Genesis 1: Creation With A Design

During the Creation Conference at Swissvale Baptist Church I latched on to this little bit of Bible Study. Even though the current trend of “Intelligent Design” (ID) is towards some sort or other of theistic evolution, the very Creation narrative helps to refute that notion.

1 In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.

2 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.

3 And God said, “Let there be light,” and there was light. 4 God saw that the light was good, and He separated the light from the darkness. 5 God called the light “day,” and the darkness he called “night.” And there was evening, and there was morning—the first day.

6 And God said, “Let there be an expanse between the waters to separate water from water.” 7 So God made the expanse and separated the water under the expanse from the water above it. And it was so. 8 God called the expanse “sky.” And there was evening, and there was morning—the second day.

9 And God said, “Let the water under the sky be gathered to one place, and let dry ground appear.” And it was so. 10 God called the dry ground “land,” and the gathered waters he called “seas.” And God saw that it was good.

11 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. 12 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. 13 And there was evening, and there was morning—the third day.

14 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, 1516 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. 17 God set them in the expanse of the sky to give light on the earth, 18 to govern the day and the night, and to separate light from darkness. And God saw that it was good. 19 And there was evening, and there was morning—the fourth day. and let them be lights in the expanse of the sky to give light on the earth.” And it was so.

20 And God said, “Let the water teem with living creatures, and let birds fly above the earth across the expanse of the sky.” 21 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. 2223 And there was evening, and there was morning—the fifth day. 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.”

24 And God said, “Let the land produce living creatures according to their kinds: livestock, creatures that move along the ground, and wild animals, each according to its kind.” And it was so. 25 God made the wild animals according to their kinds, the livestock according to their kinds, and all the creatures that move along the ground according to their kinds. And God saw that it was good.

26 Then God said, “Let us make man in our image, in our likeness, and let them rule over the fish of the sea and the birds of the air, over the livestock, over all the earth, and over all the creatures that move along the ground.”

27 So God created man in his own image,
in the image of God he created him;
male and female he created them.

28 God blessed them and said to them, “Be fruitful and increase in number; fill the earth and subdue it. Rule over the fish of the sea and the birds of the air and over every living creature that moves on the ground.”

29 Then God said, “I give you every seed-bearing plant on the face of the whole earth and every tree that has fruit with seed in it. They will be yours for food. 30 And to all the beasts of the earth and all the birds of the air and all the creatures that move on the ground—everything that has the breath of life in it—I give every green plant for food.” And it was so.

31 God saw all that he had made, and it was very good. And there was evening, and there was morning—the sixth day.

There is a “bigger” structure to this account than merely a seven day creation. It starts in verses 1 and 2. The heavens and the earth are created (verse 1) and they are formless and empty (verse 2). Now pay attention to that detail, formless and empty because that is the outline for the rest of the chapter, giving form to the formless and filling the void.

Since the earth is without form at this point the logical thing for God to do is to give shape to the shapeless. He begins exactly that in verse 3 and separates the light from the dark, setting the boundaries of the universe as it were. Thus ends the first day of Creation.

In verse 6 God picks up where He left off and continues to refine creation and separates the sky from the waters above and below. That concludes the second day of Creation and on the third day He refines the scene even more. He further separates the waters below and causes dry land to appear.

We see increasing detail added as we journey through the creation week. God did not just snap His fingers and everything lept into existence. He chose a process. And not a willy-nilly process either. He firmly established by example what the universe would display, a reality based on process and logic. He made it known through His revealed Word what should be plain to our eyes, “the heavens declare the glory of God; the skies proclaim the work of his hands.”

Day 3 is a transition day of sorts. Here God completes the formation of the universe and now also begins to “fill in the void”. Along with the dry land comes plant life to begin the process of filling in. The third day ends with the Creation now complete as far as the first part (formless and empty). Now God will begin to fill His universe.

Day 4 starts very similar to Day 1, on the grand scale. The sun, moon, and stars are placed onto the scene, to denote the passage of time and to further separate the light from the darkness. Day 4 fills in the empty space created on Day 1.

Day 5 sees the completion of what was started on Day 2, the filling of the seas and skies. Creatures great and small, from the largest whale to the tiniest algae and everything in between, has its origin here. Has the pattern lept off the page to you yet? Genesis 1 is not a fable used to satisfy an ancient lack of knowledge of science and philosophy. Genesis 1 is the encapsulation of all history, botany, geology, astronomy, philosophy, and any other -ogy or -ophy you can come up with.

Now in the home stretch Day 6 brings even more life to His universe. Just as more and more details to the earth are added as the Creation Week advances, here, on the final Day of God’s work He revisits the land which He established on Day 3. He places on it life animals; wild and tame, and all “producing after their own kind”.

But now we come to the pinnacle of Creation. Up to this point we have been privy to what was being done, who was doing it, and to a degree how it was being done and for how long. But we had yet to get the answer as to why it was being done. On Day 6 we get the answer to WHY.

On Day 6 God creates His final piece of the universe; Man. Man was to be King over the Creation and God was to be his King. Man was made special, in the likeness and image of God. Man was given rulership and given blessing. Man was the why of all that God created.

Day 7, of course, sees God resting from what He had created and saw the stewardship of Man begin.

I hope that you can read Genesis 1 with more insight now that you have been given the outline. I hope that maybe even memorizing Genesis 1 has gotten that much easier now that a simple, logical summary of the Creation Week has been presented.

God creates a universe that is FORMLESS and is EMPTY. The first 3 days of the creation week adds form to the heavens and the earth. The next 3 days deal with filling the universe with the things needed for Man to take the stage on Day 6.

If there is some sort of “theistic evolution” to be found in Genesis, it is the evolution of thought and process, NOT of “molecules to man” or “hydrogen to human” hypotheses that are all the rage today in science and philosophy. God did it according to the record given, it really is that easy.