Verses 1-5. First of all we must understand that this account of the creation process, in God’s own words through Moses, is not open to be analyzed, questioned or speculated about by the human mind. We are given as much detail as God wishes to give us and we must rely wholly upon the Holy Spirit to unveil its mysteries.

In the beginning God (‘elohim’, plural) created the heavens and the earth. Exactly when the Father, Son and Holy Spirit performed this immense creative project we are not informed. What we do know from John 1:1-3 is that ‘In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things were made through Him, and without Him nothing was made that was made’. NKJV All that was created was created through the Son of God.

In verse 2 we are informed that ‘the earth was formless and void (empty)*. This begs the question as to why God would start His creative work with a formless and empty object. By faith we understand that the worlds were prepared by the word of God, so that what is seen was not made out of things which are visible. Hebrews 11:3. This formless and empty object is visible. It is the focus of the work during the first three days of creation. Are we being shown that this was not the original earth but had been part of a massive calamity? N.B. On the fourth day the galaxies were brought into being by a spoken command.

The word ‘was’ (hayah in Hebrew) in the statement, ‘was formless and void’, may also be translated as ‘became’. This Hebrew word is said to be emphatic. This would seem to favour the choice of ‘became’

….and darkness was over the surface of the deep. In fact all that is described here was enveloped in utter darkness because the command that light would shine forth had not yet been given. In 1 John 1:5 we read. ‘This is the message we have heard from Him and announce to you, that God is Light, and in Him there is no darkness at all’. Darkness is the complete absence of light and must therefore be completely separate from God. Only one being could be the source of such utter darkness, and that is Satan.

 1 Peter 2:9. But you are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, His own special people, that you may proclaim the praises of Him who called you out of darkness into His marvelous light. Only the marvelous light which is Jesus Himself can free from the darkness which is Satan’s domain.

Revelation 21:23-24. And the city has no need of the sun or of the moon to shine on it, for the glory of God has illumined it, and its lamp is the Lamb. The nations will walk by its light, and the kings of the earth will bring their glory into it. The light which is Jesus Christ is the only answer to the darkness brought about by Satan. Thus, when God through Jesus commanded, “Let there be light” only the light of Christ could effectively overcome the darkness. Until the fourth day of creation the work performed to renew the earth was lit by Jesus who provided the perfect illumination for it.

God saw that the light was good. Note that the darkness is not described as ‘good’. However, God did not eliminate the darkness but brought it under His control because, in the person of Satan, He intended to test the obedience of Adam and Eve. In eternity future, when the new heavens and new earth are brought into being, Satan will have been cast forever into Hell ‘and there will no longer be night’.

Verses 6-13. This terrestrial ball was now bathed in the light which is Christ. The waters clothed the whole surface. Water vapour arose from the waters. Genesis 2:6. On day two, God’s next creative act was to provide an atmosphere suitable to all the living things that He would create upon the recovered earth. The waters below and the water vapour which would distil into rain were separated from each other.

On the third day God caused the land to emerge as continents from beneath the waters. Out of the land all manner of plants, trees and vegetation came forth as a sign of resurrection. Thus, after three days, the earth that had been destroyed through Satan was now fully recovered. Likewise, after three days, through His redemptive act on the cross, Jesus arose as conqueror over death and thereby the works of the devil were destroyed and all things were made new. What a parallel!

Verses 14-23. In God’s mind and plan our earth is indeed the centre of all His creative focus. In day four God placed the sun and the moon exactly in position to provide the ideal conditions for all living things. They also gave the context ‘for signs and for seasons and for days and years’. Then, in the vastness of the firmament, i.e. space, God by His word created and placed the immeasurable host of the galaxies.

In day five God created the sea creatures and the birds and flying creatures. It is worth noting that in this perfectly recovered world God only needed to create one pair of each species of creatures in order that they might multiply and fill their ideal environments.

Verses 24-31. The animals to populate the earth and all other land animals were God’s first creative act on day six. All of them were vegetarians, including the serpents, insects and other creeping things. See verses 29 -30.

The words of verses 26 and 27 announce the high point of all God’s creation. Then God said, “Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness; let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the air, and over the cattle, over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.”  So God created man in His own image; in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them. At this point in the creation account, what had been pre-determined in God’s plan received a pause and the members of the godhead conferred together concerning a highly important creative act.

This creation of a man, made in the image of God, would rule, under God Himself, over everything that had been created. Did the knowledge of this fester in Lucifer’s heart and lead to his rebellion?

In Colossians 1:15 we read that ‘He (Christ) is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation. The image of the Triune God is Christ. God’s likeness is embodied in one member of the Trinity; namely Christ. Adam was created in the image of Christ. Amazing but so significant.

Although there is the mention that God created them, male and female, the account of the creation of the female out of the substance of the male occurs later in time in Genesis 2.

Verse 28 is very important because it tells us that procreation of mankind was ordained before sin came into the world. One man joined in union with one woman to enjoy intimacy and its outcome in an expansion of family was to be one of the greatest gifts of God.

At the beginning God ordained that all food eating members of His creation should be nourished entirely from green plants and vegetation.

Verse 31. Then God saw everything that He had made, and indeed it was very good. So the evening and the morning were the sixth day. During the events of creation God had seen that each step was ‘good’. Now with the culmination of His whole finished work with the creation of man. God saw that it was ‘very good’.

*Formless

OT:8414 tohuw (to’-hoo); from an unused root meaning to lie waste; a desolation (of surface), i.e. desert; figuratively, a worthless thing; adverbially, in vain:

Void

OT:922 bohuw (bo’-hoo); from an unused root (meaning to be empty); a vacuity, i.e. (superficially) an undistinguishable ruin:

(Biblesoft’s New Exhaustive Strong’s Numbers and Concordance with Expanded Greek-Hebrew Dictionary. Copyright © 1994, 2003 Biblesoft, Inc. and International Bible Translators, Inc.

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