FORMING AND FILLING THE EARTH

Transcription

1 1 Dear Friend, this is a transcript of a sermon preached by Pastor Jeremy Tan from the pulpit of Amazing Grace Baptist Church Singapore. We are committed to expository preaching because we believe it is the most effective way to expose, explain and expound the Holy Scriptures. And beginning at Moses and all the prophets, [Jesus] expounded unto them in all the scriptures the things concerning himself (Luke 24:27). Through careful systematic and sequential exposition, the preacher is able to declare unto you all the counsel of God (Acts 20:27), and Christians are blessed with a regular, well-balanced diet of God s Word. Expository preaching also helps us to have a high view of Scripture. We wish to extend a warm welcome to you to join us in our church services for a time of uplifting worship and helpful Bible study, which will bring rejoicing and refreshment to your soul. Do visit our church website at or write to us at amazingracebc@gmail.com. FORMING AND FILLING THE EARTH Genesis 1:1 31 Genesis 1:1-2 1 IN the beginning God created the heaven and the earth. 2 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. In our study of Genesis 1:1-2 about the beginning of creation, we looked at three theories. These are the Gap theory, the geological theory of uniformitarianism, and the theory of evolution. The Gap theory is an accommodation for the geological findings that suggest an old earth. Thus, A. W. Pink made the following statement about the Gap theory. The unknown interval between the first two verses of Genesis 1, is wide enough to embrace all the prehistoric ages which may have elapsed; but all that took place from Genesis 1:3 onwards transpired less than six thousand years ago. (Gleanings in Genesis, p. 11). According to the Gap theory, God judged the earth because of Lucifer s rebellion. Earth was destroyed between Genesis 1:1 and 1:2. This gap is a long, undetermined period of time of several millions or billions of years. But after God reconstructed the earth from its ruined state, the history of the earth added up to about six thousand years based on recorded history in the Scriptures. In our view, there is no gap between Genesis 1:1 and 1:2. Instead, these two verses serve as the introduction of God and the beginning of creation. Genesis 1:1 is an independent clause describing creation ex nihilo of the universe; and in Genesis 1:2 there is a series of three dependent clauses that describe the conditions of the earth at the dawn of creation. The earth was without form, and void; and darkness was upon the face of the deep. In Hebrew, the words without form, and void are tohu wa bohu, which means the earth was unformed and uninhabitable. Besides the Gap theory, we also reject uniformitarianism and evolution because they are unworkable. There is no fossil evidence that proves the evolution of creatures from

2 2 simple to complex forms. The mutation of the species is also impossible because the genetic code in the DNA is unique to each creature and it does not jump from species to species. In this study about the creation week, there are two main points for us to consider, beginning with I. The Scheme of the Creation Week. To have the right understanding of God s creative work in Genesis 1, there are some interpretive points we must observe. First of all, we have to note the geocentric perspective of the creation account. Moses is writing about creation as an observer on the earth. Thus, everything in the account of creation is from earth s perspective. Except for the brief mention of the heaven in Genesis 1:1, there are no detailed information about the universe as we have about the earth. Even the sun, the moon, and the stars are mentioned only because of their usefulness to the earth. The second point to note is about the days of creation. In Hebrew, the word for day is yom. Yom may be interpreted to mean an age or an epoch, such as the day of the Lord (a phrase used nineteen times in the Old Testament Isaiah 2:12; 13:6, 9; Ezekiel 13:5; 30:3; Joel 1:15; 2:1, 11, 31; 3:14; Amos 5:18, 20; Obadiah 15; Zephaniah 1:7, 14; Zechariah 14:1; Malachi 4:5; and four times in the New Testament Acts 2:20; 2 Thessalonians 2:2; 2 Peter 3:10. This phrase is also alluded to in other passages Revelation 6:17; 16:14). But when the word yom is modified by a number, such as in Genesis 1 about the first day, the second day and so on, a literal 24-hour day is intended. Also, the repeated expression of the evening and the morning defines the meaning of the day in Genesis 1 as a regular, 24-hour day (Genesis 1:5, 8, 13, 19, 23, & 31). A third interpretive point to note about Genesis 1 is that the objects of creation are God s revelatory answers to the false pagan gods. One purpose for the writing of the book of Genesis is to encourage the Israelites before they entered Canaan. The Almighty God who commanded them to enter and occupy the land of Canaan is the same God who created the universe. Therefore, there is nothing to fear about following the will of the Creator-God! The fourth interpretive point about Genesis 1 is the form of writing. According to the Framework Hypothesis view, Genesis 1 is poetical writing and thus, the account of creation should not be interpreted literally. But the poetic parallelism common in Hebrew poetry is missing in this chapter, except for Genesis 1: Also, the phrase in Genesis 2:4, These are the generations of the heavens and of the earth when they were created, connects us with other similar statements about genealogy. There are ten of such statements in the book of Genesis. Just as the other statements of genealogy are to be understood literally, the account of creation is to be interpreted literally. Look at the next genealogical statement after that of the heavens and the earth in Genesis 5:1 This is the book of the generations of Adam. In the day that God created man, in the likeness of God made he him; God s creation of Adam is written as a matter-of-fact statement, without any hint of poetry. Indeed, a reader of the early chapters in Genesis will not sense a change of pace or form of writing from poetry or allegory to history.

3 3 The main reason for not interpreting Genesis 1 literally is about the creation of light. In Genesis 1:3, God created light on the first day, but in Genesis 1:14-18 we read again about the creation of the sun, the moon, and the stars on the fourth day. In Hebrew poetry, there are parallelisms, so is this a repetition of the same event? No, there is no repetition because of the scheme in God s creative work. This scheme explains the creation of light in Days One and Four. In Genesis 1:2 the earth is without form, and void; and darkness was upon the face of the deep. Thus, God had a scheme of creation to remedy the unformed, uninhabited, and darkened earth. Observe the scheme in the creation account. The six days of creation are arranged in a symmetry of two sets of days. The first set of three days is about forming the earth, and the second set of three days is about filling the earth. In the first three days, God formed the earth with light on the first day, the sky on the second day, and land on the third day. If we think of these as the fixtures in a house, these are the lights, the ceiling, and the flooring. After forming the earth with light, the sky, and the land, God filled the earth in the last three days. On the fourth day, He created the sun and the moon for the earth. On the fifth day, God created the birds to fill the sky and fish to fill the seas. On the sixth day, God created animals to fill the land, and finally He created man to live on the land. So the scheme of the creation account is symmetrical: God first formed the earth and then He filled the earth. Notice also the correspondence between the days. Day Four corresponds to Day One in the creation of light, Day Five corresponds to Day Two in the sky for the birds, and Day Six corresponds to Day Three with the land for the animals and man. This scheme of forming and filling the earth shows us that there is order in creation. The earth was not formed and filled in a haphazard fashion. There is order in creation because God is not the Author of confusion (1 Corinthians 14:33). Now let us proceed to II. The Sequence of the Creation Week. The third verse begins with the simple clause, And God said. Creation did not begin by chance or accident, but by the word of God. Creation originated by divine fiat. God spoke, and it was done. Psalm 33:9 For he spake, and it was done; he commanded, and it stood fast. Hebrews 11:3 Through faith we understand that the worlds were framed by the word of God, so that things which are seen were not made of things which do appear. Each day of creation was according to the determinate will of God. 1. The First Day of Creation. Genesis 1:3-5 3 And God said, Let there be light: and there was light. 4 And God saw the light, that it was good: and God divided the light from the darkness. 5 And God called the light Day, and the darkness he called Night. And the evening and the morning were the first day.

4 4 Before God created anything, there was nothing. What about the darkness? Our minds can only conceive of light and darkness. If there is light, there is no darkness; if it is dark, there is no light. But what is it like without light and darkness? Before there was anything, there was no light and no darkness. Darkness itself is a creation of God. In Psalm 104:20 the psalmist wrote, Thou makest darkness, and it is night. When God called light into existence, the picture is like that of someone who comes into a dark room, and before he does anything else, he turns on the light. The separation of light from the darkness also points to the earth rotating on its axis. God created light because life cannot exist without it. What is this light? The Bible does not explain the source of the light on the first day of creation. God is the ultimate source of light, so there is no need for Him to create light which is inherent to Himself. According to Revelation 21:23, there is no need of the sun or the moon in the new heaven and new earth because the glory of God and Christ, the Lamb of God, will provide the light. What about the sun? Some think that God created the sun on the first day but from a geocentric perspective, the sun is not seen from the earth until the fourth day. Could the light be shining from a glowing mass of matter that God would make into the sun on the fourth day? This is possible. In any case, the source and nature of this light is not revealed to us. We are simply told that light existed because God commanded it to exist. It should not be difficult for us to believe that God is able to command light to appear even without the sun. And the evening and the morning were the first day. The first day of creation began in the evening. For this reason, the Jewish day begins at 6 in the evening. Does this mean that the first day and the beginning of the world began at 6 pm? It is an interesting thought. 2. The Second Day of Creation. Genesis 1:6-8 6 And God said, Let there be a firmament in the midst of the waters, and let it divide the waters from the waters. 7 And God made the firmament, and divided the waters which were under the firmament from the waters which were above the firmament: and it was so. 8 And God called the firmament Heaven. And the evening and the morning were the second day. As God continued to give form to the world, He next brought into being a firmament. The firmament is the spread out expanse called Heaven. Even as the word is capitalized in Genesis 1:8, this is not the abode of God, but it is the sky. We know that the firmament is the sky because of Genesis 1:9 and 20. In Genesis 1:9 the waters under the heaven, and in Genesis 1:20 the birds that fly above the earth in the open firmament of heaven restrict the meaning of Heaven to the blue sky in our atmosphere. In its original state, the earth was covered with water and wrapped with a heavy fog of water. God formed the sky by dividing the waters on the surface of the earth and the waters above it. God separated the thick water-laden fog as effortlessly as He divided the waters of the Red Sea. This act of creation is a hydrological feat because of the weight of water in the

5 5 air. It is estimated that the amount of vapour continually suspended in the earth s atmosphere is 54 trillion, 460 billion tons. Water is 773 times the weight of air. (John Phillips, Exploring Genesis, p. 41). These are the current figures, mind you; on that second day, the weight of water above the earth would have been much heavier. Only the power of the Almighty God can lift water into the sky from the surface of the earth! 3. The Third Day of Creation. Genesis 1: And God said, Let the waters under the heaven be gathered together unto one place, and let the dry land appear: and it was so. 10 And God called the dry land Earth; and the gathering together of the waters called he Seas: and God saw that it was good. 11 And God said, Let the earth bring forth grass, the herb yielding seed, and the fruit tree yielding fruit after his kind, whose seed is in itself, upon the earth: and it was so. 12 And the earth brought forth grass, and herb yielding seed after his kind, and the tree yielding fruit, whose seed was in itself, after his kind: and God saw that it was good. 13 And the evening and the morning were the third day. After separating the waters to form the sky, God commanded land to arise from the sea, perhaps by seismic and volcanic activity. The dry land would then be suitable for plant life, animal life, and human life. As the dry land appeared, God brought into being a profusion of flora that could reproduce and crossbreed into many new varieties; but note the frequent appearance of the phrase, after his kind. This means that there are limits beyond which major groups of the created order cannot cross. At this point, let me repeat the scheme of the creation account. In the first three days, God formed the earth with light, the sky, and the land. Then in the next three days, God filled the earth. 4. The Fourth Day of Creation. Genesis 1: And God said, Let there be lights in the firmament of the heaven to divide the day from the night; and let them be for signs, and for seasons, and for days, and years: 15 And let them be for lights in the firmament of the heaven to give light upon the earth: and it was so. 16 And God made two great lights; the greater light to rule the day, and the lesser light to rule the night: he made the stars also. 17 And God set them in the firmament of the heaven to give light upon the earth, 18 And to rule over the day and over the night, and to divide the light from the darkness: and God saw that it was good. 19 And the evening and the morning were the fourth day. The Hebrew text of these verses may not indicate that the sun, moon, and stars came into existence at this time. Notice that the word for create ( bara ) used earlier in the chapter does not occur in Genesis 1:16. This may mean that God created all the heavenly bodies in the earlier stages of creation in Genesis 1:1 and now they begin to affect the earth. The sun and the moon not only give light, but they also regulate the days, seasons, and years for the earth. Before the invention of the mechanical clock, people calculated time and seasons according to the sun and the moon. The Israelites observed their religious feasts according to a lunar calendar.

6 6 5. The Fifth Day of Creation. Genesis 1: And God said, Let the waters bring forth abundantly the moving creature that hath life, and fowl that may fly above the earth in the open firmament of heaven. 21 And God created great whales, and every living creature that moveth, which the waters brought forth abundantly, after their kind, and every winged fowl after his kind: and God saw that it was good. 22 And God blessed them, saying, Be fruitful, and multiply, and fill the waters in the seas, and let fowl multiply in the earth. 23 And the evening and the morning were the fifth day. As the creative process continued, the waters of the earth were now ready for marine life, and the skies are prepared for fowl. God s statement Let the waters bring forth abundantly indicates the rapid filling of the waters with marine life. The skies were also being filled with birds. Then God created great whales. The word created means that these huge sea creatures were the direct creation of God, not the product of evolution. Why the mention of great whales in particular? In the Babylonian story of creation, a dragon was killed in a fierce battle, and its body was split in half. The upper half was made into the sky, and the lower half became the earth. (John J. Davis, Paradise to Prison: Studies in Genesis, p. 69). To counter the pagan stories of earth s creation, Moses wrote about the great whales, the biggest creatures in the sea, as the direct creation of God. The children of Israel had lived more than 400 years in Egypt, and they were familiar with the gods of Egypt. God dismissed all the Egyptian gods as impotent and false through the plagues. Here in the Genesis account, God showed the contrast between Himself as the Creator-God and the pagan idols. For example, the Egyptians worshipped the sun as their god, but Moses made it clear that the sun is one of God s creations. The point is that God has no rivals to His power and authority! As the land, the oceans and the skies began to be filled with animal life of all kinds, God was pleased with the result. In Genesis 1:21 He saw that it was good. God had the same impression on the third day (Genesis 1:12), on the fourth day (Genesis 1:18), and again on the sixth day (Genesis 1:25). It was all good! God is the standard of good. We may downplay the goodness of God s primeval creation; we may think to ourselves, What is so good about living in the Garden of Eden? But our standard of good is very low. If we enjoy the flora exhibits at the world-class Gardens by the Bay, the Garden of Eden is certainly beyond comparison. We just have no idea what good really means! When God saw that His creation was good, we can be sure that His standard far exceeds our feeble imagination. 6. The Sixth Day of Creation. Genesis 1: And God said, Let the earth bring forth the living creature after his kind, cattle, and creeping thing, and beast of the earth after his kind: and it was so. 25 And God made the beast of the earth after his kind, and cattle after their kind, and every thing that creepeth upon the earth after his kind: and God saw that it was good. On the sixth day, God made the beast of the earth : these are the animals in the wild. God made the cattle : these are the domesticated animals such as the oxen and sheep.

7 7 Then God made every thing that creepeth upon the earth : these may be the smaller animals such as the squirrel, rabbit, or what we call the creepie-crawlies. God surveyed all the animals He made and pronounced them very good. It could not be otherwise! Now for His final creation. Genesis 1: And God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness: and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth. 27 So God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him; male and female created he them. For His crowning act, God created man in His own image. Note that when God spoke about creating man, He used three first person plural pronouns, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness. These pronouns indicate plurality in the Godhead. All three persons in the Godhead were active in creation. Again, note that man was a special creation of God. In Genesis 1:27 three times we read that God created man with the use of the Hebrew verb bara. The repetition of this word is a strong refutation of evolution. There are people who would rather be linked to animals than see themselves as creatures made in God s image! On the sixth day, God made man male and female. This fact is clearly stated in Genesis 1:27, but the details of the woman appear in Genesis 2. As a special creation of God, human beings were produced in His image and likeness. God is a Spirit, so what does it mean to possess the image and likeness of God? The likeness to God involved both a natural and a moral likeness. By nature, man is like God in that he is a personal being with self-consciousness, self-determination, and knowledge or intellect. Man s moral likeness to God consisted of his sinless nature. Thus on account of man s natural and moral likeness, he could have fellowship with God. But when man sinned, he lost the moral likeness of God and became separated from God. However, fallen man still possesses a natural likeness to God. James 3:9 Therewith bless we God, even the Father; and therewith curse we men, which are made after the similitude of God. Think of it. On account that we are made in the likeness of God, would it make a difference in our treatment of others? It should. We should not treat others as though they are animals, or less-than-human as we are! Are we more loving toward animals than to fellow human beings? God made man to have dominion over all creatures. Despite his fallen nature, man still exercises the dominion of nature. James 3:7 For every kind of beasts, and of birds, and of serpents, and of things in the sea, is tamed, and hath been tamed of mankind: God put Adam in the Garden to cultivate it, not to abuse it. However, sinful man exploits the earth instead of caring for it.

8 8 Genesis 1:28 And God blessed them, and God said unto them, Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth, and subdue it: and have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over every living thing that moveth upon the earth. Notice the word replenish. This word in the King James Version gives to some the impression that the earth was once populated before the catastrophic judgment in the gap between Genesis 1:1 and 1:2. But the word ought to be translated as fill, not replenish. In that first week, God is filling the earth with animal and plant life, so what is there to replenish? Genesis 1: And God said, Behold, I have given you every herb bearing seed, which is upon the face of all the earth, and every tree, in the which is the fruit of a tree yielding seed; to you it shall be for meat. 30 And to every beast of the earth, and to every fowl of the air, and to every thing that creepeth upon the earth, wherein there is life, I have given every green herb for meat: and it was so. God gave every green plant for food to man and to the other creatures, but the text does not say whether man and all the other animals were vegetarians. The primary point is that God had made provisions for all living creatures, and not whether they were carnivores or herbivores. Genesis 1:31 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. At the end of His creative work, God saw it all as very good. Conclusion There are people who believe that God is the Creator, but they cannot believe that Genesis 1 is the literal account of creation. They think that the theories of science outweighs the revelation of God in the Bible. Thus, even believers in Christ turn to theistic evolution. However, the testimony of the New Testament affirms the Genesis account of creation as literal, factual, and historical. If we do not believe the God-inspired writing of Moses in Genesis 1, why should we believe that the incarnation and resurrection of Christ are true? Why should we believe in the forgiveness of our sins and the redemption of our souls through faith in Christ? But we read the apostle Paul in 2 Corinthians 4:6 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. Just as God created light to shine upon the darkened earth in the beginning, the same Almighty God is able to shine the Gospel of Jesus Christ into our hearts, so that we can see ourselves as sinners before God, and to believe in Christ as our personal Saviour. If you are unsaved, pray to God to shine the truth of His Gospel into your heart and make you a believer in Christ.

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