IN THE BEGINNING
Genesis 1:1-25 (Read 1:1-31) Lesson 1
Key Verse 1:1
"In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth."
1. Read Genesis chapter 1. Divide this chapter into paragraphs and
give titles to the paragraphs.
2. Memorize 1:1. Who was "in the beginning"? What does this mean? (Ps
90:2; 102:25-27) What did God do? Why is it important for us to
know that God created all things? (Isa 44:24) What is the
relationship of this verse to the rest of the chapter?
3. Read verse 2. What was the state of things before God spoke? What
does it mean that the earth was formless, empty and dark? How was
the Spirit of God involved in the Creation? (Ps 104:30) How is
this verse related to the rest of the chapter?
4. By what instrument did God create the world? (Heb 11:3) How many
times do you find the phrases "and God said...and it was so"? What
does this suggest about God? About his word? (Ps 33:6-9; Col 1:16;
Jn 1:1-3)
5. Notice other repeated phrases: "And there was evening
and...morning..." "according to their kinds", "and God saw that it
was good", etc. What do these phrases tell us about God? About the
world he created?
6. What did God create the first day? Why do you think God created
light first? Why is light necessary to all the other works of
creation? Think about the character of God who created light. (2Co
4:6; Jn 1:4) When did he create the sun, moon and stars? What was
their function? (Isaiah 40:26,28; Ps 148:1-6)
7. What did God do on the 2nd day? What is the "expanse"? How did
this prepare an environment for the birds and fish? (Isa 45:18)
What did he do on the 3rd day? How did this prepare an environment
for animals and man? (Ps 104:14)
8. Draw a diagram of the 6 days of creation. Try to make your diagram
reflect the relationship between the first three days of creation
and the last three days. What can you learn from this about God
the Creator? About the world he created?
9. What do these verses teach about the almighty power of God? About
his goodness? About his character? Read Ps 19:1-6; 104:24-33.
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IN THE BEGINNING
Genesis 1:1-25 Lesson 1
Key Verse: 1:1
"In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth."
Genesis 1:1 says, "In the beginning God created the heavens and the
earth. This one verse is the foundation of the whole Bible. This one verse
is the foundation of all Christian faith. This verse tells us that our God
is Almighty Creator God. This verse tells us that God is the Maker of our
precious lives. There was a report about a young boy shot three very
beautiful girls to death. The policemen asked him, "Why did you do this?"
"I don't see any meaning in life", answered he. When we hear, "God created
the heavens and the earth", we might think, "So what?" But if God did not
create man, man's existence is a joke. If God did not create man, our hard
work has no meaning and our lives have no meaning. Man's origin is an
unsolvable mystery. So it is good for us to study about the Creator God.
May God richly bless you with the word of Genesis.
First, Our God is the Almighty Creator God. The Hebrew word of "God" in
chapter 1 is "Elohim." Elohim means all-powerful, Almighty One. It was by
his almighty power that God created the heavens and the earth. Read verse
3. God said, "Let there be light." And light blazed out to fill the
darkness. He said, "Sun, come into being." (14) And the great, burning sun
rose in the heavens. He said, "Sea, come into being." And the seas became
so full of fish that there were enough to be caught and eaten through
eternity---with some left over (20). Men are so weak that they cannot begin
to understand the greatness of God's power. If the sun is a little too
warm, we say, "It's too hot." If the weather gets cold, we shiver. If even
small waves roll, we get sea-sick. We cannot even count the stars in the
sky, so how can we comprehend the greatness of God?
Once God rebuked Abraham for his complacency saying, "I am God
Almighty." (Ge 17:1) God introduced himself to Moses as the "I Am Who I
Am." (Ex 3:14) God made the heavens and the earth by his almighty power and
matchless wisdom. When we look at the beauty and harmony of the universe,
and see how everything works according to unseen natural laws, we cannot
deny God's divine nature and eternal power. So Paul wrote, "for since the
creation of the world God's invisible qualities, his eternal power and
divine nature, have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been
made..." (Ro 1:20) The Hebrews believed in this Almighty God. This God is
the God who created all things. This is the God who made water come out of
the rock to quench the thirst of the thirsty people of Israel as they
grumbled in the desert (Ex 17:6). God is almighty. He gives life to the
dead and calls things that are not as though they were. (Ro 4:17) The
almighty God who created the heavens and the earth is God who raised Jesus
Christ from the dead. He holds the whole world in his hand. He holds the
tiny baby in his hands. This Almighty God created the heavens and the
earth.
Second, The Creator God is the center of the universe and we are his
children. In Genesis chapter 1 the word "God" is repeated 30 times. God
created the universe according to his own will, for his own purpose and by
his own power. Man is a created being. He did not create himself---as many
crazy people assume. The universe belongs to God. He remains the central
figure in the universe. We are his creatures. We cannot make ourselves the
center of the universe. But when we read the Bible, we find that God is our
heavenly Father and we are his precious children (Ps 8:4,5)
When we believe that God is our Creator, then we realize that we are
his creatures. When we believe that God is the Owner of our lives, we can
become godly people. We must also become humble, for we accept the
sovereignty of God. Because God made us our existence is not accidental. It
was planned by God according to his good purpose. When we realize that God
is our Creator and the Sovereign Lord of creation, we can know the truth
about where we came from and where we are going. We came from God and we
are going back to God. When we believe that God is the Creator, we become
possessors of eternal life in this Eternal God. When we believe that God is
our Creator, we can have absolute values, and absolute meaning. Otherwise,
our meaning and purpose, our morals and values are relativistic. If we do
not have creation faith, it doesn't matter whether we are men or monkeys.
Third, Our God is the Holy God. When we study the whole Bible we come to
know that our God is love. That is right. When man fell and was cursed, in
his great mercy God made a plan to save the whole world through his Son
Jesus Christ (Ge 3:15). Our God's love for sinners is so great that he did
not spare his only Son (Ro 8:32; Jn 3:16). But God does not accept unholy
people. Unholy people are ungodly people who deliberately reject the love
of God to live lives of sin.
Our God is holy. Because of his holiness, our God is different from
all other gods. When one girl wanted to be happy, she cooked all the boys
until they were well done. But she was not happy. The other day she said,
"Man's happiness does not come from sinful man. True happiness comes from
heaven." She meant that true happiness comes from the holiness of God.
These days she studies the Bible diligently and fishes sheep diligently.
She also receives persecution from worldly people. But she is happy. Here
we can understand the deep meaning of God's shedding his Son's blood to
cleanse our sinsick blood.
Fourth, Our God is the God of love. Beginning with Ge 2:4, God is referred
to as "the LORD God." "LORD" is the English translation of "Yahweh." This
name means that God is Savior: he is the God of love. We read in Genesis 3
that man in his pride took God's word lightly. He was tempted by Satan and
fell. Because of his sin and fall, man has come under curse. God is the one
who wants to save man from this curse. God's saving love is the theme that
flows through the Old and New Testaments of the Bible. God is all powerful.
But his great power does not express itself in power. His great power
expresses itself as saving love. God reveals himself as God who is love
(1Jn 4:8)
Fifth, If God had not created man... From the ancient naturalistic
philosophers to the modern atheistic existentialists, how have atheists
views the world? And what are the problems of their world view? They have
seen water or fire or air as the first cause or the origin of everything.
Evolutionists theorize that man came from an amoeba. There are several
problems that arise from this materialistic viewpoint.
In the first place, there is the problem of origin. If we say that
the world originated with fire or water or "something" or with an amoeba,
we cannot find any answer to the basic question of the first cause. If men
come from an amoeba, then where did the amoeba come from? Or where did the
fire come from? They are totally unable to answer the question of the first
cause, the origin. So those who take the atheistic position avoid the
question of the problem of the first cause, the origin, and talk only about
hypothetical process. They only succeed in confusing people.
In the second place, there is the problem of the meaning of human
existence. As Pascal said, "Man is a thinking reed." Even though man is
very weak, he is the being who probes the meaning of his own existence.
Man's existence has meaning. A person's character is formed as he finds the
meaning of his life. A man's character is formed as that meaning finds
expression in his life. The meaning of a person's existence must be
absolute. Absoluteness comes only from God
But if the origin of all things is water or fire or air, where does
life come from? How does life come from inanimate things? And how can
beings with intellect and feeling and will come from an amoeba? And how can
water, fire and air come together of themselves to form the great burning
sun? And who planned the amazing mystery of the seasons? Or the way the sun
marks time? There are these and many other unanswerable questions. But the
greatest problem of all is the problem of the meaning of man's existence.
Let's say that man evolved from the natural world. What, then, is man? Did
we accidentally come from our father's loins to struggle to live until we
go to join the kingdom of the worms? (Isa 14:11) So men become fatalistic.
They think that they are born and live in order to die after working hard
to survive in this hard world. Fatalistic thinking leads to Nihilism. "Let
us eat and drink, for tomorrow we die" (Isa 22:13). The result of such
fatalism is indeed great. It takes away the meaning of life. In makes man
immoral to the point of committing incest (Ge 19:36). The source of all
evil seems to be the atheistic view of life. The thing that makes people
most unhappy seems to be the thought, "My life just came into being by
chance." An atheistic world view produces just this consequence.
The author of Genesis says in 1:1, "In the beginning God created the
heavens and the earth." Here we find the answer to the question of what was
in the beginning. God was in the beginning. And God created the heavens and
the earth. When we say that God created the world, we are also saying that
God has a relationship to his world---the relationship of the Creator to his
creation. It is in the context of this relationship that man can know that
his existence is not an accident, that his life has meaning.
God made man according to his absolute purpose. For example, look at
a watch. The watch was made by someone for a purpose. As long as the is
used for the purpose for which it was made, it has meaning. Likewise, God
made mankind with a clear purpose of life. God made mankind with a clear
meaning of life. The words, "In the beginning God created the heavens and
the earth," tell us that because God created the world, all the people and
things in the world have a necessary existence. Nothing is here by accident
or chance. Every person's life has meaning in God. Without creation faith a
person falls into deep chaos.
When we know that God created the heavens and the earth, we realize
that our own existence in the world is not an accident, but a sovereign act
of God. So my existence is necessary and my life has meaning and value in
God.