God Brings Order, Imitate Him (Genesis 1:1-2:3)
The passage of Scripture we are about to move into is hotly controversial and everyone knows it. It is very likely that I am going to disappoint some people in the room as I speak on Genesis 1 this morning. There are probably dramatically different views on Genesis 1 within this room.
The truth is that I have wandered through a forest of different views on the text we will cover today. I started out believing that the Earth was created in 7 literal days and that the Earth is young. Then I spent some time believing that maybe there was a gap that existed between Genesis 1:2 and Genesis 1:3, that is known as the Gap Theory. There are many well known adherents to this view, such as A.W. Criswell and A.W. Pink. I thought through the Day Age Theory and never found it appealing to my intellectual curiosity. One view that I really thought through a lot and was very close to committing myself to was the Framework Hypothesis. Meredith Kline popularized it and taught that the days were a literary device employed to teach that God is the King over all. But in the end, I came back to the place I had begun.
The process is boring to talk through, but some concerns really brought me to this place. The first was that the structure of Genesis 1 is only semi-poetic. The use of the days as a stylistic device rather than an actual day does not seem to be what is happening in the text. Nor does it seem that I could read it completely untethered from anything historical. And so, the structure needed for the Framework Hypothesis to be true just doesn’t seem to be there. Therefore, I do not believe that I can hold to the “Framework Hypothesis”.
Death becomes a real problem for the Gap Theory and the Day Age Theory. Genesis 2:15-17 states,
“The LORD God took the man and put him in the garden of Eden to work it and keep it. And the LORD God commanded the man, saying, “You may surely eat of every tree of the garden, but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die.” (Genesis 2:15-17 ESV)
It does seem to me that if I read the text of Genesis 1 as being descriptive of an Evolutionary Process, then I have allowed death to precede the creation of people and through death people are actually created.
And so, here I am, firmly planted in the camp that our society would call “ignorant” and “crazy”. And, to be honest, I am okay with that.
The biggest concern of mine was that in order for the Scriptures to be true then there had to be a first man. In other words, there had to be an actual Adam if there was going to be a Second Adam, Jesus.
I wanted to be up front and clear about the way that I interpret the text of Scripture. And I also want to make clear that I understand that there are likely people in this room that disagree with my interpretation of that.
The Main Thing
Though I do believe in a literal 7-day creation of the Earth, I do not believe that is the main message of Genesis 1. As Gordon Wenham stated in his commentary over the Book of Genesis,
“The Bible-versus-science debate has, most regrettably, sidetracked readers of Genesis 1. Instead of reading the chapter as a triumphant affirmation of the power and wisdom of God and the wonder of His creation, we have been too often bogged down in attempting to squeeze Scripture into the mold of the latest scientific hypothesis or distorting scientific facts to fit a particular interpretation. When allowed to speak for itself, Genesis 1 looks beyond such minutae. Its proclamation of the God of grace and power who undergirds the world and gives it purpose justifies the scientific approach to nature. Genesis 1, by further affirming the unique status of man, his place in the divine program, and God’s care for him, gives a hope to mankind that atheistic philosophies can never legitimately supply.”[1]
And so, today we will see that God, who is King over all, created and brought perfect order from chaos.
The world wants chaos and not order. God loves and creates perfect order. Here are some examples.
The family structure is moving toward chaos with the applause of many Americans. This is not some unintentional happenstance. It is the direction that things need to go if people are going to be free of all sexual restraints.
Education itself is moving toward chaos. It was once thought that the job of the educator was to form them into human beings that could function in society. Now education tends toward embracing the differences in the individual child that makes them become the best them they can, no matter what that means for society.
Even humanity is becoming more chaotic as we are being told that we are to embrace an ideology that holds to feelings and emotions over biology. To split up the mind and body to such a degree that doctors are now being told that we cannot know the gender of a baby at birth tells us how far down this chaotic trail we have come.
As Christians we must understand that we are to be people who embrace the order that God has worked into the world. We are not to be people who embrace chaotic ideologies that seek to undermine God’s order. We are to be people who, like God, love order and seek to bring things around us into order.
God created and brought perfect order from chaos by His spoken word.
God Created Out Of Nothing
Last week we discussed Genesis 1:1.
“In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth.” (Genesis 1:1 ESV)
But what God created was something unlike anything that we would ever call the Universe or Earth. The ESV renders the description of what God created as “formless and void”. Another way of saying this would be “total chaos”.
“The earth was without form and void, and darkness was over the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God was hovering over the face of the waters.” (Genesis 1:2 ESV)
This chaotic mass was being held together by the work of the Holy Spirit. I understand that Moses did not understand this to be the Third Person of the Trinity at the time of his writing this down, but we can see this is the case now thousands of years later.
In fact, this would mean that this is the first time in history that the Trinity acted together. God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit existed long before the creation of the world, yet history began at this moment and at this moment our Triune God was working together to create the world. This chaotic mass was brought forth out of nothing and it was held together by the power of the Holy Spirit. And, we read later in Scripture that God the Son did the work of creation.
Speaking of Christ, Paul says,
“For by Him all things were created, in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities—all things were created through Him and for Him.” (Colossians 2:16 ESV)
So we find here in the opening lines of the Scriptures, a description of how the three persons of the Trinity worked together to create the world. God the Father is credited here with the act of creation. We might say that He was the architect of creation. God the Son carried out the plans of the Father. And here, the Holy Spirit was holding the chaotic mass together.
Every time that I have read this text over the past few years my thoughts have been drawn to Amanda’s playdough. Weird thought…I know. But at our home Amanda makes the playdough. She cooks it in a pot and it comes out a warm and oddly shaped ball of dough. The whole family loves to stick their hands in the warm playdough and then it really looks weird. And, from there the kids work to create different things with it. But everything they make with the playdough comes from that oddly shaped lump of dough that Amanda made.
I realize that it is not a perfect illustration by any stretch of the imagination, but God first brought forth the stuff of creation. And then we see that the Holy Spirit was at work holding this chaotic mass together.
This leads us to an interesting thought. Where did that mass come from? Well, when Amanda makes playdough there are ingredients that she puts in the pan and cooks. But with the creation of the Universe there was nothing. God brought forth that chaotic mass from nothing. And from there God would bring forth all things.
God created all things “ex-nihilo”, or “out of nothing”. That is incredible and awesome power. It is power that is unfathomable. I can think of a few things that I can make. Supposedly I am going to bake a desert of some sort for our desert auction, but I don’t know that I’ve baked a thing in my life. But I am going to have instructions and ingredients sitting around to do that with. God created out of nothing. There was no lumber sitting around for God to use. There was no flour for God to use. There was nothing and then God brought forth something.
That is something only God can do. And it reveals so many things to us about God and about ourselves.
We see in this that God is worthy of all honor and all glory. He is worthy of worship.
And without His decision to create there would have been no creation. All things are dependent upon Him. This means that I can never truly be independent. Yes, I can be a responsible adult and not live in my parents’ basement, but I can never be completely independent. As a creature I am always going to be dependent upon God in some way shape or form even if I have a job and am able to provide for my family. Every breath I take is me breathing in God’s air. I am not independent. I am a creature, therefore I am dependent upon Him.
Teach these things to your family. Teach them that all things did not make themselves, but God brought forth the world. Let them know that they are dependent creatures. Teach them to thank God for their food. Teach them to pray for provisions for tomorrow.
God Brought Forth Order By His Word (Genesis 1:3-2:3)
Other religions worshipped the sun, moon, rivers, oceans, nature, and different creatures, but we understand that God created them. God created all of it. By the Word of God these things were brought forth.
Even at the time of Moses’s writing this down the prevalent view was that these different things were “gods”. Consider the Egyptians. You studied them in history. They had an entire pantheon of gods that they worshipped. They worshipped the sun, here God created the sun. They worshipped rivers and livestock. God created those things. And later in Genesis we will find Abram, who was likely a moon-worshiper before he followed the Lord. The moon goddess “Nanna” was thought to reign over the other Mesopotamian gods. God created the moon too.
This entire account reveals God’s superiority over the things that the other ancient peoples were worshipping. And the message for us is clear. God reigns supreme. And He made it all by bringing order out of chaos.
This entire account is in contrast to the chaos of the initial creation. Think about what we see in the creation account. Light and darkness are created. The waters are separated. Heavens are created. The oceans are created. Dry land is created…order is being birthed from chaos and God is calling it all good. Plants are created bearing other plants and seeds according to their own kind…you see order being brought forth from the chaos. God created the stars in the sky to mark out and organize the calendar, and the sun and the moon….order is coming forth out of the chaos. Living creatures are brought forth to live in the waters and birds for the air, our creative God has brought forth beauty and order from the chaotic mass. And He speaks a word of blessing over the creatures,
“Be fruitful and multiply and fill the waters in the seas, and let the birds multiply on the earth.” (Genesis 1:22 ESV)
Living creatures were made that would bring life according to their own kind… God creatively brought more beauty and order from the chaotic mass. And then, the pinnacle of God’s creation was mankind whom He again spoke a blessing over.
“Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and subdue it, and have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over every living thing that moves on the earth.” (Genesis 1:28 ESV)
In this moment, we find that God brought even more order into the world. When God made mankind, He made something different than the rest of creation. He brought forth a Vice Regent. Humans were to be rulers over creation that would rule in the King’s stead.
More will be discussed concerning humans and their being created in the Image of God and their role as vice regents in creation, but for now I want us to focus in on what God has done.
God created out of nothing and then brought forth beautiful order out of chaos.
Societies once understood this and functioned with this in the background. In fact, there would be no science without understanding this. People of the past understood that God made things, and made them orderly, therefore they had the ability to study the world and how it worked. In other words, God made the world orderly, therefore it can be studied. It’s hard to do science experiments on things that don’t behave in an orderly manner. And it was God who brought about this order by the Word of His mouth.
We see a stark contrast here between God and everything else that people worship. God brought about order simply by the spoken Word. What He says happens. And whatever He ordered the Universe to be like is how it behaves. The world has not always existed, God has. The world has not brought itself into working order, God did. And God created it to behave the way that it does.
The point that I am driving at here is that God is King and there are no rivals. There is nothing and no one on this Earth or anywhere else that can compete with Him. There were many Mesopotamian idols and there are many idols within our own human hearts.
Why do we allow things to compete with Him in our own hearts?
Why do we choose to strive after so many things thar are not God exalting?
Why do we choose to love the things of this world?
God has obviously shown Himself to be superior to all things. Now we need to live in that understanding. God is supreme and our lives are to be molded to His will. There are no rivals and we should not behave as if there are.
Mothers and fathers, lead your family to gawk at the world in awe and wonder. Lead them to examine the world around them and see the glory of all that God has made. Give your children an intense appreciation for the world that surrounds them. Cheer them on as they stare in awe and wonder at the impressiveness of a particular rock. Agree with them as they look with new eyes at the wonder of what you and I call a weed. Lead them to see the wonder of all that God has made and the order that He has brought about. And lead your family in bringing order out of chaos.
Mothers and fathers, order your homes well. Make them orderly places and spaces. Image forth your Creator and Lord who brings order out of chaos.
And order your family well. Order it as God ordained it to be with Christ as the head of the Church and the Family under the authority of the Church and the wife under the authority of the husband and the children under the authority of the parents.
Your child does not come out of the womb ready for life on Earth. Despite what our society says, that child needs to be formed by their parents into fully function and God-honoring human beings. Left to the child’s own devices they will spoil.
We are God’s Vice Regents, commanded to rule over the Earth in a God-honoring and God-glorifying way. Let us seek to bring those areas of chaos into submission. When we do so, we image forth our Lord’s love of order in the world.
We as human beings have made a chaotic mess of our lives through rebellion against God. God created all things, and He created all things good. But through the sinfulness and rebellion of man things did not stay this way. Chaos again came and with it death. And because of our rebellion we all earned for ourselves, death…eternal death and separation from God in a place of punishment called Hell. But God did not leave us this way. He provided for us a Savior, Jesus Christ. God the Son, the Second Person of the Godhead who we said earlier did the act of creating, came to Earth. He lived a perfect life on behalf of sinners. He accomplished everything that they were supposed to accomplish. And He died on the cross, paying the full punishment for sin. God’s justice was placed upon Him. Three days later, He rose from the grave. Jesus completely accomplished our righteous standing before God and eternal life. The response to that message is to turn from ruling your own life and trust Him. Abandon earning your own right standing before God, you can never do that anyway, and trust in the One who accomplished that for you. Give up ruling your own life and trust in Him. And one day, when Christ returns, He will finish the task of making all things new and bring complete order to all of creation that will last forever.
God Was Satisfied With Order (Genesis 1:31-2:3)
Over and over throughout the creation account we see God proclaiming things as being “good”. But it is not until God creates human beings that He judges His work to be “very good”. And it is at that time, after day 6 that God sat down completely satisfied with His work. The perfect order of Creation had been accomplished. And God was very pleased with the world and the order that He brought forth in the world. The divine approval and satisfaction with the work did not come until He had completed the task.
Christian, God loves order and not disorder. We are to stand against those things that bring about chaos in our world.
We oppose chaos in the breakdown of families. But our fight against chaos does not begin out in the world, it begins with how we work in our own homes to bring about order. We see the damage done families being thrown into disorder and chaos and we speak about it, but we fight against chaos tooth and nail in our own homes.
We oppose chaos that is brought about in our society’s view of marriage. We stand against changes in the definition of marriage. God defined marriage long ago. But our primary fight in our society is not against those people in ungodly marriages out in the world. Our fight is primarily in our own marriages. We fight against chaos in our own homes and fight against disordered marriages.
We oppose the chaos that runs rampant in our education system. We speak out against the poison that oftentimes drips into the ears of children all over the country. But our primary fight is not outside. It is inside our realm of influence in the home. We ensure that our children receive a quality education. And we ensure that our children learn those things that are pure and true.
And we oppose the chaos that has been introduced to what it means to be human. The splitting of biology from human feelings and lopping off body parts to try and make the two match is just about the most chaotic thing that I can imagine. We actively oppose that, but our primary fight will be within the walls of this Church and within our families as we seek to educate ourselves and to teach our children what it means to be a human being…a creature made in the divine image.
And we oppose the chaos of all darkness as we spread the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ. It is in Him and only Him the chaos of our fallen world will one day be brought back into order. And it is only in Him that those who live in the chaos of darkness will find eternal life.
This work will never be complete. But as chaos is brought into order, we need to be people who rest satisfied and rejoicing in the work that God is doing. As God brings people to faith in Christ, we need to rejoice greatly in that. As we see families ordered well, we need to rejoice in that with those families. We need to be people who rejoice as the chaos is beaten back and God’s order reigns upon the Earth.
Conclusion
God created and brought perfect order from chaos by His spoken word. And that is beautiful. We admire and worship God for all that He is and all that He has done. Part of that worship is taking our roles as God’s image bearers on this earth seriously and bringing order into chaos wherever we can. And when we see the chaos being beaten back and God’s order reigning we should rejoice.
And we look forward to that day when God’s order will reign supreme
R. Dwain Minor
[1] Gordon J. Wenham, “World Biblical Commentary Volume 1: Genesis 1-15”, Zondervan, 1987, p. 40.