Chapter 1: Creation
In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.
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.
Then God said, "Let there be light"; and there was light. Genesis 1:1-3
The above scriptures are some of the most widely known and important in the Bible for it is here at the beginning that God establishes His relationship as creator to everything seen and unseen. If we allow this idea that God is creator to fully form in our minds, we will begin to understand God’s nature, purposes, and relationship to all of us.
If we think of examples of human creativity like an artist creating a great work of art, a businessman launching a great corporation or a statesman crafting a great society we immediately understand that their relationship to what they have created is not a passive one, but is passionate, intimate, and protective. It is a fundamental truth that any creator is in relationship with his creation from the very beginning. God is no less a passionate, personal creator and can be understood only through the lens of relationship.
God is so far beyond our capacity for intellectual comprehension that no amount of study of the nature of God or mental acquiescence to the existence of God will allow us to even begin to understand him. God can only begin to be known through the reality of a relationship and any attempt to understand God outside of relationship is false and empty exercise.
One reason many of us may fail to realize the full nature of this relationship expressed in scripture is that the English word used throughout the translations of the bible to describe this relationship is love. Words represent ideas and the biblical idea represented by the word love in English, and its equivalent in many other languages, has been all but eradicated in the minds of human beings. The idea behind the word love has been so twisted and watered down by inconsistent application and overuse that it is no longer adequate to convey the biblical idea intended. The correct idea represented by the word love is crucial to any understanding of God’s relationship with humanity as well as an understanding of the origin and nature of humanity itself.
Fortunately, the bible is saturated with examples and principles that reveal the nature of God’s relationship with us so we will develop our biblical idea of love, not through the reading of a quoted definition of an abstract concept, but instead through our close reading of the creation story and the events and principles that occur there. Here we will see God’s love unfold concretely in creation and not rely on abstract definitions that could differ in shades of meaning from person to person.
Bara
It can be difficult for twenty first century readers to understand the creation story from the perspective given in the Genesis text. When most of us think of the earth we picture a beautiful blue and white orb floating in the dark background of space. But this mental picture of the earth is from a completely modern perspective and did not exist throughout most of human history, and certainly not when Genesis was written. God instead reveals the creation story through humanity’s original perspective of living on earth and viewing the environment as it unfolds all around us. It is as though these scriptures are being narrated to us by someone with an earthbound front row seat as they witness the preparation of the dwelling place for humanity. If we view the creation story from this perspective, then the inspired depictions given to us by Moses becomes much easier to follow.
We are told in Genesis 1:1 that God created the heavens and the earth. The Hebrew word translated created here at the beginning is bara and indicates the creation of a completely new and unique thing and is only used three times in the creation narrative; when God created the heavens and the earth, when God created the sea creatures and when God created man. The other two Hebrew words used in the creation narrative is yatzar, “formed,” and asah “made”, both terms imply the forming of something from the pre- existing. The statement in Genesis 1:1 containing the word bara is a declaration that God has created something original and unique and not arising from or contingent upon something that came before.
It would be similar to the creation of the first written language. This language may come into being on parchment using some form of primitive ink but the parchment or the ink are not precursors. The language itself would be something completely new, expressed into creation without dependance on anything that came before. This is what we should think of when bara is used in the text.
Light
These original and unique heavens certainly included the creation of physical light because the creation of the heavens included the stars and the sun. The creation of the heavens also included the creation of the earth as part of the expansive universe. Because the creation narrative is told from an earthbound perspective the earth is mentioned separately and the rest of the universe is spoken of as the heavenly expanse seen from the earth. Light was present in these heavens even as the earth was still shrouded in darkness.
In Genesis 1:2 the focus changes exclusively to the earth and we are told that the earth was without form and void and darkness was over the face of the deep and God’s spirit hovered over the face of the waters. In Genesis 1:3 when God says, "Let there be light" He is not inventing physical light because that was created when He created the heavens and the earth in verse one. In verse three God is declaring that light shall pierce the darkness that is covering the world in verse 2. Light can now be seen on the once darkened world.
And God saw the light, that it was good; and God divided the light from the darkness. God called the light Day, and the darkness He called Night. So the evening and the morning were the first day. Genesis 1:4-5
The world was completely dominated by darkness but here in this first day God declares that there shall be light that pushes back and sets boundaries for the darkness. Here in day one the darkness is no longer dominant but light and dark exist on the primordial world simultaneously and in alteration. It is this switching between light and dark that creates the idea of individual periods of time with the evening and morning comprising one day. Each day in creation is a period of the expression of God’s light overcoming a period of darkness. These days contain the expressions of God’s creative activity in the earth. A day is a self-contained crucible for God's creative purpose.
In addition to the physical created light described above God Himself is also spoken of frequently as light in both the old and new testaments. The description of God as light is used throughout scripture to represent His essential nature in action and God’s essential nature is love. Another way to state this idea is that love is God’s essential nature stated as a noun and light is God’s essential nature stated as a verb. When we read God referred to as light, or expressing light, we should use this idea to expand and sharpen our biblical understanding of God as love in action. Here are a few examples of God referred to as love and light in scripture.
And we have known and believed the love that God has for us. God is love, and he who abides in love abides in God, and God in him. 1st John 4:16
He who does not love does not know God, for God is love. 1st John 4:8
Oh, send out Your light and your truth!Let them lead me;
Let them bring me to Your holy hill
And to Your tabernacle. Psalm 43:3
This is the message which we have heard
from Him and declare to you,
that God is light and in him
is no darkness at all. 1John 1:5
But you are a chosen generation,
a royal priesthood, a holy nation,
His own special people, that you may proclaim the praises
of Him who called you out of darkness
into His marvelous light; 1Peter 2:9
O house of Jacob, come
And let us walk
In the light of the Lord. Isaiah 1:5
When in Genesis 1:3 God says: "Let there be light." He is of course speaking of the physical light that He is allowing to pierce the darkness from space. However, God is also speaking of the expression of His essential nature as light in the earth. This metaphorical use of the word light as God’s essential nature is certainly applicable here because God is directly expressing His divine love through creativity on the darkened void of the earth.
“Let there be light” describes the expression of physical light as a physical twenty-four-hour period on the physically darkened world. “Let there be Light” also describes the expression of God’s essential nature as spiritual light in shaping and creating the once spiritually darkened atmosphere on the once darkened world. The dark, void, and formless world was not reflective of God's nature, intentions, or purpose. God’s love in action brought the earth into conformity with His nature.
For this reason, we understand that the day described in Genesis 1:4-5 is of course describing the first physical twenty-four-hour earth day, but we also understand that the days described in the entire creation narrative are also describing an expression of an indeterminate period of God's creative light. Yes, a physical earth day that God establishes is a twenty-four-hour period, but the metaphorical days spoken of here in the creation narrative containing God's creative expressions of light could be any length of time.
The Hebrew word “Yom” that is translated day in scripture is used much like we use the word day in English. When I speak of Abraham Lincoln's day, we immediately understand that we are not speaking of a single twenty-four-hour period. Here in the creation narrative the metaphorical use of the word day is similar. An earth day in Genesis chapter 1 is simultaneously a twenty-four-hour period as well as an indeterminate individual period containing a specific activity of God's creative light.
The Cradle
Then God said, “Let there be a firmament in the midst of the waters, and let it divide the waters from the waters.” 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. And God called the firmament Heaven. So the evening and the morning were the second day. Genesis 1:6-8
There was initially liquid water covering the earth and water above the earth as vapor or cloud. This cloud occupied the entire atmosphere from the surface of the liquid water up throughout the atmosphere. This vapor was thin enough for the defused light to be perceived on the earth but would have hindered the ability for the earth surface to be illuminated and for the light to provide clarity to the atmosphere. God divides this primordial veil of water vapor above from the liquid water resting on earth’s surface with an expanse of firmament or vapor free sky. The water on the earth was divided by the sky into two reservoirs of water: a canopy of water vapor or cloud above the earth and the liquid water lying on the earth.
The emphasis of these first two days is a description of the administrations of light in the earth. God first institutes periods of time called days for his expression of light in the earth. God then modifies the impact of the light by creating a vapor free expanse so that light could further illuminate the earth. This emphasis on the nature and function of light in creation reveals the shaping of the physical nature of the earth but also the further advancement of God’s fundamental nature as light in creation.
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. And God called the dry land Earth, and the gathering together of the waters He called Seas. And God saw that it was good.
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. 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. So the evening and the morning were the third day.
Genesis 1:9-13
After establishing the necessary and essential operation of light in the primordial world in day one and day two, God then takes the next necessary step by causing the ground to tectonically elevate and depress to produce high places and basins that allowed the dry land to appear and ocean depths to exist.
This creation of the dry land made way for God to speak into creation the three classes of plants to flourish on the light infused land mass that further prepared the environment for the existence of animal life. The grass that grows to seed, the herb that produces various seeds, and the trees that have its seed contained inside its own self as fruit.
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; and let them be for lights in the firmament of the heavens to give light on the earth”; and it was so. 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. God set them in the firmament of the heavens to give light on the earth, 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. So the evening and the morning were the fourth day. Genesis 1:14-19
In similar fashion to when God declared “Let there be light.” God places the sun and the moon in the sky. God is not at this time creating the sun and the moon because they were also created in verse 1 when He created the heavens and the earth. In verses 14-16 God is allowing the sun and the moon to be revealed in the sky so that their form and not just their light can be perceived from an earthly perspective. We have all experienced an overcast day when the light of the sun was seen but the form of the sun itself could not be seen. This is how it was before God revealed the form of the sun and the moon in the sky.
In day four God lets the sun and the moon appear through the canopy of mist that exists above the firmament. God made the stars to shine also at night through the same process of allowing them to be viewed for the first time from an earthly perspective. God is further establishing the influence of light in the earth by having the various sources of light established in the sky.
This revealing of the heavenly bodies immediately preceded the creation of animal life that could discern various seasons and time. Animal life would respond to and benefit from the visible sun moon and stars above the earth. These heavenly bodies would provide directional guidance as well as a sense of time-of-day month and year. Light is the essential medium in creation for the flourishing of physical life and the metaphorical representation of God’s love in action.
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.” 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. And God blessed them, saying, “Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the waters in the seas, and let birds multiply on the earth.” So the evening and the morning were the fifth day. Genesis 1:20-23
God spent the first four days of creation creating an environment where animal life could thrive. First light, then the creation of a vapor free atmosphere between the waters on the earth and the water above the sky, the creation of the land masses and the separating the waters from them, the creation of the plant life and the establishment of the sun, moon and the stars in the sky were all the preparation for animal life to appear.
This primordial cradle was designed and prepared to nurture and allow animal life to flourish. In day five the cradle is introduced to this new and completely unique part of creation, animal life. For the second time in the creation narrative the original language of the text reveals to us that God creates something completely original and unique with the introduction of animal life in the seas.
The first sentence God proclaims animal life and in the second sentence He creates the life that He proclaimed in the first sentence. God creates the sea animals and winged bird and with this creation further establishes relationship with creation through a higher form of life. We see the fruit of this expanded relationship as God goes further than he has gone in creation thus far and out of His joy pronounces a blessing on these first animals in verse 22. God bestowing a special blessing implies relationship, care and affection which is further evidence that God enjoys special relationship with animal life.
We should note that the use of bara for the sea creatures and birds but not for the land animals suggest that created life began in the seas and spread onto the land.
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. 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. Genesis 1:24-25
In the first part of day sixth of creation God expands major animal life to the plant populated light infused landmass of the world. The sea creatures were a precursor to the major land animals, but it is clear His focus of activity will be on land. Land is where the important history of creation will be recorded, and land is where His crowning jewel of creation humanity will be fruitful and multiply.
After creating the land creatures, the creation of animal life was complete, so God declares that what he had created was good. God then moves on to His final and consummate act, the creation of man.
Man
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."
So God created man in His own image; in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them.
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." Genesis 1:26-28
For the third and final time in the creation narrative the use of the Hebrew word bara tells us that God is declaring and bringing forth a completely new part of creation through a fiat of His creative light. Here, God breaks with His pattern of creation that He established when creating the environment and the animals in day one through the first part of day six.
God distinguishes the creation of mankind by conferring with His own immeasurable, omnipresent, omnipotent, omniscient fullness of being as He declares “Let Us make man…” All the rest of creation God was intimately involved with and invested in as its creator but with man a special relationship is implied by the intensity of focus and fullness of action implied by the above declaration to and with Himself.
God further distinguishes man by declaring he will be made in God’s own image and likeness. Of everything in creation nothing has come close to this type of intimacy of relationship expressed through humanity being made in the image and likeness of the creator. God goes further still by declaring that man will have dominion over all of God’s creation including all the other living things that He has established under the light of the earth.
In verse 27 of chapter 1 we are told that humanity, like God, will be created as a relationship. Just as God exist as complete and fulfilled relationship as well as unique individual self, God created man male and female so that man may exist as relationship and individual. For this reason, God makes no distinctions between the nature and purpose of man and women as He describes the origin of man.
Man manifested in male and female form exist in the image and likeness of God and is given dominion over the earth and every living thing on it. Who was created first, who first heard God's commandment, and everything detailed later in chapter 2 and 3 of Genesis is not relevant to the nature and role of created man. God will flesh out the individual roles for the man and the woman in the details of chapters 2 and 3 of Genesis, but make no mistake, there is no human and vice human in God's original creation. The man and the women are two equal parts of the one whole of man and if you subtract one you no longer have man as created by God. This idea is echoed in Genesis 5:1-2.
The equality of man and woman was our original state.
Man is unique in creation, and nothing can approach his status as preeminent. Why would God make such a dramatic difference in the mode and nature of created man above the rest of creation? What is man’s purpose that humanity would warrant such a completely different creational relationship?
Human Purpose
God is spirit, invisible, omnipresent, filling all space and time but not limited by space and time. God cannot be perceived by any physical organ of perception. In scripture we are told,
"No one has seen God at any time" 1 John 1:18, "who alone has immortality, dwelling in unapproachable light, whom no man has seen or can see, to whom be everlasting power. Amen." 1 Timothy 6:16.
The creator of everything, the eternal infinite, glorious God can never be directly perceived in creation. God does at times reveal himself through a Theophany which are observable manifestations of deity. A Theophany is a way for God to reveal something of himself to humanity, but no Theophany reveals the fullness of the Deity as the above scriptures attest.
God created the universe but cannot be directly perceived in the universe. Although what can be known of God can be clearly seen and understood through creation (Romans1:20), a direct and personal perception of the Deity is not possible. This begs the question why would God construct creation in such a way that He, its creator, could not be directly perceived in it? With all the care in constructing everything by the expression of His love in action why would God create life without the ability to have direct, complete, and continuous access to Him?
The answer is God created the world for humanity and then made humanity in His image and likeness to represent Him in that world. The above scriptures, Genesis 1:26-28, show us that humanity was created in the image and likeness of God and then given dominion over the earth and told to subdue it. As God is spirit who expresses his light as creativity and preservation throughout the universe, humanity was originally created as a spiritual being that could express God's light through creativity and preservation in the earth.
The establishment of the agency of man as the expresser of God’s light in the subduing of the world and the preservation and expansion of God’s will in the world through the fruitfulness and multiplication of man, is God’s ultimate expression of light into creation during these seven creative days.
Expressing God’s light as love in action through our every action was originally humanity’s essential nature. For this reason, we must understand that love is an essential spiritual attribute of humanity not a human emotion. God’s love in action was the foundational essence of our original spiritual nature and the key to understanding humanity made in the image and likness of God. This nature was to be expressed into creation as God’s light, God’s love in action, as we subdued and dominated the earth.
Domination has a mainly negative connotation today because of our current fallen concepts but the original notion of being dominated by God’s love in action represents a completely different idea. To shape creation and each other with only that which preserves and elevates was the original purpose for our God given charge for dominion and subduing of the earth. God would shape, preserve, and experience relationship with creation through humanity with whom He enjoyed a loving fellowship.
For this reason, as God created humanity in His image and likness He gave humanity the ability to procreate humanity in its own image and likness. To have the ability to bring forth a unique human soul into creation is the ultimate human expression of light. God's ultimate creation is the human soul and God has bestowed humanity with the ability to procreate original and unique expressers of God's light made in our image and likness. Our offspring do not just resemble us physically and soulishly but are endowed through procreation with our spiritual nature.
Through the image and likeness of God in humanity’s original nature coupled with the ability to populate the earth with procreated souls in God’s image and likness and with God’s declaration for us to take dominion and subdue the earth, humanity was originally equipped with every ability and armed with every authority to accomplish God’s charge.
We should note that the idea that humanity was charged with bringing the earth under subjection implies that the earth was not completely subject to the will of God. Why else would humanity have to subdue it. For man to take dominion over the earth and bring it under subjection means it was not yet completely under subjection to the light of God.
I will pause here at the precipice of a theological cliff that I refuse to jump off. Above I have stated that God was imposing His nature and will on the darkened void of the earth when He declares let there be light in Genesis 1:3, and now I imply that the world was not completely under subjection to God when He created the man and the woman.
There exist between Genesis 1:1 and 1:2 a chasm of theological debate. Some scholars will say that verse 2 indicates creation incomplete and what follows is God completing his creation. Others say that verse 2 indicates creation after some cataclysmic event, and what follows is God giving order to the chaos caused by this cataclysm. I will not here put forth an opinion one way or the other. I would refer you to the many theological works, of which this is not one, to answer your potential questions.
It is not our purpose here to engage in a very old debate. I only mention it to acknowledge the questions that these statements may raise in the minds of some readers. I also want to establish that either view will allow for God expressing His nature and will in Genesis 1:3 as light, as well as humanity being charged with bringing the rest of the world under subjection to God’s image and likeness.
God’s Rest
Then God saw everything that He had made, and indeed it was very good. So the evening and the morning were the sixth day. Genesis 1:31
Thus the heavens and the earth, and all the host of them, were finished. 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. Then God blessed the seventh day and sanctified it, because in it He rested from all His work which God had created and made. Genesis 2:1-3
God showed His pleasure in what He had created in each creative day when He says it was good. God then crafted humanity as the crowning jewel of His creation on the sixth day and upon viewing humanity and all that He had created He saw that it was not simply good but very good and then God rested from all His work. Genesis 1:31 -2:1
The idea that God rested from His work does not mean that He is now passive and uninterested in creation. God’s rest means that His relationship with creation will no longer be through His own direct creative acts. God’s relationship with creation will now be through His representative made in His image and likeness, man. Man, the epitome and personification of God’s creativity, originally stood in the lofty and pivotal place as God’s representative to creation and creation’s representative to God.
All of God’s creation contained in chapter one of Genesis was completed and irrevocable after the sixth day. All these expressions of God’s light are fixed and forever a fundamental part of creation. Man, as God’s created representative, was just as much an irrevocable part of creation as the separation of the waters or the hanging of the stars in the sky. God would no sooner change human responsibility, authority, and powers as He would extinguish the sun. Man, as created by God, is the crown jewel of creation and for Him to alter man’s place in creation in any way is to change creations fundamental nature.
The unalterable position of man in the earth will have implications for when we study the fall of man and how the fall effects every procreated person. For now, we should recognize the original position, authority, and responsibility of man before the fall. This will allow us to begin to recognize the contrast between pre-fall humanity and our current fallen state. Only this perspective can lead us to a correct understanding of the necessity of the Gospel of Jesus Christ.
From the perspective given and information contained in the first chapter of Genesis it is apparent that creation was designed with purpose, and that purpose was the government of man.
It was man’s original state to rest in the relationship and favor of God. Like God, man’s rest would not have meant the ceasing of all activity. Man’s rest would be living and working in complete loving relationship with God and creation. It is said: “Do what you love, and you will never work a day in your life.” How much more if man’s every action originated from, expressed and received the love God framed into creation as light. The restoration of this original rest is promised to us with the restoration of our relationship with God through Jesus Christ, Heb 4:9-11.
Next: Chapter 2 - Humanity