Creation: God's Work Series

When you read you begin with ABC. When you count you begin with 1,2,3. When you sing you begin with do-re-me. In the Bible you begin with Genesis. The book of Genesis is the book of beginnings. You find out how the world came into being.

There are many theories, hypothesis and philosophies regarding how everything began. But God stated it simply in Genesis 1:1. In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. God is eternal and stands alone without beginning, but God chose to create. All his creation, heaven and earth and every living creature all have a beginning.

Genesis records the creative activity of God. God created purposefully and intentionally. Creation is not the result of random chance, but the work of the master designer, God. The title of the book comes from the first word in the Greek version, Genesis means, in the beginning.

Genesis and the creation story serve as a building block to understand many important subjects; creation, man, the fall of man, God’s plan of redemption are among them. The creation story is the actual account of God’s work and the starting point of history.

The Hebrew word for Bara is a verb that has only God as the subject. It means to create something out of nothing. It is the doctrine of “creatio ex nihilo” – creation out of nothing. We can create a work of art, but we need a canvas and paint brush to form our creation. The materials were already there.

God created the world using no pre-existing materials, creating something out of nothing. God simply spoke the universe into existence. There are other views besides the biblical account. The other views are well, not the biblical view. So then, how does the biblical account of creation reconcile with evolution? It doesn’t.

To say that man evolved from lower life form isn’t found in the Bible account of creation. By faith we understand that the universe was formed at God’s command, so that what is seen was not made out of what was visible (Hebrews 11:3).

God formed man from the dust and breathed the breath of life into him. The woman he fashioned from the rib of man. Man was created fully man. He did not evolve into a man. God created him a man.

The bible says that the creation account was seven days. The word in Hebrew is Yom, like you find the word in the term Yom Kipper, the day of atonement. The word Yom is used 16 times in Genesis creation account of chapters 1 &2. There three different ways the word Yom is used in the creation account.

In one ways of usage Yom is light as opposed to darkness. God called the light “day,” and the darkness he called “night (Genesis 1:5) This is the way we use day for morning, noon and afternoon. As opposed to night.

Another use of Yom is a period of time. This is the account of the heavens and the earth when they were created (on the day), when the LORD God made the earth and the heavens. (Genesis 2:4) It speaks of the period of time when the heavens and earth were created. The meaning would be like saying the day of Abraham or the day of Moses. A period of time.

Another usage of the word Yom is a 24 hour period. ”And there was evening, and there was morning—the first day (Genesis 1:5) Anywhere in the Hebrew Bible day is used with a numerical adjective it means a 24 hour day.

For in six days the LORD made the heavens and the earth, the sea, and all that is in them, but he rested on the seventh day. Therefore the LORD blessed the Sabbath day and made it holy. (Exodus 20:11)

In addition to the numerical adjective there is mention of evening and morning each day of creation. In creation the first 3 days added form to the earth that was formless and void. Days 4-6 add life to the empty earth.

The creation account.

Day 1

And God said, “Let there be light,” and there was light. 4 God saw that the light was good, and he 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—the first day. (Genesis 1:3-5)

The sun and the moon were created on the 4th day, but God spoke light into existence before He made the sun and divided the light and darkness. The light was “good.” The earth was declared God’s good creation.

Day 2

And God said, “Let there be a vault between the waters to separate water from water.” 7 So God made the vault and separated the water under the vault from the water above it. And it was so. (Genesis 1:6-7)