Genesis 1:2-25

The first is here in this verse where God created the heavens and the earth. The next one is when God created life in the form of great sea creatures and every living thing that moves in verse 21.

The same word bara (something from nothing) is used.

The third act of creation using the same word, bara, we find in verse 27, “So God created man in His own image; in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them.

So, the first act of creation is the heavens and the earth from nothing, the second act is the creation of life and then the creation of human beings.

Just a quick word here on what’s known as theistic evolution, a position that many churchgoers use to try and reconcile creation with the science of natural man. It goes that God created everything up to man, and then from that time on Adam and Eve evolved through some sort of evolutionary process.

Theistic evolution tries to make each of the 6 days of creation a very long time, thousands or millions of years even. This can’t be so however as God clearly called the night and the morning the first day in verse 5 and we’ll look at that closer in another place.

Back in verse, 1 God created the heavens and the earth. Earth was created and the Creator obviously was outside of His creation. He would have inhabited eternity where His existence was beyond the dimensions of matter, energy space and time, our earthly dimensions that were surely created as part of the creation process.

By the way, we see these dimensions in the first 3 verses.

In the first two verses of Genesis, we find: ‘In the beginning [time] God created the heavens [space] and the earth [matter]. And the earth was without form and void, and darkness was upon the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters [energy].  We also see energy in verse 3. Then God said, “Let there be light,’ or “Light be” [energy]. Light is a form of energy that travels as waves.

Now let’s move to verse 2 and look at something that many people accept and many others don’t.

The mystery is that Genesis 1:1 is in a totally different slot in time than Genesis 1:2 and that between these 2 verses, there is a gap of an unspecified time, possibly millions or even billions of years.

Genesis 1:2 does not follow Genesis 1:1 on the same day that “God created the heavens and the earth”.

Something happened in an unspecified time span between chapter 1 verse 1 and chapter 1 verse 2.

Now, there’s plenty of good grounding to support this reasoning.

Let’s recap these verses. From verse 1, “In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. And the earth was without form, and void; and darkness was upon the face of the deep. And the spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters.”.

Now, the reasoning is that between verses 1 and 2 there was a great catastrophe that had a profound effect on our universe and especially the earth.

God has shown us little pieces of that catastrophe here and there and it can’t be denied, as we look over our vast universe and our solar system, that something huge, somewhere, at sometime happened to it.

Our moon, for instance, shows even at a casual glance that it’s been severely bashed around. The whole universe including our earth shows signs of this beating up and being laid bare as a wasteland.

How did it get like that? Was it created that way by God? It’s inconsistent to say the least for our God to create something without form and void, to create something wasted and desolate.

God mentions the earth here in these verses because it’s going to be where man lives and as such it’s important for man to know something about his home.

To see the reasoning behind this mystery we’ll first look deeper into verse 2, especially at the original Hebrew words used.

“The earth was without form, and void; and darkness was on the face of the deep.”

The first question is around the word “was”. “The earth was formless and void.” The Hebrew for this word, was, is hâyâh and a look into Strongs concordance shows that this word also means “became” or to “become”.

So people with this viewpoint say that the first part of this sentence could just as accurately read, “The earth became without form and void”.

Furthermore, the Hebrew word translated “form” is tohu and the word for “void” is bohu. So these words together in Hebrew are tohu v ‘bohu.

Also, the word darkness in Hebrew is chôshek. A look at Strong’s concordance shows the word chôshek can also mean misery, destruction, death, ignorance, sorrow, and wickedness. The darkness we see in this void describes a situation where the Lord is absent.

God made a cosmos not chaos. God did not create the earth tohu v ‘bohu but it became tohu v ‘bohu. He formed it to be inhabited. God came into this chaos and darkness and re-created it to make it a habitable place again for man.

So, according to this view, what was the catastrophe that plunged the world into this darkness without form and void? Well, we don’t know, however, we do know from several scriptures that there was a great rebellion in heaven in which Lucifer, son of the morning, who became Satan or the devil as we know him today was cast down to earth. Could this catastrophe have been a result of the rebellion in heaven?  We’ll leave the study of that event till we get to those scriptures because this is a major key in explaining the whole story of redemption which the Bible is primarily about.

It’s possible that this is what transpired here but God just has not given us the details.

Now Genesis verse 2 tells us that the Spirit of God was hovering, or moved, over the face of the waters. The deeper meaning of the word for moved here means to brood like a hen with her chickens.

So we see that in this reasoning concerning Genesis 1:1 and Genesis 1:2 that something, we’re not sure exactly what, happened to the earth and what we have here in Genesis chapter 1, is six days of renovation or recreation.

Many good Bible scholars do not follow this “gap” reasoning.

They see Genesis 1:1 and Genesis 1:2 as a progression. It took the Lord 6 days to fully complete creation. They say that to use the word “was” as “became” is using it out of context. Many people who take this position hold to a young earth position. That is that the creation account from Genesis 1:1 to Genesis 1:31 all happened around 6 or 7 thousand years ago.

The 6 thousand or so years comes by tracing back the generations from today, back to the time of the birth, death and resurrection of Our Lord Jesus Christ. We know that’s 2000 years. Then we trace the generations back from Jesus to Abraham, then from Abraham to Noah, and then back to Adam, who we know was 930 years old when he died. Adam was created on the 6^th day of creation, so from these ages or generations the age of the earth can be worked out.

This camp has an astounding amount of “hard to deny” evidence backing their claim about an earth that is much younger than generally accepted.

Let’s look at Exodus 20:11 and I’m reading, “For in six days the LORD made the heavens and the earth, the sea, and all that is in them, and rested the seventh day. Therefore the LORD blessed the Sabbath day and hallowed it.”

In this passage, we see a definite 6-day creation with the creation of the heavens and the earth occurring within those 6 days. People who hold this view see Satan’s rebellion happening sometime after the end of creation week but they, for the most part, readily admit they can’t know for sure.

People holding to the “young earth” position have as many plausible explanations to explain their theory as those holding the “gap theory”.

I must say that I’ve delved deeply into this and I find I can’t be absolutely dogmatic either way since God simply has not given us those details.

Now you might ask, “What does it matter? God created, is all that really matters and that’s what we need to be sure of.” That of course is very true but we also need to see that the Lord delights in us delving into His Word in an honest attempt to discover Him more. Proverbs 25:2 tells us, “It is the glory of God to conceal a matter, But the glory of kings is to search out a matter.”

Now we come to day one of creation. I’m going to read from the King James version rather than the New King James version. There’s a reason. In each of the creation verses right through to verse 31, the New King James version starts each verse with the word “Then” whereas the King James version starts each verse with the word “And”. Both words indicate a progression but to me, the word “Then” indicates the end of one section and the beginning of another whereas “And” indicates a continuous succession. No big deal really as either word fits.

A word before we begin.

The Bible tells us we can know God exists because of what we see in the created world.

Psalm 19:1-4 explains it this way, “The heavens declare the glory of God; and the firmament shows His handiwork. Day unto day utters speech, and night unto night reveals knowledge. There is no speech nor language where their voice is not heard. Their line has gone out through all the earth, and their words to the end of the world.” In others words, we need no more than look up into the firmament, space, during either the day or the night to see the glory of God.

Romans 1:20 also tells us, “For since the creation of the world His invisible attributes are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even His eternal power and Godhead, so that they are without excuse.” Friends, one day each of us will stand before God and not one of us will be able to say to Him, I didn’t know you existed.”

Genesis 1 verse 3 reads, “And God said, Let there be light: and there was light. And God saw the light, that it was good: and God divided the light from the darkness. And God called the light Day, and the darkness he called Night. And the evening and the morning were the first day. It’s very hard to see how anyone could get more than a 24-hour day from this verse.

God said “, “Let there be light”. “Let there be…” is mentioned 10 times in this one chapter. Verse 6, “let there be a firmament”, Verse 9 “Let the waters … ” and so on. Sometimes this is known as the 10 commandments of creation.

And God said, “Let there be light”; and there was light.  And God saw the light, that it was good. Incidentally, this is the first time God spoke.

We go to verse 6, ” And God said, Let there be a firmament in the midst of the waters, and let it divide the waters from the waters. And God made the firmament, and divided the waters which were under the firmament from the waters which were above the firmament: and it was so.

And God called the firmament Heaven. And the evening and the morning were the second day.”

This is space or air. God divided the waters.

What does that mean? Well, first He divided the waters above us and the waters beneath us with air or space in the middle. And God called that firmament or space between the waters “heaven”. Now, this is not heaven as we normally think of it.

There are 3 heavens mentioned in scripture. The Lord Jesus spoke of the birds of heaven which is what’s referred to here. There are also the stars of heaven and then there’s the third heaven where He dwells. The first heaven or the first layer if you like is where the clouds are and the birds fly.

Let your mind wander over this for a bit. Imagine these “waters” covering the entire earth to a huge depth and then God, by nothing more than His Word splitting them and separating them so that the heavens, where the birds and the clouds and the atmosphere as we know it divide the waters so that there are waters above and waters below.  On another side note, were these “waters above” a canopy that caused a greenhouse effect that made the whole earth’s environment uniform as it seems to have been before the flood?

Then we come to day 3 in Verse 9, “And God said, Let the waters under the heaven be gathered together unto one place, and let the dry land appear: and it was so.

Gen 1:10  And God called the dry land Earth; and the gathering together of the waters called he Seas: and God saw that it was good.”

Then in verse 11, we read, “And God said, Let the earth bring forth grass, the herb yielding seed, and the fruit tree yielding fruit after his kind, whose seed is in itself, upon the earth: and it was so.

And the earth brought forth grass, and herb yielding seed after his kind, and the tree yielding fruit, whose seed was in itself, after his kind: and God saw that it was good.

And the evening and the morning were the third day.”

First, the waters were separated from above the earth, now the waters on the earth are separated. The idea is that before this, the earth was covered with water. Now the waters are gathered together into one place, and dry land appears.

God called the dry land earth. God puts plant life on earth.

Let the earth bring forth grass: Notice that this happened before the creation of the Sun (the fourth day of creation, in verses 14 to 19. This means the plants must have had sufficient nourishment because of the light God had created before the sun and the moon in verse 3.

Many wonder how the sun, moon, and stars were created on the fourth day when light (including day and night) was created on the first day.

These heavenly bodies were probably created on the first day, but jumping ahead a little to Verse 17 we see that God “set” them in the firmament. He set them exactly where they needed to be to perform the complex functions they were intened to. But Revelation tells us of a coming day when we won’t need the sun, moon, and stars any longer (Rev_21:23). There’s no reason why God couldn’t have started creation in the same way He will end it.

What’s He doing? He’s making a place that will be habitable for man

God is putting plant life on earth. Man, until the flood was, apparently,  a vegetarian.

Now we come to day 4 in verse 14 we read, “And God said, Let there be lights in the firmament of the heaven to divide the day from the night; and let them be for signs, and for seasons, and for days, and years:

And let them be for lights in the firmament of the heaven to give light upon the earth: and it was so.

And God made two great lights; the greater light to rule the day, and the lesser light to rule the night: he made the stars also.

And God set them in the firmament of the heaven to give light upon the earth, And to rule over the day and over the night, and to divide the light from the darkness: and God saw that it was good.

And the evening and the morning were the fourth day.”

By the by, the Strongs concordance describes the Hebrew word for “firmament as “The visible arc of the sky”.

He throws in here almost as an afterthought, “He made the stars also”. Such a simple statement of an absolutely stupendous act.

Incidentally, the original word for “day” in all these verses removes any speculation about  “day” means anything but a 24-hour time period.

Notice here that it’s all God’s actions. He is doing the dividing. What’s the difference between right a wrong? What God says, my friends.

Now to verse 20 and we read, “And God said, Let the waters bring forth abundantly the moving creature that hath life, and fowl that may fly above the earth in the open firmament of heaven.

And God created great whales, and every living creature that moveth, which the waters brought forth abundantly, after their kind, and every winged fowl after his kind: and God saw that it was good.

And God blessed them, saying, Be fruitful, and multiply, and fill the waters in the seas, and let fowl multiply in the earth.

And the evening and the morning were the fifth day.“

We see the huge variety of birds and sea creatures created at the same time, not evolving slowly over millions of years. Even though plant life was created before animal life, animal life was not created from plant life.

Now here’s the place where evolution plays a part. Evolution theories that relate to all life evolving from one tiny piece of matter or a single cell is a religious belief that doesn’t stack up scientifically or any other way, however, we notice in these verses that God made every living thing “after it’s own kind”. This indicates that God did not create every type of creature say for example dozens of types of horses. The horse “kind” or species was created and from that kind, a type of evolution has provided those hundreds of horse breeds including zebras and donkeys. What can’t happen though is a horse evolving into a cow or a cat evolving into a dog, or an ape evolving into a human.

There’s been tremendous development within species including within the plant world.

Now we come to the sixth day in verse 24, “And God said, Let the earth bring forth the living creature after his kind, cattle, and creeping thing, and beast of the earth after his kind: and it was so.

Gen 1:25  And God made the beast of the earth after his kind, and cattle after their kind, and everything that creepeth upon the earth after his kind: and God saw that it was good. ”

On the fifth day of creation, God made birds and sea animals, but now God turned His creative attention towards land animals of various types.

So God has created all the dimensions of matter, energy, space and time. Then He also created life as in the plants and animals. He’s given life to inorganic matter and made it live. Evolution and science simply have no explanation of how life can come into something that has no life other than through the miracle of creation wrought by an almighty and wonderful God.

We’re going to look at the creation of man next time and it’s of special interest to us because it’s our ancestors God is going to tell us about. It’s yours and my ancestors which makes us all related. We could say that we’re all related in sin also but we’ll see that next time.