Page 15 - Florida Sentinel 8-31-18

God Creates Heaven And Earth Genesis 1:1-13 (KJV)
Genesis, the book of begin- nings, is indispensable to our understanding of biblical truth. It is valuable histori- cally, for it reaches back and in- forms us about origins, early cultures, and the beginnings of languages and nations.
Genesis is also valuable the- ologically. It reveals much about God as we see Him in- volved in the Creation, the Flood, and the lives of the pa- triarchs. It also reveals the na- ture of man — created perfect, damaged by sin, and yet so im- portant to God that He seeks to reconcile sinners to Himself.
This week’s lesson exam- ines God’s creative work in preparing the earthly environ- ment for human life.
Creation Day One (Genesis 1:1-5) God and the universe (Genesis 1:1)
Our first verse says, “In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth.” It is significant that the book of Genesis begins with God. It does not attempt to prove God’s existence; it simply begins by declaring that He created heaven and earth. This verse reminds us that in any discussion of the origin of the universe, we must start with God. Before time, space, and matter came into being, God al- ready existed.
God And The Uninhabited Earth (Genesis 1:2).
“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 wa- ters.”
Although God created the entire universe, attention is quickly focused on the earthly part of His creation, for “the earth” is the stage on which human events occur. It may be interesting to speculate on what plans God has for other planets, solar systems, and galaxies, but we would do bet- ter to study and focus on what He has been doing here, be- cause “the earth” is Scrip- ture’s focus throughout.
God Creates Light (Genesis 1:3-5).
(vs. 3) “And God said, Let there be light: and there was light.”
Still on the first day, God created light by speaking it into existence. As Elohim, the Lord only had to speak the words, “Let there be light” and sure enough, there was light.” This “light” couldn’t have come from the
sun or the moon because they were not created until the fourth day.
(vs. 4) “And God saw the light, that it was good: and God divided the light from the darkness.”
After God spoke and cre- ated “light,” He observed that “it was good.” In Scrip- ture, “light” is associated with Christ, the Word of God, God’s people and God’s blessing, while darkness is associated with Satan, sin death, spiritual ignorance, and divine judg- ment. This explains why God separated or “divided the light from the darkness,” for the two have nothing in common. God’s people are to “walk in the light”, for “what communion hath light with darkness?”
Separating “the light” from “the darkness” would provide periods for activity and rest for the creatures God would bring into existence.
(Genesis 1:5) “And God called the light Day, and the darkness he called Night. And the evening and the morning were the first day.”
Jesus Christ is our super- natural Light, and God through Jesus Christ created natural light and separated the light from the darkness and named them day and night without first needing to create the sun and the moon and the stars to make light. God is not depend- ent on His creation for any- thing. God did not depend on the celestial bodies that God will later create to make light.
(Genesis 1:6) “And God said, Let there be a firma- ment in the midst of the waters, and let it divide the waters from the wa- ters.”
A vault, a firmament, an ex- panse, or a dome are various words used to interpret the He- brew text to say that just as God could separate light from darkness that has no “sub- stance” that we can feel, so God can separate material sub- stances that we can feel to make our world; such as, water from water. The firmament or dome could be understood by primitive people as the “unsci- entific” way of describing how the water in the sky is separate from the waters on the earth.
(Genesis 1:7) “And God made the firmament, and divided the waters which were under the firmament from the waters which were above the firma- ment: and it was so.”
What God says He will do, He will do. God reveals himself
as absolutely trustworthy and all powerful. God will keep His promises and do what He says. Having placed light in the darkness to reveal His creative efforts, on the second day God created space for animals and birds and people to live and move and have their being
(Genesis 1:8) “And God called the firmament Heaven. And the evening and the morning were the second day.”
As the Sovereign Creator, God named the space above the earth “sky.” The first and sec- ond day included both the cre- ation of natural light and sky and the separation of light from the darkness and water from water, which will make human life possible and enjoy- able. All God created in earth, sky, and water would be for good.
(Genesis 1:9) “And God said, Let the waters under the heaven be gathered to- gether unto one place, and let the dry land appear: and it was so.”
Next, God separated the land from the seas (to the He- brews, a “sea” was any body of water surrounded by land; such as, the Sea of Galilee, which we might call a lake). After working vertically by sep- arating water from water, God now works logically and hori- zontally by separating the water from the composition of
various matters and minerals that compose the land.
Thus, God made room for plants and animals to live in the water and on the ground, with air to breathe above and below the waters. God intended to create life that could inhabit everything He made in land, water, and sky.
(Genesis 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.”
Throughout Genesis 1, we see how God has the intellec- tual ability and the power to do whatever God wants. God also has the ability to distinguish good from bad, right from wrong, make value judgments, and evaluate what He does. We learn that in every situation and in everything God does, God does only what is good.
(Genesis 1:11) “And God said, Let the earth bring forth grass, the herb yield- ing seed, and the fruit tree yielding fruit after his kind, whose seed is in it- self, upon the earth and it was so.”
To further demonstrate God’s creative power for all to see and understand, God cre- ated the land with the ability to grow and sustain vegetation that people would later use for crops and building materials. God made plants that pro-
duced seed and fruits that could reproduce themselves without needing God’s direct intervention for every plant to reproduce itself. God made seeds and plants that would re- produce themselves according to their kinds, which would later help mankind as they planted, sowed and reaped.
(Genesis 1:12) “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.”
Repeatedly, Genesis re- minds us that whatever God in- tends to do, God can accomplish, and all God did in creating the world was good. Whatever God wants to do today, God can do. No created being can prevent God’s pur- poses or stop God from doing whatever God wills to do.
(Genesis 1:13) “And the evening and the morning were the third day.”
During the first three days of God’s creation, God made the earth and the sky and the vegetation ready to support an- imal and human life. Animals and humans need air to breathe and food to eat. Gene- sis shows how God does every- thing to meet the needs of all He creates before these needs are needed. All we need for life, God provides.
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