We’re looking at what the Bible says about God creating the world. He’s made it by speaking, and he calls it good. I’m hoping that in ‘hearing’ this God who speaks, will come to share the confidence he has in what he has made.
The work of God’s creating is described as a week of days. He’s not going to give us a world that is formless, empty and dark. He gives his work structure. And it’s this formation that is described as the work of the first three days.
Effectively, God creates light, and air and land. He’s making a habitat with reliable patterns and structures. This world is going to be our home—God’s gift to us. It’s his loving action. It will reveal much of who he is, and will be theatre in which we will share his project. He hasn’t handed us something that’s messy.
Without this reliability of the natural world, science and technology would be impossible. If the world was chaotic, we’d all soon be insane! But God looks at this ordering and calls it good—three times. I’m hoping we’ll all come to the same conclusion!
First, God says, ‘Let there be light’.
This is a significant place to start. He hasn’t told us about a sun or moon. Some ancient cultures worshipped them. Here, they’re a matter to be dealt with on day four. For the moment, God wants to tell us about light.
God doesn’t consign us to darkness but sets us up with alternating day and night. This is going to be necessary for everything that will follow.
Life can’t exist without light. Nothing would grow for example. And of course, our routines will now be measured by night following day. If you like, time has begun. And because we can see, we will be able to discover, appreciate and work with things around us. And we’ll be able to verify ideas with facts. We’ll be able to live openly and with integrity—with our eyes wide open! So, light is important!
But the Bible talks about light in more ways than just photons. For example, if we look at this world and only see stuff, we’re not seeing it properly. God himself is shining—in what he has made. The heavens are talking to us about his glory.[i] And he himself is light—wholly good and powerful and pure.[ii]
When our world seems dark, this is the enlightenment we need—not our attempts to reshape what God has made but the enjoyment of him in what he has made. And, of course, enjoyment of who he is and what he has promised. No wonder later writers talk about God being ‘my light and my salvation’.[iii]
If we forget this light, things start going wrong. For example, we try to live within our own dreams rather than in the light of how things really are. We start saying there’s no such thing as truth. We ignore what is actually happening because we are more interested in our ideas than in reality. We stoke up other ‘fires’ to give us light, and make trouble for ourselves and everyone around us.[iv]
But God never stops giving us light! And finally, he sends his Son into our darkness to be ‘the light of the world’.[v] He loves us and wants us to walk in his light![vi] Without this Light behind all light, we can be deceived and miss seeing what we should see.
At the end of our Bible, in the new world that God will make for our home, there won’t be a sun. God himself will be all the light we need.[vii]
So, light is what gets things into action—at the beginnings of our world, and now, and forever.
And then, there’s day two. God says, ‘Let there be an expanse’—a sky above us separating waters above from waters below. We could say there’s an atmosphere—or air.
Think of the amount of time we spend thinking about our oceans and clouds and what’s happening in the air between them. It’s called climate science. We’re realizing what a finely balanced system we’re living in.
Would it make any difference if we believed our environment is carefully crafted by our Maker—with just the right conditions for life to thrive?
Arguably, we’d wouldn’t make such demands on our environment if we knew we had to answer to someone for how we were treating it. And we wouldn’t be so competitive for resources if we knew the one who made it was looking after us.
And we’d have more hope too, and be more realistic about the proposals we put forward to fix problems, if we believed that the same God who arranged things for our flourishing is still interested in our survival.
And finally, on day three, God gathers waters together and lets dry land appear. So now there’s land as well as ocean. And God commands the earth to sprout vegetation. We have a home, and food to eat.
This is a point Paul raises with some idol worshipping people he meets in Asia Minor. They are thoroughly superstitious, but Paul teaches them about God, their Creator. They should ‘turn from these vain things to a living God, who made the heaven and the earth and the sea and all that it in them.…he did good by giving you rains from heaven and fruitful seasons, satisfying your hearts with food and gladness’.[viii]
All this sounds rosy! But we’re very conscious these days of land mass in proportion to our seas. Island and coastal dwellers wonder how secure their land is. Is all this because we are abusing our planet? And can we provide food enough for our population?
It’s helpful to recall that there was an earlier time when this planet’s inhabitants were ruining the world—sufficiently for God to decide to start again with Noah.
The natural world virtually went into reverse. Water surged up from subterranean depths. Rain poured down for weeks. The dry land disappeared. The separation of land from ocean broke down.[ix] But Noah and his family were spared.
When this flood was over, God made a promise to Noah that we all need to know. Here it is. ‘While the earth remains, seedtime and harvest, cold and heat, summer and winter, day and night, shall not cease.[x]
This is not a promise that nothing will go wrong. But it is a promise that should prevent us from panicking and give confidence to our intentions.
In fact, God is constantly renewing what he has made.[xi] If this wasn’t happening, everything would cease to exist. We’ve certainly been entrusted with a lot. But this world was not our idea, it’s not sustained because we are competent, and its outcome has never been left in our hands.
God will maintain this creation until it’s time for a final judgement. There is a day when we will have to answer for how we’ve lived in his world.[xii]
So, can we call our world a good place? Well, it all depends on who we are listening to. We’ll return later to see how God populates what he has made, and what authorities he places over his creation
[i] Psa. 19:1-6
[ii] 1 John 1:5
[iii] Psa. 27:1
[iv] Isa. 50:11
[v] John 8:12; 9:5
[vi] Psa. 89:15; Isa. 2:5; 1 John 1:7
[vii] Rev. 22:5
[viii] Acts 14:11-18
[ix] Gen. 7:11-12. God created order not chaos (Isa. 45:18), but judgements seem like formlessness (Ex. 10:21; Jer. 4:23).
[x] Gen. 8:22
[xi] Psa. 104:24-30
[xii] 2 Pet. 3:4-13
Simply True 