Starting the Study of Genesis

The Bible is not designed to be a book of history, but instead a book of instruction. Everything in the Bible is written to reveal more about God and to instruct humans on how to be His loving and faithful children.

Genesis describes the beginning. The dictionary calls Genesis: “the origin or mode of formation of something.“ It’s a good name. The beginning. Here’s where God’s story to humans begins with the start of the human story.

It makes sense that something written for people would be “human-centric,” meaning spoken from a human-perspective using human descriptors, because God-talk might be a little too ethereal and thus poorly understood. Without good understanding of key principles, it’s unlikely that humans would be certain of what they’re supposed to do. The purpose of the Bible is not to be a historical record, although it is that - but a primer for life.

Genesis 1

Genesis 1 is a great example of writing from an earth-centric viewpoint rather than a heaven-centric viewpoint. During this era depicted by the Bible humans don’t know of other celestial bodies. They are just objects in the “heavens.” The sun, meaning the sun in our solar system, is known as a big light and the moon, meaning the moon that orbits our 3rd rock from the sun as a captive object, is known as the smaller light (because it reflects the light of the sun and is most visible at night). And, almost as a footnote, in verse 16 “He also made the stars.”

Think about it. Our little planet is in one of more than 3,200 solar systems (meaning stars that have captive, orbiting planets) IN JUST OUR GALAXY. The estimates of number of GALAXIES in the universe range from 120 billion to 2 trillion. So, the number of solar systems in the universe is mind boggling. That makes the number of actual planets seem almost incalculable.

So, the light of the sun is the light from our solar star, which is just one of trillions of solar stars illuminating many more katrillions of planets. From a heavenly perspective, knowing this, we might have written Genesis a bit more even-handedly, making reference to this tiny speck being less than insignificant in the vastness of the universe except for this one tiny little fact: God created it as the perfect place to plant his greatest creation, created in His image – humans.

Okay now, let’s look at our concept of time – the earthly, human perspective. We know what a day is. It is one revolution of the earth. It takes place in 24 hours. However, each day in Genesis 1 has apparently more than one day in it since the actions described for each day would seemingly take more than one earth day. In verse 11 God is creating vegetation – plants and trees. Verse 12 says that within this day “the seeds produced plants and trees of the same kind.” Okay, but they did that in ONE DAY? Meaning, the trees and plants produced seeds that germinated and created other trees and plants, all in that one day?

And, the sequence of creation is interesting. First, the earth was formless and empty. Second, darkness covered the deep waters with the spirit of God hovering over the surface.

Then God called light into being. Doesn’t say how, just that the light was good and separated the light from the darkness, creating day and night.

That was all in one day!

Next, God separated the waters that covered the planet creating an atmosphere with humidity and calling it sky.

This was a lighter day – day two!

Now God gets to work and makes the water on the surface retract to expose dry ground, creating the difference between land and sea. And that’s just the start. Now, with land, God creates vegetation that produce seeds for reproduction. On that day the account says that “their seeds produced plants and trees of the same kind, meaning within that day they reproduced from seed-bearing to seed sprouting to plants. As mentioned before, God’s time seems out of sync with our current understanding.

All within day three!

This work done, God moves on to making the sun and the moon and the stars. They were created to light the earth, indicate day and night, and to make each distinct with light and darkness.

Here’s a huge question mark. If God created the light in day two and it was separated from darkness, was Day two describing the physics explanation of light or was He referring to the sun (which doesn’t get created until day four).

That was day four!

On the fifth day God created all the marine creatures and birds, all designed to produce offspring of the same kind.

Day five!

Day six was monumental. All the animals were created, all designed to produce offspring of the same kind. And as a crowning touch, He created humans (plural) “in the image of God,” “male and female he created them.” And He advises the human that the plants and trees are for food, and the green plants as food for the animals and birds and other life.

Notice the words “Male and female he created them.” If you follow a literal sequence of the Bible then this seems like it is letting the cat out of the bag, putting the cart before the horse, because God has only created the man at this point. He doesn’t create Eve until the end of chapter 2. However, He calls His creation Ha-Adam because that is the Hebrew word for humans).

That was it. Creation is done. Now, God’s actions will change from creation to active maintenance, guidance and benevolence for His creation.