|
According to the book of Genesis, God created the world and all that
is in it in six days. Then he declared it to be "very good" (Genesis 1:31 And God saw every thing that he had
made, and, behold, it was very good. And the evening and the morning were the sixth day.) The review God took of
his work: He saw every thing that he had made. So he does still; all the works of his hands are under his eye. He that
made all sees all; he that made us sees us. Omniscience cannot be separated from omnipotence. Known unto God are all his
works. But this was the Eternal Mind's solemn reflection upon the copies of its own wisdom and the products of its own
power. God has hereby set us an example of reviewing our works. Having given us a power of reflection, he expects we should
use that power, see our way, and think of it. When we have finished a day's work, and are entering upon the rest of the night,
we should commune with our own hearts about what we have been doing that day; so likewise when we have finished a week's work,
and are entering upon the sabbath-rest, we should thus prepare to meet our God; and when we are finishing our life's work,
and are entering upon our rest in the grave, that is a time to bring to remembrance, that we may die repenting, and so take
leave of it. The Creator rested on the seventh day (Genesis 2:1-3 Thus the heavens and the earth
were finished, and all the host of them. And on the seventh day God ended his work which he had made; and he rested on
the seventh day from all his work which he had made. And God blessed the seventh day, and sanctified it: because
that in it he had rested from all his work which God created and made.) After the end of the first six days God
ceased from all works of creation. He has so ended his work as that though, in his providence, he worketh hitherto, preserving
and governing all the creatures, and particularly forming the spirit of man within him, yet he does not make any new species
of creatures. In miracles, he has controlled and overruled nature, but never changed its settled course, nor repealed nor
added to any of its establishments. The solemn observance of one day in seven, as a day of holy rest and holy work,
to God's honour, is the indispensable duty of all those to whom God has revealed his holy sabbaths.
While there were other "creation stories" among
the pagan nations of the ancient world, the biblical account is unique in that God existed before creation and called
the physical world into being from nothing (Genesis 1:1, 2 In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth. And
the earth was without form, and void; and darkness was upon the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God moved upon the face
of the waters. In its epitome, where we find, to our comfort, the first article of our creed, that God
the Father Almighty is the Maker of heaven and earth, and as such we believe in him. Here is the work of
creation in its embryo, where we have an account of the first matter and the first mover. ; John 1:2, 3 The
same was in the beginning with God. All things were made by him; and without him was not any thing made that was made.)
His co-existence with the Father: The Word was with God, and the Word was God. Let none say that when we invite them
to Christ we would draw them from God, for Christ is with God and is God; it is repeated in: the same,
the very same that we believe in and preach, was in the beginning with God, that is, he was so from eternity.
Expressly asserted: All things were made by him. He was with God, not only so as to be acquainted with
the divine counsels from eternity, but to be active in the divine operations in the beginning of time. God made the
world by a word and Christ was the Word. By him, not as a subordinate instrument, but as a co-ordinate agent,
God made the world, not as the workman cuts by his axe, but as the body sees by the eye. This proves that he is
God; for he that built all things is God. The God of Israel often proved himself to be God with this, that he made
all things; and see. These pagan nations, particularly the Babylonians, believed the material universe was eternal
and that it brought their gods into being. But Genesis describes a God who is clearly superior to the physical world.
God began organizing a shapeless and barren
earth (Genesis 1:2 And the earth was without form, and void; and darkness was upon the face of the deep. And the Spirit
of God moved upon the face of the waters. There was nothing in it desirable to be seen, for it was without form
and void. Tohu and Bohu, confusion and emptiness; so these words are rendered. It was shapeless, it was
useless, it was without inhabitants, without ornaments, the shadow or rough draught of things to come, and not the image
of the things. The earth is almost reduced to the same condition again by the sin of man, under which the creation groans.
I beheld the earth, and lo it was without form, and void. To those who have their hearts in heaven this lower world,
in comparison with that upper, still appears to be nothing but confusion and emptiness. There is no true beauty to be seen,
no satisfying fulness to be enjoyed, in this earth, but in God only.), providing light (Genesis 1:3-5 And God said,
Let there be light: and there was light. And God saw the light, that it was good: and God divided the light from the
darkness. And God called the light Day, and the darkness he called Night. And the evening and the morning were the first
day. That the first of all visible beings which God created was light; not that by it he himself might see to work
(for the darkness and light are both alike to him), but that by it we might see his works and his glory in them, and might
work our works while it is day. The works of Satan and his servants are works of darkness; but he that doeth truth, and doeth
good, cometh to the light, and coveteth it, that his deeds may be made manifest. Light is the great beauty and blessing
of the universe. Like the first-born, it does, of all visible beings, most resemble its great Parent in purity and power,
brightness and beneficence; it is of great affinity with a spirit, and is next to it; though by it we see other things, and
are sure that it is, yet we know not its nature, nor can describe what it is, or by what way the light is parted.
By the sight of it let us be led to, and assisted in, the believing contemplation of him who is light, infinite and eternal
light, and the Father of lights, and who dwells in inaccessible light. In the new creation, the first thing wrought
in the soul is light: the blessed Spirit captives the will and affections by enlightening the understanding, so coming
into the heart by the door, like the good shepherd whose own the sheep are, while sin and Satan, like thieves and robbers,
climb up some other way. Those that by sin were darkness by grace become light in the world.), and separating land from water
(Genesis 1:6-10 And God said, Let there be a firmament in the midst of the waters, and let it divide the waters
from the waters. And God made the firmament, and divided the waters which were under the firmament from the waters which
were above the firmament: and it was so. And God called the firmament Heaven. And the evening and the morning were the
second day. And God said, Let the waters under the heaven be gathered together unto one place, and let the dry land appear:
and it was so. And God called the dry land Earth; and the gathering together of the waters called he Seas: and God saw
that it was good. The Second days work. The command of God concerning it: Let there be a firmament,
an expansion, so the Hebrew word signifies, like a sheet spread, or a curtain drawn out. This includes all that is
visible above the earth, between it and the third heavens: the air, its higher, middle, and lower, regions--the celestial
globe, and all the spheres and orbs of light above: it reaches as high as the place where the stars are fixed, for that is
called here the firmament of heaven, and as low as the place where the birds fly, for that also is called the firmament
of heaven. When God had made the light, he appointed the air to be the receptacle and vehicle of its beams, and to be
as a medium of communication between the invisible and the visible world; for, though between heaven and earth there is an
inconceivable distance, yet there is not an impassable gulf, as there is between heaven and hell. This firmament is not a
wall of partition, but a way of intercourse. The third day's work is related in these verses--the forming of the sea
and the dry land, and the making of the earth fruitful. Hitherto the power of the Creator had been exerted and employed about
the upper part of the visible word; the light of heaven was kindled, and the firmament of heaven fixed: but now he descends
to this lower world, the earth, which was designed for the children of men, designed both for their habitation and for their
maintenance; and here we have an account of the fitting of it for both, and building of their house and the spreading of their
table). The creation of plant and animal life followed, including creatures of the sea, air, and land ( Genesis 1:11-25 And
God said, Let the earth bring forth grass, the herb yielding seed, and the fruit tree
yielding fruit after his kind, whose seed is in itself, upon the earth: and it was so. And the earth brought forth
grass, and herb yielding seed after his kind, and the tree yielding fruit, whose seed was in itself, after his kind: and God
saw that it was good. And the evening and the morning were the third day. And God said, Let there be lights
in the firmament of the heaven to divide the day from the night; and let them be for signs, and for seasons, and for days,
and years: And let them be for lights in the firmament of the heaven to give light upon the earth: and it was so. And
God made two great lights; the greater light to rule the day, and the lesser light to rule the night: he made the stars also. And
God set them in the firmament of the heaven to give light upon the earth, And to rule over the day and over the night,
and to divide the light from the darkness: and God saw that it was good. And the evening and the morning were the fourth
day. And God said, Let the waters bring forth abundantly the moving creature that hath life, and fowl that may fly above
the earth in the open firmament of heaven. And God created great whales, and every living creature that moveth,
which the waters brought forth abundantly, after their kind, and every winged fowl after his kind: and God saw that it was
good. And God blessed them, saying, Be fruitful, and multiply, and fill the waters in the seas, and let fowl multiply
in the earth. And the evening and the morning were the fifth day. And God said, Let the earth bring forth
the living creature after his kind, cattle, and creeping thing, and beast of the earth after his kind: and it was so. And
God made the beast of the earth after his kind, and cattle after their kind, and every thing that creepeth upon the earth
after his kind: and God saw that it was good). Man and woman were created on the sixth day (Genesis 1:26-28 And
God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness: and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over
the fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth.
So God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him; male and female created he them. And God blessed
them, and God said unto them, Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth, and subdue it: and have dominion over the
fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over every living thing that moveth upon the earth. That
man was made last of all the creatures, that it might not be suspected that he had been, any way, a helper to God in the creation
of the world: that question must be for ever humbling and mortifying to him, Where wast thou, or any of thy kind, when
I laid the foundations of the earth? Yet it was both an honour and a favour to him that he was made last:
an honour, for the method of the creation was to advance from that which was less perfect to that which was more so; and a
favour, for it was not fit he should be lodged in the palace designed for him till it was completely fitted up and furnished
for his reception. Man, as soon as he was made, had the whole visible creation before him, both to contemplate and to take
the comfort of. Man was made the same day that the beasts were, because his body was made of the same earth with theirs; and,
while he is in the body, he inhabits the same earth with them. God forbid that by indulging the body and the desires of it
we should make ourselves like the beasts that perish!), before the Creator's Sabbath rest (Genesis 2:1-3 Thus the
heavens and the earth were finished, and all the host of them. And on the seventh day God ended his work which
he had made; and he rested on the seventh day from all his work which he had made. And God blessed the seventh day, and
sanctified it: because that in it he had rested from all his work which God created and made).
Scholars disagree about the length of the creation
"days." Some believe these were actual twenty-four hour days, while others believe they were periods of undertermined
length. Regardless of the lenght of these days, the biblical writer is declaring that God created the world in orderly
fashion as part od a master plan. The world did not just evolve on it's own or by accident.
The "gap" theory advanced to reconcile the biblical
account of creation with geology; holds that creation in Genesis 1:1 was followed by catastrophe (Genesis 1:2), then
succeeded by God's re-creation or reshaping of the physical world (Genesis 1:3-31). But this theory reduces God
to a weak being with little control over His own creation. The powerful God who created the world also presides over
its destiny.
Man and woman are the crowning achievement of
God's creative work (Psalms 8:3 When I consider thy heavens, the work of thy fingers, the moon and the stars, which thou
hast ordained; I consider thy heavens, and there, particularly, the moon and the stars. But why does he
not take notice of the sun, which much excels them all? Probably because it was in a night-walk, but moon-light, that he entertained
and instructed himself with this meditation, when the sun was not within view, but only the moon and the stars, which, though
they are not altogether so serviceable to man as the sun is, yet are no less demonstrations of the wisdom, power, and goodness
of the Creator). As free moral beings who bear the image of God, they were assigned dominion over the natural world
(Genesis 1: 27, 28 So God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him; male and female created
he them. And God blessed them, and God said unto them, Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth, and
subdue it: and have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over every living thing that moveth
upon the earth. In his place and authority: Let us make man in our image, and let him have dominion. As
he has the government of the inferior creatures, he is, as it were, God's representative, or viceroy, upon earth; they are
not capable of fearing and serving God, therefore God has appointed them to fear and serve man. Yet his government of himself
by the freedom of his will has in it more of God's image than his government of the creatures). They alone among the
living creatures of the world, are equipped for fellowship with their Creator.
|
