A Chapter a Day
Pastor Chris Plekenpol and his guests explore the Bible together one chapter at a time. They offer practical insights, theological depth, and real-life applications. Dive in for engaging discussions that bring God’s Word to life, one chapter at a time!"
A Chapter a Day
Genesis 1: From Chaos to Order
The opening words of Scripture—"In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth"—set the stage for everything that follows. Three pastors dive deep into Genesis 1, unpacking theological gems hiding in plain sight within this familiar creation account.
Why did light exist before the sun? What does it mean that humans are made "in God's image"? And who exactly is the mysterious "us" in "Let us make mankind in our image"? These questions lead to fascinating discussions about God's nature, humanity's purpose, and the divine blueprint for civilization.
Perhaps most compelling is the exploration of the cultural mandate—God's first commission to humanity. The Hebrew word for "subdue" (kibosh) reveals our call to bring divine order to chaos, just as God did in creation itself. This isn't about exploitation but cultivation, transforming our spheres of influence into spaces where life can flourish according to God's design.
Whether you're wrestling with questions about creation timelines, the Trinity's presence in Genesis, or simply seeking to understand your purpose as God's image-bearer, this conversation offers fresh perspective on Scripture's foundation. The pastors skillfully balance scholarly insight with practical application, showing how an ancient text continues to provide guidance for ordered, purposeful living in today's chaotic world.
Ready to discover how bringing divine order to your relationships, work, and personal life fulfills your purpose as God's representative on earth? Listen now and join us on this journey through Scripture—one chapter at a time.
Welcome to a chapter a day keeps the devil away. All right, we're so glad all of you are here. This is Pastor Plagg. Joining me is Cody Sparks from the Cody Sparks Band and none other than Pastor Holland Gregg from Eastside Community Church. So glad to have both you gentlemen with me as we talk about Genesis 1. Now, holland, talk to me about some great insights that you've been given about Genesis 1.
Speaker 3:All right. So for me, I think in the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. The very first line of Genesis 1 sets the stage for the entire story of Scripture, with God as the point. God is the creator of everything, he's the goal of everything. I think, understanding that from the very first line of Scripture we see God as the point, the source, the creator of everything, he's the goal of everything. I think, understanding that, that from the very first line of scripture we see, god is the point, the source, the goal of all things.
Speaker 1:Right, for me, the thing that I I don't know if it's a struggle or it's an interesting thought or something that I just was like that's odd or neat or cool is the sun and the moon don't appear until day four. A light to rule over the day and a light to rule over the night. So how was there light in the first day? Because he said let there be light. What was the light from? Do we know God?
Speaker 3:I was going to say Light of the world. In Revelation, when it talks about the new creation, it says there will be no need for sun. Right, because the glory of the Lord, the glory of the Lamb, will shine as light. And so God is light. I think the light could be coming from the glory of God himself. I love that.
Speaker 1:So here's the thing I also think about is if there is no sun and moon, and a and a day is derived from an earth spinning around, uh, or rotating around the sun, sun orbiting, orbiting the sun once, uh, how are days? I'm sorry, that's right. Doing one circular. Yeah, I was like wait a minute, uh so if, if earth rotating once, you know, so that the sun rises and goes down, that's and up again, that's a day. Um, how do you have a day without a sun or a moon?
Speaker 2:hey, doc, don't look over here at me, this is tough so what I?
Speaker 1:so? This is where people they're young earth, older, I think you have. You have is wild, right? You've got one day, two day, three day. The sun and moon don't come until the fourth day, so that gives you a lot of options.
Speaker 1:I know there's a lot of young earth and a lot of old earth who want to just battle it out. You just don't know, and it's a poetic version and so I don't want to. I'm not saying I'm not. This isn't an argument for young earth, but it's also not an argument for old earth. I just want us to kind of see like there's a lot of interpretation in this poetry of these verses, and I think you can argue both. I've seen both argued by very good Christian people who love God, and I don't know if that's the place where you want to seat your faith, as in your ability to conclude how old the earth is and your ability to conclude how old the earth is, but I do think it's a great thing to understand is that God did a lot of stuff before. There was a sun and a moon, right? Fair, yeah, fair, okay, how about? What about this? Let us make God in our own image.
Speaker 3:Let us make man.
Speaker 1:Sorry, I'm sorry, good save, thank you. Let us make man in our own image. Let us make man Sorry, I'm sorry, good save, thank you. Let us make man in our own image, thank you. So what, who's the us in that Holland? What's your gander, god? All right, that's good. So would you go with, because one of my new favorite books is Michael Heiser's book Unseen Realm, and where he talks about divine counsel and I'm going to say it could be right, it could also be a Trinitarian view, it also could be just about anything that you want to go with. So your thoughts would be it's just a Trinitarian, us, royal, we kind of thing.
Speaker 3:Yeah, are you saying those are the same thing? No, no, royal, we and Trinitarian view are two different.
Speaker 1:It's like, yeah, they're not the same, but Although they could be.
Speaker 3:Yeah, well, I was going to say, I mean the royal. We idea is that, you know, referring in plural form to a singular person or identity to indicate majesty and, you know, high status and all that right, and so I think it could be that, and I'm sure that that's how it was probably read, either as that or the divine counsel. Obviously, no one was reading it in a Trinitarian way before Christ, Right, Right. So so you think they?
Speaker 1:were reading in divine council way or royal.
Speaker 3:We either one of those. Makes either one works.
Speaker 1:There's good arguments for both of those. There's only one God. Even if you believe in a divine council, that's just angels and principalities and authorities that God uses to rule in a, a shared rule with the heavenly host, which he's now having. A shared rule with the humans, which is his desire is to always work with and never do anything completely alone, although he is completely sufficient in and of himself.
Speaker 3:Yeah, I think the problem there is we're not made in the image of angels, we're made in the image of God Sure.
Speaker 1:But I think the hard part though, what is the image of God? Sure, but I think the hard part though, what is the image of God mean? Would that mean that there's a billion no good from evil? Because that's what it seems to say in Genesis 3, like, oh no, now they'll be able to know good from evil, like us, like us.
Speaker 1:And so I think that might be a place where that's the divine aspect of the immortal part of the conscience which we could be getting into. But I do think the primary thing here is that God is the author, god is the source, and although scholars go all sorts of different ways with what let us make man in our own image means it is clear that God is the author, he is the perfecter, he is the creator of all those things. What else did you see here?
Speaker 3:I was going to say. You do see hints about the Trinitarian reality of God already in the first few verses, where it says, in verse two, that the spirit of God was hovering over the face of the waters. And so you know, I think we know now, knowing the Trinitarian um reality of who God is his father, son and Holy spirit, we can look back and go okay, obviously God was doing this work of creation in his Trinitarian way, Right Um, we know from John, chapter one, that mimics a lot of this language and that how, in the beginning, was the word? The word was with God, the word was God as well as, from here, the spirit of God hovering over the face of the water. So you see all three persons of the Trinity involved in the act of creation.
Speaker 1:The spirit and the word is which is the creative act yeah, which is my favorite.
Speaker 2:And God said yeah, that's wild.
Speaker 1:Okay, what can we? If we're going to apply anything from this, is it? What would that be for you, Holland?
Speaker 3:So for me, you know, right after it says, let us make man in our image, you get verse 28, that God blessed them and he gives a mission to mankind yeah, be fruitful, multiply, fill the earth, subdue it, have dominion. And so this is what's referred to as like the cultural mandate, the original, you know, mission and command from God. Here's what you're supposed to do with your life, as being made in his image. You are his representative on earth to rule over the earth, under God and to fill the whole earth with his glory. And so I think application of this is what does it look like for us to really take that mission to heart? To have dominion, to have rule under God, over moving on to society, how do we see the rule and reign of Christ in all of these places, submitting to him and glorifying him?
Speaker 1:Yeah, I love that. And what's kind of interesting is the word subdue is the Hebrew word kibosh. I don't know if anyone's familiar with the phrase. Put the kibosh on somebody. I mean, you know, it's a smack thing.
Speaker 1:Yeah it's like I'm going to kibosh that person and that means like a forceful violent, to a point like I'm going to subdue and rule a word, and so that means that there's work to be done to civilize the world, which is sort of wild to think about. That God created something that he wanted man to civilize. I think sometimes and I'm not, this is not a bash on nature, but sometimes we can kind of look at nature and sort of see the beauty of the wild, but that God has called us to subdue it and that's sort of a. And I think this is where the making of gardens and the making of things that are natural or of like facilitating spaces that are naturally inclined to see God's beauty at work, is part of our role, but also that to civilize the world is actually also a part of our role, which I thought was sort of fascinating.
Speaker 3:Yeah, it solves the original problem that you get in verse two. It says the earth was without form and void. Hebrew tohu v'bohu. Yeah, those words. You could also think of it as uninhabitable and uninhabited. Right, and so the goal of man is to make the world inhabitable and inhabited, to civilize it and fill it, to make the whole world a place where you can live, and not just live but live unto the glory of God.
Speaker 1:Which is wild. We live in Texas right now, and you know, 100 years ago living in Texas would have been really, really hard with the amount of heat, with the lack of air conditioning. And now it's the most able because of our irrigation, of our ability to harness the power of the different resources God has put on this planet for us to use, to that we've used to further subdue more of the earth, and so that doesn't mean you want to abuse the earth, but it does mean you want to use the earth what God intended for us to subdue it and bring order to the chaos.
Speaker 2:That's what I was. That was what I was about to say before this create. Before creation, the universe had chaos and then God spoke and there was order, and that we need to apply that in our lives, that when our lives are chaos, that he's there.
Speaker 3:Yeah, God spoke and he took the chaos into order and then filled it with life. That is our role. We do, like God does to the extent that he's entrusted to us as his image bearers, to bring order that can sustain life and cause it to flourish.
Speaker 1:So I'd say one thing that you could apply here, as you're reading God's word today, is bring order to your own life, and that starts with God's word. It ends with God's word and that starts with God's word. It ends with God's word. If you're a man, that's like having a solid work and purpose to do. That fits within being fruitful and multiplying and filling the earth, subduing it and having dominion over everything, and I think that doesn't look like you're going to be an uncivilized conqueror. But what it does mean is that you're going to bring order to the part of the world that God has given you dominion over, and it's an exciting thing to think about. So that might be your marriage, that might be your own personal life, that might be your workplace. Wherever it is, you want to bring God's order into the world.
Speaker 3:Amen.
Speaker 1:It's good, all right, hey, thanks for watching and listening. We will see you tomorrow, as we take a chapter a day.
