear.” And it was so.”

This is interesting - why is God moving the waters, rather than the land.

He could have done either right? He could have “gathered the land together in one place” but rather he did it with the Sea… why is that?

Because he’s God

Ancient cultures viewed the sea as a terrifying threat - and honestlyl we should too.

tsunamis, hurricanes, waves as tall as your house as the norm.

ever watched a glacier collapse into the sea? terrifying.

Waters often signify troubles - they’d sink into the sea straight to Sheol -

Here, God is restraining the sea. Gathering it together, moving it about on a whim - because HE is God.

this brings more significance later to Jesus - mastering the sea during the storm.

this is why the disciples during that story were more scared when he was done.

God moves the sea, gathers the sea, to drive home the point to his people.

he is master of the most powerful force they know, therefore, he is the true God.

He is stronger than the most powerful force they know - so strong he tosses it to and fro like a sack of potatoes

What keeps the sea in it’s place? Mountains? Canyons? Gravity? No - God does. God put it there. God restrains it.

Jesus hold all of creation together. Col 1:17 -

This is some of the “magic” we alluded to earlier. God holds creation together in the order he desires it to be.

think with me for a moment - what is gravity?

an invisible force that holds everything together

now explain it… how does it work? why does it work? where does it come from?

It’s Jesus - he’s holding everything together - just like the word says he does.

The world says - order comes from chaos - all this stuff just happened over time.

The evolutionary theory of order from chaos is unnatural, and mathematically impossible, even if the world is 100 billion years old.

some extra reading if you want to pursue it would be Wayne Grudem’s Systematic Theology on the subject of creation - he does a phenomenal job destroying the case for an old earth and evolution.

The universe demands in it’s creation and in it’s sustaining that there is a God.

There is also an interesting image here - the land was already there, but it was revealed by grace.

The adversity of the sea being pulled away to reveal the blessing of dry land.

God’s restraint on calamity for his people’s good and his glory, in other words.

Genesis 1:11 “And God said, “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.”

God creates with his voice, but he also creates by “forming”

animals, birds, humans, are formed.

everything else seems to be spoken.

humans are made with a higher degree of intimacy and attention.

God breathes into them. forms them with his hand. more on this later.

We also see the first appearance of the phrase “according to it’s kind”

this is another one of those moments that gives the evolution guys a run for their money.

Whenever we say “evolution is a lie” we ought to qualify that out a bit - we aren’t talking about slight changes within a “kind” - that’s obvious, measurable

the assumption that the evolution guys jump to is that since these slight changes happen - give the world a hundred billion years - and we all came from sludge.

The reason everybody loves Darwin is not just because he was a racist - but because he gave the secularists an origin story for the earth.

because up to that point… they just looked like idiots.

BUT EVOLUTION? that just aint the case. again - mathematically impossible. See Grudem’s Systematic on Creation. (scrabble illustration)

What’s a kind? - I’ll point you to Ken Ham and Answers in Genesis for more research there, but to give you the gist.

there is the horse “kind” the dog “kind” the fish “kind” (and even some subsets there)

think of it this way - a horse and a dog can’t breed and make a horse-dog. It doesn’t work. They are different KINDS - in other words it can’t happen according to their “KIND”

following me?

When you understand this more, the idea of “kind”, it makes Noah and the Ark make a lot more sense.

Noah loaded the ark up with creatures, according to their KIND, and could fit them pretty easily, given the size - shameless plug for taking your kids to Noah’s ark in Kentucky - well worth the trip.