Genesis 1:6-25

Creational Kingdoms and Creational Kings

Introduction

Issue of creation under attack

Assumption of secularism

Big bang

Evolution

Scientific process issue with “theories”

Clear response of Scripture

God exists

God creates

God is involved

God is eternal

God is Word and Spirit (Triune)

Therefore, God deserves our worship

We are subordinate to Creator

Main points

Creational kingdoms (vv. 6-13)

Creational kings (vv. 14-25)

Creational kingdoms (vv. 6-13)

Day 2 (vv. 6-8)

God says

Declares, it happens

Creating by Word, through Word

Expanse

Unsure exactly what this could refer to

Separation between waters below and above

Options

Phenomenological

Like “sun setting”

Taken from our perspective

Rain/clouds above versus water below

Primordial expanse of waters

Ken Ham/Creation museum/despite opinions

Water atmosphere

Creates greenhouse effect

Prevents radiation harm from sun

Allows better climate for man

Waters from heavens were released during flood

Scriptural proofs for greenhouse-like expanse

Genesis 7:11 “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.”

Unimportant to know specifics

Not needed

Both options above are convincing and could be combination of both

God “made”

Now, God is using his preexistent materials after creating ex nihilo

Different than Gen 1.1.

“God called the expanse Heaven”

Naming = authority, important in creation account

Heaven = skies above, visible

Not invisible Heaven

Psalm 19:1 “The heavens declare the glory of God, and the sky above proclaims his handiwork.”

Reminder that all things are within God’s control

What comes from “sky”?

Clouds, weather, thunder, etc.

All acts of nature are God’s sovereign control

Not a product of random molecular processes

Not molecular fatalism, necessary deduction from atheism

Separation of waters would be an important aspect to redemptive history

Water by submersion = judgment

Flood narrative, only God’s people saved not by submersion

Red Sea, only God’s people saved not by submersion

Water as cleansing

Water of God’s creation used to clean temple items

Water as type of redemption

JtB ministry of forerunner for Christ, repentance

Christ’s baptism better

Water as covenant sign/seal in NT

Supersedes circumcision

Given to all, not only males

Representative of the promise received by faith

Acts 2:39 “For the promise is for you and for your children and for all who are far off, everyone whom the Lord our God calls to himself.””

God’s creation is orderly and significant

Day 3, vv. 9-13

Final naming sequence

Leaves naming of animals to his special act of creation, man

Since man was to have dominion/authority over them

Separating Sea and Ground

Act of God’s sovereign control

Even over the waves and the depths of ocean

Identified in Christ

Sea as a place of chaos to Israelites

Jonah’s narrative

To go to the sea meant doom

Mark 4:35–41 “On that day, when evening had come, he said to them, “Let us go across to the other side.” And leaving the crowd, they took him with them in the boat, just as he was. And other boats were with him. And a great windstorm arose, and the waves were breaking into the boat, so that the boat was already filling. But he was in the stern, asleep on the cushion. And they woke him and said to him, “Teacher, do you not care that we are perishing?” And he awoke and rebuked the wind and said to the sea, “Peace! Be still!” And the wind ceased, and there was a great calm. He said to them, “Why are you so afraid? Have you still no faith?” And they were filled with great fear and said to one another, “Who then is this, that even the wind and the sea obey him?””

Sovereign over earthquakes, cataclysms, etc.

Once again, naming/assigning = authority

Special addition in Day 3 w/ creation of vegetation

Food for man and beast alike

“according to their kinds”

Various species of plants, fruits, vegetables

Fits well with scientific discovery

Anticipation of seed theology

Related heavily to procreation and promised Redeemer

Plants as a reminder of Edenic paradise

Always serves as a reminder

We see after the fall the death and growth of plants

Spring is a wonderful season, reminds us of creation and growth

Temple/tabernacle was decorated with Edenic imagery, i.e. plants

Creation always serves a reminder of where we came from, where we are, and where we are going.

[Application]

God is a sustainer

Psalm 73:26 “My flesh and my heart may fail, but God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever.”

God is a provider

Matthew 6:25ff ““Therefore I tell you, do not be anxious about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink, nor about your body, what you will put on. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothing? Look at the birds of the air: they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they? And which of you by being anxious can add a single hour to his span of life? And why are you anxious about clothing? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow: they neither toil nor spin, yet I tell you, even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these. But if God so clothes the grass of the field, which today is alive and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, will he not much more clothe you, O you of little faith? Therefore do not be anxious, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ For the Gentiles seek after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need…”

God is ruler over all

Therefore, God deserves our worship/praise

Creational kings (vv. 14-25)

Day 4 (vv. 14-19)

Apologetic against pagan astral deities

These are created things, not sovereign themselves

They are not eternal

They can be destroyed just as they were created

Mesopotamian and Egyptian religions speak of their great cosmic gods of Heaven, Air, and Earth.

The Sumerians have their Anu, Enlil, and Enki

the Babylonians have their trinity of stars, Sin, Shamash, and Ishtar

Egypt has Nut, Shu, and Geb with the preeminent astral deity, the sun god Re.

Genesis declares otherwise: Israel’s God rules the heavens and the earth.

The ancients misinterpreted the prominence of the celestial bodies, which owed their existence and authority to the Unseen One

Idolatrous worship of these yielded judgment

Deuteronomy 17:2–5 ““If there is found among you, within any of your towns that the Lord your God is giving you, a man or woman who does what is evil in the sight of the Lord your God, in transgressing his covenant, and has gone and served other gods and worshiped them, or the sun or the moon or any of the host of heaven, which I have forbidden, and it is told you and you hear of it, then you shall inquire diligently, and if it is true and certain that such an abomination has been done in Israel, then you shall bring out to your gates that man or woman who has done this evil thing, and you shall stone that man or woman to death with stones.”

We should not worship sun, moon, stars

Horoscopes

Comedian who made point of people assuming based on what it says

Day 5 (vv. 20-23)

Our favorite critters

Filling the kingdom of the sky and water

Back to act of “creation”

God created, out of nothing

According to their kinds

Issue of evolution

Species coming from different DNA patterns, species

PKMN game analogy

Cannot have frog species evolve into dog species

DNA does not match up, hence you cannot reproduce the two

Microevolution = biblical

Adaptations within each “kind”

“Dog” kind and “Cat” kind

Wolves, bears, lions, tigers, etc.

God’s special blessing of procreation

Favored position before the Lord

God speaks to them, declaring/decreeing their right to procreation

Day 6 (vv. 24-25)

Stopping short of man, God’s pinnacle of creation

Terrestrial kings in a terrestrial kingdom

The Creator makes creators

Set of three

Domesticated cattle

Crawling animals

Wild animals

God’s act of creation in animals sets man up for atonement

These created things would be the very animals that would be severed in two in God’s covenant w/ Abraham

Created things would be used as atonement for sin

Lamb, goat, turtle dove, etc.

Purposefully coming short of creation of man

Important aspects of application w/r/t creation

Application

Creation is a starting point for knowing God exists

Natural/general revelation

Light of nature reveals the truth that God exists

Arguments for existence of God

Aquinas

First way: Motion

If there was no “first mover” than nothing could have been in motion

Newton’s first law

Had to be an initial “first mover”

Second way: efficient cause

If A is efficient cause of B, then the absence of A means no B

A = God, B = cretaion

God is the first cause of all things

Third way: Possibility and necessity

“It is impossible for [contingent beings] always to exist, for that which can not-be at some time is not.”

God is a necessary being

Fourth way: Gradation

Idea of “most good”

Some things are better than others

There must be an ultimate good, i.e. God

Fifth way: Design

Watchmaker

Issue

This part of creation alone leaves man without excuse

Romans 1:18 “For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who by their unrighteousness suppress the truth.”

That means you are without excuse

Moral law speaks to the knowledge of God

Man attempts to worship created thing

We worship Darwin, Kant, Nietsche

No true atheist, everyone holds to something by faith

Where is your source of hope apart from creator?

Self?

I’m rx therefore I will be fine

I’m not as bad as x, y, z

Knowing right from wrong is anti-evolutionary

Altruism, empathy are not a survival of the fittest

They are weakness

And that very weakness is the starting point that God uses to raise up those who are strong in Christ

Gospel door is always open

Creation is a source of rejoicing and delight for the creator

Creation is a source of comfort, knowing God is sovereign

Shows God’s continued care

Common grace (jumping to Gen 9 later)

Creation is a source of joy

Getting away from technology

Fesko book on this?

Creation is a source of anticipation

New creation

Glorificaiton

Always thinking heavenward