The God of Creation - part 2
002 The God of Creation – part 2
Genesis 1:1 – 2:3
November 10, 2013
Last week we began our study of this wonderful book of Genesis.
As we said then, Genesis 1 is the absolute fitting chapter
To begin the whole of the Bible.
It begins with God as the Creator or all things.
And this reality sets God apart as the sole authority over all things.
We said last week that the fact that He created all things:
Reveals His TRANSCENDENCE.
Who is like Him?
He is higher and loftier than any other thing.
He sits enthroned above creation.
· He commands the morning
· He guides the lightning bolt
· He holds the rain
· He restrains the sea
There is no God like our God
His role as Creator reveals His GRACE
In Psalm 8 David looked at the vastness of creation and asked,
“What is man that you are mindful of him?”
Why would a God so big and so awesome care about me?
He put man as head over all things
Thus revealing His love and grace toward man.
His role as Creator reveals His GLORY
Again in Psalm 19 David marveled at the faithful testimony of creation.
Every morning the sun declares God’s glory.
· And we asked, who has ever trembled at the thunder?
· Who has ever marveled at the ocean?
· Who has ever been captivated by the snow?
Our God is glorious.
And we said that His role as Creator is also a testimony to His JUDGMENT
For just as God created this world with a word, Peter reminded us that
“by His word the present heavens and earth are being reserved for fire”
Creation reminds us of His role and power,
Both to create, to rule, and to judge.
Creation is significant.
And thus far we have began studying Genesis
To see this great God of creation.
We covered the first two points of this opening section last week.
#1 THE POINT OF CREATION
Genesis 1:1
And we aren’t talking about the point in a chronological sense as in the “point it began”, but the point in an explanatory sense.
What is the point of creation?
And the point is simply seen, that
Our God created the heavens and the earth.
There is a God.
He is our God.
And there is no reason to rebel against Him or give His glory to another.
Jeremiah reminded us:
Jeremiah 10:11 “Thus you shall say to them, "The gods that did not make the heavens and the earth will perish from the earth and from under the heavens."
David said:
Psalms 96:5 “For all the gods of the peoples are idols, But the LORD made the heavens.”
· Why would you ever bow the knee to a god who did not create the world?
· Why would you ever worship a god with no such power?
The point of the creation story is that Israel and you and me
Would determine that only one God is worthy of our worship,
And that we would give it to Him.
#2 THE POWER OF CREATION
Genesis 1:3
I told you then that before you see the specifics of creation
It is important that you see the power behind it.
And that power is none other than the spoken word of God.
We saw the same phrase repeated 10 times in this first chapter.
“Then God said…”
· When God wanted light He didn’t start a fire – He told it to come
· When God wanted seas, He didn’t dig a tank – He told them to form
· When God wanted life, He didn’t attempt cloning – He told it to happen
Nothing reveals the authoritative power of God’s word like creation.
Isaiah 55:11 “So will My word be which goes forth from My mouth; It will not return to Me empty, Without accomplishing what I desire, And without succeeding in the matter for which I sent it.”
This is the tremendous power of God’s creation.
He spoke and the world began.
That is the Point of Creation and the Power of Creation
This morning we move forward in our study.
#3 THE PLAN OF CREATION
Genesis 1:2-31
Here we find the basic account of all of God’s creation
And the order by which it occurred.
And it is really a remarkable thing to behold.
(2) “The earth was formless and void, and darkness was over the surface of the deep, and the Spirit of God was moving over the surface of the waters.”
We have to look at that verse for a moment
Because it has been the cause of much uncertainty over the years.
I had a lady in my office a few months ago asking about this very verse.
“Verse 1 says God created it, verse 2 says it was “formless and void”, what happened?”
This verse has been quite a topic of speculation.
Some say that if God created the heavens and the earth in verse 1 something terrible must have happened to make it like it is in verse 2.
Some even translate verse 2 “the earth became formless and void”
And then they go to work with their hypothesis
Trying to figure out what could have happened
That took the creation of verse 1 and ruined it by verse 2.
And we get theories like:
The fall of Satan actually occurred in between verse 1 and 2 and Satan wrecked God’s creation. And God recreated it in verse 2.
That is problematic since Moses’ point is not that Satan wrecked creation,
But that sin did, and Moses gets to that by chapter 3.
But the real problem with all of those theories is that
They are speculation at best.
Scripture never says that is what occurred
And it is a mistake to speak where Scripture is silent.
There is a very good reason why verse 2 reveals that “The earth was formless and void”
That is where God started.
That is also why Moses reveals that
“the Spirit of God was moving over the surface of the waters.”
God started it as a blank slate, but He was moving.
He wasn’t leaving it like that.
He was creating something perfect.
God certainly had the power
To create a completely finished product instantly.
It is certainly within God’s ability
To simply skip from Genesis 1:1 to Genesis 2:4
“In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth…This is the account of the heavens and the earth when they were created…”
However God CHOSE to create the world over the course of 6 days.
WHY?
Because in this progression of creation
We find the necessity of God’s continual hand.
At no point in the process could God pull out and we take it from there.
He is revealing creations need for His continual presence.
And that is why verse 2 starts so dark.
“The earth was formless and void”
“formless” translates TOHU
It means “meaningless” or “confusion”
Isaiah 40:17 “All the nations are as nothing before Him, They are regarded by Him as less than nothing and meaningless.”
Isaiah 59:4 “No one sues righteously and no one pleads honestly. They trust in confusion and speak lies; They conceive mischief and bring forth iniquity.”
“void” translates BOHU
It means “emptiness”
Isaiah 34:11 “But pelican and hedgehog will possess it, And owl and raven will dwell in it; And He will stretch over it the line of desolation And the plumb line of emptiness.”
And hopefully you pick up on the literary work of Moses.
The earth was TOHU and BOHU
It started in a completely unusable, formless, confused, orderless reality.
GOD CHOSE TO BEGIN IT THERE.
· He didn’t start with perfection and maintain it.
· He started with chaos and renovated it.
And there is a reason God did it this way.
It reveals God’s role as One who redeems.
He always takes what is flawed and makes it new.
· He brings light from darkness
· He brings order from chaos
· He brings blessing from struggle
· He brings what is good from what is not
That is the point here.
His plan for creation was to take what had no value
And work it until it was perfect.
Is that not what He is doing in your life?
Taking you from depravity to glory?
2 Corinthians 5:17 “Therefore if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creature; the old things passed away; behold, new things have come.”
We actually better understand God’s ability
To make all things new in our life
Because that is precisely what He does as the creator God.
He makes us a new creation.
That is actually what Jesus told Nicodemus one night in Israel.
John 3:3 “Jesus answered and said to him, "Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born again he cannot see the kingdom of God."
· Man doesn’t need to be renovated
· Man doesn’t need to be reconditioned
· Man doesn’t need to be reformed
Man must be RECREATED
Only God can do this.
He is the Creator.
So it is here.
The PLAN is for God to display His ability to transform.
So in God’s plan of creation
He started with an unformed, wasted, empty, confused world.
And then He went to work.
And what you see is that over the course of the next 6 days
God renovated and redeemed this empty barren nothingness.
And I don’t find it necessary to try to spend great detail on each day.
Even Moses seems to fly through them, rather choosing to make sure that
You and I see the progression of what God was doing.
VERSES 3-5 – Day 1
There God creates light.
Interesting by the way that God created light on day 1,
But the sun doesn’t get created until day 4.
Don’t ever be confused as to who the real light of the world is.
And incidentally God always starts here.
He shines light in the darkness.
Light reveals
Light exposes
Light enlightens
God does this first and thus undeniably reveals
That there is work to be done.
Even when Jesus came, He first revealed the problem, then He fixed it.
That is what God was doing even back as far as creation.
VERSES 6-8 – Day 2
Here we have God actually taking the formless void
And beginning to shape it into form.
I honestly have to tell you that this a marvelous day of creation
And really a mind blowing one.
God separates two formless waters and puts the sky in between
We instantly have earth, then we have sky,
And we have the entire outer space.
The hymn writer had it correct:
“O Lord my God! When I in awesome wonder consider all the worlds Thy hands have made, I see the stars, I hear the rolling thunder, Thy power throughout the universe displayed. Then sings my soul, my Savior God, to Thee; How great Thou art!”
That is what you are supposed to see.
VERSES 9-13 – Day 3
Again consider the awesome power of God.
In one instant He restrained the power of the sea.
He told it to stop and go no further.
Job 38:8-11 "Or who enclosed the sea with doors When, bursting forth, it went out from the womb; When I made a cloud its garment And thick darkness its swaddling band, And I placed boundaries on it And set a bolt and doors, And I said, 'Thus far you shall come, but no farther; And here shall your proud waves stop'?”
Amazing what God can do, and the awesome power He has.
Isaiah 40:12 “Who has measured the waters in the hollow of His hand, And marked off the heavens by the span, And calculated the dust of the earth by the measure, And weighed the mountains in a balance And the hills in a pair of scales?”
God then told trees and plants to arise and bear fruit, and it did.
If you don’t find the miracle in this, go give your hand to farming.
There is nothing easy about bringing forth a crop and yet God did it with such ease.
VERSES 14-19 – Day 4
Here God hung the sun and the moon and placed the stars in place.
Consider the order of the universe.
· The precise faithfulness by which the solar system operates.
· Consider that stars since that very day have been a steady guide for navigation, completely unwavering.
It is the order of God’s creation that blows the mind here.
· We never get too close to the sun and cook.
· We never got too far away and freeze.
· We never spin too fast or too slow.
· We never fall off of this globe.
It is really staggering to think about
What God did on the fourth day of creation.
VERSES 20-23 – Day 5
Ever try to stock a tank?
Ever try to keep a fish alive in an aquarium?
And yet notice what God did in a single day.
He stocked the ocean and
Commanded fish to fill the oceans, lakes, and rivers.
God then filled the sky with birds, all because He could.
VERSES 24-31 – Day 6
A pretty important day to you and me.
God made animals and humanity.
God didn’t make monkeys and mysteriously
Half of them turned into humans and the other half stayed monkeys.
God created things then exactly as we know them today.
And then an amazing feat:
(26-27) “Then God said, "Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness; and let them rule over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the sky and over the cattle and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth." God created man in His own image, in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them.”
First we see the trinity, way back at Creation.
“Let Us make man in Our image”
Father, Son, and Holy Spirit were all present at the Creation.
But we also see God’s undeniable affection towards humanity,
As God does something for humanity
That He did for no other aspect of creation.
“God created man in His own image”
Now don’t misunderstand this.
That does not mean God looks like a human.
Yes Scripture does speak of God’s hands or His feet or His eyes.
But Scripture also speaks of His pinions and wings.
Psalms 91:4 “He will cover you with His pinions, And under His wings you may seek refuge; His faithfulness is a shield and bulwark.”
The image of God here refers to the reality that caused David to marvel, that God would share His authority
Psalms 8:6 “You make him to rule over the works of Your hands; You have put all things under his feet,”
Of all that God created, He chose to give man His image of authority.
He chose to put man as head of the earth.
If you want to know why all things aren’t presently subjected to man, and why he doesn’t presently rule, keep reading the book of Genesis and we’ll see why.
Sin is coming and Satan would usurp man’s position from him.
Now Satan is the god of this world.
But it doesn’t change the fact that God gave it to him.
And incidentally, that God will one day give it back.
Hebrews 2:8-9 “YOU HAVE PUT ALL THINGS IN SUBJECTION UNDER HIS FEET." For in subjecting all things to him, He left nothing that is not subject to him. But now we do not yet see all things subjected to him. But we do see Him who was made for a little while lower than the angels, namely, Jesus, because of the suffering of death crowned with glory and honor, so that by the grace of God He might taste death for everyone.”
Jesus came in the form of man to take man’s penalty
And redeem man from the fall of sin.
But the beauty of all of this is that God stands as
The specific author of all creation and through creation
Reveals a tremendous fondness for humanity.
And might I say that one of the reasons Israel struggled so much in her history is that SHE FORGOT JUST WHO HER GOD WAS.
Isaiah 40:27-31 “Why do you say, O Jacob, and assert, O Israel, "My way is hidden from the LORD, And the justice due me escapes the notice of my God"? Do you not know? Have you not heard? The Everlasting God, the LORD, the Creator of the ends of the earth Does not become weary or tired. His understanding is inscrutable. He gives strength to the weary, And to him who lacks might He increases power. Though youths grow weary and tired, And vigorous young men stumble badly, Yet those who wait for the LORD Will gain new strength; They will mount up with wings like eagles, They will run and not get tired, They will walk and not become weary.”
Israel reached points of despair, because they routinely likened their God
To that of the false gods of the earth.
In fact that same chapter reveals why Israel was so distraught about God.
Isaiah 40:18-26 “To whom then will you liken God? Or what likeness will you compare with Him? As for the idol, a craftsman casts it, A goldsmith plates it with gold, And a silversmith fashions chains of silver. He who is too impoverished for such an offering Selects a tree that does not rot; He seeks out for himself a skillful craftsman To prepare an idol that will not totter. Do you not know? Have you not heard? Has it not been declared to you from the beginning? Have you not understood from the foundations of the earth? It is He who sits above the circle of the earth, And its inhabitants are like grasshoppers, Who stretches out the heavens like a curtain And spreads them out like a tent to dwell in. He it is who reduces rulers to nothing, Who makes the judges of the earth meaningless. Scarcely have they been planted, Scarcely have they been sown, Scarcely has their stock taken root in the earth, But He merely blows on them, and they wither, And the storm carries them away like stubble. "To whom then will you liken Me That I would be his equal?" says the Holy One. Lift up your eyes on high And see who has created these stars, The One who leads forth their host by number, He calls them all by name; Because of the greatness of His might and the strength of His power, Not one of them is missing.”
Israel had forgotten the glorious splendor of her God.
She had reduced Him to be equal with His creation by likening Him to idols.
Well when you make your god small, you lose faith in him.
That is what Israel did.
God had to remind them as to who He was as Creator
So that they would understand not only His care for them,
But also His ability to help them.
God said, why are you in despair?
Don’t you remember who I am?
I am “The Everlasting God, the Lord, the Creator of the ends of the earth”
That is true for you as well.
Set back and marvel at exactly who your God is.
· When you cry out to Him, you are not calling out to some weak
god formed by the thought of man.
· You are crying out to the all powerful God whose very power and
thought formed you.
He is God and He favors you!
At no time should Israel be intimidated by the false gods of the world.
Sea gods Sun gods Land gods
You may remember from the Kings
1 Kings 20:23 “Now the servants of the king of Aram said to him, "Their gods are gods of the mountains, therefore they were stronger than we; but rather let us fight against them in the plain, and surely we will be stronger than they.”
That was the view of much of the world.
Various gods were territorial at best.
And Israel had no reason to fear any of those gods.
Jehovah was not a sea god or a land god or a sun god
He created the Sea, He created the Sun, He created the Land
Nor could He be formed into an image of fish or bird or animal.
He created all of those things.
Moses wanted Israel to know that despite what they had been told in Egypt, only One God created it all.
Exodus 20:3 “You shall have no other gods before Me.”
We also see that all God created was “good”
That is a far cry from the work of the pagan gods
They had become associated with.
Those demonic deities never did anything good.
(How much good do false gods do today?)
But THE God was good and He does good.
There is no reason to run to other gods.
When you look at Creation and all God did,
You must see that Your God is God that He is a good God,
And He has a divine plan for you.
The Plan of Creation was to show you that reality.
The Point, The Power, The Plan
#4 THE PERFECTION OF CREATION
Genesis 2:1-3
I hope you also see the tremendous wonder of these verses.
“God completed His work”
“He rested from all His work”
We know God never sleeps nor slumbers, but He did rest here.
But rest doesn’t indicate that God was tired,
But rather that God was finished.
From the very start of the creation process there always something that still needed to occur.
· It was a mess
· It was too dark
· There was no form
· We need land
· The land needs plants
· We need animals
· God wants humans
Each day revealed God perfecting His creation
Until He finally made it perfect.
And when it was perfect, He was done.
It was finished.
He rested.
No more building, no more renovating, no more tweaking.
It was done.
And that is the God of creation.
· He didn’t stop half-way
· He didn’t leave it in the balance
· What He started He finished
· What was formless and empty He perfected fully
And might I remind you this morning that this is always what God does.
Even in your life. (you are also His creation)
· We were in pieces and shambles, our life was a mess.
· And then light entered the equation.
· And piece by piece, day by day, God began to work His redemptive work on
you and me.
He is making us a new creation.
Working, molding, shaping
And He does not stop until He is completely finished.
Romans 8:30 “and these whom He predestined, He also called; and these whom He called, He also justified; and these whom He justified, He also glorified.”
Philippians 1:6 “For I am confident of this very thing, that He who began a good work in you will perfect it until the day of Christ Jesus.”
And incidentally this is also true of His work in redemption.
· Christ came
· He faced a world filled with sin and set out to be the atoning sacrifice.
· He set out to be the One who redeemed this world from sin.
· He toiled and labored and preached and worked
· He took our sin upon Himself and hung upon a cross
And then the work was done…
John 19:30 “Therefore when Jesus had received the sour wine, He said, "It is finished!" And He bowed His head and gave up His spirit.”
And following that…He rested
Hebrews 10:11-14 “Every priest stands daily ministering and offering time after time the same sacrifices, which can never take away sins; but He, having offered one sacrifice for sins for all time, SAT DOWN AT THE RIGHT HAND OF GOD, waiting from that time onward UNTIL HIS ENEMIES BE MADE A FOOTSTOOL FOR HIS FEET. For by one offering He has perfected for all time those who are sanctified.”
There was nothing more to do…
There is nothing more that needs to be done…
No more tweaking…
No more modifying…
It is finished and it is good
AND WE KNOW THAT BECAUSE THAT IS WHO GOD IS.
From Creation to the Cross, to the Consummation of the ages,
God has always been the God who bring perfection out of ruin
And does it so perfectly that nothing else needs to be done.
When you look at the creation story of Genesis 1,
It is not a story about creation.
It is a story about the God of creation.
His Transcendence
His Power
His Grace
His Redemption
His Perfection
This is the God of Creation
This is the God of Israel
This is the God of the Bible
And from the opening pages we settle in the fact of who He is
And realize that if God is for us, who can be against us.
This morning I simply invite you to settle the issue as to who is your god.
The false gods of this world or the true God, maker of heaven and heart.
Joshua said it like this:
Joshua 24:15 "If it is disagreeable in your sight to serve the LORD, choose for yourselves today whom you will serve: whether the gods which your fathers served which were beyond the River, or the gods of the Amorites in whose land you are living; but as for me and my house, we will serve the LORD."
Elijah said it like this:
1 Kings 18:21 “Elijah came near to all the people and said, "How long will you hesitate between two opinions? If the LORD is God, follow Him; but if Baal, follow him." But the people did not answer him a word.”
Jesus said it like this:
Matthew 6:24 "No one can serve two masters; for either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and wealth.”
And it really doesn’t get any clearer than that.
The Lord is God
Choose Him
Serve Him
Worship Him
Obey Him
He was the only God at the beginning
And He will be the only God at the end.