Thursday, September 14, 2006

Creation (Genesis 1:1-19)

Last night we began studying creation as recorded in Genesis (1st book of the Bible). Chapter one is packed full of events and happenings, so we didn’t get through the entire chapter, which is ok because we don’t want to rush it and miss something. We did make it to the fourth day. Here’s a systematic unpacking of what we discovered:

Day 1 (vv.1-5)
- God was before everything
- He created the heavens and the earth (earth was formless and empty)
- He created water
- The Spirit of God was hovering over the waters
- God created light, saw it was good and separated it from darkness
- He called light “day” and darkness “night”

Day 2 (vv.6-8)
- God creates the expanse between the waters below and above earth
- God calls the expanse “sky”

Day 3 (vv.9-13)
- Waters gather in one place (the Seas) and dry ground appears
- Land produces vegetation, seed-bearing plants and trees (with fruit)

Day 4 (vv.14-19)
- God creates the lights of the sky; sun, moon, and stars
- They mark the seasons, days, and years
- The sun governs our days and the moon governs our nights

We also sought to find some key words and phrases in Genesis 1:1-19. We looked for things that were repeated a lot. Here’s what we discovered:
- God saw it was good (v.4, 10, 12, 18)
- God created (vv.1-19)
- And God said (v.3, 6, 9, 11, 14)

Question of the night:
- There was light and darkness on the first day, but there was nothing created to emit the light (e.g., sun, stars). Where did the light come from? How could there be light without the sun and stars? Is this passage even talking about physical light? Or is it something else?

1 comment:

Tim Sheets said...

Good questions and good thinking! I don't think Genesis 1 is talking about evil when it refers to light/darkness because evil doesn't exist yet and God didn't create evil (it's a parasite).

Some of the commentaries I read suggest God created time when He created light/darkness. Your thoughts?