Genesis 1 - In the Beginning

Your Creator's sovereign power is clear from the beginning.

Picture: Benjamin Voros via Unsplash

Genesis 1–2:3 (NIV)

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.

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.

⁶ And God said, “Let there be a vault between the waters to separate water from water.” ⁷ So God made the vault and separated the water under the vault from the water above it. And it was so. ⁸ God called the vault “sky.” And there was evening, and there was morning—the second day.

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.

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.

¹⁴ 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, ¹⁵ and let them be lights in the vault 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 vault 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.

²⁰ And God said, “Let the water teem with living creatures, and let birds fly above the earth across the vault of the sky.” ²¹ 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. ²² 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.” ²³ And there was evening, and there was morning—the fifth day.

²⁴ 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. ²⁵ 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.

²⁶ Then God said, “Let us make mankind 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.”

²⁷ So God created mankind in his own image,

in the image of God he created them;

male and female he created them.

²⁸ 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.”

²⁹ 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. ³⁰ 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.

³¹ God saw all that he had made, and it was very good. And there was evening, and there was morning—the sixth day.

2 Thus the heavens and the earth were completed in all their vast array.

² By the seventh day God had finished the work he had been doing; so on the seventh day he rested from all his work. ³ 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.

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Belgic Confession, Article 12

We believe that the Father

created heaven and earth and all other creatures

from nothing [ex nihilo],

when it seemed good to him,

by his Word—

that is to say,

by his Son.

He has given all creatures

their being, form, and appearance,

and their various functions

for serving their Creator.

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Summary

It makes sense for a book to start in the beginning. But every other book and every other story finds its beginning within the confines of an already existing context. Even the ancient creation myths from various cultures begin with some sort of cosmic force that itself must operate within predefined physical laws, working with some sort of pre-existing matter.

But the Bible is different. The Bible's beginning takes place when all that is now was not. Not even light itself existed, much less the fundamental elements that comprise our physical universe.

All that was in the beginning was the God who instructs us to call Him I AM. The Bible's first claim is purely theological: there is a massive distinction between the Creator and His creation. The Creator has always existed, complete in His Triune self. His creation - that is, as the Belgic Confession puts it, heaven and earth and all other creatures - came about when He spoke in the beginning.

And His creation didn't just creep into place as the result of slow motion naturalistic processes; rather it suddenly and instantly sprang into being as the Word rang out. The LORD's royal nature becomes evident just a sentence after the beginning - like a King, he issued a verbal fiat. God decreed Let there be light - and there was light.

  Dig Deeper  

Since the Bible starts in the beginning, in makes sense that our enemy's attacks begin in this same exact place. No other chapter of the Bible has been subject to as many withering attacks as this first chapter has. You've been taught and told that you can either trust the science or blindly put your faith in a Creator.

This false dichotomy isn't at all true. This lie is part of a coordinated effort to sow mistrust not just in these opening words of scripture, but in every word that follows this first chapter. As Screwtape explains to his protege Wormwood, “If you can make the patient believe that all his choices are really just the inevitable results of heredity and environment, you have robbed the Enemy of His greatest advantage.”

We don't have the space to hash out all of the myriads of ways to properly interpret the Beginning or sort out the orthodox views from the unorthodox. God is purposefully sparing of details in His creation account, yet our sinful nature longs to fill in the blanks. As Calvin famously wrote, where God has closes His mouth, we must desist from inquiry.

Just keep these two important concepts front of mind as we read through the 1,188 chapters of the Bible that follow this one in this coming year: Our God, the great I AM, has always been sovereign and in control, creating everything out of nothing. And He pronounced that His creation was very good.

This is the epic story that we begin to day: How it is that this good creation, now stained and cursed with our sin, will be made new and very good once again by our sovereign God and King.

AAA Prayer (About)

• ACKNOWLEDGE WHO GOD IS: Our Father, Creator of heaven and earth;

• ALIGN YOUR LIFE WITH GOD'S WILL: Pray that you faithfully obey the One who sovereignly spoke all things into existence and who is making all things new;

• ASK GOD FOR WHAT YOU NEED:

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