The God of Creation

Introduction to the Creation

In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. Now the earth was formless and
empty, darkness was over the surface of the deep, and the Spirit of God was hovering over the
waters.
And God said, “Let there be light,” and there was light. God saw that the light was
good, and he separated the light from the darkness. God called the light “day,” and the darkness
he called “night.” And there was evening, and there was morning—the first day.
And God said, “Let there be a vault between the waters to separate water from water.”
So God made the vault and separated the water under the vault from the water above it. And it
was so. God called the vault “sky.” And there was evening, and there was morning—the second
day.
...Then God said, “Let us make mankind in our image, in our likeness, so that they may
rule over the fish in the sea and the birds in the sky, over the livestock and all the wild animals,
and over all the creatures that move along the ground.”...

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

-Genesis 1:1-8, 28, 31 (New International Version)

I. INTRODUCTION

There are numerous teams within Christianity with their own

interpretation as to what exactly Genesis 1 means. In the following
outline we will explore the awesome portrait of our Creator God that is
all too often overlooked due to a misunderstanding as to what type of
literature we are dealing with here. Let us start with a brief introduction
to the passage’s genre and move from there to these very important
elements that we often miss.

II. THE GENRE OF THE PASSAGE

A.Genesis 1 and 2 Seem to Contradict

 1. Creation Order 1 (Genesis 1)

a)Heavens & Earth (1:1)

b) Light (1:3-5)
c) Sky (1:6-8)
d) Dry Land & Seas (1:9,10)
e) Vegetation (1:11,12)
f) Sun, Moon & Stars (1:14-18)
g) Fish & Fowl (1:20-22)
h) Land Animals (1:24,25)
i) Man & Woman (1:26,27)

2. Creation Order 2 (Genesis 2)

a) Heavens & Earth

b) Man (2:7)
c) Vegetation (2:8,9)
d) Rivers (2:10-14)
e) Fowl & Land Animals (2:19,20a)
f) Woman (2:18, 20b-22)

3.It isn’t logical to assume that the writer would contradict himself in the very next
passage.

B. Genesis 1 as poetic prelude to Genesis 2

1. Other exemplary Hebrew passages:

a) Crossing of the Red Sea

(1)Exodus 14: Historic Account

(2) Exodus 15: Song of Miriam

*Do we read the succeeding poetry and think, “What must God’s hand
have looked like as the text says He ‘hurled’ His enemies.”

b) Israel’s Triumph Over General Sisera

(1) Judges 4: Historic Account

(2) Judges 5: Song of Deborah
 *Do we read Deborah’s song and ask, “What must the richter reading have
been when God marched for Israel?”

*Should we say there is contradiction since chapter 4 says that Barak was
instructed to fight the armies of Sisera when chapter 5 describes the
armies as captives and that Barak merely took charge of those captives?

2.The structure of the passage is filled with repetitious statements:

a) “...and there was evening, and there was morning...” (1:5,8,13,19,23,31)

b) “...and God said...” (1:3,6,9,11,14,20,24,26,29)
c) “...and it was so....” (1:7,9,11,15,24,30)
d) “...that it was good...” (1:10,12,18,21,25)

III. WHAT DOES THE POEM CONVEY?

A.God exists objectively in multiple persons (1:1,2,26)

1.God’s existence is not defended, it is simply declared (1:1)

2. God speaks to Himself and states that man will be created in “Our
image” (1:26)

*He cannot be speaking to anyone or anything apart from the Godhead, because
the text immediately refers to the image-bearers having the singular “His” Image
(1:27; Isaiah 40:14)

3. A Divine essence of Himself is described as His “Spirit” and He is performing

the action of ‘hovering’ or ‘moving’.

*The Hebrew word for ‘hovered’ is peculiar: it’s only use is to describe the
nurturing actions of a mother bird.

4.God spoke everything into existence (1:3,6,9,11,14,20,24,26,29)

a) God’s word has agency, as opposed to the human need to ‘do’ in order to bring
about.

b) The reason that God’s word can create things is because His ‘Word’ is a person.
(John 1:1-3; John 1:10; Psalm 33:6; 1 Corinthians 8:6; Colossians 1:16; Hebrews
1:2)
B. God exists singularly in one being (Isaiah 44:8; 45:5,18,21; 46:9 cf. John
12:37-41)

1. The specific language of the poem itself

a)The pronoun ‘He’ (and ‘His’) in direct reference to God. (1:5,10,16,27,31)

b) God says ‘I’ in direct reference to himself. (1:30)

C. God is the ultimate cause of all that exists

1.Everything, from as large as the celestial bodies (1:16) and the properties of light
(1:3-5) to as minute as plant reproduction (1:11), was created by God.

2. The word for ‘created’ in verse 1 is the Hebrew word ‘bara’ which means ‘to
create from nothing’.

D.God created man in ‘His Image’ (1:26,27)

1.The Image of God is both...

a) Communital, because God exists in fellowship with the plural persons within His
being (1:26a)

b) Authoritative, because man is given ‘dominion’ or ruling influence over the

subservient creatures (1:26b)

E.God’s creation was very good (1:31)

1. Matter is not evil and pleasure is not bad.

2. God enjoys the creation, and we should too.

3. The reason we are moved when we see nature is because nature, according to
Genesis 1, is singing the praises of God.
 “The love we feel for the splendor of the heavens, the plains, the sea and the
mountains, for the silence of nature which is borne in upon us by its thousands of
tiny sounds, for the breath of the winds, or the warmth of the sun, this love of
which every human being has at least an inkling, is an incomplete, painful love,
because it is felt for things which are incapable of responding, that is to say for
matter.”
-Simone Weil, "Waiting on God"

“We do not want merely to see beauty, though, God knows, even that is bounty
enough. We want something else which can hardly be put into words--to be united
with the beauty we see, to pass into it, to receive it into ourselves, to bathe in it, to
become part of it. That is why we have peopled air and earth and water with gods
and goddesses and nymphs and elves--that, though we cannot, yet these
projections can, enjoy in themselves that beauty, grace, and power of which
Nature is the image.”
-C.S. Lewis, "The Weight of Glory"

IV.CONCLUSION

A. Genesis 1 is clearly a poetic prelude to the brief historic account of Genesis

2.

1.It is illogical to assume that a writer would write one narrative and then immediately
contradict himself in the next passage.

2. This clearly was not uncommon as we have seen from other Hebrew texts.

3. Much like a song, there are various phrases which are repeated many times in the text.

B. What Does the Poem Convey to the Readers?

1.The Trinity:

a) The Father purposes the Creation

b) The Son, or the Word, brings the cosmos into existence

c) The Spirit is present lovingly nurturing the cosmos as it is all brought into
existence to the Glory of God.

2. God is the uncaused Cause responsible for bringing everything into existence using
nothing.
 3. Man was created as a communital creature in the image of God and as such was invited
inside of the circle which already existed in God.

4. God declared that the cosmos are good or enjoyable as they sing His praises by their
very existence.

ADDENDUM: The Creator God in John’s Gospel

“In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He
was with God in the beginning. Through him all things were made; without him nothing was
made that has been made.”

-John 1:1-3,14,18 (New International Version)

I. INTRODUCTION

We have seen that all three Persons of the Holy Trinity were very
present at Creation. Having highlighted these facts within the text of
Genesis 1, let us overlay what we have learned with the text of John 1.

II.PARALLELS WITH THE SONG OF CREATION

A. God Existed Infinitely into the Past “...was the Word...”

1. Greek is past progressive (imperfect) active indicative

a) Closest translation: “In the beginning the Word already existed.”

b) The tense indicates that the Word existed indefinitely into the past.

B. God Existed in Community with Himself “...was with God...”

1.The Greek phrase is ‘pros ton theon’ which means ‘face-to-face with’

a) This, like the Genesis 1 account shows the intimacy between the Father and the
Word of God.
 b) Conversely this shows the majestic power of the preexistent Christ.

2. The unity of our God is very evident here.

a) The Father’s acting is the Son’s acting

b) The Father’s will and the Son’s working are simultaneous.

C. Christ is the Means by which All things were Brought into Existence
“Through Him All Things were Made...”

1. Christ is that Agent we met in Genesis 1

2. The Passage restates this in the negative sense “...without Him nothing was
made that has been made.”