Text: “God saw all that he had made, and it was very good. And there was evening, and there was morning” (Genesis 1:31).
What did God create? First of all, God created the heavens and the earth. This is recorded in the very first verse of Genesis. This was only the beginning of God’s great plan of creation. The heavens and the earth were nice, but there was total darkness. God knew what He created and His Spirit hovered or drifted over the waters.
God did not need to create the heavens or the earth, but He did it out of love. His entire plan of creation is an expression of His creativity and proves beyond a shadow of doubt He is the Great Creator, the God of the universe, God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit.
God has always been God and He always will be God. He was always present and He will always be present. God was extremely satisfied when He separated the darkness by bringing in light. Scripture tells us that “God called the light ‘day,’ and the darkness he called ‘night’” (Genesis 1:3). His plan was not finished, there was more to come.
God looked out and he saw the waters. In His mind He visualized a separation of the waters. Some of the waters were placed above the other waters. The space between the upper waters and the lower waters He called the “sky”. This was His second day of creation and God liked what He saw, but He still had more plans on the drawing board.
The next step in God’s plan called for the waters beneath the sky to be moved so that the ground under the waters could be brought to surface. God spoke and the waters moved and the ground appeared. God was impressed with what He saw and “God called the dry ground ‘land,’ and the gathered waters He called ‘seas’” (Genesis 1:10).
The land was bare and God knew according to His plan that something else was necessary, so 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” (Genesis 1:10). This took place on the third day of God’s seven day plan.
God must have said to Himself, “If My plan is going to really work properly, I need to add a light for day and a light for night”. Scripture says, “God made two great lights – the greater light to govern the day and the lesser light to govern the night. God also made the stars” (Genesis 1:16).
The greater light that gives light to day and heat to the earth is the sun and the lesser light that that gives light to the night is called the moon. These lights would play a vital part in God’s final creative plan by providing seasons, days, and years. This was the fourth day and God was happy with the progress of his plan.
The next step in God’s great plan was to create bodies that could move about in the air and on the surface of the land and beneath the massive bodies of water.
Looking at the plans on His drawing board, God must have said to Himself, “I want to have creatures that can get from point A to point B by flying through the air. They must be able to reach great heights and perch themselves in the tops of the tall trees. They will have rather small bodies compared to the expanse of their wings.
“The wings will be attached to strong breast mussels and will be covered with feathers of varying lengths and arranged so that currents of air permit them to glide with the greatest of ease.” God created birds to fly through the sky.
God was doing a wonderful job in His creative process, but then He realized there was nothing in the great bodies of water. After a little bit of thought, God said, “I will create life that will live within the depths of the waters. Some will be very small and some will be very large.”
He went on to create many types of animal life and placed them in the great bodies of water. God saw how smooth His plan was moving and He said, “Be fruitful and increase in number and fill the water in the seas, and let the birds increase on earth” (Genesis 1:22). This event completed day 5 of His great plan of creation.
The next part of God’s plan was to create a form of life that could live upon the surface of the land, populate the land with like life, and move about from place to place by means of legs or by crawling.
For variety, God wanted them to be different in structure and size. Some of them would have a smooth skin, some would have fur to cover their bodies, some would have a hard shell covering, some would have prickly spines to cover their bodies, and some would be hairy. God created animals, large and small, to inhabit the land.
God was pleased with what he had created and said, “Let the land produce living creatures according to their kinds: livestock, creatures that move along the ground, and wild animals, each according to its kind” (Genesis 1:24). God carried through with His plan and created all the living creatures upon the face of the earth. He looked out and He saw that all creation really looked good.
There was still one part of His plan that needed to be completed. God wanted to create a caretaker for His creation. He wanted to create an image that was in His likeness and that could communicate with Him.
So God said, “Let us make man in our image, in our likeness, and let them rule over the fish of the sea and the birds of the air, over the livestock, over all the earth, and over all the creatures that move along the ground” (Genesis 1:26).
God took some of the dust of the ground and created man. At this point man was lifeless, but God breathed into his nostrils the breath of life and man became living.
Man’s life comes from the Spirit of God. God is the source of strength for all that man does and provides all that man possesses. God’s entire plan of creation was done out of love for someone He could communicate with and someone who would look to Him as their source for everything.
God could have made man like a puppet and He could have manipulated man’s every thought and movement, but instead, God chose to give man the ability to make his own decisions.
When God said, “Let us make man in our image, in our likeness” (Genesis 1:26), He used the word “us” to refer to the Trinity: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. God did not create man with the same physical appearance as Himself because as we know, God has no physical body. He created man in His image of; love, kindness, understanding, patience, forgiveness, caring, etc….
In other words, man has been created with God-like characteristics. After each step of creation, God stood back, took a look and said, “It is good.” God was satisfied and proud of what He had created.
Since God did not create anything worthless each one of us should never look down upon ourselves or anyone else and think of a life as being worthless or of no value. God made every individual for a reason. He has a plan for every life. No human-being was ever created by accident.
After God created man, He looked down upon man and realized there was no helper or no one else to be with man, so God created a helper or mate for man. God could have created this helper out of the dust of the earth just like He created man, but instead, God chose to created man’s helper out of man.
Scripture says, “So the LORD God caused the man to fall into a deep sleep; and while he was sleeping, he took one of the man’s ribs and closed up the place with flesh. Then the LORD God made a woman from the rib he had taken out of the man, and he brought her to the man. The man said, ‘This is now bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh; she shall be called woman, for she was taken out of man’” (Genesis 2:21-23).
God used the man, Adam, to give life to the woman, Eve. Eve was used to give life to the world. Man and woman are on the same level in the eyes of God. One is not superior to the other.
Psalm 8 says, “O LORD, our Lord, how majestic is your name in all the earth! You have set your glory above the heavens” (verse 1). Our God is a great and wonderful God. He is the creator of everything including mankind. His name is to be praised and all glory belongs to Him.
Man might just be a very small in structure compared to the rest of all creation, but man is the reason God created everything else. Even before the creation of anything, God was present, but He wanted someone with whom He could share His love. Creation was an act of love.
Verse 2 of Psalm 8 talks about children and infants and refers to the trust children have in people. They are not afraid to ask questions and seek help. Children are not afraid to express their views and their feelings. They believe that what they are being taught or being told is true.
Children trust their parents, their school teachers, their Sunday school teachers, the policeman, the fireman, and so on. When they say their prayers, there is no doubt in their minds that God hears and their prayers will be answered. God cares for them and they know it in their hearts.
Many adults need to get back into this child-like mindset. The only way to stay close to God is to remove any type of block or barrier and the way to do that is through child-like faith. God created us so that He would have someone to communicate with. He will never move away from us. He is as near as our heart.
God’s communication line is open 24 hours a day seven day a week. We will never get a busy signal. He knows our hurts, our feelings, our needs, and our concerns, but He will never force Himself upon us. We have to make the first move. We are not His puppets.
Our God is a great God. Step out into the night and look at the heavens, the stars, the moon and it will give you a feeling of God’s greatness. He created all this just for each one of us. He is concerned about us and created us in His own image. Verse 8 states: “You made him a little lower than the heavenly beings and crowned him with glory and honor.”
God created us, human-beings a little lower than Himself and the angels. All other life was created lower than us. We must be able to see our worth and how valuable we are to Almighty God. No human-being should ever have the sense of feeling of being worthless. Psalm 8 continues to say how man has power to rule over all God created.
Think for a moment about the awesome power and authority God gave us human-beings. We have the tremendous authority to be in charge of all that God created.
Do we respect what God has created? Are we good stewards of God’s creation? Do we consider the source of our power? Do we give God the glory and honor for His wonderful plan of creation?
Many times human-beings give very little consideration for God’s creation of love. Natural resources are wasted. Animal life is destroyed. The atmosphere is polluted. Aquatic life is infected with disease producing germs. Human lives are lost through acts of stupidity.
People forget to stay in touch with their Maker and many times take control of their own acts. The mountain of sickness, depression, job loss, economic conditions, financial burden, family issues, or loss of a loved one often brings an individual to the point of self-destruction.
People seem to forget that the Lord wants us to cast our burden upon Him and He will sustain us and He will never permit the righteous to be moved (Psalm 55:22).
Poem: “What Do You Cast Away”
It is His will that I should cast
My care on Him each day,
He also bids me not to cast
My confidence away.
But on! How foolishly I act,
When taken unaware,
I cast away my confidence
And carry all my care.
(author unknown)
Peter said, “Therefore humble yourselves under the mighty hand of God, that He may exalt you in due time, casting all your care upon Him, for He cares for you” (1 Peter 5:6-7).
God will take care of you and He will take care of me. We have nothing to be concerned about. We have no need to worry. His mighty hand that created the universe and everything in it, including man, will take care of us. God has taken care of man since the beginning of time and He will take care of us until the day He returns and carries us away into His kingdom where we will spend eternity with Him.
God’s love is expressed in John 3:16 when Jesus said, “For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.”
Poem: “God is Mindful of His Own”
When distress and cares oppress you,
And you seem to walk alone;
Look up, friend, for God will bless you,
He is mindful of His own.
You may walk with Him forever,
He’s a never-failing Guide;
He will not forsake you, never,
He will keep right at your side.
What a word of consolation;
Sweetest theme you’ve ever known;
In the time of fierce temptation,
God is mindful of His own.
(Good Tidings)
Conclusion:
Each day in God’s plan of creation was orchestrated for the benefit of man. God directed each movement of creation so that the final movement would be a tribute of love to mankind. When the grand finale was reached, that being the creation of man and the symphony of creation was complete, God look up and said, “…it was very good.” The sixth day of creation came to a close.
“O LORD, our Lord, how majestic is your name in all the earth” (Psalm 8:9).
Amen.
