A Walk In The Garden (Week 4)

The Days Of Creation

Genesis 1:6–25 ESV

And God said, “Let there be an expanse in the midst of the waters, and let it separate the waters from the waters.” 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. And God called the expanse Heaven. And there was evening and there was morning, the second day. And God said, “Let the waters under the heavens be gathered together into one place, and let the dry land appear.” And it was so. God called the dry land Earth, and the waters that were gathered together he called Seas. And God saw that it was good. And God said, “Let the earth sprout vegetation, plants yielding seed, and fruit trees bearing fruit in which is their seed, each according to its kind, on the earth.” And it was so. The earth brought forth vegetation, plants yielding seed according to their own kinds, and trees bearing fruit in which is their seed, each according to its kind. And God saw that it was good. And there was evening and there was morning, the third day. And God said, “Let there be lights in the expanse of the heavens to separate the day from the night. And let them be for signs and for seasons, and for days and years, and let them be lights in the expanse of the heavens to give light upon the earth.” And it was so. And God made the two great lights—the greater light to rule the day and the lesser light to rule the night—and the stars. And God set them in the expanse of the heavens to give light on the earth, to rule over the day and over the night, and to separate the light from the darkness. And God saw that it was good. And there was evening and there was morning, the fourth day. And God said, “Let the waters swarm with swarms of living creatures, and let birds fly above the earth across the expanse of the heavens.” So God created the great sea creatures and every living creature that moves, with which the waters swarm, according to their kinds, and every winged bird according to its kind. And God saw that it was good. And God blessed them, saying, “Be fruitful and multiply and fill the waters in the seas, and let birds multiply on the earth.” And there was evening and there was morning, the fifth day. And God said, “Let the earth bring forth living creatures according to their kinds—livestock and creeping things and beasts of the earth according to their kinds.” And it was so. And God made the beasts of the earth according to their kinds and the livestock according to their kinds, and everything that creeps on the ground according to its kind. And God saw that it was good.

No matter who you are, I can promise you one thing about life, it won’t be a smooth ride. We all encounter storms. It’s not a question of if but when a storm comes our way. The real question, then, is how will you navigate through the storm?

General “Jimmy” Doolittle is most remembered for his daring bombing raid over Tokyo just four months after the surprise attack on Pearl Harbor, but Doolittle’s most significant contribution to aviation happened many years earlier. In 1922, he became the first pilot to fly cross country in less than twenty-four hours. He’d planned to fly by the light of the moon, but bad storms kept him in total darkness for several very dangerous hours. Luckily he had a turn and bank indicator installed on his plane. “Although I had been flying almost five years ‘by the seat of my pants’ and considered that I had achieved some skill at it, this particular flight made me a firm believer in proper instrumentation for bad-weather flying.” Flying with instruments was new and rare at the time, but without the indicator he might have been forced to “bail out” or just “luck it through,” as other pilots were forced to do. There had to be a better way. “Progress was being made in the design of aircraft flight and navigation instruments and radio communication. If these sciences could be merged, I thought flying in weather could be mastered,” he said. The right mix of instruments could give him the direction he needed in the dark. It took several years, but he figured out a combination of radio and gyroscopes could let him fly safely regardless of visibility. And he proved it in 1929 by flying a plane with a totally blacked-out cockpit.

Like Doolittle’s navigation instruments guided his plane, the Bible can be our navigation instrument for life.

When we face the inevitable storms of life, although we cannot always see a way through, if we follow God’s Word, he will guide us. Most of us, if we’re honest, would admit that we often fly through life blind. We must have faith that God sees what we cannot see, and he will guide through the storm.

This morning as we continue in the book of Genesis, my goal is to move quickly through the next several verses and so we can look at the last day of creation next week. We’ll see how i do.

We pick up in verse 6 with the second day of creation.

Last week we left off with the first of 3 divine separations, God separated the light from the darkness. Here in verse 6, God again separates. This time it is water from water. God separates the surface waters from the waters of the atmosphere. The significance here is that God alone rules the powers of the heavens. Divine rule of the skies was particularly important in the religions surrounding the Hebrews. All of the Sumerian religions spoke of some god that rules some aspect of the heavens but Moses is teaching the Hebrew people that Yahweh created it all and it is merely there to serve Him. Again God proclaims that His creation is ‘good’. Each time this affirms that creation is right and in right relationship with Him.

The third day of creation begins in verse 9 and here we find another divine separation. This time God creates land and uses it to separate the surface waters from one another. And God saw that it was good. The third day of creation is unique from the first two days in that it contains a second act of creation. Vegetation is produced from the land in the first indirect command in the creation sequence of events. He had previously spoken to each created thing. Here he commands the earth to “sprout vegetation”. All the vegetation and fruit trees are to bear seeds, making the earth capable of sustaining animal and human life.

The fourth day brings the creation of the sun and moon. The sun, moon and stars contribute to the natural agricultural cycles and when combined with water and land, sustain life. The creation of the lights in the heavens on the fourth day parallels the creation of light in general on the first day. These lights produce another separation—day from night.

Creation on the fifth day includes the creatures of the sky and sea. God creates land animals on the sixth day. These creative acts parallel the activity on the second day, when God separates sky and sea, and the third day, when land appears.

The sixth day parallels the third as God speaks to the earth to bring forth living creatures and a second act of creation with the formation of man. And that’s where we will pick up next week, with the creation of man. Let me close with this story.

We all have a target we are aiming for. And if you work hard enough, long enough, there’s a good chance you’ll hit it.

But I want to tell you a tale of caution.

Will Mancini, in his book Church Unique, tells the story of Olympian, Matt Emmons:

Matt Emmons was one trigger pull away from winning his second gold medal at the 2004 Olympics. In the lead position of the fifty-meter, three-position rifle competition, Emmons was so far ahead that his last bullet needed only to hit the target—anywhere. With unwavering calm and unbelievable precision, he fired his bullet and watched it pierce yet another bull’s-eye. But a few seconds passed, and no score lights appeared on the board. When three red-jacketed officials approached, Emmons was sure that the scoreboard was just broken. But it wasn ’t. He was in shock, when the officials informed him that he had hit the wrong target. While standing in lane two, he had fired at the target in lane three. That day, the officials awarded him a zero, and Emmons didn’t even place in the competition.

If you aim for a goal long enough, chances are you’ll hit it.

The problem is that many of us aim for the wrong goal.

I wonder how many of us will hit the target, but later in life, perhaps after its too late, realize that we were aiming at the wrong target?

Get your sights set on the right target now, because hitting the wrong target at the expense of the right one can cause more problems and regret than you think.