Originally posted 12/31/24
When we visited the Ark Encounter in June, I didn’t realize that the Creation Museum should have also been on my bucket list. We were on vacation and tired of the midwestern humidity. It was indoors so we went. It wasn’t as expansive as the ark, but it was equally as impactful. As you might imagine, the focus was on God’s creation. There were many exhibits of various parts of God’s creation. My favorite exhibit was the 4-D Theatre depicting the actual creation. It makes it real for you when your seat moves and air and mist hits you in the face. We watched as the world was created digitally before our eyes.
The Creation Museum divides the history of the world into “7 C’s”. The Museum calls it “The 7 C’s of History”. It comes as no surprise that the first “C” is creation. We find the story in Genesis chapter 1.
Genesis 1:1-5, “In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth. 2 The earth was without form and void, and darkness was over the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God was hovering over the face of the waters. 3 And God said, “Let there be light,” and there was light. 4 And God saw that the light was good. And God 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.”
Verse one begins, “In the beginning, God…” God was not created, he was the creator. John’s gospel begins much the same way. John 1:1-3, “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things were made through him, and without him was not any thing made that was made.”
According to John Macarther, “John 1:1 parallels Gen. 1:1 where the same phrase is used. John used the phrase in an absolute sense to refer to the beginning of the time-space-material universe. The verb “was” highlights the eternal pre-existence of the Word, i.e., Jesus Christ. Before the universe began, the Second Person of the Trinity always existed; i.e., he always was (cf. John 8:58). This word is used in contrast with the verb “were made” in 1:3, which indicates a beginning in time.”
The first thing that God did was to separate the light from the darkness. It is interesting to note that he didn’t create the sun until day four. The source of light was not coming from the sun. God is and has always been our source of light.
Genesis 1:6 “And God said, “Let there be an expanse in the midst of the waters, and let it separate the waters from the waters.” 7 And God made the expanse and separated the waters that were under the expanse from the waters that were above the expanse. And it was so. 8 And God called the expanse Heaven. And there was evening and there was morning, the second day.”
An expanse is an uninterrupted area. Can you imagine an area that really is just nothingness? In the museum we watched a video depicting this part of the creation, I was astounded at the force of the water. It’s one of those things I never considered. I’ve read the first chapter of Genesis many times but the words did not create an image in my brain. I didn’t imagine what the process might have looked like. I certainly understood the part that God just spoke and it was so. Perhaps I envisioned something more immediate. I will never read this chapter the same. Whether the video was completely accurate or not, I am now thinking about how it must have happened. What did it look like? How were the mountains formed? The Grand Canyon? Was it the force of the water or did it just appear?
Genesis 1:9-13, “And God said, “Let the waters under the heavens be gathered together into one place, and let the dry land appear.” And it was so. 10 God called the dry land Earth, and the waters that were gathered together he called Seas. And God saw that it was good. And God said, “Let the earth sprout vegetation, plants yielding seed, and fruit trees bearing fruit in which is their seed, each according to its kind, on the earth.” And it was so. 12 The earth brought forth vegetation, plants yielding seed according to their own kinds, and trees bearing fruit in which is their seed, each according to its kind. And God saw that it was good. 13 And there was evening and there was morning, the third day.”
Can you picture the waters gathering together? During Vacation Bible School we did an experiment to see how many drops of water would remain on top of a penny without falling off the edge of the penny. The point of the experiment was to show that water sticks together. God told the water to gather together and it did. With the waters gathering together, it created dry land. God said that it was good.
God told the land to fill with vegetation. The video depicted plants and trees just sprouting everywhere. Full-grown trees with fruit formed in a moment. I obviously do not know if that is how it actually happened, but it was fascinating to watch and wonder.
Gen 1:14-19, “And God said, “Let there be lights in the expanse of the heavens to separate the day from the night. And let them be for signs and for seasons, and for days and years, 15 and let them be lights in the expanse of the heavens to give light upon the earth.” And it was so. 16 And God made the two great lights–the greater light to rule the day and the lesser light to rule the night–and the stars. 17 And God set them in the expanse of the heavens to give light on the earth, 18 to rule over the day and over the night, and to separate the light from the darkness. And God saw that it was good. 19 And there was evening and there was morning, the fourth day.”
Light and darkness had already been separated. God filled the earth with the sun, moon and stars. The sun and moon are how the days and nights are measured.
Genesis 1:20-23, “And God said, “Let the waters swarm with swarms of living creatures, and let birds fly above the earth across the expanse of the heavens.” 21 So God created the great sea creatures and every living creature that moves, with which the waters swarm, according to their kinds, and every winged bird according to its kind. And God saw that it was good. 22 And God blessed them, saying, “Be fruitful and multiply and fill the waters in the seas, and let birds multiply on the earth.” 23 And there was evening and there was morning, the fifth day.”
Another day passed and God continued filling the earth. All living things in the air and water were blessed and told to multiply. We know that’s the number of animals in the Sean and on the land were many.
Genesis 1:24-31, “And God said, “Let the earth bring forth living creatures according to their kinds–livestock and creeping things and beasts of the earth according to their kinds.” And it was so. 25 And God made the beasts of the earth according to their kinds and the livestock according to their kinds, and everything that creeps on the ground according to its kind. And God saw that it was good. 26 Then 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 birds of the heavens and over the livestock and over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.” 27 So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them. 28 And God blessed them. And God said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and subdue it, and have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over every living thing that moves on the earth.” 29 And God said, “Behold, I have given you every plant yielding seed that is on the face of all the earth, and every tree with seed in its fruit. You shall have them for food. 30 And to every beast of the earth and to every bird of the heavens and to everything that creeps on the earth, everything that has the breath of life, I have given every green plant for food.” And it was so. 31 And God saw everything that he had made, and behold, it was very good. And there was evening and there was morning, the sixth day.”
God creates the land animals on the sixth day. He then creates man in His image. Adam would have dominion over all the animals.John MacArthur writes, “Man was God’s representative in ruling over the creation. The command to rule separated him from the rest of living creation and defined his relationship as above the rest of creation.” See Ps 8:6-8.
In verse 26, God said, “Let us make man in our image, after our likeness.” I didn’t pay much attention to this for a long time. Who is the “us? This is the first indication of the trinity and a triune God. According to John MacArthur, “The very name of God, Elohim is a plural form of El.”
There is a repeated pattern of God creating and then filling the earth. We see it in days one and four. God separated light and darkness on day one. On day four, God made the sun, the moon and the stars. God separated the expanse from the water. He then filled the air with birds and the waters with fish. Then God created dry land and filled it with vegetation and land animals. He created man last.
[Genesis 2:1-3 ESV] 1 Thus the heavens and the earth were finished, and all the host of them. 2 And on the seventh day God finished his work that he had done, and he rested on the seventh day from all his work that he had done. 3 So God blessed the seventh day and made it holy, because on it God rested from all his work that he had done in creation. God looked out over his creation and pronounced it good. The creation was finished and God rested. He rested because His work was done.
The story continues in Genesis 2. Genesis 2:5-9, “When no bush of the field was yet in the land and no small plant of the field had yet sprung up–for the LORD God had not caused it to rain on the land, and there was no man to work the ground, and a mist was going up from the land and was watering the whole face of the ground– then the LORD God formed the man of dust from the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living creature. And the LORD God planted a garden in Eden, in the east, and there he put the man whom he had formed. And out of the ground the LORD God made to spring up every tree that is pleasant to the sight and good for food. The tree of life was in the midst of the garden, and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.”
Everything was perfect in the Garden. God communed with them in the Garden. It remained perfect until Eve decided she knew more than God. That leads us to the second “C” which is corruption.
#faith, #Bible, #Scriptures, #Christian Women, #Discipleship, #creation
All images are from www.freebibleimages.org