GENESIS #1: IN THE BEGINNING
OPENING TEXT:
“In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth.” (Genesis 1:1).
• We are going to begin a chapter by chapter study of the Book of Genesis today.
THE IMPORTANCE OF GENESIS:
“In a very real sense, the book of Genesis is the most important book in the world; for it is the foundation upon which all the other sixty-five books of God’s written Word have been based… The greatest doctrine of all – the special creation of all things by the eternal, self-existent God – is revealed in the very first chapter of Genesis, the foundation of all foundations…
It is hardly surprising, therefore, that the greatest attacks on the Bible have been directed against the integrity and authority of Genesis. Since the only alternative to creation is evolution, these attacks are ultimately based on evolutionism, the assumption that this complex universe can somehow be explained apart from the infinite creative power of God.” 1 (Henry Morris).
• Why is it important to study the OT Book of Genesis? Because what we believe about our origins will affect our lives today and our destiny tomorrow.
• If we believe in the theory of evolution, that life began billions of years ago by accident:
o We are merely complex animals with no ultimate purpose or meaning in life.
o Our final destiny is to become worm-food, rotting in the grave.
• If we believe in the Biblical account of creation:
o We are a special and unique creation of God and life has great purpose.
o Our final destiny is to live forever with God in the paradise of Heaven.
INTRO TO THE BOOK OF GENESIS:
Author: Moses
Title:
Genesis – Greek geneseos, which means birth, genealogy, or origin.
Date:
Written around 1440 BC, sometime after the Exodus from Egypt.
Section:
Genesis is the first of the five books that make up the Pentateuch.
Also called the Books of Law, or the Torah.
Purpose:
“Genesis reveals that humans were divinely created, that they suffered a fall, and that God proceeded to provide redemption… The account then focuses upon the origin and growth of the nation of Israel which God chose to fulfill a key role in implementing His plan of redemption.” 2
Overview: Of the 50 Chapters of Genesis:
1. 1:1-2:3 The Creation of the heavens, the earth, and life on the earth
2. 2:4-25 The Creation of Mankind
3. 3:1-24 The Fall of Mankind
4. 4:1-5:32 The Pre-flood World
5. 6:1-10:32 Noah and the Flood
6. 11:1-9 Tower of Babel – confusion of languages
7. 11:10-32 Genealogy of Abraham
8. 12:1-23:20 The Story of Abraham
9. 24:1-26:35 The Story of Isaac
10. 27:1-35:29 The Story of Jacob
11. 36:1-43 The Story of Esau
12. 37:1-50:26 The Story of Joseph
DAY ONE OF CREATION:
“In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.” (Genesis 1:1).
• In the beginning, GOD. God has always existed. Here we see the beginning of time.
• Elohim = A plural word that points to the Tri-unity of God: Father, Son and Holy Spirit.
• Historic Christian Creeds declare: We believe in God the Father Almighty, Maker of Heaven and Earth. This is a powerful statement of what we believe about who God is.
“2 The earth was without form, and void; and darkness was on the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God was hovering over the face of the waters. 3 Then God said, "Let there be light"; and there was light. 4 And God saw the light, that it was good; and God divided the light from the darkness. 5 God called the light Day, and the darkness He called Night. So the evening and the morning were the first day.” (Genesis 1:1-5).
• The Spirit of God was hovering – rachaph [raw-KHAF] – as a mother bird over her young; brooding, fluttering, moving. “The Spirit’s presence indicated an expectancy of life, and gave assurance that the darkness would not last.” 3
• Then God said – here we see the Spirit and the Word working powerfully together!
• “Let there be light!” “light… the energizing of the vast cosmos through the marvelous electromagnetic force system which maintains all structures and processes in matter. “Light,” the most basic form of energy is mentioned specifically, but its existence necessarily implies the activation fo all forms of electromagnetic energies.” 4
A CLOSER LOOK AT LIGHT:
Light waves are… complicated, and they do not need a medium to travel through. They can travel through a vacuum. A light wave consists of energy in the form of electric and magnetic fields… Because light has both electric and magnetic fields, it is also referred to as electromagnetic radiation.
Light waves also come in many frequencies. The frequency is the number of waves that pass a point in space during any time interval, usually one second. It is measured in units of cycles (waves) per second, or Hertz (Hz). The frequency of visible light is referred to as color. The full range of frequencies extends beyond the visible spectrum.
Any light that you see is made up of a collection of one or more photons propagating through space as electromagnetic waves. If you look around you right now, there is probably a light source in the room producing photons, and objects in the room that reflect those photons. Your eyes absorb some of the photons flowing through the room, and that is how you see. 4
DAY TWO: (Gen. 1:6-8).
“6 Then God said, "Let there be a firmament in the midst of the waters, and let it divide the waters from the waters." 7 Thus God made the firmament, and divided the waters which were under the firmament from the waters which were above the firmament; and it was so. 8 And God called the firmament Heaven. So the evening and the morning were the second day.”
• Many creationists believe that the ‘waters which were above the firmament’ refers to a water vapour canopy that surrounded the earth prior to the flood.
• The firmament ‘Heaven’ here refers to the sky. There are three heavens in the Bible:
o First Heaven – the earth’s atmosphere (sky) or realm of the birds (Jer. 4:25).
o Second Heaven – the starry heavens or the realm of space (Is. 34:4).
o Third Heaven – the throne of God, the place where God lives (2 Cor. 12:2).
DAY THREE: (Gen. 1:9-13).
“9 Then God said, "Let the waters under the heavens be gathered together into one place, and let the dry land appear"; and it was so. 10 And God called the dry land Earth, and the gathering together of the waters He called Seas. And God saw that it was good. 11 Then God said, "Let the earth bring forth grass, the herb that yields seed, and the fruit tree that yields fruit according to its kind, whose seed is in itself, on the earth"; and it was so. 12 And the earth brought forth grass, the herb that yields seed according to its kind, and the tree that yields fruit, whose seed is in itself according to its kind. And God saw that it was good. 13 So the evening and the morning were the third day.”
• On the third day, God commanded the Earth to bring forth the plant kingdom.
• Here we see an important creation principle: “the tree that yields fruit, whose seed is in itself according to its kind.” Like produces like.
• Cats produce cats. Monkeys do not produce human beings!
• This branch of science is called genetics. The study of DNA is one of many modern sciences that support the idea of Intelligent Design.
DAY FOUR: (Gen. 1:14-19).
“14 Then God said, "Let there be lights in the firmament of the heavens to divide the day from the night; and let them be for signs and seasons, and for days and years; 15 and let them be for lights in the firmament of the heavens to give light on the earth"; and it was so. 16 Then God made two great lights: the greater light to rule the day, and the lesser light to rule the night. He made the stars also. 17 God set them in the firmament of the heavens to give light on the earth, 18 and to rule over the day and over the night, and to divide the light from the darkness. And God saw that it was good. 19 So the evening and the morning were the fourth day.”
• On the fourth day, God set the sun, moon and the stars in their place.
• Psalm 19:1 says, “The heavens declare the glory of God; And the firmament shows His handiwork.”
• Our ordered, complex universe points to the necessity of Intelligent Design.
• “But God shows his anger from heaven against all sinful, wicked people who push the truth away from themselves. For the truth about God is known to them instinctively. God has put this knowledge in their hearts. From the time the world was created, people have seen the earth and sky and all that God made. They can clearly see his invisible qualities – his eternal power and divine nature. So they have no excuse whatsoever for not knowing God.” (Romans 1:18-20, NLT).
DAY FIVE: (Genesis 1:20-23).
“20 Then God said, "Let the waters abound with an abundance of living creatures, and let birds fly above the earth across the face of the firmament of the heavens." 21 So God created great sea creatures and every living thing that moves, with which the waters abounded, according to their kind, and every winged bird according to its kind. And God saw that it was good. 22 And God blessed them, saying, "Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the waters in the seas, and let birds multiply on the earth." 23 So the evening and the morning were the fifth day.”
• On day five, God created all of the birds and sea creatures.
DAY SIX: (Genesis 1:24-31).
“24 Then God said, "Let the earth bring forth the living creature according to its kind: cattle and creeping thing and beast of the earth, each according to its kind"; and it was so. 25 And God made the beast of the earth according to its kind, cattle according to its kind, and everything that creeps on the earth according to its kind. And God saw that it was good.”
• On day six, God created all of the land animals – including the dinosaurs!
• Contrary to the evolutionary lie, mankind and dinosaurs were not separated by 65 million years! See Genesis 2:19: “Out of the ground the Lord God formed every beast of the field and every bird of the air, and brought them to Adam to see what he would call them. And whatever Adam called each living creature, that was its name.”
• If we are to take the Bible literally (and I suggest that we should), when Moses wrote that God created EVERY animal on day six, it means every animal, including dinosaurs.
• We will talk about dinosaurs and their mention in the Bible in a latter session.
GOD’S MASTERPIECE:
“26 Then God said, "Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness; let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the air, and over the cattle, over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth." 27 So God created man in His own image; in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them. 28 Then God blessed them, and God said to them, "Be fruitful and multiply; fill the earth and subdue it; have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the air, and over every living thing that moves on the earth."
29 And God said, "See, I have given you every herb that yields seed which is on the face of all the earth, and every tree whose fruit yields seed; to you it shall be for food. 30 Also, to every beast of the earth, to every bird of the air, and to everything that creeps on the earth, in which there is life, I have given every green herb for food"; and it was so.
31 Then God saw everything that He had made, and indeed it was very good. So the evening and the morning were the sixth day.”
• God’s greatest masterpiece – human beings – created in His image!
BIBLIOGRAPHY:
1. Henry Morris, The Defender’s Study Bible.
2. L. Thomas Holdcroft, The Pentateuch.
3. Holdcroft, ibid.
4. Morris, ibid.
5. Craig Freudenrich, How Light Works. (http://science.howstuffworks.com).
Beausejour Community Church Website: www.beausejourchurch.ca
Pastor Chris Jordan’s Blog: http://thelandofpromise.blogspot.com/
