For many people today - to say that you believe the Bible is to say that you are an anachronism - something out of today’s enlightened understanding. To say that Scripture is revealing the truth is laughable in some circles - especially among the intelligentsia. Much of the reason for scoffing at the Word of God comes in the first ten words uttered I the book of Genesis: "In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth."
For a growing number of people in our world - that assertion makes the rest of the Bible unbelievable. To say that God created is to be a moron, a simpleton, a backwards backwoods country bumpkin not to be taken seriously. The Bible - and Genesis in particular - is viewed as a myth born out of ignorant man’s superstitious need to make sense of the universe around him.
But now we know better. Everything we see around us was created in a big bang our which sprang chemical compounds that eventually came to be you and me and everything we see - given time, chance, and lightning. I want you to know right off the bat that you can be a very serious student of biology or physiology or cosmology or genetics - and have no problem at all with what God declares in this book. And in fact, I believe that it takes more faith to believe the theory of evolution than it does the truth of a creator.
And although we’re not going to exhaustively search out that subject tonight - I hope to give you enough seeds that you will do your own study and decide for yourself. But I will say this - if you can’t agree with Genesis 1:1, I would say you will have a hard time agreeing with John 3:16.
Tonight we begin a study of the book of Genesis. Genesis is actually a word that comes from Greek into Latin meaning "beginnings" because the book is about the beginnings of God’s creation, the beginnings of man, the nations, of sin, and redemption.
The Jews call the book "Bereshith" which means "in the beginning." The Jews named the books of the Bible usually by the first words they contain.
Genesis covers a period of about two thousand three hundred and sixty-nine years.
It is divided into two principal parts. The first part (1-11) gives a general history of mankind down to the time of the Dispersion. The second part presents the early history of Israel down to the death and burial of Joseph (12-50). In a real sense, though, Genesis is about God creating man, man going bad - and then God beginning to lay the seeds of redemption through Abraham.
There are five principal men the book focuses on and around these the history of the successive periods is grouped: Adam (1-3), Noah (4-9), Abraham (10-25:18), Isaac (25:19-35:29), and Jacob (36-50).
The author of the book was Moses, who wrote the first five books of the Bible. Moses probably compiled the books from oral histories and other sources. How could this be, you say? Especially since it went down all those generations - surely the story got twisted. Well if you think about it, Adam’s grandson, Enosh, was probably alive to tell the story of the creation to Noah, so it’s not that far fetched.
To understand what Genesis is, we first have to understand what it is not.
1. Genesis is not a science textbook - though it portrays events factually, it presents them in a way that the readers would connect with (ie, the greater and lesser lights)
2. Genesis is not a history book - it is instead an account of certain parts of history as they pertain to God, and salvation through the lineage of Abraham.
3. Genesis is not a genealogy, although there are lots of genealogies in it. Notice that only those lines that lead to the Messiah are followed extensively.
Genesis is simply the story of how God created man, how man fell, then how God began His plan of salvation by zeroing in closer and closer on a race that would bear the Savior - and how God picked that race, not for any merit at all, but because of His sovereignty. Genesis, then, is God’s Story of Salvation. We need to keep that in mind because Genesis poses a lot more questions than it answers - that’s because the book has a purpose - a message - a point. It is not all inclusive. We make a mistake when we try to make Genesis say things it is not, or when we look at what the book doesn’t say and then conclude that the Bible is not correct because of all that’s left out.
But to understand God’s plan - and the rest of the Bible, it is vital that we learn the foundation that was laid. Now you may have read or studied Genesis a number of times - as I have, but there are always new things to learn - and important things to be reminded of.
Read 1:1-1:2
There is as much debate over these two verses as anything else in the Bible. On it hinges a key question of our age: did God create the earth or did it evolve?
In our rationalistic society we use science as our truth barometer. We look at Genesis 1:1 and 2 as nothing more than a fairy tale. But you have to understand that it was written to a people who had no idea about our science. Genesis isn’t a science textbook, as I said. It is the story of creation - and I believe firmly that God did create the universe. Does it tell us how? Not really. In fact, it is quite possible that there is a huge time gap between the 1st and second verses here.
The Hebrew verb used in verse 1 to "create" is bara, which means "to create out of nothing." Thereafter the word "made" is used, which is the Hebrew word asah, which means to "assemble existing materials into order."
Some in fact believe that something happened between verse 1 and 2 - the earth "became" formless and void is another way to read that verse. It stems from something called the "gap theory." This theory suggests that Satan and the angels were created along with everything else, and that perhaps it was the angels who inhabited the earth - with Lucifer over them. Then came the fall and in the ensuing battle the earth "became" formless and void - so God put the earth into a deep freeze until verse 2.
Another theory is that each day of creation was a period of geologic time.
Still another theory is that God literally created the heavens and the earth in six 24 hour days. The Hebrew word Yom for day, has a bunch of meanings, including "an indefinite period of time."
Then you have theistic evolution - which says that God created matter, then just let it go and we evolved.
Finally you have full blown evolution, which states that everything around us is the result of random mutations - gas forming planets and water with organic matter and single celled beings and pretty soon - man.
There are a number of problems with the theory of evolution - and some great books to read on the subject, including Duane Gish’s "Evolution, the Fossils say No." A couple of problems that seem insurmountable include the fact of the second law of thermodynamics that states that systems will always go from order to disorder. Yet evolution calls for disorder to turn into order. A second problem is that at some point there is still no answer, not even theories about how it all started. You have the Big Bang, but what about before that? You have the bubble theory that our universe is a bubble in the time/space fabric that just sprung up - but how did the fabric get woven?
You see the bottom line is really which system you put your faith in. Faith is the key. It takes just as much if not more faith to believe in evolution as it does in creation.
I know that Genesis doesn’t answer all my questions about creation - was it six literal days, six epochs of time - or something else - I don’t know. It doesn’t really matter - what matters is that I believe an intelligent being determined to create what we see and He did.
So it appears that the earth was covered by water in verse 2 and darkness - and God’s Spirit hovered over the waters.
Read 1:3-5
God created light - it always seems odd to me that there was light in verse 3, but no sun until verse 14. But from the perspective of the earth - God may have removed some sort of cloud of gas that had enshrouded the planet so that the light of the heavens would once again shine on it.
Read 1:6-8
The creation of the atmosphere - and in those days a water canopy that sat above the earth, and water in the oceans below. When God turned loose the flood in chapter 7 it says that the "floodgates of heaven" were opened. Apparently the waters above came crashing down - no wonder nothing survived except those in the ark. This water canopy could have also protected man from harmful cosmic radiation - which could be why life spans shortened soon after the flood.
Read 1:9-13
Notice the "according to their kinds" phrase. In creation we see organisms change - but a daisy never becomes a dinosaur - there is movement within a species not between species.
I suppose day three could be called the "Farmer’s Almanac" - because here God assembles the basics for vegetation - water and soil, seeds and plants that reproduce.
Read 1:14-19
On day 4 God "made" the sun and moon as two great lights - and the stars. Now - does this mean that God "created" or "manufactured" them? Not necessarily. In fact, the word "made" in Hebrew, as I mentioned before, is more appropriately termed "arranged." Elsewhere where the verb is used when talking about celestial bodies it refers to "function" rather than "creation."
The periods of creation were not what God "made" but what God "said." So here on Day 4 God is creating a function for the sun, moon and stars. That function was to mark yearly calendar, mark times for religious festivals, and as another "object lesson" of worship.
The word "light" when used outside of the Pentatuch refers to the "lights" of the candlestick in the tabernacle.
Psalm 19:1-2 The heavens declare the glory of God; the skies proclaim the work of his ands. 2 Day after day they pour forth speech; night after night they display knowledge.
Read 1:20-23
Birds and sea creatures come forth - they are separated from the rest of the animal kingdom partly because Adam will not have dominion over them - the sky and sea creatures simply operate in their function.
Read 1:24-31
The "Us, and our" may be an early reference to the trinity, although the original audience wouldn’t have understood it that way.
The "image of God" means that we "bear the essence of God, reflect His attributes, and act on His behalf." This is what Jesus did - He didn’t represent what God looked like, but what God was like. We can find an example of this in:
Genesis 5:1-2 This is the written account of Adam’s line. When God created man, he made him in the likeness of God. 2 He created them male and female and blessed them. And when they were created, he called them "man." 3 When Adam had lived 130 years, he had a son in his own likeness, in his own image; and he named him Seth.
And this works in relation to us as believers who are saved, sanctified, and then glorified - being "changed from glory to glory into His image." (2 Corinthians 3:18)
Conclusion
1. Do you need to be re-created?
Maybe you feel "formless and void", maybe your life has been trounced by the enemy - but God can create form out of void, light out of darkness, order out of chaos. Even as He "moved" over the face of the waters, if you let Him, God’s Spirit will move over your life - creating and giving function to your life.
2. God is a creator, not a destroyer
It’s safe to put your trust in Him. He will take the greatest of care for your life.
John 10:10 The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full. KJV
3. How much faith do you have?
You might be a staunch believer in evolution - that God had nothing to do with it. Again I would suggest that it takes more faith to believe that we are the results of a series of random gene mutations than it does to believe that God created everything.
Don’t let the details cloud you from the big picture. Genesis is not a science textbook, but what it says is true, that "In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth." Start there, and let God work out the details of the how and when later - but if you miss this, you miss everything.
4. What God creates is always good - it’s us and the enemy that muck it up
You might feel pretty messed over by the enemy - or maybe you’ve done it to yourself through giving in to the flesh - but even as God created the heavens and the earth - he can re-create a new person in you - if you’ll let Him.
2 Corinthians 5:17-18 Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come!
For more Bible studies and an audio copy of this message, please visit:
www.CalvaryChapelNewberg.org.
