Genesis (3) (The 6 Day’s of Creation)
Text: Genesis 1:3-31
By: Ken McKinley
This morning; as we continue our study of the book of Genesis, we’re going to be looking at a bigger chunk of the text. We’re going to be looking at the six days of creation, and then next Sunday we’re actually going to look at the 6th day under the microscope so to speak. So if you have your Bibles with you this morning please turn with me to Genesis chapter 1 and follow along as I read verses 3 – 31 (read text).
Now there is so much information in those 28 verses that we could easily spend the next year or so looking at all of it, and there are people who specialize in that sort of thing. Ken Ham, the founder of Answers in Genesis comes to mind. He’s devoted his life to teaching the book of Genesis, and even he would say that he still has a lot to learn. So I think that an overview of the days of creation might be what we need right now, and then, Lord willing we may come back to this passage of Scripture sometime in the future and examine each individual day more closely.
But before we get started; I need to say one important thing about the use of the word “Day” here in our text. Historically; the Church has always viewed these to be literal days, 24 hour periods of time. But about 150 years ago that changed in some religious circles, and the reason for that change was a work published by Charles Darwin titled The Origin of Species. And for Darwin’s theory to even be plausible, the earth had to be very, very, very old. And what happened is that you had Christians who instead of saying, “Science has to line up with Scripture in order for it to be believable,” instead said, “oh we have to make Scripture line up with science in order to make it more acceptable to society.” And so Christians tried to find some way to harmonize the Scriptural account of creation with Darwinian theory.
What happened was that all kinds of interpretations came about. There was the figurative or allegorical 6 days of creation theory which says that the Genesis creation account isn’t a historical account, but is an allegory… a mythical account, there was also the “gap theory” which says there was millions of years that took place between Genesis verses 1 and 2. That God created the earth and it “became” formless and void and that God then “re-created” the earth, there was also the “day – age theory” which borrows from 2nd Peter 3:8 which says, “… with the Lord, one day is as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day.” All of these theories come up short however, when proper hermeneutics are applied. If you remember, hermeneutics is; in a nut shell, rightly interpreting Scripture. And I’ll explain to you why they fall short. First of all Genesis is written as a historical work. It is a history book, not a book of mythology, not a book of poetry, it’s not apocalyptic literature… its history, not allegory. Secondly; and this one seems pretty obvious, we see in the days of creation, the words, “evening and morning.” The “evening and morning” were the 1st day, the “evening and morning” were the 2nd day, and so on. So even though the word ‘day’ in the Hebrew language is the word Yom, which can mean a period of time raging from a couple of hours to months or years, the phrase “evening and morning” make it pretty clear that it was a 24 hour period of time, or something pretty close to it. And thirdly, chapter two tells us that God looked at ALL THAT HE HAD CREATED and it was very good. (The Hebrew is tov meod which means perfect and having a complete absence of evil of any kind).
This tells us that the earth couldn’t have “become” formless and void because that would require sin to be present in the world… but the phrase tov meod shows us that Adam, or anyone for that matter, had not yet sinned.
Now if you remember; I told you last time that the first 3 days show us God giving the world form, and the last 3 days of creation show us God bringing fullness to emptiness. The first day is shown to us in verses 3-5. God said, “Fiat Lux!” That’s the Latin for “Let there be light!”
And what this shows us is the amazing power of God. God spoke light into being. He spoke it into existence. Now I wish I could tell you what that means exactly, and everything that entails. I’m not an astrophysicist, so I can’t give you all the technical jargon. But I can tell you this: it is an awesome, awesome thing. And remember God created this light ex nihilo, “out of nothing.” We don’t know the exact extent of this light, how much it was, or anything like that, but to be able to speak something into existence is a show of incredible power. No human can do that, no angle, or devil can do that, no created thing can do this. Only God has this kind of power.
Then God divides the light from the darkness. This is important, because it shows us God bringing about some sense of order to His creation. He brings order by differentiation, division, and distinction. We see Him do the same thing in verses 6 & 7 when He separates the waters above from the waters below. In verse 8 we see God creating the sky. That word “heaven” is what the Jews would call the 1st heaven. In Jewish tradition, the 1st heaven was the sky that surrounds us, the 2nd heaven was outer space, where the moon and stars are, the 3rd heaven was the place where God was. That’s why the apostle Paul in 2nd Corinthians 12:2 says, “I know a man in Christ who fourteen years ago – whether in the body I do not know, or whether out of the body I do not know, God knows – such a one was caught up to the third heaven.” He was talking about actually being in the presence of God in heaven. But here in our text it’s talking about the skies above us. And God separates the waters above and the waters below. So it’s no surprise to me when NASA finds water on Mars, or Venus, or when they tell us that there are huge ice comets in outer-space. God already told us that there was water in outer-space.
Now I want you to notice the pattern of creation. 1st God says, “Let there be…” and we can fill in the blank: light, a firmament, waters gathered, earth that brings forth grass, etc, etc… 2nd there is a fulfillment of that command, “And it was so.” 3rd there is a Lordship over the created thing where God names the thing He has created. We see that when God calls the light He created “Day” and the darkness “Night.” We see it when He calls the firmament He created “heaven.” Over and over again, we see this. And we see that it was done in increments of time that included evening and morning. God is not the Author of confusion. He is very orderly in His creation process. And on the 3rd Day, God has brought about form to His creation, as he creates the earth, and brings about the oceans and seas, and continents.
And then on the 4th day He starts getting to the intimate details of His creation. He’s finished with the form, now He’s working on filling up the emptiness. And again we see God’s awesome power, because what we see in verse 11 is that God has not only created the earth and all that’s in it, He has given His creation a reproductive power. All of God’s living things are re-producers. But this power to reproduce is only given by God. I have a friend, and he and his wife would desperately like a child, but God has not allowed that to happen yet. And so the power God has given to His creation to reproduce after its kind is still under the rule and reign and authority of God Himself. We also see God setting the sun and the moon into the sky. And the Bible uses 4 words… signs, seasons, days, and years. And they give light on the earth. What this is telling us is that God has given us something to order our lives. In ancient times, when the sun went down the day’s work was done. There was no electricity. You worked during the day, you went home at night. So what the sun and moon do; is provide us with order. They help us to understand time, and seasons. But also they are for signs. The sun rises every morning, which is a sign of God’s faithfulness, and care and provision for us. But also there are times in Scripture when we read of the sun becoming dark, like in Matthew 24 when Jesus is answering the disciples’ questions about when the temple will be destroyed and when the end of the age will come. It’s a sign that was given by Jesus so they could tell what was happening. And I want you to look at verse 16 (Read)… He made the sun, the moon, and then almost as an afterthought it says, “He made the stars also.” There are billions of stars in the universe. God made them also. You see, we can’t even begin to understand the awesome power God possesses.
In verses 20 – 23 God makes all the creatures in the oceans and seas, and the birds of the air. I want you to think about what this is saying to the people of the ancient world. To ancient people, the oceans were a terrifying place. They believed that sea monsters… sea serpents would swallow up ships. Gabriel will tell you that when we were in Scotland she saw the Loch Ness monster, and she’s not alone in that. St. Columba, one of the first Christian missionaries to Scotland, in the 4th Century, also records that he saw a sea serpent in Loch Ness. But what Genesis is telling us is that if there is a Loch Ness monster, God made it. God put it in Loch Ness. God is absolutely sovereign over His creation. So day 5 God has made all the creatures of the sea and of the air, and then we come to day 6.
Verses 24 – 31 tell us about the 6th day of creation. We see that the earth brings forth living creatures after their kind, but when we get to man; man is created in the image and likeness of God Himself. And you notice that everything up to that point that God had created… it was all pronounced as “good.” But after man was created, then creation is pronounced as “very good.”
Mankind is the pinnacle of God’s creation. And it was “very good” because man was created in the image of God and after His likeness. How could anything that has been created in the image of God not be “very good?” Verses 27 & 28 say, “So God created man in His own image; in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them. Then God blessed them, and God said t them, ‘be fruitful and multiply; fill the earth and subdue it; have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the air, and over every living thing that moves on the earth.” So what we’re seeing here is actually a jump ahead of Genesis 2:21-25 where we read about the creation of Eve. Who knows for sure, maybe Moses got ahead of himself in writing, we know he wrote as he was inspired but maybe after writing chapter one he asked God something like, “Well where exactly did woman come from?” And so God went back and explained it to him in chapter two.
So we can know that Eve as taken from Adam, on that 6th day, because of verse 27 & 28, go ahead and look at them one more time. Verse 27 says, “He created them.” Verse 28 says, “He blessed them,” and “He told them to be fruitful and multiply.”
It wouldn’t make any sense for God to tell Adam to be fruitful and multiply if Eve wasn’t at his side, and we also know from the next chapter, that on the 7th day, God rested from all His work of creation.
Now people say, “Well that doesn’t make any sense.” How could Eve be there on the 6th day? God had to bring all the animals before Adam, and then put Adam to sleep and then create Eve. How could all the animals be brought before Adam and shown to him in a day? There’s no way!” And I would say, Take it up with Moses and the Holy Spirit, because that’s what the text says. Actually; I am going to try and explain how that all works, but you’ll have to make sure you’re here next Sunday to hear it.
And so God tells Adam and Eve to be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth, to have dominion over creation, and then in verse 29 He explains to them that He has made provision for them in, and not only them, but for every animal as well. You see there was no sin in the world, so there was no death, which means that what we see as predatory animals today, like a lion, or a shark, or any carnivore out there… they must’ve originally been herbivores.
Why did they have sharp teeth? To crack open coconuts, and pineapples, and walnuts.
And the chapter closes with verse 31 and we see that God saw everything He made, and it was very good. And that word “everything.” It means EVERYTHING. What this tells us is that at the end of the 6th day, sin hasn’t entered the world, Satan hasn’t fallen yet, and that everything is very good.
I’m not finished, but I’m going to have to close… Next Sunday we’re going to be looking even more closely at the 6th day. If you know of someone whose interested in this, go ahead and invite them to come if you’d like.
Let’s Pray
