THE CREATION
DAY ONE:
Psalm 33:6 “By the word of the LORD the heavens were made, And all the host of them by the breath of His mouth.”
Psalm 33:9 “For He spoke, and it was done; He commanded, and it stood fast.”
Isaiah 48:13 “Indeed My hand has laid the foundation of the earth, And My right hand has stretched out the heavens; When I call to them, They stand up together.”
First Creative Day: God spoke! This is the omnipotent word of God, mentioned ten times in the creative narrative. It will be at the beset of each word spoken that it is followed by instantaneous movement in the chaos; as if the Word itself were inherently creative. This defines Divine revelation as a characteristic of God; it additionally stresses the expression of thought in the mind of the speaker (God, the speaker, the word the vehicle of revelation). This is the first instruction and introduction to the doctrine of the personal word of God (Hebrew – ‘Davar '; Greek – ‘Logos '). The doctrine would be enhanced as man was introduced to the Word becoming flesh and dwelling among us! John 1:1, 13; Colossians 1:16-17;Hebrews 1:2-3; Psalms 33:6; 148:5.
Day one of the creative narrative consists of the creation of celestial space, the terrestrial globe with its firmament. It will be important to remember as we define the Hebrew words used in the creative narrative that they retain their original definition until further revelation enhances the meanings by other descriptive words.
Outline:
Vs. 1-2 – The visible universe, which is existent, yet not self-existent and also present is chaos without life and light.
Vs. 3-5 – The original production of light throughout the universe, and our planetary system.
Text:
Genesis 1:1-5
“In the beginning God created the heavens and the
earth. 2
The earth was without form, and void; and darkness
was on the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God was hovering over
the face of the waters.
3
Then God said, “Let there be light”; and there was
light. 4
And God saw the light, that it was good; and
God divided the light from the darkness.
5
God called the light Day, and the darkness He called
Night. So the evening and the morning were the first day.”
1) BEGINNING.
This word comes from the Hebrew, ‘Bereshith ' and without indicating when the beginning was, the word simply indicates that the beginning was! It also introduces the beginning of the first day's work, which would be reaffirmed by Moses in Exodus 20:11, as a literal day. It also helps all the Bible class teachers to answer to question, ‘What was before the beginning?” GOD!
2) GOD.
The unique Hebrew word used here is “Elohim”, which is a term used of God over 2000 times in the Old Testament scriptures in reference to His supreme being. It is used to describe God in a plural sense. This is best described as an expression of the fullness of His Divine Nature and the multiplicity of His Divine powers. We have already spoken of the Divine Power of His Word and will be introduced shortly to the Divine Power of His Spirit.
3) CREATED.
Here the Hebrew word is ‘Bara ', used exclusively as only being done by God. It means the construct of something from nothing. We will later be introduced to two other words that will enhance the meaning of ‘Bara '; ‘Yatzar ' which means 'formed', and ‘Asah ' which means 'made'. These last two words indicate the construct of things out of preexisting material which was originally formed from nothing at the beginning.
4) SPIRIT OF GOD.
This is ‘Rauch Elohim ', or the Breath of God. It is here described as the cause of the Divine Purpose of God.
5) NOTE.
Vs. 2 describes a chaos without order, without life, and without light awaiting the order God would give it. That same order maintains everything to this day. Only God can give us order through light and life.
John 1:1-5 “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. 2 He was in the beginning with God. 3 All things were made through Him, and without Him nothing was made that was made. 4 In Him was life, and the life was the light of men. 5 And the light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not comprehend it.”
2 Peter 3:5-7 “For this they willfully forget: that by the word of God the heavens were of old, and the earth standing out of water and in the water, 6 by which the world that then existed perished, being flooded with water. 7 But the heavens and the earth which are now preserved by the same word, are reserved for fire until the day of judgment and perdition of ungodly men.”
6) LIGHT.
The creation of light (Hebrew ‘Or ' – Greek ‘Phos ') established the most fundamental and important form of energy. This energy includes every phenomenon in the universe. The scriptures would develop the understanding of this all important energy as a reference to truth; such as truth in intellectual and moral realms.
James 1:17 “Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, and comes down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation or shadow of turning.”
1 John 1:5 “This is the message which we have heard from Him and declare to you, that God is light and in Him is no darkness at all.”
The light God called “Day”, from the Hebrew ‘Yom ', which is from the root understanding of the 'time of light'. The darkness He called the “Night”, from the Hebrew ‘Layela ' as 'without light'.
7) EVENING AND MORNING.
This literally states that the evening was and the morning was the first day, the second day, third, etc… (Exodus 20:11). Remember that Moses is revealing this to the children of Israel and using language concerning the creation narrative that they understood. There were accurate Hebrew words to use, if in fact the creative days were longer periods of time than the cycle of one day.
Summary
God spoke and it was done! He commanded and it was! God began the creative process with the introduction of Time = “the beginning”, Space = “the heavens”, and Matter = “the earth”. He would then introduce the founding of the most basic principle of energy and the prerequisite for life, “Light” and then He separated it from darkness and named it. This would lay the ground work for the formation of order out of the chaos.