Genesis 1:1-5

In the Beginning

Introduction

Importance of creation narrative

Bavinck, “Creation is the initial act and foundation of all divine revelation and therefore the foundation of all religious and ethical life as well … God is the sole, unique, and absolute cause of all that exists.”

Foundation of religion

Understanding who our Creator is

His power, majesty, dominion

Ethical life

Later in 1.26-27, the pinnacle of creation in creating man

Ethical in how man is viewed as opposed to evolution

Answers the questions

Life and death

If we can’t trust Gen 1, how can we trust the rest

Miracles, supernatural

XN is supernatural

Author

Moses

Liberals argue Mosaic, or divine authority

Sufficiency of Scripture

2 Timothy 3:16–17 “All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, that the man of God may be complete, equipped for every good work.”

2 Peter 1:19–21 “And we have the prophetic word more fully confirmed, to which you will do well to pay attention as to a lamp shining in a dark place, until the day dawns and the morning star rises in your hearts, knowing this first of all, that no prophecy of Scripture comes from someone’s own interpretation. For no prophecy was ever produced by the will of man, but men spoke from God as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit.”

Genesis outline

Primeval history 1-11

Patriarchal history 12-36

Providential history 37-50

Theme

Belcher, “The book of Genesis was written to show that Israel’s God is the sovereign Creator whose purpose to establish His covenant rule upon the earth will not be hindered by the sinfulness of humanity.”

God enters into covenant with man in garden, CW

God promises to redeem man in covenant in garden, CW

Promised Redeemer, remnant of God’s people, Noah, Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, etc.

Main points

God’s decree (vv. 1-2)

God’s declaration (vv. 3-4)

God’s dominion (v. 5)

God’s decree (vv. 1-2)

“beginning”

Creation of the starting point

“Heaven and earth have not existed from all eternity, but had a beginning; nor did they arise by emanation from an absolute substance, but were created by God”

Argue lack of def. article

Assume “in a beginning”

Doctrine of God (WSC 4)

[v. 1]

Fitting God is subject

Used 35 times in Gen 1

It is about him, not us

Name of God in Hb.

Important to know the shift until Gen 2, Covenant name

God is unique

Deserves to be praised

No other God beside him

Deuteronomy 4:39 “know therefore today, and lay it to your heart, that the Lord is God in heaven above and on the earth beneath; there is no other.”

God is personal

Involved in Creation

Continues to be involved

Colossians 1:16–17 “For by [Christ] him 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. And he is before all things, and in him all things hold together.”

Infinite

Not created

Eternal

Always was

John 1:1 “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.”

Unchangeable

God has created and maintains His creation

Was not an evolutionary process

“created”

Distinct act of God

God is not presented in Genesis 1 as a cosmic sculpture who in a human fashion, with preexisting material, produces a work of art, but as One who merely by speaking, by uttering a word of power, calls all things into being.”

Everything has been created by Him

Exists only by His will, Revelation 4:11 ““Worthy are you, our Lord and God, to receive glory and honor and power, for you created all things, and by your will they existed and were created.””

is of him, through him, and to him, Romans 11:36 “For from him and through him and to him are all things. To him be glory forever. Amen.”

From ברא, (bara,)

Refers to initial act

Not יצר, (yatsar,)

In forming/fashioning out of preexistent material, as with man

Created ex nihilo

As proved in Scripture

John 1:3 “All things were made through him, and without him was not any thing made that was made.”

Hebrews 11:3 “By faith we understand that the universe was created by the word of God, so that what is seen was not made out of things that are visible.”

2 Peter 3:5 “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,”

Only God creates out of nothing

Non-matter cannot create matter

Nothing create something

Creation proves science

Law of Thermodynamics, order to chaos

Cannot have chaos to order to chaos

Created heavens and earth

Both were created, heaven is not eternally existent

Sin destroys God’s creation, earth

Anticipation for New Heavens and New Earth

No need for creational aspects, something better

Revelation 21:1 “Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and the sea was no more.”

Revelation 21:25 “and its gates will never be shut by day—and there will be no night there.”

[v. 2]

Gap theory places separation b/w v. 1 and 2

Allows for scientific discovery

No indication from the text

without “form” and “void”

Creational triad builds off of these words

Kingdom days 1-3

Kings days 4-6

1/4 - Light and luminaries

2/5 - Sky/water and fish/birds

3/6 - land/vegetation and animals/man

Purposeful creation

Creation has meaning, life has meaning, orderliness

IF God created, he sustains it

We are not left to fend for ourselves

Not starting a process of evolution

Formless - parallel w/ uninhabitable

Deut 32.10, a “howling waste of the wilderness”

Void - empty, uninhabited

Creation serves a purpose to take that which is uninhabitable and empty with fulfillment and meaning

“darkness was over the face of the deep”

Darkness is not

menacing evil, or primordial threat as in ANE creation accounts

Not eternal

God demonstrates authority over darkness by naming it (v. 5)

Mass of indistinguishable characteristics

No light to shine upon it

No plants to cloth it

No mountains to give it density

No animals to give it movement

Absence of light, yet God does create darkness

Isaiah 45:7 “I form light and create darkness; I make well-being and create calamity; I am the Lord, who does all these things.”

Unordered abyss of nothing

“Spirit of God hovering”

Importance of Spirit

Active in creation, hovering

Breathing life into man

Psalm 33:6 “By the word of the Lord the heavens were made, and by the breath of his mouth all their host.”

Gives life

Job 33:4 “The Spirit of God has made me, and the breath of the Almighty gives me life.”

Psalm 104:30 “When you send forth your Spirit, they are created, and you renew the face of the ground.”

Active in Christ’s birth

Luke 1:35 “And the angel answered her, “The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you; therefore the child to be born will be called holy—the Son of God.”

Active in Christ’s ministry/temptation

Matthew 4:1 “Then Jesus was led up by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil.”

Sustaining Christ in wilderness

Active in Church

Ephesians 2:22 “In him you also are being built together into a dwelling place for God by the Spirit.”

Spirit active in beginning and continues activity

Through Spirit, God was sovereignly superintending all that happens in creation

Hovering - eagle-like containing of earth

Song of Moses

Proclamation of God’s presence with His people

Deuteronomy 32:11 “Like an eagle that stirs up its nest, that flutters over its young, spreading out its wings, catching them, bearing them on its pinions,”

God’s declaration (vv. 3-4)

These eight specific commands, calling all things into being, leave no room for notions of a universe that is self-existent, or struggled for, or random, or a divine emanation

Pattern reflected in creation

God declares - God speaks - action happens - God names

God’s declaring creation through the Word

Jesus our Lord is active

John 1:3 “All things were made through him, and without him was not any thing made that was made.”

Through the Son, all things are created, through the Word

Hebrews 1:3 “He is the radiance of the glory of God and the exact imprint of his nature, and he upholds the universe by the word of his power. After making purification for sins, he sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high,”

However, Son and Spirit are not secondary forces God uses, rather, independent authors who with the Father carry out the work of creation, as they constitute one true God (cf. RD 2:421)

“light”

All of God’s creation takes place within the light

Light radiated from God’s glory

Habakkuk 3:3–4 “ His splendor covered the heavens, and the earth was full of his praise. His brightness was like the light; rays flashed from his hand; and there he veiled his power.”

A radiant reflection of the Son

John 1:6–9 “There was a man sent from God, whose name was John. He came as a witness, to bear witness about the light, that all might believe through him. He was not the light, but came to bear witness about the light. The true light, which gives light to everyone, was coming into the world.”

God’s light reveals and conceals

Reveals the darkness, sin

Conceals His glory

Allusion to 2 Cor 4.1ff wrt Moses veiled

Tabernacle, Jesus dwelling John 1.14, and vv. 17-18

“light was good”

Everything God does is good

James 1:17 “Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation or shadow due to change.”

God is the one who determines what is good, judging His creation to be good

“separated”

Not as much to pull apart, but to assign each part its respective sphere/slot

Gen 1 is all about creation via separation, assignment

Beauty of marriage covenant as first creational act of combining

God’s dominion (v. 5)

Naming = authority over creation

It is His realm/His dominion

Extent of His creation

Both day and night

Common creational refrain “evening/morning x day”

Arguments against 6-day creation

Or literal

Day is indefinite in Genesis “day one” / “day second” / etc.

Interpretive problems

Augustine = instant creation

Others interpret allegorical

Day-age

Framework, non-literal

Scripture speaks of literal 24-hr days elsewhere

Sabbath command

Controversial text in modern Christianity

Assumption that Jesus is Lord over Sabbath therefore do not partake of Sabbath

Framed as normative, regular practice

Highlights creational week

Exodus 20:10–11 “but the seventh day is a Sabbath to the Lord your God. On it you shall not do any work, you, or your son, or your daughter, your male servant, or your female servant, or your livestock, or the sojourner who is within your gates. For in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that is in them, and rested on the seventh day. Therefore the Lord blessed the Sabbath day and made it holy.”

God established normative pattern and worked within this framework

Application

God’s act of creation strengthens our faith

Back to Hebrews 11:3 “By faith we understand that the universe was created by the word of God, so that what is seen was not made out of things that are visible.”

HS as inward witness in our faith

God’s act of creation strengthens our trust in Him

Mat 6.25-33 as a ref.

Providence

God’s act of creation is a source of consolation in suffering

Romans 8:28 “And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose.”

God is mighty in creation, God is mighty in suffering

God’s Spirit provides

God’s Spirit proverbially hovers over us, contains the chaos and sin

God’s act of creation is a source of doxology and praise

God’s love for His people predates creation

Ephesians 1:4 “even as he chose us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before him. In love”

John 17:24 “Father, I desire that they also, whom you have given me, may be with me where I am, to see my glory that you have given me because you loved me before the foundation of the world.”

Divine mystery which deserves our praise

Romans 11:33–36 “Oh, the depth of the riches and wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are his judgments and how inscrutable his ways! “For who has known the mind of the Lord, or who has been his counselor?” “Or who has given a gift to him that he might be repaid?” For from him and through him and to him are all things. To him be glory forever. Amen.”

God’s act of creation is a source of our humility and meekness before Him

How insignificant are we before God?

Who are you O man?

God gives and takes away

Yet, this Creator calls us to Himself

This Creator in fact creates in us new life through JC