Written by: Richard Prescott - CPAS

Genesis 1 v 1-5
In the beginning God created the sky and the earth. The earth was empty and had no form. Darkness covered the ocean, and God’s Spirit was moving over the water.
Then God said, “Let there be light,” and there was light. God saw that the light was good, so he divided the light from the darkness. God named the light “day” and the darkness “night.” Evening passed, and morning came. This was the first day.

Notes 
The opening verses of the Bible – wow! Have you ever seen a really good theatre production in London’s West End? Have you ever sat with a tingle of anticipation and excitement as the lights dim, the music increases in volume and the curtain opens?

Picture this: the stage is set. There’s nothing except total darkness, but you know something or someone is there, waiting in the wings. Then a voice says, “Let there be light!” and the whole stage is flooded in brightness. Think about it – God was there in the beginning, even before ‘darkness’ existed. He spoke, he simply spoke, and there was ‘light’.

You know, it’s not easy to try and picture how creation happened. But there’s so much that we can learn from the beautiful, poetic language of Genesis. Over and above the multitude of theories on how the world was created – this amazing book shows us the reasons why. The words recorded here are all about God establishing who he is. What did God say to Moses in Exodus 3:14? He said, “I am who I am.”

And ‘The Great I Am’ is the producer here. Big bang? Hmm. I don’t reckon it was a quiet affair. How about a huge drum-roll (along with some superb cymbal crashes), kicking off the most exquisitely orchestrated overture for the greatest show that ever was – the creation of the world.

Genesis 1 v 6-10
Then God said, “Let there be something to divide the water in two.” So God made the air and placed some of the water above the air and some below it. God named the air “sky.” Evening passed, and morning came. This was the second day.
Then God said, “Let the water under the sky be gathered together so the dry land will appear.” And it happened. God named the dry land “earth” and the water that was gathered together “seas.” God saw that this was good.

Notes 
Sometimes I laugh out loud when reading the Bible. But before you shout ‘heretic!’ at me, here’s what I mean: we read about the most incredible happenings, here in Genesis more than many other books, and the words are put in such a matter of fact way. To me, there’s real humour in the fact that God creates something as vast as the sky, and the words that follow simply state “And it happened.”

The creation wasn’t a hit and miss affair – neither was it a rehearsal of any sort. God meant business, he spoke and it just, well…happened. And it was good. Our God is a God of order. We need to thank him for every new day, because it’s just one more event in his greater plan for our lives. And, as for living as God intended, we can talk to him about it. There’s a famous hymn by John Whittier (1807-1892), which says:

Drop thy still dews of quietness,
Till all our strivings cease;
Take from our souls the strain and stress,
And let our ordered lives confess
The beauty of thy peace.

Why not make this your prayer today?

Genesis 1 v 11-15
Then God said, “Let the earth produce plants—some to make grain for seeds and others to make fruits with seeds in them. Every seed will produce more of its own kind of plant.” And it happened. The earth produced plants with grain for seeds and trees that made fruits with seeds in them. Each seed grew its own kind of plant. God saw that all this was good. Evening passed, and morning came. This was the third day.
Then God said, “Let there be lights in the sky to separate day from night. These lights will be used for signs, seasons, days, and years. They will be in the sky to give light to the earth.” And it happened.

Notes 
What an incredibly complex world we live in. It always astounds me when I begin to ponder the wonder of life. Life can spring up from something even as tiny as a seed. And in this short passage, we even widen our view to the sun and moon, those amazing (huge!) things that provide all that the tiny seed needs in order to grow – light, warmth, seasons, and so on. 

In today’s society, there are huge ethical debates over things like genetic modification and cloning, where clever scientists earnestly seek to create life in their sterile laboratories. But there’s one thing missing – the Master Plan. God’s creation follows a set of instructions that will never be known to us in its entirety. In 1 Corinthians 13:12, Paul says, “Now we see a dim reflection, as if we were looking in a mirror…” But the Bible takes us on a journey, to help us to begin to understand God’s will and plan, and it’s all wrapped up in the concept of death and resurrection.

Think about the seed that dies in order to live and to grow – then produces beautiful fruit. Now look at the story of Abraham and Isaac in Genesis 22, the account of Jesus’ resurrection in Luke 23 and 24, and Paul’s words to the Galatians (chapter 2) where he talks about being crucified with Christ.

It’s in dying to self (along with our own plans and ideas) that we’re born again – and where God can create something new in us.

Genesis 1 v 16-20
So God made the two large lights. He made the brighter light to rule the day and made the smaller light to rule the night. He also made the stars. God put all these in the sky to shine on the earth, to rule over the day and over the night, and to separate the light from the darkness. God saw that all these things were good. Evening passed, and morning came. This was the fourth day.
Then God said, “Let the water be filled with living things, and let birds fly in the air above the earth.”

Notes 
I have two close friends who are mathematicians. They don’t half go on and on about the wonderful mystery of infinity and the intricacies of the fractal image. It’s all over my head.

But, wait a moment, if you want to be astounded, just take a good look at the night sky. You can’t fail to be amazed at the vastness of the sight and, even today, we still have no way of knowing how vast it actually is. NASA says, “Our technology, off the shelf, is still primitive. With a gravity assist from Jupiter, we were able to get the Galileo spacecraft to travel about 100,000 kilometres per hour. If we could achieve this speed, then the nearest star would be a 44,500-year journey away. Don't buy your tickets yet!”

And yet, we continue to put God in a box. As much as the image of a little old man hanging baubles in the sky is a pretty one, we often get our pictures of God very wrong. We also continue to believe that there are things in our lives that he can’t deal with or that he doesn’t know about. He does though, and even more than that, “God even knows how many hairs are on your head.” (Matthew 10:30). The Almighty God, the Creator of the universe knows us that intimately. Wow!

Genesis 1 v-21-24
So God created the large sea animals and every living thing that moves in the sea. The sea is filled with these living things, with each one producing more of its own kind. He also made every bird that flies, and each bird produced more of its own kind. God saw that this was good. God blessed them and said, “Have many young ones so that you may grow in number. Fill the water of the seas, and let the birds grow in number on the earth.” Evening passed, and morning came. This was the fifth day.
Then God said, “Let the earth be filled with animals, each producing more of its own kind. Let there be tame animals and small crawling animals and wild animals, and let each produce more of its kind.” And it happened.

Notes 
It’s day five of the creation of the world and things are going wild! Just look at what God’s creating now!

I like to think of myself as creative. It drives a lot of people nuts – creative people talk a load of arty nonsense most of the time, but here we see God in one of his most crazy periods, and it’s just amazing. If you want cheering up, just take yourself off to your local sea-life centre. Now there’s where you’ll find the most bizarre creatures that were ever created. Get down to your local zoo and recall how funny the sight of a giraffe actually is, or try working out why ostriches look the way they do. ‘Weird’ and ‘wonderful’ are words that can’t really describe it. The sight of God’s creation is more amazing than anything we humans could create. And all of it has a purpose too...

So, look around. Get up and go outside right now, and find something that will show you God in all his glory. Jesus himself said, “Consider how the lilies grow…I tell you that even Solomon with his riches was not dressed as beautifully as one of these flowers.” (Luke 12:27). Now tell me God doesn’t have a sense of humour. Tell me God doesn’t demonstrate his whole character in the things he’s made.

Genesis 1 v 25-26
So God made the wild animals, the tame animals, and all the small crawling animals to produce more of their own kind. God saw that this was good.
Then God said, “Let us make human beings in our image and likeness. And let them rule over the fish in the sea and the birds in the sky, over the tame animals, over all the earth, and over all the small crawling animals on the earth.”

Notes 
So God’s creation is almost complete, but there’s one more thing to do. God creates man and woman and gives them authority over everything he has made. It was God’s plan for the human race to be beautiful, good and moral. How do we get our heads around that concept? The Psalmist makes it quite clear: “But why are people important to you? Why do you take care of human beings? You made them a little lower than the angels and crowned them with glory and honour.” (Psalm 8:5)

Hey – what a responsibility! So what did we do with that responsibility? Yep, we destroyed it. In one simple act of disobedience, the human race was cut off from God forever. Or was it?

God loved the world so much (come on, you know the verse!) that he sent his son. In fact, God wanted to identify with the human race so much that his son “gave up his place with God and made himself nothing.” (Philippians 2:7) Jesus was born as a man, but he went one step further still – dying on the cross and becoming sin on our behalf. That’s way beyond the place in creation that God intended for the human race.

God loves us so much that he was prepared to go that far. How can we fail to respond?

Genesis 1 v 27-28
So God created human beings in his image. In the image of God he created them. He created them male and female. God blessed them and said, “Have many children and grow in number. Fill the earth and be its master. Rule over the fish in the sea and over the birds in the sky and over every living thing that moves on the earth.”

Notes 
God’s perfect plan for his perfect creation hasn’t been destroyed by sin. Creation goes on, and we can be a part of it every day of our lives. The amazing thing too is that God can take us from being good to being even better. We can pray like David in Psalm 51:10: “Create in me a pure heart, God, and make my spirit right again.”

Yes, God is a God of love – a God of forgiveness. The One who created the whole earth has the power to continue to create and continue to create and continue to create! In Revelation 1:8 God says, “I am the Alpha and the Omega. I am the One who is and was and is coming. I am the Almighty.” And through Jesus, God has promised us hope of life, both here on the earth and in heaven – for eternity.

And what does God say about heaven? “Look! I am making everything new!” (Revelation 21:5) The very same God who created the earth, the Almighty, All-Powerful God of Genesis is our heavenly Father.

And he still speaks, right into each of our lives. Continually making a new creation of us. This saying might be a well-worn Christian cliché, but it’s true: God hasn’t finished with us yet.


word-on-the-web uses the Scripture text taken from the Youth Bible, New Century Version (Anglicised Edition) copyright 1993 by Word Publishing Milton Keynes