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Genesis 1

“Discovering Humanity’s Unique Place in Creation”

Genesis 1 (NRSV) In the beginning when God created the heavens and the earth, 2 the earth was a formless void and darkness covered the face of the deep, while a wind from God swept over the face of the waters.

3 Then God said, “Let there be light” and there was light. 4 And God saw that the light was good; and God separated the light from the darkness. 5 God called the light Day, and the darkness He called Night. And there was evening and there was morning, the first day.

6 And God said, “Let there be a dome in the midst of the waters, and let it separate the waters from the waters.” 7 So God made the dome and separated the waters that were under the dome from the waters that were above the dome. And it was so. 8 God called the dome Sky. And there was evening and there was morning, the second day.

9 And God said, “Let the waters under the sky be gathered together into one place, and let the dry land appear.” And it was so. 10 God called the dry land Earth, and the waters that were gathered together He called Seas. And God saw that it was good. 11 Then God said, “Let the earth put forth vegetation: plants yielding seed, and fruit trees of every kind on earth that bear fruit with the seed in it.” And it was so. 12 The earth brought forth vegetation: plants yielding seed of every kind, and trees of every kind bearing fruit with the seed in it. And God saw that it was good. 13 And there was evening and there was morning, the third day.

14 And God said, “Let there be lights in the dome of the sky to separate the day from the night; and let them be for signs and for seasons and for days and years, 15 and let them be lights in the dome of the sky to give light upon the earth.” And it was so. 16 God made the two great lights—the greater light to rule the day and the lesser light to rule the night—and the stars. 17 God set them in the dome of the sky to give light upon the earth, 18 to rule over the day and over the night, and to separate the light from the darkness. And God saw that it was good. 19 And there was evening and there was morning, the fourth day.

20 And God said, “Let the waters bring forth swarms of living creatures, and let birds fly above the earth across the dome of the sky.” 21 So God created the great sea monsters and every living creature that moves, of every kind, with which the waters swarm, and every winged bird of every kind. And God saw that it was good. 22 God blessed them, saying, “Be fruitful and multiply and fill the waters in the seas, and let birds multiply on the earth.” 23 And there was evening and there was morning, the fifth day.

24 And God said, “Let the earth bring forth living creatures of every kind: cattle and creeping things and wild animals of the earth of every kind.” And it was so. 25 God made the wild animals of the earth of every kind, and the cattle of every kind, and everything that creeps upon the ground of every kind. And God saw that it was good.

Have you tried to create? Maybe you have drawn on paper, painted on canvas or tried to compose the perfect photograph? An artist composing a picture considers many elements. What are the key ones? In the art of landscape photography, light seems to be the key element. When the light is right, the depth of a picture depicts a stunning interplay of the parts of the landscape. The great photo draws the eye into a rich, full scene using a balance of the foreground, middle-ground, background, horizon, and sky. With good light and scenery, the photographer focuses our interest by placement of key objects with the ‘Law of Thirds.’ The photographer places a central feature such as a mountain peak, a waterfall, or a bright, red-leafed, fall Maple Tree one third of the way from the edge of a picture, rarely in the center. I am not sure why this works, but study good landscape pictures and you will see this one-third placement used with constant success. Another way to draw the eye into a picture from the edge to the most important subject involves using lines such as fences, railroad tracks, or serpentine roads.

Many have found it helpful, if they have had any experience with painting or photography, to think of God as the Great Artist in understanding the creation of the earth. Consider God painting on a mural of grand scale the earth and its surrounding skies. He begins with a blank canvas. Notice that God creates the earth in a raw state of darkness, formlessness, and emptiness. We don’t know how long the earth stayed in this state of initial development. Maybe this initial creation took thousands or millions of years? Maybe it only took a snap of God’s fingers? We are not told how long it took. This was before there was a reckoning of time by days or nights. God had not created them yet. Nor do these first verses tell us how God created this strange, new world. Maybe there were cataclysmic events such as continental plates colliding and volcanoes erupting? That type of conjecture occupies the minds of scientists seeking clues to formative events in our present world. But it is important to realize that God created this three-dimensional mural so that He could form and fill it with light and life in amazing wonder to all.

Upon this mural God shines light. His brush is His voice. He merely speaks and the light shines forth from His infinite imagination. This light shines everywhere in a general sense, as there is not yet a specific source discernible for this light. This diffuse light shines during a portion of time and not during another portion, beginning the cycle of day and night.

After God introduced light in His creation, He begins creating at the horizon, where so many artists begin painting. God separates the waters of the sky from the waters of the earth. This boundary defines the mist and clouds of the heavens from the rolling oceans and bodies of water below. God turns His gaze upon the earth to continue defining its features. Land appears separating the bodies of water. Browns mix with shades of blue. Then the color green appears as the earth fills with vegetation. A pattern of general to more specific occurs with the vegetation. The green becomes a profusion of color as seed plants sprout an array of flowers. Fruit trees claim hillsides and river-bottoms. The many colors mix and match to present a diversity of plant vitality. What began as a formless, colorless void now throbs with life in the colors of the spectrum of light surrounding all creation.

God continues creating this marvelous mural. He returns to the areas of broad brushstrokes and brings out intricate detail. The general light takes on specific forms. In the daylight He speaks forth the bursting light of the sun. He dabs the night sky with lesser lights of stars and moon. In the air the flowers of the sky take wing. Feathered creatures of yellow, red, blue, green, black, white, or brown soar, dive and mate. The cliffs are theirs, as are the treetops. The sea life springs forth in response to the sound of God’s voice. Finned creatures breathe through gills. Monsters of the deep rise up to feed on the micro-plankton of the surface waters. The incredible variety that flows from the mind of God overwhelms the waters with vitality. God is not done. The land needs creatures to breed, multiply and fill the earth. Kind after kind, species after species of animal walks, runs, creeps, bounces, climbs and leaps upon the earth. Some animals God creates wild to run at will. Some He creates with mild tempers to be domesticated for other use by the greatest, most intricate creature yet to come from the dreams of God.

The sky, background, middle-ground, and foreground of our mural have been filled in with the breadth of God’s creative vision. Before we move on to the focal point of God’s creation, let us consider the pattern in which God proceeded to this point. From chaos comes harmony and order. After formlessness God separates and gathers according to greater variety. Where the emptiness reigned, God fills with swarming, swirling masses of life all in order of kind. Out of darkness God lights and colors the world. As God brought harmony from chaos then, so today and forever He continues to bring order and beauty to life. He does this with our world, our nations and our lives.

Below is a chart that outlines this work of harmony from chaos. Note the balance of days and the work that occurs from the general to the specific in each area. Those who appreciate the wonder of nature declare with God that all of this is good.

God’s Grand Mural: The Universe & The Earth

The Symmetry of God’s creation:

First Day & Fourth Day:

 Light separated from darkness & then lights for night and day appear.

 Day and night created & then sun, moon and stars created.

Second Day & Fifth Day:

 Waters of heaven separated from waters of the earth & animals for the water created.

 Sky created & then animals for the sky created.

Third Day & Sixth Day:

 Dry ground separated from water & then animals for the ground created.

 Land and seas separated with vegetation on the land & then the appearance of all types of animals on the land.

 Humans created on the land.

Our eye has been drawn by the balance and rich color into the heart of this mural we call the earth. Here we notice the focal point of the mural. God creates humans by the most delicate of brush strokes.

26 Then God said, “Let us make humankind in Our image, according to Our likeness; and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the birds of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the wild animals of the earth, and over every creeping thing that creeps upon the earth.” 27 So God created humankind in his image, in the image of God He created them; male and female He created them. 28 God blessed them, and God said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth and subdue it; and have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the air and over every living thing that moves upon the earth.” 29 God said, “See, I have given you every plant yielding seed that is upon the face of all the earth, and every tree with seed in its fruit; you shall have them for food. 30 And to every beast of the earth, and to every bird of the air, and to everything that creeps on the earth, everything that has the breath of life, I have given every green plant for food.” And it was so. 31 God saw everything that He had made, and indeed, it was very good. And there was evening and there was morning, the sixth day.

Genesis 2:1-3 Thus the heavens and the earth were finished, and all their multitude. 2 And on the seventh day God finished the work that He had done, and He rested on the seventh day from all the work that He had done. 3 So God blessed the seventh day and hallowed it, because on it God rested from all the work that He had done in creation. (NRSV)

Until now God merely spoke and His words brought to life the images of His mind. In verse 26 God holds a conversation, but with whom? Who else was there? Was God speaking with Himself? In short, yes. The conversation began “Let us make humankind in Our image, according to Our likeness.” Note that the pronouns are plural? The pronouns ‘us’ and ‘our’ in the Hebrew language are of a type of plural different from our English plural. English plurals indicate two or more. This Hebrew plural indicates three or more are involved. Here three are involved. God the Father is present guiding the process by His design. Jesus is also present in creation. Consider Colossians 1:16, “For by Him (Christ) all things were created: things in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or powers or rulers or authorities; all things were created by Him and for Him.” Through Christ God created the earth (see also the Gospel of John 1:1-3.) Look again at Genesis 1:2 to discover the Spirit of God is also present. Some Bibles such as the New Revised Standard Version (NRSV) translate the Hebrew word “ruach” into wind. But the word also translates as spirit. This is not just a wind blowing over the waters of a new creation. The Spirit of God descends upon this momentous occasion. The New International Version (NIV) translates verse 2 “the Spirit of God was hovering over the waters.” Father, Son, and Holy Spirit all involve themselves in the creation of the earth and its beings.

Don’t be overwhelmed with the concept of the Trinity, that God is One yet Three Persons. There are many good illustrations of the Trinity, even though we who live in a temporal world will not be able to fully comprehend this infinite God. Here is my favorite illustration about the Trinity from C.S. Lewis, Mere Christianity, pp. 141-142

“You know that in space you can move in three ways - to the left or right, backwards or forwards, up or down. Every direction is either one of these three or a compromise between them. They are called three dimensions. Now notice this. If you are using only one dimension, you could draw only a straight line. If you are using two, you could draw a figure: say, a square. And a square is made up of four straight lines. Now a step further. If you have three dimensions, you can then build what we call a solid body: say, a cube - a thing like a dice or a lump of sugar. And a cube is made up of six squares.

Do you see the point? A world of one dimension would be a straight line. In a two-dimensional world, you still get straight lines, but many lines make one figure. In a three-dimensional world, you still get figures but many figures make one solid body. In other words, as you advance to more real and more complicated levels, you do not leave behind the things you found on the simpler levels: you still have them, but combined in new ways - in ways you could not imagine if you knew only the simpler levels.

Now the Christian account of God involves just the same principle. The human level is a simple and rather empty level. On the human level is one being, and any two persons are separate beings - just as, in two dimensions (say on a flat sheet of paper) one square is one figure, and any two squares are two separate figures. On the Divine level you still find personalities; but up there you find them combined in new ways which we, who do not live on that level, cannot imagine. In God’s dimensions, so to speak, you find a being who is three Persons while remaining one Being, just as a cube is six squares while remaining one cube.

Of course we cannot conceive a Being like that: … but we can get a sort of faint notion of it. But when we do, we are then, for the first time in our lives, getting some positive idea, however faint, of something super-personal, something more than a person.”

The three Persons of the Trinity, the “Three-in-One” God, all participate in creation for a great reason. They desire to share their harmonious lifestyle with their new creation. They will be reflected in the focal point of that creation - humans. They create humans “in Our image, in Our likeness.” What does it mean for humans to be created in the image of God? Great pains must be taken to understand what God has done to create humans. Our reason for existence and the ideal for marriage are both hidden in these two verses (26-27 NRSV)

26 Then God said, “Let us make humankind in Our image, according to Our likeness; and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the birds of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the wild animals of the earth, and over every creeping thing that creeps upon the earth.” So God created humankind in his image, in the image of God He created them; male and female He created them.

God commands everyone to consider images carefully. The second commandment prohibits humans from making images that try to represent God. Exodus 20:4 (NIV) “You shall not make for yourself an idol in the form of anything in heaven above or on the earth beneath or in the waters below.” Michelangelo sculpted the masterpiece statue of David that stands in a museum in Florence, Italy. He crafted this statue of stone into a wonder of human form. As masterful as Michelangelo’s carving was, even his stone statue cannot come close to depicting real flesh and blood. How can we expect images of stone, wood or other inanimate objects to catch the essence of the infinite God? Anything we attempt would be an inferior mockery, degrading to God. We cannot make an accurate enough or alive enough image of God. But God can and did make an image of Himself when He made humans. He intended something unique when He made humans. He created beings that in some way reflect His likeness. In what way?

Let us clearly state a way that God did not intend for humans to be in His image. God did not intend humans to reflect all that He is - the fullness of His being as Sovereign God. Jesus Christ alone as the only Son of God fully reveals God the Father to the world. Jesus Christ is “the image of the invisible God,“ as the Apostle Paul wrote in Colossians 1:15. In verse 19 of that same chapter Paul writes, (NIV) “For God was pleased to have all his fullness dwell in Him.” The Greek word for image is ‘eikon’ from which the English words icon or statue are translated. We are not to sculpt a statue to represent God or have icons take His place in worship, because God gave us Jesus to worship. Whenever we want to see God, we need only to look to Jesus, not an inferior copy. He is the fullness of God’s love and justice, holiness and majesty, sent to earth by God to be humanity’s Savior and Lord. We are not to create images of God so that our hearts and minds are left free to worship the fullness of God in Jesus Christ.

Therefore, it is a surprise to read in Genesis 1:26 that humans are made in the image or likeness of God the Trinity. Humans are not the fullness of God that Jesus reveals to us. But we are a different type of image of God, better understood in the second word for image used to describe our creation; we are in God’s likeness. We are like God, but not fully God. We are reflections of His image, but not His full image.

To illustrate this point, consider the earth’s moon. The moon has no light source of its own. This is hard to believe during a night when the moon is full. On those nights it is possible to walk outside in the open without any other source of light. We can see our distinct shadows in this moonlight. Yet the moon only reflects the light from its source the sun. There is no mistaking the brilliance of the sun with the reflected light of the moon. Or consider a mirror. A mirror gives a reflection of your own image, yet you know the face in the mirror is not your real face. Children who first discover their reflection in the mirror sit enraptured. After more such discoveries, the mirror holds little excitement for them. The children have learned the difference between a reflection and the real thing.

So we are a reflection of the image of God. In some ways we are like God, yet in other ways we are not like God. In no way are we God. Jesus is the sun, while we are the moon. Hebrews 1:3 (NIV) explains who Jesus is, “The Son is the radiance of God’s glory and the exact representation of his being, sustaining all things by his powerful word.” Jesus is God, while we are reflectors of God’s image. Keeping this in mind can save us from a lot of problems, and it could have saved Adam and Eve from a lot of suffering as we shall see.

In what way do we reflect God? How are we in His image? Finite creatures cannot be like God in His infinite qualities, such as living outside time and space dimensions. We cannot be all-present, all-knowing, or all-powerful to name three of God’s infinite attributes. We can, however, be like God in His moral characteristics. We can love in sacrificial, giving ways. We can be faithful and trustworthy. We can be joyful. We can be kind and gentle. These are the qualities we appreciate about God and can see developed within us. Indeed these are the qualities God placed within us when He created us in His image.

In verses 26 and 28 of Genesis 1, we get a listing of some of these qualities. We are to rule like God in wisdom and beneficent decree. The rule of God promotes life, encourages right, cultivates good and fosters health. God created humans to rule His way over the rest of God’s creatures. We are in God’s image to be overseers of the wonders of His creation. We are to have oversight in His name to care for the environment for the long-term, and not pollute it for short-term gain. We are to be fruitful and increase to fill the earth. We are to bring forth new life in children to enjoy the bounty of the earth. Ruling as God rules, under His direction, we sustain the harmony between humanity, creatures, and God, which God initiated.

There is much more we could say about this, but suffice it to say that being in the image of God is not referring primarily to the physical. To think we are in God’s physical image and thus that God has fingers, toes and a nose misunderstands the depth of our place in God’s creation. Humans are much more than physical as we were created in God’s image. We are the link between God and His creation, bridging the physical and the spiritual realms. We are somewhat amphibious, created as both spirit being and animal flesh. More about this shortly.

Into the narrative at this moment we discover a surprise. Verse 27 defines how God created humans in His image. The verse is in a Hebrew literary style called ‘parallelism’. In oral traditions boldface, italics, or underlining cannot be used to emphasize a point. Instead to emphasize a point, it is repeated. A vital point is repeated more than once. Hebrew oral tradition used repetition to emphasize and to add greater depth to the definition of the point being made. The three lines of verse 27 are an excellent example of this:

So God created humankind in His image,

in the image of God He created them;

male and female He created them.

To isolate the key elements look at the three phrases that build from one line to another and give greater definition to humans as the image of God:

humankind = the image of God = male and female.

The surprise and the key to marriage are found in this statement; humankind reflects the image of God as male and female together. Male alone does not reflect the image of God. Nor does female alone reflect the image of God. God is not masculine or feminine. This is defining God by human standards. God is beyond our sexuality. Yet through our sexuality as male and female united together in one bond of love, we glimpse the greatest reflection of God in our humanity. Here we discover the likeness of God in our marriages. The union of male and female is much more than just physical; it is a harmony of body and spirit. This harmonious union reflects God the Trinity as God always demonstrates the inherent bond of love for each member of the Trinity. The Holy Spirit always points to God the Son. God the Son always serves God the Father. God the Father glorifies the Son. So the male always loves the wife and the wife always loves the husband to show an intimate union in the likeness of God’s unity.

As we learn to seek the best for each other, living in love for each other, we draw closer to living in the likeness of God. This is specifically true and most intimately known in this world in the relationship of marriage where two become one. Here is the key to a successful marriage; reflect the love of God through seeking the best for each other. When a couple dedicates themselves to each other in God, God provides a bond that holds tight. He braids them into that threefold cord of strength and love in His love. But before we can understand this, we need to understand why one male alone cannot fulfill the image of God. That is the crux of the next chapter.

Questions for reflection and insight:

1 When have you been creative? What principles helped you to create better?

2 How do you need God to bring light out of your darkness and order out of your chaos? Where specifically do you need His harmony in your marriage?

3 In what ways are humans not created in the image of God?

4 In what ways are humans created in the image of God?

5 How would you like to be more like God?