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Part One
Origins
Introduction
Origins. We all want to know from where we
came? Were we from a foreign
country? When did our people come to
the United
States for the first time? You see,
our past always enlightens our present.
If we do not know from where we come, we do not have a sense of our
own personal history. Thus, we
search genealogical tables to find out our origins. Personally this is very true, how much
more true for who we are as
humans.
Even
though all of us may not have any particular interest in our personal
origins, the whole human race, every individual that lives wants to know
how he got here so to speak. You know, how did we get here on this
tiny planet in this tiny solar system surrounded by greater solar
systems. For us today it is even a
more pressing question for man because man has developed and advanced in
such a way that we know that this universe is quite large. However, the Hubble telescope will never
answer these questions. No matter
how deep into space this craft penetrates, it can never satisfy the
questions found in the deepest and innermost places of our hearts. Man wants to know from whence he
came. He wants to know his origin!
Sure
some men come up with all kind of theories.
We talk about “big bangs” and perhaps an evolutionary
“chance” kind of origin, but this does not satisfy our
questions. Why? Just because we are made in the image of
God our Creator. You know, we modern
people are not the only ones that wanted to know their origins. Did you know that? The great nations of Egypt, Babylon and other nations all had creation accounts to tell how
they got here on this planet.
They had never walked on the moon, never sent out the Hubble telescope,
or taken pictures of mars, but they had longings, they had questions that
needed to be answered.
So
did the Israelites. When God
delivered them from Egypt in the Exodus with a mighty outstretched arm and
they crossed the Red Sea and God annihilated their enemies, they needed
to know more about this God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob (Exodus 15). They had been in slavery in Egypt for over 400 years, but some had forgotten the
Lord their God. Some of the
Israelites, such as Moses were raised up in the knowledge and understanding
of Egypt.
Furthermore, because the surrounding nations had their own creation
myths, they needed to know the truth of the matter.
The
Israelites were the elect, first-born son of God, but they were about to
enter Canaan, the Promised Land, which would be surrounded by
many foreign and idolatrous nations that would deny their true God and
their true origin. So, because of
God’s grace to his people, He inspired Moses to write Genesis 1. God created the heavens and the earth in
the beginning, but much time had passed and those who did not know God, nor
called upon the name of the Lord had created other myths and tales to
account for the origin of all things.
In other words, because of sin among the nations the original truth
of creation had been perverted.
Does
anyone know what is a cosmology? Cosmology is the study of our universe,
and the way we understand our world.
It is related to phenomenology,
which simply means what we see around us: the phenomenon. The realm in which we exist, live, move
and have our being. We must
understand that even before Copernicus, Galileo Galilei,
Charles Darwin, and Carl Sagan, people had
“cosmologies”, or theories of the world around them.
Cosmologies
and theories of creation or creation narratives, “ancient or modern,
is a coherent articulation of the forces (divine or natural) that will
account for the observable universe.
In any culture this usually entails a positing of the unseen (forces
or personified forces usually understood as deities) acting upon the seen
(natural world) and an elaboration of the role they will play from the
beginning of time until the end. The
goal of any creation story is to explain the events by which the so-called
gods (or God, in the case of the Scripture) brought order out of chaos and
to elaborate the ongoing struggle against the forces of chaos and evil that
continually attempt to subvert order and uncreate
the universe.” [Creation and Blessing, Ross}
I
want to say a few things about the world-view of the Israelites in contrast
to our own scientific or modern
cosmology or worldview. An example
between our cosmology, worldview or phenomenological understanding compared
to the Israelites can be understood by considering a thunder and lightning
storm.
In
stormy weather, when we hear thunder and see lightning, we have
meteorologists and scientists to tell us not only what these things are,
but when they are going to come and when they will pass. We understand in our cosmology more than
what is in the appearance of the storm itself. We know this is a common phenomenon
experienced by all, and it will pass.
However, for the Israelite, when they heard and saw these signs,
these phenomenological manifestations had different connections.
First
of all without meteorologists and scientists, they neither knew when these storms were coming (or
going) and what in the devil they were!
They lived in a time long, long ago when other nations saw these
storms as manifestations of the wrath of their gods. Their gods needed propitiation and so
they would sacrifice to them.
Idolatry permeated the culture of the Israelites (thus the reason
for the first commandment and the prohibitions about making images of God). They had no idea about these storms and
were a nomadic and traveling people who were out in the elements, so their
very lives were threatened by these so-called “insignificant”
storms that we also experience. Yet
we merely go into the house, shut our windows, dim the lights, and turn on
a television show and drink cocoa or coffee unmoved and unafraid.
You
see the difference what a cosmology will make? Well, keep this in mind with the
Israelites. God is the God of all of
creation, all the waters, all forces of chaos such as the storms they experienced,
he was sovereign over all and loved his people. This was the purpose of Genesis 1! We should try to read Genesis first as an
Israelite might have read it after their release from Egypt when Moses was inspired to write it. We must be conscious of our rational, Enlightenment worldview as
best as we can, and try to experience a thunderstorm as the Ancient
Israelites did. Remember how
frightened the Israelites were at Sinai where the mountain thundered and
glowed with the power and majesty of the presence of YHWH! Exodus 19 records that they were
frightened to death by this phenomenon called a theophany, or an appearance
of God.
Genesis:
True and Inspired Theological History
Genesis
is 1 is true and inspired history. We
must remember that it was written after the time it took place, man was not
there during creation, but God was.
God tells Moses the author how it happened and what theological
perspective he must have when he wrote Genesis. But keep that in mind. Genesis was penned in the Torah, the Five Books that Moses
wrote, and it is after the Israelites’ redemption from Egypt in the Exodus.
Genesis
1 is indeed the beginning of history as far as time, the world, and man are
concerned. Although God is eternal, he
did truly in the beginning create
into nothing, by the word of his power, in the space of six days…and
all was very good. The thing we want
to remember is to not ask of Genesis (or any other Biblical text) to answer
all of our modern or scientific questions.
The purpose of Moses is greater than that. In fact, Genesis can be simply understood
as an introduction or origin for Israel and for the creation of order out of chaos.
In
other words, the purpose of Moses in Genesis 1 is not a science textbook,
and we should not expect it to answer all of the volatile and faithless
questions of our unbelieving friends.
In fact, as with all other Scripture, reason will never prove anything to anyone; no portion
of Scripture that speaks with authority concerning sinful man is going to
be received accept by divine illumination.
The purpose of Moses in Genesis 1 is to show the Sovereignty and
almighty power of YHWH as the Great Creator and Sustainer of the universe. The One Who is Almighty LORD of His
people. We must come to Genesis (as
with all biblical texts) with submission and ask the LORD to teach us what
he wants us to know about himself and our own origins. Again, Genesis 1 is not a science
textbook, it is a theological history!
Genesis 1 was written first to the people of God in the OT to teach
them the origin of all things, including their own origins as the people of
God. That is, from where they came and ultimately, From whose hand they came.
The
reason for discussing these matters is that all often times we ask the
wrong questions of Biblical texts.
We need to seek answers from Scripture, but we also need to ask the
right questions of Scripture. A good
starting place is to ask the question “What was Moses’ purpose
in writing Genesis when was it first read by the people of God? Although we want to later understand
Genesis from the perspective of the resurrection and ascension of Christ
(Luke 24:44ff), we should begin our interpretation in the context in which
it was written.
Although
the Israelites had been delivered, the LORD was gracious through Moses to
reveal to them the beginning of all things.
In contrast to all the so-called gods of the nations by which they
would be surrounded in Canaan, God was gracious to accommodate himself in
their language and time period in history to tell them as about his
Sovereignty and Power. God wanted
the Israelites to understand who they were as His people, as well as their
origin- - their beginning, before
the Exodus from Egypt, before the covenant with Abraham, Isaac, and
Jacob, before sin had reached catastrophic proportions and God saved Noah
and his family, and before Adam and Eve fell in the Garden.
God
also wanted to reveal to them and to teach them that man was made in the
image of God, and is the apex of God’s gracious creative
activity. Genesis 1 was written in a
historical situation like all the books of Scripture and would have been
read in a particular historical situation.
Don’t forget that! We
shouldn’t merely read Genesis 1, then proceed to go to John chapter 1
and Colossians chapter 2, or Hebrews chapter 11, without considering the
“whole counsel” of God in redemptive-history—first! This is a good interpretive principle. Remember Genesis 1 is located in a very
important place as the prologue
to the covenant God makes with man.
It is the beginning or the prologue of the Kingdom [Kingdom
Prologue, Meredith Kline] to all that happens in chapters 1-11 which forms
one section to the Book, and chapters 12-50 which forms the second part of
the Book, and it should be read within this particular context.
So, we who are far removed from this
particular place in history, want to try (as best as we can) to see and
read Genesis as an Israelite would have long, long ago. That is, they did not have the scientific
and modern worldview that we have, so if we go back and read Genesis 1 with
this worldview and the questions our modern cosmologies raise, we will fail
to miss God’s gracious accommodation to them in language that they
could understand, but we will fail to understand the creation account as a
whole. Look at history, the people
of God have fallen into foolish traps by asking questions of Genesis 1 it
does not set out to answer.
In
other words, we should “speak where Scripture speaks and be silent
where Scripture is silent.” I
do not know the number of books that are written on Genesis 1 that are only
speculative, and ask questions that the chapter was not written to answer. You know, “the earth was without
form and void” how did the earth get that way? Or how about this one: “It says
that there was morning and evening on the first three days, but the sun was
not created until the fourth day…how can this be?” God doesn’t say; be should
satisfied with that. You may be able
to sell a lot of books to prove your speculation or theory, but you may not
rightly interpret this chapter nor find out the great encouragement that
our God has revealed in this
magnificent chapter of holy writ. Christians,
but particularly unbelievers, are always ironically allowing what God has
seen fit not to reveal to keep
them from the clear and gracious teaching of what he has revealed. So
with that said, we proceed with humility and caution, as we seek to
understand our origin, the origin of man who is made in the divine image!
Turn
in your Bibles to the first book of beginnings
(lit.) or the Book of Genesis.
NKJ Genesis 1:1 In the beginning God created
the heavens and the earth.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
NKJ Genesis 2:1 Thus the heavens and the earth, and all the host of
them, were finished.
2 And on the seventh
day God ended His work which He had done, and He rested on the seventh day
from all His work which He had done.
From formless
and empty to formed and abundantly filled!
Let us
first consider the form in which
Moses communicated this to the Israelites then, and to us now. Then , we will consider an overview of the content, how it was
read by the people of God in the OT and the significance for the creation
account in redemptive history.
I want to
break down the verses into “bite-size” chunks and then consider
the theological instruction of the passages, but first let’s take a
look at the form of the creation
account. Notice first the way the
days of creation are arranged. God
makes the environment, or the realms for his creation, and then he creates
or fills the environment or realms with those who would exist in these
environments. Remember, according to
verse 2 the earth is without form and
void. The earth was literally formlessness and emptiness, or tohu and bohu. So what Genesis 1 teaches us is that
God on days one through three gave the formlessness, form and on days four through six, God filled the emptiness.
A) Environment for God’s Creation B) Created things
in these Environments
Day One- Day and Night Day Four- Sun, Moon, Stars,
etc.
Day Two- Firmament-Heavens-Seas Day Five- Creatures of the Air and
Sea
Day Three- Land Day
Six- Creatures of Land/ Apex: Man
Day
Seven- God Rested
Moses
teaches the Israelites not merely a science lesson, but a
redemptive-salvation lesson. He
shows his people in Genesis 1 how everything from the smallest to the
greatest was created by the God who had redeemed them out of the
Exodus. You could summarize Genesis
1 this way: “Out of the darkened chaos God sovereignly
and majestically created the entire universe in six days, bringing perfect
order and abundant fullness for people to enjoy and to rule, and then
blessed and sanctified the seventh day, which marked the completion of
creation.” [Creation and Blessing, Ross].
Now
let us look at the content of verses 1-5.
Verse one says: “In the beginning God created the heavens and
the earth.” The reason I broke
down the first part into verses 1-5 was for the sake of appreciating the
foundational message for Genesis and even the rest of the Bible. Let’s consider the verbs and the
action that Moses teaches the Israelites then, and us now. But first, let me give you an overview of
what I am going to cover. We could
be here for days on this chapter, so I have chosen some particularly
important themes and theology to help us in studying all of redemptive
history.
We
will proceed thus:
1)
We will look at the verbs in verses 1-5 and ask what they communicate to
Israel when they were first penned and call this section GOD
THE KING OF CREATION.
2)
We will consider verses 6-10 under the heading of SKY, SEAS, AND LAND: the
Preparation for God’s Creatures, and how this would have
communicated and taught the Israelites when they first read this book. We will also consider the cosmology of
what the sky, seas, and land meant for these ancient, Near Eastern people.
3)
Then we will look at verses 11-13 under the heading of SEED: the
Continuance of God’s Creation.
4)
We then will look at verses 14-19 under the heading GUIDANCE, NOT IDOLATRY: the
Time for God’s Creation.
5) Next, in verses 20-23 we will look at SEA
CREATURES/MONSTERS: Creation over the Forces of Chaos.
6) Then we will consider verses 24-31, and
discuss THE KINGDOM:: Beasts and Man.
7)
Finally, we will look at 2:1-2 as a summary statement and GOD
RESTS.
I. God the King of all Creation
(Gen. 1:1-5)
Let’s
begin by considering the verbs in verses 1-5. There are six verbs with which I want you
to be familiar. 1) Verse 1: created bara; 2)
Verse 2: hovered rahap (cf. Deut. 32:11); 3) Verse 3: said
amar;
4) Verse 4: saw raah;
5) Verse 4b: divided badal; 6)
Verse 5: called qara. Notice the form of these verbs. Who is the subject of all these verbs and
what does this teach Israel then, and us now? Say it like this in summary: “God
created, hovered, said, saw, divided, and called.” Consider this summary statement about
Genesis 1:1-5: God is Sovereign, Majestic, and Powerful over everything
that exists.
In a land
surrounded by polytheists and pagans who had their gods associated with
everything in the sky, seas, and land, Gen. 1 taught the Israelites that
they were to be monotheists.
Worshipping the One and Living God, or Monotheism was not because
God was afraid his people might not like him as much as the other pagan
gods (that would be true enough at times due to their unbelieving hearts),
but God was the Only God and Creator, the Only Single Power over all
things, including Israel’s destiny and hope. A God who could do this could not only
comfort you in those frightful Ancient Near Eastern storms we spoke earlier
about, but this God was the source of all
life, and since their Exodus from Egypt, the source of their
redemption. Israel needed a true creation theology that would
enlighten their present living and give them hope for the future as they
believed the promises he revealed to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob (Exodus
2:24-25). God was gracious enough to
teach them so that they might better know him through Moses their
Mediator. They needed to know from
where or better from Whom they
came?
Notice what
these verbs would have taught Israel in the midst of paganism then, and in
the midst of our paganism now.
Remember, pagan gods could be attractive; it was the
“thing” to do in the ancient Near Eastern culture as well as in
our culture today. There is
persecution and criticism for then, as well as for today for those who
believe in the One and Only Living God.
For the people of God, those who receive God’s promises there
is always the temptation to have more than one God. This is reason Moses would instruct the
Israelites that God is One, and they are to love him with all of their
being (Deut. 6:4-6; cf. Matt. 6:24).
Even when Jesus comes, the One greater than Moses to reveal God to
His people, he says that “No one can serve two masters, of
gods.”
Considering
the difficulty of living among pagan peoples, while living for only One
God, think about the persecution and temptation that is ever before
them. During Israel’s time, if
you lived among a pagan people and you were required to
“propitiate” the wrath of the so-called gods, but failed to do
it, you could be mobbed and killed by the people. The pagans saw this as the irreverent act
of an individual that caused ill fortune to be brought upon the people as a
whole community. Remember that
living in Canaan, was not going to be easy as a monotheist.
First of
all, the pagans would have thought their gods were more in number than
Israel, and thus more powerful.
Additionally, they thought their gods showed many ways to find
divine favor and not just one way.
“Surely there is not just one God and not just one path to
this God,” they might have said.
You could hear the pagans speak to Israel and say: “What makes
you think you know the true God? Can
you prove he exists? How can you
believe in a Living God whom you have never seen? How do you know he exists? Join the others in following our gods,
get with our pagan program of peace if you want to prosper among our
people!” Sounds familiar, huh?
In contrast
to this pagan mindset that exchanges the truth of God for a lie (cf. Romans
1::23), look at what verses 1-5 teaches us.
1) God created, that is HE is the
Source of all things, including the pagans among whom they lived in Canaan.
The Hebrew word bara
or create is used only of God.
Hebrews and people made in God’s image were creative in the
sense that they “made” or asah things, but no one but
YHWH creates (cf. Gen. 1:27; 2:3; 5:1; Dt. 4:32:
Ps. 51:12; 104:30; Is. 40:26).
2) God’s
Spirit hovered, that is God
is the life and substance, the sustainer- - the One who gives form and
order to all things (cf. Deut. 32:11), including calling a people who were
not God’s people, to be God’s people. God’s Spirit would later hover over
the Israelites as fire by night and a cloud by day. God’s Spirit would hover over them
in lovingkindness and covenantal faithfulness as
he protects them and hides them beneath his gracious and Sovereign
wings. As God would later reveal
through the Psalmist: “He who dwells in the shelter of the Most High
will rest in the shadow of the Almighty…He will cover you with his
feathers, and under his wings you will find refuge” (Psalm 91:1, 4).
3) God said: God is the only True God
and the Only God with the right to say
or to declare…. and it is
so. God speaks the words which
brings all things into existence in the space of six days! The Living God reveals himself to his
people as the “speaking God” who will reveal himself to his
people so that they might know him.
He makes man with the ability to speak and to communicate as well as
his vice-gerents, or princes over his creation.
4) God saw: God not only speaks by divine fiat and it is so (or it
comes to pass without any resistance), but he declares it good when he sees
it- -He is the Judge and Absolute Authority to declare a benediction over
anything done.
5) God divided: Ultimate power to
create and make things they way he wants them to be…and they are.
He divides or separates by his mighty power to bring form to
formlessness and order to chaos.
6) God called: God not only has the
authority to create, sustain, declare, judge, and divide, but ultimately
the only one who names. He has the authority to name all
things. God called the
light…God called the darkness, etc.
Naming things was very important in the ancient Near East. For example, In the Babylonian creation
myth, the way the writer describes the reality before the creation of the
gods, he describes it: “Before anything had been
named…” The Israelites
would have understood the power of “naming” to be the power to
control and to understand. Only
YHWH-Elohim had the power and authority to name
all that exists, only he can control all things. In these verses, notice how throughout
Genesis 1, God is the Source of all things then continues from the very
beginning to sustain and uphold what he has created, while expanding up to the apex of his creation, which is man- -
made in his likeness or image.
[Note: the
use of Babylonian, or other pagan creation myths is to remind us that once
Babel occurred in Genesis 11, and God confused the tongues of the people
and they filled the earth, they perverted, or forgot, and exchanged the
truth of God for a lie because they were not the immediate receivers of
God’s special revelation in his Word.
This is why Israel was such a special people- cf. Rom. 1:18-25;
9:4,5]
Part Two
Remember,
from our last study, we discussed the fact that Genesis was written by Moses sometime after the Exodus from
Egypt and prior to the Israelites entering into Canaan the Promised Land
(or before the death of Moses recorded in Deut. 34). We discussed the fact that Moses did not
write Genesis merely as a modern,
scientific textbook, but as a literary, theological-history - -an inspired
and infallible, literary, theological-history! Israel needed to know from where they
came or better from Whom they
came because the people whom God had elected were to worship only one God
(to be monotheists), but they would be surrounded by cultures and peoples
who would test and tempt them toward polytheism in the land of Canaan and
among the peoples of the earth!
As an
“early, pre-Day of Judgment” (some call this an
“eschatological intrusion”), Israel was to be light to all of
the nations, and when they went into Canaan, the land God had promised to
Abraham, they were assigned by God to execute and kill all the people in
the Name of the LORD. This is not an
example set for the people of God today.
Today, since the fullness of times, our battle in Christ is
spiritual and not of the flesh (2 Cor.
10:3-5). However, Israel was going
to be used by God to bring early judgment on pagans living in the Promised
Land. Since they did not completely
accomplish this task because of disobedience (Judges 1-2), they would
always be susceptible to pagan religion and temptation. However, even before they entered the
Promised Land, they were tempted to go back to Egypt and they complained
against Moses their Mediator, and the LORD their God (1 Cor.
10:1-13).
If you had
been an Israelite in the midst of all these pagan nations and powers, you
would appreciate very much this summary of Genesis 1: “God is both
Author and thus the Authority over all things!” That means that not only had he shown his
might and power against Egypt, but he could and would by his grace keep his
promises to Abraham! He would create
his Kingdom and sustain it in the midst of wicked and perverse generations,
even in spite of his people!
The
creation account for Israel taught them that there was only One Supreme God
and Creator of all and that this God had made a covenant with them of all
the peoples of the world (Deut. 7:7ff).
Thus the Shema
of Deuteronomy 6:4-6: “Hear, O Israel, the LORD your God is
one…” Not only that, but if God could command the creation from
chaos to order, then he could also redeem them from the chaotic ways of
sinful man and bring them into and sustain them as an orderly nation.
The truth
of creation teaches us concerning the Law as well. When the Law was given at Sinai, the Ten
Commandments (lit. Ten Words)
would have been understood in light of the creation account because Genesis
1 was probably written by Moses after
Law had been given at Sinai! God had
condescended to covenant with, and redeem Israel from all the peoples of
the earth and therefore this is how they were to live in light of this
grace he showed to them. It made
“Thou shall have not gods before me,” and “Do not make an
image or idol of the LORD your God,” and particularly “Keep the
Sabbath, because it is holy to the LORD,” more understandable and
meaningful to the Israelites. God
begins the Ten Commandments with the prologue: “I am the God Who has
brought you out of Egypt…”
Genesis 1 serves as a greater, more lengthy prologue to the Kingdom
of God and to the previous covenantal promises made to Abraham, Isaac, and
Jacob [Kingdom Prologue, Kline]
This was
the Sovereign Creator God who had redeemed them and now wants to give them
order in his Kingdom amidst all the chaos in the world. Listen for instance to the words of
Moses, on the Plains of Moab, as he is reminding the Israelites of the
mindset they must have as God’s people, as they pass over into Canaan
(or the Promised Land). This is the
second generation, because the first generation (even though they saw all
the LORD their God had done for them, forgot and broke covenant with him,
and many were destroyed). Keep in
mind that this is one of the most important chapters in Biblical history
for understanding the historical books: Joshua, Judges, Ruth, Samuel, and
Kings. Look at Deuteronomy chapter
4:1-40 (these are some of the last words of Moses—extremely
important!):
NKJ
Deuteronomy 4:1 "Now, O Israel, listen to the statutes and the
judgments which I teach you to observe, that you may live, and go in and
possess the land which the LORD God of your fathers is giving you.
2 "You shall not add to the word
which I command you, nor take from it, that you may keep the commandments
of the LORD your God which I command you.
3 "Your eyes have seen what the LORD
did at Baal Peor; for the LORD your God has
destroyed from among you all the men who followed Baal of Peor.
4 "But you who held fast to the LORD
your God are alive today, every one of you.
5 "Surely I have taught you statutes
and judgments, just as the LORD my God commanded me, that you should act
according to them in the land which you go to possess.
6 "Therefore be careful to observe
them; for this is your wisdom and your understanding in the sight of the
peoples who will hear all these statutes, and say, 'Surely this great
nation is a wise and understanding people.'
7 "For what great nation is there that
has God so near to it, as the LORD our God is to us, for whatever reason we
may call upon Him?
8 "And what great nation is there
that has such statutes and righteous judgments as are in all this law which
I set before you this day?
9 " Only take heed to yourself, and
diligently keep yourself, lest you forget the things your eyes have seen,
and lest they depart from your heart all the days of your life. And teach
them to your children and your grandchildren,
10 "especially concerning the day you
stood before the LORD your God in Horeb, when the
LORD said to me, 'Gather the people to Me, and I will let them hear My
words, that they may learn to fear Me all the days they live on the earth,
and that they may teach their children.'
11 "Then you came near and stood at
the foot of the mountain, and the mountain burned with fire to the midst of
heaven, with darkness, cloud, and thick darkness.
12 "And the LORD spoke to you out of
the midst of the fire. You heard the sound of the words, but saw no form;
you only heard a voice.
13 "So He declared to you His
covenant which He commanded you to perform, the Ten Commandments; and He
wrote them on two tablets of stone.
14 "And the LORD commanded me at that
time to teach you statutes and judgments, that you might observe them in
the land which you cross over to possess.
15 " Take careful heed to yourselves,
for you saw no form when the LORD spoke to you at Horeb
out of the midst of the fire,
16 "lest you act corruptly and make
for yourselves a carved image in the form of any figure: the likeness of
male or female,
17 "the likeness of any animal that
is on the earth or the likeness of any winged bird that flies in the air,
18 "the likeness of anything that
creeps on the ground or the likeness of any fish that is in the water
beneath the earth.
19 "And take heed, lest you lift your
eyes to heaven, and when you see the sun, the moon, and the stars, all the
host of heaven, you feel driven to worship them and serve them, which the
LORD your God has given to all the peoples under the whole heaven as a
heritage.
20 "But the LORD has taken you and
brought you out of the iron furnace, out of Egypt, to be His people, an
inheritance, as you are this day.
21 "Furthermore
the LORD was angry with me for your sakes, and swore that I would not cross
over the Jordan, and that I would not enter the good land which the LORD
your God is giving you as an inheritance.
22 "But I must die in this land, I
must not cross over the Jordan; but you shall cross over and possess that
good land.
23 "Take heed to yourselves, lest you
forget the covenant of the LORD your God which He made with you, and make
for yourselves a carved image in the form of anything which the LORD your
God has forbidden you.
24 "For the LORD your God is a
consuming fire, a jealous God.
25 " When you beget children and
grandchildren and have grown old in the land, and act corruptly and make a
carved image in the form of anything, and do evil in the sight of the LORD
your God to provoke Him to anger,
26 "I call heaven and earth to
witness against you this day, that you will soon utterly perish from the
land which you cross over the Jordan to possess; you will not prolong your
days in it, but will be utterly destroyed.
27 "And the LORD will scatter you
among the peoples, and you will be left few in number among the nations
where the LORD will drive you.
28 "And there you will serve gods,
the work of men's hands, wood and stone, which neither see nor hear nor eat
nor smell.
29 "But from there you will seek the
LORD your God, and you will find Him if you seek Him with all your heart
and with all your soul.
30 "When you are in distress, and all
these things come upon you in the latter days, when you turn to the LORD
your God and obey His voice
31 '(for the LORD your God is a merciful
God), He will not forsake you nor destroy you, nor forget the covenant of
your fathers which He swore to them.
32 " For ask now concerning the days
that are past, which were before you, since the day that God created man on
the earth, and ask from one end of heaven to the other, whether any great
thing like this has happened, or anything like it has been heard.
33 "Did any people ever hear the
voice of God speaking out of the midst of the fire, as you have heard, and
live?
34 "Or did God ever try to go and
take for Himself a nation from the midst of another nation, by trials, by
signs, by wonders, by war, by a mighty hand and an outstretched arm, and by
great terrors, according to all that the LORD your God did for you in Egypt
before your eyes?
35 "To you it was shown, that you
might know that the LORD Himself is God; there is none other besides Him.
36 "Out of heaven He let you hear His
voice, that He might instruct you; on earth He showed you His great fire,
and you heard His words out of the midst of the fire.
37 "And because He loved your
fathers, therefore He chose their descendants after them; and He brought
you out of Egypt with His Presence, with His mighty power,
38 "driving out from before you
nations greater and mightier than you, to bring you in, to give you their
land as an inheritance, as it is this day.
39 "Therefore know this day, and
consider it in your heart, that the LORD Himself is God in heaven above and
on the earth beneath; there is no other.
40 "You shall therefore keep His
statutes and His commandments which I command you today, that it may go
well with you and with your children after you, and that you may prolong
your days in the land which the LORD your God is giving you for all
time."
As we continue
with our study of Genesis 1, keep in mind how important creation was to the
Israelite’s understanding of their world, particularly the way God
revealed to them the way they should walk before the world as a witness! We should also remember how important the
creation account is for the people of God today, but we shall turn to
discuss this further in future studies.
Creation revealed to the People of God that God created out of
nothing and gave form to all things (order to the chaos), and was sustaining
the whole creation. He had also
called a people out of slavery and bondage and was giving them order from
sinful chaos through the Law and he could sustain them as his Kingdom
people! This should have taught the
People of God how blessed and how gracious God was and in light of this,
they should have desired to devote their entire being to the Living
God!
However,
history records things differently for us and it pains us who have
“Redemptive-Historical-Twenty/Twenty vision”, to look back upon
the Israelites and see their failure to remember not only the Law, but the
God who redeemed them and created all things. They show how they forgot what Moses had
taught them as Mediator in Deuteronomy 4, when they went off to worship foreign
Gods even while God was near to them: Exodus 32- Golden Calf; Numbers 25:1-3- Baal of Peor; Joshua 24:14-15- Joshua’s Last words are warnings
against idolatry in the promised land; Judges 2:10-15- Israel is serving Baal and Asherah; 2 Kings 17:7-23- Idolatry in God’s Kingdom leads to Exile (cf. 2 Kings
23:26).
Genesis 1
taught that there is only one God and therefore Israel then and we now must
remember: Hear, O Israel, the LORD your God is one; Love the LORD your God
with all your heart, mind, soul, and strength!
Just because many in Israel became idolaters, both in a subtle
manner, as well as obvious, God was still preserving his people in spite of
them. We today struggle with idolatry
in subtle and obvious ways. We do
not carve dumb wooden idols and set them up on our homes, but anything that
we place in importance before the LORD our God and his glory alone, we are
idolaters, no matter how subtle.
When we regard our family as more important than the congregation of
our church, for instance; or when we are tempted to worship God’s
word, the Bible, rather than the God who speaks and reveals himself in the
Bible (Remember the Ark that the Israelites tried to worship- - the Ark was
symbolic of God’s presence, it pointed to God, it was not to be made
an idol—in the same way, the Bible is God’s Word, but it is not
God). Another temptation toward
idolatry which is extremely subtle is any love of self, for other people or
possessions, where we give more of our time, talents, and thoughts than to
God. It is important to remember,
idolatry permeated the ancient culture and it permeates ours today! As long as men have fallen and sinful
hearts, there is going to be idolatry in subtle and obvious ways. That is why we are to guard our hearts,
give our hearts to the LORD for cleansing and transformation, watch the
love and affections of our hearts.
II. Sky, Seas, and Land- the
Preparation for God’s Creatures (Gen. 1:6-10)
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.
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.
Here we
have God dividing -badal
the waters, making separations between the waters under the firmament - raquia, and
the waters above the firmament. The
firmament he called heaven. Then
notice, God even has the power to gather together to seas, and separate the
sea from the land. As God spoke to
Job in a whirlwind in 38:2-11:
2 "Who is this who darkens
counsel By words without knowledge?
3 Now prepare yourself like a man; I will
question you, and you shall answer Me.
4 " Where were you when I laid the
foundations of the earth? Tell Me, if you have understanding.
5 Who determined its measurements? Surely
you know! Or who stretched the line upon it?
6 To what were its foundations fastened?
Or who laid its cornerstone,
7 When the morning stars sang together,
And all the sons of God shouted for joy?
8 "Or who shut in the sea with doors,
When it burst forth and issued from the womb;
9 When I made the clouds its garment, And
thick darkness its swaddling band;
10 When I fixed My limit for it, And set
bars and doors;
11 When I said [to the seas]:, 'This far
you may come, but no farther, And here your proud waves must stop!'
We should
understand the sea, or the cosmic waters from the perspective of the people
of the ancient Near East, gathering an understanding of the sea from the
theology found in Scripture. God
created the cosmic sea (Ps. 95:5; Jon. 1:9) and gathered the waters
covering the entire face of the earth into seas and established their
boundaries, as we read in Job 38 above (cf. Ps. 104:5-9). In the ancient Near East, the cosmic sea
symbolized the continued threat the forces of chaos posed against God and
creation [Dictionary of Biblical
Imagery, Ryken and Longman].
According
to Scripture, the sea pushes against the boundaries God has established for
it (Job 38:8-11; Jer. 5:22). In the pagan religions that surrounded
Israel, there were creation myths (perversions of the truth) that described
a primeval battle between a creator god and a sea monster of chaos called Leviathan, Rahab, or the dragon or
serpent (Job 41). Unlike the myths
of neighboring nations, God Almighty reveals himself as the Creator of the
so-called chaos monsters and places them in the sea (Gen. 1:20-21, which we
will discuss further; Ps. 104:24-26).
That means that what gave pagans and the ancient Near East their
greatest fear, were really created and controlled by Israel’s
Almighty and Sovereign God! What grace
is revealed here as we see the God who covenants with his people and keeps
his promises, is the Great God of the Sea!
The
Israelites were terribly frightened of the sea. In the ancient Near East, the belief was
that the sea-chaos-monster stirred up the cosmic sea, but we see in other
Scripture that not only is God the Creator of this great sea creature, but
he is wounded and subdued by God- - God controls one of the sources of the
greatest fear to other pagan peoples in Israel’s time (cf. Job.
26:12; Ps. 74:12-14; 89:9-10; Is. 51:9).
The Great Sea Creature will ultimately be vanquished in the end
times (Is. 27:1). As the home of the
chaos monster that can be roused, the sea symbolizes the threat of the
reemergence of chaos (Job 3:8). In
fact, this is why the evil world powers and the antichrist of the last days
which oppose God and his people are apocalyptically symbolized as beasts
arising from the sea (Dan. 7:3; Rev. 13:1).
We will study more concerning this interesting subject when we get
to Gen. 1:20-23.
Remember
Israel’s perspective on what they saw around them in this world, their
phenomenon that they experienced with their five senses (don’t forget
phenomenology that spoke of in
the first class: the phenomenon is how we describe what we perceive with
our senses: the sun rising and setting, etc.). From the warmth of the sun in the
heavens, to the stars on a clear night in the dark heavens, Israel would
know that from least to greatest, YHWH had made all things.
Do you
recall as a child laying on your back and staring up into the sky in the
day or at night? Perhaps you had no
belief in God at the time, or perhaps you had the privilege to be a
covenant child. Regardless, do you
remember thinking how magnificent this “place”, or this
“world” is, the place where you live? Do you remember knowing nothing more
about the skies, the heavens, the seas, and the land around except what you
perceived with your five senses. I
mean, you had no real scientific knowledge yet and what you saw, was what
was really there to your perception.
I recall
one time looking up in the middle of the afternoon on a clear spring day,
and saying “There looks like there is a dome up there.” A dome
like a top on the earth. I knew
enough to know the earth was round or a sphere, but I did not know that
much more about space and the heavens, etc. as a young child. From my perspective, laying on my back as
a child there was a dome up
there. Imagine how Israel would have
perceived the skies, seas and land.
Imagine before we could fly in airplanes, ride on ships and boats,
and travel fast in cars upon the land, imagine the inability of man to
control these environments, especially the sky and the sea. They didn’t have the scientific
knowledge and understanding that we do.
God knew all of this scientific knowledge, but God allowed his
created people to understand science gradually and progressively throughout
history. Israel would not have
understood all that they saw in the skies and in the seas except two
realms, or domains that they did not seem to truly have dominion over
(although Adam and the human race were given these realms as well as the
land in Genesis 1).
You see why
it was important for pagans to propitiate their sky gods and their moon
gods and their sun gods and
their sea gods and their river gods, etc…on and
on. It gives you a pre-modern perspective
to try and understand this culture and the context in which Genesis 1 was
written. It was a much different
culture and time from ours where we
have learned with electronics to
“burn” a digital CD disc, watch stock reports flash
across computer screens moment by moment, get weather reports days in
advance, ride in airplanes and ships and travel on beltways and highways
around the land. No, there was no Route 66 for the ancient Near
Eastern peoples, no meteorologists, no stock reports, no planes trains and
automobiles!
Remember
also concerning the skies, seas, and land, how Israel is told in the Law
not to worship any image, nothing in the heavens above or the earth beneath
(as we learned from Deut. 4:1-40).
They were to know these were created gifts given to them to live in
God’s world, but it was not the | 
