52 Major Stories of the Bible - Lesson 1

 

[00:00:01] Genesis Chapter one is one of the two or three most important stories in the entire Bible. And in fact, it lays the foundation for much of what we believe much of biblical theology stems right out of Genesis one. And there's as you would expect, there's a lot of controversy around the issue of creation, around the issue of Genesis. Some people feel that the creation story conflicts with science. I remember reading a very, very good commentary, very evangelical commentary written by a seminary professor. It's a good seminar. And I got to a point and he said, Well, since science assures us that the world cannot have been created in six literal days, that obviously is not what God did. I looked at, I went, What? Where did that come from? You're telling God what he can and he can't do. In another way. Stellar commentary. It was an odd statement, but there's controversy between the Bible and science. There's even conflict in the evangelical church. Some people in the church are young earth people, some are old Earth people, or all kinds of controversies around the issue of creation in Genesis one. But whatever position you hold, I wanted to be up front with you about the position that I hold so you can see how I'm coming at the text. I believe that the primary purpose of Genesis one is theological. I think that the primary purpose of Genesis one is first and foremost to teach us about God. And secondly, it is to teach us something about ourselves and how we are to relate to God. There certainly may be secondary interests at work. Moses, who actually wrote all this, may have been making statements about science. He may have been making statements about history. 

 

[00:01:56] But I don't find those discussions very satisfying. I would rather focus on the primary thrust of what Genesis one is about, and Genesis one primarily is about the glory and the majesty of our God and how we as part of creation are to relate to him. And so that's the I believe that comes out of the text and is how I choose to view the text. So anyway, enough for pre discussion. Genesis one verses one and two. In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth and 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. Most agree that these first two verses are the title to Genesis. They are the overarching title they are stating. This is what this book is about. It's there affirming the central truth of what Genesis is trying to teach us. And that central truth is simply that God is the sole creator. In the beginning, God, God and God alone has the power to create God, and God alone has the wisdom to create God, and God alone has the will to create. He stands above creation, separate from creation, and yet involved in creation and is in fact the creator of it. This is the message of the title of Genesis in the beginning. God. Now, my guess is that we are to see in these first two verses the initial creation of matter and some controversy on that. But that's the position I've come to. This is what theologians call the creation x neo low, the creation of the universe out of nothing. And in fact, the phrase heavens and earth is a literary device called a mirror ism and mirrors them state to opposites, and they mean everything from one opposite to the next. 

 

[00:04:02] And so when the Bible says God created the heavens and the earth. They're saying that God created absolutely everything. And it sets the stage for the story, doesn't it? Because once matter is created, once the universe comes into existence, it's formless. It's void. It's dark. And the spirit of God is hovering over the waters. So everything is ready for the next stage of creation. So we enter into the six days of creation, and the first three days are primarily concerned with God making the earth inhabitable and the left column of the chart. And what he's doing in these first three days is moving from what is chaotic and formless into something that is inhabitable. And the key word is separate. Each day he separates things. He. He puts boundaries around things. He. He. He creates order. And. And the overall purpose is to create a place where eventually he can create Adam and Eve. That's where he's headed. But the first three days are taking what is formless and void and dark and making it inhabitable by separating. And so in day one, he creates light and the light separates the day and the night. So verses 3 to 5 and God said, Let there be light. And there was light and God saw the light was good and God separated the light from the darkness. God called the light day and the darkness. He called night. And there was evening and there was morning the first day. There are three significant truths that come out of creation in day one, and these three truths are traced all the way through the rest of the days of creation. So I wanted to mention them up first. The first truth is what's stated in the title that God is creator, that there are no other creative powers in the universe. 

 

[00:06:17] It does not say in the beginning God and evolution and the natural order and the natural power of Mother Earth said. Is simply says in the beginning, God. There is only one creative power in the universe. And it is God. And notice the power of God. And God said. And his words accomplished their task. And God said, Let there be light. And there was light. God simply speaks and brings order to chaos. There is no power that we can even fathom. I think that comes close to the creative power of our singular God who speaks. And his words carry out their task. Notice that there is light without sun. This is crucial theologically. There is light, but there is no sun. There is light, but there is no moon. There is light, but there are no stars. Why? Because God doesn't need stars for there to be light. That's the point. God doesn't need the sun to create light. He does not exist under physical laws that demand a source for light. He simply says there will be light. That's the kind of creative power our God has. Let there be light. I don't need the sun. And you start to feel how revolutionary that thought is. When you start comparing the biblical story with other stories, with pagan stories, especially the ancient pagan stories. Because in ancient pagan stories, the greatest powers are the powers of the sun. Ra is the greatest God in Egypt. He's the God of the sun. There are gods with the stars and there's gods with death and all these other things. But the greatest God is the God of the sun. It exerts the greatest influence on us, the pagan myths say, and it is in distinction too, that it is in contrast to that, that God says, I am so powerful I can create light without the sun. 

 

[00:08:50] Are we, though, any different from the parents? We have horoscopes in our newspapers. We have a rising interest, a spiritual interest in astrology. These things are all built on the premise that the Stars and the Suns exert influence, exert power on us. And the message in Genesis one is that there is no creative power other than our God. Raw does not exist. Horoscopes are sinful. There are defiance of the plain teaching of Genesis one. God is the Creator. There is no other creative powers in the universe. Secondly, one of the themes that comes up in Genesis is that God created things orderly. He created things intentionally. He created things with purpose. And again, if you compare Genesis one to the other pagan myths, you can see the pagan stories of creation are horrible things. The Anouma unleashes the Babylonian story of creation, and it's a story of gods and dragons fighting and warring. And somewhere along the time Tiamat gets stabbed in the eye and out of her eye flows the Tigris and Euphrates River, the source of all light, the beginning of life, the beginning of all creation. I mean creation. It's an afterthought. It's just something happened when Tiamat blinked and didn't see the knife coming. Genesis says there's nothing further from the truth. It says that God created things orderly, intentionally, with purpose. But again, lest we laugh at TMI, we have to look at ourselves. DONNELLEY And we have to look at the pagan myths of today. If you all are in school or if your kids are in school, what are they being taught? Well, at some time in the distant past, totally by chance. Some primordial scum washed up on the beach somewhere and the conditions were just right, and they went together to start forming the building blocks of life. 

 

[00:11:10] But the message that we that I was taught, the message that our children is taught, is that creation is an accident, it is purposeless, it is meaningless that you are in a reality that has no intention, it has no purpose. And look at our society. We wonder why people live lives without meaning, why they live lives without purpose. Because they think they're a cosmic accident. There's scum that washed up on the beach. Well, of course, they're going to be meaningless. And yet the message of Genesis is that God created things intentionally, purposely orderly, moving towards the apex of the creation of Adam and Eve on day six. God creates things orderly. And thirdly, notice that he declares it good. This is really important and it's something that you may want to reflect about. Goodness is not inherent in creation. Just because something exists doesn't mean it is been by its own good. Creation is good because a good God created it good and blessed it to be good. The only goodness there is in this world is because it is the result of the work of a good God who spoke into it. Goodness. It's one of the more interesting proofs for the existence of God to ask someone to explain why there is good. Why is there beautiful? Why do these categories exist? You're more philosophically in your orientation, you'll enjoy that. And apart from a good God who creates things orderly with purpose, you can't explain why there is such a thing as good or why there is such a thing as beautiful, but rather the world is good. And it is beautiful because a good and a beautiful God spoke it into creation and then he transferred his goodness into it. He said, You are blessed, you are good. 

 

[00:13:26] So it doesn't exist, good on its own. It only exists good because a good God declared it good. These are some of the central truths that come up in day one and flow all the way through the other days. So in day one, God creates life to separate the day and the night and day two versus 6 to 8. He's going to separate the waters. He's going to separate the waters that are above from the waters that are below. So he's Moses rates. And God said, let there be an expanse in the midst of the waters and let it separate the waters from the waters. And God made the expanse and separated the waters that were under the expanse from the waters that were above the expanse. And it was soul and God called the expanse heaven or the footnote in the ESV says or sky. And there was evening and there was morning the second day. The Hebrew word translated expanse is a very, very difficult word to translate. It actually refers to something that is hard, that is hammered out. It's why the Navy uses the translation vault. I mean, that's what the word actually means. And it is in this vault. It is in this expanse. It is in the sky that the birds fly, but also the sun, moon and stars are placed. You can imagine a discussion at a translation committee meeting on what word we use to describe a word in Hebrew. And we have no equivalent in English, I think. And again, it's you can make cases for different interpretation, but I think basically day two is the creation of the sky. And the waters that are separated are the waters below, which are the seas and the oceans, and then the waters above or the clouds or perhaps even a canopy. 

 

[00:15:24] And so this is the separation out of the waters. The waters are up in the clouds and the waters that are below on the earth. Difficult word to translate through, but that was the second day of creation to separate out waters. The third day of creation is to separate the seas from the dry land. And this is verses 9 to 13. And God said, Let the waters under the heavens be gathered together into one place and let the dry land appear. And it was soul and God called the dry land, earth and the waters that were gathered together. He called seas and God saw that it was good. And then the literary pattern breaks here, and you have a second great creative act on the third day. And just like you will see on the sixth day, there are two creative acts of animals and people. But he continues verse 11, and God said, Let the earth sprout vegetation plants yielding seed and fruit trees bearing fruit in which is their seed, each according to its kind on the earth. And it was so the earth brought forth vegetation plants yielding seed according to their own kinds, and trees bearing fruit in which is their seed, each according to its kind. And God saw that it was good. And there was evening and there was morning. The third day. The repeated phrase, according to its kind again, is an emphasis on the orderliness of creation. The God is doing things in a set pattern and he's letting strawberries. Create more strawberries and he is allowing fruit trees to bear more fruit trees and unfortunately, broccoli plants to create fruit. Does broccoli growing the plant? I'm not sure, but it is this orderliness, this the separation and orderliness. 

 

[00:17:24] That's the idea that encompasses so much of the first three days of creation. So now the chaotic, formless world is ready for habitation. That's what the first three days are about, getting things in their proper place, separating out, establishing boundaries. Okay, that's the first three days. And before we go on to day four, I think you got to stop at this point. This is a familiar story, isn't it? And what happens when something becomes familiar? Boring. I mean, which isn't it? We just. Yeah. Yeah. God spoke. Light occurred. We move on. I mean, didn't know what tends to happen with familiarity. And there are times in which I think you just gotta stop and think about what you just read. And the question that the task is asking, frankly, is how big is your God? What is your vision of God? What is your image of God? How big is your God? And you got to stop and think the God that we come here Sunday morning to worship together, the God that we worship every minute of every day that we are alive, the God who pursues us, the God who loves us, the God who wants us to pursue Him and to love Him. The God who has sent His spirit to change us so that we look every day more and more like his son. Jesus Christ. That is the very same God who simply said a word. And time began and he said a word and matter which did not exist now exists. The universe is expanding at near the speed of light outward from a center point. How does that happen? That is the God who calls us to change calls as the transformation. Who says, Love me, desire me. 

 

[00:19:24] I am the greatest, good of all things. That is the God who simply says a word. And everything that we know comes into existence. How big is your God? It's a question of Genesis one. Well, it's now time to inhabit the now inhabitable world. And so if we're going to move into the right column in the chart and look at days four and five and days four, I should say that the key word change is from separate to inhabit. That's the key concept now. The second half of creation. And so on day four, he creates stars to inhabit the skies verses 14 to 19. And God said, Let there be lights in the expanse of the heavens to separate the day from the night and let them be signs and four seasons and four days and years. So you can hear the orderliness, can't you? He's creating stars and moons to give us order, to divide things, to make sense out of our lives and let them be lights and the expanse of the heavens to give light upon the earth. And it was soul. And God made the two great lights the greater light to rule the day, which is the sun and the lesser light to rule the night, which is the moon and the stars just kind of animate stars. Just kind of made stars and gods set them in the expanse of the heavens to give light on the earth to rule over the day and over the night and just separate the light from the darkness. And God saw that it was good. And there was evening and there was morning. The fourth day. God's in control, isn't he? He's the only source that is creating the sun. The moon and stars exert no creative influence at all. 

 

[00:21:18] He creates them. He pleases them, He gives them their tasks. He limits what they can do and what he can't do. Why? Because he's the boss. He's the boss of the stars. The stars are boss of no one. Then on day five, he creates fish to inhabit the waters and birds to inhabit the sky versus 20 to 23. And God said, Let the waters swarm with swarms of living creatures and let birds fly above the earth across the expanse of the heavens. So God created the great sea creatures and every living creature that moves with which the waters swarm according to their kinds and every winged bird according to its kind. And God saw that it was good. And then we get a new thought in here, and God bless them, saying Be fruitful and multiply and fill the waters in the seas and let birds multiply on the earth. In other words, fully inhabit your sphere. And there was evening and there was morning. The fifth day. So you have this inhabitable world now being inhabited by plants and by birds and by fish. All of this, of course, has been moving to the continent, to the culminating point, the creation of days six, where he God creates animals and then he creates Adam and Eve, and then day seven where he rests from his labors. And we are going to be looking at that next week. But the question today is what do we learn about the creator? What do we learn about the creator from days one through five? Well, the main point is simple, isn't it? The main thing that Moses wants us to understand is that there is only one God. There's only one God. He is separate from creation. 

 

[00:23:17] He and he alone has the power to create. He and he alone has the wisdom to create. He and he alone is sovereign over everything that he makes. He puts things in their places. He assigns them their tasks. He speaks and it happens. Creation is very obedient, isn't it? That's the main point. Nobody participates with God and creation. Not the sun, moon or stars, not Mother Nature, of which there is none. Not the earth, not the water, not the dry land. Sorry, Darwin. Not really. SWI The first of the Ten Commandments, as I am the Lord, your God, you shall worship no other gods small g before me. It's why you have wonderful verses like in Isaiah 42, where Gods of the Prophecies I am the Lord, that is my name, my glory. I give to no other, nor my praise to carved idols. God is a jealous God. He's jealous for His children's love and is jealous for His own glory. And he and he alone is the sole object of worship, of adoration, of ultimate praise. And he will share that glory with absolutely nothing else. He will share his glory with no one else. He and he alone has created and has sustained all things, because this is one of the central truths not only in Genesis one, but central truths in all the Scripture. It should come as no surprise that it's one of those truths that this world attacks. And the world's attack on this central truth is ferocious and unrelenting, isn't it? And I'm not just talking about high school biology. I'm just talking about the world in all of its manifestations. Attacks this one core doctrine more than anything else. I think the world does not want anybody to believe that something else created the world does not want anyone to believe that they are answerable to a, quote, higher power. 

 

[00:25:44] And so what the world says is we made ourselves. The world teaches us that it holds the keys to its own existence. And because it holds, the key is to its own existence. The world is not answerable to anybody except itself. That's it. Cor, what is going on in our world today? But that's not really the issue. The real issue is. Second half of Romans one makes this very, very clear. It is because of sin that the world doesn't want to be held accountable to anyone or anything else. Right. And if you can convince yourself that there is no God, that means there's no one that you're accountable to. You can live out your meaningless, voiceless life any way you want. But the minute you admit that you were created by someone, you are answerable to that someone, aren't you? And that's what the world doesn't want to do. It doesn't want to be held accountable to anyone or to anything else. So it claims that it holds the keys to its own existence. The Bible says that sin, it is rebellion against God, which makes us want to look at the heavens and see nothing but stars. And refuse to see the finger of God stretched out across the sky. It is a sin that says there is no God. Capital G. It is rebellion against God. It is sin that says we are all God's little g, and that sin takes many forms, takes the form of Mormonism, takes the form of animism, of new age, of Hinduism, of humanism, and many other isms that are out there. But the message of Genesis one and Romans one is that that sin, but rather there's one God, one creator, one sustainer, one redeemer, and we are answerable to him. 

 

[00:27:59] We will someday stand before him and give account for our lives. The message of Genesis. Is that there is one God. And what I hope this morning is happening is that Genesis one is enlarging your vision of God. I hope that your mind is not off thinking about young earth, old earth stuff, but I hope that your mind is being filled with the immensity. Of who God is. And whenever you start talking about God's glory in His Majesty and his awesomeness and all those words, just feel Donte, words just can't express it. And we all have different places that we go to try to help understand these fundamental truths. I'm a very visual person. And so my mind goes to pictures. Very quickly. Let me just share this with you. And maybe it'll help you understand the point that Genesis one is making. This is a giant stellar nursery. It's NGC 604. If you want to check up on your Hubble website and see the picture for yourself. This is a nursery that is giving birth to stars. There's about 200. They see bright new stars in this nursery. One of the interesting things about this stellar nursery is that from one end to the other. Is 1500 light years. It takes 1500 years for a particle or a wave of light, whatever it is, at the speed of light to get from one end to the other. Now, let me put this in perspective that maybe we can get a handle on. Even if Scottie could sustain a speed of war nine out of his precious engines in the Starship Enterprise, it would take Captain Kirk and Mr. Spock 167 years. At Warp nine. To get from one side of this nursery. To the next. 

 

[00:30:25] Now, if that's not enough. They point out that this nursery is right there. A relatively small, small part, not of the universe, but a relatively small part. Of a galaxy. And that particular galaxy. Is 3 million light years away. Assuming that time and speed are constant, which is an assumption I understand. The light that was reflected into the Hubble Space Telescope when it took that picture, that light had been traveling at the speed of light for three. Million. Here's. Protest only a galaxy. God created. Millions. Of galaxies. Filled with, as Carl Sagan would say, billions and billions of stars. Now, if you really want to get a headache, add this to the equation. God is as loving. As he is powerful. To the same extent that he speaks and these kinds of things happen, things that I don't think a human being can understand. To that same degree. He loves you. So the question is. How big? Is your God has your big God become so small that he can't care for you? Has your God become so small that the gods of this world have become larger and we worship them? The gods of pleasure. Achievement, power, money, independence. Has the God of Genesis one become so unsatisfying? But instead of feasting on him, we settle for lesser things. Or is your God the God in Genesis one? Is he that big? Is your God the God who speaks? And all things come into existence. Is your God the God of Genesis one who is sovereign over everything He has made? Is your God, the God of Genesis one who is wise beyond anything that we can understand. Is your God the God of Genesis one who is worthy of being pursued with every ounce of passion, so with every fiber of our being that we possess. 

 

[00:33:27] Is your God, the God of Genesis, one who is so great, who is so majestic, who is so glorious that he will not share his glory with anything in all of creation. He will not relinquish his place of preeminence and allow anything in its place. Is your God, the God of Genesis, one who, in all of His Majesty and power and might and glory and in immensity. Is a guy who is so loving, who invites us into his presence, to cry out to him in our pain, to hang on to him in times of trouble. And who calls us to serve him and to love him and to glorify him by doing the works that he's prepared us to do. That's the question of Genesis one. How big is your God? Let's pray. Her father. Father of all creation. Our father who creates stellar nurseries. With distances that even the science fiction writers cannot comprehend. Who is as loving. He is powerful. Who is as Weiss. As your powerful who is as compassionate. As your powerful, who is as worthy of our life. Not just our priests. Our life. Is your powerful. Father for those. Who perhaps have allowed you to become smaller in their imagination, May Genesis one forever be a reminder? Your Majesty and your glory, your immensity, your power, your place of preeminence, your absolute demand of sovereign control over not only the physically created world, but every minute of every day of my life. And to which we gladly give to you. Father, may we in our limit to do this as human beings whose frames are but must be reminded that in the midst of our joy and our sorrow, our pains and our victories, our accomplishments and our failures. 

 

[00:36:05] That you are in everlasting gone. You are the deliver. You are the savior. And you were our friend. In Jesus name. Amen.