The Gift Nature of Creation

Intro

Good morning, would you turn with me in your Bibles to Genesis 1:14-25.

We are continuing our series on the first 11 chapters of Genesis entitled “In the Beginning”.

Where we are discovering what God reveals about Himself,

his creation,

and the foundational events that begin the story of salvation.

Last week we explored the first three days of the creation week, and saw,

that God created everything out of nothing,

God created the world to be lived in, to be a meeting place for his creatures and himself

and God created everything good, to bring him glory.

This morning we will be looking at the days 4-6 of the creation week in Genesis 14-25.

Genesis 1:14-25

Countercultural

Now I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again,

that this account of the creation of life is very different from what is commonly believed in our society.

As is everything we have been looking at.

And I’m sure you are by now also used to hearing me say that the creation narrative in the Bible,

was countercultural in the ancient world in which it was written.

I’ve always found it funny when people say,

“well this was just how ancient nomadic shepherds thought that the world came into being.”

I find it funny because, no other culture in the ancient world believed any of this.

Not just most, but every culture worshipped a multitude of gods.

Absolutely none of them recognized a single, all powerful creator.

The creation narrative in the Bible,

was from the beginning absolutely counter cultural to what was commonly believed.

The Israelites themselves had a hard time accepting it.

God’s people Israel, with their embrace of golden calves, and all sorts of other idols;

gave into the sin of idolatry to such a degree

that modern historians can’t help but call them a polytheistic culture.

A culture that worshipped many gods.

Modern archeology is a witness to Israel’s idolatry.

So the creation account in Genesis was from the beginning, countercultural.

Science and Religion

In todays world, the creation story is also counter cultural.

Many people see a fundamental conflict between what is taught in the scriptures,

and the claims of modern science.

There are many atheists who are convinced that science will bury even the idea of God.

But the thing most people don’t remember is that science as we know it,

arose out of the Christian worldview.

Theologians, philosophers and scientists, even those who are atheist,

have recognized that the biblical worldview is probably the only worldview that really makes science possible.

The very fact that scientific inquiry works is because there is order in the cosmos.

Order does not come from chaos and chance, order must come from an orderer.

It is the belief in the order of the universe that allowed modern science to come into practice.

Galileo, Francis Bacon, Isaac Newton, Johannes Kepler shared this fundamental biblical worldview.

One of the fathers of astronomy Johannes Kepler wrote - “The chief aim of all investigations of the external world should be to discover the rational order which has been imposed on it by God and which he revealed to us in the language of mathematics.”

Isaac Newton - wrote in the forward to his Mathematical Principles of Natural Philosophy that “(He wrote the book so) that a thinking person might come to believe in the deity through it.”

C.S. Lewis sums up the situation this way - he says, “Men became scientific because they expected law in nature, and they expected law in nature because they believed in a law-giver.”

God is the law giver, he has set into being the laws in nature that make science possible.

Laws of nature like gravity, entropy, laws of thermodynamics, these are expressions of how the created order works.

But, this is the hard part, though God has created these laws of nature,

he does not create by them.

What we see in the Bible is that God creates miraculously - by his word.

So his acts of creation do not conform to what is always observed, natural processes, the laws of nature.

God’s creative actions are not natural, they are miraculous.

As Romans 1 tells us, God demonstrates his eternal power and divine nature in the things he has made,

And he demonstrates his eternal power and divine nature,

in the making of them.

We saw this last week, as God spoke the very cosmos into being,

and then shaped the world for habitation over the first three days of the creation week.

And we will see this week as we look at days 4-6 of the creation,

that all of life is also a miraculous creation by God.

Exposition

Lights in the Sky (vv. 14-15)

We begin with the fourth day of the creation week in Genesis 1:14-19.

And on that day God creates the sun, moon and stars.

But there are a couple of things I want to point to in this passage.

Purpose

You’ll remember from last week that,

the modern way of understanding the existence of things,

is to reduce them down to their material essence.

But when we look at the creation of the sun, moon, and stars on day four.

They are not described as modern people would describe them:

as merely a big rock in space in the case of the moon,

or as burning balls of gas in the case of the sun and the stars.

But Genesis 1:14-15 defines them according to their use for his creatures, their purpose. It says,

Genesis 1:14–15 ESV

And God said, “Let there be lights in the expanse of the heavens to separate the day from the night. And let them be for signs and for seasons, and for days and years, and let them be lights in the expanse of the heavens to give light upon the earth.” And it was so.

These lights are set in the sky to separate the day and night,

they give us a means for measuring time in establishing the signs and seasons,

and they give light to the earth.

Their purpose is tied to their existence, to their being.

And the purpose that is tied to them, is how they serve his creatures, especially humanity.

Point 1: God Created Everything as a Gift

Last week we saw how the intrinsic purpose in the things that God has made,

points to the fact that God made this world to be lived in, by his creatures - by us.

But this week I want to refer to that purpose again to demonstrate my first point this morning,

and my first point is this:

God created everything as a gift.

The lights in the sky, the trees and plants on the ground,

and, as we will see in a moment, the birds, and fish, and animals -

all of it, is a gift.

Even for those of us who believe that God created everything,

it’s easy for us to think of the creation as just a raw expression of God’s great power.

But it’s more than that.

Just like the world is not merely a habitat, but is a living room;

a place for God’s creatures to meet and have a relationship with their creator,

God’s creation is not merely a demonstration of his power,

but it is given to be experienced and enjoyed.

It is a gift from God, to his creatures.

One of the most beautiful passages that demonstrates this gift-nature of creation is Psalm 104.

The Psalmist writes there in vv. 10-15,

Psalm 104:10–15 (ESV)

“You make springs gush forth in the valleys;

they flow between the hills;

they give drink to every beast of the field;

the wild donkeys quench their thirst.

Beside them the birds of the heavens dwell;

they sing among the branches.

From your lofty abode you water the mountains;

the earth is satisfied with the fruit of your work.

You cause the grass to grow for the livestock

and plants for man to cultivate,

that he may bring forth food from the earth

and wine to gladden the heart of man,

oil to make his face shine

and bread to strengthen man’s heart.”

All of creation is a gift of God,

given to his creatures, you and I.

It is not there by chance,

nor is it purposeless or meaningless.

It is given to meet our needs, and even to bring us delight and joy in our lives;

like the psalm says; to gladden our hearts, make our faces shine, and to give us strength.

Not because we are so great, but because God the creator is so good.

God created everything as a gift.

Sun, Moon and Stars (vv. 16-19)

No Names

But the manner in how we receive these gifts is very important.

An interesting thing about the creation account on the fourth day is that,

even though sun and the moon are clearly described here,

their proper names are not used

they are not called the Hebrew word for “sun” and “moon” as they are in other places in the scriptures.

In vv. 14-15 they are described as merely lights in the sky.

And then we read a more specific description in vv. 16-19,

Genesis 1:16–19 ESV

And God made the two great lights—the greater light to rule the day and the lesser light to rule the night—and the stars. And God set them in the expanse of the heavens to give light on the earth, to rule over the day and over the night, and to separate the light from the darkness. And God saw that it was good. And there was evening and there was morning, the fourth day.

though the description is more specific in these verses,

the proper Hebrew names for sun and moon are still not used.

Many scholars believe that this was an intentional decision made by Moses who is believed to be the author of Genesis.

They believe that here Moses was being extra careful,

not to use proper names for the sun and moon,

that could be misunderstood to be the names of pagan gods of the sun and moon.

Moses makes it clear that these heavenly bodies are not gods, but are lights in the sky,

to serve humanity in giving light, separating day and night, and for establishing times and seasons.

This again was very countercultural to what was commonly believed.

In the time when the book of Genesis was likely being written,

the people of Israel had just come out of slavery in Egypt.

Two of the chief gods of the Egyptians, were Ra and Thoth.

Ra was the god of the sun, and Thoth the god of the moon.

And this just goes to show you how man can take the good gifts that God gives, like the sun and the moon

and worship the gift rather than the giver.

Which takes me to my second point this morning.

Point 2: God’s Creation is not to be Worshipped

2. God’s Creation is not to be worshipped.

Our struggle as fallen creatures,

is that these gifts of creation are so good, that in our sinfulness, we are tempted to worship them.

Near the end of his life, Moses warned the Israelites not to fall into this temptation in Deuteronomy 4:16-19. He said,

Deuteronomy 4:16–19 (ESV)

“beware lest you act corruptly by making a carved image for yourselves, in the form of any figure, the likeness of male or female, the likeness of any animal that is on the earth, the likeness of any winged bird that flies in the air, the likeness of anything that creeps on the ground, the likeness of any fish that is in the water under the earth. And beware lest you raise your eyes to heaven, and when you see the sun and the moon and the stars, all the host of heaven, you be drawn away and bow down to them and serve them, things that the Lord your God has allotted to all the peoples under the whole heaven.”

Did you hear that last part? Moses says, that God has allotted the sun, and moon and stars,

and the creatures to all the peoples under heaven.

Even the heavenly bodies are meant to serve humanity.

Humanity was not made to serve and worship them.

But we can be so taken with the goodness and the power of the gifts,

that we worship them rather than God who gave them to us.

This is idolatry: worshipping the creature rather than the creator.

The Apostle Paul talks about this in Romans 1:21-23, where he says:

Romans 1:21–23 (ESV)

“For although they knew God, they did not honour him as God or give thanks to him, but they became futile in their thinking, and their foolish hearts were darkened. Claiming to be wise, they became fools, and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images resembling mortal man and birds and animals and creeping things.”

God’s creation is good, and beautiful, and helpful to us in countless ways.

It is all a gift.

We should delight in the gift, but the creation is not to be worshipped.

Sea Creatures and Birds (vv. 20-23), Land Animals (vv. 24-25)

After the creation of the heavenly bodies (the sun, moon, and stars) on the fourth day,

we see the beginning of the creation of living creatures on the fifth day in vv. 20-23.

Genesis 1:20–23 (ESV)

“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.” So God created the great sea creatures and every living creature that moves, with which the waters swarm, according to their kinds, and every winged bird according to its kind. And God saw that it was good. And God blessed them, saying, “Be fruitful and multiply and fill the waters in the seas, and let birds multiply on the earth.” And there was evening and there was morning, the fifth day.”

God begins filling his world by focusing his attention on the seas and the skies.

And filling each with creatures, that live in God’s world.

But theres something important here in this passage that I want to point out.

“According to their Kinds”

That is that God creates the sea creatures and the birds each “according to their kinds”,

That statement, “according to their kinds” is written twice in this section describing the fish and the birds on day five.

But then it is written four times in vv. 24-25 in describing the creation of the land animals on day six.

We read there, Genesis 1:24-25

Genesis 1:24–25 (ESV)

And 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.

Now this is something we have to grapple with.

this phrase “according to their kinds,” either means something or it doesn’t.

Is God making a point here in his word, or is this something that we can ignore?

Personally, I find it hard to believe that statement doesn’t mean anything,

seeing how it is repeated six times in a single chapter.

It’s a rarity to see a line repeated that many times in the whole of the scriptures, let alone a single chapter.

Now what is meant by “kinds” here is not the same as our own modern classification of animals,

it is not describing “domain, kingdom, phylum, class, order, family, genus, species”.

What “kinds” means here in our passage is certainly less specific than those.

But even without being very specific about classification,

its easy to see when you are looking at a creature,

that it is different from other creatures.

When I was a kid living in B.C., one of my favourite things to do was walk on stony ocean beaches when the tide had gone out.

Exploring those tidepools was like visiting an alien world.

you never knew what you would find.

We would find fish, eels, jellyfish, sharks, starfish, snails, all kinds of different sea creatures.

We especially liked crabs because they could fit in your pocket for the drive home.

But we could tell all those creatures were of different kinds generally just by looking at them.

Evolution

The account in Genesis 1 tells us six times that the animals were made “according to their kinds”,

they had their specific traits built into them, differentiating them from other creatures from the beginning.

What’s being described here couldn’t be more different than evolution between species.

Darwin’s belief that, “all the organic beings which have ever lived on this earth have descended from some one primordial form.”

is the exact opposite of the creatures being made “according to their kinds.”

We don’t have time to get into this in detail, but I’ll mention quickly that even in the fossil record,

rather than seeing small changes and variations in animals over time leading to new species,

there are rather, huge variations between animals and no clear examples of transitional species.

This goes back to my C.S. Lewis quote from earlier,

“Men became scientific because they expected law in nature, and they expected law in nature because they believed in a law-giver.”

What has happened is that we believe there is law in nature,

but we’ve also begun to believe the lie that we have no need for the law-giver, God.

Theories like evolution are an attempt to find a law of nature, that replaces the creator.

It is an idolatry of the laws of nature.

This is why I believe they are irreconcilable with the Christian faith.

You either have blind processes, that somehow bring everything into being through time and chance,

or you have a creator God, who creates with intentionality and purpose, creatures that he delights in.

We can see he delights in them because he sees that they are all “good” after he creates them.

He even blesses the birds and the fish in v. 22, it says there:

Genesis 1:22 ESV

And God blessed them, saying, “Be fruitful and multiply and fill the waters in the seas, and let birds multiply on the earth.”

God delights in his creatures.

He delights in how he has made them.

And he desires his creatures to delight in him.

Point 3: God’s Creation is Given to Bring Delight in Him.

Which takes me to my final point this morning.

Point 3: God’s creation is given to bring delight in Him.

God gives his creation as a gift, so that his creatures will delight in him.

We get a taste of that kind of delight when we spend time with animals, not just when we eat them.

They are not there just for our survival.

God did not merely create white meat on day five,

and red meat on day six. (well in a way he did, but thats beside the point)

We enjoy their beauty, we enjoy their complexity, we even enjoy their company.

They bring us a delight that only humanity can really experience.

They also teach us things according to the traits God has created in them.

We see this all over the scriptures.

Jesus said,

Luke 12:24 (ESV)

Consider the ravens: they neither sow nor reap, they have neither storehouse nor barn, and yet God feeds them. Of how much more value are you than the birds!

One of my favourite proverbs growing up,

Proverbs 26:11 (ESV)

Like a dog that returns to his vomit

is a fool who repeats his folly.

Or this one again from proverbs.

Proverbs 6:6 (ESV)

Go to the ant, O sluggard; consider her ways, and be wise.

God’s creation is good, and beautiful, and helpful to us in countless ways.

It is all a gift.

And the gifts are given so that through our enjoyment of them,

we would honour God and give thanks to him.

This is the opposite of Idolatry.

Where as the idolaters mentioned in Romans 1, “did not honour him as God or give thanks to him,”

we glorify God as the psalmist does in Psalm 104.

O Lord, how manifold are your works!

In wisdom have you made them all;

the earth is full of your creatures.

I will sing to the Lord as long as I live;

I will sing praise to my God while I have being.

All of creation is gift,

And our good and wonderful God has given them,

so that we will delight in him.

Application

God’s creation is good, and beautiful, and helpful to us in countless ways.

But we look forward to something even greater.

Even as amazing as the creation is,

it is still marred by sin.

You, me, and all of life on earth, experience suffering and death because of the curse of sin we have brought into God’s good creation.

The Apostle Paul even describes the creation groaning in it’s corruption in Romans 8.

But at Christ’s return, all of that will change.

Because of Christs, death and resurrection, he has defeated sin and death for ever.

He has promised to one day return, and renew everything.

Death and sorrow will be no more, and those who belong to Christ by faith,

will live for eternity in a new heavens and a new earth.

A new creation beyond any beauty, beyond all glory, and beyond all majesty

of what we experience now.

The giver is not done giving, because he is wonderfully good.

Conclusion

God created everything as a gift.

2. He did not give the gifts so that they would be worshipped.

3. But he gave them, so that we would worship and delight in him.

4. And we will delight in him immeasurably more, when he redeems the whole creation at his return.

Prayer

English Standard Version Psalm 104

24  O LORD, how manifold are your works!

In wisdom have you made them all;

the earth is full of your creatures.

25  Here is the sea, great and wide,

which teems with creatures innumerable,

living things both small and great.

English Standard Version Psalm 104

27  These all look to you,

to give them their food in due season.

28  When you give it to them, they gather it up;

when you open your hand, they are filled with good things.

English Standard Version Psalm 104

33  I will sing to the LORD as long as I live;

I will sing praise to my God while I have being.

34  May my meditation be pleasing to him,

for I rejoice in the LORD.