Sermon Tone Analysis

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; /