And God Saw That It Was Good

Introduction: I struggled with what to preach. There were several things that I want to preach about, but I am learning that there need to be firm foundations in place before begin to build up. We can cover a great many topics and doctrines very quickly, but it would only be ankle deep wading. The Bible promises a wealth of treasure, and to more fully understand how the books of the Bible interconnect, you've got to mine the depths and not be content with just shallow knowledge. Otherwise, it is like planning a trip to Disney World and settling for the community splash pad instead.

There are many Christians that read the Bible and expect to find all these nuggets of truth to apply to their lives, but are disappointed when after they have completely read their Bible in a year or six months, they don't have a full understanding of what it all means and are left wondering, "Is that all there is to it? " or with more questions than they had at the beginning of their reading.

I am not promising that you will ever completely and fully grasp every deep truth of the Bible, but I will promise this, If you have a strong foundation on which to build you will begin to grasp deeper and deeper meanings and applications of Biblical truths, and every time you read and study, you'll learn something else.

So in thinking of this, I began to wonder, "Where do I start to make sure we lay a strong foundation for our teaching and preaching?" And it hit me, the best place to start anything is at the beginning. So for the next few weeks, we will lay a foundation for all of our studies going forward. Grasping the beginning is key to plumbing the depth of Scripture. No, it is not absolutely necessary for salvation to understand these first 11 verses of Genesis, but it helps us appreciate more about who God is and who mankind is.

So without further ado we commence a new series today called The Beginning. This will be a study through the first 11 chapters of Genesis. The format for these studies will be similar to the study through Psalm 23: Observation and Interpretation with a General Application here in the sermon followed by a more specific application in the Life Groups. Every week, I will try to give you a bit of a reading assignment so that you can be familiar with what is coming up on the following week. Some of these readings will be too long to read completely during the sermon, but hopefully you will have read and be familiar with the material as we step into the study each week. Don't worry, if you forget what to read, it will be on our church website under the What's New tab.

Genesis is pretty wide in the scope of what it deals with. Obviously, as we will see today, it deals with the beginning of the cosmos, the beginning of life, but the first 11 chapters of Genesis also deal with the nature of humanity, God's nature, family, sex, the origins of good and evil, human identity, death, murder, ecology, and so much more. It is easy for seasoned Christians to skip over these chapters, to not take into account the depth of the riches that are found here simply because we are so familiar with the stories therein. There are so many things that throughout these chapters we would love to have more detail. If you are like me, you wonder why there are only two chapters dedicated to the creation of the universe and our world; what, explicitly, were the crimes that caused God to destroy the earth with a flood; and why, in comparison, is Joseph given so much space in these writings when he isn't even one of the three patriarchs of Israel.

But we must understand as we go through these chapters and through the book of Genesis, that anything that is read written must be read through the lens of the purpose of the author. There are perhaps thousands of details in thousands of stories that we wish were told in this book, but we should submit to the wisdom of the biblical author, knowing that God speaks to us through the details the stories that are told in these chapters.

As we begin to study and understand Genesis 1-11, we will notice the benefits this brings to reading scripture. The story of the Bible is the story of redemption through Jesus Christ, but this story is set in the broader story of the story of Israel as a nation. The history of Israel and its relationship with God gives us an amazing visual of the nature of God the Father and His Son Jesus.

You cannot read Exodus with very well without having first understood Genesis' account of Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and Joseph. And it is so easy to start with the story of Abraham, which is where I wanted to start, but we are given so much of God's nature and our identity in the very first chapters that I don't think I could skip these in good conscience.

So let us begin with reading Genesis 1:1-5

1IN the beginning God created the heaven and the earth.

2And the earth was without form, and void; and darkness was upon the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters.

3And God said, Let there be light: and there was light.

4And God saw the light, that it was good: and God divided the light from the darkness.

5And God called the light Day, and the darkness he called Night. And the evening and the morning were the first day.

We do not have time to read the whole chapter this morning, but let me give you a rundown on everything that was made. (I encourage you to copy the info on this slide/take these notes and compare it/them to what the Bible when you get home today.)

NOTES

Lineage of Creation

God creates

- V.1 - Time, space, matter (In the beginning... heaven and earth)

- V.3-5 - Day 1 - Light and a separation of light and darkness

- V. 6-8 - Day 2 - The atmosphere

- V. 9-13 - Day 3 - Separation of land and seas; grass, herbs, trees, etc.

- V. 14-19 - Day 4 - Heavenly bodies; seasons

- V. 20-23 - Day 5 - Marine animals; birds

- V. 24-31 - Day 6 - Land animals; man; responsibility

- 2:1-3 – Day 7 - The principle of rest

And so we see the lineage or genealogy of creation. One of the things we need to understand in this account is that it is not a scientific account. It is not meant to be, but a telling of facts. This account of creation may pose some questions like, "If God made light on day 1, and the sun and moon on day 4, what held the light until day four?" The Bible doesn't tell us, but I think we can rest assured that God is able to hold light at bay and separate it from darkness at His command. This is not a science book, but a book that puts on full display the power of God and His relationship to Creation.

God is creator. The Genesis account of creation is that outside of God there is nothingness, and then He speaks creation into being. There are people out there that will bring up Egyptian and Mesopotamian stories of how the universe came into being, but the Bible differs greatly from these stories.

The God of Genesis is unique in the fact that He is sole creator and in control of creation.

And God saw that it was good. Seven times throughout the creation account, we see this phrase or something similar, "And God saw that it was good." So we see Four noteworthy observations in Genesis 1:

1. God created all things

2. What He creates is Good

3. He orders creation to reproduce after its own kind.

4. The pinnacle of creation is mankind. He "saves the best for last" if you will. And we notice this because after six times of saying, "it is good," God remarks after the creation of man that it is very good (1:31).

In the account of the creation of the plants and animals, we see a phrase repeated: after his/their kind. In fact, this is repeated 10 times in chapter 1. It is not an accident, nor is it an attempt to fill space. Repetition in the Bible is important. Every thing that was created that has the ability to reproduce, i.e.: animals and plants, reproduce after their own kind. They are categorized as plants or animals; under these categorizations are subsets that reproduce after their own kinds. Each one is commanded to be fruitful and multiply and they will after the kind that they are created.

The Image of God

But when it comes to man, there is something different. Genesis 1:26-27 And God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness: and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth. 27 So God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him; male and female created he them.

So as we go through all creation, we get to mankind and see something that does not appear anywhere else: Let us make man "in our image." The image of God encompasses a few things as it relates to us.

- It includes our commission - fruitfulness and care of creation

- We are made higher than animals - No other creation was given the image of God, the Imago Dei. Thus, to degrade man into a higher evolution of an animal, regardless of what animal that may be, puts man in the same category as the animals. We are a separate creation and a prized one because we are the image-bearers of God.

- From it man derives his own creativity

- This Imago Dei is the basis for human dignity and the sanctity of human life

Being created in the image of God surprisingly is not defined in the terms of our rational capacity, but it gives us a different status than other creatures AND the ability to be held accountable for our actions. Aside from the command in the Mosaic law to kill an animal that had injured a person or another animal (and that was more of a punishment for the owner of said animal), people are the only ones that are held accountable for their actions in the Bible.

So the image of God is something that every person has, and it has everything to do with out identity because it is how we are created. From the most elite of society and education to the most downtrodden homeless person, we all posses the image of God in us.

As we leave Genesis 1, we observe several things:

- God is the only one who can create. He exists before, above, and outside creation.

- He lives in community with Himself (If you noticed 1:2 states that the Spirit moved upon the face of the waters; John 1 tells us that Jesus, God the Son, was present and active in creation as well)

- He is a God of order, not chaos

- God is the only one we can trust.

Everything that we need to understand about the cosmos from this point forward in the Bible stems from understanding humanity’s relationship to a creator-God, not just some divine being. The community of God expanded himself into the community of humanity through creation.

As we enter Genesis 2, we look a little more deeply at the care that God took in creating humanity.

Genesis 2:7 And the LORD God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul.

In this account, we see that the shell of man is not created (to make out of nothing) but shaped from the dirt. Then given the breath of life by God. God places man in a special place, the Garden of Eden.

Genesis 2:8-9 And the LORD God planted a garden eastward in Eden; and there he put the man whom he had formed. 9 And out of the ground made the LORD God to grow every tree that is pleasant to the sight, and good for food; the tree of life also in the midst of the garden, and the tree of knowledge of good and evil.

And God puts man into this garden and gives Him a job and 2 commands.

Genesis 2:15-17 And the LORD God took the man, and put him into the garden of Eden to dress it and to keep it. 16 And the LORD God commanded the man, saying, Of every tree of the garden thou mayest freely eat: 17 But of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat of it: for in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die.

The job - dress and keep he garden

"The first command... is positive: to eat from all the trees. However, one condition regulates his eating: “But the tree of knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it, dying you shall die.” This is not the last time we’ll see food given plentifully with a condition. In the exodus from Egypt, God sends manna and instructs Israel: eat your fill, but with one condition about gathering food on the Sabbath (Exod 16). Notice that putting conditions on the relationship between humanity and creation is not a response to sin. Even when things appeared to be the way they were supposed to be, work was good and rules governed the relationships in Eden.

Dru Johnson, The Universal Story: Genesis 1–11, ed. Craig G. Bartholomew et al., Transformative Word (Bellingham, WA: Lexham Press; St. George’s Centre, 2018), 37–38.

This all appears the way it is supposed to be, however, we soon see that the man's condition is NOT good.

For the very first time, Yahweh Elohim, the LORD God, looks at the situation—man and himself together in the garden—and surprisingly claims, “This is not good” (Gen 2:18). And the LORD God said, It is not good that the man should be alone; I will make him an help meet [ideal] for him.

So God brings every creature that that he has created to Adam, and Adam names them.

Genesis 2:19-20 And out of the ground the LORD God formed every beast of the field, and every fowl of the air; and brought them unto Adam to see what he would call them: and whatsoever Adam called every living creature, that was the name thereof. 20 And Adam gave names to all cattle, and to the fowl of the air, and to every beast of the field; but for Adam there was not found an help meet for him.

But as Adam names these creatures and as they pass him one-by-one, Adam sees that each of them have ideal mates, but among them is nothing found to be the ideal mate for Adam.

It is a bit surprising to me that when it was just God and Adam, Adam was still considered alone. Do you see the importance of this? We often say to others who are friendless or of ourselves if we find ourselves in that situations, "It's ok because I am not alone, God is with me." And in a sense, this is true. But we are created with a need, a real need that needs fulfilment, and that need is companionship.

This is one of the reasons the body of the church is so important. Adam had a job to do, dress and keep the garden, and God said it was not good that he be alone.

We as a church have a commission to make disciples in all the world, and it cannot be done alone, we must all be there for each other as we participate together in this.

So note that first, being alone with God is “not good” according to God. He is creating community and not individual relationships connecting independently with himself. We have been studying the importance of Christian community as it relates to our fellowship with God on Wednesday nights.

Second—sorry pet lovers—animals cannot be our mates or constitute our communities, at least not like humans must. When man was still with all the animals, it was still “not good.

So this is what God does: Genesis 2:21-22 And the LORD God caused a deep sleep to fall upon Adam, and he slept: and he took one of his ribs, and closed up the flesh instead thereof; 22 And the rib, which the LORD God had taken from man, made he a woman, and brought her unto the man.

I like the way Professor Dru Johnson puts it:

"What solved man’s “not good” state of affairs? It was only the woman, taken from him, that solved the man's problem of aloneness. More remarkably, not only is the man alone, but he needs to know that he is alone. Part of the process is aimed at his discovery and helping him recognize that he is alone and that his isolation is “not good.”

Why doesn’t God just make the woman and marry them together, like children do with their dolls? Why make the animals first? Why have him name, search for, and not find a suitable mate? According to the story, the man needed something more suitable to him than merely other “living creatures” that were also taken from the dirt. He needed a fitted mate and it seems that Yahweh Elohim wanted him to recognize that she was the suitable mate because she was taken from him. The tension in the story is thus relieved when we hear the man’s eureka, “At last! This one is bone of my bones” (Gen 2:23). As Karl Barth puts it, “The whole story aims at this exclamation.”

When he discovers her, he discovers community. And so, the first words ever uttered by a human, according to Genesis, were words of discovery in poetic form (Gen 2:23):

This is now bone of my bones, and flesh of my flesh: she shall be called Woman, because she was taken out of Man."

So we are created to be in community, even in the perfect setting without sin or corruption, we need companionship.

And in the perfect setting of how things should work and be, God also gives us the framework for family.

Genesis 2:24 Therefore shall a man leave his father and his mother, and shall cleave unto his wife: and they shall be one flesh.

The ability of a couple to become "one flesh" seems to be dependent on leaving. It is not talking about cutting off relationships with families, especially if you study these ancient culture's ways of life. But it indicates that a new relationship is formed. Something different from the individual lives of spouses.

And the prescription to this new relationship, marriage, as it will later be called, is set: One man, one woman, cleaving to each other (clinging, abiding with, following closely, pursuing). Though if we are to get really specific, it is the man who is the primary "clinger."

This has been a different kind of sermon. And I hope you have seen it as more than just an information dump. View it as informational foundation for what is coming up ahead.

This account of the beginning, the beginning of time, space, and matter; the beginning of life on earth; the beginning of mankind; the beginning of families; the beginning of responsibilities; and the beginning of man's relationship with God is a beginning in which west realize everything was VERY GOOD.

And we need to know that anything that deviates from what God calls very good is not good.

This time period that we covered today is the only time period in the history of the universe where perfection existed on earth and in man in all its forms. God declared, it is good. And next week we will see that it suddenly was not.

Speaking of which, for next week, read Genesis chapter 3.

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These two chapters are so familiar, but we need to realize that there is a lot going on here that is crucial to the rest of the Bible narrative. We will talk about these things more deeply during Life Group, but as we end, let's recap what we have just seen, and the weightiness of it all.

- God is THE Creator of everything

- He exists in community with Himself (the Son and the Holy Spirit and the Father)

- He created all things and crowned His creation by creating humankind.

- notice, it is humankind, not humankinds. This is important and of extreme value for us to recognize especially in this day and age. This means that there are not different kinds of people. There are not different races, despite what color skin you may have. Throughout the Bible, God has to unite people, whereas man has sought division because of pride.

- God created man in His own image

- Every single person is an image bearer of God. If you saw someone take a picture of you and spit on it, rip it to shreds, and burn it, you might be slightly offended. If they turned around and saw you and greeted you with a smile and with apparent friendliness, you would think that there was something wrong with them or they were just being hypocritical. But every time we treat someone with hatred, disdain, or carelessness, this is exactly what we do. We take those created in God's image, and we treat them like trash. And we do it for the dumbest reasons (they don't look like me, they talk differently, they have different views, etc.)

- Because we are created in His image, this gives each person inherent dignity and value.

- The image of God is not something that can be lost or stripped away

- God has created us with a unique identity in Him as His image, but has clearly identified that mankind is created male and female.

- Our gender identity is given by God. There is no one that can override that because there is no one higher than God.

- What you do to your body or how you feel does not change how God created you.

- God has created us to live in community. It is not good for people to be alone. So many studies have been conducted on people that spend too much time alone. The results are never good.

- Your life as a person is not meant to live in solitude

- Your life as a Christian is not meant to live in solitude. This includes building barriers around yourself and not letting anyone in. There are battles that you cannot fight alone.

- God established the marriage relationship.

- One man, one woman, in close fellowship, clinging to each other and in close relationship with God together (as we will see next week in chapter 3).

- God established work and responsibility as a good thing.

- Contrary to some people's views, work is not a consequence of sin.