Genesis Day 1: The beginning of the Bible says more, way more, than how the universe began.
Bang! That loud sound is not simply the Universe exploding into being—something from nothing—no, if we can hear past the noise, we will hear an even deeper SOUND. We will hear WHY we were born—WHAT FAMILY we are a part of—in fact WHO, at our core, we are! But first, we are going to learn about God.
Some people groan with the text of Genesis. There is so much noise around evolution versus creation.
Part of the noise may be your own groaning. These first few verses of the Bible all-too-often seem to propel us, whether we want to or not, into a “creation versus evolution debate.” Battle lines are drawn, and a fight ensues.
Many simply walk away. To me, someone who loves God and appreciates science, the casualty of this war is often that folks are kept from knowing the God of the Bible, and knowing themselves.
Look, this is an important discussion, but there is a problem. Because if we start with this fight, we end up jumping over so many important truths that the first four verses of the Bible, with the loudest possible BANG, are proclaiming.
Let me help you first get past that din, to a place that I love.
(1) In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth.
Ten words and we have:
- That there is a God.
- That God is the creator and sustainer of the cosmos.
This text doesn’t prove God. This text proclaims God. As followers of Jesus, we believe in God, the God of the Bible.
“This text doesn’t prove God. This text proclaims God.”
And there is more.
(2) 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. (3) And God said, “Let there be light,” and there was light. (4) And God saw that the light was good. And God separated the light from the darkness. - Genesis 1:1-4
Now we learn:
- That God’s Spirit was hovering… I love the image.
- That God’s world is one of order, not disorder.
- That God’s creation began as good, very good.
God is our starting point. God is at the center. Not us. Humankind is not meant for this position.
Without God, chaos. As God speaks, creation and order emerge. In this first chapter, God speaks ten times, and seven times he says it is (very) good.
Might God have created all this in “seven days”? Science suggests no. Is that a problem?
It is for some Christians, and for other Christians it is not.
Here is how I answer that question. I don’t think this text is about HOW God created the universe. I think it’s about this: God is real, and God is the creator and sustainer of the universe.
The God of Genesis 1 – My God – is He big enough that he could have made all this is 6, 24-hour days?
Yes, but I don’t think this is what the text suggests.
But let’s stick with the text. We are standing on some AMAZING statements about this world—that there is a God—as I just described…and tomorrow the text remains rather amazing. We will learn about—US—we learn answers to Where we are from, our family—in fact, we learn WHO, at our core we are.
But first…