It Was Good
Genesis • Sermon • Submitted • Presented
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So Far We Have Seen:
So Far We Have Seen:
1 In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth.
God exists and reveals Himself as Almighty Creator through creation.
He is the only God, totally separate and “other than” all else which He has made.
He is omnipotent, all-powerful, and all He wills and declares shall be accomplished.
He is possessor of all He has made and worthy of all praise.
Today:
Today:
The days of creation...
God’s Forming
God’s Filling
God’s Finding
Text
Text
1 In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth. 2 The earth was without form and void, and darkness was over the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God was hovering over the face of the waters. 3 And God said, “Let there be light,” and there was light. 4 And God saw that the light was good. And God separated the light from the darkness. 5 God called the light Day, and the darkness he called Night. And there was evening and there was morning, the first day. 6 And God said, “Let there be an expanse in the midst of the waters, and let it separate the waters from the waters.” 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. 8 And God called the expanse Heaven. And there was evening and there was morning, the second day. 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. 10 God called the dry land Earth, and the waters that were gathered together he called Seas. And God saw that it was good. 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. 12 The earth brought forth vegetation, plants yielding seed according to their own kinds, and trees bearing fruit in which is their seed, each according to its kind. And God saw that it was good. 13 And there was evening and there was morning, the third day. 14 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, 15 and let them be lights in the expanse of the heavens to give light upon the earth.” And it was so. 16 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. 17 And God set them in the expanse of the heavens to give light on the earth, 18 to rule over the day and over the night, and to separate the light from the darkness. And God saw that it was good. 19 And there was evening and there was morning, the fourth day. 20 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.” 21 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. 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 And there was evening and there was morning, the fifth day. 24 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. 25 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. 26 Then 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 birds of the heavens and over the livestock and 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 And God blessed them. And God said 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.” 29 And God said, “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. 30 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.” And it was so. 31 And God saw everything that he had made, and behold, it was very good. And there was evening and there was morning, the sixth day.
Prayer
Prayer
Prolegomena
Prolegomena
Modern Issues:
There is a tendency in the study of Genesis 1 for scholars to insist that we should not expect it to teach science but only theology. Saint Augustine is quoted in support, saying that in Genesis God “wanted to make Christians, not mathematicians.” The problem with this emphasis is noted by E. J. Young: “Inasmuch as the Bible is the Word of God, whenever it speaks on any subject, whatever that subject may be, it is accurate in what it says. The Bible may not have been given to teach science as such, but it does teach about the origin of all things.” This being the case, Herman Bavinck urges that when the Bible “speaks about the origin of heaven and earth, . . . [it] deserves faith and trust. And for that reason, Christian theology, with but few exceptions, has held fast to the literal, historical view of the account of creation.”
Proofs:
Genre - Historical Prose, though complex is basically the same as the rest of Genesis.
Grammatically - The structure follows the rest of Scripture for literal event sequencing.
Numbered Days - ordinal number + yom (day) always equals sequential ordinary days.
Temporal Context - Every day is framed in a day/night cycle.
Scriptural references - Scripture refers to the creation story as historically literal.
Daily Structure:
Narrator and God
Week Framework:
Kingdoms and their Rulers
Disordered and Desolate
Previously “without form and void” or NIV “formless (tohu) and empty (bohu)”
Antonym to “heaven and the earth” as merismus like “alpha and omega”
Speaking into being by His Word
Creating “ex nihilo” before molding/making/shaping/separating
I. God’s Forming (vv. 3-13)
I. God’s Forming (vv. 3-13)
Light:
God said...and there was.
God separated (badal)...and they were.
God has made all things in their proper place, opposites as distinct and good.
It’s benefits...
Sprouting
Sight
Safety
Salvation
1 The Lord is my light and my salvation; whom shall I fear? The Lord is the stronghold of my life; of whom shall I be afraid?
24 The Lord bless you and keep you; 25 the Lord make his face to shine upon you and be gracious to you;
12 Again Jesus spoke to them, saying, “I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will not walk in darkness, but will have the light of life.”
Waters:
18 Can you, like him, spread out the skies, hard as a cast metal mirror?
11 In the six hundredth year of Noah’s life, in the second month, on the seventeenth day of the month, on that day all the fountains of the great deep burst forth, and the windows of the heavens were opened.
22 It is he who sits above the circle of the earth, and its inhabitants are like grasshoppers; who stretches out the heavens like a curtain, and spreads them like a tent to dwell in;
Raqia - expanse or firmament in verb form meaning “to stretch out”
Asah - made (the expanse), not create as previously stated of the waters
Couplets - Light and Dark, Day and Night, Sun and Moon, Male and Female, Life and Death, Good and Evil, Faith and Unbelief, Salvation and Damnation
Land:
5 For they deliberately overlook this fact, that the heavens existed long ago, and the earth was formed out of water and through water by the word of God,
We don’t exactly know how He did this?
8 The mountains rose, the valleys sank down to the place that you appointed for them.
Vegetation...yielding seed, and fruit with seed inside.
John Currid - “These two terms represent all agricultural and horticultural plant life” on earth.
Reproduction and Perpetuity
God has now formed the habitat for all of the inhabitants He will make next. There now exists something from nothing. God has created and ordered the cosmos. He has created a world to sustain and nurture life according to His good pleasure.
II. God’s Filling (vv. 14-31)
II. God’s Filling (vv. 14-31)
Light(s):
Two, appointed for...
Separation
Signaling
Shining
19 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.
1 Give thanks to the Lord, for he is good, for his steadfast love endures forever.
7 to him who made the great lights, for his steadfast love endures forever; 8 the sun to rule over the day, for his steadfast love endures forever; 9 the moon and stars to rule over the night, for his steadfast love endures forever;
Living Things:
Bara - “created” used here and 1:1, in the beginning
This is used only of God and again, ex nihilo
Nephesh - “living” as one that has a form of inner awareness as opposed to plant “life”
Sea then Sky Creatures
According to their kinds
Blessed to fruitfulness and multiplication
Land Creatures:
Animals
Livestock - domesticated for service
Creeping Things - on or under ground
Beasts - wild and free
According to their kinds...implying reproduction as with birds and fish before.
Not evolved, rather, designed for their intended places and purposes.
Man
Genesis is focused on God, but Calvin rightly states...
“God made everything with man in mind.”
He has made plenty of water and land, breathable atmosphere, plants for food, lights for time and seasons, now animals to roam and now man...the one who is made “in God’s likeness” as the one given responsibility of dominion and filling the earth, the object of God’s special love and redemption as we will come to see.
Male and Female He created them!
More to come next week...Lord willing!
III. God’s Finding (vv. 4, 10, 12, 18, 21, 25, 31)
III. God’s Finding (vv. 4, 10, 12, 18, 21, 25, 31)
“God saw that the light was good.
And God saw that it was good.
And God saw that it was good.
And God saw that it was good.
And God saw that it was good.
And God saw that it was good.
And God saw everything that He had made, and behold, it was very good.”
What is good?
Tov and Hennah Tov
Quality and Functionality - When something is properly designed and executing its purposes.
Being and doing as designed.
(Fuller picture next week.)
God as creator...
Defines - What it means for something to be good.
Determines - When something isn’t good, and its consequences.
Refusing materialism and pantheism...
Worship of the created thing apart from the creator.
Worship of the created thing as “one” with the creator.
Refusing asceticism and monasticism...
Removal from the creation (things or world) to focus to obtain greater holiness.
Creation Misunderstood
17 As for the rich in this present age, charge them not to be haughty, nor to set their hopes on the uncertainty of riches, but on God, who richly provides us with everything to enjoy.
1 Now the Spirit expressly says that in later times some will depart from the faith by devoting themselves to deceitful spirits and teachings of demons, 2 through the insincerity of liars whose consciences are seared, 3 who forbid marriage and require abstinence from foods that God created to be received with thanksgiving by those who believe and know the truth.
19 Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit,
9 I wrote to you in my letter not to associate with sexually immoral people— 10 not at all meaning the sexually immoral of this world, or the greedy and swindlers, or idolaters, since then you would need to go out of the world.
Conclusion
Conclusion
Creation is not good, as it first was...it has been corrupted by the fall.
As we will see in Genesis 3, all is now under a curse of enmity, pain, and sweat. We don’t live in the garden and life is filled with sin and strife. But there is One coming again who will put all things in order once again.
He is the Light of the world, and the light of salvation to all who believe...
6 For God, who said, “Let light shine out of darkness,” has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.
As we look to the creation story, we ought to see...
Only God is God.
Only God is sovereign.
Only God is judge of what is good.
Only God can redeem what is no longer good.
