God Orders Creation
Notes
Transcript
Good morning
I was at the library the other day and asked the librarian if there were books on the Titanic?
She said probably, but they would be soaking wet by now!
Reminder about Monday Night Men’s Group
I have let Jim know that I would like to sing the special next week. If you have noise canceling headphones, bring them!!
I was driving home from Harrah yesterday and I had music on instead of a podcast. I was singing In the Garden and when I got the chorus and I was singing in the truck and I sung the words, “ And He tells me I am His own” I started crying. The fact that God would want to call a wretch like me His is beyond me. I got to thinking about when I get to heaven, I will get to walk with God! Me, a sinful wretch, gets to walk and talk with God! That is so amazing. All because He loved me so much, that He sent His Son to die just so He can tell me that I am His! I have never sang a special, but the next song that came on was What a Day That Will Be. God just told me without words that I need to sing this, so next Sunday you can blame God for what happens! I will be singing to Him, the One who is worthy of our praise!
Last week we talked about Elohim was already there in the beginning (ray-sheeth). He has no beginning and no end. He is the only uncreated creator! We saw that the Hebrew word used for God was Elohim, which described His power and authority! He has all power and all authority. He spoke and it was created out of nothing. Every time I read, think or say this, it blows my mind! We serve the great Elohim! We say that He created the heavens and the earth, but they were formless and void. It was chaos. Moses told us that the Spirit of God was hovering over the void. All three persons of the Trinity had a part in the creation of everything.
Today we are going to see God order His creation. He is going to create light. He will frame creation with the light, with limits and with land. God is a God of order. Chaos is from the enemy!
Please stand as we prepare to hear God’s Word.
3 Then God said, “Let there be light”; and there was light. 4 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, one day.
6 Then God said, “Let there be an expanse in the midst of the waters, and let it separate the waters from the waters.” 7 God made the expanse, and separated the waters that were below the expanse from the waters that were above the expanse; and it was so. 8 God called the expanse “heaven.” And there was evening and there was morning, a second day.
9 Then God said, “Let the waters below the heavens be gathered into one place, and let the dry land appear”; and it was so. 10 And God called the dry land “earth,” and the gathering of the waters He called “seas”; and God saw that it was good. 11 Then God said, “Let the earth sprout vegetation, plants yielding seed, and fruit trees on the earth bearing fruit according to their kind with seed in them”; and it was so. 12 The earth produced vegetation, plants yielding seed according to their kind, and trees bearing fruit with seed in them, according to their kind; and God saw that it was good. 13 And there was evening and there was morning, a third day.
Pray
In the Hebrew verse three is worded a little different. It says Then said God, let there be light. Not an issue just worded different. We lose no meaning in this. I want to start incorporating the Hebrew into the sermons. I believe the original text is the most accurate.
Then Elohim said. This seems so simple and yet such a powerful result! Elohim simply said let there be light and there was light! Where is this light coming from? I am so glad you noticed this and asked!
God didn’t create the sun and moon until verses 14-19! So where is this light coming from? It is coming from Elohim Himself! God unveils His glory and it lights up creation!
2 And He was transfigured before them; and His face shone like the sun, and His garments became as white as light.
Jesus’ face shown like the sun when His glory was revealed on the mount of transfiguration!
Jesus is the light!
12 Then Jesus again spoke to them, saying, “I am the Light of the world; the one who follows Me will not walk in the darkness, but will have the Light of life.”
I wondered why would God create the light without the Sun? We have to think of who this is written for originally. The Israelites and what they had come out of when they first heard this. God had just freed them from the Egyptians. They had been in the land of Egypt for over 400 years. There had been generations that grew up in the culture that had multiple gods including the Sun god. God did this to show them that He is all powerful not the Egyptian made god of the sun. God told them that He made light before the sun was even created four days later!
In the new heaven and earth, we will not have a sun and moon. We will go back to like it was when this happened. God will provide the light for eternity!
23 And the city has no need of the sun or of the moon to shine on it, for the glory of God has illuminated it, and its lamp is the Lamb.
The power of our Elohim is so amazing and unimaginable and uncomprehendable! I would not want any other God! If I could understand Him or His power then He would not deserve to be called God! It is because of His power and authority that He is worthy of our worship.
God said that the light was good!
Through out the Bible, light represents good and darkness represents evil. Light is order, darkness is chaos.
When light was created, darkness left. It wasn’t until God put a limit on the light that the darkness could come back!
God created the 24hr day.
Notice how Elohim describes the day, there was evening and morning. That is why the Israelites started the day at sundown. It was changed by ancient Rome. They changed it from midnight to midnight for administrative and legal purposes. As the Roman Empire and later the Church standardized calendars across Europe, the midnight convention became the global civil standard.
I wonder what God thinks about the fact that we changed what a day is. It sounds like a small thing, but that is how bid disobedience begins, with little things. It wasn’t convenient to use sundown as the beginning of the day so let’s change what God created! Sounds similar to the whole gender movement!
I wonder what it would look like if the church actual stood it ground on the things that are clearly spelled out in the Bible! We have let too much of the world into the church. Instead of the church influencing society, society is influencing the church.
Verse 6 starts day 2 of creation. Again such a simple statement, Then said Elohim, and the expanse was created! This expanse is what we call today the atmosphere and space that we call the heavens. Again Elohim displays His power and authority! God separates the waters. God orders the waters by putting the atmosphere between the lower water that is below the surface and the waters above
MacArthur Study Bible NASB Commentary
could possibly have been a canopy of water vapor which acted to make the earth like a hothouse, provided uniform temperature, inhibited mass air movements, caused mist to fall, and filtered out ultraviolet rays, thus extending life.
This could explain the reason people lived so long before the flood. I believe that this is where a lot of the water came from that caused the flood, along with the water from under the surface of the earth. With the water gone from above the expanse, live began to shorten to what we have today.
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 open, and the floodgates of the sky were opened.
God ordered the water by creating the expanse. It wasn’t until He told the water to move that it did! This was the end of the second day.
On the third day, again Elohim said, and it was. I keep saying it but, I am in awe of the power and authority of my King! If reading this doesn’t amaze you, please check you pulse!.
God orders the water below by gathering it in one place and creating dry land.
MacArthur Study Bible NASB Commentary
This was caused by a tremendous, cataclysmic upheaval of the earth’s surface, and the rising and sinking of the land, which caused the waters to plunge into the low places, forming the seas, the continents and islands, the rivers and lakes
4 “Where were you when I laid the foundation of the earth?
Tell Me, if you have understanding,
5 Who set its measurements? Since you know.
Or who stretched the measuring line over it?
6 “On what were its bases sunk?
Or who laid its cornerstone,
7 When the morning stars sang together
And all the sons of God shouted for joy?
8 “Or who enclosed the sea with doors
When it went out from the womb, bursting forth;
9 When I made a cloud its garment,
And thick darkness its swaddling bands,
10 And I placed boundaries on it
And set a bolt and doors,
11 And I said, ‘As far as this point you shall come, but no farther;
And here your proud waves shall stop’?
6 You covered it with the deep sea as with a garment;
The waters were standing above the mountains.
7 They fled from Your rebuke,
At the sound of Your thunder they hurried away.
8 The mountains rose; the valleys sank down
To the place which You established for them.
9 You set a boundary so that they will not pass over,
So that they will not return to cover the earth.
No one was there because God hadn’t created them yet! It was all Him in His power and authority. All things have to obey when God speaks!
To me that would be a full day, but Elohim was not done! Again on the third day, God spoke and life began! Plants and vegetation and trees grew at His command.
MacArthur Study Bible NASB Commentary
God set in motion a providential process whereby the vegetable kingdom could reproduce through seeds which would maintain each one’s unique characteristics. The same phrase is used to describe the perpetuating reproduction of animals within their created species (vv. 21, 24, 25), and indicates that evolution, which proposes reproduction across species lines, is a false explanation of origins.
God set the stage for the many ways plant life will shape the unfolding story of Scripture. Vegetation proves important from what happens in the garden of Eden, to building the ark, to providing the staff of Moses, to creating the ark of the covenant. All of this sets the stage for a coming Messiah, whom the prophets described as a root, a branch, a stump, a shoot. Isaiah 11:1
1 Then a shoot will spring from the stem of Jesse,
And a Branch from his roots will bear fruit.
How did Jesus describe Himself? As a vine. This particular vegetation theme started on the third day culminates when Christ the Savior of the world is hung on a tree. Galatians 3:13
13 Christ redeemed us from the curse of the Law, having become a curse for us—for it is written: “Cursed is everyone who hangs on a Tree”—
Vegetation plays a major role throughout the biblical narrative, and Moses shows us how it all starts on the third day of creation.
Vegetation also got created on this day because the animals that come next will need something to eat! Meat wasn’t on the menu until after the fall.
God is the God of order. Everything He did He did in a specific order because that is how it needed to be done! Could He have created the animals then the food? Yes, but it would not have made since to us. God is revealing Himself to us in His story. He is showing His character and attributes through this story. He is showing that He is the great I am, Elohim! Only He deserves to be worshipped!
Thinking about creation and how Elohim created it, makes me want to sing praises to Him. That is the desired outcome when we study the Bible! It should bring us to worship the creator, Elohim!
I want to ask Miss Peggy to come play a couple of songs for us so that we can worship our God.
#46 This is my father house
#51 God of wonders
While we are singing these praises to Elohim, the alters will be open and if you need prayer I am here to pray with you!
