Genesis chapters 1-2 may have the unfortunate distinction of simultaneously being the best-known and most debated chapters in the whole Bible. One commentator says, “From what appears to be a fairly simple, brief, chronological account of how creation came into being comes an array of complicated, extended explanations of what ‘really’ happened.” My aim tonight is to try and recover something of the simple beauty of our text. It’s so easy, as we shall soon see, for most people today to get caught up in how this happened and totally miss the wonder of what happened. The main point I want us to see tonight is this: Our God is Lord over all.
The Story of Creation
1:1 says, “In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth.” Right from the outset we see that this story of creation is utterly different from all rival religions is it tells us one God created everything and He created it from nothing.
One of the many interested things about this text is how sevens arrange the whole structure. 1:1 consists of seven Hebrew words, the are seven units, there are multiples of seven in God’s creation of heaven and earth, and there are seven divine fiats, “Let there be.” As many of you know, in the Hebrew culture seven was the number of perfection.
Like a master potter God is getting ready to create His universal masterpiece. Just like a potter starts by putting together a lump of clay, God starts, notice 1:2, “The earth was without form and void, and darkness was over the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God was hovering over the face of the waters.” As a mother bird hovers of her children, the Spirit hovered over the formless void. And then the real Big Bang happened: God spoke. Look at 1:3, “And God said, “Let there be light,” and there was light. 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, the first day.” What can we say about these days of creation?
One morning when I was a seventeen year old I went over to a friend’s house for a Bible study he promised “would rock my world.” I showed up at 7:30am and he proceeded to indeed rock my world for three hours as he tried to convince me what the Bible really says about the days of creation. Were they literal twenty-four hour days? Not so, he said. Each day was ages and ages long for the Hebrew word for day (yom) is occasionally used to speak of a epoch or era. While he did blow my mind, I was—and still am—unconvinced. Many mentors in ministry and scholars I hold in high esteem find some variation of the day-age theory satisfying and others see the days as a God accommodating to our finite understanding by using our seven-day week as analogous to His work in creation. I find no satisfying exegetical reasons to doubt God actually did created everything in one week, as we would understand a week full of twenty-four hour days. I understand many Christians struggle to reconcile supposed scientific fact with Scripture. But we must decide in our minds that science cannot account for a supernatural God and science can never be the guide for how we understand this supernatural God. Also, our Bible is not a scientific document, it God’s revelation of Himself. So if you go looking for answers to scientific questions in the Bible you probably won’t find what you are looking for. But you will find a God to adore. For however long is actually took Him to do it, this God created everything!
Let’s run through the days of creation quickly now. What’s already been said in 1:2 is vital to understanding what God was doing in the six days of creation, “The earth was without form and void.” There was a formlessness and emptiness in the world. So God goes about giving the world form and fullness, what I’m calling days of preparation and days of saturation. Days 1-3 are ones of preparation for days 4-6 that will give saturation to the earth.
So God separates light and dark on day 1 and then fills it with the lights of day and night on day 4. God separates sea and sky on day 2 and then fills it with creatures of water and air on day 5. He prepares a fertile land on day 3 and then saturates is with creatures of the land on day 6.
But something unique and extraordinary happened on day six, look at 1:26-27, “Then God said, “Let us (I think this is probably an implicit reference to the Trinity) make man in our image, after our likeness. And let them have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over the livestock and over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps 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.”
In all of this creative work only man and woman bear the image of God. Man and woman are clearly the crown of God’s creation. What’s interesting is that in the Ancient Near Eastern world kings were said to be images of their god, but here we find God every man and women is imago Dei. In the ancient world “a ruler’s image was set up in the distant parts of his kingdom to indicate his authority reached there.” What then does it mean to be created in the image of God? Human beings are made in God’s image in that they are to rule the world for God.
Look at how God confirms this in 1:28, “And God blessed them. And God said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and subdue it, and have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over every living thing that moves on the earth.” This is the creation mandate: Human beings are God’s vice-regents on earth, called to the responsibility and privilege of subduing the world for God.
Many people have said that the creation of man represents the climax of Scripture, but I actually think it’s what happens on day seven. Notice 2:1-3, “Thus the heavens and the earth were finished, and all the host of them. 2 And on the seventh day God finished his work that he had done, and he rested on the seventh day from all his work that he had done. 3 So God blessed the seventh day and made it holy, because on it God rested from all his work that he had done in creation.” This is the true climax of the story of creation: God rest from his work. Not because He was tired, for God can never tire, but because His work was complete, it was perfect. What God sets out to do, He will do, and He will do it perfectly. Our God is Lord over all.
There is a pattern of God’s redemptive-creational work we need to see. Out of the chaos He brings life and He brings rest. This is what happened with the nation of Israel. Out of the chaos of slavery in Egypt, God brought them life and rest in the Promised Land. It’s not different in our day. Out of the chaos of sin God brings life and rest in Jesus Christ. Remember what He said? “Come to me all you who are weary and heavy laden and I will give you rest.” If you are not a Christian, rest from your sin is found in Jesus alone. He lived the perfect life, died a sacrificial death, and rose victoriously over the grave to give you perfect, eternal rest. It can be yours tonight if your turn from your sin and trust in His work.
What Does Genesis 1-2 Tell Us About God?
God reigns as the sovereign King. He is the supreme Creator, righteous Judge, and merciful Father. He alone creates and thus reigns over creation. There may, as we will see next week, be rebels in God’s kingdom, there are not rivals.
God rules by His sovereign word. Our LORD God creates and commands. By His word He brought all things into being and by His word He rules over His people.
What Does Genesis 1-2 Tell Us About Man?
Man is utterly reliant upon God. His power alone brought us into the world, thus it’s by His power alone we can live in the world. Our physical fragility and spiritual vulnerability scream out just how reliant upon God we are.
Man is ultimately responsible to God. He created His people in His image to enjoy His grace and commanded them to extend His glory to the ends of the earth. Ultimate accountability belongs to Him alone.
This then is the simple, yet glorious truth, which sets the stage for all human history and eventual eternity: Our God is Lord over all.