Genesis 1:1-16
Introduction
The book of Genesis is the book of beginnings.
It is the first book of the Pentateuch which was penned by Moses after
Israel had been freed from Egypt.
The exact date of the writing of Genesis is unknown.
Israel was freed from Egypt in 1447 B.C. and the Pentateuch was written
during the forty year trek through the wilderness so it would have been written
between 1447 and 1407 B.C. Genesis
can be called the seed of the entire Bible because it gives the beginning of the
creation of the earth and universe, beginning of the human race, beginning of
time, beginning of the animal kingdom, beginning of the unfolding of God’s plan
of salvation, the fall into sin of the human race, beginning of musical
instruments, the dividing of the human race into two divisions: the unsaved and
the saved, the first mention of the Messiah, beginning of recorded Scripture,
the division of the world into seven continents (10:25), beginning of the nation
of Israel through which the covenant of grace came through the Patriarchs, and
the revealing of Satan who is the enemy of Christ and Christianity.
The theme is God’s sovereignty over man and the entire creation including
all happenings and his faithfulness to His covenant of grace he made through
Abraham.
Ge 1:1
In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth.
This is a very important verse because it states that
“God created” which means that right at the outset the Bible declares that God
exists. So many atheists try to
convince people that God does not exist and he is a figment of man’s
imagination. Here the Bible assumes
the existence of God and does not make a philosophical case for his existence.
“In the beginning” does not mean the beginning of eternity because
eternity has no beginning and no end.
This is speaking about God creating time and within time he now created
the physical earth and the physical universe.
Eternity is outside of time.
This is called “ex nihilo” which means “something out of nothing.”
Nothing existed before God spoke the creation into existence.
There was no big bang of matter.
This verse also shows the creative power and authority of God.
Ge 1:2
And the earth was without form, and void; and darkness
was upon the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God moved upon the face of
the waters.
This verse shows what the creation was at the very
beginning and not what it eventually became when God started to create all the
inhabitants like the trees, animals, and man.
The words “without form and void” may be understood from the Hebrew to
mean “empty or uninhabited.” The
Gap Theory attempts to concoct a story that there was a creation before this and
it became corrupted and that is where they try to associate “without form and
void” to an earlier creation.
However, it will not hold any weight simply because before sin came into the
world there was no death or corruption.
Since there was no light yet then it would be obvious that there would be
darkness which is the absence of light.
The deep represents an abyss or the deep oceans on the face of the
planet. At this point there would
have been no light either on earth or in the universe.
This is the first mention of the Holy Spirit who also has creative
capabilities and he was moving or hovering over the face of the waters.
He was there because he was beginning to mold the earth and universe into
an orderly existence. God creates
order into his entire creation not chaos or randomness.
Some commentators and Bible translations try to exchange the Spirit of
God in this verse with wind which is highly erroneous and dishonors the person
of the Holy Spirit.
Ge 1:3
And God said, Let there be light: and there was light.
Then on the first day of creation, God spoke light into
existence. When God commands,
things happen. The sun and stars were not yet formed at this point.
He created the phenomenon of light without the sun. This chapter gives a
summary of the creative acts of God.
It is not known what form the light took at this point but eventually
light was centralized into the sun.
Ge 1:4
And God saw the light, that it was good: and God
divided the light from the darkness.
God then saw the light and called it good which carries
the meaning of “pleasant and useful.”
God saw that the light would be for His purpose and for the benefit of
man. God divided the darkness which
was on the face of the earth from the light that he made.
If you are in a dark place and turn on a light you have light, if you
turn the light off you have darkness.
He separated or divided the light from the darkness.
The darkness would be used for the benefit of man to rest and sleep and
the light would be used for the day to work in.
Sleep is great because it refreshes our bodies but did you ever realize
that if you get 8 hours of sleep per day, you are actually sleeping away one
third of your life. I believe that
the darkness on the earth was the prefigurement of sin that would one day
blanket the entire human race and the creation.
For we know that the whole
creation groaneth and travaileth in pain together until now. (Romans 8:22)
Ge 1:5
And God called the light Day, and the darkness he called
Night. And the evening and the morning were the first day.
The word “day” is the Hebrew word “yom” which can also be
understood as a full 24 hour day or the part of the day where the sun shines or
daytime. Night is when there is an
absence of sunlight. Now God times
the day beginning with evening and then morning.
Our day starts at midnight and goes to the next midnight as a full cycle
of the day. Here God is stating
that the days are from evening to evening.
This also helps us understand the three days and three nights of Christ’s
passion. His passion started Thursday night in the Garden of Gethsemane when he
was already bleeding through his skin and the drops of blood were falling to the
ground.
And being in an agony he prayed more
earnestly: and his sweat was as it were great drops of blood falling down to the
ground. (Luke 22:44) Then we
read of the three days and three nights.
For as Jonas was three days and
three nights in the whale's belly; so shall the Son of man be three days and
three nights in the heart of the earth. (Matthew 12:40)
The passage does not say he was dead for those three days and nights but
that he was in the heart of the earth.
This means his suffering already began on Thursday.
So you have Thursday evening to Friday morning which is day one, then
Friday evening to Saturday morning which is day two, and finally Saturday
evening to Sunday morning which is day three.
That covers three nights and three days thus fulfilling Matthew 12:40.
Ge 1:6
And God said, Let there be a firmament in the midst of
the waters, and let it divide the waters from the waters.
Then God created a firmament around the earth which could
also be understood as an expanse.
The firmament would be considered the first heaven which is the expanse around
the earth. We would refer to it as
sky. It divided the water which was
in the clouds from the water which was on the earth.
At this time it is apparent that the world was all water since dry land
was not yet created.
Ge 1:7
And God made the firmament, and divided the waters which
were under the firmament from the waters which were above the
firmament: and it was so.
Then once again we see that God spoke this into
existence. He placed the firmament
or expanse under the waters which were in the sky which were the clouds that
carried atmospheric water and above the waters which were on the earth.
The firmament also contains the air which will sustain all the living
creatures on earth, both man and animals.
The air contains 21% oxygen and 78% nitrogen.
There are also tiny amounts
of other gases like argon, carbon dioxide and methane making up the other 1%.
Ge 1:8
And God called the firmament Heaven. And the evening and
the morning were the second day.
God called the firmament Heaven.
This would be considered the first Heaven which is the sky which
surrounds the earth. The second
Heaven would be the universe where the stars and planets exist.
The third Heaven would be the place of God’s abode.
The Apostle Paul was caught up to the Third Heaven.
2 I knew a man in Christ above fourteen years
ago, (whether in the body, I cannot tell; or whether out of the body, I cannot
tell: God knoweth;) such an one caught up to the third heaven. 3 And
I knew such a man, (whether in the body, or out of the body, I cannot tell: God
knoweth;) 4 How that he was caught up into paradise, and heard
unspeakable words, which it is not lawful for a man to utter. (2 Corinthians
12:2-4)
2 Corinthians 12:2-4 puts a death knell to the belief
that people claim that they have gone to Heaven.
False teacher Jesse Duplantis claims he was in Heaven for five hours and
has made a CD (to sell of course) about his experience.
The Apostle Paul knew that it was unlawful to speak about the third
Heaven yet these false preachers have no qualms about opening their false mouths
blathering their claims. The false
preachers were deceived by Satan’s devils.
Ge 1:9
And God said, Let the waters under the heaven be gathered
together unto one place, and let the dry land appear: and it was so.
Then the LORD had gathered all the waters of the earth
and put them in one place instead of the waters overrunning the entire planet.
He moved them out so dry land could appear.
At this point there was only one land mass on earth and not seven
continents. The dividing of the
earth came at a later time.
And unto Eber were born two sons: the
name of one was Peleg; for in
his days was the earth divided; and his brother's name
was Joktan. (Genesis 10:25)
At this point the earth was divided into only two divisions, one ocean
and one land mass. God spoke this
into existence and it was so.
Ge 1:10
And God called the dry land Earth; and the
gathering together of the waters called he Seas: and God saw that it was
good.
God called the dry land Earth which carries with it the
meaning of “field, ground, or land.”
Then God called the gathering of the waters “Seas” which carries with it
the meaning of “large body of water.”
At this point we don’t know the percentage of the earth the land took up
or the percentage of the earth the water took up.
God saw it was good which means he was pleased with his creation so far.
Ge 1:11
And God said, Let the earth bring forth grass, the herb
yielding seed, and the fruit tree yielding fruit after his kind, whose
seed is in itself, upon the earth: and it was so.
Then upon the dry land the LORD began to further his
creation by creating grass. Then
herbs yielding seed which now shows a living creation as the herbs and fruit
trees will yield after its kind.
Once the seeds are planted, they will grow the herbs or the type of fruit trees
the seeds were taken from. The
herbs and the fruit trees would sustain man and the animals when they are
created because before the fall into sin, the animals ate only herbs and grass.
Meat eating came after the fall since there was no death before the fall.
God spoke these herbs and trees and grass into existence and it was so.
It is absolutely amazing that God just speaks and something comes into
existence. This is why the true
Christian walks by faith.
Ge 1:12
And the earth brought forth grass, and herb
yielding seed after his kind, and the tree yielding fruit, whose seed was
in itself, after his kind: and God saw that it was good.
When God spoke, the fruit trees which would also yield
the seeds to plant more fruit trees, the grass, and the herb yielding seed after
its kind, they came into existence and God again looked at this portion of his
creation and said it was good. The
term “after its kind” is very important because apple trees will not yield seeds
for orange trees and so forth. It
is an orderly creation. If a person
plants seeds for an apple tree they can expect apples.
This is why randomness is not part of the creation but God created by
order and specifics. Can you
imagine taking seeds from an apple tree and planting them and not knowing
whether you will get apples, oranges, or bananas?
God is a God of order and not disorder.
Ge 1:13
And the evening and the morning were the third day.
So God finished creating on the third day as it was the
creation of the trees, grass, and herbs which were the vegetation that would
sustain both humans and animals.
Ge 1:14
And God said, Let there be lights in the firmament of the
heaven to divide the day from the night; and let them be for signs, and for
seasons, and for days, and years:
Then God creates the lights in the firmament of Heaven
which would be the sun, moon and stars.
The sun would be the primary light giver by shining during the day and
the moon would be the lesser light reflecting the sun and giving some light at
night. The lights are to be markers
and not just light givers. They
will be for signs which will be an important indicator in the final days.
And there shall be signs in the
sun, and in the moon, and in the stars; and upon the earth distress of nations,
with perplexity; the sea and the waves roaring; (Luke 21:25)
They shall also be signs of the weather and the changing of the seasons.
In winter the sun is farther away from the earth and in summer it is
closer. They shall also be
indicators of days and years. Their
motions shall indicate a 24 hour day which turns into years.
They are the time keepers.
Right at the end of time, immediately before the Lord’s return, the time keepers
will be taken out of commission.
Immediately after the tribulation of
those days shall the sun be darkened, and the moon shall not give her light, and
the stars shall fall from heaven, and the powers of the heavens shall be shaken:
(Matthew 24:29)
Ge 1:15
And let them be for lights in the firmament of the heaven
to give light upon the earth: and it was so.
Until the last day, the sun is to give light upon the
earth by which we work, plant crops, and live under its warmth.
God placed the earth at a precise distance so we would neither freeze nor
burn up but we would experience the benefit of the four seasons.
God spoke the lights into existence and it came to pass.
Ge 1:16
And God made two great lights; the greater light to rule
the day, and the lesser light to rule the night: he made the stars also.