Genesis Chapter One
Introduction:
In the
study of this book one scholar has said that Genesis makes clear to us two
things: “1.) The
design of the Bible is to reveal the Divine plan of redemption in Jesus Christ.
(2) An understanding of the Bible requires a knowledge of its first book,
Genesis. If we should trace the
marvelous unfolding of God’s redemptive processes in Christ, the central fact
of the Bible, we must begin where the Bible begins.” (Genesis
– Dickson New Analytical Study Bible) This is the reason that we should use
it in this setting as the beginning of our study of those things ‘…WRITTEN
AFORETIME” that “WERE WRITTEN FOR OUR LEARNING, THAT WE THROUGH PATIENCE AND
COMFORT OF THE SCRIPTURE MIGHT HAVE HOPE.” Romans
15:4
This first book is called Genesis because it records the generation or beginning of a number of things. It records the beginning of the world, of life, of domestic relationships, of institutions, such as marriage and governments, of moral order, of sin and the consequences of sin, of God plan for man’s redemption and the beginning of nations, specifically the nation that would bring God’s Redeemer into the world.
It was
written by Moses along with the rest of the Pentateuch; as the first five books
of the Bible are called. It is
scripture, inspired of God, written under the guidance of the Holy Spirit just
as is the rest of the Bible. It was most
likely written during the 40 years of
As would be expected there is controversy regarding the date of the creation and the beginning of what is called time. The analyses most often accepted among Bible scholars are those of James Ussher, a 17th century scholar, a Catholic Bishop and Primate of Ireland and Sir John Lightfoot, Vice-Chancellor of Cambridge University in England who published his calculations in 1644. This chronology gives us a period of 4004 years from the time of Adam until Christ and now 2007 years from the birth of Christ until today making the earth 6011 years old. Hugo McCord has also written extensively on this subject and supports this chronology. The Bible, itself, does not tell us; so we are left to the conjecture of learned men. However, the span of time covered by this book is at least equal to or perhaps greater than the span of time covered by the rest of the Bible.
In addition to the beginnings Genesis gives us the history of the human race from the beginning of time until recorded history. It also gives us several undeniable facts: God Is, man was created by God, when he left God, man fell into moral excess and sin so great the God destroyed his crowning creation except for eight people. As noted in the beginning it also gives us the foundation for our faith in Jesus Christ as the redeemer promised to Eve as a result of sin being allowed to enter into the world. As such it is the foundation for the balance of the Bible.
Read Genesis 1:1-5
v.1 ” In the beginning God created the
heaven and the earth.”
In this study of this book we are
not going to focus on a primary study of the topics of Christian Evidences, but
rather we will focus on the scripture itself and what we can glean from a
thorough study of God’s Word. In the
beginning God created and we have scriptural testimony to that fact:
David: Psalms
8:3-4 “WHEN I CONSIDER THY HEAVENS, THE WORK OF
THY FINGERS, THE MOON AND THE STARS, WHICH THOU HAS
ORDAINED; WHAT IS MAN, THAT THOU ARE MINDFUL OF HIM? AND THE
SON OF MAN, THAT THOU VISITEST HIM?”
Solomon, speaking of wisdom: Proverbs
everlasting, from the
beginning, or ever the earth was.”
God himself: Isaiah 44:24 “Thus saith the LORD, thy
redeemer, and he that formed thee from the womb, I am the LORD that maketh all
things; that stretcheth
forth the heavens alone; that spreadeth abroad the earth by myself;”
Christ: Mark
And we
could go on with the Apostle John in John
1:1-4, the apostle Paul at Lystra in Acts
14:15 and the Hebrew writer in Hebrews
11:3 but this is sufficient to our purpose in this study.
v.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.”
This mass of matter that is called
earth in this verse was not yet the earth that we see today. It was matter in chaos, no order, not formed,
void or empty and open, and dark with no light.
It was shapeless, without any useful purpose, was not inhabited nor did
it have even a shadow or rough image of what it was to become. God had spoken it into existence but, like a
handful of clay on a potter’s wheel, had not done any work to make it what is
was to become. The Spirit of God was the
power that was to bring out of this confusion, emptiness and darkness the
earth, the heavens, the universe in its vast expanse and all therein.
v.3 “And God said, Let there be light: and there was light.”
No life can exist
without light. Even those small
creatures that live in the deepest caves of our country in total darkness could
not exist without the sunlight at the surface of the earth that provides the
means for them to survive. Just as God
spoke and the heaven and earth came to be, he spoke and light was created. Paul uses that fact to confirm to the church
at
II Corinthians 4:6 “For God, who commanded the light to shine out
of darkness, hath shined in our hearts, to give the light of the
knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.”
God said “LET THERE BE
LIGHT”. Through the power of his will it
was done, immediately, not the light of the heavenly bodies, they had not yet
been created but light.
v.4-5 “And God saw the light, that it was good: and God divided the light from the darkness. 5And
God called the light Day, and the darkness he called Night. And the evening and
the morning were the first day.”
Asaph
records in:
Psalms 74:16 “THE DAY is
THINE, THE NIGHT ALSO is THINE: THOU HAST PREPARED THE
LIGHT AND THE SUN.”
And we have further confirmation in:
Psalms 104:20 “THOU MAKEST
DARKNESS, AND IT IS NIGHT: WHEREIN ALL THE BEASTS OF THE
So God divided the
light from the darkness, put one here and the other there. He divided time between light and darkness
preparing the way for a time that plants, men and certain animals work and
prosper and a time when man, those animals of the day rest and the animals of
the night prowl. When we see darkness
approach in the evening and the light come in the morning we should realize and
reflect upon the fact that God set this cycle in motion, never to end without
his direct intervention until the end of time.
We have four words in
this verse that testify to us that God is talking about a normal 24 hour day as
we know it. The light was called day,
the dark called night and there was a morning and an evening just as we enjoy
today.
Read Genesis 1:6-8
v.6 “And God said, Let there be a firmament in the
midst of the waters, and let it divide the waters from the waters.”
In verse 2 we see that
the “SPIRIT OF GOD” moved upon the waters and from that and further information
in later verses that the earth was completely covered with water. Now we see that God divides the waters with a
firmament. What is this firmament? What do other translations tell us? It was an “EXPANSE”. The Hebrew word signifies an expansion, like
a sheet spread or a curtain drawn. This
“EXPANSE” reaches from the ground to the third heaven. It includes all that is visible above the
earth, the air; it’s higher, middle and upper regions – the earth and the
universe that we know. Further in this
chapter we find the same word applied to the heaven where the birds fly (v.20) and the heaven where the stars
and planets reside (v.14-15). Elihu in his challenge to Job said::
“Hast thou with him spread out
the sky, which is strong, and as a molten
looking glass?” Job 37:18
Psalms 136:5 “TO HIM THAT BY
WISDOM MADE THE HEAVENS: FOR HIS MERCY endureth FOR EVER.”
v.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.”
And God divided the
waters, leaving some of the waters on the surface of the earth and assigning
some to the heavens above. The water above
is that which we today call humidity, clouds, vapor; water that circulates in a
continuous cycle of evaporation and condensation. However, rain, as we know it, was not known on
the earth until the time of Noah.
Solomon records that wisdom existed:
“WHEN HE ESTABLISHED THE CLOUDS ABOVE: WHEN HE STRENGTHENED THE
FOUNTAINS OF THE DEEP.” Proverbs 8:28
v8. “And God
called the firmament Heaven. And the evening and the morning were the second
day.”
Read Genesis
1:9-13
v.9 “And God said, Let the waters under the heaven
be gathered together unto
Man, as God created
him, could not survive on an earth completely covered by water, could he? Thus we see bits of God’s Master Plan being completed
and revealed in pieces designed so that we might understand their place and
their order. The water that was under
the heavens covered the entire earth, there was no dry land and dry land was
needed. So God gathered all of the water
under heaven into one place. So we see
that:
“HE HATH COMPASSED THE WATERS WITH BOUNDS, UNTIL THE DAY AND NIGHT COME
TO AN END.” Job 26:10
“HE GATHERETH THE WATERS OF THE SEA TOGETHER AS AN HEAP: HE LAYETH UP
THE DEPTH IN STOREHOUSES.” Psalms 33:7
But the Apostle Peter tells us that scoffers will come who do not
believe in God and his creation:
“FOR THIS THEY WILLINGLY ARE IGNORANT OF, THAT BY THE WORD OF GOD
THE HEAVENS OF OLD, AND THE EARTH STANDING OUT OF THE WATER AND IN THE
WATER.” II Peter 3:5
v.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.”
v.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.”
Not only did God
provide this earthen platform upon which we live but at the same time provided
both the plants to sustain animal life, birds and mankind and the trees or
plants that carry their means of reproduction in their fruit. God also set the first law in nature in
motion, what might that be? That each
would reproduce after it’s own kind. God, through his providence gave us the
process that sustains us:
“…THE EARTH WHICH DRINKETH IN THE RAIN THAT COMETH OFT UPON IT, AND
BRINGETH FORTH HERBS MEET FOR THEM BY WHOM IT IS
DRESSED, RECEIVETH BLESSING FROM GOD.” Hebrews 6:7
v.12-13 “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. 13And the evening and the morning were the third
day.”
Read Genesis
1:14-23
v.14-15 “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: 15And let them be
for lights in the firmament of the heaven to give light upon the earth: and it
was so.”
Job tells us in Job 26:13 that God “BY HIS SPIRIT HE
HATH GARNISHED THE HEAVENS.” Garnished
the heavens much like one of the ladies would garnish a dish being prepared to
be served to her family. In this we can
perhaps see something of the power of God, in that he would place the stars,
moons and planets in space as easily and simply as someone garnishing a
favorite dish. This realm of God’s creation
has always fascinated and amazed man; even to the extent that God had to give
the Israelite nation rules and laws:
“…lest thou lift up thine eyes
unto heaven, and when thou seest the sun, and the moon, and the stars, even all the host of heaven, shouldest be driven to worship them, and
serve them, which the LORD thy God hath divided unto all nations under the
whole heaven.” Deuteronomy 4:19
And gives us similar warning about false teachers:
“Who changed the truth of God
into a lie, and worshipped and served the creature more than the Creator…”
Romans 1:25
v.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.”
Psalms 148:3-5 “PRAISE YE HIM,
SUN AND MOON, PRAISE HIM, ALL YE STARS OF LIGHT. PRAISE HIM, YE HEAVENS OF HEAVENS, AND YE
WATERS THAT be ABOVE THE HEAVENS.
LET THEM PRAISE THE NAME OF THE LORD
FOR HE COMMANDED, AND THEY WERE CREATED.”
God made two great
lights, the sun and the moon and then the stars. The sun is not only to provide light but
through the process of photosynthesis provide the means for plants to
live. The moon likewise has other
purposes besides lighting the night sky, one is that it
regulates the ocean tides.
Psalms 136:7-9 “TO HIM THAT MADE
GREAT LIGHTS: FOR HIS MERCY endureth FOR EVER: THE SUN TO RULE
BY DAY: FOR HIS MERCY endureth FOR EVER: THE MOON AND
STARS TO RULE BY NIGHT: FOR HIS MERCY endureth FOR EVER.”
v.17-19 “And
God set them in the firmament of the heaven to give light upon the earth, 18And
to rule over the day and over the night, and to divide the light from the
darkness: and God saw that it
was good. 19And the
evening and the morning were the fourth day.”
And God set them in
place to serve the purposes for which he made them. Mankind should be reminded of the power of
almighty God every time they look up should they not? Jeremiah used these examples to remind
Jeremiah 31:35 “Thus saith the LORD, which giveth the sun for a light by day, and the ordinances of the moon and of the stars for a light by night,
which divideth the sea when the waves thereof roar; The LORD of hosts is his name:”
v.20-21 “20And 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. 21And 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.”
Each day has progressed
in the proper order from the very foundations of the earth and heavens
providing those things that were needful before creating the creatures that
needed that provision and support. On
the fifth day we find not only every kind of winged bird and fish but the also
the mammals that live in water, such as the whale. As we will study later, we find that these
“FOWL OF THE AIR” needed protection during the great flood that destroyed the
earth. Noah was commanded to take:
Genesis
v.22-23 “And God blessed them, saying, Be fruitful,
and multiply, and fill the waters in the seas, and let fowl multiply in the
earth. 23And the evening and the morning were the fifth day.”
God commanded them to
be fruitful and fill the land and the waters of the rivers and seas. This they did after their kind. Again we are reminded of the first law of
nature that each must reproduce after their own kind. One of the basic arguments that refutes
God gave the same
instructions to multiply and fill the earth to those that were removed from the
ark after the flood.
Genesis 8:17 “bring forth with thee every living thing that is with thee, of all flesh, both of fowl, and of
cattle, and of every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth; that they may
breed abundantly in the earth, and be fruitful, and multiply upon the earth.”
Read Genesis
1:24-25
v. 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.”
God, who rules the
world, completes the final stage of his creation of the earth and the
inhabitants that will be needed to support and sustain his final creation that
is yet to come. Again He creates each
animal after its own kind; to reproduce after its own kind. He creates the food animals and the predators
who will keep the multiplication of each kind under control. In doing so the power of almighty God is
again manifested to mankind. And again
it is used by the prophet to help His chosen people understand who is behind
their punishment:
Jeremiah 27:5-6 “I have made the earth, the man and the beast
that are upon the ground, by my great power and by my
outstretched arm, and have given it unto whom it seemed meet unto me. 6And
now have I given all these lands into the hand of Nebuchadnezzar the king of
Mankind would do well today to honor the power, majesty, and authority
of God today as well.
v.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.”
God created all kinds,
all sizes and shapes of animals, animals of all natures, manners, food and
fashions. He made some to be tame around
the house and farms, others to be wild.
He made some to live upon the grass and herbs of the fields that he
created and others to live on flesh. He
made some to be the servants of man, others to be feared by man. Can we not look at these things and not
wonder at the power and intelligence of Almighty God? But God is not done just yet.
Read Genesis 1:26-28
v.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.”
God now brings into
existence his crowning and final creation, mankind. He made us in his own image and
likeness. What does that mean? What attributes of man are like God’s? We know that there is no physical resemblance
as God is a spirit and spirits do not have physical features. We are like God in that we have a spirit,
given by God and the intellectual ability to reason. We have been given the right and
responsibility to hold dominion over all other creation. Moses tells us a little further on:
Genesis 5:1 “This is the book of the
generations of Adam. In the day that God
created man, in the likeness of God made he him;”
David brings honor to God when he contemplates His power and what he had
done for mankind:
“THOU MADEST HIM TO HAVE DOMINION OVER THE WORKS OF THY HANDS; THOU HAST
PUT ALL things UNDER HIS FEET: ALL SHEEP AND OXEN, YEA, AND THE BEASTS
OF THE FIELD; THE FOWL OF THE AIR, AND THE FISH OF THE SEA, and
whatsoever PASSETH THROUGH THE PATHS OF THE SEA.” Psalms 8:6-8
Men seem to have
forgotten and need to remember the words of the psalm that we sing occasionally
in our own worship to God:
“KNOW YE THAT THE LORD HE is GOD: it is HE that
HATH MADE US, AND NOT WE OURSELVES; we are HIS PEOPLE, AND THE SHEEP OF
HIS PASTURE.” Psalms 100:3
v.27 “So God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him; male and female created
he them.”
Not only is the fact
that God created mankind a problem to carnal man today but also the additional
fact that he created us male and female. A large majority of the world today is not
only perverting what God created in their refusal to accept God’s law for
marriage but also a small but vocal and powerful minority is succeeding in legitimizing
their perversion of God’s natural law in the relationship between man and
woman. Jesus said:
“And he answered and said unto
them, Have ye not read, that he which made them at the beginning
made them male and female, 5And said, For this cause shall a man
leave father and mother, and shall cleave to his wife: and they twain shall be
one flesh?” Matthew 19:4-5 See also Mark 10:6-9
God made but one male
and female of the human species. Adam
was the first man:
I Corinthians
v.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.”
So then what does this
word “REPLENISH” mean? A lot of people
have tried to use it to say that there were others created and the earth was
filled before the creation of Adam that we find in our Bibles? Probably the simplest explanation that I have
found was written by Guy N. Woods in Questions
and Answers, Open Forum, Freed-Hardeman College Lectures (1976) p. 18:
“Here is an excellent example of the fact that words in translation may
be used which convey ideas not in the original word or
words thus translated. The Hebrew word
translated “replenish”, means simply to
fill and carries no suggestion that a world was to be refilled which
had become empty. As a matter of fact,
the English word, replenish, in early
English signified to stock, to fill; and, it is in this sense that it is used
in the foregoing passage. Only in late English does it denote a
re-filling.”
This Hebrew word is used again in Genesis
9:1 in the instructions given to Noah after the flood. In that case it could mean to fill as well as the earth after the
flood is now empty of life. But we can
also draw from the context of the scripture a that it
means to re-fill as the earth did previously hold life that has been
destroyed.
Verse 26 states God’s
intent and verse 28 states God’s commandment to mankind, His making mankind
aware of his intent; that they are to be fruitful, multiply and rule over the
creatures of the earth. This helps us
understand the joy that our children and grandchildren bring us. A psalm written for Solomon underscores this
joy:
“LO, CHILDREN are AN HERITAGE OF THE LORD; and THE
FIRST FRUITS OF THE WOMB is his REWARD. AS ARROWS are IN THE HAND OF A
MIGHTY MAN; SO are CHILDREN OF THE YOUTH.
HAPPY is THE MAN THAT HATH HIS QUIVER FULL OF THEM: THEY SHALL NOT BE ASHAMED, BUT THEY SHALL SPEAK WITH THE ENEMIES IN THE
GATE.” Psalms 127:3
Read Genesis
1:29-31
v.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.”
Paul says and Luke
records that all of these things serve as witnesses of the existence of God,
his benevolence and his providence:
“Nevertheless he left not himself
without witness, in that he did good, and gave
v.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.”
David in his praise to
God honored him for his provision for all life:
Psalms 145:15-16 “THE EYES OF ALL
WAIT UPON THEE; AND THOU GIVEST THEM THEIR MEAT IN DUE SEASON; THOU OPENEST
THINE HAND, AND SATIFIEST THE DESIRE OF EVERY LIVING THING.”
A prophet of God does
also in a later Psalm:
Psalms 147:9 “HE GIVETH TO THE
BEAST HIS FOOD, and TO THE YOUNG RAVESN WHICH CRY.”
v.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.”
Psalms 104:24 “O LORD, HOW MANIFOLD ARE
THY WORKS! IN WISDOM HAST THOU MADE
THEM: ALL THE EARTH IS FULL OF THY RICHES.”
All that God made was
very good; there was no sin, no sickness, no pain, no
sorrow. All of that came as a result of
man’s actions, not God’s. Please observe
that at the end of each day “IT WAS GOOD” but as the work is completed and
everything is in harmony, it was “VERY GOOD.”
God took six days to
make the earth, the heavens and all that are found in them. Could he have done it in an instant? Of course, but he chose not to do so.
Are these days long eons of time allowing for all of these creatures to
have evolved as the evolutionists would have us believe? No.
However some of our apostate and rebellious brethren, one of the most
well known of which is John Clayton; have tried to compromise with the
evolutionists. They have advocated a
“day-age” theory to support their notions of “theistic evolution” or that God
created the heavens and earth by using as His method, evolution. But this is contrary to God’s inspired word
and therefore a false doctrine. Moses
tells us further:
Exodus