Maker of Heaven and Earth
We’re talking Creation today! And if we’re going to do that, then there’s no better place to start than the very beginning. If you open up your Bibles to page 1, this is what you’ll read:
“In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.”[1]
It’s a simple sentence, but it’s so profound. It means that the universe had a beginning. There was a time when none of this existed, but God did. And then, at a certain point in time, God created the universe. And the rest of chapter 1 explains how.
Let’s dive in to Genesis 1:
2 Now the earth was formless and empty, darkness was over the surface of the deep, and the Spirit of God was hovering over the waters. 3 And God said, “Let there be light,” and there was light. 4 God saw that the light was good, and he separated the light from the darkness. 5 God called the light “day,” and the darkness he called “night.” And there was evening, and there was morning—the first day.[2]
What did God create on the first day of creation?
Light and darkness, or you could say, day and night.
How did God create light and darkness?
He spoke and it came to be.
This is so telling about our God! He didn’t go to a lab and combine elements; he didn’t go to his shop and assemble parts until he manufactured light and darkness. He spoke, and it was. Something that hadn’t been there a second ago, suddenly sprang into existence at the word of his command.
What does this tell you about God?
He is all-powerful, omnipotent, almighty, as we confess him to be in the First Article of the Apostles’ Creed.
God has the power to do anything he wants. And on the first day of creation, he used that power to create light and dark, day and night.
6 And God said, “Let there be a vault between the waters to separate water from water.” 7 So God made the vault and separated the water under the vault from the water above it. And it was so. 8 God called the vault “sky.” And there was evening, and there was morning—the second day.[3]
What did God create on the second day of creation?
Sky.
That’s the only thing he gives a name to on this second day, but we see here that there’s more involved than just the air – or atmosphere, or outer space, even – above us. Going back a bit to verse 1, we read that “God created the heavens and the earth.” He made something. In verse 2, we find out that that something was “formless and empty, darkness was over the surface of the deep.” So, the picture is of this shapeless, watery – for lack of better word – “glob.” But on Day 2, God takes this “glob” and makes it a globe. He gives shape to it. He separates the sky from the sea, and instead of these roiling and unruly waters everywhere, you have the sky above and the seas below.
9 And God said, “Let the water under the sky be gathered to one place, and let dry ground appear.” And it was so. 10 God called the dry ground “land,” and the gathered waters he called “seas.” And God saw that it was good.
11 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. 12 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. 13 And there was evening, and there was morning—the third day.[4]
What did God create on the third day of creation?
Dry land and vegetation.
On Day 3 God creates dry land, i.e. land above the water that plants and vegetation can grow on. These were mature plants, already bearing fruit, already prepared to support life on earth. But first God had something else to create:
14 And God said, “Let there be lights in the vault of the sky to separate the day from the night, and let them serve as signs to mark sacred times, and days and years, 15 and let them be lights in the vault of the sky to give light on the earth.” And it was so. 16 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. 17 God set them in the vault of the sky to give light on the earth, 18 to govern the day and the night, and to separate light from darkness. And God saw that it was good. 19 And there was evening, and there was morning—the fourth day.[5]
What did God create on the fourth day of creation?
Sun, moon, and stars – or, as Moses puts it, lights in the vault of the sky.
If we compare Day 4 to Day 1, what seems a little strange?
God created light (and even evening and morning) before he created the sun!
So, what does that tell you about our God – that there was light, and even the regular cycle of day and night, before there was a sun?
God can do whatever he wants! God is not bound by the “laws of nature.”
God created nature, and he is the one who bound it to laws, some of which were ratified on Day 4. There was already this regular, 24-hour cycle – evening and morning, day and night and then the next day. But on Day 4, God set these lights in the sky to serve as signs for seasons and days and years, so that you and I could mark the passage of time and anticipate the seasons that are coming up next.
Day 4 may be the strangest of all the days of creation, but it’s all setting the stage for the world to be as we know it today.
20 And God said, “Let the water teem with living creatures, and let birds fly above the earth across the vault of the sky.” 21 So God created the great creatures of the sea and every living thing with which the water teems and that moves about in it, according to their kinds, and every winged bird according to its kind. And God saw that it was good. 22 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.” 23 And there was evening, and there was morning—the fifth day.[6]
What did God create on the fifth day of creation?
Birds and fish, although technically we’re talking about sky-creatures and sea-creatures.
Here’s a good example of how Genesis 1 isn’t a biology textbook: God isn’t concerned about differentiating fish, like pike and walleye, from mammals, like dolphins and whales, or even crustaceans, like crabs and lobsters, from whatever jellyfish are. He lumps them all into one group – every living thing with which the water teems.
The earth was primed for life. There was air to breathe and ecosystems to live in with food and places to nest and care for young. The earth was ready for life, and there was more life to come:
24 And God said, “Let the land produce living creatures according to their kinds: the livestock, the creatures that move along the ground, and the wild animals, each according to its kind.” And it was so. 25 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.[7]
What did God create on the sixth day of creation?
Land animals. Again, we don’t have to distinguish between mammals and reptiles and insects. Anything that lives and moves on the ground God created on Day 6.
But what do you notice is different so far about the passage I just read for you compared to all the other days of creation?
The day isn’t over. We didn’t hear the normal “And there was evening, and there was morning: the sixth day.” Not yet, anyway.
And even this is very telling. Some of you already know what’s coming next. God is going to create humans on Day 6 too. And it’s very telling that he does not just lump them in with all the other land animals, like he does with insects and reptiles and mammals. In fact, he almost even writes a love song about the crown of his creation:
26 Then God said, “Let us make mankind in our image, in our likeness, so that they may rule over the fish in the sea and the birds in the sky, over the livestock and all the wild animals, and over all the creatures that move along the ground.”
27 So God created mankind in his own image,
in the image of God he created them;
male and female he created them.[8]
Verse 27 is the first poem in the Bible. That’s one – of many ways – that you can know that humans are special to God. How else are humans different than everything else God created?
They are created in God’s image.
To be created in God’s image doesn’t mean that we look like God. God is a spirit; he doesn’t have an appearance for us to look like. No, to be created in the image of God means that we act like him, that we want what God wants – or at least Adam and Eve did before they sinned. We’re going to read next week about how Adam and Eve lost the image of God and that every child born to them was not born in God’s image, but in their, sinful image. And, even though we’re not going to read about Adam and Eve today, we are going to see what a world of people without the image of God looks like in just a second.
But first, we have to read some of the responsibilities that God gave Adam and Eve:
28 God blessed them and said to them, “Be fruitful and increase in number; fill the earth and subdue it. Rule over the fish in the sea and the birds in the sky and over every living creature that moves on the ground.”
29 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. 30 And to all the beasts of the earth and all the birds in the sky and all the creatures that move along the ground—everything that has the breath of life in it—I give every green plant for food.” And it was so.
31 God saw all that he had made, and it was very good. And there was evening, and there was morning—the sixth day.[9]
What responsibilities did God give mankind?
They were to be fruitful and increase in number, to fill the earth and subdue it, to rule over the fish and birds and every living creature, to tend the garden that God had planted.[10]
And how did God feel when he had finished creating the world?
He saw all that he had made, and it was very good. God’s creation was perfect.
1 Thus the heavens and the earth were completed in all their vast array.
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. 3 Then God blessed the seventh day and made it holy, because on it he rested from all the work of creating that he had done.[11]
God’s work of creation is done. How long did it take for God to make the world as we know it?
6 days.
Not millions or billions of years, as some might have you believe. Just 6, normal, 24-hour days that had the same cycle of evening and morning that we do today.
God’s account of creation is vastly different than the stories and speculation that we hear today. Now, there is not enough time in a year to discuss the differences between the Bible and theories like evolution. But I do want to focus on one thing – what Genesis 1 means for humankind.
According to Genesis 1, humans did not evolve from a single-celled organism. We don’t share a common ancestor with any other creature. We were created specifically, individually, separate and distinct from all other creatures, in the image of God himself. Humans stand apart from the rest of creation, as special and specially loved. But humans were also given expectations that didn’t apply to any other creature.
Humans were put on this planet to rule, yes, but to work the planet and to watch over it. How well do you think we’ve done? How does our world today compare to the one God looked at after 6 days and saw that it was very good?
We have mountains of garbage just down the road, and the seas that were God created to be teeming with life are now flooded with rubbish. We consume and dispose without any regard for how our consumer goods are made or for what will happen to them after we’re done with them. We buy our daily bread and think that because we worked for the money to purchase it, that we’re entitled to it; and we forget all the ways that God continues to work to provide for us to this day.
We take the rain for granted, and assume that the ground will produce a crop every year. We forget the work that the farmer does and the trucker, the clerk at the store who stocks the shelves. As soon as the money hits the till, we feel like whatever it is we’re buying is ours, our own, our precious. In short, we have very little problem acting like rulers in this world, but we’re sorely lacking as watchers over it and workers for it.
We’ve lost the image of God in which Adam and Eve were created – or at the very least, we’ve obscured it with our greediness and wastefulness, our ignorance and arrogance about the world we live in. We’ve lost the image of God, but we haven’t lost the love of God.
In his love for fallen creatures like us, who do not always thank him for his gifts or even recognize them, let alone use them the way he wants us to – in his love for creatures like us who have lost his image, God gave his Son to be that image for us, and through him to reconcile us to himself:
The Son is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation. For God was pleased to have all his fullness dwell in him, and through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether things on earth or things in heaven, by making peace through his blood, shed on the cross.[12]
Where we have failed to want what God wants, Jesus succeeded. Where we deserved death for our ungratefulness and wanton wastefulness of God’s creation, Jesus died for us on the cross to make peace through his blood. The perfect Son of God died for the sinful spawn of man, so that we could live in him.
Jesus is our hope. Jesus is the proof that God loves even sinful creatures like us. Jesus is the way we get to live with God forever in heaven after life in this world has run its course. And in Jesus, the image that we lost is slowly being restored:
You were taught, with regard to your former way of life, to put off your old self, which is being corrupted by its deceitful desires; to be made new in the attitude of your minds; and to put on the new self, created to be like God in true righteousness and holiness.[13]
In Christ, the Father’s Son, the firstborn of all creation, made to be like you and me, we are being restored – slowly and partially this side of heaven – to be made new in the attitude of our minds. That’s where the image of God is. That’s where true righteousness and holiness reside. We can’t hope to change to the work of our hands, until we change the attitude of our minds and hearts.
And Paul tells us how we do that: You were taught. By learning that God created the world and that this existence isn’t a crazy, random happenstance but the handiwork of God himself, we learn that there is meaning and purpose to everything we do.
By learning how God created humans separate and above the rest of creation, we learn that we have responsibilities to carry out with all the good things that God gives us day after day.
By learning when we lost his image and why we need his Son, we learn true gratitude and joy for the Father’s gifts of love to us – in food and shelter, sure, but much more in the forgiveness and salvation won by his Son.
We are fearfully and wonderfully made by the Maker of heaven and earth. Every good and perfect gift comes down from the Father, who gave us his Son to be the image that we lost; to die so that we could live; to make peace through his blood on the cross; and to teach us true righteousness and holiness through his Word.
May the Maker of heaven and earth, the Father almighty whom we confess and adore, give you every good thing for doing his will, and may he work in us what is pleasing to him, through Jesus Christ, his Son, our Lord. To him be glory forever and ever. Amen.[14]
[1] Genesis 1:1
[2] Genesis 1:2-5
[3] Genesis 1:6-8
[4] Genesis 1:9-13
[5] Genesis 1:14-19
[6] Genesis 1:20-23
[7] Genesis 1:24,25
[8] Genesis 1:16,17
[9] Genesis 1:28-31
[10] This is more clearly expressed in Genesis 2:15 – The Lord God took the man and placed him in the garden of Eden to work it and watch over it.
[11] Genesis 2:1-3
[12] Colossians 1:15,19,20
[13] Ephesians 4:22-24
[14] Hebrews 13:21