2. Theology of Genesis 1: General Creation

 

*DISCLAIMER: I am using the Douay-Rheims versions of the bible if any of you are interested and all the texts posted are from there.

 

Chapter 1 In the beginning God created heaven, and earth.

2 And the earth was void and empty, and darkness was upon the face of the deep; and the spirit of God moved over the waters.

3 And God said: Be light made. And light was made.

4 And God saw the light that it was good; and he divided the light from the darkness.

5 And he called the light Day, and the darkness Night; and there was evening and morning one day.

6 And God said: Let there be a firmament made amidst the waters: and let it divide the waters from the waters.

7 And god made a firmament, and divided the waters that were under the firmament, from those that were above the firmament, and it was so.

8 And God called the firmament, Heaven; and the evening and morning were the second day.

9 God also said; Let the waters that are under the heaven, be gathered together into one place: and let the dry land appear. And it was so done.

10 And God called the dry land, Earth; and the gathering together of the waters, he called Seas. And God saw that it was good.

11 And he said: let the earth bring forth green herb, and such as may seed, and the fruit tree yielding fruit after its kind, which may have seed in itself upon the earth. And it was so done.

12 And the earth brought forth the green herb, and such as yieldeth seed according to its kind, and the tree that beareth fruit, having seed each one according to its kind. And God saw that it was good.

13 And the evening and the morning were the third day.

14 And God said: Let there be lights made in the firmament of heaven, to divide the day and the night, and let them be for signs, and for seasons, and for days and years:

15 To shine in the firmament of heaven, and to give light upon the earth, and it was so done.

16 And God made two great lights: a greater light to rule the day; and a lesser light to rule the night: and The stars.

17 And he set them in the firmament of heaven to shine upon the earth.

18 And to rule the day and the night, and to divide the light and the darkness. And God saw that it was good.

19 And the evening and morning were the fourth day.

20 God also said: let the waters bring forth the creeping creature having life, and the fowl that may fly over the earth under the firmament of heaven.

21 And God created the great whales, and every living and moving creature, which the waters brought forth, according to their kinds, and every winged fowl according to its kind. And God saw that it was good.

22 And he blessed them, saying: Increase and multiply, and fill the waters of the sea: and let the birds be multiplied upon the earth.

23 And the evening and morning were the fifth day.

24 And God said: Let the earth bring forth the living creature in its kind, cattle and creeping things, and beasts of the earth, according to their kinds. And it was so done.

25 And God made the beasts of the earth according to their kinds, and cattle, and every thing that creepeth on the earth after its kind. And God saw that it was good.

26 And he said: Let us make man to our image and likeness: and let him have dominion over the fishes of the sea, and the fowls of the air, and the beasts, and the whole earth, and every creeping creature that moveth upon the earth.

27 And God created man to his own image: to the image of God he created him: male and female he created them.

28 And God blessed them, saying: Increase and multiply, and fill the earth, and subdue it, and rule over the fishes of the sea, and the fowls of the air, and all living creatures that move upon the earth.

29 And God said: Behold I have given you every herb bearing seed upon the earth, and all trees that have in themselves seed of their own kind, to be your meat:

30 And to all beasts of the earth, and to every fowl of the air, and to all that move upon the earth, and wherein there is life, that they may have to feed upon. And it was so done.

31 And God saw all the things that he had made, and they were very good. And the evening and morning were the sixth day.

 

Verse 1: This is the beginning of all creation. We can already see through the first verse that the first creations were heaven and earth. Notice the order of which the two were created where heaven is before and earth is later. As the chapter progresses we will see how important is the order or creation.

 

Verse 2: Through the second verse, we can understand some interesting concepts. Firstly that the earth was void and empty meaning that it’s existence was there, but it had no form or shape. The idea of darkness will also be an interesting theme through this chapter because this is something that God has not created, but also has existed side by side with the birth creation. The last section of this chapter is that God moved over the waters and not in the waters. He is not part of it, but He is above it implying sovereignity.

 

Verses 3-5: The theme of darkness and light will come to fruition in these verses and we will see the beginning of living creation (in the invisible world) which are known as angels. The three verses I will explain will cover not only the creation of all the angels, but also the fall of them. Now, to explain how these verses explain the creation and fall of the angels is simple; angels are beings who are constantly in the presence of God and enjoy Him perfectly. The point I wish to stress is that the light was made and that God saw it was good. He then proceeded to divide the light from the darkness implying that the darkness is not of the light and neither is it good. This concept shows the rebellion of the angels who were once light but became the darkness that lingered with the birth of creation. This fact leads us to the fifth verse which is the birth of the terms day and night which now transitions to a more literal and visible sense, but still with spiritual connotation. To show the difference between light and dark or day and night can be summed up with two words. Light can be known as life and dark can be called death. To add to these words we can say eternal life and eternal death or even to say grace and sin, since grace is life and sin is death.

 

Verses 6-8: There is another key factor which is the theme of purpose. God created the firmament called heaven, this is not to be confused with the heaven that the saints and angels enjoy, but the sky that divides heaven and earth. There are two key factors in the creation of firmament; one is division and the other that God did not explicitly say that the firmament is good as He does with all other creation except one we will see later. The fact that God had to divide creation from Him with this firmament is not a good thing in itself, but it was preparation for the fall of man that God knew would happen. We must remember that God does not live in time as we do. He is in the past, present and future as if it is all one thing because He is infinite. With that knowledge, He created the firmament with purpose rather than a gift to His creation and that’s why it is not good. God did not create the firmament out of malice and being evil, but for us to constantly remember our faults and sins. We cannot see God because of this division or firmament and we are to blame for our sins against Him.

 

Verses 9-13: Here, we begin the order of creation UNDER the firmament. The first of the order of creation is the earth as a whole. The earth is the least dependent aspect of creation under the firmament in relation with other creation being directly supported by divine providence. The waters and dry land need nothing else except God to keep it afloat and moving. The next creation in this order is the green herbs and fruit trees. These herbs and trees are the second least dependent creation on earth where they are dependent on God through the earth as it’s source of life, whether in the seas or on the dry land.

 

Verses 14-19: The creation of the sun, moon and the stars has a very special importance, both literally and spiritually. The first explanation of the lights in the firmament are for literal and living purposes. We see that these lights will be used to divide day and night, for signs, seasons and for time in general (days and years). However, starting in verses 16, there is a shift from the literal aspect of the lights by going into a prophetic/spiritual aspect. The greater light which rules the day (the sun) stands alone in the sky to give light to all things by itself. The sun is our primary factor of keeping us alive and making sure everything runs in the proper way at all times. In simple terms, the sun is Jesus Christ which is the prophetical and spiritual aspect of the creation of the sun. He shines alone, above all things and nothing can continue to exist without Him. If that wasn’t enough the next verses explain the lesser light (moon) which is the moon and the stars which the lesser light rules. This moon can be considered as Mary, mother of God and queen of angels which are the stars that she rules over and again this is a prophecy saying that Mary will come to existence. Both the sun and the moon have existed before the creation of man, but served as a constant reminder of what is to come. She protects us from the darkness which is divided from the light and she keeps us safe from all disturbance with her legion of angels in the sky.

 

Verses 20-25: We now resume the order of creation. I will not make it drawn out, but at the end of this expounding I will have a chart that shows the dependency of creature to creation and how all creation is dependent on God as its head. With that in mind we see that fish are third in the order of creation and birds are fourth. The land animals are fifth in the order of creation and after humans were made.

 

Verses 26-31: The last of the order of creation are humans. In verse 26, we already see many important aspects regarding us as creation. Firstly God says “our image and likeness” implying that there is more than one person hence the value of the Trinity. The other important point is that the image of God can be depicted as Jesus, who is both God and man and was before all ages, and the likeness of God is being able to create and have dominion over all creation. God has given us His power since the first humans, Adam and Eve. To continue to the next verse, we see that “God created man to His own image...” which implies that God is also one. In a few verses we see that God is not only multiple, but also one of EQUAL VALUE. All esteemed as God and all esteemed as one. Further in the verse it says “God created him: male and female He created them.” The difference in singular and plural is very important here because it implies than man was created first and then female was after, however it is important to note that both man and woman have the same dominion over all creation because both man and woman are of the same image and likeness of God. Another important thing to note is our dependency on all creation as a food source to live. We as humans are the most dependent of all creation on creation and in turn God. The last thing I wish to mention and as a conclusion to this chapter is that the other creation that God has made that He did not say is good are humans. It implies that He knew we would fall, yet in His goodness and mercy, He wanted to give us a chance to esteem Him above all things and love Him above all else as our true source of meat. Our free will and our ability to be like God has not only caused the angels to fall from grace, but also us and for this I ask God to forgive us and to have mercy on us.

 

Amen.

 

Chart 1: Order of Creation and Dependency on God

 

GOD

|

FIRMAMENT

|

EARTH

|

PLANTS

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FISH

|
BIRD

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LAND ANIMALS

|

HUMANS

 

The rules of the chart are that the further down you go, the more dependent that creation is on itself, and those above it. God is dependent on Himself only and humans are dependent on each other and all other creation and God to keep them alive, but in the end our reward is greater.