Genesis 1:2-13
The First Three Days

Intro: We have been told of God's creation of Heaven and earth, i.e. of all that is, visible and invisible. We now turn to the question of how God finished his creation by preparing the earth - or more particularly, the Land - as a habitation for man.

Prologue: God stands ready to complete his creation

  1. The "earth" is uninhabited and uninhabitable
    1. God has created heaven and earth, the visible and the invisible realms.
      1. He now turns his attention exclusively to the earth, the visible realm
      2. If there is more to be said about the creation of the invisible - the angels and the heavenly glories - we don't need to know about that
    2. The "earth" is the land that Adam will inhabit
      1. We are no longer concerned even with the whole visible realm
      2. This is not an account of the creation of the grand canyon or the formation of black holes deep in space
      3. The account is concerned with telling us how God prepared a dwelling place for that first man
        1. Remember Jeremiah 27:5,6: "5'I have made the earth, the man and the beast that are on the ground, by My great power and by My outstretched arm, and have given it to whom it seemed proper to Me. 6'And now I have given all these lands into the hand of Nebuchadnezzar the king of Babylon, My servant; and the beasts of the field I have also given him to serve him. 7'So all nations shall serve him"
        2. The land God refers to in Jeremiah is the Promised Land of Israel, a picture of that original paradise prepared for Adam and his wife to inhabit
    3. There is a defect in this land as originally created
      1. It is uninhabitable
      2. Most translations say "formless and void"
        1. remember that this was the translation made 2,200 years ago to reflect the scientific understanding at the time.
        2. yet still today, we picture that original earth as a chaos, a complete mess
        3. And some even take that thought and try to interpret it in the light of newer science, as though this formless void refers to the current theory that the earth was for millennia a cooling ball of gasses and molten liquids so that nothing had any form or shape.
        4. But Scripture neither affirms nor denies this theory; its point is something else entirely
        5. Remember last week's admonition: we do not want to force the text to speak in scientific terminology
        6. Rather, we want to see how Scripture itself understands these terms.
      3. Consider, then, how this phrase is used elsewhere
        1. Isaiah 34:11 "But the hawk and the hedgehog shall possess it; the owl and the raven shall live in it. He shall stretch the line of confusion over it, and the plummet of chaos over its nobles."
          • This is a prophecy concerning God's vengeance on the land of Edom
          • "confusion" and "chaos" translate "formless" and "void"
          • But is it totally formless and void?
          • No. You have hawks and hedgehogs and owls and ravens.
          • What you don't have is a place fit for human habitation
        2. Even more clearly Jeremiah 4:23-27 "I looked on the earth, and lo, it was waste and void; and to the heavens, and they had no light. 24 I looked on the mountains, and lo, they were quaking, and all the hills moved to and fro. 25 I looked, and lo, there was no one at all, and all the birds of the air had fled. 26 I looked, and lo, the fruitful land was a desert, and all its cities were laid in ruins before the LORD, before his fierce anger. 27 For thus says the LORD: The whole land shall be a desolation; yet I will not make a full end."
          • Here God defines the "formless void" as a place in which a "fruitful land" becomes a desert
          • So in Genesis 1 we have the story of a desert - that which is formless and void - becoming a fruitful land
        3. So a better translation would be "The land was an uninhabitable waste land."
        4. It is this situation that God rectifies in the 6 days of Creation
  2. There is no light to bring glory to the Creation
    1. The second defect is that darkness is over the face of the deep
    2. This is no problem to God.
    3. But if man is to see the glory of Creation, he needs light.
    4. We'll talk more about darkness on Day 1
  3. The Spirit of God awaits orders
    1. The Spirit of God hovers over the surface of the waters, waiting for God to give the command so He may carry it out
    2. We are on the very verge of Creation here, just waiting for that first word to be spoken
    3. This picture will be repeated in the Old Testament
      1. Noah's ark hovering on the surface of the waters waiting for the light to return and the waters to be divided and dry ground to appear.
      2. The children of Israel at the edge of the Red Sea, pursued by the Egyptians, while hovering over them is a cloud and a pillar of fire - the visible presence of God. And they are waiting for him to divide the waters of the Red Sea so they may pass by on dry land.
    4. We see from the beginning that God is building not merely a land but a temple - a place where his Spirit dwells and where the man he is about to create will worship him
  1. Day 1: God creates light
    1. God creates light and divides the light from the darkness
      1. We might ask,
        1. Is this the first time God created light
        2. Or is he simply saying Let the light shine for the first time on this land that I am about to form for Adam
      2. The passage does not answer this question directly
      3. But the whole point of the account, remember, is Adam-centered
      4. The light is created for Adam, just as on Day 4 the sun, moon, and stars exist to move about the sky to mark time - days and seasons and years - for man
      5. The darkness, as we said, is not problematic for God.
        1. But for the man he is about to create, he needs light to be able to see
        2. Thus God does not pronounce both light and darkness good, but only the light
        3. And so, through the rest of Scripture, darkness - which is not evil in itself - comes to represent wickedness, that which violates the glory and the holiness of God.
      6. More important, though, the presence of darkness suggests that things are good but not as good as they could be
        1. God did not declare the alternation of light and darkness good (i.e. good for Adam), the light alone is given that designation
        2. If light some of the time is good, then light all of the time is even better
        3. There is nothing wrong with the situation into which Adam is placed
        4. But it could get better
        5. Adam, in other words, has a destiny, something to look forward to
          1. And this is represented by the continual presence of light
          2. Which is symbolic of the presence of the glory of God
        6. We know this, not only by deduction from this verse, but by looking at the very other end of Scripture to the description of heaven itself, the new Jerusalem
        7. So naturally, we'll come back to this in point B
      7. God names the Light "Day" and the Darkness "Night"
        1. Thus he indicates his Lordship over both domains
        2. He is the one who has the right to name them and, therefore, to prescribe their functions, purposes, and properties
      8. Evening and Morning
        1. Because we have the alternation of day and night, we can have evening and morning
        2. So the sun goes down and God stops working for the day, just as a man would
        3. When the morning comes, the first day is complete and God resumes his work
        4. Remember from last week how this is all modeled on the way a man works - to call Adam to a creaturely imitation of his Creator
    2. This Day and this Light in the light of the gospel
      1. Isaiah prophesying of the glory of Zion, the city of God
        1. Isaiah 60:1ff "Arise, shine; For your light has come! And the glory of the LORD is risen upon you. 2For behold, darkness shall cover the earth, And deep darkness the people; But the LORD will arise over you, And His glory will be seen upon you. 3The Gentiles shall come to your light, And kings to the brightness of your rising."
        2. Do you hear those words?
        3. Isaiah is saying that God will do a second work of creation in his people Israel
        4. The first work has been plunged into darkness so that darkness again covers the Land
        5. But Lord will arise like the sun
          1. Christ Jesus will appear among the people
          2. He will be what Malachi calls the risen "Sun of Righteousness"
          3. And this light is connected with the glory of God
          4. So we see we were right to say that Adam's destiny and desire was to have that light - representing God's glory - always
        6. And the Gentiles, the nations of the world, will see the light of Christ and will come to him
        7. The work of Christ is thus pictured as the work of bringing in a new creation, principally in the picture of God saying a second time "Let there be light" upon an earth plunged into the darkness of ignorance and sin.
      2. John uses this to speak of Christ as the Light shining in the darkness
        1. We saw this of course in this morning's gospel reading
        2. John speaks of Christ, the eternal word, as the first creator
          1. In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth
          2. And the eternal Word, God's Son, was the agent by whom all things were made
        3. And in Christ, God has again said, "Let there be light"
          1. And the light shines in the darkness (i.e. ignorance, unbelief, sin)
          2. But the darkness does not comprehend it
        4. Yet he is the true light coming into the world
      3. Christ constantly pictured in terms of this light, as though a new Sun has risen on a new creation
        1. Simeon, seeing the infant Jesus, calls him "A light to bring revelation to the Gentiles/ And the glory of your people Israel." (Note again the connection between light and glory)
        2. Matthew 17:2 at the mount of transfiguration, his clothes became "white as the light."
        3. John 8:12 "I am the light of the world. He who follows Me shall not walk in darkness, but have the light of life."
        4. Paul speaks this way in 2 Corinthians 4:2 "For it is the God who commanded light to shine out of darkness, who has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ."
      4. All the ethical implications of light and darkness
        1. Ephesians 5:8 "For you were once darkness, but now you are light in the Lord. Walk as children of light"
        2. 1 Thessalonians 5:5 "You are all sons of light and sons of the day. We are not of the night nor of darkness."
        3. 1 Peter 2:9 "Him who called you out of darkness into His marvelous light"
      5. Think of all this in the context of Genesis 1:3
        1. The dramatic appearance of light in the midst of darkness
        2. Let that powerful work of God picture for you his work in bringing Christ to shine in you and call you out of darkness
      6. Jesus rising again on the first day of the week
        1. The early church made this connection
        2. The women went "as it was dawning toward the light"
      7. The destiny of the people of God
        1. Revelation 21:22ff. "But I saw no temple in it, for the Lord God Almighty and the Lamb are its temple. 23The city had no need of the sun or of the moon to shine in it, for the glory of God illuminated it. The Lamb is its light. 24And the nations of those who are saved shall walk in its light, and the kings of the earth bring their glory and honor into it."
        2. This was Adam's destiny, which he forfeited
        3. This is what the 2nd Adam regained
  2. Day 2: God divides the waters vertically - Sea and Sky
    1. God creates the "firmament" and divides the waters above and below
      1. More brief about this
      2. The word "firmament" or "dome" refers to a sheet of beaten metal
      3. Again, this indicates how God's work is presented on the analogy of man's - God the master craftsman, putting together the sky
      4. Proverbs 8:28 tells us how to understand this
        1. Wisdom boasts, "When he prepared the heavens, I was there, when he drew a circle on the face of the deep, when he established the clouds above, when he strengthened the fountains of the deep"
        2. The waters above are clouds and the waters below the ocean
        3. And the sky is pictured as beneath the clouds, between them and the waters below
    2. God calls the firmament "Heaven"
      1. We could just call it "Sky" but then the double meaning would be lost
        1. The earthly heavens as a picture of the heavenly heavens
        2. We think of God as "up"
      2. Again God demonstrates his Lordship
    3. These domains are not declared "good"
      1. because not good for man
      2. The "good" will not appear until day 3 when land arrives.
  3. Day 3: God divides the waters horizontally - Land and food
    1. God creates the dry land and the seas
      1. Finally, it is good
      2. Here is a dwelling place for man
    2. God creates fruit trees and seed bearing plants
      1. This is a second creative act
      2. And it does not refer to the creation of all vegetation
        1. Scripture elsewhere affirms that God created everything (and therefore all sorts of vegetation)
        2. But here it concerns itself with the two types that God will give to man for food on Day 6

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