In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth.
[2] And the earth was without form, and void; and darkness was upon the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters.
[3] And 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] And God called the light Day, and the darkness he called Night. And the evening and the morning were the first day.
[6] And God said, Let there be a firmament in the midst of the waters, and let it divide the waters from the waters.
[7] And 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. And the evening and the morning were the second day.
[9] And God said, Let the waters under the heaven be gathered together unto 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 called he Seas: and God saw that it was good.
[11] And God said, Let the earth bring forth grass, the herb yielding seed, and the fruit tree yielding fruit after his kind, whose seed is in itself, upon the earth: and it was so.
[12] And the earth brought forth grass, and herb yielding seed after his kind, and the tree yielding fruit, whose seed was in itself, after his kind: and God saw that it was good.
[13] And the evening and the morning were the third day.
[14] And God said, Let there be lights in the firmament of the heaven to divide the day from the night; and let them be for signs, and for seasons, and for days, and years:
[15] And let them be for lights in the firmament of the heaven to give light upon the earth: and it was so.
[16] And 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] And God set them in the firmament of the heaven to give light upon 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] And the evening and the morning were the fourth day.
[20] And God said, Let the waters bring forth abundantly the moving creature that hath life, and fowl that may fly above the earth in the open firmament of heaven.
[21] And God created great whales, and every living creature that moveth, which the waters brought forth abundantly, after their kind, and every winged fowl after his 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 fowl multiply in the earth.
[23] And the evening and the morning were the fifth day.
[24] And God said, Let the earth bring forth the living creature after his kind, cattle, and creeping thing, and beast of the earth after his kind: and it was so.
[25] And God made the beast of the earth after his kind, and cattle after their kind, and every thing that creepeth upon the earth after his kind: and God saw that it was good.
[26] And God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness: and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth.
[27] So God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him; male and female created he them.
[28] And God blessed them, and God said unto them, Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth, and subdue it: and have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over every living thing that moveth upon the earth.
[29] And God said, Behold, I have given you every herb bearing seed, which is upon the face of all the earth, and every tree, in the which is the fruit of a tree yielding seed; to you it shall be for meat.
[30] And to every beast of the earth, and to every fowl of the air, and to every thing that creepeth upon the earth, wherein there is life, I have given every green herb for meat: and it was so.
[31] And God saw every thing that he had made, and, behold, it was very good. And the evening and the morning were the sixth day.
Commentary Upon Genesis Chapter One
Within the first two verses of the opening chapter of the Scriptures we are immediately introduced to the eternal God. His chosen introduction unto humanity is not one which argues for His existence nor attempts to offer any proofs of it. We are standing upon Holy, Supernatural ground here and for that reason any and all attempts to prove the existence of God through scientific or logical means will always prove insufficient for the task.
Science is, by its very nature, dependent upon observable, duplicatable, experimentation through which a hypothesis can be either confirmed or denied. What is before us as we enter this study is beyond the reach of such a process, for it will never be repeated and no one was there to observe it as it unfolded.
Here, at the very first revelation unto us of His eternal existence, God desires that He be approached through faith. Note that, for this is a principle which runs through the entirety of the sixty-six books of the Bible. God is to be experienced through faith. In the epistle to the Hebrews, we find the following admonition written.
” Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen. For by it the elders obtained a good report. Through faith we understand that the worlds were framed by the word of God, so that things which are seen were not made of things which do appear. “
(Hebrews 11:1-3)
Due to holding a superior status to all of His creation, which surely includes all things human related, God will not be encountered through the exercise of human logic as the primary means of approach. Without His consent, and His revelation of Himself unto us, we cannot come into His presence. All encounters with God must be initiated by Him. The rhetorical question found in the book of Job addresses this. It is written.
“Canst thou by searching find out God? canst thou find out the Almighty unto perfection?”
(Job 11:7)
Obviously, the answer is no you cannot do so. It is therefore through faith and faith alone that we are allowed to understand that God exists. It is by faith that we are allowed to understand that before the existence of anything in our universe, God exists. Learn therefore that the nature of God is eternal and all powerful through that which is revealed in the first two verses of Genesis chapter one.
God has told us what He did in verse one. In verse two He told us how He did it. Out of absolutely nothing God created the building blocks with which He would then proceed to organize the entirety of His creation.
Take care to note a second great truth concerning the nature and character of God as we look upon these two verses. The Trinity of God’s nature is here revealed. Look carefully at the second verse where we are first introduced unto The Holy Spirit of The God Head. Some hold the mistaken view that The Holy Spirit of God came to earth on the day of Pentecost referenced in the book of The Acts of The Apostles. Yet Scripture teaches otherwise.
He has been here from before the beginning of our existence, and He is, in fact, a full and equal participant in that event. Here, at the first, the relationship between The Holy Spirit and the maintenance of God’s creation is set out. Throughout the Scriptures this facet of the ministry of The Holy Spirit is found to be consistently set forth. It is noted in the book of Job where we find written the following.
” By his spirit he hath garnished the heavens; his hand hath formed the crooked serpent.”
(Job 26:13)
“The Spirit of God hath made me, and the breath of the Almighty hath given me life.”
(Job 33:4)
It is noted in the Psalms as well for there we find written the following.
“O LORD, how manifold are thy works! in wisdom hast thou made them all: the earth is full of thy riches. So is this great and wide sea, wherein are things creeping innumerable, both small and great beasts. There go the ships: there is that leviathan, whom thou hast made to play therein. These wait all upon thee; that thou mayest give them their meat in due season. That thou givest them they gather: thou openest thine hand, they are filled with good. Thou hidest thy face, they are troubled: thou takest away their breath, they die, and return to their dust. Thou sendest forth thy spirit, they are created: and thou renewest the face of the earth. The glory of the LORD shall endure for ever: the LORD shall rejoice in his works.”
(Psalms 104:24-31)
This is reaffirmed in the New Testament where Jesus noted this unto those around Him. It is written.
” It is the spirit that quickeneth; the flesh profiteth nothing: the words that I speak unto you, they are spirit, and they are life.”
(John 6: 63)
When we are told in verse two of Genesis one that The Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters the depiction is that of a mother hen brooding upon her nest until the chicks hatch out. That is the connotation which is intimated in the Hebrew language which was employed by Moses at the command of God to record this event when God chose to reveal all of these things unto us.
As we move into the remainder of this chapter, we observe that God begins to order His creation in a deliberate fashion by first speaking light energy into existence. Take note that this was done before the creation of time itself. The division of light from the darkness found in verses three through five forms the basis of time as we know it.
The phrase, “And the evening and the morning were the first day.“, literally denotes a 24-hour period. This is the time framework employed for each successive creative undertaking noted in the remainder of this chapter. Let us learn another lesson concerning the manner in which God works. There is an order to His actions. There is purpose in His manner of undertaking His work.
With each successive day, God chose to only accomplish His desired achievements within a twenty-four-hour period with definite divisions between each series of creative acts. The obvious question which occurs to one is, “why?”
God could have chosen to simply say, “let it be” and all would have been immediately brought into existence. Yet He sets forth a pattern here which we are given to see. It is for our benefit that we are thus introduced to the orderly, purposeful, character of God. He will bring mankind into existence with certain finite limits which He knows we must adhere to and therefore He is leading by example.
God first prepares the environment to be suitable to the sustaining of life before placing life into it. Especially is this true of His interaction with mankind. Going forward though The Scriptures the principle of a daily interaction with Him as a purpose of man’s very existence becomes apparent.
In line with this orderly, purposeful, methodology employed by God, let us observe that each day brings forth a new and distinct piece of the whole which is carefully designed to sustain the entirety of God’s creation. Observe the following listing of these things.
- Day one brings day and night, therefore the creation of time and space.
- Day two brings forth the atmosphere, referred to as the firmament.
- Day three not only produces physical entities which are non-organic but also brings about plant life of all manner. It is important to note that for the first time we are introduced unto the phrase, “After its kind”. It is written.
- “And God called the dry land Earth; and the gathering together of the waters called he Seas: and God saw that it was good.
[11] And God said, Let the earth bring forth grass, the herb yielding seed, and the fruit tree yielding fruit after his kind, whose seed is in itself, upon the earth: and it was so.
[12] And the earth brought forth grass, and herb yielding seed after his kind, and the tree yielding fruit, whose seed was in itself, after his kind: and God saw that it was good. [13] And the evening and the morning were the third day.” (Genesis 1: 10-13)
- “And God called the dry land Earth; and the gathering together of the waters called he Seas: and God saw that it was good.
- Day four saw the emergence of the heavenly bodies of our solar system and the universe as a whole. The stars, The Sun, The Moon, all are set into their proper place to act as bearers of light which can be observed to mark the seasons as they pass before us on an annual basis.
- Day five brings the fowls and fishes with which the earth is abundantly filled. Note that here also the phrase, “After their kind “ or a variation of it is written into the text.
- Day six is the final day of the activities of creation as undertaken by God. On this day all land animals were brought forth, once again we are told, to produce after their kind. On this day however there is a marked and distinct separation between all which has come before and the crowning jewel of His creation. When it came to the creation of man God did not simply speak him into existence. Man is formed by the hand of God in His own image.
A separate and clear observation concerning the creation of humanity is absolutely necessary. Once again there is evidence of the Trinity of God found in this account. There is to be noted a strict genetic separation between humanity and all other species of animal life upon this earth. There is a distinct and profound purpose given unto humanity to act as stewards of all else that God created. Note that it is written,
“And God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness: and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth. So God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him; male and female created he them. And God blessed them, and God said unto them, Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth, and subdue it: and have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over every living thing that moveth upon the earth. And God said, Behold, I have given you every herb bearing seed, which is upon the face of all the earth, and every tree, in the which is the fruit of a tree yielding seed; to you it shall be for meat. And to every beast of the earth, and to every fowl of the air, and to every thing that creepeth upon the earth, wherein there is life, I have given every green herb for meat: and it was so. And God saw everything that he had made, and, behold, it was very good. And the evening and the morning were the sixth day.”
(Genesis 1:26-31)
Note the concept introduced here that we are made in the image of God. This does not infer that we are merely physically likened unto Him, but rather that we are by design creatures who possess three distinct parts to our being. We are given a body which allows us to interact with the environment around us as we journey upon this earth. Think of this as a type of suit which allows us to engage those things around us while we are in a hostile environment much as a deep-sea diver or an astronaut must put on to do their jobs.
We also are given a soul which is that portion of our being which holds our identity, our ability to reason, our ability to experience emotions and our ability to communicate with each other. The third portion of our being is that of a spirit. Here is where we possess the capacity to know and relate to the spiritual things of God’s creation as well as God Himself.
Note the clear separation of male and female genders which God established from the very beginning of the existence of humanity. God commanded mankind to reproduce and fill the earth with their presence and in doing so exercise the authority which He had delegated unto them as stewards over His creation. This is the ordered design by which the creation of God is to be sustained. Any deviation from this is not only a perversion of that design but also constitutes an affront, an insult if you will, unto the Creator of All Things.
Thus, we are presented with an introduction unto not only the Creator and His creation, but also our purposes for existence. We are given to know that God has ordered all of His creation so that all which is necessary for us to fulfill our purposes of communion with Him, and stewardship of that which He has appointed unto us to maintain has been provided unto us in abundance.
As we close this chapter of Genesis take note that God Himself indicates His pleasure in all which He has created, including humanity, at this point in time. It is written.
“And God saw every thing that he had made, and, behold, it was very good. And the evening and the morning were the sixth day.
(Genesis 1:31)