Genesis 1:1-2:3
Who

I. Know Yourself
1. “Know yourself,” was the advice of ancient Greek philosophy. Oedipus didn’t know himself.
2. Who you come from is key to knowing who you are.
3. Modern, materialistic people believe in the myth of time and chance; that we are only a “naked ape.”
4. The major problem with the myth is not how but who. The myth says we are only the products of time and chance.
5. So, they believe that we are nothing more than animals that happened to develop brains rather than claws.
6. That myth produces people who think that man was made for bread alone. So, they live for making money instead of worshipping God.
7. Genesis 1 lifts humanity up, telling us we are more than the lucky product of time and chance.
II. The Scene Setting (1:1-2)
A. God Created the Universe (1:1)
1. God created everything, all matter, all stars, galaxies, the solar system, etc.
2. God was already there in the beginning. Only He is the Creator. Everything else is created.
3. The pagans believed the sky, the seas, the sun, moon, and stars, were gods.
4. That God created the universe means that He created matter, even your body.
5. Materialism is the belief that matter is all there is. So, they live for money, for the stuff you can buy, for your body, etc.
6. Pseudo-spirituality is the belief that matter doesn’t matter; that nothing “natural” is spiritual.
7. Biblical Christians are pro-science because God made nature and invites us to study it and master it.
B. Setting the Stage (1:2)
1. “The earth was void and desolate.” It was not, immediately after creation, fit for living.
2. God creates out of nothing. We make things out of pre-existing things. God is the only One who creates.
3. “And darkness was over the face of the deep,” implying that the earth was dark and watery.
4. “And the Spirit of God was hovering ...”. The verb hovering is used in Deuteronomy 32:11.
5. It evokes the image of a hen brooding over her chicks. It suggests nurturing, care, supervision.
III. The Scene (1:3-2:3)
A. The Days
1. There are seven days, each of them introduced with the same refrain, a signal, like a rooster crowing.
2. Every day begins with this signal: “and God said.” So, the first day begins in verse 3.
3. In the first day, God brings light on the “face of the deep,” on earth. It’s day and night on earth.
4. Every day is marked as ending with “there was evening and there was morning,” the number of the day.
5. Six times, in verses 4, 10, 12, 18, 21, 25, God sees the creation in its various stages and says, “It is good.”
6. The second day God makes the sky with rain-bearing clouds (1:6-8).
7. The third day He makes the dry land separate from the seas (1:9-10), not the creation of the earth.
8. The third day, God makes plant life, “according to its kind,” the wide variety of plants (1:11-13).
9. The fourth day, God makes the sun to rule the day and the moon the night (1:14-19). They were created in verse 1. On day four they are were given a role.
10. In the fifth day God creates the aquatic animals (1:20-23). The special word for “create” is used for life.
11. Life doesn’t arise randomly, by chance, out of matter. It is created by God.
12. The sixth day comes in two parts (1: 24-31). First, the creation of land animals, God’s “footprints.”
B. Humanity Created in God’s Image
1. God consults with Himself. A singular God speaking to Himself in the plural.
2. Theologians debate what the image of God is but whatever it is, it sets us apart from the animals.
3. To treat other races as beasts show is to reject that all people are made in the image of God.
4. We are also created man, as male and female. Sexism that denigrates women is not pleasing to God.
5. The sexes were made by God. Sexual identify is not a social construct but a divine construct.
6. No kind of human being because of race or sex or age is less in God’s image than any other.
7. God gives us a mission: multiply and subdue the earth, complete the work He began, be life-cultivators.
8. Living for dead things leads to deadness. Fertility is a gift from the One true God.
9. The myth of chance has ended with people being reduced to the level of the beasts.
10. Do we spend so much on material luxuries, that we have little left over for other image-bearers?
11. After God has made humanity, He sees it all and proclaims, “It is very good,” (1:31).
12. Like God, we not only have work, we have rest. That’s why there is the day of rest (2:1-3.)
13. We were all made to need a day of rest, time to turn away from the material to the spiritual.
IV. Invitation: We don’t comprehend the magnitude of what God did when He became man, came as Jesus; what He did on the cross because so often we don’t comprehend who we are, how small we are; just a creature; how big God is, the Creator, how we’re not God. When we understand who God is and who we are we see that grace is amazing.