Genesis 1

Introduction to the book. If the foundation is the most important part of a building, then the book of Genesis can certainly make a case for being the most important book in the Bible. If the history recounted in Genesis is not true, then the whole Bible falls, and we might as well eat, drink, and be merry for tomorrow we die. The creation, fall of man, theme of the Bible, the beginning of the Messianic line—it’s all in Genesis. We will be discussing all of these matters as we go through the book.

The six days of creation (vs. 1-31)--Chapter one is probably the most read chapter in the Bible. People make their resolution to read the Bible through in a year, start with Genesis 1, and usually by January 2, give up on the project (I’m trying to be a little humorous, of course). This chapter tells of God’s “working” for six days; this will be a pattern for the Old Testament law, but not for the New. Exodus 20 told the Jews to “remember the Sabbath and keep it holy”—no work was to be done on that day—but there is no such concomitant command in the New Testament. And notice “God saw everything that He had made, and indeed it was very good” (v. 31). When God pronounces something “very good,” then it was perfect. There were no flaws in God’s creation; indeed, Jehovah cannot make mistakes.

The creation took place in six days. Because of the theory of evolution, which requires billions of years—at least in its current theoretical form, it might change tomorrow—there have been a lot of attempts to stretch the “six days” of Genesis 1 into six eons of time in order to account for the time evolution needs. But the first thing God created—after the heavens and the earth—was light: “Let there be light,” (v. 3), which the Lord called “day” (v. 5). Well, since there was “light” on that first day before there was “darkness,” there was an evening, and then a morning, and that was the first day—24 hour period. Eons of time don’t have evenings and mornings, but a 24 hour time frame does. And again, since light--day--was created first, it would have been followed by an evening, then darkness, then morning. It makes perfect sense—if one accepts a 24 hour day. It makes no sense otherwise. Given this, the earth is probably 8-10,000 years old, almost certainly we need go back no farther than 15,000 years. I’ll discuss this a little more in a later chapter.

The sun, moon, and stars appeared on the fourth day. Possibly what God did was simply synthesize the “light” he had created the first day into the heavenly orbs.

Each act of creation was performed by the word of God. “Then God said” appears repeatedly throughout the chapter. God did not use evolution to create the heavens and earth and man (more on the creation of man in chapter 2). God used His word to fashion the physical existence (Psalm 33: 6, 9), He uses His word to uphold it (Hebrews 1:3), and He uses His word to form new spiritual creatures—Christians. “Having been born again, not of corruptible seed but incorruptible, through the word of God which lives and abides forever,” (I Peter 1:23). I believe there is a distinct reason why God spoke the universe into existence—to demonstrate to us the power of His word, a word He was also to use to convert our hearts and souls back to Him. “The law of the LORD is perfect, converting the soul,” (Psalm 19:7). The spoken creation was perfect; God’s law for converting the soul is equally perfect. Nothing else is needed.

The climax of God’s creation was man. Moses centers in on that event in chapter 2 and that’s what I will do as well.