Forming the Earth (SLIDE 1)

Genesis Trilogy  •  Sermon  •  Submitted   •  Presented
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Introduction (SLIDE 2)

I want to talk about a book...Our Privileged Planet by Gonzalez and Richards
This book makes the argument that not only is our planet uniquely designed for life. The place we occupy is unique in our ability to observe and study the universe around us.
“There’s no obvious reason to assume that the very same rare properties that allow for our existence would also provide the best overall setting to make discoveries about the world around us. We don’t think this is merely coincidental. It cries out for another explanation, an explanation that… points to purpose and intelligent design in the cosmos.”
Here is one really cool example from their book about why we can experiences eclipses.
The Moon is about 400 times smaller than the Sun, but also about 400 times closer to Earth. This “coincidence” produces the nearly perfect fit during an eclipse. Scientific benefits: Total eclipses have allowed us to make major discoveries, like: confirming Einstein’s General Relativity (1919, observing starlight bending near the Sun’s edge), studying the Sun’s corona and chromosphere, learning about solar composition and dynamics.
This reminds us of what Moses is laboring to demonstrate to us in Genesis. God’s creative activity has everything to do with forming an earth with humanity in mind — to facilitate humanity’s purpose. Creation is tailor-made for us to fulfill God’s purposes.
God tailor-made the earth for our purpose — knowing Him and enjoying His world with Him.
MAIN IDEA: This brings us to our passage today, Genesis 1:3-25. Today we are presented with a framework for understanding the world God made. This framework will reveal to us our Creator-Redeemer, how He is making a world of order, life, and movement as a tailor-made gift for humanity, how His acts of creation are for place-making and purpose-giving, and how the structure of the account ushers us us toward the culmination found in day six and seven. This tailor-made world was given to us as a good gift — and to be a blessing to humanity as we were to fulfill our purpose given to us by God. The text will present us with our Creator-Redeemer SCC, how will we respond? Let’s dive in.

Genesis 1 Overview (SLIDE 3)

Pastor Ben did a great job reminding us that we need to start with the right questions when approaching this text. If we start in the wrong place, with the wrong questions, we will end in the wrong place. Everything will be affected and we will miss the mark. What is this text primarily aimed at? Pastor Ben said it so well — This text is primarily concerned with the who and why of creation — not the what and how.
We need to spend some time laying some ground work to engage our text well.
Our text continues where it started in vs. 1-2 started. To tell us who God is, what kind of world it is in relation to Him, and for what purpose this world exists.
Whenever we approach the Scriptures there are questions we need to be asking.
Remember: Questions were interested in asking as believers on this side of Jesus wrestling with Genesis 1:3-25 — (SLIDE 4)
What is God saying to the original audience?
How does this text point us to Jesus and the hope of the gospel?
What is God saying to us through this text to draw us closer to Him? The word of God always calls for response.
TRANSITION: Today we are going to labor to understand what the text was saying to the original audience before wrestling with the other two questions. So, let’s begin that task.
What is this text saying to the original audience?
What we will see our text toward… (SLIDE 5)
Remember — the who the why.
The first WHO: We will see God as Creator-Redeemer and this is a theme that develops throughout the whole book of Genesis. (WHO)
Israel knew their God as redeemer — now they will see their Creator-Redeemer. The one true God is the only God — who made all things.
We will see that God is the source of all of creation and that His creation is filled with purpose, order, and intention. (WHO AND WHY)
This reminds Israel that the God who called them out of Egypt has a purpose for them — because He gave this world and them purpose.
We will see that God differs from all other conceptions of gods/godesses in the context around them. This God is holy and distinct. (WHO)
Israel’s God is Holy — the Great I Am.
Israel will see what is God doing. God is forming and filling the earth with purpose.
This God creates a place of order, life, and movement to ensure humanity’s flourishing and ability to relate to God. (WHY)
This creation is an act of place-making and purpose-giving for us. (WHY)
As this text moves beyond this week we will see this place-making and purpose-giving as tailor-made for us to relate, obey, enjoy, and worship the God who will dwell among us as King. (WHY)
These are the big themes that Israel would be picking up on as they encountered this account.
TRANSITION: With those things in mind lets make some structural observations of Genesis 1:3-25.

Structural Observations (SLIDE 6)

What do I mean by structural observations. What I mean by that is the way the text is crafted also helps us understand the author’s intent. So, lets take a look. We will not be able to study or note everything. I have chosen to highlight a few of the most important elements to understand and engage the text. Let’s begin.
First, this passage has 8 Acts of Creation inside of 6 Days of Creation.
Lets make some brief comments on “day”.
Many have wondered what the word translated day (yom) means. How long?
This seems natural to ask and debate if one is trying to reconcile this account with modern science.
Yet, this question and answer is secondary to the primary goal of this text. This is not a science textbook primarily answering our modern scientific questions. This account is not primarily aimed at the what and how of creation. The primary purpose of the text is to speak of the who and why of creation.
So how does day function here? Why does day matter for the original audience? The literary construction and use of “day” is intended to communicate a period when God does creative acts — and likely the Israelites would have understood each day as a 12-24 hour period. The focus is on God and what He is doing in these acts. And even if this is understood as 12-24 hour periods it does not settle or answer questions like the age of the earth. Why? Because the text is not seeking to answer those questions.
So now lets move back to the greater structure of the passage.
These days are divided into two sets of 3 days in parallel . This is intentional. In fact this account is almost poetic.
We will see days 1-4, 2-5, and 3-6 deal with the same realms of creation. There is a movement — initially going from unproductive to productive and then uninhabited to habited.
This construction helps us to see that God is about place-making and purpose-giving for the benefit of humanity.
The construction points out the differences between the one true God and the false gods of the cultures around them. This account stands out in a variety of ways from the other pagan creation myths. We will note a few of those differences as we go. The similarities are far outweighed by the incredible differences in this account. This demonstrates the holiness of beauty of our God.
Another feature of this account is that it is given as if you were standing on earth watching it happen. What would you see first, second, etc.
These features help us understand the WHO and the WHY of creation
When we encounter each day we see a general structure.
Each day has a general structure to God’s creative acts: (SLIDE 7)
God Said - The Divine Speech-Act
Command Given
Fact of Creation
God’s Evaluation
The boundaries of the created element
The Naming of It
All of these have significance and we cannot speak to all of it.
A few things to note: God’s speech act, God’s evaluation, God’s authority in boundaries/naming.
This creation account not only reveals our true origin story it challenges other accounts found in the ANE. It does this by utilizing some similar categories and understood elements in other creation accounts — yet the differences are stark and clear. Setting up a transcendent, holy, and beautiful Creator God.
TRANSITION: Lets walk through the days and take note of how God has formed the earth with to be tailor-made for humanity’s purpose.

Days(Unproductive/Productive - Uninhabited/Inhabited (SLIDE 8)

Day 1 - 4 (Light/Darkness - Luminaries)
Day 2 - 5 (Sky/Waters - Fish/Fowl)
Day 3 - 6 (Land/Seas - Humanity/Animals)

Day 1

And God said, “Let there be light,” and there was light. 4 God saw that the light was good, and he 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.

Let There Be Light — These famous opening words are beautiful, and powerful, and create a powerful metaphor for the gospel. Paul uses this very act as a metaphor for the gospel. We will revisit this later. Here, the God of Light has brought fundamental order, life, and movement into His world. This powerful act of creation — Light — becomes at least an analogy and often an actual experience of God’s glory throughout the Bible.
Psalm 104:2 “The Lord wraps himself in light as with a garment; he stretches out the heavens like a tent”
Exodus 24:17 “To the Israelites the glory of the Lord looked like a consuming fire on top of the mountain.”
How would Israel see the significance of God ushering in light into the darkness — day and night into creation?
God’s radiant divine presence & God’s fundamental order-bringing work.
Israel would have experienced various expressions of God’s glory through light.
They would have thought about their own experiences of God in their midst.
They would have also understood that God in this first day brought His fundamental order and the most necessary part of life and flourishing — day and night — TIME. This light brings fundamental order to our world. For life, order, and movement to occur we must have this light. God is the source of order, goodness, and all that is right about our world.
God says that it was good. This pattern sets the stage. All that God does and creates is good.

Day 2

And God said, “Let there be a vault between the waters to separate water from water.” 7 So God made the vault and separated the water under the vault from the water above it. And it was so. 8 God called the vault “sky.” And there was evening, and there was morning—the second day.

Vault means sky or expanse.
God sets the boundaries of the sky. God created a divide between what is below and what is above.
God continues His purpose in making a place that is habitable rather than inhabitable.
In other pagan creation accounts and worldviews the skies were understood as the place where the gods rule. Here God rules this space — not any other gods. God is not in the sky or wrestling for control over other gods — He rules the sky.
Psalm 68:4 “Sing to God, sing in praise of his name, extol him who rides on the clouds; rejoice before him—his name is the Lord.”
Here is an example of how much Genesis differs from the creation myths of the cultures around them. In a Babylonian creation myth, the god Marduk created the sky out of the dead body of the goddess Tiamat. He literally tears her in half. Violence is a key part of the other creation myths. Violence and conflict. There is no presence of that here. This is a clean, beautiful, and orderly creation. God creates a collective cosmos of order as a free, and rational God, in total control over His creation through speech-act.
Israel’s Creator-Redeemer has no rival in the skies.

Day 3

And God said, “Let the water under the sky be gathered to one place, and let dry ground appear.” And it was so. 10 God called the dry ground “land,” and the gathered waters he called “seas.” And God saw that it was good.

11 Then God said, “Let the land produce vegetation: seed-bearing plants and trees on the land that bear fruit with seed in it, according to their various kinds.” And it was so. 12 The land produced vegetation: plants bearing seed according to their kinds and trees bearing fruit with seed in it according to their kinds. And God saw that it was good. 13 And there was evening, and there was morning—the third day.

Here we see God creating places for humans, animals, and vegetation to grow.
This separation (seas, rivers etc) was essential to ancient life. Water and access to it provided life and sustained people in their living.
Here we see God designing a place for humanity.
This days has a second act of creation. The earth is now productive. Here we see God creating and fulfilling His purposes through secondary creative acts.
No “Mother Earth” here as God is the one who made and gives the life it has.

Day 4

Now the pairing begins — we go back to the skies.

And God said, “Let there be lights in the vault of the sky to separate the day from the night, and let them serve as signs to mark sacred times, and days and years, 15 and let them be lights in the vault of the sky to give light on the earth.” And it was so. 16 God made two great lights—the greater light to govern the day and the lesser light to govern the night. He also made the stars. 17 God set them in the vault of the sky to give light on the earth, 18 to govern the day and the night, and to separate light from darkness. And God saw that it was good. 19 And there was evening, and there was morning—the fourth day.

A significant day in terms of detail and length. We return to the skies for more order-bringing, life-giving, purpose-creating activity.
God is now filling creation with life and movement — in such a way that benefits humans. Further order is brought to His world. This order is significant.
The planets, sun, and moon operate as things that “govern” the skies. They govern in the sense that they dictate seasons. Humanity’s calendar is created. Israel would have understood this in relationship to their own lives but also — in the new Law they were given they understood God’s care for time, season, and the purposes in that.
Time becomes sacred and important. And, God designed these bodies in such a way to serve humanity.
Just like in day 1 - time is the focus here — time as governed by these luminaries becomes sacred, purposeful, and for humanity.
We also see the continued correction and “answer” to pagan falsehood. The sun, moon, and celestial bodies were seen as gods. These are not gods but simply bodies in the sky that serve God’s purpose for humanity. Do not compare God to the sun and moon.

Day 5

Now we return to the seas.

And God said, “Let the water teem with living creatures, and let birds fly above the earth across the vault of the sky.” 21 So God created the great creatures of the sea and every living thing with which the water teems and that moves about in it, according to their kinds, and every winged bird according to its kind. And God saw that it was good. 22 God blessed them and said, “Be fruitful and increase in number and fill the water in the seas, and let the birds increase on the earth.” 23 And there was evening, and there was morning—the fifth day.

God fills the sky and waters from day two with unique life. This a gift to humanity that points to God’s creativity and glory as Creator-Redeemer.
Not only are these good but God “blesses” them.
God’s blessing is connected to this act of filling this formed earth. For His creation to multiply in accordance to His design.
In pagan creation myth and imagery the great sea creatures were at least representative of dangerous and chaotic monsters that were a threat to humanity. They are not a threat to humanity but a gift. Not a threat but blessed.
So, here we see again that God has dominion over the sea, it’s creatures, and is the Lord over them.
Blessing appears in our text and links to a theme in Genesis — to the salvific-covenantal blessings that God would give to His people. We see the first hints of it here — reminding God’s people that they are blessed as they multiply and grow the family of God.
We also see here a special place given to these creatures as ones who are elevated above the vegetation and the other non-living elements of creation like celestial bodies etc. This theme of elevation is repeated in the elevation of humanity over all of creation.

Day 6 - Part 1

Now we return to the land and filling the land for the benefit of humanity.

And God said, “Let the land produce living creatures according to their kinds: the livestock, the creatures that move along the ground, and the wild animals, each according to its kind.” And it was so. 25 God made the wild animals according to their kinds, the livestock according to their kinds, and all the creatures that move along the ground according to their kinds. And God saw that it was good.

This day is going to be handled in two parts. This week we focus on the land animals. Next week will focus on the creation of humanity.
Here we have the further expansion of living things filling the earth. The land from day three. Animals, livestock and those that fill the earth are given place and purpose. This would be the backbone of life in Israel and life in God’s world.
This text concludes a world made tailor-made for humanity. This prepares us for the culmination of God’s creative works — humanity.
As we can see this moves us toward a world, a cosmos, fit for humanity. Filled with good gifts from our Creator-Redeemer.
It sets the stage for us to see the culmination of this place-making and purpose-giving from God.
ORIGINAL AUDIENCE: In summary — Israel would have heard a framework for understanding their God, their world, and their identity. Their worldview — their who and why — would have been answered. They would have seen that their Redeemer is also the Creator of all things with no rivals. That this creation is a good gift from God. That their God brings true order and purpose over all things. He did this through speech-act which is radically different from the other gods. Showing His total mastery and sovereignty. Finally, this ordered world was not just for God but shared with and for them. It was tailor-made for them so that they could be blessed in it as they resided with God and carried out His call on their lives.
TRANSITION: So what does God have for us in this text? We have wrestled with how Israel would have understood it. How does this point us to Jesus and what is God saying to us through it?

God of Light Forming the Earth (SLIDE 9)

Genesis asks us to look backward with Israel to see who and why the world was formed.
Yet we are blessed to not just look backward but to look forward in God’s story at Jesus. How does this account point us to Jesus? This creation account calls us forward as a beautiful illustration of the gospel.
We look forward and see not just a God bringing light and order in creation but the same God shining the light of glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ into a broken and world becoming darker than ever.
In Genesis creation begins with light shining into darkness. In the gospel — God starts a new beginning — with the true light of God, Jesus Christ, shining brightly in a dark world. Bringing order amidst the chaos of our sin.
The Apostle John picks up on this in 1 John and in his gospel John 1.

That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked at and our hands have touched—this we proclaim concerning the Word of life. 2 The life appeared; we have seen it and testify to it, and we proclaim to you the eternal life, which was with the Father and has appeared to us. 3 We proclaim to you what we have seen and heard, so that you also may have fellowship with us. And our fellowship is with the Father and with his Son, Jesus Christ. 4 We write this to make our joy complete.

5 This is the message we have heard from him and declare to you: God is light; in him there is no darkness at all

Jesus — the true light of our triune God has shone.
The gospel restores the intention of creation. God the Creator-Redeemer restores what was lost in Genesis 3. Paul captures this idea beautifully when he says in 2 Cor. 4...

For what we preach is not ourselves, but Jesus Christ as Lord, and ourselves as your servants for Jesus’ sake. 6 For God, who said, “Let light shine out of darkness,” t made his light shine in our hearts to give us the light of the knowledge of God’s glory displayed in the face of Christ.

The gospel restores that which was lost because of our sin. (SLIDE 10)
Worship team you can come up.
God came into a world that rejected Him as Creator. He acted in history and throughout history. Working toward the culmination of His work — the sending of Himself in the person and work of Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ came to conquer our sin which brought such disorder and evil into creation and into us — so that we can experience, enjoy, obey, worship, and rule on behalf of our Creator-Redeemer-King.
Through the life, death, resurrection, and ascension of Jesus the new creation has come. A new beginning has begun. A new light has shone.
How do we find and join this restoration? This work of new creation? Like Paul said — the glory of God shining into our hearts and our response of faith to it.
Our faith joins us to Jesus Christ — the Light of the world.
Through our faith-union with Jesus Christ...
We are restored to God and made right in His eyes (who).
We experience new creation through the light of the gospel shining into our hearts — transforming us in the image of Jesus (why).
And one day — our Creator-Redeemer will finish His final act of Creation-Redemption by residing and resting in His creation with us. Ending all disorder and evil.
So what is God saying to us and how do we respond?
SCC
SCC - Jesus brings ultimate order. Let’s never forget that through Jesus our sin and disorder has been overcome. Our future has been secured. Our life is transformed now. And that we have a job to do fulfill filing God’s purposes for this world.
SCC - we are a people of hope. Our hope rests not only in a God who redeemed us but in the same God who is the source of all things. Our Creator-Redeemer is the source of our hope.
SCC - we are a people of unity. Like creation God is forming and filling a Church a diverse collective of people for His glory and His purposes. Lets be a place of gracious unity reflecting the unity and order of our Creator-Redeemer.
SCC - we are a people of self-giving love and grace. Creation was God’s first gift to us. God gave graciously of Himself in creation. That points us to the self-giving love of God in Jesus. Lets be a people of self-giving love and grace.
SCC - lets continue to live in submission to our Creator-God through His word. Do not be deceived by the messages of our world. Like Genesis critiques the pagan mythology of it’s day — lets be a people that see through the deception and falsehood of our time. Finding the truth resting in God and His word.
Unbelievers
For those that have not come to a saving faith in Jesus.
We all experience disorder, chaos, and brokenness because the world is not as it should be — separated from God, corrupted by sin. We see that heartache everyday. If you have not come back to your Creator-Redeemer — He calls you lovingly back to Him. Come to the great light, our Creator God who is also our Redeeming God.
In faith turn from your sin, the truest and darkest disorder, and run back to Jesus the true light and life. This is what the Bible calls repentance.
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