MORNING MESSAGE: John Cline
Translation in Korean by Alice An
Text: Genesis 1
Project video, “Creation Calls” https://vimeo.com/17507512?&login=true#=
Perhaps the clearest aspect of Genesis 1 is the affirmation of the goodness of creation in God’s sight. God was pleased with His creation as is seen in the repeated phrase, “God saw that it was good”.
In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. 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. (Genesis 1:1,2)
“In the beginning, God.” God has always existed. He was in verse zero of the Bible, before the beginning. Before the beginning, there was God. He created the world in which we live. His creating acts may have begun with a “Big Bang”, all at once, or over a period of time, but the Bible says He created in six days of creation. God was behind all of creation, and that is the point of Genesis 1. The universe did not come out of a decision by nothing, something made from nothing, which some scientists propose, but from a decision by God. His eternal power and divine nature are shown in the act of creation. In creation, we see God’s power and genius as the architect and maker of creation, as well as God’s love, care, and goodness for creation. The planet God placed us on, Earth, is the only sustainable one for humans. It’s not as hot as Mercury, where there’s also no oxygen, no water, and no air. But it’s also not like Mars, where the temperature and atmosphere are too cold and hostile for human life.
The word tov in Hebrew, which we translate “good” in Genesis 1, has a wide range of meanings, but it basically refers to being fit for a purpose. Something is good for some purpose. That is what Genesis 1 is primarily about: God ordered the world and formed it for a purpose, for life, for humanity. When God sees that his creation is highly ordered for the purpose he intends, he can say that it is “good”. And so, we come back to Genesis 1:1 to look at the beginning: “In the beginning, God.” If we do not get that right, we will not get anything else right in life.
And God said, “Let there be light,” and there was light. God saw that the light was good, and he separated the light from the darkness. God called the light “day,” and the darkness he called “night.” And there was evening, and there was morning—the first day. (Genesis 1:3-5)
God saw that the light was good. The “light” did not come from the sun, moon, or stars. Where did it come from? In Revelation 21, we read that when God will create the New Jerusalem, there will be no need for the sun or moon’s light for the glory of God will give it light, and the Lamb/Jesus will be its lamp. So, maybe God Himself was the light on day one and so there was no need of a sun or moon on day one.
And God said, “Let there be a vault between the waters to separate water from water.” So, God made the vault and separated the water under the vault from the water above it. And it was so. God called the vault “sky.” And there was evening, and there was morning—the second day. (Genesis 1:6-8)
The day two word “vault”, also translated as the “expanse” or the “firmament”, is connected to day one when the earth was “without form and void”, “unformed and unfilled.” God’s Spirit hovered over the waters ready to bring order out of disorder, form out of chaos. There was darkness over the “deep” – the bodies of water that covered the earth – and then God divided the water into water on the earth (for example, the oceans) and water in the sky (for example, rainclouds). The phrase “And God saw that it was good” does not appear on day two because God’s work of separating the waters did not finish until day three, as we will shortly read.
By the way, Jewish couples have traditionally avoided having their wedding on a Monday, the second day of the week, because of the absence of the phrase “And God saw that it was good” from that day.
And God said, “Let the water under the sky be gathered to one place, and let dry ground appear.” And it was so. God called the dry ground “land,” and the gathered waters he called “seas.” And God saw that it was good.
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. 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. And there was evening, and there was morning—the third day. (Genesis 1:9-13)
God’s work of separating water into oceans and clouds in the sky is completed on day three with the advent of land, dry ground, earth. This day, the third day, Tuesday, is the only day about which Genesis 1 says twice, “And God saw that it was good.” So, traditionally, Jewish couples get married on this doubly blessed day.
In days one, two, and three God creates habitats. After that, He creates inhabitants who populate the habitats.
And God said, “Let there be lights in the vault of the sky to separate the day from the night and let them serve as signs to mark sacred times, and days and years, and let them be lights in the vault of the sky to give light on the earth.” And it was so. 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. God set them in the vault of the sky to give light on the earth, to govern the day and the night, and to separate light from darkness. And God saw that it was good. And there was evening, and there was morning—the fourth day. (Genesis 1:14-19)
The Hebrew word “yom” refers to a 24-hour day here, with an evening and a morning, a complete day. Though there were early “church fathers”, such as Augustine, who noted that the vague nature of the “days” of Genesis could well suggest a non-literal interpretation it was not until the 1800s when the idea of a 24-hour day for creation was consistently questioned. This paradigm shift occurred within the scientific community, driven by hostility to religion and an effort to re-interpret observations in ways contrary to the Bible, and thus the idea of a 24-hour day was supplanted in popular thought by the word “day” referring to a period of time, an age. However, Genesis 1 does state that a “yom” was a 24-hour day.
And God said, “Let the water teem with living creatures, and let birds fly above the earth across the vault of the sky.” So, God created the great creatures of the sea and every living thing with which the water teems and that moves about in it, according to their kinds, and every winged bird according to its kind. And God saw that it was good. God blessed them and said, “Be fruitful and increase in number and fill the water in the seas, and let the birds increase on the earth.” And there was evening, and there was morning—the fifth day. (Genesis 1:20-23)
Fish, sea creatures, and birds are all created on day five.
And God said, “Let the land produce living creatures according to their kinds: the livestock, the creatures that move along the ground, and the wild animals, each according to its kind.” And it was so. God made the wild animals according to their kinds, the livestock according to their kinds, and all the creatures that move along the ground according to their kinds. And God saw that it was good. (Genesis 1:24,25)
The first half of day six sees the creation of mammals. But then, God adds the crowning touch to His creation, in the second half of day six.
Then God said, “Let us make humankind in our image, in our likeness, so that they may rule over the fish in the sea and the birds in the sky, over the livestock and all the wild animals, and over all the creatures that move along the ground.” So, God created humankind in his own image, in the image of God he created them; male and female he created them. (Genesis 1:26,27)
What does it mean for we humans to be made “in the image of God”? We will consider that fully next Sunday, but, here, on day six, was a radical break in the pattern of God creating. There’s a dramatic pause. A new kind of action that tells us something important is about to happen: God deliberates. “Let us make humans in our image.” Before, on days one to five, He simply spoke and galaxies were made but here, on day six, He deliberates. Not because He needed to deliberate but here, He does deliberate, and He deliberates with Himself because the word for God here, Elohim, is plural. In other words, God is plural, though He is One. This is a deliberation within God himself as Father, Son, and Spirit, Christian scholars explain. We know that He deliberates with His plural self because of what He says right after this: “Let us make humans in our image.” The ones doing the deliberating are the ones making humankind in their image. We are not made in the image of angels or the heavenly host or animals. God didn’t need to do this, but He did it, and through it we see our value. God later did not allow images of Him to be made. His Ten Commandments forbid it, but there’s one image of Himself that God allows—and that’s us. We are His image and likeness—not to be an object of worship in any way at all but to nonetheless, be the only image of Himself that God allows. And so, we need to be responsible in the things we do, God-honouring in our lives, respectful of creation, faithful and wise stewards of it as we tend to it.
God blessed them and said to them, “Be fruitful and increase in number; fill the earth and subdue it. Rule over the fish in the sea and the birds in the sky and over every living creature that moves on the ground.” Then God said, “I give you every seed-bearing plant on the face of the whole earth and every tree that has fruit with seed in it. They will be yours for food. And to all the beasts of the earth and all the birds in the sky and all the creatures that move along the ground—everything that has the breath of life in it—I give every green plant for food.” And it was so. God saw all that he had made, and it was very good. And there was evening, and there was morning—the sixth day. (Genesis 1:28-31)
And thus, we come to this summary statement in Genesis 2:
Thus, the heavens and the earth were completed in all their vast array. By the seventh day God had finished the work he had been doing; so, on the seventh day he rested from all his work. Then God blessed the seventh day and made it holy, because on it he rested from all the work of creating that he had done. (Genesis 2:1-3)
God did not leave anything mid-process. Think about it. If God had stopped mid-process, it would not have been good. If God had left the earth formless and void, that would not have been good. If God had not separated the light from the darkness, that would not have been good. If God had just created Adam and not Eve, that would not have been good. But as God brought order to creation, He paused at the end of each step along the way and affirmed the work that He had just done. “And God saw that it was good.” And, when God finished His work of creating, He was able to approve it all. God was able to look at everything He had made and pronounce that it was all “very good”. He had completed His good work of creation. And that in itself was very good!
