“God Created the Heavens and the Earth”
The third in a series: “I Will be Your God and You Will Be My People.”
Texts: Genesis 1:1-2:2; John 1:1-14
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C. S. Lewis reportedly once quipped, “God likes matter, he invented it.” Perhaps no doctrine in the bible has as many important, profound and practical ramifications as does the doctrine of creation. With that in mind, we turn to the creation account where the Triune God created all things from nothing, and when finished with his creative work, pronounced his handiwork “good.”
As I pointed out when we began our present sermon series about the unfolding drama of redemption, entitled “I will be your God and you will be my people,” the story of redemption must begin with God who was in the beginning. But not only was God before all things, the story of redemption which subsequently unfolds in the pages of Scripture, does so because God decreed that all of these things will come to pass. The story of redemption has an author who determines the plot line and who ensures that the story comes to its final climax.
We have seen that it was in the eternal inter-Trinitarian covenant known as the “covenant of redemption” in which Jesus Christ, the second person of the Holy Trinity was chosen to be the only mediator between God and humanity. We also saw that all those whom God chooses to save under the terms of this covenant are chosen in Jesus Christ, according to the will and purposes of God, and not because of anything good that God foresees in the creature.
We now turn our attention to the execution of God’s eternal decree, namely to the beginning of time itself and the creation of all things. For the author of the story of redemption will now set his great drama of redemption into action and begin to accomplish those things he has determined to do before time began.
This brings us to the creation account, which is the first step in God fulfilling his eternal purposes. If the Christian doctrine of an eternal, immutable, all-powerful Triune God is the necessary presupposition to the story of redemption, creation is the sphere in which the drama of redemption must necessarily take place. The one–the divine decree–necessarily leads to the other–the execution of God’s decree in time and space. But there is no time or space until God creates it! This is why we consider the subject of creation at this point in our study of the drama of redemption.
Before we turn to our text–the creation account and the opening verses in Genesis–a couple of important qualifications are in order. Unfortunately, the doctrine of creation is an area where Reformed Christians are greatly divided. Many of our brethren regard one’s view of the days of Genesis as a test for orthodoxy. So, we will proceed very carefully.
The division among the brethren here is relatively straight-forward. One group argues that in Genesis 1, Moses is describing creation in terms of seven literal 24 hour days. The adherents of this view argue for a young earth and point out that this is the historic view of all of the Reformers. Any departure from this view, many fear, is a capitulation to the unbelieving spirit of the age and opens the door for liberalism to enter the citadel of faith.
On the other side, the argument is made that the creation account itself indicates that Moses is not speaking of seven literal twenty-four hour days, but that in Genesis 1, Moses uses the imagery of solar days to describe the general pattern of creation as reflecting divine order and purpose. Advocates of this latter view point variously to the scientific data supporting an ancient earth and to the fact that a literal reading of Genesis 1 raises a number of internal inconsistencies. This is not a debate we can settle in this sermon.
As you know, I am one not to shy away from controversy simply because a subject is controversial. But I don’t think a sermon is the best place to handle controversial issues like this–it is not possible to ask questions and there are severe time constraints. So rather than spend time on the debate about whether or not Moses intended us to understand these days as ordinary 24 hour solar days–and since I am sure that you will ask me, I do not think he does–let me simply set forth some of the things we need to keep in mind as we work our way through the creation account itself.
There is a scene in the movie Young Frankenstein, in which Frau Bleucher leads Dr. Frankenstein to his grandfather’s forbidden book describing how he created the first Frankenstein monster, bringing the dead back to life. The title of the book–“How I Did It!” This is precisely how we are not to understand the creation account. God does not tell us anything in a scientific sense about how he created the universe other than to say, he spoke and it came to pass!
What we do find in the creation account is God’s amazing declaration that he created the heavens and the earth from nothing and that creation reflects God’s order and purpose. Let me say it again! Genesis 1 does not contain a scientific explanation of creation. This is not Moses’ intention! Well, what then is Moses’ intention?
Moses’ intention in the opening chapter of Genesis is essentially polemical and doxological. If God created everything including the sun, the moon, the stars, as well as all creatures, then all forms of paganism and finite “godism” must be seen as the supreme offense to the Holy and all-sufficient God. This is, of course, typical of Canaanite religion–who worshiped the sun, the moon, and created things–and who God had commanded Israel to remove from the promised land. Since YHWH, Israel’s God, created all things, we are to worship him and him alone! To worship created things is to deny worship rightly due only to the Creator. In context, the creation account is framed as a polemic against all those forms of paganism which God’s people had encountered first in Egypt and then later in Canaan.
As we have already seen, if God was before all things, then all things have their origin in the will and purpose of God. Unlike pagans, who must argue for some form of eternal matter or even a realm of eternal ideas in which the “gods” must dwell, and who see themselves as being at the capricious mercies of these supposed powers of the heavens, on the contrary, God’s people know that since God created all things, all things have a purpose and meaning.
In addition, all things exist for God’s own glory and honor. Nothing argues more strongly for the creator-creature distinction than creation itself. Being created–unlike God–that which God has made and which has no existence until God creates it, is necessarily finite, and depends upon God not only for its existence, but for its preservation. Therefore, creation and the things in it, are not to be worshiped.
Then, there is a final point. It was Calvin who said in his commentary on the Book of Hebrews, “the faithful, to whom he has given eyes, see sparks of his glory, as it were, glittering in every created thing. The world was no doubt made, that it might be the theater of divine glory.” Once God has decreed to create the heavens and earth and to permit the fall of humanity into sin, and then to send Jesus Christ to be the mediator of the covenant of grace, creation itself becomes the stage in which the drama of redemption unfolds. This means that God, who is eternal and outside of time, must now act in history–creation as it passes through time–in order to redeem the fallen world he will make. Thus Christianity is a religion which is necessarily grounded in history–God’s redemptive acts and explanatory words–and recorded for subsequent generations in the Scriptures.
With these qualifications in mind, let us turn to our text, Genesis Chapter 1, and the great declaration which opens the Bible in its very first verse. “In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.”
Sometimes it is easy to miss the obvious. As one commentator points out, “it is no accident that God is the subject of the first sentence of the Bible, for this word dominates the whole chapter and catches the eye at every point of the page: it is used some thirty-five times in as many verses of the story. The passage, indeed the Book, is about Him first of all; to read it with any other interest (which is all too possible) is to misread it.” (cf. Kidner, Genesis, 43). This is a warning which we, too, must heed. If we spend our time looking for answers to our modern scientific debates about the origin of the universe, we might easily miss the whole point of the creation narrative, which is not to tell us about the details of creation, but which is, instead, intended to tell us something very important about God! The bible gives us very clear answers to the right questions. But sometimes we can put questions to the biblical text which the text wasn’t written to answer. And this is often the case with the creation account.
Moses’ point is that before anything was created, including time, God already was. God created the heavens and the earth, and he created them–ex nihilo–that is, from nothing. Moses is not the only biblical writer to make the point that God is before all things, including time. In Isaiah 46:10 we read “I make known the end from the beginning, from ancient times, what is still to come. I say my purpose will stand, and I will do all that I please.” In Isaiah 48:10, YHWH declares, “I am the first and the last,” a marvelous assertion that God is before all things including time and creation itself. The famous wisdom passage of Proverbs 8:22 ff., speaks of God being before all things, and that the beginning is itself equated with a time before the waters of the deep were divided or separated from the skies above (Kline, Kingdom Prologue, 16).
But what is somewhat shadowy and mysterious in the Old Testament becomes very clear in the New. There is Paul’s moving doxology in Romans 11:36 “for of him and through him and to him are all things.” In John 1:1-3, our New Testament lesson and a passage which clearly echoes the opening words of Genesis 1, we read about the role of the second person of the Trinity in creation. Says John, “in the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was with God in the beginning. Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made.” Here we are told in no uncertain terms that not only is Jesus eternal God, but that he created all things, and that nothing existed at all until God created it. It is also not accidental that Jesus is described by John as the eternal word and creator of all things, when the very essence of the creation account is God’s word, which, when spoken, brings the days of creation to pass.
This, of course, is fatal to all forms of paganism and the notion that matter, like God, is eternal, or that matter is evil, since it is the polar opposite of pure spirit. One of the first signs of non-Christian thinking is the deprecation of all things material, simply because they are material!
The opening declaration of the bible that “In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth,” is important in two additional senses. First, from this it is clear that God created two realms, one visible–the earth, and one invisible–the heavens. The visible realm is creation, the realm with which we have to do. It is our home as earthly creatures, and this is the divinely chosen theater in which the drama of redemption will play out. Though the invisible realm is no less real, it is barred to us. This is the realm of God’s infinite glory and angelic beings. And though we may wish to pry into this mysterious world of the unseen, this is not our home, it is not our place.
It is only natural to be a bit curious about the unseen, and if Frank Peretti’s This Present Darkness is any proof, many of our contemporaries are far more interested in what they can’t see than what they can. We must be careful not to depreciate the unseen nor be unduly preoccupied with it. For we are creatures of the earth, the visible realm.
The second thing we need to say about this opening declaration is that it functions as a kind of headline for what follows. In the beginning, that is, when time began, God created the heavens–the invisible, and the earth, the visible creation, in six days. Thus what follows in verses 3 and following and the creation which takes place on days one through six, is really an elaboration of this marvelous declaration that in the beginning God created all things. This becomes clear in verse 2, when we are told that after God created the realms of the visible and invisible, “the earth was formless and empty, darkness was over the surface of the deep, and the Spirit of God was hovering over the waters.” Having made the world from nothing, the great drama of redemption now begins. Therefore, when God says “let it be” in the heavens–the invisible realm– “and it was so,” immediately comes to pass in the visible realm of creation (Kline, "Space and Time in Genesis Cosmology," 5). God speaks and the world is formed. That which is formless, now takes on form.
With that as our background, let us now turn to the six days of creation as set forth by Moses in verses 3-31.
From the time of St. Augustine, many Christians have noticed that there may be a topical rather than chronological ordering to the days of creation. The reason for this is the rather striking literary arrangement here in the various aspects of creation covered by the different days. Rather than take the six days of creation sequentially–1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, as is usually done–I think there is value in looking at these days topically. When we do this, it is clear that days one, two and three describe the creation of particular realms, while in days four, five and six, the realms created on days one, two and three are now filled. The days can be divided into days of forming [1, 2, 3] and days of filling [4, 5, 6].
Hopefully, this will become clear when we match the day of forming of a particular realm with the day in which that realm is filled. Therefore, let us look at the days in two parallel columns. In column one, we have day one, the forming of light and dark. In column two, we have day four and the creation of the lights of the day and the night, the sun, the moon, and the stars. In column one the realm is formed. In column 2 the realm is filled. The same relationship is true for days two and five and three and six. The parallelism can be best seen simply by comparing the days.
About day one, we read beginning in verse 3, “And God said, `Let there be light,’ and there was light. God saw that the light was good, and he 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.” Notice that here God creates the realm–day and night, and then fills them in day four, as described in verses 14-19. “And God said, `Let there be lights in the expanse of the sky to separate the day from the night, and let them serve as signs to mark seasons and days and years, and let them be lights in the expanse of the sky to give light on the earth.’ And it was so. God made two great lights—the greater light to govern the day and the lesser light to govern the night. He also made the stars. God set them in the expanse of the sky to give light on the earth, to govern the day and the night, and to separate light from darkness. And God saw that it was good. And there was evening, and there was morning—the fourth day.” On day one the realm is formed, on day four it is filled. The realm of light and darkness is now filled by the luminaries, the sun, moon and stars.
Now if this is the correct way to read the creation account–and I think that it is–it means that Moses has arranged the days topically, and that the days of creation are not to be understood sequentially: 1-2-3-4-5-6, but as a series of parallels–1-4, 2-5, 3-6. If true this means that these are not literal 24 hour days and Moses is not speaking to the question of the age of the earth. Understanding the days topically, rather than sequentially, also solves the nagging problems raised by the literal 24 hour-day interpretation, such as Moses speaking of a morning and evening on each of the first three days, but yet the sun and moon are not created until day four. The same is true for the question of vegetation being created on day three before the sun is created on day four.
The topical arrangement of the days becomes even clearer when you compare the second day in column one (day two) with the second day in column two (day five). According to verse 7, on day two, “God said, `Let there be an expanse between the waters to separate water from water.’ So God made the expanse and separated the water under the expanse from the water above it. And it was so. God called the expanse `sky.' And there was evening, and there was morning—the second day.” And what do we see in day five, beginning in verse 20? The realm formed on day two is now filled on day five. “And God said, `Let the water teem with living creatures, and let birds fly above the earth across the expanse of the sky.’ So God created the great creatures of the sea and every living and moving thing with which the water teems, according to their kinds, and every winged bird according to its kind. And God saw that it was good. God blessed them and said, `Be fruitful and increase in number and fill the water in the seas, and let the birds increase on the earth.’ And there was evening, and there was morning—the fifth day.” Notice once again that day two is a day when God creates the realm of the sea and sky. Day five is the day when God fills the sea with fish and the sky with birds. The pattern is “days of forming” in column one and “days of filling” in column two.
Not surprisingly, we see exactly the same thing when we compare days three and six. In verse 9, we read, “and God said, `Let the water under the sky be gathered to one place, and let dry ground appear.’ And it was so. God called the dry ground `land,’ and the gathered waters he called `seas.’ And God saw that it was good. Then God said, `Let the land produce vegetation: seed-bearing plants and trees on the land that bear fruit with seed in it, according to their various kinds.’ And it was so. The land produced vegetation: plants bearing seed according to their kinds and trees bearing fruit with seed in it according to their kinds. And God saw that it was good. And there was evening, and there was morning—the third day.” God spoke and the realm was formed. God spoke again in day six and the realm is now filled. In verse 24, we read, “And God said, `Let the land produce living creatures according to their kinds: livestock, creatures that move along the ground, and wild animals, each according to its kind.’ And it was so. God made the wild animals according to their kinds, the livestock according to their kinds, and all the creatures that move along the ground according to their kinds. And God saw that it was good. Then 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.’ Then God said, `I give you every seed-bearing plant on the face of the whole earth and every tree that has fruit with seed in it. They will be yours for food. And to all the beasts of the earth and all the birds of the air and all the creatures that move on the ground—everything that has the breath of life in it—I give every green plant for food.’ And it was so. God saw all that he had made, and it was very good. And there was evening, and there was morning—the sixth day.”
Thus we return to where we began. In verse one we read “In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth,” the meaning of which Moses subsequently unpacks in verses 3-31. Likewise the account of the six days of creation ends with the glorious declaration in verse one of chapter two, “thus the heavens and the earth were completed in all their vast array.” But there is yet one more day, the seventh day. Says Moses in verse 2, “by the seventh day God had finished the work he had been doing; so on the seventh day he rested from all his work.” And it is to the subject of God’s Sabbath we will turn next time before turning to God’s creation of Adam and Eve in God’s image in the sermon following.
There are a number of important conclusions to be drawn from Moses’ account of the days of creation.
First and foremost, whether Moses is depicting literal 24 days or not, he clearly states that God created all things from nothing. This stands over against the pagan religions then confronting Israel, and their so-called deities of sun, moon, and created things. For these are all created things, and to worship created things rather than the creator is the height of human sinfulness and arrogance. Indeed in Romans 1, Paul speaks in no uncertain terms of the heinousness of such behavior: “For since the creation of the world God’s invisible qualities—his eternal power and divine nature—have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that men are without excuse. For although they knew God, they neither glorified him as God nor gave thanks to him, but their thinking became futile and their foolish hearts were darkened. Although they claimed to be wise, they became fools and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images made to look like mortal man and birds and animals and reptiles. Therefore God gave them over in the sinful desires of their hearts to sexual impurity for the degrading of their bodies with one another. They exchanged the truth of God for a lie, and worshiped and served created things rather than the Creator—who is forever praised. Amen.”
Though the creation account and the subsequent cultural mandate implore Christians to take seriously the responsibility of ecological stewardship over the earth, these same doctrines demand that we worship God the creator, not the earth, the creation. There is “no mother earth” for a Christian and no deification of nature. The creation account tells us that trees are wonderful and to be used and preserved responsibly, but the creation account also tells us “thou shalt not hug them!” Environmental stewardship, yes. Earth worship, no.
A second thing which we find in the creation account is the fact there is clearly divine order in God’s work of creation, and that creation itself reflects his eternal purpose. Advocates of both the literal 24 hour or the framework interpretation of the creation account fully agree about this, though they disagree about the details. Moses is crystal clear that God creates the various realms of the earth and the heaven, the sky and the sea, separates the land from the ocean, and then God fills each of these realms with their divinely appointed rulers, the sun, the moon and the stars, the birds and the fish, plants, animals and humanity. Everything is done in order, everything has a purpose. Thus the disorder and chaos we see comes from humanity’s fall into sin, and is not because of any inherent defect in creation.
One important consequence of this is that when all is said and done, there should be no intrinsic conflict between science and the bible, God being the author of both nature and the Scriptures. It is only human finitude and sin which creates a conflict between things that should be seamlessly joined together. The heavens do indeed declare the glory of God and the earth certainly shows forth his handiwork. The whole earth is full of God’s glory! And for this we are to continuously praise our God!
Finally, let’s not overlook the fact that after God finished this creative efforts, he pronounced everything that he created as “good.” This is an amazing assertion. Not only does God affirm the goodness of all created things, God also pronounces the heavenly benediction upon them, thereby sanctifying creation as the theater in which the drama of redemption will unfold. No dualism between spirit and matter here, as typical of paganism, only a clear distinction between the creator and the creation!
What is more, we read in John 1:10-14, that the creator regarded matter and the goodness of his creation so highly, that he was pleased to become one of us! Says John about Jesus, “he was in the world, and though the world was made through him, the world did not recognize him. He came to that which was his own, but his own did not receive him. Yet to all who received him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God—children born not of natural descent, nor of human decision or a husband’s will, but born of God. The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the One and Only, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth.”
The wonder of wonders is that the creator of the heavens and the earth took on human flesh and made his dwelling with us. He did so for the express purpose of saving us from the guilt of our sins, though we deserve nothing but his wrath. The one who made the heavens and the earth, who gives us life and breath, who has held the heavens in place for countless ages past, comes to us in the power of the Holy Spirit through the material means of his word and sacraments. And through faith in his name, he gives us the right to become children of God, children born of God.
With the divine benediction pronounced upon all created things, and the knowledge that our creator is also our redeemer, let us go forth with grateful hearts and enjoy the world that God has made! For this is the theater of divine glory!
Amen!
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For further reading on the creation controversy and the representative views, see:
Pipa and Hall, eds., "Did God Create in Six Days? The best defense of the 24-hour day position.
Godfrey, God's Pattern for Creation (P & R). A presentation of the covenantal view, and close to my own position.
Hagopian, The Genesis Debate. An important debate between advocates of the Framework Hypothesis (Kline and Irons), the Day-Age position (Ross and Archer), and the 24 Hour View (Duncan and Hall)
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To read the next sermon in this series, Click here: Riddleblog - God Blessed the Seventh Day