Genesis - The Account of Creation

Moses writes the book of Genesis as a book of firsts. The first day, the first sin, the first couple, the first time God reveals His plan. These are all presented to us in the first book of the Bible.

Genesis 1

 ¹ In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. ² The earth was formless and empty, and darkness covered the deep waters. And the Spirit of God was hovering over the surface of the waters.

Here we see the Spirit of God already at work. The Holy Trinity already being established with God in the first verse, and the Holy Ghost in the second.

 ³ Then God said, “Let there be light,” and there was light. ⁴ And God saw that the light was good. Then he separated the light from the darkness. ⁵ God called the light "day" and the darkness "night."
   And evening passed and morning came, marking the first day.
 
"As clear as night and day." God named the night and the day, Adam didn't do it. God establishes the light and the dark from the beginning and He sees the light is good. Constantly we are asked to walk in the light and to see the light and God sets that up for us right from the beginning. I think this is often overlooked as we focus on God's power of speaking the light into creation but forget that not only did He speak the light but He named it. He named it when He first spoke it, "Let there be LIGHT" and He named it when e separated the light and the dark, calling them day and night. Note even that God had to separate the light and dark, they were not separated from the start. Things are murky and grey without God. The light isn't clear, the darkness is just light enough that we can confuse them but God does not, He separates the light from the darkness.
 
 ⁶ Then God said, “Let there be a space between the waters, to separate the waters of the heavens from the waters of the earth.” ⁷ And that is what happened. God made this space to separate the waters of the earth from the waters of the heavens. ⁸ God called the space “sky.”
   And evening passed and morning came, marking the second day.
 ⁹ Then God said, “Let the waters beneath the sky flow together into one place, so dry ground may appear.” And that is what happened. ¹⁰ God called the dry ground “land” and the waters “seas.” And God saw that it was good.

Again God names this thing He has spoken into being. And again God has to separate and create form where before was only chaos. Imagine what shape earth was in when He first spoke the heavens and the earth into being. When the waters of each were not separated. Sometimes water can be found in the place between the seas and the clouds. Fogs, mists, almost unnatural things which cause fear and disorder. In only His first few words of guidance God tells us that without Him there will be fear and chaos but with Him there will be order and light. Then beyond separating the sky from the earth God has to separate land from sea. Add this into the thoughts of the earth and heavens without separation, water covered all the land AND all the space between heaven and earth. The entire world when first created was a rock surrounded by water, nothing could have survived on this thing God had created until He put the effort in to mold it and change it. Even though He had already said is was good. God wants to mold and shape us but we have to be willing to change and obey even if we are already good, God can always make us better.

¹¹ Then God said, “Let the land sprout with vegetation—every sort of seed-bearing plant, and trees that grow seed-bearing fruit. These seeds will then produce the kinds of plants and trees from which they came.” And that is what happened. ¹² The land produced vegetation—all sorts of seed-bearing plants, and trees with seed-bearing fruit. Their seeds produced plants and trees of the same kind. And God saw that it was good.
 ¹³ And evening passed and morning came, marking the third day.

Order, the natural way of things. Even the plants and vegetation had to do what God told them to do. And they still listen to those commands today.

 ¹⁴ Then God said, “Let lights appear in the sky to separate the day from the night. Let them mark off the seasons, days, and years. ¹⁵ Let these lights in the sky shine down on the earth.” And that is what happened. ¹⁶ God made two great lights—the larger one to govern the day, and the smaller one to govern the night. He also made the stars. ¹⁷ God set these lights in the sky to light the earth, ¹⁸ to govern the day and night, and to separate the light from the darkness. And God saw that it was good.
 ¹⁹ And evening passed and morning came, marking the fourth day.
 
Here we see something very interesting, mythology. This reads are a Homeric Hymn about the reason for something being the way it is but when we look at it the simple facts of it make so much sense. What is the moon? What purpose does it provide? Controls the shifts of the tides it's true but it is the light in the dark, even though it gives off no light of it's own it is the smaller light and to a man like Moses that's all that mattered. God just had to tell him He made that light, He didn't have to explain how the light works. We often in this western world of science and facts need to "know" how things work but the things we "know" change as often as an infants diapers. None of our earthly facts stay "facts" for very long. The only truths are those found in God's Word.
 
 ²⁰ Then God said, “Let the waters swarm with fish and other life. Let the skies be filled with birds of every kind.” ²¹ So God created great sea creatures and every living thing that scurries and swarms in the water, and every sort of bird—each producing offspring of the same kind. And God saw that it was good. ²² Then God blessed them, saying, “Be fruitful and multiply. Let the fish fill the seas, and let the birds multiply on the earth.”
 ²³ And evening passed and morning came, marking the fifth day.
 ²⁴ Then God said, “Let the earth produce every sort of animal, each producing offspring of the same kind—livestock, small animals that scurry along the ground, and wild animals.” And that is what happened. ²⁵ God made all sorts of wild animals, livestock, and small animals, each able to produce offspring of the same kind. And God saw that it was good.

Now looking back, again I'll say that God had to mold the earth into something that could actually sustain life. He did this one step at a time. Doing a daily task to eventually get to a goal. Could he have just said, "Poof, let there be everything!" Of course He could have but God wants us to learn and so He gives us the greatest learning tool there is, example. He slowly and steadily creates the world step-by-step and makes it so life can exist here. And do you think Moses knew all the details of the eco system and how each of these things needed to exist for the others to rely on? I highly doubt it. He simply wrote what God told him and now we get to look back and learn from the glory of God's infinite wisdom.

 ²⁶ Then God said, “Let us make human beings in our image, to be like us. They will reign over the fish in the sea, the birds in the sky, the livestock, all the wild animals on the earth, and the small animals that scurry along the ground.”

"Let us-" Trinity, established from the beginning again.

 ²⁷ So God created human beings in his own image.
      In the image of God he created them;
      male and female he created them.
 
This gives rise to two thoughts. First God made both man and woman in his image. Neither stands closer to God then the other. A simple yet important thought. The other is God made man and woman. This is important because it establishes there is no set time frame. Many argue how Cain could have been married, where is wife came from or that the six days were not six days in our thinking. This book does not lay out a time frame. If it did then the same wording that suggests Cain married instantly and had kids would suggest that Adam and Eve never slept together until being kicked out of the Garden. Cain could well have been married years later to, yes oh no, one of his sisters, or nieces. Nor does it state the Adam did not have other daughters before Cain, just that he was the first son. We get so wrapped up in our version of time and understanding but God doesn't work inside a box, not any box, not even our little box of time.
 
 ²⁸ Then God blessed them and said, “Be fruitful and multiply. Fill the earth and govern it. Reign over the fish in the sea, the birds in the sky, and all the animals that scurry along the ground.”
 ²⁹ Then God said, "Look! I have given you every seed-bearing plant throughout the earth and all the fruit trees for your food.³⁰ And I have given every green plant as food for all the wild animals, the birds in the sky, and the small animals that scurry along the ground—everything that has life.” And that is what happened.
 ³¹ Then God looked over all he had made, and he saw that it was very good!
   And evening passed and morning came, marking the sixth day.

He gave everything that has life to mankind. He did not give us the things that are dead or without life. He gives us only the best, only the prime of His creation.

Genesis 2

    So the creation of the heavens and the earth and everything in them was completed. ² On the seventh day God had finished his work of creation, so he rested from all his work. ³ And God blessed the seventh day and declared it holy, because it was the day when he rested from all his work of creation.
 ⁴ This is the account of the creation of the heavens and the earth.

Again the argument of time can come up when people try to use the creation story to disprove what it in fact proves. How do Christians know which day is the Sabbath? That if anyone works on Sunday they are disobeying this day of rest. I'll put it plainly, time does not matter to God. He is God, He declared the seventh day holy. His seventh day, not every seventh day. God created a seven day cycle but that does not mean He believed all humanity for all time would keep track of exactly which day is the seventh day according to when He rested. The matter of which day is the Sabbath is simply a moot point.

These have been my thoughts on the Word of God, Genesis 1:1-2:4 as written in the New Living Translation. God bless and may you always seek His guidance n your path.
Mike D.