During the Middle Ages, conquering armies would attack enemy castles by laying siege to them. During the siege, the conquering army would dig the ground beneath the castle walls until the footing of the castle wall crumbled when the ground under the footing gave way.
This is a similar tactic Satan uses on those who proclaim the name of Jesus Christ. He seeks to erode the footing upon which they build their faith and if successful, the rest of their belief system crumbles.
What are some of the bedrock beliefs necessary in order to keep our walls of defense up?
Or to put it another way, if you wanted to deconstruct your faith in Jesus Christ, what beliefs would need to be attacked? There are three foundational truths that Satan attacks in order to undermine the a believer’s belief. they are:
1.A Creator God
2.The resurrection
3.Bible as the word of God
Understanding of a Creator God foundational on which build many other aspects of our faith. That is the reason to study and understand Genesis 1:1-2:3.
On the first day of the creation event, God created and fashioned light. Notice a couple things about this event.
1. God called light into existence
2. God gave names to the elements and events of that first day.
To call something into existence and define that creation emphasizes ownership. The light and even the dark, the day and the night are His. Psalm 74:16 states: “The day is yours, and yours also the night;”
So, not only is God defining the true character of things, but He is laying claim to all that He made. By naming things, by calling them into existence, He is showing He has dominion and ownership of those things.
On day 2 of creation, God separated the watery substance that would soon be global earth from the watery substance that would soon be outer space where the solar system and the rest of the universe would reside.
There is strong evidence these are literal 24 hour days. God defines a “day” in the beginning as morning and evening. Day 1-2 are general in nature, with no specific purpose given for what was made. Day 3 begins in the same way, but in the middle of the third day, God performs something more specific.
Take a look at day 3 of creation as found in Genesis 1:9-13.
Genesis 1:9 tells us what God created. Genesis 1:10 God defines the substance that was just formed. The dry ground He calls “land” and the waters that were separated from the dry ground is called “seas”.
The dry ground appeared as a unit and the seas were gathered together around the dry ground. The world we see today does not reflect the world as it looked in the beginning. It is very probable that the land mass mentioned here was one big continent with deep water surrounding it.
Psalm 24:1-2 says, “The earth is the Lord’s and everything in it, the world, and all who live in it, for he founded it upon the seas and established it upon the waters.” This seems to indicate that the original land mass was one big continent.
And 2 Peter 3:5 states, “…by God’s word the heavens existed and the earth was formed out of water and by water.” This indicates that out of the water the land mass was brought forth.
And God saw that it was good. There are several phrases repeated in Genesis 1:1-2:3. This is one of them. Over and over again God reaffirms that what He is doing meets with approval. There is no lingering trace of disorder, no dark and threatening forces arrayed against God or man. Nothing marred the landscape.
But God wasn’t done with day three. Genesis 1:11 tells us God is forming specific things that will exist on the dry land, specifically, vegetation.
What specific things does God tell us about this vegetation?
They are seed bearing
They produce according to their kind
There are plants and trees specified
Day 4: Genesis 1:14-19
This passage gives us general statements and general purpose for the lights. They were created to separate the day from the night. The day and the night had previously been created and now there are specific created elements useful to mark and measure the day and the night, the yearly cycle and the seasons.
SIDE NOTE: CREATION OF THE STARS
Genesis 1:16 says, “He also made the stars,” as if making the stars was a small, menial task. But let us consider the power and might of our Creator. A typical galaxy contains billions of individual stars; our galaxy alone, called the Milky Way, contains 200 billion stars. The Milky Way is shaped like a giant spiral, rotating in space, with arms reaching out like a pinwheel, and our sun is one star on one arm of the pinwheel. It would take 250 million years for the pinwheel to make one full rotation. This is only the Milky Way. There are many, many other galaxies with many shapes, including spirals, spherical clusters, and flat pancakes in the universe. The average distance between one galaxy and another is about 20 million trillion miles. Our closest galaxy is the Andromeda Galaxy, about 12 million trillion miles away.
Day 5: Genesis 1:20-23
What is unique about this day, or what is different about the events of this compared to what has happened previously?
Genesis 1:21 says “God created the creatures . . .” And then it says He gave them purpose. “God blessed them, said to be fruitful, increase in number and fill the waters and the earth.” This implies He did not fill the land and seas with birds and great creatures, but gave them purpose, a function. It was their destiny to populate the earth.
Another phrase used over and over again in Genesis 1:1-2:3 is the phrase “according to its kind”. Notice there is a difference between “according to their kind” and “according to their species.” This is specific to “their kind.” This means there are animal groups that, no matter what, they are restricted to that animal group. Within that animal group, there are different species. In other words, a dog is a dog is a dog, but can be a wolf, a german shepherd, a collie or a dachshund. These are species of a a dog. A dog cannot be a cat nor can you breed a dog with a cat and get a “dat”.
God is Creator. He created during 24 hour days and called what He had created “good”. There was order, there was wonder, and there was God, the Creator in control demonstrating His authority in it all.
March 27, 2022
When I was in high school, my brother began his own business selling hand thrown pottery. I used to help him prepare the pottery for glazing and firing. Once in awhile I would try my hand at what they called “throwing pots”. You would take a lump of unformed, unfashioned clay, throw it on a pottery wheel and get the wheel spinning. Under the hand of a skilled person, the lump of clay would take shape. It could end up a cup, a plate, a pitcher, a bowl, or if there was a lump big enough, a large, 4’ high pot. There are easier and quicker ways to make plates and cups using molds and other material than clay. But when you throw your own pots, they are unique because each one is touched by the potter.
In several places in Scripture, God is referred to as a potter. Isaiah 29:16, 45:9, 64:8 and Jeremiah 18:6 are a few of those references. Isaiah 64:8 states, “Yet you, LORD, are our Father. We are the clay, you are the potter; we are all the work of your hand.”
In Genesis 1, this is the imagery that comes to my mind.
Our last study ended up on the 4th day of creation, where God fashioned the great light and the lesser light with the specific purpose of marking sacred times, days and years and giving them the responsibility of governing the day and nights.
We now approach the 5th and 6th days, which are full of activities. Genesis 1:20-23
According to Genesis 1:20-23, the earth erupts with the noise of new sounds; the lapping of the waters against the shoreline interrupted with the sounds of sea life and birds.
What unique things do you see happening in this passage?
• God created the great creatures as well as fashioned them. As far as we can tell, this is different than what happened with the animals. The animals are said to come from the land or the dirt. “Let the land produce . . .” as opposed to “God created the great creatures . . .” What is the significance of this designation?
• God gave them specific instructions
• Those instructions were to be fruitful and increase, to fill the water and earth.
• God blessed them
• God spoke to them, not just about them. In the previous days, He stated what they were to do, but did not necessarily talk directly to them as he did with the birds and sea creatures.
Genesis 1:24-31 Image of God
Ecclesiastes 3:11 says, “He has also set eternity in the human heart; yet no one can fathom what God has done from beginning to end.”
Mankind is distinct from the rest of creation because of our moral, intellectual, and spiritual capabilities.
Moral, we understand there is a difference between right and wrong, good and evil and judge ourselves and the rest of mankind on that basis.
Intellectual, we are able to design, create, build, manufacture, produce because of our intellect. We contemplate our existence, our purpose, and future.
Spiritual, we were created to commune with God, to fellowship and communicate with the Creator. We had a relationship with God that was broken, but was originally designed to “walk with Him in the garden.” Mankind was and is about to share thoughts, ideas, plans and purposes with each other and with God. The broken relationship with the Creator God can be re-established through accepting the gift of Jesus Christ, by accepting the truth of our sin and brokenness and the sacrifice of Jesus Christ, and therefore, restored to a right relationship with God. Angels do not have this spiritual connection and therefore, were not redeemed as man was. Hebrews 4 makes this clear.
The incarnation of Jesus Christ shows that humans and the human body were compatible. Deity and humanity are not the same, but they are compatible. The intrinsic value of mankind being made in the image of God, having the spiritual capability of entering into an eternal relationship with God gives value, meaning, identity and purpose to them.
Man is set apart from animals.
Mankind has a variety of facial expressions that animals do not. We have a sense of shame expressed with a blush. We speak, communicate with words, thoughts and ideas. We have personality, morality and spirituality, all three. Personality: knowledge, feelings, and a will. Morality: we make moral judgements, are guided by a conscience (which may or may not be a good thing), we experience guilt and other emotions based on moral choices. Spirituality: man is made for communion with God which is on a spiritual level.
“In OUR image.”
God is spirit (John 4:24), so to say we are created in God’s image physically is misrepresenting what is being said. Mankind is able to gather information and understanding through his senses. We see, smell, touch, speak, think, plan, among other things. We reason, remember, reminisce, and are concerned about relationships.
So “image” signifies more than just appearance. The idea of “likeness” has to do with abstract similarity. This receptacle we call the body, was designed to reflect, in some way, God. It was designed to last for eternity.
Consider the body: what a wondrous creation . . .
Jesus, in His glorified body, is, well, a body. Two arms, two legs, eyes, nose, ears, hair, feet . . . And He will have that body for eternity. So great is His love for us.
What was the purpose of creation?
To bring glory, honor, praise, adoration, exaltation, recognition, attention to God.
Who would bring Him eternal praise? Who would be able to express the deepest worship and adoration? Not the animals. They respond simply because they were created to do so. Humans, on the other hand, can choose to worship or not to worship. Those who chose to express “honor” and “adoration” to the Creator God give meaning to those words.
Let us join with those who have chosen to honor and adore the Great God and Savior Jesus Christ.
