Chapter 1 1 The creation of heaven and earth, 3 of the light, 6 of the firmament, 9 of the earth separated from the

waters, 11 and made fruitful, 14 of the sun, moon, and stars, 20 of fish and fowl, 24 of beasts and cattle, 26 of man in the image of God. 29 Also the appointment of food. Gen 1.1 In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth.Ver In the beginning ..... These words remind us of the fact that everything human has a beginning. He alone who sits enthroned the sovereign Lord of time, is without beginning or end. The opening words of Scripture thus draw a striking contrast between all that is human, temporal, and finite, and that which is divine, eternal, and infinite. Reminding us of our human limitations, these words point us to Him who is ever the same, and whose years have no end (Heb. 1.10-12; Ps. 90.2, 10). Our finite minds cannot think of "the beginning" without thinking of God, for He "is the beginning" (Col. 1.18; cf. John 1.1-3). Wisdom, and all other good things, have their beginning with Him (Ps. 111.10; James 1.17). And if we are ever again to resemble our Maker, our lives and all our plans must have a new beginning in Him (Gen. 1.26, 27; cf. John 3.5; 1 John 3.1-3). It is our privilege to enjoy the confident assurance that "he which hath begun a good work" in us "will perform it until the day of Jesus Christ" (Phil. 1.6). He is "the author and finisher of our faith" (Heb. 12.2). Let us never forget the sublime fact implicit in these words"in the beginning God." This first verse of Holy Writ brings into sharp focus one of the age-old controversies between Bible believing Christians on the one hand and skeptics, atheists, and various shades of materialists on the other. The latter, who seek in different ways and in different degrees to explain the universe without God, contend that matter energy is eternal. If this be true, and if matter has the power to evolve, first into the simplest forms of life and then into the more complex, until man is reached, God is indeed unnecessary.

Genesis 1.1 affirms that God is before all else and that He is the one and only cause of all else. This verse is the foundation of all right thinking in regard to the material world. Here is set forth the impressive truth that "in the formation of our world, God was not indebted to pre-existing matter". Pantheism, the ancient heresy that robs God of personality by diffusing Him throughout all the universe, and thus makes Him synonymous with the totality of creation, is also exposed and refuted by Gen. 1.1. There is no basis for the doctrine of pantheism when one believes that God lived serene and supreme before there was a creation and thus stands above and apart from that which He has created. No declaration could be more appropriate as an introduction to Holy Writ. At the outset the reader is introduced to an Omnipotent Being, possessed of personality, will, and purpose, who, existing before all else and thus dependent on nought else, exercised His divine will and "created the heaven and the earth." No discussion of secondary questions regarding the mystery of a divine creation, either as to time or method, should be allowed to blur the fact that the real dividing line between a true and a false belief on the subject of God and the origin of our earth is acceptance or rejection of the truth set forth in this verse. Right here a word of caution should be said. For long centuries theologians have speculated on the word "beginning," hoping to discover more of God's mysterious ways than infinite wisdom has seen fit to reveal. See, for example, the discussion of the false ruin and restoration theory of creation in the Additional Note at the close of this chapter. But all speculation is idle. We know nothing of the method of creation beyond the terse Mosaic declaration, "God said," "and it was so," which is the mysterious and majestic overtone of the creation anthem. To set down as the basis of our reasoning that God must have done thus and so in creating the world, else nature's laws would have been violated, is to darken counsel with words and to give aid and comfort to the skeptic, who has ever insisted that the whole Mosaic record is incredible because it allegedly violates the laws of nature. Why should we attempt to be wise above that which is written?

Very particularly, nothing is gained by speculating as to when the matter constituting our planet was brought into existence. On the time aspect of the creation of our earth and all upon it, Genesis makes two statements: (1) "In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth" (v. 1). (2) "And on the seventh day God ended his work which he had made" (ch. 2.2). Related scriptures add nothing to what is set forth in these two texts regarding the time involved in creation. To the question: When did God create "the heaven and the earth"? we can only answer, "In the beginning." And to the question: When did God complete His work? we can only answer, "On the seventh day God ended his work" (ch. 2.2), "for in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that in them is, and rested the seventh day" (Ex. 20.11). These remarks regarding the creation account are made, not in an attempt to close the discussion, but as a confession that we are unprepared to speak with certainty beyond what is clearly revealed. The very fact that so much rests upon the creation recordeven the whole edifice of Scriptureprompts the devout and prudent Bible student to conform his declarations to the explicit words of Holy Writ. Indeed, when the broad fields of speculation tempt him to roam afar in uncharted areas of time and space, he cannot do better than to meet the temptation with the simple rejoinder, "It is written." There is always safety within the protecting bounds of Scriptural quotation marks. God created ..... The verb "to create" is from the Heb., bara which in the form here used describes an activity of God, never of men. God creates "the wind" (Amos 4.13), "a clean heart" (Ps. 51.10), and "new heavens and a new earth" (Isa. 65.17). The Hebrew words that we translate "to make," asah, "to form," yatzar, and others, frequently (but not exclusively) used in connection with human activity, imply pre-existing matter. All three words are employed in describing the creation of man. The very first words of the Bible point to the fact that the creation bears the imprint of God's own activity. The opening page of Holy Writ makes the reader acquainted with a God to whom all things animate and inanimate owe their very existence (see Heb. 11.3). The "earth" here mentioned is manifestly not the dry land, which was not separated from the waters till the third day, but our whole planet.

Gen 1.2 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. Without form, and void ..... More exactly, "waste and void," tohu wabohu. This signifies a state of wasteness and emptiness, but without implying that the earth was once perfect and then was made waste or desolate. When the words tohu wabohu appear together in other passages, such as Isa. 34.11; Jer. 4.23, they seem to be borrowed from this text, but tohu alone is frequently employed as synonymous with nonexistence, or nothingness (Isa. 40.17, 23; 49.4). Job 26.7 demonstrates the correct meaning of this word. The second half of this passage states that God "hangeth the earth upon nothing," and the first half has the parallel "he stretcheth out the north over tuho [the emptiness]." This text in Job shows clearly the meaning of tuho in Gen. 1.2, in which this and the synonymous word bohu indicate that the earth was shapeless and lifeless. Its elements were all mingled together, completely unorganized and inanimate. Darkness was upon the face of the deep ..... The "deep," from a root "to roar," "to rage," is frequently applied to the raging waters, the roaring waves, or the flood, and hence the depths of the sea (Ps. 42.7; Ex. 15.5; Deut. 8.7; Job 28.14; 38.16). "Deep" is an old word, and is here used like a proper name. The Babylonians, who retained some vague memory of the true creation story for many centuries, actually personified this word, tehom, and applied it in their mythology to a deity, Tiamat, out of whose corpse they believed the earth was created. The Biblical record shows that originally there was no light on earth and that the surface matter was in a fluid state, because "the face of the deep" stands parallel to "the face of the waters" in this verse. The Spirit of God moved ..... "Spirit," ruach. In harmony with Scriptural usage, the Spirit of God is the Holy Spirit, the third person of the Godhead. From this place onward, throughout the whole Scripture, the Spirit of God has the role of the divine agent of God in all creative acts, whether of the earth, of nature, of the church, of the new life, or of the new man. See on v. 26 for a comment on Christ's relationship to creation.

The word here rendered "moved" is merachepheth, which cannot rightly be translated "brooded," although it has this meaning in Syriac, a post-Biblical Aramaic dialect. The word occurs but twice elsewhere in the OT. It appears in Jer. 23.9, where it has the meaning "to tremble," "to shake," whereas in Deut. 32.11 it is used to describe the fluttering of an eagle over its young. The eagle does not brood over the living young but hovers watchfully and protectingly over them. The work of God's Spirit must have some connection with the activity that was presently to be initiated, an activity bringing order out of chaos. The Spirit of God was already present, ready to act as soon as the order should be given. The Holy Spirit has always been doing this very work. This divine Agent has ever been present to assist in the work of creation and redemption, to reprove and strengthen wayward souls, to comfort the sorrowing, and to present the believer's prayers in an acceptable form to God. Gen 1.3 And God said, Let there be light: and there was light. And God said ..... The record of each of the six creation days opens with this announcement. "He spake, and it was done; he commanded, and it stood fast" (Ps. 33.9), declares the psalmist, and the apostle says that we understand through faith "that the worlds were framed by the word of God" (Heb. 11.3). The phrase "God said" has offended some as making God too much like a human being. But how could the inspired writer have conveyed to finite minds the act of creation carried out by the infinite God except by using terms that mortal man can understand? The fact that the utterances of God are repeatedly connected with activities performed by God (vs. 7, 16, 21, 27) indicates convincingly that a revelation of God's creative power is being expressed in human language. Let there be light ..... Without light there could be no life; and as the Creator began the work of bringing order from chaos and of introducing various forms of plant and animal life upon the earth, it was essential that there be light. Light is a visible form of energy, which by its action on plants transforms inorganic elements and compounds into food for both man and beast and controls many other natural processes necessary to life.

Light has ever been a symbol of the divine presence. As physical light is essential to physical life, so divine light is necessary if rational beings are to have moral and spiritual life. "God is light" (1 John 1.5); and to those in whose hearts the work of recreating the divine likeness is going on apace, He comes again today bidding the shadows of sin, uncertainty, and discouragement flee, saying, "Let there be light."