the first book in the bible is called genesis and we're going to look closely at the first
page of the book of genesis it's a carefully crafted narrative about god creating and
ordering the whole cosmos okay let's check it out now the opening line of the whole bible is in the
beginning god created the skies and the land now your bible translation might say the heavens and
the earth in biblical hebrew the word for heaven refers simply to the sky above and the word for
earth does not mean globe but rather the land the ground below us right this line is summarizing
what's going to happen in the following narrative which starts in the next line and it reads now
the land was wild in waste this phrase rhymes in hebrew the land was tohu which means unordered and
uninhabited this is the ancient way of talking about the pre-creation state what we might call
nothingness for the biblical authors non-existence means having no purpose and no order and the next
line uses another image to say the same thing and darkness was on the face of the deep abyss
what's the deep abyss yeah it's a dark chaotic ocean it's another common way the ancients
described the non-reality that preceded creation now here's where things start to get interesting
because in the midst of those dark waters god is present and the spirit of god was hovering
over the face of the waters the hebrew word for god's spirit is ruach which can refer to
wind or breath or god's invisible presence so you can't see it but god is present in the darkness
ready to bring order so that life can flourish yes and this ordering happens in a series of six days
each day begins with the phrase and god said and then ends with the phrase and
there was evening and morning yeah every day addresses those problems introduced in verse two
that there's no order and no inhabitants so on days one through three god splits apart that
unordered darkness into three ordered realms then on days four through six god fills the uninhabited
wasteland with creatures interesting let's see how that works okay so the first realm of order
begins with light on day one oh yes let there be light this is god's own glorious light that
fills and contains the darkness as he separates day from night god's establishing the order of
time okay and then on day two let there be a vault between the waters to separate water from water
what's the vault in the ancient culture of the biblical authors the sky was perceived as a solid
dome that holds back waters god's depicted here as splitting the chaos waters in half above and below
which creates the realms of the sky and the seas and then on day three let the waters under the sky
be gathered into one place and let dry ground appear god is establishing the realm of the land
and it emerges out of the chaotic waters and then there's a bonus creative act on day three
god invites plants and fruit trees with seed to emerge out of the land okay so
we've got the realms of time the realm of the sky and the seas and the land
and they all have order right now it's time to go back and fill these realms of days
one through three with inhabitants this is what happens on days four through six so on day four
let there be lights in the vaults of the sky god installs these lights the sun moon and stars
as signs and symbols that reflect god's own light he gives them his own royal power to separate
day and night then on day five let the waters swarm with living creatures and let birds fly
above the land yeah these are the creatures that live in the waters below and those that fly near
the waters above then finally on day six let the land produce living creatures they emerge
up out of the ground to live on the land and then matching that bonus act of creation on day three
god makes a special land creature human or in hebrew adam then god provides all of those plants
from day three as abundant food now over and over god says what he created was good but then after
making humans god says that it is very good yes humanity is the climax of days one through six
and their importance is explained in the first poem in the bible so god created humanity in his
own image in the image of god he created them male and female he created them so humans come
up from the ground like the other land creatures but they're also more they're god's image which
means that together men and women embody and represent the creator within his creation
god blessed them and said be fruitful and increase in number fill the earth and subdue it ruling over
the creatures this is the purpose of being god's image to oversee creation as god's partners and
representatives in the world very cool now after the sixth days we get a concluding line that links
back to the keywords of the opening line and so we're completed the skies and the land and all
their inhabitants except there's one more day it stands outside the pattern of days one through six
it's the big climax and god completed on the seventh day the work which he had done and he
rested on the seventh day from all the work which he had done and god blessed the seventh day and
set it apart as holy so god rests on the seventh day this is a standard biblical image where god
after ordering the cosmos comes to rest and dwell in his sacred space it's like the whole world is
a holy temple where god lives with his people now that phrase there was evening and morning
it doesn't appear on day seven that's right the seventh day has no end that's because genesis
1 is describing god's ideal vision for the whole cosmos a place where god lives with his
partners to rule the world in harmony forever yes the seventh day is the goal of creation
it's actually so important that the author of genesis 1 has woven the number seven into every
part of the story there are seven days of creation seven announcements that creation is good there
are seven hebrew words in the opening verse and then two times seven hebrew words in verse two
and then the statement about the seventh day has three lines of seven words wow so the first page
in the bible is doing way more than just telling us how the world was made right genesis 1 has
been designed to show us that god's purpose is to share creation with his images so they can rest
and rule it with him forever and that purpose is what the rest of the biblical drama is all about
you