Last week, we talked about some of the various views about creation in Genesis 1 and how people can differ over the time frame but still believe the Bible is entirely true and without fault. Because we love one another and know these differences do exist, we can still accept one another without thinking or accusing each other of being unorthodox.
We also spoke about the condition of this world being “dark, formless, desolate, and empty” and how the Spirit of God was hovering over it, with a plan to make the earth a place where His creation could live and thrive. Other passages in the Scriptures make it clear that God didn’t create the land to be empty but to be filled with a myriad of creatures. Isaiah 45:18 reads:
For this is what the Lord says, He who created the heavens (He is the God who formed the earth and made it, He established it and did not create it as a waste place, but formed it to be inhabited.
Genesis 1:2 creates this sense of excitement and anticipation of what the Spirit of God was about to do. What was God thinking? How would the Spirit of God bring life to a lifeless planet? Create something out of nothing? We’re going to look at the passage in Gen 1:3-31 today.
1 Then God said, “Let there be light”; and there was light. 4 God saw that the light was good; and God 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, one day. 6 Then God said, “Let there be an expanse in the midst of the waters, and let it separate the waters from the waters.” 7 God made the expanse, and separated the waters that were below the expanse from the waters that were above the expanse; and it was so. 8 God called the expanse “heaven.” And there was evening and there was morning, a second day.
9 Then God said, “Let the waters below the heavens be gathered into one place, and let the dry land appear”; and it was so. 10 And God called the dry land “earth,” and the gathering of the waters He called “seas”; and God saw that it was good. 11 Then God said, “Let the earth sprout vegetation, plants yielding seed, and fruit trees on the earth bearing fruit according to their kind with seed in them”; and it was so. 12 The earth produced vegetation, plants yielding seed according to their kind, and trees bearing fruit with seed in them, according to their kind; and God saw that it was good. 13 And there was evening and there was morning, a third day.
14 Then God said, “Let there be lights in the expanse of the heavens to separate the day from the night, and they shall serve as signs and for seasons, and for days and years; 15 and they shall serve as lights in the expanse of the heavens to give light on the earth”; and it was so. 16God made the two great lights, the greater light to govern the day, and the lesser light to govern the night; He made the stars also. 17God placed them in the expanse of the heavens to give light on the earth, 18 and to govern the day and the night, and to separate the light from the darkness; and God saw that it was good. 19 And there was evening and there was morning, a fourth day.
20 Then God said, “Let the waters teem with swarms of living creatures, and let birds fly above the earth in the open expanse of the heavens.” 21 And God created the great sea creatures and every living creature that moves, with which the waters swarmed, according to their kind, and every winged bird according to its kind; and God saw that it was good. 22 God blessed them, saying, “Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the waters in the seas, and let birds multiply on the earth.” 23 And there was evening and there was morning, a fifth day.
24 Then God said, “Let the earth produce living creatures according to their kind: livestock and crawling things and animals of the earth according to their kind”; and it was so. 25 God made the animals of the earth according to their kind, and the livestock according to their kind, and everything that crawls on the ground according to its kind; and God saw that it was good.
26 Then God said, “Let Us make mankind in Our image, according to Our likeness; and let them rule over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the sky and over the livestock and over all the earth, and over every crawling thing that crawls on the earth.” 27 So God created man in His own image, in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them. 28 God blessed them; and God said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth, and subdue it; and rule over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the sky and over every living thing that moves on the earth.”
29 Then God said, “Behold, I have given you every plant yielding seed that is on the surface of all the earth, and every tree which has fruit yielding seed; it shall be food for you; 30 and to every animal of the earth and to every bird of the sky and to everything that moves on the earth which has life, I have given every green plant for food”; and it was so. 31 And God saw all that He had made, and behold, it was very good. And there was evening and there was morning, the sixth day.
When we read through the seven days of the creation account, scholars have highlighted Moses' perfect symmetry in the narrative. In the Hebrew there are seven words in Gen 1:1 and fourteen words in Gen 1:2 There are seven paragraphs in Gen 1:1-2:3 marked by “evening and morning.” The concluding seventh paragraph in Gen 2:1-3 begins with three lines which have seven words each (Gen 2:2-3).
In this passage in Genesis 1:3-2:3 there are keywords which are repeated also in series of sevens. “God” is repeated 35x (7 x 5) “land” is repeated = 21x (7 x 3) “skies” repeated = 21x (7 x 3). The number “seven” is spelled with the same consonants as the Hebrew word ( ???) for “complete/full.” Why would Moses structure the creation account this way? What was he teaching us? Scholars tell us that there is no mistaking that seven represents both a whole and completed creation. God created all as it was meant to be culminating with Adam and Eve. The eschatological meaning of seven is a view that the “seventh day” is the fulfillment of all history. God completed His work on the seventh day, He rested on the seventh day, He blessed the seventh day.
This whole account of the seven days of creation is written in the Hebrew narrative tense. There is no question that the Genesis account is written as a historical event. “Moses presents the creation story as what actually happened in the time space world we experience.” Even though Genesis 1 it is not meant to be an exhaustive account of creation, there is so much in this chapter we could talk about for a long time.
Here we observe that God is forming the places and then He is furnishing it with the appropriate resources for life. In creation there is a separation toward order: light from darkness, waters above from waters below, day from night, woman from man.
Genesis 1 is saying God and no one else created every living creature from the earth according to their kinds, all the vegetation, and plants yielding seed according to their own kinds, and trees bearing fruit each according to its kind. There is no indication in the text of transitions or a passage of thousands or millions of years for anything He created. In other words, the narrative, in the natural primary sense of interpretation, suggests that there wasn’t a need for God to produce millions of different supernatural acts of creation but only one act to bring things into being.
And God saw that everything He created was good and beneficial for humanity. The word “saw” speaks of providing. In other words, God is the One who saw what is “good” or best for humankind and was intent on providing it. Where else do we read about seeing something good? In the Garden of Eden.
When the woman saw (same word in Gen 1) that the fruit of the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil was good [< ?ôb] . . . and also desirable for gaining wisdom (3:6). Even though Adam and Eve could see God had already provided what was best, Eve was deceived into believing this fruit would provide something better than what God had already given them.
The book of James addresses this topic of temptation - how do we know if something which looks good is from God or not?
James 1:16-17 says:
Do not be misled, my beloved brothers and sisters. Every good thing given and every perfect gift is from above; it comes down from the Father of lights [the Creator and Sustainer of the heavens], in whom there is no variation [no rising or setting] or shadow cast by His turning [for He is perfect and never changes].
The “good thing” in front of me would never lead me away from God. Moses, under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit originally wrote the creation account for God’s people, to teach the children of Israel a lesson. He wanted them to know why God was angry (and so was Moses) toward His people. Even though God had prepared a promised land, flowing in abundance, and was preparing His people (through tough times, testing their faith) to dwell in it, they continually went astray in their hearts and pursued the immediate instead of God (Heb 3:10). In their desire to shortcut the personal preparation process where God was maturing their faith and character, they just moaned and complained only prolonging the journey and sadly many saw the promise land. God had provided many good things for them, only the best. He provided everything necessary His people, He was in their midst for 40 years, yet they were led astray by their own willful desires.
Does this sound familiar? How many times have I foolishly pursued what I thought was best for me because it looked good and I believed it would benefit me? How often have I been deceived or deceived myself into giving up what God had already given for something I believed would be better? I do not know the things you have faced or are facing but there will be times when we will experience things that are incredibly painful. Whether the pain is emotional, relational or Spiritual, in my desire to kill the pain, instead of walking through it with God I may be looking for a shortcut that l think would be better than what God has for me only to realize later that it only increased my misery. It’s like the prodigal son experience, where I went after something so far below what I was created for and then finally came to my senses and regretted what I had lost as a result of it. Why did I think that I would find something better than what is in my Father’s house? God in His goodness allows me to realize this. You see it is God’s goodness which leads me to repentance and causes me to come back to Him and when I do, God’s arms are open wide to me.
Let’s look at vv. 26-27. On Day 6, God had prepared and provided everything good for this moment in time.
Then God said, “Let Us make mankind in Our image,
according to Our likeness; and let them rule over the fish of
the sea and over the birds of the sky and over the livestock
and over all the earth, and over every crawling thing that
crawls on the earth.” So God created man in His own image,
in the image of God He created him; male and female He
created them.
Genesis 1:2 is the first reference to the Trinity where the Spirit becomes God’s partner in creation and we see the reference to the triune God again in v. 26. The Trinity speaks of the relational aspect of God and we see this relational aspect of God’s image in Adam and Eve.
God took Adam out of the dust and breathed once into him the breath of life and Adam became a living soul, a person. Eve was taken out of the man (1 Cor 11:8) and she received her soul from Adam and became a living soul. Nothing is said about the creation of her soul (Gen 2:23).
After God created Adam and Eve in His image, He blessed them and spoke to them, telling them to populate the earth and rule over His creation. This creation account is reiterated in Psalm 8 where mankind, who was made a little lower than the angels, was crowned with glory and majesty (Ps 8:5). Adam and Eve were the crown of creation and they were to rule over the works of God’s hands (vv. 6-8). Only man and woman were made in God’s image, not nature, nor the animals, nor the angels.
What does it mean to be created in God’s image? We know it doesn’t mean that because God is three Persons that man's nature also consists of three dimensions. A human being is one person whose nature is made up of the material and immaterial (spirit).
So in what ways do we reflect God’s image? Being in God’s image means human beings, like God, are capable of interacting with others, of thinking, reasoning, and reflecting, and of making decisions and creating things. We were given the responsibility to care for each other and all of creation. We are able to interact with God, able to commune with and fellowship with our Maker. It is a likeness mentally, morally, and socially.
In fact a person most fully bears the image of God when that image is active, when we are living in right relationship with our Creator, when we are using our faculties for good and in ways that glorify Him, when we live honestly and with integrity fulfilling God’s purpose for our lives. We are most fully bearing God’s image when we see and treat others with the same intrinsic value that God has given each one of us. We are most fully bearing God’s image when we do things with excellence and to benefit others, when we are actively fellowshipping with each other, expressing love, kindness, forgiveness, and when we want the best for others. When we are active in the relationships God has given us and performing according to our design, we are reflecting the image of God. This is what it means to be truly human.
And so we see that on the sixth day of creation, Adam and Eve were at the apex of a fully formed and filled creation made by God for humankind. Here they are standing in a state of spiritual, social, and ecological perfection in the garden, at peace with God, nature, and each other. God saw that everything He had created and provided was only the best. It was the best because each stage fulfilled the very purpose God had determined for it.
