Blessed Chaos of Life!

In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth. The earth was without form and void, and darkness was over the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God was hovering over the face of the waters. And God said, “Let there be light,” and there was light. And God saw that the light was good. And God 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.

Thus far in our journey through the Creation narrative we have only covered the first day.

Creation and Fall: A Theological Exposition of Genesis 1–3 The Day (Gen. 1:4b–5)

days cannot simply be counted up as periods of time determined by the earth’s rotation but are instead the great rhythm, the natural dialectic[2] of creation.

We will see that as we continue to move forward.

Today we continue our journey beginning at v.6.

Genesis 1:6–25 ESV

And God said, “Let there be an expanse in the midst of the waters, and let it separate the waters from the waters.” And God made the expanse and separated the waters that were under the expanse from the waters that were above the expanse. And it was so. And God called the expanse Heaven. And there was evening and there was morning, the second day. And God said, “Let the waters under the heavens be gathered together into one place, and let the dry land appear.” And it was so. God called the dry land Earth, and the waters that were gathered together he called Seas. And God saw that it was good. And God said, “Let the earth sprout vegetation, plants yielding seed, and fruit trees bearing fruit in which is their seed, each according to its kind, on the earth.” And it was so. The earth brought forth vegetation, plants yielding seed according to their own kinds, and trees bearing fruit in which is their seed, each according to its kind. And God saw that it was good. And there was evening and there was morning, the third day. And God said, “Let there be lights in the expanse of the heavens to separate the day from the night. And let them be for signs and for seasons, and for days and years, and let them be lights in the expanse of the heavens to give light upon the earth.” And it was so. And God made the two great lights—the greater light to rule the day and the lesser light to rule the night—and the stars. And God set them in the expanse of the heavens to give light on the earth, to rule over the day and over the night, and to separate the light from the darkness. And God saw that it was good. And there was evening and there was morning, the fourth day. And God said, “Let the waters swarm with swarms of living creatures, and let birds fly above the earth across the expanse of the heavens.” So God created the great sea creatures and every living creature that moves, with which the waters swarm, according to their kinds, 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.” And there was evening and there was morning, the fifth day. And God said, “Let the earth bring forth living creatures according to their kinds—livestock and creeping things and beasts of the earth according to their kinds.” And it was so. And God made the beasts of the earth according to their kinds and the livestock according to their kinds, and everything that creeps on the ground according to its kind. And God saw that it was good.

The one thing that strikes me throughout the Creation is that it is formed to this point entirely by God’s Word. He speaks it into being. That truly inspires awe within me. There is something beautiful about this narrative. We see it as innocent and full of naïveté. What we must remember is that his is the narrative to a person living in a world that is pre-science in the sense that the author did not have access to the things we take for granted today.

There had been no space exploration, there were no telescopes nor microscopes, no such thing as satellites or spacecraft. It creates a picture that sounds serene. One author sees it more like the unleashing of chaos. Mark Galli in an article titled wrote, “Tidings of Chaos and Joy wrote in December 2013 Christianity Today:

Christianity Today, 2013, Volume 57, Numbers 1–10 In the Beginning, Chaos

In the middle of the third day, God really got going. He created plants and trees and all manner of vegetation. Chrysanthemums bursting with color, stately redwoods stretching to the heavens, and prairie grass waving elegantly in the wind. And, we must assume, poison oak and thorn bushes and toxic mushrooms. And he gave this resplendent variety of plants and trees the ability to reproduce, to be fruitful and multiply by propagating their seed. As we know, this ability tends to wildness—the lush and verdant chaos of life.

The camera pans out, and we see the creation of the sun, a bright and warm energy that penetrates deeply into the skin of the planet. Then, by way of contrast, came the moon—a beautiful but distant orb that hung in the sky like a shiny earring. And then came an extravagant flourish: stars. Billions of them. This was variety gone to seed, variety without number, a chaos of the heavens.

Galli continues his description:

Christianity Today, 2013, Volume 57, Numbers 1–10 When the Spirit Hovers

Any vegetation is resplendent enough, but it’s pretty much stuck in place, confined to spending its life in one spot. What if there were a life form that could travel the planet, that could crawl and run and jump and fly?

And what if these creatures didn’t merely exist side by side but also interacted with one another? What if they absolutely depended on one another, so that, in a paradoxical dynamic, they had to both pursue and be pursued, devour and be devoured by their fellow creatures, in order for life to continue to explode?

So God created living creatures, swarms of them. Creatures in the ocean. Creatures on the land. Creatures in the skies. Trout and sharks, deer and wolves, robins and vultures, among others. And the living creatures would number at least millions upon millions. As he did with the plants, God gave these creatures the ability to self-propagate. And just to make himself clear, God said, “Be fruitful and multiply.” As if instinct would not have taken over soon enough.

The planet was now one fine mess. From a state of perfect peace and harmony, it had been transformed in a few short days into a lush, rich, infinitely varied cacophony of color and sound and life.

The Creation narrative has often struck me as one of quaint, simple beauty being created. I enjoy being out in the wilderness, the ocean, the mountains, the simplicity of the smell of a blossoming flower…and often have thought of it as something very simple. In reality it is is the unleashing of power.

In God’s creating we were not so much freed as it was limited; and not so much limited as it was freed.

The Creation was not so much limited as it was freed.

As we watch the Creation in it’s earliest ideas of God we see the world as something that is lifeless and one might even describe as dead, motionless, - silent - that is until God begins to speak. As God speaks it seems to become more and more vibrant and alive.

LIGHT - separates from darkness and allows the definition of all things.

DAY - suddenly there is a way to determine the passage of time, and yet this is not dependent upon the earth’s rotation nor journey around the sun as these don’t exist as we know them yet.

LAND - the division of sea and shore allows for ever changing coastlines.

PLANTS - reproduction - w’eve all seen what happens when an area of the garden goes a little crazy.

ANIMALS - not only with the ability to reproduce but to move around.

The Creation was not so much freed as it was limited.

This is a strange idea, but it really does make sense. In the beginning in the earth was without form and empty. Now it has form, and there is order within it: land and sea; plant life and animals that are interdependent; ecology systems, seasons and weather, life cycles, and there are laws that govern it all. As the Creation begins to take shape it is limited in that there needs to be a predictability of “IF this THEN that”. Newtons laws of motion, Einstein’s theory of relativity, archimedes’ principle, thermodynamics, the list goes on.

In reality none of these “laws of physics”, even math itself would not work were it not that the chaos was somehow limited. There could be no objectivity if there wasn’t some sort of clear defining limit or standard.

The idea of limits is perhaps the greatest evidence of the divine creation - randomness and chance do not allow for guiding principles nor objective “science”. There can be no objective in randomness and chaos. The results of a random world would need to be random - by their own definition.

The existence of logic even points to a standardized objective.

So what do we do with this?

Consider the world in which we live.

As spring is slowly beginning to burst forth contemplate it’s beauty and it’s necessity.

Spend some time observing a small area of this world. Notice how much life exists there.

Where do you see God’s limits? How are those blessings?

The passing of one day to the next.

Gifts.

Finally, give thanks to God.

Closing Prayer.

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