Some comments on the creation week: Day 1

INTRODUCTION

A while back, I taught a short series on creation for my Sunday school class. It was supposed to last for the summer and I had planned on covering several topics like the role of creation in evangelism, various ways some Christians reinterpret Genesis in order to fit it with popular scientific theories, and how to answer some of the more common objections people raise against creation. One lesson I had planned was to cover the days of the creation week, giving a short description on what happened each day. However, there were so many questions asked and such interest shown that the single lesson I had planned ended up being stretched over 5 lessons.

It was during that time that I realized that, even though the language of Genesis 1 is straightforward and easy to read, many Christians don't stop to consider the full impact of what is happening on each day – not so much from a spiritual perspective but rather from a physical one. To that end, I thought it would be worthwhile to have a short series of posts, each covering one day of the creation week. This isn't meant to be a treaty on the subject. Instead, I hope to simply open a few eyes to the realization that what is being described were real events that literally shaped the world.

Because they were real events, understanding the days of the creation week helps us understand science. Rather than reinterpreting Scripture in order to make it fit with secular views of our origins, we can use the clear meaning of the words in Genesis to gain an appreciation of the physical processes that were occurring.

As I go through this series, I may mention popular reinterpretations of Scripture but they won't be my focus. I've written before about some of the most common ways Christians interpret Genesis in order to reconcile the Bible with science. In this series, I won't spend much time rebutting alternative interpretations but will present the most obvious meaning (as determined by a plain reading of the text) as the correct meaning.

It's my plan to spend a single post addressing each day of the creation week. The only exception to this might be the sixth day, where I may spend an extra post covering some of the events described in Genesis 2. I'm also going to try to post twice per week so this won't be stretched out over months. Even so, some of these posts will be longer than usual.  I apologize in advance and only say that I will do my best to make them worth the while to read.

If you’re ready, let’s get started!

DAY ONE

Genesis 1:1-5, In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth. And the earth was without form, and void; and darkness was upon the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters. And God said, Let there be light: and there was light. And God saw the light, that it was good: and God divided the light from the darkness. And God called the light Day, and the darkness he called Night. And the evening and the morning were the first day.

When some people think of the first day of the Creation Week, they only think of God creating light.  How many times, after someone changes a light bulb, have you heard them say, “And God said, ‘Let there be light”?  It’s become rather cliché and it’s certainly no longer clever.  Even so, perhaps this is why some people only remember the creation of light.  

We can see here there is actually a lot more going on. Let's break it down, verse by verse:

v. 1a, In the beginning

First we can see when God created - “in the beginning.” We have to ask, “the beginning of what?”  The answer seems obvious but we seldom stop to think about it. This is the beginning of time! 

Critics have sometimes suggested the universe is “infinitely old.”  They want us to believe that, somehow, time doesn’t have a beginning.  There is a host of problems with believing in an infinitely old universe but I’ll have to save that discussion for another post.  For now, I’ll just say that time is a property of this universe and it has passed unceasingly since the creation.  In Genesis 1:1, we can see when the clock started ticking.  

v. 1b, God created the heaven and the earth.

The term “heaven” can have several meanings depending on its context. It sometimes refers to the sky and other times to the abode of God. Here, I believe “heaven” clearly refers to space. Before God created everything, He needed a place to put it. Space isn't something that always existed and God simply put the earth and stars into it. Space itself was created. Before this moment there was no space.

Immediately after creating space (or perhaps simultaneously with it), God creates the earth. We know that the sun, moon, and stars are created later so, at this moment, the earth is the only matter in the entire universe.

We can see from this short, simple verse the very profound and fundamental creative act of God. He began the creation in a very logical and orderly way. He created time, space, and matter.

v. 2a, And the earth was without form, and void; and darkness was upon the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters.

 The Hebrew word translated here as “without form” is tôhû (תּהוּ) which, from what I’ve read, is a seldom used word – not just in the Bible but in Hebrew in general. We're not entirely sure what is meant by the term and Brown-Driver-Briggs says the primary meaning is hard to grasp (that is, it's hard to grasp the meaning; not that it means “hard to grasp”).  Since I can’t read Hebrew, I looked up the Greek word used in the Septuagint.  It literally means, “unseen,” possibly a reference to the fact that it was dark.

Certainly the earth lacked any features. There were no mountains, no valleys, and certainly no living things. There was not even land. The wording here creates a distinct impression namely that the earth then was empty and did not resemble the present earth in any way.

We see from the last sentence that the earth initially was only water.  We see that dry land will be created later.  So the biblical account is in stark contrast to secular theories which assert that the earth was initially hot rock.  

We also learn from this verse that God was actively involved in the creation. Yes, He spoke and it happened but He did not speak from a distance; He was there, hovering over the face of the waters. This is not a case of God nudging the universe in a certain direction and then letting physical laws take over.

v. 3, And God said, Let there be light: and there was light. 

As mentioned above, many people seem to think the creation of light marked the beginning of the creation. We have seen that much has already happened before this point. The first day began in darkness and now it is light so the day is about ½ over.

The Bible doesn't mention the source of this light. We know that it cannot be the sun since the sun will not be created until day 4. Some have suggested that God Himself was the light but I am skeptical of that claim; if God were the light, then where was the light just a few minutes earlier? The Bible does attest that in the new creation, there will be no more need of the sun because the Lamb will be the light (Revelation 21:23). However, Revelation 21:25 tells us that there will neither be any more night so we cannot draw an exact parallel between this light and the light of the Lamb in Revelation. Since the Bible is silent on the source of this light, we cannot be dogmatic in our speculations. Suffice it to say this was a temporary source that God used to mark the passage of days until the sun was created on day 4.

It's interesting that God created a light that specifically is not the sun. Even the ancients understood that the sun gave light so if Genesis were truly the product of human imagination, it's rather incredible to believe someone would think to separate the creation of light from the creation of the sun. Some might argue this is evidence of a divine revelation for Scripture.

v. 4a, And God saw the light, that it was good:

Several times during the creation week, God pauses to reflect on His creation. Each time, He sees that what has been created is “good.” The fact that God continuously affirms that each created thing is “good” flies in the face of theistic evolution (TE). According to TE, the world was created over billions of years of death and destruction. According to this belief, the world has been bad, bad, bad, on its way to finally being, “very good.” The Bible attests over and over that everything was initially “good.”

But what does it mean to be “good”?  Here’s a good thought exercise: Ask someone to explain what makes something “wrong” without appealing to any higher power.  Most people find it very difficult.  They usually only list examples of things that are wrong (i.e., something is wrong if it’s unfair, unjust, or immoral).  That doesn’t really explain what makes something wrong.  Why is it wrong to be unfair, for example?

I once heard Dinesh D’Souza give the best explanation; he said, “Something is wrong if it’s not the way it ought to be.”  In a universe without God, there is no way things “ought to be” - there is only the way things are.  However, God created the universe the way it ought to be!  The light is good because God commanded that it be part of His perfect universe.  

Are you ready for a dose of irony?  Good and evil only exist because God exists!  

v. 4b-5a, and God divided the light from the darkness. And God called the light Day, and the darkness he called Night.

Many people are aware of the Jewish practice of demarking days.  While most westerners believe the next day begins at midnight, Jews believe the next day begins at sundown.  The Sabbath (Saturday), for example, begins at sundown on Friday night.  This practice goes all the way back to the first day which began in darkness, then became light.  It’s seldom mentioned now, but this method of reckoning is further evidence that the ancient Jews believed the days of Genesis to be literal, ordinary days.

Moving on, there are some other things we can glean from this verse.  The presence of night and day strongly suggests that the earth has already begun rotating. Therefore, we can assume that physical laws – like gravity – have also already been created. Nobel laureate, Dr. Stephen Hawking, once said that because physical laws like gravity exist, then the universe could create itself out of nothing. It's rather laughable that such an intelligent person could make such a contradictory statement. How could there be any physical laws before the universe was created?

Physical laws are only our descriptions of the way matter behaves. Matter exhibits gravity. Just like matter cannot create itself, neither can gravity create itself. Science can only presuppose gravity existed in the creation; secular scientists really have no more explanation for the origin of gravity than they do for the ultimate origin of matter. They can only appeal to poofery.

v. 5b, And the evening and the morning were the first day.

Each day of the six creative days is punctuated by this phrase. Since God created light on the first day, we can know how much time has passed. It was an evening and a morning – an ordinary day. The presence of the term “evening and morning” leave little wiggle room for anyone wishing to reinterpret the word “day.”

God could have created the entire universe in a single moment. God could have stretched the creation out over billions of years. Yet for whatever reason, God chose to create the universe in the way He did – over six ordinary days.