Things Go Badly Wrong – the Fall
Genesis 3:1-24
Genesis chapter 3 is one of the saddest, yet one of the most important, chapters in the whole Bible. Without it the rest of the Bible, and indeed human history, does not make much sense. Genesis 3 records the tragic entrance of sin into the world. The account in Genesis 3 is never treated in the rest of the Bible as anything other than historical fact. It may be presented in pictorial form but is a record of what actually happened. What happened in the Garden of Eden has affected everyone in the human race. It is our story too.
I want to divide our message today into three parts. The first part is:
1. The Cause of Sin – Temptation (Verses 1-6)
The story begins with the serpent. From many other Scripture passages we know that it was in fact Satan, or the devil, who disguised himself as a crafty snake when he came to tempt Eve. At the time, of course, in the Garden of Eden there was nothing harmful to man. There was nothing frightening about the snake. Who then was Satan? Elsewhere in the Bible we are told he was an angel who rebelled against God and was expelled from heaven. So sin and evil had come into the created order even before the serpent came to tempt Eve. When God made Adam and Eve He made them perfect – without sin. God didn't make sin and evil. Satan is the one behind sin and evil. Why did Satan tempt Eve and why does he tempt us today? I am not sure I know the answer, except that by choosing to rebel against God, Satan seems to want to destroy all that God has made. He wanted to drag others into his rebellion, and he is still in the business of trying to get people to follow his way rather than God's way. He even tempted Jesus – but of course Jesus refused to give in to Satan.
Sadly Eve did give in to the temptations of the evil one. Temptation itself is not sin. Only when we give in to the temptation do we fall into sin. And that is what happened to Eve. It all began so innocently. The tempter aroused her curiosity first of all by simply speaking to her. Then he asked a question. “Did God really say, 'You must not eat from any tree in the garden'?” It was a very subtle question. “Did God really say...?” He is trying to flatter Eve by making her think she can actually question God. On top of that Satan exaggerates things trying to make God look bad. Of course God had not said they could not eat from any of the trees in the garden. He had in fact said that they could eat from any of the trees, all except one. They had so much to enjoy and needed nothing. But Satan comes along suggesting maybe God was trying to stop them enjoying certain things.
Does this sound familiar? The evil one uses the same tactics today. He tempts us by suggesting that we are somehow missing out by sticking to God's plan and God's way. He tries to get us to doubt God and to question God's love and wisdom.
Rather than refuse to listen to the serpent, Eve started to debate with him. This is always dangerous. It is not worth arguing with Satan. He is far cleverer than we are and, like Eve, we will find ourselves confused and misled. Satan now comes out with a straight challenge to what God had said. Verses 4 & 5, “You will not surely die,” the serpent said to the woman, “For God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.” Having distorted the Word of God, Satan now denies and contradicts it. His aim is to get Eve to doubt God's goodness, His righteousness, and His holiness. Satan tried to tempt Eve by mentioning something good – “that she could be like God”. It would not have been wrong for Eve to want to be like God. We all want to be more like Jesus – right! But Satan was misleading Eve by suggesting that the way for her to be more like God was by disobeying God. In other words, Satan was tempting her to play God herself by doing what she wanted rather than by following God's way. This is the root cause of all sin – when we choose to go our own way rather than obey God and follow His way.
Notice the steps in this downward path to disaster. First of all Eve listened to the lies of the tempter. Somehow by verse 6 we find her (and her husband by the way) with the serpent right by the tree and she was looking at its forbidden fruit. “When the woman saw that the fruit of the tree was good for food and pleasing to the eye, and also desirable for gaining wisdom, she took some and ate it.” She looked at the fruit.
Believing Satan's lies about all she would gain from taking the fruit, she now starts to crave it. Then she stretches out her hand. Then she takes the fruit. Then she eats it. It is so often the same with us. We first of all believe the lies of Satan – which come through the voices around us – the media, magazines, movies, the Internet – yes, so often what comes through our ears and our eyes. Then we begin to follow the fascination which turns into craving. The craving turns into evil thoughts which in turn so often turn into evil actions and even habits. Like Eve, we take and eat.
Satan tried to make Eve think sin was good, attractive and harmless. He does the same today when he tempts us. People usually choose wrong things because they have come to believe, for them at least, those things are good. Our sins do not always appear as ugly or evil to us. Temptation is usually very attractive – at least on the surface. It is only later we discover, too late, that we have made a big mistake.
Our sinful choices and acts usually affect others too. After taking the fruit and eating it, Eve passes some over to Adam for him to eat as well. In fact all along he was there with her and said nothing. He is equally guilty of disobedience.
Someone has said “You cannot stop birds flying over your head but you can stop them making a nest in your hair”. How true. Temptation itself is not sin but yielding to it, giving in to it, is sin. None of us has to give in to Satan. Do not allow him to come in. The Bible says, “Resist the devil and he will flee from you.” Yes, we can say no to temptation. We can say no to Satan. Of course when we are tempted, we need to pray for strength from God to resist the temptation. Sometimes we need to literally run away from the temptation.
Dear friends, do not believe Satan's lies. To be truly happy and fulfilled we need to follow God's way and trust Him for all we need. Nothing Satan offers us can in any way compare with the joy and blessing of obeying our loving Creator.
2. The Consequences of Sin – Guilt and Judgment (Verses 7-19)
Once Eve and Adam had eaten the fruit they had a rude awakening. Satan had sold them the lie that being morally good and innocent was somehow not good enough. They also needed to know, by personal experience, about evil. That, of course, is a lie. You do not have to take drugs in order to know they can kill you. You do not have to lose your temper with someone and punch them on the nose in order to discover that anger can harm inter-personal relationships. Once Adam and Eve had sinned they lost their innocence. They were filled with shame and embarrassment – for they discovered they were naked. It is almost humorous thinking of them sewing fig leaves together to try and cover themselves. Verse 8 then says “the man and his wife heard the sound of the Lord God as He was walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and they hid from the Lord God among the trees of the garden.” They felt guilty and they tried to hide from God. A guilty conscience is a warning signal from God. We need to listen to our conscience for it can help us avoid those things that spoil or even break our fellowship with the Lord. Thank God for your conscience and take care of it. If you ignore the voice of conscience it will become weak and ineffective.
Satan sold Adam and Eve the lie that ruling over all God's created order was not exciting or challenging enough. He wanted them to believe that by asserting themselves and by being independent of God they were being smart. Modern man often thinks the same way. He thinks religion (believing in God and in the Bible) is just a psychological crutch for the weak. Modern man likes to be in charge of his own destiny. He likes to assert his independence. But how sad and how foolish this is! No wonder men and women are cut off from the joy of fellowship with their Creator and Saviour. No wonder there is so much emptiness, loneliness and isolation in the world – despite the fact we are surrounded by other people. Like the Beatles song “Eleanor Rigby” - “A ll the lonely people. Where do they all come from? All the lonely people - Where do they all belong? Well loneliness and isolation is one result of sin. Sin cuts us off from our Creator and cuts us off from one another .
Satan sold Adam and Eve the lie that it was not enough to be content with the abundance of all God had already given. Satan wanted them to become greedy for more. As a result did they get more? No of course not, they even lost what God had given them. They lost paradise itself. Through their disobedience, sin entered the human race and so did death. Man was cut off from God and was forced to leave the Garden. Verse 23 tells us, “So the Lord God banished him from the Garden of Eden to work the ground from which he had been taken.”
Ever since Adam and Eve disobeyed God, sin has been a sad fact in human experience. You do not need to teach a child to be selfish or proud or naughty. It comes naturally. You do have to teach a child to be good – to learn to be obedient and to learn to share with others. We cannot blame our environment or our upbringing or our heredity. Although these things do influence us we cannot blame them for our own failures and our own mistakes. Just like Adam and Eve we do not like to admit we are ever in the wrong. Of course we are responsible for the choices we ourselves have made. God didn't make us like a computer – with everything programmed into it. He didn't make us like animals either – that follow their instincts and are locked into certain nature-controlled behaviour patterns. Man has a free-will. He is not a machine. We are responsible beings able to make choices.
Notice what happened when God confronted Adam and Eve. He asked Adam, “Have you eaten from the tree that I commanded you not to eat from?” Who did Adam blame? Yes, he immediately blamed his wife. “The woman you put here with me – she gave me some fruit from the tree, and I ate.” Do you think that impressed God? I doubt it. Adam was fully responsible. In fact if he had been the man he should have been he would have warned Eve not to listen to the evil one. And when God spoke to Eve who did she blame? Yes, she blamed the serpent. “The serpent deceived me, and I ate.” We always like to blame others, don't we?
3. The Cure for Sin – God's Saving Grace
In verse 15, God says to the serpent, “I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and hers; he will crush your head, and you will strike his heal.” In this verse we see the first glimpse in the Bible of God's Plan of Salvation. Satan would try to strike the Saviour but Jesus, in dying on the Cross for our sins, would finally strike a death blow to Satan. Jesus would defeat the tempter, and destroy his power. By dying and rising again Jesus defeated death which came as a result of sin.
There is possibly also another picture, in these verses, of the coming salvation of God. Adam and Eve tried to cover themselves but it was not much use stitching leaves together. So too our attempts to reform or cover ourselves, to make ourselves presentable in God's sight, are just as pathetic. Notice what God did for Adam and Eve. Verse 21 says, “The Lord God made garments of skin for Adam and his wife and clothed them.” The fact God used the skins of animals implies the death of those animals – a sacrifice made so that man could be clothed. Jesus sacrificed His life for us so that we might be clothed with His righteousness. He died in our place so that we might be forgiven. When we put our faith in Him it is like throwing away our own fig leaves and putting on the garments God has prepared for us.
Yes, things went terribly wrong when man listened to Satan and fell into disobedience and sin. Human history reflects the sad fact of man's rebellion against a holy God. Yet our loving Creator God has made a way for us His creatures to be forgiven, to be rescued from the fear of death and judgment, and to recover the relationship we lost in the Garden. The choice is ours – either to continue following the way of the evil one or to turn back to God and follow Him.
God Makes Man & Marriage
Genesis 2:4-25
Today is a special Sunday as we are all together for a Family Service. So Mums and Dads I hope to speak to the kids as well as to the adults. Boys and girls, I hope you too can listen carefully and learn something this morning from God's Word.
Let me ask the adults if they remember what we spoke about last week! Right – we studied the very first chapter in the very first book of the Bible, Genesis 1, which tells us all about God creating the world. We noticed that creation was split up into six stages. In the very beginning God created the heavens and the earth but the earth, the Bible tells us, was empty and there was darkness. Then God's Spirit, the Giver of Life, began to move over the waters, ready to energize the whole creation. The process of God's filling the heavens and the earth is then outlined for us. On the:
First Day: Light was created
Second Day: God separated the sky and the water
Third Day: Land and seas were formed, and vegetation began
Fourth Day: The sun, moon and stars were made
Fifth Day: Fish and birds were made
Sixth Day: Animals and finally man and woman were made
Seventh Day: God rested and declared all He had made was good.
We mentioned last week that man was the climax of God's creation. Of course when we say man we mean both male and female. When we say mankind we include men and women and boys and girls. In Chinese too mankind includes both male and female. In Chinese we say ren lei 人类 which is both male and female. The Bible tells us that man was made in God's image. Being made in God's image means mankind is like God in certain ways.
1. Man is a rational being (i.e. he can think and reason);
2. Man has a moral nature (i.e. he is aware of right and wrong and has a sense of values and has a conscience); and
3. He possesses a regal status (i.e. he has intrinsic dignity, status and worth – he is precious and has a living soul). These facts show that men and women, all people, possess the qualities that make us different from animals: morality, reason, creativity, and self worth. Physically we may look like a monkey, for example, and some boys really are monkeys aren't they, but in reality we are totally different to monkeys and all other animals. God has made people special.
In Genesis 1:27 it says, “...male and female He created them.” Both man and woman were made in God's image. One sex does not enjoy a higher status than the other, and one sex is not to be treated lower than the other. So boys and girls you must remember this too. God loves boys and girls equally. In some cultures, boys are valued more highly than girls. In these cultures families may prefer to have a son because this means one more to work the fields or support the family when they grew up. A girl, when she gets married, is seen as leaving her family and joining her husband's family. The Bible teaches a very different way. Girls are equally precious in God's sight. They have every right to education – just as boys do. It was Christianity that first encouraged the opening of schools and colleges for women in China. The same is true in Muslim nations today. Just think of the terrible exploitation of women occurring in many Muslim nations! In our so-called modern and secular society in the West, I believe we also see the degrading of women. We see it in the media, in glossy magazines, in the pornography trade.
Women are valued only for their good looks or their shapely bodies. This is a terrible evil. Women are not just objects. They are people, equally loved and valued by the creator God.
One other thing we should note about what the Bible teaches us is that male and female, while of equal status and value, are nonetheless different. Humanity (male and female) is bi-sexual. God created Adam and Eve, the man and the woman. Men are to be men and women are to be women. We are to complement one another and support one another. We are built differently. We have different communication styles, emotional needs and modes of behaviour. We sometimes think and react differently. Men do not come from Mars or women from Venus - but we are different. This is why homosexuality is so wrong. It is not part of God's plan. While some men may be more effeminate (i.e. more like women in their manner) and some women may be more masculine (i.e more like men) the difference between the sexes is basic and clear. Detailed studies in America and Europe show that only one to three percent of the population has homosexual tendencies. Even if one has such a tendency this does not make homosexual practice right or excusable. It comes down to choice. As with all sin – we do not sin because we have no choice. We sin when we disobey and go our own way – by choice. Like all sin, homosexuality brings the judgment of God. But just as there is forgiveness and deliverance for the sinner so there is forgiveness and deliverance for the sinner who is homosexual. The homosexual, like the alcoholic or someone gripped by pornography, can be delivered by God's power.
So, the Bible teaches there are two sexes – male and female. Our sexuality (as either male or female) is something to be celebrated and treasured.
In Genesis chapter 2 we have a more detailed account of the creation of man – male and female. Verse 7 tells us, “the Lord God formed the man from the dust of the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living being.”
Our bodies are no different in chemical make-up to the dust. It is God who breathes life into the shell of our body – and we become living souls. When we die our physical body returns to dust. It is God who gives us life and value. You are not special because you are cleverer, or stronger, or prettier, or bigger than someone else. No, you are special because God has given you life and He loves you. You are not useless or worthless because you are not as good as someone else or not as successful as someone else. No, your worth and value come from the same fact that God has made you and given you life. He loves you and has a plan for you.
We read that God put the man He made into a beautiful garden. Everything was perfect and he had everything he needed. Or did he? Let us look at verse 18. “The Lord God said, 'It is not good for the man to be alone. I will make a helper suitable for him.'”
God brought all the animals and birds for the man to give them names. But notice that none of these animals or birds could be the helper and companion that the man needed. Some people have a dog or a cat that they love. In some cultures people keep birds which they take out for walks and which they feed lovingly. But no animal or bird can fill the role of helper or companion for man.
Now for the first time, in verse 20, we see the name of the man – it is Adam. Actually Adam simply means – “the man”. Now God did something very special for Adam. Let us read verses 21 & 22. “So the Lord God caused the man to fall into a deep sleep; while he was sleeping, He took one of the man's ribs and closed up the place with flesh. Then the Lord God made a woman from the rib He had taken out of the man, and He brought her to the man.” God's creation was not complete until He made woman. I like what Matthew Henry said about God making woman - “not made out of his head to rule over him, nor out of his feet to be trampled upon by him, but out of his side to be equal with, under his arm to be protected, and near his heart to be loved.”
Then God brought the woman to Adam. What was his reaction when he saw her? “WOOO - man!” No, I'm only joking. But I am sure he was pretty excited and overwhelmed, nevertheless. God provided Adam with a “helper suitable for him”. The woman complements the man. She is a perfect partner and companion. He is incomplete without her. This passage tells us that marriage was God's idea.
The Bible goes on to teach some very important things about marriage. Verse 24 says, “For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and they will become one flesh.” Marriage was God's perfect gift to Adam and Eve, and it is His creation gift to mankind. Marriage is not just for convenience, to be entered or exited simply according to our whim or fancy. It is like the Chinese say, 终身大事 zhong shen da shi , “a very big thing lasting a life-time”. Involved in marriage is:
1. A “leaving”
When we marry we must leave our parents. Of course, we always love and respect, and when necessary care for, our parents but once a couple get married they form their own nuclear family. Neither set of parents should interfere in the decision-making processes of the husband and wife. Their son, or daughter, is no longer under their authority. Many problems come in marriages when “in-laws” have too much say. This is why it is sometimes important for a newly married couple to live on their own, not in the home of their parents. There has to be a “leaving”. That leaving is also a leaving of our old single and independent life. No longer can we make decisions on our own. We have to discuss things together as a couple.
2. A “uniting”
The man and the woman are joined together by making a public commitment to love and care for one another. They promise to take responsibility for caring for and supported their mate, and being faithful to them as long as they both are alive. Marriage is a serious life-long commitment. This commitment is a vital part of building a stable marriage. Those who co-habit or live together without getting married are going against the clear teaching of the Bible. The ones most likely to get hurt are themselves. Sadly marriages do break up but the statistics for the break-up of de-facto relationships (where people simply live together while not being married) are very much more frightening. And lives get badly hurt. Within marriage too, when there is unfaithfulness by one or other partner, terrible hurt is the result. The only way for a truly happy and lasting marriage is for life-long commitment to one's marriage vows – “ I, Peter, take you, Elizabeth, to be my lawful wedded wife, to have and to hold from this day forward; for better, for worse, for richer, for poorer, in sickness and in health, to love, cherish, honour and protect you, till death us do part, according to God's holy law; and this is my solemn vow.”
3. Becoming one flesh
This is a clear reference to the intimacy of sexual union, which is reserved for marriage. Sex is God's idea. It is His gift within the marriage relationship. Young people, do not be misled by the media, by TV or movies, or by magazines or music, or by your friends. It is definitely worth keeping yourself for the one you marry. Boys and girls you can talk to your parents about these things. I started praying for God to guide me about my future wife when I was only about eleven or twelve. I only did this because some older Christian guys who I really admired recommended it. I wasn't even really interested in girls at that time. But I believe God truly answered my prayers. Teenagers, if you have a serious boy friend or girl friend, I encourage you to pray together not simply talk together or go out together. I also recommend that you sit down together and draw up a list of things that you will NOT do physically. Set clear boundaries. Keep your sexual purity. It will stand you in good stead when you do come to get married.
Finally - a word to those who are single. Remember that singleness can also be a gift from the Lord. There are seasons in our lives when we may be single – before we ever find a suitable life-partner, or after we lose our life-partner. God knows perfectly well how we feel and He is able to make our lives fulfilling and happy even without a marriage partner. In fact it is very dangerous for anyone, married or single, to think that our value and worth, and our happiness depends upon anyone other than the Lord. If you are looking to a man or a woman to give you that sense of worth or security that you need, you are looking in the wrong place. The Lord is the only one to whom we should look. Whether single or married we must put Him first in our lives. We must love and obey Him. This is the true path of happiness and security.
Studies in Genesis
The Creator and Creation
Genesis 1-2:3
Where do you come from? This is a question we often hear in a multi-cultural society such as NZ. When I lived and worked in Hong Kong and China, Chinese people would often ask me where I was from. I told them I was from Africa. Of course they didn't believe me – “but you are not black,” they would say. In NZ we have immigrants from many different countries. Of course we also have many international students - from over 100 different nations. The question of origins, of where we come from, is not limited to asking where we were born or where we grew up. It can refer to our ancestry – going back many generations to our grandparents and great grandparents and so on. But there is a further question – where does mankind come from? Where does the world come from? How did this universe come into existence? The question of origins fascinates men and women. Man knows something about everything but seems to know very little about himself – who he is, where he comes from, why he is here, and where he is going?
In the first chapter of the Bible we begin to find important answers to these important questions.
A Question of Origins
Genesis means “beginnings” or “origin”, and in this amazing book, written nearly 3500 years ago, we have the record of the beginning of the world, of human history, of marriage, family and civilization, and also of God's plan of salvation. Genesis sets the stage for the rest of the Bible. It tells who God is and what He is like. No other ancient book is remotely comparable to Genesis.
So Genesis begins at the beginning – with God. Verse 1 says,
“In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.”
Immediately we can see the fact that the existence of God is taken for granted. And we can see that God is eternal for He existed before all else. He is the One who brought the universe into existence. The word used here for create is the Hebrew word “bara” – it is used three times in this chapter and in this context at least means “creation out of nothing” (creatio ex nihilo). There was nothing there before God created it.
The Existence of God
The Bible takes the existence of God for granted. It doesn't try to prove He exists – it simply states He is there. In Genesis 1 we can learn a lot about God and what He is like – but the Bible never sets out to prove His existence. Modern secular man has often said, “Only fools believe in God”. Atheists are those who say there is no God. The Marxist view is that believing in God and religion is superstitious. The famous French philosopher Voltaire had this secular atheistic worldview in mind when he said, “If a watch proves the existence of a watchmaker but the universe does not prove the existence of a great Architect, then I consent to be called a fool.” He is being sarcastic of course. Yes, some in our secular world may call us fools to believe in God, but in fact I think it is foolish not to believe in God. This is certainly the view the Bible takes. The Bible says, “The fool has said in his heart, 'There is no God'.”
Genesis 1 refutes Atheism. It also refutes Pantheism (for God is distinct from His creation), it refutes Polytheism (for there are not many gods, but only One supreme God), it refutes Materialism (for matter is not eternal), and Dualism (for God alone is the Creator), and Humanism (for God, not man, is the ultimate reality). Genesis 1 refutes Evolutionism (for it says God created all things, they didn't simply evolve independent of Him). Genesis 1 affirms God has personality. He is a personal God. Over 30 times the name God is mentioned in this chapter. This sovereign God is and He acts and creates. He is self-existent. You may also notice the use of the plural form. This is especially noticeable in v 26 where God says, “Let us make man in our image...” In fact God is mentioned in verse 1 and the Holy Spirit in verse 2 and you could say God the Son, who John called The Word, can be seen in the phrase “God said”. The fact God spoke is repeated at least 10 times in this chapter. From Colossians 1:16 we know Jesus, God's Son, was active in creation. There is a plurality in the Godhead – only one God but made up of three persons.
A Complex Universe
No one can deny the incredible complexity of our universe. To believe it all came about by chance and then somehow evolved from a single cell into all the array of life forms that we see today, requires a far greater step of faith than to believe in a Creator. Just think for a moment of our amazing universe. Look up into the sky at night (away from the city lights). The beauty and vastness of the heavens is awe-inspiring. Our Milky Way galaxy, which we see as we look up at night, contains 100,000 million stars – i.e. counting one every second would take 2500 years!!! Our galaxy, of which our sun is but one star, is 100,000 light years in diameter. Light travels at 300,000 kms per second. It takes just over one second to reach us from the moon, and takes 8 minutes to reach us from our sun. To figure out the vastness of just our galaxy, which is as wide as light can travel in 100,000 years, is mind-boggling. And yet, our Milky Way galaxy is but one of billions of known galaxies in the universe.
The universe is complex enough, but as Harvard professor Owen Gingerich has written, “...biologists admit that the intricate molecular chemistry of every living thing makes stars look simple in their construction. The human brain is the most marvelously complex assemblage known anywhere in the universe. In some profound sense it seems that humankind was created for the purpose of understanding the cosmos.”
Everything in our incredibly intricate and complex universe fits together in perfect harmony. Dr David Block, a famous SA astronomer writes, “The ancient Jewish writers knew that the God who made the heavens also made humanity. We are not insignificant because we are created for a purpose.”
The Genesis Creation Account
Genesis 1 doesn't tell us how God created but simply that He did create. It also makes clear that God had a purpose in creating and that He gave man a unique status and a special role in the world.
Verse 2 sets the scene for the creation story that follows.
“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.”
The focus of the creation story is put on this world, though included is the vast universe of which we are a part. God created space, time and matter. What He made was perfect but the earth was said to be “formless and empty”. Now as part of the creation process, the Spirit of God moves over the waters ready to energize the whole creation. The Spirit of God is the giver of life. In the days of creation to follow, God gave form to the universe and then He filled the earth with living beings. There is a kind of balance in the account which various Bible commentators have pointed out. Look at this outline:
Form Fullness
Day 1 Light and Dark Day 4 Lights of Day and Night
Day 2 Sea and Sky Day 5 Creatures of Water and Air
Day 3 Fertile Earth Day 6 Creatures of the Land
The work of creation begins with God speaking to expel the darkness:
Verse 3 “And God said, 'Let there be light,' and there was light.” It is enough for the Creator to speak and what He wills to be springs into being.
How Long Did It Take?
The question of how long the process of creation took is one that Bible scholars, not just scientists argue about. Did it all take just six days of twenty-four hours? Or can the word “day” be referring to much longer periods of time, even ages? Well we know that to God “one day is as a thousand years and a thousand years as a day” – in other words, time does not mean the same to God who exists outside of time. It is we who are bound by time and space. We also know that the word “day” can refer to other than a twenty-four hour period. But it is still a difficult question. Of course God could have created everything all in one flash – including the fossils in the rocks. But it is probably not necessary to interpret Genesis 1 in this way. In Genesis 2, it describes God bringing all the animals to Adam for him to give them names – and this happened before God made Eve. It seems unlikely that all this happened in one twenty-four hour period on the sixth day. It implies, to my mind at least, a longer period.
Some scholars suggest God revealed the order of creation to Moses, who is believed to be the author of Genesis, over a six day period. I do not think we can get a clear answer to this. What we do know for sure is that this account is true and succinct. God must have showed Moses the basic happenings as outlined in Genesis 1 – a panorama of words and pictures. Whether or not it all happened in a literal six days of twenty-four hours is, for some, an open question.
The Order of Creation
The order of creation, as outlined in Genesis 1, has long been recognized as being in remarkable harmony with what science has observed. Of course Genesis is not meant to be a scientific description. If Moses had been told to write the account of creation in the scientific language of the 21st century he would never have understood it himself nor would anyone else in all the thousands of years in between. Science is always changing and new things are being discovered while old theories are being discarded. Even the theory of evolution which many take for granted as true, is being seriously questioned, if not rejected outright, by many scientists today. I remember one professor of botany I knew who was a staunch evolutionist, later became a Christian and publicly repudiated evolution as unscientific. No matter how simple the biblical account of creation, it has certainly never been shown to be scientifically inaccurate. The so-called conflict between the Bible and science is greatly exaggerated. In fact many top scientists are strong Christians.
Conflict does come, however, between some interpretations of the Bible and some of the theories of science. We must also remember that the way science describes the world and man can be very different to the way the Bible describes them – just as an artist's painting of man is very different to the diagrams of an anatomist. Both have legitimate descriptions but both are very different.
We do not have time, in one short sermon, to look at each verse of Genesis 1 in detail. It might help however if we simply outline what happened on the seven days of the creation story.
First Day: Light was created – so there was light and darkness, verses 1-3.
Second Day: Sky and water (the waters separated), verses 4-8.
Third Day: Land and seas (waters gathered), and vegetation, verses 9-13.
Fourth Day: Sun, moon and stars - to rule the day and the night, and to mark out days, seasons, and years, verses 14-19.
Fifth Day: Fish and birds – to fill the waters and the sky, verses 20-23.
Sixth Day: Animals – to fill the earth
Man and woman – to care for the earth and enjoy fellowship with God, verses 24-31.
Seventh Day: God rested and declared all He had made was good.
Man the Crown of Creation
One thing we learn from the creation story in Genesis 1 is the fact God has a special place for man. From v 6 we see the earth being made ready for man. God creates the two things needed for a habitable planet – an oxygen atmosphere and a hydrosphere of liquid water. Then in v 9 we have the creation of a fertile earth. Dry land appears and God creates a blanket of fertile soil. He creates plant life and then marine and animal life. Finally He creates man. In v 26 - 28 it says, “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.' So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them. 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.' "
Man is made in the image of God in three senses: 1. He is a rational being; 2. He has a moral nature; and 3. He possesses a regal status. We will say more next week about what Genesis teaches about the sexes and the relationship between male and female. All I want us to notice now is the fact God has given man (that is men and women) a special mandate – to take care of the world. We are to care for the environment and we are to be the best that we can be in our living and working – for the glory of God.
Genesis 1 not only tells us about our origins, where we come from, it also tells us something of the reason why we are here.