Chapter 1: The Creation
How should we read the creation account? As science, theology or something else?
Introduction
Last week we thought about why God created the world. In case you missed it you can read about that here.
Having thought about why God created the world, we need to turn our attention to the start of the Biblical story. In fact, it is crucial for us to understand the first few chapters of Genesis because they lay the foundation on which the whole rest of the biblical story plays out. If we don’t get these early chapters right, we will misunderstand the rest of the Bible. In this chapter, I want to focus on the creation account. Let’s see what Scripture says.
Genesis 1:1–2:3 CSB
1 In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. 2 Now the earth was formless and empty, darkness covered the surface of the watery depths, and the Spirit of God was hovering over the surface of the waters. 3 Then God said, “Let there be light,” and there was light. 4 God saw that the light was good, and God separated the light from the darkness. 5 God called the light “day,” and the darkness he called “night.” There was an evening, and there was a morning: one day.
6 Then God said, “Let there be an expanse between the waters, separating water from water.” 7 So God made the expanse and separated the water under the expanse from the water above the expanse. And it was so. 8 God called the expanse “sky.” Evening came and then morning: the second day.
9 Then God said, “Let the water under the sky be gathered into one place, and let the dry land appear.” And it was so. 10 God called the dry land “earth,” and the gathering of the water he called “seas.” And God saw that it was good. 11 Then God said, “Let the earth produce vegetation: seed-bearing plants and fruit trees on the earth bearing fruit with seed in it according to their kinds.” And it was so. 12 The earth produced vegetation: seed-bearing plants according to their kinds and trees bearing fruit with seed in it according to their kinds. And God saw that it was good. 13 Evening came and then morning: the third day.
14 Then God said, “Let there be lights in the expanse of the sky to separate the day from the night. They will serve as signs for seasons and for days and years. 15 They will be lights in the expanse of the sky to provide light on the earth.” And it was so. 16 God made the two great lights—the greater light to rule over the day and the lesser light to rule over the night—as well as the stars. 17 God placed them in the expanse of the sky to provide light on the earth, 18 to rule the day and the night, and to separate light from darkness. And God saw that it was good. 19 Evening came and then morning: the fourth day.
20 Then God said, “Let the water swarm with living creatures, and let birds fly above the earth across the expanse of the sky.” 21 So God created the large sea-creatures and every living creature that moves and swarms in the water, according to their kinds. He also created every winged creature according to its kind. And God saw that it was good. 22 God blessed them: “Be fruitful, multiply, and fill the waters of the seas, and let the birds multiply on the earth.” 23 Evening came and then morning: the fifth day.
24 Then God said, “Let the earth produce living creatures according to their kinds: livestock, creatures that crawl, and the wildlife of the earth according to their kinds.” And it was so. 25 So God made the wildlife of the earth according to their kinds, the livestock according to their kinds, and all the creatures that crawl on the ground according to their kinds. And God saw that it was good.
26 Then God said, “Let us make man in our image, according to our likeness. They will rule the fish of the sea, the birds of the sky, the livestock, the whole earth, and the creatures that crawl on the earth.” 27 So God created man in his own image; he created him in the image of God; he created them male and female. 28 God blessed them, and God said to them, “Be fruitful, multiply, fill the earth, and subdue it. Rule the fish of the sea, the birds of the sky, and every creature that crawls on the earth.”
29 God also said, “Look, I have given you every seed-bearing plant on the surface of the entire earth and every tree whose fruit contains seed. This will be food for you, 30 for all the wildlife of the earth, for every bird of the sky, and for every creature that crawls on the earth—everything having the breath of life in it—I have given every green plant for food.” And it was so.
31 God saw all that he had made, and it was very good indeed. Evening came and then morning: the sixth day.
2:1 So the heavens and the earth and everything in them were completed. 2 On the seventh day God had completed his work that he had done, and he rested on the seventh day from all his work that he had done. 3 God blessed the seventh day and declared it holy, for on it he rested from all his work of creation.
Scriptural Inerrancy
Before we proceed, I want to be clear. I believe that Scripture is fully inerrant, it is totally wholly and completely without fault, and it is inspired by God. What God intended to teach us when he inspired the Biblical Authors to write, I believe, is completely without fault. However, we do not hold to scriptural inerrancy in terms of what God did not intend to teach. Consider for example these 2 proverbs.
Proverbs 26:4–5 (CSB)
4 Don’t answer a fool according to his foolishness or you’ll be like him yourself.
5 Answer a fool according to his foolishness or he’ll become wise in his own eyes.
So which is it? Do we answer a fool or don’t we? They can’t both be literalistically interpreted as true because they are apparently contradictory. But what is God trying to teach us here? He wants to teach us wisdom. So these proverbs are both true, at the same time, and both are part of fully inerrant scripture. Because the author is trying to teach wisdom, we immediately understand that they are not supposed to be read literalistically. They are supposed to be read as proverbs, as wisdom literature.
So then when we get to the creation account, we have to ask what is it that the author intended to teach.
A Hotly Debated Passage
As you can imagine this passage has been and continues to be one of the most hotly debated scriptures in the Bible. The Evolution vs. Creation debate rages in Christian circles. This passage is used by many outside the church to show that “science has disproven the Bible”. In some parts of the church, this passage has become a kind of litmus test for how orthodox your beliefs are, with some saying that if you don’t believe in a literal 6, 24-hour day creation, then you don’t believe the Bible is true. As a pastor, this is a question teenagers constantly ask me - how do we reconcile what science teaches us with this creation account?
At its core, the problem is that we don’t agree on how we should interpret this passage. Why? Because we disagree on what genre of writing this passage is written in. Depending on how you answer that question, will depend on how you approach Genesis 1. The real question then is whether the Creation account was written as a “what” document, a “how” document, or a “why” document.
Is the creation account written simply to document what happened at the Beginning? Is it intended to teach us how creation was made, or is it intended to teach us why creation was made?
To put it another way, did the author intend to give us a historical account of what happened, did the author intend to give us a scientific account of how it happened, or did he intend to give us a theological account of why it happened?
The creation account teaches theology not science
After years of writing, reading, thinking and preaching on the Bible I have come to the conclusion that this creation account is primarily a who, what, and why document, not primarily a how document. I would like to argue that Genesis 1 primarily aims to teach us theology, not science. I don’t think the author’s intention was primarily to teach people how the world was made but to teach people that God made it, that he ordered it, that he filled it, and that he rested in it.
Consider how this account is structured:
In verse 1, we read that in the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. The author it teaching us that God is the one from whom everything comes.
God is the subject of the verb.
The Bible begins with God existing before the beginning of the universe, and God creating the heavens and the earth. This means the universe did not just come into existence. The Bible does not allow for an impersonal force that made the world. The Bible does not allow for the Big Bang as the source of all that is. No, scripture is clear and dictates that it was God who made.
Verse 1 acts as a kind of heading to the creation account.
Verse 2 presents us with a problem statement in the form of a Hebrew rhyme. The earth is “tōhû wāḇōhû”, it is a formless thing, and it is an empty thing. But God’s Spirit hovers over the surface of this formless and empty thing. But God’s very nature is one of order and life. He is the giver and sustainer of life. So this lifeless emptiness is in some way against his very nature. Thus verse 2 gives us a problem.
But now God sets out to address the formlessness and the lifeless emptiness. He sets out to create. Verses 3 and onward show how God created, and they are structured like a song or a poem. These verses have repetition and rhythm as you would expect from a song or a poem. These verses are also clearly separated into God forming and filling. He is undoing the “tōhû wāḇōhû”.
He deals with the formlessness (the “tōhû”) in days 1-3 and he deals with the lifeless emptiness (the “ḇōhû”) in days 4-6. Each of these creation days has a rhythmic pattern.
God says let something happen, and then it happens, and then on day 3 onwards he sees his creation is good, and declares it so.
Day 1, he forms the heavens into a light space, and a dark space.
Day 2, he separates the chaotic waters, separating water from water. He makes the sky where the clouds (the skywater as it were) is held up, and the water below, the sea.
Day 3. God separates the water below out of its chaos state, and gathers it together so that dry land appears. So he forms the land space, calling it earth. And he sees it is good.
And then day 3 is a bit different - there is a double creation.
Day three God creates the space for land, and then vegetates the land with plants, trees and plants and seed bearing fruit. But still this is kind of empty.
It is a space, of plants, but nothing to fill it.
And so on day 1,2,3 God has made the formless into form. He formed the day and the night, he formed the sky and water below, And then on day three he has a double creation, he formed the dry land, and he formed the place ready for animals to enter.
And on day 4,5,6 answer the issue of lifeless emptiness.
On day 4, he fills the space of day one. There is a day space and a night space, but nothing in them. So he fills the day space with the Sun to govern it. He fills the night space with the stars and the moon, and these heavenly lights also serve to mark off the various seasons and so on.
Then on day 5, he fills the sky and sea spaces. He makes the waters swarm with living creatures, and the birds fly in the sky. And so forth comes sea creatures to swarm in the sea, sea creatures according to their own kinds, and sky creatures to fill the sky according to their own kinds.
On day 6, God fills the land spaces with livestock and creatures that crawl. All according to their own kind. So the land space is filled.
But then just like on day 3, day 6 has a double creation.
Not only does God fill the land space with animals, he especially makes man to rule over the earth.
There is a clear structure and rhythm to the creation account and this rhythm and repetition lead me to conclude that the creation account is not primarily written as a how document. It intends to teach us that God created, that he orders and brings life. That he deals with the tōhû wāḇōhû. Having dealt with the tōhû wāḇōhû he now commissions us to do the same.
We have a job to do
We should not miss that in the creation account God makes mankind special. All of the other animals are made according to their own kind. But not humans, we are not made according to our own kind. We are made differently:
Genesis 1:26 CSB
26 Then God said, “Let us make man in our image, according to our likeness. They will rule the fish of the sea, the birds of the sky, the livestock, the whole earth, and the creatures that crawl on the earth.”
We are made in the likeness of God himself! We bear his image, and as his image bearers, we are given a job to do. We are to do the same work God does.
Genesis 1:28 CSB
28 God blessed them, and God said to them, “Be fruitful, multiply, fill the earth, and subdue it. Rule the fish of the sea, the birds of the sky, and every creature that crawls on the earth.”
Fill the earth, subdue it. Immediately after giving mankind his image-bearing nature, God commissions us to do the SAME work he has been doing. To a lesser extent sure, but it is essentially the same work.
God has been going around subduing the formlessness and then filling it. Now he says, “As my representatives, as my image-bearers, as the ones who are reflecting my glory, now also reflect my nature. Subdue the earth, form it, work it and fill it.”
That means that work has value and dignity. If you want to read more about God’s view of work - I can recommend Tim Keller’s book: Every Good Endeavour.
God enters his ordered creation
Genesis 2:1–3 CSB
1 So the heavens and the earth and everything in them were completed. 2 On the seventh day God had completed his work that he had done, and he rested on the seventh day from all his work that he had done. 3 God blessed the seventh day and declared it holy, for on it he rested from all his work of creation.
Everything is now complete, God has completed his work and he rests.
Hebrew has 2 words for work. The one is unskilled labour, but the word used here is the word used for skilled craftsmanship. The Master Craftsman has now completed his project. Everything is now ordered and peaceful.
The phrase there “everything in them” refers to the full company of all that is created. It is a word that refers to a company of soldiers, the host of stars, or a host of angels. It is a word that is intertwined with the idea of order and organisation. Because all is now ordered, the work of creation is completed. So God decides to consecrate the 7th day as holy, as a sabbath and on it, he rests.
Now notice, there is no end to day 7. There is no declaration that it was morning and it was evening. In fact, now that God had finished ordering the world, he can now rest in perfect harmony with all that had been created.
He can dwell in the midst of the wonderful creation and have a relationship with the man and woman he had created. Everything rests in this peaceful holy Sabbath-style harmony. This is the way it was meant to be - God entering into creation living with us and the rest of the ordered creation in perfect rest.
This is a beautiful picture of what life was like before the fall of sin. God dwelling in his creation, with his people. As we explore the rest of Scripture, we will see that this motif permeates the rest of the Bible. God wants to live with his people in peaceful, holy Sabbath-style rest. But because of sin, that just doesn’t really work. But We will explore that more in next week…