"WHY IS THE WORLD THE WAY IT IS?" "GOD MADE IT PERFECT"
GENESIS 1: 1-23

INTRODUCTION

The problem with starting:

Starting something new is always a little scary and risky. When I was 8 or 9 my dad took me over to the little league baseball fields to try out. I remember standing at the fence with my dad as he tried to encourage me to go out on the field and try out. I could not bring myself to do it. I was too afraid I wouldn’t be able to do it. I didn’t know what would happen and so we just left. A year and a half ago, our family decided to leave the staff of Campus Crusade for Christ after 20 years and to leave Champaign, IL where we had lived for nine years and to move here to Janesville to start a church. This was another new and scary time in my life. All of us wondered what it would be like. The children wondered if they would find any new friends. Will I be adequate to the task? Will anyone pay attention to what we’re trying to do?

Many of us won’t try anything new because we’re so afraid of the uncertainties. All of us, when we are confronted with doing something new are looking for assurances that it’s going to be all right, that things will turn out OK. There are many of you in here today that are starting a new pursuit of God. You have concerns and questions, "Where will this take me?" and "What is going to change in my life?" All of us have joined with this new church and wondering what the future will look like. The book of Genesis was written for a people in exactly our situation.

To whom, when and why was Genesis written?

The goal of Bible study is first of all to find out what the original author intended to say to the people he was writing to in the original, historical situation. The first question to ask of the Bible is not, "What does this mean to me?" but rather, "What did this mean to the author and original audience?" The book of Genesis, like every other book in the Bible, was written at a particular time for a particular purpose and to a particular people. If we’re going to understand the God’s word to us in Genesis, we have to spend a few minutes getting a handle on the time and occasion of its writing.

The first words of the Bible that were written were not those in Genesis 1, but rather those in Exodus 20. They are famous words, they are the 10 commandments. God wrote the first words of Scripture when he wrote the 10 commandments on tablets of stone. Moses then wrote those words on parchment and they became part of the Scriptures. Moses wrote the first five books of the Bible.

• Describe the time line of Israel’s history and the preparation for entering the land of Canaan, which included the writing of Genesis.

What would be some of the questions you might have if you were one of these people? You’ve been slaves until 40 years ago. Now you have just spent the past 40 years living as nomads as you buried your parents and grandparents in the desert. You are planning on taking over a land that your parents were afraid to attack because there were giants and forts in the land. You’ve really only been a nation for 40 years and have only practiced your religion for that long. The nations around you have a variety of religions and gods. You would want to know that once you cross that river and begin to make war, that you are going to succeed. You would want to know the particular dangers involved in attacking these people. You would want to know, why is God so opposed to the people living in the land of Canaan and why is he treating you so special. I think you would want to know, what exactly, does God expect of you?

If you are God and are planning to bring them into this land, what are some of the things you’d like them to know?

The book of Genesis aims to answer all of these questions. It is written by Moses, during the 40 years of wandering in the desert. It is written for the children of those original people that God brought out of Egypt. God gave them this book as a good parent assures and explains when helping their child try something new. It is written to help them understand the world they are living in, to warn them of the dangers that confront them but mostly to teach them about the God who will accomplish all he has promised to do. It is God’s story. A revelation of how certainly he is working out his plan in spite of and through the actions of human beings. It is a book intended to inspire confidence in all those who claim to be followers of the God who made the world and is the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. It is a book intended to inspire awe and respect and fear for this great Creator who has condescended to enter into relationships with human beings.

It is my intention, as we examine this book to catch a glimpse of this great God so we will move forward in the life God calls each of us to live with confidence and with caution. We are going to see in the coming weeks, the greatness of God and the greatness of His anger against all those who oppose him and his ways. But we also are going to see the mercy of God working in and through a deeply flawed humanity.

Genesis and science: a word about evolutionary theory

Living as we do in the post Darwin era, something must be said about the relationship of Genesis 1 to the claims of evolutionary dogma. For some of you this may be of little interest. This should interest you. There are few ideas more pervasive or more influential in our culture than the notion that all living entities have arisen through a purely natural and gradual process. The pervasiveness of these ideas not only has a negative social consequence but also impairs our ability to hear what God wants to say to us in this part of the Bible. Every person in here reads this portion of the Bible far differently than our ancestors of 150 years ago because of the influence of Darwinian thought. This chapter was not written with any of the questions we are interested in, in mind. It was not written to tell us how old the earth is nor what mechanism, if any, God used in the creation of the world. It was not written to give us information on characteristics of the primordial world or to answer questions about genetics. This part of the Bible has a foundational message that we all desperately need to hear. The trouble is, our preoccupation with the controversies surrounding evolutionary theory acts as static to keep us from hearing that message.

Gordon Wenham, in his excellent commentary on Genesis says this,

Let me hasten to add, however, that what this passage does teach has significant bearing upon the central assertions of evolutionary dogma. Here are the central assertions of modern, neo-Darwinist evolutionary theory: The enormous diversity of living things can be explained by a natural process that began with a common ancestor, probably a single-celled microbe. Through the accumulation of numerous, minor genetic changes, preserved through the process of natural selection (survival of the fittest), we now have the vast differentiation among living beings. In other words this natural process, by chance over long periods of time, has caused microbes to become multi-celled organisms that became fish that became amphibians and so on.

Evolutionary dogma is at its heart an atheistic explanation of origins. It is uncongenial and often hostile to any claims of divine action within the natural world because by definition this is a closed system and God has no part in it, either in creating or sustaining. Obviously this is contrary to Biblical teaching, especially, Genesis 1.

I want to make three assertions about evolutionary doctrine. I do not have time, nor is it my purpose to defend these assertions at this time. I would encourage you, if this is a subject you are interested in, to read the book by Philip Johnson, "Darwin on Trial".

• Science cannot demonstrate how complex adaptive structures can arise by random mutation and selection, even though they vigorously declare this is an established fact.
• Paleontologists (people who dig up and examine fossils) have been unable to identify specific fossil ancestors for any of the major groups of living creatures
• Darwinist evolutionary theory rests squarely on philosophical beliefs that are not subject to scientific test and refutation. In other words, evolutionary dogma is a belief, not an empirically verifiable fact.

There is not one verifiable fact within the material world that contradicts a single statement of the Bible. Also, those of you who have sought refuge in "theistic evolution" have given away more than is required to be intellectually honest. The evidence that evolutionary dogma puts forward in support of their position is merely the result of making data fit a preconceived idea. The theory is not open to falsification. It is an assumed fact and the only data that is admissible is that which can be made to support the theory. Any interpretation of data that does not fit orthodoxy is ruled out.

Those of you who are students, when confronted with the indoctrination of this grand metaphysical story in your science classes need only ask: "Can you point to any empirically verifiable mechanism that actually causes species to change from one to another?" The answer to that question is no. Then you are right to ask, "Then why do we treat the process of beneficial mutation preserved through natural selection as an established fact of science?" The answer that will come back is something like this: "We know that the variety of living organisms is caused by natural processes. The neo-Darwinian description of that process is the only one that makes logical sense, therefore it is true." This is not science, this is philosophy. Do not be afraid of science. True science is the friend of all who recognize God as creator and sustainer of the universe. It is a means of discovering how wonderful and powerful he is, which leads us to our text for the morning.

Whenever you are asked to take a risk, your first question will be, "What are the probabilities that the benefit that will come to me will outweigh that which I am risking?" Your second question will be, "What resources are available that cause me to believe a positive outcome will occur?"

Think of changing jobs. There is a risk involved. Will you like the new job? Will the income be adequate? Will you be able to handle your new responsibilities? Will you be able to get along with the new co-workers? Will the job last? How do you decide to take the new job? You compare what you have to what is promised and you evaluate whether you have what it takes to succeed at the new job.

The nation of Israel was in exactly the same position. God told them that if they would obey him and go into the land of Canaan that they would possess a land flowing with milk and honey. They could leave behind their lives of slavery, of nomadic wandering in the desert and enter into a life of plenty. The risk involved was the loss of life and possible defeat at the hands of their enemies. The parents of the people to whom Genesis was written had decided that Egypt was a better place than Canaan and that God was not able to bring them into the land. So, Moses writes, under the guidance of God himself, a brief history of the world and of their origins to show two things. First, the God who has promised to be with them can be trusted to come through and second, what he was offering was incredibly superior to anything they could get by their own means.

We stand in exactly the same position. The Lord Jesus Christ commands us to forsake all hope of finding life here, in this world. He invites us to come to him in order to find an abundant life. A life that is lived in relationship with God and seeks him above all else. Will it be worth it to give up all hope of finding life here? Will Christ be enough for me? Do I have what it takes to make it? Can I actually overcome my love for sin and learn to love God supremely? Genesis 1 gives us reasons to hope that yes, what God offers is better than everything else and yes, God is able to give me what he promises.

MAIN POINT

God made the world to show off his perfections

I. The created world shows His free, sovereign power

Why does anything exist rather than nothing? The answer is that "In the beginning God created". God for his own reasons and by his own decision and out of the abundance of his own power created. There is a powerful simplicity in these opening 7 words of the Bible. God freely, for no reason other than his own decision, made everything that exists. Everything and everyone owes its existence to God. He is distinct from his creation and is not dependent upon it for anything. Rather, everything in creation is dependent upon him. This is a fact, not something you decide about. Whether you agree with it or not, everything you have and are, God made.

The magnitude of his power is shown in the description of the conditions preceding the first creative act and then in the verbs used to describe that creation. God has always existed, however, time, space, matter and energy all had a beginning. Genesis 1:1 is a statement of God creating everything out of nothing. V. 2 tells us that after God brought all matter and energy into existence it was in a state of chaos. It is described as without form, that is without any functional form. It was empty, in other words there were no inhabitants, no living beings existed. Finally, there was darkness and an undifferentiated watery mass. Finally, the Spirit of God is pictured as hovering over this chaos, distinct from it, in preparation to accomplish the work of forming this chaos into the ordered world we live in. The rest of Genesis 1 shows God removing the conditions of chaos and forming the universe into a hospitable home for man.

There are 10 commands that follow from v. 3 to 2:3. Ten times God commands and in 8 of those commands, what he commands comes into existence immediately. In the other two instances, vv. 22 & 28, God commands fish and birds and then man to be fruitful and multiply and man to rule over the earth. The rest of the book of Genesis shows the fulfillment of these commands, as does history itself. Thereby demonstrating that what God commands, infallibly occurs. God creates what he commands by the word of his command.

Consider how radically different God is from us. Last night I went into our backyard with our dog, Scholar. It was dark out and he went tearing around the yard looking for all the creatures who had left their scent in our yard. I started calling him, it was at least several minutes before he decided to listen to my command and come to me. This is the way it is with all of my commands, whether to my dog or my children. The fulfillment of my will requires the cooperation of the beings I command. This is true for every human command. But here we see God commanding darkness and light comes into existence. He commands an undifferentiated watery mass to divide and it does and then land to appear and it does and then the sun, moon and stars to appear and they do and then birds and fish and they do and ….etc.

Is 43: 10 says, "When I act, who can reverse it? No one can deliver from my hand." Psalm 135: 6 says, "The Lord does whatever pleases him, in the heavens and on the earth, in the seas and their depths." Nothing constrains Gods power except his own pleasure. Genesis 1 declares that creation itself shows off God’s perfect sovereign power.

If you were an Israelite who had lived 20 years as a slave and then 40 years as a nomad and now you’re on the edge of Canaan and awaiting the final order to cross the Jordan river and begin a war against whole nations of warriors who live in fortified cities, how helpful would it be to know that the God who called you to this work was the God who sovereignly created everything that exists? How helpful is it to know that the God who calls you to give up everything and to follow Christ, is the God who creates what he commands? How helpful is it to know the God who made the world commands you to love your spouse, raise your children, don’t worry about the future, pray about everything, submit to your boss, pray about everything?

God made the world to show off his perfections

• The created world shows his free, sovereign power

II. The created world shows his wisdom

This passage uses a variety of devices to demonstrate that creation reveals the wisdom of God. One of the most fascinating is its use of structure and language. Genesis 1 is unique in the Bible and in human literature. It is highly stylized prose. The number 7 and multiples of it are used throughout the chapter.

• V. 1 has 7 Hebrew words
• V. 2 has 14 Hebrew words
• 2: 1-3 has 35 words
• God is mentioned 35 times
• Earth is mentioned 21 times
• Heaven/firmament, 21 times
• It was so, 7 times
• God saw it was good, 7 times
• There is a seven-fold pattern in each of the creation days, you can see it in v. 3-5.
• And God said
• Let there be
• And it was so
• A descriptive phrase telling what God did
• A word of naming or blessing
• God saw it was good
• There was evening and there was morning, the ____ day.

There is variation in the pattern which is used to emphasize various points about each of the days. The variation is there to make us pay attention and ask, now why didn’t Moses include that part of the formulae on this day? In asking the question we then get a look at the theology that lies behind the words. I’ll show you this when we get to the last point.

The wisdom of God is seen in the goodness of creation. Each part of creation is labeled good or very good by God. In other words, it fulfills the function, the purpose for which God created it. There is order and function in the world.

God’s wisdom is seen in the ordering of the creation events. On day 1 he creates light, on day 4 he creates the sun, moon and stars. On day 2 he creates sky and sea, on day 5 he creates birds and fish. On day 3 he creates land and vegetation, on day 6 he creates land creatures and man.

Have you ever thought about the way in which finches and warblers and hummingbirds live here in the north in the summer and then travel to South America, a journey of several thousand miles, every winter. What’s amazing is not only their endurance but the fact that they leave and return to the same patch of ground each year. These tiny little creatures are able to perform astounding feats of navigation. They do, naturally, what we humans have been able to do only with billions of dollars of satellite and radio telemetry.

Have you ever seen the spider who lives under water? It spins a web that captures a bubble of air that it then pulls down with it underwater. It lives underwater by breathing the air trapped in its web. Again, this spider does something, naturally, that we had to learn to do and spend lots of money to accomplish. Where do these creatures get this knowledge, how do they come by it?

Or think about photosynthesis. Chlorophyll takes sunlight and turns it into plant food that turns into branches and seeds and fruit and leaves and nuts and roots, all the parts of the plant. Who thought this stuff up? God did.

Genesis 1 wants us to know that the world works because God made it and he made it good.

How helpful is it to know that the God who tells you to give up everything and come follow Christ is wise enough to make a world like the one we live in? How helpful is it to know that the God who tells you how to live in this world, made these amazing creatures?

God made the world to show off his perfections

• The created world shows his free, sovereign power
• The created world shows his wisdom

• And….

III. The created world shows God’s kindness

God’s kindness is shown first in the simple fact of creation. God did not need to create anything. Out of the overflow of his own goodness and kindness he chose to create. When he created he created a place perfectly suited to his creatures, especially for man, the apex of his creation. He gave purpose to everything he made. Then in vv. 22 & 28 we are told that God blessed all living creatures. This word blessing is important. To be blessed is to be the recipient of God’s favor. Notice that God’s blessing is seen in the propagation of living creatures so that the earth is full of living creatures. The remarkable feature of earth, especially in comparison with the rest of the known universe is the abundance of life that exists on this planet. Do you know there are microbes that can live in the boiling sulfur springs of Yellowstone Park? There are fish that live in the blackness of the ocean depths in places where if a human went without protection the weight of the water would crush him. God blessed this earth and the evidence of that blessing is the abundance of life upon its face and in its ocean depths.

This fact of God’s kindness expressed in his blessing the earth with abundance is used over and over again in the Bible to encourage people to trust God. The apostle Paul uses this argument when confronting a group of idol worshipping Greek people in the town of Pisidian Antioch. Paul and Barnabas heal a man crippled from birth. When the crowds see what they have done they run off to the local temple of Zeus and get the priest to come and bring a bull in order to sacrifice it to Paul and Barnabas. P & B rush into the crowd and frantically call out for them to stop this, insisting they are only men. Then Paul says this, "In the past God let all the nations go their own way. Yet he did not leave himself without testimony, he has shown you kindness by giving you rain from heaven and crops in their season. He provides you with plenty of food and fills your hearts with joy." Do you see what he is saying. God has blessed you, this blessing is the continuation of the original blessing God gave at the creation of the world.

He loves to be kind to his creation. The psalmist says, "The Lord has compassion on all he has made". Jesus told his disciples not to worry about food and clothing. What proof did he give them that they didn’t have to worry? He said, "Consider the birds of the field. They do not sow or reap or gather into barns and yet your heavenly Father feeds them? Are you not of greater value than birds?"

How does it help you to know that the one who tells you to give up all claim to ownership and to being responsible for providing for yourself loves to be kind to his creation?

God made the world to show off his perfections

• The created world shows his free, sovereign power
• The created world shows his wisdom
• The created world shows his kindness

• And….

IV. The created world shows his authority

The difference between power and authority is that power has to do with God’s ability to do all he pleases to do. Authority is his right to do all he pleases and the obligation of everything to obey his command. Authority is about ownership and the right to rule. His authority is put forward in this passage in many ways, I’m only going to point out two of them.

First, God names various parts of creation. In v. 5 he calls the light, "day" and the darkness, "night". In v. 8 he calls the expanse that separates the clouds from the seas, "sky". And in v. 10, God called the dry ground, "land". The act of naming demonstrates the authority of the one who does the naming over that which is named.

Justin and several of his friends made up a game while we lived in Champaign. It involves using a tennis ball and a tennis racket and then street hockey goals or nets. You can play either singles or doubles. The goal is to put the tennis ball in your opponents net. There are a number of other rules that I don’t quite understand. When I first saw them playing this game I asked them what they were doing. They told me they were playing "tenhockey". By naming their game they demonstrated they were the creators of it and in charge of its rules and regulations. If you entered into the game, you had to submit to their rules. Artists, inventors, business owners, parents, pet owners, all of these have the right to name. By naming they display their authority over that which they name. God named creation because he owns it. It belongs to him, he is in charge and all of it must obey him.

The second evidence of God’s authority displayed in creation that I want to point out is found in vv. 14-19 and 21. The nations that lived around Israel and the nations God commanded Israel to conquer all worshipped the sun, the moon, the stars and great (mythical) sea creatures. Throughout the Bible God condemns people for bowing down to and serving these creatures as if they were god. He repeatedly warns his people to not join in this practice. Let me read for you one of those warnings from Dt. 4: 15-19. All the so-called gods of the nations are merely creatures and created things. God has no rivals. He alone is over all. He has authority over all creation and all must obey the word of his command.

On numerous occasions in the history of Israel their enemies will come against them and say something to this effect. "You should not trust in the Lord your God because he cannot deliver you. Look at the gods of the other nations we have conquered. Have any of them been able to deliver their people out of our hands? So do not think that your God will be able to deliver." The pagan nations would frequently act like Israel’s God was just one from among many. Genesis 1 makes it clear that there is no one and nothing to which he can be compared. He alone rules over all. Everyone and everything thing must do his bidding. As we’ll see next week, all authority on this earth is a derived authority. No one has any authority except by the decree of God. That includes parents and civil authorities.

How does it help to know that the God who commands you be submissive to your parents, to civil authorities is the one who has absolute authority over everything? How does it help to know that the one who tells you to fight against the sin in your life and to resist the devil is the one who rules over all? What risks can you take knowing God is sovereign in his power, wise in his work, kind in his provision and absolutely in charge of everything?

© Copyright 2000 John Swanson.
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