This month, we are beginning a new series in the book of Genesis called “Dust to Life.” I believe Genesis is one of the most important books to study because it contains God’s revelation to the world of how life began, what life was meant to be, what the world has become because of sin and the Fall, and what the world will become through the promised Redeemer. As one scholar said: “Genesis is an embodiment of a future hope.”
“In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth” is probably one of the most well-known phrases in the western world.
How shall we read the book of Genesis? As metaphorical? as an allegory? a historical myth? or as a literal text?
Martin Luther, John Calvin, Zwingli, and other 16th century reformers adopted a literal approach to the Genesis text by taking its words in their natural or customary meaning, and then applying the ordinary rules of grammar. They took this approach as opposed to treating the text with mystical or allegorical interpretations. In other words, they believed, “Scriptures are first to be understood in their natural, primary sense” - expressed by the actual wording of a passage, as distinguished from any metaphorical or suggested meaning.
John Lennox, professor of mathematics and philosophy at Oxford University uses the example of the narrative of the crucifixion of Christ with this natural or primary sense of interpretation of Scriptures. Scholars don’t interpret the crucifixion, Jesus dying for the sins of the world, as metaphorical but as a historical and physical event. Jesus physically came back from the dead and is alive today. There were times when Jesus spoke metaphorically (John 6) to His disciples about eating His flesh and drinking His blood, but people took it literally when it should have been taken as a metaphor. But even when Jesus spoke metaphorically, He was always pointing to an actual truth, for example, when He referred to Himself as the door, the bread of life and the living water.
In the book of Revelation, when John was speaking about the great dragon he was speaking metaphorically about the devil. We speak metaphorically in our everyday speech, but it is pointing to an actual truth or reality. Have you ever used the expressions, “That car was flying down the road” or “He’s as strong as an ox,” or “She’s as stubborn as a mule”?
When we look at Genesis, we need to look at its words in context. We want to be faithful to the text and so we need to ask how these words were meant to be understood in their primary sense. What truth does the author want us to see in Genesis?
The consensus amongst Old Testament scholars is that Moses wrote most of the Pentateuch. Moses had an intense interest in the past and how that past would play out into the future.
As we take this journey through Genesis, we will discover three levels. The upper level is theological. Every story teaches us something about God through what He says, through what other characters in the story say about Him, and/or through His actions. The middle level is historical. Israel’s history is traced through the Bible’s stories. The bottom level is biographical. As one author put it, “Here we will meet people just like us muddling through life as best they can under God’s watchful eye.”
Let's read the very first verses of the Bible, the account of creation in Gen 1:1-2
1 In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. 2 And the earth was a formless and desolate emptiness, and darkness was over the surface of the deep, and the Spirit of God was hovering over the surface of the waters.
These words are the foundation of all that is to follow in the Bible. There is a threefold purpose of this statement:
1. to identify the Creator
2. to explain the origin of the world, and
3. to tie the work of God in the past to the work of God in the future.
These words, “In the beginning” have an eschatological implication that what the Lord has begun He will also bring to its perfect conclusion. In other words, the last things will be like the first things. Moses of course only saw the beginnings of the fulfillment of God's promise. We have the privilege of knowing how it will end in the book of Revelation.
Though conservative scholars agree on Who created it all, there has always been a debate on how long it took and how it all happened. Early Christian theologians such as Clement of Alexandria (AD 150-215), Augustine, and Origen took a figurative approach to Genesis 1 and argued that God created everything instantaneously in the very beginning (Gen 1:1).
The medieval French rabbi Shlomo Yitzchaki (1040–1105), (known as Rashi) wrote much-acclaimed commentaries on the Talmud and the Tanakh (Hebrew Old Testament). He didn’t think that the Genesis creation narrative was proposing either a timescale or even an order for creation. He believed that God only wants to teach us what was the condition of things at the time when heaven and earth were created - that the earth was without form and a confused mass.
An ancient Jewish text called the Book of Jubilees tells us that each day of creation represents a thousand years (Jubilees 4:29-30). This is called the Day-Age theory. Several passages of Scripture might also be considered to support the idea that God’s days are longer than ours (Psalm 90:4; 2 Pet 3:8-9). Justin Martyr and other early church fathers as well as early Christian theologians such as Irenaeus endorsed the Day-Age interpretation (where one day represents a thousand or more years), and many Christians take this view today. Even Augustine admitted that he wasn’t sure exactly what the word “day” was intended to represent but said, “at least we know that it is different from the ordinary day with which we are familiar.” To sum up then, it is clear that different church fathers interpreted the first chapter of Genesis in different ways.
There are those who hold the young-earth view, which was made famous by Archbishop Ussher (1581–1656). Ussher gave 4004 BC as the date for the origin of the earth. His calculation is based on taking the days of Genesis 1 as literal twenty-four-hour days of one earth week at the beginning of the universe which is far different from the current scientific estimate of around four billion years.
Some of the old-earth creationists who hold to the age of the earth as being 4.5 billion years old are split, some accepting Darwin’s theory of evolution as valid with God intervening at certain stages and others not. There is also the Literary Framework interpretation where God took the first three days to form the earth and in the next three days He filled it.
Still others argue that the Genesis account is written to communicate timeless theological truth rather than scientific information, so any attempt to harmonize it with science would be misguided. Of course, there will be times when the various sciences challenge our understanding of the Scriptures and times when it sheds greater light on the Word of God. John Lennox said that there are two extremes to science that must be avoided, although that is often easier said than done. First, science is liable to change, and so it may be risky to tie interpretation of Scripture too closely to the science of the day…and the other extreme is to ignore science, and maybe even common sense. Science, far from making God redundant and irrelevant or contradicting the Bible as atheists will say, actually points to God’s existence. We saw how science affirms the existence of God in our apologetics series with the cosmological, teleological, Kalam, and other arguments for God’s existence.
Even if some hold a different viewpoint regarding the age of the earth and universe or the processes involved in creation, we read throughout the Scriptures that it was God who created the heavens and the earth and life as we know it. We read through the Word that sin and evil exist, that we are in a fallen creation, we are not in paradise, that death is inevitable, and we are in need of a Savior. By the way, have you noticed that God never talks about the age of the earth in the Bible? Maybe God didn’t want this to become an area of focus.
“In the beginning God created.” Who is God? What is His name? He is Elohim - the infinite, all-powerful God who shows by His works that He is the creator, sustainer, and supreme judge of the world. What did God create? The heavens and the earth. Moses is making a statement within the backdrop of the exodus from Egypt, a polytheistic nation. Moses was making a crucial distinction between the God of the patriarchs and the gods of the nations, especially Egypt. The biblical authors considered the Egyptian gods and the gods of all the other nations as mere powerless idols. Moses made it clear that the God El Elohim alone created all that exists.
The word create = Bara, describes an "entirely new thing." The statement God created the heavens and the earth ex nihilo out of nothing is an affirmation that God alone is eternal and that everything else owes its origin and existence and being to Him (Acts 17:28).
Isaiah 46:9-10 says:
9 “Remember the former things long past, For I am God, and there is no other; I am God, and there is no one like Me, 10 Declaring the end from the beginning, And from ancient times things which have not been done, Saying, ‘My plan will be established, And I will accomplish all My good pleasure’;
Jeremiah said:
The gods that did not make the heavens and the earth will perish from the earth and from under these heavens (Jer 10:11).
Let’s look at Genesis 1:2 again:
2 And the earth was a formless and desolate emptiness, and darkness was over the surface of the deep, and the Spirit of God was hovering over the surface of the waters.
By placing the creation of the universe (“heavens and earth”) within Genesis 1:1, the writer does not include the initial creation with the seven-day week that followed. He is telling us that at the initial creation of the heavens and the earth that “for an unspecified length of time it was dark and void.” He is describing the concept of vastness and emptiness, like a dessert,” for a period of time there was no life.
“And the Spirit of God was hovering over the waters.” Even though it was formless and void, [desolate, empty, and dark] all is kept in check and under control by the spirit of God.
Again, we do not know how long this was happening but the emphasis in this verse was not on the duration of time but on the One who is energizing, giving life and vitality, actively guiding and creating. The image of the Spirit of God hovering over the deep and dark waters is recalled in Deuteronomy 32:11, pointing to the character of God as an eagle “hovering” (yera?ep) over the nest of its young, protecting and making their nest fit for them. God was about to take this vast emptiness, this lifeless planet and begin forming and filling it with life to make it fit for His creation.
Our infinite, all knowing God created the precise conditions that are necessary to sustain life on the earth. Scientists have recognized that our existence in this universe depends on countless cosmological constants and parameters that fall within such a narrow range for life to even be possible. If even a single variable were off, even slightly, no life forms as we know it would be able to exist. The Scriptures tell us that it is God who upholds all things, the world and the universe, by the power of his Word (Heb 1:3).
Moses wanted us to understand this picture of the nature of God. The creator of this vast universe Elohim, who is all powerful, all knowing, and everywhere present, who guided and cared for the entire nation of Israel, how by His powerful hand He delivered them from slavery in Egypt. Moses watched as God parted the Red Sea and led them on dry ground. He miraculously provided and protected a whole nation every day for 40 years as they walked through the wilderness. This is such a powerful picture of who God is His nature and character. He is light, He is life, He is our provider, our protector.
If we don’t study and come to know the almighty God and what He is able to do, then we will be anxious about life. We will be anxious about our finances, anxious about our studies, about our future, about our health, about what’s happening in the world. We will easily be overwhelmed by the littlest things. Everything becomes bigger than God. But it is Elohim who brings light into the deepest darkness, He is the only One who can bring life into a lifeless situation. David confessed that when his life was overwhelmed it was only Elohim who could speak to the deepest levels of his being and rescue his downcast soul (Ps 69:15-18).
When we truly experience an omnipotent God in this way, when we encounter Jesus as our Friend and Redeemer, His Spirit gives us life and vitality. He does a new thing in us and we become a new creation. From to dust to life! We experience His personal, intimate care and protection and if we truly search for Him, and our roots go deep into His life, we will discover the incredible plan He has prepared for us. We have the assurance that we are part of His family, the assurance that we have a home in heaven that He has prepared for us, and that we will spend all of eternity with the God of creation.
