Finding God in the Creation Story

The Book of Genesis Helps Mankind Understand the Creator

Nov 19, 2009 Ronald G Falconberry

The creation story in Genesis 1 is more than just a brief history of how the earth came into existence. It introduces God to the world and helps mankind understand God.

The book of Genesis and its creation story was written during a time of turmoil for Israel. They had been slaves in Egypt for generations. Crying out for delivery to the God of their ancestor Abraham, they witnessed the ten plagues that God unleashed upon Egypt and the parting of the Red Sea.

Israel's faith was short-lived, however, so God forced them to wander in the desert for forty years before going to the promised land of Canaan. In From Creation to the Cross, Albert Baylis writes that it was during their wandering that Moses wrote Genesis to help Israel understand that God was different from all of the other nations' gods and that they owed their allegiance to him alone.

The Creation Story Shows that God is Eternal

Genesis means "the beginning." Something caused the earth and the universe to come into being. The very first verse of Genesis identifies God unequivocally as the all-powerful cause who was responsible for creating "the heavens and the earth." The second verse suggests hat the earth was dark, empty, lifeless and had no form.

Thus, to take something empty and lifeless and create a beautifully orchestrated universe with its stars and planets showed Israel that God existed before the creation, has supreme power and is in control.

The Genesis Creation Story Reveals God as the Intelligent Designer

The rest of Genesis 1 reveals God's design and pattern in creating the world. Genesis 1:3-13 covers the first three days of creation and, according to Baylis, establishes a pattern that will be replicated during days four through six to produce an environment necessary for sustainable life.:

Light and Darkness – The passage in Genesis 1:3-5 states that God created light and separated it from the darkness on the first day.
Sky and Water – According to Genesis 1:6-8, on the second day of creation God separated the waters with an expanse which he named as sky.
Land and Vegetation – In Genesis 1:9-13, God gathered the waters under the sky together on day three to create seas which exposed dry ground. Then, all vegetation throughout the earth was created.

The second set of three days, as recorded in Genesis 1:14-31, followed the same pattern and built upon the basic foundation that had already been established.

Light and Darkness – In Genesis 1:14-19, on the fourth day God took the light he had created on day one and formed the sun, the moon, and the stars to be used to mark the days, the seasons and the years.
Sky and Water – For day five, the passages in Genesis 1:20-23 state that God created animals to fly through the air and swim in the seas which had been created on the second day.
Land and Vegetation – According to Genesis 1:24-30, on the sixth day God created all land-living animals including man. This creation of land-dwelling life correlates back to the work accomplished on the third day.

Genesis 1 Shows that Man is God's Ultimate Creation

Genesis 1:26-30 reveals that God made mankind last but made man "in his own image." Humans are different from the rest of God's living creation because each one of them has a soul which will live forever.

Men and women were also given the freedom of choice and allowed to make their own decisions. In this way, those who follow God follow him freely. Finally, while the living things that God created live on the earth, God commissioned mankind to watch and rule over his creation and take care of it.

The Creation Story Serves as an Example from God

The final verse of chapter one notes that, after six days of creation, God rested. As Matthew Henry wrote in his commentary on Genesis, God's work served as an example to his followers. God worked for six days and used the seventh as a day to rest from his labor and observe the beauty of his work.

The day of rest was articulated as the fourth commandment to Israel to keep the Sabbath Day holy while Sunday is generally regarded by Christians as their day of rest.

The Creation Story Reveals God to the World

As Baylis notes, the creation story in Genesis identified God to Israel as an intelligent and powerful deity who is the sole creator and ruler of the universe. He is in complete control. He took a chaotic, formless void and produced a planet full of life and beauty and created man to take care of it. Israel's allegiance was to be to God alone.

Although Genesis was written to help Israel understand and know God, Genesis helps Christians better understand Christ. As Baylis points out, the original creation in Genesis, which fell into sin, points forward to a time when Jesus' followers will live with him in a new creation forever and illuminated with eternal sunlight.