Serving A God Of Purpose

Genesis 1 is the account of God's creation.

This is the revelation of God to Moses. No one was at the beginning except God.

• No one would know what happen unless God reveals. Moses spent many one-on-one, extended moments with God.

• When he was in the wilderness shepherding the flock, before he took on the task of leading Israel out of Egypt.

• When he spent 40 days and nights on Mount Sinai receiving the Law. When he go into the Tabernacle to meet the Lord one-on-one.

We believe these were the moments he received from the Lord the revelations of all that he writes in the Law of Moses, the Pentateuch.

• A careful reading of it gives us a clearer picture of who God is. When you see His works, you will be able to tell the Person.

• When we see His creation, and how He creates, we will be able to know the Creator. Let’s just read the first five verses - Genesis 1:1-5.

Let me run through very quickly the 7 days mentioned here.

• Day 1 - God created light and separated the light from the darkness, calling light "day" and darkness "night."

• Day 2 - God created an expanse to separate the waters and called it "sky."

• Day 3 - God created the dry ground and gathered the waters, calling the dry ground "land," and the gathered waters "seas." On day three, God also created vegetation (plants and trees).

• Day 4 - God created the sun, moon, and the stars to give light to the earth and to govern and separate the day and the night. These would also serve as signs to mark seasons, days, and years.

• Day 5 - God created every living creature of the seas and every winged bird, blessing them to multiply and fill the waters and the sky with life.

• Day 6 - God created the animals to fill the earth. On day 6, God also created man and woman (Adam and Eve) in his own image to commune with him. He blessed them and gave them every creature and the whole earth to rule over, care for, and cultivate.

• Day 7 - God had finished his work of creation and so he rested on the 7th day, blessing it and making it holy.

There is a clear ORDER here. One builds on the other. Each creation builds on what is being created earlier.

• You need to separate the dry ground from the waters, then you can have plants and trees. Only then can you have creatures of the sea and animals on land.

• This order is carefully planned out, not haphazard.

We also noticed a movement here. At the start, “the earth was formless and empty, darkness was over the surface of the deep.” (v.2)

• Nothing to appreciate, nothing to enjoy; it was bare and it was dark.

• But with each passing day of creation, the Lord said, “It was good!” Until the last day – 6th day – when “God saw all that He had made, and it was very good.” (v.31)

It is a movement from darkness to light, from chaos to order, from barrenness to abundance, from deadness to life!

• Beyond just good ORDER, we see good DESIGN. It seems that each creation, we see not just something new but something more beautiful and varied.

• From light, to land, water and sky, to plants and trees, and then moving creatures of the sea, the sky and on land.

• Finally it culminates with the creation of man – in His own image! We see a movement from a lesser design to the grander DESIGN.

No wonder God needs to create LIGHT right at the beginning.

• 1:3-4 “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.”

• When I was young, I got all these jumbled up. I thought when God created light, that’s the sun. It wasn’t the sun.

• This was light that comes from God. The sun wasn’t created until day 4.

There was no other light for the universe then. Without this, everything is in complete darkness.

• It is the ONLY thing God created on that FIRST day. It comes across as the simplest of all His creation. Why just create light? What is this so special?

• It is significant because without it, the rest of creation doesn’t matters.

• Nothing can be seen, no matter how good or beautiful. You see nothing. You cannot say, “I SAW that it was GOOD!”

But light came. Light came, and now we can SEE the wonders of God’s creation.