Genesis Chapter 1– John Karmelich

1. In my introduction to Genesis, I opened with the question, “Why did God bother?”

a) If I had to pick one question to keep in mind as you read Chapter 1, that is it.

b) Most of the commentaries you read on the first few chapters of Genesis focus on “How did God bother?” They tie scientific evidence to the Genesis account to show its validity.

i) It is understandable that most of the modern commentaries focus on the “how” question. We live in the information age. We know more about geological and astronomical evidence about creation than we ever have in the past.

ii) Further, too many American public schools teach a no-god evolution theory as fact and good information is necessary to combat those theories.

iii) Christians debate whether or not God created the world in six “literal” days versus six era’s of time. Note that most of these Christians don’t argue about whether or not the bible is God-inspired, they are arguing over interpretation.

a) What I notice that there are good God-fearing preach-the-gospel people on both sides of this debate. While I have my opinions and lean strongly toward a young-earth view, that is not my primary purpose of this study.

c) I personally think all the Genesis commentaries that primarily focus on how God created the universe bypass the primary topic. The important question is not “how”, but “why”?

d) The primary topic of the bible is redemption. It is all about God going to great length and trouble so we can spend eternity with Him. The bible is a life-instruction manual on how to live your life joyfully, happily, prosperously and most importantly, for God’s glory. Further, the redemption aspect teaches us God’s expectations of us for eternal life as well as life here on this earth.

i) With the concept of redemption in mind, it is interesting to read Chapters 1-2 of Genesis from that perspective.

ii) The “why” question of this introduction ties back to the concept of redemption.

e) In Genesis this account God created everything we know in six days. The question to ask about the creation story is not whether they are literal days or eras of time, but why did God bother to “stretch it out” over six days?

i) Let’s face it, God is God. God could have created everything we know in six minutes or six seconds or six billion years. If you can’t handle the concept of how fast God created everything, your concept of God is too small.

ii) That is why it is important that the first verse of the bible says, “In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.” (NIV) The idea is if you can comprehend that God can and did create everything we know, you can handle any other concept taught in the bible.

iii) If God can create everything, including life, then he has the power to create a flood that would cover the whole world. If God can create everything, he has the power to perform any and all the miracles stated in the bible. If God can create everything, he has the power to resurrect a dead person back to life again. If you can believe the first verse of Genesis, you can believe the rest of the bible.

f) The key to understanding the 6-day creation story is not found in Genesis but in Exodus:

i) “Six days you shall labor and do all your work, but the seventh day is a Sabbath (“rest”) to the Lord your God. On it you shall not do any work…For in six days the Lord made the heavens and the earth, the sea, and all that is in them, but he rested on the seventh day. (Exodus 20: 9-11a, NIV).

ii) The reason I happen to believe in a literal six-day creation is not because of anything said in Genesis, but because of what is said here in Exodus. As I stated, God could have created everything in six seconds or six months or whatever. He purposely choose six literal days as the span of time of his creation work as to give us a pattern of how we are to live our lives: work six days and rest on the seventh.

g) Going back to my theme of “Why did God bother?”, the secret to the six day creation story is to understand that God created everything for our benefit.

i) Notice that man was created last. Man was created on the final day of creation. It is as if God is saying “Look, I did all of this for you. This is how much I love you. I created all of this out of nothing out of my love for you. I have this wonderful redemption plan for you, and I did all of this for your benefit.

a) I encourage you to read chapter 1 from the idea that God created all of this for our benefit. From that perspective you can see how much God loves man and goes to all of this for the purpose of redeeming us for eternity.

ii) When you read Genesis Chapter 1, there are lots of places where God is speaking “out loud”. He is making statements like “Let light be” and “This is good”.

iii) Ask yourself “Why is God saying this? Let me give you a clue: God is not saying it to “toot his own horn”. They are written for our benefit, for us to learn from those statements.

2. Another thing to catch from Chapter 1 is that many of the verses work in “pairs”.

a) There is a verse where God says he is going to do something.

i) Then there is the next verse (or sentence) where God actually does what he says.

b) It is as if some of the verses are redundant. First we read of God saying something, and the next sentence is almost identical with God’s idea actually taking place.

c) The idea to teach is “God is not making this up as he goes along”.

i) God created you, me, the world and the universe with purpose in mind.

ii) God “spoke” the idea into existence and then God made it happen.

iii) The idea for us to learn is that each of the six days of creation are done in a specific order, in a specific manner and is planned all for our benefit.

iv) Again, man is the last thing created. It is as if God is saying “I’m saving the best for last. I’m doing all of this for your benefit. I am God. I don’t need the creation, but you do. Read this chapter as a love-story from me to you”.

3. Before I start Chapter 1, remember again, that I cannot possibly say all there is to say about Genesis in these lessons. I specifically pick topics that I believe are the most relevant.

a) As to this chapter, I touch a little on how science and the bible meet. Remember that the bible is not designed to be a technical manual on how God created everything. It is designed to guide us on how to live life. Occasionally, it touches upon science, but I consider that “background studies”. The primary focus is for us to learn how to apply these lessons to our live and that is my focus today. With that said, Here’s Verse 1:

4. Genesis Chapter 1, Verse 1: In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. ² Now the earth was formless and empty, darkness was over the surface of the deep, and the Spirit of God was hovering over the waters.

a) In the introduction lesson, I spoke in depth about Verse 1.

b) In this lesson, I want you to see Verse 1 in conjunction with Verse 2.

c) Notice what Verses 1-2 do not say:

i) It does not say, “God created the heavens and earth, and it was full of wonderful plant life and animal life and these ape-like creatures we call humans. J

d) Remember the word “created” in verse 1 means to “make something out of nothing”.

e) When God first made the world, he made it “dead”. Then God added life to this planet over the rest of the six-day creation story.

f) One of the things you are going to see “hints” of, all over the creation story, is the idea of how God took “nothing” and made it into “something”.

i) God created this “dead earth” and will make it into a “living earth”.

ii) That pattern will be consistent throughout the whole bible.

iii) Human life, in God’s eye, is special. God will say later in this chapter that man is to have dominion (and at the same time, respect) over all other living life forms.

iv) He created is with an ability to comprehend God. No other creature can do that.

v) Further, he wanted us to life to the fullest. I will argue that is not possible unless one has a personal relationship with God. It means acknowledging who God is, it means living your life to please Him and obey his commandments and yes, realizing Jesus as the Son of God paying the price for your sins. After that is when life really begins.

vi) Getting back to Genesis 1, we see a pattern of a “lifeless earth” becoming full of life. Yes there is a scientific literalness to it, but the more important question to ask is why did God do it this way? The answer is to establish the pattern of God taking “nothing” and making it into something”. The same way God can take you and me, “dead in our sins” and make us into something special to live for Him.

g) Before I move on, I should talk a little about “the gap theory”.

i) In the mid 19^th century a theory arose that “There is a large gap in time between Verse 1 and Verse 2. It is during this “gap” that Satan rebelled against God.

ii) The theory goes that the earth had “life” in Verse 1 and “lost life” in Verse 2.

iii) This theory translates Verse 2 as “the earth became null and void”.

a) The idea is that the earth as created in Verse 1 was destroyed, or wrecked, and then was recreated in Verse 2.

iv) This translation is a possible translation of the Hebrew, and thus the theory.

v) By the way, this theory does not explain the dinosaurs. It is only about the fall of Satan and the rebellion against God.

h) Now that I’ve laid out the theory, here is why I disagree with it.

i) I believe God created the earth void-to-begin-with as to show the pattern that God creates life out of nothing.

a) Picture a “bowl of water without the bowl” and that is as close as I can visualize the earth as “null and void”. It is there, but there is no shape.

ii) Paul said, “Therefore, just as sin entered the world through one man, and death through sin, and in this way death came to all men, because all sinned” (Romans 5:12, NIV) Paul is saying the concept of “death” began when Adam first sinned.

iii) I argue that the concept of “physical death” did not happen until Adam died.
I don’t believe Satan “fell” until the time of the “apple incident”, which is sometime after the six days of creation.

iv) Also, lets look at Ezekiel Chapter 28. Here God is cursing the “King of Tyre.”

a) By Verse 13, Ezekiel was describing the evil-power behind that king. Ezekiel was describing Satan himself. Notice what he says:

b) “You were in Eden, the garden of God; every precious stone adorned you: ruby, topaz and emerald, chrysolite, onyx and jasper, sapphire, turquoise and beryl… You were blameless in your ways from the day you were created (un) till wickedness was found in you…(Ezekiel 28:13-15 NIV).

c) So the question is, When was “wickedness” found in Satan?

d) My view, although difficult to prove from the bible is that Satan rebelled around/near the time of the Adam& Eve temptations. Satan was the #1 created angel, he saw God choosing to focus his time on mankind, he got jealous and organized the rebellion.

v) My point is I don’t believe in the “gap” theory between Genesis 1:1 and 1:2. The whole purpose of the gap theory is to argue when Satan first rebelled against God. I believe it happened later when Adam sinned.

5. Verse 3: And God said, "Let there be light," and there was light. ⁴ God saw that the light was good, and he 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.

a) Here we have a “problem”. We read in Verse 16 that the sun was made on the 4^th day.

i) The word for “light” on the 4^th day is a different Hebrew word (same root word) as “light” on the 1^st day of creation.

b) So what is this “light” here on the first day?

c) I believe we get a clue from Revelation:

i) “The city (new Jerusalem) does not need the sun or the moon to shine on it, for the glory of God gives it light, and the Lamb is its lamp.” (Revelation 21:23 NIV)

ii) “There will be no more night. They will not need the light of a lamp or the light of the sun, for the Lord God will give them light.” (Revelation 22:5, NIV)

iii) Revelation is describing a time when the sun is no longer needed as God himself provides the light for our permanent home in heaven.

d) I believe, although I can’t prove, is that we are seeing the same “light” here in Genesis 1 at the beginning of the bible that God is describing in the end of the bible in Revelation.

i) If the light of Genesis 1 is not the same as Revelation 22, it is, at the least some other light source other than the sun as the sun was not created until Genesis 1:16.

ii) The first “specific” mentioned in the creation story is “light”.

iii) As I stated in my introduction, I believe Chapter 1 is a “love story from God to us” telling us the wonder of creation. Our job, is to respond-back to God’s love to us with our love to Him. That is what most of the bible is about, our response to him by living our lives in obedience to what God calls us to do.

e) God created “light” to separate it from darkness. Compare this to the opening of John’s Gospel.

i) In him (Jesus) was life, and that life was the light of men. The light shines in the darkness, but the darkness has not understood it. (John 1:4-5 NIV)

ii) I believe John’s description of Jesus was meant to be read in “light” of Genesis 1.

iii) Remember the sun isn’t being created for another few days.

iv) This is a “special” light that is to separate from the “darkness” of the world.

a) In Verse 2, the earth was created in a sense, “null and void”.

b) Now we have ‘light” being created, with the purpose of separating it from darkness.

c) Think of the cliché’s: “Can you shed a little light on that subject?”
Or, “now I see what you are talking about”.

(1) Neither of these expressions refer to literal light. They refer to comprehension. That is the underlying message of these verses.

f) Notice in Verse 5 it is God himself who calls light “day” and darkness “night”. First it does do this to establish the first day. But I believe the underlying message is that God desires to separate those who wish to live in darkness (free-will rejection of God) from those will choose to live in the light (free-will acceptance of God). God is creating both as to give mankind a choice of how to live.

g) By the way, I’m purposely skipping over all the “scientific stuff” associated with “light and darkness” associated with these two verses. I believe the more important aspect is to understand these verses in relationship to God’s redemptive plan. Therefore, I’m emphasizing this aspect of Genesis over some of the scientific interpretations.

6. Verse 6: And God said, "Let there be an expanse between the waters to separate water from water." ⁷ So God made the expanse and separated the water under the expanse from the water above it. And it was so. ⁸ God called the expanse "sky." And there was evening, and there was morning--the second day.

a) In Verses 6-8, we are now starting “day two”.

b) In Verses 4-5 we had God creating “light and darkness” as separate entities.

c) Now in Verse 6 we are “separating the waters from the waters”.

i) It appears that prior to Verse 6, the earth was 100% water in its surface.

ii) Coming up in Verse 9 is the creation of dry land.

iii) In Verse 6 the entire earth’s surface is all water. We are reading of God creating an atmosphere, or it is describing the creation of a water-layer above the atmosphere.

iv) In a physical sense, this is referring to a “water canopy” over the earth.

v) At one time, God had a layer of water over the atmosphere.

d) If you ever wonder what causes people to “age”, it is from the ultraviolet sun rays. This causes us to wrinkle and grow old. If there is a water canopy over the atmosphere, people would live a lot longer as there is less “bad sunlight” coming through.

i) When Noah’s flood happened, this water canopy came down.

ii) This is why we read of all the long-lives people lived in Genesis Chapter 6.

a) Well discuss “aging” more in Chapter 6.

e) Let’s get back to “Why did God bother”.

i) God created for us a wonderful world to live in. The “ideal” world, which got destroyed by the flood, had a water canopy over the sky. With such a canopy, the whole earth would be a tropical greenhouse.

a) This is why tropical fossils are found in the north and south poles.

ii) After sin first came through Adam, and God’s judgment around the time of Noah, our world became more “cursed” and we don’t have this water canopy.

iii) There is an interesting clue about the second day: It is the only day of the six where God did not used the expression, “it is good”. Every other day of creation, God said “it is good” about the creation, but not the second day. The second day speaks of “darkness”. It is almost as if God is saying, “I made this wonderful paradise, and man choose to rebel from it”, and thus there is no “it is good” here.

iv) In fact, on the third day, God uses the “expression “it is good twice. It is the only day of the seven where God says “it is good” twice.

a) Personally, I think that it is a clue of Jesus rising on the third day.

b) As I stated in the introduction, God works in “word-patterns” all through the bible.

c) As a bit of trivia, some Orthodox Jews choose to marry on Tuesdays.
In their reckoning, Tuesday is the “third day”. Therefore you marry on Tuesday to get a “double blessing” as the 3^rd day is blessed by God twice.

v) Remember that God could have made the world instantly. This “non-blessed” second day is the creation of “sky” and the water canopy.

a) We don’t know for sure why this second day is “not blessed”. Using the whole bible as series of patterns, the “sky and the “heavens” is designed for man to look “upward” and see God. I personally see the second day as the time of “rejection”. This water canopy came down during Noah’s flood. God is not only a God of love, but a God of judgment. Just as Jesus second coming is a time of judgment on the earth, so I see the “second day” as a word-pattern where God “separates” those for judgment.

b) If you think I’m reading too much into this, that is ok too! For what it is worth, it is a common interpretation to see a “negative” associated with the second day, and a pattern of the number two having a general-negative association in the bible.

7. Verse 9: And God said, "Let the water under the sky be gathered to one place, and let dry ground appear." And it was so. ¹⁰ God called the dry ground "land," and the gathered waters he called "seas." And God saw that it was good.

a) Verses 9-13 compose the third day.

b) Here in Verses 9-10, we have the first of two “good’s” of the third day.

c) The first is the establishment of dry land. On the second day, the earth’s surface was all water. Then God separated the water to form an atmosphere between the oceans and a water layer above the air.

d) Ok, back to “Why did God bother?” Why didn’t God create the world with dry land to begin with?

i) Why not say in Verse 1 or 2, that God created wet and dry locations for people to live with a water canopy above the earth?

ii) Part of it is to see that God is purposely working out “something special” for mankind. Remember that Genesis 1 teaches that man is created last. God is showing all of this wonderful work that he is doing for us.

iii) He is showing how he is making this tropical paradise for man to enjoy, and now he is making dry ground, so we don’t have to live in boats all of our lives. J

iv) Remember that Genesis is all about beginnings.

a) God starts with the creation of the world and then focuses his attention on the creation of a “special people”, the Israelites. He also focuses on the creation of a “special land” which is Israel. It is funny to think about that the God who created everything said, “this little piece of real estate (Israel) is mine. Be careful with it”.

b) My point here is that there is a parallel in Genesis of the creation stories.

c) There is a parallel between God making “something special” in the earth for all of us to live and “something special” about Israel in which is the primary locational-focus of the bible. That focus is to be on the redemptive work of mankind through Jesus.

d) Before Jesus can come, God needed a special people and a special place to bring in God’s word and the Messiah as to prove to the world that Jesus is who he claims he is. It stars with a creation of the land. That “pattern” begins with the world-creation, and then moves toward a smaller focus.

8. Verse 11: Then God said, "Let the land produce vegetation: seed-bearing plants and trees on the land that bear fruit with seed in it, according to their various kinds." And it was so. ¹² The land produced vegetation: plants bearing seed according to their kinds and trees bearing fruit with seed in it according to their kinds. And God saw that it was good. ¹³ And there was evening, and there was morning--the third day.

a) Here we have the rest of the third day. On the same day God created the land, he also created the vegetation upon the earth.

b) A commonly repeated phrase in this section is “after its kind” or “according to their kinds” depending upon your translation.

i) This verse is God’s response to the Evolution theory.

ii) The theory of Evolution keys on the idea that one species evolves out of another.

iii) The biggest lack of evidence in geology and archeology is of any cross-specie evolution. There is lots of evidence of evolution within a species, but no evidence whatsoever of cross-species evolution.

c) Let’s talk a little about the phrase “And there was evening, and there was morning--the third day.”

i) You get the impression that God worked only during the daytime, and then there was evening and then there was morning, and then God got back to work. J

a) I kind of picture God at 5pm going, “Ok, time to call it a day, kick back on the sofa and watch some TV. I’ll get back some more creating tomorrow. J

ii) Again, God is god. He could have created the world at whatever speed he wanted. He purposely choose this “work tempo” as a pattern for us to follow.

iii) In the same way God wants us to work 6 days and rest one day, God wants us to only work say, an 8-hour shift and then go home. I believe God is laying out a pattern for us to not be a work-around-the-clock workaholic.

a) These verses are not anti-night-shift. J They simply are teaching us a pattern of not working around the clock.

d) This is the first of God’s creation where God designed a self-replicating system.

i) What I mean by that is the earth, the sun and say, the skies don’t have seeds so they could replicate themselves!

ii) God said “let the land produce vegetation”, as opposed to God making it directly.

iii) God purposely mentioned how the trees and plant life have seeds so they could continuously reproduce themselves.

iv) Note that we are on “day three”, when plant life was made. Plants need sunlight to grow. On day four, the sun was created. It is a support argument for the literal-day system. (Sorry, I promised to stay away from the literal-day vs. long-era debate. I couldn’t resist throwing this one in! J)

v) When we get to Adam, we will read how God “breathed” life into Adam. This is the idea how man has a spirit-being as well as the physical being and is different from animals. We don’t get the breath-reference unto Chapter 2.

9. Verse 14: And God said, "Let there be lights in the expanse of the sky to separate the day from the night, and let them serve as signs to mark seasons and days and years, ¹⁵ and let them be lights in the expanse of the sky to give light on the earth." And it was so. ¹⁶ God made two great lights--the greater light to govern the day and the lesser light to govern the night. He also made the stars. ¹⁷ God set them in the expanse of the sky to give light on the earth, ¹⁸ to govern the day and the night, and to separate light from darkness. And God saw that it was good. ¹⁹ And there was evening, and there was morning--the fourth day.

a) We are now on the 4^th day of creation.

i) The fourth day focuses on the creation of the sun, the moon and the stars.

a) Although the sun and moon are not mentioned by name, this is the obvious reference in Verse 14.

ii) The 5^th and 6^th days focus on animal life and finally human life.

iii) Remember we are “leading up” to the creation of man, which is last on the list.

b) Notice the pattern of “God said” in Verses 14-15 and then “God did it” in Verses 16-18.

i) Verses 14-15 focus on the purpose of the sun, moon and stars.

ii) Verses 16-18 focus on the actual creation of the sun moon and stars.

iii) There is an interesting verse from the prophet Amos that is appropriate here:

a) Surely the Sovereign LORD does nothing without revealing his plan to his servants the prophets. (Amos 3:7, NIV).

b) God reveals his plans to us to those who choose to follow God desire to live in obedience as servants to God.

c) Let’s talk about the “purposes” in Vs. 14-15. The first is to “separate the day from night”.

i) In a sense, the first 24-hour period came here in the fourth day.

ii) I still take the view of a literal-24 day period day in the first three days, but that is besides the point. That is what my introduction was all about.

iii)