Genesis 1

Hopefully I will keep this going as the year progresses. This is the start of just a simple walkthrough of Scripture. As I read a passage each day, I am going to attempt to record my thoughts, whatever comes to mind at the time. By December, I would have hopefully worked through much of the Bible. This will not be the only posts for the year. I will continue to post updates of my life, book reviews, and anything else that comes to mind as always. But hopefully 2010 will be a much better year than 2009 on this blog.

Genesis 1

This chapter contains the Creation account that I have heard countless times over the last 22 years. I know this story by heart, and yet I always seem to make new connections with every read. Looking at the basics, it becomes obvious that God is the creator of all that we see around us. He is the one who first thought up the idea of creating living beings and a place in which they can live. Of course, my belief in God as a creator comes through faith, which is what the Bible is centered around. I have faith that God does not lie, that God always keeps His promises. Therefore, if He says that He is the creator, the one who made the universe, and constructed every small detail there is to be found, then that is what I believe.

This chapter is also somewhat vague as to what God did. It gives us the basics. God does not tell us how He made these objects, other than through His spoken word. We do not get to know the process that He went through, and we do not know exactly how long it might have taken Him. The text says that it took 6 days to create it all. To us, that would seem too short of a time period. But I think that the problem is that we tend to attempt to squeeze God into our understanding and into our possibilities. Of course, it would be impossible for one of us to create all of this in 6 days, and many will argue that if it is impossible for us then it must be impossible for God. But that is far from true. Maybe a day to God is like a thousand years, and maybe it did take God 6,000 years to create the universe. But if that be the case, then think of this. If it takes that long for God, then how much longer would it take us? No matter the argument, He is still one step ahead of us at all times.

But the main point is that it does not matter how God created the universe or how long it might have taken Him. The point in this chapter is that God is the creator, the one who began this world with a purpose. He created a perfect place all for His glory. His intentions were that it remain that way, thus giving Adam dominion over all that he saw. It was up to him to maintain this world, but his story comes later. Several times within these 31 verses, God says that what He made was either good or very good (in reference to man). God was not the cause of what was to come. He never intended for sin to enter the world. Of course, He was prepared and had a plan if things changed, but God intended for our world today in the year 2010 to be exactly as it was then during the first week.

Finally, God created man in His image (v27). So many times we try to create God in our image. As I noted previously, we try to limit God to what we can do, forgetting that He is the more powerful being. We must always remember that we are nothing without Him. We exist only because He allows us to. We would not be here if it were not for His will. We must never forget that we are God’s children, put on this earth to do His service, so that He might receive all the glory. If we do, then we must quickly repent and learn to submit to God as our ultimate authority in life.

Matt