The Week of Creation

INTRODUCTION:  “In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth” is the basis of all we are and all we believe.  Since we came from God, He is the only source for the truth about ourselves and about the purpose of life.  We came from God.  In order to have eternal life and a reason for living, we must return to God.

1. THE GAP IN CREATION
1. Evidence From the Creation Story
1. The creation day formula
1. Throughout the six-day creation story, each day begins with And God said (Genesis 1:3, 6, 9, 14, 20, 24) and each day ends with And the evening and the morning were the [number] day (Genesis 1:5, 8, 13, 19, 23, 31).
2. According to this formula, the first day of creation began in Genesis 1:3 making the events of the first two verses previous to the six-day creation.
2. The command to replenish
1. When man was created, he was told to replenish the earth (Genesis 1:28).
2. Replenish means to refill in its most common meaning.
3. However, in cases of doubt on the meaning of a word, the key is to find a Bible answer. This answer is found in Genesis 9:1. In the second passage, the word refers to the command given to Noah and his family after the destruction of the flood and clearly means to refill.
2. Evidence From the Description of the Earth
1. Without form
1. The earth is without form in Genesis 1:2. That means it had no definite shape.
2. Without the gap, the earth was not completed until the third day of creation (Genesis 1:9-10).
3. This would be an incomplete creation. Yet God says that when He does something, nothing can be put to it (Ecclesiastes 3:14).
2. Without inhabitant
1. The earth of Genesis 1:2 is described as void. Void means to be empty or without inhabitant.
2. God says concerning the earth that he created it not in vain, he formed it to be inhabited (Isaiah 45:18).
3. A description of destruction
1. Taken together, the previous characteristics sound more like the result of some terrible catastrophe than a completed act of Gods creation. This is further verified when compared with descriptions of judgment in other passages of the word of God.   Consider the following comparison of Genesis 1:2 with Jeremiah 4:23.
1. Genesis 1:2
1. without form
2. void
3. darkness
2. Jeremiah 4:23
1. without form
2. "void"
3. no light
2. In Jeremiah 4, the passage describes a scene of destruction (Jeremiah 4:20) resulting from a great war (Jeremiah 4:19) which came because of Israels disobedience.
4. The Face of the deep
1. A massive amount of water surrounded the earth in Genesis 1:2. Wisdom (picturing Christ) was there to set a compass upon the face of the depth (Proverbs 8:27). This water could be divided so that the oceans could be filled below the first two heavens and yet it could also provide a covering for the second heaven at the edge of out space (Genesis 1:6-8). These upper waters are spoken of as the waters that be above the heavens in Psalm 148:4.
2. The face of the earth being covered by water would be a perfect description of Noahs flood when the ark went upon the face of the waters (Genesis 7:18). Genesis 1:2 could then be a description of the original earth after a similar destruction. This would explain Gods promise to never destroy the earth by flood again after Noahs flood (Genesis 9:8-17).
3. Evidence From the Doctrine of the Devil
1. The Time Factor
1. If there was no original creation and destruction, then the devil could predate man by no more than five days. This means that the following events must have occurred between the first day of the six-day creation and the fall of Adam and Eve:
2. Lucifers service to God as the anointed cherub that covereth (Ezekiel 28:11-15).
3. The fall of Lucifer because of his pride (Isaiah 14:12-15).
4. The fall of the angels who followed Satan (Matthew 25:41).
5. The origin of devils. NOTE: Many Bible scholars equate fallen angels with the devils (or demons, as they say). However, the Bible seems to make a clear distinction between the two.
6. The preparation of everlasting fire for the devil and his angels (Matthew 25:41).
2. Satans Character From the Beginning
1. The devil was a murderer from the beginning (John 8:44) and he sinneth from the beginning (1 John 3:8).
2. If there is no gap and the devil was created on the first day of the six days of creation, he must have been created as a sinner and a murderer (Ezekiel 28:15).
3. The only explanation is that he was perfect at the time of his own creation, but was a murderer and sinner at the time of the beginning or creation as we experience it. Therefore, the devil had to fall in sin somewhere between the time of his creation and the beginning of the world as found in the first chapter of Genesis.
2. THE TRINITY IN CREATION
1. The Father (Genesis 1:1; Exodus 20:11)
2. The Spirit (Genesis 1:2; Job 26:13; Psalm 104:30)
3. The Son (Genesis 1:3)
1. The Word of God And God said (John 1:1-3; Ephesians 3:9; Colossians 1:16-17)
2. The Light of the World (John 1:7-9; 8:12)
4. Working Together (Genesis 1:26; 1 Corinthians 8:6; see also Genesis 11:6-8; Isaiah 6:8)
3. THE DAYS OF CREATION
1. First Day (Genesis 1:3-5)
1. Note:  We are told that God said exactly ten (10) times in Genesis One.  These ten sayings of God might be called the first Ten Commandments.
2. The creation of light (Genesis 1:3; Isaiah 45:7)
1. Light was created three days before the natural sources of light like the sun were created (Genesis 1:14-16).
2. God, of course, knows that light exists apart from its natural sources.
3. He knows the way light dwells (Job 38:19) and understands the difference between the light and the sun (Psalm 74:16).
3. The division between light and darkness (Genesis 1:4)
4. The naming of Day and Night (Genesis 1:5)
1. Note:  Notice that when something is given a name in scripture, that name is initially capitalized.
2. Second Day (Genesis 1:6-8)
1. The making of a firmament (Genesis 1:6)
1. Of the 17 times the word firmament is used in the Bible, over half (or 9) of the times are found in Genesis One.
2. Firmament means an expanse or expansion of space.  It refers to the heavens that include our atmosphere and outer space.  (See also Psalm 19:1; Daniel 12:3.)
2. The division of the waters from the waters (Genesis 1:7)
3. The naming of the firmament Heaven (Genesis 1:8)
4. The second day is a day of division.  It divides Gods Heaven from Earth.  It is the only one of the six days in which God never says or saw that it was good.  Even today, the Jews consider Monday a bad day to plan a major event.
5. The Bible teaches that there are three heavens.
1. The first heaven is the atmospheric heaven where the birds fly and is called in our text the open firmament of heaven. (Genesis 1:20)
2. The second heaven is the starry heaven that we call outer space and is called here the firmament of the heaven (Genesis 1:14).
3. The third heaven is where God dwells and here simply called heaven (Genesis 1:1).
3. Third Day (Genesis 1:9-13)
1. The gathering of the waters on earth (Genesis 1:9)
2. The naming of the Earth and Seas (Genesis 1:10)
3. The creation of vegetation (Genesis 1:11-13)
1. Grass
2. Herbs
3. Trees
4. The key to life is that its seed is in itself and this makes it able to bring forth after his kind.
5. Note:  Much of Gods creation is marked by the number three.  This makes sense since God Himself is a trinity.
1. There are three kinds of vegetation: grass, herbs and trees.
2. There are three kinds of lights in the sky: the sun, the moon and the stars (Genesis 1:16).
3. There are three kinds of animals: fish, fowl and land animals.
4. There are three kinds of land animals: cattle, creeping things and beasts (Genesis 1:24).
4. Fourth Day (Genesis 1:14-19)
1. The need for lights in the firmament (Genesis 1:14-15)
1. To divide day and night
2. For signs, seasons, days and years
2. The creation of the lights (Genesis 1:16-19)
1. The greater light the sun
2. The lesser light the moon
3. The stars
5. Fifth Day (Genesis 1:20-23)
1. The creation of fish and fowl (Genesis 1:20-21)
2. The blessing to be fruitful (Genesis 1:22-23)
6. Sixth Day (Genesis 1:24-31)
1. The creation of land animals (Genesis 1:24-25)
1. Cattle
2. Creeping things
3. Beasts of the earth
2. The creation of man (Genesis 1:26-31)
1. Created in the image of God (Genesis 1:26-27)
2. Blessed to be fruitful (Genesis 1:28)
3. Given every green herb for meat (Genesis 1:29-30)
1. Evidently, both man and animal initially ate only vegetation.
2. Only after the flood did they begin to eat flesh (Genesis 9:2-3).
3. Eating of vegetation only will happen again in the future kingdom (Isaiah 11:7).
4. However, those who now teach that meat-eating is wrong are teaching false doctrine (1 Timothy 4:3-5).
4. Everything was very good (Genesis 1:31)
7. Seventh Day (Genesis 2:1-3)
1. Creation was finished (Genesis 2:1)
2. God rested from His work (Genesis 2:2)
1. God does not get tired or weary (Isaiah 40:28).
2. When the Bible says God rested, it does not mean He had to take a nap or any such thing.  It simply means that He ceased from the work of creating that He had been doing for six days.
3. God blessed the seventh day (Genesis 2:3)

CONCLUSION:  Just as God is the source of His creation, so creation can bring us back to God (Romans 1:20). What can we learn about God by looking at creation?  What do we owe to God because He is our Creator?