Transcript

Retired NASA astronaut, Jeffrey Williams, was a veteran of four space flights to the International Space Station and 534 days spent in space.

Reflecting on that time, Colonel Williams said that his relationship with God “deepened,” and that the vantage point of Earth from afar put things in perspective for him. He’s been able to see God’s design, beauty, and order in it.

He said this: “The details of the Earth, and the details of the cloud formations, and the currents around the planet across the oceans [are spectacular].

“At nighttime, when we were looking down at the U.S., we could see the patterns of thunderstorms and the rippling of lightning across the way. We got some great views of the southern aurora…as we passed over southern Australia.

“Looking out into the heavens, in the dark you could see a magnificent star field, an infinite number of stars, far more than you can see from the ground. You could actually see the Milky Way out there as a solid, faint background behind the star field.”

Williams also said, “When you cross the Middle East, from orbit, and you can see the entire biblical history in one vantage point and the entire geography that Christ came and lived on as a man over 2,000 years ago, that gives deep and profound meaning to that view.”

And when asked about seeing the Grand Canyon and coral reefs from space, Williams said, “There’s an incredible pattern of color and beauty…and it invokes wonder, and of course, we know when we think of wonder it demands the Creator as its explanation.”

Genesis 1 tells us how all things came to be. It gives honor and glory to the Creator. The beauty and design of God’s creation should evoke wonder in us, and in turn, lead us to praise Him for His great wisdom and power in creating all things.

As the Psalmist wrote: “O Lord, how manifold are Thy works! In wisdom hast Thou made them all: the earth is full of Thy riches” (Psa. 104:24).

With this message, we will begin a series called, “Major Events of the Bible,” and we will begin with the major event of Creation.

Genesis 1:1: “In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth.” Henry Morris wrote this about Genesis 1:1: “This one verse refutes all of man’s false philosophies concerning the origin and meaning of the world:

“(1) It refutes atheism, because the universe was created by GOD. (2) It refutes pantheism, for God is TRANSCENDENT to that which He created. (3) It refutes polytheism, for ONE God created all things.

“(4) It refutes materialism, for matter had a BEGINNING. (5) It refutes dualism, because God was ALONE when He created. (6) It refutes humanism, because God, NOT MAN, is the ultimate reality. (7) It refutes evolutionism, because God CREATED all things.”

Just like the rest of the Bible, the first 11 chapters of Genesis are to be interpreted literally unless the context demands otherwise.

And there is nothing that demands anything other than a literal interpretation of the Creation account. God is speaking very clearly about how the universe began.

And as it’s been said, “If the plain SENSE makes good SENSE, we should seek no other SENSE, otherwise, you just end up with nonSENSE.”

We must let God simply, naturally speak to us here and accept it by faith, and not inject outside ideas and teachings into Genesis chapter 1.

In a court of law, eyewitness testimony carries the most weight. Hearsay testimony is thrown out. The same is true of creation.

God asked Job the question, “Where were you when I laid the foundations of the earth?” (Job 38:4). God was there, and the revelation of His Word can be trusted.

Genesis 1:1 forms the foundation for faith. As Hebrews 11:3 reminds us, that it is “Through faith we understand that the worlds were framed by the word of God…”

You either believe Genesis 1:1 or reject it. There is no middle ground. When one tries to find a middle ground that’s just a form of rejection.

But as you trust these words, you won’t find it hard to believe all that follows in the Bible.

Because the God Who is wise and powerful enough to have created the heavens and the earth can easily do all the rest of the Bible says that He did and does and will do.

Genesis 1:1 starts with “In the beginning God.” Genesis explains Israel’s identity and God’s divine purpose for her on the earth in the land promised to Abraham. And in this Book of Genesis, God wanted His people to know about the origin of this world.

The first thing you learn from the words “In the beginning God” is that God existed before all things, that when everything began, God already existed. God was before the beginning. Before anything else existed, He was there.

God is eternal, without beginning or end. As Psalm 90:2 reads, “Before the mountains were brought forth, or ever thou hadst formed the earth and the world, even from everlasting to everlasting, Thou art God.”

The opening statement of the Bible introduces the primary subject of the entire rest of the Bible, the true and the living God.

The word “God” is the Hebrew word, Elohim. It is a name that stresses God’s majesty, that He is all-powerful as the Supreme One. This name dominates Genesis 1 and is used 32 times.

And Elohim refers to the Trinity. It’s been said that “Elohim is a plural name with a singular meaning, a ‘uni-plural’ noun, thereby suggesting the uni-plurality of the Godhead. God is one, yet more than one.”

God is One God, eternally existing in three Persons: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. And it can be demonstrated from Scripture that all three members of the Godhead participated in the Creation.

Speaking of God the Father, Revelation 4:11 states, “Thou art worthy, O Lord, to receive glory and honour and power: for Thou hast created all things, and for Thy pleasure they are and were created.”

Speaking of God the Son, Colossians 1:16 reads, “For by Him were all things created, that are in heaven, and that are in earth, visible and invisible, whether they be thrones, or dominions, or principalities, or powers: all things were created by Him, and for Him.”

Speaking of God the Holy Spirit, here in Genesis 1:2, we ready, “And the earth was without form, and void; and darkness was upon the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters.”

This one God in three Persons “created.” The truth being driven into us from Genesis 1 is that the universe is God the Creator’s handiwork. Over and over, we read, “God saw,” “God said,” “God called,” “God made” in the chapter.

The Hebrew word translated as “created” in Genesis 1:1 is used only for God’s creative activity in Scripture and means to bring into existence. Only God can create or call into existence something which had no previous existence, as He did in Genesis 1.

We talk about man creating things, but he is actually just forming and re-organizing already existing materials into something else.

But when God created, He brought something totally new into existence and He spoke into existence all things from nothing. Out of nothing, the universe, with all its space and matter, was made by God’s decree.

And “God created THE HEAVEN.” We know that “the heaven” is not speaking of the stars because the stars were created on the fourth day of creation, and Genesis 2:1 teaches that the stars make up “the host” OF the heavens.

The heaven or heavens refers to the component of stretched-out space in the universe. God made the empty space in which to put everything in His creation. And the stars of heaven were created and placed within this space of heaven when they were created.

And “God created the heaven AND THE EARTH.” Thus, God created the component of matter in the universe by the creation of the earth.

On day one of creation, the heaven was created and then the earth was created and placed within the heaven of space God made. At that time, there were no planets, stars, or other material bodies in the universe.

This shows us that, in God’s master plan, the center and focal point of attention for His entire universe is the earth. And as the earth is promised to believing Israel in the eternal state, God wanted Israel to see the priority this world was and is in His creation.

Genesis 1:1 teaches of the creation of space and matter, and by the words “in the beginning,” we further see the beginning and creation of time.

Thus, we find that Genesis 1:1 teaches that “In the beginning (time was created), God created the heavens (space was created) and the earth (matter was created).”

Genesis 1:2-5: “And the earth was without form, and void; and darkness was upon the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters. And God said, Let there be light: and there was light.

“And God saw the light, that it was good: and God divided the light from the darkness. And God called the light Day, and the darkness he called Night. And the evening and the morning were the first day.”

God created the heaven, and then the earth, and at first, the earth’s surface was covered with water. The creation of the earth was not yet complete, but on day one it was perfect for the first stage of God’s six-day plan of creation.

Verse 2 tells us, “And the earth was without form, and void.” The “And” connects us back to verse 1 and shows sequential action by God during the creation week, and you see that throughout the rest of the chapter by the continual use of “And God.”

When the earth was spoken into existence by God, it was “without form.” “Without form” means that the earth did not yet have the organized form it would have at the end of the creation week, which included the separate land and seas.

And the earth was also “void,” or empty, uninhabited by creatures, so we find that God fills up the earth in the rest of the chapter.

As you keep reading, Genesis 1 gives the steps by which God brought form to the unformed earth and living inhabitants to its void or emptiness.

God formed and then He filled. He formed three spheres: the heavens, the dry land, and the waters, and then He filled each of them.

“And darkness was upon the face of the deep,” verse 2 tells us. In other words, over the earth’s “deep,” or entire water-covered surface, there was darkness. Wherever the “deep” was, there was also darkness, and thus darkness pervaded the entire globe.

And upon the deep, “the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters.” The face of the waters is synonymous with the face of the deep.

And here we see a particular member of the triune Godhead in action and directly involved in His creation. The Spirit of God was moving, superintending, and exercising divine care and supervision over the creation of the earth.

When God began to transform the earth into something beautiful in accordance with His perfect plan, it was through the work of the Spirit of God. And the same thing happens today in our Christian lives, that we are transformed through the Spirit’s working in us.

And there is another “moving” of the Spirit of God mentioned in the Bible. The Spirit did the same thing in the revelation and inspiration of the Scriptures.

2 Peter 1:21 reads, “For the prophecy came not in old time by the will of man: but holy men of God spake as they were MOVED by the Holy Ghost.”

Like with the inspiration of the Scriptures, as the Spirit of God moved, then the Word of God spoke. Likewise, at the creation, as the Spirit moved upon the face of the waters, God spoke, as “GOD SAID, Let there be light: and there was light.”

God effortlessly spoke light into existence in His creation. This dispelled the darkness that was over the entire earth.

God spoke the Word and that specific act of creation took place immediately. What God’s mind conceived, God simply commanded into existence. It is the “Let there be’s” of God that account for all things in the creation.

Each of the six creative days involved God speaking. As Psalm 33:6,9 states, “By the word of the LORD were the heavens made; and all the host of them by the breath of His mouth…For He spake, and it was done; He commanded, and it stood fast.”

By His Word, God created the heavens and the earth. And in the Bible, God speaks. The One Who spoke all things into existence in Genesis 1, speaks through Scripture from Genesis to Revelation.

And like there was utter and absolute power and wisdom revealed in the Creation by God’s spoken Word, so there is great power and wisdom in His written, revealed Word. Light itself, the reality of natural, physical, visible light, was created by God on day one.

And light was created prior to the establishment of the sun, moon, and stars on day four of creation. But God is light and Christ is the light of the world, and light exists as a result of Him and His power and wisdom. Light being created before the sun, moon, and stars teaches that they get their light from God.

The sun, moon, and stars have been and are gods to many people in this world. And as Genesis was written to Israel, it reminded her to not worship these celestial bodies, like the pagan nations around her.

Genesis declares God’s infinite greatness over these heavenly bodies, because He created them, and their light comes from Him. He alone is God and is worthy to be worshipped.

God saw the light He created and declared “that it was good.” Everything that God does is good. “Good” was God’s stamp of approval and true estimation of what He had created, and this declaration continues throughout the creation and leads up to God declaring that His completed creation was “very good.”

By this act of creating light, God “divided” the light from the darkness, and it separated day from night.

It’s important to notice something about the creation account and the beginning of the Bible, which in turn teaches how we are to understand and interpret His Word.

The creation account teaches that God is a dividing God. This is not saying anything negative about God. It is just a truth concerning His Person. The Creation is divided.

“God DIVIDED the light from the darkness… And God said, Let there be a firmament in the midst of the waters, and let it DIVIDE the waters from the waters… Let there be lights in the firmament of the heaven to DIVIDE the day from the night.” And we also see that God gathered the waters and divided the dry land from the sea.

The divisions God made in creation remind us that when we go to His Word to read and interpret it, we should expect to find divisions. We need to mark those divisions of God’s dealings with mankind to properly understand His Word, and to especially mark the important division of His working among the nations under grace today.

As 2 Timothy 2:15 reminds us, “Study to shew thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly DIVIDING the Word of truth.”

The creation further is a picture of salvation in God’s Word. As the Apostle Paul wrote, “For God, who commanded the light to shine out of darkness, hath shined in our hearts, to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.”

The unbeliever in their sins is in spiritual darkness, like the creation at first was in darkness. But when the gospel is made known, the Spirit of God moves in the heart of a person, like He moved upon the face of the waters at the beginning.

And when one believes the gospel, as God commanded the light to shine in the darkness at creation, so God shines in our hearts, giving the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ, and we become light in the Lord.

And then as the earth was filled with life and fruit, so we are filled with God’s light and life and He desires fruit from our lives as we live for Him.

On day one, God established the definition of a day. Verse 5 reads, “And God called the light Day, and the darkness he called Night. And the evening and the morning were the first day.”

The beginning of each day begins at night. For us, our day begins at midnight. And just like light came after darkness on creation’s first day, so for that reason, the evening and the morning, in that order, were the first day.

At Creation, God established our 24-hour days, as well as our 7-day weeks. The word “day” is qualified by and has the distinct boundaries of having a morning and an evening, a daily period of light and darkness, and this qualification strictly defines the Hebrew term “day” or yom, as a literal 24-hour day.

And God made everything in these six literal, 24-hour days, and on the seventh day, He rested. And to this moment, the whole world, most without realizing it, follows this 7-day-a-week schedule that was established by God at Creation.

God named things as well as creating them. The act of giving a name meant the exercise of a sovereign right and authority. And God called the light “Day,” and the darkness He called “Night.” Later on in the creation week, He called the firmament “Heaven,” the dry land “Earth,” and the gathering together of the waters, “Seas.”

Genesis 1:31 reads, “And God saw every thing that he had made, and, behold, it was very good. And the evening and the morning were the sixth day.”

Creation was a series of supernatural, instantaneous miracles by God that took place over six days. The following is a summary of each day of the creation week.

On day one of creation, God established the triune nature of the universe: time, space, and matter. He created the heaven, the earth, the waters that covered the earth, and He created light. And God established the day and night cycle of the earth.

On day two of creation, God divided the waters from the waters on the earth, and put a firmament in the midst of the waters.

God placed a firmament, an expanse, or the atmosphere above the earth between the water that remained on the earth and the water that now rose above the expanse.

I take this to mean that a water vapor canopy was above the Earth’s atmosphere at the beginning, creating a greenhouse effect for the early Earth.

And because this canopy filtered out harmful radiation, it contributed to the longevity of human life prior to the flood.

God called the firmament between the waters “heaven.” This is the first heaven, which as verse 20 explains is where the birds fly “above the earth in the open firmament of HEAVEN.”

On day three of creation, God set boundaries for the waters on the earth and caused the dry land to appear out of the shoreless ocean that had covered the face of the planet for the first two days. This gave birth to the Earth and the Seas.

Also on day three, now that there was dry land, God commanded the earth to produce plants. Thus, fruit trees, green grass, flowers, plants, vegetation, and trees of all kinds sprang up in the earth.

The order of things in creation is often not as one would expect. According to the Bible: the earth existed before the sun, moon, and all the stars. Light, as well as day and night, existed before the sun, moon, and stars. And plants existed before the sun.

Like light was created before the sun and stars to show that their light comes from God, so vegetation existing before the sun teaches that their life and growth come from God.

On day four of creation, God filled the space of the second heaven in the universe with the sun, moon, and the stars. The earth is the center and focal point of God’s entire universe, and the sun, moon, and stars are all made in relation to and for the benefit of the earth.

And it’s interesting to me how the creation of the blazing, massive stars, bursting with light and energy, is stated almost as an afterthought, “He made the stars also.” It’s stated simply because it was simple for Almighty God.

The movement of these heavenly bodies is for tracking time: for signs, seasons, days, and years. The moon determines our months while years are determined by the earth’s revolution around the sun. The stars also change depending on the season.

When verse 15 states “And let them be for lights in the firmament of the heaven,” this is a description of how the sun, moon, and stars, though they are in outer space, these heavenly bodies and their light were made to appear in the expanse of the sky above the earth.

On day five of creation, God made the creatures that would live in the water below and fly in the sky above. God stocked and filled the oceans and created all life that lives in the water, in all of its incredible diversity. Also, God created birds and other flying creatures. All marine life and birds were created on the same day.

On day six of creation, God filled the dry land. God created all the land animals after their kind. And each one was created to reproduce according to its kind so one kind will never turn into another kind.

After God finished creating the animals, God turned to His most important creation: mankind. Everything in the creation week builds toward this event on day six. The crown of God’s work was the creation of man.

When God was going to create man, the three Persons of the Godhead took counsel, “And God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness” (Gen. 1:26). God made mankind in His own image, and thus mankind is special above all other creatures.

And God made man to have dominion and to rule over His creation and all its sea life and animals.

What the Bible clearly teaches in Genesis 1 is that life comes from life, that there is a first Cause in this cause-and-effect universe, and that the design and intelligence we continually see and discover in the world are due to the work of an Intelligent Designer.

And the Creator God declares in Isaiah 45:12: “I have made the earth, and created man upon it: I, even My hands, have stretched out the heavens, and all their host have I commanded.”

As the Psalmist said, “The sea is His, and He made it: and His hands formed the dry land. O come, let us worship and bow down: let us kneel before the LORD our Maker” (95:5-6).

We find our purpose in life by knowing and living for our Maker. May we bow the knee in praise and submission to Him and allow Him to use our lives for His glory.