Welcome back to part three of our Genesis study. Today we're going to be in Genesis chapter 1, verses 6 through 13. Just a few reminders. And during this study, if you comment with a question, I will do my very best to answer that question to get back to you as soon as I can. But if you want to comment, uh respond to someone else's comment and answer their questions or have a scholarly discussion, that is welcome as well. Also, if you like these, please remember to like them on social media, to share them, to follow the page on Facebook and Instagram, and also on YouTube. If you're watching on YouTube, please subscribe to that and be sure to share that with your friends. Last, I haven't mentioned this a lot, but if your church would be interested in hoping me, um hosting me as a guest speaker or uh guest preacher or for a seminar or group study, please feel free to reach out. That's what I've been doing over the last two months, and I have several booked over the months of June and August. July is kind of open right now, so if you would like to reach out, please feel free to do that. Just have your church contact me. I would love to come visit with you. My wife and I absolutely love meeting new people as we travel around. Now, let's get into this. Genesis chapter 1, verses 6 through 13, the ordering of heaven and earth and like. So we have to ask the question again, which we've been trying to get to the bottom of, is what is Genesis actually trying to teach us? Genesis chapter 1 is not merely a scientific explanation of material origins. I believe that it's a theological declaration about a couple of things. Number one, who God is, how God brings order from chaos, humanity's place in creation, the difference between the God of Israel and the gods of surrounding nations. Now, ancient readers did not approach Genesis the way that modern people approach things like physics. The original audience would have heard this text and understood that it was a direct challenge to pagan cosmologies of Egypt and Babylon and Canaan, where pagan myths often describe violent battles among competing gods. Genesis simply presents one God speaking peacefully, creating intentionally and establishing order without struggle. Now, Genesis chapter 1, verses 6 through 13 especially focuses on separation and structure and boundaries and fruitfulness. The repeated theme will emerge here as we read through this, where God creates by dividing, by naming, by organizing, and by assigning purpose. And this is central to understanding the text. The text here, and let's read this in Genesis chapter 1, verses 6 through 13. Let's just do verse 6 to start with, and then we're gonna skip around a little bit. In verse 6 it says, And God said, Let there be a firmament in the midst of the waters, and let it divide the waters from the waters. Now look at verse 9, just skip down a little bit, and we're gonna cover all of these. Don't worry about that. But verse 9, and God said, Let the waters under the heaven be gathered together unto one place, and let the dry land appear. Now, let's get deeper into these verses, right? Part one. We'll go over day two, the firmament in Genesis chapter 1, verses 6 through 8. Let there be a firmament. The Hebrew word translated firmament comes from a verb meaning to spread out, to hammer out, to beat like a thin metal. You almost imagine a blacksmith beating metal into this little thin sheet. And the imagery is really important because ancient Israelites envisioned the sky as something that's stretched out above the earth. And this language appears repeatedly throughout scripture. Uh Isaiah chapter 40, verse 20 says, God stretches out the heavens. Job chapter 37, verse 18, uh says the skies are hard as a molten mirror. In Psalm 104, verse 2, that the heavens are stretched out like a curtain. Now, scripture often uses this language describing the world as humans experience. For example, just as we still say in our modern culture, we'll say sunrise and sunset. When we use those words sunrise and sunset, we're not making specific scientific claims. The biblical writers describe creation from their human observation of what they knew. So when you get into this, this is waters above and waters below. We see that Genesis is describing waters below, waters above, separated by a firmament. Now, ancient Near Eastern cultures commonly viewed the cosmos as surrounded by waters. In the Babylonian creation epic, the Enuma Elish, the god Marduk splits the chaos waters, forms the heaven and the earth. But Genesis radically differs from these Babylonian myths. In the Babylonian myth, we see gods battling violently. In Genesis, we see God simply speaking. In the Babylonian myth, there's creation from this divine warfare, warfare between gods. In Genesis, you see creation coming through order. The Babylonian myth has multiple gods. Genesis has one God. The Babylonian myth, humans created, were created as slaves. In Genesis, humans were made in the image of God. It's very different. Genesis intentionally strips mythology away from the creation account. The waters are not divine beings, they are simply part of creation's order under God's authority. Now, why is day two different? One of the most discussed details is the lacking of the phrase, and God saw that it was good. Now, Jewish interpreters notice this very early in the text, and there were some rabbis who taught that the vision was not incomplete on day two. Harmony was not yet fully established. Others associated day two with separation and tension. Interestingly, day three says it was good twice. Now, some Jewish commentators believe that day three completed the unfinished work of day two. But either way you look at it, separation is the key theme here, and it's a sacred theme. Genesis repeatedly emphasizes the separation: that there's light and there's darkness, waters above, waters below. There's sea and it's divided from the land. Then there's whole, what is holy, and there's what is common. There's Israel and there's other nations. There's a Sabbath day, and then there are ordinary days. And so biblical holiness often would involve a separation, proper distinction, and order. So chaos in Hebrew, in the in the in the Hebrew thought, is not merely disorder, it is the breakdown of God's boundaries. Now, I want you to see something from the New Testament, the connection here. John chapter 1 intentionally echoes Genesis chapter 1, right? In the beginning was the word, God speaks order into creation. In the book of John, Jesus is that divine word, Logos. And so Paul expands this even further. In Colossians chapter 1, verse 17, the apostle Paul says it's by him talking about Jesus that all things consist. And so Christ is portrayed as sustaining cosmic order, holding creation together. The New Testament says that it is Jesus who does that. And so we see that Genesis begins as a story fulfilled in Christ. Now, let us move to day three. Genesis chapter 1, verses 9 through 10. Dry land appears. And so the phrase here, let the waters be gathered, implies a containment, a restraint. And in the ancient world, the sea is symbolized as danger and chaotic and unpredictable. Israel was not a water civilization like the Phoenicians or the Greeks. The sea often represented fear and an untamable power, yet God simply commands the waters. Also notice that the sea is never deified. During the time of the writing of Genesis, this would have been revolutionary because ancient pagan religions often worship the sea and sea gods and storm gods and fertility gods. But Genesis demotes all of those cosmic forces. The sea is not divine, the sun is not divine, the moon is not divine. They are all simply products of God's creation. This is one of the Bible's strongest anti-idolatry statements. We actually see that the earth and the seas are named. They are under God's authority. And that's interesting because naming in Hebrew thought and in all of scripture actually signifies that the one who is doing the naming has authority over. And the one who is being named has a function that they operate within the authority of the one who gave them the name. It's their identity. And so as Christians, our identity is in Jesus. He named us, he called us in, and we are new for his creation. And so God naming creation demonstrates his sovereignty over that creation. God giving new names to people show that they have submitted to his authority and they are under his leadership. He is the one who gives them purpose. Later we see that Adam names the animals. He showed delegation, he had authority over them. Well, let me share with you a little archaeological insight here. Texts from places like Mesopotamia in Egypt reveal that neighboring cultures believe cosmic forces had personalities and wills. Again, catch that. These other cultures believe cosmic forces had personalities and wills. Genesis dismantles that worldview. The next part we see happen here is that there becomes vegetation and fruitfulness. In Genesis chapter 1, verses 11 through 13. We see the first appearances of life before the sun, before the moon, and before the stars, God creates vegetation. Now, again, this is profoundly theological. This is deep. Ancient cultures worship celestial bodies for agricultural fertility. That is very important. Genesis says life does not depend on the sun as a deity. Life depends on God. Even vegetation depends on God. This directly confronts Egyptian sun worship, Mesopotamian astral religions, Canaanite fertility cults. And then God says this, He says, according to its kind. And this is a repeated phrase throughout the account, according to its kind. And what this does is it emphasizes order and stability and something that can be reproduced. Because, like we've said many times now, creation is not random chaos. It possesses structure and order and continuity. Let's do a little Hebrew word study here. Notice the word seed in these texts. The Hebrew meaning is seed, like we know a seed. It can also mean offspring or descendants. And so this word becomes enormously important throughout scripture, and we'll see this word used throughout the Bible and throughout the study, especially when we get into Genesis chapter 3, specifically verse 15. The seed idea connects a couple of different things. Genesis 3.15, we see the seed of the woman. In Genesis chapter 12, we see Abraham's seed. In Isaiah, we see the seed is the messianic hope. And in the New Testament, in Galatians chapter 3, verse 16, we see that Christ is that promised seed. Paul explicitly connects Genesis theology to Jesus later on in the New Testament. Now the next thing we see here is fruitfulness as a divine blessing. The earth producing vegetation reveals that God desires abundance. Creation is intended to flourish, and life given is a gift given. The Bible consistently portrays barrenness as tragic and fruitfulness as blessing. And that theme continues. We see that in Eden, we see that in Israel, we see that in the church, we see that with the kingdom of God. Now, let's tackle a common question here. And here's the common question: Why plants before the sun? This is one of the most debated questions from all of Genesis. I hear this all the time. And there are several approaches to answering this question. There's what's called the literary framework. The Genesis is arranged to present a theme. There's functional creation that, in other words, God created focused on a purpose, not necessarily the chronology of the events. There's the theological view where God is superior to sun worship. That's kind of where I land. And then there's literal or sequential, that God supernaturally sustained plants. And I think literal, sequential, and theological can go together, that God is superior to sun worship and that God supernaturally sustains these things by his word, by his hand. Now, different faithful believers interpret this differently. The core theological point, however, no matter how you interpret that, the core theological point remains the same, which is God is the source of life, no matter which view you take. Now, some Jewish traditions taught that creation unfolded progressively toward harmony, that Eden represented a cosmic balance. The rabbis often view Genesis not merely as history, but as a revelation of divine witness or divine wisdom. And then we see in Genesis chapter 1, verse 11 through 13, there's an anticipation here. The Bible later uses Eden or Garden, the Garden of Eden imagery for a couple of different things. It uses it for blessing, for temple symbolism, for the restoration, and ultimately for eternal life. And I think there's an important, often overlooked connection that takes place here. And that is that Eden actually resembles a temple. Later temple imagery includes, every time you read about it, it includes trees and rivers and gold and cherubim and a divine presence. And so the garden becomes a prototype of that sacred space. We see in the New Testament a fulfillment of this. The Bible ends where Genesis began. Genesis begins with God speaking, God's over everything, there is no sun, and then people are put into the garden. And that's what we see at the end of the New Testament, Revelation 22. There we see a river, a tree of life. People are worshiping God. There's fruitfulness, and all of creation is restored. Genesis opens the story and revelation completes the story. But I think there's a deeper spiritual meaning here. Genesis 1 is not only about material origins. As I've stated, it reveals that God brings order from chaos. It creates, uh God creates life where there was an emptiness. God establishes boundaries, sets things apart, separation for flourishing. And God's creation is intentional. But spiritually, chaos becomes peace. A wilderness becomes a garden. Emptiness or barrenness becomes fruitfulness. And what this does, it shows us a pattern that repeats itself throughout scripture and really throughout our lives as we follow the Lord. In Genesis chapter 1, verses 6 through 13, it's not primitive mythology trying to compete with modern science. Genesis chapter 1 is actually a profound declaration that the universe is ordered, that creation is purposeful, that life comes from God, that chaos does not rule, that creation itself is sacred and creation is meaningful. The text here calls readers beyond just basic arguments into an awe of who God is. Its purpose is not merely to answer how was the world made, but its purpose is to answer who made the world, who rules over it, why does the world exist? What does creation reveal about God Himself? And the biblical answer is very clear. The world exists because there is a loving creator that desired to know you and have a relationship with you. And as he desired you, he desired order and beauty and life. Now I'll post a few on this particular lesson, I'll post a few resources that you can use for your own study. Um, it'll be on the Facebook comments to the very best of my ability. And please remember, if you enjoy these lessons, remember to like them, follow them, share them on social media, uh, make comments. The comment section really helps. It lets me know what you guys are looking at, what you liked, what you didn't like. And on YouTube, please subscribe. All of this again helps to drive the content and the ideas to get the message out to more and more people. Last, or just remember I mentioned at the beginning if your church would be interested in hosting me, just have them reach out. I would love to come and visit with you guys. Have a blessed day.