The First Five Days

Genesis 1:1‑23

The First Five Days

In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. Now the earth was formless and empty, darkness was over the surface of the deep, and the Spirit of God was hovering over the waters.

And God said, “Let there be light,” and there was light. God saw that the light was good, and he separated the light from the darkness. God called the light “day,” and the darkness he called “night.” And there was evening, and there was morning—the first day.

And God said, “Let there be an expanse between the waters to separate water from water.” So God made the expanse and separated the water under the expanse from the water above it. And it was so. God called the expanse “sky.” And there was evening, and there was morning—the second day.

And God said, “Let the water under the sky be gathered to one place, and let dry ground appear.” And it was so. God called the dry ground “land,” and the gathered waters he called “seas.” And God saw that it was good.

Then God said, “Let the land produce vegetation: seed-bearing plants and trees on the land that bear fruit with seed in it, according to their various kinds.” And it was so. The land produced vegetation: plants bearing seed according to their kinds and trees bearing fruit with seed in it according to their kinds. And God saw that it was good. And there was evening, and there was morning—the third day.

And God said, “Let there be lights in the expanse of the sky to separate the day from the night, and let them serve as signs to mark seasons and days and years, and let them be lights in the expanse of the sky to give light on the earth.” And it was so. God made two great lights—the greater light to govern the day and the lesser light to govern the night. He also made the stars. God set them in the expanse of the sky to give light on the earth, to govern the day and the night, and to separate light from darkness. And God saw that it was good. And there was evening, and there was morning—the fourth day.

And God said, “Let the water teem with living creatures, and let birds fly above the earth across the expanse of the sky.” So God created the great creatures of the sea and every living and moving thing with which the water teems, according to their kinds, and every winged bird according to its kind. And God saw that it was good. God blessed them and said, “Be fruitful and increase in number and fill the water in the seas, and let the birds increase on the earth.” And there was evening, and there was morning—the fifth day.

G

od reveals Himself to mankind through various means. Creation is one means by which God ensures that all humanity sees His power and knows that He is. Witnessing His creation all peoples should come to know the Living God, worshipping Him as Creator, as is stated in the early chapters of Paul’s Romans letter. The wrath of God is being revealed from heaven against all the godlessness and wickedness of men who suppress the truth by their wickedness, since what may be known about God is plain to them, because God has made it plain to them. For since the creation of the world God’s invisible qualities—his eternal power and divine nature—have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that men are without excuse [Romans 1:18-20].

Among the Psalms is a beautiful Psalm of David which likewise speaks to the universal witness to the creative power of the Lord our God.

The heavens declare the glory of God;

the skies proclaim the work of his hands.

Day after day they pour forth speech;

night after night they display knowledge.

There is no speech or language

where their voice is not heard.

Their voice

goes out into all the earth,

their words to the ends of the world.

In the heavens he has pitched a tent for the sun,

which is like a bridegroom coming forth from his pavilion,

like a champion rejoicing to run his course.

It rises at one end of the heavens

and makes its circuit to the other;

nothing is hidden from its heat

[Psalm 19:1-6].

Tragically, we are not always clear-sighted enough or sufficiently wise to understand the revelation of creation. We need the Word of God to view creation properly. Having viewed the creation account through various modern interpretative schemes we will now turn to the emphasis which God Himself places on His creative activity.

As we review the account of the first five days of creation we will discover three emphases. First, God Himself—the true, sovereign, wise and personal God—stands behind creation. Second, the work of this true, sovereign, wise and personal God was an orderly work. Third, the creation was and is good, because it is the work of the God who not only is true, sovereign, wise and personal, but who is also morally perfect. Each of these points has implications for the way we are to relate both to God and to His creation.

God Who Is There — The Creation Account is notable for its emphasis on God Himself. In fact, the subject throughout is God. All else is object. Objects are acted upon, but the subject performs the action. Light, atmosphere, water, dry land, vegetation, sun, moon, stars, fish, birds, land animals—all alike are objects in a creative process where God alone is the subject. God saw (vv. 4, 10, 12, 18, 21, 25), separated (vv. 4, 7) called (vv. 5, 8, 10), made (vv. 7, 16, 25), set (v. 17), created (vv. 21, 27), and then God explained to the man and woman what He had done (vv. 28-30). Moreover, before that, God spoke (vv. 3, 6, 9, 14, 20) as result of which everything else unfolded.

Throughout this account the Name by which God identifies Himself is the Hebrew word !yhil¿a>. The word is plural, but it is used as though it were singular. It appears in conjunction with singular verbs and the pronouns referring back to the word are singular. It is a means by which God at once emphasises that there is but one God alone though there is a plural dimension to God’s being. This is not sufficient to teach the Triunity of God, but it does suggest this great doctrine from the first chapter.

John 1:1 & 2 provides a still fuller statement of the Triune nature of God. You will recall that passage: In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was with God in the beginning. The Word which is presented as very God in the opening verse of John’s Gospel is none other than Christ Jesus our Lord and Saviour. The 14th verse makes this clear. The Word became flesh and made His dwelling among us. We have seen His glory, the glory of the One and Only, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth. John is therefore saying that Jesus was with the Father and was acting with Him in the original work of creation. Later John specifically states this glorious fact when he writes, Through Him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made [John 1:3].

The role of the Spirit of God in creation is suggested in verse two of our text. There we read that the Spirit of God was hovering over the waters. There is a tender and beautiful imagery in this statement. The word which is translated was hovering in our text is found in only one other place in the Old Testament, though the root is found elsewhere. In Deuteronomy is found a song which Moses sang to Israel near the conclusion of his life. As he recited the mind of God he sang these words which are recorded in Deuteronomy 32:10,11.

He shielded him and cared for him;

he guarded him as the apple of his eye,

like an eagle that stirs up its nest

and hovers over its young,

that spreads its wings to catch them

and carries them on its pinions.

Note particularly the phrase which begins verse eleven. That phrase speaks of an eagle hovering over its young. This is that same word which God chose in verse two of our text. It conveys a picture of tender care, of a mother bird brooding over her fledglings. The picture, then, speaks of the Spirit of God watching over the creation with intense interest as the work is guided to completion.

When Elihu rebukes Job, redirecting his gaze heavenward, he makes a significant point in Job 33:4.

The Spirit of God has made me;

the breath of the Almighty gives me life.

This godly young man attests that the Spirit of God made Him. Though the word used is made and not created [hc[ and not arB] you need to remember that God is said in the early chapters of the Bible to have made repeatedly. He made the expanse [verse seven]. He made the sun and the moon [verse sixteen]. He made wild animals [verse twenty-five]. Verse thirty-one tells us that God saw all that He had made, and it was very good. As the second chapter of Genesis begins, God is said to have made the earth and the heavens [Genesis 2:4]. Thus the Spirit of God clearly worked in making or creating all things.

The Psalmist provides a beautiful picture which speaks of the work of God’s Spirit in creation. In order to grasp the powerful imagery of this 104th Psalm, I ask you to indulge me as I read several verses.

How many are your works, O LORD!

In wisdom you made them all;

the earth is full of your creatures.

There is the sea, vast and spacious,

teeming with creatures beyond number—

living things both large and small.

There the ships go to and fro,

and the leviathan, which you formed to frolic there.

These all look to you

to give them their food at the proper time.

When you give it to them,

they gather it up;

when you open your hand,

they are satisfied with good things.

When you hide your face,

they are terrified;

when you take away their breath,

they die and return to the dust.

When you send your Spirit,

they are created,

and you renew the face of the earth.

May the glory of the LORD endure forever;

may the LORD rejoice in his works

[Psalm 104:24-31].

In Genesis 1:26 God says, Let us make man in our image, in our likeness. This is one of the very few places where a singular pronoun does not occur. In Genesis 3:22 we read, The man has now become like one of us, knowing good and evil. The significance of this observation is that when we recognise the members of the Triunity are here at the beginning of creation, having existed before anything else, then all that we associate with the Triune Godhead—love, personality and communication—are seen to be eternal and to have eternal value. In this is discovered the biblical answer to man’s fear of being lost in an impersonal and loveless universe.

A second observation derived from these verses is that God brought the universe into existence through speaking. Each of the first five days of creation is begun with the phrase And God said (vv. 3, 6, 8, 14, 20). This observation is important because it points to verbal or propositional revelation. The tendency within theological circles is to deny the importance of words, emphasising instead the importance of acts. The implications for Bible believers is that the very words become less important as the Bible becomes only a more-or-less accurate pointer to God’s acts in history. The emphasis falls upon what God is doing instead of what God has commanded. It has implications for our understanding of history since God is seen to be present wherever events occur regardless of whether this accords with His written record of His will and word.

Let me point out that there is a tendency to emphasise deeds over words in our day. The evidence for this is that we tend to cut ourselves free of written revelation. Should you think that deeds precede words, you are in error. God’s acts are important, but it is by the Word of God that all things exist and it is by the Word of the Lord that we are saved. Peter says that it is by God’s Word that the heavens exist[] and the earth was formed [2 Peter 3:5]. He also wrote that we have been born again … through the living and enduring Word of God [1 Peter 1:23]. Indeed, that Word stands forever [1 Peter 1:25]. In a world marked by transience and impermanence, it is comforting to know that we are forever saved by the Word which is eternal … the word spoken by the ever living God.

Two further truths recommend themselves from the knowledge that our God is the Creator. First, as Creator He is worthy to receive praise. Herein lies a great divide between paganism and biblical revelation. Pagans worship the object, deifying that which is created. Christians look beyond the created to the Creator. It is the One who created who deserves praise and not that which was created. The created order should direct our attention to God, but wicked man tends to focus on the momentary instead of the transcendent. This is the heart of Paul’s opening argument to the Roman saints.

The wrath of God is being revealed from heaven against all the godlessness and wickedness of men who suppress the truth by their wickedness, since what may be known about God is plain to them, because God has made it plain to them. For since the creation of the world God’s invisible qualities—his eternal power and divine nature—have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that men are without excuse.

For although they knew God, they neither glorified him as God nor gave thanks to him, but their thinking became futile and their foolish hearts were darkened. Although they claimed to be wise, they became fools and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images made to look like mortal man and birds and animals and reptiles [Romans 1:18-23].

As Christians we understand the reason for the object. Consequently we Christians are able to employ the object as it was meant to be used, for we understand our responsibility toward the object which has been created. For this reason Christians alone are capable of overseeing the creation. Those who worship earth or who exalt rocks and trees are incapable of wise stewardship of the creation.

Among the hymns recorded in the Apocalypse is one beautiful hymn at the end of chapter four. This particular hymn is sung by the twenty-four elders, representative of the church in glory, in response to a hymn sung by the four living creatures. The cherubs sing:

Holy, holy, holy

is the Lord God Almighty,

who was, and is, and is to come.

[Revelation 4:8]

The holy angels worship God because He is. His very existence is sufficient for the angels to praise Him night and day. Perhaps we could learn from the holy angels. However, when the angels in heaven have sung praises to God because He is, the church responds with praise to Him as Creator … even before they praise Him as redeemer. Without creation there would be no redemption!

You are worthy, our Lord and God,

to receive glory and honour and power,

for you created all things,

and by your will they were created

and have their being.

[Revelation 4:11]

Years ago, Francis Schaeffer wrote on this subject the following words.

Our praise to God is not first of all in the area of soteriology. If we are being fully scriptural, we do not praise Him first because He saved us, but because He is there and has always been there. And we praise Him because He willed all other things, including man, into existence.

Flowing from this observation is the knowledge that because we are part of that creation we owe God unfeigned obedience and devotion. After all things were created, man was placed in the created universe that he might see the glorious works of God above him and beneath him and therefore reverently adore the God who called all things into being. Again, quoting Schaeffer:

All things were ordained for the use of man, that he, being under deeper obligation, might devote and dedicate himself entirely to obedience towards God.[1]

Mankind has not done that, of course. We have rebelled against God and thus require a redeemer. However, we who are redeemed have received a new nature and thus become new creatures in Christ. We who are made new in Him are enabled to worship and serve God as He deserves and according to His will.

An Orderly Progression — The creation account is presenting not only that God is, but it speaks of His mind. Creation unfolds in an orderly fashion revealing something of the mind and the purposes of God. There are six days, each unveiling a new creative act of God. The progression is deliberate and orderly. God meant for all that exists to have purpose and to reveal Himself as a God of order. The purpose of His creation was ultimately that He might receive praise and glory, but more immediate to us as part of that creation is the knowledge that all that has been made is for our benefit.

When God had created all things and at last had set man in place He revealed that everything was for the benefit of man … the acme of His creation. Within the Godhead the following conversation took place before man was created. Let us make man in our image, in our likeness, and let them rule over the fish of the sea and the birds of the air, over the livestock, over all the earth, and over all the creatures that move along the ground [Genesis 1:26]. The man and woman whom God had created were blessed: I give you every seed-bearing plant on the face of the whole earth and every tree that has fruit with seed in it. They will be yours for food. And to all the beasts of the earth and all the birds of the air and all the creatures that move on the ground—everything that has the breath of life in it—I give every green plant for food [Genesis 1:29,30].

The importance of this observation is that creation was intended for man’s benefit and to demonstrate that God values both purpose and order. Paul makes appeal to this truth when he instructs the Corinthians in worship. Specifically, he says, God is not a God of disorder but of peace [1 Corinthians 14:33]. In our service there is to be order and purpose as revealed in the creation. This is the reason our worship should be considerate of others and this is the reason our worship should conform to the revealed mind of God.

As an aside, it is on this basis of order and purpose that women are excluded from the office of pastoral oversight. It is on this basis that men are responsible to provide oversight in the church. Those who argue against this order are in grave error. In fact, they are in danger of forgetting—or ignoring—one of the initial lessons of creation.

A Moral Pronouncement — Throughout the account is the phrase revealing God’s moral pronouncement of His work: and God saw that it was good [vv. 10, 12, 18, 21, 25]. Similar observations are provided in verses 3 and 31. The pronouncement of God was not because of any utilitarian purpose, for those elements He pronounced good were created prior to man’s presence. The object is good in itself. Schaeffer comments that this means that a tree is not good only because we can cut it down and make a house of it or because we can burn it in order to get heat. It is good because God made it and has pronounced it good. It is good because, like everything else in creation, it conforms to God’s nature.

He then writes of this divine benediction:

This is not a relative judgement, but a judgement of the holy God who has a character and whose character is the law of the universe. His conclusion: Every step and every sphere of creation, and the whole thing put together—man himself and his total environment, the heavens and the earth—conforms to myself.[2]

It is not only before the Fall that God finds His creation good, but after our first parent’s awful sin and the resultant plunging of all creation under a curse, God finds His creation good. After the first great universal judgement of the Flood God expressed His concern for the whole of creation. I have set my rainbow in the clouds, and it will be the sign of the covenant between me and the earth [Genesis 9:13], is the unilateral covenant God makes. Later, Paul makes it clear that God values creation in a splendid and glorious promise. The creation itself will be liberated from its bondage to decay and brought into the glorious freedom of the children of God [Romans 8:21].

If God declares the universe good, both in its parts and in its whole, then we also should find it good. We see that nature is marred by sin. The ground is spoiled by thorns, thistles and weeds, and life suffers by the presence of disease. Yet, even in this contaminated state the creation has value, just as fallen man has value.

We should be thankful for the world God has made, praising Him for His work. The Christian view is that God has made all that is. Therefore the creation has value and should be valued because of this divine origin. We should delight in creation. Not only should we see creation as a proof of God’s existence, but we should enjoy nature. We should appreciate its beauty, refreshing ourselves in the glory of God’s creation, because we know the One behind all that is.

We should demonstrate responsibility toward nature. We should not destroy it simply for the sake of destroying. We should seek to be wise administrators of the grace of God revealed in His creation. A fellow elder has stated on this point:

There is a parallel here between the responsibility of men and women toward the creation and the responsibility of a husband toward his wife in marriage. In each case the responsibility is based on a God-given dominion (though the two are not identical). Of marriage it is said, “Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ loved the church and gave Himself up for her to make her holy, cleansing her by the washing with water through the Word, and to present her to Himself as a radiant church, without stain or wrinkle or any other blemish, but holy and blameless” [Ephesians 5:25-27]. In the same way, men and women together should seek to sanctify and cleanse the earth in order that it might be more as God created it, in anticipation of its ultimate redemption.[3]

Man must use the universe in a proper way. A tree may still be cut down to make a home, but it should not be cut down simply for the pleasure of cutting it down or because it increases the value of the ground. An elk may still be shot to feed a family but not simply for the pleasure of killing a living creature or simply to make room for more cattle. Wise administration requires careful thinking of the value and the purpose of an object, and there must be a Christian instead of a merely utilitarian approach to its use.

At last, man must look to God in trust for the administration of His creation. God cares for nature, despite man’s abuse as result of our sinful nature. If He cares for nature, then He it must follow that He also cares for us. This is obvious from a brief consideration of Jesus words spoken during the Sermon on the Mount. He draws our attention to the Father’s care of birds (animal life) and lilies (plant life) and then asks, Are you not much more valuable than they? …If … God clothes the grass of the field, which is here today and tomorrow is thrown into the fire, will He not much more clothe you, O you of little faith [Matthew 6:26, 30].

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[2] Schaeffer, Genesis in Space and Time, p. 55