Genesis 1-2

Study of biblical foundations; going through the high points of the bible to see the historical account of God’s redemptive work

How many of you would like to know scripture better?

If you could learn one thing about the bible or God while we go through the bible in the next year, what would it be?

We are going to look at the account of creation today.

I am going to go through the 6 days of creation and the day of rest which is covered in chapter 1.

In Chapter 2, we are going to look at the more detailed account of God creating man.

But as we go through it, we are going to see different foundational doctrines that we are given in these first 2 chapters

Main Point: God is the creator of all things but He has created man to be set apart as His image bearers for His Glory

Genesis is the first book of the Old Testament; written by Moses; wrote the first 5 books called the Pentateuch or the Torah

The book chronicles God’s creation, the falling into sin of man, man’s exile from the garden, God’s choosing of his people that he will set apart, and their eventual captivity to Egypt

Focus on the creation account today and will look at the fall of man next week.

Genesis 1:1–5 “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.”

God is the one who created the heavens and the earth. But he knew that there needed to be more than just that, so he didn’t stop there. He knew that there needed to be a source of light. But that if there was light all of the time, that it wouldn’t be good. So he separated light and dark in a 24 hour period. We call this day and night.

God displayed his power in the fact that he did all of this through word, through speaking. God created with his voice. There is power in words. We can create things with just our voice. We can create love and unity or we can create chaos and disunity. Words can be powerful.

Genesis 1:6–8 “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.”

On the second day, God separated outer space from the earth. When we look up, we see the sky. Thankfully, our eyes are limited and we can only see so far. But with technology, they have been able to explore such vast distances. God took the time to separate that and created this beautiful view that we have that is called the sky. The words that are used here refer to it as heaven. This is why when we think of heaven, we look upwards. It is a visual representation of God’s eternal kingdom.

On the third day, God took the land and water and separated it. This is how we got oceans and land mass. But he didn’t stop there. He took the land and made it bear things. He gave vegetation to the land. Natural growth of plants and trees. All over the earth. I think it is amazing to think of God as this gardener. He is the one who planted and made these plants grow.

It can be very hard to be someone who works to plant and harvest. There are some things that you can control and then other things that you have zero control over. This shows how God uses situations like this to grow us. This also shows us God’s sovereignty over all things. God, because he is all powerful and in charge of all things, is able to fill the earth with plants and make them grow. And he did it all with just speaking it. How amazing.

After this, on the fourth day, God created the sun, moon, and stars. He has given us light to see. He has placed stars in the distance for us to admire in the night sky. He has given us the moon which reflects the light of the sun for us at night for us to be able to see even at night. Because of this, we have separation between day and night. And because of how the earth rotates, we have distinctions in seasons. None of this can happen without an intelligent design. If we were any closer to the sun, we would be like fried potatoes. If we were further away, we would freeze to death. This does not happen on accident. God knew what he was doing when he spoke this to be.

And then, on the 5th day, God thought about me. God knew that I would love to go fishing so he made the sea creatures. Now, this includes more than fish. We have all kinds of animals in the water up to, but not including the Loch Ness monster. But then, he also made birds that day too.

I am sure that we would not be able to name all the birds that were created. So many different species. I feel sure that it did not include peacocks though. I am starting to believe that I am raising peacocks because my neighbor has them and they like to be free range and my yard is more fun I guess. But I am pretty sure that they are included in with cats as being created in hell.

But he didn’t just top there because the next day, God created all of the land animals. Again, thinking of me when he did it. He knew that David would love to eat meat. Deer, cows, pigs. All the good stuff. This is the 6th day when he is doing this.

Now God could have just stopped there. His creation was good. In fact, after he created each thing and each day, he himself declared it to be good. God could have stopped there and possible enjoyed himself in the midst of his creation for all of eternity. But he chose to create something else. He created humans.

Now this creation was much different than anything else. He did not have a template for anything else he created. But for man, God took his own image and created man to display that image. Part of the purpose of creating man was to rule over everything. To have dominion over all the animals that God had created.

Think of it like this, in the ancient world, rulers would display statues of themselves. You could go into an ancient city and look around and would quickly know who the ruler was because his image would be displayed. God is displaying for all of creation his rule by making his overseers in his image. We are the statues of God, we are the image bearers of God.

This is one of the main reasons that we put such an importance on life. The doctrine of being made in God’s image is what we call the imago dei, which means the image of God. We believe that every human being, from the womb to the tomb, has value because God has created each of us in his image. We are worth saving and protecting. Each person is important because God has created them.

When God created man, he named him Adam. Adam’s name is important because it means ground. God formed Adam from the ground. We see that in the second chapter of Genesis. God knew that Adam did not need to be alone, so he created a helper for him. God put Adam to sleep, took a rib, and created Eve. When Adam saw her, he called her woman because she came from man. But the name Eve means life-giver. And that is what women are, they are life-givers. Such a fitting name.

After this, God took time to rest. Rest is so important for us as people. Sometimes, we do and do and do so much and we wonder why we get to the point where we are just burnt out. And then we realize that we never rested. God has given us the example of this. He took time to rest.

This is the systematic development in the creation account. Chapter 1 of Genesis gives us a calendar almost of the events of creation.

Now there are some who believe that Genesis 1 and 2 are 2 different creation accounts. But what happens is there are 2 different focuses that we see. Chapter 1 focuses on God as the creator. But when we read chapter 2, we see God as more personal and relational. It goes into more detail about the creation account and focuses more on the creation of man.

When we read the bible, we need to understand that there are different styles of literature that happen. You can take chapter 2 here and read it more as a narrative. Taking an account and detailing and describing and putting pictures behind the words. Yes, we can read chapter 1 and be able to picture what God is doing. But when we get to chapter 2, we can close our eyes and let the story unfold as we hear what is going on.

We see the development begin. How God had created the land and saw how it was barren. So God planted a garden called Eden. And he knew that someone needed to tend to the garden. God took the dust from the earth and literally formed it into a body. But the body had no life. So God literally took his air and breathed life into Adam.

As the 2nd chapter continues, the author paints this picture of the garden. But then comes to the point where God wanted to give Adam a companion. So we get Eve. A beautiful story. And in this story, God has instituted a few things. He institutes gender and marriage. I know that we may have different views on this. But in the creation account, we see God create a man and a woman. And he declares them to be united together. And even then you may try to argue that is not what he is describing, but he is describing for us what a family looks like. A father, a mother, and children. The children grow up, leave their parents, and join together in marriage and separate themselves from the parents to begin their own family.

So let’s catch up.

God is sovereign

God is creator

God created man and woman

He has given humans dominion over everything else

humans are created in the image of God

Questions?

Now I want to shift to why this is important in redemptive history. This term here, “redemptive history”. Maybe you don’t really know what I mean when I say this. But this is the focus of this entire study of scripture. Redemptive history is God working through His story to redeem humanity and restore creation.

We see God work through scripture with what we call covenants. This is a promise from God to a certain people. It is usually and if/then promise. If you do this, then I will do this. In the first couple of chapters of Genesis, we have what you would call the creation covenant.

God has created man in his image. God has told them to be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and subdue it. But that wasn’t the only directive God gave them. He had shown Adam the garden and told him that he could eat from every tree in the garden except one. He pointed out the tree of the knowledge of good and evil and said that it was off limits. God declares to him that if he eats of it, then he will die. If/then.

We will get into that more next week. But we need to understand that God made a covenant with Adam. If you eat of the tree, then you will die. On the flip side, if you do not eat of the tree, then you are promised life.

The first 2 chapters of Genesis really highlight God as creator but also show us his loving character as well. He desires man to be happy both in creation and in a relationship with him. This is the foundation of redemptive history. From these events, we will see brick after brick be laid to build to the coming of Jesus Christ in whom we find forgiveness of sins.

gospel presentation (creation, fall, Jesus, redemption through belief).

I want us to take time to split up into smaller groups and talk through this. I have questions that you can discuss. Then when we come back, I am going to wrap it up and close us in prayer.

Wrap up - Reflect on God as Creator. List ways you see his handiwork in nature and in your life. Commit to stewarding his creation well.