God Forms the Earth (The Kingdoms)
Notes
Transcript
Introduction
Introduction
When you open God’s Word and read the first few verses, what’s the first thing that comes to mind? The first few words read, “In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.” Well, I will tell you the first thing that comes to my mind, darkness, and when I say darkness, I mean a darkness that’s fearful. I remember once, I went with a couple of my friends over to Sweetwater, Tennessee to visit the Lost Sea. If you’ve never been there, the Lost Sea is really an underground lake that’s located in a cavern system called Craighead Caverns. Historians know that the cite was known to the Cherokee and was also used by early white settlers for storing vegetables due to the cool cavern temperatures. If you ever go visit Craighead Caverns and the Lost Sea one of the things you can do is take a short boat ride in a glass bottom boat where you’ll get to see fish swimming around that are blind. They’re blind because of the absence of light that allows their eyes to properly develop. You can also see the bones of a prehistoric jaguar that wondered into the cavern system at some point and eventually died because it could find its way back out in the darkness. Now, while we were visiting the Lost Sea, I thought all of those things were interesting, but the thing I found to be the most intriguing and amazing is what our tour guide did when we reached the massive cavern room where the jaguar bones were found.[1] He told us all to spread out around the room, which was probably close to being a fifty feet square, and then he asked us if we were ready, to which everyone in the group responded, yes. At that second, he turned off the lights, all of the lights. Now, I’ve been in some dark places, but I had never experienced that type of darkness before or since. In most situations your eyes will begin to adjust and pick up even the faintest hint of light to help you see, but in that cave there was no light, and after only a few seconds I could feel the cold black nothingness closing in as many of the other people in our group began to get a little antsy. Friends, here’s what’s amazing about that, the darkness even in that cave can’t describe the nothingness prior to creation. In fact, I don’t have, nor does anyone else have the words to describe it. Now, what that means from our perspective, is that we have a truck load of questions about exactly what happened, and exactly what’s going on in the first two chapters of Genesis. That said, there’s simply no way I can answer every question, and even more importantly, I won’t pretend to have all of the answers. So, with that caveat I want to focus our attention on the first thirteen verses of Genesis 1 which concern the truth that God forms the earth. Let’s read the text.
[1] https://thelostsea.com/history/
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.
Prayer
Prayer
Moses, Moses, What do you see?
Moses, Moses, What do you see?
When my kids were really little, they used to love to have the book Brown Bear, Brown Bear What Do You See? read to them before bed. In the book, the narrator asks different animals what they see, with each different animal giving a response. The big point of the book is to get small children to look at all of the colors and shapes combined with simple language to get their minds active and engaged. What used to amaze me about reading this book to my kids was that each one of them would see the same thing, but from differing perspectives. I think that happens a lot when people read Genesis one. Here’s what I mean. There are lots of things in the Bible that are crystal clear, but there’s also things that are not, and Genesis one falls into the category of things that are not as crystal clear as we would like them to be because godly men and women have differed over a number of issues in this first chapter, namely, what the length of these days in Genesis one actually are. Let me give you a quick sampling of what I’m talking about. When it comes to the early church, information seems to be scant, therefore, we can’t be completely sure of exactly what the early fathers though, although there seems to be theologians on both sides of the debate. Some of the earth church fathers of the second and third centuries seem to view the days as periods of 24-hours, while others seem to view them as much longer periods of time. Later on in church history men such as John Calvin, Martin Luther, and John Wesley held to creation in six consecutive 24-hour days. Others, however, have opted for a view that the days could have been longer, St. Augustine, B.B. Warfield, C.I. Schofield, Dwight L. Moody, and Francis Schaeffer to name a few. It’s interesting to note that even the great Charles Spurgeon was unsure of himself on this subject and was open to the fact that the days of creation might be more that literal 24-hour days. So, with all of that said, when I hear someone make a stern claim about the ignorance of someone [and sometimes even the unbelief of someone] who believes these days might be longer than 24-hours, it shows me that this is a subject that they’ve never really considered at any length, because the men I‘ve just mentioned are regarded as some of the most influential and brilliant minds in the history of the Christian church. Nevertheless, I know you’re wondering, what does he think. How does he view these days? Well, to begin with, the word day, which is yom in Hebrew is and can be used in different ways. In fact, in the first two chapters of Genesis you can see this. When each of the days of creation is mentioned separately in chapter one, the word for day is used with the idea of evening and morning, or in other words, a cycle. However, in Genesis 2:4 Moses says, “This is the history of the heavens and the earth when they were created, in the day that the LORD God created the earth and the heavens …” Here the entire creation week is called a “day”. So, when I hear people say that the Hebrew word for day, yom, is only used in reference to a 24-hour period, well, that’s simply not correct. Also, you have phrases in the Bible like, the “day of the LORD”. However, I tentatively place myself in the group that says these are either 24-hour days or roughly 24-hours. That said, I hold this interpretation VERY lightly and with a great deal of humility, and I am ready to change if someone can show me a good reason from the text to do so. Without going into a lot of detail I hold this view for three reasons. 1) it seems to be the most straight forward reading of the text from verse three onward, even in Hebrew. 2) In Gen. 1:5 Moses seems to be pointing to a consistent pattern/cycle being formed in the text when he says, “God called the light Day, and the darkness He called Night. So the evening and the morning were the first day.” NOTE HOWEVER: The literal Hebrew text reads, “And evening was, and morning was, a day, one.” There is no definite article before “day” in the Hebrew text until Moses says in Gen. 1:31, “the sixth day”.) 3) when the people arrived at Mt. Sinai after the crossing of the Red Sea out of Egypt, they were already observing a weekly pattern. When God gave them the Law, he told them to work six days and then observe the Sabbath on the seventh, a command that is rooted in the creation week because God “rested” on the seventh day, although that seventh day is never said to end. Personally, I don’t see how they could have made any sense of this sabbath command unless they connected the command to the pattern set in the creation week. In my mind, this points to 24-hour days, but I could be wrong, and it wouldn’t bother to admit that I am wrong.
Now, with all of that said, what do I think Moses wants us to see in this text? With all of the arguments concerning the length of the days aside, what is the big idea for us to see? The first thing I want you to notice is the arrangement of the text itself. The first three days are devoted to God’s forming the earth, and the last three days are about his filling the earth. Notice that the first three days refer back to what was said in Gen. 1:2, “The earth was without form …” This “formlessness” of the earth was taken care of by God in days 1-3. Second, there’s a lot of compatibility between days 1-3 and 4-6. On day one God separated the light from the darkness, then on day four the lights, the sun, moon, and stars are brought into the picture. On day two God separates the waters making the sky, then on day five the birds and sea creatures. On day three there is land and vegetation, then on day six land animals and also mankind. Finally, on the seventh day God rested. So, as one can easily recognize, there was a cohesiveness and order in what God was doing. The third observation is that there is a perfection involved in both creation and the account as given in Genesis. One commentator has observed the nuances of the original Hebrew text in Gen. 1:3-13, stating that several concepts in this text occur in multiples of seven, seven being the Hebrew number for perfection. The Hebrew words for God (Elohim), heavens (samayim), and earth (eretz) mentioned in the Gen. 1:1 fall into this pattern. Also, the first verse, Gen. 1:1, has seven words in the Hebrew, with Gen, 1:2 having 14 words, and on top of all of that the seventh paragraph which is describing the seventh day contains three sentences, each with seven words, in the middle of which is found the phrase בַּיֹּ֣ום הַשְּׁבִיעִ֔י (ba-yom shvi-i) which, in Hebrew, means “the seventh day”.[1] These patterns point to the inspired perfection that God has placed into his Word testifying to the truthfulness of the account that you read in Genesis. Fourthly, note that the account as given in these verses is meant to be taken as a legitimate history. This is seen and can be proven by the fact that Moses has written in a certain Hebrew tense, the wayyiqtol, which is used for narrative material. So, how should we take the creation account as given in Genesis, written by Moses? Whatever one wants to make of the length of the days, whether they are 24-hours, or whether they are lengthy periods of time, the overall point is that anyone who hears this account of creation or in our case, anyone who reads it, should take is for what is says, that God is the creator, he created ex nihilo (out of nothing), and that he and he alone is responsible for the creation of all that you and I see. This flies in the face of evolutionary theory as well as any world religion that tends toward worshipping the creation because it points to the fact that there is something out there greater than the sum total of all things, and that something, or better, someone, is God!
(Appeal) A God that big is mighty to save, but salvation comes only through belief in his Son that would be sent to earth to die for lowly sinners like you and me. Won’t you give your life to him today?
[1] Umberto Cassuto in R. Kent Hughes: Genesis
God Forms the Earth
God Forms the Earth
Let’s briefly look at what’s contained in the first three days. On the first day God said, “Let there be light …(Gen.1:3)”. We’re then told in verse four that God separated the darkness from the light. This has baffled lots of people because the sun, moon, and stars are not put into place until day four. However, according to OT scholar John Walton, “The Hebrew words most logically refer not to light as a physical entity but to the creation of a period of light. In other words, on day one God created time.”[1] Next, on day two, God said, “Let there be a firmament [expanse] in the midst of the waters, and let it divide the waters from the waters.” In ancient times people viewed the firmament [atmosphere] as a dome to which the heavenly lights were attached, and where the waters above the earth [rain] was restrained or held. Next, on the third day (Gen. 1:9) 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.” Still on the third day 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.” One really important thing I want you notice about all of this is that in each occurrence on each day God explicitly stated that it, his creation, was “good”. Now, something I want to point out to you about God calling his creation “good” is that by God deeming his creation as such, he is saying that it is functioning as it should, according the exact purpose for which he designed it to. Now, what’s amazing about this, God calling the creation “good” is that even after sin enters the picture, God never once calls the creation bad. Stop and think about that for just a minute. Even with all of the bad things we have going on in our world, God still considers his creation to be good. Here’s what I will tell you about that, it has massive ramifications for what you think is going to happen to this earth we live on when Jesus returns! Why? Because, church, the God we serve is not a God of mistakes, he is a God of perfection! And so, that brings us up to the ending of the third day. Essentially, what you’ve seen God do, in these first few verses of Genesis one, is create and set in place the “kingdoms”, if you will, or spheres of the earth in which living and breathing beings will inhabit.
[1] John Walton: Genesis: Faith in Action Study Bible
Jesus and Creation
Jesus and Creation
Lastly, I would like to conclude by talking to you for just a minute about the subject of Jesus and creation, after all, did the master not say in John’s Gospel that Moses wrote about him (Jn. 5:46)? In the first few verses of John Gospel you read the following,
John 1:1–5 (NKJV)
“1 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. 2 He was in the beginning with God. 3 All things were made through Him, and without Him nothing was made that was made. 4 In Him was life, and the life was the light of men. 5 And the light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not comprehend it.”
We know from reading this that Jesus was with God in the beginning, and thus, that he too was and is eternal, part of triune Godhead, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. It’s interesting that from the very first words of Scripture our attention is being called to and pointed toward the fact of the Trinity because when in Gen. 1:1 is says, “In the beginning God …” the word that’s used there for God is (Elohim) is in the plural. Now, you should note that the word Elohim can be used to refer to “gods” with a lower case “g” as well, but when the act of creating is used the word is only used with reference to God with a capital “G”, that is the highest Elohim, YAHYEH. That’s pretty amazing when you consider the words of the Apostle Paul in Colossians 1:16-18, “16 For by Him (Paul is referring here to Jesus) all things were created that are in heaven and that are on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or principalities or powers. All things were created through Him and for Him. 17 And He is before all things, and in Him all things consist. 18 And He is the head of the body, the church, who is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, that in all things He may have the preeminence.” Do you kind of get the feeling here that Paul is telling you that this Jesus is God, God in the flesh? I think that’s the point!
It’s really interesting also that the creation account begins with the words, “Let there be light …” You see, in Jn. 1:5 you read this, “5 And the light shines in the darkness …” Friends that’s referring to the “light” of salvation available only through Jesus Christ. Now, what I find interesting about this is that we all know that when we turn on a light in a dark room it completely dispels the darkness. When we were in that cave at the Lost Sea standing in that cold pitch black darkness, the second our tour guide flipped on the light switch the tension was relieved because the darkness was gone, but as we headed off down the path to get in that boat to see all of those blind fish, I couldn’t help but wonder about how many of the people in our group were, in a spiritual since, just like those fish we were getting ready to look at, completely blind to the truth about Jesus Christ. You see friends, it’s here that you and I come in because we’ve been made “fishers of men” and it’s our job to pluck all of those blind fish out of the Lost Sea that is the world we live in. The “light of Jesus Christ is still shining as brightly as it ever has to make the darkness go away, and I would be amiss if I didn’t offer you the opportunity today to step out of the darkness that is sin and into the light of salvation which is found only in him. Won’t you come!
Invitation
Invitation
Prayer
Prayer