Bible Commentaries
Genesis 1

Introduction

THE DAYS OF CREATION

(Genesis 1)

The Apostles’ Creed speaks of the creation: "I believe in God the Father, Almighty, Maker of heaven

and earth." In the German language the Apostles’ Creed affirms, "I believe in God the Father, Almighty,

Creator of heaven and earth"; and this is actually more carefully true. "In the beginning God created the

heaven and the earth."

In Genesis 1:21 it is written: "God created great whales, and every living creature

that moveth, which the waters brought forth abundantly, after their kind, and every winged fowl after his

kind." In verse 27 these words are recorded: "So God created man in his own image, in the image of God

created he him; male and female created he them." Here the word created is found three times in one

verse. The verb create is rarely found in the Hebrew text. It is found more often in Genesis 1 than

anywhere else in the Old Testament. The word means "to bring into existence out of nothing."

The word make is frequently used in the Old Testament and means "to construct out of materials

already in hand." A dressmaker does not make the cloth, nor the thread, but she takes the materials and

makes the dress. In the same way a shoemaker takes leather, cutting it and shaping it into a shoe out of

material in hand. Romans 4:17 says about God: "Who . . . called those things which be not as though

they were." In other words, God calls them into existence. Man makes things out of available material.

An architect designs a building. He gets together brick, stone, steel, (p.20) glass, and all other items that

are needed for the building. In the same way a milliner designs a hat and uses ready materials for making

it.

An architect creates the design, but he cannot call a cathedral into being. He must use the materials to

construct the building. Only God can create materials. Only He can call into existence those things which

"be not."

Genesis 1:2 states: "And the earth was without form, and void; and darkness was upon the face of the

deep. And the spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters." In reading these words one can almost

feel the dense black darkness, the lifeless, lightless chaos which they picture. The words moved upon can

be better translated "brooded over." The verb that is used has in it the idea of wings. It could be said the

Spirit of God was "winging" over the face of the waters, hovering over, fluttering over, brooding over, as

a hen broods over the eggs which she is hatching.

Beginning at Genesis 1:3-5 is found the record of the great happenings of each succeeding day in the

creation event: "And God said, Let there be light: and there was light. And God saw the light, that it was

good: and God divided the light from the darkness. And God called the light Day, and the darkness he

called Night. And the evening and the morning were the first day."

This light has been called cosmic light, because apparently it did not come from the sun, since God did

not call the sun into being until the fourth day. This cosmic light was everywhere. If light is understood

as a form of energy, it could be everywhere. Not all light comes from the sun. Light comes from the stars,

and light as moving energy is to be found all through the heavens. No one knows what light is. It has

been referred to as "moving points of energy." That sounds good but no one knows what energy is.

Actually light is something that we cannot define or know. Even when we are told that it travels by

waves we might ask, waves of what? No one knows why it seems to appear in undulating form, in the

manner of waves. We still have no idea what is undulating, or what causes it to move.

Genesis 1:6-8 states, "And God said, Let there be a firmament (p.21) in the midst of the waters, and

let it divide the waters from the waters. And God made the firmament, and divided the waters which

were under the firmament from the waters which were above the firmament: and it was so. And God

called the firmament Heaven. And the evening and the morning were the second day." The word

firmament is interesting because it seems to be based upon the idea of something "firm," which is

misleading. At the time when this Bible was translated into Latin, the general view of the universe was

that the whole sky was a dome over the earth. This dome was considered to be like a great canopy over

the whole earth. The stars were thought of as shafts of light which pierced this blue dome. But the

original Hebrew word rakiah in no way implies anything solid, but rather means "expanding space."

That this word was used in the Hebrew can only be accounted for by divine revelation, because at the

time when Genesis was written, the thought of Egypt dominated the Western world, and their great

philosopher, Ptolemy, taught that the heavens were solid. It is interesting to note that the Hebrew idea

of "expanding space" is as modern as the latest concept so far as the universe is concerned.

Genesis 1:9-13 records:

And God said, Let the waters under the heaven be gathered together unto one place, and let the dry land

appear: and it was so. And God called the dry land Earth; and the gathering together of the waters called he

Seas: and God saw that it was good. And God said, Let the earth bring forth grass, the herb yielding seed,

and the fruit tree yielding fruit after his kind, whose seed is in itself, upon the earth: and it was so. And

the earth brought forth grass, and herb yielding seed after his kind, and the tree yielding fruit, whose seed

was in itself, after his kind: and God saw that it was good. And the evening and the morning were the

third day.

Thus on the third day two happenings occurred. First there was the gathering of the waters into

"seas," and the appearing of dry land which was called "earth." Then there came forth "the grass and

herbs." There again it is of interest as a matter of language to note that in the Hebrew the word (p.22) for

"grass" actually means "sproutage," everything that comes out of the ground in sprouts. The trees also

with seed bearing fruit for reproduction appeared on the third day. It may be noted that the one

distinguishing trait about such plants was that they "yielded seed" that would reproduce "after their

kind."

Genesis 1:14-19 records the creating of our solar system:

And God said, Let there be lights in the firmament of the heaven to divide the day from the night; and let

them be for signs, and for seasons, and for days, and years: And let them be for lights in the firmament of

the heaven to give light upon the earth: and it was so. And God made two great lights; the greater light to

rule the day, and the lesser light to rule the night: he made the stars also. And God set them in the

firmament of the heaven to give light upon the earth, and to rule over the day and over the night, and to

divide the light from the darkness: and God saw that it was good. And the evening and the morning were

the fourth day.

The word light in the Hebrew implies "light holders" or "light reflectors." This is most interesting

because it suggests that the sun does not originate light, even though the light comes from the sun to us

with the solar bodies as some sort of reflectors. In any case, whatever light is, God created certain solar

bodies that were to be reflectors of light, so that they would control our system of times, seasons, days,

and years.

Genesis 1:20-23 records the origin of birds and fish:

And God said, Let the waters bring forth abundantly the moving creature that hath life, and fowl that may

fly above the earth in the open firmament of heaven. And God created great whales, and every living

creature that moveth, which the waters brought forth abundantly, after their kind, and every winged fowl

after his kind: and God saw that it was good. And God blessed them, saying, Be fruitful, and multiply,

and fill the waters in the seas, and let fowl multiply in the earth. And the evening and the morning were

the fifth day.

And so at last the earth was ready for the creation of man, who would be given authority to have

dominion over all creatures. (p.23)

Genesis 1:24-31 records what happened on the sixth day, when God created animals and man. Here is

the simple account of how God created man in His own image and gave him the capacity to exercise rule

over the earth.

In this whole account of creation the amazing thing is that the order in which God created the universe,

as it is written, exactly fits the best thinking of scientists today as to when these various items actually

came into existence. When this record is compared to the views current among the pagans of that time

and culture, the impression is astonishing and amazing.

At this point some consideration would seem to be in order which would deal with the harmful theory

of "evolution." It is a natural thing to wonder how the universe came into being. The Bible tells us

plainly that "God created the heaven and the earth," but not everyone believes or even knows the

Scriptures. In different parts of the world people have held various ideas about the origin of life in this

world. Throughout the centuries men have speculated how this universe came into being. Many theories

appeal to the natural mind which are based upon natural processes, with the general idea that all

organisms developed from one source. Many will claim that civilized man as we know him today was

once a savage, who in turn was a cave man, who in turn probably descended from apes or monkeys. Such

thinkers illustrate their ideas in textbooks and in museums by using their imagination. They often go back

in their own speculation to some assumed original one-celled protoplasm dwelling in primordial ooze

from which they claim that by natural processes more complex forms evolved. This general theory can

then be used to propose that all life forms started originally as simple one-celled creatures which then

developed and developed through successive generations until more complex organisms appeared in time.

This is a simple sketch of what is commonly called "evolution."

Such a view as this implies that in nature itself there is some upward thrust that has produced man,

who in himself is therefore some superior kind of animal. There are of (p.24) course many versions of

this so-called theory of evolution, and some of these versions as they are offered actually propose to

include God as the creative force. Some theorists want to hold to a type of evolution without discarding

the opening chapter of Genesis altogether. This of course is quite impossible, because it is not at all what

the Bible teaches.

The Genesis account as it is written is as plain as day: it is clearly stated that God by His Word called

into being the world and everything in it. Genesis 1:3 records simply: "Let there be light: and there was

light." It does not imply that this light was made of something else. The words do not explain the origin

of light. The account simply records: "And there was light," in response to God’s command. Genesis 1:6

tells of the creation of space. There is no explanation of how God arranged it. There is only the record:

"And God said, Let there be a firmament." Then in verse 7 there is the simple record, "And God made

the firmament." There is no description of how this was done beyond the Word of God.

Genesis 1:9 states: "And God said . . . Let the dry land appear." There is no description of any process by which

this took place. There is no reference to various kinds of erosion, or of upheavals caused by the cooling

of the earth’s surface. The appearance of the dry land was a function of the will of God. He spoke and it

was so.

Genesis 1:11 states: "And God said, Let the earth bring forth grass." There is no description of

where it came from, only the record that it was there.

Genesis 1:14 states: "And God said, Let there be

lights in the firmament." Again there is no explanation of this origin of the solar system.

Today man has reached the moon, but this is a very short distance so far as the solar system is

concerned. Scientists estimate that it takes thousands, even millions of years for the light from some

stars to reach the earth, but the Bible simply records that the heavenly bodies appeared at the Word of

God.

In Genesis 1:20, 21 there is the account of the creation of all marine and bird life, with the statement,

"God saw that it was good." Nothing is stated about their origin, beyond the record that it was the Word

of God that (p.25) called them into being. This is the form of the record over and over. "And God said,

Let the earth bring forth the living creatures." "And God said, Let us make man in our image." All these

phases of creation are implied in Hebrews 11:3. "Through faith we understand that the worlds were

framed by the word of God, so that things which are seen were not made of things which do appear."

The Scriptures state plainly that when the Word of God was spoken, there occurred immediately the

original creation.

The record of the Scriptures is very clear. It was God’s Word that brought things to pass. God spoke

and it stood fast. Short and simple as the record is written, there is careful reporting to guard against any

possible misunderstanding that the creation as recorded in Genesis happened as a result of natural

processes. There seems to be special care to avoid any ground for thinking of natural development. We

read again and again in verses 11 to 25, in referring to seed for reproduction, the words "after his kind."

In fact they appear ten times in fifteen verses. Eight times we read "after his kind," and twice we find the

words "after their kind." Every single plant, every animal, all marine life, and all bird life had this

characteristic: each reproduced after "his kind," each one emphasizing a continuity of its own kind. It

could seem as though the Holy Spirit, looking into future years when man would doubt the Word of

God, inspired the writers of this passage of Scripture to emphasize and to stress the fact that all living

matter would reproduce after its own kind."

It is most important that this aspect of continuity in kind be recognized in creation, because this is

basic to all morality. Such constancy is grounded in the very integrity of God, who will keep the order of

things "after their own kind." It is well-known that there are different-sized horses, and different-sized

dogs, that can be trained and developed differently, but when all is said and done, a horse is a horse, a

cow is a cow, and a dog is a dog. This constancy in kind rejects such a theory of "evolution."

Under God it will never be true that evil may be done and good will follow. This is untrue and it is

demoralizing: (p.26) humanly speaking, nothing can come from nothing but nothing. It is a very serious

thing today to have people drift away from absolute standards and talk about relative goodness. It may

be quite true that circumstances alter cases, just as there are varieties of wheat and barley and there are

varieties of peaches: but it is most important that there be no dilution of this truth; so far as human

beings are concerned, the law of the harvest must prevail: "Whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also

reap."

THE NATURAL WORLD

(Genesis 1-2)

Many people have wondered about the location of the Garden of Eden. Apparently the exact location

is not known. There are no landscape features pinpointed in the Genesis account. There are no traditions

on this subject, but the geographical boundaries and a description of the location of the Garden of Eden

are recorded in the second chapter of Genesis. The words are carefully chosen and one should not doubt

their reality.

And a river went out of Eden to water the garden; and from thence it was parted, and became into four

heads. The name of the first is Pison: that is it which compasseth the whole land of Havilah, where there is

gold; And the gold of that land is good: there is bedellium and the onyx stone. And the name of the

second river is Gihon: the same is it that compasseth the whole land of Ethiopia. And the name of the

third river is Hiddekel: that is it which goeth toward the east of Assyria. And the fourth river is Euphrates

(2:10-14).

The first three rivers are obscure and unknown to us, but the river Euphrates continues until this day.

This is the main river in the Mesopotamian Valley and so it is generally accepted that this in all

probability was the location of the Garden of Eden.

Apparently this garden was prepared for man. Here is seen God’s providence and care for man. Man

was going to need the fruit of the garden. But God gave him much more. He gave him all the benefits of

nature. Since man must breathe air that contains oxygen, God provided such air. (p.33) Since man must

have water to drink, by the very nature of his physical constitution, God provided water. Since man

must have food to eat, so that his body might be nourished and continue its existence, God provided the

food. Persons who ignore the Bible account of the creation seem to prefer to think that savage, unlearned,

ignorant man took the barren raw world and started working with it, taming the wilds of this earth and

the universe. But this is not the way the Bible records it. God arranged to provide the proper

environment for man’s continued well-being and happiness. So it is written that "God planted a garden"

and this is the first great truth in this portion of the Bible. The second great truth is that God put the

man whom He had formed would find everything he needed. Many details are omitted, but there is one

clear-cut impression: the garden was not man’s discovery. He did not chance to find this and that, and

then assemble things to put them together. The garden was not man’s production. Man was not that wise

or that able. The truth of the matter is that God provided the Garden of Eden for man.

Even to this day it is so easy for natural man to be filled with his own importance and with pride. He

is tempted to think he can control his own destiny. On every side can be seen the chaos man has caused

by his actions in his sinful nature. But in the beginning it was not so. God supplied every need of man.

And even to this day God provides for His own. He will supply every need of His people.

The third great truth to be seen here is that God did not put man into the garden to live in idleness.

"And the Lord God took the man, and put him into the garden of Eden to dress it and to keep it" (2:15).

God placed before man the elements needed for his continued existence, but man would be involved in

the process of bringing to pass the desired results. Note how this works. God provides the elements in

their original unready form, and puts them into the hands of man with all their tremendous potential.

God gives them to man for him to develop and use, but He does not force them upon man.

Even so God provides promises for our blessing. We do not find these promises in nature, nor in the

planets, nor (p.34) in the wooded hills, nor in running streams. His promises, which are "forever settled

in the heavens," are found in the Scriptures. If the Bible is held merely as any other book, a man could

own a dozen of them and not receive faith to believe the promises of God. But if the Bible is taken as

His inspired Word, it becomes "food" for the soul. Just as I need food for my body, so I need food for

my soul. If a man were dying of starvation and someone were to ask him: "Have you eaten?" how foolish

it would be if he answered: "Yes, I had a meal three or four weeks ago!" It is well-known that bodies

cannot live without food. If a man refuses to eat, he will die. Even so the soul will perish without the

sustaining faith which comes by reading the Word of God.

The church on the corner will not benefit my faith unless I attend the worship services. Paul wrote to

the Thessalonians, "If any man will not work, neither let him eat." These words can very well apply to

the soul if a man does not read the Bible, if he does not study it. In this way a man can deprive his soul

of the Bread of Life.

When it is written "In six days God created heaven and earth," something is revealed about the ways

of God. When the Scriptures record in detail what happened on each day, it is obvious that creation was

not a haphazard affair. It did not occur by any chance event, but by logical, orderly, related processes. In

recent generations there has been much scientific research made which identifies the interrelationship

between natural things and sets up an order in which the natural phenomena depend on each other. This

can be seen very simply by noting the grass in the field. Grass is something a rabbit will eat and the

rabbit is something a wolf will eat. In this way one species depends on another.

There is actually a balance in this ecology of nature. Grass in the field is eaten by cattle, man kills the

cattle and eats the beef. While man does not eat grass, yet the food values that are in the grass come to

him in the beef he eats. In checking through the order of what took place in the six days of creation, we

find ten or more relationships sketched there. For instance, the land appeared before the grass, and the

grass appeared before the arrival of the animals, and the (p.35) animals appeared before man, who would

use them for food. This order in Genesis fits modern scientific data perfectly.

Although the Bible is not a textbook on science, wherever it touches upon the various sciences it is

accurate in every detail. In the days of Greek mythology men had their own ideas about the origin of

man. One myth tells of a man going out at night and seeding dragon seeds in the ground, and the next

morning soldiers fully armed for war came out of the ground. There is nothing so fantastic in Genesis.

Another myth tells that Zeus, the greatest God of the pagans, had a terrific headache for several days,

after which his head split open and Athena stepped out fully armed. There is nothing so grotesque to be

found in the Bible, although it was written during the times when grotesque and fantastic ideas were the

beliefs of the day. In ancient times there was another belief among some pagans that everything was

created from water. Others would insist that everything came from fire. Some of these pagan theories

could be called "evolution," because they all seem to hold that more complex forms developed from less

complex forms by natural processes.

When in the days of my unbelief I first heard of the theory of evolution while in high school, I was

much attracted to it because the idea of evolution appeals to people who do not believe in God. Believing

in God leads to responsibility for our actions to Him who is supreme, and I was glad to think there might

be reason not to feel responsible. But I dropped this theory before I became a Christian because there

was no evidence to substantiate it. By the way, I can tell you that I have kept my eyes and ears open all

these many years without noticing a single bit of proof or shred of evidence to support this theory

coming to light. When I was studying for my doctorate in one of the great universities in the East, it

became known in my department that I believed the Bible to be true. Fellow graduate students and

professors were sure that I must be foolish. They certainly gave me no deferential treatment because I

was an (p.36) ordained minister. At one time my professor challenged me for the sake of class discussion

to ask one question about this theory of evolution. I raised the same question I had brought up in high

school. I said, "If this is a scientific fact about the origin of various forms of life, give me one, just one,

illustration." This took place in the presence of one hundred and seventy-five graduate students, each of

them working for a master’s degree or a doctorate. Among these scientifically trained people, not one

could produce such an illustration. I have found it is not possible on the basis of any evidence available.

The whole issue of the validity of this theory can be handled by asking "Can you produce one case in

point as evidence?"

In the Book of Genesis there is a guide to follow. It has been mentioned above. It has been pointed out

that in the first fifteen verses the words "after its kind" and "after their kind" occur ten times. This is to

say simply that when barley seeds are planted, men harvest barley. When men plant wheat seeds, men

harvest a wheat crop. Apple trees will produce apples, and so on. The important fact this observation

points out is the consistency of the natural creation. Actually there could be no science of any kind were

it otherwise. If salt did not remain salt, if iron did not remain iron, if silver did not remain silver, and so

on, there could be no basis for science. There may be combinations of various things, but each element

must have consistency and continuity. Oxygen remains oxygen, and carbon is always carbon.

It is important to note the meaning of such facts. The consistency of natural phenomena is a function

of the "righteousness of the Creator." It is God who keeps things as they are. In the New Testament we

read that in Jesus Christ "all things consist." This is to say that they "hold together," because God is

faithful and true. His care extends to every living creature. God not only prepared the Garden of Eden for

man - He also provided for living creatures and for the plants. Everything man needed to sow and to

harvest was there and awaited his use, according to God’s wisdom (p.37) and God’s plan. God made all

things and so we can rejoice when we join other Christians who confidently affirm, "I believe in God the

Father, Almighty, Maker of heaven and earth."