“For in six days the Lord made the heavens and the earth, the sea, and all that is in
them, and rested the seventh day.”
Several years ago, I listened to an evolutionary-sympathizing, radio evangelist emphatically and repeatedly
stress that Exodus 20:11 doesn’t mean that God created the Universe and everything in
it in six days.
Instead, God supposedly “fashioned” or “remade” the Universe in six days after
an original creation billions of years earlier.
Allegedly, between the time God “CREATED” the world (in Genesis 1:1), and “MADE”
(or “recreated”) the world in the following six-day Creation (in verses 3 and following)
billions of years of time transpired in which evolution supposedly took place.
This gentleman I listened to based his entire argument about Exodus 20:11 on the belief
that “to create” (from the Hebrew bara) and “to make” (from the Hebrew asah) ALWAYS
MEAN two different things in relation to God’s creative acts.
The problem with this theory (commonly known as the Gap Theory) is that the inspired commentary
God has given us throughout the Old Testament concerning the events recorded in Genesis
1 reveal that the words “create” (bara) and “make/made” (asah) are used interchangeably
in reference to the creation of the Universe and everything in it.
Since Exodus 20:11 is referring to the events that took place in Genesis, it seems quite
appropriate to revisit the book of beginnings to see how these two words are used in reference
to what took place during the Creation.
In Genesis 1-2, bara and asah are used several times in reference to God’s work.
Intrestingly, they never stand at odds with one another; they teach one central truth—that
God created (or made) the Universe and everything in it in six days.
For example, on day five “God CREATED (bara) great sea creatures and every living thing
that moves,” while on day six “God MADE (asah) the beast of the earth according to
its kind.”
On day six of Creation, God said: “Let us MAKE (asah) man in Our image, according to
Our likeness.”
Then we are told in the very next verse that He “CREATED (bara) man in His own image.”
When Moses commented on this day of Creation in Genesis 5:1-2, he again used these words
interchangeably: “In the day that God CREATED (bara) man, He MADE (asah) him in the likeness
of God.
He CREATED (asah) them male and female.”
In Genesis 2:4 Moses summarized the events of Creation, stating: “This is the history
of the heavens and the earth when they were CREATED (bara), in the day that the Lord God
MADE (asah) the earth and the heavens.”
The phrases “the heavens and the earth…were created” and “God made the earth and the
heavens” parallel each other.
They are two ways of saying the same thing.
Notice also the prophet Isaiah’s use of four different terms (including bara and asah)
to refer to God’s work at Creation: “For thus says the Lord, Who CREATED the heavens,
Who is God, Who FORMED the earth and MADE it, Who has ESTABLISHED it, Who did not CREATE
it in vain, Who FORMED it to be inhabited: I am the Lord, and there is no other.”
Did God intend to communicate a different message every time He used different words
to describe something?
Not according to His inspired commentary.
Just as you may tell one person, “I mowed the yard,” you might mention to someone
else that “I cut the grass.”
You have spoken one truth, even though you used two different phrases.
Though the term asah has a broader semantic range than bara and may not always be synonymous,
the fact is, as Hebrew scholar Dr. Justin Rogers concluded: “As any careful reader
of the Bible will observe, the Hebrew language does not make a sharp distinction between
bara and asah in accounts depicting the Creation.
On the contrary, the terms are used interchangeably for Creation throughout the Old Testament,
and can often be found in parallel expressions.”
Those who contend that the Hebrew words bara and asah MUST have two different meanings
when referring to God’s creative acts in the beginning, and who allege that Exodus
20:11 (and other verses) refer to a re-creation of Earth and everything on it—are not logically
and fairly interpreting the Bible.
Rather than respectfully allowing God’s Word to explain itself, it seems they’ve
chosen to use the latest theories in old-Earth, evolutionary science to manipulate the Scriptures
to their liking.