Bible Study: Genesis 1

Chapter 1, Genesis 1:1-31, the six days of creation

God created the world in six days. Whether this is a literal 24 hours day or not is something that is hotly debated. According to God’s reckoning, 1 day is as 1000 years and 1000 years is as 1 day, 2 Peter 3:8. God created, transcends, and is outside of the time, and space continuum. There are two schools of thought regarding the age of the universe. Is the age billions of years old or is the universe 6000 plus years old? There is also the gap theory. Is there an interval of time between Genesis 1:1 and Genesis 1:2? These are hotly debated issues among Bible scholars. As far as the Bible is concerned God is the creator of the universe. In the beginning, God created the heavens and earth. The universe is not a product of a massive explosion billions of years ago. The universe is not a product of random chance and mutations. Human beings did not evolve from monkeys or gorillas

2 Peter 3:8, “But don’t forget this one thing, beloved, that one day is with the Lord as a thousand years and a thousand years as one day.”

Prayer:

Heavenly Father, help us to understand Your word. We pray for the anointing of the Holy Spirit to enlighten us and to give us wisdom and understanding. Open our hearts, minds, eyes, ears, and spirit to receive, understand, see, apply, honour, and hear the truth of Your word, in Jesus’ name, Amen.

Verses 1-4, 1 In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth. 2 The earth was formless and empty. Darkness was on the surface of the deep and God’s Spirit was hovering over the surface of the waters. 3 God said, “Let there be light,” and there was light. 4 God saw the light, and saw that it was good. God divided the light from the darkness. 5 God called the light “day”, and the darkness he called “night”. There was evening and there was morning, the first day.

The Bible begins with “in the beginning God created”. We do not know when this beginning was. Is it billions of years or thousands of years? God created the universe in eternity past. The universe did not evolve by random chance over billions of years. It takes a lot more faith to believe in evolution than creation. God has no beginning. He is outside the time-space continuum. He is pre-existent, self-existent, eternal, from everlasting to everlasting, from eternity past to eternity future, from the Alpha, and to the Omega.

The six days of creation have a pre-set template, starting with “let there be…..” and ending with ”there was evening and there was morning………”

On the first day, God created the heavens, the earth, and the light. There are three heavens. The atmosphere from the ground to the clouds is the first heaven. The outer space from the clouds to the galaxies is the second heaven. The abode of God’s throne beyond the galaxies is the third heaven. When God created the earth, it was dark, empty, and structureless. Hebrews word for create is bara, which means to create something out of nothing, or ex-nihilo in latin.

God separated the light and the darkness, calling the darkness, evening, and the light, morning, and this was the first day. God defined a day as one evening and one morning. A Jewish day starts from 6 pm in the evening until 6 pm the next evening.

The Holy Spirit circled around the formless, structureless, dark, empty, and watery earth. God spoke, let there be light and light appeared on site. This was not the light of the sun but the light of God’s glory, Revelation 21:23. Jesus Christ is the word of God’s word, John 1:1.

The Trinitarian God of the Bible, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit created the universe. God saw that the light was good. He separated the light from the darkness and called them day and night. Hebrews for God is Elohim, a plural noun.

In the presence of the Holy Spirit, God, the Father spoke, and it came to be. Jesus Christ is the spoken Word of God, the father.

Revelation 21:23, “The city has no need for the sun, neither of the moons, to shine, for the very glory of God illuminated it, and its lamp is the Lamb.”

John 1:1, “in the beginning was the word, and the word was with God, and the word was God.”

Verses 6-8, 6 God said, “Let there be an expanse in the middle of the waters and let it divide the waters from the waters.” 7 God made the expanse, and divided the waters which were under the expanse from the waters which were above the expanse; and it was so. 8 God called the expanse “sky”. There was evening and there was morning, a second day.

On the second day, God separated the watery universe into two compartments, one on top and one on the bottom, in between the sky or atmosphere. The compartment of water above the sky protected the earth below.

Verses 9-13, 9 God said, “Let the waters under the sky be gathered together to one place, and let the dry land appear;” and it was so. 10 God called the dry land “earth”, and the gathering together of the waters he called “seas”. God saw that it was good. 11 God said, “Let the earth yield grass, herbs yielding seeds, and fruit trees bearing fruit after their kind, with their seeds in it, on the earth;” and it was so. 12 The earth yielded grass, herbs yielding seed after their kind, and trees bearing fruit, with their seeds in it, after their kind; and God saw that it was good. 13 There was evening and there was morning, a third day.

On the third day, God separated the land and the water below the atmosphere to form the earth and the oceans. God created the trees, the plants, the herbs, and the grass, and saw that they were good.

Verses 14-19, 14 God said, “Let there be lights in the expanse of the sky to divide the day from the night; and let them be for signs to mark seasons, days, and years; 15 and let them be for lights in the expanse of the sky to give light on the earth;” and it was so. 16 God made the two great lights: the greater light to rule the day, and the lesser light to rule the night. He also made the stars. 17 God set them in the expanse of the sky to give light to the earth, 18 and to rule over the day and over the night, and to divide the light from the darkness. God saw that it was good. 19 There was evening and there was morning, a fourth day.

On the fourth day, God created seasons, days, weeks, months, years, sun, moon, stars, and galaxies. The sunlight shines in the day. The reflected light from the moon and stars shines in the night. On day 1, God provided light with His glory. On day 4, God created the sun to reflect its light to the moon, and the stars.

Verses 20-25, 20 God said, “Let the waters abound with living creatures, and let birds fly above the earth in the open expanse of the sky.” 21 God created the large sea creatures and every living creature that moves, with which the waters swarmed, after their kind, and every winged bird after its kind. God saw that it was good. 22 God blessed them, saying, “Be fruitful, and multiply, and fill the waters in the seas, and let birds multiply on the earth.” 23 There was evening and there was morning, a fifth day. 24 God said, “Let the earth produce living creatures after their kind, livestock, creeping things, and animals of the earth after their kind;” and it was so. 25 God made the animals of the earth after their kind, and the livestock after their kind, and everything that creeps on the ground after its kind. God saw that it was good.

On the fifth day, God created all the sea creatures, the land animals, the insects, the creeping things, and the birds. God saw that they were good, blessed, and summoned them to be fruitful and multiply.

Verses 26-31, 26 God said, “Let’s make man in our image, after our likeness. Let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the birds of the sky, and over the livestock, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.” 27 God created man in his own image. In God’s image he created him; male and female he created them. 28 God blessed them. God said to them, “Be fruitful, multiply, fill the earth, and subdue it. Have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the sky, and over every living thing that moves on the earth.” 29 God said, “Behold, I have given you every herb yielding seed, which is on the surface of all the earth, and every tree, which bears fruit yielding seed. It will be your food. 30 To every animal of the earth, and to every bird of the sky, and to everything that creeps on the earth, in which there is life, I have given every green herb for food;” and it was so. 31 God saw everything that he had made, and, behold, it was very good. There was evening and there was morning, a sixth day.

On the sixth day, God created men and women in His own image. He commanded men to have dominion over the sea creatures, the land animals, the birds, the livestock, and the creeping things. He commanded them to be fruitful and multiply. God commanded them to eat the fruits, the herbs, the seeds, and the plants. God also allowed the land animals, birds, and sea creatures to eat fruits, herbs, seeds, and plants. God commanded humans, animals, birds, and sea creatures to be herbivores and not carnivores. On days 1 to 5, God declared His creation as good but only on day 6, did He declare His creation as very good. God created, human being, the crowning glory of His creation in His own image.

Genesis 1:28-30 is the Adamic or Edenic covenant, “Be fruitful, multiply, fill the earth, and subdue it. Have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the sky, and over every living thing that moves on the earth……..”

God created human beings in His own image, to have dominion over the animals, birds, sea creatures, and all living things. Human beings will reproduce, multiply, and populate the earth. Human beings, animals, birds, and sea creatures will be vegetarian.

Application:

Just as the Trinity was at work during creation, the Trinity was also at work during our conversion. Before we become Christians, our lives were dark, formless, empty, and purposeless. When someone shared the Gospel to us, Jesus, the word of God spoke into our hearts, and the Holy Spirit convicted us of sins. The light of Jesus shines into our hearts and illuminate our hearts with His glorious light. We confessed, believed, and surrendered our lives to Jesus. We came into the light and our lives became meaningful and purposeful. See 2 Corinthians 4:6.

2 Corinthians 4:6, seeing it is God who said, “Light will shine out of darkness,” who has shone in our hearts, to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.

Prayer:

Heavenly Father, thank You for giving us the light of Christ to illuminate and to recreate us, to convict, correct, renew, and conform us to Your image. Thank You for saving us and regenerating our spiritual lives, in Jesus’ name, Amen.