The First Day
Notes
Transcript
Handout
Join me as we continue our journey through the Bible. You will be exposed to a lot of information in this sermon. However, today I want you to meditate on two allegorical interpretations of the passage of an ordered God creating in an ordered fashion, thus bringing order into our lives.
First, I want you to think about the Holy Spirit moving upon the dark, deep waters of your troubled soul.
Second, I want you to think about having Jesus, the Light of the World, shining into your darkness to bring order from the chaos, meaning to the meaninglessness, and purpose to the purposelessness, since many of us find ourselves living in these realities.
Today, we will begin with the World Of the Text by making observations on Genesis 1:2-5.
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.
In our observation of the structure of the passage, verse two was written as poetry and composed of three parallel phrases.
The first phrase is a rhyming couplet, “The earth was without form and void” (“tohu wa bohu”).
The second phrase is “darkness was over the face of the deep”.
The third phrase is “the Spirit of God was hovering over the face of the waters”.
In our observations of verse three, we observe the poetic genre of the text continues with the first refrain, “God said, ‘Let there be light’”.
In our observation of verse four, the poetic genre continues with the second refrain, “God saw that the light was good.”
In our observation of verse five, the poetry structure continues with the partial refrain “God called the light Day...” for the first through the third day, and the third refrain of “there was evening, and there was morning, the first day.”
Now that we see the structure of the passage, we use the Investigative Questions tool.
The six investigative questions are: who, what, when, where, why, and how.
What is meant by “the earth”, in the Hebrew “ha ares”?
In Genesis, the World Of the Text, “ha ares” is used 312 times. It has seven different meanings depending on the context. It can refer to the land as territory (134), the land as a nation (57), the land in general (50), the earth as the terrestrial planet (49), the earth as’ the soil (13), the earth as ones homeland (5), the earth as private property (2), and the dwelling place of humankind (1).
Given the immediate context of this being a cosmogony, we can conclude that in these verses, Moses is using “ha ares” to mean the terrestrial planet.
This phrase also answers the question of “Where?” The creation account is written from the perspective of God bringing about creation from the earth. So in the creation account, he begins with the earth.
What is meant by the parallel words and rhyming couplet, “without form and void”; in the Hebrew “tohu wa bohu”?
There is no consensus in scholarship on the meaning of this couplet of words. We will turn to the World Of the Text to try to discover what Moses intended.
This phrase is not used again in Genesis or in the other four books authored by Moses, so the World Of the Text for the couplet form is not helpful.
So let’s break the couplet and look at the words individually. We will begin with “without form” (“tohu”).
Moses uses “tohu” twice in his books, once in Genesis 1:2, where it is translated “without form,” and once in Deuteronomy 32:10
“He found him in a desert land,
and in the howling waste of the wilderness;
He encircled him, he cared for him,
he kept him as the apple of his eye.
Here, “tohu” is translated as waste to describe the wilderness. We still have very little information from the World of the Text.
Moses uses “bohu” only once in the Torah, and that is in Genesis 1:2. That is not helpful in gaining any more understanding of the meaning of this couplet.
What we can draw is that it means that the earth was empty, a void, and not yet hospitable for human life.
In light of Genesis 1:1, we also understand that the earth in this form is not preexisting matter, but was brought into existence by God.
The second phrase for the investigative questions is, “darkness was over the face of the deep”.
What does Moses mean by “darkness”; “hosek” in the Hebrew?
“Hosek” is used 10 times in the books of Moses. Each time it is used in the Torah, it is morally neutral. In Scripture, it has not yet been associated with evil or the enemy. In fact, four of the ten times it is directly related to the presence of God (Genesis 1:2; Exodus 14:20; Deuteronomy 4:11; 5:23).
Where is the darkness? Over the face of the deep. This is in parallel to the Spirit of God being over the face of the waters.
Darkness and the Spirit of God exist together.
Darkness, then, is no problem for God, and Genesis 1:2 is not communicating a conflict, but a process of ordering creation.
What does Moses mean by “deep”; "tehom” in the Hebrew?
“Tehom” is used eight times in the books of Moses, the World Of the Text. Moses writings present the deep as a tool of God, or a source of blessing. It does not have a negative connotation in the first five books of the OT. It gains that later in Scripture.
The deep then in the World of the Text is not presented as a symbol of chaos but as a tool in the hands of Yahweh, used to create or destroy.
The third phrase for the investigative questions is “the Spirit of God was hovering over the face of the waters”.
Who is hovering over the face of the waters?
The Spirit of God. In Hebrew, it is “ruah Elohim,” which literally means “the wind of God”. The majority of translators have opted for the Spirit of God, since it is paired with Elohim, who is the acting creator.
Where is the Spirit of God?
He is over the face of waters, in the same place as darkness, emphasizing that darkness is not opposed to God nor does it have a negative connotation in the World of the Text.
The Spirit of God hovering over the waters is also emphasizing God’s presence on the earth. Creation is told with God’s presence on the earth as he creates.
What does Moses mean by “the waters”, “mayim” in Hebrew?
“Mayim” is used 207 times by Moses. It is the general term for water.
Moses perhaps is communicating that “deep” to God is just as day-to-day water, not intimidating, and a tool in his hands.
Look at the first refrain of Genesis 1:3 with me using the tool of investigative questions.
And God said, “Let there be light,” and there was light.
Who said?
God, the Creator, said.
What did he say?
Let there be light.
What were the results?
There was light.
What is Moses trying to communicate with the phrase, “God said”?
In the works of Moses, God speaks 250 times. Each time, he speaks with authority. He speaks 11 times with authority in Genesis 1 alone. Eight of those times, he is speaking creation into existence. Oh, what a mighty God we serve.
Where is the light coming from?
The text infers that it is coming from God, since he spoke it into existence.
What does Moses mean by “light”, “or” in Hebrew?
“Or” is used 7 times in the Law, and each time it means “illumination”. It does not emphasize the source of light.
Look at the second refrain of Genesis 1:4-5 with me, and let's use the investigative questions tool.
And God saw that the light was good. And God separated the light from the darkness. God called the light Day, and the darkness he called Night. And there was evening and there was morning, the first day.
Who is acting?
God is acting.
What are his actions?
God is seeing, and he is separating.
What did he see?
He saw that the light was good.
What did he separate?
The light from the darkness.
Why does God separate light from darkness?
The answer comes in verse 5, in the partial refrain of God calling the light day and the darkness night. This is one more layer in God’s ordered creation, giving us the rhythm of night and day.
This brings us to the third refrain of verse five, “And there was evening and there was morning, the first day.”
Why is God, through Moses, emphasizing morning and evening?
He wants us to know that he created the earth not in or out of chaos, but in an ordered fashion.
This brings us to the second context: the World Behind the Text.
Ancient cosmogonies are the best source for this context. Each of these cosmogonies depicts chaos as part of the creation process.
In our observations today, we see Moses is intentionally communicating that the world did not come into being through chaos, or from chaos, but through God’s ordered creation.
Moses goes out of his way to use what would be known as elements of chaos in the surrounding cultures, and instead use them as ordered tools in the hands of Creator God.
We now turn to the World in Front of the Text, beginning with progressive revelation.
Cross-references are a great tool for looking at progressive revelation in Scripture. For Genesis 1:2-5, there are 81 cross-references. Many of these continue to affirm God speaking the world into existence in an orderly fashion.
This, of course, flies in the face of not only the ancient cosmogonies but also the modern ones. The Big Bang and Evolution are not ordered cosmogonies, so interpretations of Genesis 1 to fit the chaos narratives are not true to authorial intent.
Yet, outside the Torah, darkness and deep are used as symbols of chaos and evil, and light as a symbol of order and good. Jeremiah 4:23 is a good example.
I looked on the earth, and behold, it was without form and void;
and to the heavens, and they had no light.
Jeremiah is lamenting the siege of Jerusalem by Babylon in the form of God’s judgement. He quotes Genesis 1:2a to express his feelings.
What brought this disorder upon Jerusalem, and upon the world?
Their unrepentant sin brought it upon Jerusalem, and sin in general brought it upon the world. It has brought chaos into our lives.
Remember, at the beginning of the sermon, when I wanted you to meditate on two allegorical interpretations of the passage of an ordered God creating in an ordered fashion, thus bringing order into our lives? These interpretations come from progressive revelation.
First, are you thinking about the Holy Spirit moving upon the dark, deep waters of your troubled soul? Pair this passage with this meditation 2 Corinthians 3:17-18
Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom. And we all, with unveiled face, beholding the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from one degree of glory to another. For this comes from the Lord who is the Spirit.
Second, are you thinking about having Jesus, the Light of the World, shining into your darkness to bring order from the chaos, meaning to the meaninglessness, purpose to the purposelessness? Pair this passage with this meditation: 2 Corinthians 4:6
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.
Go, Church, in the light of Jesus, in the presence of the Holy Spirit, being transformed into the glory of the Yahweh.
