God said and it was so
(Genesis 1:1-31)
Words matter, yet we live in a culture where words are increasingly losing their meaning. Without the Word of God as a validating point of reference, why wouldn’t words lose their meaning? Job asked “where shall wisdom be found?” and “where is the place of understanding?” (Job 28:12). Certainly, it is not found in our dictionaries where words can be changed based on the cultural and political winds of the day. After all, words, from an evolutionary perspective, are merely tools, easily changed or modified when the demand calls for it. For instance, politics is rarely a debate about ideas because words have lost their meaning. Instead, it is a debate about power, where each candidate repeats emotional slogans in an attempt to receive a favored response from an echo chamber of shared understandings and values. Politically correct speech reinforces this utilitarian sense regarding words. Nowhere is it more apparent than in debates about words like marriage, tolerance, man, woman, even racism. These words have become flexible firebrands meant to be filled with meanings opposite their given definitions, all to serve a political purpose. Make no mistake, words have become a casualty in the political warfare of our day, but there is a bigger problem. To deconstruct words is to deconstruct logic, rationality, and even man himself. Genesis 1 makes it clear however that the Christian has no need to blow to and fro like a leaf in the maelstrom of cultural change. The Christian has the Word of God, the very foundation of life, logic, and learning.
“In the beginning, God…”
Genesis 1:1-2
The phrase “in the beginning God” is used by John in his gospel to show us that the God who was in the beginning was also called “logos” in Greek, which means “divine wisdom” personified, and when translated means “Word.” Genesis then, is not only about the One who is the Word, it is about the particular spoken words themselves. The repeated refrain of this chapter is “God said” followed by “and it was so” (Gen 1:3, 6, 7, 9, 11, 14, 15, 20, 24, 26, 28, 29, 30). Paul, referring to this chapter in his letter to the Romans, speaks of God “who…calls into existence the things that do not exist” (Rom 4:17), literally speaking the world into existence out of nothing. The author of Hebrews tells us that “the universe was created by the Word of God, so that what is seen was not made out of things that are visible” (Heb 11:3). The emphasis here is that the Word of God comes before the creation of God. This means that the words of God are more certain and trustworthy than even the ground we walk on. Peter points out that scoffers forget this amazing fact (2 Pet 3:4-7), and that the creation was formed by the same Word of God that predicted the coming judgment they so easily dismissed.
This brings up another amazing element: we have the very words of God recorded for us. Peter again is helpful here as he reminds us that the same Spirit who was “hovering over the face of the waters” in Genesis 1:2 was superintending the writing of the precise words we are studying now. We have this Word even more fully confirmed because we have more than simply a memory of it; we have it recorded with verbs, nouns, grammar, and syntax, able to be studied and known with a certainty beyond even an audible voice (2 Pet 1:16-21). It is thus not an overstatement to say that God’s Word, the Bible, is the true foundation of all certainty.
“God said let there be light, and there was light”
Genesis 1:3-5
On the first day of creation, God spoke light into existence and separated it from the darkness. The phrase “evening and morning the first day” makes it plain that the word “day” means one 24-hour day. The key idea is that the creation of light was not a result of a big bang, nor was it a slow process taking millions of years. It was instant. Further, God did not speak a source of light into existence, merely the light itself. This is challenging because God doesn’t speak the sun into existence until the fourth day. So where did this initial light emanate from? Perhaps the answer is found at the end of the Bible where God Himself is the source of light (Rev 21:23-25; 22:5). Regardless, the implications of day one are clear: God spoke light into existence and immediately there was light, time, space, and order. It is thus not an overstatement to say that the Word of God is the true foundation of physics.
“God said let there be an expanse in the midst of the waters, and it was so”
Genesis 1:6-8
On the second day of creation, God spoke the sky into existence, separating the water above from the water below. This expanse of separation is then called Heaven. This is not a reference to what Paul calls the third heaven, the place where the Father dwells (2 Cor 12:2). Nor is it a reference to the second heaven, the universe itself (Ps 19:1-6). This heaven is said to separate the waters above from the waters below and speaks about the first heaven, the thing we call the sky (Isa 55:10). Understanding water below the sky is simple, but what is meant by the waters above? Genesis 2:5-6 is helpful here, hinting that the early earth did not yet experience rain:
When no bush of the field was yet in the land and no small plant of the field had yet sprung up—for the LORD God had not caused it to rain on the land, and there was no man to work the ground, and a mist was going up from the land and was watering the whole face of the ground (Gen 2:5–6)
There is much debate as to what this water above is referring to but some say it refers to a type of water canopy that existed until the flood when the waters above came down to fill the earth. This view takes into account the fact that no rain is mentioned before the flood (Gen 7:4), but it ignores the fact that the bulk of the waters for the flood came “bursting forth from the great deep” (Gen 7:11). Further, it overlooks verses taking place well after the flood which still refer to the “waters above.” When the psalmist says: “Praise him, you highest heavens, and you waters above the heavens!” (Ps 148:4), he is clearly not referring to a canopy of water in the sky, and likely referring to clouds (2 Sam 22:12; Job 26:8; 36:29; 37:11; Ps 18:11; 147:8). Regardless of the debate, the implications are clear: God spoke the atmosphere into existence out of nothing. It is thus not an overstatement to say that the Word of God is the true foundation of meteorology.
“God said let dry land appear, and it was so”
Genesis 1:9-13
On the third day of creation, God spoke the dry land into existence, gathering all the water into “one place” and having dry land “appear.” The dry land is called Earth and the waters are called Seas. Having the waters gathered into one place and bringing forth land speaks not of multiple continents, but of one land mass and one body of water. This coincides with strong geological support for the idea of Pangea, an original supercontinent. It also coincides well with biblical evidence. When Noah brings animals off the ark, they would have disembarked onto one land mass, which explains why there would be similar animals on different continents later. Secular scientists believe in Pangea, but posit that the continents were gradually divided from one land mass over millions of years. The Bible might offer a different answer, however. In Genesis 10:25, we read, “To Eber were born two sons: the name of the one was Peleg, for in his days the earth was divided, and his brother’s name was Joktan” (Gen 10:25). This reference to the earth being divided hints at a sudden happening and goes well with the account just a few verses later of God dispersing people into different language groups “over the face of the earth” after the rebellion at the tower of Babel (Gen 11:6-9).
This is also the first reference to vegetation, plants and trees sprouting and growing “according to their kind.” The word “kind” is used later when God tells Noah to bring two of every “kind” of land animal into the ark (Gen 7:14). Genesis makes it clear that plants and animals were created to reproduce within the boundaries of their “kind.” It is helpful to see the term “kind” as different than the word “species” used today. “Kind” speaks of the fact that two animals can breed together and would encompass a broader range than the term species implies. For example, horses, zebras, and other similar land animals shared at least two ancestors on the ark. These animals certainly could look quite different over time due to adaptation, etc., but they do not change their “kind” and can still breed together. Dogs, though different, remain dogs and cats likewise remain cats, and as such, do not breed together.
Regardless of the details, the picture is not of God directing the process of land and plant life over the span of millions of years, but of God speaking land and mature, seed-bearing plants into existence out of nothing on the third 24-hour day of creation. It is thus not an overstatement to say that the Word of God is the true foundation of geology and botany.
“God said, let there be lights to separate the day from the night, and it was so”
Genesis 1:14-19
On the fourth day of creation, God spoke the stars, planets, and more than two trillion galaxies into existence. These “lights in the expanse of the heavens” had a very geocentric purpose, for they were “for signs and seasons, and for days and years.” They were made “to give light upon the earth.” Further, the two great light sources in the sky were given to rule over day and night on earth. The description of the moon as a “lesser light” is not meant to classify the moon as a light source like the sun, but as a description of its reflected luminosity. This is an example of the kind of phenomenological language we use everyday. If your friend asked what time sunrise was, you would likely not remind them that the sun does not actually rise, but would understand the phenomena being described.
That God chose to communicate to us in understandable, even familiar, language is more jarring when we remember that He is speaking about an incomprehensibly immense task as almost an after thought: “He made the two great lights…and the stars.” There are trillions upon trillions of stars in the universe and God has named every single one of them (Isa 40:26; Ps 147:4). This was not a task taking eons, but happening instantly, spoken into existence out of nothing. It is thus not an overstatement to say that the Word of God is the true foundation of astronomy.
“God said let the waters swarm with swarms of living creatures, and let birds fly above the earth across the expanse of the heavens.”
Genesis 1:20-23
On the fifth day of creation, God spoke all of the sea creatures and all of the birds into existence. The age old question of which came first, the chicken or the egg, is summarily thus answered. The waters did not produce the living creatures of sea and air, but God Himself spoke them into existence from nothing. It is noteworthy that God first created the sea and air and then created birds and fish. His creative work was not haphazard, but was carefully orchestrated by a caring God. Like the vegetation of day three, these animals were able to multiply and reproduce “according to its kind.”
God chose to create living creatures of sea and air and to give them the ability to reproduce accordingly. He did not superintend this process with a primordial soup, nor did He begin with incubated potential for life. In other words, sea creatures and birds did not come about through a gradual process, but God spoke fully mature sea creatures and birds into existence out of nothing. It is thus not an overstatement to say that the Word of God is the true foundation of marine biology and ornithology.
“So God created man in His own image.”
Genesis 1:24-30
The sixth day of creation is more significant than the previous days. On the sixth day of creation, God spoke all of the kinds of land-dwelling creatures into existence. He also formed a special kind of creature, made in His own image, called “man.” The significance of this moment is made apparent by the fact that this is the first time God spoke in anticipation of His creative work. Instead of saying, “let there be man,” God said, “let us make man in our image, after our likeness.” The plural is hard to miss, especially in light of later trinitarian revelation (John 1:1), but more pointedly, God is seen immediately to be a relational God who in making humans to be in relationship, not only to Him but to one another, created male and female together to be called “man.” This is important. Man is the only creature said to be created in His image. At this point in the narrative it is hard to ascertain in exactly what sense man is to be in the image of God, but it is significant that they are immediately told to “be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and subdue it.” God spelled out that He had given them dominion over all of the new created order. He also spelled out His special provision given to them for food.
His creative act ascended in significance to this crowning moment of a special creation, where God made a male and female pair, image-bearers able to reproduce according to their kind, in a single day. This reproduction is not an evolutionary process of death and survival of the fittest, for death will not enter the picture until the third chapter of Genesis. In other words, human beings are not the result of a goo-to-you-via-the-zoo process taking millions of years of gradual change, but are instead the result of a singular act taking place on the sixth 24-hour day of creation. It is thus not an overstatement to say that the Word of God is the true foundation of biology and anthropology.
“God saw everything that He had made, and behold it was very good.”
Genesis 1:31
Repeatedly, we are told God saw what He had created, and that it was good (Gen 1:4, 10, 12, 18, 21, 25). But on the sixth day of creation, we are told “God saw everything that He had made, and behold it was very good” (Gen 1:31). In other words, God made matter and called it good. Even after the Fall (Gen 3), the world is still good, still orderly, still logical, and worthy of study. The heavens still declare His glory. Day to day still pours forth speech declaring that God is worthy of worship and praise (Ps 19). Any endeavor to study this very good creation is an endeavor meant to end in praise. In the first chapter of his letter to the Romans, Paul diagnoses our problem this way:
For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who by their unrighteousness suppress the truth. For what can be known about God is plain to them, because God has shown it to them. For his invisible attributes, namely, his eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly perceived, ever since the creation of the world, in the things that have been made. So they are without excuse. For although they knew God, they did not honor him as God or give thanks to him, but they became futile in their thinking, and their foolish hearts were darkened. Claiming to be wise, they became fools, and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images resembling mortal man and birds and animals and creeping things. (Rom 1:18–23)
In light of these sobering words, it becomes clear that before the Word of God is ever going to be considered the true foundation of science, it must first be the true foundation of salvation (1 Pet 1:3-25).
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