Genesis 1

   As we read this marvelous account of the foundation of our earth, we must be careful not to subtract what God has plainly revealed, and we must equally avoid adding constraints that are not here.

Man in God's image; dominion over animals  26

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.1 In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth.     In the beginning This is awesome. When was "the beginning"? See note for v1.
   God Hebrew, Elohim. Pronounced, aye-lo-HEEM. See on ge0204.
   Created The Hebrew word is bara, in the qal form. It is used only for divine creation.
.2 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.    Without form, and void There is a pattern
God created everything
   Darkness on the face of the deep This is the source of the term "bottomless pit" or "abyss." re1107a-wh, 0901c-bo.
   Spirit of God We see the active involvement of the One we call the Holy Spirit in the NT (New Testament). This same Spirit would cease pleading with the hearts of the unrepentant at the time of the flood ge0603.
.3 And God said, Let there be light: and there was light.
 4 And God saw the light, that it was good: and God divided the light from the darkness.
   3 - And God said That is all it took. To create from nothing he1103 is beyond our comprehension. We simply trust that God is God and that we may have faith to believe what He told us.
   3 - Light to remove the darkness of verse 2. 
.5 And God called the light Day, and the darkness he called Night. And the evening and the morning were the first day. [Literally, "and the evening was, and the morning was, the first day."]    Day How could the word "day" (Hebrew yowm for both occurrences in this verse) be both the time of light and also evening and morning? First, the evening-plus-morning days are simply called days in the literal week described by the fourth commandment ex2011 so we see them as 24-hour periods. The terms evening and morning relate to light coming out of or after darkness. The day as a cycle of time begins at sundown and continues to the next sundown as we see the dark part of the "day" first here. This is confirmed by le2332. On days of creation being long periods of time, see the note on another page for this verse.
.6 And God said, Let there be a firmament [or "expansion"] in the midst of the waters, and let it divide the waters from the waters.
.7 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.
.8 And God called the firmament Heaven. And the evening and the morning were the second day.
   6 - Firmament Today we don't have a significant mass of water in or above the sky as described here. This was apparently one of the changes at the time of the flood. The firmament would be the atmosphere. Understanding how satellites stay in orbit we can see how a sphere of water could have surrounded the earth.
   7 - Waters under Also "fountains of the deep" pr0828. The deep was broken up at the time of the flood ge0711.
.9 ¶ 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.
 10  And God called the dry land Earth; and the gathering together of the waters called he Seas: and God saw that it was good.
.11  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.
 12  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.
 13  And the evening and the morning were the third day.
   11 - Let the earth bring forth Here God begins to fill the places he has made. The earth just prepared is filled with plants.
  11 - After his kind See note.
.14 ¶ 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:
 15  And let them be for lights in the firmament of the heaven to give light upon the earth: and it was so.
.16  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.
 17  And God set them in the firmament of the heaven to give light upon the earth,
 18  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.
 19  And the evening and the morning were the fourth day.
   14 - Lights Here on the fourth day, God filled the firmament He made on the second day.
   16 - Stars also We may infer that the stars were not necessarily created at the time of the creation of the earth.
.20 ¶ 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.
.21  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.
.22  And God blessed them, saying, Be fruitful, and multiply, and fill the waters in the seas, and let fowl multiply in the earth.
 23  And the evening and the morning were the fifth day.
   20 - Waters bring forth The waters and the dry land both appeared on the second day. Here God fills the waters.
   21 - Great whales The Hebrew word is also in ps14807.
.24 ¶ And God said, Let the earth bring forth the living creature after his kind, cattle, and creeping thing, and beast of the earth after his kind: and it was so.
 25  And God made the beast of the earth after his kind, and cattle after their kind, and every thing that creepeth upon the earth after his kind: and God saw that it was good.
  24 - After his kind Compare le1129.
.26 ¶ And God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness: and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth.
.27  So God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him; male and female created he them.
   26 - Make man The peak of God's work of creation. And note that humans were like God. With the ravages of sin on soul and body, we have lost much of that relationship, but it is God's purpose to restore it!
   27 - Male and female From the time of creation one pronoun was for either gender. In fact, only women have had unique pronouns. Men have always shared with women. Being sensitive to modern concerns, however, to specify both is not a problem. Women have been abused and degraded. We just need not apologize for the Bible use of words.
   Pronouns aren't the important factor here. We were created for a joyful relationship. The special development of male and female children defies the theory of evolution.
.28  And God blessed them, and God said unto them, Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth, and subdue it: and have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over every living thing that moveth upon the earth.
   Fruitful It was God's plan for us to populate the earth. Would we have had a overpopulation problem had sin not entered? Not in God's perfect world. We are not told how God would have handled this.
   Replenish Or "fill." The command to multiply depends on this. As the earth today is adequately populated, it seems to me that this verse would not require us to have more and more children.
   Dominion This was lost when Adam and Eve gave their loyalty to Satan who spoke through the serpent.
.29 ¶ And God said, Behold, I have given you every herb bearing seed, which is upon the face of all the earth, and every tree, in the which is the fruit of a tree yielding seed; to you it shall be for meat.
 30  And to every beast of the earth, and to every fowl of the air, and to every thing that creepeth upon the earth, wherein there is life, I have given every green herb for meat: and it was so.
   29 - Every herb [plant] bearing seed These plus the roots like carrots which came along later, make up the ideal diet. Of course carrots and ground foods have seeds, too. We may also understand the verse in a broader sense. After sin, things changed to include poisonous plants but the basic principle is the same. Compare ge0903.
.31 ¶ And God saw every thing that he had made, and, behold, it was very good. And the evening and the morning were the sixth day.   Everything Summary statement
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Three parts of God's work on Creation week
God gave the earth "form"
And He filled the "void"
Then He rested from His work and made the Sabbath holy
See the chapter 2 notes page for a table of this showing a precise pattern.
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