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Genesis 1 (ESV)
This is an amazing portion of scripture. It was written by Moses around 3500 years ago. It is the opening Chapter of the book of Genesis, the opening chapter in the 5 Books of Moses called the Pentateuch, and the opening chapter of the Hebrew and Christian Bible. It is a literary masterpiece. It is complex. It is comprehensive. It is beautiful. It is powerful. And, most importantly, it is true.
Before we jump into the deep end of the pool trying to understand all of its complexities and what it is saying to us, let’s consider for a moment the original audience when Moses wrote it.
There once was a people surrounded by a culture very different than them. They had different values, different gods, divergent histories. They happened to have been enslaved by this culture for over 400 years.
By God’s miraculous power (and many signs and wonders) this people was delivered from their enslavers in Egypt, and they were traveling back to the land promised to their ancestors.
They knew that they were supposed to be different. They knew that they had been called to be God’s special people. The land where they had been for 400 years, and the land to which they were going did not believe in the one true God. They had their own stories and accounts of the creation of the world.
How would they resist becoming like the nations around them? How would they maintain their distinctiveness? How could they pass down to their future generations the truths and values that they held to be true? How could they present their view of the world to others?
Moses’ answer is to begin with where they came from—where everything came from. He doesn’t begin with Joseph and then move back to Abraham, then Noah, then Adam. He goes right to the beginning of the whole world.
In order to know who you really are, or how to engage with the culture around you, you must know how you got here and what your purpose is. Moses doesn’t begin with the beginning of Israel and his 12 sons, he begins at the very first day of creation.
The Israelites coming out of Egypt and into the Promised Land are not the only ones in need of the foundational truths found in Genesis 1. However, they did have some advantages over us when interpreting this scripture. The questions that they might have had about the cultures they were entering were answered more directly in the text of Genesis 1. The beliefs of the surrounding mythological pagan nations are confronted more explicitly in the Genesis account. We will see some of these examples as we work through the passage.
Imagine that you live in the midst of a land that thinks differently from you, that has different gods (or no god); that has different beliefs about the origin and purpose of the universe, that has different beliefs about life and death, that has a different set of moral absolutes.
There are many entry points into meaningful engagement with that culture. However, Genesis 1 is a great place to start.
Genesis helped prepare Israel to stand against the pagan worldviews around them. It can help us stand against the atheistic and pagan worldviews around us.
Honestly, I have felt a lot of pressure for this sermon. We all have questions about how the Bible and the sciences line up. We have a lot of scientific, historical, geological, and astronomical questions that we’d love Genesis 1 to answer. I’m very aware of my own lack of expertise in many of these areas. We want to know about the dinosaurs, about the age of the universe, about how long Adam and Eve lived before they sinned, and what it was like in the Garden. We wonder how they could live over 900 years. Were all the continents all together in the beginning?
Though we will attempt to answer some aspects of how to reconcile science and the Bible, I will leave a lot unsaid and unanswered.
Our main goal is simple this morning. What does God want us to know about the creation of the universe from Genesis 1?
Our four points this morning are:
Daniel started us off last week with verses 1-2. Verse 1 says:
We discussed that “heavens and earth” is a phrase that indicates all that is. We might say, “In the beginning, God created all that is.” Verse 1 is a comprehensive statement, that gets fleshed out over the next six days (and 30 verses).
When we get to verse 3 God’s creation acts become more specific.
“God said…” That’s how he created. He spoke and things came into existence. We will eventually see what he created on each of the six days, but first, we should notice the patterns of this chapter.
I’m sure you noticed some of the patterns as we read the passage earlier. One of the questions that we must ask about the text is “what kind of literature is this?” Some Bible scholars want to say that Genesis 1-3 or even 1-11 are merely typological or mythological. They want to treat them as some form of non-literal poetry.
The problem is that it simply reads like a narrative. It is telling what happened. It does not have the form of Hebrew poetry. This dos not mean that it is not written with a significant amount of form and purpose. Moses has put an amazing amount of literary devices into this first chapter.
The number 7 plays a prominent role throughout the section.
Obviously there are seven days. But you may not have noticed (unless you can read Hebrew, or unless you read Wenham’s Word Biblical Commentary like I did) that there are also:
All of these patterns are interesting and worthy of careful study.
For now, though, consider the significance of the refrain, “and God said.” We already knew from verse 1 that God is a creating God, but throughout the six days we also learn that he is a speaking God. Perhaps this feels obvious to us because we are familiar with Genesis 1, but it’s actually not obvious that God should create this way.
Obviously, this is not the way we create. I can’t say “Let there be…” in any situation and it just come to pass. The things that I do make or “create” in my own fashion take much thought, materials, work, and… wait for it… TIME. Not so with God’s creation. God speaks and it comes into existence.
Psalm 148:3–5 (ESV) — Praise him, sun and moon, praise him, all you shining stars! Praise him, you highest heavens, and you waters above the heavens! Let them praise the name of the LORD! For he commanded and they were created.
Hebrews 11:3 (ESV) — By faith we understand that the universe was created by the word of God, so that what is seen was not made out of things that are visible.
The point is that this God (Elohim) is sovereign over all things. He is not limited in power or authority. He is not merely the God of the small tribe of the Hebrew people. He is Lord over all, and he is a God who speaks.
John 1:1–3 (ESV) — In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things were made through him, and without him was not any thing made that was made.
Now that we’ve seen that God created all that is by his Word, let’s move to point 2.
I came into this Genesis study willing to revise my understanding and approach to Genesis. Having studied and read a fair amount over the last few months, I still believe Genesis 1 clearly lays out the creation of the whole cosmos in six days. Unfortunately, that doesn’t answer all of our questions. But, it’s worth taking note that nowhere in this chapter (or the Bible) does the text give us any clear reason to think that “day” means anything different than a normal day. Throughout most of church history, there has been very little disagreement over the understanding that creation took place over 6 normal days. It was not really challenged until the last 200 years or so with the advent of modern scientific theories.
There are different approaches taken by bible scholars and commentators on how one should interpret the events of Genesis 1.
Some want to approach each “day” as if it were a long age of time (thousands or millions of years). This is known as the “day-age” view.
Others see some kind of “gap” between vv. 1-2 and the six days of vv. 3-31. In this view, the basic “matter” of creation is all created in verse 1. The six days are God preparing creation for man. There are variations of this view, but one popular one is by Old Testament scholar, John Sailhamer, and is the view that John Piper is most comfortable with.
Another view is that the six days are merely a literary framework to explain the fact that God created everything, but that it doesn’t really relate to how or when or in what order God created all things. This could be called the “framework” view. It is almost completely agnostic in how it relates to science, though the good versions of this view do hold to a historical Adam.
It’s a bit too much for us to attempt to explore all the ways to reconcile God’s revelation in his word to his revelation in nature. I do appreciate the scientists, apologists, and philosophers who wrestle through the details of trying to reconcile scripture to good science.
I’m not a scientist, but I do have some guiding principles that impact how I think about this.
I found this quote by Wayne Grudem to be a helpful summary.
We should not fear to investigate scientifically the facts of the created world but should do so eagerly and with complete honesty, confident that when facts are rightly understood, they will always turn out to be consistent with God’s inerrant words in Scripture. Similarly, we should approach the study of Scripture eagerly and with confidence that, when rightly understood, Scripture will never contradict facts in the natural world.
- Wayne Grudem, Systematic Theology, Second Edition. (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan Academic, 2020), 352.
There is an overarching pattern to each of the 6 days. There are two sets of three days that correspond to one another: three days of forming; three days of filling.
The first three days are God “separating” and creating the inanimate forms. God separates light from darkness, water from water (to create sky), water from land.
Days 4-6 are God filling the heavens, sky, waters, and land with movement, creatures, and life.
Now, we’ll have a look at a few observations from some of the individual days of creation. I’m not going to comment on every verse, but merely highlight a few insights.
Light and darkness are both part of God’s creation. This is not speaking of darkness as a moral evil. It is not a battle between light and darkness. God is sovereign over both.
One of the significant clues for how we should interpret “day” is found in verse 5. Here we get the definition of what is meant by “day.” Where the ESV has “the first day” a better translation would be “one day.” What is “one day” according to Moses? Evening and morning. A period of darkness and a period of light. The darkness could have been from vs. 2. The the light comes when God speaks “Let there be light.”
If we just let the text speak, it tells us what a day is. In fact, I have a difficult time seeing how “evening and morning” can refer to an age of millions of years. Is it dark for half of the age and light for the other half?
Obviously, this light spoken of in day 1 would not be solar since the sun has not been created yet. This is a stumbling block for many as they approach the 6 days of creation. However, we do have warrant to understand light without the sun.
Revelation 22:5 (ESV) — And night will be no more. They will need no light of lamp or sun, for the Lord God will be their light, and they will reign forever and ever.
And don’t forget John 1.
John 1:4–5 (ESV) — In him was life, and the life was the light of men. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.
I have always found this one of the most confusing days.
God separates the clouds above from the waters below in order to create the “expanse.”
The idea is that the sky is created. This is not talking about “heaven” where God dwells. It is the sky above where birds fly.
Day 3 gets two separate creative acts.
First, God separates the waters from the land. In verse 2, it appears the surface of the planet was all covered with water. In day 3, God puts boundaries around the water and dry land appears.
This would likely bring to mind the crossing of the Red Sea for the original hearers. The wind of God pushing back the waters so that they could walk on dry ground.
The creation of the “land” would likely have a double meaning for the Israelites. They are on their way back to the promised “land.” Remember that Genesis 1 is the introduction to the Pentateuch, and one of the great promises for God’s people is a land flowing with milk and honey, the land of blessing.
God does not stop with creating the Land on day 3. He speaks again.
Notice the introduction of “seed” and “according to its kind.”
Up until this point, the creation is all about the form and separation into an inhabitable land.
Now, the author moves into filling the creation with motion, with life. The first motion that is introduced are the luminaries in the heavens, the Sun, moon, and stars.
One interesting fact is that the pagan cultures in Egypt and Canaan both elevated the gods of the sun, moon, and stars significantly. Moses doesn’t even use the words for Sun and Moon, possibly because they were so deified in those cultures. Instead, he simply calls them the greater light and the lesser light. And, the stars merely get a mention.
“Let the waters swarm with swarming things…”
“Let the flying things fly.”
In day 2, God separated the waters from the sky. Now he fills them both, and bestows on them a blessing, to be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth.
Don’t forget vs. 21, the great sea creatures. It seems kind of random to highlight the creation of the sea creatures, but this was one of the greatest adversaries to Baal. Moses is pointing out that not only are the sea creatures not a threat to Elohim, he created them, and it was good.
Just as day 3 had two creative events, so does day 6. First, he creates the land animals.
Notice there is a tripartite view of the animals. Livestock (tame), creeping things, and wild beasts. It’s important to notice that Man is not listed with the animals here.
The creation of Mankind is a separate act of creation with a different mandate.
I hate to spend so little time today on the creation of man, but we’ll have several more sermons about man in the image of God, man made male and female, man’s creation mandate.
Having looked at a few details from the various days of creation, now let’s return to why I believe we should interpret Genesis 1 as six 24 hour days.
There can be little doubt that here “day” has its basic sense of a 24-hour period. The mention of morning and evening, the enumeration of the days, and the divine rest on the seventh show that a week of divine activity is being described here.
- Wenham, Gordon J. Genesis 1–15. Vol. 1. Word Biblical Commentary. Dallas: Word, Incorporated, 1987.
John Currid makes a point which I’ve not really considered before.
As a repetition that follows immediately on the heels of the command, it underscores the fact that the directive is instantly fulfilled and completed. Theories which argue that God spoke the commands of creation at this point, but that they were not fulfilled until subsequent ages, do great injustice to the text.
- Currid, John D. EP Study Commentary
There are challenges for any of the views of Genesis 1. Here are some of the challenges we face as young-earth-literal-six-24-hour day believers.
At a very fundamental level, each of these objections can be answered by the fact that Genesis presents the creation as a week of miracles.
It feels a bit odd to think of a 24 hour day, and separating day from night before there was a sun in existence. But, as we have already noted, at the end of this created order, we will experience light without the sun. It is not too far-fetched to imagine the beginning of the cosmos had a similar reality.
This is a biggie. It’s hard to wrap our minds around. But, not hard for God to accomplish. Our basic answer is that God created the earth with the appearance of age. How is light from galaxies millions of light years away visible to us now? What does that mean about the age of the universe? As a scientist, I have lots of questions, as a theologian, I can simply acknowledge that God brought both into existence, the galaxy far, far away, AND the light from that galaxy that is visible to us now.
I realize that this is one of the challenges of studying these things, but with God all things are possible.
If God presents the creation of the universe as a miraculous event, we should expect to encounter aspects beyond our knowledge.
As we have notice already, there is a great deal of literary structure going on in Genesis 1. I do think it is a mistake, however, to assume that this structure was imposed only at a literal level. I find it much more compelling to believe that God actually created in a way that carries the meaning.
Ligon Duncan draws attention to Calvin’s new on this in his essay in The Genesis Debate.
Calvin emphatically holds to the 24-hour-day view and vehemently rejects any suggestion that the structure of the creation narrative is merely a didactic device. For Calvin, God not only accommodated Himself to His people in the way He explained his creative work; He actually accommodated Himself in the way he performed his creative work.
- Ligon Duncan in The Genesis Debate, p. 29
Some approaches are clearly out of bounds for those who believe in biblical inerrancy (which we do).
The creation of all that is in six days is amazing and miraculous.
Did you notice which days in creation received more emphasis than the others? Days 3 and 6 both have two acts of creation in them. Day 3 includes the land and vegetation. Day 6 includes animal life and mankind.
One of the unexpected truths of Genesis 1 is the significance it gives to the creation of man. One gets the idea that God is creating all of this so that he can commune with man.
In six days, God takes the wild and uninhabitable creation of verse 2 and systematically makes it “good” so that mankind may inhabit it.
Man as one of the focal points of creation is counter-cultural today, and it was countercultural among the pagan nations around Israel. Today, our culture tends to deny God, worship Mother Nature, and castigate mankind as the greatest evil and danger to the cosmos.
The worldviews surrounding the Israelites presented gods in opposition to the creation. Darkness battling the light. Mighty Sea Creatures fighting against Baal. Fate determined by the stars.
Not so in the Genesis account. God created all. He created the darkness. He created Leviathan. He made the sun, moon, and stars. God rules over all. God is not threatened by his creation. This is why the Psalmist says things like:
Psalm 96:5 (ESV) — For all the gods of the peoples are worthless idols, but the LORD made the heavens.
One of our difficulties with reading Genesis 1-2 is that we have only experienced the creation after the Fall, after sin came into the world, after the curse. Our lives have been filled with thorns and thistles. We have witnessed pain and death. It is likely that you’re experiencing some unpleasant result of the curse even today. These are not threats to God’s rulership, but they will be overcome in the end by the redemption that is in Jesus Christ.
We live in a creation that waits with eager longing for the new heavens and new earth, a creation that was subjected to futility, that will itself be set free from its bondage to corruption, that is groaning (Romans 8:19-21).
We must not read our experience of the creation back into chapters 1-2 of Genesis.
What should you know from Genesis 1?
God created all that is by his word.
God created all that is in six days.
God created all of this that we might enjoy communion with him and fulfill his commands.
We should worship the one who made all of this.
Here are some other recent messages.
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